Jing Li said that some dreams can only be realized silently.
So she silently took the TOEFL test, silently applied to schools, silently got an offer from the school, and finally silently prepared to go abroad.
She didn't publicize anything, nor did she take the initiative to tell anyone.
The reason why Huo Qiran knew about it was because he took the initiative to ask her.
Sure enough, she no longer shared all kinds of things in her life with him like she used to. She rarely mentioned such big things, let alone the small things.
But this semester, Huo Qiran joined an experimental group and became even busier in study. He even had very little rest time, and even less time to meet with Jing Li.
After Jing Li got an offer from the school, she was invited to have a meal at the Huo family mansion. Huo Jinxi and Mu Qian were both present. Huo Qiran and she only talked about some topics related to study and life, nothing else.
The day Jing Li left Tongcheng, Huo Qiran didn't even catch the plane that took her off.
That day was actually the weekend, but a set of data in the laboratory was in the final stage of verification. Everyone stayed in the laboratory. When the data came out, Huo Qiran immediately left the laboratory and rushed to the airport.
But it turned out to be too late.
Jing Li's plane took off on time. When Huo Qiran arrived at the airport, she could see planes taking off one after another, but she couldn't tell which one she was on.
In the end, they drifted apart little by little.
No matter how hard he tried to avoid it, this ending was still before him.
After Jing Li went to NewYk, she would occasionally share her daily life in a foreign country with him at first, but the frequency was very low, and she only shared basic information such as her residence and school.
After all, she was separated by an ocean. She had just arrived in a foreign place. She had to adapt to life and devote herself to study. She was already busy. Huo Qiran had also entered her senior year and was also preparing for the postgraduate entrance examination. Coupled with the 13-hour time difference, she didn't know where to start.
Starting from one day, their already low-frequency interactions were cut off...
The semester is over, and in the blink of an eye it’s winter vacation again.
Su Zhen returned to Tongcheng early this winter vacation, but she never came to the Huo family to find Huo Qiran. It was not until a large group of people gathered for the Huo family's reunion that she followed her parents to the Huo family.
During this year, she and Huo Qiran seemed to have nothing on the surface, but in fact, their relationship was worse than before, and they were still estranged after all.
But after all, this was just an emotional entanglement between the two people. Once they met, Su Zhen would still make noises with Huo Qiran as before.
During the commotion, NewYk was mentioned for some reason, and Su Zhen suddenly said: "I met Jing Li before I came back, and we even had dinner together."
This made Huo Qiran startled, "Really? How did you two meet?"
"Please, we live in the same city, isn't it normal for us to meet?" Su Zhen said, "We happened to meet each other near the school last time, so we made an appointment to have dinner together!"
Huo Qiran paused and then asked: "How is she? Is she adapting well?"
Su Zhen couldn't help but widen her eyes slightly and asked him: "How come you don't know whether she is adapting well? Don't you two have any contact?"
Huo Qiran turned around and cleared his throat before saying, "It's been a while since we've been in contact."
Su Zhen seemed to be startled when she heard this, and then said: "Really? She didn't mention it. I thought you were still as good as before."
Huo Qiran glanced at her but didn't respond.
But Su Zhen couldn't help but ask: "How come you have no contact? She went abroad, don't you care?"
"She's busy." Huo Qiran said lightly, "She's busy and I'm busy too. How can I have so much time to keep in touch."
After hearing this, Su Zhen curled her lips slightly, as if she didn't know what to comment on, so she didn't say anything else.
Not long after, Huo Qiran returned to his room to check and receive emails. After replying to an academic email, he sat in front of the computer and started to stay.
The sound of ding-ding-dong-dong came from the mobile phone one after another, and people were constantly sending New Year greetings.
After he sat quietly for a while, he finally couldn't help but grab his phone and open the chat interface with Jing Li.
The last time they chatted was two months ago. After several days, he asked her how she was adapting to school. After a few hours, she briefly replied to him saying, "Everything is fine." He could only reply, "Everything is fine."
That's good".
Huo Qiran stayed on the last chat record between the two for a long time, and finally couldn't help but type a few words in the input box: "Happy Spring Festival!"
After clicking send, he suddenly realized something and looked at the time. It was early morning over there, so she should be sleeping, right?
As expected, he didn't wait for her reply.
It wasn't until the evening, when a large group of people were having a lively dinner together, that Huo Qiran finally received her message——
"Happy New Year!"
Huo Qiran looked at this reply and couldn't help but reach out to the input box with his fingers.
He should have had many topics to talk to her about.
He could ask her if she had just woken up, how she spent the Spring Festival there, whether there were any rituals, whether she ate dumplings...
But his finger stayed on the input box, and in the end, not a word was typed.
So what if I ask?
So what if she replied?
It's just an interruption and two embarrassments.
In the end, Huo Qiran slowly put down the phone without typing another word.