The scale of time is always unpredictable.
When it's slow, it's like a slowed down shot, and every frame lingers in the senses. But once it speeds up, it's like quicksand that cannot be caught.
Summer is urged to arrive by the noisy chirping of cicadas.
As graduation approached, Zhou Ziheng gave up all his jobs and devoted himself to writing papers in school every day. Originally, he felt that he was a bit neglectful of Xia Xiqing, but the strange thing is that Xia Xiqing has also become busy recently, leaving early and returning late almost every day, and the two of them even bumped into each other during busy periods.
After working in such a dizzying manner for several months, he finally successfully completed his defense, and Zhou Ziheng also had time to make up for some previous work. On the last day of May, after returning from shooting a commercial in Koh Samui, Zhou Ziheng called Xia Xiqing and asked him if he had time to have dinner together in the evening.
"Eat..." Xia Xiqing seemed to be busy on the other end and spoke intermittently, "I may have to be a little late. Otherwise, you can book a place first. I will have time after eight o'clock. I will go find you then."
Zhou Ziheng hummed, and when he hung up the phone, he looked at the time. It was already past 4 p.m. He told Ronaldinho to book a seat for him in a very private Western restaurant, and he went back to his home. At 7:30 in the evening, we set out for the restaurant. After waiting in the private room for half an hour, we finally arrived at Xia Xiqing.
He looked very hurried, "I'm not too late."
"No." Zhou Ziheng pulled his hand and found that his palm was wrapped with a circle of gauze. His heart suddenly tightened, "What's wrong? Are you injured? How did you do it?"
"It's just a small wound. It's okay. It will be fine in a few days." Xia Xiqing rubbed Zhou Ziheng's ears and walked to the opposite side to sit down.
"How?" Zhou Ziheng asked again.
"Hmm..." Xia Xiqing's expression was a little hesitant, "It's nothing, it's just about the art exhibition. I accidentally cut it."
"be careful."
Xia Xiqing blinked and said in a brisk tone, "I know." He used his right hand to support the side of his face, but as soon as he raised his elbow, he changed it and looked at Zhou Ziheng's face, "You have lost weight."
Before Zhou Ziheng could answer his question, Xia Xiqing added, "I miss you so much."
With his nature of playing with the world, he rarely uses sincere and straightforward expressions, so even Zhou Ziheng couldn't help but be stunned, not knowing how to give feedback.
He also missed Xia Xiqing so much that he spent every spare moment thinking about him.
The two of them, who hadn't chatted for a long time, took the opportunity to chat for a while while waiting for the food. When the waiter opened the door and came in to serve the appetizers, Zhou Ziheng's cell phone rang. It was his teacher's phone number.
"I'll go out for a while and be back soon."
After standing outside the private room and making phone calls for ten minutes, most of them were talking about applying for graduate school. After hanging up, Zhou Ziheng turned around and pushed the door open. As soon as he closed the door, he saw Xia Xiqing, who was chatting with him just now. He fell asleep on the table.
His face was buried on the table, his left arm was placed under his forehead, and his right hand was hanging down. His whole body was full of fatigue.
What on earth are you busy with? You are so tired.
Zhou Ziheng walked lightly, walked slowly to his side, squatted down and stretched out his hand to gently untie the gauze on his palm.
The gauze was removed in circles, and the wound on Xia Xiqing's palm was finally exposed to him, as if he had been cut by something. Although it was not very deep, it was somewhat inflamed.
Zhou Ziheng's heart seemed to be grasped by a pair of invisible hands. He wanted to wrap up the wound for him, but saw his hanging fingers move.
Xia Xi woke up.
He first raised his head and glanced at the empty chair opposite, then turned his head in confusion. His dull eyes searched the air for a long time, and only slowly focused when he saw Zhou Ziheng squatting beside him.
"Why are you here..." His half-awake voice was much softer than before, and his eyes seemed to be misty and misty.
Zhou Ziheng stood up and touched his head, "Why are you so sleepy?"
Xia Xiqing didn't say anything. He just put his head on Zhou Ziheng's belly and put his arms around his waist, looking completely coquettish. Zhou Ziheng's broad palm stroked from the top of his head to the back of his neck, again and again, so tenderly.
"Why do you look like you're petting a cat?" Xia Xiqing's voice was muffled, with a hint of a sleepy nasal sound, which sounded very cute to Zhou Ziheng.
You are cuter than a cat.
Cuter than any other little animal in the world.
When he thought that only he could see such a soft and willful Xia Xiqing, this special and extremely inconsistent nature of Xia Xiqing was arbitrarily labeled "Zhou Ziheng's exclusive" by him, and his mood was instantly thrown into the clouds.
"Eat first, we'll go back to bed later." Zhou Ziheng patted his back twice, walked over and pulled the chair to Xia Xiqing's side, and moved all his tableware over. It was so far away for him to have a meal. I felt uncomfortable.
Xia Xiqing found that the gauze on his hand had been removed by him, and he just lowered his head and carefully wrapped it back. Zhou Ziheng didn't ask, so he didn't explain.
After eating, the two people came out of the restaurant. Summer is coming in a hurry, and the humidity breaks into this dry city with its hot moisture. The two walked to the parking lot side by side. Just as Xia Xiqing opened the car door, Zhou Ziheng suddenly spoke.
"My graduation ceremony is this Friday."
Xia Xiqing's hand paused. There was no surprise on his face, but he said, "So fast?"
Zhou Ziheng felt confused, but still walked around to the driver's seat, "I'm driving, your hand is injured." Xia Xiqing couldn't resist him, so she had to walk to the passenger seat by herself.
"It feels like you just finished your defense." Xia Xiqing pinched the bridge of his nose, "I'm so busy that I don't even remember the day."
"I'm going on a business trip to the United States these two days." Before Zhou Ziheng could speak, Xia Xiqing spoke first, "But I will definitely come back before your graduation ceremony starts, don't worry."
Xia Xiqing said don't worry, Zhou Ziheng didn't doubt it.
He did not come home for several days.
On the day of the graduation ceremony, Zhou's mother came specifically to see him and rushed him to school early in the morning. It was obviously Zhou Ziheng's graduation, but her mother was even more excited than him, "I brought a camera specially to record you."
Zhou Ziheng was not very interested and looked down at his mobile phone.
"What's wrong with you?" Zhou's mother glanced at him while waiting for the light to turn green, "Are you sick?"
"No." Zhou Ziheng turned off his phone and tapped the back of his head on the seat back.
"Are you waiting for Xi Qing?"
Zhou Ziheng was stunned and turned stiffly to look at his mother, "How do you know?"
"Can you still hide it from me?" When the light was green, Zhou's mother stepped on the accelerator, "Xi Qing just called me and said he would come to us later."
"Then why didn't he call me?" Zhou Ziheng turned sideways and grabbed his mother's arm like a child, "What else did he say?"
"I didn't say anything else." Zhou's mother drove the car intently, and suddenly thought of something, "Oh, by the way."
Zhou Ziheng's head immediately raised from his seat, thinking it was about Xia Xiqing.
Seeing her son being so active, Zhou's mother couldn't help but laugh, "It's not Xi Qing, it's your director. He also called me just now. When you arrive, go to the director's office first. I think he has something to talk to you about."
Sighing silently in his heart, Zhou Ziheng turned around and looked out the window. The sun poured down from the soft clouds, penetrated the lush shade of the trees, fell far away, and reached his shoulders through the glass, burning his black bachelor's uniform.
He was extremely eager for Xia Xiqing to witness this day, and he had thought so since a long time ago. Although he knew very well that this day was only slightly special in his mind. For Xia Xiqing, it was just a lover's graduation day at best. But graduation day means the successful end of a stage and also growth.
Zhou Ziheng hopes that he can graduate in Xia Xiqing's heart.
It's not to protect him, nor to be stronger than him. Zhou Ziheng doesn't expect these things, and Xia Xiqing doesn't like them either.
He has only become a lover who is equal to Xia Xiqing in every aspect. Even if there is an insurmountable age gap, he can be called a mature lover.
When they came to the college, many classmates who graduated together came to take photos with Zhou Ziheng. Many of them were faces that Zhou Ziheng was not familiar with. They probably wanted to seize the last chance to commemorate their star classmates. Although Zhou Ziheng has always been a loner, he actually does not have a character that can easily reject others, so he has been taking photos with everyone seriously.
Most of the people present were graduates, with only a few fans who had followed Zhou Ziheng all the way. From the beginning, Zhou Ziheng had already said on his trumpet that he did not want too many fans to come to school, for fear that it would affect other students.
Seeing her son trapped in the dilemma of taking photos with others, Zhou Ziheng's mother standing aside reminded her softly, "Hengheng, don't forget to find Director Wang." After hearing his mother's words, Zhou Ziheng remembered and said Sorry, while withdrawing from the crowd, "Mom, will you come with me?"
"Go on your own, I'll wait for you here."
Zhou Ziheng nodded and walked to the director's office alone. He felt strange that no matter what happened, the director should not come to him on the day of the graduation ceremony, but since it was his mother who said it, there must be nothing wrong. He raised his hand and knocked on the door, "Director, I'm here."
Director Wang, who had just poured himself a cup of tea, looked up and looked out the door. A smile appeared on his face as soon as he saw Zhou Ziheng.
"Zi Heng is here, come in."
Zhou Ziheng consciously prepared to sit down opposite the director, but the director stopped him and said, "Hey, wait a minute, let's make this short. I have to lead you down later."
There was a trace of confusion on his face, and the director smiled and said, "That's right. You are a very good student, and you have spread a good value orientation to the college. Whether it is the school or the college, you have always been there." Proud of such outstanding students.”
"Thank you, director." Zhou Ziheng smiled politely.
"The college is also very grateful for your donation. In fact, this is the first time for you to make an alumni donation just after graduation, but..."
Zhou Ziheng was stunned and frowned, "Donation? Director, what did you just say? I didn't understand."
Director Wang suddenly laughed, "Ziheng, why are you still pretending to be stupid?" He suddenly reacted, "Is it possible that you don't know? No, your name is written on that document. Forget it, forget it, you Follow me." After that, Director Wang took Zhou Ziheng to the new building. Along the way last week, Ziheng kept thinking about what the director had just said.
Donate? He thought of his mother who had just asked him to find the director. Could it be that his parents secretly donated money to the school in his name
"arrive."
The empty hall on the first floor was rarely crowded with people. After hearing what the director said, Zhou Ziheng pulled away from his thoughts and looked over according to the director's instructions. In the center of the hall, a huge white hanging from the patio-style atrium. Curtains, surrounding it on all sides, fell to the ground, as if they were hung to cover something.
"This is?"
"You take a look first, we will take a group photo later." Director Wang called away the students around him and asked them to lower the curtain. "The meaning of this exhibit is very good and it is in line with the style of our college. I heard the teacher who handled the donation said , this is the gold medal work in the New York Times Art Exhibition not long ago. The Academy is very grateful for your donation..."
The first time the word art appeared, Zhou Ziheng's brain began to stop functioning.
He didn't listen to the rest of the words.
In just a moment, the white curtains surrounding it fell from top to bottom. Amidst the exclamations of the people around, the mysterious donation hidden inside was finally revealed.
The second his sight touched her, his wildly beating heart almost stopped.
It was a modernist public sculpture that appeared to be six meters high. From a distance, the outermost layer is made up of countless tiny spheres of different sizes, mostly blue and gold in color, glowing with a beautiful metallic luster under the strong light of the hall.
All the microscopic balls surround themselves into an overturned ellipsoid, and each one drags a light-like tail. There is light inside, which shines through the gaps between countless particles. These particles seem to be agile and unified. Splashing away, like...
"big Bang… "
All particles leave me and rush towards you.
Zhou Ziheng murmured to himself, his steps guided by his sinking consciousness, and he walked step by step towards the huge and magnificent exhibit. The view obscured by the crowd gradually became clearer, and he saw more.
The big bang was just the outermost "shell", and the two halves that flew away surrounded a hollow area.
In the lower right corner of the case, there is a palm-sized gold plate with the creator's name written on it.
[Creator: negative particles]
Negative particles.
This phrase was a perfect blow to Zhou Ziheng's heart.
[Donor: Zhou Ziheng]
There is also a message engraved below.
[The vast universe cannot be privately owned, but it can be stored in the eyes of those pursuing ideals. ]
Stepping into the center of the "Big Bang" was like stepping into a vacuum universe. The noisy discussion stopped in an instant and disappeared from Zhou Ziheng's ears. His steps became slower, and his heart was deceived by the feeling of weightlessness and floated.
Inside the shell is a little boy made of copper, with a small rose stuck in the coat pocket on his chest. He held a book in his hands, the pages of which connected two spirals that rotated upward. One was composed of many white particles, and the other was black. Two completely opposite forces repel each other in attraction and merge in confrontation.
Positive particles and negative particles are entangled and dance together in the Milky Way.
The little boy holding the book raised his head, and Zhou Ziheng also raised his head, his eyes moving up little by little along with this beautiful spiral.
In the center of the big bang, at the top where positive and negative particles collide and mingle, there is a planet hanging.
In Zhou Ziheng's gentle eyes that looked up, they sparkled calmly.
"Excellent graduates from the School of Physics, I would like to ask you a question."
A familiar voice came from behind, which was the lowest probability Zhou Ziheng expected before seeing this sculpture.
The radio signals emitted from this vivid and beautiful space station traveled through billions of light years, brushing away the bright and scattered star dust, and broke into his lonely and silent universe.
Turning back, his eyes caught up with the spaceship chasing the speed of light, and landed on the face that was more beautiful than the nebula.
The suspended heart reaches its destination in his smile.
Xia Xiqing stretched out his right hand behind his back. The gauze-wrapped hand held a red rose and handed it over. He raised his head and pointed at the shining star, his eyes innocent and gentle.
"Why does it glow?"
The author has something to say: I recommend a BGM that will work better with this chapter, "Solar System" by Lin Yilian.