Chapter 34: Drunk
After spending the whole Sunday in the library reading thesis papers, Ye Yingzhi was already back in the dormitory by the time Chi Yan came back from his dinner.
He would still feel ashamed and embarra.s.sed whenever he looked at Ye Yingzhi. He also didn"t dare let the other party notice his strange behavior. He bowed his head and said, “You c- came back earlier today.” Then he hid at his desk and turned his back to him without making a sound.
In the morning, he thought it wouldn"t take a long time, that it would be okay soon, he just needed to endure for a little while more. However, it turned out that it took a very long time before it was fine. He spent the whole day reviewing cla.s.sical economics and hypnotizing himself by saying, “I really did fall asleep and I don"t know anything” but he could still remember that feeling as long as he gave the slightest thought about it.
After showering, Chi Yan laid down and looked at his phone. Although the details of yesterday"s tragedy had been blocked, there were still many rumors coming out. He subconsciously skipped all the contacts that he didn"t want to see—
Last night"s event had left a psychological shadow on him. He couldn"t tell whether it was true or false, whether it was a dream or an illusion.
Chi Yan randomly clicked on a group of news on his mobile phone and was stunned.
This was a group chat for collective buying of masks and fruits delivery that his undergraduate roommate from last year had pulled him into. Most of the people inside were students from nearby universities, but he didn"t know any more than three of them. After buying the masks, he forgot to exit the group, and since then the group had been in a muted state, and he always neglected it subconsciously. Unexpectedly, he opened it at this timing.
The group sent a picture of a smiling girl. Someone below said, “This is the victim from yesterday. She was quite beautiful. I don"t know why she met this sort of incident.”
It was the eyes that stared, the chest with a hole, and the mouth that smiled at himself emptily that quickly floated in Chi Yan"s mind.
His hands were trembling, and he threw his phone onto the bed at once, but he still stared at the girl who was smiling on the screen. After a few moments, he turned to his roommate who was still sitting at the desk below: “Ye Yingzhi…”
Ye Yingzhi turned around and looked up at him. “What"s wrong?”
Ye Yingzhi who was always calm brought him great a.s.surance. He tried hard to pick up his phone like it was some kind of insect or beast, and pointed it to Ye Yingzhi: “…This is what I saw last night.”
He really felt fear rooting deep inside his bones and a chill in his heart.
Marx had once said that it was social existence that would determine the consciousness. Nevertheless, he had never seen the victim before. If he hadn"t seen the victim himself, how could he have imagined the victim"s appearance last night?
It wasn"t a dream nor was it an illusion.
He really saw a ghost.
He looked nervously at Ye Yingzhi, his eyes were black with undisguised fear, his lips trembled a little and was white with fear.
Ye Yingzhi took a look at his cell phone and then looked at Chi Yan"s appearance right now. He shut down the group chat page and climbed onto Chi Yan"s bed. He sat on the outer edge and laid down next to him. “Okay, don"t think about anything, and I"m here. You need to sleep now and get a good rest.”
Ye Yingzhi"s figure was tall and strong, with him outside, it was like he had completely covered the person inside.
At that time, Chi Yan seemed to have found a sense of security. He laid obediently in a stupor, the embarra.s.sment from the morning and the fear he were long since thrown out into the sky.
Ye Yingzhi raised the quilt and wrapped Chi Yan in it. After thinking about it, he also got in, not caring that he had not changed his clothes.
Chi Yan faced the wall, while Ye Yingzhi faced him. With his hands on his shoulders, he quietly repeated, “Sleep.”
Chi Yan nodded, not knowing if the other party could see it. After a while, he calmed down a little and then whispered again, “Thank you.”
In the morning, Ye Yingzhi also said that there were no ghosts in the world, so it could be seen that he did not believe in them. Facing himself that could not produce any concrete evidence and could only babble nonsense, he did not scoff at him. Instead, he patiently accompanied himself to relax. Therefore, in his mind, he became even more convinced that the other party was a good person that was cold on the outside but warm on the inside.
The next day was Monday. Chi Yan had his morning major cla.s.s. The cla.s.s would start at 9:50 a.m. and end at 11:25 a.m. Whereas Ye Yingzhi did not have any cla.s.ses for the entire day.
Chi Yan was sleeping inside, and his alarm clock woke up the both of them. He saw Ye Yingzhi"s wrinkled shirt before he realized that the other party had been there with him all night long. He was somewhat moved.
He stood under the bed and tried to invite Ye Yingzhi, “That… Ye Yingzhi, do you have any plans for noon?
When he received a no for an answer, he immediately asked, “Shall I treat you to a meal?”
Ye Yingzhi looked at him and said, “You are making the food yourself?”
“Of course not,” Chi Yan quickly waved his hands. “We"re eating outside… I can only cook instant noodles.” Besides, there wasn"t any place for the students to cook at school.
Ye Yingzhi accepted the invitation without hesitation. He wasn"t acting cold and aloof at all.
Today"s morning cla.s.s was also a compulsory course for finance students, and the cla.s.s was held in a large cla.s.sroom to accommodate the size of cla.s.s attendants. As soon as Chi Yan sat next to his cla.s.smate Yang Qing, another person sat next to him.
Yang Qing quietly elbowed him and Chi Yan turned his head to look back. The person on his other side was actually Gu Xixi.
Gu Xixi gave him a smile after seeing him, “Brother Chi Yan, morning, I"m here to crash the cla.s.s.”
Chi Yan also nodded inexorably: “Morning.”
Yang Qing was making eyes at him from the side. Chi Yan pretended to concentrate on the textbooks and did not see them.
During the break, Yang Qing went to the bathroom with him. When he came out, Yang Qing patted him on the shoulder in the corridor. “Yan Chi, you aren"t a blockhead, are you? The little girl in the English Department clearly likes you. What coming for this cla.s.s, she is clearly coming for you. You haven"t seen the way she looks at you. According to my experience, she absolutely likes you. It is not faked.”
Chi Yan turned his head aside and smiled. “I"ll introduce her to you if you like her.”
Yang Qing took a step back. “Don"t don"t don"t. I am just talking nonsense, what if my girlfriend heard this.” Then he stopped talking as if to prove his innocence.
After cla.s.s, Gu Xixi turned around again with a pair of bright eyes and a pretty smile. “Brother Chi Yan, let"s have lunch together at noon.”
Chi Yan thought for a moment and said, “I have an appointment with someone at noon. Why don"t you come with me?" He turned his head and asked Yang Qing with his eyes. It didn"t matter if he invited Ye Yingzhi and brought two more cla.s.smates. It was a bit hurtful to refuse the person directly. He deliberately dragged Yang Qing in so that Gu Xixi would not misunderstand.
Yang Qing was his undergraduate course cla.s.smate, they were also were acquainted with each other. Hearing that he was treating, he happily agreed. Gu Xixi also nodded gently, and with a slight smile, she casually asked, “Whom did Yan Brother have an appointment with?”
“No one, just my roommate, Ye Yingzhi. He… helped me a little.” Although it had been a day, he could not help blushing at the thought of the accident after his help.
Gu Xixi smile froze for a moment but she quickly adjusted her expression, looking like she had just remembered something. “Brother Chi Yan, unfortunately. I just remembered that I"ve promised to help Jian Yin with some activities… I can"t go with you, I"ll treat you next time?"
Chi Yan did not notice anything unusual. He nodded and said okay, but inwardly, he was relieved.
He really didn"t know how to get along with Gu Xixi properly.
When he and Yang Qing arrived at the agreed restaurant, Ye Yingzhi arrived. Ye Yingzhi sat on the seat by the window, his shirt sleeves were rolled up slightly and he looked out of the window with boredom. But as soon as he saw the other party entering, he waved at him with a smile.
This was the first time Yang Qing met this roommate, he always felt that he was different from what he had imagined. In fact, the appearance and temperament were consistent with the rumors. What was inconsistent was that there were four bottles of wine; one bottle of white wine, one bottle of red wine, and two cans of beer in front of him— He had never heard of someone ordering a row of all kinds of wine even before the person who was treating had arrived.
Chi Yan introduced them to each other, and after the dishes were served, Ye Yingzhi began to persuade them to drink.
Yang Qing felt that something was even more wrong because the other party"s attentions were obviously directed to Yan Chi only. As if he was the host, he asked Yang Qing to help himself gracefully. Then he began to pour wine for Chi Yan enthusiastically. Several kinds of wine were mixed together and it was obvious that they were randomly poured, but he said that he was mixing them with his own unique recipe, so Chi Yan must give them a try.
Yang Qing couldn"t help saying, “Mixing them like this… It"s not good.” Who would mix alcohol like this? Obviously, this was a joke.
Ye Yingzhi looked at him with a faint smile and said nothing.
Yang Qing inwardly thought, "Could it be that this Young Master Ye was going to exploit their friendship?" As he was familiar with Chi Yan, he was going to make him suffer; however, he wasn"t close to himself, so should he let this be?
He looked anxiously at Chi Yan but found that although the other party was facing some difficulties in drinking those mixed liquor, his roommate was still quite obedient. Did Chi Yan offend his roommate, or was it because his roommate was holding onto something important of his?
He couldn"t ask on the spot, so he tried to gently persuade him but to no avail. He simply stopped talking and ate with his eye power, pretending that he didn"t exist.
Soon, Chi Yan was so drunk he couldn"t even show any troubled expression on his face. He was dizzy and he drank whatever Ye Yingzhi pa.s.sed him.
But after all, Yang Qing still had some sense of righteousness and he could not help saying, “That… Ye Yingzhi, what should we do with Chi Yan now that he is so drunk?"
Ye Yingzhi slightly curved his mouth: “It"s all right. I"ve nothing to do in the afternoon. I can take him back to my dormitory.”
After all, they were roommates living together. Yang Qing nodded and did not speak. He saw the other party holding Chi Yan"s shoulder as he pa.s.sed a shrimp ball to his mouth very naturally. “Eat something, otherwise you will feel terrible.”
You know he would feel terrible but you still made him drank so much? Yang Qing scolded in his heart, but he always felt that the scene was not right at the moment, but he couldn"t pinpoint what was wrong for a moment.
Chi Yan had also drunk until he was full. As Yang Qing was not familiar with Ye Yingzhi, it was embarra.s.sing to watch him feed Chi Yan like that. He stood up and nodded. “That, Cla.s.smate Ye, I had something to do in the afternoon and have to leave first. Next time let"s get together again.”
Ye Yingzhi watched him leave with a faint smile. After the figure disappeared, he lowered his eyes and quietly looked at the person who was drunk and confused in his arms. With a slight smile, he gently pressed his lips down. “…How silly. Aren"t you afraid of me? Why are you so obedient…"
Yang Qing thought about how he and Chi Yan had known each other since they were undergraduates. Today, Chi Yan was supposed to treat his roommate, but he was so drunk that he probably couldn"t settle the bill. When he came out and intended to settle the bill, however the cashier smiled and explained to him, “Sir, the gentleman that arrived first had already paid the bill in advance.”
Yang Qing thought that Chi Yan"s roommate was actually very generous, but when he returned to school, he still felt that something was wrong. He was somewhat worried and sent him a message specially to ask if he was fine. He just didn"t know when the other party would wake up to reply to his message.
When Yan Chi woke up, it was all dark and there was only one lamp in the room.
He looked at his cell phone, it was 11:30. He could not help whispering about how he had slept ten hours straight, he probably would not be able to sleep at night. This time, however, he didn"t feel his throat burning like how it would after waking from a long sleep. His lips were also moist.
Did somebody feed him water?
Who fed him? Ye Yingzhi? How did he feed him? Or was he too thirsty that he asked for water in his sleep, Ye Yingzhi bought it for him and he drank it unconsciously, but he had just forgotten about it? The last option was the most likely one.
Picking up his mobile phone, Chi Yan first responded to several messages, telling Yang Qing that he was fine but he had just woken up after drinking too much. He then opened up the cla.s.s"s group chat that had multiple notifications.
He thought there was an announcement in the cla.s.s. He flipped it up a little and a few lines of words came into his eyes—
“… Another person was killed, two arms were cut off, there were no other wounds. The preliminary judgment of the cause of death is a sudden myocardial contraction…”
The next student answered:
“Myocardial contraction? Sudden death? Isn"t that being frightened to death?