He Lin finished his shower and as he stepped out of the bathroom, his roommate, sleeping in the bed opposite his, pushed open the dormitory door.
They bumped into each other. He Lin stopped, narrowly avoiding a collision.
"Class monitor," his roommate greeted him, casually sitting down on his chair and making small talk. "I just bumped into Lin Jing at the school gate."
He Lin glanced over at his roommate. "Is she back from hanging out with Lan Tingting?"
"No, she was alone. Not coming back, but leaving," the roommate said, turning on his computer and logging into a game. "Going to the airport."
He Lin's movement to pull out a chair halted. He paused for two seconds. "The airport?"
"Yeah," the roommate finished, then pulled the headset around his neck over his ears. Midway, he seemed to remember something and turned to ask, "Class monitor, want to team up?"
After two seconds, He Lin responded, his voice flat. "No, thanks."
His roommate didn't insist, put on his headset, and started the game.
He Lin withdrew his gaze, staring at his reflection in the mirror, his eyes unreadable.
…
Sheng Kuang returned to his hotel room and collapsed onto the bed, pulling the covers over his head to sleep.
While he said he was sleeping, he wasn't truly asleep. His mind was a mess. Many memories he hadn't thought about for a while recently were surfacing one after another in his brain.
He realized his memory was truly excellent. He remembered those events and those people so clearly, so clearly that he could recall almost every expression and word of each person.
He didn't know how long he was immersed in the past. When he opened his eyes, the lights outside the floor-to-ceiling window had dimmed considerably.
He lay on the ceiling in the dim light for a while, then rolled out of bed, took a shower, changed into casual clothes, and left the room wearing a mask, holding his phone and room card.
After leaving the hotel, he turned right and walked for about two hundred meters before taking out his phone from his pocket.
There were quite a few unread messages. Besides the yLs group of young guys, there were also Li Ran and his crew, and of course, her.
She had sent him messages and called, but not much. Just a couple of messages, and one call. Not like Chen Jing and Lan Bowen who had been bombarding him.
Moreover, the messages were sent around eight o'clock last night. After he didn't reply, she hadn't bothered him again.
Sheng Kuang checked the time. It was already past one in the morning. At this hour, she was probably asleep. He pondered for a moment and stopped himself from replying.
Many people had updated their Moments. Being a bit of a perfectionist, he clicked into it to dismiss the red notification dot.
As soon as he refreshed, he found that a minute ago, the girl he thought was asleep had updated her status.
Xiao Jing Jiang: Don't doubt yourself, you are exceptionally good, exceptionally gentle, and exceptionally deserving.
Sheng Kuang paused for a moment. He scrolled down and found that this girl seemed to have channeled a motivational speaker tonight, updating about ten statuses.
Xiao Jing Jiang: May you live freely and unrestrained, not burdened by the gaze of others.
Xiao Jing Jiang: When adults get tired, you can come and be my little one.
Xiao Jing Jiang: External voices are just references. If they don't sound good, you don't have to reference them.
Xiao Jing Jiang: It's okay, I won't listen to them, I'll listen to you.
Xiao Jing Jiang: Although I can't empathize, I can be your best listener.
Sheng Kuang turned into a supermarket. While scrolling through the Moments of this girl who was inexplicably sentimental late at night, he picked up a beer from the shelf.
He was tall. The mask he wore covered most of his face, and the hood of his hoodie was pulled over his head, only revealing a good physique. The cashier girl looked at him a few more times but didn't recognize him and helped him pay.
While scanning the payment code, Sheng Kuang brought up the QR code one second, and the next, his phone shut down automatically due to low battery.
Sheng Kuang: "..."
Sheng Kuang was silent for three seconds. He looked up. Before he could speak, the cashier enthusiastically offered a power bank. "Uh, would you like to charge it for a bit?"
Sheng Kuang: "…………"
Sheng Kuang was speechless for another three seconds. He said "Thank you" and took the power bank. Just as he was about to connect it to his phone, the supermarket door was pushed open, and coincidentally, Chen Jing and Jiang Zui walked in.
Jiang Zui recognized him at a glance. "Team..."
As Jiang Zui uttered this word, he realized they were outside. But he could only barely hold back the "leader" part. "...leader, I'm sorry... brother."
Sheng Kuang: "…………"
Chen Jing: "…………"
Jiang Zui: "…………"
Three seconds later, Jiang Zui continued with forced composure. "I shouldn't have let you go out alone in the middle of the night. It's too dangerous. After all, boys need to protect themselves when they're out..."
Sheng Kuang couldn't listen anymore. "Give me your phone."
Jiang Zui: "Huh?"
Sheng Kuang returned the power bank to the cashier and showed Jiang Zui his phone. "My phone is dead, let me use yours to pay."
Jiang Zui said "Oh" twice, opened his WeChat payment code, and handed it to Sheng Kuang.
Sheng Kuang took it and held it up to the cashier.
After paying, Sheng Kuang glanced at the amount, returned the phone to Jiang Zui. As Jiang Zui took his phone back, he accidentally clicked into Moments.
Sheng Kuang's peripheral vision happened to catch a glimpse. He noticed that those late-night sentimental updates didn't appear on Jiang Zui's side.
He froze for a second, then as if realizing something, he took Jiang Zui's phone again. "Let me use it again."
Jiang Zui immediately let go.
Sheng Kuang clicked into Lin Jing's Moments on Jiang Zui's phone. It showed a horizontal bar with small text in the middle: Friends only display the past three days of Moments.
Sheng Kuang lowered his eyelids and was silent for a moment. He returned the phone to Jiang Zui and looked at Chen Jing standing beside him. "Let me use your phone."
Chen Jing was busy buying things and casually tossed his phone to Sheng Kuang before walking away.
Sheng Kuang didn't look at Chen Jing's WeChat homepage or who he contacted. He directly searched for Lin Jing in his contacts and entered her Moments. It was the same as what was displayed on Jiang Zui's phone: a horizontal bar with the small text "Friends only display the past three days of Moments" in the middle.
"..."
So, her Moments were only visible to him?