Chapter 55
-: Not replying to me [Sad Soybean]
...Jian blinked, her fingertips, which were burning hot from being warmed by the hand warmer, slid across the screen, thought for a moment, and then responded.
*:Can.
The other party replied instantly: Will my family tell?
Jian Sheng tilted her ear to listen, and the living room had become completely silent without her noticing. She looked through the crack in the door at the living room, where the lights were as dark as the rest of the house.
*: No, when?
After sending the message, she covered the bed with her phone and suddenly felt a little hot.
He stood up again and paced back and forth in the small study.
Having received no news, Jian Sheng grew slightly anxious, though this anxiety was hidden beneath her otherwise composed expression.
As she counted to fifteen steps, her phone, which was lying on the side of the bed, buzzed. She hurried over to it.
Chen Zhoujing only sent three words.
-: Go downstairs.
She suddenly felt a tightness in her chest.
After spinning around twice, he picked up the clothes from the stool next to him and quickly put them on.
When she left, she deliberately tiptoed and opened the living room door in the dark.
The moment she closed the door, she glanced at the elevator, which was stopped on the twentieth floor.
Jian Sheng turned around and ran downstairs without hesitation.
The overhead lights cast a warm yellow glow, illuminating each floor as you pass by.
Every floor was paving the way for her.
Finally, when she reached the first floor, the lights that came on revealed the person she wanted to see.
Downstairs, after sending the message and not receiving a reply from her for a minute, Chen Zhou scratched his head a few times and straightened his clothes.
Two minutes passed without any response. He leaned against the glass door, his cold fingers tapping on the nine-key keypad for a long time.
After numerous deletions and edits, not a single sentence was published.
Until the third minute, his depressed heart suddenly began to pound violently the moment the light came on.
A figure ran over from the corner of the elevator, stopping just as the person looked up.
Her face was slightly flushed, she was breathing heavily, and the strands of hair that had been sticking up on her forehead fell down after they settled.
This face, which was previously so thin it looked like it had bones, is gradually becoming fuller. It's still thin, but it doesn't look the same as before.
I'm much healthier now.
Chen Zhoujing put his phone back in his pocket, stepped forward, opened the glass door, and took a few steps toward her: "I thought you weren't going to reply to me."
"How could that be?" Jian Sheng gasped for breath, ran her hand through her bangs a few times, and smiled at her.
“How could that be…” he repeated her words, “Yes, you wouldn’t.”
Jian Sheng pursed her lips slightly and explained, "Not replying isn't impolite."
With a serious expression and a blushing smile, she asked him, "Why did you make me come down?"
Chen Zhou's chest pounded, and he turned to push open the glass door: "Let's go out first."
Jian Sheng followed behind him, walked out of the building entrance, and the two stood side by side downstairs in the community.
"If the message bothers you, you don't have to reply."
"That's not because you're being impolite."
He suddenly spoke.
Jian Sheng looked up at him, the streetlight shining on him, from his hair to his long eyelashes and then to his shoulders.
As I stepped into the darkness, the light disappeared again.
She turned around and denied it: "You won't."
He spoke so softly that Chen Zhoujing didn't hear him clearly. He subconsciously bent down and asked, "Huh? What?"
The first response had already caused Jian Sheng a lot of trouble, but she couldn't bring herself to say it a second time.
So he lowered his head and didn't say anything.
Chen Zhoujing didn't get very close. Seeing that she didn't respond, he moved slightly closer to her shoulder: "Say it again?"
He softened his voice, making it clear and pleasant to hear.
Jian Sheng pinched his earlobe, said "Oh," and after a long silence, slowly said, "Your information won't."
She read every single one, and even the most trivial ones, she could deduce his usual expression and demeanor from his tone of voice.
He lives in her phone and is always in her ear.
"Mine won't be a problem?" Chen Zhou smiled in surprise. "My information won't be a nuisance, right?"
"Mm." She nodded.
Chen Zhou let out a long "Oh," and said, "Then I'll be satisfied..."
Jian Sheng glanced at him, sensing he was about to say something, and spoke first: "Why did you make me come down?"
Chen Zhoujing hesitated for a moment, then sat up slightly without pulling away. He paused for a few seconds before saying sincerely, "I want to spend New Year's Eve with you."
I haven't given you my New Year's greetings yet.
"...I also want to walk slowly with you for a while."
He was also worried that she would feel lonely at Jian Qingyao's house, and that she would be unhappy feeling like she was living under someone else's roof.
Chen Zhoujing spoke these words almost one word at a time, very slowly, so slowly that the minute felt like an eternity.
Her mind flashed back to his smiling face every time he spoke to her, and her ears heard his gentle voice.
My blood seemed to be boiling.
Even though he was right next to her, she didn't dare to look at him.
However, Chen Zhoujing was unaware of her struggle at this moment. Under his gentle gaze, he saw Jian Sheng gradually accepting him, her back no longer hunched over, the occasional upturn of her lips, and her growth as she began to open her heart.
He also occasionally glimpsed the resilience hidden beneath her silent exterior.
This was something Chen Zhou found rare; the subtle voice that Jian Sheng had tried so hard to hide was almost disappearing from his sight.
A ripple stirred in his calm eyes, and he added, "I want to hear you speak again..."
What I mean is... I want to get to know you better.
He would never have said such things before, but tonight, as she ran over with a smile, curving her lips at him and fixing her hair, he inexplicably felt a stronger urge to understand her.
I couldn't help it.
Jian Sheng remained silent; his expression was too blunt.
She didn't know that, in fact, this was the only time he spoke his mind without joking.
Jian Sheng took a breath: "Do we need to completely understand each other to be friends?"
Chen Zhou was slightly taken aback. He realized he had said something a little embarrassing, so he pinched the back of his neck and laughed, "Of course... that's right."
"Friendship lasts forever, so if it's going to last forever, shouldn't we get to know each other better so we can be good friends?"
He started speaking faster, and Jian Sheng knew he was about to ramble on.
However, she said, "Okay."
"How do you want to know?" She looked up at her.
Just as they stepped into the Changting area, half in shadow and half in light, Jian Sheng stood under the lamplight, his eyes shining with a pure smile.
Chen Zhoujing suddenly regretted saying a bunch of embarrassing things. He was in the shadows, only a meter away, and those burning eyes made his heart heavy.
Seeing that he hadn't spoken for a while, Jian Sheng tugged at his sleeve, then let go immediately, pointing to the chair behind him: "Want to sit down?"
Chen Zhou nodded in surprise, took a step forward, and followed into the brightly lit area.
He wiped the bench before Jian Sheng sat down.
A chill enveloped the two of them, and they remained silent, each wrestling with the turmoil in their hearts.
Chen Zhoujing spoke first: "Will you stay in Jiangzhou indefinitely?"
Upon hearing this question, Jian Sheng frowned slightly.
She was unsure.
She was an unstable person, with no one behind her, and she hardly ever thought about whether she would stay in Jiangzhou.
In a brief reply, he said, "Probably."
Chen Zhoujing realized what he meant and fiddled with the zipper on the hem of his shirt: "Will you go back to Jeju? After graduation?"
Jian Sheng chuckled, his tone indifferent: "No."
His heart trembled, and he unconsciously looked at her face, but he couldn't see anything unusual.
Jian Sheng thought he would ask her about her family to get to know her better, but to her surprise, he just talked about his usual hobbies, and she just happened to get into the conversation.
It made Jian Sheng want to laugh from time to time.
"Do you prefer it cold or hot?" He turned to face Jian Sheng.
Jian shook her head: "I don't particularly like any of them."
"How could there be no one I like..." he murmured.
“Leaning towards cold,” Jian confirmed.
Chen Zhou's eyes lit up: "Isn't this a coincidence?"
“I like it cold too!” He squinted, as if thinking of something.
As Jian Sheng turned to look at him, he suddenly sat up straight and made a rather bold suggestion for her: "Would you like to try what it's like to eat ice cream in winter?"
Jian Sheng was stunned; such thoughts had never crossed her mind before.
People are used to feeling hotter when it's cold in winter and colder when it's hot in summer. In her world, no one had ever told her that it's okay to stay cold, and that people can be completely at their own pace.
After a long silence, Chen Zhou, considering it wasn't good for girls to eat ice cream, said, "Never mind, I was just talking nonsense."
"You should still..."
"How about..." Jian interrupted, "we give it a try?"
Her eyes were filled with eager anticipation, which reached a peak the moment she broke her vow.
This value was a rare celebration during my youth.
Chen Zhoujing wanted to say something, but under Jian Sheng's burning gaze, he swallowed his words.
We went without hesitation.
As midnight approached, rows of red lanterns hung on both sides of the road at the entrance of the residential area, and two figures walked along the road in the quiet night, their lights shining brightly.
Knowing what to do, Jian Sheng felt an unprecedented sense of pleasure, even though it was a very small thing, so small as to be insignificant.
But following Chen Zhoujing's lead was a kind of stimulation that went beyond discipline.
She stood outside the curtain and waited for a while. Soon, Chen Zhoujing handed her two boxes of ice cream.
"This is what I told you before, it's delicious, but the school store doesn't sell it." He unwrapped the package in his hand and placed it in hers, then took the unopened package he had just given her.
Jian Sheng brought the ice cream to his lips, and a chill rushed up his spine.
Along with the chill, there was also a sweet taste.
The two walked into the residential area, quietly eating their ice cream.
The atmosphere between them was harmonious and congenial.
"Ice?" He turned his head.
Jian Sheng chewed the ice cream in her mouth a few times, her teeth chattering from the cold, but she shook her head: "Is it...refreshing?"
Chen Zhoujing murmured an "Mmm," then repeated, "It felt great!"
They looked at each other and laughed loudly for a while.
Jian Sheng never imagined that one day she would follow such a person and do things beyond her imagination.
Thinking of something, she suddenly turned her head and asked, "How did you know my two birthdays?"
She had always wanted to ask, and now she finally had the chance.
Chen Zhoujing took the last bite, folded the bag in his hand, and said, "I... saw it in the office."
Not long after the start of the last semester, he watered the pothos plants every day, and sometimes Zhong Mei would ask him to take a list that needed to be signed back to the class.
For some reason, the first thing he did when he received the list was to look at the last column.
Naturally, she noticed her birthday information.
"But..." But the list she had was wrong.
He wasn't telling the truth, and Jian Sheng could tell, but she didn't expose him. However, the time Chen Zhou gave her the fountain pen was actually her birthday.
Zhou Yilian's birth was very difficult, and she lay in bed for a long time. She wasn't present when the birth was registered. Jian Sheng remembered that Jian Zihua had let it slip while drunk, saying that the birth was registered incorrectly.
She had grown accustomed to being ignored for so many years, because from the moment she knew her gender had been assigned, she would no longer be recorded in the Jian family genealogy.
Unexpectedly, besides Zhou Yilian, there was a second person who would celebrate her birthday on her actual birthday.
Regardless of how he found out, she was very grateful to Chen Zhoujing.
"But what?" Chen Zhou asked in surprise, his voice uneven.
He felt a little guilty, because besides the registered birthday information, there was another thing he had seen in her notebook.
It was a very clean notebook. That day, she went out, and he came back from the office. He happened to put the completed test paper on her desk and accidentally glanced at the contents of the notebook.
Those few days, they were having a conflict because of Jian Qingyao and Yu Chao.
However, he remembered the date in the notebook very clearly.
I don't know why, but I just chose this date to celebrate her birthday.
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