In the early morning, the base's long horn sounded, and people in the dormitory woke up one after another, urging each other to get up.
Fang Zhao half-opened his eyes, sat on the bed and called Yu Ran for a long time, but he didn't see him get up.
Chu Mian leaned against the wall and scanned around vigilantly, but no one noticed that there was another person on his bed. He quietly pushed Yu Ran's shoulders, leaned over and lowered his volume to call people to get up.
Yu Ran nodded, closed his eyes and got up. Chu Mian originally wanted to drive him out of bed while others were not paying attention, but unexpectedly, the next second, Yu Ran stretched his arms high and uttered a pleasant and abrupt moan, which quickly attracted the attention of other people in the dormitory.
"I'm going!" Zhao Wuli raised his head and woke up suddenly, "The dormitory hasn't turned on the light yet, why is it so bright!"
The voices of people's surprise or surprise continued one after another, and soon turned into ridicule. The most unexpected one is Fang Zhao. He thought that Chu Mian would treat Yu Ran with discretion, but he didn't expect that under the well-dressed appearance, there was still a restless heart, and Yu Ran on the bed was the best evidence.
Together, these two people have a deeper friendship than he imagined... Fang Zhao instantly felt the loneliness of a single person.
Yu Ran's hair was disheveled, and he sat on the bed for a long time before opening his sleepy eyes. When he saw Chu Mian just after waking up, he immediately smiled with joy.
In front of so many people, Chu Mian was too embarrassed to be too kind to Ran, so she had no choice but to urge him to get out of bed sullenly. Yu Ran was very obedient, he quickly went down to change his clothes, followed the others to wash his face and brush his teeth first.
Chu Mian let out a long sigh of relief, lowered her head and spread the bed sheet. Yu Ran sleeps quite honestly, but he would move his body unconsciously. When he opened his eyes just now, he found that Yu Ran was about to be pushed out of bed by him. Fortunately, there was a wooden board to cover it.
The temperature of the two embracing each other to sleep still remained in the quilt, Chu Mian hesitated for a few seconds, and did not fold it up.
The task of learning agriculture is very easy. After eating breakfast on time and resting for half an hour, you can queue up to visit the museum. A documentary about the dangers of popular science drugs was shown on the screen, and many people squatted on the ground and deserted.
Yu Ran was touched on the arm, turned around and saw a girl with a pot head, and asked him, "Do you have fire?"
"It's in the name."
"I want a lighter!"
"No." Yu Ran said, "Smoking is harmful to your health, Lu Ziyao."
The girl changed her squatting position, lowered her head and sighed: "What's the matter with this experimental class, there isn't a single smoker, I've been holding it in for a whole day, and if I can't catch fire, I have to ask the instructor for it."
Yu Ran seriously came up with an idea for her: "You try to make fire by drilling wood?"
After the start of the second year of high school, some new faces ushered in the class. Most of the students who worked hard to get in from the ordinary class were the quiet and introverted type, who loved reading without distraction. The only person who can get along with Yu Ran is Lu Ziyao.
Although at the beginning, Yu Ran completely regarded her as a boy. Lu Ziyao is very neutral from facial features to hairstyle, but he is a little shorter, and even his voice is thicker than ordinary girls. Yu Ran called her brothers and sisters for two consecutive days before, but only found out the truth in physical education class on Wednesday, and was so shocked that he didn't eat at noon.
"Do you know what we are going to do later? Drilling wood." Lu Ziyao simply sat down on the ground to save energy, "I have inquired with other classes, this venue is the northernmost of the base, we have to walk to the southernmost building ,Worn out."
She sat down and lifted her pant legs, revealing a clean and slender calf. Yu Ran happened to see the scar on her ankle, which was a dark red "T" letter.
"How did you do this?" Yu Ran asked with concern, "Does it hurt, who cut it?"
Lu Ziyao told him casually: "I stabbed it myself with a utility knife, opened the scab when it scabbed, and then applied medicine. It took more than half a year to leave a scar."
Yu Ran shrank his shoulders in astonishment when he heard this, and gasped, "Why? You really have to do it."
"To commemorate my ex-girlfriend, there is a 'T' in her name, and this can also represent myself, because I am T." Lu Ziyao stretched out his fingers to stroke the scar on his ankle, the letters were slightly concave, the surface was smooth, always Attract her to caress for a moment.
Yu Ran didn't know whether to admire her courage to self-harm, or to question the meaning of this behavior. Before he had time to ask what "T" meant, the instructor in front of him issued an order to go to another destination.
Yu Ran stood up and followed the team. After leaving the venue, he took out two white squares from his pocket and stuffed them to Chu Mian, saying, "Here are you."
"What?" Chu Mian took it and squeezed it, a little soft. In turn, I took a closer look and found that it was an unopened sanitary napkin.
His eyes suddenly went dark, and he immediately returned it to Yu Ran, walking forward quickly.
Yu Ran chased after him, "You can use it."
Chu Mian said with a complex expression, "I don't need it."
"I heard that you have to walk a long distance in a while. Put this in your shoes and you won't be tired from walking." Yu Ran said mysteriously, "This is the method their girls told me. It is very effective. I asked Yexi for it yesterday. Two slices."
Chu Mian couldn't accept this kindness, so she could only hastily put the two sanitary napkins into her pocket, and nodded perfunctorily.
But no matter how fast he moved, Fang Zhao who was not far away could clearly recognize what was in his hand.
In Fang Zhao's perception, the function of sanitary napkins is to stop bleeding, and combined with Chu Mian's panic-stricken dodging, he suspects that Yu Ran did something big last night while everyone was asleep.
It's okay to do it quietly, but it even made Chu Mian bleed... Fang Zhao was shocked by his reasonable guess, and couldn't help but look at Ran with admiration.
The distance was not as far as imagined, and the team only walked for less than an hour. Yu Ran thought that the "sawing wood" that Lu Ziyao mentioned was a coolie job similar to chopping firewood, but when he entered the room, he realized that he was just cutting wood pieces with tools, and then assembling them into ornaments according to the drawings.
The instructor asked for a group of three, with a ratio of one to two for males and females. Yu Ran was eager to try, and immediately put on gloves to work after touching the machine. But Lu Ziyao snatched the wooden plank first, and drew the cutting outline with a pencil.
"Hey, give it back to me." Yu Ran kicked her, "The instructor said that boys are responsible for sawing, and you girls are responsible for pasting and coloring."
Lu Ziyao felt that cutting wood was more fun, and refused to give in, jokingly said: "Why, why don't we fight?"
"Okay," Yu Ran rolled up his sleeves, "I'll fight you!"
"Never, my gender is 'T'."
Hearing this letter again, Yu Ran asked curiously: "What does this mean?"
"Women are like men, like me, understand?" Lu Ziyao explained concisely.
"Oh." Yu Ran suddenly realized, "By the way, is the scar on your leg still healed?"
"It's not good, why should it be good? I took a lot of effort to carve it out bit by bit."
Yu Ran felt sorry for her originally intact skin, but Lu Ziyao said: "I don't regret it, this scar can always remind me of the past with my ex-girlfriend, and I don't want to forget about her and me."
Cui He rolled his eyes when he heard it, and said with a sneer, "You're a non-mainstream. If you break up, you'll break up. Why are you so obsessed with your ex?"
Lu Ziyao's eyes were dim, and he said unwillingly, "We were forced to break up. Her parents said that puppy love is fine, but she is not allowed to be with girls."
"Why not?"
"Just don't let her be gay." Lu Ziyao said, "I don't care about that, I think she's ashamed."
The three words "gay" landed heavily in Ran's mind, this was the first time he heard its official name from the mouths of people around him besides "gay" and "curvy". The weak sense of belonging swelled in his heart little by little, and he asked Lu Ziyao again: "So is it considered 'gay' to secretly like someone?"
"Of course it counts, and we don't have to be together." Lu Ziyao said casually, "But this kind of thing is generally not dared to let the other party know. It's probably a tragedy, and maybe they will be hated by others."
Upon hearing this, Yu Ran's hands moved much slower. Cui He sensed the change in his mood, leaned over and asked in a low voice, "Do you like Chu Mian?"
The piece of wood in Yu Ran's hand cracked with a "click", and there was nowhere to hide in his panic. He looked into Cui He's piercing eyes in disbelief, and asked, "You, how do you know?"
In just a few seconds, he broke out in cold sweat.
Cui He was serious: "Oh, I can read minds."
Yu Ran was stunned, "...Really?"
He quickly folded his arms in front of his chest and scolded: "Don't read me!"
"Idiot, I'm teasing you." Cui He elbowed him, "You like Chu Mian, right?"
Yu Ran's lips trembled, but since he couldn't lie, he reluctantly admitted: "Well... don't tell him."
"I won't tell, of course you have to tell yourself about this kind of thing." Cui He grabbed Yu Ran's sleeve and shook it twice, "It's better to hit the sun than to choose a day. Look how sunny it is today. It's suitable for you to confess to Chu Mian."
Yu Ran sternly rejected her proposal: "No, this will embarrass Chu Mian. He regards me as his best friend and brother, because he must think that I will treat him sincerely. In the end, I actually He's plotting something wrong, how sad he is..."
Cui He smacked his lips, "Okay, Yu Ran, so you can still think about so much in your head?"
"It's about Chu Mian, of course I have to think about it."
As Yu Ran spoke, he couldn't help looking up at Chu Mian, and saw him earnestly carrying out the tasks assigned by the instructor in the distance.
Chu Mian cut the wooden blocks strictly according to the size ratio of the drawings, and the error was accurate to millimeters. After finishing his work, he also helped Yexi color it, and returned the two sanitary napkins to her by the way.
With his arm on the table, he casually asked Ye Xi, "Did Yu Ran mention me in private?"
Apart from herself in the class, Ye Xi also had the most private contact with Yu Ran, and the two of them always talked about animation, so I don't know if they talked about other things.
Ye Xi said without thinking, "I mentioned it."
But when Chu Mian asked about the specific content, Ye Xi hesitated whether to tell him, because when Yu Ran mentioned Chu Mian, he would be in high spirits, boasting wildly. As far as she knew, Yu Ran and Chu Mian were still friends. If she revealed the details now, wouldn't it be the first to express her feelings for Yu Ran
So she just said: "It's just a trivial matter, Yu Ran just told me casually."
After finishing speaking, she felt a little perfunctory, so she added: "Anyway, Yu Ran often mentions you."
A slight smile appeared on the corner of Chu Mian's mouth, she nodded and didn't ask any more questions.
Yu Ran caught his fleeting smile from a distance, and then whispered to himself as if confirming some kind of information.
Cui He couldn't hear what he was muttering clearly, so asked him to speak up. So Yu Ran turned around and told her, "So I'm gay too."
"Did you just find out?" Cui He flicked his forehead helplessly, blaming him for being too slow in awakening his identity.
After the whole class successfully completed the group task, it was lunch time. Everyone left the building without queuing up, or went to the cafeteria or returned to the dormitory.
The sun hangs high at noon, making people feel hot for a long time. Although it is autumn, many trees on the base are still densely green, reflecting bright spots against the bright sun.
The journey back to the original road was too far, so Yu Ran became lazy, so he dragged Chu Mian to find an uncle who was riding an electric tricycle, and begged him to give them a ride.
After the uncle agreed, the two sat in the back of the tricycle. Yu Ran had red paint on his palm, smiled maliciously, and pretended to smear it on Chu Mian's pants.
Chu Mian did not hide, but supported Yu Ran's arm, and told him: "Don't move around, be careful of falling."
Yu Ran separated his fingers, looked at his palms, and complained: "It's all because Lu Ziyao robbed me of my work, otherwise I wouldn't rub my hands with paint."
"Don't you still give it to her generously."
"Because they are friends." Yu Ran wiped his palms with a wet towel, "By the way, do you know that Lu Ziyao is gay?"
Chu Mian had been looking at the road the car was passing by just now, and when he heard an unfamiliar word suddenly popped out of Yu Ran's mouth, he turned his gaze away and said softly, "I know, it's not obvious to her."
The wipes in Yu Ran's hands were clenched into a ball, "Do you mind?"
"I don't care about things that have nothing to do with me." Chu Mian said, "But from the perspective of a classmate, I hope she is happy."
Chu Mian didn't take this question seriously, since he was not familiar with Lu Ziyao anyway. Looking down, he saw that the shoelaces were loose and loose, so he bent down to untie them and tie them again.
Chu Mian heard Yu Ran ask calmly, "Do you mind if I'm gay?"
The sudden question caught him off guard.
The tricycle bumped several times in a row, causing Chu Mian's thoughts to become confused, and the shoelaces in his hand were pulled by the force of his fingertips, completely unraveling.
He was still sitting bent over, only his face slowly turned to Yu Ran's position.
Then he pretended to be calm and said, "It depends on who you fall in love with."
Yu Ran originally thought that the answer was only "whether or not", but Chu Mian did not expect that Chu Mian would need to analyze the specific situation, so he continued to ask, "What if I love you?"
There was no sign of such a topic, and even the atmosphere had not been preliminarily played out in advance. Of course, Chu Mian was not mentally prepared.
But since Yu Ran dared to ask such a question, even if he was caught off guard, he still had to follow his heart to give the answer.
"Then I don't mind."
The wind was blowing head-on, which helped the tricycle go faster. After the car stopped, the two teenagers in the back row shook their bodies at the same time due to inertia.
Chu Mian sat in the car and forgot to move, silently waiting for Yu Ran's next words.
"Quick, we must be the first ones to arrive at the canteen!" Yu Ran turned over and jumped off three rounds, "Let's eat quickly, so we don't have to clean the dishes after eating!"
Chu Mian looked up in surprise, and found that Yu Ran really looked eager to eat at this time, he couldn't help opening his mouth: "Huh?"
"Let's go." Yu Ran reached out to support him.
Chu Mian followed Yu Ran out of the car without knowing why, and finally couldn't help asking: "And then?"
Yu Ran walked quickly towards the cafeteria, pondering: "Then go back to the dormitory and eat shake shakes, I brought two boxes, do you like the chocolate ones?"
"… what?"
Chu Mian accidentally stepped on the shoelace after taking a few steps and almost fell down. His brain was nearly blank, and it took a few minutes before he gradually recovered his ability to process information.
He felt that something was very wrong, but he couldn't describe the specific error, he could only repeatedly recall the conversation he had with Yu Ran just now—
Do you mind if I'm gay
It depends on who you fall in love with.
What if I love you
Then don't mind.
…
ah
Chu Mian stopped in place in a daze.
He belatedly realized that Yu Ran's words were almost the same as a confession, and he responded perfectly in a daze.
To take it a step further, they could be called "connected minds" at that moment just now.
But what next
Yu Ran didn't explicitly express his intention to date, nor did he expect him to take the initiative to show his favor, and even changed the subject altogether, and went to dinner with great interest. It seems like the phrase "do you mind if I'm gay" is just a literal question.
So when he finished answering "don't mind", the question was over.
"what?"
The sun made Chu Mian's head hot, and before he had time to be happy, he fell into deep confusion.