stepping into the night

Ruan Chu was taken aback for a moment, and hastily looked away from Lin Jiang's gaze, his heart beating faster.

—— Lin Jiang's words, don't they really mean what you understand?

However, what he said was indeed what he understood. A certain senior was silently watching his every subtle reaction at that time. As if it was just a casual joke on his part.

No matter how dull Ruan Chu was, he could still detect some clues from his joke that didn't fit his usual temperament just now. This made him look forward to and uneasy, and he was a little unbelievable. Some spasms.

Qiang Wu vaguely felt that he had encountered the same sense of sight that was shown by a couple when he was playing games yesterday, but he suspiciously looked back and forth from the faces of these two teachers who seemed to be calm, and seemed to be nothing, wrinkled Wrinkled nose, no more tangled.In a blink of an eye, I remembered the math problems that I made a mess of mistakes because of my inattention, and then I felt a little guilty when I turned my face to look at Lin Jiang, so I stopped being a demon, and honestly called "Teacher Lin", and asked Lin Jiang to give it to me Say the wrong question yourself.

Ruan Chu leaned against the table, gently pressed the position of his stomach with his hands shrunk in the large down jacket, and his gaze involuntarily fell on the side face of Lin Jiang who was seriously and responsibly giving a lecture to Qiang Wu.

However, the tutor only plays the role of supervising learning and providing corresponding knowledge tutoring, which is different from tutoring teachers who attend classes according to class hours. They do not have questions to talk about during the tutoring time every day, and most of the time is reserved for Qiang Wu himself. Do questions.

And at this time, Lin Jiang will do the test questions for the class placement test that she brought over, and Ruan Chu will also quietly try to write the assistant class of their class and the English speeches they mentioned that will become the norm in the second half of the semester. But what he quietly pressed under the manuscript paper was the sketch of the puppet that he hadn't finished drawing in the morning.

Lin Jiang would not try to see what Ruan Chu was writing, so she thought that he was really serious about writing speeches, but sometimes Ruan Chu's handwriting did not seem to be writing in English, but Lin Jiang didn't. Think about it carefully—he always felt that Ruan Chu's complexion was not very good recently, and occasionally when he turned around, he would see Ruan Chu hastily put down the hand covering his abdomen, and then smiled obediently at Lin Jiang with his face up laugh.

He knew that Ruan Chu would take another part-time job after finishing his work in the tutoring institution, but Ruan Chu didn't take the initiative to mention it to him, and he wouldn't ask too much. This was a tacit understanding between the two of them until now.But he didn't want Ruan Chu not to cherish his body because of his negligence, so that he would suffer from any illness.

"It's New Year's Eve in two days, so don't use it for class," the person in charge at the front desk informed the lounge when most of the tutors had just finished their tutoring time and hadn't had time to leave. Teachers have worked hard, happy new year!"

Ruan Chu, who was still packing her things, stopped between her speeches and looked at her seriously. After listening, she nodded to show that she knew, and whispered "Happy New Year" together with other tutors.

"Are you in a hurry to do something after get off work?" Lin Jiang didn't bring many things, so she packed them up before Ruan Chu, and sat sideways on the chair facing Ruan Chu.

"Hmm... not bad." Ruan Chu thought for a while, and answered vaguely, but his eyes were still shining with Lin Jiang, "Senior, what's the matter?"

Lin Jiang met his clear eyes, sighed helplessly, and couldn't help but softened her tone to him: "Did you eat on time at home during the holiday?"

"Huh?" Ruan Chu blinked, looked away unnaturally, and even his voice became weaker because of his lack of confidence, "Is there..."

Ruan Chu became nervous when he lied, which made him afraid to look at the person who asked him. Even his gaze was erratic. Lin Jiang knew at a glance that he was not telling the truth. She was angry and funny for a while, but she didn't expose him. , just said: "Really? Then why do I feel that you always seem to be holding your stomach and feeling uncomfortable recently?"

"Ah," Ruan Chu's fine eyelashes trembled, and he felt that his face was burning hot again, "No, no, senior, you must have read it wrong."

The consequences of not telling the truth came true as soon as his lie was told.

Perhaps it is indeed the problem accumulated by irregular eating for more than half a month, or it may be drawn out because of the tension when Lin Jiang saw it through. He also faintly began to convulse, his face turned pale, he bent down subconsciously, and made a fist with his palms against his abdomen to relieve the severe pain.

Lin Jiang was taken aback by his reaction, and immediately realized that Ruan Chu had started to have a stomachache again, so she hurriedly helped him to sit down, and ran to the front desk to get a cup of hot water and returned, handing it to him without passing Ruan Chu's hand. to his lips.

His action was so natural, Ruan Chu opened his mouth without thinking much, and took a sip of hot water from Lin Jiang's hand while holding the edge of the paper cup.Ruan Chu's complexion improved after the pain was relieved, and he immediately understood that he was lying in front of the other party just now, but in the next second he slapped himself in the face, which made him unable to think of what kind of method to use Respond to face Lin Jiang.

"Go to the hospital." The gentle smile on Lin Jiang's face when he treated Ruan Chu suddenly faded away, leaving only the solemnity after anxiety and worry. I don't know if it was an illusion, but Ruan Chu always felt that he seemed a little angry.

—Are you angry that I didn’t take good care of my body?

Such a thought came to Ruan Chu's mind, but strangely, he didn't feel the same flattery as when he felt Lin Jiang's care in the past, and the sweetness of being cared by someone he liked quietly dripped in his heart again.

But he didn't want to go to the hospital.In his cognition, every time he goes to the hospital, he will spend a lot of money. Although he knows that people's birth, old age, illness and death are force majeure factors, he will still classify this expense as unnecessary.

However, Ruan Chu swallowed the words of refusal that had already reached his lips when he saw Lin Jiang's expression.

He would be happy for Lin Jiang's concern for him, but he didn't want to trouble Lin Jiang to work hard for him all the time, so he nodded silently without confidence.

But the part-time job in Cyclamen does not have holidays, and Ruan Chu took up this extra job during the winter vacation precisely because of the three times the salary of the legal holidays, and he had to rush to Sanmin Square as soon as possible.

Ruan Chu made up his mind, raised his head and met Lin Jiang's gaze seriously: "Can I do it tomorrow morning? It happens to be the 29th of the twelfth lunar month. It's a holiday here. If you have time, senior... can you accompany me tomorrow morning?"

"You were in so much pain just now." Lin Jiang frowned, disapproving of his proposal.

"But I..." Ruan Chu pursed his lips, hesitated for a while, and still didn't drink. Lin Jiang said that he had a part-time job in Cyclamen, and his eyes wandered for a moment, "I have something to do later... ...I will definitely remember to eat on time! If you don't have time tomorrow, I can go by myself. Is it okay? Senior?"

But seeing the obedient and coquettish appearance of the person in front of her asking for her opinion, Lin Jiang couldn't bear to put on a face and say harsh words to him at all, so she could only sigh again, and compromised: "Okay."

Ruan Chu frowned, and smiled at him with a sweet and attractive smile that he didn't realize, which made Lin Jiang feel helpless and itchy.

It was already 45:15 at that time, and there were still [-] minutes before Ruan Chu started working in Cyclamen. He had to change into uniform work clothes a little earlier. Going, I had no choice but to bear the reluctance to say goodbye to Lin Jiang obediently, stepped on my schoolbag quickly, and went downstairs to the direction of Sanmin Square.

The staff dinners of Cyclamen are always given out after closing time. As usual, Ruan Chu can only have dinner until eleven o'clock, which is obviously far from the "will eat on time" that he promised Lin Jiang in the afternoon.During the few minutes of rest after serving the guests, Ruan Chu thought of this incident, and couldn't help but feel a little guilty and ashamed, but then he thought that this was the first time Lin Jiang had shown himself like this There is obvious special concern.

Such a discovery made Ruan Chu feel lighter again, and even the vague pain and discomfort in his upper abdomen were relieved a lot.

From New Year's Eve to the sixth day of the Spring Festival is the legal holiday of the Spring Festival. The proprietress also gave red envelopes and a bag of New Year's goods to the students who would insist on working part-time in these days in advance, and invited them to have a New Year's Eve dinner together in the store.

The closer to the New Year's Eve, the busier the business in the store, and even a few part-time students who could only do basic work were so busy that they were temporarily taken to fill the vacancies in the store caused by the regular employees' vacation. .

When Ruan Chu finally finished work and came out of the shop with his schoolbag on his back, his mind was in a state of chaos. He could barely hold on to the last of his strength, clutching his sore stomach and walking towards home, so that the familiar voice came out. It took a long time to react when the sound came from the front.

——"Ruan Chu, Ruan Chu!"

Ruan Chu raised his head in a daze, lifted his heavy eyelids and followed the source of the sound, almost thinking that he was hallucinating, until the warm palm of that person touched his forehead lightly before confirming that he was standing on his side. The person in front of him was indeed Lin Jiang.

"...Senior?" Ruan Chu blinked dully, because of exhaustion and sleepiness, his double eyelids were folded several times.

For a moment, he couldn't think of asking Lin Jiang how he found himself and why he appeared here, so he could only rely on the most primitive reaction, before Lin Jiang smiled at him, turned his back and squatted slightly When she got off, she lay on Lin Jiang's back, and was picked up by Lin Jiang.

"Where do you live?" Lin Jiang asked softly.

Ruan Chu had many questions and emotions intertwined in his mind, he obediently answered Lin Jiang's questions in order of priority, and told him the location of his neighborhood.

——Why did Lin Jiang appear here?

——Did he come here to wait for his own?

——But how did he know that he was working part-time in Cyclamen?

Ruan Chu thought of many questions belatedly, but he was too tired, he was reluctant to part with Lin Jiang's generous and warm shoulders, and had to go further and quietly buried his face in Lin Jiang's fluffy and soft down jacket hat, clearly feeling Until Lin Jiang's hand on her knees lifted herself up.

"Senior." Ruan Chu opened his mouth, and finally called Lin Jiang softly and softly, like a kitten willing to pull out its soft belly, obedient and dependent.

"Yeah." Lin Jiang could feel the warm breath on the back of her neck when he breathed, which made his heart hang for several hours and finally let go, and replied softly, "I'm here."