I Swear I Don’t Want to Be Everyone’s Favorite - Chapter 37.1

The sound of the building block falling was muffled by the carpet. In the silence, Jiang Luoyue could only hear her own wildly beating heart. For several seconds, she watched Yu Jingtang pick up the block and hand it back to her.

But Jiang Luoyue no longer dared to take it.

Yu Jingtang didn’t insist. Instead, she took the block from Jiang Luoyue’s hand and skillfully assembled it.

Her expression remained as calm as ever, as if she had merely said something utterly ordinary. Yet Jiang Luoyue held her breath, afraid that Yu Jingtang might drop another bombshell, sending ripples of shock through her heart.

Only after the piece was snapped into place did Jiang Luoyue hesitantly take it. “Thank you.”

Yu Jingtang’s eyes curved into a smile. Jiang Luoyue clenched her fists, sensing trouble. Sure enough, the woman parted her lips and quickly said, “I like you.”

But compared to the slightly nervous and flustered “like” from before, this time Yu Jingtang seemed much more at ease. Jiang Luoyue stared at her blankly, taking a long moment before hesitantly replying, “Should I say thank you?”

“After all, quite a few people like me.” Jiang Luoyue wasn’t even sure what she was saying anymore. As she spoke, she wondered inwardly, who liked her? Yu Jingtang said she liked her. Why would Yu Jingtang say she liked her? Was she serious, or was she lying? How should she respond?

The more she thought, the more chaotic her mind became. The room was spacious, yet she felt the air growing thin, leaving her breathless and unwilling to speak.

Yu Jingtang’s earnest gaze lingered on her face as she replied, “I know.”

“You know.” Jiang Luoyue was taken aback. “Know what?”

“That many people like you.” Yu Jingtang lowered her eyes. “I’m just one of them.”

“But it’s fine.”

Yu Jingtang herself didn’t know why she had said those words. Before this, she had been so oblivious that she hadn’t even realized her own feelings. Even if she did have some affection for Jiang Luoyue, she had assumed it was purely the intimacy and admiration between friends.

For a moment, she had panicked. But upon realizing that Jiang Luoyue seemed even more flustered by her confession, she quickly calmed down.

Just as people might blurt out “cute” upon seeing a pet, seeing Jiang Luoyue made her feel “like” wasn’t that only natural?

“You don’t need to give me an answer. I can wait.”

Jiang Luoyue stared at Yu Jingtang in confusion. In her limited life experience, everything she had learned about confessions followed one of two paths: one person confessed, and the other either accepted or rejected. Then they either fell in love or became strangers.

She had never imagined that the two rigidly defined paths in her memory could be so abruptly and forcefully expanded with a Plan C.

A confession had been made, but no response was required.

Jiang Luoyue took a deep breath. “Wait for what?”

Yu Jingtang replied, “For your agent to allow you to date.”

Jiang Luoyue nearly laughed in disbelief. The rule about not being allowed to date was something she had made up herself. “What if she never lets me date?”

“Then I’ll wait until you terminate your contract with the company.”

Jiang Luoyue: “And who would I sign with after terminating?”

Yu Jingtang answered without hesitation, “You can start your own studio. I’ll work for you.”

Jiang Luoyue had never expected her to have even this figured out. For a moment, she was speechless. After several seconds, she finally managed to grasp at a topic. “But doesn’t your agent forbid you from dating?”

She tried to use this to awaken Yu Jingtang, but Yu Jingtang replied honestly, “But I’ve never heard of her.”

Jiang Luoyue: “…”

Jiang Luoyue completely lost the desire to speak with Yu Jingtang.

She sat up and tried piecing together some building blocks, only to find her thoughts too chaotic to focus. In the end, she simply unfolded a blueprint and covered her face with it.

Yu Jingtang’s muffled voice came through, asking what was wrong. Jiang Luoyue responded coldly, “Just think of me as lying in a coffin, and this is a talisman to ward off ghosts.”

Yu Jingtang chuckled, “Alright.”

After that, the carpet shifted slightly as if some weight had lifted. Jiang Luoyue peeked and saw that Yu Jingtang had left.

She let out a long sigh of relief, unable to fully articulate her emotions. She simply stared at the ceiling, allowing her stiff senses to slowly reawaken.

At that moment, Jiang Luoyue finally realized that even though she had listed countless reasons why “Jiang Luoyue” should like “Yu Jingtang,” her immediate reaction upon hearing the word “like” was still rejection.

All the wild thoughts she’d had throughout the day weren’t born out of anticipation for a confession, but rather her fear of losing Yu Jingtang as a friend.

In other words, she didn’t like Yu Jingtang or at least, not enough yet.

Once she sorted this out, thinking back to Yu Jingtang’s words, “I can wait,” Jiang Luoyue felt grateful in her heart for the other’s consistent thoughtfulness. Even in such a situation, Yu Jingtang still knew how to handle things with grace.

Wait. If Yu Jingtang hadn’t suddenly confessed and caught her off guard, would she even be thinking about all this? Why was she still thanking Yu Jingtang?

As Jiang Luoyue harshly berated herself, footsteps sounded behind her. She hurriedly covered her face with the paper again, only to hear Yu Jingtang say beside her, “1.”

As if typing “1” online could resurrect her?

Jiang Luoyue turned away, unwilling to engage, but still made sure to adjust the slipping paper.

Yu Jingtang asked again, “Aren’t you hungry?”

They had hastily grabbed lunch near the company earlier. The food was terrible, and Jiang Luoyue hadn’t eaten much, while Yu Jingtang didn’t waste a bite. Jiang Luoyue had been shocked at the time, but Yu Jingtang said she was used to it.

Back when she was a trainee, she often practiced until late, and by the time she finished, the cafeteria would be closed, leaving her no choice but to eat there.

Jiang Luoyue hadn’t thought much of it then, but now she belatedly realized that Yu Jingtang might have wanted to share a piece of her “past” with her. The intention was romantic, but the outcome was disastrous almost earth-shatteringly so.

Yet, imagining a teenage Yu Jingtang enduring those awful meals alone softened Jiang Luoyue’s heart. A wave of pity washed over her, and much of her inexplicable frustration and helplessness faded away.

She muttered gloomily, “It really was terrible.”

Yu Jingtang nodded, “We won’t eat there anymore.”

“You don’t have to give up what you like just for me,” Jiang Luoyue said naturally. “I can take you to the places near my school later.”

Her words abruptly halted. In the next moment, Jiang Luoyue suddenly realized that, unlike her previous life, she hadn’t been forced to drop out of school due to overwhelming pressures. She still retained her high school enrollment and was only taking a one-year break. She would return to classes next year.

This discovery made Jiang Luoyue’s eyes light up.

She had been in the public eye for so long that she had grown indifferent to all the ups and downs. Compared to being the perfect idol in the eyes of her fans, she longed to live as an ordinary person, embracing a simple, happy life.

She suddenly fell silent, and Yu Jingtang thought she had said something wrong. In her confusion, she carefully speared a piece of fruit with a fork and brought it to Jiang Luoyue’s lips.

Jiang Luoyue instinctively took a bite. The refreshing sweetness of the watermelon spread through her mouth, and she finally smiled and asked, “Aren’t you afraid of getting dirty?”

Yu Jingtang gazed into her bright eyes, so different from before. This was the first time she had seen such clear anticipation and vitality in Jiang Luoyue’s expression. Even though she tried hard to suppress it, the corners of her lips still curled high, as if she had suddenly come across some joyous news she couldn’t hide.

Clearly, this wasn’t because of her.

When Yu Jingtang had confessed earlier, Jiang Luoyue hadn’t smiled like this. It was only after mentioning school that she suddenly became so happy.

“There are still many instructions,” Yu Jingtang suppressed her thoughts and tentatively asked, “When are you going to your school?”

Jiang Luoyue’s eyes curved into a smile. “When the new semester starts.”

It seemed she would soon be in her third year of high school, but she had forgotten a lot of the material. She would need to hire a tutor for half a year to review before school started. That meant, at the latest by March next year, she would have to put all her entertainment career on hold and dive into her studies.

It was a monumental task. Jiang Luoyue felt a bit of a headache coming on, but she didn’t feel the slightest bit of pain.

Since her rebirth, she had anticipated every change that would happen—except for this one. This was the first time she so clearly realized:

She had changed her own destiny.

Thinking of the countless possibilities the future held, Jiang Luoyue took a deep breath and suddenly had a whim. “Yu Jingtang.”

“Hmm?” Yu Jingtang speared another piece of fruit this time, it was mango. Jiang Luoyue only then noticed it was a fruit platter, clearly prepared by the caring little Tang.

She smiled and decided to repay kindness with kindness. “Are you hungry? Let me cook for you.”

Yu Jingtang blinked, her long-calm heart rippling. She nodded in agreement. A few seconds later, while Jiang Luoyue wasn’t paying attention, she said again, “I like you.”

Jiang Luoyue was taken aback for a moment but surprisingly found herself desensitized to it.

Perhaps it was because she had already endured a greater shock before this. She raised an eyebrow and, before Yu Jingtang could react, said with a smile, “I like you too.”

“The kind of like between friends.”

Hong Kong.

When Fu Yunqing opened her eyes again, the room was pitch black, without a single glimmer of light. Dazed for a moment, she unlocked her phone and checked the time 8 p.m.

Hadn’t she just had a little to drink before bed? How had she slept until now?

Fu Yunqing turned on the wall lamp and tried to get up, but the weight on her right leg restrained her movements. Only then did she remember, she had just gotten a cast yesterday.

It was because of this cast that Fu Yunqing’s planned mountain road racing outing had been perfectly ruined. She had been fuming half the night and, on a whim, started mixing drinks. Now, there were still many unopened bottles of alcohol on the table, colorful and chaotic, making her head throb at a single glance.

One of these days, she was going to kill Xiang Fan.