She smelled the fragrance, was stunned for a moment, and her face fell: "If you think I'm ugly, just say it." After that, she put the lunch box on the table fiercely, walked a few steps over, poured all the dried tofu, pickles, and stinky duck eggs in the box on the windowsill into the trash basket, and then gathered the garbage bag and prepared to throw it out.
"Zhang Lili," I said anxiously, "That's not what I meant."
"What do you mean?" She looked at me coldly and picked up the garbage bag.
I bent over in a hurry to stop her, but accidentally knocked over the aromatherapy lamp, and the aromatherapy oil inside splashed over and burned me. I jumped up in shock, and in a hurry I threw my hand and knocked over the lunch box next to me, and the boiling water splashed out, half of which splashed on my elbow. It took two seconds before I felt the burning pain. I ran to the tap to take a cold shower with a grimace in pain, and gradually I saw a few blisters on my skin.
So, when Mu Chenghe came back the next day, I had burn medicine applied to my left arm.
He frowned: "How did you do that?"
I complained to him with grievances.
He observed: "This can't get wet. It would be terrible if it got infected in the summer."
When I was taking a shower, Mu Chenghe carefully wrapped my arm so that it would not get wet. Then, in this state, I finished the shower and dressing with one arm.
"But I still want to wash my hair." I scratched my oily scalp.
"Wash it tomorrow," he said.
"No, it will stink me to death. What time is it now? I'll just go to the hair salon."
He looked at his watch, thought for a moment and said, "Let me help you wash it."
Mu Chenghe moved the chair in front of the computer desk, lowered the backrest so that it was exactly the same height as the washstand, put a cushion on the seat, tested the water temperature, and then motioned for me to lie down.
I lay on my back as he said, with a towel under my neck and my hair placed in the washbasin.
He leaned over, bent over, and put his fingers into my hair. As the warm water flowed out, I immediately felt very comfortable.
"You can do this too?"
"When my father was sick, I took care of him for a long time. This is how I washed his hair," he said.
The hot water flowed from his hand to my ears, which was so comfortable that I wanted to close my eyes and enjoy it slowly. However, I couldn't bear to look at him.
A pretty and charming face is now hanging above me, with her brows gently furrowed, squeezing shampoo carefully.
I looked at him for one second, two seconds, three seconds...
He glanced at me, then put a towel over my face to shield my vision and said, "This will keep it from getting in your eyes."
"You definitely don't want me to look at you." I pouted.
He smiled and didn't argue.
"My hair is too long to wash."
"Yeah, it's long enough."
"When I was little, my mom kept my hair short because she didn't want to cause trouble. You don't know how much I envied those girls who sometimes had cute braids and sometimes had long flowing hair. I thought, when I grow up and have human rights, I must grow my hair very long."
He rubbed my scalp slowly and steadily.
"But later, Bai Lin said that I was short and would look even shorter with long hair, so I tied it all up. Zhao Xiaotang also said that if I cut my hair short, I would look more playful."
At this point, Mu Chenghe did not remain silent and slowly said, "I think long hair is also fine. Big eyes, bangs, black and shiny hair, it looks very comfortable."
I heard this and raised the corners of my mouth: "Are you praising me for being pretty and cute?"
He seemed to pause for a moment, and uttered, "Hmm."
Because his face was covered with a towel, I couldn't see his expression. I never knew what he looked like when he said "hmm".
The foam got on my forehead and he wiped it off for me.
"I need to think carefully about when I started cutting my bangs."
"You didn't have your hair cut when I taught you. But when I saw you during the Spring Festival, you had your hair cut. You were wearing a red dress that day," he said.
"A red coat?"
"No, it's a short down jacket."
"Oh, I'm actually wearing that old dress."
"I remember there was a hat on the back of my clothes, and the buttons were made of wood. When the bell rang, you wanted to hug me, but you held back." He couldn't help laughing.
"I, I can't remember it." A good man never brags about his past achievements.
"It was my birthday at the time," he said.
"It's the Lunar New Year's Eve?"
"Well, I was born on New Year's Eve. Since it's easier to remember, I always celebrate my birthday according to the lunar calendar."
"Really? She's so beautiful." I was quite surprised. "What a pity, you should have told me earlier. You gave me vodka as a New Year's gift, but I didn't prepare a birthday present for you."
"Xue Tong."
He rinsed off the foam and washed me a second time, and suddenly called my name softly.
"What?" I asked.
"Where were you during the second Spring Festival?"
If he called that the first year, then the second year should refer to this year. I thought about it and answered, "I went to see my mother."
"You didn't call me, not even a text message," he said lightly.
My heart suddenly tightened when I heard his words.
Then, I slowly reached out and pulled away the towel that was blocking my view, so I could see his face again.
I stared at him and he stared at me, and neither of us said anything for a long time.
He must have never realized how beautiful he was. His eyelashes were not long, but they curled up at the end of the corners of his eyes, making his eyes look lively and sparkling. No wonder those childhood photos made it hard to tell whether he was a boy or a girl until he was four or five years old.
It was this face, but at this moment, there was a hint of loss on it.
I could have said that it wasn't all my fault, you were also responsible, it was all your fault for avoiding me, so I did this on purpose.
But I didn't want to say anything anymore. I just used my right hand to support the chair under me, raised my body, and with my head full of shampoo bubbles, tilted my face up and bit his chin mischievously.
After rinsing quickly, he used a dry towel to dry my hair.
I suddenly felt that I should thank Zhang Lili, otherwise I would not have received such treatment.
Mu Chenghe said: "Actually, your colleague might have a bit of low self-esteem."
"I thought about it and it's true. Maybe she is afraid that others will look down on her."
"As long as you understand."
He went to get a hair dryer and blew my hair. Because the hair dryer was too noisy, we didn't talk any more during this time. When my hair was mostly dry, I started to comb it myself.
He said, “Do you know that sometimes you make me feel inferior?”
"Why?" I was surprised. "Isn't it obvious who is better between the two of us?" I thought about it and apart from the fact that I am a woman, I couldn't find anything about me that would make him feel inferior.
"Actually, I bought something and originally wanted to give it to you on New Year's Eve," he said.
"Huh? What is that?"
"perfume."
"Perfume?" My heart skipped a beat and I glanced at the wine cabinet. Could it be that the perfume was really given to me
"In the end you didn't contact me, and later on, I felt it wasn't appropriate." As he said that, he really went to get the box.
I took it and opened it with joy. Inside was a glass bottle that looked like an ink bottle, the upper half was purple and the lower half was transparent. I sprayed a little and sniffed: "It smells so good."
"I don't think you usually use this thing."
"Why?"
"Like a boy."
After the fragrance dissipated, I sniffed it again: "It has a floral scent. What kind of perfume is that?"
“Stella.”
"Why did you suddenly want to give me this?"
He avoided answering and asked, "What kind of flower fragrance do you think it is?"
"Rose?"
He grinned. "Yes, it's the Bulgarian rose. It's very special. It's not bright red, but pink, with very small petals. It's the Damascus rose that blooms in the valleys of Bulgaria. One year I went to Bulgaria for a meeting and had a few days off. I stayed south of Sofia. There were some small villages there, and the entire valley was full of this kind of roses. It was all pink, very beautiful."
"Isn't it the English rose? I always thought the rose was the most famous in England."
"Bulgaria has a nickname called the Rose Kingdom."
"Where is Bulgaria?" I admit that I am a bit of an idiot when it comes to geography and have no idea where this country is in Europe.
"They can understand roughly what we say in Russian next to Greek."
I took the box and studied the English words on it carefully.
He sat down next to me and played with the ends of my hair that were hanging beside his hand.
"Xue Tong." He called me.
"Um?"
"Do you know why I call you Роза?"
Well…
Didn't he give me this Russian name to tease me? I raised my eyes from my hands and asked suspiciously, "Rose?"
Mu Chenghe's brows relaxed: "The Bulgarian rose."
After opening the computer, he showed me the photos he had taken there. They were all light pink roses, with short petals stacked tightly together. Another photo was of a newly picked flower bud, with dewdrops on it, about to bloom, much like tender lips waiting to be kissed.
There is one more.
Maybe someone captured it for him while he was unaware.
In the photo, Mu Chenghe stood in the sun, as if a rose thorn had pricked his finger. He frowned and looked down at his hand, and deliberately avoided the scorching sun that was about to make him sneeze continuously. The Bulgarian girl next to him was about to hand him the cut flowers. Behind him were the bushes of the Rose Valley and the clear blue sky.
To be honest, they are not as charming as I expected. The small rose bush, with its branches and branches, is light in color and covered with sharp thorns. In Mu Chenghe's cognition, it feels very similar to me.
"Why?" I asked.
"I don't know, just a hunch."
"You are a top student in science and engineering. Don't you use logic in everything?" I kept insisting.
"Yeah, why do you think that is?" He smiled as he was practicing Tai Chi with me, while he took out his lighter and went to the balcony to smoke.
Later, I accidentally saw the language of pink roses in a magazine - first love.
I like your bright smile.