Before she knew it, another weekend had arrived. Jiang Yuan counted the days, looking forward to the winter vacation so she could go back and reunite with her parents.
"Mom, I checked. There are still more than two months until the vacation... Since I'm a freshman, our exams are always scheduled later. I also want to go back earlier."
Jiang Yuan leaned on the sofa, video - chatting with her mother. Jiao Jiao was lying lazily on her lap beside her, purring.
"Look, this is Jiao Jiao. Isn't she cute?"
She flipped the phone camera to Jiao Jiao. Jiao Jiao looked at the rectangular thing curiously, blinking her big watery eyes.
"Jiang Yuan, you've secretly got a cat! I'm warning you, you're not allowed to bring it home, no matter how cute it is!"
Jiang's mother exploded on the other end.
"Do you know how much it sheds? It's so hard to keep the place clean!"
Really?
Jiang Yuan glanced guiltily at the surrounding environment. In fact, Jiao Jiao was very well - behaved. She never scratched the sofa with her claws or caused any trouble.
Except for shedding hair.
Often, a handful of hair would come off when you stroked her.
But after living with Jiao Jiao for so long, there was rarely any hair seen on the sofa or the floor.
This was all thanks to Chi Xu. He bought an automatic vacuum cleaner. He was diligent at home and often combed Jiao Jiao's hair and cleaned the place.
It had been almost a week, and her own bedroom was the place with the most cat hair in the whole house.
Because it was not convenient for Chi Xu to go in, and she liked to sleep with Jiao Jiao.
"Okay, okay, I know. I'll leave Jiao Jiao with a friend when I go home."
Jiang Yuan said aggrievedly, still pointing the camera at Jiao Jiao.
Maybe Jiao Jiao felt bored and walked towards the floor, running to her bowl full of cat food.
Jiang Yuan motioned to Chi Xu with her eyes and silently said, "Go away. I want to film Jiao Jiao. I can't film you."
Chi Xu had no choice but to obediently leave the sofa he was sitting on and lie down in a corner.
Rarely, neither of them had classes this afternoon, and they were peacefully in the same room.
After Jiang Yuan finished the call with her mother, she found a transfer on her WeChat and an unread voice message from Lu Zhen.
She first clicked on the transfer from Chi Xu, waved her phone screen at him, and lifted her chin.
"This is the compensation from that three - generation family. They've been sentenced and will be in jail for a few years, but the younger one won't because he's a minor. Part of the money is your previous rent, and the other part is compensation for you."
Chi Xu explained.
That three - generation family really got their just deserts.
Jiang Yuan happily clicked to receive the money and then clicked on Lu Zhen's unread voice message.
"Jiang Yuan, I've found a really delicious Northeast cuisine restaurant near Beijing Normal University. Do you want to go there for dinner tonight?"
The voice of Lu Zhen suddenly rang out from the WeChat speaker on her phone.
Jiang Yuan was stunned for a second and stood there motionless.
She had just received a large sum of money and was so carried away that she forgot Chi Xu was still in the living room.
Lu Zhen's invitation must have gone into Chi Xu's ears word for word.
She was still chasing after Chi Xu, after all!
Jiang Yuan quietly lifted her eyelids, turned her body slightly, and carefully looked at Chi Xu sitting on the sofa.
Unexpectedly, their eyes met.
Chi Xu smiled faintly and pointed at her phone, asking, "Who was that just now?"
"An old friend." Jiang Yuan felt guilty, avoiding his eyes. She quickly replied with a "Sure" and turned off the phone screen.
She had never tried Northeast cuisine before. She had heard it was delicious.
How could she abandon her friend just because of Chi Xu?
No, absolutely not. She, Jiang Yuan, was not such a person.
"An old friend?" Chi Xu stared at her steadily, repeating the words calmly.
"Yes, an old friend. Why can you have old friends and I can't?"
Afraid of saying something wrong, Jiang Yuan said a few words in a hurry and then ran back to her room like a fugitive.
Seeing this, Jiao Jiao slipped off the sofa and followed Jiang Yuan.
With a "bang", the door of the master bedroom was closed.
Jiao Jiao was blocked outside. She turned her little head and looked at Chi Xu curiously, meowing a few times as if puzzled.
"Don't look at me. Look at your sister. Just guard here. Be careful your sister runs away with someone."
Chi Xu sighed.
When Jiang Yuan came out, it was almost evening. She had made an appointment with Lu Zhen and quietly opened the door of her room.
Well, Chi Xu wasn't in the living room.
Jiao Jiao was guarding the door, looking at her curiously.
"Shh, shh... Be good. Don't meow."
Jiang Yuan felt like a thief. She put her index finger on her lips to shush, forgetting that Jiao Jiao was a cat and couldn't understand human words.
She picked up her small bag, gently closed the door of her room, put on her shoes, and carefully closed the front door.
She came to the elevator and waited for it to come up.
"I don't know why I'm so nervous. Chi Xu and I are just ordinary roommates. Do I need to report everything to him and watch his face?"
Jiang Yuan murmured to herself to boost her courage.
With a "ding", the elevator door opened.
Jiang Yuan walked in and pressed the close - door button and the first - floor button.
The elevator door slowly closed. Her inexplicably hanging heart finally fell, and Jiang Yuan let out a sigh of relief. She lowered her head to play with her phone.
After playing for a while, the elevator door opened again.
So soon? Jiang Yuan was surprised. Just as she was about to put away her phone and walk out, she looked up and saw a person standing at the elevator entrance.
It was Chi Xu.
Jiang Yuan was so scared that she almost lost her soul. Her heart was pounding.
"Why are you here?" She asked subconsciously, still in shock.
When she came to her senses and looked at the elevator, it was still on the fourth floor. It hadn't even gone down.
Jiang Yuan: "..."
Chi Xu walked in, pressed the first - floor button, and turned to look at Jiang Yuan. He showed her the garbage bag in his hand.
"Taking out the trash. Do you have to control even this?"
"I didn't mean that. You should have said so earlier. I could have taken it out for you when I went down. You wouldn't have had to come down."
Jiang Yuan forced a smile. Her face was almost stiff from smiling.
Her eyes wandered and landed on the number showing the floor of the elevator.
The numbers were going down one by one.
It was only four floors, but Jiang Yuan had never felt the elevator go down so slowly.
He didn't say a word and just stood there quietly.
An inexplicable sense of oppression filled this enclosed space.
Finally, the elevator stopped on the first floor. The door opened, and the two of them walked out one after another.
Jiang Yuan seemed to come back to life. She took big gulps of the fresh air outside.
She simply said goodbye to Chi Xu and walked in the other direction. After walking a few steps, she realized something was wrong.
Why was Chi Xu still following her?
"Why are you following me?" Jiang Yuan asked.
"Don't be so narcissistic. I'm not interested in your going out to play. I just came down to take out the trash. The trash can is right in front of you on the right."
The boy's non -chalant voice sounded as he lifted his chin towards the right front.
Jiang Yuan looked in the direction he was looking.
She saw the trash can in front of her on the right.
Jiang Yuan: "..."
Okay, she had misunderstood.