Worried that his new neighbor might think he was installing anti-theft devices because of him and feel hurt, Xi Shui said to the other, "Then I won't install them."
"Go ahead and install them, it's fine. It's your freedom," Zhou Zeqi's eyes gleamed black in the night. He brought the beer to his lips and took a sip, the sound of his swallowing distinctly reaching Xi Shui's ears.
"Oh," Xi Shui scratched his hair, "Then not installing them is also my freedom."
"......"
"What's your name?"
Zhou Zeqi held the beer can, changing his posture to lean on the balcony. He leaned forward, feeling like he could jump right in front of Xi Shui with a slight leap.
Xi Shui held onto the doorframe, "Xi Shui."
"Xi as in small stream?"
"No, it's the Xi without the three water radicals, but my friends all call me Little Xi, which does have the three water radicals for 'stream'." Xi Shui explained in detail, as people often got his name wrong.
"Little Xi?" Zhou Zeqi raised an eyebrow, his handsome features coming together as his teeth touched, creating an inexplicable charm.
Xi Shui: "Yes, Little Xi."
Xi Shui: "What about you? What's your name?"
"Zhou Zeqi, Ze as in 'swamp', Qi as in 'period'." Zhou Zeqi usually couldn't be bothered to explain the characters of his name in detail, but in this back-and-forth, although the little neighbor seemed a bit slow, he was very polite.
Xi Shui blinked, not knowing what to say next, "Okay~"
Zhou Zeqi looked at Xi Shui for a while, then suddenly turned back, yanked open the door to his own balcony, and shouted inside, "Bring me my phone."
"What for?"
"Hurry up, I need it."
There was a commotion inside the room.
"Where's Zhou's phone? Has anyone seen it?"
"Haven't seen it."
"It's under your schoolbag."
A hand reached out from inside with the phone, along with a question, "What are you doing in the middle of the night?"
Zhou Zeqi took the phone, opened WeChat, and said, "Nothing."
Wu Fengyi caught a glimpse of something like a wild dog in heat in Zhou Zeqi's expression. He suddenly poked his head out onto the balcony, looked around in all directions, but finding nothing unusual, went back inside.
Xi Shui was still standing behind the floor-to-ceiling window.
Zhou Zeqi extended the phone across the half-meter gap between the balconies, "Add me on WeChat."
Xi Shui stood still, not moving, "Why should I add you on WeChat?"
"?"
Zhou Zeqi's hand holding out the phone remained suspended in mid-air, with no intention of withdrawing.
He licked his upper teeth with the tip of his tongue, "It's like this, we're neighbors now, living so close. Adding each other as friends could be helpful, we could look out for each other."
"Oh, right."
The little swan came out from inside, walked up to Zhou Zeqi, took the phone from his hand, lowered his head to input his own phone number, and sent a friend request.
The screen brightness wasn't high, and the dim light fell on Xi Shui's eyelashes, nose bridge, and lips, revealing a delicate and innocent face.
"I'll accept it later," Xi Shui returned the phone, "Bye-bye."
After saying this, without waiting for Zhou Zeqi to respond, he turned and went back inside.
Simultaneously, there was the sound of sliding door rollers moving along the track without any pause, and finally, the lock engaging.
Zhou Zeqi opened the pending requests tab, clicked on Xi Shui's profile picture, which was a white swan with a curved long neck napping on grass.
Since Xi Shui hadn't accepted his friend request yet, Xi Shui's Moments were currently invisible.
-
Despite the interruption in his sleep, Xi Shui still slept well.
He had to practice his morning and evening routines at fixed times every day, each lasting an hour and a half, leaving half an hour for breakfast before heading to school, just in time for the 8 o'clock class.
The basic training was divided into floor exercises and barre work.
Xi Shui had never missed a day of his morning and evening routines. He could practice leg lifts and shoulder stretches at the barre, as well as foot and ankle stretches on the floor by himself. If it weren't for years of accumulation, when it came to hip stretches and other advanced exercises, he would have needed help from his peers.
But now Xi Shui could complete most of the basic training on his own.
During the summer vacation, their class was scheduled to perform at the Capital Grand Theater. The preliminary program was "The Dancing Girl", which they had been rehearsing for almost a month. "The Dancing Girl" is one of the most challenging ballet productions in the ballet world, predating even the classic ballet "Swan Lake".
Each person's role was carefully selected and compared. Xi Shui played the male lead "Solor", and he was working with a new partner, still in the process of coordination.
High-difficulty ballet productions not only require dancers to perform standard movements without errors and coordinate well, but also have extremely high demands on the dancers' stage presence and emotional expressiveness.
Xi Shui had a natural talent for this; he was born for dance.
He shone brightly on stage, infecting the audience while also infecting himself. He was nimble and light, even able to influence his partner's emotions. He could achieve a high degree of emotional resonance with the characters in the ballet, knowing what was hidden deep within the character.
Perhaps because his emotions were so rich on stage, he appeared particularly pure and naive off stage. His thoughts were only of dance.
After finishing his morning routine, Xi Shui went downstairs with his backpack, just in time to meet Zhou Zeqi returning from his run.
Zhou Zeqi was wearing all-black sportswear with a black sweatband on his head, sweat trickling down his sideburns and gathering at his chin.
He greeted Xi Shui naturally, "So early?"
Xi Shui was holding a boiled egg, which he tapped against the doorframe to crack the shell. As he peeled the egg, he said, "I have class."
"I'm going now."
Xi Shui walked down the steps. He didn't like egg yolks, so after eating the white, he stood at the entrance looking around.
"Meow, meow......"
Zhou Zeqi stood on the steps behind him, watching.
A dirty but chubby orange cat cautiously emerged from behind the bushes. The cat wore a tag that read "Has an owner, don't mess with me", probably belonging to someone nearby. Recognizing a familiar face, it walked to Xi Shui's feet and rubbed against him, tail raised.
Xi Shui crouched down, placed the egg yolk on the ground, and patted the orange cat's head, "I'm off to class now, see you tonight."
After saying goodbye to the cat, Xi Shui stood up and left with his canvas bag. A Doraemon doll hung from the zipper of the bag, swaying left and right with his steps.
-
The morning was Ballet Art Appreciation, a cultural class. The afternoon was Ballet Technique and Repertoire class, where they had been learning and rehearsing "The Dancing Girl" recently.
Xi Shui was walking to the classroom while drinking water when Lin Xiaojin rushed up from behind and put an arm around his shoulder, "Hey!"
Xi Shui choked on his water.
"Did you check the forum last night?" Lin Xiaojin patted Xi Shui's back to help him, "Your popularity with Zhou the Grim Reaper is rising again."
Zhou the Grim Reaper?
Zhou Zeqi.
He seemed to...... uh, he hadn't accepted last night's friend request yet.
"Why?" Xi Shui didn't want Lin Xiaojin to know that he and Zhou Zeqi were neighbors and about to become WeChat friends. Lin Xiaojin would definitely pester him non-stop.
Because Lin Xiaojin was strange.
His focus was never on handsome guys' studies or character, but on whether they had six-pack or eight-pack abs, if their legs were long, if their... birds were big, if their butts were perky.
"Yesterday at the gymnasium, with so many people around, someone took a picture of you two sitting together and posted it on the forum."
"We weren't sitting together," Xi Shui corrected, "I was in the audience seats, in the stands. He was down below in the athletes' rest area."
"You on top, him below, even more exciting."
This was another aspect that made Xi Shui find Lin Xiaojin strange.
Even though he spent every day with Lin Xiaojin, Lin Xiaojin preferred to go to the forum to ship him with Zhou Zeqi, getting completely fooled by those little stories on the forum, even though he knew that Xi Shui and Zhou Zeqi had never even spoken to each other.
So, he absolutely couldn't let Lin Xiaojin know about his current neighbor relationship with Zhou Zeqi.
Lin Xiaojin would probably stand outside with a telescope, shipping them.
"By the way, let's go eat hotpot on Saturday."
"No," Xi Shui shook his head firmly, "I've already decided to eat fried chicken."
"Add hotpot too."
"I can only eat one type of food a day, eating too much will make me fat." Xi Shui reached out and pinched his belly. There wasn't much flesh yet, but if he pinched hard, he could still grab a tiny bit.
In this aspect, Xi Shui was very strict with himself.
"What are you afraid of? We're not going to the Capital Grand Theater until summer vacation, and there aren't any competitions coming up soon."
Xi Shui wavered, as he always did when faced with delicious food.
"Look, let me break it down for you," Lin Xiaojin counted on his fingers as he walked with Xi Shui in the hallway. "Hot pot, right? We'll just eat meat, which is high in protein, and vegetables, which are full of vitamins! Add some vinegar to the dipping sauce, and it helps burn fat!"
Xi Shui ran his fingers along his water bottle. "You make a good point."
"See? Plus, we can eat one meal, then dance for an extra two hours, or go run five kilometers. How about that?"
Xi Shui frowned delicately. "I already have to dance two extra hours for eating fried chicken."
"......"
"Are there any other calorie-burning exercises?" Xi Shui asked with a pained expression. There were still so many delicious foods he hadn't tried yet.
"Let me think," Lin Xiaojin said, equally serious.
Just then, a couple walked past them, kissing passionately as they went.
Xi Shui and Lin Xiaojin stared at them, turning their heads to watch. Once the couple was far enough away, Xi Shui came to his senses and bumped Lin Xiaojin. "Don't stare at people like that. It's rude."
"You were looking too."
"How can they walk and kiss at the same time?"
Lin Xiaojin watched the couple's retreating figures, a sudden idea flashing through his mind. He grabbed Xi Shui's arm and whispered in his ear, "Being in a relationship burns calories."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Xi Shui had never heard such a thing before. "Is it because of walking and kissing at the same time?"
Lin Xiaojin: "No, no. When you're dating, you go for walks, right? You get excited, you kiss, and then there's... you know."
"What?"
"Poking you."
"Why would you poke me?"
Lin Xiaojin: "......"
Xi Shui looked innocently at the nearly exasperated Lin Xiaojin.
"Never mind, let me explain it more clearly." Lin Xiaojin was suffering the consequences of being swayed by good looks. In their first year, before Xi Shui had rented an apartment off-campus, Lin Xiaojin had arrived on the first day of school carrying his luggage. When he pushed open the dormitory door, he saw Xi Shui sitting in a chair, watching a movie on his tablet.
The golden afternoon sun fell all around Xi Shui and in his eyes, illuminating his long, slender neck.
It reminded Lin Xiaojin of what his high school homeroom teacher once said: Some people play the role of a swan on stage, and you think they dance well and act convincingly because they are actually swans.
So Xi Shui's inability to keep up with modern youth slang and his naivety had all become virtues in Lin Xiaojin's eyes.
Well, he had chosen this best friend, so he'd have to deal with it.
Lin Xiaojin gave Xi Shui a very detailed explanation.
Most fat is expelled through breathing. When the heart rate reaches a certain frequency, it can burn fat.
Being in love makes your heart beat faster and your breathing quicken. Then there's kissing and other activities, so it's a perfect weight-loss exercise.
Xi Shui listened and then frowned. "That doesn't sound very scientific."
"What's not scientific about it?"
"I'll have to go home and look it up on Baidu," Xi Shui said.
Lin Xiaojin: "Baidu might not be as scientific as me."