A moment later.
The spicy and aromatic smell of snail noodles filled the entire room.
Everyone laughed and chatted as they sat around the table, eagerly raising the glass cups in their hands.
Today, the cups held no drinks, just plain boiled water with red dates and goji berries.
It was because during these past few years of filming, their schedules were often turned upside down, so they had long given up all drinks and alcohol, only drinking them when a special occasion absolutely required it.
Although they were only graduate students who had just turned twenty, they had genuinely already started down the path of health preservation.
“Cheers!”
Warm yellow light flowed across the glass cups.
“Sweet!”
Song Qiuyu took a sip of the sweet water and stuck out her little tongue to lick the corner of her lips.
“Hey, it’s still early. After we eat, we should still have time to go sing karaoke. Let’s hurry and eat first. I’m already starving.”
“Let’s eat, let’s eat!”
Jiang Xiao chuckled, responded, and picked up a piece of fish meat and bamboo shoot from the pot, gently placing them in her bowl.
“Mm-hmm, you eat too!”
Song Qiuyu, both happy and shy, nodded with a beaming smile and reached her chopsticks into the pot to scoop out a fish slice for Jiang Xiao.
“I’ll go open a window.”
Seeing Lin An holding his breath, whether intentionally or not, Xie Zhuran immediately got up from his seat.
“No need, I’m closer. I’ll do it!”
Sang Tian waved her hand at Xie Zhuran and said gently.
With that, she stood up and left him with a view of her back as she walked toward the balcony.
Xie Zhuran was slightly moved and slowly sat back down on the bench. The next second, a thought he had never considered before popped into his mind.
‘Why had such a good girl been right in front of me all along, yet I never noticed her?’
‘Was it because Jiang Li had blinded me?’
“What are you doing?”
Suddenly, Lin An elbowed him with an amused expression on his face.
“You don’t have other thoughts about Lao Sang, do you?”
Xie Zhuran was startled and instinctively looked at the reactions of the two roommates across from him, feeling like he was about to be stared at intensely.
Sure enough, Jiang Xiao and Song Qiuyu had heard, and sure enough, they were both staring hard at him.
But honestly, wasn’t Lao Jiang also making a move on Lao Song, who was originally just a roommate, a brother, a friend?
Of course, he would only think this in his mind and would never say it out loud.
A joke once in a while was one thing, but this kind of thing with actual feelings that could affect brotherly bonds was absolutely not to be done.
So, Xie Zhuran directly changed the subject.
“These red dates are very sweet, Lao Song. Where did you buy them?”
“Online shopping. If Lao Xie wants some, I’ll send you the link later.”
Song Qiuyu didn’t press Xie Zhuran on it either.
If Xie Zhuran really did make a move on Sang Tian, there would be quite a few people to deal with.
Jiang Yu would be the first to disagree.
Jiang Xiao naturally thought the same as Song Qiuyu.
‘When that time came, the most difficult position would be his as the older brother, and Xi’er as the sister-in-law. Both sides were important, how could they help?’
But for him and Xi’er to have today’s happiness, they couldn’t have done it without the help of Xie Zhuran and Sang Tian.
If possible, he wanted to make the optimal choice.
“What are you all talking about?”
Having opened the window, Sang Tian walked back but found the atmosphere at the dinner table a bit strange and couldn’t help being puzzled.
“We were talking about…”
Lin An gave a sly, mischievous smile.
Before he could finish speaking, he was elbowed by Xie Zhuran beside him.
Turning his face, Lin An met Xie Zhuran’s eyes and clearly saw his thoughts. He obviously didn’t want to continue the previous topic anymore.
But he adjusted his glasses and continued.
“We were saying that among the five of us, only Lao Xie and you, Lao Sang, are still single. Want us to play matchmaker for you two?”
“Huh?”
Sang Tian seemed to freeze for a moment.
“Lao Lin, what’s wrong with you? You got drunk just from drinking plain water with red dates and goji berries? Now you’re talking nonsense?”
After saying this, Xie Zhuran hurriedly wanted to explain a few things to Sang Tian.
“What Lao Lin just meant was…”
Sang Tian, however, pointed at herself, seeming still unable to quite understand, a bit bewildered, and said:
“Are you saying I should try dating Lao Xie?”
As these words fell, the air suddenly became awkward.
Although Xie Zhuran didn’t quite understand why such a good and pretty girl like Sang Tian seemed to have never been in a relationship, come to think of it, in these four years, he had hardly ever seen any guy pursuing her.
But in this situation, Xie Zhuran was already so mortified his toes could dig out a three-bedroom apartment, so he couldn’t think too much about it.
However, he forcibly steadied himself, living out the composure of a man in his thirties or forties at just over twenty years old.
“Sigh, Lao Lin was just joking with you.”
“Phew…”
Sang Tian seemed to finally relax, patted her chest, and sat back down in her seat.
“That’s good. Otherwise, I might have had to seriously reject you, Lao Xie.”
Hearing this, Xie Zhuran was slightly startled, his eyes widening.
“Seriously reject me? So merciless?”
Sang Tian nodded seriously.
“Oh? Does that mean Lao Sang has someone she likes?”
Lin An was somewhat surprised.
He really wasn’t joking. With Lao Xie and Jiang Li’s situation, anyone who sees it gets anxious. The two of them had been ambiguous for three years and still hadn’t confirmed their relationship, which was truly hard to bear. Besides, good girls weren’t just limited to Jiang Li.
No need to hang yourself from just one tree.
“Mm, I have someone I like!”
Sang Tian very openly admitted it.
Xie Zhuran couldn’t help but smile, slightly bitterly. It was fine. It seemed among the five of them, he would soon be the only one left alone.
“Who is that person?”
Song Qiuyu was happily eating bamboo shoots. After finishing, she looked at Sang Tian curiously and pressed for more.
“It’s still a secret for now.”
Sang Tian blinked.
“If we don’t eat the snail noodles soon, they’ll get overcooked. Let’s eat!”
The topic was easily steered away.
Everyone stopped chatting and focused on slurping their noodles.
Halfway through their noodles, a ringtone with a slightly retro feel suddenly sounded from Xie Zhuran’s phone.
Xie Zhuran put down his chopsticks, picked up a paper napkin to wipe his hands, and then picked up his phone.
The caller ID showed: Jiang Li.
In the entire two years, the number of times this caller ID had actively appeared could be counted on one hand.
“…..”
Xie Zhuran was a bit stunned.
‘Why did she have to call at this time of all times?’
“Lao Xie, who’s calling?”
Song Qiuyu tilted her head.
“Uh…”
Xie Zhuran almost blurted out the name Jiang Li.
‘Almost blurted it out?’
He froze for a moment.
‘In the past, I could have naturally said who was calling, but now why can’t I all of a sudden?’
Song Qiuyu saw that Xie Zhuran was acting strange no matter how she looked at it. She frowned, her eyes moving around as she thought, then said:
“Could it be Jiang Li?”
“Ahem, I have something urgent. You all go ahead and eat. I’ll be back soon after I take this call and handle things!”
Xie Zhuran instantly felt extremely guilty.
Without looking at the faces of the other four, he turned and walked toward the entrance, pulled open the door, and went out.
Instead of answering the call outside the door, he continued down the stairs. Only halfway down did he actually answer Jiang Li’s call.
“Hello…”
He heard Jiang Li’s clear, cool voice come through from the other end of the line.
“Zhuran-ge, are you at school right now?”
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