The door opened, then closed.
The door lock made a slight "click" sound, and the last inch of light from outside the door disappeared.
Qi Jin closed his eyes at this moment, like a blind man groping in the dark, helpless and hesitant, and could only rely on hearing and touch to find his destination.
And his destination found him first.
"Qi Jin." For the first time, it came from such a close distance.
Shen Yan's voice, his name—and the tidal flow of emotion when the two are combined. He is like a bank in the tide, submerged every inch, willing to immerse in it.
The hand that held him before was let go, this time, he gently closed the back of his head and let him lean on his shoulder. Taking into account the plaster of his fracture, this hug was not even forceful, just wrapped his arms with extreme restraint, enclosing a very private but very warm two-person world between each other.
- So warm.
Qi Jin let out a low breath, put his forehead on the shoulder in front of him as if in prostration, buried his face in his shirt, opened his eyes halfway, and blinked in a trance.
His right hand gripped the corner of his shirt tightly around his waist like a drowning person grabbing a life-saving straw.
I have always been afraid of falling. When he really fell, he was afraid that the other party would let go, open the hard cocoon, allow the fragility in his heart to be revealed, and let that person temporarily block all the ups and downs for him.
Only when you understand the stability of two people can you realize the wandering of one person.
There are times when a lone boat needs to dock, isn't it
"Shen Yan," he asked in a hoarse, barely audible voice, "You... are you?"
"Yes." Unclear questions get a very clear answer.
Qi Jin let out a long breath, like a sigh, but also like a joy, as if someone who was extremely tired could finally fall asleep and closed his eyes again.
At first, the hand that held Shen Yan's clothes tightly finally loosened. With a little trembling, he slowly reached up, put his palms flat, and hugged the broad back without hesitation.
It doesn't matter anymore.
Whatever the outcome, he was eager to begin.
And, by no means a repeat of the same mistakes, absolutely not. Because... that person is Shen Yan. Shen Yan is different.
What I have gained so far is peace of mind, warmth, and happiness—completely different.
The house returned to silence.
The sound of the wall clock passing by every second, the sound of raindrops hitting the glass behind the window, and the sound of dripping water from the faucet that only sounded once in a long time were all very clear at this moment.
Language has become useless, two people snuggle quietly in this dark corner behind the door, isolated from the world, become each other's only.
Shen Yan turned her face sideways, her cheeks were against his temples, half of her face was buried in his hair, and her brows were slightly frowned - that was an expression of bitterness and reluctance to touch further. The fingers slowly groped upwards along the outline of the back of Qi Qin's neck, staggered one by one, and penetrated into those soft hair strands, as if they were treating an extremely cherished item, gently caressing them.
The touch on the scalp is a little itchy, warm and comfortable.
Couldn't resist getting closer.
The tip of his nose touched Shen Yan's ear, and he rubbed slowly unconsciously. Occasionally, a lock or two of hair brushed up his cheek, and an indescribable sweetness surged up from the depths of his throat.
The violent pulse at the beginning has subsided.
At this moment, he could still feel the strong heartbeat in his chest close to his Adam's apple, hitting his chest heavily, but it was not difficult to breathe. It's just that the temperature doesn't drop.
On the contrary, the full table of meals cannot wait too long.
"The food... is going to be cold." The voice sounded like he had a high fever. His throat seemed to be burnt out. This sentence was read out entirely with breath, and the five words were light and weightless.
"Yeah." Shen Yan agreed softly, but no movement was seen.
Qi Jin himself remained motionless, quietly in his arms, eyes closed, listening to the same powerful heartbeat coming from the other's chest.
A precious moment, no matter how long it is, will feel short. So it's good to indulge quietly.
It's a pity that the sudden continuous "beep" sound from the mobile phone broke the silence. The loud bell suddenly woke the two of them up, Qi Jin took a deep breath, unconsciously a little embarrassed, and withdrew slightly from the other's arms to separate from him. At this time, Shen Yan also woke up from the confusion, and seemed to have remembered something. She shook her head helplessly, and had to withdraw her hand to get the phone around her waist and turn off the alarm.
"Have you set the time?" The timer function just now. Qi Jin couldn't guess what he meant, and couldn't help but feel curious.
"Well, I set it up for half an hour when I went downstairs." Shen Yan sighed in a low voice, "It's my fault, I completely forgot about it."
"What are you doing for half an hour?" Qi Jin became more and more curious.
Shen Yan hesitated, and looked away slightly: "I thought at that time... If you don't reply to the text message, or don't let me make a call, and if there is no response after half an hour, I must come back and have a look. "
Qi Jing was stunned, and when she regained her senses, the corners of her lips curled up involuntarily, she laughed out loud, lowered her head and gently leaned against his shoulder, and stretched out her right hand silently to retrieve his left. Hold it naturally. Maintaining this posture, he laughed in a low voice for a while: "Could it be... Are you worried that I will do something stupid?"
As I speak, I think: it would be great if not half an hour, but an hour or more.
Shen Yan's hand was gently clenched back, as gentle as his voice: "Not only that, you were still ill yesterday, and you almost fell into an accident. The main reason is that you are afraid of this."
After saying that, back away some distance, raised his right hand and put it on Qi Jin's forehead to test the temperature.
Qi Jin still lowered her face, lowered her eyes, and said in a low voice, "... Doctor Shen, you must be inaccurate now."
Of course not.
At this time, he was hot like a ball of paper wrapped in fire, and it could burn at any time. Calling him mockingly on purpose, making him embarrassed and covering up the temperature on his face.
Shen Yan was really stunned by the word "Doctor Shen", and moved her palm, as if it meant to pull away from his forehead. This is what Qi Qi expected. What Qi Jin didn't expect was that Shen Yan's movements stopped halfway, and his fingers touched his forehead again. . The palm of his hand just touched his ear.
"It's really hot."
Shen Yan looked at him and smiled slightly.
It was the first time I saw his smile from such a close distance, and Qi Wei was stunned. Only then did he realize what he had said. For a while, he was a little more embarrassed than Shen Yan just now. He coughed twice and staggered. sight.
Unexpectedly, I would never lose in verbally teasing myself, and there are times when I have no countermeasures.
When they returned to the table, the food on the table was indeed cold.
Shen Yan reheated everything in the microwave, put the soup pot directly back on the stove to boil, and brought it back again, and the two continued to finish the meal.
But Qi Jin found that if Shen Yan sat across from him, this lunch might last an hour or two. Because even though his emotions have stabilized at this time, his eyes will still look over involuntarily, and he will be absorbed in it. The movements of his hands will naturally become sluggish, and he will not move his chopsticks for a long time - not to mention, from time to time he will encounter the other person's looking back.
"We look like this, we can eat this meal until the evening, and eat it together as dinner." Qi Jin smiled first.
After unraveling the knot, he was much calmer than before when facing Shen Yan.
Shen Yan probably realized what he was referring to, thoughtfully, then stood up gently, left the original seat, actually moved another chair over, and sat down on Qi Jin's right hand side.
"Is it better now?" Shen Yan asked softly.
"Yeah." Qi Jin looked at him for a while, then nodded with a smile. Although this position can't achieve face-to-face eye-to-eye, it's good that people are within reach.
Not only that, the side-by-side sitting makes it easier for them to add vegetables to each other's bowls, if not taking into account that the chopsticks often collide when both sides do it at the same time.
With a "da" sound, Qi Jin was really amused when he heard two pairs of chopsticks collide in mid-air for the third time.
Smile after smile, my heart is still warm. He put down the food calmly and apologized solemnly: "Okay, okay, I have enough here, and I guess you have enough, so from now on, let's eat our own. Otherwise, we can really eat it. dinner time."
When Shen Yan heard the words, she silently retracted her chopsticks, but then she didn't move the chopsticks. After a while, she said, "You can also stay and eat dinner."
Qi Jin was taken aback.
Seeing that it was nearly two o'clock in the afternoon, they ate their lunch late again, and dinner would have to be postponed, no matter what, it would be seven or eight o'clock. What does Shen Yan mean... do you want to stay here for this period of time
As if looking for an excuse, Shen Yan added in a low voice, "If it continues to rain, it will be inconvenient to go out."
Hearing this sentence, Qi Yin subconsciously looked out the window. As one of the loyal viewers, he clearly remembered that yesterday's weather forecast program once said that today's rain will weaken in the afternoon, and it may even become cloudy. The Meteorological Bureau, which has always been imprecise, was right this time. The sound of rain hitting the glass had disappeared, and the remaining dripping sound all came from the eaves, but it was just the rainwater accumulated on the roof.
Even if it rains, it should only be a drizzle. No hindrance to travel at all.
For the first time, Qi Jin felt that the accurate weather forecast made him feel a sense of loss.
"Well... If it's raining, it's really hard to go out." He planned to ignore the weather changes outside and pretend to be confused.
"Qi Jin."
The person beside him suddenly called out to him.
After a long silence, Shen Yan sat up slightly. That sitting posture reminded Qi Jin of the way he used to answer a strange question in class when he was a student, for fear of saying a word wrong.
"If, I said if." Shen Yan also glanced out the window, and the situation outside was clear at a glance. When he looked back, he lightly landed on Qi Jin, with unshakable persistence in his voice, "If it doesn't continue to rain outside in the afternoon but clears up - I'll go back with you, you can pack up what you need and move it temporarily. Stay here until your cast is removed."
Rain or shine, the decision is all about eating.
The difference is that if it rains, it decides a meal, and if it is sunny, there are other things besides deciding the meal for a month.
Regardless of whether this agreement is rational or logical, when Qi Jin came back to his senses, he was already standing by the window, looking at the fine, fluffy raindrops in a trance.
At this time, Shen Yan had already cleaned up the dishes on the dining table and was doing cleaning work in the kitchen alone. The sound of tap water coming from across a wall was very light and pleasant, and the ceramic tableware made a crisp collision sound. These sounds full of life came from another person. For him who has lived alone for many years, it is still very interesting. strangeness.
After all, the house full of humanity in front of him is completely different from his cold apartment.
The people who live there are naturally different.
To be honest, Qi Jin didn't know that he prefers sunny or rainy weather outside.
The residual warmth of that person is still there. It is undeniable that he is very fond of such temperature and the man who brought it. It is precisely because I miss Shen Yan's warmth that I want to take it out slowly and little by little.
He was afraid that he was too greedy, and if he overdrawn all of a sudden, they would be gone.
"What are you thinking?" At some point, the people in the kitchen had finished their work and came to their side.
"It's nothing." Qi Jin smiled lightly. He decided to leave everything to this rain decision.
Shen Yan's pair of dark black eyes stared at him quietly, as gentle as always, without any aggressive meaning, so even if Qi Jin looked at him, she would not express her thoughts because of a sense of oppression. The personal space and tolerance Shen Yan gave him has always been one of his favorite parts.
"There are some books and magazines under the coffee table, if you want to read them, you can read them."
"OK."
Qi Jin agreed. In fact, he didn't plan to flip through the books, he just wanted to see what Shen Yan usually read, so as to get to know each other better.
Reaching out and taking out a book from under the coffee table, I was stunned when I saw the title of the cover.
It was a borrowed book, because the entry of the library was still posted on the book, the cover was also, and there was a book registration card in the title page. At first glance, it was no different from ordinary library books. If Qi Jin's own name did not appear on the registration card.
"Strange..." He blinked and stroked the card with his finger in disbelief. It was indeed his name. And he still had a fresh memory of the book, "I borrowed this book, and it was in the provincial library."
Behind his name is a dated steel stamp.
Clearly marked July.
At that time, in order to collect information about bird culture for the Science and Education Channel, I specially borrowed this book from the library, which was naturally impressive.
"I know," Shen Yan turned her eyes away gently, and seemed a little uncomfortable, "because I went to borrow it on purpose."
Qi Jin was taken aback.
What surprised him most was not that Shen Yan borrowed this book on purpose, but why Shen Yan knew that he had borrowed it: "How do you know that I borrowed this book?"
Shen Yan didn't answer immediately.
Qi Qin stared blankly at the library card, wondering in her heart: Could it be that Shen Yan just happened to see the name on the library card? There are at least tens of millions of books in the provincial library. With such a huge number of books, the possibility of encountering such a coincidence is even lower than winning the lottery.
The day he went to borrow the book, it was really just him, the librarian, and…
what.
The memory suddenly became clear, and the row of bookshelves and the window at the end of the aisle of the bookshelves appeared in front of me.
The light from the window was so dazzling that it drowned the person standing there, unable to see the outline. I only remember a piece of slightly white, and the way that person looked at him motionless in the white light.
Qi Jin took a deep breath and opened his eyes subconsciously.
"It's you… ?"
"It's me." Shen Yan still lowered her eyes, sighed softly, and smiled bitterly, "I already knew that you didn't ask about your return date."