Fell In Love With My Older Sister’s Friend - Chapter 5

Xu Luzhi braked too late for a moment, and by the time she finally stopped, the tip of her dark leather shoe had lightly touched the other person’s white sneakers.

Xu Luzhi quickly pulled her foot back and said softly, “I’m sorry…” She searched her mind, struggling to recall the classmate’s name, and tentatively called out, “…Jiang Duo?”

The boy with thick eyebrows and large eyes nodded excitedly, completely disregarding his shoe: “Yes, yes, yes! Don’t you remember? I even brought you water when you ran the 3000 meter race at the sports meet!”

“Ah, I think so,” Xu Luzhi said slowly. Thinking back, she had indeed represented the class in the 3000-meter race at last year’s sports meet. She was exhausted afterwards, and when someone gave her water, she drank it without thinking much about it.

After all, almost the whole class was surrounding her. In the blink of an eye, she hadn’t even clearly seen what the person who brought the water looked like, let alone remembered the name.

“See, I knew you still remembered me!” Jiang Duo’s voice suddenly grew more excited, his smile sincere and warm, “Thank you for inviting me to this birthday party too!”

Xu Luzhi smiled, her clean, small face bright with an amiable and polite smile: “I invited all my classmates; we’re all good classmates.”

There were fifty or sixty people in her class, and Xu Luzhi was also quite carefree, so she selectively ignored many people with whom she didn’t have much interaction, and there was no talk of close or distant friendships.

“I’m very happy that everyone can come to my birthday party.” Xu Luzhi nodded, gracefully lifting the hem of her skirt, “The kitchen should have served some food and drinks already. Go back and sit with everyone!”

Xu Luzhi spoke with poise and generosity, exuding a nobility naturally cultivated since childhood. Unlike the lively and quick witted person in the classroom, dressed in a princess dress at this moment, she seemed to possess a certain air of aloofness, making the previously close classmates feel very distant.

Jiang Duo inhaled the gardenia fragrance emanating from her, pure and sweet, not seductive. It made his head spin, and he didn’t even dare to look directly at the little princess in front of him. His speech became incoherent and stuttering.

It took him a while to finally blurt out: “…You look really beautiful today.”

“Thank you for the compliment.” Xu Luzhi smiled faintly, though her mind was already elsewhere.

Her older sister had left a while ago. When would Lin Qingyue arrive? She wanted to be the first to greet her at the door.

If she didn’t greet her immediately, what if the beautiful older sister misunderstood her as being impolite? That wouldn’t be good.

Zhizhi is very well-behaved. Zhizhi sincerely wants the beautiful older sister to attend her birthday party!

As Xu Luzhi thought this, her beautiful eyes sparkled. This emotion unconsciously infected Jiang Duo, who was in close proximity, suddenly giving him courage and making him bolder.

He took a step forward, and the distance between them narrowed, almost touching.

Before Xu Luzhi could react, Jiang Duo spoke first, forcing out his words as if holding his breath: “Um… Xu Luzhi, happy birthday! Actually, actually, I’ve always noticed you. I feel… you, you’re very beautiful, your grades are good, and your personality is good… I, I can’t quite explain it, anyway, everything about you is good…”

“Thank you.” Xu Luzhi’s tone cooled, and she interrupted him before he could finish, not even giving Jiang Duo a chance to continue speaking.

She frequently received all sorts of love letters and was often confessed to. She was so familiar with the process of rejection that she didn’t need to involve any emotion.

Some people called her arrogant, but Xu Luzhi herself didn’t know. She only knew that she felt no ripple of emotion towards any of these boys, only boredom.

After Xu Luzhi rejected him, her peripheral vision happened to catch a strange yet familiar figure: a loose white shirt, dark jeans, white canvas shoes, with her forearm exposed and casually crossed over her chest, and her pure black nail polish was particularly eye catching.

Xu Luzhi’s heart thumped fiercely. Her sensitive nose caught the sweet scent emanating from the other person, rich but not cloying, exactly the same as the shower gel from last night.

Without needing to confirm, she already knew the other person’s identity.

It was the person she had yearned for all night, the one whose few words had made her soul drift away.

Now that she had finally found a way to meet her, Xu Luzhi felt timid, and even her heartbeat unconsciously sped up a little.

Lin Qingyue was she exactly as Xu Luzhi had imagined?

Xu Luzhi subconsciously wanted to walk towards Lin Qingyue, but Jiang Duo’s figure appeared in front of her. The boy was half a head taller than her and forcefully blocked her halfway.

His broad shoulders were like a wall, squarely blocking the connection between her and Lin Qingyue.

Her vision was obstructed. Xu Luzhi blinked, and coldly commanded: “Move.”

The smile on her face was completely gone, replaced by an innate sense of superiority.

It was merely polite courtesy between classmates; what right did Jiang Duo have to block her way?

Jiang Duo seemed startled by her demeanor. He hadn’t expected the usually approachable Xu Luzhi to be so captivating when angry, her expression cold, making people completely afraid to disobey.

But since things had come to this, Jiang Duo gritted his teeth and took the plunge: “I know you probably won’t like me, I just wanted to tell you, Xu Luzhi, I really like you. I’ll work hard to get into the same university as you. Whatever kind of person you like, I can also try to become that…”

School was starting soon for the final year of high school, and opportunities for classmates to interact were scarce. If he didn’t seize the time to express his feelings, it would be too late.

Jiang Duo was secretly sweating in his palms, his voice trembling but resolute, his expression as dramatic as if he were delivering his last words.

Xu Luzhi was so annoyed she almost laughed. She genuinely regretted inviting all sorts of undesirables to her birthday party. She should have just invited a few close friends. Too many people meant more chances for trouble, which was truly frustrating.

She didn’t want to get further entangled, fearing Lin Qingyue might leave soon. She said coolly, “I’m sorry, have you ever considered that the kind of person I like might be someone you can’t be?”

“No matter what, I can work hard to do it!” Jiang Duo was anxious, subconsciously showing loyalty, looking like he was ready to go through fire and water.

“Then have you ever considered that perhaps, she likes girls?” Before Xu Luzhi could speak, a light, airy sentence drifted over from not far away, the voice low and infused with laughter.

Xu Luzhi’s heart violently skipped a beat, and her face flushed almost uncontrollably.

It was strange. What was it about this woman? Her voice was so lovely, a simple sentence was captivating, as if intentionally seductive.

“If she likes girls, can you also manage to do that?” Another sentence followed immediately, mixed with a casual laugh, full of charm and alluring enough to make one’s bones melt.

Although they were challenging words, when spoken by Lin Qingyue, they sounded almost like teasing.

Xu Luzhi almost instinctively felt this was a hint, and even felt that her thoughts had been exposed. But she quickly dismissed the idea.

This was just Lin Qingyue being quick-witted, seeing her friend’s younger sister in a difficult situation, and choosing the most direct way to rescue her.

As expected, Jiang Duo had been prepared to go through hell and high water, even take a bullet, but being cut off like this, he realized he genuinely lacked the courage to undergo a sex change.

He opened and closed his mouth repeatedly, looking confused, glancing at Xu Luzhi for a moment, then at Lin Qingyue, wondering where this glamorous and charming woman had come from.

Lin Qingyue stood with her arms crossed, waiting leisurely for a moment. The brazen, clueless boy in front of her seemed to have frozen, only knowing how to look around, like a stubborn squatter.

She had originally intended just to wander around casually. She hadn’t expected Xu Luwei’s house to be quite large. She wandered over to the staircase and happened to see Xu Luwei’s sister being confessed to.

The girl wore a princess dress with clean, light makeup. Her small face resembled Xu Luwei’s in five parts, but she possessed a distinctly different liveliness and spirit, which suddenly reminded Lin Qingyue of the half-courtyard of gardenias she had seen when she got out of the car.

Unlike the other half-courtyard of quietly blooming roses, the gardenias were large and pure white, blooming profusely, their fragrance overflowing, bold and particularly eye-catching.

This was the seventeen-year-old child, Xu Luzhi, who had insisted she come and would “throw a tantrum.”

Having met her, she wasn’t as naughty or willful as imagined. Instead, she gave an indescribable feeling, like a flower nestled among green leaves, fervent yet mischievous.

Lin Qingyue usually didn’t like to interfere in other people’s business, but since she was already here, she simply went along with it. After the words left her mouth, she realized the topic might be a bit sensitive, but quickly brushed it off.

Xu Luwei had never shown homosexual tendencies, and presumably, Xu Luzhi wouldn’t either. Even if she might in the future, she was only seventeen now, too young to discuss such things.

Thus, Lin Qingyue felt no psychological burden and was completely unaware of the complex thoughts swirling in Xu Luzhi’s mind.

Her casual remark to resolve the situation, however, caused clusters of fireworks to explode in Xu Luzhi’s heart, making it difficult for her to maintain composure.

And Lin Qingyue merely found the clumsy boy who confessed annoying. She smiled loosely, walked up to Xu Luzhi, and took her hand: “Let’s go. Your sister is looking for you.”

Xu Luzhi: “!”

She took a deep breath. Her nose was filled with Lin Qingyue’s unique sweet scent, rich and pervasive.

She instinctively tightened her grip on Lin Qingyue’s hand, yet feared holding too tightly might hurt the other person. After several moments of hesitation, she gently clasped her fingers, allowing Lin Qingyue’s warm palm to envelop her small hand.

They walked forward hand in hand, leaving Jiang Duo behind as if he didn’t exist. Xu Luzhi didn’t dare to breathe, her heart pounding like a drum. Every step felt as if she were treading on cotton, utterly bewildered.

She had already envisioned various ways to initiate contact, including physical contact, but she never expected their first intimate contact to be so easy.

Holding hands! And so close! Walking such a long distance! And the older sister initiated it!

Xu Luzhi felt dizzy, as if her brain were deprived of oxygen. Feeling Lin Qingyue’s soft and smooth palm, she was speechless for a moment.