Geeky

"90."

"89."

"88."

"..."

"71."

"70."

Su Shi watched the degree of favorability drop little by little, as if he was smoothing the edges and corners of his heart little by little.

Eileen Chang wrote a novel about teacher-student romance. The hero is a teacher with a wife and daughter, and the heroine is a young and beautiful female student.In the end, Su Shi forgot that among all Zhang Ailing's novels, this one did not get him too much favor. He remembered that after the hero struggled, he finally decided to leave his wife and children for the female student, but the female student began to hesitate instead.

He remembered a sentence that his [-]-year-old teacher said when he talked about this novel in the introduction to literature class:

For a middle-aged man with a stable career and family, it takes a lot of courage to give up his existing life and start a new relationship.It is not a simple choice between an old-fashioned wife and a young and beautiful female student.

Su Shi didn't sympathize with that man because of this, but the ordinary and vulgar pain that he had never imagined touched him deeply in an instant.

For Xerxes, is he the one who makes him feel unworthy, or the one who doesn't dare?

Young people always want to be desperate; while old people always want to retreat.

A man like Xerxes, accustomed to having a controllable emotion, wished he knew its risks and rewards well.

He is just a human being, 23 years old, and will only be more beautiful for another 20 years at most.

If he feels that he is not worthy of love, he can spend another 20 years. 20 years later, he is still a golden single duke, who can throw away a middle-aged man with gray temples at will.

Su Shi tilted his head slightly, turned his fingers around the crystal cup with the peacock blue hook flower in front of him, and the blue tea, which was as flat as a small mirror, reflected the figure of Xerxes, he thought to himself:

At this moment, I should be tempted by him.

"you are late."

Atossa's sweet voice sounded from the opposite side.

Xerxes opened his arms, and the manservant took off his coat. He sat down beside Atossa and kissed her on the cheek:

"But my heart has already flown here."

Atossa gave a "puchi" smile, then turned to explain to Balaam:

"He went to the Odyssey yesterday and just got back."

Her eyes fluttered, and when she saw Su Shi who was on the date as Balan's lover, the corners of her lips curled up politely and turned into a touching smile.

This is a box on the second floor of an opera house.

Through red velvet-rolled window frames, the stage could be seen preparing for a musical adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

She was the one who invited Balan and Sue to try it out.

"Balaam is my good friend, and I want to tell him the good news myself," she said to Xerxes. "He wants to bring his lover with him."

In fact, she wanted to tell Mino the news personally, and Xerxes knew it tacitly.

This is a decent way for a fiancée to draw a line between her husband and her ex-lover. At the same time, she uses a tactful gesture to let the ex-lover understand that it is impossible for the two of them to ask him to forget himself.

But Atossa's real purpose is of course not this...

Mino, is it a competitor?

Thinking of this question, her heart was on fire.

She could have confirmed it directly to the system, but she has not acted for a long time.

Maybe it's because she finds it hard to understand why the two of them have such passion; maybe it's because she doesn't want to admit her complete failure——

She really thought that Mino loved her, and for this she deeply sympathized with him... For his love, she confided Xerxes' infidelity to him, and Xerxes ignored her and ignored her. The distress that came... She almost believed that there is such a love in this world, it is sincere, gentle, and does not expect anything in return.

If those late nights, those quiet river-like comforts that make people smile from tears are fake...that would be ridiculous!

Xerxes' favorability doesn't mean anything, he is just a half-hearted, frivolous man, and it's not surprising that he would change his mind.Since his affection for her can drop from 60 to 30 in the blink of an eye, it shows that this favorability competition is like a tug-of-war, the key is not the rope, but how the people on both sides use their strength.

In front of him is a man who is destined not to be in love.

As long as the crux of the problem is identified, as long as she solves the crux of the problem, she can still increase Xerxes' favorability again.

What she wanted was to confirm one thing—

Is it Xerxes who is getting hot, or is it that Mino also secretly communicated with him?

She was thinking about many things in her mind, but she still had a smile on her face.

The plot on the stage is going on, the heroine's father insists on his daughter marrying Demetrius, and Demetrius also persuades the hero to give up the heroine.

The hero said to his rival:

"You have her father's love, Demetrius, let me keep Hermia's; go and marry her father!"

Atossa was still in the mood to laugh coquettishly at Shakespeare's witticism.

Several people sat around a black wooden table, not really watching the show seriously, but just listening to it.At this moment the door opened, and a footman brought in a large glass dish of maraschino cherries, which he said had been sent by the manager of the theatre.

"I love cherries!"

Atossa picked up a cherry and took a bite:

"good to eat!"

She handed the cherry to Xerxes' mouth, "Try it."

Xerxes lowered his title and picked up the half cherry, his expression couldn't be more natural, but when he raised his head, he subconsciously raised his eyes and looked in the direction of Su Shi.

Su Shi turned away his face, stretched out his hands to hold the roses in the vase, and pretended to smell the fragrance of the flowers, looking at ease.It's just that there are thorns on the stem of the rose, which pricked his finger, but he didn't notice it.

Balaam's heart ached, and he couldn't help venting his anger on Atossa, feeling that the two loving people in front of him were an eyesore.

He took Su Shi's hand, Su Shi just raised his eyebrows to look at him in slight surprise, and asked silently.The wound on the finger was only a little bit, and it had already healed, leaving only a little redness. Balan lowered his head and kissed his fingertip gently.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Xerxes coughed hard on the side.

His lung capacity was probably enormous, and sitting beside him, Atossa felt as if the air was trembling with the beating of his chest.

"What's the matter, are you uncomfortable?"

"My throat is itchy," Xerxes said, looking at Balan, "and I still have goosebumps."

He felt that he must have been blind before, so that he could not see Balan's dirty mind.

Balaam ignored him and just glanced at Freeman on the side.

Freeman immediately understood, and asked the theater attendant for an exquisite black gift box, carefully cut out the blood-stained rose and put it in, tied it with a silk ribbon, and prepared to take it back to Master Balan's dismembered body ten thousand paragraphs.

Su tried to pick a cherry and put it in his mouth. After chewing, he was going to spit it directly into the crystal dish in front of him.

Balaam stretched out his hand in front of him, Su Shi hesitated for a moment, and lightly spat in his pale and slender hand.That hand was as graceful as a statue, which made Su Shi feel guilty for tarnishing the artwork.

Balaam didn't think it was dirty, he just put the fruit cores on the plate to prevent his unruly way of uttering from being looked down upon.

"..."

Xerxes felt that Balan was too gay to look directly at.

"..."

Atossa smiled like a portrait—the curvature of the corners of her lips seemed fixed:

No wonder Balan kept telling her good things about Su Shi at the beginning, but in the end she didn't contact him, so he could not initiate a chat with her for several months.

... She should have thought of it earlier.

Seeing that Balan hadn't eaten any cherries, Su Shi took one for him and fed it to his lips.With a sweet smile on his lips, Balaam tilted his neck like a swan, and was about to open his lips to bite in when Xerxes kicked the table suddenly.

The dark sandalwood one-legged table hit Balan, startling him.

Before Balaam could react, Xerxes had pulled the table back:

"Sorry, I didn't mean to."

Balaam glanced at him disapprovingly and suspiciously.

Atossa smoothed things over, she slapped Xerxes on the thigh:

"I told you not to shake your legs!"

"It's my fault."

Xerxes nodded and smiled at Balaam, "Please don't mind."

His smile obviously lacks sincerity, but his attitude is open and generous, and he looks confident that he will be forgiven.

Balaam narrowed his eyes slightly: Nobles among gangsters, gangsters among nobles!

Balan patted the dress, nodded to show tolerance:

"I heard that older people will have inconvenient legs and feet. Of course I don't mind."

"..."

There seemed to be strength in Xerxes' smile.

But Balan was too lazy to spend more time on him, and just turned to look at Su Shi.One of his hands rested on Su Shi's shoulder, with his fingertips stroking the short hair around his ears from time to time, or picking up the hair and tidying it up or down.Su Shi glanced at Xerxes reproachfully. Xerxes received his gaze and turned his face towards the door, pretending to be indifferent.

Atossa said:

"Actually, today, there is a very important matter. I want to tell my important...friend first,"

Several men turned their gazes to her, and Atossa turned to look at Xerxes:

"I'm getting married soon, and the wedding is scheduled for next month."

She gazed into the face of Xerxes, whose first expression was calm.Afterwards, Xerxes solemnly sat up straight, but said to Balaam jokingly:

"Remember to prepare gifts early, those below 1000 gold coins will not be accepted."

He didn't watch the Su test.

Atossa patted his arm, turned to look at Su Shi, Su Shi just lowered his head, holding a transparent crystal spoon, as if he wanted to stir the ice cubes in the glass, but forgot to move.

Atossa looked at him and said softly:

"Mino, bless me."

"..."

Balaam grabbed Su Shi's shoulders tightly.

After a moment of silence, Su Shi turned to Balan and said:

"I'm going to the bathroom."

His smile was a little hasty, forced, and a little bit at a loss as to how to deal with it.In the light, his expression looked very pale.

After he finished speaking, he stood up, and Balan wanted to stand up too. Su tried to put his hand on Balan's shoulder and walked out from behind him.

The door was closed again by the footman.

"Snapped--!"

The cup in Balan's hand was instantly shattered into pieces in the splash of tea.

"Balam?" Atossa widened her eyes in surprise.

"You should tell me first, and then let me pass it on to him!" - words of reproach rang in his mind, but Balaam knew that he had no reason to get angry at Atossa.

He said with a stiff face:

"Sorry, I didn't mean to."

He stretched his wet hand aside to let Freeman dry it, and raised his other hand, using the back of his hand to shield his angry expression.