Half-baked

2.
Across the aisle, the two of them stared intently at the phones in their hands.
Anyone who saw them would just think that they were unrelated strangers and would never have any intersection.

Duan Huai'an kept his head down, twirling his phone intermittently. When his roommate spoke to him, he only managed to respond with single words in a nasal tone.
From beginning to end, there was no glance between them.

I miss putting down my phone.
She didn't reply to his words.

She was calm, almost numb.
At first, when I heard him call me "baby", I missed a certain part of my body and had a slight itchy feeling. My chest seemed to be filled with something, and my blood vessels suddenly stopped pumping blood. My brain was occupied by something that I couldn't explain.
As time went by, she gradually realized that every time he had a "baby", he had an ulterior motive.

Vicious, greedy, and unruly.

Just then, the bell rang.

Zhu Yutong next to her put her cell phone on the table.
A big "defeat" was displayed on the phone screen.
Zhu Yutong complained in frustration: "We lost again, my teammates are so bad."
As she spoke, she took Hua Nian's arm and rested her head on Hua Nian's shoulder, rubbing it. Soon, she turned her head and swept Hua Nian with an inquiring look.

After all, she was wearing Duan Huai'an's clothes, and she couldn't help feeling guilty. She sat up straight, trying to give herself courage.
"What are you staring at me for?"
"I think I've seen this dress of yours somewhere before." Zhu Yutong touched her chin and pondered, "It looks so familiar."

It was just a very ordinary white short-sleeved shirt, and Zhu Yutong and Duan Huai'an had no intersection at all. One was from the medical school, and the other was from the engineering school. During their three years at university, they only met in this elective course.
The rest of the time, I had only heard of Duan Huaian in gossip and seen photos of Duan Huaian taken secretly by students on WeChat Moments.

"Is it the clothing store near the school? They specialize in selling knockoffs of luxury brands." Zhu Yutong slapped her thigh and complained, "Their knockoffs are so fake, their Gucci ones are all Cucci, but yours is pretty authentic."

"..."
Because it's true.

Missing the curved lip smile: "I bought a high-end imitation, which is quite expensive."
Zhu Yutong asked: "How expensive?"
Nostalgia said: "Two hundred."
Zhu Yutong blinked: "Then can you buy me one?"

The clothes hanging in Duan Huai'an's cloakroom seemed simple and had no sense of design, but in fact, the tags on any piece of clothing had a high price printed on them. Huai Nian chose this piece of clothing because Duan Huai'an hadn't worn it yet and the tag was still there.
When she tore off the tag, she caught a glimpse of the price displayed on it.
Two hundred times as much as two hundred yuan.

Putting aside the price, this young man's clothes are limited edition and have been pre-ordered before they even hit the market.
There is no such thing as a high imitation.

"I think I bought it online, but the store was reported and closed down." Huai Nian changed the subject and advised, "Don't buy counterfeit goods."
"You wear imitations yourself, and you want me not to wear them?"
"I'll go home and take off this dress after class." This was true. She didn't like wearing Duan Huai'an's clothes.

It’s strange to say, this dress is brand new and Duan Huaian has never worn it.
But nostalgia always felt that this piece of clothing had traces of Duan Huai'an. Was it the smell of his other clothes when it was hung in the cloakroom? Along with the bitter wind and rain, the sticky and wet rain tightly wrapped around her skin, making her unable to stop thinking of him.

"Why are you going home again?" Zhu Yutong caught the key words, "Didn't you check the class group? I have to go to the laboratory to do experiments later."
"what?"
"The functional experiment teacher has to go on a business trip next week, so he has moved next week's class to today."

I miss the eight-year clinical medicine program. I am now a junior, with endless professional courses and countless homework. My classmates discuss homework in the group, so the class group messages are updated all the time. I miss not only do not disturb the group messages, but also fold the class group.

Hearing this, Huai Nian opened the class group.
At 8 o'clock last night, the monitor sent a notice in the group chat about class changes. The functional experiment class was moved to the first and second periods on Saturday afternoon.

I originally missed leaving after taking the elective courses.
She had classes in the afternoon, which meant she had to finish them before she could leave.
Although there was a difference of five hours, it was enough to make her happy.

"Then I can only go home in the afternoon."

The volume is neither too loud nor too soft, just loud enough for people on the other side of the aisle to hear.

Her voice was naturally sweet and soft. When she was annoyed, her voice was like a bubble floating in the air, tight and ready to burst. But she was rarely annoyed. Most of the time, she was like this, relaxed and happy, with a slightly upturned tail tone and a velvety texture.

His tone was filled with controlled happiness that was about to overflow.

"Dong——" sound.
The sound is dull.

This attracted everyone's attention.

Nostalgia also follows the sound and looks forward to it.

Duan Huaian, the instigator, raised his head slightly, his Adam's apple rolled, and a low, hoarse laugh escaped from his throat.

His roommate asked him, "What are you laughing at?"
Duan Huai'an picked up the phone he had thrown on the desk again, tapping the screen with his slender white fingers. He lowered his eyes and smiled slowly again: "Nothing, I just suddenly thought of a sentence."

"What?"

Suddenly he turned his head and caught the pair of wandering eyes of nostalgia in the air.
His eyes stayed on Huai Nian's face. He was always reserved and the only time he showed his emotions was when he was in front of Huai Nian. He especially liked to look at her face, the expression that changed like a palette, vivid and lively.

They seemed to stare at each other for a long time, but in fact it was only three or five seconds.
Huai Nian turned his head hurriedly.
The dark back of his head was facing Duan Huaian.

Duan Huaian was not annoyed. He raised his eyebrows slightly and said slowly: "- You can escape the first, but you can't escape the fifteenth." Hearing this, the roommates were all confused and didn't understand what was so funny.

And after hearing these words, Nostalgia's upright back bent limply.

Yes, in the end, she still had to leave in his car.
-
I miss Duan Huaian, whom I met in my second year of high school.
To be more precise, she had only met Duan Huai'an in her second year of high school. Before that, she had only seen him on the school's red list and occasionally when he spoke as a representative of outstanding students after the flag-raising ceremony on Mondays.

Whether in high school or in college now, Duan Huaian is a prominent figure in the school.

He has a prominent family background and good pedigree, and his ancestors have all been rich or noble for several generations.
Not to mention his appearance, he won numerous awards for his school during his high school years, not to mention that he was recommended to Nancheng University with the first place in the Youth Robot World Cup.

Good grades, good family background, handsome.
It seems natural to fall in love with Duan Huai'an.

Huai Nian was sure that she had no extravagant thoughts about Duan Huai'an, after all, they were not from the same world. She had seen the car that took him to and from school, and her classmates said it was worth nearly 10 million yuan. Huai Nian thought to herself that she still took the subway that cost hundreds of millions of yuan to and from school every day.

After comforting herself, she will also face the reality - there is a huge difference between her and Duan Huaian.

It was the summer of my second year in high school. It was a rainy day, with green moss and a dull clock.
In the wet scene, I miss my meeting with Duan Huaian.

The Gu family is wealthy and has many properties, so they also have a lot of nannies to clean the house.
The mother I miss was the nanny of one of the houses.

Mom said, "The Gu family has too many houses. They all live in the old house and won't come here."
Mom added, "This place is close to school. It only takes ten minutes to walk there. You can sleep a little longer in the morning."
My mother also said, "I have already talked to my wife, and she said you can stay in the guest room."

Huai Nian's mother had worked in the Gu family for many years. She was clean, efficient and capable, and she was very popular with the hostess. Otherwise, the hostess would not have agreed to let Huai Nian live in the Gu family's house.

I remember how after moving into the villa, I behaved myself and only stayed in the guest room, never even turning on the TV in the living room.

The days are calm, peaceful and ordinary.
The chirping of cicadas in the city center is very faint.

It was not until the typhoon season at the end of July that, along with the violent typhoon, came the news that Duan Huai'an was going to move here.

"It is said that the ancestral home is going to be renovated, and the wife is moving to a villa in the north of the city. It is close to the company, but far from the school where the young master goes to school. It is 30 kilometers away." Mom put down her phone and told Huai Nian the news she had heard, "So, maybe tomorrow, the young master will move here."

Huai Nian was stunned for a long while before finding her voice again: "Should I move away then?"
"No, you stay in the guest room on the first floor, and he will sleep in the master bedroom on the second floor."
"……Ah good."

However, Duan Huaian did not come the next day.
On the third day, Duan Huaian didn't come either.
On the fourth day, Duan Huaian still didn't come.

On the fifth day, Huai Nian woke up from a nap and found that all the water in the room was gone. She held the empty kettle and planned to go to the kitchen to get some water.
Half asleep and half awake, she pushed open the door, her lips moving, and was about to yawn when a figure suddenly broke into her hazy vision.

It's a boy.
Standing at the stairs.

After seeing the boy's face clearly, Huai Nian felt as if his whole body had been drenched by a heavy rain outside, even his blood was soaked.

She stopped yawning, her palms felt empty, and the kettle in her arms fell to the ground.

In the quiet room, the muffled sound lingered in the air.

"Yes, yes, I'm sorry." Huai Nian hurriedly picked up the kettle from the ground, apologized, and ran back to the house holding the kettle.

When I returned to the room, my heart was still pounding with nostalgia.
Outside the window, the wind and rain were clanging, and dense water vapor covered the window glass. Her hot face seemed to be covered by cool mist, and gradually cooled down. Huai Nian carefully opened a crack in the door. In the narrow crack, Duan Huai'an stood with his back to her.

It was a day of continuous heavy rain and the light inside was dim.

Duan Huaian was holding a cell phone and talking to someone.
Not knowing what the other party said, Duan Huai'an suddenly turned his head and looked at the guest room where Huai Nian was staying.
I miss the time when I shuddered all over, was caught peeping, and closed the door awkwardly and hurriedly.

Before the door closed, she saw Duan Huai'an's eyes looking at her, dark as the rainy day outside, indifferent and cold. She thought that the coldness was followed by coldness.
Unexpectedly, the door closed at the last second.
Huai Nian saw Duan Huaian's eyelids drooping and smiled nonchalantly.

The house is not very soundproof.

Through the door, she heard Duan Huai'an say,
——"I saw her, but she ran away when she saw me and hid from me."

(End of this chapter)