"J? Why are you here too?" A black-haired boy sitting in the back said in Chinese in surprise.
Wen Siheng was slightly startled at first, "Leon?"
Unexpectedly, he came to his senses and said hello in pure English.
"I haven't seen you in ages. It is great to see you guys here." (Long time no see, nice to see you here.)
Leon stood up, pulled a cushion aside, patted it with his hands, "Come here and join us!"
"Yes, yes, I only heard that you returned to China, but I didn't expect you to be in Luojiang too!" A woman next to her with bright red lips echoed.
"Amy is here too? Still not," he pointed to the blank heads at the table next to him, "I'm with them."
Following his line of sight, the group of people seemed to have just discovered the table of people sitting next to them. They glanced up and down and saw that they all still looked childish.
Leon smiled and asked: "Are you a student?"
Smiling and nodding, Wen Siheng confirmed the answer.
"So you are teaching now," Amy, who was wearing flaming red lips, shook her head regretfully, looking a little regretful.
"It turns out that you are the one who got the most offers among us. How could you think of teaching in a second-tier city like this?"
Luoyang University: Thank you for the invitation, I have taken it into consideration.
Wen Siheng did not answer directly, but kept chatting with the people at the next table. He smiled and walked to the seat next to Song Qi to sit down.
After chatting about the current situation for a while, it can be seen from their conversation that most of these people are his alumni at UCL, and he has not had much contact with them since returning to China.
Wen Siheng is not the kind of person who likes to chat with others about his current situation. Even Jian Anran can barely catch a glimpse of the life of the person in front of him because of their daily life together and being in the same work circle.
When he was chatting and laughing with the group of people in fluent English, Jian Anran felt for the first time that he was from a different world.
Or maybe she just realized that he and she were not from the same world.
I had only vaguely heard that he was recruited from a research institute in the UK by the vice president, but occasionally I understood a sentence or two of their conversation, and I can deduce that——
Luo University was not Wen Siheng’s only offer at the time, nor was it the one with the best treatment and prospects among the offers he received.
His alumni are very puzzled as to why he gave up everything in the UK, resolutely chose to return to China, and settled in a second-tier city.
The stable and peaceful life he chooses now seems to run counter to the trajectory he has worked hard for over the past ten years.
"B But I still talk about you often. How could you..."
Before Amy could finish speaking, Wen Siheng interrupted in time as if nothing had happened.
"This izakaya looks good, do you have any recommendations?"
Seeing that Wen Siheng had obviously changed the topic, Amy sat back down as if a balloon had been punctured and deflated.
"I read on the Internet that this sake is very good, but would it be inconvenient for the teacher to drive here? Why don't we order some juice?"
Mi Yingying handed the menu to him in time.
"Don't worry about me, just ask for a driver when the time comes." Wen Siheng lowered his head and flipped through the menu, "You can order whatever you want, I'll pay for it."
"Nice!" Mi Yingying grinned widely, "Thank you, teacher!"
"Shua——" The store door was opened again, and everyone's eyes suddenly gathered at the door.
A corner of the beige windbreaker was exposed, and underneath were tight blue jeans and a white T-shirt without a logo tucked into the pants. The visitor walked in wearing a pair of mid-top Martin boots.
The ponytail is tied high, with French bangs in the front. The woman's facial features are very delicate, and she wears Asian blurred light European and American makeup. Although it is backlit, you can see that the skin is white and translucent, and there is a sense of aloofness in her eyes.
The cold air makes it look like you should avoid strangers.
"Belly, where have you been? What took you so long?" Amy asked when she saw the woman coming in.
"I'm sorry," the woman said with a smile on her lips, "I've been looking for a parking space for a long time."
As she said this, she was about to take off her shoes and sit on the tatami. When she raised her eyes, she caught a glimpse of the back of the white shirt facing the table next door. Her movements stopped in mid-air, and her eyes suddenly became a little complicated.
Following her gaze, Leon seemed to react.
"We just found out Jere was here."
The familiar figure turned around, and the corners of the woman's mouth froze. Halfway through taking off her shoes, she lost her balance and stumbled.
"Be careful!" The blond foreigner next to him quickly reached out to help him.
After only glancing at the woman behind him, Wen Siheng turned around, closed the menu, and said nonchalantly: "You guys order."
Jian Anran couldn't help but peek in the direction of the table next door. The woman frowned and looked this way frequently. She met Jian Anran's eyes several times before hurriedly avoiding her gaze.
Wen Siheng didn't treat her as calmly and politely as he treated those classmates just now, and he felt vaguely that their relationship was probably extraordinary.
From the beginning of their acquaintance, Jian Anran felt that she had no position to understand Wen Siheng's past emotional state. She thought that their relationship was more like a grasshopper tied to a rope out of necessity.
Jian Anran has never talked about her past. Although she had nothing to say in the past, Wen Siheng never mentioned his.
"J," the finger painted with red nail polish gently tapped Wen Siheng's shoulder. It was the woman who came in just now.
"Can you come out and say a few words?"
Without looking back, Wen Siheng said coldly: "It's inconvenient."
"You want me to say it here?" The woman leaned into his ear and whispered.
Her voice was so low that even Song Qi, who was sitting next to her, couldn't hear what she was saying.
In the eyes of others, only the ambiguous scene of a woman's red lips leaning against Wen Siheng's ear and whispering.
After hesitating for a moment, Wen Siheng did not answer, stood up, put on his shoes, and walked straight out the door under the ambiguous gazes of the alumni group members next door.
"Oh my God, my God," Mi Yingying's face turned red with excitement and she whispered, "What did I see?"
"Is there something going on between the two of them?"
Xiangyi glanced at Jian Anran, who had her head lowered, "They look like a good match."
"Sister, you think so."
"Ah?" Suddenly being cued, Jian Anran suddenly raised her head, looked blankly at the eyes gathered on her, and nodded in panic.
"Yes, it matches well."
......
Outside the izakaya, the woman raised her head and reached out to hold Wen Siheng's hand.
Taking a step back, Wen Siheng shook it off in disgust.
"If I don't have anything to say, I'll go in first." He turned around as he said that.
"Wait!" The woman's voice was choked, and she called out to him.
"I haven't regretted it for a day since you came back."
After not hearing a response for a long time, the woman looked up at the other person, her black eyes cold and cold, seemingly without a trace of emotion, looking at her like a stranger.
"I'm a little scared when you're like this." The woman kept her posture very low.
"So what do you want me to do?" Wen Siheng suddenly felt a little funny.
After hesitating for a long time, the woman asked tentatively: "Can we still be like before?"
"If you want to talk about this, I don't think you need to."
The wind in late September gradually became cooler, and the woman's ponytail was gently blown by the wind. Wen Siheng turned back to the izakaya without looking back.
"Teacher, is that beautiful sister also your friend?" Mi Yingying couldn't help but gossiped as soon as she sat down.