The rest of what she said was like a stuck cassette, the room instantly became silent.
Sang Yan’s eyelashes fluttered. He could see Wen Yifan’s slightly messy hair and droopy eyes from his point of view. His adam’s apple moved up and down before saying in a hoarse voice, “What are you doing?”.
Wen Yifan didn’t answer.
Sang Yan’s hair was still dripping wet.
At the end of his hair, the water droplets trickled down his face and chin before dripping into her hair. He stared at it before slowly raising his hand and gently rubbed it off with his fingertips.
She seemed like she didn’t realize it, so she didn’t respond.
Wen Yifan was not short, her height was around his chin level, but she had a small and skinny frame. The side of her face was leaning against his chest, her hands were around his waist, neither softly nor firmly.
However, her sense of existence was as strong as a drop of hot lava dripped on the body.
It lasted for more than ten seconds.
“Can you answer me?” Sang Yan spoke again and he jokingly said, “How long are you going to hug me?”
Wen Yifan immediately let him go once he finished asking.
She took a slow step back, without looking at Sang Yan, she mumbled. The words were tossed around her lips, which sounded very vague.
Sang Yan couldn’t hear clearly, “What did you say?”
But Wen Yifan didn’t speak again.
She turned around like she didn’t do anything and walked towards the master bedroom slowly. She looked calm and collected as if her sudden hug in the middle of the night was a normal and natural thing.
He didn’t think she would give such a response. Sang Yan’s eyebrows twitched and asked in an absurd manner.
“Wen Yifan?”
Meanwhile, Wen Yifan just happened to walk until the middle bedroom. She stopped as if she heard his voice, but her eyes were fixed in the direction of Sang Yan’s room, she stared for a few seconds.
She looked away and continued walking.
“……”
They were both cut off from each other with the sound of the door closing.
Sang Yan was still standing still, “?”.
The scene seemed to be frozen still.
After a few seconds, the towel slid down from his shoulder and fell to the ground.
Sang Yan recovered from his thoughts and bent down to pick it up.
The white lights in the living room were bright and glaring. The surroundings were as silent as the grave, it was so quiet that the air flowing slowly could be heard. Wen Yifan’s brief breath seemed to have faded away.
Like a dream.
Waking up the next day.
Wen Yifan’s bad mood and discomfort had disappeared completely, she felt as if she had been recharged overnight and woke up recovered. She sat up for a while to refresh her mind, she felt that sleeping was the ultimate weapon.
All of the negative emotions could be digested as long as she slept.
Wen Yifan picked up her phone and got up to go to the bathroom. She habitually scrolled through the news before opening WeChat to check messages. As she was scrolling down, she noticed Sang Yan had sent her a message around 9.00 pm last night.
Sang Yan: What’s wrong with you?
Wen Yifan blinked, she was not sure if she was asleep at that moment. She went straight to her bed to sleep after coming out of the bathroom and never looked at her phone again.
She placed her toothbrush into her mouth to free her hands before replying: What?
The next moment.
Sang Yan replied with a question mark: ?
“……”
Where did he get the habit of randomly sending out question marks?
Wen Yifan was thinking while brushing her teeth.
She was not in the living room when he sent this message last night, and she didn’t make any noise that would affect him. Besides, she spoke in a normal manner when she came back home.
After thinking about it, Wen Yifan replied: Did you send this message to the wrong person?
Sang Yan: ?
After a few seconds, he sent a thumbs-up emoji.
“……”
Wen Yifan felt strange and couldn’t understand his thoughts at all. But it could also be understood from his two question marks that his thumbs-up emoji was nothing good. She spat out the foam in her mouth, she didn’t know how to reply to him.
She always felt that this person’s mood always had its ups and downs.
He was somehow a little strange every day.
Wen Yifan didn’t give in too many thoughts, she simply treated the thumbs-up emoji as its original meaning; it was an encouragement from Sang Yan early in the morning.
Thinking about this, she felt that she should repay the good deed.
She thought about it and gave him a thumbs-up emoji in return.
……
It was just past 8.00 pm.
Wen Yifan took her coat, put it in her arms and walked out of her room with her slippers on. Although Sang Yan had already woken up, her movements were still lightened because it was still early.
She thought Sang Yan hadn’t come out from his room yet.
However, she saw him leaning against the counter and drinking ice water as soon as she entered the kitchen.
Sang Yan seemed to prefer dark coloured clothes, even his casual home clothes were no exception. Plain black T-shirt and trousers of the same colour. He looked carefree and sleepy as if he didn’t sleep well.
He was looking downwards, scrolling through his phone with one of his hands.
He casually lifted his eyelids when he noticed her existence.
Wen Yifan took a box of yoghurt and a pack of toast from the refrigerator. She closed the refrigerator door and hesitated before mentioning the WeChat message he sent earlier, “Did you find me on WeChat last night?”
Sang Yan looked up and stared at her. He suddenly smiled.
“You want to act as if nothing happened?”
“……”
Wen Yifan would think that she lost the memory of doing something after being drunk, but she was sure that she didn’t drink last night.
In a blink of an eye, Wen Yifan remembered the time at 9.00 pm.
As soon as she came home last night, she informed him that she wanted to go to bed earlier that day and asked him to turn down the volume of the television before 9.00 pm. However, her requirement that was set before they shared the unit was not to make too much noise after 10.00 pm.
It was an hour early.
Wen Yifan originally thought that it was not a big deal.
But Sang Yan had always made a mountain out of a molehill.
He probably felt upset the more he thought about this matter that was one hour ahead of the discussed time.
“Last night was a special occasion,” Wen Yifan explained, “I’m sorry if it affected you, there won’t be such a situation anymore in the future. Thanks for accommodating me.”
“……” Sang Yan calmly looked away, “Okay.”
Wen Yifan breathed a sigh of relief.
“This is not a small matter to me.” Sang Yan tilted his head and enunciated, “I hope you can give me a reasonable explanation after doing such a thing in the future.”
“……”
Wen Yifan really felt that he was being mean and inexplicable this time.
This is considered a big deal.
I just asked you to turn the volume down.
Wen Yifan held it in and didn’t complain, “Alright, I will.”
When Wen Yifan arrived at the TV station, the office was still empty. She went to the pantry and made a cup of coffee. She found that Su TIan had already arrived when she got back. She seemed very exhausted as she was sleeping on her desk.
Wen Yifan greeted and asked, “Why are you so early today?”
“I didn’t go home. I stayed up all night, I just came back from the computer room.” Su Tian said dazedly, “I’ll sleep for a while.”
“Okay.” Wen Yifan said, “Sleep more, I’ll call you if there’s anything important. But isn’t it uncomfortable sleeping on the desk? Do you want to sleep on the sofa? I have a blanket.”
“No, thanks.“ Su Tian added, “I’ll only sleep for half an hour, I’ll have to wake up to write manuscripts after that.”
Wen Yifan didn’t say much but still gave Su Tian the blanket. She opened her file, skimmed through the documents and wrote an interview outline for a while.
She didn’t know how much time had passed, but Su Tian suddenly sat up straight. She looked like she was confused. She turned to Wen Yifan and was slightly panting, “Yifan.”
Upon hearing that, Wen Yifan turned around, “What’s wrong?”
“I just had a nightmare, it was very weird.” Su Tian’s forehead was sweating, she didn’t seem to have a good sleep, “I dreamt that I was sleeping here, and I could hear the sound of you typing on the keyboard. There was also a child crying nearby, and there seemed to be something on my back pressing me down.”
Wen Yifan was stunned, “This sounds scary.”
“Exactly, I was suffocating just now.” Su Tian sighed, “I felt that I’m conscious, but it felt that I was being wrapped in a plastic wrap, I couldn’t move.”
“It could be sleep paralysis. You were sleeping on the desk, so your blood may not be circulating well.” Wen Yifan comforted, “Go sleep on the sofa, it shouldn’t happen again.”
“Forget it, I’m still having a lingering fear.” Su Tian said, “This is the first time I had such a strange dream.”
Wen Yifan also remembered something after listening to her, “I also had a strange dream last night.”
Su Tian picked up the water bottle, “What?”
“But it’s not a nightmare.” Wen Yifan said seriously, “I dreamt that I went into a deep mountain forest alone. I walked in the forest alone for half a day and I still couldn’t find a way out. Then, the sky turned dark, I couldn’t see anything and began to feel very cold.”
“Then?”
“I suddenly remembered that I saw the sun on the way.” Wen Yifan added, “Then, I wanted to turn back to the sun to warm up myself. I really found the sun after a long walk.”
Su Tian pointed out the flaw in her dream, “Isn’t the sky turned dark, why is there a sun?”
Wen Yifan smiled, “So it’s a dream.”
“Then, it ended like this? Didn’t you come out of the deep forest?”
“I came out after I saw the sun.” Wen Yifan tried her best to recall, but the dream was vague, she couldn’t clearly remember and she felt that the scene was a bit outrageous, “And, when I saw the sun, I thought I…”
“What?”
“I couldn’t help but hug it.”
……
Wen Yifan came early that day, and there was not much work, so she got off work on time.
She went back to her neighbourhood and coincidentally met Sang Yan in the elevator. He seemed to have just come back, he probably came into the elevator from the underground parking lot. He was on the phone.
Wen Yifan nodded at him as a greeting.
Sang Yan only glanced at her.
After a moment.
Sang Yan said lazily, “Don’t doubt it, she’s just not into you.”
“……”
It just happened to reach the 16th floor.
Wen Yifan took her keys out of her pocket before going out of the elevator.
Sang Yan followed her, “Tell me what she did to you.”
Wen Yifan opened the door and prepared to change into her slippers.
Sang Yan behind her said again, “Gave you a hug?”
“……”
This was accompanied by the sound of the door closing.
At the same time, Sang Yan patted her head, “Hey.”
Wen Yifan turned around.
“You’re also a girl, you answer.” Sang Yan raised his chin and pointed out, “This girl hugged my friend and acted like nothing happened on the next day. What does this mean?”
Wen Yifan couldn’t react, “Huh?”
Sang Yan, “Should he report to the police?”
“……” Wen Yifan was shocked and said hesitantly, “It’s just a hug… I think he shouldn’t go this far…”
She slowly added after noticing Sang Yan’s expression, “It depends on the relationship between the girl and your friend. Maybe she was in a bad mood and needed some comfort.”
Sang Yan didn’t say anything.
His attitude inexplicably made Wen Yifan feel that she was the one who behaved like this. She had a hard time explaining herself, “The hug may have no other special meaning, it’s just between friends……”
Wen Yifan couldn’t continue any further when she was stared at by Sang Yan, “But I don’t know what is the exact situation between the girl and your friend, so what I said just now has no reference value.”
Upon hearing this, Sang Yan looked away without any expression, he said to the person on the phone, “She’s asking you, how is your relationship with that girl?”
“Are you out of your mind! Why do I need to report to the police!” Qian Fei at the other side of the phone call was ignored by him, he spoke even louder, “How can our relationship be! She’s my goddess! I have admired her secretly for a year!”
“……”
Qian Fei, “And what are you talking about? Didn’t I make myself clear! My goddess gave me chocolates on Valentine’s Day! Not a hug!”
“Oh, he said she was,” Sang Yan put down his phone and glanced at Wen Yifan from head to toe as if he had come to a conclusion, “Someone who crazily adored him.”
“……”
