Chapter 64#
That night, Yan Heqing dreamed again.
A colorful dream.
On a hot afternoon, his mother, wearing a pale purple cheongsam, stood slightly on her tiptoes and picked two pomegranates hanging from the green tree.
Red and heavy, almost as big as his head. “This one is for our Qingqing.” Yan Qiushuang put it in his arms, smiling radiantly. “Hold it tight. Mom will peel it into a bowl for you to eat with a spoon later.”
He held it tightly.
The other one was given to Yan Mingsong. Yan Mingsong looked at his, then looked at his own, puffing up his small face. “Brother’s is bigger than mine. I want one as big as Brother’s!”
Yan Qiushuang chuckled and gently stroked Yan Mingsong’s head. “Brother finishes his every time. If you can finish yours this time, Mom will pick one bigger than a soccer ball for you next time.”
Yan Mingsong cheered and immediately looked up at the tree to find a pomegranate as big as a soccer ball.
…
The next day at noon after school, Yan Heqing had no classes in the afternoon. He walked out of the teaching building and dialed Lin Manfeng’s number.
From the terminal station of Peking University Subway Line 1 to the International Airport, it took an hour and a half. He went to the mall early in the morning to buy some souvenirs and gifts for the cousin-in-law and cousin he had never met.
He didn’t fully believe Lin Manfeng’s words.
If his aunt was really as close to his mother as sisters, she wouldn’t have waited 13 years to find him. When the accident happened at home, the neighborhood committee contacted relatives in their hometown immediately, making several calls. Finally, shaking their heads, they sent him and Yan Mingsong to the Rainbow Bridge Welfare Institute.
None of the relatives were willing to adopt them.
Yan Heqing could understand. He and Yan Mingsong were two people, two mouths to feed. No one was obligated to adopt them.
It was just that when their parents were buried, not a single relative came to send them off on their final journey.
The relationship was only verbal.
Only Qin Shuqi kept his mother’s photos, and Lin Manfeng brought them. For him, it was a miracle he never dared to dream of, and he was sincerely grateful to them.
He would never forget the favor he owed them.
After a few beeps, Lin Manfeng answered the phone. The background sound of a broadcast could be heard. Yan Heqing asked politely, “Have you arrived at the airport?”
He walked towards the school gate while talking.
“Arrived, arrived. Queuing for boarding.” Lin Manfeng was full of smiles.
“Isn’t your flight in the evening?” Yan Heqing stopped walking.
“Oh, it was moved up!”
Lin Manfeng almost forgot he had mentioned that.
It was rare to come to the capital. He planned to stroll around for a day and go back in the evening. However, the flight ticket was booked by the young man yesterday, for 1:30 PM today.
It should be that his boss wanted to send him away earlier.
The young man also reminded him, “My boss’s identity is more unfathomable than you can imagine. Take the money, do what you should do, understand?”
How could Lin Manfeng not understand? When the young man came to him, the person leading the way was someone he usually couldn’t even meet.
He agreed repeatedly.
He understood these worldly wisdoms.
He would absolutely keep his mouth shut and not leak a single word!
It was just that Yan Heqing had such excellent grades and knew such powerful big shots. If they could keep in touch as relatives in the future, how helpful it would be for his son!
But there was no way. His wife’s relationship with Yan Qiushuang wasn’t like that at all. They were just ordinary relatives who didn’t visit often. Those few photos were asked for by Qin Shuqi when she visited the Yan family and saw they were taken beautifully.
Lin Manfeng shook his head, but his mouth was still glib, “I’m about to board, hanging up. Study hard, don’t worry about us, we are all doing well. Come back to visit our hometown when you have time in the future.”
Yan Heqing responded, and Lin Manfeng hung up the phone at light speed.
Carrying two heavy bags of gifts, Yan Heqing knew there was no need to send them.
They had no intention of interacting with him.
The souvenirs were specialty pastries and dried meat, which Yan Heqing had never eaten before.
He didn’t go to the cafeteria, opened a few packs of pastries and dried meat to fill his stomach, and went straight to the library to read.
Rare peaceful study time. Yan Heqing followed a two-point line routine every day, devoting himself to study.
He was quiet and spoke little, but he didn’t reject everyone thousands of miles away. He politely responded to classmates who tried to talk to him. After school on Friday, several classmates invited him to eat stir-fry.
Yan Heqing politely refused, “Next time.”
After delaying for a week, Lin Fengzhi should be unable to hold back and come to find him.
Yan Heqing calculated correctly.
Approaching the apartment building, Lin Fengzhi’s Audi was parked in front of the building.
Lin Fengzhi came directly from school after class. Seeing Yan Heqing, he immediately grabbed a bag of butterfly pastries and got out of the car.
The internet-famous butterfly pastries from T University’s food street required queuing in advance to buy. Gu Xingye liked them very much.
Gu Xingye was rushing an experiment, saying he wanted to apply for some foreign project cooperation. He was in the lab every day now. Thinking of coming to find Yan Heqing, he went to queue to buy butterfly pastries for Gu Xingye.
When paying, he remembered Yan Heqing and bought an extra bag.
“Brother!” Lin Fengzhi trotted up to greet him, smiling and handing over the butterfly pastries. “These are the internet-famous butterfly pastries from our school. Fresh out of the oven, very fragrant.”
Yan Heqing took them, didn’t mention Lu Muchi, and just smiled faintly, “Thank you.” He lifted the bag in his hand, the groceries he just bought. “You came just in time. Let’s have hot pot tonight.”
Lin Fengzhi scratched the back of his head. “I won’t go up. I still have to find my classmate. Oh right.” He just remembered to ask, “Which major in biology did you transfer to?”
“Biological Science.”
“Same class as my classmate! His name is—”
Stuck.
Lin Fengzhi suddenly thought of what happened on the second day of the Lunar New Year.
Yan Heqing was so outstanding, everyone liked him. Would Gu Xingye also…
Lin Fengzhi suddenly didn’t want to introduce them to each other.
He quickly changed the subject. “Tomorrow is Saturday, a holiday. Are you free?”
Fortunately, Yan Heqing seemed to be really distracted. He didn’t pay attention to his previous sentence, thought for a while, and replied, “No.”
Lin Fengzhi became anxious upon hearing this. “What are you busy with on the weekend? Working part-time?” He simply said, “How much money do you need? I’ll pay you. Don’t go to work part-time!”
Yan Heqing didn’t work part-time anymore. He was taking private jobs from students.
Data processing, bioinformatics analysis, proposal reports… all kinds of things, he took them all.
Consolidating knowledge points and earning a considerable income.
Yan Heqing took a few orders, and word of mouth spread. People kept coming to him these days.
The money earned in just these few days was enough for his expenses for the next two months with surplus.
Yan Heqing’s voice showed no emotion. “Practicing driving to clock in hours.”
Lin Fengzhi’s face looked a bit gray. “Brother, actually you don’t want to go, right?” He suddenly threw out a sentence, “Don’t like him anymore. There will be no result.”
His words came out of nowhere. Yan Heqing reacted for a moment before understanding.
Lin Fengzhi thought he liked Lu Muchi.
It was too absurd, so it wasn’t strange. It was Lin Fengzhi’s IQ.
There was nothing else in his brain except love.
However, the time was about the same as Yan Heqing planned. He went along and said, “I have no classes on Tuesday afternoon. Let’s make it Tuesday.”
Lin Fengzhi went from hell to heaven in a second. He slumped his shoulders, breathed a sigh of relief, and smiled. “Brother, do you know? You really… always make my emotions go up and down.”
Yan Heqing smiled with him. “I don’t know.”
At this moment, a狸花猫 (dragon li cat/Chinese li hua) darted out of the flower bed. Lin Fengzhi’s eyes lit up instantly. So cute. Just as he was about to squat down and hug it, the cat actually hissed at him, but then rubbed against Yan Heqing’s feet, skillfully lying down and exposing its belly to be petted.
Lin Fengzhi bit the corner of his lip, depressed and stifled.
He was unhappy again. “I’ll send the Lu family’s address to your WeChat. Contact me on Tuesday night. I’m leaving first.”
He got in the car and left.
Yan Heqing didn’t react. He squatted down, put down the butterfly pastries, and freed his hand to rub the dragon li cat’s chin.
After a moment, he opened the butterfly pastries.
Rich milky fragrance. The dragon li cat immediately climbed onto Yan Heqing’s arm to sniff the butterfly pastries.
Yan Heqing broke off a small piece and put it in his palm. The dragon li cat ate it very quickly.
Yan Heqing’s eyes were clear and light. “You mooched someone else’s butterfly pastry this time. Don’t know if there will be a chance next time.”
Buzz.
At the same time, his pocket vibrated. It was Lin Fengzhi sending the Lu residence address.
On Saturday morning, Yan Heqing arrived at the driving range at 7 o’clock.
He planned to finish clocking in hours today and tomorrow, and take the Subject 2 and 3 exams together.
Approaching the parking spot, he saw that the spot was empty.
His small car was gone.
Yan Heqing wasn’t worried about it being stolen. The place Lu Lin brought him to wouldn’t have security problems.
There were two keys. Lu Lin gave him one when he drove over and didn’t ask for it back.
But what did Lu Lin drive his car for?
Before Yan Heqing could think for too long, a horn sounded behind him. He turned around.
The car stopped half a meter away from him.
Lu Lin got out of the car carrying two paper bags. He didn’t come over but put the paper bags on the hood nearby and took out a few food boxes.
“If you haven’t eaten, let’s eat together.” Lu Lin leaned against the hood, picked up a coconut crisp latte mantou (steamed bun), and ate it.
Yan Heqing stepped forward, leaned against the car next to Lu Lin, and also picked up a pale yellow mantou. Taking a bite, it was actually pineapple flavored, with fine pineapple bits. He swallowed and asked, “Did you work all night?”
Earlier than him.
“No, went to sleep at ten o’clock sharp.” Lu Lin looked into the distance. He ate extremely fast but very elegantly.
Yan Heqing withdrew his gaze. When he looked ahead, he discovered an unexpected beautiful scenery.
Boundless flat land without any obstruction. The end of sight seemed to be the boundary between heaven and earth.
A touch of orange-red dyed the sky.
It was actually sunrise.
Last time Yan Heqing only focused on practicing driving and completely didn’t realize that sunrise could be seen here.
Neither of them spoke next. Yan Heqing silently ate the mantou, admiring the sunrise.
When the sun rose, Lu Lin suddenly said, “I used to give myself a day off on Tuesdays to go fishing.”
Yan Heqing didn’t understand his meaning and waited quietly for the rest.
“Now I find weekends are better.” Lu Lin turned his face, his black eyes reflecting Yan Heqing’s face. “Going out to sea next weekend, big boat. You can bring your friends.”
Yan Heqing was so calm as if he was talking about an extremely ordinary thing. “No friends.”
“College life is colorful.” Lu Lin’s tongue tip pressed against his back molars. “If you want to make friends, I think plenty of people would be willing.”
Yan Heqing was noncommittal. “Did you make friends in college?”
“No.”
“Why?” Yan Heqing asked back with his words. “If you want to make friends, I think plenty of people would be willing too.”
Yan Heqing just finished eating, his lips slightly shiny. His lip color was pale pink, as if coated with a layer of lip gloss. Lu Lin’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Not compatible. I’m picky about making friends.”
Yan Heqing suddenly smiled. He turned his face away. At this time, the sun had fully risen; it was a sunny day.
He supported himself on the hood with both hands, leaning back, slightly raising his chin, closing his eyes to bask in the sunlight. “I’m picky too, so I have no friends.”
Yan Heqing’s face was fair and translucent under the sunlight, not a single pore visible, and his lips also emitted a slight luster.
Lu Lin’s Adam’s apple rolled a few times. He withdrew his gaze. “I’m picky, you’re picky too. Since it’s like this, why don’t we try being friends.”
After a moment of silence, Yan Heqing opened his eyes. The sun shone directly into his eyes. He squinted slightly, turned his head and said, “Making friends with me is dangerous. I am a good person, but not that good. I am very good at lying.”
Lu Lin laughed low, shaking his chest, that prominent Adam’s apple moving violently with it.
“Coincidentally, I’m also very good at lying.”
“At the negotiation table.”