Still Frame Chapter 67
byChapter 67: Please Think of Me Every Day
Wen Jin’s doctoral advisor was a talkative old man who had a deeply cherished daughter. A photo of the family of three sat on his office desk.
The university had launched a new project requiring all doctoral students to participate in undergraduate student clubs. A few colleagues were discussing whether to join the modeling team or the film society. The reason was obvious: some of the most stunningly attractive girls on campus belonged to those two clubs.
Wen Jin certainly had no interest. He had marked all the invitation emails as read without replying the day they arrived, and they now lay dead in the trash bin.
That day, he was in the professor’s office discussing next month’s forum. Midway through, a vibrant, youthful girl walked in, a spitting image of Professor Lin.
“Dad…”
Lin Xun then noticed Wen Jin beside him. This senior was famous, and in person, he was even more handsome than in photos—and colder, like an unapproachable iceberg. The usually carefree Lin Xun became reserved.
“What is it?”
Professor Lin asked her, signaling to Wen Jin to take a short break. Wen Jin nodded slightly.
Lyu Zixia asked him if he wanted to have dinner together. Wen Jin no longer trusted him. The last time they arranged to eat out, Zhang Qiannan inexplicably showed up. He didn’t know what relationship or leverage Lyu Zixia had with Zhang Qiannan, but he simply didn’t want to share a table with a stranger. He saved Lyu Zixia some face, sat for a while, and then left.
Lyu Zixia rarely called him Brother Zhuo, saying he wanted to apologize and rambling on about many things. Wen Jin glanced at the message. Just as he was about to reply, he heard a rustling sound, and some papers scattered across the coffee table.
A few sheets happened to drift to his feet. Lin Xun quickly apologized and began collecting the registration forms. Wen Jin bent down to pick up the few on the floor, his gaze pausing on the name column of one sheet.
Zhang Liuxin.
The handwriting was excellent, capturing the spirit of the characters “Liuxin.” It was followed by the department and a personal profile.
“Senior Wen Jin, please give them to me.”
Lin Xun organized the forms. Compared to other popular clubs, the Botany Club had only a dozen or so freshmen sign up.
“You’re in the Botany Club?”
Lin Xun was surprised he initiated a conversation with her and nodded repeatedly. She had come to ask her father if he knew any doctoral students who could serve as their club advisor. They had sent many invitation emails, but because the club had few members and sounded dull and boring, all had been rejected.
Professor Lin, worthy of being Wen Jin’s teacher, somehow discerned something from that icy face and proactively played matchmaker. “Wen Jin, Xiaoxun’s club is small, quiet, and not busy. If you have time, why don’t you take a look?”
Lin Xun had never dared to imagine Wen Jin joining her club. After all, Wen Jin seemed too unattainable, so she hadn’t even dared to send him an invitation email.
Wen Jin asked her if she had any club documents. Lin Xun pulled out a brightly colored promotional poster. Wen Jin looked at it, his dark eyes concealing his emotions, and asked, “Are these the new members?”
Lin Xun only had about ten application forms in her hand. She felt the number was a bit too small and nodded sheepishly, adding, “Uh, the numbers are low right now, but we can recruit more later.”
“I’ll consider it.”
Wen Jin nodded, put away his phone, and stood up. He told Professor Lin, “I’m heading to the lab.”
“Alright, I’ll be over shortly. Help out Xiao Sun; I haven’t seen him come out all day.”
After Wen Jin left, Lin Xun breathed a sigh of relief and asked her father, “Dad, what did Senior Wen Jin mean? He said he’d consider it. Does that mean he’ll join our club? I heard others say he’s already rejected all invitations.”
“Wen Jin isn’t a monster; why are you so nervous?” Professor Lin smiled at his daughter, then continued, “Go back and send him an invitation email. He will come.”
Lin Xun was confused. “Didn’t he say he’d consider it? Doesn’t that usually mean a polite refusal?”
Professor Lin shook his head profoundly. “If he intended to refuse, he wouldn’t have asked you another question.”
Professor Lin was not wrong. Wen Jin truly agreed to be their club advisor, though he told Lin Xun beforehand that he couldn’t guarantee he would be there every time. Lin Xun was overwhelmed by the huge surprise and replied with enthusiastic affirmations regardless of what Wen Jin said.
Recently, Wen Huaichuan had begun urging him to settle on a marriage partner. He was twenty years old.
Wen Jin knew he would definitely marry. He understood this from a very young age—that, like his parents, he would find a suitable wife from a matching family once he reached a certain age.
The only surprise was that he hadn’t expected Wen Huaichuan to be so anxious, pushing him before he even reached the legal marriage age.
That day, the week-long stretch of brilliant sunshine finally ended, and clouds finally piled up in the sky. So, when his parents introduced another girl to him, he casually came out.
“I like men.”
Wen Huaichuan and Yue Yun were stunned. Finally, Wen Huaichuan slowly spoke, “When did this happen? Do you have someone in mind?”
“No.”
Wen Jin didn’t care what his parents thought. For them, it was merely swapping his marriage alliance partner from female to male. He wasn’t too concerned. He had always known that obtaining certain resources and privileges required sacrifice. Marriage was insignificant to him; if he had to sacrifice it, so be it.
Yue Yun was still calling his name behind him, wanting to talk, but he said he had things to do at school and left without looking back.
He did indeed have things to do. Today was the first activity of the Botany Club.
And it was going to rain today. After parking his car and seeing the overcast sky, Wen Jin felt even more relaxed.
He heard a very clear male voice downstairs at the Science Building. When he turned the corner, he met a pair of wide, green eyes.
Zhang Liuxin.
Like processing experimental data, the name immediately surfaced in Wen Jin’s mind the moment he saw the person.
Zhang Liuxin was still holding his phone, frozen mid-press. This made him look a little dull. Wen Jin wondered why, after so many years, he still looked the same as he had in the Zhang family garden that day—with a kind of… naive innocence.
However, in Wen Jin’s perception, this kind of innocence often represented weakness and stupidity.
Judging by the other person’s gaze, he seemed to recognize him. Wen Jin was suddenly curious about how Zhang Liuxin would address him, but the other person just stood there blankly, looking startled by him. Finally, he stammered out a few words. Wen Jin immediately found it uninteresting again and walked around him up the stairs.
He didn’t rush to the activity room. Wen Jin stood in the stairwell for a while. The grass and trees outside emitted a damp scent—a subtle but perceptible sign that rain was coming. He suddenly remembered that the day he saw Zhang Liuxin, it had also been an overcast day.
He collected himself and went to the activity room. The club activity was far from interesting, but since he had promised to come, he couldn’t just leave without a word. Wen Jin didn’t think of himself as a rude person.
As expected, it started raining after the activity ended. The olive-green student hadn’t brought an umbrella and stood alone by the door, looking like an abandoned fool.
Why was he still looking so pitiful after leaving the Zhang family? A strange feeling suddenly arose in Wen Jin’s heart.
Unconsciously, he walked over to his side. Since he liked rainy days, taking him along for a walk in the rain was no big deal.
But why did Zhang Liuxin look so apprehensive? This reminded Wen Jin of a deer, a fawn—delicate and utterly pathetic. No, he shouldn’t define someone he had only met a few times so extensively.
He was indeed a bit slow to react, having forgotten his library card. Wen Jin didn’t usually come to the library, so he handed his card over. Zhang Liuxin looked as if he wanted to be eternally grateful, which Wen Jin found slightly amusing.
Perhaps because of this small interlude, or perhaps because it hadn’t rained for so long, this rainy day made Wen Jin feel exceptionally refreshed. When he returned home, he ran into Duan Chengzi. Seeing him staring at his phone, Duan Chengzi asked if he was in a good mood.
“So-so.”
Zhang Liuxin’s profile picture was a very dull landscape photo. Wen Jin typed a few words into the notes field and finally settled on: Olive Green Overcast News Department.
Seeing these few words, he knew exactly who it was. Wen Jin tossed his phone aside.
Later, he saw Zhang Liuxin a few more times on campus. The other person was either intimately accompanied by a boy or cheerfully surrounded by a girl.
He was quite popular, it seemed. But considering that humans constantly seek out differences, it made sense that a deer with captivating green eyes would appear in an environment dominated by black hair and black eyes, and that people would be interested in him.
However, Wen Jin didn’t understand why Zhang Liuxin was so nervous every time he saw him. When he approached, the other boy would tense up completely, almost to the point where his hair stood on end. When Wen Jin spoke to him, he would look everywhere but directly into his eyes.
Moreover, they had met more than once, and Zhang Liuxin still had his library card, yet he pretended not to know him, avoiding eye contact so many times.
Wen Jin was not pleased.
Sitting in the lounge, he watched Zhang Liuxin clench his fists and speak to him in a tentative tone, completely composed.
Did he speak like this at home? No wonder Zhang Qiannan bullied him. Wen Jin had learned that Zhang Liuxin was the child of Zhang Jiming and Bern Linzhou’s ex-wife. Strictly speaking, he wasn’t illegitimate, but in this social stratum, the truth was far less important than status. Thus, the green-eyed youth had suffered much contempt and targeting since childhood, mostly from his half-brother.
After asking to leave twice, Wen Jin wanted to ask if he was a monster, but seeing his evasive eyes, he finally took pity and let him go.
Once out of his sight, the nervous deer transformed into a relaxed willow. Wen Jin leaned by the window and watched him. It was his back again. He had grown taller, but he was still so slender. It seemed he really had suffered a lot of bullying.
Realizing his attention on Zhang Liuxin was too high, he asked Duan Chengzi when he visited his maternal grandparents’ home. Duan Chengzi had just returned from the military, and perhaps his mind hadn’t fully switched gears. Hearing Wen Jin actually bring up an unrelated student, he said without much thought, “You like him?”
Wen Jin denied it just as straightforwardly. “No.”
Duan Chengzi didn’t understand what his younger cousin was thinking. “If you don’t like him, why are you talking about him? Coming out felt good for a moment, but it infuriated Grandpa for a while. Couldn’t you have let me go first, bro? Now if I go tell Grandpa I also like men, I’ll be beaten to death.”
“I wasn’t talking about him.”
Still denying it, Wen Jin finally remembered the coming-out incident. Yue Yun had recently given him a list of eligible children from highly reputable families in Huan City, urging him to see if any caught his eye. She was determined to find a perfect, well-matched spouse for her gay son.
Duan Chengzi also recalled the matter of his arranged marriage and added, “If you weren’t talking about him, then spend some effort looking at the alliance partners Auntie picked out. I know you won’t be interested, but just choose one who looks good as a partner. After all, you’ll have to spend time together later…”
“You have a point. Marriage might work.”
Wen Jin began to feel that marrying people he hadn’t even met was pointless. Instead, as Duan Chengzi suggested, he might as well choose someone he found visually appealing—at least someone whose sight wouldn’t make him so annoyed he wanted to pray for rain.
“Huh?” Duan Chengzi didn’t know which universe Wen Jin’s thoughts had jumped to now.
Wen Jin sipped his coffee, his deep phoenix eyes curving slightly, as if he had obtained satisfactory data. He slowly uttered a sentence that nearly made Duan Chengzi’s eyes pop out: “I plan to marry Zhang Liuxin.”
Duan Chengzi: You… not… I… wait… who… stop, stop, stop. Does he even know you?