He was just about to pretend to be stupid and deal with it, but he didn't expect Yuan Mengmeng to be the first to say: "Ah, you are Zhang Ke's Italian classmate back then, right? Your name seems to be...Troy?"
"That's right, it's me. I didn't expect to be lucky enough to be remembered by a beauty like you - you are Yuan Mengmeng from the Academy of Fine Arts, right? Zhang Ke's rumored girlfriend. This matter is widely spread among the classmates in our department.
Come on." Troy glanced at the two people in front of him, and suddenly seemed to understand something, showed a meaningful smile, nodded and said:
"No, it doesn't seem to be a scandal anymore. They should be lovers now, right? Or are they already married?"
"No, but...we are indeed lovers who have been in a relationship for a long time."
Yuan Mengmeng shyly held Zhang Ke's hand. Judging from her reaction, it was obvious that she had a good impression of Troy, but Zhang Ke still felt from the bottom of his heart that he could not like the strange mixed-race man in front of him.
But under the current circumstances, it was not appropriate to be too cold and pretend to be confused, so I had to force out a smile and said: "It turns out to be Troy, it's been a long time indeed - are you staying in school to work? Or are you studying for a Ph.D.
?”
"Well, after graduation, I joined the joint project between the Nordic and Icelandic Research Institute and our major. After completing my graduate studies there, I came back here to continue my doctoral studies. However, I often went both ways because of in-depth cooperation projects."
Troy's answer was very normal and sounded very ordinary. There was nothing weird or unreasonable about it.
"What are you doing back today? Come to see the teacher?" Troy noticed the elevator button and said, "But how can you go directly to the top floor? Ah, I understand - you are back to see the botanical garden, after all, Zhang
When I graduated, the botanical garden had not yet been fully completed."
"Yes, by the way, is it possible to enter the botanical garden on the top floor? If not, can you please take us in and have a look." Yuan Mengmeng immediately wanted to win over the person in front of her.
"Of course you can, what's the difficulty in this, and it's a coincidence that I happened to be going there - but it is true that outsiders cannot enter the botanical garden casually. After all, many of the plants here are valuable for scientific research projects, but
As long as someone is brought in, it will be fine, and the control is not strict."
"Thank you very much." Yuan Mengmeng said happily.
The atmosphere in the elevator seemed peaceful, and the conversation between the two parties was extremely harmonious. Except for Zhang Ke's reluctance to speak, everything was as normal as visiting old classmates after many years.
normal……
Is it normal?
I don't know whether he was too suspicious or something, but Zhang Ke always felt that what happened was too coincidental.
If Troy was really going to the 25th floor, why didn't he even look at the button when he entered the door? Instead, he talked to the two of them first and didn't notice the button until later?
And he didn't wait by the elevator early. Instead, he rushed in at the last moment before the door closed. It was as if he suddenly saw the two of them passing by this floor through some means, and then hurriedly ran out to stop them.
Besides, the classmates who had been away for many years and who seemed to have no contact with each other happened to be on the 12th floor because of inexplicably pressing the wrong button among so many floors.
If he had pressed the button correctly, Troy, who had been running up the stairs, would not have had time to press the button, which meant that he and the other party would not have met.
On the other hand, it was my inexplicable trance that led to this seemingly harmonious reunion in front of me. However, in the trance, it felt like someone was playing with puppets on strings, using invisible strings.
I tied my hands with a rope and forced myself to press the 12th floor, and this happened.
I hope I'm just overthinking - Zhang Ke sighed slightly, then saw that the elevator's indicator was rising, and finally reached its destination, the 25th floor.
As the elevator door opened, what appeared in front of everyone was a green world, which was completely unlike the style of the teaching building just now, giving the illusion of time travel.
"This...isn't the roof of the building? Why are there plants and soil everywhere?" Yuan Mengmeng stared at the tiny jungle in front of her in stunned silence and asked curiously.
“Not all plants are suitable for growing under direct sunlight, so most of the plants planted in the rooftop botanical garden are plants that are more phototropic and more dependent on sunlight, and the 25th floor itself has also been transformed into some shade-loving plants.
and moss and mushroom plantings, and part of the area is used for the daily maintenance and repair work of the botanical garden." Troyer explained:
"Look at the ceiling above your head. It's not made of cement."
Only then did Zhang Ke and Yuan Mengmeng discover that the light above their heads did shine through again, and it showed a blue-green color. The tempered glass that seemed to have been thickened and dyed was used to weaken the direct sunlight on the top floor.
Convert the wavelength of white light into blue-green light to imitate the wavelength of light in the shade to facilitate the growth of shade-loving plants.
"So, it's actually equivalent to having two floors of a botanical garden?" Zhang Ke was also a little surprised, "Does our major pay so much attention to botany? I always thought that the hot topics in biology today are not all in molecular biology and cells.
Biologically?"
"It sounds amazing. I actually have no idea why the school would agree to build such a huge botanical garden. It spends a huge amount of money on maintenance every year. But in fact, our school is not a botany.
It's a top school in the field." Troy smiled and laughed at himself, "Maybe it's the thinking of the big shots. Grassroots employees like me can't figure it out."
"Okay, okay, let's go up and take a look. Although this floor is also very good, it always feels a bit dark and damp. I want to bask in the sun." Yuan Mengmeng said.
"There is deliberately moist soil here, as well as rotten wood that allows fungus and mushrooms to grow. It is normal for the smell to be unpleasant," Zhang Ke said.
"It's okay, let's go up now. Go to the stairs at the end of here, open the door and you can go up to the botanical garden on the roof - but you have to use my employee ID card."
Troy walked at the front and led the way, while Zhang Ke subconsciously pulled Yuan Mengmeng, who was jumping and trying to move forward, back to a few inches away from him, as if he was afraid of something.
"Zhang Ke? What's wrong with you?"
Although Yuan Mengmeng usually seems carefree and even a little silly, she is actually very sensitive and delicate in terms of emotions. This is one of the reasons why she noticed the relationship between Zhang Ke and Xu Xiaoli before.
From the moment she was in the elevator, she noticed that Zhang Ke's expression didn't seem right.