Chapter 55

"我不怕！" Liu Xinmei giggled and said, "It's better if others misunderstand us."

You're not afraid, but I am, Xiao Fei thought to himself.

"Alright, alright! Let go of me first, and let me put on some clothes," Xiao Fei said helplessly. He went into the room to put on a T-shirt. When he came back, he saw Liu Xinmei staring at him with bright eyes.

She said, "Hehe, I think you look better without clothes than with them."

Is she complimenting my physique?

But isn't it a bit frivolous for a girl to say something like that?

Xiao Fei broke out in a cold sweat, realizing he had been teased by Liu Xinmei.

He had already seen through Liu Xinmei's little schemes and thought it would be good to hear what she had to say. He didn't want to get too entangled with her. If she expressed a certain attitude, he would have to reject her straightforwardly.

At such a moment, the response must be clear and decisive.

"There's no need to go to the hill to talk. Let's go to the backyard of my house. There are more trees, and it's cooler," Xiao Fei suggested.

"Alright, as you wish," Liu Xinmei replied, her eyes glancing at him with a hint of coquettishness.

The two of them went to the backyard of Xiao Fei's house.

There were a few jujube trees and a circle of poplar trees planted around the mud wall. The jujube trees were laden with green, gem-like jujubes, but the leaves of the jujube and poplar trees were speckled.

Xiao Fei's toilet and manure pile were here, and the smell was indeed not very pleasant.

Actually, the whole village was filled with a faint, decaying odor in the summer.

The two of them stopped under a poplar tree as thick as a bowl. Liu Xinmei started chatting with him about trivial matters.

She chattered on, so lively, reminiscing about childhood fun and talking about all sorts of things at school. She talked for about half an hour.

Xiao Fei was a bit impatient. He heard voices from the front yard, and it seemed that his family had returned.

Xiao Fei felt he couldn't waste any more time. He looked at Liu Xinmei and said, "Liu Xinmei, can you say what you want to say now?"

Liu Xinmei gave him a dirty look, fanning herself. Sweat beads glistened as they rolled down her long neck and onto her exposed, white chest. Xiao Fei caught a whiff of a strong, pungent scent from her. She must have used some cheap perfume.

Liu Xinmei puffed out her well-developed chest and smiled slightly, a hint of shyness on her face.

Her heart was pounding.

After all, she was a girl, and a proud one at that. Taking the initiative to show affection to a boy made her feel quite embarrassed.

"Xiao Fei, do you think I'm beautiful?" She looked at the ground, her feet moving restlessly in her leather sandals.

Xiao Fei smiled and said, "Not bad."

Liu Xinmei was taken aback by the unexpected answer. She looked up and saw Xiao Fei's somewhat lazy expression, which made her a bit uncomfortable.

She asked, somewhat dissatisfied, "What do you mean by 'not bad'?"

Shouldn't it be "very beautiful"?

Liu Xinmei had always been very self-assured, considering herself a paragon of beauty and intelligence.

In fact, she did have some capital. She was slim, with fair skin (which was quite rare in the countryside), a heart-shaped face, arched eyebrows, large eyes, and a straight nose. She was quite attractive.

More importantly, she was very smart and had always excelled academically.

Xiao Fei's "not bad" evaluation was something Liu Xinmei couldn't accept.

Xiao Fei was still thinking about the plot of "The Fish That Walks on Land" and was somewhat impatient with the conversation with Liu Xinmei. His attitude of just going through the motions was quite obvious.

"By 'not bad,' I mean you're not ugly," Xiao Fei said bluntly.

This clearly dealt a heavy blow to Liu Xinmei's confidence.

She laughed angrily, "Hehe! Your standards are pretty high, aren't they?"

Xiao Fei replied with a "Hehe!" and shrugged, indicating that he was just stating a fact.

This "Hehe!" was very hurtful. Liu Xinmei felt an urge to retreat, never having expected Xiao Fei to treat her this way.

She had never been treated like this by boys before. Almost all the boys around her had doted on her, and many had even written her love letters.

But she had ignored them all.

Moreover, Liu Xinmei clearly remembered that before the college entrance exam, Xiao Fei's attitude towards her was similar to that of other boys. He used to look at her with admiring eyes.

Now, how could he treat her so badly?

The conversation didn't go as Liu Xinmei had planned, and she felt a strong sense of defeat, a feeling of powerlessness.

However, Xiao Fei's attitude also spurred her on.

She couldn't tolerate this failure.

She didn't believe that her charm couldn't win over this boy.

What puzzled her was Xiao Fei's sudden change in attitude. How could he suddenly look down on her? Could it be that the girl who came to find him had won his heart?

"Xiao Fei, do you remember when we were kids? We used to play house, and I was your bride. Do you remember?" Liu Xinmei said softly.

"Oh," Xiao Fei replied indifferently.

"I once told you that when we grow up, I would marry you," Liu Xinmei said, looking nostalgic.

"Oh."

Another short "Oh."

Liu Xinmei glanced at the distracted Xiao Fei, her anger building up inside. How could he be like this?

"Xiao Fei, I want to be your girlfriend. Do you think it's possible? I like you so much, and I've always had my eye on you. If I can't be with you, I feel like my life is no different from death," Liu Xinmei suddenly declared, her expression resolute and pitiful, her eyes gazing at him sadly. But in her heart, she was thinking, I will avenge this humiliation today.

Zhang Ailing once said, when you love someone, you can lower yourself to the dust, and in the dust, you can bloom like a flower...

Liu Xinmei didn't have such self-awareness.

She couldn't say she really liked Xiao Fei. She just thought he was a good prospect and subconsciously wanted to secure him first.

In fact, her heart was now filled with humiliation.

She was a bit angry with Xiao Fei.

"Liu Xinmei, I'm really sorry, but I already have a girlfriend," Xiao Fei said, not expecting her to confess so boldly. Although her expression was sad, he didn't see any signs of being hopelessly in love in her eyes. He had to reject her tactfully.

"Is it the girl who came to find you?" Liu Xinmei asked.

"No."

"Someone else?"

"Um!"

"Is she better than me?" Liu Xinmei asked, not giving up.

Xiao Fei looked at her and smiled, "When you love someone, she is the best in the world. That's the principle of 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder.'"

As he said this, the image of Xu Fengjuan appeared in his mind, and every smile and frown of hers seemed so beautiful.

His face was filled with a warm, unbreakable tenderness.

Liu Xinmei saw the expression on his face and felt her heart turn cold.

She didn't want to stay there any longer, but she was unwilling to accept such a complete failure. She sighed and said, "Xiao Fei, one day you will realize that the person who loves you the most is me. I will always wait for you, wait for you to change your mind."

She portrayed herself as a devoted lover.

After saying this, she walked out. Xiao Fei shook his head and followed her. At that moment, loud voices of an argument came from the front yard: "You ungrateful thing! I'll wait and see, your two sons will end up bachelors for life!"