#59: Halloween

Shen Xi actually didn’t move, just let her cover his eyes.

He reached out, his warm palm covering her hand.

He compliantly chuckled: “Okay.”

Lin Zhan looked at everyone and murmured, “I don’t know what’s so great about it...”

Shen Xi didn’t argue, just laughed along with her: “Mm, it’s not good-looking.”

“Forget it,” Lin Zhan lowered her hand, “You can’t block it forever; what’s meant to be seen will be seen.”

Although she said this, after lowering her hand, Lin Zhan still fixed her gaze on Shen Xi.

He looked at her sideways and asked, “Why not block it forever?”

“Huh?”

Lin Zhan was speechless, not expecting him to ask that.

Shen Xi lowered his brows: “You can block it forever; I’m willing.”

After a long pause, Lin Zhan lowered her head and touched a blue light with the tip of her shoe, “Then I’ll reluctantly agree.”

The entire club was noisy, filled with clamoring voices and screams, all the joyful and unrestrained souls releasing themselves on the dance floor.

It was strange, those things seemed to have nothing to do with her.

As long as she stood by his side, she seemed to never get lost in the dazzling lights, nor would she be bewildered when walking alone.

*This century is insane, inhumane, and *. But you have always been sober, gentle, and unstained.

She thought of what Sagan had said.

________________________________________

The event lasted a long time, but Lin Zhan and Shen Xi didn’t stay too long.

They retreated from the swimming pool, and Lin Zhan said, “Let’s take another stroll through the long corridor, then we’ll leave.”

When they reached the long corridor, they surprisingly ran into Sun Qiqi again.

At that moment, Lin Zhan didn’t know what Sun Qiqi had just finished photographing, but when Lin Zhan saw her, she happened to turn off her SLR camera.

Sun Qiqi stood in a blind spot, and the excessive darkness made it impossible for Lin Zhan to clearly see her expression or movements.

Lin Zhan tried hard to see, but regrettably, what she captured was still a large blob of unfocused darkness.

Shen Xi lowered his head and asked her, “Why aren’t you moving?”

Lin Zhan paused, then said, “Oh, I’m going now.”

She was in the light.

People in the light were never afraid of the dark.

There were intricate relief carvings on the walls of the long corridor. Lin Zhan, arm in arm with Shen Xi, walked out of the corridor.

The corridor led directly to the hotel.

Suddenly transitioning from a retro style to a magnificent one, it took Lin Zhan a few seconds to adapt. Immediately after, she realized that this event was indeed very meaningful.

Many single men and women hit it off instantly, forming long queues at the front desk lobby.

Tonight’s revenue here would surely be good.

The night breeze outside was much more comfortable than the air conditioning.

They strolled along the embankment. Lin Zhan twirled her phone in her hand, and unexpectedly, received a few notification sounds.

They were Weibo direct messages.

[Hello, we are XX studio. We happened to see your work at an event today. Our boss liked it very much. Do you have any other works available for decoration or exhibition?]

She had changed her Weibo name to Lin Zhan and also posted some award-winning works. Now, it seemed someone had found her through this.

Quite fast.

“What?” Shen Xi, seeing her so engrossed, asked her.

“A commission,” Lin Zhan said while replying to the message. “I got a direct message so quickly, everyone reacts fast.”

Although she didn’t know where this person had seen her work, here or in an art collection or public account?

Lin Zhan casually asked, and ten minutes later, the editor on the other side replied: “We saw it at an event just now, but before that, we also saw your work elsewhere.”

Lin Zhan chatted with them for a couple of minutes, then put down her phone and asked Shen Xi, “Is there any place you particularly want to travel to?”

Shen Xi looked at her steadily: “Why are you suddenly asking that?”

“To thank you,” Lin Zhan said, “For the previous art exhibition and this event, you put in a lot of effort. I didn’t do much, so I feel a bit embarrassed.”

“Who said you didn’t do anything?” Shen Xi frowned slightly. “You just need to be by my side.”

Lin Zhan smiled: “Your demands are so low?”

After a moment, Shen Xi stopped, his tone very serious.

“Don’t always calculate so precisely when I’ve given how much.”

Lin Zhan was stunned.

“I don’t do these things for your gratitude, and I don’t want your gratitude at all.”

The word “gratitude” felt too distant.

True love doesn’t calculate gains and losses.

Shen Xi looked into her eyes and softly asked.

“Your right hand paints with you every day, do you have to thank it every day too?”

If you wish, I can be any part of you.

Your classmate, your best friend, your boyfriend, your... family.

Even your right-hand man, your eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.

Because I love you.

________________________________________

Soon after returning to school, a series of activities began to be prepared in quick succession.

In the second half of the sophomore year, a very large joint art exhibition was going to be held here.

But the school only offered one spot.

When the teacher found them, they were also a little troubled.

After much deliberation, the school teachers decided that any selection would appear biased, and since there hadn’t been any competitions recently, this time, they handed the right to choose to the students.

That night, the school’s official WeChat account launched a poll, with more than ten options including Lin Zhan and Sun Qiqi. The one with the highest votes would get the spot.

Voting closed after fifteen days.

All the forces within the school mobilized, and what they could provide was only that many votes.

After the campus voting was basically complete, everyone turned their attention to other areas.

Soon after, the event that had contacted Lin Zhan on Weibo was about to begin.

Lin Zhan’s original plan was to take advantage of the large crowd at that event to ask everyone to vote for her on the spot, and then distribute some small gifts, killing two birds with one stone.

Plus, that event also promised her a decent income.

That night, the person in charge asked her: [Have you finished the painting we discussed?]

Lin Zhan: [Not yet, I just did a rough sketch. Didn’t you say it would be fine if I finished it the day after tomorrow?]

Person in charge: [That’s the thing. Since you only did a rough sketch, we won’t waste your time.]

Lin Zhan: [?]

The person on the other end gave a vague, non-committal answer: [We’re really sorry, our original partner suddenly changed their mind and decided to collaborate with us again. We also signed an agreement with them, so we have no choice but to give up on your side. We really liked your painting, and if you don’t mind, we can cooperate next time. We’re truly sorry for this time.]

Lin Zhan stared at the computer, not knowing what to reply for a long time. The words she typed into the dialogue box were then deleted one by one. After a minute of this clatter, Luoluo asked her, “Zhanzhan, what are you doing?”

Lin Zhan rubbed her hair and said, “Didn’t I tell you guys that there was an event for Halloween that wanted to collaborate with me? Now they’re saying their original partner suddenly changed their mind or something, meaning they don’t want my painting this time, they want someone else’s.”

“What does that mean?” Luoluo flared up, “How can they suddenly back out? Did you give them the painting?”

Lin Zhan: “I haven’t painted it yet, just made a rough sketch.”

She hadn’t even started working on this event, so there wasn’t really any loss.

It was just difficult to accept that a confirmed plan had suddenly changed.

“Maybe they suddenly found a cheaper artist?” the dorm leader offered another hypothesis, “Did they find someone cheaper and now don’t want yours?”

“That’s possible.”

Lin Zhan: “But they were the ones who gave me the price.”

Dorm leader: “How about this, we’ll go to the event later and see who they switched to. We won’t do anything, just see who replaced you. If the painting is really good, then we won’t be angry, but if it’s not as good as yours, that would be annoying.”

On the day of the Halloween event, Lin Zhan didn’t dwell on it much.

After all, it wasn’t a big deal, and her ability to self-regulate was quite strong. As long as no one pushed her like Lin Zhengping did, she wouldn’t get bogged down in negativity.

Since it was a holiday, they naturally dressed up for the occasion.

The entire dorm consisted of art students, so they were quite serious about their Halloween makeup.

Lin Zhan drew a few wounds on herself, which was rather subtle. Luoluo was even more terrifying, painting half her face directly.

The moment she turned her head, Lin Zhan’s heart skipped a beat from fright.

Dorm leader: “Luoluo, are you planning to go out and terrorize society today?!”

Youngest: “I was just so scared my eyeliner almost went crooked, okay? Luoluo just wants to show off how good she is.”

Lin Zhan looked at herself in the mirror and decided to scare Shen Xi later.

After thinking about it, she drew another wound on her hand.

After all this fuss, more than three hours had passed.

They tidied up and set off.

The Halloween activities here were similar to those at Happy Valley, with similar attractions.

Originally, the person in charge here wanted Lin Zhan’s paintings, but after discussions, they decided to have Lin Zhan draw a poster for them.

Now, the poster displayed at the main entrance was almost identical to the sketch Lin Zhan had drawn this morning.

Luoluo noticed it too.

“Did you show them the sketch? Why does this drawing look so much like yours?”

Lin Zhan pondered, “I was wondering the same thing, because I didn’t give out the sketch at the time...”

Luoluo: “Right? I remember you didn’t give it out. But what’s going on? How could they have the same drawing without seeing it? Did you send it to anyone else to see at that time?”

Lin Zhan shook her head: “No, I just drew it at school then, who would I send it to? You saw it too, I just casually did it during class...”

Both of them were stunned.

The sketch was drawn by Lin Zhan when she was bored during an integrity class. If anyone had seen it, it would have been her classmates who were also in the class.

The problem was, how would a classmate from class be connected to this outside event?

“Who drew this picture?” Luoluo said, “It couldn’t really be someone from our school, could it?”

This city is only so big. If they really wanted to find an art student to draw, Weida University would definitely be the first choice.

Luoluo searched the corners, attempting to find a signature or something similar.

Unfortunately, she found nothing.

“Forget it, if we can’t find it, it’s fine,” Lin Zhan pulled her, “Let’s go in and see first. I’m meeting Shen Xi in the park.”

The main purpose of coming this time was to check on the painting, but it was okay if they couldn’t figure it out. The main thing was to enjoy the holiday.

Along the way, Lin Zhan and her friends had almost a hundred percent回头率 (return rate, meaning people turning their heads to look).

Although most people wore Halloween makeup for the occasion, overall, their makeup was better.

Moreover, the highly skilled Luoluo even used visual effects to make her neck look like it had been cut...

After buying blood-red drinks in the park, Luoluo posed next to a skeleton, and Lin Zhan squatted down to take her picture.

After taking the picture, it really looked a bit eerie and terrifying...

Two little girls along the way ran up to Luoluo and asked, “Can I take a picture with you?”

Luoluo showed a mouthful of white teeth and said, “Sure.”

After taking the photo, Luoluo noticed the flyers in their hands.

Luoluo asked, “What do you have in your hands?”

One of the little girls shook the flyer in her hand: “A flyer. The staff just handed it out, saying there’s an event on the back. People who vote can go to Exit C for a lucky draw.”

“An event? What kind of event?”

“It’s just to vote for contestant number 5 on WeChat. You can use a screenshot to enter the lucky draw.”

The poster on the flyer was the one they had seen at the entrance when they came in.

On one side, in a cute rounded font, it read: If you like my painting, please vote for me! There are prizes for voting!

Luoluo took the flyer, scanned the QR code with her phone, and let out a gasp when the page loaded.

She quickly tugged Lin Zhan: “Look! This poll is from our school!”

Lin Zhan turned her head and saw that it was indeed.

Number five was...

“Sun Qiqi?” Luoluo said, “Why is it her again?”

Lin Zhan’s head ached.

Luoluo: “Come on, let’s go to the exit and see if Sun Qiqi is in charge. If it really is her painting, then I really have nothing to say.”

The two went to Exit C. They didn’t even need to get close to the prize redemption table to confirm that the person was indeed Sun Qiqi.

“Oh my god,” Luoluo put her hands on her hips, “It really is her?!”

As she spoke, the dorm leader arrived with the youngest girl.

The youngest girl had a bright red ice cream cone in her hand, but her emotions were very excited: “I just found out that this painting was done by Sun Qiqi!”

Dorm leader: “Not only that, Sun Qiqi even fought for this spot herself. I heard a person responsible for distributing flyers gossiping with someone nearby, saying that she volunteered, claiming she wouldn’t take a single penny, and then snagged this project. Anyway, her point was that she didn’t want any money from here, just a spot to scan QR codes, and she even provided the prizes herself.”

...

“She’s always vying for things,” the youngest said, “Don’t you know about the gossip? There was an upperclassman who had a girlfriend, but Sun Qiqi took a liking to him and stole him away when he was arguing with his girlfriend.”

“And now she’s constantly flaunting their affection on her social media.”

Luoluo: “Maybe she thinks you should grab an opportunity when you see it, no matter if that piece of meat is already in someone else’s mouth.”

Everyone saw Lin Zhan didn’t speak and quickly consoled her.

Luoluo: “Don’t just look at your phone. If you’re unhappy, let it out.”

Dorm leader: “Still scrolling Weibo? What are you looking at?”

“Posting on Weibo,” Lin Zhan swayed her bright phone in her hand, “She has people scanning her code here, and I have Weibo followers I can use too.”

An account with nearly ten thousand followers, not to mention how many active fans, she had several verified big-V friends.

Since Sun Qiqi went to such lengths to fight for it, then out of respect, Lin Zhan should also have a good competition with her.

If it couldn’t be avoided, then a head-on confrontation it would be.

Openly and brightly, in this manner.