Deng Yifan shook his head, grabbed his schoolbag, and said, "I have to go to class. Aren't you coming?"
“Yes! I have a date with the beauty—” Xiang Lan cleared her throat and said mysteriously, “He said he was coming to see me.”
"Then I won't keep you any longer, I'll be going now. I'll come back to practice calligraphy this afternoon—"
Xiang Lan cut the paper needed for the display board and arranged the various pens and paints neatly. After finishing all this, she leaned against the windowsill, took out her phone, and checked that Fang Zi hadn't sent any more text messages.
She wasn't in a hurry. She picked up the sketchbook from the ground, took the pencil from her ear, and stared at the drawing paper, concentrating for a while. After a long time, she finally put pen to paper, trying to improve today's new drawing based on the existing curves. She was a little unsure whether she was drawing a beautiful woman or trying to depict Fang Zidu's appearance.
A small locust flower drifted in through the window, landed on the paper, and emitted a faint fragrance.
She picked it up, turned her head to look, and saw the boy standing tall and graceful under the tree outside the window, waving at her.
"Hi--"
Xiang Lan fiddled with the flowers, casually tucking them into her sketchbook. She leaned out the window, hands on the windowsill, and called out, "Fang Zidu—"
Fangzi crossed the lawn and walked to the windowsill.
She gripped the old wooden window frame, and involuntarily tilted her head back, her face bathed in the morning sun, painted with the most beautiful light and color.
He was smiling because his eyes curved into crescents again.
Xiang Lan tucked a pencil behind her ear. "Are you done? Did it go smoothly?"
"It went quite smoothly."
Xiang Lan pursed her lips, looking at his mask, "Are you still sick? Did you take your medicine?"
"I ate, but now I'm having some breathing problems." Fang looked around. "Are you alone?"
"I'll be waiting for you!"
"What are you drawing?" Fang Zidu asked, looking at the sketchbook she was holding down.
"You." Xiang Lan showed him the sketchbook. "I'm drawing you."
He took the sketchbook and looked at it intently for a long time without saying a word.
"Does it look like him?" She stared at the lines of his jawbone, pondering the lines she had drawn, and the more she looked, the more she felt that he resembled the appearance she had described. "I deduced the appearance of your lower face based on your bone structure—"
The person in the painting looks no different from the original image of a beautiful woman she designed.
The recipe was given out without any confirmation or denial: "It's alright!"
"What do you mean by 'okay'? Does it look like him or not? Why don't you take off your mask and let me see?" Xiang Lan disliked his mask; it was a large anti-smog mask that covered the lower half of his face completely.
“I’m afraid that if I take off my mask, it will scare you.”
Fang Zidu braced himself on the windowsill with one hand, then lightly leaped into the room like a cloud. He immediately spotted the eight large display boards standing against the wall, each nearly a meter high and two and a half meters long, exuding an imposing and majestic presence.
"How could that be?" Xiang Lan admired his figure and followed him over. "We artists have seen all kinds of ugly and beautiful things. We're not so easily scared."
He chuckled and asked, "What content should we be including on all these display boards?"
"Hey, don't change the subject! I just want to see what you look like—"
"No," Fang Zi coughed twice. "There's no need."
"You're so stingy—" Xiang Lan complained, "If you're like this, I can't even kiss you!"
Fang Zi was silent for a few seconds, then said, "Female hooligan—"
Xiang Lan chuckled at him, and he seemed a little shy, his ears turning bright red. He turned his face away and continued looking at the bare display board.
"The theme this time is graduation season. I'm not in charge of the text, but I need to create a themed drawing on a whiteboard to express the reluctance to leave the school and classmates, as well as the outlook for the future. I haven't figured out how to do it yet. Do you have any good ideas?" Xiang Lan said, knowing when to stop.
"What are your thoughts on your university life?" Fang Zidu asked, his hands in his pockets.
"Thoughts?" Xiang Lan simply sat cross-legged on the floor, facing a display board. She patted the spot next to her, gesturing for Fang Zidu to sit down, and said, "Nothing much!"
Fang Zi readily agreed, sitting down beside her and supporting himself with one hand on the ground. "Wasn't this the school and major you chose yourself?"
“Yes.” She sighed, “But it was a choice made in a fit of pique. In my family, I’m the youngest. My parents control me, my uncle controls me, my brother controls me. Everyone has a say in my life, but I have no say in my own decisions. In high school, I thought that I had to go to college and leave, far away, so that no one could tell me what to do. But my struggle failed. Since I couldn’t leave, I decided to go against them. I chose the school they opposed and studied the major they opposed. And now, this is what happened!”
"So, if I had to describe my thoughts on the school, it would be like a cage that's a little bigger than my home." She took a pencil from behind her ear and tapped it on the display board. "As for future prospects—" she sighed deeply. "My graduation project was rejected three times, and I'm not even sure if I'll graduate smoothly, so I haven't thought about it at all."
"And you?" she asked, looking at him curiously. "What are your thoughts on university?"
Fang Zi rested his chin on one hand, his beautiful eyes half-open, his dark pupils floating in a pool of clear water. After listening to Xiang Lan's question, he thought for a while and said, "Probably because it's too boring and we want it to end quickly."
Is it over?
"it's over!"
"You're already working?" Xiang Lan asked with envy. "That's great. These days, anyone who graduates smoothly becomes someone I'm jealous of. What do you do?"
"A scientist," Fang Zi said with a straight face.
Xiang Lan laughed out loud. It's good that someone so youthful has this dream.
"Is your graduation project the painting you gave me?" Fang Zidu didn't seem to care about her smile.
"That was the first draft; the final version is to make a small statue."
"Why can't it pass?"
"The teacher said it was too refined, lacked emotion, and had no soul," Xiang Lan said, biting her pen. "I've never understood why he could dismiss my work based on just one draft."
"So what are you going to do?"
Xiang Lan blinked, tilted her head, and smiled at him meaningfully.
Fangzi reached out and pried her face open, preventing her from continuing to blatantly invade his vision with her eyes.
Xiang Lan chuckled, finding it incredibly satisfying to tease someone. She dragged over her sketchbook and pointed to the square on the drawing paper, saying, "Let's still make him, let's make his head."
"You already have an idea?"
"A little bit."
Can you tell me?
“I saw you at first glance.” Xiang Lan looked up at the green trees and white flowers outside the window. “In such a noisy and chaotic environment, I immediately calmed down. It’s like something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, and when I draw it myself, I always feel like something is still not quite right, but when I see you, I feel, this is it, there’s nothing better. Even though there are only two eyes, but—” She turned to look at him, “Have you ever felt this way?”
"No."
Xiang Lan was speechless; this person really had no sense of romance.
“Because I know exactly what I want, it’s very clear.” Fang Zidu also looked out the window. “I can describe them precisely, prepare all the necessary conditions, wait patiently, and finally get the result I want.”
He spoke very calmly, but Xiang Lan could hear a hint of pride in his words.
"You could try deciding on the theme of the exhibition board first; it might help with your graduation project."
"Yeah?"
"Yes, breaking free from the small cage of university to face the storms of the future is a very good theme." Fang Zidu looked away.
"What about your graduation project?" Xiang Lan pulled her legs back, resting her chin on her knees. "Would you like to be my model?"
"Me?" Fang Zi shook his head. "No, I won't stay here for long."
Xiang Lan stared wide-eyed. "Why?"
“A friend introduced me to a job here, and I was interested. I came to check out the environment and even spoke with a few professors. The discussions went very well, but—” Fang Zi coughed twice, “my body isn’t adapting well to this place; I feel quite unwell. So, I’ve decided to go back to the United States—”
Xiang Lan opened her mouth slightly, but couldn't speak. Her mind was a complete mess, and she couldn't control herself as she asked, "Then what should I do?" She still had so many tricks up her sleeve that she hadn't used on him yet!
Fang Zidu's eyes were clear and bright as he said frankly, "It was just a chance encounter, I'll forget about it soon."
"No—" She had a premonition; she simply couldn't forget.
What did she do wrong that God is so cruel to her?
Chapter 8
Xiang Lan didn't know what to say. She bit her pen and stared at the display board, her eyes vacant.
"Xiang Lan, I am not the person you drew. This is real life."
"I feel terrible just thinking about you leaving." Xiang Lan was a little flustered. She had never felt this way before and didn't understand why Fang Zidu, who was just a stranger she had never even seen, would affect her emotions so much.
“I’ll remember you,” Fang Zidu said. “You’re very interesting—”
"What's the point?" Xiang Lan was dissatisfied; she wasn't content with this. "We're separated by the Pacific Ocean, how can we have a relationship?"
Fang Zi laughed out loud, his voice a little hoarse. He pulled her hand, and she looked at him, feeling very sad.
The phone rang, breaking their moment of silence. She took it out and looked at it, her face contorted in a dilemma.
"What's wrong?"
"My brother's phone?"
"Call it!"
She was a little reluctant, playing with his fingers. There was a callus on the knuckle of his middle finger. She rubbed that spot and then answered the phone.
"elder brother--"
"I'll be at your school in ten minutes. It's been so long, I almost forgot what you look like." Xiang Yuan spoke very quickly. "Want to have lunch together?"
Xiang Lan looked at Fang Zidu's face and felt a headache coming on. "No, I have to eat with my classmates."
“You didn’t come home last night, and your parents were worried, so they insisted that I come and check on you.”
"I'm alive and well!" she sighed deeply. "Can't I live freely, alone?"
Xiang Yuan laughed, "You find your brother annoying?"
"Of course it's annoying! You're like the jailer, and I'm like the imprisoned princess. Brother, since you're so free, why don't you take your wife out for some fun? Stop watching me all the time. Mom and Dad already have four eyes, and if you add yours and my wife's four, how am I supposed to grow up?!"
Xiang Yuan laughed on the phone, "I wasn't watching you. I'm going to your school later to take care of some important business. Let's have lunch together while we're at it."
Fang Zidu's hands were tickled by her touch, and he felt as if seventeen or eighteen insects were gnawing at his heart. He pulled her hands away and moved them to the side. Without her hands to play with, she simply leaned against his body. He was caught off guard and almost fell over, hurriedly grabbing her waist.
"I'd be a fool to believe you—" Xiang Lan was hugged by him, and she chuckled softly, resisting Xiang Yuan even more, saying, "I have to work on the graduation display board for May Day at school, and I still need to work on my graduation project. I don't have time to see you."
"Can't you even spare an hour for your brother?" Xiang Yuan immediately became suspicious. Remembering what Liu Nanyang had said on the phone, he didn't give her a chance to refuse. "I'm hanging up now. See you downstairs at your dorm in ten minutes!"
Xiang Lan hung up the phone, biting her lip as she looked at Fang Zidu, "My brother is coming to school and wants me to have lunch with him."
"Then go ahead!"