With the music festival to look forward to, Jiang Lin's mood was much brighter than in the afternoon. Several times when Deng Feng turned around to get something, he saw a faint smile on the corner of his mouth.
After handing the packed takeaway to the waiting rider, Deng Feng approached him as he was folding paper trays with his head down and asked, "What's the good news?"
The hot air from his voice sprayed on his ears. Jiang Lin felt itchy and moved half a step away. He touched his earlobe and asked, "What?"
Deng Feng put his two index fingers on the corners of his mouth, lifted them to the sides, and made a silly smile: "You are always smiling."
Jiang Lin was amused by Deng Feng's appearance and laughed again: "It's okay, you saw it wrong."
Deng Feng wanted to say that he had seen it many times, but when the words came to his lips, he saw him lowering his head and smiling as he folded the paper trays, and suddenly he didn't want to say it anymore.
"Jiang Lin," Deng Feng called out.
Jiang Lin looked up and said, "Huh?"
"You're going back to Los Angeles next month, right?"
Jiang Lin was caught off guard by the reminder of the return date. He straightened his lips and nodded slightly.
Deng Feng had been observing his expression. Seeing that he didn't want to go back, he continued to ask, "You will graduate in a year, right? Do you plan to return to China to work next year? Or continue studying?"
This is also the question that Jiang Lin has been thinking about recently, but he is more concerned about Ji Minglun's possible trip to Seoul. He wonders what Ji Minglun thinks about it and whether he will really go there.
"Not necessarily. We'll see when the time comes." He replied absentmindedly.
"Will you still use WeChat when you go to Los Angeles? Or do you have other chat apps?"
Separating the two pieces of greaseproof paper that were stuck together, Jiang Lin said, "I'm usually very busy and I don't chat much."
"I can see that," Deng Feng smiled, put on gloves, took the brownies from the plate next to him, and helped put the cakes into the folded paper tray. "I mean, you working in our store counts as an acquaintance, and if you return to China in the future, we can often arrange to hang out together."
"You can always ask me for help if you need it," Deng Feng added, "You can also feel the atmosphere in the store. We get along like a family. There's no need to be restrained."
"I'm not shy," Jiang Lin answered seriously, "I like the atmosphere in the store."
Deng Feng laughed again, but was interrupted before he could finish his next sentence. Jiang Lin folded enough paper trays, said he was going to the bathroom, and turned away.
Looking at his back, Deng Feng sighed helplessly.
Jiang Lin is the type that is very difficult to approach, and his sexual orientation is still uncertain. Although Deng Feng guessed that he might be able to convert him, he didn't dare to act rashly for fear of scaring him away.
After placing the last brownie into the flower-shaped paper tray, Deng Feng caught a glimpse of Ji Minglun walking by with a lecherous look on his face. He couldn't help but reach out and tap the marble countertop: "Where are you going again?"
"What are you wasting time on? Go home, take a shower and go to bed." Ji Minglun's tone was casual, but his expression was exactly the opposite, as if he had almost chiseled the words "A Date with a Beautiful Woman" on his forehead.
It was time to close in ten minutes. Xiao Xu, who was in front of the cash register, turned around and said with a smile: "Brother Minglun, your expression betrayed you."
"What's with my expression?" Ji Minglun asked in confusion. He then met Deng Feng's eyes that looked as if he didn't bother to expose you, and then he reacted. He said with a straight face, "Really go back to sleep. I have things to do tomorrow morning."
Deng Feng had seen through him long ago, and said with disdain, "Go away quickly, don't be an eyesore here."
Ji Minglun didn't want to stay any longer. He just met Jiang Lin at the bathroom door and they had agreed that he would go first and Jiang Lin would leave after closing time.
He waved to Deng Feng and Xiao Xu, and left without looking back. Seeing his carefree walking posture, Xiao Xu asked: "Brother Feng, Brother Minglun often comes to the store recently. Does he have a lot of time recently?"
Deng Feng put the plate of brownies into the refrigerator for cakes and said casually, "That guy is not very good at it. He is not worth anything."
"Too."
Xiao Xu smiled and said that when Deng Feng came over, he would be busy handing over. Soon, three guests came out from the guest area. Jiang Lin followed behind them, saw the guests off and said to Deng Feng, "There's no one inside."
Deng Feng said: "You should go back and have a rest too. You have worked hard today."
After dumping the empty cups on the tray into the trash can and rinsing the tray, Jiang Lin reached behind his waist to take off his apron: "Then you should go back early too."
Deng Feng's gaze stopped at his waist. The action of untying the apron with both hands outlined the curve of the waist. Usually, the apron was too loose to be seen. Only now did Deng Feng realize that Jiang Lin's waist was thinner than he had imagined.
Deng Feng came back to his senses after Xiaoxu touched his arm and continued to check the documents with Xiaoxu. When Jiang Lin left with the bag, he glanced at the back again.
Back in the car, Jiang Lin called Ji Minglun and asked, "Do you want to buy something to eat?"
"I'll buy it, you just go over there." Ji Minglun said.
"Okay, I'll call you when we get there."
Putting down his phone, Jiang Lin fastened his seat belt and drove towards the Xinglin Bay lawn where the lawn music festival was held.
It was located in Jimei District, and it took 30 minutes to drive from where he was now. Fortunately, the evening rush hour had ended, and the road was unobstructed. Even the traffic lights at the intersections were mostly green. His mood was like a smooth accelerator, and he went straight to his destination. However, when he arrived at the nearby parking lot, he looked at the dense black traffic and worried about whether he would be late. Fortunately, a car light turned on not far away, and it was about to leave.
He drove over immediately, and when the other party left, he reversed and parked the car. After getting out of the car, he called Ji Minglun again. Ji Minglun had just arrived, so the two of them didn't waste time and went to their seats from the nearest entrance.
The Grassland Music Festival started at 6pm and ended at midnight. As today was Friday, a large number of people came to watch. Jiang Lin walked through the noisy crowd, listening to the deafening music and cheers from the audience, his heart beating faster and faster.
When he arrived near his seat, he found that there was no empty seat in that row. After confirming that the row number was correct, he walked in and saw that the seat was occupied by a young couple.
The band on the stage was playing a heavy metal song. The atmosphere was very heated. Jiang Lin spoke to the boy twice but was drowned out by the shouting and music. He had no choice but to lean over to the boy's ear and said loudly, "Sorry, you're taking my seat."
The boys looked at him like he was crazy, but the girl next to him leaned over and asked, "What?"
"Seats," Jiang Lin showed the other party the electronic ticket stub, "This is for me and my friend."
The girl nodded and pulled her boyfriend to get up, but the boy was too high to move and shouted impatiently to Jiang Lin: "There are empty seats in the back, why don't you just find one? People here sit randomly, only bumpkins look at seat numbers!"
The boy cursed in disgust. Jiang Lin frowned, and before he could continue speaking, he felt someone grab his wrist. He turned around and found Ji Minglun standing behind him. He said to the boy with a sullen face, "Get up."
Ji Minglun was 184cm tall and refused to bend down like Jiang Lin. Standing like this, he blocked the view of three or four rows of people. Everyone looked at him and anxiously waved to him to sit down.
He remained indifferent, and only said again in an even more unhappy tone: "Either get up now, or no one will watch."
The boy was already in the wrong, and after being confronted with such a tough attitude, he couldn't help feeling guilty. The boy's girlfriend couldn't afford to lose face, so she quickly pulled him to give up his seat and went up to the back level of the stands through the aisle next to her.
Ji Minglun glanced at the other person, and then Jiang Lin grabbed his wrist and pulled him to sit down.
Taking the bag from him and opening it, Jiang Lin looked at the food inside and asked, "How come you came so quickly after going to Pizza Hut?"
"There's one nearby," Ji Minglun didn't take the disposable plastic gloves Jiang Lin handed over, "I'm not hungry, you eat first."
"I'm not hungry either. The noodle soup and soup dumplings you bought for me in the evening were both large portions. I'm still full now." Jiang Lin looked at him and said.
Looking at the lead singer whose face could not be seen clearly on the stage, Ji Minglun said, "Put it away first and eat it when you are hungry."
Jiang Lin rewrapped the food, put it on his knees and looked towards the stage. The lead singer had finished singing a song and was interacting with the fans. The sound equipment was very good and the lead singer's voice was so penetrating that it seemed to be speaking right into the eardrum. Jiang Lin listened for a while and felt a little uncomfortable in his heart, but Ji Minglun didn't seem to feel anything.
They had never been to such an occasion together before, and Ji Minglun would not turn up the music very loudly when they went to KTV. Jiang Lin blocked his right ear with his index finger, and when he felt better, he wanted to continue watching the stage, but was bumped on the left arm by someone next to him.
Turning his head, Ji Minglun stretched out his hand to him: "Do you have any tissues in your bag?"
He took it out from the outer pocket of his chest bag. Ji Minglun took one out, tore it in half, crumpled it into a small ball, and stuffed one into his left ear first: "Do you feel better?"
Jiang Lin nodded, and Ji Minglun asked him to turn around and cover his right ear. The sound suddenly became much quieter. Jiang Lin laughed and gave Ji Minglun a thumbs up.
The lighting equipment in the venue lit up the delicate eyes of the person in front of him, and dots of light appeared on the clear pupils. After just one glance, Ji Minglun looked away, his fingertips still lingering with the warm touch of Jiang Lin's chin. He curled up his fingers and leaned back in his chair to continue watching the show.
This year's Grassland Music Festival was jointly organized by several well-known bars. The bands on the stage were all amateur groups, but each band felt very good after they came on stage. Jiang Lin sat there for more than 40 minutes. Even though he was not used to this noisy atmosphere, he was gradually infected by the performances of the people on the stage. He would shake his head to the beat and hum along when he heard familiar songs.
Ji Minglun was sitting next to him. He seemed to be focusing on the stage, but actually his mind was on him. He glanced at him several times with small movements and could always see a happy smile on his face.
It had been a long time since I had seen him so purely happy, and Ji Minglun also became more relaxed. In the second half, the two of them would chat from time to time. Although the topic was about the performance, it was very harmonious and natural. Several times, Jiang Lin couldn't hear clearly because of the tissue ball, so Ji Minglun would lean over to his ear to talk.
The atmosphere at the scene reached its peak when the last band came on stage. The lead singer performed a widely sung classic song. The audience who were originally sitting in the stands stood up one after another, waving their glow sticks and singing along.
The organizer placed a glow stick on each seat, but the two of them didn't get one because their seats were taken by others when they arrived, but this did not affect the atmosphere. Ji Minglun stood up first, Jiang Lin looked up at him, and he also stood up when he pulled his wrist.
As the whole audience gradually joined in the harmony, Ji Minglun also began to sing. Jiang Lin also knew this song. As Ji Minglun sang and looked at him, Jiang Lin gradually relaxed and sang the whole song along with him.
They arrived late, and the curtain fell less than two hours after they sat down. The host gave a passionate summary of the evening's performance, and audience members began to stand up and leave.
Jiang Lin took away the tissue ball and looked at the watch on his wrist. The time had passed midnight. He scrolled down the screen and found that there were many unread messages on WeChat. Just as he was about to switch phones to check, he heard Ji Minglun next to him say, "I'm going to the bathroom."
He nodded: "Then I'll wait for you here?"
They were both driving their own cars, so they should go their separate ways after the show. However, Ji Minglun didn't seem to have considered this, and leaned close to his ear and said, "Wait for me here. You haven't eaten the Pizza Hut you just bought yet. Eat something else later before going back."
Unlike the previous time when there was a layer of tissue ball between them, this time Ji Minglun's breath wrapped in his voice rushed into his ears, and an indescribable itching feeling crept up to his heart. Jiang Lin pursed his lips to restrain the throbbing, clutching the plastic bag on his knees and said, "Okay."
The author has something to say:
Looking for starfish~