Ying Yunsheng asked, puzzled: "Isn't that right?"
“You need to consider the independent variable.” Ji Li, who was standing a step higher than him, slowly bent down. “Clearly, if I wanted to, there would always be ways for us to be together.”
Ying Yunsheng stood frozen in place, yet he could still feel the man's breath drawing ever closer.
The light in the hallway slanted down, enveloping the two of them in the same shadow, like a photograph cut from an old roll of film. The distance between them gradually shortened, and Ying Yunsheng's eyelashes trembled more and more violently until he could no longer resist and closed his eyes.
Ji Li's voice rang in his ear, tinged with amusement: "Afraid I'll molest you? Why don't you back off?"
Ying Yunsheng: "..."
His ears turned bright red, and he didn't dare to look at him even once before running upstairs in a flash.
It started raining after evening self-study ended.
Ying Yunsheng stood by the window: "Did you bring an umbrella?"
Ji Li was still packing her things, stacking the test papers, question banks, and draft notebooks from smallest to largest, making them look like a pyramid: "No."
There is a covered corridor for most of the way from the classroom to the dormitory, but the corridor does not connect to the main gate. After walking out of the eaves, there is a cobblestone path for more than ten meters.
Ying Yunsheng usually just ran over there, but now he looked at the people next to him and then at the rain outside, and he was unusually worried.
Ji Li was about to say something when he suddenly heard the sound of fabric rubbing together. He instinctively looked up and asked, "What are you doing?"
The weather had turned warm, and most people wore two-piece sets, one with an inner layer and the other with an outer layer, when they went out. Ying Yunsheng took off his jacket, leaving him in only a short-sleeved shirt, and handed it to him: "Use this to cover your head and keep out the rain later."
Ji Li stopped what she was doing and looked at the coat: "Then what are you going to do?"
Ying Yunsheng: "It's just a short run away."
Ji Li was taken aback.
A guy who was about to go back to his dorm saw them and called out familiarly, "Hey geniuses, did you guys bring umbrellas? Want to go back together?"
From the beginning of high school, Ji Li was always called a "genius" by students in the same grade, whether they knew him or not. The title had been used for so long that even when Ying Yunsheng suddenly rose to prominence in the second year of high school, everyone couldn't change their habit and simply used "big shot" as a synonym for him.
Ying Yunsheng glanced at the umbrella in the boy's hand. Judging by its size, it could easily fit three or four people. He was about to say yes.
Ji Li said first, "No need, we have umbrellas."
Ying Yunsheng: "?"
The boy didn't suspect a thing and left the classroom after saying goodbye.
Ying Yunsheng: "Didn't you say you didn't bring an umbrella?"
"I didn't bring it."
Everyone else had left the study room, leaving only the two of them.
Ji Li slung the bag over her shoulder, grabbed one side of her coat, and pulled him out the door: "My umbrella is in the classroom downstairs."
Ying Yunsheng was stunned: "Why didn't you say so sooner?"
“I was going to say that.” Ji Li turned off the light and closed the door behind him. “But you took your clothes off so quickly that I got curious and forgot what I was going to say.”
"Uh..." Ying Yunsheng let go as if he had been electrocuted.
Ji Li held onto the other end of his coat to prevent it from falling to the ground, then shook it out and draped it back over his shoulders: "Put it on properly, be careful not to catch a cold."
Ying Yunsheng remained silent, lowered his head to put on his clothes, went downstairs to get his umbrella, and didn't say a word on his way back to the dormitory.
Ji Li sensed that something was on his mind again and was a little puzzled, since he was fine when he left the classroom: "What's wrong? Are you unhappy?"
Ying Yunsheng looked at him and remained silent for a long time: "What did those people who liked you do in the past?"
Ji Li thought for a long time but still couldn't figure out how the topic suddenly jumped to this point: "Why are you asking this?"
"I want to know," Ying Yunsheng said, "has anyone ever appeared right beside you when you were in the rain without an umbrella?"
Ji Li felt she had roughly figured out the other person's thought process: "No."
Ying Yunsheng looked incredulous.
Ji Li: "I always carry an umbrella when I go out, and even if I don't have it with me, it will always be within my reach."
For example, this time when he stayed at school for the weekend, he didn't bring an umbrella during evening self-study because he could go downstairs to get it at any time.
No one else had the chance to give me an umbrella.
Ying Yunsheng felt a little relieved, but was still sullen: "I don't have a chance either."
This is not the first time this has happened.
Ying Yunsheng had long noticed that Ji Li rarely exposed his weaknesses. If he hadn't happened to know about Ji Li's illness, Ji Li would have seemed invincible to him, without any weaknesses.
Such perfection is indeed tempting, but at the same time, it also brings unease.
What he perceives as help may, in the eyes of the other party, be nothing more than unnecessary trouble.
This always made Ying Yunsheng feel a strong sense of powerlessness, afraid that the other party didn't need him, afraid that the other party would abandon him.
Will I end up like all your suitors?
Ji Li: "You're different from everyone else."
"What's different?"
"It's different everywhere."
Ying Yunsheng looked at him.
Ji Li thought for a moment under his gaze, then said, "You're better looking than all of them."
"Well……"
"Your grades are good, your shooting is exceptionally good, you can win long-distance running championships, you like chocolate, you like spicy food but can't handle it very well, if it rains and you don't have an umbrella, you'll take off your clothes to cover me from the rain, your Chinese isn't good but you're very good at sweet talk in front of me," Ji Li said. "Besides you, no one else can do everything I just said."
Just as they reached the dormitory building, Ji Li opened her umbrella and blocked him from entering: "Besides, didn't I tell you before?"
"What?"
“If anyone around me confesses their feelings to me, I will cut ties with them immediately,” Ji Li said. “I’ve cut ties with everyone else, but not with you.”
So he is different from others.
A person who can change another's principles holds absolute privilege in that person's heart.
.
While Ji Li was taking a shower in the bathroom, there was a sudden knock on the door.
He called out to the outside, "Wait a moment," turned off the tap, got dressed, opened the door, and found a Yingyunsheng.
The other person was squatting by the wall, holding a box in their arms, looking up at him like a small animal that couldn't extend its claws.
"What's wrong?"
Ying Yunsheng released his hand: "Let me apply the medicine for you."
Ji Li let him in, then sat down in a chair and casually pulled up his trouser legs.
Ying Yunsheng washed his hands, paused before leaving, and lowered his head to kiss his right index finger.
Then he unscrewed the bottle, dipped his index finger in the ointment, and slowly pressed it onto the bruises on the other person's leg.
A note from the author:
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Chapter 45
Chapter 45
Snow-covered head
Ying Yunsheng once again despised himself in his heart.
Like a pervert.
His hands didn't stop moving; he carefully spread the ointment on the bruises on the other person's knee, barely touching his skin except for the very first touch. He asked, "Does it hurt?"
"It doesn't hurt." Ji Li looked at the small box on the table with a red cross printed on it. "You specially prepared a first-aid kit in the dormitory?"
Ying Yunsheng applied the medicine carefully without looking up, only grunting, "Buying medicine at the hospital is too expensive. It's cheaper to just go to the pharmacy."
My fingertips moved slowly to the back of my knee, and the touch was like scratching an itch through a boot, causing a slight tingling sensation.
Ji Li grabbed his hand: "It's fine, there's no bruising at all."
Ying Yunsheng's hand was being held by him, and he gently struggled free.
Ji Li immediately released her.
Ying Yunsheng capped the medicine bottle: "Your hands are so cold."
Ji Li is prone to feeling cold; even after taking a shower, his hands and feet remain icy cold, and the temperature dropped even more noticeably that night due to the rain.
When the two occasionally walk a few steps on the road and turn around to find that the other has not followed, they will reach out and pull each other up. However, Ji Li has always been very sensible, and Ying Yunsheng is a bit reserved in this regard. Their tugging is limited to each other's sleeves. Any real touching is always just a light touch, and even if they do touch, it will never exceed the level of friendship.
Now that they've let go, Ji Li can still feel the residual warmth in his hands; the few seconds of tight clasping when their palms were pressed together felt like a spark searing into his skin.
It works better than a hand warmer.
Ji Li cleared the strange comparisons from her mind: "Go wash your hands and go to bed early."
Ying Yunsheng put the medicine bottle back in the box and turned on the tap. Just as he was about to reach out his hand, he hesitated for a moment and kissed the palm of his hand first.
Rounding it off, I guess I got to kiss Ji Li's hand.
His heart was pounding, and just as he was about to separate, a voice rang out behind him: "Ying Yunsheng, you..."
The sound stopped abruptly.
Ying Yunsheng abruptly turned his head.
Ji Li stood behind him, holding his medical kit in her hands, staring at him blankly, her gaze shifting from his face to his hands.
The air fell silent.
Ying Yunsheng had no idea what he had just seen; his gaze was panicked and helpless, as if he had committed a terrible crime: "I..."
He stopped after saying only one word, unsure how to explain his utterly perverted behavior.