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—Once, during an exhibition of excellent works, Lin Zhan was ranked first, and Sun Qiqi was second, standing right next to her.
And that time, although Sun Qiqi was second, there seemed to be a problem with her painting. The teacher praised everyone from first to eighth place, but specifically criticized the second-place painting for being opportunistic.
Sun Qiqi was a bit unconvinced at the time, and when she left, she quietly said that she thought the praised paintings weren’t that good...
Lin Zhan didn’t pay too much attention to it; anyway, the competition was almost over.
Lin Zhan wandered around outside, hoping to run into some celebrities.
After all, she still remembered Zheng Yimian’s instructions.
She went into a convenience store and bought a bottle of strawberry yogurt. As Lin Zhan leaned against the shelf and drank it, she looked up and saw an advertisement for Gu Yulin.
Lin Zhan opened Zheng Yimian’s chat box.
[I saw Gu Yulin!!]
Zheng Yimian: [WTF really where!! I want photos!!]
Lin Zhan sent her a picture of Gu Yulin’s advertisement: [See? He’s married, has kids, and is already advertising high-end baby products. Wake up.]
Zheng Yimian: [???]
Lin Zhan: [But I just saw a really beautiful wife.]
Zheng Yimian: [Who? Jiang Xiaoran?]
Lin Zhan sent a selfie of herself: [Shen Xi’s wife.]
Zheng Yimian: [Stop talking to me already, you’re going to make me die of anger.]
Lin Zhan asked: [Have you run into Liang Yu recently?]
Zheng Yimian: [Ran into him twice.]
Lin Zhan was about to ask something else when a call interrupted her.
It was actually Shen Xi calling.
Lin Zhan: “Hello, husband?”
Shen Xi froze for a moment: “...What?”
The shop assistant gave her a look that said “already married at such a young age,” and only then did Lin Zhan realize what nonsense she had just uttered. After realizing it, she almost bit off her own tongue.
“Ptooey ptooey ptooey, I’m sorry, my brain cramped just now,” Lin Zhan nearly spilled the yogurt in her hand from shaking, “I was watching a TV show just now and didn’t realize what I was saying.”
It took Shen Xi a long while to clear his throat and whisper, “I’m here now. Where are you?”
“Where are you?”
“At your hotel entrance.”
Lin Zhan shifted her weight off the shelf and said, “How did you get here too?!”
“I wanted to stroke your head, so I came.”
Lin Zhan walked out of the convenience store, looked around, and easily found the person at the entrance.
Her heart was clearly soaring with joy, yet she was still being stubborn.
She lifted her chin proudly.
“You have to pay to touch me too.”
Shen Xi choked, but quickly adapted to her quirky impropriety and said, “What’s the price?”
Lin Zhan touched her chin: “Three yuan for a small stroke, five yuan for a big stroke.”
As she spoke, she had already walked in front of him and hung up the phone.
Shen Xi listened to her price list and said nothing.
Lin Zhan thought that perhaps the matter was simply dismissed.
Her phone chimed with a notification sound. She took out her phone and saw it was a red packet from Shen Xi.
A red packet?
Shen Xi, transferred, two thousand.
He earnestly asked her, “Can I get a deluxe travel package?”
She enthusiastically flirted, and he subtly returned the gesture.
Lin Zhan was silent for a moment, momentarily speechless. After a while, she pouted: “No, I refuse you.”
________________________________________
Lin Zhan brought Shen Xi back to her room, still asking him as they went upstairs, “Why did you suddenly come?”
“Came here to attend some discussion meeting,” Shen Xi replied, “Came to find you after it finished.”
“Ah... but I just finished the semi-finals, and there’s still the final.”
“When’s the final?”
Lin Zhan swiped her card to open the door, and the door jingled.
“Four days from now. Anyway, I still have a week before I can go back.”
Shen Xi spoke lightly, as if stating a perfectly ordinary thing.
“Then I’ll accompany you.”
“Accompany me?” Lin Zhan looked back at him, slightly incredulous, “You’re not going to class?”
“I was originally supposed to go back the day after tomorrow. These two days I can play around here, and it happens to be a weekend,” Shen Xi leaned against the wall and asked her, “Is there anywhere you really want to go?”
“So we’re here on a vacation?” Lin Zhan smiled, tidying the skincare products on the table. “But I don’t have as much free time as you. I’m quite busy.”
He said without hesitation, “Then I’ll wait until you’re done.”
Lin Zhan looked at him: “Then what will you do when I’m busy? Won’t you be very bored?”
“Not bored,” Shen Xi said, “I can accompany you.”
“You’re very much like a cat Zheng Yimian used to feed, you know,” Lin Zhan said, arms crossed, looking down and smiling. “When she first met it, it was incredibly aloof, wouldn’t let anyone touch it, wouldn’t eat anything given to it, as noble as if it looked down on all living things. But once it got familiar, it liked to stay with you, wanted you to scratch its chin, sit on your lap, lie at your feet, wanting to be with you every single minute.”
Shen Xi was about to say something, but Lin Zhan understandingly reached out and pressed down, interrupting him: “I know, it’s all because I’m too charming.”
“...”
“Why don’t you ask Zhang Ze if there’s anything fun nearby? Anyway, I saw he used to love making travel plans... like stargazing or something...”
Shen Xi was silent for a while, then said, “It’s fine, I can find something.”
“Not bad, you’ve made progress,” Lin Zhan smiled at him. “Alright, don’t stay here too long. My roommate will be back soon, I’ll go down and get you another room.”
After getting a separate room for Shen Xi, Lin Zhan received a message from a friend, saying that Sun Qiqi, this time again, had painted something with a similar idea to hers.
This didn’t matter much. After all, similar ideas were inevitable, and Sun Qiqi’s fundamental skills weren’t as solid as hers, so she hadn’t really taken it to heart.
The result of that semi-final was within her expectation: she ranked higher, with Sun Qiqi closely behind.
The day before the final, her friend messaged Lin Zhan: “Does she think you’re a big threat to her? Could she have been the one who tore up your painting?”
Lin Zhan thought for a moment, then frowned, “I don’t think so. Don’t think so terribly.”
“No, this competition is quite important... And I heard there’s a hidden rule for this competition, which is that among the top 20 excellent works, the ones that win awards in the finals aren’t from the same school—meaning essentially only one person from each school can be selected. And there’s prize money for being selected, you know?”
“Don’t overthink it,” Lin Zhan composed herself, “I’ve never heard of that, and she might not know either.”
“Better safe than sorry. Keep an eye on her.”
That night, Sun Qiqi didn’t seem out of the ordinary either. Lin Zhan, as usual, talked on the phone with Shen Xi for a while, planning to hang up by ten.
Lin Zhan lay down, adjusted her earphones, and then heard Shen Xi say, “Shall I read you a poem? I recently read one...”
“Come on!” Lin Zhan lay flat, spread out like a starfish, “Don’t pity me just because I’m a delicate flower!”
“...”
She leaned against the wall, chuckling stifledly.
Closing her eyes, Shen Xi began to recite.
“To the Oak Tree,” by Shu Ting.
If I love you—
I will never be a clinging trumpet vine,
Boasting myself by your tall branches.
If I love you—
I will never be a foolish bird,
Repeating monotonous songs for your green shade;
Nor merely a spring,
Bringing constant cool solace through the years...
Lin Zhan leaned against the wall, listening to his voice, but her mind was thinking:
If you love me—you are the dream that appears when I close my eyes, staying with me, minute by minute, until dawn.
...
She woke up early the next morning. Sun Qiqi was up before her. When Lin Zhan got up, Sun Qiqi was already ready to leave.
On the day of the semi-finals, Lin Zhan had woken up quite early and called Sun Qiqi. In a similar situation, Sun Qiqi didn’t call her.
She rubbed her temples, wondering why, despite setting an alarm, she was still woken by Shen Xi’s call.
Without time to think further, she packed her art supplies and headed to the examination hall.
This round’s exam question was: Reluctant Farewell.
It required depicting farewell through the painting, and also conveying reluctance—which was a bit difficult.
Lin Zhan had originally planned to paint a farewell scene in the snow, and had already laid down the large color blocks. Snow would represent steadfast affection and set the atmosphere, while the back view would depict the parting.
Unexpectedly, glancing sideways, she saw that Sun Qiqi was actually painting the same thing.
Lin Zhan turned her head, leaned down to wash her brush, and the moment she looked up, she saw Sun Qiqi stand up from her seat with her brush in hand.
Sun Qiqi looked like she was going to change the water.
As she passed by Lin Zhan, a few drops of water dripped from the side of the bucket.
Lin Zhan never in a million years expected it, watching helplessly as a few drops of blue-gray liquid landed amidst the vast white snow.
She was painting with gouache.
Light colors cannot cover dark colors.
Almost instantly, many fragmented scenes flashed through her mind—
Her alarm clock, which she had definitely set this morning, hadn’t gone off.
Sun Qiqi’s somewhat evasive gaze when she woke up this morning.
Just now, the moment Sun Qiqi stood up, she had deliberately tilted the water bucket this way...
Lin Zhan composed herself, forcing herself not to dwell on this premeditated act. After all, this was a timed exam, and the most important thing was—what to do next.
How could a stained painting be salvaged?
She took a deep breath, suppressing the discomfort and nausea in her heart, making herself calm down as quickly as possible.
Sun Qiqi wanted to disrupt her pace, so she absolutely could not be disrupted.
On the contrary, she had to win.
Lin Zhan washed her brush, looked up at the time, forty-five minutes left.
After calculating, she looked down at the painting. Amidst the pure white, those few drops of blue-gray were particularly unsightly.
Lin Zhan’s right thumb tip pressed against the pad of her index finger, rubbing them together, deep in thought.
What could this blue-gray be transformed into...?
Dead branches? Leaves? Pebbles?
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration—
She had it.
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