TMISIU – chapter 26

Wei Ying ran back to the empty bedroom on the fourth floor with the fastest speed.

Before the lights could be turned on, he ran to the balcony to open the window and looked downstairs.

On weekend nights, there were only a few street lights that were not even bright on the campus, but fortunately, the short road from the dormitory building to the school gate could barely be seen.

Wei Ying panted slightly, standing on tiptoe and sticking his head out the window to look for Lan Zhan, but after a while, he didn’t see him.

Did Lan Zhan walk so fast?

Wei Ying unwillingly waited for a while, and finally saw Lan Zhan’s figure appear in the gloomy night lights.

He didn’t know why Lan Zhan spent so long downstairs. He just looked at Lan Zhan’s back as before, no, harder than before.

This was his most accustomed and relaxed angle, so there was no need to worry about being discovered by Lan Zhan.

Just like when people looked up at the moon, they never worried about whether the moon cared about their gaze.

But Wei Ying suddenly saw Lan Zhan stop, then turned around and looked up at the dormitory building.

At that moment, Wei Ying’s heart shrinked violently.

Was Lan Zhan looking at him?

This guess made his hair tremble with excitement.

He hurriedly raised his hand to Lan Zhan and waved, but suddenly realized that he hadn’t turned on the light yet so Lan Zhan couldn’t see him.

Wei Ying hurriedly went to turn on the light on the balcony, but when he returned to the window, he saw Lan Zhan had already turned around and continued to walk towards the school gate.

A huge loss came over his face, followed by unwillingness that suddenly rose up.

Wei Ying took out the phone from his pocket, unlocked it quickly with his fingers, searched for Lan Zhan’s phone number, and pressed it in a hurry.

He looked at Lan Zhan’s figure nervously while waiting to be connected, and when he saw that he had stopped, he lowered his head as if he was looking at the phone.

The call was connected.

Lan Zhan didn’t speak, only the sound of very shallow breathing could be heard, he turned and looked up at the dormitory building.

Wei Ying didn’t know what to say, he called him on impulse.

“Wei Ying?”

Lan Zhan whispered his name and looked up at him, as if he knew which room he was in.

Wei Ying opened his mouth, looked at Lan Zhan in the night, and plucked up the courage to say:

“Lan Zhan, I want to say goodnight to you.”

I want to say good morning, good afternoon, and good night to you every day.

Lan Zhan seemed to laugh, and said to him: “Say.”

Wei Ying paused and said seriously:

“Lan Zhan, good night.”

“Wei Ying, good night.”

Lan Zhan had a soft voice.

This scene was actually a bit weird.

One person was upstairs and the other was downstairs, looking at each other, not yet the time to sleep, but they said goodnight to each other on the phone.

Wei Ying couldn’t help but laugh, his eyes filled with shining stars again. It seemed that everything went really well tonight and he could sleep peacefully without any worries.

“I’m done, see you tomorrow!”

Wei Ying hung up the phone as soon as he finished, afraid he wouldn’t be able to hang up later.

He watched Lan Zhan put down his phone, turned around and walked towards the school gate again, until he couldn’t see him at all before he returned to the room.

After taking a shower as usual, he washed the clothes he changed out of and dried them on the balcony.

Then he sat on the chair and started doing practice papers.

There was a rare calm in his heart.

It was as if he had gained endless courage in the hug and good night just now, even though it was just a one-sided hug.

He found that whenever he was indulged in a ridiculous fate, Lan Zhan would always pull him out of the dark river, so that he could see that the world was full of stars and dreams.

Just thought of what he saw in the hospital at night as a dream.

When he woke up from the dream, he still had to try to live a good life.

---

When Lan Zhan returned to Hospital, Jiang Cheng was already asleep, and the two old persons were also persuaded by Gu Yihan to go back to rest.

Only Gu Yihan was guarding the bed in the ward.

Gu Yihan noticed that Lan Zhan came in, and made a shushing gesture towards Lan Zhan.

She got up and checked the drainage bottle on Jiang Cheng’s chest, and touched Jiang Cheng’s forehead affectionately before walking out of the ward with Lan Zhan.

“Where have you been? A-Cheng has been looking for you.” Gu Yihan closed the door and asked Lan Zhan in the corridor.

Lan Zhan looked at Gu Yihan’s red eyes and said briefly: “Send Wei Ying back to school.”

Only then did Gu Yihan remember that the student named Wei Ying had inexplicably come and left at night. She wondered in her heart and asked.

“Just ask Song Zichen to send him back, why should you follow along?”

Lan Zhan didn’t answer her question and turned to say, “You should also rest early, you have a concert performance tomorrow.”

Gu Yihan shook her head, raised her hand and rubbed her eyebrows. The sadness of the whole night made her really tired, and she couldn’t help but confide in her son:

“I don’t rest assured. Every time A-Cheng gets sick, I always think of A’Se. If I could stop her at that time regardless of everything, not letting her go nowhere, going so far away, would she have ….”

Gu Yihan began to choke in the middle of speaking, and the nerves that collapsed all night finally relaxed.

Lan Zhan handed a tissue to his mother. He looked at the unmanned bench and said after a moment of silence.

“It has been a long time, and Aunt Sanren definitely doesn’t want you to feel guilty for her forever, she won’t blame you.”

Gu Yihan wiped away the tears with a tissue.

In fact, she rarely mentioned Cangse Sanren in front of Lan Zhan. She knew that her son didn’t like Cangse Sanren, but she didn’t know why tonight, and she had been a little nervous and flustered, as if to foreshadow something that she had overlooked.

“Zhan, mother knows that you must have no way to understand in your heart, and blame me for being unable to let go of the past. Maybe when you grow up and meet the most important person in your life, you will gradually understand how I feel, but I hope you will never be like mother, because cowardice and hesitation cause regrets in your life.”

Lan Zhan didn’t say a word.

This was the first time his mother had been so honest with him about her feelings for Cangse Sanren.

A long time ago, he had indeed blamed Gu Yihan and had developed a hint of hatred for the woman who had died.

He had lived in the shadow of Cangse Sanren since he was a child.

There were traces of her everywhere in the house, and even his own name cherished her memory.

Gu Yihan’s extreme preference for Jiang Cheng was also unfair to him, but he, like his father, would not show most of his emotions.

Everyone felt that he was born mature, alienated and indifferent to everything.

But a long time ago, he also had expectations for his home, expecting his home to be as normal and joyful as an ordinary family, and expecting his parents to give him all the attention and love.

Later, he gradually let go.

After all, if it were not for Jiang Cheng, Gu Yihan might still be unable to get out of depression, then he would not even have a chance to see his mother.

He could only hope that his relatives were well, and no longer asked for anything else.

Lan Zhan held Gu Yihan’s hand and said in a low voice, “I didn’t blame you, I just hope you can be happier. This is also my dad’s hope.”

Gu Yihan was slightly startled, she smiled and said: “Speaking of this, I haven’t seen your dad for a long time, how is he?”

Lan Zhan wanted to say something but stopped.

In the end, he couldn’t hold back and said: “He’s fine, and he’s always concerned about you.”

Gu Yihan was silent for a while.

She was not completely ignorant of what Lan Xichen did for her. She also took the initiative to ask Lan Xichen for a divorce, but Lan Xichen did not agree.

After that, Lan Xichen almost stopped showing up in front of her for fear of disturbing her.

She did not continue the topic, instead she said, “That classmate named Wei Ying is a bit like A’Se. You seem to like this friend very much?”

Lan Zhan frowned and said in a deep voice: “He doesn’t look like anyone.”

His tone was serious, but he didn’t refute the second half of the sentence.

Gu Yihan knew that he had lost his tongue, smiled and said.

“Since you like this friend, you will have the opportunity to invite him to play at home in the future.”

Lan Zhan stretched his eyebrows and let out an ‘en’.

---

Wei Ying didn’t have a good night. He had a dream all night, dreaming that he was lying on a hospital bed with cold wires in his body.

His grandparents wiped their tears and called him “dear grandson”, and Lan Zhan held his hand as if to say something.

He struggled for a long time in his dream and finally heard Lan Zhan calling him “Cheng”.

Wei Ying woke up in shock, still in a trance with the pain of being filled with a tube.

At that moment, he suddenly really wasn’t jealous of Jiang Cheng.

As the midterm exam was approaching, the atmosphere in the class became more and more tense. Even Nei Huaisang stopped playing basketball at noon and stayed in the classroom.

Wei Ying knew that embracing the Buddha’s feet was far better than holding Lan Zhan’s thighs.

Every day he went to Lan Zhan to talk about various topics in a fancy way. He gradually realized that Lan Zhan had been more and more indulgent towards him since he went to the hospital that day.

At least Lan Zhan would answer his questions every time, although the words were still pitiful.

This allowed him to start to take advantage of the situation again.

Under the quilt in the middle of the night, he even asked Lan Zhan to solve the problem and Lan Zhan was basically responsive, like an intelligent question bank AI.

If Lan Zhan didn’t reply, he would send out the emojis he got from Nei Huaisang, one after another, cats, dogs, chickens, gooses, like the animal world.

After sending twenty messages, Lan Zhan finally replied to him with an ellipsis.

Lan Zhan: What about the question?

Wei Ying: On the top

Lan Zhan: Too lazy to scroll

Wei Ying posted the photo of the question again. It was a math problem, as difficult as Olympiad questions. He did it for twenty minutes and didn’t manage to solve it.

In less than three minutes, Lan Zhan wrote the complete answering process and sent it over.

Wei Ying sent a picture of a rooster jumping over.

Lan Zhan:?

Wei Ying: Jumping sour chicken

Lan Zhan: …

As soon as the club activities ended on Sunday, Zhou Lusi took Wei Ying straight to his grandfather Zhou Wanghan’s house.

The old man lived in an old red-roofed bungalow in the city center. The location was good but quiet.

Out of courtesy, Wei Ying also spent a huge sum of money to buy a bunch of precious fruits that he had never eaten.

Thinking about seeing Zhou Wanghan later, should he bow first to show respect.

When he arrived at the Zhou’s house, Zhou Wanghan was wearing an old gray sweater and stepping on rubber boots to grow vegetables in the garden.

There was no such thing as a great painter’s immortality.

Seeing the granddaughter and Wei Ying coming in, without looking up, he directly ordered: “Not going to work!”

Zhou Lusi wore a short skirt and was extremely unhappy. She went to the toilet as an excuse.

Wei Ying greeted “Hello, Grandpa Zhou”, and walked after putting down the fruit.

He grew up doing farm work, so his actions were quick and smooth. It didn’t take long to help Zhou Wanghan finish the work.

Zhou Wanghan raised his waist with a hoe and looked at Wei Ying, his eyes were sharp, and Wei Ying’s palms were sweating from the stare.

“What is your name?”

“Wei Ying.”

Zhou Wanghan nodded and said, “From now on, you’ll be a student of Zhou Wanghan.”

Wei Ying looked at Zhou Wanghan in shock. He couldn’t believe that it was as simple as that.

Zhou Wanghan walked into the bungalow with a hoe, and muttered all the way: “Finally, I’ve found someone to help me grow vegetables.”

“…” Wei Ying did not expect that he had become a student of a great painter through his vegetable growing skills.

“Not coming?!” Zhou Wanghan turned around and reminded him.

Wei Ying followed Zhou Wanghan to the studio on the third floor.

“Why do you want to learn to paint?” Zhou Wanghan took a few sips of water while sitting on the Huanghuali wood armchair, and finally asked a question that should be asked.

Wei Ying thought for a while and said frankly: “One is because I like it. The other is because I want to make money, make a lot of money.”

Lan Zhan told him that his paintings should have a higher value and be appreciated by more people.

His understanding was that his paintings must be sold for more money, so that they could buy a house and start a family.

Zhou Wanghan squinted his eyes, nodded and smiled: “Yes, honest enough, not pretending to be big and empty in front of the old man.”

“I have seen your paintings, they have a bit of charm but it’s not enough to make a lot of money as you said. Come over during the holidays in the future. Help me with farming and I will teach you, how about it?”

Wei Ying nodded hurriedly and said respectfully, “Thank you, teacher.”

Zhou Wanghan looked at Wei Ying again, and couldn’t help saying, “You really look like a female student of mine from many years ago. It is a pity that the child looked well-behaved, but her character was very stubborn, ruining her life and a promising future for a man who doesn’t deserve it.”

He sighed, with regret in his eyes. His face became serious, and he asked Wei Ying sharply, “Are you in love?”

Wei Ying was taken aback, shook his head hurriedly and said, “Not yet.”

Zhou Wanghan’s face calmed down a bit, and he touched his beard and said: “Yes, not like my good-for-nothing granddaughter who only knows how to fall in love all day long. Since you are my student, you have to listen to me. Puppy love is not allowed before graduating from high school, you know?”

Wei Ying was reluctant, and Zhou Wanghan glared at this hesitation.

“Understood, teacher.”

He reluctantly agreed, not understanding why the two of them cared so much about his puppy love.

Wei Ying stayed in the studio in the afternoon and studied oil painting with Zhou Wanghan, and only once he learned it did he realize that his natural painting skills were nothing.

It was already six o’clock after the class.

Wei Ying followed Zhou Wanghan from the third floor down to the living room on the first floor and saw two people sitting in the living room, one was Zhou Lusi who was eating the fruit he bought, and the other was actually Lan Zhan.

Wei Ying almost couldn’t believe his eyes, standing in place and staring at Lan Zhan in a daze.

Zhou Wanghan saw Lan Zhan at a glance and went over to him, smiling and joking:

“The Lan family’s son has grown so tall. I told your grandfather several times to let you come over to play, but you didn’t come. Why did you think of visiting this old man today?”

Lan Zhan stood up and smiled at Zhou Wanghan before saying in a polite tone:

“Grandpa asked me to come over to give the invitation for the birthday banquet at the end of the month.” As he said, he handed the invitation card on the coffee table to Zhou Wanghan.

Wei Ying felt his heart like a hydrogen balloon instantly floating to the sky, he took a few steps to Lan Zhan’s side, his eyes shining brightly at him.

Lan Zhan looked down at him and asked calmly: “Why are you here?”

Zhou Lusi on the other side couldn’t resist rolling a huge white eye at the ceiling.

Zhou Wanghan closed the invitation and looked at Wei Ying. He found that as soon as his new apprentice saw Lan Zhan, he was like a puppy that had strayed for a few days and finally saw its master.

He smiled: “This is my new student. Why? Are you classmates?”

Wei Ying couldn’t help saying: “Yes, he’s even my tablemate!”

Lan Zhan glanced at Wei Ying again, then raised his hand to check the time, and said to Zhou Wanghan: “It’s getting late. Grandpa Zhou, I’m going back first, you must remember to go to the banquet.”

Zhou Wanghan waved his hand, “Don’t worry, even if I break my leg, I will go in a wheelchair.”

Zhou Lusi dragged his voice: “Grandpa, have you forgotten about opening your mouth?”

Zhou Wanghan laughed dismissively, and when he saw Lan Zhan was about to leave, he kindly said to him:

“I won’t keep you anymore. Look carefully to see if you have forgotten anything, don’t drop things here. I’m going out to play mahjong at night.”

Lan Zhan said to Zhou Wanghan, “I only brought an invitation card.”

He paused, with a smile on the corner of his mouth, he said:

“But now I can take one more person with me.”

Wei Ying’s eyes, which were already sparkling with stars and brightened, looked at Lan Zhan. Pointing at himself, he asked in a low voice, “Me?”

Zhou Lusi couldn’t help but point out, “Otherwise, can it be me? My boyfriend will come to pick me up soon.”

Lan Zhan raised his eyelids at Zhou Lusi, and Zhou Wanghan stared at her furiously:

“What a disgrace! You’re talking about love at my doorstep! Look at your two xue di. They are all good-looking and don’t fall in love every day like you. They study honestly and dutifully. When will you learn from others?”

Zhou Lusi raised her hand and surrendered: “Okay, I was wrong. I was wrong. You two should leave quickly. Don’t make my grandpa angry.“

“Except for you who’s disobedient, who else can make me angry?!” Zhou Wanghan was furious, chasing Zhou Lusi and scolding her.

Lan Zhan reached out and gently pushed Wei Ying’s shoulder in the midst of the chaos, and whispered, “Come, I’ll send you back.”

Wei Ying stepped like cotton and followed Lan Zhan out of Zhou’s house.

Being picked up by parents after school was one of the things that Wei Ying yearned for the most since he was a child, especially when it rained suddenly and he did not bring an umbrella.

He watched his classmates being picked up one by one by their parents, with a colorful umbrella holding up the chatter of children and the chatter of parents on one side.

At first, he would wait to see if Yu Ziyuan would come to pick him up, but after failing again and again, he stopped waiting and rushed into the rain with his head covered, running home along the muddy mountain road, changing clothes, washing clothes, and boiling hot water for the family to take a bath at night.

After everything was done, he started to do his homework, and when he grew up he had to cook for himself.

So when Wei Ying finished his painting and saw Lan Zhan appear in the Zhou family living room, the joy that came over him was like a slice of dried lemon being thrown into warm sugar water, no matter how sour, the mood would bubble up sweetly.

Although Lan Zhan just happened to come here, and then picked him up on his way.

In the evening, the magnificent twilight dyed the red roof of the bungalow into crimson.

Wei Ying followed Lan Zhan all the way to the Lan family car and he recognized the driver as Song Zichen at a glance.

Leaning on the back of the driver’s seat, he tilted his head and smiled and greeted Song Zichen:

“Uncle Zichen, good evening!”

If he was in a bad mood, he would beat up anyone he saw, but when he was in a good mood, he would be kind and pleasant to everyone.

Song Zichen was stunned, his eyes flashed by the “sweet” smile, and he smiled politely, “Hello, I’m seeing you again.”

He was a little surprised. The last time he took Wei Ying to the hospital, he saw a pale and beautiful boy with gloomy eyes. He kept his head down and said nothing all the way.

How could he be so…brilliant today?

Lan Zhan glanced at him, his voice was a bit cold: “Why didn’t you greet someone just now?”

Wei Ying looked at Lan Zhan in a daze, and subconsciously asked, “Greet who?”

Lan Zhan turned his face and glanced at him.

The long, slightly drooping eyelashes tinged with the twilight outside the window, and his amber pupils deepened in color by a few points.

Wei Ying thought about it. Lan Zhan should have meant that he saw him in Zhou’s living room just now but didn’t greet him, but that was because he was so happy and silly at the time, just watching him in a daze.

Unexpectedly, Lan Zhan would care about this kind of etiquette. Wei Ying moved towards Lan Zhan, twisted his head to look at Lan Zhan and asked, “Then how about I make up one for you?”

Lan Zhan ignored him and only gave him a haughty and cold profile.

Wei Ying pulled Lan Zhan’s sleeve before Lan Zhan looked at him and raised his eyebrows.

Wei Ying bent his eyes, the thin upper and lower eyelashes intertwined. Like shouting ‘Uncle Zichen, good evening’ just now, he whispered:

“Lan er gege, good evening.”