Chapter 2
At 1:30 in the afternoon, Ning Zhiran's elective course VISA180 began.
This is an elective art course, and is also generally recognized as a "water class". There are no homework and no exams. The teacher is an old white Canadian man. He asks everyone to draw on the spot during each class, and shows movies in the remaining half of the class. It is perfect for getting credits.
There were more people here today than Ning Zhiran had expected. There were only two empty seats left by the back door. He chose a seat against the wall and was about to sit there in a daze.
But not long after sitting down, Ning Zhiran smelled a familiar scent of Tom Ford Noir perfume.
Ning Zhiran looked up.
Haha, palace dog.
Gong Huai had a blank expression on his face, but his voice sounded polite: "Finn, there's no room inside. I'll sit next to you."
Ning Zhiran turned around and gave Gong Huai a hypocritical smile: "Of course, sit wherever you want."
At the podium, the white professor began to call the roll.
"Finn"
Ning Zhiran raised her hand: "Here."
Finn is the English name Ning Zhiran gave himself.
On the second day of the Lunar New Year, he watched an anime on Bilibili. The male lead was called Finn. He was a handsome, cool, and arrogant character. When he saw him, he immediately put on a suit. Now he doesn't remember what the movie was about, but he just remembers that the name was cool, so he still uses it.
The professor continued to call out names: "Gong...HuwaiGongHu-wayGongHuw-eye"
The old white man couldn't pronounce the pinyin of "Huai", but he was trying sincerely.
Gong Huai raised his eyelids and responded: "I go by Gong."
[Just call me Gong]
Ning Zhiran was unhappy.
What is he pretending?
Normally, foreign students call each other by their English names, and only tell each other their real names if they are very close.
But Gong Gou is different. His English name is the pinyin of his full name, the kind that teachers can't pronounce, foreigners can't remember, and Ning Zhiran feels awkward for a second every time he hears it.
The professor continued to call out the names behind him.
Ning Zhiran was bored waiting and couldn't control her mouth: "Classmate, every teacher can't pronounce your name, why don't you just choose an English name?"
Gong Huai looked at Ning Zhiran seriously.
"If foreigners can't pronounce it, that's their problem. I don't think I should change my name to please them."
Gong Huai paused and said, "If you can't read, you should learn."
“…”
What a great imperialism terminator! He doesn’t even want to cater to foreigners with his name.
Ning Zhiran felt like she was being forced to pretend, so she turned her head away, regretting having spoken to him unnecessarily.
After the roll call, the white professor began to talk about today's topic.
Today's topic is: blind contour drawing.
The teacher explained with a smile that this was a basic training in sketching. When drawing, one could only stare at the other person's face and draw from one stroke to the next, "blindly drawing" the outline seen in the eyes, and the lines with the hands could not stop.
To put it simply, you have to stare at a person motionlessly, observe the curvature of his eyelashes, the width of his lips, and describe everything you see on paper, while your eyes must be glued to the other person's face from beginning to end.
The most important thing is that you cannot look at the drawing paper during the whole process, you can only look at the other person.
The classroom burst into laughter.
The white professor looked around the classroom and asked everyone to pair up with the person closest to them and draw each other's faces.
Ning Zhiran really wanted to pretend not to hear.
Because there is a wall on his left and Gong Huai on his right.
Gong Huai didn't have any objection. He didn't mind giving the little classmate a chance to copy him.
What's more, this little classmate seemed to have never liked him under his hypocritical enthusiasm.
Since you don't like him, you should learn to like him. This is indeed a good opportunity.
Ning Zhiran didn't know what Gong Gou, who had a smooth and strong life, was thinking. He was just about to play dumb and look down at his phone when Gong Huai's voice came to his ears:
"You draw me first." Gong Huai said.
Ning Zhiran thought to himself, who the hell wants to draw you?
He didn't want to draw Gong Huai, as he would feel so bitter after one class that he would vomit out all his gallbladder.
But when Ning Zhiran looked around, he realized that everyone around him had already paired up and started writing.
Ning Zhiran was desperate.
They had never sat together before in this class. Usually, one sat by the window, the other by the door, keeping to themselves. Today, they were just a little late, so they were sitting together. And the moment they sat down, they were going to be dominated by art?
Ning Zhiran didn't want to be so obedient. Why should he pick up the brush and serve just because he said, "You draw me first"?
So Ning Zhiran got angry and said, "You draw me first. I don't quite understand what the teacher means. I want to see how you draw first."
Gong Huai stared at him.
Ning Zhiran felt inexplicably timid.
What's wrong with this palace dog today? The way he looks at me is so weird.
There's always this feeling of having done something wrong... and being caught.
Gong Huai lowered his head, opened the sketchbook, twirled the pencil between his fingertips, and said casually:
"Okay. Then I'll draw you first."
Soon, the whole classroom was filled with the rustling sound of pencils.
Ning Zhiran wrinkled his nose, clearly unwilling. He turned his face away, not wanting to act at all, pretending to stare intently at the backs of other students' heads, refusing to look at Gong Huai.
But Gong Huai's gaze was so powerful. It was like two invisible searchlights with tangible heat, accurately hitting every inch of his face.
Ning Zhiran could even clearly feel the trajectory of that gaze.
From his jawline, it slowly climbed up inch by inch, brushed over his earlobe, and finally, locked firmly in his amber pupils.
So disgusting.
The hairs on Ning Zhi's neck stood up uncontrollably. His throat was dry and he couldn't help but cough twice forcefully and awkwardly.
"Cough, cough, cough."
In the overly quiet classroom, the coughing sound was particularly abrupt.
"Don't move." Gong Huai's voice sounded immediately, "Turn your head back a little."
Ning Zhiran complained in his heart, you are an economics student, why are you pretending to be Da Vinci here?
He stiffened his neck and deliberately emphasized the word "classmate": "Classmate, this is just a free class to get credits. Why are you drawing so seriously? Just draw casually."
Gong Huai's hand holding the pen didn't stop at all: "I don't like to do things half-heartedly, and I don't like to be casual."
Ning Zhiran was tricked again.
Amidst this torture, which was comparable to torture, Gong Huai finally put down his pen. When the professor announced that time was up and asked everyone to switch roles, Ning Zhiran felt like hearing the sound of nature and silently breathed a sigh of relief.
It was Ning Zhiran's turn to paint Gong Huai.
He grabbed his sketchbook and pencil, almost with a vindictive mentality of "it's finally my turn".
But what surprised Ning Zhiran was that Gong Huai did not turn his head awkwardly and fix his eyes on the wall or elsewhere like he did just now.
From beginning to end, Gong Huai's eyes were fixed directly on Ning Zhiran's face without any hesitation. He was very arrogant and fearless.
Ning Zhiran couldn't avoid the sight, nor could she lower her head.
I could only raise my eyes, meet Gong Huai's gaze, and draw him.
This was the first time Ning Zhiran had observed Gong Huai so closely since she met him in her freshman year.
In Ning Zhiran's understanding, this world is made up of many injustices.
And the biggest injustice among them is Gong Huai.
This Gong Gou is not only from a wealthy family, but also looks pretty good. Even a casual selfie can become a hit on Instagram.
Ning Zhiran still remembers that it was a selfie taken along the chin, slightly tilted upwards.
He has double eyelids, a straight nose, and thin lips. In the selfie, Gong Huai appears to have been drinking, his eyes a bit blurry, yet he still looks at the center of the camera with a tipsy expression. At the bottom of the photo, the distinct Adam's apple, typical of an adult man, and his unbuttoned collar are just visible.
That selfie went all the way from Instagram to China. Ning Zhiran still remembers that during that period, even some people in the junior high school group used that selfie as their profile picture.
Not only is she rich, she also looks more mature than him and has a more prominent Adam's apple than his.
How unfair.
He also wanted to look more manly, so that he could look like a real man.
The more Ning Zhiran thought about it, the more annoyed he became, and the more annoyed he became, the more he refused to accept it. Although he couldn't take his eyes off it, his hands never stopped. He wrote without hesitation, following his mood. He simply sketched Gong Huai's face, and as he drew more and more lines, his mood gradually brightened.
This painting will definitely be ugly after it's finished. If Master Gou sees it later, he'll be furious.
Gong Huai watched Ning Zhiran's expression change from a stern face at first to a forced smile later on, and he was a little curious about what Ning Zhiran was thinking.
This class was originally boring as hell, but now it seems that it is not so boring.
The teacher clapped his hands and said, "Okay, time's up! Hand in your drawings and let's look at each other."
When Ning Zhiran heard this, she moved faster than anyone else and slammed her sketchbook on the table, with a look of anticipation in her eyes as if she wanted to see Gong Huai humiliated.
But the next second, when Ning Zhiran saw the picture of herself drawn by Gong Huai, she was stunned.
Is that him? Aren't you supposed to look at the paper while drawing? How can he draw so well?
Huh? And you even drew the teardrop mole under his right eye?
Ning Zhiran was shocked and looked at his own photo again.
His eyes were crooked, his mouth was tilted, his nose was flat, his teeth were bared, and the whole piece of paper was filled with angry emotions.
Ning Zhiran felt like a muscular rabbit that was full of fighting spirit, with its ears erect, ready to beat someone up at any time. However, when he scratched the opponent with his claws, the opponent didn't move at all. Instead, he fell on his back because he used too much force.
He was a little annoyed.
Lost to Gong Huai again.
Gong Huai touched his chin and pointed at the inverted triangle eyes and sausage-shaped mouth drawn by Ning Zhiran: "Finn, in your heart, do I look like this?"
Ning Zhiran was speechless. What do you mean by "in my heart"? What do you think you are in my heart?
But he still smiled and said, "Classmate, this is my first time doing blind contour drawing. I can't look at the paper while drawing. The important thing is to observe the process. Please don't mind."
Gong Huai glanced at him and grasped the key point: "We took classes together for three years."
"Why do you keep calling me classmate? Don't you remember my name?"
Ning Zhiran's mouth twitched.
Of course he knew Gong Huai's name. He just didn't want to call it, because calling the name would make it sound too familiar.
Why is this person so pretentious and troublesome?
Ning Zhiran smirked: "Okay, Gong, I'll call you that from now on."
Gong Huai was obviously not satisfied with this title: "I have a Chinese name."
He paused for a beat and uttered two words clearly: "Gong, Huai."
Ning Zhiran really didn't want to talk to this person any more, but in order to maintain his usual good image, he could only mutter quickly: "Okay, okay, got it, I'll call you Gong Huai from now on."
Young Master Gou was satisfied and continued to look at Ning Zhiran's masterpiece.
Ning Zhiran turned her head and imitated his tone with her lips, saying "Gong~Huai~" slightly.
As luck would have it, Gong Huai saw it.
Gong Huai: “…”
This little bunny tooth looks gentle on the surface, but grins behind the scenes and even imitates his way of speaking?
Come to think of it, last month when he was using the restroom at school, he heard someone in the next room sending voice messages to a friend. The main content was all cursing at him.
At that time, Gong Huai tried hard to listen carefully. The content of the voice message seemed to be that he had stolen someone else's parking space, and was also called a pretentious guy.
At that time, Gong Huai racked his brains but couldn't figure out what was going on with this parking space. He even felt that the man's voice sounded a little familiar.
It was not until he went to economics class that he heard Ning Zhiran greet him in a voice as gentle as spring breeze.
It's you.
Gong Huai realized that he had no contact with Ning Zhiran in normal times, and couldn't figure out what had offended him, so he immediately became interested in Ning Zhiran.
After observing Ning Zhiran for a few days, he found that Ning Zhiran paid great attention to his image at school and acted like a good person.
It was completely different from the excitement I felt when I scolded him that day.
Gong Huai really wanted to find a crack in Ning Zhiran's hypocritical appearance, and fortunately, he really found it.
Yesheng is a chat platform he and his friends jointly invested in. He was bored a few days ago, so he checked the rankings and planned to check how his own anchors were performing.
The results opened the list.
[North America W City Monthly Top 1, ID: Ningning]
[The voice is pleasant, kind and healing, and I will accompany you to sleep at 9 o'clock every night]
After clicking on this simple ID, a familiar voice came from the phone:
"Good night, baby~ Dream about me too~"
Gong Huai recognized it immediately.
Who is this?
Tsk.
Gong Huai raised his eyes and looked at Ning Zhiran with a smile.
You've cursed me a lot behind my back, right, Ningning?
I will make you regret it.
Ideally, for a lifetime.
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