Chapter 71 How did Li Baidong get a photo of him from high school during his business trip? ...
A few days later, Xing Lan was sent by her company to Los Angeles on a business trip to meet a very important client.
This business trip is unavoidable; I might have to stay there for a few days. If the other side is agreeable, we can probably reach an agreement quickly and sign the contract smoothly. However, if the client is not satisfied or has any questions, it will take more time to persuade them, show them our sincerity, and gain their trust in our capabilities.
Los Angeles is a northern city with beautiful snowscapes in winter, but the weather is also freezing. Like most of her colleagues, Xing Lan was visiting for the first time.
After landing, everyone turned around frequently, rubbing their hands together to admire the unique street scene, so different from the south. They also whispered among themselves from time to time, discussing what Los Angeles specialties they would eat together that evening.
Xing Lan, however, kept her head down the whole way, holding her phone and constantly typing on it, looking very busy.
The silent phone kept vibrating gently in his palm, which meant that someone on the other side of the screen was constantly sending him messages. Surprisingly, Xing Lan didn't find it annoying and patiently replied to the person's dense and fragmented boring messages one by one.
The group of colleagues who were chatting suddenly fell silent, their eyes all turning to Xing Lan, who was diligently typing with her head down.
Having worked together for so long, this was the first time they had seen such a gentle expression on Xing Lan's usually cold and handsome face, and there was an indescribable and special feeling in his eyes and brows.
At first, everyone was puzzled, but soon, a female colleague wisely saw through the truth.
Xing Lan's eyes were filled with love as he looked at his phone. The scenery in Luo City was so beautiful, but he didn't even glance at it. He held his phone every moment, carefully replying to every message. This was the kind of behavior only couples in the throes of new love would exhibit.
Judging from the frequency of her messages, she is clearly a very clingy and doting wife who seems unable to be separated from her husband for even a second and desperately craves Xing Lan's attention.
Xing Lan's colleagues all stared at her, their eyes filled with a mixture of gossip and surprise.
I never expected that someone as calm, aloof, and serious as Director Xing would find a talkative and clingy person as his partner.
Director Xing still dotes on him so much. As soon as he got off the plane, he immediately called that person to let them know he was safe. His voice was very gentle, completely different from his usual cold tone.
That's really strange.
After Xing Lan finished replying to Li Baidong, he looked up and realized that everyone around him was looking at him.
"What's wrong?"
"N-nothing." The colleagues quickly looked away, and a few of them hurriedly changed the subject, "Hey, is everyone hungry? I think this restaurant looks good, let's go eat first."
Xing Lan and her colleagues had a simple dinner at a small restaurant, and then checked into the hotel that the company had booked for them.
The hotel has a nice environment, the rooms are very clean, the decor is new, and there is a fresh and pleasant fragrance in the air.
Xing Lan had just taken a shower, her hair still wet, when she casually turned on her phone.
As if timed perfectly, Li Baidong called him at that exact moment via video call. Xing Lan answered and immediately saw Li Baidong's familiar handsome face appear on the screen.
Li Baidong watched Xing Lan through the screen.
Xing Lan must have just taken a shower, as she was wearing a loose, snow-white bathrobe. Perhaps because she lived alone, the belt around her waist wasn't tied too tightly, and the robe was casually open, revealing a large expanse of fair, delicate skin, still glistening with warm water droplets.
Li Baidong knew the texture of that place very well; it felt soft and smooth to the touch, like the finest silk.
His Adam's apple bobbed, and it took him a while to calm down before he managed to restrain his gaze from constantly glancing at his chest. He then casually began chatting with Xing Lan.
Xing Lan propped her phone aside, grabbed a hairdryer, and casually answered Li Baidong's concerned questions while drying her hair.
"Baby, is this hotel comfortable?"
"good."
"I just checked the latest weather forecast. It's going to be very cold in Los Angeles tomorrow. If you're going out, remember to wear the scarf I gave you. I've already folded it for you; it's in the second compartment of your suitcase."
"Um."
"It's so late, have you eaten yet?"
"Um."
"Did you eat with your colleagues?"
"Um."
Which colleagues?
"Hmm..." Xing Lan thought for a moment, then stopped saying "hmm" and recalled a few more names, "It's Xiao Fang, Sister Tang, and Brother Sun. You know all the people in our department."
Li Baidong smiled and then asked, "Didn't I ask you to take a picture of me while you were eating? Why didn't you send it?"
"Forgot..."
"They're just some very ordinary home-cooked dishes, nothing worth photographing."
Although the restaurant wasn't big, the food was quite good, and Xing Lan was so engrossed in eating that she didn't pay attention to it.
Moreover, he didn't understand why Li Baidong wanted to ask him for photos of the food. Even if he saw them, he wouldn't be able to eat them, wouldn't that make him even more hungry?
Li Baidong continued rambling on, inadvertently answering the unspoken question in his mind: "Even if it's just home-cooked food, you have to take pictures and show them to me. I want to see what you ate. If there's any dish you thought tasted alright, I can try to recreate it for you when we get home."
"Oh." Xing Lan looked at him and said obediently, "Then I'll remember to take pictures next time."
"Okay." Li Baidong squinted and smiled at him in a sunny manner.
Xing Lan then dried her hair.
As he was drying the hairdryer, he suddenly frowned almost imperceptibly, feeling that the temperature was a bit too hot. But it was his first time using this brand of hairdryer, and with its several different buttons, he wasn't sure how to adjust it.
Back when he was at home, Li Baidong would always blow-dry his hair for him after he took a shower, and he gradually got used to it. This time, he rarely had the chance to blow-dry his hair himself, so he felt a little uncomfortable.
He realized that raising his arms for extended periods could cause such muscle soreness. He'd almost forgotten about this feeling, a sensation he experienced daily while living alone.
Xing Lan turned off the hairdryer and brought her head back close to her phone.
In Li Baidong's view, Xing Lan's face, which was originally in the distance, suddenly came closer. Her black eyes were big and bright, and her eyelashes were long and thick. She stared at him intently without saying a word.
Even through the phone, he could almost smell the alluring and unique fragrance emanating from Xing Lan after her shower.
Li Baidong was so captivated that he involuntarily leaned back and took a deep breath. Suddenly, behind Xing Lan, in the far corner of the hotel bed, he saw his own black hoodie.
Xing Lan was worried that he would suffer from insomnia and have it affect his work if he was away from Li Baidong for the next few days on his business trip. Therefore, he specially brought the beanbag doll that Li Baidong had given him during the Chinese New Year, just in case, and also brought a piece of clothing that Li Baidong usually wore.
Although it had been washed, clothes, once worn many times and over a long period of time, will inevitably retain a faint scent of their owner, even after several washes. And this scent was exactly what Xing Lan needed right now.
When Li Baidong thought about how Xing Lan would likely cling to his clothes with a loving and tender embrace as she went to sleep, a strange feeling welled up inside him.
It was an extreme feeling of comfort and excitement. The various scenes he imagined in his mind were so stimulating that his blood was boiling, and he was so excited that he almost had a nosebleed.
A person who appears strong, aloof, and invincible on the outside, only reveals their usually well-hidden vulnerability and tenderness to himself, silently yearning for a warm embrace. Like a small animal obediently exposing its belly to a human, this contrast makes Li Baidong feel incredibly soft-hearted and deeply pity him.
She wanted to protect him forever, to always stand in front of him, to solve his problems, and she wished she could give him the whole world.
That night, they slept together while talking on the phone.
Although Li Baidong was not by Xing Lan's side, Xing Lan could hear his familiar, even breathing through her phone.
However, while they were sleeping, someone, who was a restless sleeper, accidentally cut off the video while turning over.
The soft, reassuring rustling sound suddenly stopped. Xing Lan slowly opened his eyes in the darkness, his eyelashes drooping slightly, his gaze falling on the small beanbag doll he was holding in his arms.
Xing Lan doesn't usually sleep with this doll. He sleeps with Li Baidong every day. Li Baidong doesn't like too many things on the bed. He usually throws all the dolls aside before going to sleep and then can't wait to crawl into the quilt and hug Xing Lan.
Therefore, Xing Lan rarely had the opportunity to calm down and properly examine this somewhat rough-looking puppy doll like she did now.
He casually ran his fingers over the area, and suddenly noticed that one spot wasn't quite smooth, and the stitching technique was different from the others.
Xing Lan frowned slightly and carefully examined the curved lines. Suddenly, she touched the side and found a side seam that could be opened. It seemed that something was hidden inside, thin and light, but with sharp edges.
Half of his body was bathed in the dim moonlight. He paused for a moment, then suddenly remembered that Li Baidong had once told him that this beanbag doll had a heart, and that its heart was its most important thing.
Xing Lan pursed her lips, got up and turned on the bedside lamp. With her eyes lowered, she gently pulled along the hidden side seam and pulled out the mysterious item that had been silently hidden inside the doll.
In the dim light, he saw a photograph.
A very small photograph, held lightly in Xing Lan's hand.
This thing seems to have been preserved for many, many years. Although the surface is very smooth and the four corners are still very sharp, it is still unavoidable that the color is a bit yellowish.
Xing Lan was very familiar with the person in the photo.
It was him.
Xing Lan vaguely remembers that when he was in high school, he was selected as the star of his grade. The photo that was originally used for the exam was enlarged several times, developed, and framed on the school's honor wall.
Later, after he graduated, he returned to school to give a speech as an outstanding senior. One of his former teachers apologized and told him that once when the school had a power outage, his photo was stolen by some mischievous student as a prank.
He didn't mind at the time, after all, he had graduated many years ago, and the photos on the school's honor wall were all changed every summer. Even if that student hadn't stolen the photo, it would have eventually been taken down and disposed of anyway.
However, the photo hidden inside the doll was not the very formulaic ID photo that had been stolen from the school's honor wall, but a photo that Xing Lan herself had never seen before.
In the photo, he is wearing Ningzhong's school uniform, sitting in the school library, his hand resting on the heavy wooden table, looking very focused on reading a book.
Golden sunlight streamed in through the window, the evening beams softly illuminating his handsome face as he lowered his head, and his slender fingertips lightly resting on the corner of the book.
Xing Lan vaguely remembered the contents of the book he had read years ago. However, he had absolutely no recollection of the photograph.
During high school, Xing Lan often hid in the library after school because she didn't want to go home and see Xing Yi. She would stay there until it got dark and the school security guards would come over several times to urge her to leave before she had to pack up and leave.
He spent a lot of time in the library, but didn't recall anyone asking him to take a picture.
In his memory, he always read books alone and left alone, never having any interaction with a second person.
so.
How did Li Baidong end up with photos of himself from high school?
Didn't they only meet for the first time on the day they became roommates?
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