After completing the general examinations in the last week, the New Year’s Ball came as scheduled.
Saintston was caught in a frenzy after the tension, and the teacher allowed the students who were about to enter the holidays to chat and sleep in class, relaxing for the last few days. On the morning of the dance, the whole school was assembled. Listening to the speeches of the school leaders and the representatives of the student union for two hours, occasionally interspersed with performances such as singing, it did not seem so dull. When Shen Shuting came out, Jian Chi could clearly feel the energy of the people around him become alert instead of being drowsy. Zhang Yang, who was sitting next to him, came over and commented in a low voice: “This looks like a real prince.”
Jian Chi couldn’t help laughing at this title, thinking that Shen Shuting on stage was still giving a speech, he just curved his lips, “Very appropriate.”
“In the first year, someone dubbed him a prince on HS,” Zhang Yang said with disgust. “Although he looks like a prince, his temper is more like the prince’s vicious stepmother. The president himself should hate this title, since no one dared to call him that after.”
It was conceivable that this face had an expression of repulsion and disgust, Jian Chi had seen it many times.
When night fell, the lengthened Lincoln stopped in front of the school gate one after another, and out walked a group of elegant girls in evening dresses. The sweet perfume and gentle laughter that belonged to women gradually filled the entire Saintston, and the restlessness in the hearts of everyone began to indulge in the melodious violin dance music.
Jian Chi put on the white suit, and Zhang Yang, who was waiting outside, specially ordered a look. Wheat-colored skin paired with a light-colored suit looked particularly sunny and healthy. He looked at Jian Chi, who lowered his head to lock the door, and said a little unexpectedly, “Aren’t you wearing that black suit?”
The movement of his hand paused for a moment, then Jian Chi took out the key and put it in his pocket, walking towards the direction of the auditorium, “No.” After that, he didn’t explain further.
Zhang Yang seemed to understand something. He touched his nose, then his eyes lit up when he looked around, and he waved to the front, “Wen Chuan!”
Someone around looked over. Zhang Yang waved to him without minding at all, and Jian Chi couldn’t help but be drawn away.
In the evening, the sky was covered with gray, and Wen Chuan, who was standing outside the auditorium, was wearing an ordinary black suit. Standing there doing nothing, he still attracted many girls to whisper. He tied his long satin-black hair behind his head, and a few strands of fine bangs hung down on his fair cheeks. He turned around when he heard Zhang Yang’s voice, his indifferent eyebrows fluctuated slightly. By the time Jian Chi walked in front of him, he couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
“Why didn’t you go in first?” Zhang Yang stepped up and joked, “You wouldn’t be waiting for us, right?”
Wen Chuan didn’t explain, and watched Jian Chi silently for a long while. When he walked into the auditorium, his pace was slower than usual, as if waiting for the people behind him to catch up, “The clothes are beautiful.”
It wasn’t until after walking for a while that Jian Chi realized that the latter sentence seemed to be said to him, and now it seemed abrupt to add a word of ‘thank you’. He was thinking about what to say when he was interrupted by Zhang Yang: “Jian Chi, look at the girl with the short hair and the yellow skirt at twelve o’clock.”
Jian Chi took advantage of the situation to look over, and in front of him stood a chestnut short-haired girl who was joking with her companion. She was wearing a bright yellow overflowing skirt. The jewelry on her wrist and neck reflected a lot of diamond light, which was as dazzling and beautiful as her smile. She seemed to notice that someone was looking at her. She tilted her head to Zhang Yang and raised the wine glass in her hand, smiling with eight neat teeth.
After getting accustomed to being surrounded by the same sex every day, the scent of a women’s perfume made Jian Chi feel a little restrained and nervous, he was not used to it. Zhang Yang’s mind seemed to have been hooked away, and he smiled back at the girl with a handsome smile. In fact, most of Saintston’s students have already picked up their wine glasses and traveled freely in the huge auditorium, chatting and laughing with those well-dressed girls. Some had already sent out requests and countless couples were dancing in the middle of the dance floor.
“I’ve seen that girl before,” Zhang Yang said in a low voice, “I added her HS at the dance last year, and we chatted a few times. Jian Chi, wait here, I’ll go over to say hello.”
This ‘wait’ probably meant that there was no follow-up. Jian Chi gave Zhang Yang a ‘good luck’ look, took a glass of light red liquid from the waiter’s tray, took a sip, and then It was taken by Wen Chuan next to him, his indifferent voice succinct: “Drink less.”
“I thought it was a normal drink,” Jian Chi recalled the bitter taste in his mouth and smiled, “It doesn’t matter if I drink it once in a while. Tomorrow is the New Year. You should have fun too. Isn’t your grandma out of danger? Don’t worry too much.”
“En,” Wen Chuan eased down a little, his thumb slowly moved to the outer wall of the wine glass, and his thin lips parted lightly, “Zhang Yang said that on Sunday, you and Ji Huaisi left school.”
Jian Chi didn’t expect Wen Chuan to suddenly ask this, and nodded, “He asked me for some matter.”
“Is this suit new?” Wen Chuan didn’t respond to his last sentence, but asked quietly, “I haven’t seen it before.”
Jian Chi hesitated for a while, “I borrowed it from someone.”
Although he didn’t say who it was, Wen Chuan seemed to have guessed the candidate. He pursed the corners of his cold lips, put the wine glass aside, slowly put it into his left pocket, paused, and seemed to have something to say to Jian Chi, “I…”
“Shao Hang is here.”
The voices of others interrupted Wen Chuan’s words, and also took away Jian Chi’s attention.
The music seemed to stop for a moment, and all eyes were focused on the main entrance of the auditorium. Shao Hang was wearing a black dark-patterned suit. The fabric wrapped around a strong chest and a well-proportioned waist. The long legs under the suit pants seemed to have just come out of a magazine, and the unruly red hair was neatly combed to the back of his head. His brows seemed to deepen. There was a faint smile on his lips, and it seemed that he had long been used to the feeling of being watched by everyone. He walked into the center of the auditorium at a leisurely pace.
Most people wear a suit with a formal feel, only Shao Hang made people feel that he could take out a gun from behind or pull off a tie to fight on the spot in the next second. The suit had only a tight sense of restraint from an oncoming ruffian like him.
Jian Chi could hear some people whispering around, including those girls from McCurry Girls’ Academy who were also talking about Shao Hang’s name with fear and curiosity. Obviously these two words were not unfamiliar in their circle. A pure-looking girl held up a glass of wine and walked in the direction of Shao Hang with her swan-like neck raised. Without saying a word, Shao Hang bypassed her directly. The uncontrollable laughter around made the originally confident girl’s face blush to the neck, and she lifted her skirt to leave a somewhat embarrassed figure.
“It’s really too much,” someone laughed beside him, “Doesn’t she know that Shao Hang never accepts an invitation to dance together?”
“She must have been very confident in herself, and did not expect to be rejected.”
In the eyes of these people, Shao Hang’s ignoring was assumed. Instead, it was the girl who took the initiative, who was being looked up and down by some people with unkind eyes.
Jian Chi sighed silently in his heart. Shao Hang penetrated the crowd like a predator locking onto a prey, staring straight at him. Even at a distance of a few meters, Jian Chi felt a suffocating feeling of being strangled by the neck, and subconsciously hid behind the others. But it was too late. Shao Hang’s low and sullen voice came from afar as he stepped over: “Why didn’t you wear the suit I gave you?”
There seemed to be a few eyes looking over. Fortunately, the auditorium was spacious enough and the violin sound was loud enough. Jian Chi lowered his head to avoid the scrutiny. Even though he held back the irony he wanted to refute, he just answered perfunctorily: “Forgot to.”
The reason didn’t make sense, so he just followed Shao Hang’s train of thought, but Shao Hang was obviously not easy to fool. He swept over Wen Chuan who was standing in front of Jian Chi, squinted his eyes, and the smile on his lips contained a hint of sarcasm. He said with a ‘tsk’, neither light nor heavy, “It’s strange, a dog can also be let in? The clothes were given by the Fu family? I was wondering why it was so shabby.”
Wen Chuan’s fist tightened little by little, his whole body like a tight sculpture, indifferently meeting Shao Hang’s disdainful gaze, and for a long while, he didn’t refute a word.
“Shao Hang,” Jian Chi’s chest was full of agitation, almost like a rare anger. He walked out and stood in front of Wen Chuan, his voice was one step faster than his brain, “Shut up if you can’t speak. Also, you have to apologize to Wen Chuan.”
“You want me to apologize to him?”
A rhetorical question, full of indomitable arrogance and faint anger.
This sentence seemed to have completely ignited Shao Hang’s fuse, his voice was so deep that he was shaking. The picture of him standing with Wen Chuan was too conspicuous, and many people have already started watching. Melodious dance music, intimate boys and girls on the dance floor, and people with wine glasses next to them, they were whispering and curiously discussing with their companions. Jian Chi pressed his temples like he had a headache, it really was a prophecy, and he couldn’t escape the fate of being watched like a monkey.
Of course, he could choose to follow Shao Hang, put on the clothes and watch he gave him, and make this young master happy, but why?
Shao Hang was unreasonable, why should he listen to his out of line thoughts? Thinking of Shao Hang breaking into his dorm room again against his wishes, Jian Chi only felt a lingering annoyance.
Seeing that Jian Chi didn’t speak, Shao Hang simply grabbed his wrist and was stopped by Wen Chuan in the middle. Someone around gave an exclamation. Just before the confrontation filled with gunpowder smoke was about to begin, a gentle and steady voice interspersed in, caressing him, smoothing out this frizz.
“What are you all doing here?” Ji Huaisi, wearing a gray suit, came from the crowd, walking calmly and elegantly, with a white rose brooch on his chest, his smile remained unchanged on Shao Hang’s worried face, “The way you greet each other is so special every time, you can’t blame Wen Chuan for misunderstanding. Let go of your hand first, you will scare the others.”
Taking advantage of the moment when Shao Hang was distracted, Jian Chi pulled out his wrist and heard Wen Chuan whispering beside him, “Sorry, there are too many people here, so I can’t make a move directly. Are you alright?”
“It’s alright, don’t be impulsive.” Jian Chi didn’t know whether to be grateful or to stop him first, but when he looked down, his wrist had turned red.
“Jian Chi,” Ji Huaisi didn’t care about Shao Hang anymore, and after approaching, he smiled warmly at Jian Chi in front of him, deeper than before, “The clothes really suit you.”
Jian Chi didn’t react, let alone notice the change in Shao Hang’s eyes at this moment, and replied, “Thank you.”
“If you want to thank me, how about a dance together?”
New dance music played, Ji Huaisi curled the corner of his lips and stretched out his right hand of invitation to Jian Chi, with a calm and elegant posture, hardly making people realize that he was inviting a man just like him.
Jian Chi’s heart seemed to be bumped by something, and he was stunned. He replayed this sentence over and over several times, only to be sure that Ji Huaisi really looked into his eyes and said this invitation.
Invite him to… dance?
At the moment when the atmosphere was stagnant, Shao Hang sounded from the side with a dangerous voice, forcibly interrupting word by word: “You can’t accept anyone’s invitation without my permission.”