Chapter 72 Yin Peach Blossom (2) "My love, lean on my shoulder..."
Lu Jinzhao obediently followed Xie Tan's lead, and the journey was unusually quiet.
Xie Tan originally wanted him to go to the club base first while he went to the library, but seeing how he looked, he was worried and took him to the library with him.
It was still early, and there weren't many people in the library. Xie Tan's decision to come to the library to find a book was a spur-of-the-moment thing before he left home. He hadn't even decided which book it was, since there were very few traces left by the previous owner. He could only deduce the books the previous owner had read from the doodles in the books that weren't his major. He would need to search for a while.
The art history section is located on the third floor, at the far end, with layers of bookshelves creating a maze-like effect. Next to it is a small window, through which the morning light shines in hazily, revealing floating dust.
Xie Tan flipped through the book in his hand. Lu Jinzhao looked around. This wasn't his subject, but according to his personality, he would have been interested in flipping through it.
But it seemed the shadow of the funeral downstairs hadn't faded. Lu Jinzhao glanced at it a few times, then circled back to Xie Tan, leaning lazily against him, his forehead resting on Xie Tan's shoulder, without saying a word.
After a while, he slightly raised his eyes, glanced at the contents of Xie Tan's book, then looked back down and nudged Xie Tan's shoulder.
He was taller and bigger than Xie Tan. The reason Xie Tan was called a "teenager" was mainly because Xie Tan's appearance and demeanor were more like a high school student. When Lu Jinzhao leaned on him to act cute, he had to bend down and bend over a little, like a large Samoyed burying him in its belly, humming and whimpering.
Naturally, the most comfortable position is one where you wrap your arms around the waist of the person in front of you.
But for them now, it was still a bit too much. Lu Jinzhao raised his hands slightly, but in the end, he only grabbed his backpack strap with one hand and hooked the dragonfly doll on Xie Tan's backpack with the other, letting the thin doll circle in his fingers.
Xie Tan's gaze remained fixed on the pages of the book, seemingly oblivious to what Lu Jinzhao was doing. However, when Lu Jinzhao's hand, which was hovering loosely at his waist, hooked onto the ornament, Xie Tan's slightly tense back relaxed a little, and the pages that had been paused for a while were lifted by his fingers and turned to the next page.
He skimmed through three pages and felt the book was lacking, not the type he was looking for. Perhaps he was just distracted... Lu Jinzhao remained motionless for a long time, like a large mushroom escaping reality, growing moldy against the dark corner of the wall.
...Are you that sad?
Xie Tan closed the book and picked up another one to continue reading, but took off one of his earphones and put it into Lu Jinzhao's ear.
Lu Jinzhao's fluffy head moved, and a melodious singing voice entered his ears. It was the voice of a woman that he regretted never being able to hear... Singing the Sun Hymn with a woman's voice doesn't count.
Xie Tan quite liked Pan Ling's songs, so he downloaded all of her opera and song recordings into his music streaming app. The sound quality was a bit outdated, but he felt that it actually enhanced the music's charm.
"Today the sky is clear and sunny, clouds swirl around my dreams, and the dreams of the day are like a gentle breeze..."
"My friend, where is the letter from, across the vast lands..."
"The rain and dew are heavy tonight, turning into fleeting dreams and fleeting joys; the waves of the night send me away from the harbor of sorrow, and it is your fragrance that brings me some relief..."
"My love, lean on my shoulder, there is no sorrow..."
Lu Jinzhao, who was clearly sleepy, paused and woke up, while Xie Tan's fingers, which were turning the pages of the book, also froze.
I just finished reloading the songs last night. There are so many songs he hasn't listened to yet. Actually, apart from "Seeking the Soul of Fragrance," he only remembers the tunes of the others he's heard. Who would have thought that this song would turn out like a love song later on...!
Xie Tan almost reflexively took a step forward and bumped into the hard bookshelf, but that would only make things more obvious, just like he deliberately played this song.
So he held back, praying that Lu Jinzhao wasn't moving because he was really asleep, or that he wasn't as neurotic and prone to overthinking as he was... or that he was just awkwardly playing dead like Lu Jinzhao, whatever the reason...
The two remained in this cuddling position for a while before Lu Jinzhao moved first, taking Xie Tan's hand that was hanging on the page of the book.
Xie Tan felt a sudden numbness, from his heart to his fingertips. Lu Jinzhao left his shoulder, pulled his hand and turned him around. Only then did Xie Tan notice that his fingertips had been cut by the pages of the book.
Lu Jinzhao pulled out some band-aids from his bag; they were quite colorful. He lifted Lu Jinzhao's wrist, lowered his eyes, and focused intently on applying them to the wound.
Xie Tan moved his fingers, and behind the layers of bookshelves, in this corner bathed in the dim sunlight, no one spoke for a moment.
As the footsteps drew closer, Xie Tan pulled his hand back.
Jiang Linji was also taken aback when he saw them.
Lu Jinchao greeted her cheerfully, calling her "Advisor." Jiang Linji nodded, then looked at the book in Xie Tan's hand: "Which one are you looking for?"
Xie Tan also rattled off the book titles with ease. Director Jiang lived up to her position as administrator; she could find books faster than the system and could even draw inferences from one instance to another, recommending more related books. Xie Tan had asked her a few times, and over time, she had become quite familiar with the director.
Jiang Linji pointed to the book and, based on it, recited several other book titles. Then he said to Lu Jinzhao, "Lu Jinzhao, come with me to the office and take back your class's scholarship application form."
“Okay, Director~” Lu Jinchao whispered to Xie Tan, “I’ll be back in a bit.”
Xie Tan nodded, then nodded to the counselor. After they left, he was left alone in the corner.
He looked down at his book and rubbed the tips of his ears under his hair.
He used to prefer tying his hair up, but lately he's gotten used to letting it down... that way his ears won't be noticed when they turn red.
However, upon touching it, he realized that his ear was empty; the earphone was still inside Lu Jinzhao's ear, having just been disconnected upon his discovery.
His heart skipped a beat, as if he had been discovered.
For a moment, the only sound in the corner was the sound of him taking out his book. By the time other classmates came looking for their books, he had calmed down and, in retaliation, moved that song to the very bottom of the playlist... buried it!
"Hello, could you help me get the book up there? I can't reach it," the girl, who was a little over 1.5 meters tall, said to Xie Tan after looking around.
Xie Tan helped her take it down, and the girl thanked him. Seeing the book in his hand, she casually remarked, "You're also an art history major? I've never seen you before..."
The girl sounded surprised, as if she didn't know there was such a good-looking person in her major.
Xie Tan's gaze had already returned to the book. Hearing this, he didn't look up, but simply hummed in response.
"A freshman? Oh, are you from Class 1 of the first year? I heard about it. How unlucky! It must be tough to run into something like that. What's your name?"
Xie Tan thought he would give a few perfunctory replies, but he found that he couldn't get into the book either, so he decided not to bother with selecting any more books. Anyway, Director Jiang's taste was always impeccable, and he knew better than Xie Tan what books Xie Tan needed.
So when the girl asked his name, he closed his book, turned to look at her, and was about to say goodbye when he noticed that her lips were already closed, her eyes were bright, and she was waiting for his answer.
Xie Tan realized that the last question, "What's your name?"... wasn't asked by her.
Even sunlight needs to sneak into a corner, where a faint sense of gloom spreads.
There is no darkness or gloom, no eeriness of dusk; it is more like dawn, the desolate stillness before all things revive.
He stared at the girl for a moment, and she became uncomfortable, reflecting on which of her words had been offensive.
Xie Tan replied first, "Thank you for your concern. I am a student from Class 1, Freshman Year. I've finished looking for my books, so I'll be going now."
"Oh, okay."
Soon after, the girl finished finding her books and returned to her seat to study, and the corner became completely quiet.
Suddenly, a shadow flashed past the window.
The travel agency claims to have a small number of members, but it's not just those few. Some are senior students doing internships who don't participate in club activities, and some members are just nominally there to earn credits. The other freshmen, however, spent the short holiday visiting popular attractions in Diqiu with a few upperclassmen. Since there were students from other places, this is considered an annual recruitment event for the travel agency.
The main characters are the core members who get along well with the president.
Since the short holiday is over, the club needs to submit travel reflections, such as essays, papers, brochures, or online promotional videos, which will need to be reviewed by the club president.
However, the president, Xi Rui, took leave, saying that there were family matters to attend to, so the work fell to the vice president, Lu Jinzhao.
Xie Tan was cleaning the club base for Chang Mingai's class. After the start of the semester, the art history class became more intense, but since he had taken the class with other classes before, he didn't need to catch up, so he went with Lu Jinzhao.
On the road, students were selling flowers—handmade artificial flowers, unsold items from Qixi Festival, which they were still selling after the holiday.
The student, who was nearsighted and not wearing his glasses, mistook them for a couple from a distance. His eyes lit up: "Hey, why don't you buy your girlfriend some flowers? Mine are different; they'll never wilt, just like your relationship..."
Xie Tan looked at the product and realized there was a reason it wasn't selling well. Besides, the owner's eyesight was really bad, so he didn't intend to bother with it.
However, he forgot that he had a sucker with him. Before he could react, Lu Jinzhao happily went to pay the bill, took the flowers, and rearranged them himself. When they reached Xie Tan's hands, they did look much better. Xie Tan didn't know whether to say that he had good taste or not.
I forgot to agonize over whether to answer or not.
There were some students in the club building who had come back to pack up their event props. There weren't too many people. They were about to get on the elevator when the music club pulled them to move things to the auditorium.
Back downstairs at the clubhouse, the president of the music club, to express his gratitude, chased after them, stuffing them with snacks and milk tea. Seeing the flowers in Xie Tan's arms, he joked, "Your club's peach blossoms bloom late, huh? Didn't Qixi Festival just pass? Just now, a huge bouquet of red roses was specifically delivered to your club."
Lu Jinzhao looked at the open window of the travel agency with a puzzled expression: "Huh, besides the young lady, are there any other members here so early?"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a shadow descended from upstairs, and a red object was thrown out of the window. Lu Jinzhao grabbed Xie Tan's hand and tried to back away, but Xie Tan held him back.
Because the red cluster failed to land, it was scattered by the wind, and the red petals fell gently, like a fragrant rain, with a sweet scent.
The petals rolled onto them. Xie Tan pinched a petal at the tip of his nose and discovered that it was an unfolded piece of red paper... The material was like the yellow paper used for burning paper money, very rough.
In the center of the paper were three black characters written in calligraphy: Xia Wujin (夏无尽).
Every fallen petal bears this name.
Xie Tan thought to himself, "So that's what it is."
Another story arc has passed, and a new preview image was released yesterday. It shows a sky full of red petals, or like notes with something written on them, all in black.
A piece of paper floated in front of the camera, with three neat characters written in calligraphy: "Yin Tao Hua" (阴桃花).
That is the name of the new story.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
