At the New Year's Ball, Du Ruo made a big splash.
But the limelight dissipated after a while.
Everyone is busy with their studies and life, and so is Du Ruo.
After the dance, the enthusiasm fades, and everything returns to normal. Life went on plain and peacefully.
She wants to try to be a different version of herself, but she also knows not to indulge in it, wipe off her makeup, take off her red dress, and there is still a solid way to go.
The Spring Festival this year is in early February, and the winter vacation will be in late January.
Just a week or two after the dance, the final exams of all subjects came as scheduled in the heavy snowfall.
Du Ruo and his classmates shuttled around the snowy campus, busy reviewing for the exam;
Soon, the last exam was over and the winter vacation was over.
A large number of students packed their bags and left school to return home.
Xia Nan and Qiu Yuchen returned home that day; He Huanhuan was also eager to return home and bought a plane ticket for that night.
And Du Ruo has to work part-time in a cram school to earn money during the winter vacation, and doesn't plan to go home for the New Year.
Before leaving, two Beijing roommates asked her to play with her when she was free during the winter vacation, and Du Ruo agreed.
Before evening, the dormitory was empty.
The whole dormitory building is in holiday chaos, packing up, hauling boxes, saying goodbye, locking doors.
All the noise had nothing to do with Du Ruo.
After a few hours, the corridors became empty and everyone went home.
Just after the exam, Du Ruo didn't need to go to the library, so he washed all the clothes, shoes, sheets and quilts, and cleaned the dormitory after washing and drying.
At night, the dormitory supervisor came to check the room and register the list of students who would not go home during the Spring Festival.
When Du Ruo wrote his name, he found that there were more than a dozen alumni in the building, scattered in every corner of the dormitory. I don't know if the reason they didn't go home was the same as hers.
After the supervisor left, Du Ruo called her mother.
Mom and grandma depended on each other at home, and everything was fine. They had no objection to her decision and only asked her to take good care of herself.
Before going to bed late at night, He Huanhuan had already arrived in Chengdu, and he posted nine pictures in Moments, including hot pot noodles and a bunch of delicacies.
Xia Nan gave a thumbs up.
Qiu Yuchen commented on one word: "Waves!"
Du Ruo smiled, also liked it, turned off the desk lamp, and fell asleep.
There was a little bit of missing home, but soon suppressed.
I don't have time to think about anything else. I have to go to tutoring tomorrow morning.
The student taught by the tutor is a very individual art student, so I ask the tutor to make up cultural lessons. It is said that he was angry with several male teachers before. His mother had no choice but to change to a girl to teach, and sure enough there were quite a few rules.
Du Ruo didn't feel bad about him. Although the student was not very enthusiastic towards her, it was not considered rude. Much better than that boy Jingming.
After teaching him, he has to go to the winter vacation cram school to teach in large classes.
After returning to school after get off work, she still has things to do, so she has to spend time in the laboratory.
Recently, she is very interested in inertial measurement units, and has been looking for materials to do experiments, focusing on improving the sensitivity and accuracy of existing measurement units.
A person's life is also very fulfilling.
It's just that when I walk in the school occasionally, I feel that the campus is a little strangely quiet. The dormitories, libraries, teaching buildings, and cafeterias are all gone. No matter where you go, there is no sound at all.
It's winter again, and everything withers. Like the end of the world in the movie.
I don't know where those who stayed in school hid. It made her look like a robot WALL-E, entertaining herself alone in the huge campus.
On the eve of the Spring Festival, the cram school was closed.
The campus has become increasingly empty, even the city is empty. When Du Ruo went out to eat at school that day, he found that the bustling streets in the past were deserted, let alone pedestrians, not even cars.
This time she really became a person left in the lonely city.
The New Year's Eve is just around the corner, even Du Ruo couldn't avoid it, and the bitterness of homesickness filled his heart a little bit.
On the morning of the 30th, Xia Nan, Qiu Yuchen, He Huanhuan called her one by one to say hello. Du Ruoqiang kept his tone bright and hearty, laughing haha. Qiu Yuchen went to Thailand with his family. Xia Nan invited her to her home for a New Year's Eve dinner. Du Ruo declined. It's a family reunion, why is she going to join in the fun.
In the afternoon, she was going to go out to find a store to pack the food for the evening.
Just about to go out, Ming Yi called: "You didn't come home, why didn't you tell auntie?"
It turned out that Ming Yi called Du Ruo's mother to say hello, only to find out that Du Ruo was still in Beijing.
Mingyi immediately asked her to go home to celebrate the New Year.
She still wanted to decline, Ming Yi said: "If you don't come, I will drive to the school to pick you up now."
She could only say, "I'll do it myself."
Putting down the phone, she sighed.
It's okay to spend New Year's Eve alone in the dormitory. Are you homesick? After sleeping on New Year's Eve, it will be fine as soon as you wake up.
I can run to Jingming's house...
Du Ruo bit the bullet and decided to go.
She washed her hair and took a shower, tidied up briefly, changed into a newly bought red sweater, and put on a newly bought white woolen overcoat.
She spent a lot of effort to find a supermarket that was still open, bought some gifts, and took the subway to go.
The subway station is also deserted.
Because it was New Year's Eve, the staff all smiled and said, "Happy Chinese New Year."
Arriving at the Jing Family Villa, the room is full of lively atmosphere upon entering the door. Grandparents, uncles and sisters-in-law, brothers and sisters-in-law, nephews, nephews, four generations live together.
Jing Ming's house is very big, the living room alone is more than a hundred square meters, it is only lively but not crowded.
When Ming Yi saw Du Ruo, he came forward to meet her, took her hand, gave her a light look, said nothing, only sighed in a low voice: "Silly boy."
This sound made Du Ruo warm and blamed himself.
Mingyi introduced her to everyone, and she greeted everyone one by one. The family members are very polite and accommodating, they know her background and don't ask much.
After the introduction, Ming Yi called across the living room: "Jing Ming, Du Ruo is here."
Jingming acted as if he didn't hear it.
The elders were laughing and chatting here, while Jing Ming was sitting in the middle of the sofa, playing games in front of the huge TV screen, and there was a lot of fighting.
Because of New Year's Eve, he also wore a thin red sweater, which made his side face even fairer.
Two boys and girls who looked like middle school students were sitting next to him watching. They were his cousin Jing Jing and cousin Jing Ning.
He also has two cousins, one married early, has children, and is rolling at Jingming's feet; the other is still young.
The little nephew who was rolling on the ground was about three or four years old, scratching around Jingming's leg, moaning, "I want to see the bald head, I want to see the bald head."
Jing Ming let the little boy shake his jeans, his eyes were fixed on the TV screen, and he started to fight, ignoring him.
The little nephew was jumping and jumping, Jing Ming just looked at the screen, and occasionally stretched out his hand to push the child aside.
Seeing that he was still playing games, the little nephew screamed, "I want to watch Bald Qiang!! I want to watch Bald Qiang!"
The cry was very ear-piercing, Jing Jingning covered her ears tightly.
Jing Ming frowned, becoming very impatient, and said, "Brother, take your son away!"
His sister-in-law immediately went over to pick up the child and coaxed him: "Oh, let's go upstairs and watch cartoons, don't quarrel with the third uncle."
No elder asked him to stop the game and turn on the TV. His supremacy in the family is obvious.
Du Ruo could tell from his attire that Jing Ming's family was the richest in the family, and maybe relatives depended on his family.
Jing Yuanshan Mingyi is a typical doting and pampering towards him, on the surface he occasionally reproaches him with a word or two, but in essence he lets him spoil him, and Fan Tian doesn't care. Not to mention the usual food and clothing costs, millions of sports cars are bought one after another. People have become this arrogant ghost, and all relatives are pampering and pampering.
The fourth brother, Jing Jing, who was in high school, talked nicely beside him: "Third brother, play a game for me."
"Playing ranked. It's just your skill." He cut off.
"Okay, lend me your Transformers for a while."
"dream."
"Then I'll go upstairs and get it myself."
"Touch me and break your leg."
"Brother~~"
Jingming stepped up and kicked: "Go aside."
Jing pursed her mouth, insisted on staying by his side, hanging on him and not leaving.
Jing Ning, the fifth younger sister who was in junior high school, also leaned beside him to watch him play games. Her second brother asked her to play aside, but she refused, and wanted to surround Jingming.
Jingming was also annoyed, and said, "Is this a golden nest here? Can't you two get up?"
Jing Ning was extremely wronged: "I didn't say anything, but I didn't bother you!"
With such a bad temper, a bunch of people stick to him.
Du Ruo couldn't help but glanced at the back of his head. Coincidentally, he just finished playing the game and switched the screen. The TV screen went black and became a clear mirror.
He saw her white eyes clearly. Facing the black screen of the TV, he had bad eyesight.
Du Ruo: "..."
Turn around and slip away immediately.
…
In the evening, the New Year's Eve dinner was served, and the whole family was seated one after another.
Du Ruo hesitated, seeing that some of the juniors were seated before going to sit down.
The table is full of delicacies, except for chicken, duck and fish, there is also abalone, sea cucumber, king crab that Du Ruo has never eaten, and some dishes that she does not know at all.
The Jing family enjoyed themselves happily, chatting while eating, and raised glasses among relatives from time to time to wish for the new year.
She ate her food in suspense, while observing the relatives of the Jing family around her, she wondered whether she should toast to everyone.
She is an outsider. To be honest, it is a little awkward to toast, but it would be impolite not to.
Look at Jing Ming, the elders and juniors in the family toasted him, wishing him a bright future, wishing him good health, wishing him more and more handsome, Jing Ning also wished him a good girlfriend.
He responded one by one, and replied with a word of blessing, but he no longer took the initiative to respect others.
Du Ruo was halfway through eating, seeing that the people around him were almost respectful to each other, so he got up, first toasted to his grandparents, and wished him a long and healthy life.
Jing Ming sat directly opposite her. She had been here for a long time, and he only looked at her when he heard her speak at this moment.
It had been nearly a month since the last dance, and this was the first time they had seen each other.
His eyes stayed on her face for a few more seconds, the girl was glamorous that night, but now, she looks ordinary, like Cinderella who disappeared after twelve o'clock at the prince's ball. Although the appearance has changed a bit, it is not as shabby as the train station, nor as cramped and humble as before, but seeing her courting his family, he still couldn't hold back the corners of his lips jokingly.
Just as Du Ruo sat down, he happened to see this scene. Across the round table, he raised his glass to drink red wine, and the transparent glass couldn't stop the smile on his lips.
With a stab in her heart, she watched the red wine flow into his bright red lips.
He was born with such a fair complexion and such red lips, he was indeed a mean and disgusting guy like a vampire. Du Ruo held the wine glass and thought to herself.
He looked at her with beautiful black eyes for a second, put down his wine glass, wiped the red wine stains from the corner of his lower lip with his thumb, and looked away lightly.
Du Ruo ignored him, and after sitting quietly for more than ten seconds, he still smiled and respected Jing Yuanshan and Ming Yi, wishing good health and all the best.
After paying respects, he sat down and did not continue to pay respects to others.