Chapter 6 Painting
The first semester of my sophomore year involved two courses: a major design and a minor design. The major design involved teams from all majors forming their own teams to compete in the HUP International Architecture Design Competition. The online registration deadline was the end of the month, and the submission deadline was the end of December. The architecture department spent the entire afternoon busy forming teams. Cheng Che and Li Zimai were the favorites, and they were surrounded by a lot of people, but each team could only have four people.
【Li】: Should I come to your place?
Cheng Che was accepting the class monitor's invitation. He put down his phone and said, "Okay, but there are two of us here. Can we come together?"
The class monitor was quite shocked. He had only invited this expert to give it a try, after all, this expert could compete alone. He replied, "Of course! Linlin and I are just the right two people. Who are you going with?"
"Lizimai."
“!!!!!!!!!!!”
.......
"I thought you were going to reject me."
As the two of them walked to the cafeteria, Li Zimai smiled and said, "I didn't expect you to be so proactive and sign up."
Cheng Che said as a matter of course, "Why would you refuse? The first place winner gets 20,000 US dollars."
Li Zimai clapped his hands and said admiringly, "Look at our Cheche, he's so ambitious. Let's go for the $20,000."
"Can you please stop calling me Che... stop calling me something so corny?"
He even retracted the word "Che" halfway through his words, with a speechless and indifferent expression on his face. Li Zi started to tease him, "What's wrong? I also call Yang Mingxixixi, and Xuxu."
Cheng Che looked like he had stepped on shit, "Do those girls know what you are like?"
"They don't like my character, they like my appearance."
He approached Cheng Che, putting his face close to him like he was displaying a fine commodity, and asked Cheng Che from a distance of a palm, "Does it look good?"
Cheng Che slapped him in the face and pushed his face away without any hesitation, saying to him, "I have skin too, and it's pretty good-looking."
Li Zimai laughed heartily and praised: "Indeed, I have never seen anyone prettier than Cheche."
Cheng Che couldn't stand Li Zimai's embarrassment and walked forward with a cold face. Li Zimai noticed Cheng Che's ears turned red and felt an itch in his heart. He chased after him and continued the topic from yesterday, "You still haven't told me who Duan Rui is."
"Do I need to ask you what your relationship is to everyone you know?"
"Why not? If you want to know who, I'll tell you."
"I don't want to know."
"The guy at the bar yesterday was my best buddy, Zhou Xumao. The girl next to him was his girlfriend. I don't have much of a relationship with the others, so I won't tell you. So, who is Duan Rui?"
"You can't get over this, right?"
Li Zimai got some food and sat across from him, saying dejectedly, "I see you've been chatting with him for so long, and I only added you on WeChat yesterday."
Cheng Che was eating seriously. He saw Li Zimai pass a chicken leg to him and told him earnestly, "Eat more. You're so skinny."
"Duan Rui is my senior."
Li Zimai continued to ask, "Senior? Isn't he working now? How can you recognize a senior from such a far distance?"
"We met in junior high school and went to the same high school."
Li Zimai asked again: "How did you know each other?"
He kept staring at Cheng Che, as if he wanted to figure this question out. Cheng Che said coldly, "Why do you have so many questions?"
"We're all roommates, so what's wrong with caring about each other? Zhou Xumao and I have known each other since childhood, and our two families are old friends."
Cheng Che said, "I don't want to know about you and Zhou Xumao."
Li Zimai: "But I want to know about you and Duan Rui."
After the meal, Li Zimai finally found out who Duan Rui was from Cheng Che.
The two families were neighbors, and Duan Rui often looked for Cheng Che to study together. After a few visits, they became familiar with each other. Later, Cheng Che went to high school and Duan Rui went to college, and they met less and less. The last time they chatted was because Duan Rui was preparing to develop in Beijing. He had passed the interview of a listed company and would come next month.
Li Zimai's sixth sense as a man told him that this senior was no ordinary person.
Cheng Che returned to his dorm and immediately turned on his computer to look up competition information. Li Zimai saw the interface on his computer screen and came over to say, "Want to go for a run? We can discuss it after you come back."
Cheng Che refused directly, "No."
Li Zimai sighed, "Do you know why I always get the highest score in every subject?"
He's going to start showing off again, Cheng Che thought.
Li Zimai continued, "Exercise can increase the number of neurons. Increasing synapses in the hippocampus will make your brain more alert."
Cheng Che: "Don't bother me."
Li Zimai glanced at him, then took off his T-shirt without hesitation, revealing his beautiful muscle lines. After showing off in front of Cheng Che, he changed into sportswear and went out.
Cheng Che, the straight man of steel, was unmoved.
Yang Mingxi was carrying a large drawing board and was stuck at the dormitory door. Cheng Che helped him carry it in. He was so grateful that he asked, "Brother Che, can I discuss something with you?"
Cheng Che turned to look at him and motioned for him to continue.
"I've signed a live streaming contract and have to broadcast for a sufficient amount of time every week. I'll probably chat with netizens in the dorm at night. This drawing board is what I'll use as a background. Can I put it here on this empty bed?"
"I have no objection. Ask Li Zimai."
Yang Mingxi burst into tears of gratitude. "Thank you! I'll move out as soon as I get enough money this semester! It won't bother you!"
"Um, and, can you help me talk to the God of Ri..."
This request was indeed excessive. Yang Mingxi had no hope and could only figure out how to discuss it with his obsessive-compulsive roommate.
Cheng Che kindly reminded: "You can pick a symmetrical one."
Yang Mingxi said depressedly, "I searched the entire campus before I found a board this big. It's just right as a background board, and the picture on it is a garden."
"Do you have any paint?"
"ah?"
"I'll help you fix it."
Cheng Che sat cross-legged in front of a large drawing board, holding the paint tray in one hand and the paintbrush in the other, carving his work carefully and attentively.
The grey long-sleeved shirt he wore was stained with paint, and his calves and ankles, exposed when he crossed his legs, were thin and white, forming a sharp contrast with his tanned arms. The not-so-clean clothes wrapped around his thin body made him look a little weak, but the coldness in his eyes made him look like a layer of indestructible ice, waiting to be melted by the fire.
Li Zimai came back and saw a painting like this. Cheng Che was painting, and he was looking at Cheng Che outside the painting.
Yang Mingxi recovered and said hesitantly, "Li Shen, I want to discuss something with you."
Li Zimai didn't want to look away, "You say."
Yang Mingxi repeated what he had just said, adding at the end: "Brother Che is helping me revise the painting. It will be symmetrical after the revision."
“Why symmetry?”
"ah?"
Aren't you a pervert with obsessive-compulsive disorder who can't stand symmetrical things? Yang Mingxi didn't dare to say what was in his mind.
Li Zi took a few steps and sat next to Cheng Che. He carefully examined the painting in front of him and said with a sigh, "Brother Che, your aesthetic taste needs to be improved."
Cheng Che glanced at him and handed him the paintbrush, "You do it."
He picked up the paintbrush without hesitation and started to paint. Sitting so close, Cheng Che could almost smell the sweat on his body after exercising. His short-sleeved shirt had dried in the wind, but beads of sweat were still hanging on his neck, flowing down along his Adam's apple and all the way to the depths of his collar.
"Draw it yourself."
Cheng Che is not willing to cooperate with others.
Li Zimai laughed and said, "Can't you stand some advice? How can you surpass me like this?"
Cheng Che accepted his provocation, picked up another brush and continued to work, each doing half.
Yang Mingxi felt somewhat redundant. His two roommates, both academic geniuses, were disdainful of their peers, arguing about everything from Henri Matisse to Aubrey Beardsley, with absolutely no room for anyone else to get a word in. He boldly interrupted their art discussion, "...How about we continue tomorrow? Lights out."
Cheng Che stood up, feeling a little dizzy. He lost his balance and fell straight towards Li Zimai next to him. Seeing the other party's outstretched arms, he almost reflexively chopped him with a knife.
The man stood firmly, but Li Zimai, who had been inexplicably struck by a knife, was furious. Cheng Che, without changing his expression, put his hands behind his back and said awkwardly, "You're too close."
"I just wanted to catch you out of kindness, but you don't have to slap me, right?"
"I didn't hit you."
"Haven't you hit me yet? Look at yourself, isn't the base of your neck red? If it were anyone else, they would have died right here, beheaded straight away."
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