ALL NOVEL Chapter 6 - Confession.
That day.
It was a rainy day.
Ye Jishu could still remember how gloomy the sky was.
It was like the recent unusual weather—dark clouds hovering overhead, leaving a damp feeling that made his heart feel heavy rather than joyful.
Unlike other faculties.
The math department had several inhumane rules.
Even though they were already in college and the atmosphere wasn’t the same as the cramming days of high school, their advisor still required that freshmen attend evening self-study sessions in the classroom for the first month of the semester. This was said to help foster an academic atmosphere.
No one dared skip because attendance was taken, and it affected the corresponding subject credits for that evening.
By the time the session ended, it was already close to 9:30 p.m.
The rain had started to fall outside.
Like grains of sand, raindrops left trails on the windows, forming trickling paths that grew more frequent.
“…”
The rain was getting heavier.
That was Ye Jishu’s first thought.
He hadn’t brought an umbrella.
After all, he didn’t expect it to rain.
Most of the other students had already left the building in groups, calling out to their friends. Even those without umbrellas would share with someone else, and they all left one after the other from the shelter of the eaves.
Ye Jishu stared at the dirty, rain-stained doormat by the entrance, where the school’s name had already blurred.
“Not leaving?”
An umbrella opened beside him.
The passerby turned their head, looking at him before stepping off the stairs.
“Are you alone without an umbrella? I think we’re both heading to Xinde Hall. Want to walk back together?”
It took Ye Jishu a moment to realize that the person was talking to him.
“…Thank you.”
He said, “But I’m waiting for someone, so… no need.”
“Oh, I see.”
The other person didn’t insist, smiling as they replied, “I’ll head back then.”
“Mm-hmm… okay.”
Watching the person walk away, Ye Jishu finally relaxed his grip on his backpack.
He still wasn’t used to talking to strangers.
Especially when someone else initiated the conversation.
The other person seemed so outgoing; it was impressive, to say the least.
In fact, Ye Jishu wasn’t waiting for anyone at all. He was just waiting for the rain to lighten up. He was wearing a simple hoodie, and as long as he pulled the hood over his head, the rain wouldn’t completely soak him.
After a few more minutes, a few kind classmates asked if he needed help getting back.
Ye Jishu hesitated.
Maybe he should find somewhere else to wait.
If he stayed at the entrance, others would keep asking.
But sharing an umbrella with someone he didn’t know very well would bring its own set of worries.
Whether they talked or remained silent.
Both felt like awkward scenarios.
It would be best not to draw any attention at all if possible.
Ye Jishu turned his gaze toward a nearby hallway. The lighting was much dimmer than expected, with only a few lights still on, and there was a classroom door left slightly ajar. It was likely that no one would go over there.
Before he had made a conscious decision, his feet were already moving.
Standing alone at the entrance of the teaching building really did make him seem out of place. It would have been better for him to sit in the classroom, play a few games, and pass the time without needing to talk to anyone.
Avoiding the flow of students leaving, Ye Jishu headed toward the end of the hallway.
The floor was damp, probably from people dragging wet umbrellas along it. The air was humid, and just walking through it dampened his pant legs with moisture rising from the floor.
He stopped.
He had reached the door.
As he got closer, Ye Jishu realized it wasn’t a classroom at all but a storage room on the first floor. The door hadn’t been closed, probably because the janitor had stepped out. If the janitor returned, they would likely shut it immediately.
With that in mind, he turned to leave.
However, a faint voice suddenly came from the gap in the door.
“You never responded to my messages, so I thought… maybe it would be better to talk face-to-face.”
What was this?
There wasn’t just one person in the storage room.
Ye Jishu cast a blurry glance inside.
In the dimly lit room, he could make out two figures.
A boy stood with his back to the door, his expression unclear.
But the girl looked up at him nervously, her eyes filled with hope as she gazed at the seemingly indifferent boy.
“I like you.
“From the first day of school, I’ve liked you.
“So, could you… consider me?”
This was a confession scene.
The last thing he wanted to encounter happened.
Without hesitation, he moved his feet, ready to leave immediately.
But in the very next second, he suddenly stopped.
Because…
The girl spoke again.
“I like you.”
“From the very first day of school, I’ve liked you.”
“So, could you… consider me?”
…What is this?
Didn’t that conversation just happen a few seconds ago?
Confusion flashed in Ye Jishu’s eyes.
At the same time, an inexplicable feeling surged from within, forcing his body—initially poised to leave— to freeze in place.
Yet in less than a minute of hesitation, the girl’s voice rang out again from the storage room.
“I like you.”
“From the very first day of school, I’ve liked you.”
“So, could you… consider me?”
“…”
No.
It wasn’t an illusion.
Just now, the girl had said the exact same words.
The tone, pauses between the three sentences, and even the lingering cadence at the end were identical to the last time.
Ye Jishu abruptly turned around.
Through the gap in the slightly open door, the girl still maintained that anxious expression, even the hopeful gaze in her eyes remained unchanged.
A sudden clap of thunder echoed through the sky.
The strong, blue-purple lightning lit up the room, illuminating the streaks of rainwater left on the window. It failed to obscure the girl’s silhouette reflected in the glass, enhancing the eeriness of her pale, ghostly face under the circumstances.
Her red lips parted again, moving in time with her words.
“I like you.”
“From the very first day of school, I’ve liked you.”
“So, could you… consider me?”
“…”
What was happening?
His heartbeat inexplicably sped up, and even his breathing seemed to disappear, as though any slight movement would disrupt the thick, oppressive air around him. He feared that he might shatter some unseen barrier if he left now.
In the narrow storage room, the girl’s confession echoed repeatedly.
Even though her tone hadn’t changed, the repetition of the exact same words made them sound like a cold, mechanical recitation. A tingling sensation crawled up from his spine, perhaps due to the chill brought on by the rainy day.
The shadow of the person being confessed to wavered in the flickering light of the storm, mingling with the silhouettes of tree branches cast from outside the window, forming an eerie, tentacle-like mass reaching in every direction.
Such an earnest confession—shouldn’t it be accepted?
Who knows who he was.
The person was probably well-liked by the girl.
Yet he remained indifferent, as though the girl before him didn’t exist at all…
It was the attitude one might take toward an object.
It seemed that he hadn’t taken the confession to heart at all.
But this had nothing to do with Ye Jishu.
After his initial confusion subsided, he lost interest in listening further.
However, just as he turned and prepared to leave—
The person being confessed to turned his head, revealing his face. Though expressionless, with only a partial view of his features, it was enough to light up the entire storage room. If there were ever someone born to be admired, this person was undoubtedly made for it.
“…”
It was—
A very familiar face.
[Yan Mei.]
[So, the person being confessed to was him.]
[That explains it.]
Ye Jishu didn’t usually pay much attention to the people around him, but ignoring Yan Mei’s existence was simply impossible.
Appearance mattered.
Even if Ye Jishu had no interest in men, Yan Mei’s looks were striking enough to hold anyone’s gaze.
But it wasn’t just his appearance. Yan Mei’s status was also unique.
He was the one who gave the speech on behalf of all the freshmen at the entrance ceremony.
Ye Jishu didn’t like crowded places.
So, aside from attending classes, he usually hid in the shade of trees or stairwells during breaks to play on his phone.
And this wasn’t the first time he’d witnessed someone confessing to Yan Mei.
Popular as always.
School had barely started.
Ye Jishu understood why so many freshmen would want to date right after starting college. But if it were just a matter of wanting to be in a relationship, why did everyone seem to have the same standard and fall for the same person?
But maybe this was fate?
Not everyone had the chance to witness the same person being confessed to so many times.
Were the others like this as well?
He couldn’t remember. But it all felt like trouble.
With that thought, Ye Jishu took a step back, intending to quietly leave as he had the previous times.
But—
The other person suddenly turned around, stepped forward, and pushed the door open.
Ye Jishu, caught off guard, thought, “…”
Now they were face to face.
Even someone as socially awkward as him could sense that standing here like this gave the wrong impression.
It was like a scene frozen in time.
The girl who had been confessing abruptly fell silent.
Then, with a creaking sound, she turned her head and stared at him, expressionless.
Ye Jishu instinctively started moving backward again.
However, the person in front of him took another step forward, closing the distance between them.
The other person leaned down, bringing that striking face uncomfortably close. They locked eyes, black irises staring directly into his.
“Boom—”
Thunder rumbled outside the teaching building.
In the silence, the door to the storage room behind them creaked shut, leaving only the two of them in the dimly lit hallway.
It wasn’t even the cramped storage room anymore; the hallway was relatively spacious. Yet an inexplicable illusion settled over Ye Jishu—the feeling that he was trapped, confined in some invisible space, forced to endure the other’s intense gaze and the humid, stifling air.
It was spring.
So he wasn’t dressed too warmly, and the muggy atmosphere made the exposed skin around his collarbone itch.
The presence of the person in front of him was overwhelming, especially in this oppressive heat.
“How strange. It seems like we keep running into each other, don’t we?”
A voice filled with ambiguous meaning sounded in front of him. “Do you have something you need from me?”
Answer carefully.
An instinctive warning rang through his body.
Those eyes, filled with a piercing chill, seemed capable of seeing through to the black stains left by the very beating of his heart.
For a split second, a rumor flashed through Ye Jishu’s mind.
This was the legendary “Gaoling Flower¹.”
Anyone who confessed to this person and was rejected would never appear before him again. In other words, he wouldn’t allow, nor tolerate, such people lingering around him.
Unable to endure the suffocating pressure in his chest or the strange tingling in his fingers from being so close to the other, Ye Jishu decided—
To do something that would make him hate him.
Under the scrutinizing gaze of the other, he blurted out, “I like you. Please go out with me.”
Confessing to someone he had never even spoken to, never interacted with—
The outcome was, of course, predictable.
But instead—
“Sure.” Yan Mei responded, “I accept your confession.”
¹ 高岭花 (gāo ling huā) is a term used to describe noble and often cold beauties that seem unattainable.