The moon is also a luminous body.
"The moon is also a luminous body."
15.
Chongming's grandmother was a native of Nanlu. She passed away peacefully two days before Chongming flew to the United States. He had originally planned to accompany Zheng Xuerou to America, settle her in, and then return.
He had made arrangements for this matter long ago, so he informed Lan Jian well in advance.
But his grandmother's sudden passing disrupted his plans. It was already early September, and Zheng Xuerou was about to start school, so she had to rush to the United States alone. Chongming, meanwhile, spent his last weekend before school started, observing mourning for his grandmother.
After the new semester starts, Lan Jian will be interning at the Nuclear Research Institute. Xue Xiang catches her still in the lab and asks her to deliver a document to Chongming. Chongming's grandmother's memorial hall is set up at the foot of Wuyue Mountain, and Lan Jian happens to be going camping in the mountains with Guan Shaoxiao and the others on the Mid-Autumn Festival, so she sets off first to find Chongming.
Chongming hadn't had a proper rest for several days in a row. His eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep, and his usually neatly styled short hair had become unkempt and droopy. There was also a layer of stubble on his chin, making him look a bit like an undercover policeman on night duty.
—However, thinking like that is a bit impolite.
Out of courtesy, Lan Jian bowed three times before the portrait of Grandma Chongming.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the wreaths in the very center. Besides the elegiac couplets from several important leaders of the southern foothills, there were also many elegiac couplets from descendants of the Lu family.
Among them, the name "Lu Dingyue" caught Lan Jian's attention.
“By pacifying Lan Valley and securing our mountains, we can unify the North and South. Those who sow discord among the people deserve to be condemned.”
These are the words spoken thirty years ago by the founder of the Peaceful Reunification Party, one of the most prestigious parties in both North and South Korea.
At the confluence of north and south lies a beautiful and secluded canyon, filled with orchids, known as "Orchid Valley." Orchid Valley belongs to the territory of Beiluan, while Wuyue is a high mountain on its southern slope. On the misty north side, a waterfall cascades down, flowing into Orchid Valley. The stream that flows from the southern slope through Beiluan was originally called "Orchid Stream" by the people of Beiluan, and was later renamed "Orchid Valley Stream." The people of the southern slope call the waterfall that cuts the mountain in two "Wuyue Waterfall."
The grandson named "Lu Dingyue" on the funeral couplet clearly shares the same origin as the name "Meng Lanjian".
After leaving the mourning hall, Lan Jian delivered the documents to Chongming.
Chongming asked Lanjian about some things in the lab. These days, since he was away, Xue Xiang, who used to disappear all the time, seemed to have calmed down a bit. Every day, he would wait in the office early in the morning, eagerly waiting for Lanjian and Senior Sister Hui to bring him lunch from the cafeteria.
"Luckily you remembered to bring him food, otherwise, given his laziness, he would rather drink soda than go all the way to the cafeteria to buy food."
Nanjing University does not allow food delivery services to enter the campus, and the research center area around the Institute of Nuclear Energy is under even more protection, so people don't like to order food delivery.
After chatting for a few minutes, Lan Jian bid farewell to Chong Ming.
We walked side by side through the orchid-covered stream in Chongming. The mountains were quiet, and the only sound was the crunching of pine branches underfoot.
Lan Jian suddenly looked at Chongming.
"Senior, will you still send your senior to America?"
A while ago, Lan Jian was about to start her internship, and the people on the 12th floor always liked to get together under various pretexts. Under the guise of seeing Lan Jian off, the various labs had at least three hot pot meals. Chongming would only bring his lunch into the lab after noon every day, eat and drink his fill, and then run to his own simulation before starting to mentor Lan Jian.
Moreover, he didn't teach Lan Jian anything every day. On Monday, after teaching her a certain programming language, he would assign her homework. On Wednesday, after reviewing the homework, he would give her some code to run in a simulation. Some simulations would take more than a week to run. When Chongming was busy, he couldn't take care of her, so Lan Jian could go visiting other people's places as much as she wanted. When he needed to keep an eye on her, he would bring her back to assign homework.
Chongming had always thought that this bouncy, eccentric junior sister was a carefree and thoughtless person.
But Lan Jian, who was used to being called "Chongming" without any respect, suddenly called him "senior" out of the blue and asked him if he would still send Zheng Xuerou to America.
He then realized that the little girl who sat next to him at the same table every day...
Junior sister, a complete stranger.
"I'm not going."
Chongming lowered his eyes and suddenly caught sight of Lanjian's shimmering pupils. Sunlight pierced through the leaves and shone brightly on Lanjian's shoulder. For no reason, Chongming recalled an old professor's favorite saying: "The moon is also a luminous body."
His heart felt inexplicably struck, as if by a luminous object that had strayed from its course.
After pausing his thoughts for a few seconds, he continued, "There's nothing wrong with long-distance relationships."
Upon hearing this, the starlight in Lan Jian's eyes did not dim; instead, it shone even brighter. "Yes, I also think there's nothing wrong with long-distance relationships."
Chongming looked away, realizing that his own casual interruption sounded like "there's a story behind it."
“When I was in college, I had a pen pal I really liked, but because he didn’t want a long-distance relationship, we never started anything.” Lan Jian sighed softly. “What a pity.”
Have you two met and spent time together?
"No, we just chat and write letters sometimes. He knows a lot about movies and literature, and our tastes in music are similar." Lan Jian spoke like an innocent child about her unrealistic, unfinished romance.
"Perhaps your liking for him is more about fulfilling your own fantasies?"
Ahead lay a pile of withered leaves and branches, making the ground uneven. Chongming turned back and handed the ball to Lanjian. Lanjian took his arm and gracefully traversed the rugged path. "But I don't feel that this is just for fun. He's not only catching the ball, but also losing it, which is why I feel amused."
Then Lan Jian gave Chongming an example of catching and losing the ball to emphasize what she called "being pleased".
“Lanjian,” Chongming said to her earnestly, like an adult, “I taught you C language, I taught you how to install Linux, and I taught you how to run the Monte Carlo simulation. Do you really need me to teach you how to please yourself?”
"I mean, truly, please yourself."
"Have a proper romance, Lan Jian."
That night, Lan Jian and her classmates from the twelfth floor laughed and played under the stars. Guan Shaoxiao got drunk and insisted on introducing his friend, who looked like Takeshi Kaneshiro, to Lan Jian. Lan Jian reluctantly added the friend's contact information and arranged to meet him the next day in a small southern town.
But before she could meet him, she ran into Han Li on the train. Han Li asked her where she was going, and she said she was going on a blind date. Han Li asked her why she was going on a blind date, and Lan Jian said, "Because the person I like doesn't like me, so I'm planning to like someone else."
At that time, Han Li and Lan Jian were teaching assistants for the same course, so they were much closer than others. The two would take a walk back to their dormitory together after class in the evenings. But before Lan Jian came to Nanjing University, Han Li already had a girl he was in a flirtatious relationship with, which was about to develop into a romantic one—Han Li did not hide this from Lan Jian.
After hearing Lan Jian's words, Han Li confidently and decisively concluded that the person she was talking about was him.
"Then don't change your crush. That person has already changed their crush."
Han Li did not lie to Lan Jian.
The reason he went south to find his ambiguous relationship was because he had gradually fallen for Lan Jian after she appeared, and thus reduced his contact with her. Unfortunately, she had a somewhat extreme personality, so he planned to completely cut off contact after a face-to-face meeting with her.
Lan Jian felt helpless and absurd upon hearing Han Li's words.
"Then let's try dating, Meng Lanjian?"
"good."
Meng Lanjian heard his own rapid reply.
It was as if she was afraid that in the next second she would be unable to resist exposing the wrong person's misidentification.
-Whispering: Lan Jian is different from Xia Huai next door. She's not a moon burdened with worries; she was born to shine like the sun and illuminate others. \O/
-As previously revealed in the comments section, there is no romantic or physical entanglement between the two exes and the main character; the reason will be revealed later.
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