The cohabitation life started off quite uneventful. On the one hand, Huo Qinian was deliberately honest, and on the other hand, Su Yunbai started to get busy.
The day after Huo Qinian moved in, Su Yunbai received an invitation from a professor at X University in T State. The other party wanted to work with her to jointly apply for a large project at the National Institutes of Health, with a funding amount of millions of dollars.
This professor is a very prestigious senior in Su Yunbai's field. Su Yunbai communicated with him via email for a long time and also greeted him in an online meeting. It was not until she visited X University in T State and met him in person that they finally reached a cooperation intention.
There were too many materials to prepare for the application project, and Su Yunbai became busy all of a sudden, leaving early and returning late for two weeks in a row.
Her mind was full of business, leaving less time for Huo Qinian. After Huo Qinian moved in, she was too busy and could only treat him as an ordinary roommate. Apart from meeting and saying hello in the morning and evening, the most they interacted with was sharing the same living room and kitchen.
The busy week soon came to an end. On Friday afternoon, it was almost dark when Su Yunbai's car stopped at the parking lot at the door.
Huo Qinian waited for a long time in the living room before he heard the delayed sound of the car door closing outside through the open window, followed by Su Yunbai's hurried footsteps and voice.
She was on the phone with someone: "…Yeah, I saw your email. Sorry, I was too busy these days， but I do review your thesis today. Actually， there were some points need to be addressed in your thesis…"
The key rang at the door, and soon, Su Yunbai pushed the door open and walked in.
She walked in with her phone in one hand, still talking: "…You sent me another version? Great！Just a second, I will have a quick check…"
Su Yunbai said, put down the backpack in her hand, took out the laptop from it, put it on the big desk beside her, and sat down at the desk.
After four or five minutes, Su Yunbai hung up the phone, but she did not leave the desk, but stared at the computer with full concentration.
The sky was dim, and it diffused in through the window of the living room, outlining the straight and thin figure of the person beside the desk. The light from the computer screen illuminated her eyes and eyebrows. There was a kind of charming charm in her absolutely focused expression.
Huo Qinian looked at her for a long time before he came back to his senses, and sighed slightly in his heart.
He must be too busy to care about anything else.
Huo Qinian stood up and turned on the light in the living room. The
bright light dispelled the darkness in the room and also woke up Su Yunbai who was busy reading a paper.
She turned around and saw Huo Qinian clearly. She was stunned for a moment, and then she realized, "You're back."
Huo Qinian also has a stall here. Although he is very relieved to delegate power to his subordinates, there are still many things that require him to make decisions personally.
That is why Huo Qinian is not always at home during this period. Su Yunbai needs to go to work, and he also has to go to the company.
Huo Qinian's heart choked slightly when he heard what Su Yunbai said.
What time is it now? No matter how busy he is these days, he must be back by now. In fact, his car is parked outside.
When she opened the door just now, she didn't even use the key. She just pressed the door handle and the door opened.
There were his shoes at the door...
so many details... it was obvious that he had been back a long time ago.
Even if we don't mention these, he was sitting in the living room! After so long, she didn't even notice him?
She was not like this before.
Sure enough, can love disappear?
Huo Qinian's thoughts flashed quickly in his mind, and his heart began to sour.
Even so, he still couldn't bear to blame Su Yunbai, and only sighed softly: "Yes, there are fewer things to do today."
Su Yunbai was not that slow. In fact, she realized that something was wrong as soon as she said it just now - she actually saw some details, but it was not until now that these details formed effective feedback in her mind.
Huo Qinian's sigh suddenly had a concrete meaning.
Su Yunbai felt a little guilty: "I'm sorry, I've been so busy lately that I've been a little dizzy..."
Huo Qinian didn't take it to heart: "It's dark, you have to turn on a light if you want to see something. I packed some food outside... I'll put it in the microwave to heat it up, shall we eat first?"
Su Yunbai agreed.
She went to the room, changed into her home clothes, ate hurriedly, put away the dishes, and started to do her own thing.
Her reason was very good: "One of my students will graduate with a master's degree soon, and the thesis has not been finalized yet. The school has a specific graduation process. I have been busy with project applications these days and have not given him feedback on the revision of the thesis. He has been urging me..."
The two of them sat on the sofa and the desk respectively, both busy with their own things, and they were at peace for a while.
Huo Qinian had to look up at Su Yunbai every once in a while. The first time, he found her staring at the computer screen with a serious expression. The second time, he found that she unconsciously reached out and rubbed her neck. The third time...
Huo Qinian stood up, walked to the desk, and took the iPad from Su Yunbai's hand.
Su Yunbai subconsciously raised her head, but didn't react for a moment: "What's wrong?"
Huo Qinian took her hand, pulled her up from her seat, and sat her on the sofa.
Su Yunbai was still a little confused, and suddenly Huo Qinian pressed her shoulders down on the sofa, with her neck resting on the armrest of the sofa.
She lay on her back on the sofa, looking into Huo Qinian's eyes, but still didn't understand what he wanted to do: "What are you doing?"
Su Yunbai wanted to get up, but Huo Qinian pressed her shoulders to prevent her from moving. Not only that, he also moved a chair nearby and sat down next to Su Yunbai.
He turned off her iPad, then looked down at her and said casually, "Nothing, just wanted to see if the earth would explode if you suddenly took a break."
Why is he so weird?
Su Yunbai frowned and was about to say something when Huo Qinian stretched his hand back and pressed a certain spot behind her neck.
It was sore and painful.
Su Yunbai hissed subconsciously.
Huo Qinian's smile was cold: "You haven't moved for nearly two hours, and I thought you were made of iron. It turns out you feel uncomfortable too."
There was a hint of anger in his voice, and a look of oppression in his eyes.
Su Yunbai didn't know why she felt guilty, and the fire in her heart dissipated at once.
Her voice weakened: "I'll be fine after I'm busy for a while."
Huo Qinian raised his eyebrows and looked at her: "Don't lie to me with such words, right? I have as much experience as you. In fact, when is there any time when you are really free?
"Now you are thinking about applying for projects and helping students revise papers. After the project is approved, you have to be busy with the proposal and report writing; you also have to attend classes, and the courses have midterm and final exams, and you still have to give papers; you have more than one student, and students' papers may be revised endlessly...
"Week after week, which week don't you have something to do? Which week don't you have several deadlines?
" "Not convinced? Then tell me clearly now, when in the future can you guarantee that you will be free?"
Su Yunbai opened his mouth and was speechless.
Huo Qinian said: "I'm surprised, you haven't been so busy before? Is it a bad habit developed during the epidemic when no one is watching you? Sitting for hours... Do you think you are Superman?
"Look at your eyes, I can see bloodshot. Let me show you..."
Huo Qinian said, picking up his mobile phone from the side, turning on the camera, turning on the front camera, and pointing it in front of Su Yunbai's eyes.
Su Yunbai saw himself in the camera with a confused face.
Huo Qinian said: "Did you see your eyes? Are they a little red?"
As he spoke, he moved closer to Su Yunbai, as if he wanted to point it out to him.
In the front camera, two faces suddenly appeared, almost sticking together.
Su Yunbai was stunned for a moment, subconsciously turned his head and looked in Huo Qinian's direction.
Then, there was a click.
Su Yunbai turned his head sharply and saw the "selfie" that was frozen. In the photo, Huo Qinian was handsome and elegant, while her face was blurred and almost left a shadow.
The contrast was extremely tragic.
Huo Qinian looked at it and couldn't help laughing from his nose: "Oh, there is an unexpected surprise."
He looked very happy, and it was obvious that he wanted to keep this "black history".
Such a childish person like Huo Qinian would definitely do such a thing.
Su Yunbai reached out to grab his mobile phone and said in a deep voice: "Delete it for me!"
Huo Qinian raised his mobile phone and said, "I won't."
Su Yunbai grabbed his arm and sat up half-supported, reaching for his mobile phone while pulling him down.
Unfortunately, her weight was just a drizzle for Huo Qinian. Not only was he not stopped by Su Yunbai, he even easily led her to sit up straight.
Su Yunbai was so angry that her teeth itched, "Give me the phone!"
Huo Qinian raised his arm and held the phone high, easily passing over Su Yunbai's head, with a gleam in his eyes, and it was obvious that he was up to something bad.
Su Yunbai's competitive spirit suddenly arose.
She grabbed Huo Qinian's arm to prevent him from leaving, stood up from the sofa, and tried to reach the phone in Huo Qinian's hand.
This time she was not shorter than Huo Qinian, but Huo Qinian put his hands behind his back in time, making it impossible for her to reach it again.
Su Yunbai only had Huo Qinian's phone in her eyes, and she subconsciously reached over.
She finally got the phone, but she also fell into Huo Qinian's arms.
Huo Qinian hugged her tightly, his arms tightened, and his voice was full of laughter: "Look what I got? You brought this to me yourself."
Su Yunbai grabbed Huo Qinian's phone, and finally came to her senses. She was so angry that she hit him: "Are you childish?"
She pushed him and wanted to leave, but Huo Qinian would not let her go.
He said: "You can't come and go as you please, right? Either you stay here, or let me go and return the phone. I think the photos I took are pretty good."
Su Yunbai thought about it, and removed the firewood from the bottom of the pot, and deleted the photos first.
After she turned on the screen of Huo Qinian's phone, the first thing that appeared in front of her was a screen saver. Su Yunbai discovered, unexpectedly but reasonably, that the photo on the screensaver was exactly her.
This seemed to be a picture of a meeting, and the nameplate next to the corner of the table had the three characters "Su Yunbai" printed on it. She was sitting in her seat, tilting her head to listen to the person next to her talking, with a thoughtful look.
For a moment, Su Yunbai couldn't even remember when this picture was taken.
Huo Qinian was looking at her, and she could almost feel the heavy, burning gaze above her head.
Su Yunbai felt a little flustered for some reason, and it was not good to stay on this photo for too long, so her finger subconsciously slid up quickly.
Soon, the photo on the screensaver became virtual, and the unlocking interface appeared, and the password window jumped out.
Su Yunbai was distracted, and subconsciously looked up at Huo Qinian.
Huo Qinian said, "0803." He paused, then said, "Always."
Su Yunbai's fingers curled slightly.
This day... This is their wedding anniversary.
The atmosphere seemed to become strange all of a sudden.
Su Yunbai almost mechanically slid the unlocked mobile phone window, and it took a long time to find the album and delete the photos.
But in fact, her mind was no longer on it.
She didn't even realize what she was doing.
After a long while, Su Yunbai said, "Screen saver... Change them all." As soon as
the voice fell, the arm holding her stiffened slightly, and the breathing above his head suddenly became heavy.
He was nervous.
Su Yunbai laughed, "I don't mean anything else, it's just that this is a bit personal, there's no need to be so...show off. Besides..." She thought for a moment, "Let me put it this way, if you're tired of listening to a song, just keep playing it on repeat; if you're tired of eating a dish, just keep eating it over and over again...
"Aren't you tired of looking at this screensaver every day?"
Huo Qinian slowly relaxed.
He said almost with a sigh: "I couldn't see you before... I can't see you anymore, so how can I get bored? Besides, I actually have a whole set of pictures..."
Huo Qinian said, and opened his photo album as if showing off. There was a column in it, which was all Su Yunbai's personal photos.
With this database, there are so many photos that can be replaced, wouldn't it be boring?
Su Yunbai no longer wanted to find out where he found these photos from. Looking at Huo Qinian's bright eyes, she was a little angry and almost arrogant, "No more photo screensavers, do you hear me?!"
Even she could hear that his words were actually all show of strength and weakness, all arrogance.
Huo Qinian looked at her and smiled, his eyes melting with a warm feeling, looking very gentle.
He said, "Okay, I'll listen to you."
Anyway, he can see the real person, so he doesn't need to be so pitiful.
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