Love Affairs in Melbourne-Chapter 75 - 72: Outrageous Reasons

Jiao Zhifei’s flair didn’t just manifest in college entrance exam applications and job hunting.

Even in finding a girlfriend, Jiao Zhifei reached new heights of drama.

During the entrance exam for junior high, Jiao Zhifei didn’t do very well, fitting the mold of a late bloomer.

On the first day of junior high, aside from recognizing Yan Yan as his "Old Sister," he also fell for Zhou Yuan, who was the top student in the whole school at the time of enrollment.

The fact that Jiao Zhifei fancied Zhou Yuan wasn’t peculiar in itself, what was odd were his reasons for liking her.

In his own words, he felt that "Zhou Yuan has a particularly tenacious character, very much like his own mother."

In the 21st century, using "tenacious" to describe a girl’s personality is quirky enough, but to add that she’s like one’s own mother on top of that...

No girl on Earth would like such a description.

This ensured that Jiao Zhifei’s pursuit of Zhou Yuan was fraught with thorns.

Even quirkier was that Yan Yan had once asked Mrs. Jiao what she thought of her son’s tenacious description of her character.

Mrs. Jiao’s response was just four words: "Tenacious, my ass."

This reaction revealed two things:

First, Mrs. Jiao was not a conventional mom.

Second, Jiao Zhifei seriously lacked in the department of appraising girls.

In the beginning, Jiao Zhifei kept his crush on Zhou Yuan well hidden.

He reasoned that with worse grades than hers, he had no right to pursue her.

At the time of enrollment, Jiao Zhifei’s grades were far behind Zhou Yuan’s, so his first goal was to surpass her academically.

Whether Mrs. Jiao was truly tenacious, Yan Yan couldn’t ascertain, but Jiao Zhifei himself was undoubtedly a person of exceptionally tenacious character.

Once he set his mind to something, he had to see it through, the very epitome of ’not stopping until hitting the south wall.’

Exaggerating even further, if he did hit the south wall, Jiao Zhifei would bust right through it to see what was on the other side.

Yan Yan knew of Jiao Zhifei’s crush on Zhou Yuan, but the other classmates did not.

Yan Yan knew Jiao Zhifei was an oddity, but the rest of the class remained unaware.

Jiao Zhifei was good at many things, adept at singing, and skilled in writing.

He also had a look that appealed to many girls.

In Yan Yan’s junior high, Jiao Zhifei was definitely the most talked-about person.

Thus, the fact that Jiao Zhifei somewhat affectionately called a short girl with odd fashion sense "Old Sister" annoyed many of the girls in the class.

In short, the more of his strengths Jiao Zhifei showed, the more people disliked Yan Yan.

As Yan Yan gradually became isolated, Jiao Zhifei’s popularity continued to grow.

There were countless odd instances with Jiao Zhifei, but the most peculiar was his relationship with Yan Yan.

Although classmates, Yan Yan and Jiao Zhifei had no mutual friends.

Those who hung out with Jiao Zhifei didn’t quite like Yan Yan.

Not long into junior high, Yan Yan was tragically isolated.

However, the "sibling" relationship between Jiao Zhifei and Yan Yan never changed despite the classmates’ targeting of Yan Yan.

It might have been psychological suggestion or something else, but from the first year of junior high, Yan Yan gradually began to treat Jiao Zhifei as a "younger brother."

In critical moments, when it was time to give him a wake-up call, Yan Yan never softened her words.

And Jiao Zhifei truly took Yan Yan as his "Older Sister."

No matter how harshly Yan Yan scolded him in his moments of quirkiness, Jiao Zhifei never harbored any resentment.

When class ended, Yan Yan sat alone in the front row, while Jiao Zhifei basked in the limelight in the back row.

The two of them seemed to have nothing in common, but in fact, they were especially close friends.

In any case, no matter how strange the event, if it happened to Jiao Zhifei, it wasn’t strange, for Jiao Zhifei himself was the biggest oddity.

During his second year, Jiao, the oddball, thrived and grew into a popular and sought-after oddity.

The resilient Jiao Zhifei quickly became the top student at school.

He was number one, and Zhou Yuan was number two.

In Yan Yan’s middle school, there weren’t many people who really excelled in their studies.

Normally, at most one or two students from the entire school would be able to get into Wenzhou High School.

In Yan Yan’s cohort, Jiao Zhifei and Zhou Yuan were supposed to be the ones to go to Wenzhou High School.

But due to an unexpected twist, Yan Yan and Zhou Yuan swapped places, with Yan Yan going to Wenzhou High School and Zhou Yuan ending up at Wen Second Middle School.

This incident nearly drove Jiao Zhifei mad enough to bash his head in with a block of tofu.

He wasn’t upset that Yan Yan got into Wenzhou High School, nor that Zhou Yuan went to the second school. He was furious with himself for not achieving the same results as Zhou Yuan to attend the same school.

Jiao Zhifei had liked Zhou Yuan since the first year of middle school, and he planned to surpass her in grades in what he deemed a significant exam before confessing his feelings to her.

To the Jiao Zhifei of middle school, the only "significant exam" was the high school entrance exam.

Jiao Zhifei had his own rhythmic plan for pursuing girls; he started liking them in the first year, confessed at the end of middle school, and then started a proper relationship in high school.

As to why such a plan was devised and why the timing of the confession had to be linked with exam scores was beyond most people’s comprehension.

But plans can never keep up with changes, and Jiao Zhifei failed to realize his dream of being with Zhou Yuan "side by side" after entering high school.

Fortunately, the high school division of Wen Second Middle School was also one of the two key high schools in Wenzhou City.

Although it couldn’t compare to Wenzhou High School, the college enrollment rate from the second school was also extraordinarily high.

Before going through with the tofu head-smashing, Jiao Zhifei felt that his future was still promising.

Even if they couldn’t be at the same high school, they could still date in college.

Because of this, Jiao Zhifei didn’t actually go through with the head-bashing.

Sometimes, Yan Yan also felt depressed. Why was it that as oddballs, she was targeted while Jiao Zhifei was adored? frёewebnoѵēl.com

In terms of oddness, Jiao Zhifei was undoubtedly a hundred times odder than her.

Jiao Zhifei’s hesitation in confessing to Zhou Yuan resulted in many girls who liked him in class treating Yan Yan as a "love rival."

Yan Yan carried this unjust accusation for three years.

But Yan Yan couldn’t betray Jiao Zhifei and tell everyone that the person he truly liked was Zhou Yuan.

Confessing was something that had to be done personally, no matter what. Taking over someone else’s duties in such matters was something that Yan Yan disdained.

And so, Yan Yan was sometimes unsure whether to be grateful to Jiao Zhifei, her only friend from middle school, or to drag the foolish Jiao Zhifei out for a beating to vent her frustration from being wrongfully accused.

Picking a "fortunate time" years later to confess seemed unnecessary, and confessing earlier wouldn’t make any difference.

But, with Jiao Zhifei’s earth-shattering stupidity, even if Zhou Yuan hadn’t come to Wenzhou High School, nothing could deter him from his intention to confess.

After arriving at Wenzhou High School, Jiao Zhifei first joined the school’s Literature Club, quickly climbed the ranks, and became its president, then frequently led members on "club exchanges" with Wen Second Middle School’s Literature Club.

Later, Jiao Zhifei took over the school’s Arts and Entertainment department, where he started organizing singing competitions between the key high schools.

Every few weeks, he would perform at Wen Second Middle School.

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(Some of you might have forgotten, but as Xiao Mo mentioned previously, updates will be at 5:20 p.m. after the launch. Starting tomorrow, there will be two Chapters a day, with update times at 5:20 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.)