"Lin Shan, I'm going to the bathroom. Please ask for leave for me when the teacher comes."
"Oh, sure, go ahead."
The entire corridor was empty during class time.
Xie Jiaran went in, closed the door, and turned on the faucet to the maximum. The cold water kept washing over the back of his hands, taking away the little temperature that was already left in his hands.
The first thing I wanted to do was call Liang Sunian.
But he quickly remembered that today was Friday. If he remembered correctly, Liang Sunian had a full schedule of classes on Friday afternoon and could not spare the time to take care of him.
We can't let him skip classes. He's already caused him a lot of trouble.
After more than ten minutes, the symptoms were relieved.
Xie Jiaran washed his face and returned to the classroom to continue practicing. He gripped the pencil and then loosened it, drawing intermittently, and his speed was more than twice slower than usual.
After Lin Shan finished a quick sketch, he turned around and found Xie Jiaran still tracing the lines. He sighed, "Jiaran, your hand speed is not good today."
She shifted her playful gaze to his face, and her smile suddenly faded: "No, why don't you look good? Are you feeling unwell? Do you want to ask for leave so I can go to the hospital with you?"
"Need not."
Xie Jiaran shook his head. The hospital couldn't cure his illness. "I'm fine. I just slept too late last night and didn't rest at noon today. I'm a little tired."
Lin Shan had no doubts: "Then remember to go to bed early today. Tomorrow is the weekend, and you can sleep a little longer and make up for it."
Xie Jiaran: “Yeah.”
The free practice time passed quickly. At 6:30, the bell rang and the students in the classroom packed up and left.
"Jia Ran, do you want to have dinner together?"
Lin Shan made an invitation: "There's a cake shop that just opened near the side door. I heard it's really delicious. We can go over there after dinner to try something new."
"No thanks." Xie Jiaran refused: "I don't have much appetite, and I want to finish this exercise before leaving. Maybe next time."
Lin Shan said regretfully: "Okay, I'll go test it with my guy first. If it tastes good, I'll call you next time."
As soon as he left, Xie Jiaran was the only one left in the classroom.
He stopped and put the pen on the table, closed his eyes, let out a long breath, picked up his phone, and called that person for the first time.
"Hello?"
The voice from the other end of the phone was as lazy and relaxed as always, and could be heard clearly in the slightly noisy background: "Xie Jiaran, what's wrong?"
"Didn't you go back to the dormitory?"
Xie Jiaran tried seriously to identify where he was from the background noise, but the discomfort suddenly surged back like a wave, causing the tail end of his voice to tremble.
Liang Sunian had sharp ears and could tell something was wrong.
"Are you feeling unwell?" he asked.
Xie Jiaran closed his eyes and hummed muffledly.
Liang Su Nian said wait a minute, and walked to a place far away from the crowd, where the noisy background noise was much quieter: "Where are you now, the studio?"
Xie Jiaran nodded, then added, "Yes." when he remembered that he couldn't see.
Liang Sunian asked again: "Is the get out of class over?"
Xie Jiaran tried his best to endure the discomfort that was slowly getting worse because of hearing his voice: "It's time to go down, everyone has left, and I'm the only one left."
"Okay, Xie Jiaran, send me the specific floor and classroom number of your studio now, and I'll be there right away."
Liang Sunian said clearly: "Don't go back to the dormitory. Li Tang and Shen Xuehao skipped classes and are now playing games in the dormitory. It will be inconvenient for us to go back."
"Is it convenient for you to come over?" Xie Jiaran was afraid of disturbing him, so he asked in a low voice: "Are you busy?"
"I'm not inconvenienced." Liang Sunian said calmly, "I'm not busy. I'm having dinner with my classmates at the side door. We've almost finished eating."
He glanced at his phone and said, "It's 6:47 now. If you feel uncomfortable, just take a rest for a while. It will take at most seven minutes. I will be in front of you on time."
Following his words, Xie Jiaran also looked at the time and responded with a clear and cool "Okay", with a hint of obedience that could not be concealed.
Liang Sunian raised the corners of his mouth and thought to himself that he really looked like a little kid.
I gestured to the students who were looking at me from a distance to go back first, and walked quickly towards the school gate. Just before hanging up the phone, I remembered something and asked the kid on the other end of the phone: "By the way, did you not have dinner?"
The painting studio is different from the classroom where you can sleep on the table.
Xie Jiaran felt that the seven minutes passed very quickly and planned to use this time to do a color speed trip exercise.
—Two minutes later, he rested his forehead against the drawing board and closed his eyes and began to daydream.
This is the first time I felt that seven minutes could be stretched to such a long time.
Until someone rubbed the top of his head from behind in a familiar way, Xie Jiaran tilted his head and turned to look. There was no one behind him. Liang Sunian had already walked around to Lin Shan's seat and sat down.
"Here, this is for you."
Liang Su Nian unsealed a cutely packaged box and handed it to Xie Jia Ran: "This is a new dessert shop that opened at the side door. Many people are buying it. It should taste pretty good."
"Cake?" Xie Jiaran remembered the dessert shop that Lin Shan had just asked him to go to, which seemed to be at the side door.
"Yeah." Liang Sunian naturally took Xie Jiaran's left hand and completely wrapped the back of his hand with his dry palm.
"I asked the store clerk, and they said this cake was the most popular, but they didn't have the original flavor, so I bought you a strawberry one with freshly cut strawberries on top."
I discovered that Liang really likes eating strawberries.
"Thank you." Xie Jiaran said.
Liang Sunian: "Why thank me? It's on the way anyway."
Xie Jiaran looks like a kitten, has a personality like a kitten, and even eats like a kitten, taking small bites slowly and never losing his manners no matter how hungry he is.
Liang Sunian's friends eat like piglets afraid of having their food snatched away by others, and they all wolf down their food. It is rare to see anyone eating as enjoyably as Xie Jiaran.
He found it interesting and stopped playing with his phone, staring at the person with great interest.
Xie Jiaran felt uncomfortable being stared at by him and silently quickened his eating pace.
The cake is gone, and new problems arise.
He had almost finished his painting, and with Liang Sunian holding his hand like that, he couldn't hold the paint tray.
It is troublesome, time-consuming and extremely inconvenient to put it aside and apply a little at a time.
His clumsy movements were so obvious that Liang Sunian noticed even without him saying anything: "Isn't this inconvenient?"
Xie Jiaran was silent for two seconds, then said stubbornly, "Not bad."
"Are you being polite to me?"
Liang Sunian let go of him and stood up. Xie Jiaran's hands were suddenly empty, and he subconsciously chased after him and hooked his finger.
A soft laugh came into his ears, and before Xie Jiaran could react, he was easily lifted into the air.
Liang Su Nian took his seat and gave him the empty space in his arms.
"Don't worry, I won't leave."
Liang Sunian reached out and took the palette and handed it to him: "Here, would this be more convenient?"
"... ..."
Xie Jiaran had never been hugged in such an intimate posture before. He felt his body stiffen and his brain went blank for three seconds.
"Not comfortable sitting?"
Liang Sunian adjusted his position slightly and moved him closer to his arms: "How about this? Is it better?"
Xie Jiaran finally woke up as if from a dream, his Adam's apple slid up and down, he swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and struggled to get off: "No, I'm very heavy, your legs will go numb if you sit like this."
His strength was almost nothing in Liang Sunian's eyes. He just tightened his arms and easily suppressed him: "Come on, you're still heavy. Holding you is like holding a chick."
The boy is really thin.
Not only was she light, but her waist was so thin that he could easily wrap one arm around it with some room to spare. Although he had seen this in the locker room last time, he still couldn't help but sigh in admiration when he actually held her in his lap.
Xie Jiaran was touched by his intentional or unintentional measuring gesture and held his waist.
It was as if I was touched by something invisible and my whole body went numb. My palms and calves felt weak and I almost couldn't hold the paintbrush.
The person in my arms quieted down and stopped moving.
Liang Sunian raised his eyebrows and looked at the blush that quietly spread to the tip of his ear, and the smile in his eyes deepened.
"Eat more." He said, "It's not good to be too thin. It's easy to get sick."
Xie Jiaran felt uncomfortable all over and didn't know what to say after hearing this. In the end, he was at a loss for words and uttered "OK".
A bit dull.
As the sun sets, bright sunlight slants in from the window.
The studio with only two people was eerily quiet.
Liang Sunian couldn't play with his phone because Xie Jiaran was in his arms. He stared at the canvas for a while and started chatting with him.
“Can you remember all these color combinations?”
Liang Sunian, a thorough science student, always felt that Xie Jiaran's hands were stained with a kind of magic called art. Any combination of several pigments could create another more beautiful and rare color.
He was lazy and rested his chin lazily on Xie Jiaran's shoulder. When he spoke, the hot air would continuously spray on his neck and face, causing a slight itch.
However, unlike the itchiness caused by dermatophyte syndrome, it does not make people feel uncomfortable, and it may even feel inexplicably comfortable to him.
"Not too many." Xie Jiaran patiently explained to him: "As long as you understand the complementary colors, the others will be easy to remember."
"That's amazing too." Liang Sunian was never stingy when it came to praising people, and he said proudly: "That's how I felt when I first saw my chemistry teacher doing a potassium permanganate experiment in junior high school. It was magical, awesome, and wonderful beyond words."
This should be the most typical collision between art students and science students.
Xie Jiaran had long forgotten what potassium permanganate had to be mixed with to change color, while Liang Sunian wanted to compliment someone very seriously, but due to his limited vocabulary, he couldn't come up with any fancy words.
But the advantage is that the effect is obvious.
The initial discomfort quietly disappeared during their casual chat, and he gradually got used to Liang Sunian's embrace.
Xie Jiaran has a habit of not knowing when to calculate good and bad when painting. Once he picks up the brush, he will unconsciously devote himself to it.
It was not until I finished a painting that I realized that my ears had been quiet for a long time and the window was already shrouded in darkness.
He tilted his head to take a look and saw Liang Sunian's head leaning on his right shoulder, with his eyes closed and his long eyelashes drooping. He didn't know how long he had been sleeping.
She carefully put away the drawing paper and tried not to make any noise. She inadvertently lowered her head and was attracted by a spot of red on the back of Liang Sunian's hand.
It was just below the base of his right hand. It must have been accidentally stained on his hand when he was changing the paintbrush.
I rubbed it lightly with my fingertips, it was already dry and couldn't be wiped off.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder struck, and Xie Jiaran stared at the red color uncomfortably for a long time.
Then he picked up the paint tray that he had put aside for cleaning, selected the softest brush, mixed the colors, and lightly began to outline the red spot.
With just a few strokes, a cute round strawberry takes shape.
He was drawing so seriously that he didn't notice that a figure had been standing stupidly for a long time at the classroom door with his eyes wide open.