The leaf trembled slightly in Dou Sheng's palm.
The afternoon sun was blazing, and Xie Lan was wearing a simple, refreshing white T-shirt, which seemed to blend in with the bright white background. But as long as he moved slightly, the outline became clear again.
Dou Sheng was holding up a sycamore leaf - if he only stared at a point in the air nearby, the leaf would be very close, and even the veins would be clearly visible, while Xie Lan in the distance was blurry as if out of focus, leaving only a nice shadow in his field of vision.
This kind of composition is what he used to see every day.
Back then, that person would project a water wave or light pattern on the screen. He would stand between the projector and the screen, and the shadow of the violin player would fall on the water wave or light pattern, far away, ethereal and clear. There was always a sycamore tree on the wooden table in the close-up shot. Sometimes Dou Sheng would focus on the shadow and push and pull the bow, and sometimes he would just count the lines on the leaves one by one.
When hblood reaches its climax, the quiet leaf will occasionally tremble slightly, as if it is also trembling with excitement.
On days when he couldn't sleep, on days when he was at odds with himself and life, he would fall asleep every night listening to Xie Lan's violin. According to statistics from his phone, YouTube has become the app with the longest daily running time, and he is familiar with every song. When he closes his eyes and listens to the sound, he can recall Xie Lan's detailed movements in his mind, the arc of his arms, the swing of his body.
Later, Dou Sheng walked out of the darkness, but the companion disappeared from the software.
In fact, he and Xie Lan had not known each other for long. At first, he did think that Xie Lan was a little cute in a weird way, and that he was a little pitiful because his mother had passed away and he was alone. But he never thought that this person who suddenly appeared from the sky was his long-lost original heart.
When Xie Lan was sick and had a fever, his mind got hot, but there was also an uproar in his heart.
After the scores were announced, the players dispersed.
Xie Lan felt uncomfortable after overdrawing his strength. His arms and legs were out of control. He walked over to Dou Sheng with a gloomy look and said, "The owls are really motivated. They are so loud even in the practice match."
Dou Sheng seemed to be in a daze. He came back to his senses after hearing what he said and casually put the leaf into his trouser pocket. "It's more appropriate to use 'such loud shouting'. Shouting is a superficial behavior. What you want to express is that everyone wants to win, right?"
"Oh." Xie Lan unscrewed a bottle of mineral water and sighed, "Sorry, the Chinese system crashed after excessive exercise."
Che Ziming and the others ran over, and before Xie Lan could react, he was punched on the shoulder.
It didn't hurt much, but he was stunned.
Che Ziming roared: "Lan, you are awesome!"
Dou Sheng frowned and stretched out his hand to push him away, "Stop your wild behavior and keep an arm's length away."
"I really think you are sick." Che Ming punched Dou Sheng again, "This is the sense of ritual for the winner. Isn't this our tradition?"
Dou Sheng curled his lips lightly, "It's a new century now, let's adopt civilized ways, thank you."
Dai You spun an empty coffee bottle, glanced at Dou Sheng and said, "Is the civilized way to stand on the sidelines and blow leaves?"
Dou Sheng was about to answer, but Dai You sighed and patted his shoulder, "I noticed that you've been a little too excited lately. Be more restrained, my boy. I heard several girls from Class 12 planning to capture you."
Wang Gou said to Xie Lan in a hoarse voice: "And you, you are also not in the plan."
Xie Lan subconsciously glanced at the opposite side where the girls from Class 12 were gathered, "Planning for two people at the same time?"
"They said it was hard to choose and they were willing to make do with either one."
Dou Sheng smiled faintly and said, "There is everything in dreams." He casually threw his coat over his arm and walked back with his coat in his trouser pockets.
A gust of wind blew his hair back slightly. Xie Lan fell back half a step, his eyes lingering on his profile for a while.
Dou Sheng suddenly asked, "By the way, why do you play the violin and also play ball?"
Xie Lan came back to his senses. "At first, I wanted to be a professional violinist, but I didn't dare to play ball. Later, when I was in middle school, I suddenly became very interested in mathematics. I decided to play the violin for fun, and there were no so many restrictions."
He paused and added, "But I don't fight often. I don't have the endurance. It's a bit annoying to keep running."
Dai You said with a sigh, "I have developed a great interest in mathematics."
The five people walked to the end of the playground and were about to turn to the teaching building when a gust of wind suddenly brought a faint cry, which was violent but also a bit desperate.
"It's broken!" Che Ziming slapped his thigh, "The big herring has fallen."
Even from a distance of one or two hundred meters, the dark clouds on the face of the demon were clearly visible, as if a thunderbolt could strike anyone to death at any time.
The car was brought to him, and he was so tired that he lost his ability to speak. It took him a long time to complain, "Why do I have such a bunch of stupid friends like you?"
After evening study, Xie Lan began to prepare the topic for the debate club activity on Wednesday.
—Should gender symbols exist
He spread out the notebook on the table, copied the title neatly, and then fell into a long silence.
He wrote and revised until the get out of class was almost over, and he had barely written half a page.
In his peripheral vision, someone kept glancing at his notebook, with the corners of his mouth tense, as if afraid that he would laugh out loud in the next second.
After being stared at for a long time, Xie Lan closed his eyes, put down his pen and said speechlessly: "What are you looking at?"
Dou Sheng glanced at Lao Qin on the podium and whispered, "I kind of want to help you, but I don't know how to ask politely."
Xie Lan: “…”
"Are you assigned to the positive or negative side?"
"That's right." Xie Lan frowned. "My position is that gender symbols should exist. It's a bit difficult. I wrote for a long time but couldn't list many arguments. The main reason is..."
"Xie Lan." Old Qin suddenly called out the name from the front: "What are you talking about with Dou Sheng?"
Xie Lan felt a chill in his heart, he silently put down the notebook and stood up.
The owls turned their heads and stared at him. Lao Qin said with a stern face, "I've been watching you two for a long time. What are you talking about?"
Dou Sheng immediately said, "Let's discuss the organization and presentation of the arguments."
"Oh?" Lao Qin paused, "I don't think I left any essays today."
Xie Lan sighed inwardly and answered truthfully: "It's the topic of the debate."
"Debate Competition???"
The class exploded.
Regardless of the teacher still standing on the podium, Che Ziming turned around and looked up at Xie Lan, "You, are, participating in, a debate? The Chinese one?"
Dou Sheng rolled up the exercise book and knocked it on his head, "Turn back!"
Old Qin also opened his mouth and stared at Xie Lan for a while. After a long time, he pressed his hand down and motioned for him to sit down.
"You prepare yours. I'm just reminding you that the math graded test has been completed. Discussions are not allowed during the evening study session in principle. Please keep quiet."
"Okay, teacher." Xie Lan sighed silently, then sat down and continued to concentrate on writing his thesis.
Dou Sheng fell silent, and the class became quiet.
As a result, after a while, Xie Lan felt the hairs on his body start to stand up, as if a strange magnetic field was approaching. He raised his eyes slightly from the paper and saw Lao Qin's gray sweatpants passing by him cautiously.
Xie Lan paused with his pen tip for two seconds before suddenly turning back.
Lao Qin instantly withdrew his gaze, stood in the back row and monitored the whole class, "accidentally" lowered his head to look at him, and smiled and gave him a questioning look.
"Do you need any help from the teacher?" He smiled at Xie Lan with fatherly love.
Xie Lan was numb, turned around expressionlessly, "No, thank you, teacher."
He lowered his head and wrote a few more words, and felt the gaze behind him fall on his notebook again.
Then, he seemed to hear the incoherent breathing of the middle-aged man who was trying hard to hold back his laughter.
Xie Lan simply moved the wrist covering the words away and turned back to ask, "Is there anything wrong with what I wrote?"
Lao Qin hastily put away his smile and whispered, "Neither is right."
Xie Lan: “…”
Lao Qin cleared his throat and pointed at the book, saying, "Gender differences cannot support your point of view. This idiom means that there are strict differences in social roles and positions between men and women. It has a strong feudal ethical color. It seems to be in line with your position, but it is easy to be countered. After all, feudal things need to be broken."
Xie Lan frowned and digested it for a while, "What is feudal ethics?"
Lao Qin: "This..."
Dou Sheng pinched his thigh and whispered, "Red men and green women refers to young men and women wearing all kinds of clothes. It does not persuade people to give men and women different colors to distinguish them. Also, men are silent and women are crying. Men are silent and women are crying. It does not reflect the innate personality differences. It is an Internet term, which is mainly about the sexuality of men and women."
The surroundings fell into an eerie silence.
Che Ziming and Wang Gou, who had been busy studying, each showed no emotion. They withdrew their hands from the table and pinched their thighs.
Behind Xie Lan, Lao Qin let out a faint sigh. Lao Qin gently stroked his shoulder and said word by word: "Teacher really likes you."
Xie Lan felt as if his soul had been sucked out of him.
After Lao Qin left, he drew a huge cross on the paper, invalidating everything he had just written. He said depressedly: "I just picked out some possibly related words from the dictionary catalog and wrote them down. I haven't had time to choose yet."
Dou Sheng tore off a piece of paper, wrote a line of words, and pushed it in front of him, "Here is the clue to the NPC's clearance."
"Clue" is a line of English, written in a graceful and fluent style. It is considered the best-looking English written by Xie Lan in the class.
gender symbol ≠ gender decrimination.
Dou Sheng whispered, "Gender discrimination is behind this topic. Your position is mainly to prove that gender symbols can establish a channel of understanding and respect between men and women. As long as it is moderate, it will not induce discrimination. You can write an English manuscript first, translate it, and then dig up the facts in the news."
Xie Lan's eyes lit up, "It's indeed a good idea."
"Of course." Dou Sheng smiled, "Teacher Douzi."
Although things went much more smoothly after changing my thinking, the burden of translating and replacing arguments was still very heavy.
On Wednesday morning, Xie Lan was awakened by the alarm clock. He covered his head with the quilt, half asleep and half awake, and took out his cell phone, as if possessed by a demon and wanted to continue searching for cases.
However, his homepage kept showing some weird things—Xie Lan’s Weibo was a pure online account, and he followed several active users in the super topic of Renjianjueshuaidou, most of whom were fans who would produce cartoon Bean Man handwriting on a daily basis, including the fans who made the thousand-layer routine video last time.
Last night at midnight, this group of people posted many Weibo posts in succession.
-This rhythm is led by a certain company, so everyone just needs to be aware of it.
-Don’t go and have a quarrel. Douzi goes to Bilibili at midnight every day. How could he not see it? Ignoring him means I don’t want to care.
-Ignore it, I am speechless.
-I'm an Avatar, give me some lemons!
Xie Lan jumped out and searched Baidu several times before he realized that "rhythm" should be read together with "lead". Avada eating a big melon turned out to be a vada keda vra, the death curse of the devil. Claws means crawling, adding fat and size to indicate strengthening. The netizens' idea of composing lyrics may have been borrowed from Dai Wangshu.
Dou Sheng's fans are always hilarious, but once something weird happens, there can only be one reason.
Xie Lan threw back the quilt, sat up, fumbled for the headphones and put them on.
Ye Shen sent a Weibo post at midnight yesterday -
You all have misunderstood me. I am living a happy life. In the future I will focus on games, comedy and music. The two-dimensional world is not my life. I will soon be a senior in high school, have good grades and know what I want.
Xie Lan stared at the word "Music" on the screen for a while, then tilted his head back and squinted.
Dou Sheng also lifted the quilt and sat up, yawning and saying, "Good morning, are your eyes uncomfortable?"
Xie Lan murmured, "I doubt myself... uh, what do you call seeing something that doesn't exist?"
Dou Sheng frowned and thought for a moment, "Vision?"
"I think I'm hallucinating." Xie Lan shook his head vigorously and looked at the screen carefully again.
It’s not Vision, this person is serious. Music is one of his three major career directions.
Xie Lan turned on the TV in confusion.
I also contributed to the last event, but the data was quite average, and I didn't even make it to the homepage poster. I haven't updated in the past few days, and there is no news. I just played a game live last night.
Xie Lan searched for a fan screen recording, one of which was named "Truth". The introduction roughly described the background. Ye Shen lost seven or eight games in a row in the competitive game yesterday. After switching to the card drawing game, he spent three thousand but didn't see the gold light. His mentality collapsed, and he confided a few words in the live broadcast room.
Xie Lan glanced at Dou Sheng, who got out of bed as if nothing had happened, and turned down the volume on his headphones.
"I'm not in a good state. I'll log off after chatting for a few days. I won't be live streaming recently."
"I'm not unhappy. I just feel that my luck has been bad recently. I should take a break. No, it's not about the low number of views on the last video. Video data will fluctuate. I don't care about these."
Ye Shen looked at the comments, feeling somewhat bewildered. After a while, he whispered, "I just feel that some people try their best to finally achieve a little success, but unlike others who can take advantage of the favorable conditions and use the resources around them, these fools will soon be surpassed."
Xie Lan’s fists hardened.
Dou Sheng knocked on the railing of his bed, "What are you doing? Come down now. The egg cakes in the cafeteria are almost gone."
I also have the heart to eat egg cake.
Xie Lan asked, "What does it mean to ride the east wind?"
"Ah?" Dou Sheng's voice suddenly became serious, "Did you see Ye Shen's screen recording?"
Xie Lan had a cold expression and continued to flip through the pages without saying a word.
Sure enough, the comments on Dou Sheng’s character video were sorted by time, and the latest ones were all weird.
-So the BGM of this video was made by that upvoteer who is really good at playing violin
-Wow, I have been following him for a long time, and his followers increased by several thousand since March before the New Year. How come his followers suddenly increased by more than 200,000 recently
-The speed of increasing followers is like a rocket
-No, it's the speed of gaining followers that's really slowing down (dog head save my life)
"It's all for fun." Xie Lan frowned and whispered.
Dou Sheng was amazed. "Set the pace? You even know this word?"
"I just checked it out. My understanding is that it means forcibly lowering someone's IQ."
Dai Youle was overjoyed. "Xie Lan is quite talented in media work."
Dou Sheng smiled faintly, "More than just talent..."
Xie Lan was a little speechless, "Don't you have any fluctuations in your heart?"
"What's the big deal?"
Dou Sheng still looked indifferent. He pulled out a clean white shirt from the closet, shook it in the air, and put it on.
He buttoned his shirt nonchalantly. "Ye Shen is a bit annoying. But he's not very promising. He's just weird. This kind of drama happens at least four times a year. I rehearse it for you in spring, summer, autumn and winter. If I don't see him in the next season, I'll be uncomfortable."
Xie Lan choked, "You..."
"If you meet an idiot outside, would you drag your whole family out to fight? I'm just an up. The purpose of being an up is to produce high-quality content, not to drag fans into quarrels every day. And recently I have awakened to my original intention. I am happy from head to toe and look down on everything. Do you understand?"
Dou Sheng raised his head and smiled at Xie Lan, "I'm talking to my friend in bed, do you want to have breakfast? I'll have egg cake once a week, it's sweet and tender, and everyone from England says it's good."
Xie Lan sighed, listlessly locked his phone, and said, "Eat."
He understood the truth. Xie Lan had encountered similar situations as a YouTuber. He didn't mind it himself, but he would still feel a little depressed if it happened to the people around him.
After lunch, Xie Lan returned to the classroom alone with a leave note, and went to do the daily live broadcast that he had promised his fans.
The curtains in the classroom had two layers, one layer of gauze and the other layer of cloth. He pulled up the gauze layer to soften the afternoon light in the lens, and then stood next to the computer stand that Dou Sheng had lent him, adjusting his field of view to make sure his hands and notebook were in the frame.
Not long after the show started, the number of comments started to increase.
-It's finally over!
-Wow, I got it.
-We agreed to be there at 12:50! You're six minutes late!
-Good afternoon, Lanzai
-555 Lanzai's hand was struck by lightning, it was so beautiful.
"Good afternoon." Xie Lan greeted, "I have classes in the afternoon, so I'll just live stream for 40 minutes. I'm preparing for a debate competition recently, and I need to write a manuscript based on the information I collected recently, as I'll need it in the evening."
-Good guy!
-I remember Lanzai said his Chinese was average.
-Immediately after returning from overseas, I participated in Chinese debates. I have aspirations!
-I want to see Lanzai write!
There is no need to talk much when learning live streaming. Xie Lan picked a violin piece that he had recorded before as the background music, put on his headphones, lowered his head and focused on his work.
With his phone on silent mode, he occasionally glanced at the comments.
The barrage is happily chatting.
-The light is great and this piece of music is so soothing.
-Relaxed and comfortable.
-Have you noticed that Lanzi's handwriting is different from his real handwriting...
-yes…
-I haven’t seen such big characters since I changed to fountain pens in the second grade of high school.
-Yes, baby, you can't write so ugly.
-Let the big cat teach you! I remember Douzi's handwriting was very beautiful.
-To be honest, your handwriting is ugly, but your hands are really beautiful.
-Looking up the dictionary, looking up the dictionary. What Lanzai is looking up is not the dictionary, but my heart.
-Be more reserved in the front...
-… What? Lanzai spent ten minutes writing a speech, seven minutes looking up words in a dictionary, and two minutes looking up words in an idiom dictionary
-Oh my god, it looks like he's here to sell dictionaries live.
-I'm attracted to this. The English-Chinese version in hardcover and the Xinhua version in softcover both look very useful.
Xie Lan only glanced at the comments occasionally and didn't interact much.
-Speak up, Lanzai.
-You don't really want to shut yourself up for 40 minutes to study and then log off.
-555 You can’t be so cold!
Xie Lan paused, "I don't want to talk anymore, maybe next time."
- What
- So you are a drag queen
-You don't sound happy today.
-Is it because of that incident
-Don't ask about the previous one...
Xie Lan didn't say anything and continued writing his manuscript.
-well.
-Lanzi, don't take it to heart.
-The environment of the broken site is actually quite good. It’s just that the fans of some individuals are just like that. It’s really individual and there’s nothing we can do about it.
-Just lie flat like a bean and let go.
-I’m dying of laughter. Douzi has become a master of lying down.
-Pfft, Laipidou’s response is so shameless, he is worthy of being my favorite up.
Response
Xie Lan paused for a moment, hesitated, then put the pen down and opened Dou Sheng's homepage outside the camera.
Five minutes ago, Dou Sheng posted a status.
The most handsome man in the world: em very good, hope you can continue to take me flying in the future, fly to the sky and shoulder to shoulder with Yang, I will give him all my coins.
Xie Lan: “???”
-What is Xie Lan looking at
-His fists seemed to harden.
-hhhh, maybe you went to see Douzi’s response.
-dm is salty up, em is enterprising up,
-I just like Douzi’s indifferent and free-spirited nature.
-That's right, who can do that
-I'm lying down, do whatever you want with me, fuck.
Xie Lan watched that post several times, then looked at the comments, feeling a little helpless and a little funny.
But the comments were right, Dou Sheng was like that. After spending some time with him, he had to admit that this indifferent personality was indeed somewhat charming.
He took a deep breath and lowered his head to continue writing.
The barrage returned to daily chat, but after a while, a wave of strange warnings suddenly came.
- Shit, someone's coming in.
-It's a ghost.
-The wolf is coming, run away, kids!
Xie Lan was stunned for a moment, and scrolled up two screens according to the system reminder, and found that "Young Master Ye Shen entered the live broadcast room."
Then, a gift special effect bloomed on the screen, and Ye Shen typed a message on the public screen: I was in a bad mood after losing the game yesterday. I didn’t mean to insinuate anyone. I just sent a private message to Douzi to clarify and apologize. Now I’m here to apologize to my brother Xie Lan. Don’t take it to heart.
The barrage of comments exploded, with some mocking and some cursing, but more people were shocked by the outrageous operation.
Xie Lan didn't say anything, as if he hadn't seen anything. He had just written two paragraphs of the debate draft, but he calmly turned the page back in his notebook and zoomed in on the computer to make sure the camera was focused on every word on the paper.
Then, he carefully wrote the four-character title "Accumulation of Idioms" on the first line, marked today's date, and wrote down the weather: clear and breezy.
Xie Lan skillfully flipped through the idiom dictionary with his left hand, and quickly copied down the definitions with his right hand.
Worse than pigs and dogs: having low personality and extremely bad conduct, even worse than pigs and dogs.
Shameless: Describes a person who is thick-skinned and shameless. From "The Book of Songs·Ya·Qiaoyan"
Do evil things: do all kinds of bad things. From "Liu Yi Chuan Shu"
〝盤竹难书〞: Describes crimes that are too numerous to be written down. From "Old Tang Book·Biography of Li Mi"
The barrage was silent for a long time, and then it was flooded with question marks and exclamation marks, and there was no sound from Gongzi Ye Shen.
But Xie Lan knew that he couldn't leave at this time.
He continued to write two more lines slowly.
Directed by: describes the person who plans the script and completes it with all his heart.
Parroting: a metaphor for copying or using what others have said.
The comments were already filled with laughter, and Xie Lan paused. At the top of the three rows and two columns of six idioms, he wrote down a four-character horizontal scroll one stroke at a time:
Fucking bitch.
Xie Lan heaved a sigh of relief and said, "Today's live broadcast is over. The Chinese language is beautiful, powerful, broad and profound. I am very happy to learn it. I am honored to be Chinese."
He paused, and then said, "Today's learning content is exclusive to me, original, and has nothing to do with other ups."
Then it went offline at the speed of light.