“He has a lecture to attend at the activity center at three, so I let him come over since he had nowhere else to go,” Wen Bei explained. “I also asked him to bring some food since none of us have eaten yet.”
Su Zhiyan raised his eyebrows in surprise.
Shen Nianjing was attending an afternoon lecture? But he hadn’t heard about any important speakers visiting their department recently or any partners coming over.
He felt a bit confused, but didn’t think it was necessary to ask. Even between friends, everyone had their own business.
“Mm, okay.” Su Zhiyan nodded.
He looked at Shen Nianjing but didn’t say anything.
Shen Nianjing noticed his gaze and asked, “Did you not sleep well?”
He lightly tapped under his own eye, pointing out Su Zhiyan’s dark circles.
That light brown mole on his finger seemed to announce its presence, as if it wanted to remind Su Zhiyan of last night’s dream.
Su Zhiyan: “…”
He looked away, his tone wooden. “I slept very well.”
His attitude was clear, but Shen Nianjing didn’t quite believe him. “But you look tired.”
He looked at Su Zhiyan, his eyes showing undisguised concern.
“If you need anything, you can tell me anytime.”
Su Zhiyan: “…” His mind was in chaos.
How strange.
He suddenly didn’t know how to interact normally with Shen Nianjing. Before, his logic made perfect sense, and he could completely convince himself to treat Shen Nianjing like a buddy, the same way he treated Wen Bei.
But whether it was Shen Nianjing’s sudden arrival just now or his caring words now, everything made Su Zhiyan feel very uncomfortable.
This uncomfortable feeling was unfamiliar and weird.
Su Zhiyan suppressed that strange feeling in his heart and hummed in response.
The three of them sat around the folding table. The surface was covered with fried chicken and grilled skewers, along with some milk tea and small desserts. The aroma of food immediately filled the entire room, stimulating their appetites.
Su Zhiyan hesitated for a moment, but ultimately sat a bit closer to Shen Nianjing.
For now, testing the duration of physical contact was most important. hose strange emotions in his heart could be ignored.
“Shen Nianjing,” Wen Bei looked stunned, “Did you suddenly get rich? You bought so much, you don’t need to do part-time jobs anymore?”
Shen Nianjing smiled at his words and explained, “I wasn’t doing part-time jobs for living expenses in the first place. I just didn’t want to let myself be idle.”
“What kind of habit is that? Making yourself suffer?” Wen Bei’s expression twisted in complete incomprehension.
Su Zhiyan lowered his eyes.
Shen Nianjing seemed to have told him about this before.
During temporary jobs, he liked observing all kinds of people, their little habits and catchphrases, then guessing those people’s personalities. He found it interesting.
Su Zhiyao had also told him that Shen Nianjing was the most careful tutor she had ever met, and she could understand everything he taught.
When his sister said this, Su Zhiyan knew that Shen Nianjing really put serious effort into his tutoring.
Because Su Zhiyao naturally lacked the ability to understand math by analogy. Her problem wasn’t about building a solid foundation and then improving, but rather how to understand the basics. Sometimes even he, her own brother, couldn’t figure out some of Su Zhiyao’s questions.
To give an analogy: when teaching her how to make scrambled eggs with tomatoes, Su Zhiyan would explain the principles and steps, only for her to interrupt and ask seriously: Why don’t we wash the eggs like we do the tomatoes?
In situations like this, Su Zhiyan could only hope she would figure it out on her own, or directly focus on geometry, which she was good at, to boost her scores. But Shen Nianjing actually kept looking for learning methods that suited Su Zhiyao and really managed to teach her.
Su Zhiyan’s complicated emotions gradually calmed down. He turned to look at Shen Nianjing with frank eyes.
Shen Nianjing really was a friend who was very good at observing others and very thoughtful. He was not only patient, but also handled problems with great flexibility and ease.
Such friends were hard to come by.
Su Zhiyan didn’t want to affect his relationship with Shen Nianjing or their friendship because of one dream.
Although they met because of this dream, they couldn’t become distant because of it.
Thinking about this, Su Zhiyan felt a bit conflicted again.
Should he tell Shen Nianjing that the dream had evolved?
Given Shen Nianjing’s personality, he would definitely be very enthusiastic and directly suggest extending their contact time, and would be willing to try more things with Su Zhiyan.
No matter how he thought about it, this would be much more efficient than him secretly testing things on his own.
But somehow, suggesting “let’s spend more time in contact” and then sticking together every day… felt really weird.
This wasn’t just Su Zhiyan’s subjective opinion, but objectively speaking, it would look weird enough.
Su Zhiyan sighed softly and casually placed his phone on the table.
Whatever, he’d take it one step at a time.
His phone buzzed and the screen lit up.
Sent a new message
Su Zhiyan picked up his phone, but his hand paused as he swiped open the page.
“?” He felt like the previously noisy dorm had become much quieter.
He ignored it and casually tapped into the WeChat message.
Shen Nianjing slowed down his speech, his peripheral vision inadvertently drifting toward Su Zhiyan before looking away.
He ate his fried chicken. The chicken was crispy on the outside and tender inside, and the sauce was a flavor he liked, but it tasted bland to him.
Whether it was when he first entered the room or now, Su Zhiyan had barely said more than a few words to him, or even looked at him much.
He could see Su Zhiyan’s pale complexion and knew he definitely hadn’t rested well. He really wanted to ask about the reason, really wanted to know what he could do to help, really wanted to know if there was any way to help Su Zhiyan so he wouldn’t be troubled by sleep anymore.
But Su Zhiyan told him he slept very well.
A bitter taste seemed to fill his mouth. Shen Nianjing frowned slightly and put down the fried chicken to drink some iced soda.
The cold drink flowed down his throat, and the chill seemed to spread through his veins to his lungs. Shen Nianjing coughed lightly and put down the drink.
He probably wasn’t welcome.
Su Zhiyan was still looking at his phone. The person on the other end seemed very enthusiastic, constantly sending him messages. Although Su Zhiyan hadn’t typed a reply yet, Shen Nianjing knew that his patience in reading the other person’s messages meant he didn’t reject that person. On the contrary, it showed he actually liked that person.
Even if this “like” wasn’t that kind of “like.”
Shen Nianjing held his breath slightly. His chest felt like it was suffocated by water, making it hard to breathe.
Wen Bei was still happily devouring his skewers. He was the type who was careless and talkative. Even when no one paid attention to him, he could chatter on endlessly by himself. So even though Shen Nianjing’s responses were somewhat absent-minded, the whole dorm still seemed lively.
Meanwhile, Su Zhiyan was still reading Qu Fangming’s messages.
After replying, Su Zhiyan casually put his phone aside.
Wen Bei noticed and made an “oh” sound, looking meaningfully at Shen Nianjing, then at Su Zhiyan. “Message from Qu Fangming?”
Su Zhiyan: “Mm.”
Shen Nianjing frowned slightly.
Qu Fangming again.
That gay guy pretending to be straight.
Was his relationship with Su Zhiyan this good now?
Shen Nianjing’s chest rose and fell twice. He couldn’t help but look at Su Zhiyan, whose expression remained calm as always, showing no likes or dislikes, and even less revealing his attitude toward Qu Fangming.
Shen Nianjing couldn’t help thinking, did Su Zhiyan know that Qu Fangming was gay?
If he knew, would he distance himself from him like he did with his previous suitors?
His thoughts were chaotic, his heart inexplicably panicked, thinking wildly without reason.
Su Zhiyan had rejected many male suitors before…
He didn’t like men.
The realization stabbed Shen Nianjing’s heart, making it hard to breathe. He sat stiffly beside Su Zhiyan.
He liked Su Zhiyan, which didn’t seem any different from those suitors.
He seemed to have misunderstood all along. Su Zhiyan’s previous kindness to him was no different from how he treated Wen Bei.
Su Zhiyan remembered his favorite foods, just like he remembered Wen Bei’s.
Su Zhiyan could chat happily with him online, but he could also do the same with Qu Fangming.
What had he been so conceited about before?
What special qualities did he have that could attract Su Zhiyan and make him change his sexual orientation?
Nothing.
Shen Nianjing suddenly smiled bitterly, with a hint of self-mockery.
“He’s really attentive.” Wen Bei curled his lips in a smile, looking at Shen Nianjing with some schadenfreude. “Someone better work harder.”
Then he froze, the unspoken hint stuck in his throat.
Shen Nianjing’s eyes were vacant, his face full of sorrow, as if he had just suffered some major life trauma.
Wen Bei: “…?”
What did he miss?
Wait, dude?
Did he zone out? Hadn’t he been talking to Shen Nianjing the whole time? What did he say that made the guy so depressed?
“What do you mean attentive?” Su Zhiyan heard his word choice and corrected him seriously. “He’s just a bit overly enthusiastic, but as a friend he still has boundaries.”
Wen Bei chuckled, “Bound~aries~”
“Su Zhiyan,” his face was all smiles, “you can’t tell that freshman Qu Fangming is chasing you, can you?”
Shen Nianjing’s gaze shifted slightly in their direction.
“That shouldn’t be right.” Wen Bei said doubtfully. “You should be a veteran at this by now. If not a hundred, at least dozens, right? You can’t tell he likes you?”
Su Zhiyan opened his mouth but found himself speechless.
For some reason, he glanced at Shen Nianjing.
Shen Nianjing was staring blankly at the table, not paying attention to their conversation.
Somehow, he felt relieved.
“Impossible.” He said. “Not everyone who wants to be friends wants to date. Although his attitude toward studying math isn’t as serious as I imagined, he does have boundaries in how he acts. He’s just an ordinary friend, don’t overthink it.”
Wen Bei scoffed. “Oh.”
Shen Nianjing slowly took a deep breath of cold air.
Shamelessly speaking, he felt somewhat comfortaed because of Su Zhiyan’s words.
Am I really this petty? Shen Nianjing wondered silently.
Su Zhiyan didn’t like people without boundaries, and his excessive concern about Su Zhiyan’s social circle probably already put him in the category of people Su Zhiyan would dislike.
Shen Nianjing laughed bitterly to himself. Perhaps if it weren’t for the sake of his good sleep, Su Zhiyan would gradually distance himself from him because of the inappropriate thoughts in his heart.
Even though Su Zhiyan didn’t know about his feelings yet.
Shen Nianjing felt a bit panicked.
What if Su Zhiyan figured out his feelings for him?
Would he end up like those rejected suitors from before?
Unable to even be friends.
Shen Nianjing couldn’t control his wild thoughts, his mind in chaos, panicking over things that hadn’t even happened yet, worrying about every possibility.
His right elbow was gently bumped.
Shen Nianjing’s body stiffened slightly as he looked sideways.
Su Zhiyan had somehow moved closer to him.
Close enough that his elbow could touch his at any moment.
Shen Nianjing took a deep breath, looking in surprise at where their elbows were touching.
Even though it was getting cold and they were both wearing thick clothes, one in a sweater and one in a hoodie, even though the contact was through two layers of fabric…
He could still feel the warmth radiating from that spot, traveling up his arm and spreading through his bloodstream.
Shen Nianjing’s brow relaxed, warmth flooding his heart.
He subtly leaned to the right, getting even closer to Su Zhiyan.
“Hey.” Su Zhiyan spoke up, turning his face to look at him.
Shen Nianjing’s throat felt dry. “Mmm?” he responded stiffly.
“When we go to the hot springs this weekend, let’s room together.”
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