Chapter 18: The Moon and Pegasus
For a moment, Xia Cun seemed to be back in the corridor that night.
He Shizhao walked into the elevator. She felt the wind blowing and then looked towards the garden.
The door she closed was strangely opened again. She thought she had only closed the door in her imagination, so she closed the glass door for the second time.
So, what does Jiang Song mean?
Had he disappeared that night because she was angry at him for locking him up on the terrace?
No, he must be trying to be the first to complain.
"Not me."
She retorted so earnestly that it was almost believable. He simply responded with, "Usozukiっ (You're lying)."
“…”
"You're lying with your eyes open."
Regardless of whether it was appropriate or not, he used a Chinese idiom to accuse her, as if his Chinese had really improved by leaps and bounds.
"..." Xia Cun pursed his lips and looked at him, asking, "Did you see me? Then why didn't you say anything when I closed the door?"
In that case, she certainly wouldn't have kept him locked up in the garden.
Jiang Song remained silent, as if he was not the one who brought up this topic for no reason.
After a moment of silence, he suddenly raised his hand, held up a delicious seaweed stick in his palm, and changed the subject: "Kore, iruru?" (Do you want this?)
"don't want."
The boy's refusal was decisive. He slowly lowered his hand, holding the delicious stick, and then lowered his head slightly, moving closer to her. Xia Cun simply raised his eyes and looked him in the eye. After a moment's stare, he whispered, "Are you angry?"
Just like when she asked her on the hiking trail, but at that time she thought she shouldn't be angry with Jiang Song. What about now?
"Some," she replied now.
"How much is some?"
He tried to make the abstract concept more concrete, but Xia Cun didn't find it strange. She even thought about it seriously and said, "You'll know." Then she added the word "probability," "Maybe."
If Jiang Song invited her to his birthday party, she would tell him what it felt like to be "a little angry." He would probably invite her, but even if he didn't, she could still go there.
But her answer seemed to make Jiang Song feel a little confused. He blinked like her, and then leaned back against the door panel as if bored.
The atmosphere was quiet. Someone seemed to be talking outside the cabin door. Xia Cun vaguely heard Jiang Song's name. Until the voice faded away, another knock on the door suddenly sounded.
Jiang Song's back finally left the door panel. He looked at Xia Cun, who simply pushed him to the corner behind the door and then opened the hatch a small angle.
The person outside the door didn't say anything, but he must be very tall, because she had to look up to see him. Jiang Song observed the girl from behind the door, speculating like this.
For a moment, Jiang Song seemed to be back in the corridor that night—
I really want to knock on the door.
But why can’t I knock on it?
It’s so hot, is the central air conditioning broken?
He turned and opened the glass door to the open-air garden, feeling the night breeze blowing in gently.
He knocked on the door. He really wanted to know the thing he couldn't ask in the stairwell, so he knocked on the door.
The sound of the elevator running interrupted his determination. The elevator went from the third floor to the second floor, and then slowly went up again.
He stood in the thick darkness of the open-air garden and saw He Shizhao walk out of the elevator, turn left and walk to the door. After a moment's hesitation, he knocked on the door.
He heard He Shizhao ask her for an insignificant amount of compensation, nothing more, but it seemed to answer his question. They had indeed known each other for a long time.
なんか、イライラする…
I always feel so annoyed.
Suddenly, he saw her coming towards him. He subconsciously took a step back towards the darker place, and then saw her close the door.
Ah, I'm trapped here.
…
"This is my business card. If you need anything, you can call me."
Finally, the clear voice of an adult male put an end to Jiang Song's misconceptions. It wasn't He Shizhao, it was He Shiyan.
After hearing what He Shiyan said, Xia Cun asked sincerely, "Why did I call you?"
"Because it's my ship."
He Shiyan seemed to be joking, but also seemed to be serious. "For example, if you feel bored on the boat, you can call me and ask me to take you away."
"oh."
Xia Cun took the business card from his fingertips and made a move to close the door, but it was gently pushed against her. If she hadn't held the door, the door might have pressed against Jiang Song and then bounced back.
She looked at him, but He Shiyan just silently withdrew his hand after a moment, nodded, and left.
The door was closed.
Jiang Song leaned against the bulkhead and looked at her expressionlessly.
When he has no expression, he always looks a little melancholy and blank.
Xia Cun recalled a time when she had stalked him. That day, she skipped half a day of class to follow him because Jiang Song didn't go to school.
She was sure he was heading towards school at first, but when he reached a flower shop, he suddenly became aimless for some reason, as if he had turned into a dandelion fluff, going wherever the wind blew him. So she followed him all the way to the lake in the park, where he sat on the steps by the lake, his chin in his hand, and he was blown by the wind without any expression.
"Tired, tired." (I'm tired, bye.)
The young man behind the door suddenly said this, but remained motionless.
But Xia Cun opened the door again, looked into the empty corridor, then opened the door and said to the boy behind it: "Baby."
The pronunciation is stiff, as if a robot is speaking.
Jiang Song: “…”
The door closed again, Xia Cun turned around, and immediately found the delicious seaweed stick left on the cabinet in the entrance.
When did you let it go?
She blinked, picked up the delicious bar, went back to her room, opened it and ate it.
It's really delicious. It's delicious.
-
Lunch was arranged in the restaurant on the main deck. Perhaps because they were sitting at the same table with He Shiyan, or because Jiang Song seemed to be in a lack of interest again, the boys were not as casual as they were during the BBQ last night and were quiet at the beginning.
The only thing that makes people excited is perhaps the fact that He Shiyan will leave in the afternoon. After he leaves, the rest of the itinerary will be left to them to arrange, and they don't have to be too restrained.
During the meal, He Shiyan spoke to the young people present with the demeanor of a complete adult, his smile gentle and his concern full of care, but he also did not forget to leave a slightly intimidating warning: "Don't make trouble on my boat, I will know."
"Don't worry, Brother He, we are all very good." Lu Xu spoke first.
It's quite good, after all, it was carefully selected by Shinji Mizuno.
But He Shiyan glanced in the direction of Shi Yu and Lin Jiaci.
Shi Yu pretended not to notice. Lin Jiaci, on the other hand, looked obedient and nodded, saying, "We will, Brother He."
"Ah, I'm so angry. I woke up in the morning and was attacked by that guy's good luck." A female voice sounded lazily at the dining table.
Everyone's eyes converged on the girl at the end of the table.
Xia Cun also looked at them and said calmly: "My hand slipped."
So the voice was played but not converted into text.
After saying that, he ignored the others' gazes and replied to Xia Lan: "It's already noon."
So you can’t say you wake up early in the morning.
Xiao Lan: "What? You've missed the point again!"
Even so, she still handed Xia Cun a red envelope and said, "I dreamed of you doing your homework. I'm so touched. Here's a reward."
Xia Zunxing Zunxing: "I really did my homework."
Xiaolan: "I'm so relieved. I'm going out to have breakfast."
“…”It’s lunch.
Xia Cun opened the red envelope and did not correct Xia Lan, nor did he ask her what the complaining voice message meant, because it might just be a dream she had after waking up.
However, she still roughly understood what Xia Lan meant, because when people talked about lucky guys, they usually referred to Li Sui.
When Xia Lan was still dating Li Sui, she often said: What kind of luck do you have?
Even their acquaintance was closely tied to "luck".
They met because of the high temperature one summer——
That day, Xia Lan, leaving school, witnessed her old car spontaneously combust from afar. Through the heat, she imagined an explosion, perhaps caused by her, and wondered about her car insurance. Then, a car passing by a crowd of onlookers stopped. The man in it, armed with a fire extinguisher, got out and, without hesitation, walked over to the car. With a remarkably nonchalant gesture, he quelled the unexploded explosion. Xia Lan later learned that he had used a new type of fire extinguisher.
Because of this timely rescue, Li Sui's back image spread on the Internet. Afterwards, he was praised by his unit and reported by the media. What was even more fortunate was that he met Xia Lan because of this.
Xia Lan doesn't like going out because she believes she has a lucky E physique and that any bad luck could happen to her, so she tries to reduce her outings as much as possible. As a result, after meeting Li Sui, she's often been struck by his good luck, and all she can say is: How can someone be so lucky?
Following the clues, Xia Cun opened the social platform. After seeing the blog post that Xia Lan published last night, he knew where Xia Lan's dream talking came from.
Cartoonist Blue Glasses posts a welfare blog on his social account every month, drawing an illustration for the most popular photos. Most of the time, the most popular comments are girls' selfies or cute pet photos, but this time the most popular comment is the news photo of a firefighter saving a duck.
This picture has been widely circulated on social media recently, and all major official media outlets have used the photo in their promotional materials. The H City Fire Department was unable to cope with the operational requirements, so they simply asked the real person to appear in a promotional video holding the duck in question. Li Sui became a popular figure on the Internet for a while, so it is reasonable for readers to comment on this photo under her welfare blog.
But looking at it this way, Xiaolan is really unlucky.
I want to draw an ex-boyfriend and a duck or something.
“何見てるの?” (What are you looking at?)
The young man's voice rang out from the middle of the long table. Xia Cun looked over and found that he was staring at her. After he asked, the others who had originally looked away once again looked at her.
Xia Cun noticed that Zhuo Manyi was staring at her with a frown, as if she was unhappy. She glanced at her, silently looked away, and shared the blog post she was reading with the summer vacation group.
Because of Jiang Song's sudden question, the others were more or less curious, or just wanted to find an excuse to play with their phones. In short, they all took out their phones and looked at them.
"What's so good about this?"
Zhuo Manyi clicked on it and took a look, curling her lips. Then she realized the blogger's name and turned to ask Miao Wen, "Is this the comic author you mentioned earlier?"
Miao Wen nodded repeatedly: "That's right."
"All right."
Zhuo Manyi was still not in high spirits and responded indifferently. However, the girl next to her leaned over to glance at her phone and said, "The most commented post is about this handsome firefighter. He's very popular recently."
"Handsome guy?" Zhuo Manyi caught the key words and clicked on the large picture to take a look. "Okay, he is quite handsome."
"Right? I even watched the promotional video he shot, and he looks even more handsome when he's moving."
"Let me find it. I want to see it."
Zhuo Manyi seemed to be getting a little excited, but Zhou Yun just happened to say, "Is he handsome? Just average. Is he as handsome as me?"
"You have a big face."
"Hey!" Zhou Yun was a little dissatisfied and turned to ask the others, "Do you think this guy is handsome?"
handsome.
But I can’t be more handsome than my buddy.
"You're still more handsome." Lu Xu added, "But not as handsome as me."
Zhuo Manyi couldn't stand this group of people: "That's enough. Anyway, Shen Xing and I think it's cool. You boys should stay out of the fun."
While they were talking, Miao Wen was busy sending a message to Xia Cun who was sitting opposite:
——So you were reading this. I didn’t notice it because the table is too wide!
——I stayed up late last night to see this and was about to grab the hot comment, but when I saw someone else posted this photo and realized I liked it too, I just gave it a like.
Just as she was about to say something else, she suddenly heard Zhuo Manyi mention their names: "Tong Anyu, Miao Wen, Xia Cun, what do you think?"
The topic at the dinner table suddenly shifted to whether Li Sui was handsome or not, and the atmosphere became lively.
Tong Anyu looked at the photo and commented: "Objectively speaking, he is very handsome, but it doesn't quite suit my aesthetic taste."
"What kind do you like?" Shen Xing asked loudly.
"Hmm..." Tong Anyu's cheeks flushed a little, "I prefer those with temperament."
"Oh, you are worthy of being the daughter of an artist." After Shen Xing said this, she looked at the other two girls who had not spoken.
Miao Wen answered first, not forgetting to give the protagonist of the topic a type of title: "I think he is quite handsome too. He looks very reliable at first glance, and he is a 'gentle husband type'."
"You can see that too?"
"Yeah, after all, I'm well-read." Miao Wen said shamelessly.
After she finished speaking, the topic fell on the last girl present. Xia Cun said seriously, "He has a buzz cut."
"What's wrong with a buzz cut?" Shen Xing was puzzled.
"I hate buzz cuts." Her words were unexpectedly emotional.
This sentence made Zhuo Manyi laugh for some reason, and Zhou Yun immediately spoke up for the buzz cut: "What's wrong with a buzz cut? Haven't you heard that a buzz cut is the only criterion for judging a handsome man?"
The girls were laughing, but at this moment, He Shiyan suddenly spoke up and asked, "Who is more handsome, me or him?"
“…”
The atmosphere at the table suddenly plummeted from harmonious to freezing point. Everyone looked at He Shiyan with bated breath, as if they couldn't understand why a mature and steady adult like him suddenly joined in the fun. What's more, he hadn't even seen the person's photo, so what was he doing here?
"Brother Shi Yan, your joke is so cold." Zhou Yun, who was sitting on his left, said first, "Of course there's no need to ask, you're definitely more handsome."
He Shiyan smiled at him gently: "I may trust girls' aesthetic taste more."
"elder brother!"
Zhuo Manyi smiled and said, "I also think you are more handsome, Brother He."
"Me too!" Shen Xing and Miao Wen said in unison.
Tong Anyu and Xia Cun were the only ones who hadn't expressed their opinions. However, Tong Anyu had just said that she preferred the elegant type. Obviously, a noble young man like He Shiyan was more in line with her aesthetic taste. So, Xia Cun was the only one who hadn't expressed his opinion on this beauty contest.
However, He Shiyan didn't have a buzz cut, so she probably wouldn't mind it, but this guy's aesthetic taste would probably be weird...
Xia Cun seemed to be thinking.
During the silence, He Shizhao rarely spoke at the dinner table and asked in a cold voice, "Isn't that childish?"
He Shiyan just adjusted his glasses when he heard this, but smiled without saying anything.
The beauty contest of "Who's more handsome, me or Mr. Xu from the north of the city?" ended there. Only then did the young man sitting opposite He Shiyan, who had seemed to be staying out of the matter, sigh with interest and say, "Eh... ka wa ii."
He held his chin, not eating properly at all, with his eyes lowered and his fingers sliding across the screen of his mobile phone.
"What's so cute?" Zhuo Manyi seemed less angry and took the initiative to ask him.
"この Comics."
He answered like this, and then sent a message in the summer vacation group for the first time, following Xia Cun’s sharing.
It’s a long comic strip. If you pay a little attention to Blue Glasses’ social media accounts, you’ll find that no matter which platform she is on, she always has this long comic strip at the top of her feed. This is the beginning of her journey into comic creation.
The protagonist of the long comic is a little black cat, wandering in the rain, taking shelter and chasing along the way.
The comic's author is adept at switching the subjective perspective to that of a cat, depicting the world through the eyes of a kitten with a wide-angle effect. The world is vast and distorted, deforming and undulating like jelly.
A kitten wanders from day to night. After the rain stops, it steps on the moon in a puddle. Then, the next frame shifts to the cat's perspective. In the puddle, wrinkled by its own steps, it sees a glowing horse, seemingly flying in the sky. As the frames progress, the camera gets closer and closer to the ground, until, in the last frame, the kitten's owner finds it, burying its face in the puddle reflecting the moon and Pegasus...
The storyboard is novel, the painting style is simple, and the movements are vivid and smooth. It is undoubtedly a work that will make you marvel at its cuteness.
After Jiang Song shared this long comic, Miao Wen immediately widened her eyes at the other end of the dining table and typed quickly on the screen.
——What! You two are actually friends?
——Sure enough Jiang Song is very childish hahahaha
——But it unexpectedly suits him.
——I kind of want to recommend him to read the original work.
Xia Cun looked at the last message and replied, "I will."
Miao Wen looked up in shock, only to see Xia Cun's serious expression, and then she started to feel annoyed. Just as she was thinking about her carelessness, she received another business card from Xia Cun. The account name was "You can call me villain," and the profile picture was a beagle wearing sunglasses.
Ah, it’s finally here.
But she was indeed curious about what kind of person would become friends with Xia Cun. But this ID gave her a clue! Who would choose an ID like this?
Just as Miao Wen was complaining in her heart and applying to add Ren Yi as a friend, the other people at the table also flipped through the comic strip one after another.
"Jiang Song, how old are you? Why do you still like this kind of childish comics?" Zhou Yun asked.
He pondered, as if calculating the answer: "In ten days, I will be 17 years old."
"Who asked that?" Zhou Yun asked, and then, as if he had guessed what he was going to answer, he quickly said, "Okay, I asked."
Jiang Song didn't say anything.
At this moment, Lin Jiaci, who was sitting opposite Zhou Yun, suddenly spoke up: "It's really cute, I like it."
"Hey, you're peeking at my phone!" Lu Xu quickly covered his phone.
"Idiot." Shi Yu muttered to Lin Jiaci intentionally or unintentionally, and then said in a veiled way, "Lin Jiaci, can't you like something more manly?"
Jiang Song turned around when he heard the voice, but he just looked past Lu Xu at Lin Jiaci, and Lin Jiaci smiled at him.
うるさい——
Even more annoying than He Shizhao.
I was originally complaining in my mind, but it seemed like I said it out loud in advance, because He Shizhao also spoke out of the blue: "It is very cute. I have read the original work."
Miao Wen, who was in the process of having a preliminary communication with Ren Yi, almost let her eyes fall into the bowl——
What a lively meal.
Does it turn out that everyone here has the potential to become her enthusiast?
"Do you also read this kind of comics?" Tong Anyu asked He Shizhao.
“I saw it when I was a kid.”
"No, how come I didn't know that you watched this kind of thing when you were a kid?" Zhou Yun asked with a heartbroken look.
"Yeah, you didn't look like someone who would read this kind of comics when you were a kid, okay?" Zhuo Manyi said, "But I wouldn't be surprised if it was Jiang Song."
"It was just a coincidence."
After He Shizhao finished speaking, he met Jiang Song's gaze and said nothing else.
Jiang Song stopped talking, and the table fell into silence again. Fortunately, lunch was almost over.
…
After lunch, Butler Lin had already arranged the speedboat and crew, and the young men swarmed on the deck to see He Shiyan off, including Jiang Song.
But when He Shiyan was about to leave, he suddenly turned his head to look at the edge of the crowd and asked, "Do you want to go back to the shore together?"
Everyone looked at each other, as if all movement had stopped.
Lu Xu leaned over and looked, then asked, "Who are you asking, Master?"
"あのー..." Jiang Song seemed to be thinking about it, and then shouted, "Banli さん?"
At the edge of the crowd, Ban Li was suddenly called by his name, something he hadn't heard in a long time. He looked up in bewilderment. Everyone's gaze suddenly fell on him, and he felt his blood rushing to his head, his cheeks burning.
"Me, me?"
"はい."
He responded casually, but Ban Li vaguely heard a sharp tinnitus running through his brain.
Did he offend Jiang Song? When? Wasn't he always very careful and cautious?
"Why?" he asked blankly.
"Aren't you seasick?" Jiang Song pointed out the fact casually.
Everyone present remained silent until Lu Xu finally reacted: "I was wondering, no wonder you disappeared after getting on the boat and didn't show up for the BBQ last night. So you're seasick?"
"Why didn't you tell me earlier that you were seasick?"
Ban Li froze in place, as if feeling the deck for the first time. He felt like he was standing on something solid, not just floating on the surface. Only his voice was still a little light as he said, "I... I thought I'd be fine after taking seasickness medicine."
"You're not even afraid of surfing, yet you get seasick."
"That's different..." Chestnut retorted weakly.
At this moment, He Shiyan, who had been observing for a long time, withdrew his gaze from Jiang Song and said calmly, "Since you are seasick, come back to the shore with me."
Even He Shiyan said so, how could Ban Li refuse? He immediately ran back to the cabin with a red face to pack his luggage.
…
So, that same afternoon, Xia Cun wrote down another new item in his memo: "12. Same as Article 3, same as Article 6, but seems different."
"3. Kind. He saved a wounded kitten on a rainy day."
"6. Angelic. Real angel or fake angel."
Jiang Song is kind and angelic, but this time it seems different. Is it because she hasn't thought of a better adjective?
She suddenly realized something and added, "It contradicts the fifth point."
"5. A person with a bad or terrible memory. He thinks he will forget everyone by next summer."
It turns out that he can remember the name of a person who is always called a nickname, so his memory must be pretty good.
But why didn't he remember her name at first?
-
After He Shiyan left with Ban Li, the yacht finally headed towards an area suitable for snorkeling.
It was a quiet afternoon, and several teenagers preparing for snorkeling changed into their clothes and warmed up on the deck. Lu Xu asked Jiang Song and He Shizhao to join him, but they both just sat on the deck, one lazily eating a biscuit while the other studied with a notebook.
Zhuo Manyi and Shen Xing were the only girls snorkeling together. Shen Xing said she hadn't been to the beach in a while, so Zhuo Manyi had to accompany her. Tong Anyu, uninterested, also sat on the first deck with a laptop. Xia Cun and Miao Wen, on the other hand, came up to the second deck.
Miao Wen originally wanted to join the snorkeling team with the mentality of "since I'm here, I'm here too", but since she started chatting with Ren Yi, she became a little self-absorbed and changed her mind. At this moment, she didn't even pay much attention to Xia Cun squatting on the edge of the deck, and only sighed at her from time to time.
"Xia Cun, your friend is so cool."
"Xia Cun, your friend is such a rock star!"
After hearing this, Xia Cun just nodded.
Ren Yi has been a punk since she was a child, probably because her mother was a punk.
When Xia Cun was still young, Xia Lan taught her to learn more about the punk spirit from Ren Yi, referring to the natural look of looking down on everything.
Although children with expressionless faces sound difficult to deal with, for some reason this didn't apply to Xia Cun. Xia Lan always thought she was too cute and not intimidating enough. It took her a while to figure out that the problem was her eyes. No matter how cold her face was, if her eyes weren't cold, it was all in vain.
That's why she asked her to learn more "cold-eye" skills from Ren Yi and her mother Han Fu. As for herself, her eyes, which were myopic and had severe astigmatism, were even more blurry than Xia Cun's. She was really helpless. Fortunately, under her supervision, Xia Cun still learned some impressive eye skills.
"Xia Cun, you--" Miao Wen turned her head and swallowed what she was about to say, because Xia Cun had disappeared without a trace.
She was puzzled for a moment, then said to Ren Yi, "I turned around and found that Xia Cun had suddenly disappeared!"
Ren Yi: "It's okay, we can't get lost on the boat anyway."
Ren Yi: "And she can flash, you'll get used to it."
Miao Wen: “…”
Miao Wen accepted this strange explanation calmly and continued chatting with Ren Yi. But not long after, she suddenly interrupted the conversation, and after a long while, she sent Ren Yi several irrational messages:
——It’s over, Xiao Ren
——Something happened!
——How could this happen?
Ren Yi first sent her a string of question marks, then said coldly, "Tell me in detail."
Miao Wen: "Xia Cun flew away!"
Miao Wen: "She flew away with Jiang Song!"
As she spoke, the sound of helicopter blades echoed above the yacht.
Each sound disturbed every young man's heart viciously.
-----------------------
The author has something to say: Oh no, they are two bad kids!
Sometimes an angel, sometimes a devil^ ^
What a long chapter! It's as long as ten delicious sticks strung together. Now I think I can write 120,000 words.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
