Love's Affliction - Chapter 12-1

Shi Nian Nian still had Jiang Wang’s school uniform draped over her head.

The school uniform carried a faint tobacco scent, warmed by his body temperature.

She didn’t reach out to take off the uniform. With lowered gaze, she folded the crumpled paper twice and stuffed it into her pocket.

Within five minutes, she noticed a pair of shoes in her line of sight—Jiang Wang’s shoes.

She tilted her head, still wearing the uniform.

“Hey, bride,” he teasingly remarked with a smile.

Shi Nian Nian opened her mouth hesitantly and raised her hand to uncover her clothes.

Before her eyes, it was like a scene from a bloody battlefield. Those boys were all lying on the ground, and Cheng Qi had a stain on her clothes. The other girls huddled in a corner.

She looked at Jiang Wang’s face. “You’re injured here…”

She pointed to the area beside her eye.

“It’s nothing,” Jiang Wang said nonchalantly.

Shi Nian Nian folded the clothes twice and reached out to return them. “Thank you…”

“Keep it,” he interrupted.

Shi Nian Nian retracted her hand and held the clothes to her chest.

Jiang Wang walked forward, and Shi Nian Nian glanced at the group of people for a moment before quickly averting her gaze and jogging to catch up.

Jiang Wang arrived at the parking lot and took out his car keys from his pocket before sitting in the driver’s seat. Shi Nian Nian stood there, unmoving.

She hadn’t expected him to come by car, but then again, she realized that Jiang Wang was the same age as Xu Ningqing. Xu Ningqing’s uncle had bought him a car right after high school graduation, so it wasn’t too surprising to see Jiang Wang driving.

“Come here,” Jiang Wang called out to her, rolling down the car window.

She approached and whispered softly, “I want to go back… home.”

As the wind blew, the girl’s ponytail swayed, revealing her fair and slender neck.

Jiang Wang rested his elbow on the car window and looked her up and down. “You’re going back like this?”

Her clothes were all dirty, with mud stains on them.

She didn’t move, and Jiang Wang waited like that. In the end, she took a few steps forward, opened the back seat, and sat inside.

They drove to a shopping mall, and the sky had already darkened. The evening breeze was not as hot as during the day, carrying a hint of early autumn chill.

As soon as Shi Nian Nian got out of the car, Jiang Wang grabbed her wrist and pulled her over. He hooked his finger on the collar of her school uniform, and before she could dodge, he had already unzipped it.

Then he bent down and picked up his own jacket from the car before throwing it to her. “Wear mine.”

“No… You should wear it.”

“I’m not cold,” Jiang Wang said lazily, looking at her with half-lowered eyelids. “Your clothes are too dirty.”

Indeed, the jacket was very dirty, covered in mud stains. It wouldn’t be appropriate for her to brush against others while standing next to him in this disheveled state. Jiang Wang might feel embarrassed.

Shi Nian Nian hesitated for two seconds, took off the dirty jacket, didn’t put it in the car, folded it twice, and stuffed it into her backpack.

“Thank you.”

The tobacco scent from his jacket once again filled her senses. His clothes were much larger than hers, with sleeves that completely covered her hands and concealed her mid-thigh.

She gently sniffed and pulled the zipper up to her chest.

The faint outline on her chest made the zipper fall into a slight curve.

Jiang Wang turned his head, coughed awkwardly, and then walked in the direction of the mall.

Shi Nian Nian calmly lowered her gaze and followed him quietly. They entered the brightly lit mall, and she finally asked, “Wh-why did you… b-bring me here?”

“Do you want to buy a clean set of clothes before going back home?”

She shook her head, rejecting the suggestion.

She just wanted to go home as soon as possible.

“How about watching a movie?”

“I want… to go back.”

“Since I saved you, I deserve a little payback, don’t I?” Jiang Wang turned his head, looked at the top of the girl’s head, and asked with a gentle smile. “Watching a movie isn’t too much, is it?”

She didn’t respond, not agreeing nor refusing. She simply continued to follow him.

Taking her silence as agreement, Jiang Wang took out his phone and bought the tickets.

With the National Day holiday approaching, all the big films were still in their waiting to release. The available options were some relatively unknown movies.

He handed her the phone. “Take a look and choose which one you want to watch.”

She scrolled through the page, looked for a while, and selected an arthouse film with a rating of only 5.8.

Jiang Wang studied it for a moment, then laughed after a while. “Did you choose the movie with the shortest duration?”

She calmly said, “I want to… g-go back early.”

Jiang Wang was left speechless.

It was quite unusual for high school students to watch a movie at this hour.

Shi Nian Nian stood out in her school uniform, accompanied by a tall and handsome young man with a faint trace of blood at the corner of his eye. It was obvious that the uniform she wore belonged to him.

People around them occasionally glanced their way.

Shi Nian Nian tilted her head, avoiding those gazes.

Fortunately, they quickly entered the theater after having their tickets checked.

The theater was surprisingly crowded, with about two-thirds of the seats occupied. Jiang Wang had chosen seats in the last row.

Shi Nian Nian walked in and found their seats.

Jiang Wang handed her the popcorn they had just bought outside.

She thanked him and took the popcorn bucket, placing it between their seats.

As the movie began, all the lights in the theater suddenly went off, causing Shi Nian Nian to instinctively grip her sleeves.

She had night blindness, and being in a completely dark environment made her feel unsafe. Luckily, the screen soon lit up.

The air conditioning in the theater was turned down low. Shi Nian Nian, wearing her jacket, felt fine. She glanced at Jiang Wang and saw that he didn’t seem cold at all.

He sat arrogantly, lazily leaning back in his seat, chin slightly lifted, his gaze lightly fixed on the screen, showing little interest.

(Love’s Affliction is available on Sleepy Translations)