Unrequited Love

Luo Zhi sat in the corner of a coffee shop on the first floor of a commercial building, yawning while waiting for Luoyang, who was still working overtime on Saturday. She ordered a cup of white chocolate mocha, then sat at the table with her cheeks, wiped off the cream with a spoon, smiling from time to time.

I don't know what I'm laughing at.

It was already seven in the morning when she returned to the dormitory that day. When I took a taxi back to school, I passed by McDonald's. Sheng Huainan asked her to wait in the car. After a few minutes, he walked out with two cups of hot drinks and a paper bag, and handed it to her, "Is it frozen?"

She thought, putting the coffee cup on her cheek as it was then, as if she could still feel the temperature of that morning.

When she opened the door of the dormitory, Jiang Baili didn't sleep. She sat on the upper bunk like a queen, watching the sentient beings, and the moment Luo Zhi cautiously stepped into the room, she smiled treacherously.

Luo Zhi knew that she had postponed the agreement on Haidilao in the previous nights because she went out with Gobi; and after she escaped from "Candy", Gu Zhiye accompanied her until late at night. Although there was no promise, it was ambiguous enough. .

"Congratulations," Luo Zhi spit out his mouthwash, and looked up at the queen bathing in the morning light. "I was crying and crying a few days ago, and now I am in a dilemma between the two handsome guys. It's been thirty years in Hedong, thirty years Hexi."

Belle smiled, but there was a hint of helplessness behind the vanity and shyness of ordinary girls.

When Luo Zhi got into the bed and fell asleep in a daze, he suddenly heard Jiang Baili's hoarse voice coming from the upper bunk.

"Last night, when we were in the private room, Gobi also sang with a group of Chen Mohan's college classmates. I guess he must still sing so well, which must make Chen Mohan a face in front of his classmates."

Luo Zhi sighed in Qing Qian's dream.

"Before Gu Zhiye sang that song, I suddenly received a text message from him. He said that he still remembered the first time I went to KTV with me and ordered a song "Exclusive Memory". He wanted to sing this song. Okay, terribly frighten me this stuffed bun, haha."

Belle laughed dryly, and then said slowly: "He said it was a pity afterwards. I don’t know why he became fascinated by the crazy high pitch, the difficulty of the show, and singing niche rock, but he forgot to give it seriously. I feel like singing a saliva song."

"Sorry, I finally sent all the materials. The more busy the year before the new year, the three students who came to the internship were more useless than the other. If you can't explain things well, you know you just sit there and browse the web and hang up QQ."

Luoyang, wearing a black down jacket, ran over from a distance and sat across from Luo Zhi.

"Don't interns often rush to work?" Luo Zhi was a little confused.

"These people in our department didn't come in through the normal recruitment process. They were all the children of relatives or friends of the supervisor. They came here to work just to open an internship certificate. They will look good on their resumes in the future."

Luo Zhi nodded: "Where to eat? I blackmailed this meal accidentally."

Luoyang smiled, his expression a bit awkward and helpless: "What do you want to eat?"

Luo Zhi raised his head and thought for a while: "I heard that there are oyster fried in Nanluoguxiang, what do you think?"

In winter, Nanluogu Alley is a bit deserted, and many specialty shops on both sides of the alley closed early. Luo Zhi turned from the fork in the road, hurriedly ran to a wooden door and pushed it aside, then let out a relaxed breath: "Oh, fortunately, it's not closing."

The shop is very small, with only three stone tables. It looks like a small living room has been set up for business. There are many canned beverages made in Taiwan in the freezer. When ordering, Luoyang carried a can of tender green beverage and asked Luo Zhi bitterly: "This guava...is it the guava of'Banana You Guava'... …"

Luo Zhi was amused by his tongue twister and nodded: "It seems to be."

The food is served quickly. Luo Zhi did not eat at noon, and kept lowering his head to attack the tender oyster fried, and did not notice that Luoyang hadn't moved his chopsticks for a long time. She finally finished eating and drank a sip of carambola juice, only to find that the cold noodles in front of Luoyang were almost full.

"You hungry?"

"I'm not hungry, I had a work meal for two at noon."

"Give it to me, I'm not full."

Luoyang smiled, pushed the plate to her, leaning on the bookshelf next to the stone table and closing his eyes to rest. After a long time, he opened his eyes and saw that the fried oysters, cold noodles, onion rings, and squid rings on the table were swept away, leaving only a little residue.

"full?"

"Well," Luo Zhi lowered his head and wiped his mouth with facial tissue, "a little bit of support."

"Anything pleased? I think you look good."

Luo Zhi smiled, narrowed his eyes and did not answer.

Then there was a longer silence. The owner and the waiter were chatting in another room behind the door. In some cold cabins, only the two of them sat relatively silently, staring at the plate in front of them.

"Has the ticket been booked?" Luoyang still broke the silence.

"Tomorrow, go directly to the train station to try your luck. There are no sleeping berths near the school."

"I can only go home on the first day of the Lunar New Year. I booked a ticket last month. If you can't buy a ticket tomorrow, please call me quickly and I will help you contact the agent used by our company. Let's go back by plane."

Luo Zhi nodded, tilted his head and smiled suddenly.

"Laughing?"

"No," she shook her head with a smile, like a kind-hearted little fox, "this atmosphere...there is nothing to say, I'll go back to school. If people have short mouths, let them be soft, I will close my mouth."

Luoyang was a little bit ridiculous: "Then what did you want to ask?"

"The'she' you mentioned on the phone at that time." Luo Zhi simply looked at him directly, not talking about him. Luoyang still laughed, his laughter diminished, and finally looked at the chandelier on the ceiling in a daze.

In the morning when he was in the printing room to sign and rush to produce the materials, he smelled the strange smell unique to the photocopier and suddenly felt sick and dizzy. Thinking of seeing Luo Zhi in the afternoon, the pure sister who was still on campus, looking down at her spotless leather shoes, Luoyang was a little dazed. Within five minutes of waiting for the materials to be delivered, he used the proxy IP to log in to the campus network of University of Z. After only working for half a year, the former student days seemed like a lifetime. In his opinion, the tall buildings built on BBS due to hot campus incidents are no different from the sand castles built by the children who play house.

Luoyang recovered, under the pale light, Luo Zhi's clear eyes were staring at him reluctantly.

"A little sister, I used to have a good relationship. I almost finished my freshman year. I suddenly dropped out of school for some reason. Your sister-in-law misunderstood us a little bit, but I later clarified it. It's that simple."

Luo Zhi froze for a moment, lowered his head and thought for a while, did not continue to ask, just smiled and nodded: "Forget it, I will not ask. But, brother, I hope you can cherish sister Nianci."

She herself felt that this kind of advice was numb and meaningless, but Luoyang did not laugh at her.

She said she asked him to cherish Chen Jing, but she did not dare to ask if he really loved Chen Jing as she had always thought.

"Do you still use it? Silly girl."

"Then pay the bill."

Luoyang smiled helplessly, reached out his hand to touch her head, called the waiter to check out, and while digging out his wallet, he asked, "Who were the two people at the steak shop last time? One man and one woman."

Luo Zhi was taken aback for a moment, and then touched his nose: "No one, it's all over."

Luoyang also no longer pursue it. For all the stories that are difficult to describe, they have learned not to go to the bottom, and they have no time and mood to listen to the details. In many cases, what each other needs is only the concern shown in the inquiry, so a dry brief introduction is enough.

Luoyang watched Luo Zhi disappear in front of the school before turning around and getting into the taxi waiting aside.

After working overtime for a few days, he can finally take a good rest. As soon as he opened the door of the apartment, he saw a roommate with dark circles taking out instant noodles from the kitchen, sitting in the living room and eating while watching a domestic movie on Central Six. He greeted tiredly and went back to his room, fell asleep without taking off his shirt.

He slept until eight o'clock in the morning, and he actually slept for more than 12 hours.

Moreover, I even dreamed of her.

Luoyang dreamed that Ding Shuijing finally made up her mind to turn off the phone when she received the fourth call. She had a pretty girl's smile at the corner of her mouth, but her finger firmly pressed the shutdown button. This picture lasted for a short time, just a fragment, interspersed with other chaotic dreams, it seemed very abrupt.

But when he woke up, he couldn't remember all the continuous mess, only this short moment.

The winter sun shines on the quilt, and the dust sways in the air.

At that time, Lao Tian on the podium was talking about the Trinity very enthusiastically.

"The relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit will have many different interpretations. Many contradictions and disputes have also arisen, which eventually led to a split in Christianity. We often talk about the difference between God and the East. One is the different understanding of the relationship between these three. Our discussion class will start with this topic and the religious war in a moment."

Ding Shuijing drew two people holding hands, one large and one small, on the paper. The adult spit out something like a smoke ring. She added a tail to it and wrote "Hi, holyghost" on the side. ". She was about to draw a halo on the adult's head, halfway through, the book was taken away by the teacher.

"Look, everyone, Ding Shuijing's painting fully reveals the views of the Orthodox Church."

There were kind laughs and applause below, Luoyang looked at Ding Shuijing's profile, her mouth was slightly upturned, and her eyes were full of playful triumph.

Luoyang was nestled in the warm bed and didn't want to get up, closing his eyes was as if he heard the empty laughter in the old classroom.

In almost every class, Lao Tian will use Ding Shuijing's paintings as supplementary lectures, and everyone is used to it. Medieval history is a public elective course. The lecturer Tian Xueping is the famous face of Bao Gong in the history department, so there are not many students who choose the course.

Ding Shuijing is familiar to everyone, just because in the first class, she was sitting in the middle of the first row and actually drew teacher's cartoons on the notebook. Lao Tian pulled the drawing paper away with "empty hands" and glared at her. However, Ding Shuijing just smiled faintly and asked calmly, "Teacher, do you think I painted like this?"

It is really strange in retrospect. This class has been open for many years, and the class atmosphere has been lifeless. A few students booed that day, show it. Lao Tian, ​​who had been sternly lecturing all the time, took a peek at himself and screamed. Everyone had the courage to say show it.

Sure enough, Lao Tian's windy ears, dark face, and his signature crooked smile-the smile underneath, there was applause. Lao Tian said, "If it wasn't for your paintings, I wouldn't bother to care about you. Come on, come on the stage and come from the newspaper."

"Hello everyone, my name is Ding Shuijing, and I am a freshman majoring in international law at the School of International Politics."

Lao Tian raised his eyebrows and said, "Oh, I thought the young talented girl was from the Art Academy. Don't draw so well next time, I won't notice you. Sometimes talent is also a burden."

Ding Shuijing lost consciousness for a moment, then shrugged her shoulders and said, "Thank you, teacher." Luoyang now doesn’t know what happened to him. When Ding Shuijing returned to her seat, she handed her a note from behind, which read: “Hello, I’m Luoyang from the Department of Mathematics. Behind you, get to know."

Very frivolously strike up a conversation.

At the graduate reception a year later, Luoyang stood on the stage toasting and speaking. The classmates underneath suddenly booed and asked the model couple Luoyang and Chen Jing to talk about the history of love, starting from when they first met. Luoyang didn't like the noisy scenes, the familiar and unfamiliar faces underneath made his scalp numb. But there is nothing unbearable, after all, in the eyes of others, he can't fit this lively and warm scene better.

"That's how I met." He said casually.

"It's just the same table in high school," Chen Jing answered gently from the side, "It was the first sentence I said to him in my freshman year."

"What? It turned out that my sister-in-law took the initiative. We have all misunderstood for so many years, the boss is too shameless." The youngest man in the dormitory roared.

"Do you think I am like you, is it my job to strike up a conversation with a pretty girl?"

As soon as Luoyang finished speaking, he was taken aback by everyone's laughter.

At that moment, he seemed to see Ding Shuijing turning around again, with a lazy smile on her pretty face. "Well, I hate math the most. Hello."

After saying hello to Ding Shuijing, the two of them didn't speak again. When Luoyang walked into the classroom before the medieval history class of the next week, he saw Ding Shuijing sitting in the first row and waving at him, with a generous smile on his face. So he walked over and sat with her.

There are two books on Ding Shuijing's desk, one is the textbook "A Brief History of the Middle Ages" designated by Lao Tian, ​​and the other is actually her beautiful doodle book. Ding Shuijing is not serious in attending classes, she always paints and draws on the book, sometimes Lao Tian doesn't know what touched her, she will quickly open the graffiti book and scribble for a while.

Ding Shuijing always sits in the first row, and the paintings she draws will always be discovered by Lao Tian. After being discovered, she is not afraid. She still lazily picks up Lao Tian's words below. The appearance of one old and one young, singing and harmony makes people feel very warm. Luoyang had very little knowledge about the course of medieval history in his mind, but he always remembered Ding Shuijing's frequently vibrating mobile phone. She seems to have so many friends, text messages are constant, and the crackling keystrokes are burning like winter firewood.

That day happened to be an impromptu debate in the mid-term class. Law students and history students scrambled to stand up and give generous speeches. Lao Tian also participated in the comments vigorously, as if the years went backwards and the wrinkles were relaxed. Finally, Lao Tian finally thought of Ding Shuijing. Before get out of class, he looked at Ding Shuijing with an interesting smile and said, "Does our comrade painter want to say something?"

At that time, Ding Shuijing had just pushed Luoyang and said, "Look, you see," and she was called on the spot, and made a very loud noise: "Huh?"

Luoyang heard the laughter, a very kind laugh. Everyone regards this little sister as a confused and funny character. She is the mascot of the classroom, everyone likes her very much, and someone often greets her when they enter the classroom. When Luoyang asked, Ding Shuijing would often return to a lazy expression and said, "Actually, I don't know it."

Ding Shuijing stood up slowly, first glanced at Luoyang, then smiled at Lao Tian, ​​with a cute smile like a granddaughter. Everyone focused their eyes on her because of her strange silence, waiting for her to tell the same jokes as before. However, Ding Shuijing's gentle voice, smooth language and angelic smile on her face turned the atmosphere into a reversal.

Ding Shuijing's talk that day made Lao Tian very happy, but Luoyang was very confused. When Lao Tian made a summary, Luoyang asked Ding Shuijing, "What did you want to say when you pushed me?" Ding Shuijing quickly opened the graffiti book, pointed to the head of a person on it, and said, "Look, this person is not like the person who said, "Faith is thought." An expression of laziness' that boy?"

Big nose, kind eyes, and messy hair.

"Well, like, of course."

Ding Shuijing smiled triumphantly, and scribbled on the book twice: "Look, does he look like Lao Tian now?"

Luoyang almost didn't spit out a mouthful of water. Sure enough, Ding Shuijing's behavior made Luoyang suspect for a moment that the boy speaking was Lao Tian's illegitimate child.

What Luoyang appreciates is that it is not that she hasn't noticed everyone's appreciation for her speech-after all, the person who can make such a wonderful and generous impromptu speech can't be someone who doesn't understand the audience, but Ding Shuijing seems to be used to it. It was not because of shyness and humility that he avoided talking with Luoyang, but because he was used to it, he was lazily without excitement and pride.

Therefore, Luoyang didn't praise her, and didn't say with a gentle smile like other girls: "Ah, who said that there is no ink in the belly of beautiful women?"

Luoyang has never been a person who likes to care about winning or losing and his vibe. He has a clear heart, works steadily, and is very popular, so he will naturally not feel inferior in front of her. But I don’t know how, he just didn’t want to praise her, he didn’t want her to look at himself in surprise like someone else, and then said indifferently: "Oh, thank you, that’s the case, it’s nothing great." Will be classified as a certain kind of layman in Ding Shuijing's heart, and it will never become special again.

especially. Luoyang stared at the amber light and shadow in that old classroom. Slowly and slowly, he began to feel the heart in his chest beating very strongly, pounding, like a strong water pump, and even his ears began to roar. He turned his head to look at her and found that she was also turning her face to look at herself, smiling wittyly, wrapped in a trace of tacit understanding revealed prematurely and the joy that followed.

She smiled beautifully. he thinks.

Life is always deep and shallow, light and shadow intertwined. Some people get a lot of color, some people pass by lightly, and some people pass by repeatedly in your life without leaving a trace. For some people, the one-sided bond is embedded deep in the brain circuit and walks into the memory, as if uninvited and expired.

"You are really alive in painting," he took the graffiti and carefully examined the direction and lines of each stroke, then suddenly turned to look at her, "you draw a portrait of me, okay?"

They were a little close. Luoyang realized this when he turned his head, and shrank his neck quietly, and lifted up the paper as if he were serious, shaking in the direction of light on the other side.

He heard Ding Shuijing smiling behind her back. When she turned her head back, she was already drawing with the notebook, but she blocked it with her left hand to prevent him from seeing the graffiti.

"People look at me and feel embarrassed." She didn't raise her eyes, but the corners of her mouth were bent.

However, what Luoyang saw was a portrait of two people, half-length, standing side by side, close to the left and right sides of the paper, leaving a blank space in between.

"this is……"

"I think that human characteristics and charm are the easiest to show when interacting with others. I have never seen what you look like when you are with others, so I drew us."

Luoyang stared steadfastly, and he didn't know why in the painting, as if he was too lively, like a freshman.

"Where is the interaction in this painting?"

"Of course there is," Ding Shuijing drew a circle on the paper with the other end of the charcoal pencil, paused, but raised her head and smiled again, so she didn't dare to look directly at Luoyang, "Can't you see it?"

"Well, give me this picture."

"No, I think the painting is very good, I want to keep it for myself."

It's weird for women to make trouble unreasonably. Fortunately, Chen Jing is not like this.

Of course, sometimes there is nothing wrong with being strange. he thinks.

When get out of class was over, Chen Jing suddenly appeared at the door, waved to him, pointed to the takeaway with her right hand, and smiled gently.

Luoyang's Yu Guang saw Ding Shuijing's sly smile, and the gossip was just right.

"Girlfriend?" she asked.

"Yes." He nodded to Ding Shuijing, picked up his schoolbag and left the classroom first.

"School girl?" Chen Jing asked.

"Yes."

Looking back, he saw the girl leaning on the tabletop looking at a certain point on the ground, the beautiful side looks like a quiet oil painting. The noon sun leaked into the amphitheater through the cracks of the heavy burgundy curtains, hitting her just like God’s favorite chasing light.

She happened to turn her face to look at them, and the corner of her mouth twitched upwards, looking thoughtfully.

Luoyang's heart moved with horror.

Many things in the world begin with that thoughtful look.

"School girl?" He came back to his senses, and Chen Jing beside him still smiled softly, spinning like time.

"You just asked." He laughed, took the takeaway with his left hand, and gently held her with his right hand.

The phone dinged in the trouser pocket, prompting new information.

It was Ding Shuijing who said, "The relationship between you and your girlfriend is really interesting."

He didn't know what this sentence meant.