When he got home that day, Ji Minglun lay in bed for a long time without falling asleep, and kept pondering the meaning of Jiang Lin's last few words.
It was already strange that Jiang Lin suddenly wanted to go to a city he had not wanted to go to before. What was even stranger was that he always felt that Jiang Lin was hinting at something through this incident, but he did not dare to conclude whether the hint was what he expected.
He was afraid that he would lose control again and be trapped in disappointment.
In the next few days, he reduced the time he went to the store, but he still couldn't avoid seeing Jiang Lin every time he went there. Just like Deng Feng said, Jiang Lin was interviewing for a part-time job, but he came every day like a full-time employee. After that day, Jiang Lin didn't say anything ambiguous when he saw him. Instead, Deng Feng repeatedly played between Jiang Lin and him, asking about their preferences and planning routes over and over again.
Deng Yi rarely appeared in the store these days, and did not take the initiative to look for him. However, on the day of departure, after he arrived at the airport, Deng Yi came over to say hello and asked him to comment on the lotus leaf green Hanfu he was wearing today.
This was Deng Yi's first time wearing Hanfu, and with the flower-bud hairstyle and headband on both sides, she looked very eye-catching. Ji Minglun praised her for being "beautiful", and she smiled happily, saying that she also brought two more elegant ones to change in when she went to Xi'an for photos.
Ji Minglun listened absentmindedly. Not far away, Jiang Lin was wearing the white plaid cotton shirt he gave him, and a pair of black shorts, leaning on a row seat and looking at a tablet. Noticing his gaze, Jiang Lin looked up and stopped at his wrist, which was held by Deng Yi.
He calmly pulled his hand back and asked Deng Feng, "Are all the people here?"
"Two more missing," Deng Feng checked his watch, "Shen Ran and Shi Xiaomin haven't arrived yet."
Shi Xiaomin is Deng Yi's good friend and the girl who traveled with Deng Yi this time. Ji Minglun unscrewed the cap of the mineral water bottle and took two sips, then heard Deng Yi shout, "She's here."
Ji Minglun didn't turn around, but Deng Feng beside him asked, "Who is that man, and why is he dragging two suitcases?"
"That's her boyfriend. He should be here to see her off," Deng Yi explained.
After pulling out his Bluetooth headset and putting it on, Ji Minglun walked towards Jiang Lin's seat with his suitcase. At Jiang Lin's feet was a Tumi silver aluminum suitcase, the same model as Ji Minglun's black suitcase but in a different color, which they had bought together before.
Ji Minglun sat down next to him and glanced at the appearance of the suitcase. Jiang Lin took good care of the suitcase and there were no obvious scratches after almost three years.
Jiang Lin was also looking at his suitcase. Neither of them spoke, but there was a noise coming from Deng Feng's side. Jiang Lin took off his headphones, and Ji Minglun also pressed the music pause button, and then saw Deng Feng walking towards them with an unhappy look on his face.
"What's wrong?" Ji Minglun asked.
"Shi Xiaomin said her boyfriend changed his mind and wanted to go too."
Even until Shen Ran arrived and everyone boarded the plane together, Ji Minglun's face was still very ugly.
Shi Xiaomin's boyfriend bought a ticket for the same trip alone last night, and Shi Xiaomin did not inform Deng Yi in advance. This sudden incident made Deng Yi so angry that she didn't want to pay attention to her. While waiting in line, she hugged Deng Yi and coaxed him for a long time.
Deng Feng was also speechless, but since everyone was already there, he had no other choice but to help persuade Ji Minglun. Only Jiang Lin acted as if he didn't care from beginning to end. He kept wearing headphones and watching the online class. He only put away the equipment and looked forward after the plane taxied.
The flight they booked had a system malfunction during check-in, so the check-in areas were separated at the airport. Deng Yi and Shen Ran sat in front of Ji Minglun, with an aisle and four rows of seats between Jiang Lin and Ji Minglun. From Jiang Lin's perspective, he could only see the baseball cap on the back of Ji Minglun's head.
Reluctantly looking away, Jiang Lin felt someone tap his shoulder. Deng Feng handed him something from the gap between the chairs: "Put it on and take a rest. You have dark circles under your eyes."
Deng Feng handed him a steam eye mask with "Strawberry Bobo flavor" written on it. Although he didn't know what it smelled like, Jiang Lin accepted it: "Thank you."
Knowing that it would be difficult for him to change his habit of saying thank you, Deng Feng did not force him. He leaned back in his chair after handing over the eye mask. Jiang Lin glanced in Ji Minglun's direction again, and this time he happened to see Ji Minglun looking back. He didn't know if he turned to look at him, but their eyes met by chance.
After the plane passed through the sea of clouds, Jiang Lin tore open his eye mask and put it on, and then put in his earplugs for sleeping. He had been working on his thesis for several nights in a row, and fell asleep before he could even smell the aroma of strawberries after the eye mask heated up. He didn't even want to eat the airplane meal, and didn't wake up until he arrived at Xianyang Airport.
After a nap, he felt much more energetic. He stood up and saw Deng Yi talking to Ji Minglun in the team in front. Ji Minglun turned to answer her, and his gaze drifted to him again.
After picking up the luggage, Deng Feng led everyone out of the terminal and called a seven-seater business car to go to downtown Xi'an.
When getting on the bus, Jiang Lin saw Ji Minglun sitting in the last row, so he wanted to go over and sit next to him. But Deng Yi behind him patted him and said, "Jiang Lin, you sit with Shen Ran. I want to sit next to Minglun."
Ji Minglun glanced at the two of them and continued to look out the window. Jiang Lin had no choice but to sit in the front row. Shen Ran smiled at him and he nodded.
Deng Feng is usually a caring person, and he was the oldest one on this trip, so he took the initiative to take on the responsibility of team leader. He was the last one to get on the car, and when he saw Jiang Lin already sitting next to Shen Ran, he sat in the passenger seat.
Shi Xiaomin and her boyfriend's voices of joking could be heard from time to time on the road. Jiang Lin admired the scenery along the way and listened to Deng Yi and Ji Minglun chatting in the back seat. The sun was shining brightly outside the window, but his mood gradually turned gloomy. When he was halfway through the journey, the person next to him handed him a bag of Lay's original potato chips.
"I don't want to eat." He declined. Shen Ran leaned close to him and whispered, "Eat something to distract yourself. Otherwise, it's been depressing enough listening to this all the way."
He looked at Shen Ran, and before he could react, a bag was stuffed into his arms. Shen Ran threw another bag behind him: "Senior, you two can eat too."
Deng Yi took the potato chips and said, "I don't like the original flavor. Do you have other flavors?"
Shen Ran spread his hands and said, "I only eat the original flavor."
Deng Yi wanted to give it back to him, but Ji Minglun reached out to take it, tore open the package and started eating.
There was a slight sound of chewing potato chips in the car. Jiang Lin listened for a moment, lowered his head, tore open his bag of original potato chips, and put a piece in his mouth.
After arriving in downtown Xi'an, the clock on the car showed that it was already past four in the afternoon. The driver dropped them off in front of a French palace-style hotel on South Street. After getting off the car, everyone walked through the bronze-inlaid revolving door together.
The receptionist behind the door immediately came forward and welcomed everyone to the guest sofa area next to them to rest. Deng Feng took everyone's ID cards in advance and went to the front desk with the receptionist.
When confirming the room, Deng Feng asked the receptionist if there were any rooms available. The answer he got was that it was the peak travel season during the summer vacation and the hotel had no vacant rooms.
Back to the sofa, Deng Feng explained the situation. Deng Yi said that they could find other hotels nearby for Shi Xiaomin and her boyfriend to stay in. Shi Xiaomin then took her boyfriend to the two neighboring hotels, and both hotels were reported to be fully booked.
They hadn't found a place to stay yet, and Deng Yi couldn't just go into the room and ignore them, so she said to Deng Feng, "Brother, who of you can squeeze in? Let's sleep in one room for one night?"
All the rooms they booked were single rooms, except for the room that Deng Yi and Shi Xiaomin shared, which had twin beds. If they really wanted to squeeze in, they would have to share one. Deng Feng looked at Ji Minglun, who was frowning. He then looked at Jiang Lin and said, "How about Jiang Lin and I share a room? He'll sleep on the bed and I'll sleep on the sofa."
Jiang Lin had never expected this to happen. Just as he was about to refuse, he heard Ji Minglun say, "We're not sure how many days it will take to get a room. We can't sleep on the sofa the whole time."
In fact, Deng Feng didn't want to sleep on the sofa, but there was no other solution except this. If he ignored Shi Xiaomin and Wang Shi, Deng Yi would have a hard time.
Shi Xiaomin and Wang Shi, who were at the center of the incident, remained silent, watching everyone waiting for the result. Just when Ji Minglun was thinking about going out and finding a hotel to stay in alone if things didn't work out, Shen Ran spoke.
"Let Jiang Lin sleep with me. He and I are about the same size, so it won't be so crowded to sleep in the same bed."
Ji Minglun glanced at Shen Ran, and this time he agreed without waiting for Jiang Lin to refuse: "That's good, let's arrange it this way."
Deng Feng went to see Jiang Lin: "Are you OK?"
Being stared at by everyone, Jiang Lin couldn't say he didn't want to, so he had to bite the bullet and nodded.
Deng Yi breathed a sigh of relief and said "Thank you" to Shen Ran. She then clasped her hands together and said to Jiang Lin: "Jiang Lin, I'm sorry to bother you."
Jiang Lin said it was okay and waited for the check-in procedures to be completed. He stood up with everyone else and walked into the elevator.
The rooms of several people were on different floors. Deng Feng, Deng Yi and Shi Xiaomin got out of the elevator first and agreed to rest for half an hour before going out for dinner. The old-fashioned elevator with retro design continued to rise slowly and stopped on the seventh floor. The porter asked Ji Minglun to sit on the sofa in the corridor for a while and took Shen Ran and Jiang Lin over first.
Jiang Lin stood beside Ji Minglun without moving, and said to Shen Ran: "I want to talk to him for a few words."
Shen Ran made an OK gesture and followed the bellboy towards the room. Jiang Lin waited until they were far away before turning to look at Ji Minglun: "I want to sleep in the same room with you tonight, is that okay?"
Ji Minglun put one hand in his pocket and held the metal handle of the suitcase with the other hand, and glanced at Jiang Lin indifferently.
Jiang Lin was waiting for his answer, but he didn't say anything. It was hard to tell from his eyes whether he agreed or not, so Jiang Lin had no choice but to say, "If it's not okay, just pretend I never mentioned it."
Jiang Lin turned around and pulled up his suitcase, then walked towards Shen Ran. Just as he took a step, he heard Ji Minglun say, "I won't sleep on the sofa."
Jiang Lin looked back at him, and his five fingers holding the lever tightened unconsciously: "I don't want to sleep on the sofa either, can we sleep on the bed together?"
Shen Ran had already walked to the door of the room. He looked back at the two of them before opening the door. After Shen Ran closed the door, Ji Minglun touched his room card with his left hand in his pocket and turned around and said, "Let's go."
After opening the door of Room 7019, Ji Minglun placed his suitcase against the wall and walked into the bathroom to take a look at the bathroom environment.
Deng Feng booked this hotel first, and both the hotel's architectural appearance and decorative details have a strong palace atmosphere. Especially the bathtub in the hotel room, he immediately fell in love with this bathtub with a certain curved arc design. But at that time, he never thought that Jiang Lin would come, and they would have the opportunity to sleep in the same bed again.
Realizing that he was thinking about unnecessary things, Ji Minglun walked to the sink to wash his hands and splashed some water on his face. When he came out, Jiang Lin was staring at the bed in the room.
Ji Minglun said: "I'll go talk to Shen Ran."
Without waiting for Jiang Lin to turn around, Ji Minglun turned around and walked out.
The door closed behind him, Jiang Lin walked to the bed, picked up a small basket of fresh rose petals in the middle of the bed and smelled them.
Before entering the room, he had never thought that the hotel could be so romantic. Although it was a single room, the bed was 1.5 meters long and seemed to be tailor-made for couples. In addition to the orange-pink French curtains and the atmospheric starry sky projection lights on the wall, there were also crystal candlesticks and aromatherapy on the small round table, and a body-touching mermaid table lamp. The most exaggerated thing was the painting on the head of the bed.
The girl in the painting is leaning on the arms of a lion, her graceful body is fair and plump, with only a layer of gauze covering her important parts. The look between the girl and the lion is indescribably ambiguous, and anyone with a discerning eye can sense what the painter wants to express.
Jiang Lin didn't dare to think about how he would feel when he went to bed and turned off the lights at night if Ji Minglun lived in such a room with him.
Walking to the door of room 7003 and knocking, Ji Minglun watched Shen Ran open the door, hugged his arms and smiled, "Why, if it's your turn, senior, are you going to sleep with me?"
Ignoring his nonsense, Ji Minglun whispered, "He's sleeping at my place, don't make a sound."
Shen Ran poked his head out to look outside the corridor: "What's going on between you two? Are you already together?"
"No," Ji Minglun didn't want to make public his past with Jiang Lin, but Shen Ran was the only person around him who knew about it, so if he kept it a secret, it would be easy to cause problems. So he let Shen Ran go into the room and closed the door before saying, "I confessed to him before, but he was homophobic and rejected me."
"Homophobic?" Shen Ran seemed surprised. "I can't tell. He treats you like this. Is he homophobic?"
"Because he and I grew up together, he is used to relying on me." Ji Minglun didn't want to explain too much, "You know the seriousness of this matter, don't spread it."
"Don't worry, senior." Shen Ran looked at him with a little more pity, "But you are like this now, you still like him, right?"
Turning around to turn the handle, Ji Minglun said calmly, "No, I gave up a long time ago."
Shen Ran muttered, "Who would believe you if you said you gave up like that?"
The door closed behind him. Ji Minglun looked towards his room and thought of what Shen Ran had just said. He couldn't help but smile at himself.
He was indeed deceiving himself. He took out a cigarette from his pocket and walked towards the safe passage. Fortunately, Jiang Lin would leave at the end of summer vacation. He just had to hold on a little longer.