Qin Shen quickly noticed Xu Man's unusual gaze. He raised his head to meet her gaze and immediately smiled. His smile was warm and bright: "What are you thinking about? You keep staring at me."
"Ah?" Xu Man then realized that she had been staring at him absentmindedly for a long time without realizing it. She quickly retracted her gaze, took a sip of hot water and said, "I was wondering... why you take care of people like this."
The other person laughed: "What kind of question is that? Shouldn't I be able to take care of people?"
"It's not that I shouldn't, it's just that..." Xu Man didn't know how to explain her inner thoughts to him, and tried to choose her words carefully, "With a family background like yours, you should have been well taken care of since childhood, right?"
"Being well taken care of doesn't mean you can't take care of yourself." Qin Shen said, "Just like you, haven't you lived alone in Xinjing for three years and in Mingzhou for a month? Didn't you receive good care at home?"
"But that's only for yourself." Xu Man finally found the right entry point and slowly said to him, "You misunderstood. I didn't mean to say that you can't take care of yourself. I meant to say that you are so considerate and caring for others, which is beyond my expectation. Just like me, I can rent a house and live alone in another place, but if I want to care for others like you do... I think it's difficult for me to do it."
"Isn't this natural?" Qin Shen replied with a smile, with a hint of doubt between his brows, "You are my girlfriend, if I don't take care of you, who will?"
Seeing that he still didn't understand what she meant, Xu Man had to give up explaining helplessly, "Forget it, it's nothing, let's eat." Anyway, it was fine this way, he took care of her, and she enjoyed his care, as long as there were no problems in the actions, why bother to get to the bottom of it so much.
Qin Shen looked at her, smiled, and didn't ask any further questions, which made Xu Man discover another of his strengths: he has a high emotional intelligence and won't ask questions that make people feel embarrassed when it is unnecessary. Although he sometimes deliberately teases people, he never goes overboard and always sets his bottom line.
The more I think about him, the more I like him... How can he be so good and so likable?
She was thinking in her heart, but she didn't know that similar feelings had once appeared in Qin Shen's heart. The feelings of both parties for each other transcended time and space, and reached a wonderful consensus at this moment.
…
The two of them ate like this, chatting from time to time. During the conversation, Xu Man learned that Qin Shen did not enroll immediately after being admitted to Xin'an University, but retained his student status, served in the army for a year, and then returned to school to continue his studies. No wonder he was only two grades higher than her although he was four years older than her. It turned out to be because of this reason.
"What made you want to join the army?" she asked curiously. "If you want to join the army, why don't you just go to military school?"
"My grandfather originally wanted me to apply for a military academy, but in the end he respected my wishes and let me attend the police academy." Qin Shen told her, "But in exchange, I have to go to the army for training for a year."
"Your grandfather wants you to join the army?"
"There was a little bit at that time," he said, with a look of nostalgia on his face. "Because of some problems at home, my grandfather didn't want me to continue on the path of police. But later on, things took a turn for the better, and he saw that I still wanted to continue working in the police after returning from the army, so he never mentioned this idea again."
At that time?
Xu Man calculated in her mind that the year he went to college should be five years ago. Five years ago, she was still in high school and was busy with her studies. She had no idea what hot news had happened. However, after she went to college, she heard a few words from her roommate whose family worked in the public security department. It seemed that a few years ago, a major incident happened in the public security department of Xinjing. The entire public security system was affected by the earthquake, and a large number of people were replaced from the top to the bottom. If Qin Shen's "something happened" referred to this incident, then she could understand his grandfather's thoughts.
Although it is not clear what happened, if it is true as my roommate said that the entire system has undergone a major change, then the nature of the situation must be very serious. It makes sense that the grandfather would not want his grandson to get involved in this mess. However, she did not ask in detail. This kind of thing is not something that can be told to others. If he could tell her, he would have said it directly and clearly without using vague references.
"How is life in the army?" she said. It was hard to ask about the earthquake, but she could ask about other things. "Is it hard?"
Qin Shen smiled and said, "It's just like that. I was a little uncomfortable when I first entered, but it got better later."
"Is it because the training is very intense that there is little time to rest?" Xu Man thought of the articles and reports on military life on the Internet. It seemed that life was quite difficult. Some of her high school classmates applied to military academies, but she had never met anyone who joined the army to serve. She didn't know how credible what was said in those articles was or whether it was exaggerated.
"It's quite intense, definitely more difficult than the military training at school, but there's plenty of rest time, so it's OK." Qin Shen thought for a moment and gave a three-word summary, "I've only been there for a year, and I don't feel anything special."
"Only one year? Don't you have to serve in the army for two years before you can leave?"
"That's the term of conscript service. I joined the army directly and can leave at any time," he said. "But I was only planning to stay for one year. I don't want to join the army. I joined the army only because my elders asked me to. I'm happier staying in school."
Xu Man smiled and said, "Of course, life in school is definitely more exciting than in the army." She then said, "Then your birthday is in the second half of the year?" She herself was born in the big month and went to elementary school at the age of six. Qin Shen was three years older than her, but only two grades higher, so there was a one-year age difference between them. That means he was born in the small month and went to elementary school at the age of seven.
"Yes, in the second half of the year." Qin Shen confirmed her statement, "December 24th."
December 24? Xu Man had not expected this date. She smiled in surprise and said, "What a coincidence, it's on Christmas Eve?"
"It's not New Year's Eve, so it's not a coincidence. If you ask me, your birthday is a coincidence, August 31st, which happens to be at the end of the long month, allowing you to start school a year early."
Xu Man was stunned: "How do you know when my birthday is?"
"It's written on your resume. I saw it at a glance." Qin Shen answered lightly, without telling her that he didn't notice it at all at the time. He just glanced at it and ignored it. It was when she came to the detachment later and Jiang Ya called him to transfer her to the Municipal Bureau that he took out her resume for the second time, glanced at the date of birth written on it, and wrote down the number.
If you think about it carefully, he should have liked her a little at that time, or at least cared about her, otherwise he would not have paid special attention to such trivial information and kept it in mind until now.
Xu Man did not think much about it, thinking that the fact was just as he said. She said, "Oh, so that's how it is." Then she lowered her head and took a sip of soup and stopped talking. Instead, Qin Shen on the opposite side continued to talk about the same topic.
"Today is August 12th. Calculating the time, your birthday is almost 20 days away. Do you want anything?"
Xu Man didn't expect him to ask her this. She was surprised and delighted at the same time. She raised her head and smiled at him, "Do you want to give me a gift?"
"Nonsense." Qin Shen looked at her and smiled, "What do you want?"
Xu Man thought about it, but couldn't think of anything she wanted for a moment, so she shook her head: "I don't think there's anything special I want..."
"Then take your time to think about it. There's still more than half a month until the end of the month. Tell me when you think of it. There's no rush."
…
After dinner, Qin Shen was responsible for tidying up the table, while Xu Man went upstairs to her bedroom to change and wash the sheets that were soiled yesterday. She checked Qin Shen's room and found the sheets were quite clean, so she did not change them.
As she was walking down the stairs slowly step by step with the bed sheet in her arms, she happened to run into Qin Shen who was coming out of the restaurant. Seeing the sky blue bed sheet in her hand, he was stunned for a moment, then he understood what she meant: "Are you going to wash the bed sheet?"
"Yeah." She nodded a little embarrassedly and folded the blood-stained side of the bed sheet inward. Although she knew that this action was completely unnecessary, the shyness in her bones still made her do it.
The washing machine was placed near the sink in the bathroom on the first floor, but Xu Man did not put the sheets directly in. Instead, she first washed the blood-stained parts with soap with her hands, then put them in and pressed the water to dry them, and then put them in the dryer after they were clean. That’s the good thing about having a dryer. The sheets can be washed, dried and put back on the bed in less than two hours. There’s no need to rummage through drawers to find spare ones like I did last night.
Qin Shen leaned against the bathroom door and watched her actions: "Are you going to go back to sleep tonight?"
Xu Man didn't react at first, and subconsciously thought his "go back" meant "go back to the rental house". Just when she was about to reply that they were already living together, of course they wouldn't go back to the rental house, and when he asked why, she realized that his "go back" meant "go back to the new bedroom". Her heart skipped a beat, and she replied hesitantly, "Yes..."
After saying that, he added, "...otherwise where am I going to sleep?"
She couldn't explain why she added this sentence. The other party might just ask casually without any hidden meaning. She said this as if she was expecting something, expecting him to answer -
Qin Shen smiled and said, "Of course, you should sleep at my place."
"...You there?"
"Yes, at my place." He said with a smile, "There is a double bed in my room, so two people can sleep together without feeling crowded. There are also two sets of replacement bedding. If you sleep here, you won't have to look around for things like you did last night. It was such a hassle."
Xu Man's heart was beating like a drum. She understood that this was not an ordinary invitation. Last night's invitation could be said to be a late-night invitation half out of helplessness, which was considered temporary. But today's invitation was obviously not, and it was different in both meaning and time limit.
He invited himself to sleep with him.
Not only do they live under the same roof, they also sleep in the same bed. They are truly living together as lovers.
Xu Man lowered her head, feeling her pounding heart. The hair beside her ears slid across her cheeks, bringing her answer like a gentle breeze: "...Okay."
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