【22】We are just a part of their play
After lingering for a while on this stretch of road, known as the "most beautiful highway," and driving another half-hour to check into their Airbnb, they split up. Liang Zhiyao and Tan Xu each occupied two of the three bedrooms, pulling out their computers to attend their online Human-Computer Interaction course. Cheng Yan and Liu Siyan, free from class, drove out to explore the surrounding area. The house was a classic American wooden structure, with average soundproofing; occasional echoes could be heard from the walls. But Liang Zhiyao unexpectedly discovered another benefit of online classes: there were no seat differences. Even if the lecturer's voice was as quiet as Ed's, with the real-time captioning feature enabled in the conference software, she wouldn't miss any important material. During the ten-minute break, she pulled out her phone and discovered Ye Xin had bombarded her with messages just minutes earlier. "I think I've discovered something incredible." "Are you and Tan Xu taking the same class?!" "Eating melon.jpg" She paused, then sent a question mark. Ye Xin quickly replied, "I guess I'm seeing things right? The wallpaper and curtains in both of your webcams are exactly the same." "Didn't you drop the class?" "I guess the student list hasn't been updated. I received the link to the online class in my email. I just clicked on it and took a look, and I had an unexpected discovery." To ensure the quality of online teaching, all students must turn on their webcams during class. But Ye Xin was a bit too perceptive, noticing such a detail in a meeting with so many people. Liang Zhiyao: "...It's a long story." Ye Xin was always impatient when it came to gossip, and she couldn't wait for "a long story" and directly called. Hearing that she and Tan Xu were not traveling alone, but as a group of four, he couldn't hide his disappointment. Liang Zhiyao just mentioned it briefly when he was describing it, but the other party was too perceptive and soon asked: "Are the other two people Cheng Yan and Liu Siyan?" "...Miss Ye is really smart," she said a little guilty: "Will you be angry?" "What's there to be angry about? I'm not an elementary school student. How can I be that naive?" "But why did you click on the meeting invitation for the online class?" Liang Zhiyao was still puzzled, "You clearly dropped the class." "You don't know how miserable I was at my aunt's house," Ye Xin sighed, "Although there was no power outage here, I was forced to play with a naughty kid who just started elementary school. It was too painful. I just found an excuse to say I had to go to class and escape for a while. If I had known I would come here to take care of a child, I would rather live without power." Liang Zhiyao knew that Ye Xin hated children the most, especially naughty little boys. She would rather listen to...
After spending some time on this so-called "most beautiful highway," and then driving another half-hour to check into their Airbnb, they split up. Liang Zhiyao and Tan Xu each occupied two of the three bedrooms, pulling out their computers to take their Human-Computer Interaction course. Cheng Yan and Liu Siyan, free from classes, drove out to explore the surrounding area.
This old American wooden house has average soundproofing, with occasional echoes from the other side of the wall. But Liang Zhiyao unexpectedly discovered another benefit of online classes: there's no need for seats to be too close together. Even if the lecturer is as quiet as Ed, as long as the conference software's real-time captioning function is enabled, there's no need to worry about missing important content.
During the 10-minute break, she took out her cell phone and found that Ye Xin had bombarded her with messages a few minutes ago.
"I seem to have discovered something extraordinary."
"Are you and Tan Xu taking classes in the same place?!"
“eating melon.jpg”
She was stunned for a moment and sent a question mark.
Ye Xin quickly replied, "I guess I'm seeing things right? The wallpaper and curtains in your two cameras are exactly the same."
"Didn't you drop out of the class?"
"I guess the student list hasn't been updated yet. I also received the link to the online course in my email. I clicked on it and took a look. I found something unexpected."
To ensure the quality of online teaching, all students were required to turn on their cameras during class. Ye Xin was incredibly perceptive, noticing such a detail in a meeting with so many people.
Liang Zhiyao: "...It's a long story."
Ye Xin was always very impatient when it came to gossip. She couldn't wait for "The Long Story" and directly called her. When she heard that she and Tan Xu were not acting alone, but as a group of four, she couldn't hide her disappointment.
Liang Zhiyao mentioned it briefly in his narration, but the other party was too perceptive and quickly asked, "Are the other two people Cheng Yan and Liu Siyan?"
"...Miss Ye is really smart," she said, feeling a little guilty: "Will you be angry?"
"Why should I be angry? I'm not an elementary school student. How can I be that childish?"
"But why did you click on the online class meeting invitation?" Liang Zhiyao was still puzzled. "You clearly dropped out of the class."
"You have no idea how miserable I was at my aunt's house," Ye Xin sighed. "Although there was no power outage here, I was forced to play with a naughty kid who had just started elementary school. It was so painful that I simply found an excuse to go to class and get away with it for a while. If I had known I would have to take care of a child here, I would have preferred to live without power."
Liang Zhiyao knew that Ye Xin hated children the most, especially naughty little boys. She would rather attend class than escape, so she must be very difficult to deal with.
"If you're bored, feel free to call me anytime. Forget video calls. I don't have enough data."
"...Forget it. You've been through a lot of bad things this week. It's good to go out and relax. Have fun! We'll talk when you get back."
Just as the break was over, she finally escaped the barrage of questions on her phone and went back to class.
When turning on the camera again, Liang Zhiyao silently changed the direction so that the background faced the wardrobe in the room.
They had dinner at a quaint tavern in a nearby town, famous for its maple leaves, but the food was a bit hard to describe. The cheese in the dishes was particularly greasy and heavy, leaving me with indigestion.
When leaving, Liu Siyan specially bought a half-pack of beer and a few decks of playing cards at the supermarket nearby. When she returned to her residence, she pulled them to the sofa in the living room to discuss the evening entertainment program.
"What should four of us play? There's too much Landlord, and too little Werewolf."
"Bridge?" Tan Xu suggested. "The rules are a bit complicated, though, and I only know the basics."
"Forget it," Cheng Yan waved his hands repeatedly. "I was persuaded to quit after reading the rules introduction before. I can't handle learning such a complicated game just to relax."
"Just stare, that's easy," Liu Siyan said. "The last person has to choose truth or dare, or drink a bottle of beer."
Liang Zhiyao had always been a bit of a loser, always having the worst luck playing games or drawing lotteries. Even at a primary school New Year's Eve party that boasted an 80% chance of winning, she was lucky enough to be among the 20% who didn't win.
Fortunately, she played the first game tremblingly to the end and managed to get third place, while Cheng Yan, who had even worse luck, was at the bottom.
The winner was Liu Siyan. She had probably already thought of what she was going to ask, and immediately gave Cheng Yan a bright smile: "Honestly - how many ex-girlfriends do you have?"
"...This is a life-threatening question, why don't I just drink it?" Cheng Yan said.
"No," she shook her head. "You got fooled last time I asked you. Just tell me, maybe you're only one year older than me, and you have more exes combined than I do."
The atmosphere suddenly became a little subtle. Liu Siyan's questions sounded both serious and joking, but if you looked at them in a casual way, there was still a tense atmosphere between the two of them.
In this situation, Liang Zhiyao didn't know whether to join in the fun or try to smooth things over, so he could only watch the show silently without saying a word.
At that moment, her phone vibrated twice. Someone nearby didn't speak to her directly, but instead sent her a WeChat message: "Calm down, we're just part of their play."
...Is that so? She felt like laughing for some reason.
Cheng Yan finally answered the question evasively: "...If you count those who have been dating for more than three months, there aren't many."
"That just shows you're immature," Liu Siyan curled her lips. "That question is equivalent to not answering it. You still have to drink a bottle of wine."
The next round quickly saw a reversal of fortunes, with the top and bottom two swapping places. As expected, Cheng Yan didn't allow Liu Siyan to drink and dodge the question: "So what about you? You just made that outrageous statement, how many exes do you have?"
"According to what you said, it should be zero," Liu Siyan said, "because I've never been in a relationship for more than three months."
"So you're saying I'm immature?!" Cheng Yan was shocked.
"Oh," Liu Siyan said confidently, "Is it not okay for me to have double standards?"
Unable to hold back her laughter any longer, she quickly typed a few words on her phone and replied, "Yeah, you're right."
After playing a few more rounds, although Liang Zhiyao was unlucky and lost twice, she chose to drink each time. They also knew that she was thin-skinned and did not deliberately make things difficult for her.
After drinking two bottles of beer in one breath, she felt a little dizzy, but for her, playing this kind of game was more overwhelming and was worse than drinking.
Until she lost again, she found that all 6 bottles of beer were empty.
Liu Siyan spread her hands and said, "We're out of wine, so we can only choose Truth or Dare."
The winner was Tan Xu. Liang Zhiyao hesitated and said, "Tell me the truth."
Honestly, she wasn't prepared for what Tan Xu would ask. Perhaps the questions would be tricky, leaving her unsure how to answer them. After all, he admitted he had "no sense of boundaries."
Especially when he looked at her before asking the question, it made her feel even more uneasy.
The tone was understated: "You like..."
“…What kind of coffee?”
After she said the second half of the sentence, she suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, and then she found her nervousness a little funny.
"Is that even possible?" Liu Siyan was dumbfounded. "I love watching those shy people play truth or dare. I've been looking forward to it for so long, and now you ask such a meaningless question?"
Tan Xu glanced at her and said, "I don't have such a bad taste as you."
As if worried that if he didn't answer quickly, the question would be asked in a different direction, Liang Zhiyao quickly said, "Cappuccino, I'll have it. The foam is thick, and it tastes really good."
Liu Siyan then cried out that it was boring and pulled Cheng Yan to say that they should unite to deal with those who destroyed the fairness of the game.
The result was a combination of timing, location and people. In the next round, both of them had good cards, so they won without much effort, and successfully made Tan Xu the last one.
"Tell me the truth," he said.
Liu Siyan thought she had racked her brains for this problem.
She had a lot going on in her mind. Although she pretended to ask tricky and explosive questions, she was actually bluffing. After all, she had already acknowledged that she had a mission and had to be a competent wingman.
In this case, the question cannot be too straightforward nor too frivolous, and it is necessary to come up with a very sophisticated and thought-provoking hint.
So after planning for a long time, she said to Tan Xu, "How about you describe...what it felt like the last time you fell in love with someone?"
There was silence in the room for a long time, so long that Cheng Yan yawned. Then Tan Xu finally spoke.
"I thought about it, and it seems that I suddenly felt that the other person was very dazzling."
"This is too general. Is there a more specific description?" Liu Siyan asked.
His eyes were unfocused, and he looked up as if recalling the details, and said with a faint smile: "Well... at that time, she was doing something she was very good at, and her whole body seemed to glow."
Author's Note
Reversible light path
author
07-19
This chapter starts to be updated, and there will be more updates on Saturday~
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