Chapter 45 I like you so much. ...
In the early morning of Christmas Day, snow began to fall quietly in the southern city of Shanghai.
Snowflakes were falling outside, and the moonlight was shining on the floor-to-ceiling windows, making it very bright outside.
The scene before him was very similar to the scene in the crystal ball music box that Xu Ji saw in the window of the gift shop he passed by last night. It seemed extremely dreamy on this night of power outage.
It's like a fairy tale.
Xu Ji didn't go over, but just stood quietly at the door.
The large flat was equipped with floor heating, which provided a very warm temperature. Tao Siyun was standing barefoot on the floor, with his back to Xu Ji, playing a piece of music he had never heard of before, and he didn't notice anyone coming in.
The last time I saw her playing the cello was at a cultural performance in my first year of high school...
Xu Ji was immersed in the music, his thoughts suddenly drifted away, and he couldn't help but think about some random things.
After an unknown amount of time, as the song ended, Tao Siyun put down his cello, stood up, and staggered forward a few steps. Then, he suddenly spread his arms and pressed himself against the huge glass wall, shouting, "It's so hot!"
Xu Ji came to his senses, hurried over and stopped her dangerous action in time.
Tao Siyun was frightened and screamed "Ah". The moment he turned his head, he was caught off guard and was tightened around the waist by the person behind him.
Xu Ji pulled her into his arms, his arm placed across her waist in an absolutely protective manner, like a rope that was strong and safe enough. Before Tao Siyun could react, he lifted her up and led her away from the window.
Her back pressed tightly against a stranger's chest, Tao Siyun was anxious and afraid, so nervous that she subconsciously struggled in his arms. She frantically tried to find the knot to untie the rope, but what she felt was Xu Ji's hand tightly wrapped around her.
Xu Ji lowered his head, resting his chin lightly on the top of Tao Siyun's head, and a low voice sounded in her ear, "Have you been drinking?"
The faint smell of cigarettes and the familiar scent of lily of the valley hit her almost at the same time. Tao Siyun shrank her body, breathing slightly, tilted her head to the side, and tried hard to see the person behind her clearly.
Tao Siyun was in an extremely nervous state. The shock just now made her breathing and voice unstable. "You, let go, I can't breathe..."
The hand on his waist loosened, and Xu Ji asked again: "How much did you drink?"
Tao Siyun finally calmed down, looked at him with a dazed look, thought for a moment, and said, "Several mouthfuls."
“…”
She was only wearing a fluffy suspender nightgown, and her outer robe was nowhere to be found. Her waist-length straight hair was draped over her shoulders, making her slender neck look even more graceful.
Xu Ji looked at her quietly in the moonlight.
Tao Siyun was very well behaved after getting drunk. He opened his big eyes and let him look at him openly.
Xu Ji suddenly smiled, tickled the tip of her chin with his index finger, like teasing a kitten, and asked her, "Do you still recognize me?"
"Hmm..." Tao Siyun narrowed his eyes and stared at him. After thinking hard for a while, a name suddenly popped up in his mind. He muttered, "Prometheus."
"...Take another good look."
This position made his neck very tired and uncomfortable, so Tao Siyun turned over in Xu Ji's arms, and the two of them changed to a face-to-face position.
The two hands on Xu Ji's shoulders suddenly hugged his neck. Tao Siyun stood on tiptoe, leaned close to his ear, and said slowly: "I know, you are Zhurong, the God of Fire who looks like Xu Ji..."
Xu Ji was stunned for a moment, then he grabbed her hand and put it on his face, saying in a hoarse voice, "Am I hot?"
"It's not hot," Tao Siyun shook his head very honestly, "It's cool and comfortable."
Xu Ji slowly raised the corners of his mouth: "That's all."
Tao Siyun stared blankly at Xu Ji. In that brief moment of eye contact, he was in a trance, as if he was lost in confused memories, and murmured, "Happy birthday..."
Xu Ji was stunned for a moment.
"I'm sorry... I didn't mean to miss that day..."
Tao Siyun suddenly hugged Xu Ji's waist back, put his face on his neck, and rubbed it gently in a daze.
The slightly higher body temperature was transmitted to his body through the thin fabric, as if it was the source of all the heat in the darkness.
Xu Ji's breathing was stagnant because of the heat from her body.
"Tao Siyun," his throat was a little dry, and after a long while he whispered, "You owe me a song, remember?"
The only answer he got was the sound of light breathing beside his ear. Tao Siyun leaned his head against him and fell asleep.
Xu Ji pursed his lips, picked her up in this position, walked to the bedroom door in the dark, and gently kicked it open.
***
Xu Ji's birthday is February 27th. In mid-February 2014, Tao Siyun rushed over from Beijing Fudan University to take the entrance exam for Shanghai Conservatory of Music.
The schedule in the third year of high school is very tight, and No. 1 Middle School has to make up for the lessons all day every Saturday. However, for Xu Ji, who received the "admission news" in advance, there was no pressure at all.
A few days before the school entrance examination, Tao Siyun went to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music to see the examination room and was very surprised to see Xu Ji on campus.
She has been back in Beijing for several months, and the two of them occasionally chat on QQ.
Tao Siyun took off one of his headphones and asked, "Why are you here?"
"Take a break today and go out for a walk."
"oh."
"Have you found the examination room? Don't go to the wrong place again." Xu Ji liked to take advantage of her directionality and tease her whenever he had the chance.
Tao Siyun twisted his fingers around the headphone cord and said seriously, "I've checked it several times with my admission ticket, and even confirmed it with teachers from the school I met on the way. There's no mistake."
When the two were about to reach the school gate, Xu Ji suddenly stopped.
Seeing this, Tao Siyun also stopped and asked, "Why don't you leave?"
The boy wanted to say something, but he was too embarrassed to say "You stay in Shanghai West to go to college, or I can go to Beijing Fuzhou."
Xu Ji did not mention his admission.
He thought that he should wait until her school entrance exam results came out before finding a chance to tell her.
"I'll give you a gift." Xu Ji hooked Tao Siyun's down jacket pocket with a mysterious look on his face and quickly stuffed something into it.
Tao Siyun didn't even have time to see what it was.
She felt it through her pocket and found it was round.
Out of curiosity, I took it out.
There were two letters written on the furry, yellow-green tennis ball in the palm of my hand with black marker: XJ.
He actually gave her a tennis ball signed with his name.
"Champion ball bless you, you will pass every exam!"
Tao Siyun was stunned for a moment, his eyes looking at a precious treasure, and an expression of disbelief: "Your championship ball?"
Xu Ji raised his eyebrows at her proudly, "Yeah, the tennis league."
Tao Siyun hesitated for a moment, feeling too embarrassed to accept it. "You gave this to me, what about you?"
Xu Ji said nonchalantly, "Do I even need to take the college entrance examination? I've been a recommended student since I was a child."
This sentence sounds familiar.
Tao Siyun immediately remembered the day when he first transferred to the school and became his deskmate.
He seemed to have said the same thing at the time. Jiang Zhen also said that his experience of being admitted to a university without taking the entrance exam could be called nine years of compulsory education in another way.
Tao Siyun thought he was joking. She pursed her lips, half of her face hidden in her scarf, and laughed secretly, "A student recommended for twelve years of compulsory education?"
Seeing her smiling face and happy expression, Xu Ji also smiled and said "hmm" half-seriously and half-fakely.
"Tao Siyun, are you still in Huxi on the 27th?"
"Hmm...it should still be there."
"That was my eighteenth birthday."
Then what?
Tao Siyun suddenly became nervous and almost guessed what he would say next.
Xu Ji observed her expression for several seconds before continuing, "Jiang Zhen, Li Huan, Cao Wenzheng, and the others are all gone. Are you free?"
Somehow, facing Xu Ji's face-to-face invitation, she felt that saying "yes" or "no" didn't seem to work...
Saying "yes" directly seems unreserved, while saying "no" is very disrespectful.
She felt that she should agree neither too quickly nor too slowly, but at this moment she was already thinking about what birthday gift to give Xu Ji.
Tao Siyun would become particularly entangled when her pretentiousness flared up, which could easily be misunderstood by people who were not familiar with her as her intentional teasing, but in fact she was just a little shy.
After a long while, she finally said hesitantly, "I think... there should be."
"Then it's settled?"
"Yeah." Tao Siyun lowered his head, staring at his shoes, and said shyly, "But it can't be too late. I have to be home before 6 pm."
The boy suddenly smiled and said, "Stretch out your hand."
Tao Siyun did as he was told and asked in confusion, "What for?"
Xu Ji took out a pen from her coat pocket and drew a cute rabbit watch face on her wrist, with the hour and minute hands pointing to noon at the same time.
"Jiang Zhen and his friends won't arrive until 12:30. Can you come half an hour earlier?"
“……?”
Only letting her arrive half an hour early, then... does this mean...
Tao Siyun blinked, his heart beating rapidly, and a very bold guess quickly came to his mind -
Xu Ji...is he going to confess his feelings to her?
She pulled her hand back tremblingly, and her voice came out muffled from her scarf: "No."
"Tsk, can't you even give me an early birthday present?"
"no."
If his eighteenth birthday present was for her to be his girlfriend, then that definitely wouldn't work.
Tao Siyun has been a good boy since he was young, and it is absolutely impossible for him to fall in love before going to college.
"Tao Siyun, why are you so stingy? I gave you my champion ball, which I cherish like a talisman, and you can't even play a happy birthday song for me on your cello?"
…
Her mind was full of other things just now. When she heard this, she immediately realized that she had misunderstood Xu Ji's meaning and was very embarrassed.
Fortunately, she was overthinking...
Tao Siyun felt that he was being too self-indulgent and too fanciful. He looked embarrassed and quickly said as if to make amends, "Okay, sure."
***
The bedroom was a little hot. Tao Siyun once again lifted the quilt that Xu Ji had covered her with, and mumbled in a daze that she felt uncomfortable and hot.
Xu Ji opened the window, leaving a gap to let some cold air from outside in, then went to the living room to pour a glass of water, picked up Tao Siyun, and fed her some.
After tossing and turning in bed for a long time, Tao Siyun finally fell into a deep sleep.
The person you like is lying right in front of you. As long as you are a normal man, you will naturally have some thoughts in your mind.
Xu Ji's right hand suddenly stopped when it touched her breath, and hung in the air awkwardly. After a moral test, he finally chose to be a gentleman for the time being.
He thought that restraint could be considered a form of retreat, but he did not want to become a pervert with dirty thoughts about her.
Xu Ji loosened his clenched hands, pinched the corner of the quilt and pulled it up a little, gently covering Tao Siyun's shoulders with suspenders. While covering her, it seemed as if he was also hiding the shameful thoughts in his mind.
He suddenly felt like a vinegar bottle that had been placed in a damp corner, empty for a long time but no one cared about it.
Although it seems that the vinegar smell has evaporated on the surface, only he knows that love has not dried up due to the passage of time. When water is added, a sense of old sourness will still arise in his heart.
If possible, he would like to put a VC effervescent tablet called "Taosyun" in a bottle filled with water.
No matter what flavor, it's fine.
Xu Ji leaned over, resting one hand on the bedside table, holding his breath, and looked at her sleeping face carefully in the moonlight outside the window. He didn't dare to get too close, for fear of accidentally waking her up again.
After a long while, after confirming that the person on the bed was already fast asleep, a low murmur was heard in the bedroom.
"I like you so much."
I didn't fall in love with you when I was young, but it was after I met you that I knew what it was like to fall in love for the first time.
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