Ruan Xiao was the last one to arrive. She was wearing a classic Burberry trench coat and her long hair was tied into a ponytail. She looked much more capable than when they first met, but her smile was still very sweet.
"The second episode is airing today." Ruan Xiao came over and said to Shang Sirui with a smile, "You will definitely be on the hot search list. I even thought of the entry, [Shang Sirui's acting skills are off the charts]."
"Isn't it [Shang Sirui pretending to be a pig to eat the tiger]?" Xia Xiqing joined the team that teased Shang Sirui.
Shang Sirui puffed his lips, swayed his body and bumped into Xia Xiqing, "Who is the tiger? You or Ziheng?"
Xia Xiqing glanced at Zhou Ziheng, who was playing with his phone with his head down, and didn't seem to want to reply, so he smiled and said, "I'll be the first to die, of course not me."
"Maybe you will be the first one to die tonight." Shang Sirui joked with a smile.
Ruan Xiao also laughed, "Don't set random flags."
"Ziheng didn't talk much today," Shang Sirui deliberately changed the subject, "maybe he's just feeling guilty, and he's actually the killer."
"When has he ever liked to talk?" Ruan Xiao added casually.
Zhou Ziheng, who was teased, raised his head and looked at Shang Sirui with sharp eyes, and said in a calm tone, "Okay, I will kill you first tonight."
Shang Sirui immediately walked over with a smile and hooked his arm around Zhou Ziheng's neck, "No, handsome guy, please let me go. Hey, didn't you say last time that if you were a killer, you would kill Xi Qing first? Don't forget your oath."
When Zhou Ziheng heard him say Xia Xiqing's name, his expression changed slightly. He deliberately made a disgusted expression and pushed Shang Sirui away, "What kind of oath is that? You're sick."
After being pushed away, Shang Sirui pestered Xia Xiqing again, "You too. No matter who is the killer between the two of you, you must kill the other. Keep your word."
Ruan Xiao crossed his arms and said, "Okay then. If I were the killer, I would kill you first. I promise."
Seeing Ruan Xiao speaking seriously, Shang Sirui immediately asked, "Why? We have no grudges in the past or in the present, how can you do this, Xiaoxiao..."
"Because you talk too much."
Everyone was talking and laughing. Xia Xiqing noticed that Zhou Ziheng took off his sunglasses and pinched his nose.
He looks good without makeup, except for the dark circles under his eyes.
Maybe the exam was too tiring? Xia Xiqing guessed.
Several people boarded the plane together and their seats were arranged together. Before he got on the plane, Xia Xiqing guessed that his seat would be next to Zhou Ziheng's. Sure enough, he saw Zhou Ziheng, who was walking in front of him, sitting next to his corresponding seat.
Shang Sirui pulled him to the back, "Xi Qing, I'm in the row behind you." He walked over quickly and sat next to Ruan Xiao who was sitting by the window, and said with a smile, "I might fall asleep, why don't we switch seats, it will be more convenient for you." Ruan Xiao readily agreed and took out a steam eye mask from her bag, "You can sleep with this, it blocks the light and is comfortable."
Shang Sirui happily took one, said thank you several times, then reclined the chair and lay down.
Ruan Xiao was very kind, so Xia Xiqing accepted the eye mask and smiled at her. Then she stood beside Zhou Ziheng who was already sitting down, and said, "Excuse me, can you let me pass for a moment?"
Zhou Ziheng's pair of long legs had nowhere to put and took up too much space, so he pulled them in to let Xia Xiqing in.
"Thanks."
This kind of distant and hypocritical politeness made Zhou Ziheng feel uncomfortable. Who would have thought that this person had an ambiguous lunch with him in the school cafeteria a few days ago and they flirted with each other.
"You're welcome." Zhou Ziheng also replied with a smile.
When Xia Xi passed by him, Zhou Ziheng smelled a strange scent, like lemon, with a bit of cool woody scent, like cedar. This was not Xia Xiqing's style at all, but more like other men's taste preferences.
The more he thought about it, the stronger the scent of cedar seemed to become, making Zhou Ziheng feel uncomfortable.
As if adding evidence of a crime, he repeatedly argued in his mind about Xia Xiqing's promiscuity, thinking that this way he could extricate himself earlier.
In his peripheral vision, Xia Xiqing's slender hand rested lightly on the armrest beside the seat. Zhou Ziheng was frightened by the hand that had once pressed on his chest, and his mind, which had calmed down in the past few days, became dizzy again.
After what happened a few days ago, there was an unbridgeable gap between Xia Xiqing and Zhou Ziheng, even though their relationship before was not very close. But Xia Xiqing was born proud, and his self-esteem was repeatedly hit. Even though he had a huge desire to conquer the person in front of him, he needed a buffer period to recover his vitality.
Everyone before Zhou Ziheng would fall for the illusion they had created, but he alone refused to do so. This incident itself repeatedly reminded Xia Xiqing that no one would truly love someone like you.
Even though he had already understood this truth.
Xia Xiqing, who was not very willing to speak, chose to sleep. He looked at the steam eye mask in his hand, hesitated for a while, and finally put it aside, simply closing his eyes and leaning against the window.
Zhou Ziheng looked at the blindfold he had put away and remembered that he had been blindfolded during his first recording of the show.
Xia Xiqing is afraid of the dark, so putting on the eye mask in the secret room at first would probably cause adverse reactions.
That's why he took a gamble and used the quickest and most direct method to test whether there was another person in the room who could help him get out of the darkness.
Maybe it was because of his fluctuating mood, but Zhou Ziheng couldn’t sleep well. He was flipping through a book on quantum mechanics that he hadn’t finished reading.
The sunlight at 4:30 in the afternoon shone on the pages of the book, making the smooth pages look fuzzy. It seemed that one could see the tiny white paper fibers swaying gently between the printed words, just like Zhou Ziheng's heart at this moment, swaying in a way that was almost imperceptible to others.
Xia Xiqing, who had fallen into a semi-sleep, straightened his head a little and closed his eyes. As his head was raised, his neck was stretched out, like a swan that had fallen into a coma in the sun.
Zhou Ziheng forced himself not to look at him, but the dark screen of the laptop on his desk reflected Xia Xiqing's sleeping face. The protruding Adam's apple on his smooth neck was like a lonely mountain on the plain, and buried under the mountain was nothing but Zhou Ziheng's heart. Every time the small protrusion rolled slightly, his heart began to shake uncontrollably.
He suddenly became addicted to such quiet moments. Although peeping was not a very decent thing to do, Xia Xiqing at this time would not actively seduce him or make any dangerous moves. He just existed quietly by his side, like a volcano that had temporarily subsided.
I miss the cherry blossoms, rain and snow on Mount Fuji, but I am also afraid of the hot magma that may erupt at any time.
Human desires are always selfish and complicated.
Compared to the face reflected on the screen, the book in his hand seemed to be missing something. Zhou Ziheng flipped through two pages impatiently, and couldn't help but feel sorry. It wasn't that the book was missing something, it was that his heart was missing a piece.
Part of it was eaten by the serpent in the Garden of Eden.
His eyes couldn't help but drift to the screen again and again. Zhou Ziheng noticed that Xia Xiqing's brows were slightly frowned. Guessing that it might be because it was too bright, he reached out his hand as gently as possible and wanted to pull up the sun visor for him. As soon as his fingers touched the window, he heard Xia Xiqing's voice.
"Don't turn it off."
Xia Xiqing did not open his eyes, but just turned his head towards the window, his voice was a little hazy and hoarse, as if he was half asleep and half awake.
"I can't sleep without light."
His fingers curled up involuntarily and Zhou Ziheng withdrew his hand.
Xia Xiqing didn't fall asleep completely. His eyes were closed, but his other senses became sensitive. He could hear Zhou Ziheng turning pages, deliberately slowing down his movements to prolong the friction of the pages, slowly scratching his heart. He could also hear Zhou Ziheng's occasional long breaths, which sounded like sighs, but not quite like them.
Under the sunlight, his tightly closed eyes made everything in his field of vision turn into a hazy orange-red. As his consciousness gradually sank, the waves were rippling, reminding him of Monet's "Sunset on the Coast", which made him feel safe and warm.
Light has no shape.
When you close your eyes, you perceive light most accurately.
So the moment Zhou Ziheng stretched out his hand, Xia Xiqing woke up quickly. His desire for light made him unable to sleep peacefully. Fear and dread, all the emotions that had been imprisoned in the darkness, suddenly surged out.
No one understood. Xia Xiqing knew.
Zhou Ziheng never tried to disturb his sleep again, and he couldn't even hear any sound from Zhou Ziheng.
Normally, Xia Xiqing found it difficult to fall asleep on a plane. It felt like he was on a small boat, floating up and down with the rough waves. But this time, it seemed that there was a small hole drilled in the boat, and water quietly slipped in. He sank little by little with the hull and fell into a deeper dream.
He seemed not very big in the dream. Everyone in his field of vision was very tall, drowning him. Hot blood flowed from his chin to the clothes on his chest, and the small cartoon character was dyed red. People were coming and going in the hospital. He was dragged by a person he was not familiar with, like a rag doll with only one hand held, his body was thrown around without care, and he went to the operating room filled with the smell of disinfectant.
The quarreling in my ears never stopped, the strange feeling of the cold needle piercing through the numb skin, and as a child, I could still shed tears without restraint.
A woman's sharp cry.
[Why did I give birth to you?]
[I wish you didn't exist.]
[You are the beginning of my miserable life.]
He looked down and saw that he was no longer wearing the bloodstained clothes, and there was no cartoon character. The pain led him to reach out, and bruises and scars on both arms, one after another, golf clubs, or other expensive metal products, as long as they were suitable, would leave marks on his body.
Just like a canvas, it doesn't matter how much it is filled with paint.
[The people who love you most in the world are your parents, do you know?]
The whole class uttered the same childish voice.
[knew-]
knew.
I really want to raise my hand and ask a question.
Teacher, what if my parents don’t love me
Then there will be people in this world...
The water drowned his breath, and the suffocating feeling of drowning woke Xia Xiqing up in an instant. Like a dying fish, he gasped and breathed violently to absorb the air he needed to survive. He raised his hand in panic and touched the scar on his chin.
It was dusk when he opened his eyes, and the clouds in the sky were stained with magnificent colors. The vulnerable side that was revealed in his sleep made him defensive. He saw Zhou Ziheng staring at him from the corner of his eye. Xia Xiqing wiped the corner of his eyes with his hand, turned his head, and said in a hoarse and sharp voice, "What are you looking at?"
Zhou Ziheng's face was stunned for a moment. He seemed to have just come out of a distracted state, and a trace of confusion and guilt appeared on his well-defined face.
"How long have you been watching?"
Xia Xiqing wondered how he would behave when he was possessed by a nightmare. Perhaps he would nervously grab the fabric of the seat with his fingers, or he might mumble in his sleep, or perhaps something even more embarrassing. He tried to find the answer from Zhou Ziheng's reaction.
"It's been a while..." Zhou Ziheng lowered his deep eyes and looked guiltily at a corner. His long and thick eyelashes were illuminated by the sunlight, casting a long, flickering shadow on his lower eyelids.
He didn't lie. Zhou Ziheng was a tough guy, but he didn't like lying.
"What are you looking at?" Xia Xiqing, whose vulnerable side was seen, couldn't help but stand up. "What did you see?"
Zhou Ziheng raised his eyes again, the clouds outside the window were reflected in his eyes, and he looked extremely sincere.
“The Tyndall Effect.”
This answer surprised Xia Xiqing.
Zhou Ziheng did not lie.
After Xia Xiqing fell asleep, Zhou Ziheng felt as if a feather had fallen in his heart, slowly settling down. Wherever it touched, it felt itchy and uneasy, but the feather would not land on the ground.
He finally turned his head to look at him.
The sunlight penetrated through the three thousand meter thick cloud layer and came through the small glass window. The flying tiny dust particles turned the air into a turbid colloid like fog. The light passed through, leaving a beautiful and bright path, from the upper left corner of the window, slanting downward at sixty degrees, along the extended line of the incident angle, and hit Xia Xiqing's chest straight.
"When the Tyndall effect occurs, light takes shape." Zhou Ziheng pointed at Xia Xiqing's chest, his lips slightly curled up.
Xia Xiqing lowered his head in a daze, looked at his chest, followed the faintly glowing path, and looked at the rose-colored clouds piled up in the corner of the window.
Sensitivity and worry, sharpness and defense, were defeated by a small physical phenomenon and turned into a beautiful light that pierced the heart.
Zhou Ziheng was a little slow to realize that he had accidentally smiled at Xia Xiqing.
After that day, he repeatedly warned himself not to establish a close relationship with him, no matter what kind of relationship it was, but he had forgotten the principle just now. However, he saw Xia Xiqing sleeping as quietly as if he was in a coma, and he also saw the tears covering his eyeballs like glass beads when he opened his eyes.
He knew nothing about Xia Xiqing, and there was no need for him to know. He always convinced himself this way.
But when he saw the thorns that stood up after Xia Xiqing woke up, it was as if he saw a small rose floating in the clouds.
I wanted to reach out and hold it, but I could only hold the bloody marks from the stab wound.
The plane was about to land. The stewardess with delicate makeup was walking in the aisle, reminding people of the precautions during landing. Zhou Ziheng closed the book that he had not read much, and also closed the notebook on the table.
Xia Xiqing finally recovered from the long-lost dream. They left the plane and the afterglow of the setting sun enveloped him.
"I'm so hungry." Shang Sirui had a good sleep and discussed the important issue of dinner with Ruan Xiao who was walking beside him.
Xia Xiqing looked up in a trance at the clouds, the rosy sky, and the formless light.
The cell phone suddenly vibrated and Xia Xiqing took it out to check.
[Moral Model]: Share pictures.
It was a candid shot from the side. The Tyndall effect was captured by chance in the lens, the beautiful background of rose-colored clouds in the glass window, and the side profile of myself sleeping in the light and shadow.
And there was that tangible light that pierced straight into his chest.
Holding the phone, Xia Xiqing felt a palpitation in his heart.
He spoke in a low voice, not even looking at the people around him, as if he was talking to the wind, "Why are you filming me?"
The wind also brought him a response, with an imperceptible faint smile in the low voice.
"I wasn't photographing you, I was photographing the Tyndall Effect."
Clearly rejected, but still teasing unconsciously.
This person is really naive and cunning.
The author has something to say: Note: When a beam of light passes through a colloid, a bright "path" can be observed in the colloid from the direction perpendicular to the incident light. This physical phenomenon is called the Tyndall phenomenon, also known as the Tyndall effect.
Writing this chapter gave me the same feeling as writing "be Crazy Survival System", probably because the angel attack Zhou Ziheng has such a healing style.