Orange Storm chapter 47
Embrace
The final written exam lasted for two hours, with more questions than usual, and Fang Xing and the others finished around 11 p.m. Just after the exam, they were still in an excited state, discussing the paper while heading back to the hotel. Someone checked the time and suggested, “How about we go out for a good meal!”
During the exam days, all participating students had been eating in the hotel restaurant. The proposal was immediately met with agreement, and even the teacher, who initially planned to take them back to the hotel, saw their enthusiasm and relaxed. He instructed everyone to go back to the hotel to drop off their things and then gather in the lobby before going out together.
Fang Xing returned to his room, put away his exam documents and pens, and washed his face. When he turned on his phone, there were no missed calls and no new messages. Before leaving, he sent a message to Jiang Zhijin: “Finished the exam.”
Jiang Zhijin didn’t reply, indicating he might not have seen it.
When they gathered in the hotel lobby, there were only seven people, including the teacher. After a brief scan, the teacher asked, “Where’s Tan Zhuo?”
Everyone exchanged glances for a few seconds, and the male student who shared a room with Tan Zhuo raised his hand.
“He said he didn’t want to go out and would sleep in the room.”
“Not eating is not an option.” The teacher frowned, “Wait a moment; I’ll go up and check.”
The others didn’t say much, waiting obediently in the lobby. While they waited, they took out their phones to search for nearby restaurants and discussed what to eat. After a few minutes, the teacher came down alone.
“He said he didn’t want to go out.” The teacher seemed to find Tan Zhuo a bit uncooperative, looking somewhat helpless. “I told him that if he’s hungry, he should go to the restaurant.”
No one was surprised by this result. The group discussed it briefly and decided, given the cold weather, that hot pot would be more suitable.
The hot pot restaurant wasn’t far from the hotel. The group enjoyed spicy food, so they ordered a spicy broth and a variety of ingredients. Although they weren’t from the same class, they were representing the school in the competition and had been together for a few days, so their relationship was quite good. While waiting for the dishes to arrive, they chatted happily, joking about the difficulty of the competition questions, saying that only non-humans could win first prize with such questions.
“But it’s not certain.” Luo Rui suddenly whispered, “I think Fang Xing has a good chance.”
All eyes turned to Fang Xing, and Jiang Xinxin smiled and asked, “Fang Xing, do you think today’s questions were difficult?”
“A bit,” Fang Xing replied.
The difficulty and quantity of the competition questions were indeed on a different level from regular exams. A girl laughed, “We’re doomed if Fang Xing says it’s difficult; it must be really hard.”
Another girl said, “But we still have Tan Zhuo; he’s good at physics.”
“Uh.” The male student sharing a room with Tan Zhuo hesitated for a moment and said, “But he didn’t seem to perform well this time. When we returned to the room, his face looked quite ugly. I asked him about the exam, and he got angry.”
After saying this, he quickly waved his hand, “But I’m just guessing; maybe he holds himself to high standards.”
Just as they were discussing this, the private room’s door opened, and the waiter started bringing in the dishes. The topic shifted, and everyone chatted about other things.
During the meal, they chatted and enjoyed themselves. After finishing dinner and returning to the hotel rooms, Fang Xing had a strong smell of hot pot on him. He decided to change into a fresh set of clothes. While taking off his coat, he took out his phone and glanced at it.
There was a WeChat message lying quietly in the notification bar.
Jiang Zhijin: “Great, have you eaten?”
Fang Xing immediately opened WeChat.
“Went out for hot pot with classmates.”
Fang Xing waited for a while, and there was still no reply. It wasn’t until he changed out of the hot pot-scented clothes and quickly took a shower that he looked at the phone screen on the bedside table. It remained clean, with no incoming messages.
He hesitated for a moment and decided to give Jiang Zhijin a call.
By the time the system’s default ringtone played for the second time, Jiang Zhijin finally answered the call. Before he could speak, Fang Xing preemptively said, “Ate, had hot pot.”
Jiang Zhijin was momentarily stunned before realizing and couldn’t help but laugh, “You could have just replied on WeChat; no need to call.”
“Sent a WeChat too.” Fang Xing replied. “You didn’t respond.”
Jiang Zhijin remained quiet for a few seconds, probably checking the WeChat chat, then spoke again with a smile, “My bad, I’m driving, didn’t see it.”
“… It’s okay.” Jiang Zhijin’s serious explanation made Fang Xing feel a bit embarrassed. He lay down on the bed, looking up at the ceiling, and Jiang Zhijin’s voice sounded a bit distant, as he was using Bluetooth earphones.
“Are you going out?”
“Yeah, got something to do.” Jiang Zhijin replied.
“Oh.”
Fang Xing didn’t know what to say, but Jiang Zhijin asked, “How was the exam?”
“It was okay, the questions were a bit difficult.”
“The last time you said ‘okay,’ you got a perfect score.”
Fang Xing couldn’t help but laugh, “Not this time, it was really challenging.”
“Got it. Don’t think about it after the exam; let’s talk when the results come out,” Jiang Zhijin said with a smile.
“Alright,” Fang Xing replied.
“I won’t talk much; I’m driving,” Jiang Zhijin said. “Take a rest.”
Fang Xing replied with an “Mmm” and waited for Jiang Zhijin to hang up first before putting down his phone. Suddenly, he felt a lot more relaxed.
Don’t think about anything after the exam, don’t think about adult matters, don’t think about irrelevant things… Every time, Jiang Zhijin could keenly and accurately point out the things that bothered him and then push them away.
The pressure from the competition over the past few days suddenly poured out, making Fang Xing feel a bit exhausted. He put down his phone, pulled the quilt over himself, and closed his eyes.
No one can easily get high scores. Fang Xing had invested as much energy as anyone these past few days, so when everything was over, he was more prone to fatigue.
During this nap, he slept soundly, didn’t dream at all, until he vaguely heard the phone on the bedside table ringing.
At first, he thought he was still in a dream. It wasn’t until a moment later, when he was slightly more awake, that he realized a call had come in.
Luo Rui wasn’t in the room, and with no lights on, it was completely dark. Squinting, Fang Xing reached out from under the quilt, fumbling to pick up the phone. He answered the call without even looking at the caller ID.
“Hello.” His voice was still hoarse; the first “hello” almost didn’t come out.
“Oh, this voice.” Jiang Zhijin on the other end laughed, “You’re not awake yet.”
Fang Xing instantly woke up most of the way. He sat up a bit, cleared his throat, and said, “I’m awake.”
“You can really sleep. I’ve called you three times. If you didn’t answer the fourth, I was going to call the police,” Jiang Zhijin teased.
Fang Xing was stunned for a few seconds, glanced at the phone, and saw it was already past 7:40. There were two missed calls from Jiang Zhijin.
He suddenly felt a bit guilty, “Slept too deeply, didn’t hear it.”
“After sleeping so long, you haven’t had dinner, right?”
“No.”
Fang Xing thought Jiang Zhijin was just making casual conversation, intending to say he would order some takeout. However, before he could speak, Jiang Zhijin continued.
“Then come down; I’ll take you out to eat.”
“… What?”
“The Four Seasons Hotel next to the Shengli Institute of Technology, right?” Jiang Zhijin said, “Come out; I’m downstairs.”
Fang Xing was now fully awake.
He abruptly threw off the quilt, jumped out of bed, picked up the clothes next to him, and spoke to Jiang Zhijin on the phone at the same time.
“Wait a moment; I’ll be right there.”
“No hurry.” Jiang Zhijin chuckled.
After hanging up the phone, Fang Xing muttered to himself, “Damn it.”
Damn it, damn it, damn it.
Jiang Zhijin actually came to find him.
Across three hours of driving, across a city, in such cold weather, Jiang Zhijin actually came to find him.
This surreal feeling made Fang Xing briefly doubt whether he was still dreaming.
It wasn’t until he casually put on some clothes and went downstairs, rushing out of the hotel lobby, that he saw the familiar white SUV parked in the temporary parking space at the entrance. Jiang Zhijin was standing by the car, playing with his phone.
Probably sensing Fang Xing’s gaze, Jiang Zhijin looked up in this direction, coincidentally meeting Fang Xing’s eyes. Jiang Zhijin’s face carried a hint of a smile as he put away his phone.
“You’re quite fast. What do you want to eat—”
Jiang Zhijin couldn’t finish his sentence. Fang Xing had already rushed up and hugged him.
In the middle of winter, both of them were dressed quite warmly, but Jiang Zhijin still felt Fang Xing’s momentum through their clothes. It was almost like Fang Xing pounced directly, almost causing him to stumble, pressing him against the car door. Jiang Zhijin even heard a muffled sound as he collided with the car.
“Oh my, damn it—”
Jiang Zhijin wanted to laugh a little, felt a bit helpless, and even a bit unsure, but Fang Xing hugged him tightly, trapping him. Jiang Zhijin could feel Fang Xing’s face buried in his neck, the warmth of his breath brushing past his ear.
In the end, he didn’t break free from Fang Xing. He sighed lightly, reached out, and gently patted Fang Xing on the back.