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墨書 Inktalez
Qinglan stood on the other side of the road, holding a pile of items in her arms and an umbrella, gazing at him through the light rain.
It had been a long time since they had looked at each other like this, and even longer since they had deliberately distanced themselves from one another. As they locked eyes again, Qinglan felt as if they had not reunited for a century.
The wind lifted the slightly curled hair on his forehead. He wore a short-sleeved shirt with light gray stripes tucked into his pants, his brows furrowed deeply. There was a sense of weariness in his eyes that was more pronounced than before, and in the humid, steamy rain, he exuded an air of desolation. Despite only being separated by a road, it felt as though there were miles between them.
After waiting for a moment and seeing that he wasn't doing anything, Qinglan was about to turn away when he called out to her from behind, “Qinglan.”
In a daze, he had already crossed the street and stood before her, his eyes fixed intently on her. “You haven't eaten yet, have you?” he asked.
Seeing her lonely figure earlier had stirred feelings of pity within him, causing his heart to ache subtly.
In recent days, he had vaguely heard from school that An Shaojie was going abroad. During the internship allocation and final exams, he had paid special attention to An Shaojie, and indeed he did not see An Shaojie participating in the exams. His name had changed from being uniformly allocated to independent internship in the allocation list. However, while other students had filled in their independent internship units, An Shaojie's column remained empty.
Yet it seemed that no one in the class had heard this news. Initially, Xu Wen was uncertain about it too and thought it was just a rumor; otherwise, how could no one know about it? Later, during a dinner at home, he subtly asked his mother about An Shaojie's situation and learned that he had indeed completed the procedures to go abroad. He had done so the day before the exams with the help of someone very wealthy; otherwise, it would not have been possible to arrange everything in such a short time.
At that time, his mother even asked Xu Wen, saying that weren't they from a rural background? How could they have such wealthy relatives? Xu Wen was left speechless; he had never heard of any wealthy relatives in their family. However, this situation was easy to understand; An Shaojie had always been low-key and solitary. Given his personality, even if there were wealthy relatives in his family, it was unlikely he would mention it to others.
Still, if even Qinglan didn't know about it, that would be rather strange.
“Hmm.” Qinglan lowered her eyelids, unable to meet Xu Wen's gaze directly.
“Let me take some of that,” he said as he reached out and took all the items from Qinglan's arms.
For some reason, Qinglan subconsciously pulled the items closer to her chest, displaying a hint of defiance. Indeed, since he hadn't cared for her in a long time, why show up now to see her in such a lonely and desolate state?
"Not like it's something precious, are you really that reluctant to give it to me?" He smiled lightly, stared at her, and then took all the items from her hands.
"Let's go eat." His tone was assertive and brooked no argument, even a bit domineering. After saying this, he walked ahead without waiting for her.
The drizzling rain had eased somewhat, and the sun relentlessly broke through the dissipating clouds, casting its light on the ground. Even as dusk approached, the afterglow remained brilliant. The orange glow after the rain illuminated his tall figure, giving the impression of someone walking toward the horizon from a distant place. The French Sycamore trees lining the road filtered the light into a mottled golden pattern on the ground. The heat from the pavement began to rise slowly, creating a humid mist in the air. His silhouette moved closer through the glow and then emerged from the mist, stepping back into the light.
Watching his dreamlike tall figure ahead, Qinglan felt a pang in her nose; her umbrella slipped from overhead and fell at her feet. She let it rest there against the ground and slowly followed him with a sense of weariness.
He never looked back, as if he was certain she would follow him.
After having a simple meal at a small restaurant near the school, Xu Wen looked at the passing cars and crowds outside and asked, "Are we going to your rented place?"
"Yes." Qinglan nodded softly in response.
Xu Wen waved his hand, and a taxi stopped in front of them.
"To the neighborhood," he told the driver once they were inside.
"How did you know my rented place was there?" Qinglan asked curiously, widening her eyes at him. She didn't recall telling him where it was; he had never been there before, and he hadn't taken her there that night.
He leaned back against the seat, staring at the ceiling of the car without saying a word. There was an air of coldness about him that contrasted with his usual friendly demeanor. Noticing his silence made Qinglan feel awkward; she cleared her throat gently and straightened up.
"I have been deeply studying the Book of Changes and Celestial Phenomena at home these past few days," he suddenly said in a low voice.
"The Book of Changes and Celestial Phenomena?" Qinglan leaned back in her chair, looking down at Xu Wen with curiosity. "Why are you studying that?"
He remained leaning against the back of the chair, turning his face to look at her seriously. Qinglan felt tense under his serious gaze, unable to meet his eyes. Her gaze wandered for a moment before she couldn't help but return to his face. He was still looking at her, but the serious expression had vanished, replaced by a light smile at the corners of his eyes and mouth.
"I'm doing it so I can tell fortunes in the future," he said lightly.
"Fortune-telling?" Qinglan was even more surprised. "You tell fortunes? You want to learn how to tell fortunes?" Her eyes widened even more.
He smiled, tilting his head to look out the window. "What if I don't learn how to tell fortunes?" He continued to gaze outside. "For someone like you, who could easily find herself in trouble at any moment, if I can't tell fortunes, how would I know when to appear before you? In what way? At which location? All of this needs to be calculated so that I can show up on time and not let you feel lonely all the time."
Initially, after seeing him smile, a smile had appeared on Qinglan's face as well. However, after hearing what he said, her smile slowly faded, and she felt a lump in her throat that made her want to cry.
He seemed to sense her discomfort and turned his head to ask, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," she replied, this time turning her face away to look out the window, afraid he would see her reddened eyes. "I was just sleeping at home when suddenly I calculated that you would appear at the intersection in front of the cafeteria, so I came to check it out. Hey, and there you were! If I hadn't shown up in time, what would you have done with all those things in the rain while holding an umbrella? How would you have gotten them back to your rented place?" He said with a gentle smile.
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