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Psst! We're moving!
In the midst of the commotion, Shen Xi calmly spoke.
“A person’s name can be written in many ways, it can be broken down, or it can be written backward...”
He paused.
“I did this primarily to tell everyone to break free from existing frameworks of thought, to view things from different perspectives as much as possible, and to learn from different angles.”
“Second, the second-to-last character (冘), is a homophone for yóu in ‘hesitate.’ It also has a second pronunciation, yín like in ‘chanting,’ referring to many people moving forward.”
“This is the second concept I want to convey: learning has no end. Perhaps often, true knowledge is right around us, even within each of our names. We cannot merely be content with textbook problems; we must harbor a spirit of exploration and continuously strive for progress.”
...
...
Talking nonsense with a straight face.
That was undoubtedly Shen Xi right now.
Lin Zhan thought silently.
Yet, his nonsense truly made the uninformed audience feel...
Suddenly enlightened and profoundly interesting.
...
He only spoke these few sentences before stepping off the stage.
A burst of vigorous applause erupted from below.
Lin Zhan now had a strange feeling of being the only sober one in a drunken crowd.
“Next, we have Lin Zhan from Class Three of the Art Department. Lin Zhan has not only brought much honor to the school in the field of art, but her performance in this college entrance examination was also very good. Now, let’s invite Lin Zhan to talk about how she achieved dual development.”
Lin Zhan originally had a speech script, but with Shen Xi having started in such a way, if she were to just read from her script, it would be too dry and uninteresting.
As she stood up, someone in the back started banging on a table and shouting.
She walked onto the stage, said nothing, picked up a piece of chalk, and wrote two characters on the blackboard.
—木 (mù, wood), 戋 (jiān, shallow/small).
Shen Xi below: “...”
Someone noticed something was off.
“Holy cow, what’s going on? A couple act?”
“Their relationship was already very good, right...”
Lin Zhan cleared her throat and began: “My name is Lin Zhan. The ‘Lin’ (林) from ‘double wood,’ and the ‘Zhan’ (盞) from ‘lamp wick.’ The two characters you see on the blackboard are half of ‘Lin’ (林) and ‘Zhan’ (盞) respectively.”
“If you cover the character ‘戋’, you’ll find that ‘木’ is just a single character for wood. Similarly, if you cover ‘木’, ‘戋’ is also a standalone character. They are both split from my name, both individual entities. However, when you put them together, they form a new character.”
“Everyone has another side that others don’t see, and everyone has infinite possibilities. You may have been studying since you were young, but that doesn’t mean you can’t pursue art. Do what you want to do; anything is possible.”
“That’s my thought. Thank you, everyone.”
Having finished her impromptu speech, Lin Zhan actually felt that her quick-witted nonsense sounded very reasonable.
Everyone responded with enthusiastic applause as well.
Sun Hong, pretending to be part of the audience, said tearfully, “You spoke so well!”
Qi Lijie: “Lin Zhan, you’re my goddess!”
Lin Zhan: “...”
Was it too fake?
As she walked back to her seat, she deliberately glanced at Shen Xi.
Shen Xi had composed himself, his expression no longer showing the slight surprise from before. He smiled and pointed to his phone.
Lin Zhan sat down and took out her phone.
Shen Xi: [[Video]]
She turned down the volume and then tapped to play.
It was a video of her speech on stage.
She asked him: [Why are you recording this?]
Shen Xi: [Very interesting.]
He had less than ten minutes to prepare after stepping off the stage and before she went up, yet she managed to spout such a long string of nonsense in just ten minutes. Very interesting.
Lin Zhan: [Actually, I had something else I wanted to say.]
Shen Xi: [Mm?]
Lin Zhan: [People are dual-natured. For example, you might not know that while you admire someone’s talent, her face is also very beautiful (feel free to assume I’m talking about myself).]
Shen Xi: [...]
Zheng Yimian came over and told Lin Zhan, “You two on stage just now, there was a kind of...”
Lin Zhan: “What?”
Zheng Yimian: “A ‘talking nonsense together’ couple vibe.”
“...”
________________________________________
Never had a school graduation ceremony been so long.
Lin Zhan thought so.
It started at 1 PM and lasted until 6 PM.
After the ceremony, everyone took their graduation certificates and went out for dinner. The boys at the dinner table made grand, ambitious declarations, as if they wanted to conquer the whole world.
When the banquet ended, Lin Zhan and Shen Xi strolled through the night market along the street.
There was a small cotton candy stall.
Lin Zhan paused and looked at it for a couple of seconds, and Shen Xi knew what she wanted to do.
He leaned forward and asked the vendor, “Can I make this myself?”
The vendor smiled and said, “Of course.”
Making it was simple; you just had to wrap the cotton candy coming out of the machine in one direction.
Lin Zhan was quick to learn and soon made one.
As she finished and looked up, she found Shen Xi gone.
Guessing he might have gone to buy something, Lin Zhan waited for him there, casually taking a couple of bites of the cotton candy.
The soft cotton candy melted in her mouth, its only drawback being how sticky it was.
Lin Zhan had just taken a bite when someone patted her on the shoulder.
Thinking it was Shen Xi, she turned back and asked, “Where did you go?”
But in front of her was a completely unfamiliar face.
Lin Zhan paused: “You are...?”
The person in front of her seemed a bit flustered, holding two movie tickets in his hand.
Lin Zhan looked past him to behind him and saw a group of people standing by a fence, watching them and discussing.
This wasn’t the first time she had encountered such a situation, and she quickly understood what was about to happen.
The boy cleared his throat: “Uh, I saw you stirring the cotton candy earlier, and I thought you were very cute. Could you...”
“Excuse me,” a male voice suddenly rang out from behind her, clear and low like pearls dropping onto a plate, “She has a boyfriend.”
The boy was startled, glanced at Shen Xi, mumbled a couple of “sorrys,” and ran back to his friends.
Lin Zhan didn’t even bother with her original question and raised an eyebrow at Shen Xi: “Who said you were my boyfriend?”
Shen Xi looked down at her: “...”
Her gaze was very sincere, as if she was genuinely confused by the question.
Shen Xi parted his lips, the initial syllable escaping him, then more carefully said, “It shouldn’t be ‘boyfriend’; it should be ‘soon-to-be boyfriend’.”
She persisted, smiling: “Did you bestow this ‘soon-to-be boyfriend’ title upon yourself too?”
Shen Xi: “...”
Lin Zhan shrugged: “I didn’t say anything, and I didn’t agree to anything either.”
“...”
Lin Zhan clasped her hands behind her back, looking more discerning than him: “This... in student Shen Xi’s mind, what does ‘soon-to-be boyfriend’ mean?”
Shen Xi was unusually speechless, pondering for a long while before finally saying, “...A boyfriend waiting for a stamp?”
“Waiting for a stamp?” Lin Zhan clicked her tongue, “I didn’t agree to stamp you, you know.”
Having been together for so long, it was rare for Shen Xi to be at a disadvantage, and Lin Zhan didn’t want to miss this opportunity to tease him.
But who was Shen Xi?
When Shen Xi was drawing inferences from one instance, Lin Zhan was still at home drawing apples with a paintbrush.
So he quickly regained the initiative, saying calmly, “You don’t stamp me; I stamp you.”
Lin Zhan: ??
“What, what thing?”
Shen Xi patiently replied, “I’ll stamp you.”
He moved his hand forward a millimeter, touching her hand, passing through her palm. Shen Xi held the girl’s soft, delicate hand in his.
Then he raised his hand and kissed the back of Lin Zhan’s hand.
“Like this.”
Teacher Shen demonstrated.
The plot reversed incredibly quickly, accelerating rapidly. Lin Zhan felt like she was sitting in a baby stroller, being shaken a couple of times, struggling to keep up with the rhythm, and feeling dizzy.
She opened her mouth, uncontrollably, and blurted out again, “That’s it? A baby stroller?”
“...”
Shen Xi frowned, his brow practically forming a question mark of exasperation.
Seeing her own mastery about to surpass Teacher Shen, and adhering to the philosophy of “if you don’t flirt, you lose,” and with the progressive idea of “the student surpasses the master,” Lin Zhan quickly followed up.
“I dare you not to kiss my hand.”
Shen Xi: ?
Lin Zhan lifted her face: “I dare you to kiss my face... I dare you to kiss, kiss the part of my face below my nose and above my chin!”
This time, it was Shen Xi’s turn to be silent again.
Lin Zhan laughed mockingly, with the haughty attitude of a victor receiving a gold medal.
“Heh, that’s all the guts you have.”
...
The scene before her shifted and teleported in an instant.
The bizarre and colorful market quickly retreated to the right, only managing to pull a long series of overlapping images into Lin Zhan’s vision, and then, a grayish-blue covered everything.
When the grayish-blue was lifted, Lin Zhan saw clearly that she was pressed against a narrow alley by Shen Xi.
The entire narrow alley was barely a step wide. Her back was against the uneven bricks and tiles, and Shen Xi’s warm chest was pressed against her front.
Lin Zhan: ...
Oh my god...
Seeing that things seemed to be heading in an indescribable direction, Lin Zhan gave in.
“I-I was just saying nonsense, don’t take it to heart... Shen...”
He didn’t seem to intend to let go of her. He lowered his head, his voice almost sliding into her earlobe.
“Say it again.”
His voice was hoarse.
Lin Zhan: “...”
In this small space, the oxygen for the two of them was not enough.
Moreover, in this posture, Lin Zhan’s oxygen demand greatly increased.
She felt a bit breathless at the moment and couldn’t make any other movements, her entire face burning red.
Shen Xi’s hand clasped her wrist, symbolically pinching it: “Your words just now, say them again.”
Lack of oxygen made Lin Zhan unable to remember anything. She just swallowed blankly, looking a little helpless as she looked up and asked him, “Shen Xi, you, you’ve gone dark?”
Shen Xi lowered his gaze and took another step closer. Lin Zhan’s nostrils were filled with his scent.
The scent permeated everywhere, little by little consuming her.
Her breathing became unstable.
Shen Xi leaned against her cheek and whispered softly.
“Facing a darkened Shen Xi, your chance of escaping is—zero.”
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