When they arrived at the student’s dormitory, the teacher of the Foreign Language Institute greeted them at the entrance of the apartment. When he saw the dark-haired, black-eyed Jiang Yi and blond-haired Evan, who were speaking Chinese without any difficulty, the English teacher in charge of communication realized that he was a bit redundant, so he hurriedly gave a brief explanation to Su Hang and three others, and went next door to seek comfort from the Japanese and Korean students.
The student dormitory was for two. Growing up in China, Jiang Yi had never heard of any college dormitory that was only for two people, and only now that he had become an actual exchange student did he enjoy such treatment.
When the student council left, Evan also left Jiang Yi alone in the room and ran away with the girl who had long curly brown hair on the grounds that he wanted to visit the campus. Instead of feeling lonely or betrayed, Jiang Yi felt relieved and used an excuse to talk to Su Hang alone. After closing the door, he went straight in and asked, “Do you know him?”
Su Hang was unsure, “Who?”
Jiang Yi, “Chu Chuan.”
“We are roommates.” Su Hang was surprised, “how do you know his name?”
Jiang Yi was startled.
In his previous life, after the college entrance examination results came out that year, he turned around to several people to get Chu Chuan’s mobile number and then inquired them about his major on Wechat– computer, which was one of the most popular majors in A university.
He didn’t know from where the self-confidence came from, or it’s just the passion of not hitting the wall [1] and not turning back or it was just a rush of adrenaline when he was a teenager. Jiang Yi filled in the computer course thinking nothing and ticked the column “do not accept professional allocation.” without giving any thoughts.
Fortunately, He probably got lucky later, entered the computer department smoothly, and was even assigned to the same dormitory with Chu Chuan. The next day when he was with Chu Chuan, Jiang Yi wandered around and found out the office of the teacher in charge of the freshman’s dormitory allocations, and quietly put a pile of candies on his desk.
It was just that, in the four years of college of his rebirth, he had never even met Chu Chuan before, let alone think of such a familiar relationship of being a roommate. After thinking about it, it was still because he didn’t pass the entrance exam of A University. This resulted in the current situation and Su Hang filled the vacant roommate spot in Chu Chuan’s dormitory instead of him.
“Have you forgotten? He and I are high school alumni “
Jiang Yi recovered from his thoughts and smiled radiantly, pulling off the sheet from Su Hang’s hand and tossed it over the back of the chair. After that he gave Su Hang a can of Pepsi from the vending machine in the lobby downstairs, and pulled off the pull ring of another can of Coke with his own hand, then gently bumped it against the rim of the Pepsi can in Su Hang’s hand.
“Thank you for staying and helping me make my bed. How about making friends? I’ll treat you to dinner in the evening.”
But the bed hasn’t been made yet.
Su Hang glanced at the man who was sitting by the bed with his legs split and gulping down a coke. He swallowed the sentence back into his stomach and shook his head, “It’s ok to be friends, but dinner isn’t. That is my job. “
“All right, then.” Jiang Yi nodded and hurriedly changed the topic “do you have your campus card?”
“Yes. Do you want to borrow it? If you are not in a hurry to use it now, someone will help you apply for your campus card on Monday.”
Jiang Yi shook his head and smiled again, revealing his eight straight teeth, “Why don’t you treat me to your college’s cafeteria in the evening?”
Every dormitory area of a university A has canteens. Among all the cafeterias, the best cafeteria with the best dishes and taste are the three cafeterias in the block of foreign student’s dormitory. When Su Hang raised his feet to go to the cafeteria, Jiang Yi pulled him in and asked, “Which cafeteria do you usually eat in?”
Su Hang, “Second cafeteria.”
Jiang Yi, “Then let’s go to the second cafeteria.”
Su Hang was silent for two seconds and truthfully told, “Chu Chuan rarely eats in the cafeteria.”
Ten minutes later, they were sitting face to face by the French window in the second cafeteria.
Jiang Yi looked down at the Chinese food on the plate that he had not eaten for two years but did not show any nostalgia. He picked up a piece of spicy chicken and threw it into his mouth, chewed it twice in a pretentious manner, and then made his intentions abundantly clear.
“As you can see, I sought you out for dinner to ask about Chu Chuan.” He frowned in annoyance, “I think you can tell that I’m far more interested in him than in a normal male relationship. I like him.”
“So-” he leaned forward slightly, showing some eagerness and longing, “Does he have a girlfriend now?”
“I thought you should know.” Su Hang looked at him and said, “Chu Chuan does not fall in love with a girl.”
Jiang Yi thought Su Hang knows the truth, it must mean they have a good relationship as roommates.
Jiang Yi took a deep breath. His Adam’s Apple rolled slowly, and there was some hesitation on his face. “Then can you tell me–”
Before he could complete his own words, his heart flinched. Jiang Yi did not notice for a moment, and his teeth were clenching on his tongue. The pain spread from the tip of his tongue, which made him woke up, and then he asked Su Hang clearly and quickly, “can you tell me if Chu Chuan is with Chu Jia Ri now?”
Su Hang nodded, “Yes.”
In just two words, it was like crossing rivers and mountains. After a long period of ups and downs, he felt like the pain trekked all the way through the medulla of the brain and finally arrived at his cerebral cortex. He gave a soft, “Oh”, and hid his face in the shadow of the backlight.
After a long time, he murmured to himself, “After all, Chu Jia Ri and I have known each other for a long time. I have been competing with him on an equal footing since before and desultorily prying into the matter… is not good.”
“…I used to show off in front of him all the time, but now… I guess the heavens couldn’t stand it and sent me here to taste the bitterness.”
“…The world out of the original track has nothing to do with my past memory. It can only be regarded as a parallel world.”
“…Therefore, the present Chu Chuan is no longer the original Chu Chuan.”
“Come to think of it, what’s the use of prying into the matter, it’s better to not do something like this. Maybe when I wake up, I’ll still be in our double bed, and it’s Chu Jia Ri who was daydreaming, not me.” As if to convince himself, Jiang Yi raised his head and said, “What do you think?”
Su Hang did not understand what he said, but he understood the word “pry into the matter” and answered him seriously.
“Yes.”
Jiang Yi said in a steady tone, “I see.”
What Su Hang didn’t say was that he was nineteen years old and had seen many people’s happy and sad faces. Middle school students who failed their final exams would feel like the sky was falling and bawl their eyes out in desperation. College students who had broken up and lost their love would sit at a late-night barbecue and sneer at their exes.
But he had never seen anyone like Jiang Yi, who can completely separate the sadness on his face from himself. Listening to Jiang Yi’s words like that, even though Jiang Yi looked like he lost his soul, his tone was still calm. He seemed to split into two different people, sad and indifferent to anything at the same time.
Su Hang felt that a twenty-year-old college student should not have such heavy emotions.
[1] to reach a point when you are running, exercising, playing sports, etc. where you are so physically tired you feel you cannot continue