Xia Zhi stayed at home with his parents for three days before returning to live with his family. Although he had not officially started working, the school had already assigned him many tasks, and he began to slowly change from vacation mode to work mode.
As he said before, when he got busy, he really didn't have much time to think about Jiang Zhixia. The daily phone calls that had been going on before became once every two days, and later even once every two days was difficult to maintain. The only thing Xia Zhixia could still insist on was to poke him on WeChat every night before going to bed, to prove that he had not forgotten that he still had a boyfriend.
Jiang Zhixia didn't seem to be very busy filming recently. He always replied to Xia Zhi's WeChat messages within seconds. However, most of the time, he would take the initiative to poke Xia Zhi first, and Xia Zhi would usually take more than ten or twenty minutes to reply him.
Xia Zhi had already obtained the qualification of a graduate student supervisor in the first half of the year, and would start supervising graduate students in the second half of the year, so the period before the start of school would be quite busy. He had also explained this matter to Jiang Zhixia, saying that everything would be fine once school started.
I just didn't expect that this process of getting back on track would last for a month. Before I knew it, it was already late September.
During this period, the production team contacted Xia Zhi several times, trying to arrange a time for the finale, but he was unable to make time. Jiang Zhixia and Sang Luo also couldn't make time, so the last episode was postponed until the end of September.
However, the show has been updated to the penultimate episode, and the last episode was suspended for a week due to the delay in recording. Seeing that the filming process has reached the point where it can no longer be delayed, the staff are a little anxious. With the coordination and cooperation of all parties, the last episode finally started smoothly on the penultimate weekend of September.
The recording location this time was in City A, and it started on Saturday morning. However, Xia Zhi had a teachers' dinner on Friday night, so he took the high-speed train to get there on Saturday morning.
This time, the staff of the program team came to pick him up, and they were still accompanied by his director and cameraman.
After getting in the car, Xia Zhi chatted with the accompanying director.
"What's the theme of the last issue?"
The accompanying director gave him a mysterious smile and said, "Keep it secret for now."
"So mysterious?" Xia Zhi leaned his left elbow on the windowsill casually, and asked with a smile, "Is this a prank?"
The accompanying director waved his hand and assured: "It's not a prank or a spoof, it's just a surprise!"
"Surprise?" Xia Zhi was curious, but seeing the other party's firm expression that said "I won't tell you no matter how you tempt me", he didn't bother asking any more questions and waited for the answer to be revealed.
"Have they gone through yet?" he changed the subject.
"Teacher Xia, why are you still asking me?" The accompanying director smiled ambiguously. Xia Zhi's phone screen was on just now, and she clearly saw the WeChat chat interface, which showed that she was reporting her itinerary to her beloved lover.
Oh~ I haven't seen you for such a long time, you must be missing me so much~ The accompanying director stole a glance at Xia Zhi, and clicked his tongue gossipingly in his mind.
Ever since Xia Zhi and Jiang Zhixia announced their official announcement without warning during the recording session, the staff at the scene had been in a trance for a long time. It took nearly half a month for everyone to gradually come out of this state of daze.
Although neither Jiang Zhixia nor Xia Zhi asked them to keep it secret, after being in this circle for a long time, everyone knew what could be said and what could not be said, so everyone tacitly agreed not to spread the story of that night.
The reason why secrets are so tempting is that they are highly debatable. The more things are not allowed to be said, the more people want to discuss them. Therefore, although everyone has kept their mouths shut to the outside world these days, they have already discussed it internally, and countless gossip groups have been established. As the discussion went on, more than half of the staff in the group gradually changed from simply discussing gossip at the beginning to becoming CP fans of the two. The accompanying director happened to be one of them.
The accompanying director had been with Xia Zhi for a long time, and his speech became more and more casual. Occasionally, he would even dare to make a joke with him when he got bold enough.
Xia Zhi looked at the accompanying director, who was smiling ambiguously and making faces at her, as if she was afraid that she couldn't understand the hidden meaning of her words, and she wanted to laugh.
In fact, he was not chatting with Jiang Zhixia just now, but was discussing some academic issues with his students. However, he did not explain and calmly passed the topic over.
"How long will it take?"
"We'll be there in ten minutes." The accompanying director looked serious, but his CP radar had already started buzzing in his heart.
Oh~ I miss you so much~ I wonder if I can see them kissing each other later? If they do kiss, will I take a photo? Or record a video? When will they go public? I really want to eat sugar with my sisters—
The PD girl held her chin with one hand and stared at Xia Zhi in a daze with a distressed look on her face.
Xia Zhi didn't know what she was thinking, but her fiery eyes made his back feel a little creepy.
Ten minutes later, the car arrived at the destination.
Xia Zhi got out of the car and looked at the familiar building in front of him with confusion.
"Why are you here at Chuanxing?" Xia Zhi asked the accompanying director, "Is this the surprise you mentioned?" How could coming to the former employer be a surprise
"This is not the final destination." The accompanying director shook his head and smiled, pointed to a black nanny car on the left, and said to him, "Teacher Xia, I'll trouble you to change to that car next."
Xia Zhi nodded and walked towards the seven-seater commercial vehicle not far away. If he guessed correctly, the others were probably already waiting in the car. When he thought about meeting that person soon, he felt excited unconsciously.
I haven't seen you for more than half a month, and I really miss you.
As Xia Zhi approached the car, the automatic door of the back seat opened.
The car door slowly opened, and the first thing Xia Zhi saw was Jiang Zhixia's face. Through the car door, the two looked at each other silently, and a smile slowly gathered in their eyes.
"Stop looking and get in the car." Sang Luo suddenly poked his head out from behind.
Then Xiao Han and Cheng Yunan also leaned out half of their bodies and urged them.
Xiao Han: "Hurry up, hurry up, I've been waiting for you for a long time."
Cheng Yunan: "I haven't seen enough after so many years. Get in the car quickly!"
Xia Zhi: “…”
How could there be such a disappointing teammate
Xia Zhi got into the car depressed and sat down next to Jiang Zhixia. At this time, the person in the passenger seat turned around and greeted him.
"Xia Xia, long time no see."
"Brother Yuan?" Xia Zhi was a little surprised. "You're here too?"
Although Victoria's reunion was arranged by Fang Yuan, who is also the program's executive producer, he is very busy and another executive producer has been with the group before.
"Yeah." Fang Yuan smiled at him, without further explanation, and told the driver to drive.
Xia Zhi subconsciously looked at Jiang Zhixia beside him and communicated with him silently - why is Brother Yuan here
Jiang Zhixia shook his head slightly, indicating that he didn't know either, and handed over a bottle of mineral water. The lid was already open, and the water was less, obviously he had drunk it.
Xia Zhi smiled slightly, reached out to take it and took a sip, then naturally handed the bottle back after drinking.
Jiang Zhixia took the bottle, tightened the lid and put it aside, with his right hand naturally falling to his side.
Xia Zhi was replying to WeChat when a student sent him another message. He felt something scratching the outside of his thigh. He looked down and saw it was Jiang Zhixia's finger.
There are several GoPro cameras installed in the car, so he still looks serious on the surface, with his left hand casually resting on the windowsill, calmly enjoying the scenery outside the window. If you only look at his upper body, no one would know what his hand is doing at this time.
Xia Zhi moved his legs calmly - he was very ticklish. Jiang Zhixia then withdrew his hand, but within half a minute he stretched it out again restlessly.
"… "
Xia Zhi glanced sideways at the man next to her with a helpless expression.
Jiang Zhixia looked at him calmly, her fingertips moving non-stop.
Xia Zhi could no longer ignore it, and he decisively grabbed the restless hand before the person around him did anything more excessive.
Jiang Zhixia was obviously waiting for this opportunity. She turned over her hand and held his hand in her palm, rubbing it with her fingertips for a long time. Then she slowly passed her fingers through his fingers, and finally kept their fingers interlocked.
Xia Zhi didn't struggle, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly, and his fingers slightly tightened and pressed on the back of his hand, which was both a response and a warning, warning him not to make trouble again. Jiang Zhixia had achieved his goal, so he didn't make trouble anymore.
Xia Zhi maintained this posture and continued typing his reply with one hand.
The car drove for about five minutes and then stopped.
Fang Yuan unbuckled his seat belt, turned around and said to the five people, "We're here, get out of the car."
Xia Zhi put away his phone, and untied his hands from Jiang Zhixia without leaving any trace, and got out of the car calmly as if nothing had happened. However, when he got out of the car and saw the destination, he was stunned. The teammates who got out of the car behind him were also very surprised.
"Eh? Isn't this our former dormitory complex?" Xiao Han was puzzled. "What are we doing here?"
Fang Yuan smiled and said, "Let's go up and take a look first."
The five people followed Fang Yuan into the apartment building.
In order to settle its artists, Chuanxing rented several suites in this community. This is not a high-end community, but it is close to Chuanxing.
The group arrived at the door of their former dormitory. Fang Yuan took out a key and opened the door.
Xiao Han was surprised: "Is this house still rented?"
"Chuanxing didn't renew the lease a long time ago." Fang Yuan explained with a smile, "After you moved out, this room was bought by someone else."
Cheng Yunan asked hesitantly, "Then let's go in like this, does the owner have any objection?"
Fang Yuan glanced at Sang Luo and smiled without answering.
Sang Luo helped answer: "Well, the landlord has no objection."
The other four teammates looked at him.
Xia Zhi was the first to react and asked Sang Luo: "Did you buy this house?"
Sang Luo smiled and agreed.
Cheng Yunan was puzzled: "Why did you buy this house? It's not in a very good location."
"I'm not short of money." Sang Luo smiled faintly: "It's not bad to keep it as a souvenir."
No one spoke anymore, perhaps because they were thinking about the days when they lived together, and they all felt a little emotional for a moment.
Xia Zhi originally thought that the production crew was already waiting inside, but after entering the room, he found that there was no staff member in the room, only a few of them, but there were many cameras installed on the walls of the room.
Fang Yuan came in last, and Cheng Yunan asked him teasingly, "What does this mean? Are you reliving the past?"
"Yeah, almost." Fang Yuan explained to everyone, "Many netizens are very curious about your previous dormitory life, so the theme of the last episode is to go back in time. You need to live here as Victoria for three days. What it was like back then is what it is like now."
Fang Yuan originally imagined that their reactions would be excitement, or at least joy. However, he did not expect that after he finished speaking, the five of them fell silent at the same time.
"What's wrong? Do you have any concerns?" Fang Yuan was a little worried.
The five of them shook their heads.
Sang Luo looked thoughtful and asked slowly, "What did we do at that time?"
Xiao Han scratched his head and thought for a long time, then gave up and said, "It's been too long, I can't remember clearly."
Fang Yuan didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but fortunately he was not unwilling, so he said: "Don't worry, think about it slowly. You guys try to get a feel for it first, I have work to do so I'll leave first. The house has been cleaned in advance, and daily necessities are ready, call me if you need anything else. I'll leave first and come back in the evening."
"return?"
"I'm your agent." Fang Yuan smiled calmly, "I live in this house with you."
Everyone suddenly realized that it was not just the five of them who restored Victoria's identity, but also her agent.
Fang Yuan dropped them off and then left. Everyone watched him hurry out the door, and in a trance they felt as if they had indeed returned to the past.
At that time, Fang Yuan also went out early and came back late, just to get as many resources as possible for them. And they were like hungry young birds, staying at home and waiting for their mother to come back and feed them.
Returning to a familiar place, the memories that had faded away seemed to slowly become clearer.
Everything in the room was the same as before. This suite had four rooms in total, and the two slightly larger ones were used as double rooms. One of the two single rooms was the agent's room, and the allocation of the remaining three rooms was decided by drawing lots. In the end, Xia Zhi and Jiang Zhixia chose the same room, the other double room was chosen by Cheng Yunan and Xiao Han, and Sang Luo had the other single room to himself.
Xia Zhi walked straight into the room he and Jiang Zhixia had lived in. Although it was a double room, the area was actually only the size of an ordinary bedroom. There were two single beds in the middle of the room, and there was no extra space after two wardrobes were placed in the corner.
The single bed was only 1.3 meters wide, which was not enough for Xia Zhi, who liked to roll around when sleeping. In the beginning, before he and Jiang Zhixia developed a closer relationship, he basically rolled off the bed four or five times a week. But at that time, his sleep quality was very good, and he would not wake up even if he fell off the bed. If Jiang Zhixia did not get up to rescue him in the middle of the night, he could sleep on the floor all night.
Fortunately, Jiang Zhixia was a light sleeper, and he always woke up the moment Xia Zhi rolled off the bed, and then got out of bed to rescue him. After a long time, he would wake up on time at 2 a.m. every day, and he had to get up to check if Xia Zhi had rolled off the bed, so that he could sleep peacefully in the second half of the night.
Later, the two of them naturally developed into a romantic relationship, and the two beds were naturally combined into one bed. After the bed became wider, Xia Zhi rarely rolled off the bed, and at most rolled into Jiang Zhixia's arms.
Sang Luo bought this house in order to preserve traces of their past life here, so he did not make any changes to the layout of the house. Even the two single beds are still placed close together.
Xia Zhi walked around the room and couldn't help feeling a little emotional as he looked at everything familiar in front of him.
Because of the breakup, he was particularly resistant to everything related to Jiang Zhixia for a while, and he wanted to forget the memories of fighting side by side with him as a teammate in the group.
He once thought that time had passed and he had forgotten everything about his time in Victoria. However, from the moment he stepped into this house, memories of the past came flooding back. Every scene was so vivid in his mind that he had not forgotten even a single detail.
He was so lost in thought that he didn't hear Jiang Zhixia come into the room until he hugged her from behind.
"What are you thinking about?" Jiang Zhixia asked softly in his ear.
The first thing Xia Zhi did after coming to his senses was to look at the walls around him. After making sure there were no cameras in the room, she relaxed her body and leaned against him obediently.
"Nothing, just some memories." Xia Zhi said with emotion, "It's been eight years."
"Um."
"I still remember that we had an argument here," Xia Zhi pointed to the window. When he talked about it again, he was able to face it calmly and even joked. "To be precise, it can't be called an argument, because you didn't say anything the whole time. I was the one scolding you."
"Forget it." The arm around his waist tightened silently, and Jiang Zhixia's voice was a little hoarse, "Forget about it."
"…Okay." Xia Zhi agreed softly, "Let's all forget it."
"Um."
"Go out." Xia Zhi gently touched the back of his hand.
"Kiss first." Jiang Zhixia put forward the condition.
Xia Zhi laughed in silence but did not refuse.
Five minutes later, the two walked out of the bedroom one after the other. Cheng Yunan was washing the pot in the kitchen, apparently preparing to cook, while Xiao Han and Sang Luo were squatting in front of the TV cabinet and looking through the drawers.
Jiang Zhixia touched his arm and whispered, "I'll go help Yun An."
"Okay." Xia Zhi nodded and said, "I'll go see what they are doing."
When Xia Zhi walked behind Sang Luo and Xiao Han, he just heard them talking.
"Are you sure you put it here?" Sang Luo was tired of squatting, so he sat down on the ground without any image, and picked up a CD to fan himself.
"I remember putting it here." Xiao Han was still looking for it, and he almost put his head into the drawer. He turned around and asked Sang Luo, "Did your servant throw it away as garbage?"
"Impossible." Sang Luo said firmly, "I specifically told them not to touch anything in the drawers or cabinets."
"Then why did it disappear?" Xiao Han wondered, "That thing doesn't have legs, so it can't run away."
Xia Zhi couldn't help but ask, "What are you looking for?"
Sang Luo and Xiao Han turned back at the same time. Xiao Han looked up and answered, "We are looking for the DV."
"DV?" Xia Zhi was stunned for a moment, but soon remembered.
There was a time when Xiao Han was fascinated by retro digital devices and bought a retro DV from a second-hand market. During that time, Xiao Han held up his DV and filmed them all day long.
However, the DV had been manufactured for a long time and had been passed around in the market for a long time, so the quality was not very good. It broke after only a week of use. Because the model was too old and could not be repaired, Xiao Han put it away.
"Didn't your DV break a long time ago?" Xia Zhi asked in confusion.
"The machine is broken, but the hard drive is fine." Xiao Han continued to search without giving up, "The videos I shot before are still stored in the hard drive."
"Didn't you take it with you?"
"No." Xiao Han looked distressed. "I forgot about it when I moved out, and I've kept it in this drawer."
Xia Zhi also tried hard to recall, but had no impression at all, so he suggested: "Why not ask them?" He pointed to the two people who were busy in the kitchen.
"They?" Xiao Han raised his head and glanced towards the kitchen, then waved his hand and said firmly, "That's impossible. I know my stuff best. How could they know more than me?"
Sang Luo was a little skeptical at first whether it was really necessary to ask the two people, but after hearing Xiao Han's solemn words, he hesitated. After two seconds, he said, "Let's ask."
"What do you want to ask?" Cheng Yunan just came out and asked casually when he heard it.
Xia Zhi helped answer: "They are looking for a DV camera."
"DV camera?" Cheng Yunan thought for a moment, "Oh, the one Xiao Han bought from the second-hand market?"
"Yes!" the three answered in unison.
"Do you know where it is?" Although Sang Luo asked, he was not very sure in his heart.
Then Cheng Yunan said, "I know. It's in the top cabinet in the kitchen."
"Kitchen top cabinet?!" All three of them were surprised.
Xiao Han was even more surprised: "How did my DV end up in the kitchen? Did one of you secretly hide it?"
The other three glanced at him. They weren't that boring, were they
At this time, Jiang Zhixia also came out of the kitchen. She had obviously heard their conversation. She was holding Xiao Han's DV camera in her hand and said calmly, "You played it yourself."
"I put it there myself?!" Xiao Han denied it flatly, "Impossible, how come I don't have any recollection of it at all!"
Jiang Zhixia handed him the DV and explained, "One time you took it out of the drawer and said you wanted to try to fix it yourself. As soon as you took the machine out, you said you were hungry, and ran to the kitchen to find something to eat. When you took the bread from the top cabinet, you put the DV in there, and you never took it out since."
Xia Zhi & Sang Luo: "..."
Xiao Han opened his mouth in surprise: "Then why didn't you remind me?"
"Why should I remind you?" Jiang Zhixia folded her hands and said calmly, "I was betting with Yun An at the time, when would you find out if I didn't remind you."
Xiao Han: “…”
Xia Zhi asked curiously: "Who won?"
"Neither winning nor losing." Cheng Yunan said, "Because we will never find out what we are guessing."
Xiao Han looked resentful and complained, "You guys are really going too far! Not telling me would have been fine, but you actually made a bet with me!"
"That's right!" Sang Luo also helped to criticize the two seriously, "It's such an interesting thing, but you didn't invite Xia Xia and me to join! It's really too much!"
Xiao Han: “…”
(End of this chapter)