Heartbeat
Xu Zhiyan: The incident of my injury back then had absolutely nothing to do with you. I suspect that you deliberately used it as an excuse to avoid contact with me.
Zhou Ji'an's guilt stemmed from the fact that she had once planned to use Xu Zhiyan to get over her heartbreak. After realizing that this was inappropriate, she immediately decided not to keep her appointment with Xu Zhiyan, which resulted in Xu Zhiyan being alone and having an accident.
To be precise, what she felt guilty about was that she had the idea of taking advantage of Xu Zhiyan, an innocent person.
Zhou Ji'an typed on the keyboard, trying to evade the question: I don't associate with you because you've gone abroad, so we can't keep in touch.
Xu Zhiyan: Now that I'm back in China, what's your reason for refusing to answer my calls and cutting off all contact with me? Is it because you're married and your husband doesn't allow you to associate with outsiders?
Zhou Ji'an frowned, his fingers continuing to type on the keyboard: Didn't you just get back?
"I'm going to the company." Deng Yi picked up the book on the table, said this, and then turned around and put the book back on the shelf.
Caught off guard by his sudden voice, Zhou Ji'an abruptly turned to the side and replied, "Oh, okay."
A new message popped up in the window. Zhou Ji'an glanced at it, then immediately looked back at Deng Yi, who was leaving the house.
She wanted to ask him when he would be back, but his back was turned and he seemed carefree and decisive, not like he wanted her to ask him.
Moreover, what he wants is a marriage without constraints, and questions like "when will you come back?" will become the ropes binding him.
Zhou Ji'an's psychological letdown at this moment was even greater than when Deng Yi rejected her at the crucial moment.
The intimacy and thoughtfulness Deng Yi showed her last night and this morning led her to mistakenly believe that he was interested in her.
She always seemed to take Deng Yi's subtle acts of kindness or thoughtfulness as signs of affection.
Deng Yi herself may not have realized the extent of her actions, let alone meant what she imagined.
Yu Xi had warned the self-righteous Zhou Ji'an long ago not to get too big for her britches.
Not long after Zhou Ji'an started working part-time at Deng Yi's studio, he met Yu Xi.
Back then, Yu Xi had long hair that reached the hem of her clothes, and she always exuded a faint fragrance, with a clean and pure demeanor.
When Zhou Ji'an first saw Yu Xi, his first thought was that this girl must have filmed a shampoo commercial.
Deng Yi has also filmed shampoo commercials.
"Why are you taking photos in your high school uniform?" Deng Yi asked while choosing a camera. "Just a few simple pictures, right?"
"A campus drama contacted me. The person in charge said the director wanted to see photos of me in school uniforms." Yu Xi casually stroked the items on Deng Yi's desk, then glanced up at Zhou Ji'an, who was secretly observing her. "Why did you hire a girl as your assistant?"
Zhou Ji'an immediately buried himself in the thick book "Java Multithreaded Programming Technology", eavesdropping on Yu Xi and Deng Yi's conversation while smelling the paper and ink.
"Did you bring your own school uniform?" Deng Yi avoided Yu Xi's question.
Zhou Ji'an was slightly disappointed, but she didn't know what kind of answer she wanted to hear.
"I brought it. I had my mom send my high school uniform." Yu Xi leaned back on the edge of the table, her hair hanging down to the tabletop. When the wind blew, the ends of her hair swayed like a fish tail.
Zhou Ji'an pretended to take notes, and three words appeared at the top of the page: Mermaid.
The mermaid wore a white knitted sweater, her shoulders and back were sleek, and she wore two red cherry earrings on her earlobes.
Zhou Ji'an touched his own earlobe, then looked at the cherry earring with the excessively long stem on Yu Xi's ear, and thought to himself, "Doesn't this person feel any pain? That pendant looks very heavy."
"You need to get that thing removed from your ear," Deng Yi reminded him, looking up. "You can change clothes in the lounge in the back."
Yu Xi touched the red cherry with her slender white index finger, and her chin and the cherry swayed a few times at the same time.
"Ji'an, are you busy now?" Deng Yi, who was setting up the soft light boxes, asked Yu Xi as she went to the lounge.
Zhou Ji'an's face flushed red instantly.
She was a part-time worker who was paid to do things, and her boss actually asked her if she was busy.
"What do you need?" Zhou Ji'an immediately stood up and practically ran to the filming area. "I thought you were going to chat for a while."
"Why are you running?" Deng Yi laughed. "Just want to borrow your backpack."
"Oh, okay." Zhou Ji'an ran back to the sofa, and as she picked up her schoolbag, she heard Deng Yi call out to her not to run away.
Wearing the school uniform, Yu Xi exuded a more youthful vibe. Her makeup had been removed, and there were no other decorations on her ears, neck, wrists, or fingers.
She stared at the schoolbag Zhou Ji'an handed her, then turned to Deng Yi and asked, "She's not still a high school student, is she? Is she your relative's child? Is she here to play?"
Zhou Ji'an assumed Yu Xi was disgusted by her backpack, glanced at Deng Yi, and asked, "Can I go outside and buy a new one now? Is it too late?"
“No need, she’s taking high school uniform photos, and your backpack will fit perfectly.” After saying that, Deng Yi urged Yu Xi, “Hurry up, I have something to do later.”
Yu Xi said with dissatisfaction and sarcasm, "What is it? Are you taking your niece or cousin to KFC?"
Ever since she realized her buttocks were too prominent, Zhou Ji'an stopped wearing tight clothes and pants; at this moment, her thin sweater and jeans were loose and baggy.
She thought that perhaps because she was already short, dressing like this made her look even shorter, which was why Yu Xi was so concerned about her age.
Zhou Ji'an said hesitantly, "I'm a freshman."
Deng Yi took the schoolbag from Zhou Ji'an's hand, looked down at her slightly, and replied, "Yes, but she's not eighteen yet."
Zhou Ji'an didn't understand what Deng Yi meant. He looked up at him, and Yu Xi next to him suddenly urged, "Hurry up and take the picture. You have something to do, and I have something to do too."
After filming wrapped, Deng Yizhen took Zhou Ji'an to KFC, saying it was an employee perk.
That was Zhou Ji'an's first time eating KFC. The fried chicken and fries were crispy, and the strawberry sundae and golden egg tarts were sweet.
Later, Zhou Ji'an went to that restaurant alone and ordered the same meal, but he couldn't taste the deliciousness of it no matter how he ate it.
I thought it tasted good before.
After Yu Xi appeared once, she started to show up frequently, occasionally bringing her friends along.
At this time, Deng Yi was occupied.
Sometimes, Zhou Ji'an could only see the back of his head.
"Can you smell the sweet aroma of malt through the bottle?" Yu Xi handed the beer from the bag to Deng Yi and the male and female friends she brought. "I didn't know you were here, so I only brought four bottles."
Zhou Ji'an had become accustomed to being neglected and ignored.
She usually eats, goes shopping, and has fun with her three roommates, while she almost always goes her own way. She is very glad that she can go her own way, otherwise, if she had followed those three roommates from wealthy families, she would have spent all the money she had saved since childhood in just a few days, and she would never have been able to do the things she really wanted to do.
So when Yu Xi deliberately mentioned that she had only brought four bottles of beer to separate her from them, Zhou Ji'an did not feel uncomfortable.
She looked up and said, "I don't..."
Deng Yi stretched out his left hand and pushed the slender glass bottle that Yu Xi had placed in front of him toward the center. "I don't drink during work hours, and Ji'an is not old enough to drink."
Couples in love often share their heart-fluttering moments, but Zhou Ji'an always finds the stories bland and unconvincing.
At this moment, Deng Yi's actions and words were very calm, but Zhou Ji'an's heart was pounding.
After that, Zhou Ji'an felt much more at ease and at ease in front of Deng Yi, as if she had been facing a fake areca nut tree, which had suddenly sprouted side branches that she could grasp.
She boldly asked Deng Yi if she could cook some simple meals in the tea area of his studio.
She no longer only came to Deng Yi's studio on weekends, but whenever she didn't have classes.
She hardly participated in cycling club activities anymore.
Zhou Ji'an noticed that Deng Yi did not show any rejection or disgust towards her, so she took advantage of the situation.
When Deng Yi teased her about why she hadn't grown taller yet, wasn't even eighteen, and ate so slowly, she frowned and angrily retorted.
"I'll be eighteen at the end of December, how could I possibly still be tall?"
Eating slowly aids digestion!
Deng Yi used the index and middle fingers of his left hand to smooth out the wrinkles between her eyebrows, scaring her: "Be careful not to frown too much, or you'll have frown lines before you're even eighteen."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Ji'an's brow muscles relaxed instantly, and he muttered, "I'm not even eighteen yet, how could I possibly have frown lines? If anyone's going to get them, it'll be you first."
"Feel it, do I have any growth?" Deng Yi said with a smile, lowering his head and getting closer to her.
Why make her touch it when she can just look at it?
Zhou Ji'an was puzzled, but did as instructed.
Yu Xi entered the studio as her soft fingertips touched the peaks of Deng Yiying's eyebrows.
"What are you doing?" Yu Xi's usually gentle eyes flashed with a hint of coldness. "The photos you took of me last time turned out really well. Could you take some more in a different style?"
Whether by accident or design, Deng Yi's left hand touched the hand that had fallen between his eyebrows, and he said in a businesslike tone, "I haven't had time lately, I've had too many photo shoot appointments."
Yu Xi glanced at Zhou Ji'an with the corner of her eye, her gaze as cold as a winter night. "Don't let the studio keep running and make you forget your original dream."
Zhou Ji'an never asked Deng Yi what her initial dream was, but Deng Yi often took her to watch movies in his free time.
The studio's interior design is mostly related to film, and he studied directing, so his initial dream was probably to become a film director.
When they watched movies together, Zhou Ji'an often didn't understand them and would always ask Deng Yi questions. Deng Yi would explain the cinematic language, composition, and lighting to her.
During this period of part-time work, Zhou Ji'an accumulated some photography knowledge. She learned that lens language, composition, and lighting are all details that need to be grasped in the photography process.
Therefore, she disagreed with Yu Xi's implication that Deng Yi would give up being a film director because of opening a photography studio.
Zhou Ji'an emphasized: "He opened a photography studio to lay the foundation for his original dream."
Yu Xi's lips curled up slightly, just like the corners of her eyes. "Do you know what his original dream was?"
Zhou Ji'an said without hesitation, "A director, a film director, he will become a very great film director."
Actually, after Zhou Ji'an replied without hesitation, she started to feel uneasy. She was afraid that Deng Yi would suddenly say that his original dream was not to be a film director, or that he didn't have any original dream at all in order to avoid being pretentious.
She felt so guilty that she just stared blankly at Yu Xi, not daring to turn her head or glance at Deng Yi.
Deng Yi: "She knows everything."
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