Wilderness Vegetation Chapter 8

 

Chapter 8

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Why did Shen Zhi agree to stay with Xu Yan in the first place?

At night, when he was dragged to the bar again by Xu Nian to get drunk, Xu Yan was not sober and nestled on the sofa. The music was deafening, and the lights flashed passionately all over his face. But his whole person was very calm, falling into a kind of daze, thinking about this problem.

His liking for Shen Zhi is simple – love at first sight.

During freshman military training, one day happened to be cloudy. Everyone did not sweat much. After the military training, instead of rushing back to the dormitory to take a bath, many people went directly out of the school to eat at the snack street. Xu Yan chatted and smiled with his classmates and walked out. The group of people walked leisurely. The shop with good business was already occupied by others, and the sharp-eyed students saw that there was an open-air vacant seat at the barbecue stall opposite, so they suggested eating there.

Xu Yan was a little absent-minded, and his gaze fell on the group of people across the road. There was a particularly tall boy, and the inferior camouflage clothes could not block his good figure. He couldn't see his face clearly with the brim of his hat, though he occasionally showed a sliver of his chin when he turned his head sideways. Just by looking at the line, he knew that he was a handsome guy. It turns out that Xu Yan guessed correctly, almost all the girls who came were looking at him, not in the way men's lewd eyebrows looked at beautiful women, but in the way girls appreciated the opposite sex, generous or shy, making Xu Yan also very curious.

The boy and a few people next to him also went to the barbecue stall, it should be that some classmates had already occupied their seats and were waving at them. Xu Yan fixed his eyes on it; their table was just next to an empty table, and he suddenly became positive for some reason, pressing the shoulders of the classmates next to him: "Go, go and occupy a seat, one step later will be sat by others."

As soon as he finished speaking, the classmate jumped out, rushed to the other side of the road, took a few steps, sat down at the empty table, and raised his fist towards Xu Yan with pride on his face. Xu Yan's hand was still in the air where he had pressed his shoulders, stunned. He slowly retracted his five fingers and exchanged fists with his classmates.

"He was a sprint champion in high school." Another classmate next to him said.

Xu Yan: "Swoosh!”

 

Sitting down in the seat, Xu Yan didn't have time to look up at the next table. His classmates urged him to order, everyone was passionately scratching on the menu, and when his female classmate took the list and got up to the waiter, Xu Yan stood up and said: "There are too many people to move around, I'll take it, you sit."

"It's okay, it's okay." The girl said while pulling out the chair and walking away, but she didn't take two steps before, I don't know what I stepped on, her center of gravity suddenly tilted, and the whole person threw herself forward. With tissues and barbecue sticks all over the floor, Xu Yan's heart tightened. He immediately stepped forward to help her, but someone took a step ahead of him – the boy. He stretched out his hand in front of the female classmate, and his five fingers did not touch the girl's body, and he caught the person with only one arm. There was a lot of noise around, but Xu Yan heard the boy whispering "Be careful."

The others reacted and said "It's okay, be careful", while the girl stood up straight and said thank you to the boy, and he nodded and returned to his seat. Things happened quickly, and it ended quickly, Xu Yan still didn't see his face clearly, only a blurry profile in the chaos. At that moment, Xu Yan thought in his heart: Wouldn't he be Shen Zhi?

After all, in addition to Shen Zhi from the freshmen, he has never heard of other famous handsome guys, but looking at this boy's temperament and appearance, if he is not Shen Zhi, he should also be counted as a handsome guy among the legends.

"Isn't that Shen Zhi of the Scholastic?" As soon as he sat back in his seat, Xu Yan's conjecture was immediately confirmed by his classmates, and the other party's voice was very low, "I thought he wouldn't come to this kind of place to eat carcinogens."

Xu Yan glanced at the next table again, and then slowly said: "Carcinogens are good." The classmate twitched the corners of his mouth and looked at him speechlessly.

The order next to them was early, the barbecue came up after a while. Xu Yan looked at the end from time to time while drinking cola, Shen Zhi took off his hat before eating, and at that moment, Xu Yan secretly cursed in his heart - fluffy and soft black hair, where is the person who has been training for a day. Xu Yan looked at the bangs of the male classmates next to him who were stuck to his forehead by sweat and felt more and more that there may be some species differences between people.

The roadside stalls are full of fireworks, the sky is dark, and lights are hanging everywhere, illuminating the bustle. The evening breeze gently rises, and Shen Zhi's white face simply has a sense of dust. If it is not for the bangs being blown by the wind, he is sitting there, like a painting, silent, not laughing or making trouble, holding the Sprite with a clean and slender hand, and with his strength can turn the barbecue stall into "The Last Supper". Xu Yan looked at the Coke in his hand, thinking that you drink Sprite and I drink Coke, we are so matched.

So much so that when he went to check out later, a little dizzy, he passed by Shen Zhi's side and did not dare to look at him, and his heartbeat was thumping presumptuously. His gaze faltered, and before he could react, he stepped on a barbecue skewer and slipped. His whole person jerked back, and he heard his classmates screaming "oops". What's the use of calling out, hurry up and save me... He thought, but his back was suddenly firmly hugged, and on one side of his head, Shen Zhi's face was next to him, so close. The night was dark blue, and Xu Yan felt that Shen Zhi was a god.

Shen Zhi didn't have any expression on his face, just glanced at the coke in Xu Yan's hand and said lightly: "Drinking Coke can also make you drunk like this."

"Xu Yan, you won't be drunk on Coke, right? Hahahahahaha!” Seeing that Xu Yan was fine, the classmate simply followed Shen Zhi's words and ridiculed him.

Shen Zhi's classmates joked: "Shen Zhi, what's going on today, everyone passing by you has fallen, are you secretly stretching your legs and tripping people?" The people at both tables laughed, and the scene was quite lively.

“...... Thank you.” Xu Yan stood up straight. His thoughts were completely confused, and he said without a preamble, "After that, I will drink Sprite like you." After saying that, he felt that something was not quite right, making it seem that he had been paying attention to what Shen Zhi was drinking—although he was. Xu Yan immediately said "thank you" again, turned his head, and ran to the checkout, his brain was buzzing. He didn't know if it was noisy or because of nervousness, anyway, he didn't dare to go back.

Summer, eighteen years old, met for the first time, the barbecue stall was chaotic and noisy. But every time Xu Yan looked back, he felt that there was nothing better than that.

Slowly open your eyes, move again and again, move again and again, see if the busy world is still lonely and turn around, move again and again, move again and again, the spring breeze does not understand the style, blows the heart of the teenager, and moves again and again, move and fight, let the tear marks on yesterday's face dry with the memory, move and hit ...

A remix version of "Tomorrow Will Be Better" suddenly sounded, Xu Yan looked back in a daze and thought that the bar was going to organize donations, but he didn't expect to see Xu Nian standing in the DJ booth, with a pair of headphones around his neck, holding a microphone and, pointing to Xu Yan while singing dynamically.

Sing your passion, stretch out your hands, 

let me embrace your dreams, 

Let me have your true face, 

Let our smiles, full of youthful pride,

let us hope that tomorrow

......

...... How did Xu Yan forget that his brother was the solo champion of the New Year's Day Literary Festival at the No. 3 Primary School for five consecutive years – he did not participate in one session because he had chickenpox and hung a hanging bottle in the hospital.

Xu Yan touched his mobile phone, turned on the camera, and filmed Xu Nian's live performance. When he went home one day, he could show his parents how Xiao Xu, who looked like a human during the day, worked part-time as a DJ in the nightclub.

After the end of the song, Xu Nian raised the microphone. Looking at the posture and tone, it was not his first time to do this kind of thing, the atmosphere of an old group member – he raised his voice and roared: "Brother! Tomorrow will be better!!! The people below didn't mind what kind of song it was, the light followed the cheers and howls, and confetti was sprinkled all over the sky. Xu Yan put down his mobile phone and stood up, clapped with tears in his eyes, gave two thumbs up to Xu Nian, and shouted: "Xu Nian!!! You are so stupid !!!”

Seeing Xu Yan's excitement, Xu Nian sincerely gave him a thumbs up, although he didn't know what his brother was shouting, he must have been very moved to think about it. Xu Nian is happy, his brother has been uninhibited and loved freedom since he was a child, but after meeting Shen Zhi, he was bound and docile at home, and he didn't forget to hurt his family while being docile, which was very brainless.

But now he feels that Xu Yan can still be saved. Although he doesn't know what his brother went through before leaving, he was able to come back so crisply and neatly. He is so drunk that his eyes are empty, and he didn't spit out half of the words related to Shen Zhi in his mouth, he didn't cry and gaffe, and he was a tough guy!

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

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Translated: February 10, 2023 by Lei

Edited: February 11, 2023 by Angel