BSS - Chapter 59
Chapter 59
The room was exceptionally quiet, making Deng Chuan's voice seem particularly distinct. The chirping of cicadas outside formed a fine, dense net, blocking out all the noise and leaving a chamber of tranquility for her confession.
The Little Friend's voice carried its usual soothing calm, but her few sentences in Cantonese were truly clumsy. The unskilled pronunciation exposed a rare shyness, yet she spoke with such seriousness, such earnestness. The blatant effort revealed a blatant cuteness that was very hard to resist.
Stunned, Xu Wei stared blankly for several seconds before she reacted. Her mind, however, quickly captured these details within the short voice message, as if she had seized the key conditions for solving a problem. More than the words Deng Chuan had spoken, it was these details themselves that made her heart flutter uncontrollably.
Smiling, Xu Wei listened to the short voice message over and over with great interest.
She wasn't wearing headphones. Zhou Liu, who was nearby, heard Deng Chuan's voice, scrambled up on the sofa, and moved closer to her.
Xu Wei felt a weight on her leg and saw Zhou Liu stepping on it to nudge into her hand.
Zhou Liu was not light. Xu Wei reached out and pinched the scruff of the little cat's neck, the master of its fate.
"Don't mess around."
She said this to him, and the cat, held gently by the scruff, settled down, obediently letting her do as she pleased. Xu Wei shifted some of Zhou Liu's weight off her leg, soothingly smoothed the ruffled fur on his neck, and then pulled him into her arms. Cradling him, she called Deng Chuan.
The call was answered after just one ring. The person on the other end drew out her words with a voice full of laughter, "Hello-"
The background on Deng Chuan's end was also exceptionally quiet. Xu Wei could even hear her light breathing as she walked. She unconsciously counted in her head, scratching the chin of Zhou Liu, who had once again nudged into her palm. She curled her knees up and asked Deng Chuan, "Where are you?"
The coquettish tone in her voice was so thick that Xu Wei herself was taken aback for a moment after it came out.
The target of her coquetry on the other end of the line let out a silly laugh and said, "On my way, almost at the dorm."
"You just got back?"
"Yeah. I just got back to school not long ago."
Without waiting for Xu Wei to ask, Deng Chuan voluntarily and consciously laid out her entire morning's itinerary and feelings. "I left around seven this morning and went to Jingshan Park. I took a lot of nice photos, I'll show them to you when I get back tonight."
"On the way, I also met a little girl. She was super cute, with big eyes and a soft voice, and she was very polite. It seemed like her family was visiting Beijing. I took a group photo for them."
"We came back to school after lunch. Everyone in the Photography Association is really nice and took good care of me. Their president even offered me a part-time job as a model for a graduation project, and also…"
Xu Wei interrupted her, asking, "What part-time job?"
"She said her friend needs a model for her graduation project. I'm not too clear on the specifics, we haven't discussed it yet."
"Okay," Xu Wei said. "Be safe."
"I know."
Deng Chuan's voice had already returned to its calm state. She recounted everything with composure and confidence, as if the cuteness and shyness revealed in the voice message had been Xu Wei's illusion. Yet, subconsciously, Xu Wei still wanted to hear her talk more.
Xu Wei left the conversational space open for her, but unexpectedly, the Little Friend couldn't hold back any longer. "Did you listen to the voice message I sent?"
Xu Wei wanted to laugh again. She cleared her throat and said with deliberate calmness, "I did." Her tone was steady, and Deng Chuan couldn't detect anything unusual. On the other end, she laughed and explained further, "I learned it from the president of the Photography Association. She said she's from Guangzhou."
Xu Wei said, "You're quite good at using your resources."
The Little Friend's reply was swift. "Of course. How else would I be able to win you over?"
The next second, she heard Xu Wei hum ambiguously and ask her, "What did you say?"
"Nothing. I said I miss you a lot."
Deng Chuan heard Xu Wei burst out laughing, unable to hold it in.
"What are you laughing at?" Deng Chuan asked, but Xu Wei just laughed without speaking.
Her laughter made Deng Chuan's heart itch.
Deng Chuan was also very happy, because she had finally discovered that Xu Wei would laugh whenever she said this phrase. After laughing several times, Xu Wei finally grew tired. Only then did she slowly say over the phone, "Mmm- I miss you too."
Her Cantonese was much more standard than Deng Chuan's half-baked attempt, her pronunciation perfect, as solemn as an oath.
Deng Chuan's heart began to race again.
She pressed the earphone in her ear. Xu Wei's laughter was as if right beside her. She walked back to her dorm through the shadows of the buildings and trees and took the elevator upstairs. The corridor was silent; everyone was napping. Deng Chuan lowered her voice, saying "I miss you" to Xu Wei again and again, letting Xu Wei's laughter on the other end of the line intertwine with her longing, precious as pearls, scattering along the path she walked.
Finally, Xu Wei said, "Deng Chuan. Yesterday afternoon, we had a beautiful sunset here."
Deng Chuan hummed a soft agreement. She had seen the photos posted by the junior students on her Moments.
Xu Wei said, "I was looking out from the teaching building, and the sky was as red as the plums we ate together last time."
She said, "In that moment, I missed you so, so much."
In this moment, Deng Chuan wanted to see her immediately.
But thankfully, only two days of military training remained after the weekend. After that, two weeks of classes, and then it would be the National Day holiday. Deng Chuan held back from telling Xu Wei she was coming home for the holiday, enduring the difficulty of it to prepare a surprise for her.
After the military training ended, they officially began their classes. Deng Chuan found the undergraduate courses much more relaxed than high school. They didn't require extensive memorization over a wide range of topics, and the difficulty of her major courses wasn't too great for her. She could even handle calculus and linear algebra, which gave most people headaches.
Compared to the tense final year of high school, the course schedule and study situation suddenly gave her a lot more free time.
It was the recruitment season for first-year students. Interest clubs and student organizations were all recruiting, and their flyers and recruitment booths were visible everywhere on campus. Zhou Zhi joined the tennis club. Xie Yao went for a look and regretfully reported that the senior sister who interviewed her for the anime club shipped a rival CP. Li Mingtang couldn't be bothered with these interest clubs at all; she was, however, very interested in the Student Union.
Deng Chuan, as she had agreed with Liang Xue, attended the interview for the Photography Association. The three interviewers were people she had met and had a meal with at Jingshan Park a few days ago. They went through the motions and let her pass. Liang Xue was also one of the interviewers. Seeing her, she smiled and nodded. "Junior Sister."
There were other interviewees present, so Deng Chuan couldn't act too familiar with her. She just nodded a greeting and went to sit in the back. As soon as she sat down, she received a WeChat message from Liang Xue.
Liang Xue: Junior Sister, how did the chat with my friend go?
The question stunned Deng Chuan for a moment. She realized Liang Xue was talking about the modeling job for her friend's graduation project and replied: We're meeting this weekend at the Luckin next to the East Gate.
Liang Xue's friend was a fourth-year senior sister from P University's art school. She introduced herself as Gu, a very sharp person. She first sent her own resume, then her past representative works. It seemed she had seen Deng Chuan's photos, as she quickly suggested a time and place to meet after just a few messages.
Deng Chuan happened to be going to the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base next to the East Gate that weekend for an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition she had joined, so they agreed to meet at the Luckin next to the East Gate.
The teammates for the competition were mostly Deng Chuan's classmates. It started with someone in the class group chat asking who was interested in participating. One thing led to another, and they formed a team, created a group chat, and started discussing what topic to choose for the competition project.
The people who proactively formed a team to compete were all highly motivated. After a few rounds of getting used to each other, their discussions became more and more efficient. Overall, the communication was very positive.
There was a lot to do. On the weekend, Deng Chuan first went to the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base for a meeting with her advisor and team members. The project proposal was submitted by the group for the advisor's review. The topic their group submitted was about the development of a smart campus, aiming to create a smart AI for university students that integrates materials, plagiarism checks, and question banks, initially covering the professional courses of various departments in P University's School of Economics and Management.
The group did a preliminary division of labor based on the project proposal, assigned related research tasks, and then dismissed the meeting.
Deng Chuan took her materials and left the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base, heading towards the East Gate. It was evening, and a brilliant red sunset painted the sky, making the eyes of the students coming and going seem especially bright. But it was almost time for her appointment. Deng Chuan paid no mind to the beautiful scenery above her head, hurried through the East Gate, jogged all the way, and pushed open the door of the Luckin to look inside.
The Senior Sister Gu had said five minutes ago that she had arrived, wearing a black slip dress with long, curly hair.
Deng Chuan looked around and saw a young woman in the left corner waving at her.
Long curly hair, black slip dress. Deng Chuan walked over, sat down opposite her, and extended her hand to introduce herself, "Hello, Senior Sister. I'm Deng Chuan."
"Gu Ninglu." To Deng Chuan's surprise, although Gu Ninglu's tone was light, her handshake was firm.
"I bought you a coconut latte." She tilted her chin slightly towards Deng Chuan. "I don't know if you like it."
"Thank you, Senior Sister." It was just a cup of coffee. Deng Chuan wasn't coy. She nodded at her and took a generous sip.
Gu Ninglu lit up the tablet beside her and handed it over. "This is my graduation project. The actual pieces are in my studio. Take a look first. If you're satisfied, we can go directly to my studio."
Her hand tapped the table rhythmically. Her nails were exquisitely manicured, making a crisp sound on the tabletop. A car key lay beside her.
The pictures Gu Ninglu showed her were photos of the actual clothes on a mannequin. The cut of the fabric didn't follow the rules of modern clothing, and the use of color was bold. There were culottes, a large piece of fabric like a trench coat but irregular, with an inner layer and some fabric decorations on the shoulders. Deng Chuan couldn't quite understand it, only thinking that perhaps this was art.
Gu Ninglu observed Deng Chuan's expression while explaining, "The theme of my design is: beauty without gender. There are also some earrings and accessories, which aren't in the pictures."
Although Deng Chuan didn't understand, she maintained a neutral expression as she flipped through the pages. Seeing no outfits she couldn't accept, she decided to take this well-paying part-time job. So she returned the tablet to Gu Ninglu, looked at her seriously, and said, "Senior Sister's design is beautiful. I'm willing to be your model."
The praise in her tone was one hundred percent sincere.
Comments
Post a Comment