CH 22

Overgrown Grassland

22. Chapter 22

22  

The end of the final exam period arrived. All that remained was Zhu Yun’s programming course.

Old Lin was proctoring the exam, and his supervision would easily be labeled ‘loose.’ He put on his glasses and sat at the front, drinking tea and reading a newspaper. The exams inspector stopped by, and circled the room twice, and then he reminded Old Lin to keep an eye out. But after the inspector left, Old Lin just picked his newspaper back up.

Zhu Yun completed the exam very quickly, and without looking around once, she handed in her test and walked out the door.

It was noon and the building was quiet. She walked over to the window and the sunlight %struck her eyes. The school’s schedule was just amazing. Having her programming exam last gave her an odd sense of peace, as if the entire semester had finally come full circle.

When she returned to her dorm room, Fang Shumiao was in the middle of packing up. Zhu Yun asked her, “You’re going home? What day is your train?”

Fang Shumiao replied, “I still have to wait a few days. The Student Union still has some things to finish.” Zhu Yun nodded understandingly.

That afternoon, she gave her mother a call to report on her final exams.

“You’re finished?” her mother asked.

“Mmh. This morning was my final exam.”

“Are you coming home tomorrow? What do you want to eat? I’ll buy it for you.”

“…I’m going to stay a few more days because I still have some things to finish at school.”

“What is it?”

Zhu Yun’s eyes darted around. “You know Fang Shumiao, right? Our class president. She’s on the Student Union and they still have things to finish, so she asked me to help out. Since she lives out of the district, she’s in a rush to get home.”

“So it’s like that.” Her mother was quiet a long while. Then she said, “Okay, then stay two more days. But don’t take too long. (Chinese) New Year is early this year, so I still have to buy you some clothes when you get back.”

Victory…

Zhu Yun put down her phone and headed back to the practice base. Their software was in its final stages as well. When Zhu Yun saw Li Xun, she knew that he’d stayed up all night working. The room was filled with the smell of cigarettes.

He turned around. “What did you come for?”

Zhu Yun put down her bag. “To work.”

Li Xun said, “School’s on break. What work are you doing?”

Zhu Yun turned on her computer. Beside her, Li Xun was cursing for her to, “Hurry up and go home. Go, go, go!”

Do you have some kind of manic disorder?

Zhu Yun ignored him. She’d finally finished all her exams, so without those trivial things, she could now put all her energy on… Wait a minute, when had exams become trivial things? Zhu Yun opened up the project report to check Li Xun’s latest progress.

“You’re done?” She was surprised to see that the software was basically complete. She checked it out and it ran very smoothly.

“It still needs to be optimized.”

Optimized…

“But it’ll be done soon.”

Zhu Yun listened to his hoarse voice and asked, “Can you stop smoking?”

Li Xun paused. He pursed his lips and unhappily asked, “Why do you care?”

You deserve to smoke to your death.

“I’ll help you test it.” Zhu Yun moved the mouse cursor over to the shoulder on the diagram and clicked it. After a brief animation, a menu popped up listing various ailments that would cause one’s shoulder discomfort. Zhu Yun scrolled down.

“Ah? There are even recipes?” This function wasn’t there before.

“I added it last week.” Li Xun rubbed his temples and quietly said, “Sometimes forcing recommendations on users will cause adverse effects, so I added descriptions to make the software more user-friendly. Even if someone isn’t planning on buying anything, they could browse around a bit. Consider it a method of retaining customers.”

Zhu Yun looked at Li Xun. She felt that his gaze looked a bit faroff, as if his mind were a bit foggy. Would he suddenly drop dead here?

Zhu Yun scratched her head and then exited the program.

“Eh?” When she exited to the desktop, Zhu Yun was surprised.

Li Xun yawned and asked, “What? Was there something wrong?”

Zhu Yun pointed to her monitor. “The logo is missing.” She opened up the art package. “Where are the diagram pieces? You go rest, I’ll take care of it.”

It was quiet for a few seconds. Li Xun looked at her like a zombie.

“Where’s the diagram?” Zhu Yun waved a hand in front of Li Xun’s face. “Tell me where the diagram is, and then go rest. Are you sleeping with your eyes open?”

Li Xun’s eyes trembled and then he looked at her coldly. So he wasn’t sleeping. “Fuck…” he cursed. He closed his eyes. “Those two ** from the animation college.” (t/n: Censored things were censored in the original)

“……”

Zhu Yun understood. “Did they forget?”

Li Xun was about to curse again, but then he choked on his smoke. He coughed, and then he grabbed his head. Maybe he felt uncomfortable.

Zhu Yun said, “It’s okay. We can still make it now. What kind of style do you want it? I’ll make it.”

She started up the art software and then turned to him—Can you not look at me with such disdain in your eyes?

“Forget it.” When Li Xun finished coughing, he frowned. “You making it, hah…”

That one little ‘hah’ seemed to embody all his arrogance. “Then you do it.”

Another “hah.”

“Should we call the two seniors from the animation department?”

“It’s too late.”

“Are you in a rush? You need to get home for New Years?”

Li Xun put out his smoke and quietly said, “Languan’s rep already contacted me. The meeting is at the end of the week.”

……

There were still three days.

Zhu Yun looked at the exhausted Li Xun. With a single movement, she shut off both of their computers. Boss Li roared out, “Who told you to turn it off?!”

“Let’s go.” Zhu Yun grabbed her bag and got up.

“What are you doing?!”

“Let’s go for a walk.”

“Walk, my ass.”

“Go out and find some inspiration!”

She walked over to the window and opened it. The cigarette smell in the room was too strong. They’d have to air the place out awhile.

Li Xun seemed very on edge. “Leave me alone! Just go home!”

Zhu Yun replied, “I’m serious! Walk around the art museum, and who knows, inspiration might strike!”

“As if!”

“You don’t believe me? The inspiration for the diagram came to me when I was feeling down and I visited the traditional medicine museum.”

“Get out of my sight right now!” Li Xun slammed his hand down on the table and stood up. His aura when he stood up was so different… Zhu Yun’s hair stood on end.

Li Xun looked down at her, the expression on his eyes looking sinister. “Zhu**, don’t you love keeping your words to yourself? What’s wrong with you today? Are you leaking?”

Zhu Yun’s voice was quiet as a whisper. “Didn’t you tell me to stop keeping my words to myself?”

“Now I’m telling you otherwise.”

Crap.

She snuck a furtive glance at him, as she sincerely tried to persuade him. “I’m serious though. Go. Go out for a walk. Maybe inspiration will strike. Even if it doesn’t, it’ll still be better than keeping yourself holed up in here. Take a whiff of the smoke smell in here. I can barely open my eyes.”

He quickly replied, “I’m not going.”

She sighed, feeling helpless to say more.

“What time is it already? The art museum is closed by now. We’ll talk about it again tomorrow.”

?

He turned back and opened his laptop.

……

So, did she achieve her goal or not?

The next morning, Li Xun’s call woke her up. “Let’s go.”

Neither of them liked to sleep in, especially Li Xun. He slept later than a dog and woke earlier than a rooster. Zhu Yun grabbed her things and headed to the school gate. Li Xun was already there, waiting. As she approached the school gate, Zhu Yun slowed her steps.

With the dawn behind him, Li Xun looked to be completely alone in the world.

When Zhu Yun got closer, she realized that he’d just taken a shower. He’d styled his hair, the way it had looked on their first day of school. Wind-blown and chaotic. It was really flashy. It was really good looking. Like the antagonist in a manhua.

“How long are you going to drag out the last few steps?” Li Xun’s hands were stuffed in his jacket pockets. He looked at Zhu Yun and asked, “Should I ready a horse-drawn carriage for the princess?”

……

Li Xun was hailing down a taxi when Zhu Yun said, “The bus stops right in front.”

Li Xun frowned, saying, “You want to take the bus in this cold weather?” So he knew that it was cold, huh…

After paying and getting out the car, Li Xun said, “I’ll get the tickets. Go wait over there.” It was nice going out with the project lead. You didn’t have to pay for anything.

There were a few girls waiting in line at the ticket counter. From their appearance, they seemed like fine arts students from the art institute. After buying their tickets, they turned to go inside the museum. They couldn’t help looking back for a glance before whispering and giggling together.

Zhu Yun stared at them. They dare laugh at Top Score Li? Are you girls looking for death? But then a few seconds later, she realized that they hadn’t been making fun of him…

She looked over at Li Xun. This day, a certain someone had disregarded the weather and worn a mid-length, dark blue jacket. And left it unzipped. He had a belt around his waist, and his entire outfit carried a certain hardness. There was no thickness to it, and his clothes were slim-fitting. No wonder he felt it was cold.

Zhu Yun glanced around and noticed that all the passing females looked over at him. Might this be the legendary ‘sacrifice yourself for the happiness of ten million’?

“Let’s go.” After buying the tickets, Li Xun called Zhu Yun over to go inside.

The temperature in the art institute wasn’t very warm either, but fortunately, there were at least walls to block the wind. It wasn’t as cold as outside.

They walked into the first exhibit hall, which held an exhibition on modern Japanese artists. The art was very bizarre. After staring at one painting for a long time, Zhu Yun felt that the staff had hung it upside down. Different trades truly felt world’s apart. After looking at a few more pieces, Zhu Yun was still unable to see the beauty in them.

The art institute was large and very still. Zhu Yun’s mind started wandering rather quickly. She wondered what the difficulty would be to create and maintain a search program for the art institute, that conveniently helps find exhibits and artists that interest you…

Her thoughts were cut off by Li Xun’s footsteps. She’d originally thought that, with Li Xun’s temper, he would have made a clamor and left. Entirely beyond her expectations, while she was here bored out of her mind, Li Xun looked very patient.

It was very easy to discern his like, or dislike, of an art piece. Some pieces, he immediately dismissed, while others, he stopped in front of for awhile.

When they walked into the third hall, Zhu Yun’s eyes suddenly lit up. “That one!”

Li Xun turned. “Mmh?”

Zhu Yun headed straight inside. After walking around the art museum, she’d finally found the one painting that caught her interest.

Li Xun followed her. “You like this?”

Zhu Yun pointed at the charcoal sketch and exclaimed excitedly, “Look at the name!”

There was a small label under the bottom left corner of the painting.

Charcoal — “Rugged Hills” by Tian Xiuzhu. (t/n: The name of the piece, linxun can mean either ‘rugged terrain’ or ‘upright person.’ Coincidentally, the ‘xun’ in the name is the same ‘xun’ as Li Xun’s name.)

“Rugged Hills…” The corner of Li Xun’s mouth rose. He looked over at Zhu Yun, a kind-of smile on his face.

“I’ve seen this artist before!”

“Oh?”

“What fate.” It really was such luck. Zhu Yun told Li Xun about the assignment she helped Liu Sisi with, as well as her trip to the traditional medicine museum. Then she sighed, “I didn’t expect that we’d meet again. The way things are going, we might be able to collaborate in the future.”

Before Li Xun could share any opinions, Zhu Yun continued, “He’s really young too, about our age. And he looks like a really good kid.” Completely unlike you.

Li Xun rolled his eyes.

Zhu Yun said, “His paintings are really amazing.”

He laughed. “It’s amazing that you even know what you’re looking at.”

“That’s what others say.” Zhu Yun had an amazing memory. That article she’d translated for Liu Sisi was still stored up in her head. “Did you know, when he was fourteen—”

Li Xun covered his ears and turned away.

Zhu Yun, “…………”

She quickly followed after him and said, “All the articles called him a genius painter.”

Li Xun replied without much care, “So what if he’s a genius. Fat lot of good that’s worth.”

Zhu Yun had intended on reciting Liu Sisi’s article back to Li Xun, but after his words, her excitement pittered. That’s right. Fat lot of good that’s worth. He still had to eat and sleep, all the same. And if he didn’t wear enough layers, he’d still get cold, all the same.

As she thought of that, while she stood behind that lazy, quiet back, she made a face at him.