Half-baked

Half-baked
Text/Mu Zhi
2024/8 / 26-
In the midsummer when I was eighteen, Nostalgia accidentally broke into a room.

In the closed room, with the sound of the door opening, warm lights suddenly lit up.
The dripping golden light illuminates the wall of butterfly specimens.

Duan Huai'an stood behind her, his aura sweeping over her. His presence was like a continuous rainstorm, the muddy and wet seeping into her heart and bones.
At that time, she just thought it was a grand and brilliant commemoration.
It was not until many years later that she realized the pain in her heart and bones.

Not all butterflies that emerge from their cocoons have wings that resonate.
The spring that butterflies have is an imprisoned eternity.

--Inscription.
-
Saturday.
A rare day off.

In the dark room with the curtains closed, it is impossible to tell day from night.

She was in a deep sleep and woke up when the alarm clock buzzed twice.

The body and brain are still in a chaotic stage, my eyelids are pulled by sleepiness, and my thoughts are drowsy and hazy. In comparison, my body feels overloaded and tired.
There was a clear, wet breathing sound in my ears, like the invasion of moisture.

About half a minute passed.

I miss getting out of bed carefully, the sound of my footsteps falling into the air, like floating dust, almost inaudible.

After closing the door.
She took a few steps forward, and the cold ground felt soft under her feet.

The steps stopped.

She leaned over and looked down.
A piece of clothing fell where my feet were standing. My sight extended from the door of the master bedroom to the entrance. All along the way, there were clothes and pants. The mess silently announced the absurdity and extravagance of last night.

I miss his calm expression and his eyes that were almost as clear as glass.
Her mind was still in the empty stage, and lack of sleep caused a dull pain in her temples.

The phone in her hand vibrated again, and she slowly raised the phone and placed it in front of her.

It was a call from my roommate Zhu Yutong.

I miss slowly pressing the answer button.
Before she could say anything, Zhu Yutong's chattering came through the electric current: "Huai Nian, are you awake? Don't forget that you have an elective class at 8 o'clock this morning. The teacher of this elective class is very strict and will take attendance every time. If you are caught absent once, you will fail the class."

I missed her and hummed slowly.
The voice is lazy and nasal.

"..." Zhu Yutong was stunned. "Don't you usually wake up naturally at 7 o'clock? Why are you still so sleepy at 7:30? What did you do last night?"
"Have you gone to have an affair with a man?" asked another roommate.
"Come on, women all over the world will steal men, but our Huai Nian won't." Zhu Yutong immediately retorted, "The campus hunk from the business school has been pursuing her for two years, and he hasn't even added her on WeChat yet."

"This only shows that the business school's campus hunk is not handsome enough."
"He's already the most handsome guy in the hospital, isn't that handsome enough?"
"You forgot, there's someone even more handsome in our school—Juesha."

The term "loser" is often used in ball games.
It means to kill the opponent completely without any chance for the opponent to counterattack.

Everyone has different aesthetic tastes, but this "killer shot" has unprecedentedly unified the aesthetic tastes of Nanjing University girls.
The reason is simple: he is just too handsome.

The two people on the other end of the phone took this opportunity to talk about the "killer" in passionate and enthusiastic terms.
Huai Nian did not join in the conversation. He turned and went into the bathroom, casually saying, "I'll wash up first. Tongtong, remember to save a seat for me," and hung up the phone.

After washing up, Huai Nian went to the cloakroom.
Last night's clothes, soaked with alcohol and filled with sweat, could no longer be worn.
She didn't have time to wash her clothes and wait for them to dry. Fortunately, she was wearing jeans last night, so they were still clean.

But the clothes hanging in the cloakroom closet are all men's.

His nanny often comes to clean the room, so there cannot and will not be any girls' clothes in the cloakroom.

Nostalgia took off a brand new solid color short-sleeved shirt with a blank expression. Although it is a men's top, it looks like an oversized design when worn by a girl.

After changing her clothes, she picked up the shoulder bag on the sofa and glanced into the bedroom before going out.
Zhu Yutong's urging message buzzed in her phone, reminding her not to be late. Huai Nian hesitated for a moment, but turned around and left the house without any regrets.
-
Speaking of which, a big mistake happened when I was competing for this elective course.
As the intelligence expert in the dormitory, Zhu Yutong found out that the teacher of the course "College Students' Love and Sexual Health" was extremely lenient and only required a 3,000-word paper to be submitted in the last class.

So all four students in their dormitory rushed to take this course.
However, they didn't expect that the course they chose was the most rigorous among all the elective courses.

The matter was already settled, and the other three people in the dormitory did not blame her. They even tried to make fun of her, saying that the classroom where the class was held was close to the library, and they could go to the library to study after class, saving them the trouble of running back and forth.

As expected, the classroom was crowded.
The three of us went early and got a seat in the second to last row. The one for Nostalgia was the aisle seat.

Before Huai Nian sat down, he saw Zhu Yutong looking excited and shocked.
"Do you know who else is taking this elective?"

"Who is it?" Huai Nian took out a professional book from his bag with an absent-minded tone.

"you guess."
"headmaster?"
"..." Zhu Yutong's expression instantly collapsed, "Forget it, you'd better stop guessing."

Missing the smile on her lips, she glanced at Zhu Yutong: "So who is it?"

Zhu Yutong cleared her throat and said two words with great joy.
"——A decisive blow."

"..."
I miss the fluttering eyelashes.

The words fell.
The class bell rang.

Zhu Yutong lowered her voice and asked in confusion, "Didn't they say that NanDa Juesha also chose this course? Why hasn't he come yet? Did he skip class?"

There was still noise and whispers around, but I didn't need to listen or guess what my classmates were talking about.

As for the protagonist of the topic.
Didn't show up for a long time.

The elective course teacher had already reached the podium.
After briefly introducing the course content, roll call method, and final assignments, the teacher took out the roster and began to call the roll.

Zhu Yutong looked around and confirmed that she didn't see that figure. She was extremely disappointed: "So we just missed the chance to have a class with Juesha? And he didn't even come to the first class. Isn't that a 100% sure failure?"

Miss pursed her lips.
I still can't bear it.

She took out her cell phone and opened WeChat.
Click on the chat interface of the pinned contact.

Before I could type, her name was suddenly heard in the empty classroom: "Miss——"
He raised his left hand nostalgically and looked straight ahead at the front of the classroom: "——Here."

at the same time.
The front door of the lecture hall was pushed open.

Behind the man was the dimly lit corridor of the old classroom, and the backlight was dim like the night. He was dressed in all black, with his jacket zipped up to the top, even his neck was hidden in the collar. The exposed jaw was a cold white.
The distance was a little far, and I was looking at the boy standing by the door with nostalgia. My eyes seemed to be misty and too blurry.
What is clear is the aura around him, which has a sense of quietness and coldness.

Roll call pause.

Everyone's eyes were on him.
There were exclamations of surprise.

There was no emotion in his eyes. He took two steps forward and walked into the bright and clear classroom.
He raised his eyelashes slightly, and his plain lips slid out cold and boring words: "Sorry, I'm late."

"Duan Huai'an?" The teacher obviously recognized him and chuckled, "Find a seat and sit down."

The steps of the tiered classroom were very wide, and Duan Huaian, with his long and slender legs, stepped over one step after another effortlessly.

Zhu Yutong pulled Huai Nian's clothes, her words revealing her surprise, "Duan Huaian is not going to sit next to us, is he? The seat next to you is still empty, Huai Nian!"
"It can't be that coincidental." She forced a smile.

Missing that he raised his eyelids slightly, the light and shadow were dim, and their eyes met.
She looked at him.
He looked back indifferently.

Without any hesitation, Duan Huaian sat down across the aisle from her.

He sat with his legs bent at the knees, in a lazy and idle posture. At some point, his sleeves were pulled up to his elbows, revealing his cool-toned forearms, with firm and smooth muscle lines. The green meridians were undulating and curving, and if you looked closely, you could actually see a thin red blood thread circling under a blue vein.

The roommate sitting next to him asked, "Why are you so late?"

Duan Huai'an said coldly, "You got up late."
"Why did you get up late?"
"I went to bed late."
"..."
Saying it is the same as not saying it.

But this is Duan Huai'an. During his two years in college, his roommates all knew his personality: taciturn and distant.
Duan Huai'an is a native of South City and has his own circle of friends. At first, his roommates thought he looked down on them, until they saw that he was even colder to his childhood friends than to them. Only then did they realize that he was born cold-hearted.

After a few brief conversations, Duan Huaian took out his cell phone.
Cold white finger bones tapping on the keyboard.
A few seconds later——

On the table across the aisle, the screen of a cell phone that had been turned off lit up.
A message pops up on the screen.

There were almost no students attending the elective class, as the students were all playing with their phones. Zhu Yutong, who was beside him, was already immersed in a mobile game and didn't notice the strangeness of Nostalgia at all.

Miss knowing who sent her messages.
But she didn't want to go back.

But I can't help but reply to his message.
He is difficult to coax.
I miss him but I don't want to coax him.

She frowned unconsciously, but in the end, she still picked up her phone and unlocked the screen.

DHA: [Are those my clothes? ]
Nostalgic explanation: [You soiled my clothes last night. ]
DHA: [Yeah. 】
Miss: [I have nothing to wear. ]
DHA: [Yeah. 】
Miss: [Can't I wear your clothes? ]

After the message was sent, Huai Nian vaguely heard a short, almost imperceptible laugh next to her ear.
The voice was very soft, and it was impossible to tell whether it was happy or angry, but it echoed in the ears of nostalgia like an ambiguous torrent, making the tips of her ears turn red.

The palm holding the phone gradually tightened, and she couldn't help but look sideways -

It was as if the chuckle just now was her hallucination.

Separated by an aisle.
Duan Huai'an sat tall between the narrow desks and chairs in the classroom, his head slightly lowered, his eyelids drooping, and from the side, he looked sleepy and indifferent. Because of that sleepiness, he looked dark, decadent, and world-weary.

Even though we have known each other for nearly four years, the memories are often in chaos.
——People in the school always use the word "killer" to describe Duan Huaian, because of his outstanding appearance and his overly taciturn personality, which silently brings an extremely strong sense of oppression and suffocation.

It is just this kind of man, who exudes an untouchable aura even with his eyes lowered.
So many girls like him, but no one dares to get close to him.

The nostalgic phone vibrated again.
She lowered her head.

This is a message from Duan Huai'an.
Words are cold and have no temperature, but his words give words emotion.
He said: [Did I say no? Baby, I really like you wearing my clothes.]

(End of this chapter)