DF Chapter 21

Chapter 21: But Rejection is Your Right

Chapter 21 But Rejection is Your Right

If you were Little Flower, and you and your best friend were gossiping about someone when you happened to encounter the protagonist of the story, what would you choose?

a. Awkwardly turn around and leave

b. Pretend nothing happened and walk past

c. Go up to the person involved and directly ask what’s wrong

If you’re a normal person, you’d probably choose a or b. After all, other people’s lives don’t really have much to do with you, let alone directly inquiring about their sorrows.

Sheng Jia felt that everyone in their group was pretty normal, so they tacitly closed their mouths and prepared to pretend nothing had happened and quietly walk past.

Su Zhaolin also seemed oblivious to their presence, still staring blankly at the sky, unwilling to speak.

But just as their group walked past the open space, a burst of heavy breathing came from within, panting and wheezing, like a broken speaker. Xu Lijing, who was in the lead, immediately stiffened. Then, as if some muscle memory had been triggered, she quickly turned around and ran back.

Zhang Jing and Zhou Yijia were the first to follow her, and then Song Ji’an and Sheng Jia reacted as well.

When they returned to the open space, Su Zhaolin was lying on the ground, desperately clutching her neck, her eyes slightly protruding, gasping for air, her face flushed crimson.

Xu Lijing immediately went to her bag and started rummaging through it. After finding the white bottle inside, she asked, “How many of these do you take?”

Su Zhaolin tremblingly raised her hand and gestured a three. Seeing this, Song Ji’an and Sheng Jia quickly helped her up. Xu Lijing put the pills into her mouth, and Zhang Jing opened her water bottle and held it to her lips, slowly feeding her until she swallowed.

After taking the medicine, Su Zhaolin’s condition improved slightly. She buried her face in Song Ji’an’s neck, motionless, still trying to alleviate her physical discomfort.

Song Ji’an became curious. “You reacted so quickly. Did you have any prior knowledge about this?”

Xu Lijing took a sip of water and said, “No, it’s just that my grandmother had problems with her respiratory system before she died. She looked like this every time she couldn’t breathe. I took care of her for half a year, and I have a physical reaction to this sound now. She didn’t seem to suddenly have trouble breathing, so I checked her bag for medicine first.”

Her grandmother’s passing was painful, but that was a long time ago, enough for her to speak calmly about it now.

As the two were talking, Su Zhaolin had recovered. She groaned softly, using Song Ji’an’s leg for support as she slowly straightened up, saying very weakly, “Thank you.”

Normally, Su Zhaolin wasn’t exactly glamorous, but she always looked very healthy. In some ways, she was very similar to Song Ji’an. Most people probably found her very approachable and easy to get along with, someone who would take the initiative to talk to others and who was very measured and well-mannered in her words and actions.

But the difference was that Song Ji’an’s cheerfulness and chattiness came from the heart, while Su Zhaolin’s did not.

Only she knew that she wasn’t.

At this moment, she was pale, having abandoned the idea of ​​disguising herself.

When Zhou Yijia asked her what had just happened, she simply shook her head. “Just a minor physical problem.”

Seeing that she was okay, Sheng Jia and the others prepared to leave, but Su Zhaolin suddenly said in a hoarse voice, “Sheng Jia, you’re not going home, are you?”

Sheng Jia paused slightly. “How do you know?”

Su Zhaolin smiled faintly. “After that bet with your class, I’ve been paying attention to you for a long time.”

“Take me with you, I don’t want to go home, and I don’t have anywhere to go right now.”

As she spoke, she propped herself up. Because she had been sitting for too long, she even felt a little dizzy when she stood up, but she still stubbornly grabbed Sheng Jia’s arm. “Anywhere is fine, just take me away first.”

Her gaze was extremely stubborn, but because she had cried and almost suffocated, she looked like a pitiful little dog.

Sheng Jia didn’t say anything. She only met Su Zhaolin’s eyes, preparing to pull her hand out of her grasp. But Su Zhaolin was holding on very tightly now, not only grabbing her arm but also grabbing Song Ji’an’s arm to prevent Sheng Jia from slipping away.

Sheng Jia: …

Song Ji’an: …

The two exchanged a glance. Sheng Jia’s eyes were full of helplessness, while Song Ji’an’s were more surprised.

“If we go together, we go together,” Xu Lijing probably felt the awkward atmosphere.

Sheng Jia would never casually agree to take someone along, she hated trouble, and since Su Zhaolin had asked Sheng Jia, Song Ji’an would definitely not agree on her behalf.

Since none of the three were speaking, she consciously took on the role of a lubricant.

“It’s just going out to play, let’s go, let’s go. I’ll treat you to ice cream today. Let’s go together.”

As she spoke, she grabbed Su Zhaolin’s arm and led her forward, slowly saying, “If you need something, don’t easily ask Sheng Jia. She can’t squeeze out three words a day. You have to come to me.”

Su Zhaolin was led forward by her, confused, and nodded seriously, indicating that she understood.

Then, as if afraid that Xu Lijing would run away, she turned and grabbed her wrist.

The two of them walked forward, talking and laughing. Zhang Jing and Zhou Yijia quickly followed.

Sheng Jia was silent for a moment before saying to Song Ji’an beside her, “Why do those words sound so familiar?”

Song Ji’an smiled, pretending not to understand, her face full of innocence. “Really? I don’t remember.”

When she had grabbed Sheng Jia and wouldn’t let her leave, it seemed to be the same excuse.

“Let’s go, let’s go, we won’t catch up with them if we don’t go,” Song Ji’an said.

Only then did Sheng Jia lift her foot and walk forward with her. Xu Lijing and the others had already walked far ahead. In the sunset, their four shadows were stretched very long. Probably realizing that they had left two people behind, they turned around and stopped.

Zhou Yijia shouted at the two, “Sheng Jia, Song Ji’an, hurry up.”

But by the time Sheng Jia and Song Ji’an walked up to them, the first thing they heard was Xu Lijing asking Su Zhaolin, “What’s going on with your family today? Are you guys arguing?”

Directly, concisely, and clearly asking the thing that Su Zhaolin probably least wanted to mention at the moment.

But perhaps because her attitude was too natural, Su Zhaolin didn’t even have the idea of getting angry. She simply said, “I don’t want to talk about this right now.”

As soon as she said this, no one else continued to ask, and Xu Lijing and the others turned to another topic, talking and laughing.

This, on the contrary, made her blink in confusion.

Perhaps the sense of unease from just now had been diluted. She no longer held onto Xu Lijing’s arm, but instead fell slightly behind, asking Sheng Jia and Song Ji’an beside her, “I directly rejected your request like that, won’t you be angry?”

Hearing this, Song Ji’an blinked even more confusedly. “Why would we be angry?”

Su Zhaolin opened her mouth, and after a long time, she said softly, “We’re not friends to begin with, and I’m clinging to you guys like this. When you ask me questions, I reject you so bluntly. Wouldn’t that make me seem very impolite and make people dislike me?”

“But rejection is your right,” Song Ji’an replied, truly not understanding. “If only agreeing to everything is called politeness, the world would become very scary.”

“Privacy you don’t want to talk about, refusing to say it, why does that make you feel guilty?”

“But if you refuse people too many times, they’ll think you’re very unsympathetic, they’ll isolate you, reject you, and make you seem very unapproachable,” Su Zhaolin murmured.

Her words reached Xu Lijing’s ears. The girl who had been noisy in front suddenly turned her head and asked very seriously, “Why do you care about what other people think of you?”

Su Zhaolin was slightly stunned. “What?”

“Your privacy, things you don’t want to do, you agree to them for the sake of being social, so others won’t think you’re unsympathetic, but you yourself will feel very uncomfortable and suppressed. You’re not being yourself, you’re being the you in other people’s eyes,” Xu Lijing said. “Do you think that if you please everyone, they’ll really like you and praise you? Perhaps there’s a chance of that, but there will only be more people who think you’re easy to bully, that you’re a pushover, not a good person.”

“But the students in our class all trust me a lot,” Su Zhaolin frowned.

“Their trust in you isn’t because you go along with them in everything.” Sheng Jia, who usually didn’t like to talk much, couldn’t help but speak at this moment. She sneered, “It’s because of your grades and your ability. You’re competing with me for Grade One every year, and you can manage everything in the class in an orderly manner. That’s the reason why you’re trusted.”

“Your class is much fiercer than ours, and there are a lot more troublemakers. Who do you think spoiled them?”

When it came to being arrogant and domineering, Class One really couldn’t compare to Class Two’s students. However, every time Class Two’s students had a major dispute, Su Zhaolin would basically wipe their asses and solve everything for them, causing them to rarely suffer losses and instead become more tyrannical.

Otherwise, if it were another class, it would have been impossible for them to immediately start arguing with Class One just because there was no Q&A time with the teacher. Because the proper procedure for these things should have been to hand it over to the teacher for mediation.

It was only because Sheng Jia and Su Zhaolin had smoothly suppressed this matter and found a solution that the two classes weren’t publicly criticized during the flag-raising ceremony in the second week. Ms. Lu Jing didn’t care whether your grades were good or not. She always treated everyone equally. Student arguments, fights, and insults were absolutely not allowed.

“I…” Su Zhaolin opened her mouth, realizing that it seemed to be true.

“And if someone gets angry and indignant because you refused their request, and leads others to isolate you, and thinks you’re unsympathetic, then it’s definitely not your problem,” Song Ji’an shook her head. “Because you’re already the person who refuses other people’s requests the least that I’ve ever met. You even feel guilty about not wanting to answer private questions, which is enough for me to exclaim to the heavens in amazement.”

As she spoke, she earnestly added, “Su Zhaolin, if there’s anything you need our help with, you can tell us.”

Hearing this, Su Zhaolin raised her head, looking at Song Ji’an beside her in a daze, and then at Xu Lijing and the others in front, who were not at all impatient and were turning around to stare at her. Finally, she looked at Sheng Jia, who was standing on the other side, expressionless but clearly waiting for her to speak.

Her nose was slightly sour, and a warmth she had never felt before swept through her heart and lungs.