Chapter 7 Chapter 6 Birds and Islands

When we were still in high school, we often looked forward to life in college. At that time, even the teachers would encourage students like this: As long as you grit your teeth and survive the third year of high school, you will be able to get through it. There is nothing good in college.But Ji Ting felt that his college career was not much easier than that in high school, half of it was because of his major - clinical medical students rarely have free time, and the other half was because subconsciously studying hard had become his habit. No need to raise your whip.He understood very well that most top students are not smarter than ordinary people, but they spend more time studying than ordinary people.

There is no lack of love among the classmates around him. What time in his life can he have enough reasons to find someone to fall in love with like when he was in college.So Liu Jilin also said: "If you don't fall in love in loneliness, you can pervert in loneliness." And he has repeatedly emphasized that he belongs to the former, while Ji Ting obviously belongs to the latter. Liu Jilin's college entrance examination scores were appalling, almost breaking the record for the high school entrance examination score. I don't know how many contacts and favors his omnipotent father used, and he finally got a job in the Political Department of G University. He took a place.The reason for choosing this department is nothing more than the fact that political subjects can still hold their feet for a while. If it is really impossible to make nonsense on the essay questions in the test paper, the teacher will occasionally mistakenly think that it is reasonable. In short, the probability of being rejected is much smaller than that of science and engineering. Many, and do not need the literary talent of the Chinese department students.Liu Jilin has an open-minded and open-minded personality, a little bit of cleverness, and a wealthy family. He gathers a group of idlers every now and then, eats and drinks at a food stall outside the school, and has a good time. After drinking and eating, he pays the bill and leaves. , or eat wildly in the school cafeteria contracted by his family, so he is quite popular among his classmates. People he knows call him "canteen prince" overtly and secretly, and he laughs it off when he hears it .For him, he lacked everything in college life, except money, time and beauties, so he said that he was able to get along like a fish in water, and even a few female classmates who could be called the school beauties were killed by him one after another. Under the bombardment of sugar-coated shells.However, after a lot of emotional experience, I don't care anymore. In his words, love starts from the soul and ends with the body.However, he enjoys such a life.

Among all Liu Jilin's friends, Ji Ting has the deepest friendship, but is also the most peculiar one. In Liu Jilin's view, Ji Ting's life of studying hard like an ascetic monk is simply an abnormal state.Liu Jilin went to the medical school to look for him a few times, and when he came back, he even said that after seeing the girls in the medical school, he almost thought that dinosaurs ruled the world again, and then he understood why Ji Ting was ashamed after reading.So he often dragged Ji Ting to "experience normal college life" with good words, which was nothing more than asking one or two beautiful female classmates to hang out with him.

In fact, in Ji Ting's original intention, he is not a person who deliberately wants to live a Puritan life, but there are some things he thinks are dispensable, and he doesn't have to force them, and he doesn't have any special desires. Remaining studies.Sometimes he also feels that he shouldn't live like this, and it's not that he hasn't thought about changing, so occasionally he will play with Liu Jilin and meet those beautiful girls.When everyone sat together, the girls were usually very interested in the gentle and elegant Ji Ting. He was not a popular figure in the school, but from time to time some girls mentioned that they had seen a very temperamental boy in the medical school.He has a soft and indifferent scholarly atmosphere, which can often attract girls whom he meets for the first time without knowing it. He is usually a perfect listener when chatting with several people, joking with everyone, but his thoughts are drifting away .Under Liu Jilin's instigation, he also ate and watched movies alone with girls with better impressions several times. His impeccable manners and smiles were like an invisible net, quietly keeping the eager counterparts out. When the date was over, he sent the girl back to the dormitory, turned his head, and often couldn't remember the look of that face just now.

After coming down several times, Liu Jilin yelled that he couldn't stand it. He always said that if he continued like this, he could only become a monk. He had never seen him get any stimulation, so how could he be so unpursued?Ji Ting only said that if there is no suitable one, he will not force it.Sometimes Liu Jilin would jokingly protect his chest and say to Ji Ting, "Honestly speaking, you don't like men, right?" Ji Ting would always laugh, "It's hard to say, but those who are as pretty as you are not considered." It's not that he doesn't have feelings for girls, he knows it himself.It's just that he was afraid that any feeling would be just an illusion, so he would rather ignore it.

Among the girls, he also has someone who is closer, such as Zhiyi.Zhiyi is in her third year of high school, and at the age of eighteen she is no longer awkward in front of Ji Ting. Although she will no longer get along day and night like she did when she was a child, the relationship she grew up with cannot be replaced by others. Zhiyi has never changed her favorite things since she was a child, such as her goldfish.Her skills in raising goldfish are well-known in the surrounding areas. Many rare and delicate goldfish species that are difficult to survive can grow well under her careful care.Sometimes other fish lovers even come to her door to ask her for some tips. Wang Fan often laughs at her. When she grows up, she simply makes a living by raising fish, which is what she enjoys.However, she has always insisted on taking care of her goldfish herself. It is so precious that no one can touch it and feed it easily, except Ji Ting.After studying nervously in the third year of high school, her parents were afraid that her grades could not keep up, so they sometimes asked Ji Ting to tutor her. Often Ji Ting was there to give her lectures, but she dragged him and told him about her little fish baby. , each with its own name.

Ji Ting feels that learning this kind of thing sometimes has to go with the flow. No one stipulates that a person must have excellent grades in order to be happy. Even the college entrance examination, which many people value more than the sky, may not be the only way out for a student.Like Zhiyi, her grades have never been very good, and she may not be admitted to a good university in the college entrance examination, but this does not affect her happiness of being aloof from the world.He likes to see the way Zhiyi looks at the goldfish intently, with a serene and gentle expression. He is obviously ordered to help her with her homework, but he often can't bear to let her listen to those boring problem-solving steps, and would rather be with her Immerse yourself in the silent world of fish.A few pieces of fish food are thrown down, floating on the water surface, slowly fainting, occasionally a fish jumps up, opens its mouth to swallow quickly, and then continues to swim leisurely, leaving only slight ripples in the center of the water.Zhi Yi lowered her head, her long hair drooped down, swaying silently with her breathing, and Ji Ting's heart was slowly rippling like a fish swimming on the surface of water.In the shadow of her hair, her face also has a soft and beautiful outline. From his angle, facing the light, sometimes you can see the fine fluff attached to her translucent skin. If you look at her so intently , looking at her like that all the time, Ji Ting would think, who said she is nothing like her.

Since the one that made Gu Weizhen furious, Zhian rarely went home except for summer vacation, and she was also nervous about studying in her third year of high school, so she often didn't show up at home for a long time.In Ji Ting's memory, the longest time was when he didn't see her for three months and eleven days. In fact, Gu Weizhen's anger has almost subsided a long time ago. Pointing her nose and telling her not to come back that day was just an angry word. He was just annoyed at Zhi'an's attitude of not admitting his mistake.It was also a coincidence, not long after Zhi An had a falling out with the old professor of the art department, a young graduate supervisor who had just hired by the art department saw one of her graffiti that the old professor was about to throw into the trash can, and thought that Interesting, I also heard that the author was the daughter of Director Gu of the Department of Economics and Trade, and I was even more interested, so I took the initiative to find Gu Weizhen and asked to see her other works.

This young master director with a rather "smart eye" is Xie Sinian, the leading figure of the cutting-edge oil painting circle in China in recent years.This time G University hired him from Xiamen with a lot of money, nothing more than hoping to strengthen the reputation of G University Art Department.Xie Jingnian is only in her early thirties and is in full bloom. Several groups of works have won professional awards at home and abroad several times, and are quite sought after by people in the industry.However, he is as bohemian as most accomplished artists, and Gu Weizhen has also heard about the corruption of his private life, so although such an expert expressed his appreciation for Zhi An, he still hesitated whether to introduce his daughter to Xie Sinian .In the end, Wang Fan said, "Even if your daughter doesn't learn art from Xie Sinian, I'm afraid she won't go anywhere by following the rules. Instead of letting her do whatever she wants at school, it's better to see what she means. If you leave her alone, she may not be able to learn her temper well."

So Gu Weizhen formally brought her in front of Xie Sinian during the summer vacation of Zhi'an's second year of high school. Unexpectedly, Xie Sinian and Zhi'an had a tendency to meet and hate each other when they first met. , the more they talked, the more speculative they became. From then on, Zhi'an formally learned painting from Xie Sinian.Gu Weizhen also thought about paying Xie Sinian's tuition, but he got frustrated. Xie Sinian only said that he was never short of that little money, and teaching Zhian was purely out of personal preference. It is not commensurate with masters and apprentices. People before and after call each other by their first names.

After Zhi An learned from Xie Sinian, he had the professional guidance of the best teacher, and his skills were naturally different from before. Said that the few graduate students he is currently leading are not as good as Zhi An's aura, and even called Zhi An his "Camille". Everyone thought that based on Zhi An's special liking for painting, she would definitely choose to become an art student and take the professional exam for the college entrance examination. Unexpectedly, she did not have such a plan, but took the ordinary college entrance examination with Zhi Yi .Zhiyi once asked her, since she likes it, why doesn’t she regard this as her future career, Zhi’an only half-truthfully said that most painters only sell their works after death, and she couldn’t bear the poverty in her lifetime. In the evening at the beginning of July, Ji Ting walked back to school from Liu Jilin's house. He remembered that he had promised Zhiyi that after the college entrance examination, he would give her advice on how to fill out her application, so before going home, he made a detour to Gu's house. At this time, Zhi Yi and Uncle Gu were usually at home, but Ji Ting knocked on the door of their house for a long time, but there was no answer. He was wondering and was about to turn back home when he heard the movement inside the door.After the door opened, Zhi'an stood at the door with a smell of turpentine all over his body. She leaned on the door, tilting her head slightly to look at him. "Zhi'an?" Ji Ting was a little surprised, "Oh, I'm looking for Zhiyi, is she at home?" "She went out." Zhi An said. "That……" She interrupted him, "Ask my parents, right? They went out with Zhiyi not long ago, and they won't be back in a while, so you don't have to wait for them." "Oh, that's it." Ji Ting nodded, and couldn't help being a little embarrassed when he found that Zhi An was looking at him with the eyes of "tell me what else to do". He was going to say to her, "Okay, I'll come back tomorrow." But instead, he said, "Are you drawing, mind if I take a look?" Zhian put his hand down from the door, and curled the corners of his mouth, "Of course I mind." Seeing his slightly helpless expression as she wished, she smiled, "Come in, but there's nothing to look at." Ji Ting followed her into the study room. On the easel was an oil painting that seemed almost finished. Zhi An didn't greet him too much, and concentrated on polishing the canvas.Ji Ting watched quietly behind her for a while, the tone of the picture was darker, and one could see the vast sea surface and a big bird circling in mid-air, the sea water was quite calm, but the sky was dark and gloomy, as if there was a An oppressive feeling of a storm coming. "Is it a seagull?" he asked. Zhi'an looked back at him and shook his head. "Aside from seagulls, what other birds would hover over the sea before the rainstorm?" he questioned. Zhian's hand didn't stop, "Have you ever heard of a bird that can only fly but not land?" "Well, is it because Leslie Cheung said in "Days of Being Wild" that there is a bird without feet, which will fly until it dies before landing." He asked. Zhi An paused for a moment, "It's almost a night-flying bird. It only lives at sea and makes a living by fishing. It is much bigger than seagulls, flies higher, and is more ferocious. It usually appears at night or Before the storm comes, the cry is very shrill. If they appear at dusk, it usually means that there is a big storm coming, so fishermen along the coast regard it as an ominous thing. In fact, it chooses to appear at this time, It's just for easy prey on those frightened fish." Ji Ting was puzzled, "Does this bird really have no legs? Or does it really die if it stops?" "Night-flying birds actually have feet, but because they spend most of their time flying in the sky, their feet are basically degenerated. If they land, they will move very slowly and are easily preyed by fishermen or more ferocious carnivores. " Ji Ting looked into the bird's eyes, as if he saw a bit of stubbornness and sadness from them. He even felt that these eyes were a bit familiar. He said: "If there is a safe enough island, you say, When night birds are tired from flying, do they also want to stop and roost?" This time Zhi'an didn't answer, she completely stopped the pen in her hand, turned around and looked at him, "There will never be such an island." "What if I say yes?" He was rarely stubborn. "Even if there is, it is an island today, and tomorrow it may be submerged until there is only sea water left. There may be a place for long-term habitat." Ji Ting looked at her, and when she turned her back to him, he said: "When the sea is all around, the island is lonely. If it is not sure whether the bird will come to roost, it is too long to wait." If it is too long, it will only sink down." "Yes, that's because it knew from the beginning that when it had no way to wait, it could still hide in the sea, and the island would always have a retreat, but this bird didn't." After saying these words, both of them were silent for a long time. In the end, Zhi'an threw the paintbrush in the direction of the palette, ending this strange deadlock, and she took the painting that was about to be completed from the easel.Just as Ji Ting was feeling strange, he saw her hands intertwined, and then the drawing paper was torn into two pieces, then four pieces. "What are you doing?" He couldn't help but say his hand to stop it, before it was too late, "Why are you tearing up a good painting?" Zhi An sideways avoided his obstruction, threw the torn pieces of drawing paper into the wastebasket by his feet, and said with a smile, "You can tear up the things I draw if you want, and you don't care." He ignored her, and searched for the fragments of the painting in the wastebasket heartbrokenly. She gave him a hand, "Don't look for it, let me see what you were holding in your hand." Ji Ting's usual gentle expression was frosted over, and he stuffed all the magazines and DVDs that Liu Jilin had forced on him into Zhi'an's hands, and continued his collection of fragments without saying a word. "What kind of mess is this?" Zhi An flipped through the magazines he stuffed over, and sneered, and then opened the bag containing many discs, "Haha, the complete works of Zhou Xingxing, this is more to my liking. Don't pick it up." Come on, idiot, this picture is not well drawn, come on, follow me to see "A Chinese Journey to the West." At this time, Ji Ting had basically sorted out all the fragments of the painting. He asked for a magazine from Zhi An, and then put all the fragments in the pages of the book, and was dragged by Zhi An to the living room.