How I Accidentally Bent My Best Friend - Chapter 28.2

As her tears slowly dried, a sharp arrow pierced her heart, taking away her hesitation and hope.

In silence, Chen Yushu wiped her face. Remembering something, she pulled out a small notebook, flipped to the last page, and wrote down a word.

Unlike the anger and resentment of the past, this time she wrote slowly and lightly, stroke by stroke, as if carving it into her heart.

Lose. To lose, to be lost.

This was her flaw, her bottom line, her most fatal weakness.

The short holiday passed in the blink of an eye. When Chen Yushu returned to the dormitory, all three of her roommates were sitting at their desks, heads bowed as they wrote something. The silence felt strangely unsettling.

“What’s going on with you guys?” she couldn’t help but ask, leaning close to Jiang Yuran.

Jiang Yuran looked up, saw her, threw down her pen, and immediately hugged her. “Our savior! You’re finally back!”

Chen Yushu: “Wh-what’s happening?”

Just then, Ye Chiwan also leaned out, wailing, “Waaah, save us! We can’t finish the homework!”

“There isn’t that much homework, right?” Chen Yushu said, puzzled. “High school assignments over three-day holidays were way more than this.”

“No, what kind of university still gives homework?!”

“Who knows how I finished it all in high school! But now I’m really going crazy! Shushu, help!”

Seeing their pained expressions, Chen Yushu couldn’t help but laugh as she pulled out her own homework. “Don’t copy everything. Some of these questions might be on the midterm or final exams.”

Xia Ke: “University has midterms too?”

Chen Yushu hummed in agreement. “Around late October to mid-November, mostly testing major courses.”

“OK, leave the homework with you. We’ll check it if we get stuck,” Ye Chiwan said.

“Alright.” Chen Yushu sat back at her desk and noticed the white rose in her pen holder had completely withered, no longer pure white but tinged with a faint yellow.

She gazed at it quietly for a moment, feeling a bittersweet sense of finality.

Just then, she sensed someone approaching and looked up to see Jiang Yuran. “Shushu, did you and Lu Wei go back to high school?”

Chen Yushu blurted out in surprise, “How did you know?”

“Here.” Jiang Yuran opened the image on her phone and placed it in front of Chen Yushu. “Lu Wei updated her Weibo. This should be the two of you, right?”

Chen Yushu glanced at it and instinctively opened her own phone. “Why didn’t I get a notification? I definitely set her as a special follow.”

Hearing this, Jiang Yuran gave her a complicated look and silently shook her head.

Opening Lu Wei’s latest Weibo post, the center of the image featured two hands slender and finely detailed, rendered vividly both pointing toward two blurry photos on a background wall.

It was the scene from that day when they had looked at the honor wall together.

However, perhaps due to the blurred background, their fingertips seemed to merge without clear boundaries, as if touching yet not quite touching.

The entire image felt both realistic and hazy, carrying an awkward sense of contradiction.

Chen Yushu zoomed in on the image and noticed a small mole on the side of the right thumb. She couldn’t help but lower her head to look at her own hand there it was, a faint mole that most people wouldn’t easily notice.

“What did she draw this for?” Jiang Yuran was still admiring it, growing more and more fond of it. She couldn’t help but exclaim excitedly, “I have to say, at first glance, I thought this was some yuri artist’s work! Ugh, it’s so beautiful! And drawing hands like this, is that even allowed. Ahhh, I’m so jealous!”

“I don’t know.” Chen Yushu didn’t want to delve into the reasons, but she couldn’t suppress her curiosity.

Lu Wei had always disliked drawing anything related to people. As a result, among all her art pieces, her figure drawings consistently received the lowest scores. Even her teacher had commented that while her technique was sufficient, her work lacked emotional depth.

Yet, in Lu Wei’s two latest uploaded artworks, both were about people and about her, too.

Her heart was gently stirred. Chen Yushu tried her best to ignore the feeling and exited the Weibo post. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that the number of comments on Lu Wei’s previous Weibo had increased significantly. Unable to resist, she clicked to take a look.

The most upvoted comment read: “My heart is like a net of twin threads, with a thousand, thousand knots within.”

After the short holiday break, the academic workload grew heavier. In addition to daytime classes and evening self-study sessions, an inorganic chemistry lab was now added to their Sunday schedule.

“Finally, it’s Friday, and now this? What’s the deal! Ah!”

“Hahaha, I’m fine, really, no need to worry about me!”

“Great, another one’s lost it.”

While listening to their complaints, Chen Yushu sent a notification in the study group chat. After finishing, she couldn’t help but laugh and comforted them, “Our group is doing the experiment tomorrow afternoon, so we can still sleep in tomorrow morning.”

“Wuwu, Shushu, you’re the best! What would this family do without you!” Ye Chiwan, passing by, overheard and immediately gave her an exaggerated hug.

Just then, a message from Lu Wei came through a long paragraph briefly outlining her plans for the next two days.

Chen Yushu skimmed through it, her eyebrows slightly raised. After a moment, she lazily replied: 【Got lab work, no time.】

The other side immediately sent a pitiful, pouting cat emoji.

Lu Wei: 【Then when will you be free?Lu Wei: I haven’t seen you in over a week, I miss you~

Lu Wei: Cuddly cat rubbing and acting cute tactics jpg.】

Chen Yushu swallowed and muttered under her breath, “You’re insane,” trying to lessen the softness rising in her heart.

But her fingers betrayed her as she typed honestly: 【I have a lab tomorrow afternoon, not sure how long it’ll take. I’m free on Sunday.】

After a moment’s thought, she added: 【If you want to go out, you can go with your roommate.】

Lu Wei: 【It’s fine, I’m willing to wait for you shy jpg.】

Lu Wei: 【It’s not that I want to go out I want to hang out with you~】

“Did you take the wrong medicine?” Chen Yushu frowned and pursed her lips. “Flirtatious and frivolous I’m not falling for your nonsense.”

Suddenly, several messages from Jiang Yuran popped up on the screen, one after another.

Chen Yushu couldn’t help but glance over at Jiang Yuran, who was breathing heavily, her fists clenched tightly on the desk.

Jiang Yuran: 【Shushu, it’s time for the ultimate test choose between Lu Wei and me!】

Perplexed, Chen Yushu replied: 【What happened?】

Jiang Yuran: 【That scoundrel Lu Wei told Senior Jiang that I have a boyfriend! Since when have I ever dated a guy? I’m so mad!】

【Spreading rumors! Slander! I’m going to sue her! Don’t try to stop me!】

【No wonder Senior Jiang has been so distant with me lately!】

After reading the messages, Chen Yushu immediately buried her head and laughed until tears streamed down her face. Only when she was completely out of breath did she weakly straighten up and type: 【I support you! That troublemaker!】

Jiang Yuran: 【Exactly! Absolutely despicable!】

The next day.

Not long after lunch, Chen Yushu changed into her lab coat and headed to the lab building with her roommates.

On the way, they passed the art building. Remembering that Lu Wei had mentioned going to the studio to paint today, she couldn’t resist stealing a few glances just like in high school, when she would take detours past Lu Wei’s classroom, pretending to casually look inside while carrying her homework.

Upon arriving at the lab, everyone signed in. Once the group was assembled, the teacher began the lesson.

The first class was advanced mathematics, taught by a bespectacled elderly man who walked in cheerfully. After introducing himself, he spent the entire class chatting casually until the bell rang.

“Alright, everyone, take a break. We’ll officially start learning advanced mathematics next period,” the old man said before leaving with his teacup.

Chen Yushu pulled out her phone from her bag. As soon as she unlocked it, a flood of messages appeared almost all from Lu Wei.

Checking the timestamps, she noticed they were sent intermittently from the start of class until the end, spanning a surprisingly long period.

Didn’t she have class today too? Chen Yushu pulled up Lu Wei’s schedule and, sure enough, saw “Sketching” listed for both periods.

Just then, another message from Lu Wei arrived: 【Class is over, why are you still ignoring me?】

Chen Yushu: 【Why are you using your phone during class?】

Lu Wei immediately sent back an indignant emoji: 【We haven’t started drawing yet.】

Lu Wei: 【You won’t even get to see my messages later, and you don’t even appreciate them now!】

“Narcissist,” Chen Yushu muttered under her breath, a hint of disdain curling her lips as she typed: 【Thank you, but I’d actually prefer that.】

Suddenly, she felt someone lean close to her ear it was Jiang Yuran. “Are you chatting with Lu Wei?”

Chen Yushu nodded, inexplicably feeling a bit guilty, afraid of being found out.

Fortunately, the class bell rang just then. Jiang Yuran let out an “oh” and returned to her seat.

Chen Yushu tucked her phone back into her desk, opened her textbook, and focused on the lesson.

As soon as class ended, everyone got up and hurried to another classroom. Crowds swarmed between the teaching buildings a novel experience for Chen Yushu.

Class ended at 11:40, and they had another class at 2 p.m., leaving them with little time. Chen Yushu glanced at her phone just as Lu Wei had said earlier, there were no new messages.

After a moment’s thought, Chen Yushu decided to grab lunch with her roommates.

No sooner had they sat down with their food than Xia Ke whispered, “Quick, check the group chat.”

Hearing this, they all pulled out their phones. Ye Chiwan was the first to curse, followed closely by Jiang Yuran.

“Seriously? Who makes college students attend evening self-study?!”

“I’d heard before.” Jiang Yuran paused, as if recalling something, then continued after a few seconds, “A friend mentioned that freshmen have evening self-study. I didn’t think it was actually true!”

Chen Yushu glanced up at her, realizing she must have heard it from her ex-girlfriend.

“I take back what I said this morning,” Ye Chiwan slammed her chopsticks down. “This damn university I can’t stand another day!”

“Seconded,” Jiang Yuran raised her hand. “Let’s go drop out and retake the college entrance exams right now.”

“Cut it out,” Ye Chiwan swatted her. “Are you crazy? It’s still a top-three prestigious school. Help me up this humble servant can still endure.”

Chen Yushu chuckled and couldn’t resist sending a message to Lu Wei: Our class just got notified about evening self-study. What about yours?

Assuming Lu Wei wouldn’t see it right away, Chen Yushu was about to set her phone down when a voice message came through: Who told me that again? I just left the art studio. Where are you? I’ll come find you.

Biting her chopsticks, Chen Yushu suddenly had a bad feeling and guiltily typed out one character at a time: I’m in the cafeteria.

Lu Wei quickly sent another voice message, followed by a second, a third.

The cafeteria was crowded, and the internet was slow the text conversion kept lagging. Chen Yushu hurriedly fished her earphones out of her bag’s side pocket, put them on, and played each message.

After a brief loading pause, Lu Wei’s furious voice burst through the earphones, startling Chen Yushu so much her shoulders jerked, and she suddenly lost her appetite.

You went to eat by yourself?

Why didn’t you wait for me!

Chen Yushu, you’re abandoning me again!