"Is it necessary to win all of my living expenses for next month?" Deng Yifan glared at him as he counted the chips.
Li Xingda also showed the empty chip box, "Can we still play like this?"
Fangzi kindly returned the chips, saying, "This game is more fun with real people, do you have time to continue?"
After dinner, Fang Zi wanted to play a little longer, but Deng Yifan dragged Li Xingda away, much to his regret.
“You can play with my brother and sister-in-law,” Xiang Lan said abruptly. “Beat him at the card table, and he will definitely change his impression of you.”
"real?"
Xiang Lan nodded seriously, "My family believes that playing mahjong is a manifestation of a person's full wisdom."
"That's easy. I'll go and arrange a game of cards with my older brother to try and make a good impression on him."
"We must utterly defeat him, otherwise he'll never know his place."
“Go to my uncle’s office first to get the stone—” Xiang Lan reminded him, “I’ve already talked to him, and he agreed to give me that piece of obsidian.”
Xiang Lan's graduation project theme remained the same, but the design was much simpler, removing all the fancy elements and retaining only the simplest and purest. Black is the heaviest color, but she wanted to use its surface brightness and the changes in light to depict a bright and luminous Fangzidu on this background, reflecting the joy and love in her heart. Liu Nanyang did not offer any comments on her concept this time, only saying, "The simplest things are always the hardest to express. If you finish this work, I can put it in my art exhibition."
It would be best if she could, but if not, she wouldn't be too disappointed, as she has already gotten what she wanted most at the moment.
The raw stone was placed on the antique shelf in Liu Nanyang's office. It was mountain-shaped, with some simple cloud patterns carved on its surface according to its shape. Only a little bit of black and shiny color was visible at the tip of the mountain. It was placed on a base and temporarily used as decoration.
After carefully examining the prescription for a while, I felt a little itchy to do it myself, and said, "I'll help you with the preliminary preparations."
"Alright, I was just worried about having no one to do the rough and heavy work."
The school's specialized classrooms were dirty and messy, filled with students' various semi-finished products and piled-up materials. Xiang Lan took Fang Zi to peel off the outer skin of the stone and divided the pure natural obsidian inside into three pieces. She carved two pieces to the size she wanted and prepared the remaining large piece as raw material.
She also found the classroom too noisy, so she took her own tools and went straight to Qionglin Garden.
Fang Zi played with a small piece of material, then picked up the carving knife to examine it. After getting used to the feel of it, he said, "When I was a child, I really liked playing with this."
"I thought you meant helping me with odd jobs."
He measured the size of the stone and looked at it in the light from the window for a while. "If it weren't for my dad, I might have gone into this business too. My grandpa used to take me to play around with it. He discovered that I had a lot of talent, so he suggested to my dad that we should go down this path. My dad didn't really care about me before, but after listening to my grandpa's advice, he came back and forcibly took me away. He felt that this kind of thing was fine to play around with, but going on to study was the right path."
"You didn't resist?"
"It's alright, because reading is quite interesting." Fang Zidu picked up her first draft and said, "I'll help you finalize the initial draft, and you can play with the rest yourself."
"I'll play one, you play one, okay?"
"Can."
"Did your grandfather just let it go like that?" Xiang Lan asked curiously. "If my uncle finds a good student, he'll hold on to him like glue, and he won't be satisfied until he has that person under his control."
“My dad wasn’t that forceful. He would negotiate with me, saying that if I completed the study tasks he assigned, I could go to my grandpa’s house to play. I study fast, so I could always finish them, and I could go to play for two days each month, on and off, and I still learned a bit.” He wiggled his fingers. “When I went abroad, my grandpa gave me a set of carving knives, telling me not to let my skills go to waste. When I’m under a lot of pressure from studying and feeling frustrated, I’ll take a piece of wood and carve it, and it makes me feel better.”
"I want to see what you've carved."
"I'll pack everything up when I go to America and bring it all back."
Xiang Lan stroked the stone in his hand; the obsidian felt cool and smooth, just like his pure black eyes.
When Fang Zi was working, he was very serious. He stood up straight, chin slightly tucked in, and his knuckles pressed against the carving knife as he carved on the stone. His movements were both simple and beautiful. Only then did she realize how he got the calluses on his hands.
She rested her chin on her hand and looked at him, her eyelashes trembling slightly, a little bit of sweat on the tip of her nose, and her lips red. She couldn't help but lean over and kiss him on the cheek.
Fang Zi looked up and said, "Do your job well."
"Your presence will distract people."
Are you going back to your dorm?
"don't want."
Fang Zidu smiled at her, put down the stone and knife, and said, "You don't want to leave, but you also think I'm distracting you?"
“I just want to be with you all the time—” Xiang Lan said, pointing to her fingers.
"Then what should we do?"
"Could you please help treat him/her?"
"I am not a doctor."
"I just want this." She sat up halfway, hooked her index finger under his chin, and pressed it against his pink lips.
Their tongues tentatively intertwined, inhaling each other's scents and delving deeper into each other's bodies.
Xiang Lan openly reached out to pull at his clothes and touch his waist, saying, "Let me touch you."
Fang Zi found it both funny and exasperating. "Weren't you in a hurry to finish your graduation project? Now you're not?"
"You can't rush this. If you make me happy, I'll naturally be able to concentrate." She forcefully pulled him up. "Let me study what the most perfect human body lines are. Or do you want me to touch other people's bodies?"
"No." Fang Zidu naturally refused.
"That's more like it!" Xiang Lan said with a grin as she ran to lock the door and turned the heater up to the highest setting. "You'll be my model today."
Fang Zi looked at her, stood up, and leaned against the desk. "What do you need me to do?"
"Take off your clothes." Xiang Lan's eyes sparkled.
Are you sure?
She nodded vigorously, "I couldn't be more certain."
"But all you need is my head."
"You need to let your facial expressions and eyes convey your entire physique; body language is also very important," Xiang Lan said, feigning seriousness. "Skin condition, muscle definition—these are all components of who you are, and none of them can be omitted!"
Fang Zi stretched out his arm and pinched her cheek, saying, "You have so many fallacies."
Xiang Lan knew he was about to agree, and she couldn't wait any longer. "Hurry, hurry—"
He slowly took off his coat, crossed his arms, grabbed the bottom edge of his hoodie, and exerted a slight force, revealing his broad shoulders and narrow waist.
She stared, completely mesmerized; she was right to have such good taste.
Fangzi threw the clothes aside, turned his head and saw that she was speechless, and asked, "Is this okay?"
"Of course not." Her gaze followed his chest to his eight-pack abs, the obliques on his sides clearly defining his waist, several muscles jutting straight into his belt, unfortunately hidden by his pants. Her face flushed. "Take them all off—"
Xiang Lan had certainly seen naked people before, quite a few, of all shapes and sizes, but she had never felt anything like this before. She felt as if there was a monster inside her, urging her to devour it.
"All of them?" Fang Zidu chuckled softly. "Are you sure?"
"Of course!" Xiang Lan approached, seemingly unaware of any danger. "Don't leave a single drop."
"Okay!" He put his hands on his waistband. "Do you want to help?"
"Is that even a question?" Xiang Lan readily reached out to unbuckle his belt.
He looked down at her, and as soon as he gently clasped his hands together, she was completely in his arms.
Xiang Lan pulled hard on the zipper with both hands, and was lifted up by the waist and thrown onto the wooden bed. She screamed, "Fang Zidu, you're cheating—"
“I won’t cheat. Aren’t we going to study the human body? Let’s do it together—” He pressed down on her shoulders, ripped off her coat, and slipped his hand inside her collar, touching her neck. “Do you know what this part is called?”
Xiang Lan felt itchy and shrank back, laughing, "I don't know."
His hand slid down again, covering her high breasts. "What about this one?"
She looked at him, her voice trembling, "I don't know."
"Okay, don't move your body. I'll tell you the name of every muscle in detail, and where they are located—"
Xiang Lan watched him slowly undress them, and at that moment, he was truly a devilishly handsome man—
Author's Note: Have a great weekend and enjoy reading...
Chapter 32
Xiang Lan's face was flushed. She lay on the bed, panting, her head turned to look at Fang Zi as he half-bent over as he dressed, his muscles undulating beneath his fair skin from his movements. Her head was spinning from lack of oxygen; she couldn't understand how, when she was the one teasing him, he had become the one in control. He guided her hand, caressing their bodies from head to toe, inside and out, knowing every detail. She was so ashamed that her toes curled up, but he persisted relentlessly.
If it weren't for the little one inside them, the two of them would definitely have lost control.
His body was so beautiful that she couldn't help but wish time would pass faster.
"Three months, that's such a long time—"
Fang Zi turned around, straightened his clothes, his face also flushed. He saw her stretching out on the bed and quickly pulled the blanket over her, saying, "Don't catch a cold."
Xiang Lan pulled back the covers. "When you took off someone's clothes, you didn't think about this."
He stubbornly wrapped her in the blanket, saying, "Don't do this—"
Having tasted a bit of virginity, Xiang Lan suddenly became bolder. She grabbed his crotch and chuckled at him.
"Please stop provoking me like this, okay?" Fang Zi couldn't do anything about her.
"No." She loved seeing him helpless against her, her hands continuing their work.
He had no choice but to stop dressing and retreat back onto the bed.
“I told you to stop just now, but you didn’t listen.”
She climbed onto his body, resumed the movement, and admired his body, which suddenly tensed up and then slowly relaxed.
Xiang Lan threw herself completely into her graduation project, her life becoming so hectic that she often stayed up late and woke up late. Fang Zi was worried that this kind of schedule would affect her health, so he wrote a small software program and installed it on her computer. The software combined her past activity locations and ranges with predictions of high-probability events in the next two months, providing time and location reminders. However, he found that the software was basically useless to her. Even when the computer's warning sound went off, she would immediately turn it off. She would only cooperate when he reminded her manually, but even then, her constant chatter would still disrupt her inspiration.
Fangzi found it amusing; this person's lack of self-awareness was a chronic, incurable disease. So he dragged her along for a walk around the area surrounding the school.
“This is the closest maternal and child health hospital to the school. The map and phone number are directly in the app. I called and inquired. You can come to register in two months.” He rented a car to drive. “The housing arranged by the school is probably near Qionglinyuan. They are all old houses, the bathrooms and kitchens are too small, inconvenient, and far from the hospital. So, I found a two-bedroom apartment in a community between the school and the hospital, just for temporary use. I’ve settled on the apartment and bought some furniture. The agency will clean for us. Once it’s done, you can have Yifan help you bring your luggage over.”
"I'd be scared to live alone."
“When I’m not around, I’ll ask your sister-in-law or Yifan to keep you company.” Fang Zidu turned the car around a corner. “There’s a shopping mall right at the entrance of the community. You and the little one can take care of all your eating, drinking, and entertainment needs here without having to go anywhere else. Of course, you must buy the items on the list I’ve made. I’ve personally checked the instructions and ingredients of the brands on the list and confirmed with the manufacturers, so they’re quite reliable.”
No wonder they make overseas calls every day; they're going to make things difficult for the manufacturers.
"That's a good idea," Xiang Lan thought for a moment, "but later I might go to the art district to visit my uncle—"
“Please have your uncle pick you up,” Fang Zidu said, turning his head. “I’ve already contacted my uncle, and he’s given me a detailed schedule of the time before graduation. I’ve also embedded it into the software. You can check it out and arrange your work according to that schedule, and there won’t be any problems.”
"Fang Zidu, are you managing me with software?" Xiang Lan asked, somewhat displeased. "It's so cold and emotionless. I won't listen to you like that."
“The software is just a reminder, a reminder for you and for me. I will call you again when the time comes,” Fang Zidu comforted him. “As for cooking and cleaning, I called my mother to ask. She originally wanted to have the housekeeper come over, but my father refused.”
"Dad is so cruel."