Sick
After entering the classroom with her books, Song Yu sat down in the window seat as if she was familiar with it. It was convenient for her to slack off during class here, and when there were people blocking the view from outside, the teacher would not be able to see what she was doing.
She propped up her head in boredom and flipped through a few pages of a book while waiting for class. She was about to look up at the clock, but she met the eyes of Xu Qiao who just came in. He was wearing a loose white sweatshirt and light-colored jeans, and a pair of simple sneakers. Although everyone in the classroom was a male college student, he had an upright posture, and the hint of alienation between his handsome eyebrows made him look very youthful.
"Xu Qiao, here." Song Yu's eyes lit up, he raised his hand to greet him, then bent down and moved the schoolbag that he had placed on the seat next to him to hang it on the back of his own chair.
Not long after the person next to me sat down, the class bell rang, and the two of them didn't say much.
Xu Qiao still loves to rush through his reports in class. The teacher of this elective course doesn't care much about anything else except taking the roll call. Everyone knows that it's just for the credits. As long as the students don't seriously violate discipline in class and complete their homework on time, the teacher doesn't care much.
At first, Song Yu thought that the teacher was lax and that was why she dared to skip classes repeatedly. But she was caught several times in the end. Now she dared not skip any class and sat upright to play with her mobile phone. Xu Qiao also sat upright, with her eyes lowered, and the gel pen in her hand moved quickly. Row after row of beautiful numbers appeared on the smooth paper with her movements.
Song Yu stared at it and inexplicably felt that writing was a very relaxing thing. He was so engrossed in it that he forgot to look away.
"What are you doing?" Xu Qiao suddenly stopped writing and asked, "The teacher has glanced at us several times."
"Watching you write is quite relaxing."
Xu Qiao took out a copybook and a pen from her bag and handed them to her. The meaning in her eyes was very clear, and she told him to take it and play with it.
Why does it feel like I'm just using a toy to please a child? Song Yu complained in his heart but still took it obediently. Xu Qiao wrote the report for the whole class, and Song Yu practiced calligraphy for the whole class.
It was a rare opportunity to have such a quiet and serious writing moment, so when the bell rang, she actually felt a little reluctant to leave.
She returned the copybook to Xu Qiao and saw him put it in his bag. After a while, perhaps because he noticed she was looking at it, Xu Qiao took it out again and handed it to her, "Here, it's for you."
At first she declined, thinking it was just a copybook and she could buy it herself.
Xu Qiao looked at her expression and said calmly, "This copybook is no longer in production. I nailed the tracing paper on top myself."
"So what are you going to do?"
"I've written this several times." Xu Qiao picked up his bag and turned his head to look at her. "I'm really embarrassed to accept it. Just treat me to a meal. I'll choose the place."
"Of course." Song Yu heard Lan Lin calling her at the door. They had an appointment to have dinner together today, so she hurriedly stuffed the copybook into her bag and was about to leave.
In a hurry, a note fell out from inside. Xu Qiao picked it up and said, "You dropped something..."
He turned over the note and saw two lines of words written clearly on it: 'You are so beautiful, add me on WeChat: dhuhuijn'.
Song Yu turned back halfway through his walk, a bit surprised, "What is that?"
"Nothing." Xu Qiao looked at Song Yu's bag. It was an open bag with a zipper, but Song Yu was too lazy to zip it up. He smiled, put the note behind him, and tore it into pieces. "Your bag is easy to be stolen. It's better to zip it up. It's also easy for people to throw dirty things in it when you take the subway or bus."
Song Yu was a little surprised, but still pulled it up half-believingly, "Really? I said there was something wrong with my bag, and I'll change to another one next time."
"Um."
After walking a few steps, Song Yu turned around again and said, "When you decide on a location, remember to give it to me. Don't forget."
Xu Qiao lowered his head to pack his schoolbag and threw the torn note into the trash bag next to him with an expressionless face.
"Are you busy tonight?" Lan Lin came over when he saw Song Yu coming out. "I'm going to play over there. Why don't you come with me?"
Song Yu turned around when he heard that. "Going to see Rao Xin again? You've been there three times this week, right? Is it really that fun?"
"Don't you think the handsome guys over there are more attractive?" Lan Lin covered her mouth and smiled, her eyes full of ambiguity. She twisted Song Yu's arm and said, "Come with me. It's so boring to go alone."
"Besides, you've been broken up for so long, it's time to meet someone new." Lan Lin said, "I saw you had so many boyfriends before, breaking up and getting back together so quickly, but you've been surprisingly quiet lately."
"Didn't you say before that your dad introduced you to someone?" Lan Lin suddenly remembered, "What about him? Why haven't you ever mentioned him?"
"What a coincidence! You've already met him many times."
Too lazy to keep her in suspense, Song Yu said calmly, "It was Rao Xin. He came to tell me about it when you went to the bathroom that day. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known about it."
"What?" Lan Lin covered her mouth in surprise. "What's going on? Is your dad trying to turn every man around you into your ex-boyfriend?"
Song Yu flipped through the calligraphy copybook in her hand without even looking up: "He's not my type." She stuffed the copybook into her bag, "Okay, if you want to go, go ahead. Be careful. I won't go, lest Rao Xin think I'm interested in him."
Just as he finished speaking, he saw a guy with white highlights wandering over from a distance. He looked very surprised. "Did you guys just get out of class? If you have nothing to do tonight, why don't you come over to my place and hang out? It's so boring to stay in school all day. My place is so beautiful for taking photos. You can post it on your own account and it will even earn you some followers."
Lan Lin knew what he was planning as soon as he heard his words. "You're so enthusiastic, aren't you asking me to promote you for free?"
Having his thoughts directly exposed, Rao Xin didn't feel embarrassed and said with a smile, "That depends on whether you are willing or not. I won't force you."
"Give me money." Lan Lin didn't bother to be polite with him.
The last time she uploaded the photos she took to social media, it became a small hit and indeed gained her a wave of fans. Rao Xin said it so directly, he probably reaped the benefits. In this case, why not the two of them cooperate for a win-win situation.
"Okay, give me your business card and I'll find someone to talk to her." It seemed that they did bring them a lot of customers, so Rao Xin agreed directly.
"We will hold a theme party on Saturday night, and there will be some very interesting activities. Let's join in the fun?" Rao Xin put away his phone and looked at the two people in front of him.
"Okay." Lan Lin nodded readily.
Facing the naked gazes of the two men, Song Yu finally nodded helplessly, "Okay." Anyway, the tutoring was only in the morning and there was no time to delay.
Xu Qiao looked at the backs of several people leaving together. Although there was a person between the man with dyed white hair and Song Yu, it was obvious that every time he turned his head, his eyes fell on Song Yu. He looked at her intently for a while and then turned and left.
In the next few days, Song Yu did not see Xu Qiao again. They were not in the same major, and the same course they took was an unimportant elective course with only a few classes scheduled. In such a crowd of thousands of people, if they were not good friends in private, there would be no chance for two people from different majors to meet again.
Only once, when Song Yu was shopping in the supermarket, he saw Xu Qiao and the members of the swimming team standing in front of the refrigerator and buying water. He was wearing a light blue plaid shirt with a pure white T-shirt underneath, a black hat on his head, and carrying a bag with wide shoulder straps.
He opened the freezer, and the cold air rushed out all at once, mixing with the white light inside, making his profile look very hazy. He picked out a bottle of low-sugar sparkling water, lowered his eyes to look at the ingredient list on the bottle, and on his wrist, holding the drink, hung a bracelet made of ebony beads. The beads were polished to an extremely smooth surface, and sparkled with tiny light under the light.
So he was wearing a bracelet. For no reason, Song Yu remembered the bracelet he had hidden deep in the cabinet.
-
That day, Song Yu and Lan Lin were eating in the cafeteria after class. While waiting in line, they saw Rao Xin holding a plate with a gloomy and anxious look on his face.
"What's wrong with him?" Song Yu asked, "It's as if someone owes him money and doesn't pay it back."
Lan Lin turned around and saw Rao Xin. "I don't know. Are you feeling bad because you got slapped in the face by that girl in front of the staff?"
They had already become partners, and Lan Lin happened to have something to ask his financial sponsor, so the two of them took their meals and sat down.
Suddenly, two people came and sat next to him. Rao Xin seemed startled. He looked up and saw that it was them. Then he curled his lips and said, "It's you."
"What's wrong with you?" Song Yu was startled by his dark circles. "You look so pale, as if you've been dead for several days."
"What happened?" Lan Lin looked worried. Who would she turn to for money if her sponsor went bankrupt?
Rao Xin wiped his face and said, "It's okay, I just didn't sleep well these past few days."
"By the way, let me tell you something." Rao Xin looked at Lan Lin. "My store was reported for a fire hazard the day before yesterday. It's been closed for the past few days for rectification. It won't be open on Saturday either. The theme party and store tour will have to be postponed."
Rao Xin's lips tightened a little. "As long as you have a schedule later, we can still cooperate. You won't charge me for breach of contract, right?"
Seeing that he looked like a frightened bird, it was probably because all the cooperation that was agreed upon a few days ago had gone down the drain.
Hearing this, Song Yu and Lan Lin looked at each other in bewilderment. Lan Lin wasn't one to take advantage of someone's misfortune. "Reported? What's going on? Why should I charge you for breach of contract when you're already like this?"
"Thanks."
"You've been operating for so long, how come someone suddenly reported you? And the report was successful." Song Yu asked curiously, "Don't you usually do fire inspections?"
Rao Xin's face was cold. "I usually have to attend classes and take care of the store. How can I pay attention to fire protection issues? I leave it to other people. If I find out who reported it, I will definitely teach him a lesson."
Song Yu and Lan Lin looked at each other. Rao Xin was too angry now, and it was not very comfortable to sit next to him. After dinner, the two of them found an excuse and slipped away.
"There's nothing to do this Saturday," Lan Lin lamented. "He prepared a lot for this party and even sent me a lot of information. I think he's suffered a huge loss this time. I'm afraid his rivals are playing a trick on him."
Song Yu didn't say anything. She took out her cell phone. Today was Friday and she had to make up for the class tomorrow. She opened Xu Qiao's chat box to ask where the class would be tomorrow. When she looked up, she saw a familiar figure in front of her.
"Xu Qiao didn't come to class all day today. He's sick at home and has no one to take care of him. Is that okay?"
Li Yu tilted his head. "I don't know. He's quite ill. His voice was hoarse when he was on the phone. I guess he has a fever and can't get up from the bed."
"I'll buy some medicine and go check it out later. Do you want to come with me?"
"OK."
Xu Qiao is sick? Will he still have class tomorrow? Song Yu was thinking this when his phone vibrated.
"See you in classroom C504 at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning." As concise as ever.
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