Qin Shu's pursuit officially began on the fifth day of military training.
Originally he was still worrying about how to take the first step and how to keep Lin Qianliu's attention, but unexpectedly, fate had its own arrangements and the opportunity soon came.
At this time, Qin Shu, whose mind was completely on Lin Qianliu, still stood where he was after the instructor shouted "March where you are".
When the words "Student Qin Shu" were heard, he did not respond.
When the words "Classmate Qin Shu" were heard, his mind was still empty, gazing into the distance.
The next second, the instructor walked up to him with a frown, pulled him out of his seat, and asked in a serious tone, "What are you looking at?"
"Report to the instructor, I..." Qin Shu came back to his senses and was thinking about how to explain. In his peripheral vision, Lin Qianliu happened to run by, and his embarrassment was instantly relieved. It was Instructor Liu from the journalism major who was leading the students to run around the playground.
So, Qin Shu's courage doubled, and he said boldly and loudly: "I'm watching Lin Qianliu, a student majoring in journalism!"
"Wow--"
The booing noises suddenly filled the entire playground.
Lin Qianliu and Qin Shu both became the focus of attention.
Lin Qianliu, who was called out, stopped like everyone else and looked towards the source of the voice, and immediately met Qin Shu's gaze.
He looked at her and smiled, like a sunflower seeing the sun.
After frowning and looking at him for a while, Lin Qianliu vaguely remembered that she seemed to have seen him a few days ago. Her memory was a little fuzzy. She had inexplicably forgotten where she had seen him and what kind of contact she had with him. She couldn't even remember his name. But in fact, she had no intention of remembering, so she forgot.
Perhaps the military training was too boring. After Qin Shu's bold confession, Instructor Ou, who had a stern face, quickly put away his serious expression. He looked at the male and female protagonists in this idol drama with interest, and then pretended to be cold and asked the journalism student: "Who is Lin Qianliu?"
Lin Qianliu did not reply.
Someone next to her pointed at her and said, "That's her."
Seeing that Lin Qianliu looked calm, Instructor Ou thought she was frightened by this sudden confession, and he deliberately said to Lin Qianliu, "Since our classmate Qin Shu likes to see you so much, why not let him follow you all the time. From now on, classmate Qin Shu must look at classmate Lin Qianliu intently, without blinking, until the end of the morning military training."
As Instructor Ou finished his voice, the booing and cheering began again, and some boys even dared to applaud in a gloating manner.
"Wait." Although he saw through Instructor Ou's joke, Instructor Liu deliberately refused to cooperate. He pretended to be displeased and asked in a provocative tone, "Why are you punishing my students when your students make mistakes?"
"You are right, but..." Instructor Ou smiled, "If your students weren't so conspicuous, my students wouldn't be distracted."
"Kaka..." Seeing that he was about to be overshadowed by the two instructors, Qin Shu coughed repeatedly, and then said, "Instructor, I am willing to accept the punishment."
"If you are willing, my students must be willing too, right?" Instructor Liu refused to give face and looked at Lin Qianliu with interest.
As if he had received the inquiry from Instructor Liu, Lin Qianliu said calmly, "Instructor, I don't want to."
The farce that relieved the boring practice came to an end. Instructor Liu, as if he had won a battle, threw a smug look at Instructor Ou, and then smiled happily: "Very good, it is right not to pay for other people's mistakes. All right, students, listen to the command, assemble - run!"
Lin Qianliu didn't look at Qin Shu again, and ran forward step by step following the command.
Her eyes were still empty, as if everything that had just happened had nothing to do with her.
Qin Shu lowered his head in disappointment.
Surprisingly, Instructor Ou patted him on the shoulder and consoled him: "It takes some thought and effort to chase a girl."
Hearing this, Qin Shu was about to thank the instructor, but unexpectedly the instructor's face turned stern again.
"Because Qin Shu was not attentive during the military training, he is now punished to run ten laps around the playground!" After saying that, the instructor looked at him meaningfully, as if to say that jokes are jokes, but not paying attention in military training will still be punished.
"Yes, instructor!"
Amid the boos of his classmates, Qin Shu reluctantly accepted the punishment. The first confession that seemed like a confession but was not a true confession ended in failure.
But after this battle, Qin Shu and Lin Qianliu became famous. Everyone in the school knew that Qin Shu, a freshman majoring in broadcasting and hosting, had a crush on Lin Qianliu, a freshman majoring in journalism, but was rejected.
In the following days, Qin Shu did not pursue him relentlessly, and Lin Qianliu even forgot about his existence in the blink of an eye.
Actually, Qin Shu wanted to "play hard to get". But he met Lin Qianliu, and she didn't feel the slightest ripple in her heart from the beginning. So, when the day of the military training ended, when Qin Shu stood in front of her solemnly, Lin Qianliu still stared at him as if he were a stranger.
When their eyes met, her look was full of confusion, as if a large haze had blocked the sunlight above Qin Shu's head.
Behind me, the voices of encouragement from boys in the same major continued.
His heart was pounding in his chest.
After taking a deep breath, Qin Shu said to Lin Qianliu: "Lin Qianliu, you don't have a boyfriend yet, right? What do you think of me?"
He had practiced this kind of dialogue countless times, but when he spoke it out loud, he was still afraid of missing a word.
The feeling of déjà vu made Lin Qianliu frown, and her black pupils seemed to have light. No one knew that her dead heart seemed to have walked into spring, and small ripples were rippling in her heart.
This dialogue was the first sentence she said to Luo Qubai.
She still remembered that Luo Qubai rejected her with just one word, "ugly", and she also remembered that she teased him with the phrase "only handsome men and ugly women are a good match". Even after he refused to communicate with her, she started to introduce herself, talking about everything from her name to her hobbies and interests to her criteria for choosing a lover.
Just as she was thinking about it, Qin Shu's voice floated into her ears again.
He said: "I am Qin Shu, a broadcasting and hosting major. This is the third time I introduce myself to you, and it will be the last time. From today on, I will officially pursue you, and I will prove to the whole world that I am worthy of your support. What I am going to talk about below are my hobbies. I like sports, and I am good at basketball, football, badminton, and table tennis..."
She was just the same as before, but with an extra promise in her words.
Lin Qianliu looked up at Qin Shu who was standing against the light. His eyes were so determined, just like himself who loved Luo Qubai desperately.
She could no longer hear what he said, and all sounds were cleared in an instant.
At that moment, she mistakenly thought she had traveled through time and returned to the past.
After a long time, when she came to her senses, his long introduction had just ended, and the real confession followed. Qin Shu suddenly squatted down, touched one knee to the ground, and handed her a pink paper rose.
"Lin Qianliu, I like you. You may not know it, or believe it, but you are indeed the first girl I like. This is the first time I confess to you, and you can refuse, because I don't mind confessing to you a second, third... or even the nine hundred and ninety-ninth time."
"Sorry." Lin Qianliu sniffed his sour nose and lowered his head slightly.
"It's okay." Qin Shu smiled and placed the paper rose at her feet. "I hope you will look forward to my next confession."
Long before he heard from others about Lin Qianliu's pursuit of Luo Qubai, he planned to make some changes to Lin Qianliu's idea and pursue her in the same way she pursued Luo Qubai.
After learning about his plan, his roommate once asked him, aren’t you worried that Lin Qianliu will think of Luo Qubai?
He just laughed it off at the time. In fact, he really didn't mind. In his wishful thinking, as long as Lin Qianliu thought of Luo Qubai, she would remember Luo Qubai's abandonment of her, and she would want to forget it even more. What he did was not to make Lin Qianliu remember Luo Qubai's goodness, but to let Lin Qianliu see the difference between him and Luo Qubai in the repeated memories.
So, he persisted in imitating.
Lin Qianliu confessed to Luo Qubai three hundred times a day, so he confessed to Lin Qianliu three times a day, like a standard combination of three meals a day. The first sentence Lin Qianliu said to Luo Qubai every day was "Good morning, Luo Qubai, do you want to be my boyfriend today?" He would wait outside the girls' dormitory every morning with breakfast in his hands. If it was soy milk or fried dough sticks, he would say to her, "Today I am fried dough sticks, I still like your soy milk." If it was juice or sandwiches, he would say, "Today I am a sandwich, which is the best match for you who is sweet and sour." Different love words, with different breakfasts.
The last words Lin Qianliu said to Luo Qubai every day were, "Luo Qubai, I seem to like you more today." He would then pick a time every day and send her a text message before she went to bed, "Good night, to date, I have liked you for ×× days." With each passing day, the number after good night would move forward, as if the distance between him and her was shortened.
Every time Qin Shu confessed his love, Lin Qianliu would think of Luo Qubai unconsciously.
What she didn't expect was that Qin Shu would confess his love to her on the campus radio. What surprised her even more was that Qin Shu had found out the confession she wrote on the Chinese test paper, which was originally a secret that no one knew, and made only a small modification, which turned into his unique love for her.
Even though this radio confession resulted in Qin Shu being warned by his teacher, he still enjoyed pursuing Lin Qianliu.
Everyone said that Lin Qianliu was heartless, but although Lin Qianliu kept refusing, he left a deep impression on Qin Shu.
She no longer ignored him, no longer forgot him. When she was upset, she would lose her temper at Qin Shu and call him a "troublemaker". However, no one knew how complicated her mood was when facing Qin Shu. Every time she thought of what she did to Luo Qubai in high school, she missed Luo Qubai so much, and hated herself for still being unable to forget Luo Qubai.
Sometimes, the feeling of disgust would provoke her to push Qin Shu away.
However, she felt sad when she thought that if she was too cold, Qin Shu might be as troubled as she was now.
She couldn't bear to see others repeat her mistakes, and especially couldn't bear to accidentally let others repeat her mistakes.
Time flies, and soon a year has passed.
One year is enough to change a lot, except for the relationship between the two people. Qin Shu still confesses his love every day, but Lin Qianliu still refuses.
On this day, Lin Qianliu went to the designated classroom to attend his elective course. Not long after he sat down, the seat next to him was replaced.
The girl who was originally a stranger suddenly became Qin Shu. Lin Qianliu frowned slightly and looked at Qin Shu suspiciously, with obvious impatience in his eyes.
She didn't ask him anything, but Qin Shu confessed: "I signed up for this elective course this semester."
Feeling that the other party had not finished speaking, Lin Qianliu did not reply.
Sure enough, the next second, Qin Shu continued, "You will see me often in the future, because I have signed up for several elective courses you have chosen."
Lin Qianliu was speechless.
He was a talented student majoring in broadcasting and hosting, but he did not take courses related to his major but instead took a bunch of courses related to journalism. She could imagine that the teachers of their broadcasting and hosting major would probably chase him and beat him up.
But she also knew that he did so much for her. He took courses that were not related to his major just to be in the same class with her.
Thinking back to Qin Shu's persistence in the past year, Lin Qianliu took a deep breath and finally took the initiative to bring up the topic, saying, "You've been pursuing me for a year, why don't you give up."
"I'll give up if you agree to be my girlfriend." Qin Shu said with a playful look on his face.
"Qin Shu, you are so shameless, is it natural?" Lin Qianliu rolled his eyes at him unhappily, "Let me tell you directly, I can't hold you in my heart."
"I know." Qin Shu still looked indifferent, "You have a boy named Luo Qubai in your heart."
This was the first time that Luo Qubai was mentioned explicitly between him and her.
In fact, they both knew very well the existence of Luo Qubai. From the moment he copied her way of pursuing her, Lin Qianliu understood that he had long known about her obsession with Luo Qubai.
But she had always refused to admit the fact that she could not forget Luo Qubai, so she never mentioned it and pretended to have forgotten.
In the silence, Qin Shu once again gently exposed her thoughts: "You can't forget him, so there is no place in your heart for me."
Lin Qianliu turned his face away and said sullenly: "It's good that you know, so..."
"But I won't give up." Qin Shu laughed, his eyes full of determination, "He lives in the past, and I will accompany you into the future. Lin Qianliu, you can reject me, I have a lot of time to pursue you, and one day, you will accept me."
"Qin Shu..." Lin Qianliu rubbed his temple, "Actually, you are very good..."
"I know, so would you like to reconsider it?"
"Not considering it, impossible."
The conversation ended here, and the atmosphere became somewhat depressing.
Qin Shu thought about the past year. Every rejection from Lin Qianliu was within his expectations, but he felt disappointed and sad every time.
He was rejected countless times and everyone told him to give up, but he stubbornly refused.
Especially this time, Lin Qianliu's words "Actually you are very good" were like a spark in the darkness. He couldn't help but wonder if it was because he was very good that he could win her heart with just a little more effort.
He knew very well that in love, the one who received the nice guy card would most likely become cannon fodder or a spare tire.
But to him, being a cannon fodder or a spare tire does not matter, as long as he can stay with Lin Qianliu for the rest of his life, he is willing.
As he thought so, Lin Qianliu's words "Don't consider it, it's impossible" lingered in his ears.
Qin Shu was not defeated by the rejection of these six words. On the contrary, these six words seemed to be a reminder, making him realize that he could no longer use the tactic of pestering. When one method doesn't work, he should try another one.
Thinking about it, Qin Shu said to Lin Qianliu: "Lin Qianliu, since you don't consider me for the time being, how about we be friends first?"
Hearing this, Lin Qianliu turned around and looked at him intently. She said nothing, as if she was wondering what tricks he was playing.
Qin Shu smiled softly and said, "I know you never considered me a friend."
Lin Qianliu remained noncommittal. If you were to dig deeper, it was true that she only regarded him as a suitor, and occasionally when she was too disgusted, she would call him annoying.
Seeing that she still didn't reply, Qin Shu paused, pretended to be sad, lowered his voice, and said, "Is it not possible to be friends?"
I don’t know if it was because his acting was so good, or if Lin Qianliu saw his past self, but at that moment, Lin Qianliu’s heart softened.
"It's okay to be friends." She pursed her lips and said, "But you can't pursue me anymore. If you want to be friends, be good friends. Don't mess around and don't confess your feelings all the time."
"Okay!" Qin Shu immediately smiled happily, "Then we are friends from this moment on."
His mood changed so quickly that Lin Qianliu couldn't help but look at him suspiciously. As expected, he had another line to say.
I only heard him say: "But I also have a small request. When you let go of Luo Qubai one day, you have to try to accept me."
Lin Qianliu rolled his eyes helplessly: "Why should I accept you?"
"Because I'm good." Qin Shu smiled playfully, like a rogue who took advantage of others and still acted cute. "Look around, there are so many people, isn't the one next to you the best?"
"Narcissistic!" Lin Qianliu said with contempt.
"Narcissism proves that I am good-looking and worth showing off." Qin Shu raised his chin, and the next second he "threatened" him, "If you don't agree to my small request, then I will continue to be your pursuer. Hey, Lin Qianliu, do you think I can change my major now?"
"Is this a threat?" Lin Qianliu frowned and looked at him.
"Okay." Qin Shu was frank.
Lin Qianliu gritted his teeth helplessly and asked, "What if I can never let go?"
Qin Shu sighed: "Then we can only be friends forever."
There seemed to be no other choice, and Lin Qianliu was forced to agree to Qin Shu's conditions.
But in fact, each of them has their own little thoughts. One is still thinking about pursuing, while the other thinks that he will never accept it.
However, what Qin Shu did not expect was that the one who is close to the water may not be the first to see the moon.
He waited for a whole year in the name of a friend, and he never even held Lin Qianliu's hand.
During this time, the friendship between the two people gradually became stronger. They called each other brothers in front of others, copied each other's homework, and shared snacks equally.
The only thing that comforted Qin Shu was that Lin Qianliu seemed to be gradually walking out of the shadow brought by Luo Qubai. He smiled more and more. Not only did he regain his former cheerfulness, he would also often make fun of him or play a little prank on him.
Everyone else mistakenly thought that Qin Shu had finally conquered the icy beauty Lin Qianliu.
Lin Qianliu was not unaware of the rumor, because a girl once carefully asked her to confirm it.
Sometimes, Lin Qianliu would hate herself. Even though there was a nearly perfect Qin Shu by her side who was sincere to her, she still couldn't fall in love with him.
Since Luo Qubai, she felt like she had lost the ability to like someone.