Stepping out of the crowd, Luo Qianqian and her two friends met up with Qin Nuan, and then the four of them found a dimly lit spot away from others to sit down.
Elvis was the first to speak, "It’s rare for you to seek me out proactively, what’s up?" His tone was still odd and quirky, completely different from the normal one he had just used.
"Han Chen..." Luo Qianqian had barely started speaking when she sensed the two people beside her stiffen, and sure enough before she could continue, they had already cut her off.
"You don’t need to worry about his affairs, he won’t trouble you," Elvis said bluntly, his intonation now indistinguishable from the others’, a stark contrast to his previous eccentric tone.
"I haven’t even said it yet..." Luo Qianqian pouted unhappily. Was Elvis somehow aware of what she was about to say? Only if Elvis had always been very clear about the things happening around her.
"You needn’t worry about Han Chen’s matters," Xi Ming also quickly interjected, his tone clearly serious, indicating he didn’t want Luo Qianqian to keep probing.
Luo Qianqian pouted, "How do you guys know each other? You’re already on the same wavelength when you’ve just met? One promised to take care of me, while the other is my deskmate. How can you act this way?"
Xi Ming laughed, "Sorry, we’ve known each other for over two years."
Elvis, on the other hand, couldn’t stop coughing on the side, as if trying to cover something up.
Xi Ming then stopped talking and said no more.
More than two years? Luo Qianqian’s face was one of surprise. Elvis had certainly seemed like he had just come to this place, initially even pretending he couldn’t understand their language and insisting on communicating in English. On closer thought, it also seemed he had adjusted too quickly.
Luo Qianqian looked at Elvis with suspicion, but the night did a good job of hiding everyone’s expressions, revealing nothing.
"But," Qin Nuan started, "what we wanted to say is that he might be related to Xu Xiaoxiao, and Xu Xiaoxiao has some... issues with Qianqian."
Before she could finish, Xi Ming’s voice interjected, "Xu Xiaoxiao? The Xu family and the Han family are originally in-laws, isn’t it normal for them to be related?"
Luo Qianqian blinked, "So Han Chen really is from the Han family..."
After a moment of silence from Xi Ming, Luo Qianqian barely heard a faint "yeah."
A realization dawned on Luo Qianqian, and she felt somewhat at a loss, but her distress went unnoticed due to the darkness.
"We should head back now." After an indefinite silence, Luo Qianqian finally took Qin Nuan and left.
Watching the retreating slender, black silhouettes with their slightly chaotic steps, Xi Ming let out a soft sigh, "Good thing I contacted you yesterday."
"He says he doesn’t want her to go through so much trouble, but I just don’t get it. How come she seems to attract trouble like a magnet?" Elvis exhaled heavily, adding that if it weren’t for him cleaning up her messes, she might have been tracked down following those clues.
"She’s already aware, and you can’t hide it anymore. Let her play her way. You just provide the technical support and clean up the aftermath. As for me, I’ll just enjoy the show and pass her sunflower seeds and blankets, making sure she’s not bullied," Xi Ming said with a smile on his face, patting Elvis on the shoulder, "I’m really looking forward to what comes next."
Having said that, she hopped off the steps and calmly walked away.
Elvis, however, sat quietly on the staircase, saying nothing, motionless, his eyes tranquil as an ancient pond, without a ripple of surprise. After a long pause, he only exhaled one sentence, "I’m very much looking forward to your growth."
Luo Qianqian didn’t return to her dormitory after parting with Qin Nuan; instead, they went to the supermarket to buy some water again.
Luo Qianqian looked at the supermarket’s bright lights and instinctively covered her eyes, only to lower her hands after a moment and stare straight at the light bulb, "Nuan Nuan, do you think that moth is stupid?"
Qin Nuan looked up at the moth dancing around the light bulb, slightly startled, "Why do you ask?"
"It knows this isn’t fire, yet it’s still obsessed with this glimmer of light, endlessly repeating its mistake." Luo Qianqian laughed as she watched, "Knowing that the path ahead is wrong, yet still being drawn in, venturing further and further down the wrong road—isn’t it tragic?"
"Don’t you think this is also a kind of fortune? If it were really going after fire, it would have truly turned to nothingness, with nothing left." Qin Nuan was taken aback, then immediately added, "The tragedy of a moth drawn to flame lies precisely in this, doesn’t the presence of the light bulb save its life?"
"The life of a moth is tragedy itself," Luo Qianqian said with a bitter smile, "To love the right one is to be shattered to pieces, to dissipate into ash and smoke; to love the wrong one means a future that’s visible but unreachable."
Qin Nuan fell silent.
"A moth’s existence is to forge ahead, determined in its goal without letting go." A voice suddenly spoke up from the side.
Luo Qianqian and Qin Nuan turned their heads to see Fang Rou holding a bag of bread.
"Is that so? If you turn off the light and turn on another, it will still fly towards the brightness." Luo Qianqian’s eyes seemed a bit lost, her smile seemingly filled with bitterness no matter how one looked at it, "Isn’t this just changing goals?"
"To always head towards the light, that is its goal," Fang Rou smiled and picked up a carton of milk from a shelf next to Luo Qianqian, "Comparatively, who doesn’t change their goals? Because you like someone’s face, you start liking him, but after getting to know him, you find out his aesthetic is appealing, his taste in clothes is something you admire, so you start liking his taste, the brand of clothes he wears—doesn’t this contradict your original goal? You might say it’s because you love everything about him, that you continue to like him because of his taste, but if this person wasn’t there, would you really not like the brand anymore?"
"...Because of him I got to know the brand; without him, I wouldn’t have known it, so what’s there to like?" Luo Qianqian furrowed her brows slightly.
"Eat less at night; look at how your stomach’s bulging out." Fang Rou didn’t reply but simply smiled, took her things to check out, and before leaving she said to Luo Qianqian, "Come to the infirmary when you’re free, I’ll prescribe some digestive tablets for you."
Luo Qianqian looked after Fang Rou’s departing figure with an expression of speechlessness, rubbing her own stomach and turning to Qin Nuan, "Is it really that noticeable?"
After Qin Nuan settled the bill, she looked at Luo Qianqian’s stomach, then nodded after a moment and looked down at her own belly with a sigh of relief, "All good, all good."
Luo Qianqian rolled her eyes and, holding the water she had just purchased, said somewhat gloomily, "Why does it feel like everyone’s picking on me?"
"...Who do you think you are, that everyone’s after you? I actually feel like Elvis might not be a bad person, although I suddenly feel he doesn’t seem like a good person either," Qin Nuan said, handing over an ice cream she had casually picked up, "Do you think Xu Someone Someone is your light bulb or your fire?"
"...Excuse me, is Luo Someone Someone your light bulb or your fire?" Luo Qianqian rolled her eyes and immediately replied.
"But I’m not a moth, I’m a butterfly, a Flower Butterfly; he is my rose bush," Qin Nuan said with a sly smile, leaving Luo Qianqian utterly speechless.
"As for me, I’m a national treasure, and he’s the zookeeper," Luo Qianqian’s face beamed with a smile, "I’m the most noble."