Chapter 23 Spend Time Together 23
Tang Ximian rested his forehead on the cool textbook, his pen twirling between his fingers, leaving afterimages. The radiator hummed, but it couldn't dry the anxiety between his brows.
"I've recited it for the third time and still can't remember it..." A nasal complaint drifted across the room. Si Yankai looked up from his laptop and saw his lover prodding at her hair with the end of a pen. Her long, dark chestnut hair was tangled, like a ragdoll cat with its fur frizzled out.
The pure white ceramic cup tapped gently against Tang Ximian's hand, and the steaming aroma of milk tea made him look up suddenly.
Si Yankai leaned against the edge of his desk, his bony fingers tapping on his note-filled art book. "Who said last week, 'Art theory is easy, no need to review it beforehand'?"
"How do I know that what it learned and what it took the test for are not the same thing? It taught me how to bake buns but asked me how to make dumplings. So annoying!" Tang Ximian held the rim of the cup, and the amber liquid swayed on the glass wall, emitting tiny golden light.
Suddenly, his shoulders sank, and he felt a warmth from a cedar-scented body envelope him. Si Yankai's thumb pressed against his stiff trapezius muscle, the force so precise it made his spine go limp.
The pen fell onto the spread-out "Art Theory Explanation", leaving a small ink stain.
Si Yankai's low chuckle brushed past his ear: "You just stared at the third button of my shirt for more than ten minutes. Is this the reason for your low review efficiency?"
"No way!" Tang Ximian tried to pinch his wrist, but was instead embraced in his arms.
The back of his neck touched soft lips. Si Yankai's voice mixed with the rustling of paper: "Study hard and do well on the exam. Only then will I have a reason to take you abroad for the New Year."
"Really?" Tang Ximian was surprised. After receiving a positive response, he pushed Si Yankai away and said, "Okay, go and do your thing! I'm going to start exerting my strength."
As dusk spread through the glass windows, Tang Ximian finally closed the last reference book.
Turning around, I saw Si Yankai's computer screen jumped to the air ticket booking page, and the warm yellow desk lamp cast his profile into a honey amber color.
He stepped into his cotton slippers with his bare feet, hooked his fingertips around the cuffs of his gray sweater, and said, "Hey, can I do an internship during winter break..."
"We'll video chat at least once a day, and I'll go out with you if I'm free on weekends. I'll take you racing abroad during the Lunar New Year." Si Yankai interrupted him, brushing his nose against his red earlobe. "Now, do you want to save your stomach that's been protesting for five hours?"
The snow shimmered like orange frosting under the streetlights.
Tang Ximian buried her red nose in Si Yankai's cashmere scarf and heard the familiar teasing vibrating in his chest: "Oden, octopus balls, or barbecue for supper? That little piggy should want all of them, right?"
"Si! Yan! Kai! You are the pig. I am blessed to be able to eat!" Tang Ximian pulled Si Yankai's clothes and walked angrily towards the bustling and crowded snack street.
"Yes, yes, no matter how much snacks you eat, it's not enough. I won't eat more than two small bowls of rice. I'll just hold the bowl of soup and drink it slowly, pretending that I've been eating the whole time."
"I'm not going to listen to you, you bastard. I'm already trying really hard to eat. Besides, snacks are different. It takes a long time for you to let me have one, and my family won't let me eat one either."
Tang Ximian kept mumbling to himself, but when he passed a familiar barbecue stall, he suddenly fell silent. He let go of his hand and excitedly rushed over to order: "Boss, ten skewers of beef and mutton, three skewers of hot dogs, six skewers of crispy bones, eight skewers..."
When Si Yankai walked through the crowd and arrived there, he heard a series of dish names and quickly grabbed his sweatshirt hood to interrupt the spell.
"Hey, hey, hey, that's enough. I told you not to order it like this. You don't want to eat anything else later?"
"Okay, okay, that's all, boss."
"Okay, wait a moment, there are seats in the back." The boss's hands were busy with barbecue skewers, and he was constantly brushing oil and shaking pepper.
After getting the barbecue, Tang Ximian took Si Yankai along the way. Even with Si Yankai's persuasion, he still happily got a bunch of snacks.
"Don't eat it all! Just taste each one."
"I know, I know. If you can't finish it, give it to Mu Jiu and the others." Tang Ximian drank lemon tea with a happy look on his face.
"You clever little thing, aren't you afraid that Mu Jiu and the others will unite to beat you up?"
"Don't be afraid, I can take on three of them alone. If it doesn't work out, you can do it!"
“You…”
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