True Solution of the Sword Dao-Chapter 74 - 69 Xu Ke
Chapter 74: Chapter 69 Xu Ke
Chapter 74 -69 Xu Ke
At the school gate of No. 3 Middle School.
Lin Fei continued to hold the phone to his ear, his gaze sweeping back and forth at the gate.
“Zhao, the rising star of Feiyang, wants to see you, what do you think?” Lu Jun asked tentatively over the phone.
“I don’t have that much time to deal with these things. You make the decision,” Lin Fei replied nonchalantly.
Around nine in the morning, there weren’t many people at the school gate. A few scattered bicycles were parked inside the metal gate, and the elderly gatekeeper sat at the entrance of the gatehouse, playing chess with a few others. The crisp clacking sound of wooden chess pieces hitting the board filled the air, interspersed with occasional shouts from the players.
Lin Fei walked up to the metal gate and looked left and right.
“I have something to attend to, so I’m hanging up. Anything not so important, you decide. Mhm, that’s it.” He put down his phone and carefully pressed the end call button before tucking it into his pocket.
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“Lin Fei!” A crisp and pleasant female voice suddenly came from the left. A charming young girl dressed in a plaid blouse and tight white jeans jogged towards him from the street on the left.
“Xu Ke,” Lin Fei greeted with a smile. “Long time no see.”
The girl stopped in front of Lin Fei, sweeping the hair that had fallen onto her forehead away.
“Actually, I’ve wanted to invite you out for a while now. I just never had the time. I finally got the chance today. I heard you were hospitalized a while back?”
“Yeah, it was nothing serious, just a minor problem. I was out in a few days.” Lin Fei paused, “Right, did you want to talk to me about something?”
“Yes,” Xu Ke nodded gently. “Let’s find a place to have a proper chat.”
“Alright.”
**************
On the snack street next to No. 3 Middle School, inside a large Internet cafe marked with the sign ‘Xingyun Net Cafe.’ Even though it was only the early morning, the cafe was nearly full with young people there to play. Almost no empty seats were visible in the entire public gaming area of the hall. Shouts from the players could occasionally be heard. At the counter, a waitress in a blue short-sleeved shirt dozed off, her head on the desk. This time of the day was when shifts changed, so she had grown habituated to dozing after staying up all night.
“Excuse me,” a gentle voice pulled the sleepy waitress back to reality.
“What can I do for you?” She quickly wiped her face and perked up, “Would you like to open an account? For how many?” She glanced at the beautiful girl standing behind the boy.
“A private room for two, please. We want the one at the very back.” The boy’s hair was slightly long but looked soft and shiny. He smiled warmly, while the girl behind him stood quietly with her head lowered, seeming somewhat shy.
“Alright, there will be a twenty yuan deposit. Here is your card. Please keep it safe,” the waitress said proficiently as she opened an account on the computer and handed the card to the boy.
Xingyun Net Cafe was the largest and most luxurious in the area. Policemen often came to check in, and the staff, dressed in blue security uniforms, patrolled around. Naturally, the price for private rooms was not cheap.
Xu Ke, holding Lin Fei’s hand, struggled to find a quiet place for a while. Upon spotting the sign of Xingyun Net Cafe, they decided to rent a double private room there on a whim. The rooms were completely enclosed, with two computers for two people in a narrow space where the door could be closed, and, to prevent sound leakage between rooms, the partitions were made with materials that provided good sound insulation.
Following the room number to the back, they found the corresponding private room. They entered one after the other and gently closed the door, muting the noise from the outside.
“Alright, it’s fairly quiet here so tell me, what’s the matter?” Lin Fei was also speechless; there was no need to have a conversation in such a place. Any quiet cafe or teahouse would suffice. He was indeed surprised by Xu Ke’s choice to come here.
Xu Ke sat down on the leather chair, swiveling it around to face Lin Fei directly.
“You know about my transfer, right?” she asked softly.
“Yeah, I just found out.”
“You told me before, but at that time I was just acting on impulse. These past days, I’ve given it a lot of thought. My feelings back then weren’t real affection for you. Although I can’t really explain why,” Xu Ke said calmly. “It’s just that, being around you, I feel at peace, very reassured.”
“That’s right, love at first sight is only something from novels,” Lin Fei said with a smile.
“However, although I wasn’t sure before, now that I’ve seen you again, I’m absolutely certain that being by your side, I really feel at peace,” Xu Ke said, intertwining her fingers, speaking in a very calm tone. This tranquility was in stark contrast to her original personality, as if all of her previous petulance had transformed into rationality.
Lin Fei had originally come out just to take a break and temporarily ease the bottleneck in her cultivation, to relax her mind. After all, no matter what you do, you must strike a balance, otherwise, it could lead to a strong rebound. One’s perseverance has its limits. A person can stick to something for a week, a month, a year, but without the support of interest, persistence for any longer is just repetitive machinelike motion, devoid of significance.
So recognizing how long you can persist, knowing where your limits lie, is also essential. It’s one of the basic qualities needed to become a true powerhouse—self-awareness.
But seeing Xu Ke like this, she probably went through some things, otherwise, there wouldn’t be such a huge change. However, this was good, as Xu Ke’s original feelings were just a spur-of-the-moment thing. It’s better now that she’s cooled off.
Having been through so much now, along with his past life experiences, he had reached a certain level of wisdom. Regarding a young girl like Xu Ke, he had no other intentions; it was more a mild appreciation. An appreciation for the simple beauty of things.
“As long as you feel at peace, that’s good,” Lin Fei said, smiling as she rubbed Xu Ke’s head. It was a very natural gesture for him, and facing peers, an aura that transcended his age would unconsciously make him view others from the perspective of an elder. “You’re still young; there’s so much you don’t understand. You don’t even know what love is yet.”
Xu Ke’s face turned red, and she stiffened, Lin Fei’s hand on her head as if petting a kitten or puppy. But that unusually comforting sensation permeated even deeper into her heart.
For her, the impression of Lin Fei was largely due to that afternoon in the alley, when she and Lin Fei faced the thugs. The stark contrast and disparity between her pleas and fear and Lin Fei’s calm and composed demeanor completely shattered the veil of pride and image she had always maintained. The reality from deep in her heart was laid bare in front of a stranger, a psychological nakedness, perhaps that was the reason she had always seen him in a different light.
“Why weren’t you afraid then?” she suddenly asked, a question that had lingered in her mind for some time.
“Are you talking about that time?” Lin Fei paused. “Because I’m very capable. Why would I be afraid of them?” he said with a laugh.
Xu Ke laughed too; she thought Lin Fei was joking. Suddenly, she recalled a romance novel she had once read that had a line she had always found very romantic. After thinking for a moment, she repeated the same line.
“Even if you forget me, I will never forget you.” She suddenly felt very artsy. Blushing immediately, she dared not speak further.
“I’ve read that book too,” Lin Fei said helplessly. “Don’t just copy someone else’s lines.”
“Oh, right, do you have any business with He Wenwen? She’s asked me about you several times,” Xu Ke quickly changed the subject.
“He Wenwen?” Lin Fei paused. “You mean Wenwen from the restaurant the other time?”
“Yeah,” Xu Ke nodded.
“Who knows?” Lin Fei mused, recalling that evening when Xiao Ling spotted He Wenwen, a smile appeared on his face.
**************
Inside a mid-sized supermarket on Renmin Road.
In the long queue of people waiting to checkout, a pretty girl with brown, long hair was carrying a small plastic basket, filled with a variety of snacks that girls typically liked.
However, her selections were the pricier kind. You could hardly find a cheap pack among them.
Carrying the shopping basket, He Wenwen glanced over the contents of another girl’s shopping trolley from the corner of her eye. The cheap snack packaging in the other girl’s trolley contrasted sharply with the snacks in her own basket. A faint sense of vanity soothed her mood.
From childhood to adulthood, she had never stopped making such comparisons. Clothes, makeup, demeanor, talents. She compared herself with the girls from school, from her neighborhood, from her parents’ colleagues and neighbors’ children, with her cousins. Her superior family environment indulged her in this vanity of always feeling superior to others.
If it weren’t for those two…
A pleasant ringtone suddenly sounded. He Wenwen pulled out her phone from her bag. But the name on the call made her hesitate for a moment.
“Hello, is that you, Sisi?”
