TSIBAMS Chapter 56

Chapter 56

Although he was a bit annoyed that Ye Xing hadn’t told him he arrived safely, Qi Guang was more worried about whether he had encountered some accident.

“Sorry, the number you have dialed is currently switched off, please try again later.”

It was the fifth time.

He opened Huang Shanshan’s chat box and tapped a few keys on the keyboard.

– Ye Xing’s phone is off, did he go to the art studio?

She replied after several minutes.

– I haven’t seen him. I only go to the art studio on weekends when I’m not at school. But I just called the teacher to ask, and he said that he went to register this afternoon and is resting in his dormitory now.

That’s good.

Qi Guang breathed a sigh of relief.

Then he received another message from Huang Shanshan.

– By the way, there’s an unwritten rule in our art studio that phones are confiscated for the first two weeks of intensive training, so I guess his phone has already been handed in.

He frowned.

– What kind of weird rule is that? Your art studio sounds a bit scary.

Huang Shanshan sent a helpless emoji.

– It is pretty scary, but after every joint exam, everyone says it’s worth it.

Qi Guang smiled.

But then he felt inexplicably depressed.

So that means he’ll be out of touch for half a month? This guy didn’t even say hello when he arrived and just handed in his phone without a word, he’s definitely angry with me!

What a kid.

At this time, his phone notification rang again, it was a message from Huang Shanshan.

– If you want to contact him, should I give you his roommate’s phone number? I know his roommate.

Oh, he has a roommate.

Qi Guang replied with a rejecting emoji.

It wasn’t that he absolutely needed Ye Xing to tell him he was safe, after all, knowing he was safe from someone else was the same, he just had a question.

Why was he crying last night?

He was afraid of making Ye Xing uncomfortable, so he didn’t take the initiative to ask. As a result, he hadn’t contacted him all day, and now he suddenly found out he was going to be out of touch for half a month…

“I didn’t have any friends before.”

He suddenly remembered Ye Xing saying this.

But he acted like an ostrich, burying his head in his body to avoid some vague emotion and didn’t see him off. Just a week ago, Ye Xing had also changed transportation by himself and traveled half a day to that city to save him.

I’m such a fucking good friend!

Qi Guang sighed.

Then his mind flashed back to the nine words on Ye Xing’s Chinese paper – “Always wanting to escape, but still here.”

So, why was he crying last night?

Ye Xing’s color and sketching skills were good, especially sketching. Teacher Xia’s original words were, “Your sketching level is enough to take the exam directly, and it would be a high score.”

As for color, although the teacher was also quite satisfied, there was still room for improvement.

But his charcoal drawing was not so pleasing to the teacher…

This was the first time Ye Xing had come into contact with and systematically studied charcoal drawing, which had wiped out all his previous sense of accomplishment in painting. He spent all day dealing with various plaster casts. Confiscating his phone didn’t seem to have much of an impact on him. He was the type of person who, once immersed in something, was hard to disturb.

Occasionally, he would go to see Li Ke, but before they could chat for a few words, he would be discouraged by the life-like portrait sketch on his easel and return to struggle with the plaster casts.

Looking at him immersed in the art studio all day without any slackness, Teacher Xia was a little moved. He wished he could take a photo of him and put it on the front door, and below it, add a line – “The most patient student in this art studio.”

“There aren’t many young people as un-frivolous as you these days,” Teacher Xia said, watching him sharpen his pencil, squatting down to sharpen with him, “I’ve seen many students who can’t stand it for less than a day after their phones are confiscated. They try all sorts of ways to get a few minutes of leniency. I don’t know what messages they have to reply to, you’d think they were little internet celebrities with hundreds of thousands of followers!”

Ye Xing chuckled.

The teacher glanced at him and continued, “Making up excuses like there’s an emergency at home, or saying they get anxious without music… Basically, touching their phone means they get to live a few more days. Although this rule of confiscating phones is quite anti-human in this day and age, I don’t care if I get scolded or complained about. So many people want to send their kids here to learn to paint, giving gifts and money, and I don’t care about that either. I only take two types of students…”

“Those who are naturally talented and those who are diligent and hardworking,” Ye Xing said for him.

Teacher Xia smiled.

Although the students all called him “Old Bro,” this Old Bro Xia didn’t look too young. His slightly curly hair reached his shoulders and was casually tucked behind his ears. Although he and Li Ke followed a bohemian or middle-aged route, his clothes were not as refined as Li Ke’s. The loose, dark-colored top looked like a short bathrobe from a distance. His hands were always dirty, either with the gray of pencils and charcoals or with various colors of paint.

“Shanshan showed me your paintings. You should belong to the former category, but I still can’t make an exception and return your phone. Our art studio is not short of talented people,” he cleared his throat. “I must strictly select each student to prevent the spread of any bad habits. This is responsible for the students themselves and for the other students.”

“I know, Teacher Xia, you don’t have to say so much to me,” Ye Xing finished sharpening his pencil, twisted his neck and sat up straight, “I have no objections to this rule, I won’t scold you or complain about you.”

Teacher Xia put the sharpened pencil in the pen holder at his feet and turned to guide the student next to him.

Patient enough to endure loneliness?

This was the first time he had received such an evaluation.

Maybe it was because he had been used to being alone like this since he was a child. He was not good at socializing and hadn’t met anyone he particularly wanted to know. In addition, he moved with his parents frequently, which further cut off the possibility of having a deeper understanding.

Usually, not many people contacted him, so there was not much difference whether he had his phone confiscated or not.

Indeed, there was not much difference.

When he borrowed Li Ke’s phone to log into his WeChat and send a message to his mother after dinner, he didn’t see any other unread messages.

There was still a little bit of loss in his heart.

Bastard.

He didn’t return the phone immediately. He clicked on Qi Guang’s profile, then went to his Moments.

Since the function of only showing three days of Moments came out, everyone’s Moments had become desolate and aloof, like after a typhoon, either there was no content at all, or it would flip to the bottom with just one swipe.

Qi Guang’s Moments also reached the bottom with one swipe, but there were no words like “Only visible for the last three days” at the bottom, only a cold gray dividing line. Above the dividing line was the only content of his Moments – a painting.

It was a painting Ye Xing had drawn for him.

This was the only thing in Qi Guang’s Moments.

Not from the last three days, not from the last month, not even from the last half a year, but from the very beginning until now!

This sudden feeling of possessiveness being satisfied instantly swept away the sense of loss from not having unread messages. He wanted to tell the whole world, “Qi Guang’s one and only Moment is related to me.”

He couldn’t help but laugh.

He logged out and returned the phone to Li Ke.

“Looking at your infatuated face, did you send a message to a girl?” Li Ke took the phone and casually teased him.

“Not a girl,” Ye Xing corrected him, “Well… there wasn’t a message either.”

“Oh,” Li Ke casually responded, then after two seconds, he suddenly raised his head as if he had realized something, “You…”

“Yes.” Ye Xing knew what he was going to ask, so he interrupted him directly and replied concisely.

Although he was suddenly outed yesterday and hadn’t prepared a cool pose to receive it, ambushing him today was not a loss.

Especially seeing his shocked reaction now, it was great.

“Damn!” Li Ke put his chopsticks on the table, “Now even the kids have boyfriends and I’m still single!”

Ye Xing quickly looked around, then glared at him and lowered his voice, “Louder, louder, it would be best if the chef could hear you and put down his spatula and come over to applaud you!”

Li Ke made a gesture of zipping up his mouth.

“Not even a boyfriend yet,” Ye Xing lowered his head and continued eating, his voice suddenly became a little vague, “Actually, I’m not very sure about his orientation.”

“What do you mean?” Li Ke narrowed his eyes and leaned back, “Bending straight men is despised in our circle.”

“What circle?” Ye Xing frowned.

“Never mind, kid.” Li Ke waved his hand, “Has your boy… well, that guy… had a girlfriend before?”

“Not only has he not, but he’s also been really good to me,” Ye Xing said, “If he wasn’t so good to me, I wouldn’t be bent like a mosquito coil now!” He sighed and added, “But he’s too attractive, even if I didn’t bend into a mosquito coil, I could bend into a crutch.”

Li Ke was amused by his analogy and leaned over on the table, laughing for a long time.

“I’m so curious what this guy looks like!” After laughing, he couldn’t stop gossiping.

“There are photos in my phone,” Ye Xing reached into his pocket and then realized his phone wasn’t on him, so he added, “But the photos don’t look as good as the real person, if there’s a chance…”

He stopped halfway through.

There was no chance.

Qi Guang was so resistant and disgusted with this city.

Li Ke watched him lose his energy for a moment and then become lost in thought. He didn’t speak, but felt a sense of wonder – the kind of impulsiveness and restlessness that belongs to first love is truly wonderful!

“I’ll show you when I get my phone back.” Ye Xing lowered his head and continued eating.

Finally, the tests for all subjects were graded. The tense atmosphere had permeated the entire grade level for too long. To relieve the students’ stress, the head of the grade decided to show a movie during self-study.

After a burst of cheers, everyone was dumbfounded when they saw the movie title.

Um, a war movie, and a black and white one.

But fortunately, the second year high school students who had been ravaged by their studies for several months were no longer picky. They were afraid that the sound of opposition would cause all the lights in the building to suddenly come on and it would be back to self-study.

Qi Guang didn’t have much interest in watching the movie anyway, so he scrolled through his phone for a long time.

He didn’t have many WeChat friends, so he quickly finished swiping through the news. Then he boredly opened the friend list to look at Moments.

Zhou Tian’s WeChat nickname started with “a,” so naturally, he clicked on his profile first. His Moments were rich in content, showing off his breakfast, showing off the weather, showing off the little dog he encountered on the way to school, and even showing off Qi Guang’s exam scores with a line of text – My former deskmate!! Handsome, tall, and with good grades, ask if you’re all jealous!!! (Selling the handsome guy’s WeChat account, 50 cents each)

What the fuck?

Qi Guang frowned, he had actually missed this one before! He tapped a few keys and typed a comment – I’ll give you five bucks, delete the fucking thing!

Annoying!

After exiting, he scrolled directly to the bottom of the list and clicked on Ye Xing’s Moments.

“Friends only display Moments from the last three days.”

Qi Guang stared at the empty Moments cover and the merciless line of text, falling into deep thought.

How fucking depressing.

After staring at the line for ten seconds, he returned to the friend list and found Huang Shanshan’s profile, opening the chat box and quickly typing a line.

How did you say to retrieve the password for that Weibo account last time?