Chapter 40

When Tao Xi and Lin Qinhe walked slowly to the classroom, the bell for the first evening self-study class just rang.

The two men returned to their seats with normal expressions, and as expected, they were closely observed and questioned by Bi Chengfei.

Bi Chengfei first took a close look at Tao Xi's face and found that he was not angry or sad like he was after the previous parent-teacher meeting. Instead, he looked a little happy?

He glanced at Lin Qinhe standing beside him secretly. The academic genius still had that cold look, but there seemed to be something different that he couldn't put his finger on.

Before, he saw Tao Xi ask Luo Zhengyin two questions and then turned and left, so he quickly sent a WeChat message to Lin Qinhe, thinking that the two had some conflict.

"Did you make up after your quarrel?" Bi Chengfei asked Tao Xi in a low voice, covering his mouth with his hand.

Tao Xi thought Bi Chengfei's idea was very unique. He laughed and joked, "Yes, we just had a fight and there was no winner, so we made peace."

Lin Qinhe turned his head and glanced at Tao Xi with an ambiguous look.

Tao Xi inexplicably felt that Lin Qinhe was looking at his lips. He subconsciously pursed his lips and couldn't help but recall the kiss in the concert hall just now. His cheeks and lips suddenly began to feel hot.

He realized belatedly that why he kissed so many times in his frenzy?

It must be Lin Qinhe's fault.

Bi Chengfei certainly didn't believe Tao Xi's words. After all, there was no sign of a fight between the two of them. However, he accidentally noticed that Tao Xi's lips were a little swollen, so he joked:

"Could it be that you guys are fighting with your mouths?"

"……roll!"

Tao Xi slapped Bi Chengfei back.

Then he heard Lin Qinhe laugh softly at the side, and immediately turned his head to glare at the culprit.

Bi Chengfei tactfully stopped talking and said to Tao Xi on WeChat: "I'm glad you're all right. I sent a WeChat message to the school god before, and he went to look for you as soon as he got back. It seems that the school god still cares about you."

Tao Xi looked at the message sent by Bi Chengfei on the phone, and a glimmer of light flashed in his mind, as if he remembered something he had overlooked.

His fingers quickly typed on the screen: "Do you have Lin Qinhe's WeChat?"

Bi Chengfei: "Of course, I've been Xueshen's classmate since junior high school, and his parents know me too. It shouldn't be hard to have a WeChat account."

Tao Xi typed again: "Does he usually post on WeChat Moments?"

Bi Chengfei: "Don't you have his WeChat too? Anyway, I've never seen him post on Moments."

I also took a screenshot of Lin Qinhe’s Moments interface.

Tao Xi clicked on the picture and saw that it was indeed blank.

He turned his head to look at Lin Qinhe, who was calmly reading a book. Noticing his gaze, he also turned his head to look at him, with a look in his eyes: "?"

Tao Xi ignored him and lowered her head to open Lin Qinhe's Moments on her phone, counting them one by one. She found that there were a total of 28 Moments, starting from the set of Japanese vacation photos from a long time ago, including the koi picture before the midterm exam.

Each post is a photo, with no text.

During Lin Qinhe's training camp two weeks ago, Tao Xi saw that Lin Qinhe would post one or two messages on WeChat Moments every day. The life captured by Lin Qinhe's lens had soothed his uneasy mood.

Tao Xi took a deep breath, unable to explain what she felt.

He took out the art book from his schoolbag that took him nearly a month to draw. His original plan was to give it to Lin Qinhe after he confessed to him tomorrow, but now everything is just right.

"This is the painting I promised to give you." Tao Xi put the collection of paintings on Lin Qinhe's desk and said to Lin Qinhe.

Lin Qinhe looked at the painting album in front of him, unable to hide his surprise. He thought Tao Xi had drawn a picture for him and never expected it to be a painting album.

The cover of the album is very simple, with an entire dark blue night sky on the embossed paper, and only a small golden moon embossed on the upper right corner, like a golden copper coin sinking to the bottom of a blue lake.

He opened the album and looked at each picture carefully.

There is a moon in every painting, which goes through a full thirty-day cycle of waxing and waning from the new moon to the full moon. And the scenery in each painting is different, with mountains and valleys, vast rivers, neon cities...they are scenery and moons from all over the world.

Lin Qinhe's fingers paused on one of the paintings while flipping through the pages. In the painting was a waning moon of the 22nd and 23rd, and the scenery was a Tokyo street under the moonlight. It was the same photo that he, Luo Zhengyin, and Yang Duole posted on their Moments after their vacation in Japan on November 11th, except that the sky had changed from dusk to night, and the neon lights on the street were shining brightly with the moon.

At that time, many people in the class were traveling on vacation, and only one person stayed in the school dormitory.

Tao Xi explained: "Many of the scenery in the painting are based on pictures found on the Internet. I have never been there, so the painting may be different from the actual scene."

For more than ten years, he has been secluded in that seemingly paradise.

If he had not met Lin Qinhe, he might have wasted his whole life in a mountain village or some unknown corner.

Tao Xi looked at Lin Qinhe's profile with a calm smile.

At this time, the class bell rang, and as Bi Aoxue walked into the classroom with a computer, the students in the class burst into warm cheers.

Tao Xi saw Lin Qinhe say something, but the sudden noise prevented him from hearing clearly.

"What did you say?" Tao Xi asked in a raised voice.

The lights in the classroom were suddenly turned off, and it was suddenly dark. Some people were cheering for the evening self-study to watch a movie, while others were shouting, "Why hasn't the movie been adjusted yet? Bi Chengfei, can you help me?"

Tao Xi's eyes went dark, his hand was grasped by another hand, and he was immediately pulled to the side, crashing into Lin Qinhe's arms. Amid the bustle, he heard Lin Qinhe whisper in his ear:

"I will take you to many places in the future."

Go see the moon all over the world.

Tao Xi looked at Lin Qinhe in the dim light, with a smile on his face.

He looked around and suddenly moved quickly towards Lin Qinhe, intending to sneak up on her and kiss her on the face. However, because he couldn't see clearly and didn't control his strength well, he bumped into her forehead first, which seemed to hit the corner of Lin Qinhe's forehead.

“…”

“…”

Tao Xi covered his forehead and quickly retreated, turning his face away in embarrassment.

But Lin Qinhe suddenly increased the strength of his grip on his hand. Tao Xi glanced at Lin Qinhe guiltily. Although he couldn't see clearly, he seemed to sense the man's deep dissatisfaction.

He gently scratched Lin Qinhe's palm with his fingers to express his apology, and Lin Qinhe let go of his hand instantly.

Bi Aoxue played an action movie in the original foreign language without subtitles. The special effects were flying everywhere and the sound effects were huge. Both boys and girls watched it attentively.

Tao Xi was not paying attention and was a little embarrassed because his sneak attack had failed.

He secretly glanced at Lin Qinhe who was standing beside him. Lin Qinhe was leaning back in a chair leisurely watching a movie. Only the faint flickering light on the screen was gathered in his pupils. It seemed that he was watching the movie very seriously.

Tao Xi forced herself to watch the movie seriously, listening to the original dialogue while watching to practice her English listening skills.

As the plot reaches its climax, a fierce gun battle breaks out between the good guys and the bad guys in a dark tunnel, and the entire classroom is filled with darkness and noisy sound effects.

Tao Xi had already watched intently, and was enjoying the experience very much, when suddenly a hand grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her into an embrace, and then a gentle kiss fell on her forehead, the same place where she had bumped into Lin Qinhe just now.

"Have you learned it?"

He heard Lin Qinhe say in a low voice.

In the dark, Tao Xi heard his own heartbeat, which was even more intense than the gunshots in the movies.

He wanted to launch a sneak attack back, but the movie screen suddenly lit up, so he had to give up in disappointment.

After the movie ended and the class was over, Tao Xi found that he had not paid any attention to the second half of the movie. All he could hear in his head were the chaotic sound of gunfire and the restlessness in his heart.

The lights in the classroom were turned on again, and the students in the class quickly rushed out of the classroom with their schoolbags on their backs. Tao Xi saw Lin Qinhe take out a large pile of materials from the drawer and put them on his desk, and said to him:

"Here are some materials about American universities that are suitable for you, as well as TOEFL materials." Lin Qinhe paused, looked at Tao Xi and continued, "It's not too late to start preparing now."

Tao Xi stared at the detailed information in front of him, and then he realized that Lin Qinhe had been seriously fulfilling his promise to go to college with him and had already been planning for their future.

And he was so angry that he even scolded Lin Qinhe.

Tao Xi looked at Lin Qinhe eagerly, reached out and pinched Lin Qinhe's sleeve and shook it, silently expressing "I was wrong".

Lin Qinhe glanced at Tao Xi's hand that was pinching her sleeve, took that hand and put it in his coat pocket, and said, "Take me to the school gate."

Tao Xi nodded heavily.

The two walked towards the gate along Xiangzhang Road in the night, just like the night before the previous training camp, but the atmosphere seemed different. Their eyes no longer collided but carefully moved away from each other.

Tao Xi walked closely beside Lin Qinhe and listened carefully to Lin Qinhe's introduction to the TOEFL test.

"My spoken English is so poor. Is it difficult to improve it?"

The spoken English of English teachers in Qingshui County is very plastic. Reading, listening and writing can be improved through a lot of training, but spoken English is different.

"It's not difficult. I'm here." Lin Qinhe said.

Tao Xi smiled. He recalled the first time he saw Lin Qinhe on the live broadcast screen. It was when Bi Aoxue asked Lin Qinhe to give an English speech. Although he didn't understand much at that time, he also knew how natural and standard Lin Qinhe's spoken English was.

At that time, he would never have thought that Lin Qinhe would later teach him spoken English.

"Then I will communicate with you in English next!" Tao Xi clenched his fist and said to Lin Qinhe, his eyes shining. He suddenly became confident in his oral training.

"……good."

As a result, there was silence afterwards. Tao Xi had been thinking about what to say in his mind for a long time, and was translating at the same time, but he couldn't come up with a suitable sentence after a long time. He always felt that it would be strange to say it.

Finally, the two of them walked to the school gate. Tao Xi breathed a sigh of relief, waved to Lin Qinhe, and said with a smile:

"Goodbye. See you tomorrow!"

“…”

After returning to the dormitory, Tao Xi took a shower first, then placed the school information and TOEFL teaching materials given to him by Lin Qinhe on the table, sat down and began to carefully look up the schools in the information.

He used his mobile phone to check and found that these schools were ranked very high, and most of them were world-renowned art schools, but the specific application matters and scholarship rules could not be found on the domestic Internet, and he could not find the school's official website.

Tao Xi thought about it and asked Pan Yan, who majored in fine arts.

"I don't really understand this. After all, my grandfather told me to concentrate on getting into Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts or the Central Academy of Fine Arts and forbade me to study abroad." Pan Yan said, and then asked Tao Xi why he suddenly wanted to study art abroad.

"I plan to continue learning painting in the future, mainly oil painting. Schools abroad should be better," said Tao Xi.

When he saw Fang Sui's paintings at the exhibition and when Lin Qinhe said he wanted to see his exhibition, he made his decision.

This is also the gift that his mother can leave him and will never be taken away, the talent for painting.

Pan Yan nodded and said, "That's right. If you want to learn oil painting, it's better to go abroad. My grandfather only wants me to learn Chinese painting, so there's no need to go abroad."

Cathy Xu, who was writing the paper opposite, suddenly said sarcastically: "Art schools abroad are generally unaffordable for most families, and art is a useless major that costs a lot of money."

Pan Yan exploded instantly and started a fierce verbal battle with Xu Ziqi.

Tao Xi ignored it. He stared at the information in front of him for a while and suddenly thought of someone.

He had met a member of the Qinghua Association, a girl from the Academy of Fine Arts named Ding Yanan, at a charity art exhibition. At that time, he was forced to add her on WeChat because of her enthusiasm. During the conversation, he also learned that she planned to study in the United States.

Tao Xi opened the WeChat address book and found the person she had added but had not chatted with before. She took a long time to formulate her words and made sure she was polite and not abrupt before sending the message.

Unexpectedly, Ding Yanan responded quickly and answered his questions very enthusiastically.

Ding Yanan: "You can indeed apply for scholarships at the prestigious universities you mentioned, and some offer very high full scholarships, but the application process is quite difficult, and not many people in China can get full scholarships."

Tao Xi was not surprised to see this message. He knew that Lin Qinhe's words "you will definitely be able to apply for it" might be to encourage him.

But he is willing to try his best again for this not-so-easy opportunity.

He suddenly realized that the trajectory of his life had already changed. He had never thought that he could study at Wenhua No. 1 Middle School, never thought that his goal would be Tsinghua University or Peking University, and never thought that he would eventually want to apply to a prestigious foreign university.

He seemed to be getting closer step by step to the world that seemed like a dream to his past self.

Tao Xi received another large amount of information and links from Ding Yanan.

Ding Yanan: "If you want to apply, an excellent portfolio is essential. You should start accumulating works from now on, participate in more well-known competitions and exhibitions, get to know some senior artists, and try to get their letters of recommendation. I still suggest you join our association. There are many young painters who have studied abroad in famous universities. They must know more than me."

Tao Xi thanked him solemnly, saved the information and links, then asked Ding Yanan for an application form for the Qinghua Association, filled it out carefully, and sent it to the association's email address.

He wrote down the matters and key points that Ding Yanan said in his notebook, and planned to consult the old man when he went to Qiao Henian to learn painting on the weekend.

After doing all this, the lights were turned off soon. Tao Xi climbed onto the bed and buried herself in the soft quilt. She opened WeChat on her phone and wanted to send Lin Qinhe a good night message, but found that Lin Qinhe's avatar had changed.

It changed from a blank picture to the cover of the painting album he gave to Lin Qinhe.

The golden moon in the dark blue night sky.

Tao Xi raised the corners of his mouth and looked at his own profile picture again, the deep blue planet he had painted with gouache.

He typed in the dialog box: "Goodnight, Mr. Moon."

Moon: Goodnight.

The author has something to say:

Don’t worry, there is no epidemic in the United States mentioned in the article.

There will be no reconciliation in this article.