Xu Sui handed over the band-aid. Zhou Jingze took it and put it in his pocket, looking at her: “Have you eaten?”
“No.” Xu Sui was a bit dazed and instinctively said these two words.
Zhou Jingze nodded, his voice hoarse: “Then keep me company while I eat.”
“Ah, okay.” Xu Sui agreed, silently apologizing three times to Hu Qianxi in her heart.
Zhou Jingze walked forward with his hands in his pockets. Xu Sui noticed he was carrying a white plastic bag on his pinkie, faintly smelling of medicinal wine. Zhou Jingze took a few steps forward, saw that she hadn’t followed, stopped and turned back to look at her.
Xu Sui immediately caught up. She really wanted to ask things like “is the injury serious?” but his mood was quite low tonight, and besides, from what position could she ask? Thinking this, the words reached her lips but were swallowed back down.
The two came to a dumpling shop. The shop was about to close, and the proprietress stood by the pot, yawning. A whole night of steam had made her eyes red and swollen.
“Little Zhou, you’re here?” the proprietress greeted with a smile.
“Yes, how was business today?” Zhou Jingze asked.
The proprietress rubbed her eyes and said, “Pretty good today. When it gets cold, more people order delivery, getting a bit too busy to handle.” Zhou Jingze had one hand in his pocket, smiling: “Hard work.”
Zhou Jingze raised his hand and pointed to a spot not far away, telling her to sit. Xu Sui sat down, pulled out a tissue to wipe the table, then looked over.
Zhou Jingze stood there and told the proprietress: “Two bowls of dumplings.”
After Zhou Jingze ordered, he sat across from her, his clearly defined hands lightly tapping the table, not knowing what he was thinking. He wasn’t much of a talker to begin with, and Xu Sui wasn’t good at conversation either, so awkwardness spread between them.
The proprietress brought over two bowls of steaming dumplings, then used small dishes to serve two tea eggs to the table, her voice cheerful: “About to close, these are on the house.”
“Thank you.” Zhou Jingze politely replied.
A full bowl of dumplings was placed in front of Xu Sui. She took a small bottle of seasoning and poured a lot of vinegar into it as if it were free. Seeing this, Zhou Jingze raised his eyebrows: “You can eat that much sour stuff?”
“To adjust the flavor.” Xu Sui explained.
“You can try it,” Xu Sui said, smiling, “but just add a little.”
After all, her way of eating wasn’t normal – most people’s stomachs couldn’t handle it. Zhou Jingze took her suggestion and added a bit of vinegar. Indeed, his appetite improved a little.
The two sat face to face eating. Xu Sui could see he was in a bad mood, so her mind frantically searched for jokes and memes she’d seen online.
“Let me test you with a few questions,” Xu Sui looked at him seriously, “Why did the frog lose to the dog in the swimming competition?”
Zhou Jingze: ?
“Because the frog was disqualified for using the breaststroke.”
Zhou Jingze twitched the corner of his mouth. Xu Sui wasn’t discouraged and continued asking: “Why could Little Wang leisurely whistle while brushing his dentures?”
Zhou Jingze: ?
Xu Sui’s dimples appeared on her cheeks: “Because he was brushing dentures!”
…
Zhou Jingze paid the bill and walked out of the shop. The people on the snack street had long disappeared. He walked ahead with his hands in his pockets while Xu Sui kept her head down thinking – exactly which part went wrong? It was obviously very funny.
Xu Sui thought of something, caught up with Zhou Jingze and patted his shoulder: “In that case, I must use my ultimate technique.”
“What?” Zhou Jingze turned back.
Xu Sui was wearing a hoodie today. She had put the hood on at some point, her arms retracted into the sleeves. She widened her eyes, used her finger to pull down her lower eyelid and made a face at him.
But her eyes were big and clean, and she was wearing a white hoodie – there was no intimidating power at all.
Ferociously cute.
“What are you doing?” Zhou Jingze raised his eyebrows.
“Playing a ghost. Don’t I look like one?” Xu Sui looked confused.
“What kind of ghost?”
“A happy ghost.” Xu Sui answered.
This answer made Zhou Jingze unable to help laughing. His chest trembled, he couldn’t contain his breath, showing his first genuine smile of the evening – not the mechanical kind of pulling at the corners of his mouth.
Xu Sui struggled to pull her arms out of her clothes. She seemed to mutter to herself: “You finally smiled.”
He was finally happy.
After parting with Zhou Jingze, Xu Sui quickly walked back to school. When she returned to the dorm and pushed open the door, 1017 ran out and nuzzled around her feet. Xu Sui had no time to pay attention to the orange cat, calling out apologetically to Hu Qianxi lying on the bed: “Xixi, sorry, got delayed by something.”
“It’s fine, thanks for the hard work.”
After Xu Sui showered and got into bed, she took out her phone and found she had received a text message.
From zjz: [Thanks for tonight.]
Xu Sui typed “you’re welcome” in the dialogue box but felt it was too formal, so she deleted it and sent a new message: [It’s nothing, did you get home safely?]
The phone screen in her hand lit up again two minutes later. zjz: [Got home, just finished showering.]
The corners of Xu Sui’s mouth curved up as she carefully replied: [Then good night.]
Xu Sui had a good night’s sleep. Compared to her good mood, Hu Qianxi’s mood recently wasn’t so good. Sheng Nanzhou had called several times, all of which she ignored.
He had people deliver snacks several times, which were also ineffective – all rejected by Hu Qianxi.
When Xu Sui and Hu Qianxi went outside campus to buy bubble tea, she tentatively asked if she wasn’t planning to forgive Sheng Nanzhou. The young lady replied: [I’ll never forgive him even if it kills me. He went too far this time.]
Sheng Nanzhou often teased Hu Qianxi normally, and this time he knew he had really gone too far. But since Hu Qianxi wouldn’t answer his calls and he couldn’t see her, he begged Zhou Jingze to use the pretext of treating everyone to dinner to get Xu Sui to bring Hu Qianxi out so he could apologize to her in person.
Zhou Jingze agreed, and also kicked him: “I usually tell you not to bully her so much.”
“Yes, yes, Master Zhou, no – Uncle, I was wrong.” Sheng Nanzhou made a kneeling gesture.
Zhou Jingze sat in his chair, leaned forward to grab his phone from the table and messaged Xu Sui, teaching her how to deceive.
When Hu Qianxi heard Xu Sui say that Zhou Jingze had won a flying competition and got prize money to treat everyone to dinner, she was half-doubtful: “He’s only a freshman, what kind of flying!”
“Helicopter flying, he… doesn’t he have a private license?” Xu Sui was at a loss for words but fortunately thought of a reason.
“Fine, but Sheng Nanzhou won’t be coming, right?” Hu Qianxi was trimming her fingernails.
Xu Sui followed Zhou Jingze’s teaching that when lying, she had to look into Xixi’s eyes for her to believe it. So she forced herself to look directly at the young lady and said with fake calmness: “He won’t come.”
Hu Qianxi finally agreed to go to dinner.
Wednesday evening, Xu Sui and Hu Qianxi went to a European hotel in the city according to the address Zhou Jingze gave them. As soon as they entered, a waiter wearing a red bow tie came up to greet them, leading them to swipe cards and take the elevator. The two went all the way to the 23rd floor.
When the elevator doors opened, intricate patterned handmade imported carpet spread directly under their feet, with crystal warm lights hanging in the middle. Xu Sui and Hu Qianxi walked forward. She looked at the people coming and going around them – their dress and demeanor showed wealth and refinement.
She suddenly felt emotional that Zhou Jingze truly came from a privileged background and was outstanding himself. The gap between her and him was very real.
The two came to private room 2309. Hu Qianxi pushed the door open and immediately saw a mousse cake she liked placed in the middle of the table, as well as Sheng Nanzhou, whom she wanted to punch.
Hu Qianxi realized what was happening and instinctively wanted to grapple with Xu Sui, shouting: “Great! Xu Sui, you’ve learned to lie too!”
“I—” Xu Sui wanted to dodge and instinctively ran behind Zhou Jingze.
Zhou Jingze’s eyes were forbidding as he unexpectedly spoke: “I taught her.”
“Alright,” Zhou Jingze put both hands in his pockets, then turned his head to look at Xu Sui behind him, “Come downstairs with me to buy cigarettes.”
Zhou Jingze meant to leave space for the two of them. Xu Sui understood and followed him downstairs.
The two came to the convenience store downstairs. Cold wind gusted as Zhou Jingze went in to buy a pack of cigarettes. When he was paying at the counter, Xu Sui’s stomach embarrassingly rumbled.
“39.8 yuan,” said the clerk wearing an orange vest.
Zhou Jingze paused in his money-taking motion, glanced at those slightly reddening ear tips, smiled lazily, “Give her some oden.”
Xu Sui stood in place about to wave her hand in refusal when Zhou Jingze turned around, pulled a cigarette from the pack, bit it between his lips. The lighter made a “click” sound as he passed by her, a low voice vibrating by her ear:
“Order whatever you want to eat, little kid.”
Zhou Jingze went out to smoke. Xu Sui sat at the convenience store counter eating oden. She ordered two skewers of meatballs, one skewer of kelp, one sausage, and some other small snacks, sitting there and finishing them all.
While eating, she secretly glanced through the glass window at the man smoking not far away.
After Xu Sui finished eating, Zhou Jingze raised his hand to signal her to come out. As Xu Sui walked up to him, he timely stubbed out the cigarette and checked the time:
“About time, let’s go up.”
The two took the elevator upstairs again. Coincidentally, there were only the two of them in the elevator. Xu Sui stood a bit forward, Zhou Jingze stood to her left, leaning against the wall with his head back against it, his Adam’s apple slowly rolling up and down, inexplicably alluring.
“Do you think they’ll make up?” Xu Sui asked.
The elevator display showed they’d reached the 11th floor. Just as Zhou Jingze was about to answer, there was a “bang” and the elevator shook violently with vibrating tremors.
Immediately after, with a “pop,” the elevator lights went out, and inside became pitch black. The darkness gradually amplified people’s fear and sense of unfamiliarity.
They had unexpectedly encountered the once-in-a-lifetime elevator malfunction. Xu Sui felt a bit panicked. She instinctively turned back but couldn’t see where Zhou Jingze was.
“Zhou Jingze?”
Xu Sui only called twice. After not hearing a response, she tried her best to control her inner panic and immediately pressed the emergency call button. There was a response from the emergency phone. When Xu Sui spoke, she found her voice was trembling slightly:
“Hello, the elevator here has malfunctioned. Please send someone over as quickly as possible.”
“Hello, may I ask for the specific location?” the maintenance person asked.
“Building F, 11th floor,” Xu Sui’s voice tried to stay steady, seeming to think of something, “please hurry.”
After the call, Xu Sui felt her way to the back of the elevator in the dark. She held her phone – one signal bar, 3% battery. Xu Sui used the tiny bit of light from the screen to look around.
She discovered Zhou Jingze had somehow sat down in the corner. He had his eyes closed, his eyelashes trembling, with beads of sweat the size of beans coming from his forehead.
Xu Sui’s heart tightened. She crouched in front of him and pushed his arm: “Zhou Jingze.”
Zhou Jingze opened his eyes with difficulty, looked at her once, then leaned back against the wall again. He felt like a sponge constantly being broken down and sinking in the sea – powerless and fearful.
He remembered that damp attic, dark spiders crawling around everywhere. The suffocating feeling came up, like someone choking his neck, his breath being taken away inch by inch. He struggled to escape but found everything was futile.
Xu Sui crouched nearby, seeing Zhou Jingze unable to catch his breath, his chest heaving violently, sweat dampening his dark eyelashes, his face pale.
When she was in the same class as Zhou Jingze in high school, she had heard people say he had claustrophobia. She thought it was a joke, but it turned out to be true.
Seeing Zhou Jingze in such distress, a thread of heartache spread in her heart. Xu Sui’s heart knotted into a ball – not the previous romantic feelings, but she really wanted to do something to alleviate his current pain.
If she could, she wanted to bear this suffering in his place.
Xu Sui hesitated for a moment, then gently grasped his wrist and spoke: “Don’t be afraid.”
Zhou Jingze had his eyes tightly shut, feeling himself falling into endless darkness, like a container sinking into the deep sea, sealed all around, letting seawater seep in, drowning his throat, mouth, and nose bit by bit.
In the darkness, someone grasped his wrist. Warmth gradually transmitted over, like feathers, like sunlight. He clearly heard a gentle voice continuously repeating:
“Don’t be afraid.”
Zhou Jingze opened his eyelids with difficulty. A face with soft lines appeared before his eyes, with dark, clean pupils reflecting only his face, like grasping driftwood in the dark night.
Following that hand, he turned it over, slowly moving downward. His broad palm pressed against hers, as if soothing each other’s blood vessels. Calluses rubbed against the tender palm, and their palms interlocked in an instant.