Chasing Tides

At 07:30 in the evening, AOW member Ning Lan's birthday live broadcast started.

There was nothing new in the live broadcast, and Ning Lan had to pretend to be pleasantly surprised while maintaining a smile, and her facial muscles were sore.After cutting the cake, he hid behind the camera and flipped through his phone. Except for the text message from his aunt urging him to pay for living expenses, there was no other message.

At the beginning of the Mid-Autumn Festival last month, my uncle and aunt called him together and asked him why he hadn’t been home for the Mid-Autumn Festival. I couldn't get in, and I deeply suspected that they had made preparations in advance and were reading drafts on the phone.

But I have to say that this trick is very effective. He is born to be soft and not hard, especially when his uncle said that he was almost beaten to death by his father several times when he was a child. It was his uncle who stopped him and took him home to feed him. Lan's hardened heart finally softened.In fact, they didn't need to go through all this effort, he didn't plan to cut off his living expenses, and he planned to continue to pay for Ning Xuan's university.

It's just that I feel sad when I hear the word "home" many times.

Ning Lan clicked on WeChat, swiped up and down the recent contacts interface a few times, but finally did not click on the dialog box of the person named SY on the top.

He's so busy, it's normal to forget, so let's not bother him.

Ning Lan's birthday party does not have any surprises, if the company brings his mother over, it will not be a surprise, but a shock.Other people's parents are full of loving smiles - "Baby, happy birthday." His mother is - "Son, do you have any money?"

It's funny to think about it.

After accepting everyone's intentional or perfunctory gifts, Lu Xiaochuan and Wang Bingyang sang a song for him. I don't know who changed the lyrics, but added his name in it, and repeatedly sang "Lanlan is cute, the most lovely in the world." Cute", Ning Lan couldn't stop laughing, took out her mobile phone on the spot and asked them to sing it again, saying that she would record it as an alarm.

Since not all members of AOW were present and the process was relatively simple, the birthday party started to wrap up in less than an hour.Just when Ning Lan said to the camera, "Thank you for your blessings, I will continue to work hard", the door of the conference room was pushed open.

Sui Yi stood at the door in a dusty manner, with a suitcase with a consignment label beside him.

He threw the suitcase at the door without dragging it in, and walked quickly to Ning Lan: "Happy birthday, I'm late."

Ning Lan was stunned for a while, and then her heart began to beat wildly, like a green leather train accelerating after starting, bang bang bang bang bang, faster and faster.

Sui Yi rummaged through the pockets of the windbreaker, first took out a gift box from the left: "This is the birthday present that Fang Yu asked me to bring to you." Then he took out another box from the right, "This is from me."

"Happy birthday." He repeated.

Fang Yu gave him a pen, and the note inside said that he should use this pen to fight for the construction of a harmonious society all his life, and everyone around him laughed.

When opening Sui Yi's gift box, Ning Lan was a little nervous for some reason.He quietly wiped the sweat from his palms on his pants before slowly opening them.

Inside lay a red agate bracelet.

Sui Yi looked at his slender and fair wrist and said, "I saw it when I was shopping, and I thought it suits you very well, so I bought it."

Ning Lan stared at it for a long time, touched the warm and delicate surface of the red beads, and said in a voice so low that only she could hear, "Thank you...I like it very much."

In the evening, Ning Lan took off the bracelet that she had worn for less than two hours, admired it under the light for a long time, then took it back into the box as if it were a treasure, and put a red rope pressed under the box as a gift on her hand superior.

Sui Yi asked him why he changed it, Ning Lan was embarrassed to say that he was afraid that it would be damaged and he couldn't bear it, and only said that he didn't want to wear it because he was afraid of being ripped off by fans.

Sui Yi just smiled and said nothing.

Ning Lan knelt down to clean up with him, and asked him why he came back so early. Sui Yi said that he just finished filming this afternoon, thinking it was his birthday, so he didn't stay an extra night, and came back first after rebooking the plane ticket.

Ning Lan's face was still blushing with excitement, and it was almost redder than the bunch of tender red agates.His head was buzzing, he kept thinking why Sui Yi came back early, now that he got the answer, he still couldn't believe it.

He really... came back for my birthday?

At this moment, Ning Lan had to admit that the string in her heart had been plucked long ago, even if she just thought of Sui Yi's name, there would be a light and pleasant sound.

Came back for me alone?

why?

Did he also...

There was a war between heaven and man in his heart, and he was so excited that if he said something, he was about to rush out of his throat. Ning Lan's fingers were trembling slightly, and when he picked up a piece of clothing, he moved too much, and lifted the things that were pressed under it.

A box similar to the gift box Sui Yi gave him fell at his feet, and the lid of the box opened in response.

Ning Lan got closer, so he picked it up first. Inside the box lay a pair of star-shaped stud earrings, one big and the other small, with a simple design. The black gems glistened brightly under the incandescent lamp.

Sui Yi didn't have pierced ears, Ning Lan asked suspiciously: "This is..."

Sui Yi glanced at the pair of earrings, his eyes flickered, and he put down his hand hanging in the air, and said in a low voice, "It's for you too."

Ning Lan blinked: "But I don't have pierced ears."

"Well, I didn't think of that when I bought it."

Seeing that Sui Yi lowered his eyes and looked uncomfortable, Ning Lan thought he was embarrassed, so he couldn't help laughing and said, "Thank you, Captain, it's very beautiful."

Sui Yi pursed her lips and continued to pack her luggage.

Ning Lan didn't sleep well all night. When Sui Yi fell asleep in the middle of the night, he took the two boxes and pressed them under the pillow. up.

Fang Yu and Gu Chenkai came back at noon. Taking advantage of the absence of Zhang Fan and An Lin in the morning, he sneaked out of the company and took a taxi to the gate of a hospital in the south of the city.

This is the second time he has come here, and the male doctor who received him was the same as last time. He didn't recognize Ning Lan, who had only met him once. Seeing that the guest was well dressed, his attitude was not as bad as last time .

However, when he heard that he was just going to have his ears pierced, the doctor almost rolled his eyes to the sky, pointing to the door: "When you go out, turn left and then turn left, there are piercings all over the place."

According to the doctor's instructions, Ning Lan found a small jewelry store in an alley, and spent 20 yuan to get two piercings in her left ear, one on the earlobe and one near the edge of the auricle.

"Please help me put these two earrings on." After piercing her ears, Ning Lan took out the box from her pocket and said.

The owner of the jewelry store is a middle-aged woman in her 30s. She was surprised and said, "How can anyone wear their own earrings right after their ears are pierced? Are they not afraid of inflammation and festering?"

Ning Lan said that he was not afraid, and begged the proprietress to help him wear it. The proprietress could not stand the boy's childish and coquettish voice. Seeing that the star earrings were made of platinum, which would not easily cause wound infection, she agreed as soon as the roots of her ears softened.

The silver nail that had just been pierced into the flesh was still bleeding when it was pulled out. The proprietress changed it for him as if she couldn't bear to look directly at it, and asked, "Is it a gift from your girlfriend? Such a treasure."

Ning Lan smiled brightly on the face behind the mask, and before she had time to speak, she grinned and gasped from the pain of piercing her flesh.

On the way back, Ning Lan was in the back seat of the taxi, turning on the front camera of her mobile phone as a mirror to look at her left ear.He put the larger star on the earlobe, and the smaller one on the pinna. The obsidian reflected the sunlight outside the window, making it dazzlingly bright.

It's still pleasing to the eye, except that the ears are a little red and swollen.

Running out to get his ears pierced was not only his impulse, but also something he had thought about all night.

Ning Lan touched his chest with his hand, and buried under it was a heart that had taken root under the sun and rain and was about to break out of the ground.

Even though he repeatedly told himself not to have unrealistic delusions like a fool, his heart, which had been silent for a long time, couldn't resist after all, ready to move under the bombardment of sugar-coated shells.

What's more, it's not just sugar-coated bullets.

Ning Lan finally plucked up the courage and boldly guessed——

Maybe...he likes me too?

Otherwise, why did you come here to celebrate my birthday?

Otherwise, why are you so gentle and kind to me?

Ning Lan seemed to have searched for the answer in these few questions. He was dizzy with the answer, and exhausted his remaining rationality to suppress the overwhelming sense of happiness.

There has never been a moment as urgent as now, wanting to go back quickly and see him quickly.

He looked at the scenery along the street receding from the window, raised the hand wearing the red string and touched the left ear, the smile was imprinted in his eyes, condensed on the brow, and never faded all the way.