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Join the ServerThe people in the activity room left one by one.
At first, the senior in charge of video editing packed up his laptop and external hard drive, waved his hand toward Shi Yu and Ji Xu, and said, “I’ll head out first.”
Then two club members in charge of props moved the semi-finished sword and shield to the storage room to lock them away before leaving, and then the junior doing copywriting publicity exited the door carrying his backpack and unfinished drink bottle.
The sounds of footsteps and voices gradually faded away, with the sound of other club activity room doors closing occasionally transmitting down the corridor, while the sky outside turned from twilight to deep blue and then sank into ink.
The fluorescent lights in the activity room shone white and glaring, casting two figures onto the floor covered in scraps of fabric and paper.
Ji Xu had originally already packed his backpack, zipped it up, and slung the backpack strap over his shoulder.
When he reached the door, he caught out of his peripheral vision that Shi Yu was still sitting in front of that long table in the corner, with that blue dress spread out before him, pinching a needle and thread in his hand, lowering his head and concentrating on sewing something onto the skirt hem.
He stopped his pace, put down his backpack, walked over, sat down on the chair beside Shi Yu, and leaned close to take a look—the flower in Shi Yu’s hand was already more than half done, a three-dimensional flower shape folded out of blue fabric of the same color, its edges embellished with fine silver shiny threads, the layers of petals stacked complexly and exquisitely, each fold reflecting soft light and shadows under the light.
“Is there anything I can help you with?” Ji Xu asked.
Shi Yu raised his head to look at him.
His fingers were still pinching the needle and thread, the tip of the needle hovering over the edge of a petal without dropping.
He thought for a moment, swept his gaze around the surroundings, and finally landed on an unopened box of rhinestones on the table beside them.
That box of rhinestones was packed in a transparent plastic box, divided inside into several compartments of small stones of different sizes and different facets, sparkling with scattered light under the lamp.
“Can you help me attach the rhinestones?” Shi Yu used his free hand to push the rhinestone box over, pulled out his phone to turn up a design drawing, and turned the screen toward Ji Xu’s direction, “Attach them upward from the waist in a regular pattern, roughly in this arrangement.”
In the design drawing on the screen, the section of the dress from the waist to the chest was adorned with rows of fine rhinestone decorations, like rays of light growing upward from the waistline, arranged in a well-spaced manner, shining brilliantly and exquisitely under virtual light effects.
Ji Xu nodded, took the phone to carefully study that pattern twice, looked at the scattered rhinestones on the table and the glue tools beside them, and began to work according to the method Shi Yu had just briefly taught him.
First, squeeze a little specialized glue onto the neckline, pick up a rhinestone with small tweezers, place it on the designated position, and press gently to fix it, then take another one to align and arrange.
The actions were repetitive and trivial, requiring every single stone to be aligned in direction to ensure the angle of the facets was uniform, otherwise the reflection would be messy when light hit it.
He lowered his head and attached them attentively, the tweezers between his fingers clamping tiny stones one by one to drop onto the blue fabric, while Shi Yu continued sewing that flower beside him with needle and thread.
Separated by the distance of a desk lamp between the two of them, neither spoke, with only the faint sound of the tweezers touching the glue bottle cap and the light sound of the needle tip passing through the fabric alternating in the quiet room.
Busy for who knows how long.
Ji Xu’s vision became somewhat blurry from staring at those tiny reflective points at close range for a long time, so he blinked his eyes to restore clarity to his field of view and continued picking up the next stone.
After more than an hour, he finally finished attaching all the rhinestones requested on the design drawing, spreading all the way from the waistline to the neckline position.
The dense fine stones under the light were like a layer of silver-blue stardust adhering to the dress surface, each dutifully reflecting light.
When he straightened his waist, a dull ache transmitted from the back of his neck, making a crisp click sound as he twisted his neck.
Shi Yu also happened to tie off his needle.
He lifted that sewn flower up to take a look, compared it against the designated position on the skirt hem, adjusted the angle, and then lowered his head to fix it securely on the edge of the skirt hem using needle and thread.
The blue petals hung on the curve of the skirt hem, the silver thread shiny wires at the edges flickering under the light, forming an echo with the rhinestone area Ji Xu had attached.
Shi Yu shook open the dress to look at the overall effect, nodded in satisfaction, and then raised his head to look at Ji Xu who was slumped on the chair.
Ji Xu’s entire body collapsed backward against the chair back, his two legs stretched straight out and rested on the crossbar of another chair opposite, tilting his head up to stare at the ceiling, his eyes somewhat dry from using them at close range for a long time.
“Then I’ll head off first,” he said while rubbing his eyes, taking a glance at the hands of the wall clock—it was already nearly nine o’clock.
He hadn’t eaten dinner yet, and right now his stomach was empty, his belly cooperating extremely well by letting out a soft growl after he finished speaking.
He had arrived at the activity room after four o’clock this afternoon, originally planning to help for a bit and then leave, but ended up being busy until now.
“Don’t go yet,” Shi Yu folded the dress in his hands neatly, placed it to the side, and turned his head to look at Ji Xu, “Qian Chenhe will arrive momentarily, he brought us food.”
He looked down at his phone; the screen displayed a message he had sent to Qian Chenhe two hours ago: “Ji Xu and I are still here, help bring some food over.”
Qian Chenhe had replied with two words plus an emoji: “Wait up.”
Just as Shi Yu’s words fell, the door to the activity room was pushed open.
Qian Chenhe stood at the doorway carrying three bulging plastic bags; seeing that neither of the two people in the activity room had left yet, his face first froze for a moment.
Then his gaze shifted from that finished dress in front of Shi Yu to Ji Xu’s face that was written with “so hungry,” and shifted back again, carrying a bit of helpless admiration: “You guys are way too hard-working, what time is it and you still haven’t left.”
He placed the plastic bags on an empty table beside them, swept away the scattered scraps of fabric and thread ends on top with his arm to clear out a clean tabletop, and laid out the food boxes one by one.
Stir-fried beef was steaming hot, the meat slices cut thin and even, stir-fried to a glossy sheen with green peppers and dried chili segments; minced pork eggplant was spread in a layer in another box, the sauce soaking into the eggplant flesh to make it soft and flavorful.
Braised pork and quail eggs were stacked full in the insulated box, the pork belly cut into moderate sizes with uniform sauce color, and the surface of the quail eggs fried with a layer of scorched skin; cold-tossed lotus root slices were stacked in the last small box, sprinkled with a few grains of white sesame seeds and chopped green onions.
Beside them were also three boxes of rice, each packed tightly, the grains of rice white, soft, and steaming hot.
The activity room had originally been filled with the scent of fabric and glue, but right now it was overridden by the aroma of the food, appearing exceptionally inviting in the cramped space.
“Ji Xu, I didn’t know what you like to eat, so I just bought a little simply.” Qian Chenhe unwrapped the chopsticks and placed them on top of the food box, raising his head to take a glance at Ji Xu.
“It’s fine, I’m not a picky eater.” Ji Xu slid down from the chair, sliding along with his chair to the front of the dining table, took the chopsticks handed over by Qian Chenhe, opened the box of rice in front of him, picked up a piece of braised pork, and stuffed it into his mouth.
The meat was stewed just right, the fatty part melting at a touch, the lean part tender without being dry, the sweet and savory flavor of the sauce spreading across the tip of his tongue, his stomach warmly knocked open by this bite of hot food, after which his chopsticks could no longer stop.
Qian Chenhe turned his head to look at Shi Yu; Shi Yu was still organizing the dress, smoothing out the last few slight wrinkles on the fabric with his hand, his attention completely not on the food.
“Shi Yu, stop being busy,” Qian Chenhe walked over, closed his needle-and-thread box, and turned his shoulders around, “Eat quickly, do it tomorrow again.”
“Almost, almost,” Shi Yu answered without raising his head, his hand still fine-tuning the position of the flower on the skirt hem, and then fixing a corner with a safety pin again.
Qian Chenhe couldn’t bear to watch any longer, directly reaching out his hand to pull the safety pin from Shi Yu’s hand back into the box, then grabbed Shi Yu’s wrist to drag him to the dining table, stuffing a pair of unwrapped chopsticks directly into his hand: “Eat!”
After being stuffed with chopsticks, Shi Yu helplessly looked down at that box of steaming rice in front of him, looked at Ji Xu who was already burying his head eating beside him, and finally sat down without resistance, picking up a slice of lotus root to take a bite, crisp and fresh.
Ji Xu’s cheeks were bulging, unaware even of the rice grains sticking to the corner of his mouth; after taking several big mouthfuls of braised pork continuously, he turned to the stir-fried beef, the beef slices picked up by him rapidly, the green pepper segments also stuffed into his mouth along with them.
Looking at the way he ate, Shi Yu unconsciously picked up two more chopstickfuls of dishes along with him, as if the person beside him eating heartily was contagious.
“Senior Shi Yu, if you don’t eat anymore, it’s going to be finished by me.” Ji Xu was still chewing stuff in his mouth, speaking fuzzily, but this sentence of his was clearly not scaring anyone, because that box of braised pork with quail eggs was already almost bottoming out, with two quail eggs remaining, one of which was accurately picked away by his chopsticks.
Shi Yu let out a laugh and pushed his own box of rice toward Ji Xu’s side: “It’s fine, you eat more, thanks for your hard work today.”
He lowered his head and took a sip of water, “Ji Xu, thank you for helping out today.”
“We are all members of the anime club, it’s what I should do.” Ji Xu stuffed the last piece of beef into his mouth, chewed twice, swallowed it down, and picked up a mouthful of eggplant to mix with the rice.
His chopstick movements became slower and slower, because the feeling of fullness in his stomach was slowly rising, but the last few slices of lotus root and the bottom of half a box of eggplant remained in the dish; after thinking for a moment, he still swept them all into his own bowl, eating them clean along with that last bit of rice.
In the end, all three boxes of rice were empty, and the vegetable boxes bottomed out as well, leaving only some sauce and crumbs at the bottom of the boxes.
Qian Chenhe stacked the empty boxes together and tied a knot with the plastic bag; Ji Xu leaned against the chair back touching his belly, the sleepiness after eating his fill surging up along with it, his eyelids starting to drop again.
He let out a yawn, sat straight up from the chair back, grabbed his backpack, and slung it over his shoulder: “Then I’m really leaving.”
“Go back and rest early,” Shi Yu waved his hand toward him, “Hard work for the whole evening.”
Qian Chenhe also followed up with a line, “Go slow on the road.”
Ji Xu waved his hand at them and exited the door of the activity room.
The voice-activated lights in the corridor were lit up by his footsteps, glowing all the way, illuminating from his overhead down to his feet.
After he walked out of the University Student Activity Center building, the night wind blew head-on, carrying that damp chill of late summer; he pulled his jacket close around him and quickened his pace to walk toward the dormitory building.
When pushing open the door of 404, the lights in the dormitory were still on.
Yuan Hanfei sat in front of his desk, his computer screen glowing with light, wearing headphones as he watched some video, turning his head to take off one side of his headphones upon hearing the door sound.
Looking at the clearly exhausted look on Ji Xu as he walked in, tossing his backpack onto the desk, his whole body collapsed forward onto the tabletop, his forehead resting against his arms, letting out a long, fatigued sigh from his nasal cavity.
“Why back so late today?” Yuan Hanfei turned his chair around to face him.
“Busy with anime club stuff,” Ji Xu’s voice came out muffled from the gap between his arms and the tabletop, listless, like a wisp of paper crumpled soft, “Attached rhinestones on a dress for a whole evening, my eyes are going blind.”
He lay flat for another moment, feeling like he was about to fall asleep on this desk.
Yuan Hanfei looked at his state, looked at the hands on the wall clock, and then opened his mouth, his tone flat unlike giving advice: “You’d better shower first, the lights will be turned off in a bit.”
Ji Xu lay motionless for several seconds, and then slowly propped himself up from the tabletop.
His movements were about twice as slow as usual, walking wobbly to the front of the wardrobe to take out clothes, and walking wobbly into the bathroom.
After the bathroom door was closed, the sound of water quickly transmitted from inside; the splash of the shower stream hitting the floor tiles continued in the quiet dormitory for about a dozen minutes, then the water sound stopped, and after a short while Ji Xu pushed open the door and came out.
His hair was still wet, water droplets falling along the hair tips onto his shoulders to seep out a dark stain, but he clearly no longer had any remaining strength to blow his hair.
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Read : Madam, Please Behave Yourself!
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