Chapter 33
He held the draft paper upright, frowning as if he was thinking about a difficult problem. But in fact, he was spying on her.
Everything seemed hazy with the pale golden autumn light. There was the high blue sky outside the window beside her, an apricot-yellow leather notebook spread out on the wooden table, and a bright red LINMY fountain pen.
The girl placed her hands on the laptop keyboard, tapping rhythmically. Her typing gestures resembled playing the piano, a habit she acquired from piano practice since childhood.
Xia Zhiheng inevitably thought of the past, when he went to play with her as a child. At that time, she was sitting in front of a black and white upright piano with this gesture, and the music flowed through her fingertips like flowing water.
The notes flash back, and he is sitting next to her again. Just thinking about it makes people feel extremely at ease.
He laughed silently, lowered his eyes, and calmly began to re-arrange the formula.
The two of them were quietly doing their own things in the library, not talking. Occasionally he looked at her, and sometimes she glanced at him. In the early autumn morning, the south wind blew through the window, and the pages of the books turned with a rustling sound.
When Zhang Jusong looked up again, the sunlight outside the window was so bright that it seemed to roast him.
She was reading the data from the social survey conducted by Professor Ju's research group. Quantitative analysis is not her strong point, and she forced herself to finish it, and her eyes were almost blurry.
She shook her head slightly left and right to relieve the fatigue in her shoulders and neck.
Compared with these data, she actually cares more about the people behind them, such as what she saw when she went to the dormitory for migrant women last time.
I don't know what happened to that grandma and Ah Hong? And the flower pot that never bloomed. Before she left, she clearly saw Ah Hong quietly sweeping up the scattered dirt and moving a bunch of plant roots of unknown species into an old express box.
Summer is over, will that flower still bloom?
I was worried about the flower pot and was shaking my head. Xia Zhiheng on the opposite side suddenly raised his eyes and asked, "Are you tired?"
Because they were in the library, his voice was very soft, like a butterfly landing on a flower.
It sounds really nice.
Zhang Jusong was stunned for a moment, then came to his senses, quickly put down his hand that was on his neck, and sat up straight.
Then she answered, “Well, a little bit.”
"Let's go eat?"
"good!"
They packed up their things quietly and left their seats.
There were two people in front of the elevator, a boy and a girl, who looked like a young couple. The girl was holding the boy's arm and talking to him in a very intimate way.
Zhang Jusong glanced at the intimate couple in front of the elevator, then secretly glanced at the distance between himself and Xia Zhiheng.
Hmm... they are a couple, so isn't the distance between her and him a bit far?
Her eyes moved quietly down and looked at his hands.
The moment his gaze stopped, Xia Zhiheng suddenly raised his eyes and his gaze met hers.
Zhang Jusong was a little panicked for a moment and was about to look away quickly, but Xia Zhiheng obediently stretched out his hand and spread it in front of her, with an expression on his face like a well-trained golden retriever that had heard a call.
Seeing her staring at his hand but not holding it, Xia Zhiheng's eyes showed a look of confusion.
"Not holding it?"
The young couple who were chatting happily just now suddenly became silent. They turned their heads at the same time and looked at them curiously.
Zhang Jusong immediately lowered his head and covered his burning cheeks. "I...I'm going to the bathroom."
Escape in panic.
After walking around the corridor, she held onto the wall and quietly probed a few times to make sure that there was no one else in the elevator before she slowly moved out.
Xia Zhiheng was still standing there. He glanced at her coming towards him and smiled.
"What are you laughing at?"
Zhang Jusong muttered.
Xia Zhiheng leaned towards her, the fresh scent of citrus lingering in his nose. "Sister, we just said we were holding hands, and you're like this, then from now on—"
His pair of puppy eyes were dancing with smiles, but he deliberately didn't say anything else and just looked at her meaningfully.
"Wow, you...you have learned bad things!" Zhang Jusong looked up and wanted to hit him.
He was beaten and his hands were also held.
Xia Zhiheng begged for mercy: "I was wrong, please forgive me."
It was very unfair for him to act like a spoiled child like this, so Zhang Jusong snorted slightly and turned her face away, but she refused to pull her hand away from his.
Xia Zhiheng took a step closer to her and squeezed her hand: "So soft."
"What did you say?"
He blinked, "I mean, I'm so happy."
As he spoke, a bright smile appeared on his face.
Xia Zhiheng held her hand, not intimately interlocking their fingers, but pulling her hand, much like kindergarten kids walking out hand in hand after school.
This made Zhang Jusong relax a lot. Holding hands, no big deal, she thought.
Holding hands, we took the elevator and left the library. The heat wave outside the glass door hit us in the face. The palms of our clasped hands were sweaty and sticky, but we still refused to let go.
Xia Zhiheng asked her: "What do you want to eat?"
Zhang Jusong replayed the food map near the campus in his mind, and a small restaurant popped up after a process of elimination.
"How about going for some clam noodles?" she asked.
"Okay, I'll do as you say."
Since she was the one who suggested it, she should lead the way. The small shop selling clam rice noodle is on the Student Commercial Street near the canteen. Just walk straight across the intersection.
But when they reached the intersection, Zhang Jusong pulled Xia Zhiheng to the right. "It's a few steps this way."
She explained, in a tone like offering a treasure: "But there are beautiful flowers in front."
Walk onto the willow-shaded path and follow the gravel road for a few dozen steps, and you will see a cluster of hydrangeas.
What a big hydrangea! The full-moon-like corolla is facing the sunny sky. The petals of a hydrangea are really gradually changing in color, from white to pink to purple, as if a piece of sunset was cut and dyed on the petals. It is very beautiful, but also very desolate.
This area is a little far from the route that students often take, so it is rarely visited. Zhang Jusong also saw this bunch of flowers by chance when she was wandering around alone. When it blooms, she always likes to take a few more steps to visit the hydrangeas when she goes between the library and the cafeteria.
"How about it, isn't this hydrangea beautiful?" She let go of Xia Zhiheng's hand, ran forward, and put her head next to the hydrangea, as if showing off to a good friend, "Look, this flower is bigger than my face!"
Xia Zhiheng reached out his hand, gently touched the petals, and smiled softly: "There is an endless summer here."
"What?" She didn't quite understand.
He used the fingertips that had touched the petals of Endless Summer to brush away the strands of hair by her ear.
"This hydrangea is called Endless Summer."
“Endless Summer.”
Zhang Jusong lowered his eyes to look at the flower: "Hey, it turns out to be this variety. No wonder it's still blooming in autumn. Endless Summer, what a nice name."
"Yes," Xia Zhiheng nodded slightly, "Its flower language is reunion and happiness. No matter how long we are apart, we will be reunited one day."
She leaned over and looked closely at the petals of the Endless Summer, and said in amazement, "So this is a really lovely flower."
"It's just flowers?" Xia Zhiheng gently corrected her, "People who can find lovely flowers are equally lovely."
His eyes were burning and his expression was extremely serious.
Zhang Jusong hadn't heard such straightforward and passionate praise for a long time. She felt a little embarrassed and stammered, "No... No, don't say such cheesy love words."
"I'm serious," he stared at her with pride in his eyes. "It's a great thing to find lovely flowers on such a boring path. I guess there are only a few people in the whole A University who know that there is an Endless Summer here. For example, I have walked this route dozens of times, but I have never found it."
He laughed: "As expected of my sister, you are amazing."
"It's not that exaggerated."
"Yes."
He stretched out his voice, but his tone was unquestionable.
Zhang Jusong pursed her lips, trying to suppress the curve of her lips. This long-lost feeling of being looked up to was both fresh and exciting. It was as if she was still a child, when she was praised by everyone, and the joy of being affirmed overflowed from her heart.
It seems that Xia Zhiheng has been like this since she was a child. No matter what she did, even if it was a small thing like cleaning the windows, Xia Zhiheng would applaud like a seal and say, "Sister is awesome!"
Endless Summer was still quietly driving. Zhang Jusong straightened his back slightly and said with a smile, "Okay, let's go and eat."
Xia Zhiheng took her hand and said excitedly, "Let's go and have dinner together."
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