"What are you thinking about again?"
Sheng Min raised his head and Li Xuan handed him a box of fried yogurt with a thick layer of coconut flakes on it.
"Give me?"
"What else? Come on, I've got the ice hand."
"Thank you." Sheng Min took it with a smile, "The one at the end of the alley?"
He remembered that they seemed to have passed by a dessert shop on the way to the Internet cafe. It had a small storefront, but there were so many people lining up that half of the road was blocked.
"Well, Zhu Zhou has a delivery call here so I ordered one."
Li Xuan leaned against the window. A breeze came in from outside and the sunlight cast mottled shadows on the windowsill.
This is the attic on the second floor of the Internet cafe. There are many people in the store. After Sheng Min gave the notebook to Zhu Zhou according to Li Xuan's instructions, the two went upstairs to wait.
"You..." Sheng Min glanced at him.
"I don't need it." Li Xuan waved his hand and frowned imperceptibly. "I don't eat sweets. Only you have the taste of a child and can't avoid sweets. I ordered matcha and rum. They don't have osmanthus flavor."
"I only took a few glances because there were so many people in line." Sheng Min laughed, "I didn't have to eat osmanthus."
"Your assistant said you like it." Li Xuan automatically ignored his previous words, "Didn't you also ask me to bring you osmanthus candy when I visited the grave?"
Tomb sweeping.
Sheng Min was slightly startled, and seeing a hint of teasing in Li Xuan's eyes, he smiled. It was only a week, but when he thought about it, it seemed like a long time had passed. He lowered his eyes, scooped a spoonful of fried yogurt into his mouth, and it was sweet with coconut flakes.
"Why aren't you talking again?" Li Xuan looked at him eating silently, a little dissatisfied.
"What?" Sheng Min looked at him in confusion, "It's delicious... ..Thank you? I just said that."
"I was waiting for you to say thank you?" Li Xuan leaned back and sat on the windowsill. "I asked you what you were thinking about."
Sheng Min recalled that Li Xuan had asked this question before handing over the yogurt. The letter from the prison flashed through his mind quickly: "I didn't think anything."
"Don't pretend. Something was wrong with you when you came out of school. Did you run into my roommate when you were helping me get my books? Or was it something else?"
"No." Sheng Min shook his head.
"real?"
"Really not." Sheng Min pursed his lips and asked stiffly, "Did you open this Internet cafe? Just now Zhu Zhou asked me to check the bill?"
"I asked you to check the account, why am I the one opening it again?" Li Xuan said lazily.
This was obviously her dissatisfaction with his change of subject. Sheng Min pretended not to know and continued to play dumb: "Why are you opening an Internet cafe here?"
"It's yours now." Li Xuan suddenly jumped back to the previous question and said casually. Sheng Min suddenly had an idea: "Not in the future?"
Li Xuan seemed to pause for a moment, then said, "After we exchange it back, it will of course be mine. Do you still want to occupy my place?"
Sheng Min felt that this was not what he meant, but Li Xuan obviously did not want to mention it again. Suddenly, footsteps were heard outside the door, followed by Zhu Zhou's voice.
"Come in." Sheng Min said.
"Brother Xuan." Zhu Zhou poked his head in. "I took a look and it seems that the graphics card is broken. We don't have a ready-made one here. If you're not in a hurry, I can ask someone in the city to send one over and replace it for you. It should only take an hour or so. Why don't you guys have lunch and leave?"
Sheng Min glanced at Li Xuan calmly. The latter had already put on a mask. Noticing his gaze, he tapped the windowsill lightly with his fingers.
"Okay." Sheng Min then said to Zhu Zhou, "You change it."
"What do you want to eat for lunch? I'll order some food together."
"It will be all right."
"Then..." Zhu Zhou pointed at Li Xuan, but Sheng Min didn't introduce him, just saying he was a friend. He didn't know how to address him, so he simply didn't address him. "Is there anything you can't eat if you have a cold?"
"Just something light, nothing else." Sheng Min remembered that Li Xuan's cold was fake and he had many dietary restrictions, so he added, "No coriander or celery. Thank you for your help."
Zhu Zhou ordered three dishes and a soup from a nearby home-style restaurant, which were delivered not long after. The appearance was average, but the taste was OK.
"Doesn't he need to eat?" Zhu Zhou brought the dishes and left in a hurry. Sheng Min didn't have time to call him. He waited until the door was closed before asking Li Xuan.
"What are you looking at? I look like a very demanding person? No eating during working hours?" Li Xuan pulled out a chair. "It's almost noon. There are a lot of people here. Zhu Zhou has to look after the store. He will have time to eat after this busy period. And he eats a lot. He should order something else. You eat yours."
"That's not what I meant." Sheng Min handed him the chopsticks. "I was just thinking, what would you do if he stayed here all the time?"
“I’ll just eat with a mask on.”
Sheng Min smiled and said, "It's okay to tell him, your friend won't gossip about it."
He had said this before getting off the car. "It's a bother." Li Xuan pulled out a chair and sat down. "What if he asks how we met? Or if he wants an autographed photo, can I sign it right away?... Do you have any fan meetings recently? Do I need to learn your calligraphy?"
Sheng Min thought for a moment and said, "Not yet."
"Then it's better to have less trouble than more. Let's eat."
Sheng Min ate a box of fried yogurt. She wasn't really hungry. She drank two bowls of soup slowly and ate half a portion of lettuce with oyster sauce. Then she felt full. Li Xuan finished eating early in the morning. Qi Boyuan called to talk about the progress of the recruitment, so he went to answer the phone.
Sheng Min collected all the disposable plates and gently signaled Li Xuan, "Should I take them down and throw them away?"
Li Xuan was busy talking on the phone and nodded casually.
Classes have been dismissed at the nearby universities now, and the weather is good today, so the streets are crowded with students, strolling around arm in arm, and there are also couples holding hands to watch a newly released movie.
Sheng Min has become more and more famous in recent years, and it is rare for him to have the experience of being in a crowd and not being noticed at all - it is not accurate to say this, after all, Li Xuan is good-looking, thin and tall, and from time to time girls passing by in groups of three or five would turn their heads to look at him, meet his gaze, and then run away playing with each other.
Sheng Min couldn't help but lower his head and smile silently, then turned around and went back to the Internet cafe.
"Brother Xuan." He went in through the back door and heard Zhu Zhou calling him from behind the counter, "The computer has been repaired. Can you check it? The files and everything should be there."
“So fast.”
Sheng Min glanced at the stairs. Li Xuan hadn't come down yet. "Just give it to me. I'll take it up and have a look."
"Oh." Zhu Zhou was a little hesitant.
Sheng Min looked at his expression and asked, "Is there something wrong with you?"
"Yes, there is something." Zhu Zhou chuckled and leaned over the counter to ask him, "You said last time that my boss would come in two months. Is the exact time set?"
Sheng Min was stunned when he heard this. He thought, what's going on? This store is not actually owned by Li Xuan? He looked calm and imitated Li Xuan's tone and said casually, "When did I tell you two months?"
"Just a few days ago." Zhu Zhou was confused.
"Then don't be anxious."
Sheng Min lowered his eyes. Li Xuan said it was now, and Zhu Zhou said it was two months. Somehow, he suddenly remembered the name on the envelope, Zhao Jizhe... Two months, could it be that this person's sentence had expired
Such speculation was unreasonable, but Sheng Min did not know more about Li Xuan's life. He was still daydreaming, and Zhu Zhou had called him twice.
"What did you say? I didn't hear you just now." Sheng Min apologized.
Zhu Zhou scratched his hair and said, "My sister is getting married next month, so I might need to take a week off then."
"That's fine." Sheng Min came back to his senses and said gently, "If he doesn't come, just close the shop, or I can find someone to take your place for a week. It doesn't matter... Your sister is getting married, so please bring me a red envelope."
As he was about to reach for his phone to transfer the money, he realized something was wrong halfway through his hand. Fortunately, he always carried cash with him, so he took out two thousand and handed it to Zhu Zhou.
"No..." Zhu Zhou waved his hands hastily, "No, no, no."
"It's not for you, it's for your sister."
"You don't even know her."
"I know you." Sheng Min smiled, "Now that I know you, I have to give you a gift."
"That doesn't need to be so much." Zhu Zhou frowned, looking like he didn't know how to deal with it.
In the past, Sheng Min often gave red envelopes to Yang Xu. The salary of the assistant company was not high, so he had to give more subsidies during festivals and when there were things at home. He was used to comparing, but he didn't expect Zhu Zhou to react so strongly.
"It's okay, you can take it. Getting married only happens once in a lifetime. Remember to bring me wedding candy."
Zhu Zhou hesitated for a moment before taking it: "Thank you, Brother Xuan."
"It's okay, it's my duty." Sheng Min said. Zhu Zhou smiled embarrassedly, "Your salary is higher than others."
"Let's put things in order." Sheng Min said gently, "You go ahead and do your work. I'm going upstairs."
Zhu Zhou then put the notebook into his schoolbag for him. Seeing the dents and rubbed paint on the computer cover, he asked casually, "How did your computer become like this? Did you drop it?"
"I didn't notice it when I picked it up and it fell to the ground."
"Oh." Zhu Zhou handed him the schoolbag, and as if he remembered something, he asked him to wait a moment, and went to the room where he slept on duty at the back and took out a small red bag with patterns embroidered with gold thread.
"My grandma got this amulet from the temple last month. Brother Xuan, you can take it with you."
Sheng Min didn't understand and looked at him in surprise.
"Didn't he fall?" Zhu Zhou explained.
"The computer fell, not me." Sheng Min smiled, "And grandma asked for it specifically for you, so you can keep it."
"She goes there every week. She has asked for many things from my childhood to my adulthood. It's just for good luck."
"Grandma believes in Buddhism?"
"Yeah." Zhu Zhou thought for a moment, "I think I told you."
"Oh... I did, I forgot." Sheng Min nodded. Zhu Zhou was somewhat suspicious of returning a favor, but he always had good intentions. Sheng Min didn't want him to be embarrassed, and remembered that Li Xuan had actually been in a car accident and had dropped his computer. After thinking for a moment, he thanked him solemnly and took it.
"Why are you looking at me?" After Li Xuan checked the computer and found that it was fine, the two set off for home. On the way, Sheng Min kept wondering if Zhao Jizhe and Zhu Zhou's so-called boss were the same person, and what the relationship between him and Li Xuan was. He couldn't help but glance at Li Xuan from time to time. He thought he was being secretive, but after so many times, Li Xuan noticed it.
"You mean you didn't see it?" Sheng Min didn't answer, and Li Xuan raised his eyebrows.
"I saw it." Sheng Min sighed, "I saw if you gained weight. I have an interview next week and I have to appear on camera."
Li Xuan glanced at him, totally unconvinced, and said with a half-smile: "Then take a closer look, have you gained weight?"
"No."
Sheng Min was just making excuses, but now he had to take a serious look at him. As he stared at him, he found it increasingly difficult to find traces of himself on this face that should have been extremely familiar to him: "You've lost weight, you slept too late."
This was a very sincere statement. Li Xuan did not comment. He knew that he must have been thinking about something else at first. Seeing that he did not want to talk, he did not pursue it any further: "Just keep talking nonsense." He then asked him: "What day of the week is your interview?"
"Monday." Shengmin said, "What do you have to do?"
It really happened. He promised Li Mingge that he would go back on Monday, but that was before the car accident. Under the current circumstances, it would be easy to let Sheng Min take his place in class, and let Sheng Min go back to Li's house for him... Li Xuan thought about it and decided to forget it, it would be better to find a reason to delay it.
He quickly made up his mind: "It's okay, you can go."
Sheng Min nodded, remembering that he had not told Li Xuan about Zhu Zhou's request for leave. He just didn't mention the boss Zhu Zhou mentioned. While telling him, he took out the amulet and handed it to Li Xuan.
"Oh, you agreed."
"You're not a harsh person." Sheng Min interrupted him with his words.
Li Xuan glanced at him, and Sheng Min looked at his expression: "How about that? I'll find someone to take over for you for two days..."
"Please go ahead." Li Xuan smiled again, "It's okay."
There was a kindergarten in front of him. It was afternoon class, and the teacher led a group of students across the road. Li Xuan stopped the car in front of the zebra crossing and waited for them to pass. He hung the amulet on the rearview mirror. The sunlight fell on the golden line, reflecting tiny pieces of light.
"Do you want to go and take a look?" Sheng Min thought.
"where?"
"In the temple. It's on a mountain in the north of the city. I've heard people say it's very effective." Sheng Min said, "Go and ask for a fortune? Tell us when we can get it back?... It's good for relaxing."
He lowered his voice as he spoke, and he himself found it funny. There were many superstitious people in the circle, and he had even seen people who raised ghosts. Sheng Min didn't really believe in ghosts and gods, but if you hadn't experienced it yourself, things like soul swapping would seem absurd. No matter who heard it, they would attribute it to supernatural powers.
"I don't believe this." Li Xuan said.
According to scientific explanation, the so-called soul might be the biological magnetic field. It is difficult to say what happened that day that caused him and Sheng Min to swap places. Temperature, humidity, geomagnetic field, and even their own physical indicators might have played a role in this.
Li Xuan had also found time to look up a lot of information these days, including physics, biology, and a few articles on astronomy. However, for something that even questioned whether it existed or not, no matter how smart he was, he couldn't find the answer so quickly.
Although he didn't want to admit it, the only thing he could do was to wait. Fortunately, waiting and patience were things he was always good at.
"Do you want to go?" Li Xuan thought about it and asked again.
Sheng Min saw that he was not interested: "Not really, that's all I say."
Li Xuan stopped talking. The kids in front were playing and fighting while crossing the road. The teacher was busy trying to stop them. The queue was long and it took them less than two or three minutes to cross the short distance.
Li Xuan took out his cell phone, replied a message, and transferred two thousand to Sheng Min.
"You don't have to transfer it to me." Sheng Min frowned, "I told you because I was afraid that if we switch back in the future, Zhu Zhou might mention it and you wouldn't know. He pushed it off for a long time today."
"Because you gave too much." Li Xuan lowered his head to type, his tone a little helpless, "It's an ordinary family, and we're not familiar with each other. Normally, a gift would be two hundred or five hundred. You increased it tenfold, so he would definitely refuse it."
"Like this..." Sheng Min was stunned, "Usually... I..."
"Your way of doing things in the entertainment industry doesn't apply to you. You're a popular artist and probably have a lot of expenses." Li Xuan put away his phone and tapped the steering wheel idly. "What about before your debut? You must know what gifts were like when relatives and friends exchanged gifts."
The zebra crossing ahead was finally clear, and Li Xuan started the car. Sheng Min was silent for a long time before saying, "We didn't have any relatives visiting us before."
"Um?"
Sheng Min paused and said, "When I was a child, my family was in debt. I told you about that. We borrowed everything we could. No relatives would want to associate with us. We don't have any friends either."
His tone was very calm, but Li Xuan couldn't help but look at him sideways. Sheng Min almost felt uncomfortable under his long gaze, and regretted why he had to explain himself: "I don't mean anything else, I'm just stating a fact."
Li Xuan frowned and his Adam's apple moved, but he didn't say anything. But he was still looking at him. Sheng Min sighed silently, and after a while, he squeezed out a sentence with a little fatigue: "You want to ask." After saying that, he felt that Li Xuan's gaze was simply unbearable, so he turned away and said: "I'm a little sleepy, I'll take a nap."
Li Xuan silently looked away.
Sheng Min was just taking a nap at first, but he didn't sleep much last night. Li Xuan turned up the temperature in the car a little bit, and changed to a very soothing old song. A gentle female voice was singing, "Where should we go? This is not the place I planned to go..." He was gradually drowned by sleepiness.
He didn't sleep deeply this time. He could vaguely feel that the car seemed to have driven out of the city, and the noise of the city was far behind. It seemed that he was going up the mountain again, and there were lush branches of trees brushing against the roof of the car. He wanted to ask Li Xuan where this was, but he couldn't open his eyes, and suspected that he was in a dream. When he finally broke free from this half-awake state, the first thing he smelled was the rich aroma of agarwood.
It was already evening, and it was summer, but not yet dark. The setting sun fell on a corner of the mountain. The dazzling afterglow made him squint his eyes, and also cast a layer of fluffy golden light on Li Xuan, who was sitting cross-legged on the hood of the car.
He was writing a program, and his fingers made a regular sound as they tapped.
"Li Xuan." Sheng Min looked at him for a while before calling him. The latter turned around, jumped off the car, and quickly walked to the side, "Finally woke up. If you don't wake up, the door will be closed."
He frowned, but his tone was not irritable. Sheng Min rolled down the half-open car window and saw the Da Guangming Temple on the plaque: "Didn't you say you couldn't come?"
Li Xuan said very naturally: "Don't you want to come?"
Sheng Min had just woken up and his mind was still a little fuzzy. He shook his head and said, "I don't miss it very much."
"It's not a big deal. Just a little thought is fine. Don't be so cautious. Aren't you tired?" Li Xuan finally became impatient. He stretched out his hand to open the car door, half bent down and prepared to unbuckle Sheng Min's seat belt directly. Just as he was about to touch it, his fingers paused and then retracted.
"Get off the bus quickly." He coughed, "It will really be closed soon."
After all, it was late, and even the most efficacious temple would not have many pilgrims.
The cypress and camphor trees in the yard were very tall. The further one went in, the stronger the smell of agarwood became, covering up the smell of the trees. The occasional sound of wooden fish and the chirping of birds made it feel even more deserted.
Sheng Min talked about drawing fortune, mostly out of inspiration, but since he was already here, he might as well give it a try.
This was his first time to ask for a fortune, and the process was unusually smooth. After getting the fortune, he threw the divination blocks and got three holy cups in a row. He handed the bamboo stick to the little monk next to him, who quickly brought him a fortune paper. The four lines of poetry on it were about astrology and the morning star. Two small words in the corner of the fortune paper marked the winning number.
The fortune teller in the temple has not left yet. She is a kind-looking female lay Buddhist.
"What's the question?" She looked at the signature paper.
"Ask..." Sheng Min hesitated for a moment, not knowing how to summarize the current situation, and said, "Ask about the future."
This is actually a very vague statement, too broad, and includes marriage, career, health, and safety. The female lay Buddhist then changed the question: "What were you thinking about when you were drawing the divination?"
What is he thinking about... Sheng Min lowered his eyes and looked at the signature paper on the table... He was thinking about someone.
"Sir?" He remained silent for a long time, and the layman reminded him softly.
"Sorry." Sheng Min stood up abruptly and put away the signature paper, "I don't understand."
He generously donated all the remaining money he had as incense money and returned along the same way he came.
Li Xuan did not enter the main hall at all, but waited for him outside the hall. Passing by the pond with lotus leaves, Li Xuan's figure was faintly visible behind the trees.
Sheng Min stopped walking. He didn't look at Li Xuan, but raised his head to look at Chang Geng, who was flickering in the distance in the half-light and half-dark sky.
The sweat from my palm soaked a corner of the signature paper.
Qiming and Changgeng have always been the same star, the one at sunset and the one at dawn.
Sheng Min stood there. Perhaps Li Xuan saw him and came over from behind the trees. The sound of the bells rang in the bell tower on the east side and lasted for a long time.
The evening breeze blew up a corner of Li Xuan's clothes, and Sheng Min remembered where she had seen him before.
The author has something to say:
Sorry for the long wait