"You found out?"
“I traced the ID that posted the photos to a Tencent account. There was some information on that account, so it must be someone I know doing this.” Xiang Lan looked at the beautiful woman’s face on the screen. “An admirer of Li Xingda.”
Fang Du tilted his head slightly. "Are you competitors?"
"Of course not. But someone who has a crush on someone will direct their hostility at everyone—"
"Any more?" Fang Zi wasn't interested in strangers, so he turned to Xiang Lan. "You should have more sketches, right?"
Xiang Lan shrugged. "Maybe."
"Can I take a look?"
"I'm curious, why are you watching something that's not very interesting?" Xiang Lan finally asked.
Fang Zidu looked at her, and their eyes met. Xiang Lan seemed to be competing with herself, saying, "This is a waste of time."
He tapped the beautiful woman's face on the screen and said, "I don't really care about the story, I just like him. To be precise, I like his face—"
"He's beautiful, isn't he?" Xiang Lan's anger subsided completely. Acknowledging her work was acknowledging her talent.
"Hmm." Fang Zidu didn't offer much comment this time.
“I really like his appearance; I think this is exactly what I wanted.” Xiang Lan turned to look at the computer screen. “I’ve been drawing him for many years, putting all the qualities and temperaments I consider excellent into him. Sometimes I even dream about how he walks and talks, and when I wake up I have to draw him immediately. I’ve given him flesh and blood and a soul. Now, he’s no longer an inanimate object, but a living being.”
Unfortunately, Liu Nanyang did not agree with her views.
"I love him very much."
Fangzi didn't say anything, but his eyes showed indifference.
“If there were a man in the world who looked like that, I would follow him to the ends of the earth—” Xiang Lan smiled. “I also have many sketchbooks and drafts. Once they are organized, I can show them to you.”
Xiang Lan looked him over, smiled slightly, and made a hook, saying, "Fang Zidu, you have a pair of eyes that I like."
Fang Zi blinked, his beautiful black pupils like whirlpools of water that could drown a person. He felt a little uneasy, but seemed to be deep in thought.
"The way you look at me is like you love me." Xiang Lan felt like a female hooligan, speaking without restraint.
"You're overthinking it." He turned his head away, not even looking at her.
Xiang Lan shrugged and sat down in the seat next to him, refusing to move. The two had already begun a peaceful conversation. She believed that once they became somewhat acquainted, there was no need to worry about too much.
Fangzi stopped protesting and started looking at the pictures seriously. Occasionally, he would linger for a while when he came across a large, retouched image. Some of the funny parts of the four-panel comics would make him laugh out loud, his eyes narrowing into little crescents.
She was somewhat satisfied with the prescription; though she said she wasn't satisfied, her actions betrayed her true feelings!
Xiang Lan opened the internet cafe's built-in movie library, selected a comedy, put on her headphones, and began watching intently.
Halfway through the movie, Fangzi seemed tired. After closing the webpage, she leaned back in her booth and dozed off, falling asleep shortly afterward.
Xiang Lan couldn't concentrate on the movie, constantly turning her head to look at him. His long eyelashes covered the small under-eye bags beneath his eyes, making him quite handsome. Because he was tall and had long legs, he was huddled in a small corner, frowning, with his legs bent, occasionally coughing, looking very uncomfortable.
She then understood why he had reserved two seats. Feeling a little guilty, she got up and asked the internet cafe manager for a thin blanket, then bent down and draped it over him.
As she got closer, she caught his refreshing scent again, like tiny insects burrowing into her heart, making her feel itchy.
Fang Zidu moved his body slightly, but Xiang Lan did not move away. He woke up and slowly opened his eyes.
She felt no shame at being caught red-handed. Meeting his bright, star-like eyes, she smiled and said, "You're awake—"
He rubbed his eyes, pulled up the blanket covering him, and looked at himself. Hearing her words, he looked puzzled.
Seeing his languid, half-asleep posture, Xiang Lan leaned closer and asked in a low voice, "What perfume are you wearing?"
Fangzi seemed not to understand at all, her eyes filled with an almost childlike innocence. She leaned closer, her lips almost touching his cheek, and said, "You smell so good—"
His ears and the skin exposed outside the mask turned completely red instantly.
Xiang Lan chuckled, and without waiting for his reply, she pretended to be calm, straightened up, grabbed her schoolbag, and left. She didn't realize that she had forgotten to take the sketches she had left in booth number two.
Xiang Lan hurried towards the school with her head down. The cool air stung her body as she inhaled it, and she slapped her face hard, trying to snap herself out of it. "I'm going crazy! I'm going to ruin my reputation! Beauty has led me astray, she's a jinx—"
She walked out for a while and then felt something was missing from her hands. She realized that she had only taken her schoolbag and had forgotten her sketches.
Turning back like that isn't cool at all; it's embarrassing, but—
She mentally berated herself as she walked back and saw Fang Zidu standing at the entrance of the internet cafe, looking at her artwork in the sunlight.
He was very tall, and although his coat was too loose, his upright frame gave him an effortless, nonchalant beauty. The cool sheen of his dark clothes made his features appear even colder. He was positioned so perfectly that the light streaming down from above illuminated only his area.
The wind swept through the long street, ruffling Xiang Lan's skirt. It was a little chilly, but her heart was burning with passion. The eyes she had meticulously painted countless times, the smile she had pondered for years, the pointed chin she had dreamed of touching—like a morning dream, they slowly rose from the drawing paper and stood vividly before her.
What is beauty? Beauty is a sharp sword, swift as lightning, piercing straight into the heart.
At that moment, she felt like she had been struck in the heart. She didn't want to do anything, so she just lay down and begged to lose.
She stared at him intently, etching his image into her mind. At that moment, she vaguely understood what Liu Nanyang meant by "the ultimate." She cleared her throat and walked over.
Hey, is it pretty?
Fangzi lowered his head, tracing the lines of the beauty in the picture with his fingers. When he heard Xiang Lan's voice, he withdrew his fingers.
He turned to look at her, closed the sketchbook, and said, "This is what you left on your seat."
"I know, that's why I came back to get it. Thank you for putting it away for me—"
"You're welcome."
"You still haven't answered me, is it pretty?" she grinned. "The lighting was bad in the internet cafe earlier, and you said it was just so-so, so I tolerated it. Now it's bright outside, and you can see it clearly, so what do you think?"
He handed the sketch back to her, saying, "Not bad."
"Wow—" What a boastful tone!
Xiang Lan took the manuscript and stared at him intently, making him extremely uncomfortable.
"Could you please stop looking at me like that?" Fang Zi protested, her gaze too direct and aggressive.
You're beautiful!
Fangzi was speechless. She touched the mask and found that it was clearly worn properly.
Xiang Lan chuckled and pulled out the sketch from the drawing collection. The sketch was an enlarged view of the beautiful man's head, and his eyebrows and eyes bore a striking resemblance to his. She handed the drawing to him, saying, "Since you like it so much, I'll give it to you!"
He kept his hands in his pockets and didn't take the painting.
"Here you go! Don't you like it?"
"This seems to be the content of your thesis?" Fang Zidu hesitated.
Xiang Lan sighed and shrugged. "The topics that didn't pass, although I really liked them, are useless now. If anyone likes them, then my hard work wasn't wasted. Take them!"
Fang Zi noticed the sadness on her face, took the painting, and carefully placed it in his backpack.
"Give me your phone number and email address," Xiang Lan pressed on.
Fangzi's eyes revealed his reluctance.
"The artwork? Didn't you want to see more artwork?" Xiang Lan took out a notebook, wrote down her phone number, and stuffed it into his hand. "Here, this is my contact information. In exchange, you should give me yours too. Otherwise, how can I give you artwork?"
He looked at her for a long while before picking up a pen and writing his phone number and email address in her notebook. His hair was spiky, as black as charcoal, and when he lowered his head, his eyelashes trembled, highlighting the deep lines of his eyebrows and eyes.
"It's so beautiful!" Xiang Lan's head was close to his, watching him write intently, but it was hard to tell whether she was praising him or his calligraphy.
Fangzi always takes a step back, not used to getting too close to people.
She happily took his contact information, tilting her head to look at him. "Will I contact you after I've finished organizing my drawings?"
"Okay." He paused for a moment, then said crisply, "Goodbye—"
Xiang Lan didn't want to see him again at all. She believed she had already made a deep impression on him today, but it wasn't the right time to rush things. She said, "Fang Zidu, goodbye!"
Chapter 4
Xiang Lan grabbed her backpack and ran quickly back to the dormitory to share her explosive feelings with Deng Yifan.
The two were not in the same major, but when they entered university, they were assigned to the same triangular room at the very end of the floor. The room was oddly shaped and small, only able to accommodate two people, so they became particularly close.
She threw herself onto the bed, wrapped herself in the blanket and tossed and turned, pounding the bed frame with her hands. The more she thought about Fang Zidu, the more restless she became, and she kept rambling on and on.
"Girl, he only had a pair of eyes and a silhouette to make you so aroused?" Deng Yifan sat at his desk, watching Xiang Lan rolling around on the bed. "Didn't you say you wouldn't date in college to maintain your imagination and creativity about beauty? Where did this trouble come from? He didn't do anything and yet he broke through your defenses!"
"What can I do? I can't control my heart! I've tried so hard to be reserved, but the blood is gushing from my heart. I've never felt this way before—"
"But, according to you, isn't he very arrogant?" Deng Yifan was a cool girl with short hair, dressed in jeans, and with stubborn eyes and a nose. "Are you ready to conquer the fortress?"
"Honey, how can I hook up with him?" Xiang Lan asked dreamily. "There must be some stunning beauty hidden under his mask."
"Can she compare to your beauty?" Deng Yifan raised his voice slightly.
Xiang Lan turned her head to look at her, her face calm, "It's hard to tell who's better. When I first saw her, I thought the beauty had come to life. The eyes are exactly the same."
"He saw your picture thread and watched the real fight. He saw you being attacked as a pervert, a fantasist, a voyeur, and a dark and twisted psychopath."
Xiang Lan was dejected, biting the blanket. She was so angry; it really had ruined her image!
“I got his phone number and email address,” Xiang Lan weakly retorted.
"Girl, you're just thick-skinned, but you don't seem to have any strategy—" Deng Yifan looked at her sympathetically, "What are you going to do? Just go ahead and hook him like this? Or continue to improve your beauties and update your picture thread? Or, just stop updating altogether?"
Xiang Lan glanced at Deng Yifan, pouting her red lips, "How could I possibly stop updating? If I stopped updating now, those people online who were attacking me would think I was guilty because of Li Xingda! I wouldn't do such a thing, I will definitely continue updating!"
Deng Yifan reached out and pinched her plump, collagen-rich face, saying, "You're such a stubborn little freak—"
Xiang Lan let out a wail and collapsed into the covers, still savoring the moment, she said, "How could there really be such good-looking people!"
Deng Yifan saw that her eyes were filled with affection and glistening with tears, clearly showing that she had evil intentions.
“Don’t contact him immediately,” Deng Yifan warned.
Xiang Lan immediately perked up, "What if we can't hold back?!"
"To win the heart of a beauty, you must learn to be patient, believe me."
Xiang Lan's reason and Deng Yifan both told her that she needed to be patient, but what was that? She didn't have any patience at all, okay?
She sat up, in a great mood; it was time to get down to business. She took out Fang Zidu's note, grinned at it for a while, typed it into her phone, and then carefully tucked it into her notebook.
A beautiful woman has a request, and one cannot refuse her.
Xiang Lan rummaged through drawers and cabinets, taking out all the dozen or so sketchbooks from the bookshelf and boxes. But this tidying up only made her more anxious. Looking at the messy pile of sketches on the table, she felt a headache coming on, annoyed that she hadn't paid attention to organizing and collecting digital copies of these sketches beforehand, leaving her completely lost when she needed them.