Chapter 109 Extra 15: Graduation

The scale of time is always unpredictable.

When it is slow, it is like a slowing shot, and every frame stays in the senses. But once it speeds up, it cannot be captured like quicksand.

In summer, we arrived urged by the noisy cicadas.

As graduation approached, Zhou Ziheng turned down all his work and devoted himself to writing papers at school every day. He originally felt that he was a little neglected by Xia Xiqing, but strangely, Xia Xiqing has also become busy recently, leaving early and returning late almost every day, and the two of them collided together during the busy period.

After a few months of dizziness and busy work, he finally completed the defense successfully. Zhou Ziheng also had time to make up for some of the previous work. On the last day of May, after filming the commercial from Koh Samui, Zhou Ziheng called Xia Xiqing and asked him if he had time to have dinner together in the evening.

"Eat..." Xia Xiqing seemed to be busy on the other end, and his words were intermittent, "I might be a little later. Otherwise, you can set the place first, and I will have time after 8 o'clock. Then I will go find you."

Zhou Ziheng nodded and looked at the time when he hung up the phone. It was already past 4 pm. He told Xiao Luo to help him book a seat in a very private Western restaurant and go back to his home. He left at 7:30 pm and waited in the private room for half an hour, and finally waited for Xia Xiqing.

He looked very hurried, "I'm not too late."

"No." Zhou Ziheng pulled his hand and found that his palm was wrapped around gauze, and his heart suddenly tugged, "What's wrong? Are you injured? How did you do it?"

"Just a little wound, it's okay, it will be cured in a few days." Xia Xiqing rubbed Zhou Ziheng's ears and walked to the opposite side to sit down.

"How did you do it?" Zhou Ziheng asked again.

"Well..." Xia Xiqing's expression was a little hesitant, "It's nothing, it's just an art exhibition, I accidentally got it."

"Be careful."

Xia Xiqing blinked and said with a light tone, "I know." He used to support his right hand on his face, but as soon as he raised his elbow, he changed one, looking at Zhou Ziheng's face, "You've lost weight."

Before Zhou Ziheng could answer his words, Xia Xiqing added, "I miss you so much."

He rarely uses sincere and straightforward expressions like him, so even Zhou Ziheng couldn't help but be stunned, not knowing how to give feedback.

He also missed Xia Xiqing very much, and he thought of him every minute and every second he was free.

The two men who hadn't had a good chat for a long time took the time to wait for the dishes and talked for a while. When the waiter pushed the door and came in to serve the dishes, Zhou Ziheng's cell phone rang, it was his teacher's phone number.

"I'll go out and come back soon."

I stood outside the private room and made a phone call for ten minutes, most of which were talking about applying for graduate school. After hanging up the phone, Zhou Ziheng turned around and pushed the door in. As soon as he brought it to the door, he saw Xia Xiqing, who was chatting with him just now, fell asleep on the table.

His face was buried on the table, his left arm was placed under his forehead, his right hand drooped, and his whole body was exhausted.

What are you busy with? You are so tired.

Zhou Ziheng took light steps and walked slowly to his side. He squatted down and reached out to gently untie the gauze on his palm.

The gauze was taken off one by one, and the wound on Xia Xiqing's palm was finally exposed to him, as if he had been cut by something. Although it was not very deep, it was a little inflamed.

Zhou Ziheng's heart seemed to be held by an invisible pair of hands. He wanted to wrap the wounds for him again, but saw his hanging fingers move.

Xia Xi woke up.

He first looked up at the empty chair opposite, then turned his head in confusion, and searched in the air with a slow gaze for a long time. He slowly focused when he saw Zhou Ziheng squatting beside him.

"Why are you here..." His voice was much softer when he was half awake, his eyes were as if they were foggy and water vapor was misty.

Zhou Ziheng stood up and touched his head, "Why are you so sleepy?"

Xia Xiqing didn't say anything, but just put his head on Zhou Ziheng's lower abdomen, wrapped his arms around his waist, completely acting like he was acting coquettish. Zhou Ziheng's wide palm stroked from the top of his head to the back of his neck, one after another, extremely gentle.

"Why are you stroking a cat?" Xia Xiqing's voice was muffled, with a nasal sound that he had not woken up, which sounded so cute to Zhou Ziheng.

You are more cute than a cat.

It's cuteer than any small animal in the world.

When he thought of the soft and willful Xia Xiqing, only he could see it. This special and extreme nature that did not conform to Xia Xiqing himself was labeled as [exclusive to Zhou Ziheng] by him, and his mood was thrown into the clouds in an instant.

"Eat first, we will go back to bed later." Zhou Ziheng patted his back twice, walked over and pulled the chair to Xia Xiqing's side, moved his tableware over. He had already felt uncomfortable when he had such a distance between the meal.

Xia Xiqing found that the gauze on his hand was taken apart by him, so he just lowered his head and walked around carefully. Zhou Ziheng didn't ask, so he didn't explain.

After dinner, the two of them came out of the restaurant. Summer came in a hurry, and wet dada entered the dry city with a hot air. The two walked side by side to the parking lot. Just as Xia Xiqing opened the car door, Zhou Ziheng suddenly spoke.

“I’m going to graduate this Friday.”

Xia Xiqing paused, his face did not look surprised, but said, "So quickly?"

Zhou Ziheng felt confused, but he still walked around to the driver's seat, "I'm driving, your hand is injured." Xia Xiqing couldn't resist him, so he had to walk to the passenger seat by himself.

"I feel like you have just finished the defense." Xia Xiqing pinched the bridge of his nose, "I'm so busy that I don't remember the life every day."

"I'm going on a business trip these two days, to the United States." Before Zhou Ziheng could speak, Xia Xiqing spoke first, "But I will definitely come back before your graduation ceremony begins, don't worry."

Xia Xiqing said don’t worry, but Zhou Ziheng would not doubt it.

He did not go home for several days in a row.

On the day of the graduation ceremony, Zhou's mother came to see him and urged him to go to school early in the morning. It was clearly Zhou Ziheng's graduation, but his mother was even more excited than him. "I specially brought a camera to record video for you."

Zhou Ziheng was not very interested and looked down at his cell phone.

"What's wrong with you?" Zhou's mother looked at him while waiting for the green light, "Are you sick?"

"No." Zhou Ziheng turned off his phone and pointed the back of his head on the back of the seat one by one.

"Are you waiting for Xi Qing?"

Zhou Ziheng was stunned and turned his face stiffly to look at his mother, "How do you know?"

"Can you still hide it from me?" The green light came, and Zhou's mother stepped on the accelerator, "Xi Qing called me just now and said she would come to us later."

"Then why didn't he call me?" Zhou Ziheng turned his body and grabbed his mother's arm like a child. "What else did he say?"

"I didn't say anything else." Mother Zhou drove the car intently, and suddenly thought of something, "Oh by the way."

Zhou Ziheng's head leaning on the seat was immediately raised, thinking it was about Xia Xiqing.

Seeing his son so active, Zhou's mother couldn't help laughing, "It's not Xi Qing, it's your director. He called me just now. If you come, go to the director's office first, you should have something to come to you."

After sighing silently in his heart, Zhou Ziheng turned around and looked out the window. The sunlight poured down from the soft clouds, penetrated the lush shade, fell from afar, reaching his shoulders through the glass, and burning his black bachelor's uniform.

He was extremely eager for Xia Xiqing to witness this day, and he thought about it since a long time ago. Although he knew very well that this day was just a little special in his mind, for Xia Xiqing, it was at best just a lover's graduation day. However, graduation day means the smooth end of a stage and also means growth.

Zhou Ziheng hopes that he can graduate from Xia Xiqing's heart.

It’s not to protect him, nor to be stronger than him. Zhou Ziheng doesn’t expect these things, and Xia Xiqing doesn’t like them either.

He has only become a lover who is evenly matched with Xia Xiqing in any aspect. Even if there is an insurmountable gap in time, he can still be called a mature lover.

When we arrived at the college, many of the students who graduated together came to take photos with Zhou Ziheng. Many of them were faces that Zhou Ziheng was not familiar with, probably because they wanted to seize the last opportunity to leave a memorial with their celebrity classmates. Although Zhou Ziheng has always been alone, he is actually not able to easily reject other people's personalities, so he has always taken photos with everyone very seriously.

Most of the students on the scene were graduates, and only a small number of them followed Zhou Ziheng’s fans all the way. At the beginning, Zhou Ziheng had already said on the entum that he did not want too many fans to come to school, for fear that it would affect other students.

Seeing his son being trapped in the dilemma of taking photos with someone, Zhou's mother, who was standing beside him, whispered, "Hengheng, don't forget to find Director Wang." After hearing his mother's words, Zhou Ziheng remembered, and while saying sorry, he pulled out of the crowd, "Mom, are you going with me?"

"You go by yourself, I'll wait for you here."

Zhou Ziheng nodded and walked to the director's office alone. He felt strange. No matter what happened, the director should not look for him on the graduation day, but since it was his mother's words, there was definitely nothing wrong. He raised his hand and knocked the door, "Director, I'm here."

Director Wang, who had just poured himself a cup of tea, looked up at the door, and a smile appeared on his face as soon as he saw Zhou Ziheng.

"Ziheng is here, come in."

Zhou Ziheng consciously prepared to sit down opposite the director, but the director stopped him, "Hey, wait, let's stop chatting after a long story. I will still lead you down later."

He couldn't help but feel a little puzzled, and the director smiled, "That's right. You are a very outstanding student, and you have also spread a good value orientation for the college. Both the school and the college have always been proud of having excellent students like you."

"Thank you, Director." Zhou Ziheng smiled politely.

"The college also thanks you very much for your donation. In fact, it is the first time you donate alumni like you just graduated, but..."

Zhou Ziheng was stunned and frowned, "Donation? Director, what did you say just now? I didn't understand."

Director Wang suddenly laughed, "Ziheng, why are you still pretending to be stupid?" He suddenly reacted again, "Do you don't know? No, the document is written with your name. Forget it, come with me." After that, Director Wang took Zhou Ziheng to the new building. Zhou Ziheng was recalling what the director said just now.

Donating? He thought of his mother who had just told him to come to the director. Could it be that his parents secretly donated money for him in his name for him?

"arrive."

The empty first-floor lobby rarely surrounded many people. When Zhou Ziheng heard the director say something, he pulled away from his thoughts and looked at the director's gesture. In the center of the hall, a huge white curtain hanging from the patio-style courtyard was hanging from the air, surrounded by all sides and fell to the ground, as if it was hung up to cover something.

"This is?"

"You see first, we will take a photo later." Director Wang called on the students around him and asked him to put down the curtain. "The meaning of this exhibit is very good and very consistent with the style of our college. The teacher who handled the donation said that this is a gold medal work from the New York Times Art Exhibition not long ago. The college thanks you very much for your donation..."

The first time the word art appeared, Zhou Ziheng's brain began to stop working.

He didn't listen to the following words again.

In just a moment, the white curtains surrounded by all sides fell from top to bottom. Amid the screams of people around, the mysterious donation hidden inside was finally revealed.

The second his eyes touched, his heart that was beating wildly almost stopped.

It was a modernist public sculpture, which looked six meters high. From a distance, the outermost layer was countless small spherical bodies of varying sizes, mostly blue and gold, with a beautiful metallic luster under the strong light of the hall.

All the microscopic spheres surround into a downward ellipsoid, each dragging a light-like tail, and there is light inside it, which reveals from the gaps between countless particles. These particles seem to be lively, as if they are splashing uniformly, like...

"big Bang……"

All the particles left me and ran towards you.

Zhou Ziheng murmured to himself, his steps were led by his gradually sinking consciousness, and he walked step by step towards the huge and magnificent exhibit. The vision blocked by the crowd gradually became clear, and he saw more.
To be continued...