Half-baked

5.
It was really raining outside, and the long night was soaked in wet rain.
Huai Nian took advantage of the moment when Duan Huai'an turned to go to the bathroom and quickly slipped back into the house.

The first thing she did when she got back to the room was to take a shower. Her body was drenched in sweat and smelled of the sweetness of desserts. She reached out and touched it, and what she felt in her palm was a sticky white liquid.

She missed him, felt annoyed and bored, and she still couldn't get used to his bad taste.

When I came out of the shower, my cell phone vibrated. It was a message from Duan Huaian.
【What are you running for? 】
[Can't you take a shower here before leaving? ]

Miss the pout.

Can I just take a shower at his place?
He will definitely eat you up completely.

Ok.
He has already eaten it.

When she thought of Duan Huai'an kneeling in front of her tonight, and missed the cracked expression on his face, the peaceful night curtain was like a cold rain sliding open, and the dark night was disintegrated bit by bit.
She raised her eyes and caught a glimpse of a face with an abnormal flush reflected in the mirror on the table.

She leaned weakly against the back of the chair, her beautiful lips tightly pursed, trying hard to maintain a calm expression.

Perhaps it was because Duan Huai'an's behavior tonight was too unrestrained. As soon as Huai Nian closed her eyes, the situation just now emerged in her mind unconsciously, and she was so scared that she quickly opened her eyes.
She didn't want to dream about him, this beast in human form with a gilded exterior but a rotten interior.

The night rain is drizzling, and the shade of the trees is patchy.
It was not until the second half of the night that Huai Nian fell asleep.

When I woke up the next day, the temperature had dropped sharply.
The sky was gloomy and the breeze was cool and light.

Huai Nian had just put on her clothes when she heard her mother calling her, "There's a guest at home, and they said they're looking for you."
Nostalgia asked: "Who is it?"
"The second young master of the Chi family."

Chi Jingting.

Among Duan Huaian’s many childhood friends, Huai Nian and Chi Jingting had the most interactions.
Chi Jingting's personality is completely opposite to Duan Huai'an's, one is reserved and the other is outspoken. Chi Jingting's outspokenness is obvious, with eye-catching blonde hair, fashionable outfits that can be put into fashion magazines, and the car he drives for daily travel is always a flashy sports car, with a modified engine, the roar of which almost breaks through the sky.

He is sweet-talker and good at coaxing people, and he is best at coaxing girls.

As soon as he saw Huai Nian, he called her in a lingering tone: "Sister Huai Nian——"

In response, Duan Huaian, who was sitting opposite him, gave him a cold, warning look.

As the only person among childhood friends who knew about the relationship between Duan Huai'an and Huai Nian, Chi Jingting was not afraid at all.
With so many eyes watching over the Duan family, Duan Huaian has to put away his petty possessiveness.

Chi Jingting was like dancing on a tightrope, shouting even more vigorously: "I miss my sister. I haven't seen you for a few days. You seem to have become more beautiful again."

Huai Nian noticed his excessive flattery, and thinking that he was here to see her, she had a bad feeling: "You're not going to ask me to help you with something, are you?"

"You're so smart. You're worthy of being a top student. You guessed it before I said anything."
"what's up?"
"I have my eyes on a girl from your school."
"…Do I know him?"

"You must know her because I'm the girl I saw on your circle of friends." Chi Jingting said as he took out his cell phone, found the photo, and held it in front of Huai Nian.

I miss the moment of frozen sight.
The photo in front of me is a large group photo, made up of many young and vibrant faces.

The fall semester at Nanjing University starts at the end of August.
At the beginning of the school year, the school student union organized a meeting and invited the presidents of the student unions of various colleges. After the meeting, someone suggested a dinner party. The president of the student union generously paid for the dinner out of his own pocket.

The photo was taken at a dinner party.
In the photo, everyone is posing in different postures. One misses having someone hold her arm, staring at the camera with her bright eyes, and her smile is like rain on the branches, with a kind of clear beauty.

Of course, Chi Jingting was not referring to nostalgia, he was referring to missing the girl next to him.

"...Lin Shuyue, the president of the Student Union of the School of Art." Huai Nian said.

"Not only is she beautiful, but her name is also very nice." Chi Jingting said seriously, "The sparse moon sets off the clear joy, and the blue smoke is late in the evening. - How should I put it? Are we a perfect match?"

Nostalgia is speechless: "They are not in the same poem, how can they be a perfect match?"
Chi Jingting said: "Don't worry about it, she and I are a perfect match."

"..."
"Can you help me arrange a dinner with her?"
"..."

Huai Nian was not good at rejecting people, so she thought for a while and chose her words carefully: "I can arrange a dinner with her for you, but she may not agree."
Chi Jingting had an inexplicable trust in her: "I trust you very much. With your face, no one can refuse you."
Nostalgia: "But you invited her to dinner, not me."

Chi Jingting added: "It's us—"
He pointed at himself, then pointed at Huai Nian, and then made a half circle with his index finger, pointing at Duan Huaian, who hadn't spoken the whole time.
"us."

Duan Huai'an said without any emotion: "Who and you, us?"

Chi Jingting said simply: "Okay, it's me and Huai Nian - us."
Nostalgia echoed: "Yes, just you and me."

Duan Huai'an could hear the rejection in her words: "Don't you like me having dinner with you guys?"
He smiled: "Aunt Jun."

Missing my mother, she came over and poked her head in: "What's wrong, Master?"

Duan Huai'an said slowly: "My friend said that he would like Huai Nian to have lunch with us at noon today. Please remember to put Huai Nian's tableware on the table."

"..."
"..."

Huai Nian stared at Duan Huai'an until his eyes were almost sore.
Then, her head lowered little by little, revealing only her pitch-black skull.

Duan Huaian has always been like this.
As long as she had the slightest thought of severing her ties with him, he would use this method to force her to get close to him in front of her mother.

Everyone speaks highly of Duan Huaian.
But only Huai Nian knew how bad he was. She hated him.
Very. Extremely. Extremely.
-
Duan Huaian's parents are rarely at home, so today at noon, only the three of them had lunch.
Three people, permutations and combinations, Huai Nian has a two-thirds chance of sitting with Duan Huai'an. Duan Huai'an directly turns two-thirds into 100%.

Chi Jingting was not in a hurry to eat. He was more anxious: "Has Lin Shuyue not replied to your message yet?"
Coincidentally, Lin Shuyue's message popped into Huaian's phone.
Huai Nian glanced at the content of the message she sent and roughly repeated it: "She has a lot of competitions recently, and will not be in school next week or the week after. But she said that she needs to see your photo first. Only after seeing your photo can she decide whether to have dinner with you."

Chi Jingting is very confident about his face: "I have a 360-degree view from every angle. I guarantee she will fall in love with me at first sight."

"..." Miss hit him, "There are a lot of handsome guys in our school."
"How handsome is he? Can he be more handsome than me?" Chi Jingting frowned, looking serious.

Nostalgic smile, "Anyway, all of Lin Shuyue's ex-boyfriends were very handsome."
"How handsome can he be? Can anyone be more handsome than this young master?" Chi Jingting said with contempt, pointing his chin at Duan Huai'an beside him, "Isn't he called the Nanjing University's killer? The most handsome guy in Nanjing University is sitting here. If you say someone else is handsome, I don't believe it."

Nostalgia argued, "Lin Shuyue's ex-boyfriend may not be from Nanjing University, right?"
"Right?" Chi Jingting smiled, his tone lazy and nonchalant, "What you mean by this is that you admit that Duan Huai'an is the most handsome boy in Nanjing University?"

"..."
Huai Nian's mind went blank. She didn't expect that she had never played word games better than Chi Jingting. She pursed her lips. Seeing that Chi Jingting was trying to get to the bottom of it, she simply gave up and said, "After all, it was a killer move by Nanjing University."

Duan Huaian was stunned for a moment, obviously not expecting her to say that.
His eyebrows and eyes were naturally cold, but now they extended into a happy smile.

Looking from the angle where Nostalgia was sitting, the lines of his profile moved with his smile, as if outlining the arc of a beating heart.

Even though she hated him and had called him countless dirty words, she had to admit that Duan Huaian's face was indeed a killer.

The whole body exudes a cool and noble aura.
Love easily took shape in him.

But liking him is like going through a rising tide.
The end result was being stranded on the shore.
-
After lunch, she missed being dragged by her mother to go shopping. The weather was getting cooler and her mother wanted to buy her some clothes.
The place where she was shopping was five kilometers away from the school. After buying clothes, she watched her mother get into a taxi, and then she walked to the nearby bus stop to wait for the bus.

When she returned to school, the dormitory was deserted and empty. She asked in the dormitory group and learned that everyone was studying in the library, so she took her books to the library as well.

At ten o'clock in the evening, the library closed, and I missed carrying books back to the dormitory with my roommates.
She seemed to have thought of something and quickly took out her cell phone.

There is no message on the phone.

Duan Huaian didn't look for her.

In the next few days, Duan Huaian only sent her one message.
The general meaning is that he is very busy recently and has no time to accompany her.

Huai Nian knows what he is busy with. The National Intelligent Robot Fighting and Competition has entered the final stage, and only Duan Huai'an from Nanjing University has remained in the final. The final was held at Nanjing University. As the host, Nanjing University only had one candidate left, so Duan Huai'an naturally became the focus of everyone's after-dinner chats.

Huai Nian kindly replied to his message: [Good luck in the game.]

There was a strong competition atmosphere in the school, and even people in their dormitory started discussing the competition.

"The finals are in early November, shall we go and watch?"
"I would like to see it, but don't I need a ticket?"
"Do you need a ticket? Is it free or charged?"
"I don't know, ask Huai Nian, Huai Nian——"

As soon as Huai Nian came out of the bathroom after taking a shower, he was caught by three people from the dormitory.
The three of them were talking at a very fast pace, one sentence after another.

I remember being confused at first, but then catching the key points amidst the buzz of discussion.

Nostalgia: "Tickets? I'm not sure about that yet, but there will be a student union meeting tomorrow night. I think it will be about the competition. I'll tell you then."

The school’s major events and activities are generally under the charge of the school’s Youth League Committee.
The school's Youth League Committee has only four teachers, and they are not able to handle all of this, so all these matters are handed over to the school's Student Union, which is affiliated with the school's Youth League Committee. The National Intelligent Robot Fighting and Competition is a national event with many things to do and is complicated, so the school's Student Union will bring the presidents of the student unions of each college to discuss the detailed arrangements for the event.

The meeting was scheduled for Friday evening when everyone was free.

At eight o'clock in the evening, Huai Nian arrived at the meeting room five minutes early.

She didn't arrive early, and there were already quite a few people in the conference room.

Huai Nian randomly picked a seat in a corner. People came in one after another and everyone greeted each other.

The Student Union meetings are always on time, at eight o'clock sharp.
Liu Zongran, vice president of the school student union, said: "The president has been very busy recently, so he won't come today. I will give the opening ceremony to everyone--"

The words are not finished yet.
I missed the empty seat next to me when someone suddenly sat down.

She turned her head nonchalantly.
What she saw was a profile that she was very familiar with. She was caught off guard and froze.

Duan Huai'an's hair was slightly damp, covering his eyebrows and revealing his sharp eyes. He must have just taken a shower. Huai Nian knew his habits, he always took a shower and washed his hair at the same time.
They sat so close that she could smell the shampoo on his hair.

It was exactly the same scent as her hair.
Cool cedar mixed with sandalwood.

The dull meeting room became lively because of the sudden arrival of the president.

Someone asked Duan Huai'an, "President, how about you sit in the front?"
Duan Huai'an did not answer the man, but slowly moved his eyes to Huai Nian beside him. He spoke slowly, word by word, asking Huai Nian: "My classmate, is there no one next to you?"

"..."
Silence fell.
There was a bit of embarrassment in the dust.

Someone took the initiative to ease Huai Nian's embarrassment, "She is the president of the Medical School Student Union, Huai Nian."

"From the medical school." Duan Huai'an raised his chin slightly, as if he had just realized Huai Nian's feelings. His voice didn't sound emotional, but they were so close to each other, so close that Huai Nian could discern the joy hidden in his eyes under intense restraint, "--Huai Nian, can I sit next to you?"

(End of this chapter)