The first day's daily test was extremely difficult.
The moment Xie Lan took his own test paper out of the brown paper bag, his heart had already fallen into hell.
When the bell rang for the papers to be collected, Dou Sheng glanced at his large blank answer sheet and fell into deep thought.
Xie Lan handed the answer sheet to Li Yuening, trying hard to ignore the other party's surprised look.
"Did Lao Ma say where he was going during the training?"
Dou Sheng paused, "There seems to be only one teacher's lounge in this building."
Hearing this, Xie Lan picked up his schoolbag and walked out, "Go stop him."
The driver behind the car shouted, "Hey, where are you two going? Do you want to go get some skewers?!"
What kind of skewers are you eating? Xie Lan walked angrily. Someone secretly replaced his Ascension Mentality with a Guide to Sudden Death. Who could he complain to
Sure enough, Lao Ma sat in the lounge to write lesson plans.
Xie Lan knocked on the door, and he looked up, smiling, "Are you here to call me to task?"
"My test paper is different from everyone else's," Xie Lan said.
Old Ma smiled and unscrewed the thermos cup, taking a sip of hot water. "How was the daily test? Did you finish all the fifteen questions?"
Just as Xie Lan was about to complain, he hissed again, "I estimated... if you work hard on the first day, you should be able to finish one-third of it? Can you finish one-third?"
"…" Xie Lan stopped talking and couldn't help frowning, "What do you mean by one third? I clearly finished seven questions."
In his peripheral vision, Dou Sheng turned his head toward the window.
Xie Lan turned around and saw him slightly raising the corners of his lips.
Lao Ma said with emotion: "That's amazing. At this rate, I believe you will soon be able to fully adapt to running with a sandbag tied to your body. I was right about you."
"It's no use praising me." Xie Lan frowned and paused, "Today's questions are too outrageous. How can an exam be like this?"
"Your questions are indeed a bit exaggerated. I am not good at beating around the bush and am still groping for it. In the future, I will slowly be able to answer them in a fresh, natural and unpretentious way." Old Ma said as he flipped through the materials on the table. "I have asked Teacher Qin to help. We are working on it together and will try to improve your ability to read questions quickly."
Dou Sheng raised his eyebrows in surprise when he heard this, then turned around and glanced at the lesson plan on the table.
Xie Lan also looked over. On the left side of the lesson plan was a stack of competition papers. Lao Ma was trying to expand on the question on the lesson plan.
All of a sudden, I couldn't vent my original rage.
He sat on the table for a long time, speechless and helpless, and sighed.
"Forget it, teacher, thank you for your hard work. I'm leaving now."
Lao Ma asked with a smile: "Are you very reluctant to do this question?"
“Not really.” Xie Lan paused, turned his head away and looked at the shadows of the trees outside the window in the night. After a long while, he whispered, “It’s just a little embarrassing.”
All the way back to the dormitory, Xie Lan was depressed and silent.
In his peripheral vision, he saw Dou Sheng's face moving up and down in the GoPro camera image as he walked.
Dou Sheng was talking casually to the camera: "Today is the first day of the closed provincial training for the mathematics competition that my favorite person, Xie Lan, has come to participate in. It has been eleven or twelve hours from morning to night, and I am exhausted."
"He was not very happy because the teacher gave him special treatment. He couldn't understand the questions and looked very disappointed."
Dou Sheng sighed to the camera, "My boyfriend looks a little cute when he's depressed."
Xie Lan looked up when he heard this, and his helpless face was reflected in the camera. "Are you going to make this video in the form of a vlog?"
Dou Sheng hummed, "The daily life of young lovers is the most deadly."
"Um… "
But I always feel a little angry. I don’t know how everyone will react when the video is released, and how Aunt Zhao will react.
Xie Lan sighed, looked at the dim and blurry outlines of the two people in the camera, then turned his head to look at the sky, "It's so boring."
A gust of wind blew, and Dou Sheng casually plucked a leaf from a sycamore tree branch and muttered, "Don't tell me it's going to rain. The group buying midnight snacks will be hit by the rain on the road."
It looks like it's really going to rain.
The air was stuffy and humid, sticking to the skin like a pot of porridge that couldn't be stirred. It was dark, and the wind blew the sycamore leaves all over the school, making a rustling sound. The sycamore leaves blown down by the wind fluttered and swirled in the night.
Xie Lan returned to the dormitory and immediately packed his bathing stuff, intending to take a quick shower and return to his world of cultivation.
Dou Sheng asked, "Would you like to wash first?"
Ever since they became each other's boyfriend, Dou Sheng and he always tacitly agreed to take showers at different times, even if there were empty cubicles.
Xie Lan hummed, "I'll do it as soon as possible."
"No rush." Dou Sheng pulled a chair and sat down. "It's drizzling outside. I'll ask them if they need to pick up the phone."
Xie Lan nodded and walked out carrying the washbasin.
After a heavy rain, the door of the unoccupied dormitory on this floor, which had never been locked, was tormented by the draft, causing the door frames to rattle and bang.
Students from other cities who came to the provincial training did not come to this building. There should only be these six boys from Class Four in the entire building, and now only Dou Sheng came back.
Xie Lan entered the bathroom, hung the bath towel on the rod as a curtain, and turned on the faucet to take a shower in the small cubicle.
Huge splashes of water poured down over his head. He squeezed a palmful of shampoo, rubbed some foam on his head, and bent over to rinse himself underwater.
With my eyes closed in the darkness, I suddenly heard the filament above my head seem to make two sounds.
Xie Lan didn't take it seriously until he rinsed his head thoroughly before opening his eyes.
black.
The hot water was still pouring down on him, but there was a quietness in the bathroom. If you listened carefully, you could even hear the sound of water flowing down the pipes.
He fumbled for the faucet and turned off the water, then lifted the bath towel and took a look outside.
The bathroom outside was also pitch black. Outside, there was no light under the cracks in the door, and there was no power in the corridor.
Oh, bad luck.
Xie Lan shrank back speechlessly, groping for the bottle of shower gel in the basin, and hurried to finish washing.
It was pitch black, and I couldn't see clearly where on my body I had shower gel and where I didn't. My palms felt slippery everywhere, so I could only apply it with ease.
After Xie Lan finished applying the shower gel, she stood up and was about to touch the faucet when she suddenly heard footsteps approaching from outside.
He paused.
"Xie Lan?" Dou Sheng's voice sounded low, "Is he?"
Xie Lan breathed a sigh of relief, "Yeah. What's wrong?"
Dou Sheng stood outside with a bath towel between them. He hesitated for a moment before saying, "The power is out."
"Yeah. I know."
Dou Sheng paused, "I was afraid you were scared, so I came to look for you."
Xie Lan could vaguely make out the outline of someone's calves and feet under the bath towel and said, "I'm not scared. I'll go back after I'm done."
"good."
Someone said yes, but didn't leave.
Xie Lan turned around, put his hand on the faucet, and repeated, "I'll go back after I finish washing."
"Okay." Dou Sheng said again.
Still not leaving.
As his mind turned, Xie Lan suddenly understood, "You're not afraid of staying in the room alone, are you?"
The bathroom was quiet. Dou Sheng was silent for a long time and then sighed.
"Why don't you try it?" He muttered silently, "The whole corridor is deserted, silent and dark, it's raining outside, the wind is blowing the water back and forth, making a loud noise, and there's even an echo in the bathroom at the end of the corridor."
Xie Lan couldn't help but say, "That's not an echo, it's the sound of the water pipe."
"Who knows if it's a water pipe or a ghost." Dou Sheng took a breath, "Hurry up and wash. I'll wait for you outside."
I’m convinced.
Xie Lan listened to the footsteps walking out, and suddenly lowered his voice and asked in a very low and cold voice, "Then aren't you curious about what I am?"
"… "
Dou Sheng's voice suddenly rose, "Xie Lan, if you don't want your boyfriend to teach you a lesson, then you can continue to be a slut!"
Xie Lan didn't understand what was going on in one breath, and coughed twice, then said with a smile: "Get out of here quickly."
He turned on the faucet again and flushed the water. Dou Sheng went to the bathroom outside. From the sound, he went in the opposite direction, to the balcony.
Across the wall, he called out, "Xie Lan?"
Xie Lan was helpless, "What?"
He said he was impatient, but he was still in a hurry. He quickly turned the toothbrush over the cup, but he couldn't squeeze the toothpaste accurately. It took him a long time to squeeze it onto the bristles, and then he hurriedly stuffed it into his mouth.
With a loud bang, a thunder outside completely covered the sound of water in an instant.
"Xie Lan?"
Xie Lan, with a mouthful of toothpaste, raised his voice and said, "What!"
Dou Sheng sighed outside and grumbled in dissatisfaction, "This crappy school encountered a power outage during the provincial training, and they didn't even say hello. Who are they trying to scare to death?"
Xie Lan brushed her teeth quickly and didn't reply. Dou Sheng waited for a while and started talking to himself again.
The kind that talks to oneself in front of the GoPro.
"Friends, there is a power outage in our dormitory. I guess this recording will be completely dark. It's okay. Just keep talking to me."
"It seems that there are only me and Xie Lan in the whole building. Let's go take a shower in the shower room, and I'll wait for him outside. Can you hear the sound of water?"
"Well, don't ask why I'm waiting for him. He's timid and scared, so as your boyfriend, I have to accompany him and coax him."
Xie Lan was in the darkness, blowing bubbles and rolling his eyes.
Dou Sheng had some kind of miraculous professional accomplishment. After he said a few words to the camera, his tone softened and his usual lazy tone returned.
"Oh, by the way, I'm probably the only one on the Internet who has the honor of waiting outside for Xie Lan to take a shower. I can't help it, after all, he's her boyfriend, and this is her privilege."
"My boyfriend is a little slow in taking a shower. It's been ten minutes and he still hasn't come." He sighed softly, "What a young master."
"The comments will definitely complain that I mention my boyfriend in every sentence, so I do. If you don't like it, please cross it out."
"It was raining heavily outside, and I was going downstairs to buy him a Coke, but who would have thought..."
Before he finished speaking, there was a loud bang! Another thunder.
“What the hell!!”
Snap—
Xie Lan turned off the water and shouted, choking, "Is the GoPro broken?"
Dou Sheng's voice was filled with shock: "I can't see clearly! The indicator light is still on, and the screen is a little prickly to the touch... I'm really impressed, why is the thunder still going on?"
Xie Lan: “…”
He quickly rinsed his mouth, turned off the tap, and tore off the towel to wipe his body while vlogging in his mind—
Audience friends, have you seen the guy from outside? He is usually so arrogant, not afraid of parents, teachers, friends or fans, and is always lazy and fearless wherever he goes. But in fact, he is as timid as a bean, afraid of the dark and ghosts, and trembles when thunder strikes.
This is my boyfriend.
A genuine boyfriend, although he was actually engaging in a degrading activity of pretending to have a boyfriend.
Xie Lan quickly cleaned himself up and was about to stuff the towel into the wash basin when he looked up and suddenly saw a familiar figure leaning against the frame.
It was pitch black and I could only see the outline, but that outline was familiar enough.
His heart trembled, and even though he knew that the other party could not see anything, he still couldn't help but feel his ears burning.
"What are you doing?" Xie Lan asked calmly.
Dou Sheng said in a low voice, "I saw you haven't said anything for a while, so I came to take a look... Well, I'll go back outside and wait."
He said this and turned and left.
Footsteps made a few more noises on the tiles of the bathroom. Xie Lan followed the footsteps and although it was dark, he could still see the slender figure.
He closed his eyes and his Adam's apple moved slightly.
It’s my boyfriend.
After a long time, he fumbled to put on his pajamas, wearing only a vest on his upper body, and came over holding the basin.
His nostrils were filled with the smell of shampoo. He went into the shower and was about to call for help when someone suddenly grabbed his wrist.
As if he had some secret premonition, Xie Lan raised his hand to support the waist of someone who was leaning against him, took two steps back, and leaned his back against the cool tile wall of the bathroom.
It was dark and quiet. Dou Sheng held Xie Lan's slender neck and kissed him. The hair with water drops rubbed against their cheeks. The whole corridor was empty. There was only the sound of rain in the distance, the sound of wind blowing through the hall, and the sound of sucking, which echoed faintly in the empty bathroom.
Xie Lan's breathing gradually became heavier. Dou Sheng put his five fingers in his hair and touched the back of his head.
After a long time, Xie Lan had difficulty breathing and pushed him, so he let go, leaned close and gently bit the tip of Xie Lan's ear.
The skin on the ears is white and thin, so it's easy to leave marks. If you get bitten, you'll have to cover it up a little with your hair tomorrow.
Xie Lan's ears were red, and Dou Sheng's arms were around her. She whispered in the darkness: "GoPro."
"It's closed a long time ago." Dou Sheng rested his forehead against his, his voice full of the faint charm of a teenager, "How can you put real things in fake videos? The fans will make a lot of money."
Xie Lan didn't say anything. He turned his head away from Dou Sheng in the narrow space between the walls, trying to let the draft blowing in from the outside blow away the restlessness that was making his ears flush.
However, in that instant, his slight breathing sound suddenly stopped.
At the bathroom door, Che Ming, who was soaked all over like a drowned rat, stood there stupidly, the flash of his cell phone flickering towards the wall behind him. He hurriedly avoided the bathroom, and the leaking light illuminated his stunned expression.
Dou Sheng's embrace around Xie Lan stiffened for a moment, then he slowly leaned back.
He raised his hand to smooth the hair that Xie Lan had messed up, then turned back to Che Ming and raised his eyelids, "Is it raining outside?"
"… "
Under the gaze of Che Ziming and the other man, his mouth, which had been opened into a small O, slowly expanded and turned into a big O.
"you… "
Dou Sheng said casually: "It was a dark and windy night, with no one in a hundred miles."
"… "
Che Ming suddenly shut his mouth, and Xie Lan almost heard the clicking sound of his upper and lower teeth.
He held it in for a long time, his throat seemed to be filled with a nest of hornets, hesitating to speak, and predicting at the same time. His expression was so twisted that Xie Lan wanted to help him open up his Ren and Du meridians.
As if a century had passed, Che Ziming finally said, "Fuck, you guys are really acting like a real person in a video, right? You're a national second-class actor. Awesome..."
This staircase was so bad that he couldn't continue talking at the end and laughed dryly twice, "Hahaha, the problem is that it's dark and I can't fucking record this part. Even if I record it, I can't broadcast it, ah ha ha ha wu wu wu wu wu wu..."
Xie Lan: “…”
Che Ziming was soaked all over. He started crying while laughing and squatted down to hug his body which was soaked by the rain.
"Oh, God! Give me back a pair of eyes that haven't seen all this, and give me back two brothers who were straighter than the sycamore trees outside the school yesterday!"
Xie Lan was deeply shocked.
The panic and anxiety in his heart were suppressed by this shock. He pulled Dou Sheng's clothes and whispered, "He's not really crying, is he?"
Dou Sheng hummed, "It's always like this. His emotions fluctuate greatly. He also cried when the little black cat got pregnant for the first time. Don't bother with it."
"… "
Xie Lan sighed.
Dou Sheng walked to the door and glanced out into the corridor, "You came back alone? Where are they? Did no one else see them?"
"No." Che Ziming gritted his teeth and endured the instant emotional collapse, temporarily stopping crying, "Everyone was blocked from the barbecue restaurant by the heavy rain, I lost the game of rock-paper-scissors, so I ran back to get an umbrella to send them."
Dou Sheng said "oh" and pulled him up by the collar, asking him to stand up straight. "Then go ahead, and don't talk nonsense, you know what I mean."
Che Ziming nodded vigorously. "I haven't fucking figured it out myself yet, how can I tell anyone else? You two... fuck... I really fucked up, I..."
Dou Sheng paused, "Do you mind this?"
Che Ziming hadn't finished fucking yet, and his tongue twitched, "Huh?"
"I'm asking you if you mind this." Dou Sheng said in a light tone, "I think Xie Lan is serious, very serious. If you mind this, we'll stay away from you in the future."
"Fuck!" Che Ming was going crazy, "The straight one is gone, I can't even keep my friends on the two bends?!"
"… I can save him if I can." Dou Sheng sighed, "Let's go, I'll go with you to get an umbrella and pick him up."
"I'm going too." Xie Lan followed him and walked past Che Ming. He tried to hold back but couldn't help but whispered, "Actually... the sycamore tree outside the school is probably the most crooked tree in England. It's almost falling over."
Che Ziming: “… ?”
"Oh." Xie Lan sighed.
"We've been in the dormitory for so long, and Dai You and Wang Gou didn't notice it, but you bumped into us instead."
"You're kind of miserable."