The best award in the provincial college art exhibition once again went to Xie Jiaran.
Xie Jiaran did not show any joy.
He received the trophy under the envious and admiring gazes of his classmates. When the bell rang, he packed up his things silently and left the studio quickly.
It takes nearly ten minutes to walk from the Art Building to the dormitory. Xie Jiaran quickened his pace and tried to take the shortcut.
His brows were slightly furrowed because of the discomfort in his body, and the corners of his mouth were pursed straight.
There was an itchy feeling beneath the surface of his skin all over his body. It wasn't serious, but it made him very uncomfortable.
He gripped his wrist tightly, his neatly trimmed nails pressing indentations into the skin on the inside of his wrist, using the pain to suppress the untimely itch.
And a sudden strong desire to be touched.
Walking along the path behind the library, crossing the bridge, and passing through the narrow tree-lined avenue, Xie Jiaran ran into a few boys in sports jerseys who were playing and joking around.
The noise of the cicadas in the hot summer seemed particularly loud, or perhaps it was because he was in a very bad state at the moment, the giggling made him extremely irritated.
His brows furrowed even deeper.
He tried his best to move aside, but he was still inevitably bumped on the arm by one of the overly noisy boys.
"Oh, sorry, sorry, are you okay?"
The boy quickly stood up and apologized, and the hot heat from exercise on his body fell on Xie Jiaran's cold white skin. The repulsion was far greater than the satisfaction of that momentary skin contact.
"fine."
Xie Jia then took half a step back to create some distance between them. Seeing that the boy wanted to say something, he seriously emphasized, "I'm fine," walked straight past him, and left quickly.
"It's over, it's over. You've been rejected by the school beauty."
Seeing the person walking away, the boys next to him started to make fun of him: "Xie Xuehua has such a serious mysophobia. After being touched by you like this, she will have to wash her bald skin when she goes back."
The title of Xie Jiaran as the campus belle originated from a voting campaign for the campus belle and campus hunk initiated on a forum by a group of contemporary "model" college students who had just finished their final exams and had nothing to do in the previous semester.
Due to someone's mistake, Xie Jiaran's photo was mistakenly posted in the campus beauty building. As a result, she led the way with high votes, leaving the second place with more than a thousand votes and becoming the campus beauty.
When the students who did not participate heard about it, their first instinct was that everyone was making a malicious joke, but after opening the forum, they immediately gave up this ridiculous speculation.
I have to admit that she is indeed prettier than the girl who came in second.
Fortunately, no matter how much noise there is in the selection, everyone knows their limits.
Knowing that Xie Jiaran has a cold personality and doesn't like to be joked with, the title of school belle is only mentioned behind her back occasionally as a good-natured joke, and is never mentioned openly.
"How can it be so exaggerated? I just took a shower this morning."
The boy who bumped into Xie Jiaran pulled up his collar and sniffed self-doubtfully. It doesn’t smell very bad, right
"Have you forgotten that you just went crazy on the court? You smell like a man. It's unlucky. I hope it didn't stink our precious school beauty."
The boy laughed and scolded: "You didn't fight? You're the only one who smells good?"
"I know myself well. Can't you see I'm standing so far away?"
Xie Jiaran slowed down after walking a distance, took out the wet tissue he carried with him from his pocket and wiped the place where he was hit carefully.
It's either disgust or insurmountable psychological discomfort.
I threw the used wet wipes into the trash can and quickened my pace back to the dormitory.
He thought he was the first one back.
However, just as he put down his painting supplies and walked over to lift the balcony curtains, someone pushed open the dormitory door again.
Xie Jiaran turned around to look.
The doors on both sides were open, and the draft blew through the hall, blowing the hem of Xie Jiaran's clothes at his waist, and all the air rushed towards the young man who walked in with a basketball in his arms and a domineering look on his face.
Liang Sunian had just finished playing basketball, and his forehead and nose were still covered with a thin layer of sweat that he had not had time to wipe off.
He held the ball in one hand and pulled the collar of his T-shirt with the other to fan himself to cool down. His smile was lazy and leisurely after the exercise.
"Brother, give me some paper. I'm too lazy to open a new pack."
Shulang's voice fits subtly with this midsummer.
Xie Jiaran stood there quietly with his hands hanging down.
His eyes fell on the small part of Liang Sunian's collarbone that was occasionally exposed when he fluttered his collar. He stayed there for only a moment before moving back to his face.
The young man had fair skin and a deep and handsome profile. Even though beads of sweat hung on the tip of his nose, he did not feel any resistance or rejection.
Or if you touch his nose with yours, he won't mind...
His temple throbbed twice.
Xie Jiaran closed his eyes and tightened his grip on his wrist.
Liang Sunian lowered his head slightly while speaking, and his eyes roamed back and forth on the table closest to him, obviously looking for toilet paper.
There were only two of them in the dormitory, and Xie Jiaran naturally thought that he was talking to him.
He moved his lips as if he wanted to speak, and suddenly a head popped out from the upper bunk near Liang Sunian.
Li Tang was still holding the tablet in his arms. He took off one of his headphones and asked Liang Sunian, "What did you say?"
Liang Sunian: "Where's your toilet paper?"
Li Tang said, "Oh!", hooked his foot on the bed, pinched a toilet paper package between his toes and handed it to him from the other end: "See if there's anything else in there?"
Liang Sunian glanced subconsciously and found it empty.
In addition, Li Tang's unruly posture was so eye-catching that he couldn't help but sigh. Just as he was about to say forget it and open a package, two pieces of paper were handed to him.
The fingers of the hand holding the toilet paper were slender and beautiful, and the skin was so white that you could clearly see the direction of the blue blood vessels beneath the surface.
"For you." Xie Jiaran said in a cold tone, with no expression on his face.
Liang Sunian was stunned for half a second before he raised his hand to take it. His eyebrows raised slightly, and his expression showed a bit of surprise.
"Thank you." He did not forget to say.
Xie Jiaran said lightly, "No need", and when he withdrew his hand, the tip of his ring finger lightly brushed across Liang Sunian's palm.
Then he quickly withdrew his hand as if he had been electrocuted, and took half a step back to distance himself from him.
"Do you want to use the bathroom now?" he asked Liang Sunian, silently clenching his right hand that was hanging by his side.
Liang Sunian was indeed preparing to take a shower, but thinking of where Xie Jiaran was standing when he came in just now, he said, "I'm not in a hurry, you use it first."
Xie Jiaran frowned, nodded, and turned to go into the bathroom.
Li Tang's mouth slowly opened into an O shape since Xie Jiaran handed the paper to Liang Sunian.
As soon as he heard the door close, he stretched his neck even further, and like a turtle coming out of a hole, he put his head close to Liang Sunian, suppressing his voice but unable to suppress his surprise: "Oh my god, what's going on? Am I sleepwalking???"
Liang Sunian folded the paper with his index finger and wiped the sweat off his forehead casually: "What's going on?"
"You know how serious Xie Jiaran's mysophobia is."
Li Tang said, "Before, when I came back from playing basketball, I was covered in sweat. He wrote the word disgust on me in bold letters, wishing he could stay away from me. Why do you treat me differently? You don't look sour anymore, you don't hide anymore, and you even offer me paper?"
The more he talked, the more confused he became. A big boy inexplicably felt aggrieved: "Am I really that stinky? Or are you two, the school beauties and school hunks, secretly developing feelings behind my back?"
Yes, what a coincidence! Liang Sunian was the one who accidentally lost a strong rival and finally won the championship in the school idol voting post.
The campus belle and the campus hunk, literally the official couple, plus they live in the same dormitory, so logically they should have a good relationship, but unfortunately the opposite is true.
The two of them had never spoken more than ten sentences since they started living together.
There's no way, Xie Jiaran is too cold.
After rolling up the tissue and throwing it into the trash can, Liang Sunian skillfully threw the basketball onto his fingertips and spun it. Hearing this, he curled his lips and said, "What are you thinking about? Didn't you see that when he touched me just now, he dodged faster than being pricked by a needle? Can you call this affection?"
"Yeah." Li Tang touched his chin: "What you said seems to make sense... But I still think it's a little weird."
"You think it's useless. A stinky man's sixth sense is worthless."
Liang Sunian tilted his head and pointed at the TV series playing on his tablet: "And brother, your goddess seems to be dying."
Li Tang screamed "Fuck" and quickly retracted his head, then began to cheer for the goddess through the screen.
Liang Su Nian was happy. He turned around and went back to his seat. He kicked the basketball under the table, opened the closet, took out clean clothes and prepared to take a shower.
When I sat down and turned on the computer and waited for it to boot up, my eyes inadvertently fell on the back of my hand.
He is also fair-skinned, and he wouldn't get tanned even if he played basketball for a whole summer, but he is still a far cry from Xie Jiaran's.
He turned over and spread out his palm, a look of doubt flashed across his face.
He knew that Xie Jiaran was a mysophobe and didn't like physical contact with people, so he was careful to avoid it when taking the paper.
There was clearly some distance between us, how could we have bumped into each other