Chapter 45 – Fondness (2)

After lunch, the two of them hit the printer shop first to make a copy of the comic. This was before the internet became popular. Most publisher required one to send in the originals and, on top of that, whether they accept your submission or not, would not return the original. They must keep a copy themselves.

Su Tian and Liu Kaiyan choose three publishers that were relatively well-known and also have similar styles to that of Liu Kaiyan’s.

After mailing out Liu Kaiyan’s comic, the two headed toward school. When they walked passed a small stationary stop, an episode of the cartoon just finished up and the name of the studio appeared on the screen.

After mailing out his work, Liu Kaiyan was feeling quite emotional, but he was so used to not showing his emotions that it was difficult to tell just from looking at him.

Thinking about his submission, he walked on for another 10 meters or so before he noticed that Su Tian wasn’t with him anymore. He turned around and saw that Su Tian was spacing out at the stationary shop.

He walked back toward her and hesitantly called out to her, “Tiantian, do you want something from here?” As he was talking, he was about to take out his money.

Su Tian recollected herself and quickly grabbed hold of him and shook her head, “No, I don’t need anything. I just thought the cartoon was quite interesting.”

Liu Kaiyan enjoyed cartoons too. When he was young and punished to kneel downstairs, he could look into another family’s living room from where he was, facing straight at the TV. The family has kids and the TV played cartoons every day.

One could say that watching cartoons through this window had inspired his artistic talent.

Liu Kaiyan wanted to laugh. She didn’t want to buy anything; she was just standing there watching cartoons?

Su Tian dragged the secretly chuckling boss away from the store. Recalling the name of the studio, she thought they could attempt multiple channels – both publishers and cartoon studios. Who knows, they just might hit it off big.

Su Tian, “Liu Kaiyan, did you save the softcopy that we have just scanned into a USB drive?”

Liu Kaiyan nodded.

Su Tian asked, “Do you mind letting me borrow your USB drive?”

The USB drive contained the electric version of the original comic, and he really shouldn’t hand it over to anyone else, but Liu Kaiyan didn’t even think about it before he handed the USB and the notebook that was pasted back together over to Su Tian.

“I can’t bring them home with me. Why don’t you hang onto them for me….” Looking at Su Tian, he added, “…. And my basketball.”

Su Tian smiled, “Okay.”

The boy put everything into Su Tian’s backpack and then said in a serious voice, “We must hurry, otherwise we will be late for our afternoon class!”

Su Tian paused for a second and shouted out, “Oh my god! I don’t want to be sentenced to clean up again!” She dashed toward the bus stop with her backpack on her back.

Liu Kaiyan chuckled and followed her quickly.

Once they have arrived at school, everybody in class gave them bizarre and somewhat excited looks. As soon as Su Tian sat down, Wang Haoxue immediately grabbed her arm and asked her in a low voice why were they both out for the morning and where did they go?

Su Tian did not answer her question. She couldn’t possibly told her about the submission without Liu Kaiyan’s permission. Poor Wang Haoxue, no matter how many times she asked, Su Tian just smiled and dodged the topic.

Unfortunately, the more she refused to talk about it, the more curious was everyone. Especially at their curious stage in life, they came up with very many not-so-PG scenarios.

(T/N: PG – US rating for movies suitable for families with children.)

It wasn’t long before rumors of Liu Kaiyan and Su Tian as a couple was spread all over.

The rumors had some base – Su Tian had Liu Kaiyan’s basketball since the first day of school; Su Tian had been bringing a cake to Liu Kaiyan every day; someone witnessed Liu Kaiyan walking home with Su Tian at night, and Liu Kaiyan’s home was in the opposite direction; someone had….

Long story short, there had been so much evidence that people were buying into the rumor.

The rumors spread with time.