Chapter 80: The Perils of Platonic Love

Having achieved her goal of distracting her roommate from studying, Shen Jing’an settled back into her chair with a satisfied air.

“Hmph, I wouldn’t even bother touching a ‘flat chest’ like you! Besides, continuous studying only makes your efficiency worse. How about we watch a movie? I specifically brought several Blu-ray discs from home this time!”

“Hmm… let me see…” After the recent disturbance, Lin Duo genuinely had no desire to continue reading. She leaned closer to Shen Jing’an to choose a film together. “This one, ‘Starry Sky Crossing,’ looks good. I remember it being a highly-rated sci-fi film online.”

Shen Jing’an, however, disagreed. “I want to watch ‘Resident Evil’ first! I heard it’s super scary!”

“Hey, hey, you know I’m a coward! You’re not trying to sneak a kiss again, are you?”

“Hmph, I’m a girl too! It’s not like only you’d be at a disadvantage!”

“Anyway, I’m not watching a horror movie!”

Since the argument yielded no results, they resorted to rock-paper-scissors. After several rounds of “Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock,” Lin Duo finally emerged victorious.

Shen Jing’an reluctantly inserted the ‘Starry Sky Crossing’ disc into the computer, and the two of them settled directly onto the bed to watch.

Unexpectedly, the movie was actually a romance film disguised as sci-fi. It depicted the spacetime love story of a male and female protagonist, spanning thirty thousand light-years and five epochs.

Lin Duo, always sentimental, couldn’t help but sob halfway through, reaching for tissues to wipe her tears.

The final scene, in particular, saw the protagonists separated into different parallel universes as punishment by the Hypermembrane Bureau. Despite seeing each other right before their eyes, they could never touch. Yet, able to sense each other’s presence in another universe through their minds, they passionately kissed across infinite spatiotemporal dimensions.

“Waaah… waaaah…” Lin Duo was utterly drenched in tears and snot, wiping her eyes with a tissue while also remembering to blow her nose.

Shen Jing’an was also deeply moved, and couldn’t help but hug Lin Duo beside her. “They’re so miserable! They love each other so much, and they know where the other is, but they can never meet again in this lifetime. It’s truly agonizing!”

The two roommates cried together for a while, but Shen Jing’an recovered more quickly. She gazed at Lin Duo’s tear-streaked face, which was as delicate as a pear blossom after rain, and suddenly felt a strong surge of protectiveness.

Lin Duo was oblivious to these thoughts. Her long eyelashes, heavy with tears, had curled inward and were brushing against her eyeballs, causing an irritating itch. She had no choice but to ask for help:

“Xiaojing, could you use your eyelash curler to straighten my eyelashes? They’re so itchy.”

Shen Jing’an readily agreed, and Lin Duo closed her eyes without much suspicion. However, she quickly realized something was amiss, as the sensation around her eyes was unusual, feeling like a soft, warm object was pressed against them.

She leaned back and opened her eyes, only to find Shen Jing’an’s plump lips right before her. Startled, she exclaimed, “What… what did you do?!”

“Nothing much. I just used my tongue to lick out the eyelash that got into your eye.” Shen Jing’an remained surprisingly calm. “Didn’t your mom ever tell you that the best way to deal with a foreign object in your eye is to have someone lick it out?”

“Mmm, there is such a saying… but do you really have no other intentions?” Lin Duo still didn’t quite trust her roommate. “Be honest, are you a lesbian?”

“Pfft! Hahahaha!” Shen Jing’an, utterly unladylike, clutched her stomach and rolled around on the bed, laughing. “Let me tell you, if I were a lesbian, I would have ‘dealt with you’ long ago while you were asleep!”

Lin Duo thought back carefully; it seemed to be true. Shen Jing’an usually only bothered her when bored, and it was mostly just casual physical contact, certainly not to the extent of romantic affection.

Of course, she wouldn’t admit defeat verbally. “Hmph, you’re just a girl. What could you possibly ‘do’ to me?”

“Tools! My dear lady, do you truly not understand?” Shen Jing’an sat up straight again, blinking. “Hmm, do you want me to give you a detailed introduction to what kind of ‘tools’ I mean?”

“Pfft, you little pervert! Can’t you be less crude?” Various vivid images had already begun to surface in Lin Duo’s mind, causing her face to flush slightly.

“Hmph, what do girls have to be modest about in private? It’s men who are truly unrestrained when they talk about girls behind their backs; they say all sorts of vulgar things.”

“You… how do you know that?!”

“Isn’t that just common sense? If a guy does ‘that’ with another girl, he’ll definitely go back and describe the entire process in detail to his friends, possibly not even sparing the girl’s intimate details.”

Lin Duo gasped, her mouth agape in shock. “R-really? Are boys actually like that?”

“But they’re always so civilized in front of me, at most telling some suggestive jokes.”

“Hmph, I have a ‘Master’s in Men’s Studies,’ you know!” Shen Jing’an once again brought up her self-proclaimed degree. “Because you’re a girl, and a very pretty one at that, they’re extremely concerned about their impression on you. So, their outward behavior is naturally very gentlemanly.

“But in private settings where you’re not present, they’ve definitely fantasized about you a lot. It’s even possible they’ve used your photos for self-gratification!”

“Self-…gratification?!” Lin Duo felt her entire worldview had been profoundly shattered.

“I have theoretical basis, you know!” Saying this, Shen Jing’an found a webpage on the computer. “Look, look, ‘When men engage in self-gratification, they generally use a beautiful woman as their sexual fantasy object.’

“Now, think about it, who’s the prettiest girl in our class?”

“Uh… this…” The thought of boys doing ‘that’ to her photos made Lin Duo feel nauseous again, and she dry-heaved a few times.

Shen Jing’an considerately patted her back. “Oh dear, these things just can’t be helped! So, you really need to be wary of boys who approach you.

“Don’t be fooled by their outwardly refined and polite demeanor; inside, they’re all big bad wolves!”

“Then… can’t there be platonic love between a man and a woman?”

“Spiritual love? Hmph, unless that guy is gay, he wouldn’t be satisfied with just that! In short, there are no men who aren’t lustful!”

Shen Jing’an’s words profoundly impacted Lin Duo’s innocent mind. However, she suddenly realized a question: if all boys were so lustful, then perhaps Wang Linshu’s previous impulsiveness was excusable?

After all, Wang Linshu was just a normal boy, and it was natural for him to have various lustful thoughts. Had she been too strict with her expectations of him before?

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