Xie Jiaran was in his dormitory doing a small test paper on formal logic.
He just wasn't paying attention. His eyes stayed on a question for a long time. I didn't know what he was thinking about. The tip of his pen left a crooked mark on the paper.
Li Tang and Shen Xuehao were in class, and he was the only one in the dormitory. It was so quiet that he seemed to be able to hear the sound of the wind.
But even so, he could not hear the sound of the door opening almost next to his ear. It was not until someone dragged a chair and sat down next to him that he realized it and turned his head.
"How come you're back?"
He looked at Liang Sunian in surprise: "Aren't you playing basketball?"
"Xiao Chi rushed back to the dormitory to feed his son, and the show ended."
Liang Sunian finished speaking and looked at the test paper that he had not touched for a long time: "Can't do it?"
Xie Jiaran hesitated for a moment and nodded: "Yeah."
Liang Sunian raised the corner of his mouth, his eyes filled with amber light: "Do you still want one-on-one tutoring?"
With the arrival of a "temporary teacher", Xie Jiaran's inability to concentrate not only did not improve, but became worse.
All he could hear was Liang Sunian's voice, but he could not receive any content from that voice. His mind was filled with the answers that Chen Wenyao had given him in the gym not long ago. He did not even notice that Liang Sunian had explained the wrong knowledge.
Teacher Liang was also a little distracted. He rushed on the wrong road for a long time before realizing that he had already made a mistake.
He sighed helplessly and tried to correct it in time, but found that the person next to him didn't react at all.
When he raised his eyes, he saw that his only student had already lost his concentration, with his eyelids drooped, and the pen in his hand had fallen on the table without him noticing.
The two people got together absent-mindedly, one talking nonsense, the other talking nonsense, and it was unclear who was trying to please whom.
"Xiao Xie, what are you thinking about?" Liang Sunian pulled the fabric on his arm to bring him back to his senses.
Xie Jiaran's eyelashes trembled twice, his eyes quickly refocused, and he whispered, "Sorry."
Liang Sunian turned the pen around and wrote lightly on the test paper, then said with a smile.
After Xie Jiaran finished speaking, he stopped talking. The atmosphere became quiet and the ear-piercing sound of the wind became the dominant sound again.
Xie Jiaran lowered his head, pinched the ring finger of his left hand with his right hand, twisted it, and then let go.
Repeat back and forth.
After a while, he suddenly asked, "Did you have a girlfriend before?"
Unexpectedly, at the same time, Liang Sunian also asked: "Do you want to introduce someone to me?"
"... ..."
"... ..."
The two voices overlapped, each unable to distinguish the other's words, and both were stunned with tacit understanding.
Xie Jiaran was the first to react, his eyes filled with confusion and doubt: "Should I introduce someone to you?"
Who said that
He is already worried about how to win the girl over, so how could he possibly want to introduce him to someone
Liang Su Nian: "Aren't you going to ask Chen Wenyao to tell you that I have been in love before and what kind of girl I like? Aren't you going to introduce me to one?"
This misunderstanding is indeed huge.
Xie Jiaran immediately shook his head: "I'm just asking out of curiosity. I don't want to introduce anyone to you." After a pause, he added: "I also know a suitable girl who can be introduced to you."
He spoke half a beat faster than usual, as if he was afraid that he would chase him and ask him for help in introducing things.
Liang Sunian was amused by him, and the pent-up annoyance in his heart was swept away: "Don't worry, I'm just asking, I don't want you to introduce me to someone."
Xie Jiaran uttered a dry "oh" and waited for a while. When he brought the question back to the beginning, he couldn't help but ask again: "So, have you really had a girlfriend?"
Liang Sunian sneered: "Is this what Chen Wenyao told me?"
Xie Jiaran: "He said he had met her in college, but it seems he had met her in high school."
"High school..."
Liang Sunian tapped the table with his fingertips in a searching manner, and seemed to glance at Xie Jiaran unintentionally, who was waiting for his reply with his eyes slightly wide open. Like a cat looking up waiting for its owner to open a can of food, he still managed to hold back a smile.
"Xiao Xie, why are you suddenly gossiping?" he asked with a smile.
Although Xie Jiaran was at a loss for words, he still tried to organize his words calmly: "No, I'm just asking casually. I've been practicing speed drawing recently and I want to find some reference."
Liang Su Nian was curious: "Why does speed training require love history as a reference? Are you drawing girls' comics?"
"... ..."
Xie Jiaran couldn't find a loan, and his eyes began to avoid him guiltily.
Fortunately, Liang Sunian was determined to get the answer.
Seeing that he was in a dilemma, she turned the topic back to herself, considering the appropriate way to express herself: "As for love... ... To be honest, I might, barely, be considered to have been 'dated' before?"
Xie Jiaran immediately turned his gaze back to him, not noticing his strange choice of words, and only focused on the important thing he wanted to ask: "Is the other party a girl?"
Liang Sunian thought he looked a little silly and cute today: "Of course, since you're talking about a girlfriend, if she's not a girl, can she be a boy?"
Xie Jiaran's expression froze.
My mood is like something that has just been scooped out of a soy sauce jar, coated with chili powder, and then stuffed into a vinegar jar. It's a mixture of all kinds of feelings.
For a moment, she didn't know whether she should be sad that he liked a girl, or be jealous of the girl who once called Liang Sunian her boyfriend.
"oh."
He clenched his palms and said in a calm tone: "It was in high school, right? How long did you date? Why did you break up later?"
The memory was so profound that Liang Sunian didn't even need to spend time recalling it: "It was indeed during high school, the third year of high school. It wasn't really appropriate to say we broke up, because this matter was very complicated."
How complicated is it
The kind that's lingering and sad
Xie Jiaran had a cold face and felt extremely suffocated in the chest.
He began to regret why he made himself unhappy.
Just dated, it's normal to have a premature love affair. Which high school student doesn't have a premature love affair? It's just that you may have kissed or hugged someone. It's no big deal.
"But if it can really be considered a live conversation, then I talked to her for about... more than half a minute?"
Liang Sunian estimated and said, "Well, maybe even shorter, twenty seconds?"
Xie Jiaran's sour mood was interrupted, and his expression froze: "Huh?"
Twenty seconds
What does it mean
Liang Su Nian said: "From the time I knew I was in a relationship with her to the time I was dumped, the whole process lasted about 20 seconds."
This was one of the biggest blunders that happened in his high school days. Thinking about it now, it's hard to put into words.
The romance originated on a summer afternoon when he was a senior in high school.
Chu Xi, his neighbor and the only girl in their brotherhood, suddenly had the urge to give him a black hairband one day and asked him to wear it on his left wrist.
Liang Sunian was stupid at that time, he just studied all day, played basketball, and had never played with girls. He didn't know what it meant to wear rubber bands given by girls.
He saw several boys in his class wearing them and thought they were just for decoration, but because he was in a hurry to get his equipment from the equipment room, he actually put it on.
From that day on, things started to become a little strange.
Chu Xi suddenly became more kind to him and started bringing him food every day, sometimes various candies and sweets, sometimes homemade bread, egg tarts and biscuits.
But Liang Su Nian didn't like to eat these. In the spirit of sharing happiness, after taking them, he immediately distributed all the fancy food to other brothers.
Chu Xiaoxiao sent him a message and made a video call late at night, but he was the first to answer the call because he was used to going to bed early. The next day, he was scolded and asked her why she didn't tell the school, saying that staying up late would affect his studies the next day.
Chu Xi said that the cafeteria was too crowded and she didn't want to go, so she asked him to bring her some food. He nodded, and in the end he only brought back one meal.
Chu Xi was stunned, and asked him with a twitching mouth, "What about his portion?" Liang Sunian replied as a matter of course, "As for me, I ate in the cafeteria. Eat it while it's hot. I'm going to play basketball."
Chu Xi was left sitting alone in the classroom, his face livid.
Chu invited him to go out and play together on the weekend, but he thought for a long time that there would be nothing fun for only two people, and he thought it would be more fun with more people, so he invited all his other brothers to come along.
When a group of people gathered in front of the Internet cafe with their ID cards in their pockets, Chu Xixi stood aside gritting his teeth, his face so dark that it was unbearable to look at.
The situation continued in this awkward manner until Chu Xiu's birthday when he asked Liang Sunian to spend it alone with him, but he called his brothers to buy a cake and escorted them to a KTV. Her patience finally reached its limit and she exploded.
"Liang Sunian, can you please understand that I, Chu, am not your sworn brother!"
She stood behind the standing microphone, her voice loud and clear throughout the room: "I just want to ask you one question now, are you really serious about dating me?!"
The sound was so loud and deafening that Liang Sunian was stunned at that moment, along with his brothers who could only make noises like "Aba Aba".
The atmosphere became more awkward than ever before.
After brainstorming for a long time and barely digesting this piece of information, Liang Sunian's head was full of question marks: "Brother Chu, when did we start dating?"
Chu Xi: "..."
Everyone: “… ?”
Liang Su Nian: “ooo???”
Similar to the emotions of the characters in the story, Xie Jiaran's mood swings are like a roller coaster.
From jealousy, to confusion, to strangeness, and then to speechlessness, it only took a few minutes.
After several years, it still makes people sigh and sigh when talking about it.
Liang Sunian sighed and reflected: "Actually, when I asked this question, I knew I was wrong, because her expression at that time seemed like she wanted to eat me alive and be done with it."
"So, what happened next?"
Xie Jiaran finally found his voice: "Now I know what she means. Are we officially together yet?"
Liang Sunian shook his head: "Of course I have."
After being yelled at, he finally understood what the hair tie on his wrist meant, even though he only wore it for less than half a day.
Unfortunately it's too late.
At that time, Chu Yu was like a giant dragon that could breathe fire, with angry flames in his eyes.
Liang Sunian was inexplicably involved in a relationship and was completely confused.
Those stupid brothers didn't dare to say anything. They huddled in the booth, trembling and keeping their mouths shut, pretending to be cowards.
Chu Xi tried to calm down: "Okay, I didn't think it through. I thought all the boys in the world knew what it meant to wear a hairband, but I didn't expect that I would be the only one who slipped through the net."
She asked him word by word seriously: "So now that you know I like you, I want to ask you formally, what do you think in your heart, do you want to be my boyfriend?"
The word "formal" is very clever.
Liang Sunian, who had inexplicably been a good friend and boyfriend for a while, was silent and at a loss for words.
How to say it
There is no way to protect the brotherhood that is stronger than gold. After all, this kind of relationship cannot stand procrastination.
Liang Sunian was struggling to choose the words to say no, but before he could even think of a way to express his refusal, Chu Yi had already gotten the most direct answer from his expression.
"Okay! Don't say anything, I know!"
Chu Xi gritted his teeth and took a deep breath. He waved his hand heroically and said in a resounding voice: "To Liang Sunian, I now announce the cancellation of this relationship! We have been dating, and you have never been my boyfriend."
"I don't want to waste my precious first love on this idiot!"
Apart from Liang Sunian, there is probably no other person who can force a relationship into a brotherhood.
It would be a lie to say that he didn't feel guilty. Even though Chu Xiwei had emphasized eight hundred times that "I'm too magnanimous to bother with you" when she was disappointed with him and trying to instill some girls' trivia about "hairbands" in him, he still felt heavy-hearted and even wished he could help Chu Xiwei take the college entrance examination and get full marks in all subjects for her to make up for his mistakes.
Of course, from that time on, he no longer dared to accept things from girls casually.
Although classmate Chu Xi was very pitiful and Liang Sunian was very innocent, Xie Jiaran couldn't help but feel happy instead of depressed.
"That doesn't count as being in love, does it?"
He said: "The girl said she wanted to cancel it, so she is no longer qualified to have an ex-girlfriend."
"really."
Liang Su Nian smiled and said, "Although only a few of us know about this, many people have seen me wearing a hairband. So when people who knew a little about it asked me about it, I claimed that I was dumped by the girl unilaterally. Anyway, they didn't know who the heroine was, so they could talk about me. I'm thick-skinned and don't care about these things."
Xie Jiaran asked: "Do Xiao Chi and the others know about this?"
"I don't know the details." Liang Sunian guessed, "I guess he just heard some rumors when he was browsing my high school forum."
Xie Jiaran blinked: "Since you didn't tell them, why can you tell me?"
In fact, Liang Sunian couldn't explain the specific reason for this question. He just instinctively felt that this matter could not be hidden from Xie Jiaran.
Otherwise, there might be some strange misunderstandings.
"Because Xiao Liang is of high quality."
He made a measuring gesture with his palm pressed down, and boasted immodestly with the corner of his mouth raised: "I won't lie to you, little kid."
Xie Jiaran smiled.
The corners of his mouth curved in a shallow arc, and the cold air accumulated between his brows was mostly dispelled. It was the coldest and cleanest dawn, with a ray of light seeping in from the sky.
He seldom smiled, and almost no one had ever seen him, including Liang Sunian.
It's really beautiful, the kind of beauty that touches your heart.
I was tickled in the heart by a feather that was light enough to float.
Liang Sunian couldn't help but move his fingers, as if he wanted to touch something: "Xie Jiaran, do you know that there are stars in your eyes?"
It was as if the vast Milky Way was shrunk billions of times and then fell into his eyes, so bright and brilliant that he could not take his eyes away.
Xie Jiaran shook his head.
He didn't know what the stars were, and now he only needed one important thing that he hadn't confirmed: "Liang Sunian, do you think homosexuality is bad?"
Liang Sunian asked: "Is this also a reference for speed painting practice?"
Xie Jiaran nodded: "Yes."
Liang Sunian thought seriously, and when Xie Jiaran was so nervous that his heart was hanging in the air, he asked him puzzledly: "Why do you use the adjective 'bad'?"
Xie Jiaran was stunned.
Liang Sunian said to himself: "There is no good or bad saying about this thing, it can only be said that each person has his own opinion on it."
Xie Jiaran tried hard to control his anxiety and said casually, "What about you? What do you think?"
"My opinion, well... I think liking something or not should not be based on gender."
Liang Sunian tried to express his opinion with his advanced knowledge of Chinese word formation, which he was not good at: "From a certain perspective, this is just like family affection. I am born to like my father and my mother. Otherwise, do I have to consider whether they are boys or girls before deciding whether to like them?"
This metaphor seems a bit strange and out of place.
But never mind, I'm a science student, so I just do what I want to do.
"Don't mind all that mess. If you like it, it's just what you like. It varies from person to person, but it has nothing to do with gender."
"It looks just like me."
He pointed at his nose and said seriously, "I can't guarantee that the person I like in the future will happen to be a girl. Anyway, the decision is in his hands, so no matter whether he is a man or a woman, as long as he is him, I will like him."
Xie Jiaran looked at him for a long time.
Then, she pursed her lips and looked away, her long eyelashes drooping just in time to cover up the dazzling light that flashed by.
"Oh," he said, "I see."
The distorted marks made on the test paper are still there.
Xie Jiaran looked at it for a few more seconds, then picked up the brush again, and with just three or two strokes at the end of the trace, he drew a blooming rose.
I see.
Then Liang Sunian, I'm going to start chasing you.