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The girl hesitantly, uncertainly, walked up to Shen Xi and asked him, “Perhaps, do you like Messi?”
Lin Zhan: ???
Although she knew they were rivals in love, Lin Zhan couldn’t help but want to remind her: “Girl, Shen Xi probably won’t understand a confession like that...”
Shen Xi saw Lin Zhan approaching, and only said three words to the girl.
Lin Zhan didn’t quite catch what he said.
By the time she reached Shen Xi’s side, the girl had already left.
Lin Zhan teased him, “What, got another confession?”
“Not a confession,” Shen Xi said, “She said some strange things.”
Lin Zhan stifled a laugh: “What did she say?”
“She asked if I liked Messi,” Shen Xi composed himself, “I said no.”
Lin Zhan asked, “Then what do you think she was doing?”
Shen Xi thought for a while and said, “...Maybe she was inviting me to play football.”
???
Lin Zhan finally couldn’t help it. She held onto his shoulder and started laughing: “Inviting you to play football?! If you take out the last two words, it’s pretty close – she was confessing.”
“Messi and confession are related?” Shen Xi frowned, “Isn’t Messi... a football star?”
“Yes,” Lin Zhan laughed, “It’s taught in a Korean drama. To get closer to a boy and find common ground, a girl asks if he likes Messi. Because many boys like football, and Messi is one of the more famous ones. It’s like if I like listening to music, you’d ask if I like a certain famous singer. Same principle.”
“Later, it evolved, and this phrase became used for confessions.”
Shen Xi nodded in understanding, then asked: “Then, when a boy hits on a girl, how do they usually ask?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Lin Zhan said, “As long as he’s good-looking.”
“...”
________________________________________
Lin Zhan rehearsed all afternoon backstage and didn’t even eat dinner. At this moment, rushing out for a meal, the two found a cafe that served dinner and sat down.
Shen Xi was looking at the menu on the side. Lin Zhan leaned back in the wicker chair, shifted closer, and slowly asked him.
“Perhaps, do you like Messi?”
“I don’t like Messi,” he said with a lazy look, calmly turning a page, ignoring Lin Zhan’s drooping lips. He drawled, “I like Lin Zhan.”
________________________________________
University life passed much faster and more relaxed than the third year of high school.
Adding military training, a month passed in the blink of an eye.
After a month, Lin Zhan had quickly adapted to university life.
Aside from making it her mission to tease Shen Xi, Lin Zhan also didn’t forget the things Lin Zhengping had entrusted her with.
To gain recognition, she first needed to participate in some competitions and exhibitions to make her name known. Once her foundation was a bit more stable, she would create a public account to start pushing content.
Lin Zhan’s Weibo account already had quite a few followers, so with good management, it could still do well.
She signed herself up for a school competition. After competing within the school, the top three would represent the school in external competitions.
The twenty best works from the final round could be published in a collection.
This was a good opportunity to hone her skills and also to be discovered by excellent teachers.
Such competitions were already familiar territory for Lin Zhan. This time, she didn’t bring gouache but a small box of watercolors.
Shen Xi said, “I’ll pick you up after you finish painting.”
She smiled, hung up the phone, and entered the examination hall.
Weida University’s exam theme was “Vibrancy.”
It was a very common topic, easy to paint, and everyone could think of something to draw.
But to stand out among such ordinary paintings would be a bit difficult.
But it didn’t matter, she thought. Her basic skills were solid. If she couldn’t surpass others in concept, she would win in execution.
She painted the only rose on the Little Prince’s planet.
Even if that planet was small, dilapidated, and had terrible environmental conditions, that rose remained vibrant and in full bloom.
When she submitted her paper, everyone’s ideas were quite similar.
Some drew oases in the desert, some drew grass growing in rock crevices, some drew flowers in the snow.
One person drew the same thing as her.
Her name was Sun Qiqi.
The results came out: Lin Zhan was first, another boy who drew a well was second, and Sun Qiqi was third.
Although their ideas were similar, Lin Zhan still had her own advantages and unique style in terms of painting technique.
First, her basic skills were solid. Second, her painting style was unforgettable, which prevented it from being overshadowed by the subject matter.
The school displayed the top twenty works, but only the top three would advance.
The next day, Lin Zhan took Shen Xi to see her painting. When they reached the exhibition board, she found that her painting was gone.
She was a little stunned: “Where’s my painting? Why is my painting missing?”
Shen Xi squeezed her hand and said, “Was it missed in the display, blown away by the wind, or did someone like it so much they took it?”
“That’s possible,” Lin Zhan said, patting his shoulder with a feigned heavy expression, “After all, I’ve always been very popular.”
Lin Zhan didn’t pay too much attention and went out to eat with Shen Xi. Along the way, she told him, “Oh, by the way, the next competition won’t be here; it’ll be in B City.”
Shen Xi frowned: “How long will you be gone?”
She said: “Seven days. Zheng Yimian even told me to stay a few extra days to look around. Her favorite artist, Gu Yulin, lives in B City, and she wants me to help her ‘accidentally’ meet him. But the probability is too small.”
“Seven days? What about your toiletries?”
Lin Zhan laughed: “I’ll bring them along. You talk as if I’ve never traveled alone before.”
Shen Xi asked, “Will the rooms be assigned? Are there boys?”
Lin Zhan stopped smiling, grabbed the cuff of her jacket, and leaned close to his ear to whisper.
“Yes, there are.”
Shen Xi paused slightly, then turned to look at her, wanting to speak but hesitating.
Lin Zhan smiled triumphantly: “While this king is away these few days, you’ll be alone in an empty room, waiting for this king to return triumphantly, then I’ll properly favor you.”
Shen Xi glanced at her with the corner of his eye, as if he thought of something, and zipped up his baseball jacket all the way. The corner of his mouth, hidden by the collar, curved upwards.
Lin Zhan looked at him: “When you do that, I always feel like you’re secretly badmouthing me.”
________________________________________
On the day Lin Zhan left for B City, Zheng Yimian bombarded her with messages.
The general idea was, “I’ve already transferred five lucky koi for you, you’ll definitely meet Gu Yulin and get me an autograph.”
As she got onto the school bus, she glanced at the medical university through the trees lining the road.
Someone joked with her, “Can’t bear to leave your boyfriend, huh?”
It’s strange, Lin Zhan thought. Even after several months, she still felt like there were endless things to talk about and endless wonderful times to spend together.
The bus traveled for almost a day, letting them eat lunch nearby, and then resuming the journey.
Lin Zhan put in an earphone and leaned against the window, dozing off.
It had become a habit; she and Shen Xi each used one earphone, so now she only listened to music with one ear.
They arrived at the hotel in the evening. She and Sun Qiqi were assigned to the same room.
She took her phone into the bathroom to shower, playing music while she washed. When she came out, she said, “I’m done showering, are you going to?”
Sun Qiqi nodded, took her clothes, and went in.
Lin Zhan opened her phone and saw a message from Zheng Yimian.
[I recently discovered a new skill.]
Lin Zhan: [What?]
Zheng Yimian: [WeChat’s new feature. If you send “I miss you,” stars fall down.]
Sure enough, as soon as Zheng Yimian sent that message, countless stars began to fall across the screen.
She then sent Lin Zhan a screenshot, likely of an experiment someone had done.
Girl: [Have you ever seen a star with four corners?]
Boy: [No.]
Girl: [I miss you.]
Boy: [Then do you know how to make it a three-cornered star?]
Girl: [?]
Boy: [By breaking off a corner with me.]
Lin Zhan sent Zheng Yimian: [That’s pretty cool, I’m gonna use it on Shen Xi, hahaha.]
She opened Shen Xi’s chat box: [Have you ever seen a star with four corners?]
Shen Xi: [Arrived at the hotel?]
Lin Zhan persisted: [Mm. You still haven’t answered my question!]
Shen Xi: [Stars in real life have countless corners; they are irregular shapes, so there’s no such thing as a four-cornered star.]
Lin Zhan: [I miss you.]
A torrent of stars scrolled across the screen.
Lin Zhan: [See? A miracle born of love.]
Lin Zhan recalled the example she had just seen in the image: [Then do you know how to make it a three-cornered star?]
Shen Xi: [How?]
Lin Zhan: [By breaking off a corner with me.]
By sleeping with me.
:)
Silence on the other end for a long time. After a while, Shen Xi asked her.
[If you break off a corner, wouldn’t it become a five-pointed star?]
Lin Zhan: ...
?? Just because your math is good and you write a lot of Olympiad problems??
She sent the image to Zheng Yimian: [I just want to ask, is there any need to rescue this kind of rigid straight man???]
After teasing her, Shen Xi decided not to bother her anymore and called her.
Lin Zhan found her earphones and put them on.
“What, not doing your Olympiad math problems anymore?” Lin Zhan said, pouting.
Shen Xi laughed on the other end: “Not anymore.”
Lin Zhan gritted her teeth: “Are you showing off your intellect to me?”
“No.”
Lin Zhan: “Are you...”
“I miss you too,” he said.
This sentence came so unexpectedly, Lin Zhan didn’t know how to respond.
Shen Xi had always been reluctant to say such things, often like squeezing toothpaste; that last bit only came out if you pressed hard.
She cleared her throat and said, “Oh, what does your missing me have to do with me?”
Silence on the other end. Lin Zhan asked, “Why aren’t you talking?”
Shen Xi: “I want to hear you talk.”
“It costs money to hear me talk,” Lin Zhan quickly said, “Three mao per word, a sentence with over ten words would be thirty, let’s say.”
“What about singing a song?”
“Fifty thousand.”
Shen Xi laughed on the other end: “Are you a profiteer?”
Lin Zhan “tsk”ed: “Honest business, entirely voluntary.”
Seeing that Sun Qiqi was about to sleep, Lin Zhan whispered to Shen Xi, “The girl I’m sharing a room with is about to sleep. I’ll hang up now, okay?”
“Mm, good night.”
“Good night.”
After hanging up, Lin Zhan pulled up the covers, lay down, and dimmed the room lights.
Lin Zhan asked her, “Do you still need the light on? If not, I’ll turn it off.”
Sun Qiqi shook her head: “I don’t need it anymore.”
Lin Zhan nodded and said, “Okay, then I’ll turn it off.”
After turning off the light, Sun Qiqi asked, “Were you on the phone with your boyfriend?”
Lin Zhan hummed in response.
After a brief exchange, both of them fell asleep.
________________________________________
The next day was the semi-finals. Coincidentally, for a broad topic, Lin Zhan and Sun Qiqi had similar ideas again.
Sun Qiqi submitted her paper first and left. Lin Zhan finished her painting, submitted her work, and as she exited the examination hall, Sun Qiqi happened to be standing at the school gate.
That figure was a bit familiar.
Lin Zhan walked along, thinking, but couldn’t recall where she had seen this person before.
When she reached the hotel entrance, in that flash of lightning, she remembered.
She and this person had, it seemed, met once when they first entered school.
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