I like you very much
The time to return to work passed quickly. There weren't many people at the station, and Bai Yixia and her friends didn't have to wait long before they saw Zhou Qingchi's roommate.
The two people, hand in hand, squeezed in the crowd, waved enthusiastically at them, but within seconds, the cold air made them pull their hands back into their sleeves.
The boy quickly tossed the luggage into the trunk and got into the car with the girl.
Zhou Qingchi had never seen her before, so he could only smile and nod in acknowledgment.
Bai Yixia was the driver today. She turned around from the driver's seat and greeted the two of them, "Hello."
The boy quickly responded, "Hello, hello, I'm Zhou Qingchi's roommate, Xu Minglang, and this is my girlfriend, Jiang Yuefan."
The couple were both warm-hearted and didn't feel awkward at all. Jiang Yuefan greeted them and then suddenly exclaimed to Bai Yixia, "Ah! I know you."
Xu Minglang nodded, "I know him too."
Bai Yixia was stunned. "Huh?"
The boy laughed heartily, "He's Zhou's childhood sweetheart, I often see you video chatting with him." He chuckled and nudged Zhou Qingchi, "Right, Zhou, am I right?"
Zhou Qingchi remained noncommittal, pushed his shoulder away, and patted the back of the driver's seat. "Half and half, I guess." He suddenly smiled. "Bai Yixia is my girlfriend. The one next to her is Nie Jiayuan, my childhood friend."
Xu Minglang and Jiang Yuefan fell silent at the same time. A few seconds later, the two of them met Nie Jiayuan's gaze in the passenger seat. The three of them hit it off immediately and instantly understood each other's thoughts.
Nie Jiayuan sighed, "Those we grew up with, we call the ones we like 'childhood sweethearts,' and the ones we don't—"
“They’re just childhood friends,” Xu Minglang and Jiang Yuefan replied.
Bai Yixia was stunned, Zhou Qingchi was speechless, and the other three burst into laughter after they finished speaking.
After laughing, Nie Jiayuan turned to the side and extended her hand, "Hello. Let's go straight to the venue, my boyfriend is over there."
Xu Minglang nodded, "Thank you for your help."
Nie Jiayuan waved her hand, "No trouble at all."
The three of them hit it off immediately, while Bai Yixia drove with a serious expression. Zhou Qingchi could only lean on the back of the seat and didn't dare to chat with her. He could only give the three of them a resentful look.
-
The venue is quite large, and the exhibits are diverse, but compared to other art exhibitions, it's more like a handicraft wholesale market.
Qiu Ting smiled apologetically, "I'm really sorry, isn't this a bit of false advertising?"
Bai Yixia was quite interested in these handicrafts. She shook her head to indicate that it was fine, and pointed to the origami flower that was as tall as three people, "Did they make this themselves too?"
The exhibition was organized by Qiu Ting's family. According to him, the materials came from children in welfare homes and special schools.
"Yes." Qiu Ting handed each of them an instruction manual. "Most of them were made by them."
Jiang Yuefan held up her phone sheepishly, "May I take a picture?"
"OK."
The largest exhibit in the venue occupies an entire room. Upon entering, one is greeted by layers of trees, their material indistinct yet remarkably realistic. A pebble path leads directly into the depths of the room, where the lighting is less bright than in other areas, seemingly simulating a jungle.
At the end of the pebble path stands a mushroom-shaped cottage. Soft light surrounds this cozy little house, vines twine around the doors and windows, and pink and white flowers adorn the walls. A fence encircles the cottage, and even the tables and chairs in the yard are mushroom-shaped.
Seeing the interest in everyone's eyes, Qiu Ting explained, "This was made by my family based on a child's drawing. You can go inside and take a look."
Almost as soon as Bai Yixia saw this scene, several images flashed through her mind. Her eyes darted towards Nie Jiayuan, her hands itching to take pictures. But Nie Jiayuan had been in control of the camera the whole way, taking many photos of her and Zhou Qingchi, keeping her promise from that day without fail, refusing to give her the camera no matter what Bai Yixia said.
Bai Yixia tried several times without success. In desperation, she tugged at Zhou Qingchi's sleeve, clasped her hands together when he looked over, and whispered, "Brother Qingchi, my camera..."
The not-so-new way of addressing him startled Zhou Qingchi. In his memory, only Bai Yixia before he was seven years old would call him that in such a soft, gentle way. Zhou Qingchi blinked, a mischievous thought suddenly forming in his mind. He imitated her and whispered, "But what can we do? I can't beat her either."
Bai Yixia was startled. "Who told you to do this?" She suggested enthusiastically, "I remember you and Qiu Ting were quite close in high school. Why don't you have him talk to Jiajia?"
Zhou Qingchi glanced at Qiu Ting, "Don't you think the two of them are in cahoots?"
Bai Yixia followed his gaze and saw the two of them snuggling together, heads touching, talking about something. She could only pout and sigh in disappointment.
"Um, Xiaxia," Jiang Yuefan walked up to them and pulled out a camera from behind her back, "Could you take some pictures for me?"
Bai Yixia was immediately delighted and hurriedly took the camera, "Of course you can."
Jiang Yuefan said, "Actually, when I said I knew you before, it wasn't because of Xu Minglang. I followed your account; I'm your fan." She smiled, "But you haven't updated in a long time."
Bai Yixia suddenly remembered that she had an internet account. She wasn't a very famous blogger; aside from regular photo shoots, she would only post snippets of her daily life whenever she felt like it.
Because she was in a relationship and forgot to update, she was even caught by fans offline. Bai Yixia moved closer to Zhou Qingchi with a slightly guilty look and chuckled, "It's not just my fault for not updating for so long, he's partly to blame too!"
Jiang Yuefan smiled understandingly, "We've all been through this, I understand, I understand."
Caught off guard, Zhou Qingchi was falsely accused and watched in bewilderment as his girlfriend was led away. Fortunately, she sent him a few kisses as she left. Standing to the side, Zhou Qingchi watched the radiant photographer with tender eyes, unaware that a smile had already crept onto his lips.
-
After visiting the exhibition hall, it was getting dark. Bai Yixia, who had taken the camera in the second half of the visit, took no less than twenty photos of each person. While holding the camera, she gave verbal instructions until her mouth was dry.
Zhou Qingchi touched her dry lips, looked around, and gestured for her to wait there for a while. "I'll go buy you something to drink."
Bai Yixia said, "I want—"
"Coconut jasmine milk green tea, with taro paste." Zhou Qingchi interrupted her.
"Hehe, yes."
Seeing this, Xu Minglang puffed out his chest, wanting to show off as well, but Jiang Yuefan reached out and pressed him back to his original position, saying, "No need, I'll go by myself."
"But!"
Jiang Yuefan looked at him with a headache, "Please, Lao Xu, give me a chance to prove myself."
Xu Minglang was rooted to the spot by her warning gaze and nodded awkwardly.
In the end, only the two of them stayed behind, while the other four people went to the same milk tea shop in a scattered manner.
"..." Bai Yixia looked at this scene helplessly, "They..."
Xu Minglang was quite understanding. He turned to look at Bai Yixia and said, "This is normal. To be honest, I didn't expect Zhou Qingchi to actually agree. I just mentioned it casually at the time."
These words didn't sound like a nice thing at first, and a warning sign immediately went off in Bai Yixia's mind. She smiled and turned to face Xu Minglang, "Hmm?"
Xu Minglang had already looked away. He was looking at the four people, but it was unclear whether he was looking at his girlfriend or Zhou Qingchi.
"Zhou Qingchi actually hates it when people bother him. And although he's always smiling, I think everyone except that idiot in our dorm can see how distant he is."
His words almost completely overturned Zhou Qingchi's image in Bai Yixia's mind. Bai Yixia sat up straight, neither questioning nor agreeing, but simply chuckled, "Is that so?"
“But today is different,” Xu Minglang said. “I should say that he only truly showed his gentle side when he was with you.”
He pouted and complained, half-jokingly and half-seriously, "After all this time, it turns out you're the one who's really playing around, but we're all just pretending."
The two naturally cheerful people suddenly fell silent at the same time. After a while, Xu Minglang seemed to realize something and quickly explained, "No, no, I didn't mean to say anything bad about him." He scratched his head, "It's just that he's really not the same guy I usually interact with."
The usually eloquent Xu Minglang suddenly became tongue-tied. He swallowed his words after they had been swirling in his mouth, and finally just sighed, "It seems a bit strange no matter how I say it."
"But there's one thing I have to say."
Bai Yixia glanced at him sideways, while Xu Minglang raised an eyebrow in the direction Zhou Qingchi had come from. "He really likes you a lot."
Undeniably, this was probably the most pleasing thing he had said to Bai Yixia in the past few minutes. She nodded, jumped down from the flower bed, tilted her head, and winked at him. "Thank you. I like him very much too."
Therefore, Bai Yixia never doubted how he was perceived in her heart.
As the streetlights came on one by one, Zhou Qingchi emerged from the shadows, walked up to her with a smile, and handed her a warm cup of milk tea. "What are you talking about?"
Bai Yixia looked at him, at the curve of his lips, at his eyes that held her, and after a long while shook her head. "It's nothing." She readily betrayed Xu Minglang, "But he complained that you didn't really play with him."
Zhou Qingchi looked over thoughtfully, and Xu Minglang stared wide-eyed innocently. But his indifferent roommate didn't care about his life or death, and coldly snorted, "I'm sorry he only realized this now."
Xu Minglang opened his mouth, but saw Zhou Qingchi's smile that he couldn't hide the moment he turned his head.
He suddenly felt that many things were not worth fussing over. He sighed exaggeratedly, and then, taking advantage of Zhou Qingchi's momentary lapse in attention, he reached out and hooked his arm around his neck. "Don't do that, it'll hurt our feelings. You can play with me secretly, and don't worry about the other two."
Zhou Qingchi turned his head away in disdain, "I'm impartial."
Xu Minglang winked at Bai Yixia and said loudly, "You're already very biased!"
Bai Yixia looked at Zhou Qingchi's cheerful smile, raised her milk tea and touched it to him from a distance.
Xu Minglang and Jiang Yuefan had their own travel plans, and the six of them parted ways after having dinner together.
As he was leaving, Xu Minglang heard Zhou Qingchi ask him if he really didn't need a guide, and he grinned in surprise. "Brother Zhou, thank you. But Xiao Fan has already done the research on Xiaodigua, so I won't trouble you."
Zhou Qingchi said, "Okay. Contact me if anything comes up."
On the way back, Nie Jiayuan sat in the back seat looking through photos, while Bai Yixia propped her head up and looked at Zhou Qingchi.
Her gaze was so intense that Zhou Qingchi, unusually speaking while driving, asked casually, "Why are you staring at me like that?"
Bai Yixia replied matter-of-factly, "Don't you know? It's because you're pretty."
Zhou Qingchi was taken aback, then smiled. Nie Jiayuan in the back seat pleaded, "Please, I just broke up with my boyfriend."
Bai Yixia readily shut her mouth.
The elevator went up and arrived at Bai Yixia's floor. Before Nie Jiayuan could say goodbye, she slapped the elevator door and looked at the suitcase outside Zhou Qingchi's door, "Aunt Jiang is back?"
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