Almost exactly as Ye Liangchen had imagined.
When Li Qingxue saw the message, she froze in place.
["Don’t want to see you anymore." "Need some space."]
As she read those words, Li Qingxue’s brow furrowed deeply.
She stood there, unable to understand how things had come to this.
It wasn’t like this at all in the beginning.
Thinking about it, Li Qingxue felt a pang of sadness welling up inside her.
Glancing around, she realized that in her frantic rush, she had unknowingly arrived at the riverside.
The river flowed gently, with elderly people doing their morning exercises nearby.
Below the riverbank, some were fishing, while others painted or sketched the river and the blue sky.
Li Qingxue felt an inexplicable sense of grievance in her heart.
She sat down on the grassy ground, hugging her long legs and staring blankly at the flowing river. "Is there really no such thing as pure friendship between boys and girls?"
"It depends," came a voice from nearby.
Li Qingxue instinctively looked up.
She saw a young man lying on the grass, lazily basking in the sun, with two leaves covering his eyes, looking utterly relaxed.
Li Qingxue had a bellyful of grievances with no outlet.
And since she was naturally outgoing, she didn’t feel shy or awkward about talking to strangers. Sniffling a little, she asked, "What do you mean, 'it depends'?"
"The first scenario is if the guy is gay. In that case, the friendship between a guy and a girl can be purely platonic."
At her age, Li Qingxue wasn’t completely clueless.
Though a bit slow on the uptake, she understood what "gay" meant.
"What’s the second scenario?"
"There isn’t one. Just this one." In other words, if the guy isn’t gay, then pure friendship between a guy and a girl is impossible.
"How can you be so sure?" Li Qingxue stood up and moved closer to him.
Lying on the grass, the young man heard the sound of footsteps crunching on the grass.
He removed the leaves from his eyes.
Squinting slightly, he looked at the person approaching.
He had been bored and, finding the scenery pleasant, decided to lie there and listen to the soothing sound of the river.
He had overheard her speaking and, feeling compelled, had chimed in.
"It’s you!" Li Qingxue exclaimed in surprise when she saw Long Aotian.
"Oh, it’s you," Long Aotian replied, recognizing the girl as the classmate who had interviewed him the other day. He decided not to get up and instead lay back down.
Seeing Long Aotian’s relaxed demeanor, Li Qingxue sighed.
"Why are you sighing at such a young age?" Long Aotian remarked casually upon hearing her sigh.
"You still haven’t told me why you’re so sure that there’s no pure friendship between boys and girls."
Long Aotian adjusted his position slightly. Perhaps because he was used to playing the role of Hu Yuying’s life mentor, his tone took on a somewhat mature air. "The most complicated and contradictory relationships are those involving emotions."
Hearing this, Li Qingxue seemed to think of something and sat down beside Long Aotian.
"I have a friend I’ve known for many years, but it seems like he’s developed feelings for me. Because of this, our friendship has hit a rough patch."
"If he likes you, do you like him?" Long Aotian asked lazily, putting the leaves back over his eyes.
"I... I don’t know. We’re so close. He’s always taken care of me and treated me well. In my heart, he’s a good friend, almost like an older brother. But now he..."
"Stop!" Long Aotian raised his hand to cut her off.
Wasn’t this the classic line of a modern-day "player"?
He lifted the leaves and glanced at Li Qingxue. Seeing the sincerity in her eyes and the genuine sadness on her face, she didn’t seem like a "player."
So he continued, "The way he’s treating you now is actually how friends should treat each other."
Li Qingxue didn’t understand immediately. "What do you mean?"
Long Aotian seriously considered that he should get a counseling license in this world and open a counseling office specializing in high school students’ psychological guidance. He was sure it would make a lot of money.
"No one is good to someone without a reason. If they are, it’s because they’ve developed some kind of emotional attachment."
"He likes you, so he’s willing to be good to you. That kind of goodness goes beyond what friends usually do."
"Think about it. Do any of your other friends treat you as well as he does?"
Li Qingxue thought carefully. Even her closest desk mate at school didn’t treat her as well as Ye Liangchen did. She shook her head.
"You’ve just grown accustomed to his 'special' and 'exclusive' treatment. So when he started treating you like a regular friend, you felt like your friendship was falling apart."
"In the end, it’s just that you’re no longer receiving his 'exclusive favor,' so you think there’s a problem with your friendship."
Li Qingxue instantly understood what Long Aotian meant.
Ye Liangchen liked her, which was why he had subconsciously given her "special treatment."
But if you stripped away the layer of "liking," Ye Liangchen’s "special treatment" would naturally revert to ordinary friendship.
It was just that she hadn’t been able to accept this change immediately.
In reality, it wasn’t that Ye Liangchen had changed.
Because that’s just how friendships are supposed to be.
Li Qingxue felt deflated, muttering to herself, "So that’s how it is."
But since the conversation had reached this point, Long Aotian couldn’t help but ask a bit nosily, "Since you’re so concerned about him, do you have feelings for him too?"
Li Qingxue thought for a moment, then said in frustration, "What does it feel like to like someone?"
Well, that settled it. This girl wasn’t a "player" or a "heartbreaker." She was just clueless about love.
Maybe she was lively and sharp in her daily life, and maybe she excelled in her studies, but when it came to emotions, she was as slow as a 90-year-old grandma shuffling along.
While others were racing ahead, she was still asking what it felt like to like someone...
"When you like someone, your heart skips a beat when you see them at certain moments. Your gaze naturally drifts toward them. And even if you’re just sitting together doing nothing, it never feels boring..."
"No, I’ve never felt any of those things," Li Qingxue said after giving it serious thought.
"Then you need to take a good, hard look at what you call 'friendship.'"
"Since you can’t give him the response he’s looking for, you need to accept the changes in his behavior."
"After all, if you don’t like him, he has every right to move on and direct his 'special treatment' toward someone who truly likes him back."
"Of course, if you can’t accept his change, you could try to develop feelings for him."
...