Chapter 16: Tossing and Turning, Unable to Solve the Enigma

  139×23×8×3×………

  Shanyou's right index finger slid along the palm of his left hand, staring at the elegant numbers, thinking hard.

  That night had passed, but the memory of it was not only not blurred, but instead became even clearer. The smile that the beautiful woman gave when writing down the numbers seemed to have just happened, and he could still feel her gently curling up his hand, a soft and warm feeling. Her every frown and smile was like a dazzling star, leaving a brilliant trail in Sanrong's bewildered heart, even if it flashed by, it was an indelible light shadow.

  He changed his posture, with his hand on his forehead, like the thinker in the small square outside the classroom. The sunlight poured into the classroom through the window, and their teacher, Ren Qun, was saying something, but Dan Yongwu's consciousness had already drifted away. His eyes were filled with her image, his ears echoed with her voice, and as he gazed at those elegant numbers up close, it seemed that even his nose could smell the fragrance of musk and orchid. Even though he grew up in a restaurant and tasted countless delicacies, Dan Yongwu couldn't accurately describe how the faint scent was tempting him.

  My heart keeps telling myself, don't think about it, a beauty like a star, to him, is even farther than the distance between stars.

  He can think, but he can't control it, always thinking, even trying to convince himself to believe in the myth of love at first sight. Many wishes that are not ridiculed by others are not worth pursuing for Dan Yong. At this time, the wish rising in his heart is to hold hands with that unnamed senior sister, strolling under the shade of the campus trees, walking in the lamp shadows of the long street, if that wish can come true, it will be a picture that intoxicates people's hearts...

  "Shan Yong..." someone shouted.

  "Dan Yong..." someone shouted with emphasis.

  The person next to him kicked his foot, and Danyong, who was distracted, let out a "ouch". The classmate at the same table gave him a hint, and Danyong heard Teacher Renqun calling him, so he hastily stood up and responded. Many boys and girls in the class turned their heads to look, and Renqun smiled and said: "It's okay, don't be nervous, it's an honor to see you in class this semester."

  The whole class burst out laughing, and today it was fortunate that there were internship arrangements, otherwise it would have been good to have two-thirds of the students present. Shan Yong smiled awkwardly, and Ren Qun asked again: "Among the Song Dynasty poetry history I taught in this lesson, which author do you like the most?"

  "This...". Shanyong stuttered, and the whole class couldn't help but stare at him with smiling eyes. Shanyong thought of a familiar name: "Su Dongpo."

  The whole class burst into laughter again, and even Lei Dapeng turned around to sneer at someone who was even more ignorant than him, leaving Shanyong confused. Ren Qun smiled and gestured for Shanyong to sit down, using this vivid example to explain:

  "Everyone has seen it, Danyong's classmate is called spiritual journey outside of things, that is to say, people's mood and situation can be two skins, otherwise there will not be the appearance of romantic chapters, such as Taibai's Dream Sky Fairy's Farewell, such as Bai Letian's Long Hateful Song, even including realistic poet Du Fu's Guan Gong Sun Danni's Dance Sword Equipment Column, all of which have exaggerated and embellished components, and it is precisely these seemingly unreasonable, unrealistic beautiful imaginations that have become the soul of the poetic realm..."

  Ren Qun spoke with great enthusiasm, but in fact, Dan Yong actually had the most classes with their homeroom teacher. He really enjoyed listening to this elegant woman talk about poetry and literature. Today, he made a big fool of himself, quietly getting up to ask his deskmate: "Hey, what were you laughing at just now?"

  "Egg brother, Teacher Ren taught a lesson on Tang poetry, but didn't teach Song lyrics." The classmate next to me said with a smile.

  He was teased a bit by his deskmate, and Dan Yong couldn't help but laugh awkwardly. He didn't mind, though - he had just heard Teacher Ren say something interesting and was thinking of memorizing it. But before he could do so, the class came to an end. As the students were packing up, Teacher Ren walked onto the stage, holding a stack of papers, and called out to Class Monitor Ding Yizhi and Team Leader Wang Huating to distribute them.

  "Now everyone is issuing internship forms. If you fill in the wrong information, you can reprint a copy, but it must have the opinion and seal of the employer. Students who have found an internship unit can leave school this weekend. The internship period is two months, and the reporting time will be notified later. For students who have not yet found an internship unit, please report your name to Wang Huating, and the department will arrange it uniformly... Today's class ends here, and for the last few lessons, everyone review once. After the internship is over, we will discuss together again. I wish you all a happy internship in advance."

  Handing out the form, people were in an uproar, half of them saying goodbye to the teacher, and the other half staring at the form, a thick stack. Leida Peng, sitting in the back row, was delighted to hold the form, knowing that the school's hard days were about to end. He sighed and said to his deskmate, a girl: "Wow, happy days are finally here, and we're going to slack off again! Douhuamei, where are you going for internship?"

  "What's it to you?" The one called Douhuamei rolled her eyes and turned away.

  The whole class of girls had more than half of them nicknamed with various flowers by Lei Dapeng, such as bean flower, cabbage flower, broccoli, scallion flower and so on. This kind of thing is generally not welcomed. The less welcome it was, the more Lei Ge liked to invite people, and he glanced at Liu Cuicui in the class and Si Muxian chatting, Lei Dapeng quietly approached, and suddenly shouted from behind: "Hey, Cuihua, what are you and my brother talking about?"

  It was like a private affair had been exposed, and Simu Xian stared with wide eyes. Liu Cuicui's face turned slightly red as she smiled and covered it up without saying anything, turning around to leave. Simu Xian didn't blow up, but Lei Dapeng still looked at him with suspicion, grabbing Simu Xian and asking: "How come I see that you two seem to have an illicit relationship? Has it been going on for a while? Be honest."

  "She asked me where I was going for internship...…Dapeng, shouldn't you be the one being bothered? You'd better hurry up, there aren't many days left." Si Muxian smiled and nodded slightly towards Wang Huating who was holding a form. This move worked, Lei Dapeng slapped his forehead, became serious and honestly went back to sit in his seat, waiting for Wang Huating to leave together.

  Received the form, some people chased Wang Huating to sign up. Internships are generally not in their hometown, and many students from urban and suburban areas have signed up for unified internship arrangements. Wang Huating handed out forms while shouting for Liu Cuicloud's help to register the list of names that needed to be arranged for internships, handing them out to the left, and when approaching the last row, her eyes intentionally or unintentionally glanced at Shan Yong's seat several times.

  Unlike other boys in the class, Dan Yong always seemed like a loner. At this moment, he was leaning back, his face upturned to the ceiling, maintaining an expression of deep contemplation. Wang Huating had seen this pose many times before, and in her eyes, Dan Yong was actually a very charming big boy, but just a bit too out of place. He often skipped class and didn't participate much in group activities, and after four years, her impression of him remained at the stage of simply recognizing his face. Sometimes when they met, they hardly spoke at all.

  "Shan Yong, your..." Wang Huating handed over the last form.

  "Thanks." Danyong lazily took it and looked listless.

  Ben Dai was about to leave when Wang Hua-ting added another sentence with concern: "Where are you going for internship? Do you need to sign up and let the department arrange it uniformly?"

  "It's still just a formality, letting the employer fill out a form and stamp it, and then in the future they can say the employment rate is 100%, does that make sense?" Dan Yong said disdainfully, unable to help but feel disgusted by the school's self-deceptive behavior.

  "I didn't know you still had a rebellious streak... So, can you tell me where you plan to complete this form?" Wang Huating changed her tone, but as a student leader, she was used to speaking with an air of superiority and a hint of intimidation. Shan Yong smiled and said: "I'll just carve a seal on a radish, stamp it myself, anyway it's all fake."

  She changed into a donkey liver and lungs, making Wang Huating so angry that she bit her lower lip. She hummed in her nose, turned her head back to her seat, and was sulking, even when Liu Cuicui returned the form to her, she didn't have a good face. The girl's family was angry because they were ignored, and more seriously, Dan Yong's expression was almost ignoring, and no one came to comfort them for a while. Wang Huating sulked for two minutes, then turned her head and deliberately shouted loudly: "Dapeng... let's go eat."

  She shouted, but her eyes had a vengeful look at Shanyong. Shanyong didn't react, and on the other side, Lei Dapeng, who couldn't wait any longer, followed Wang Huating out of the classroom with a flourish, causing the girls in the class to speculate about fresh flowers and cow dung for a while.

  After a while, Si Mu Xian walked quietly to Shan Yong's side and called out: "Boss, let's go."

  "You go first." Dan Yong responded with a voice, as if he had no interest.

  Watching Simu Xian and Liu Cuiyun leave together, he smiled faintly. No matter how strong a friendship is, it can't replace the other half in one's emotional world. Graduation is approaching, and almost all of their university classmates have paired up over the past four years. Even Lei Dapeng, who has a rather poor taste, is anxiously jumping around every day. Not to mention others. For example, this Simu Xian, it's unknown when he quietly developed a close relationship with Liu Cuiyun from the countryside. Yuan Rong guessed that both of them have a bit of artistic temperament, which attracted each other.

  What about my other half? In college, almost all courses have been passed, and those that haven't been passed have been retaken and re-examined, but this season of love is about to end. This course for Dan Yong is still blank, and there will be no chance to retake it in the future.

  He used to be indifferent to this, but now he feels that this course must be made up for, and also misses the other half more than ever. When he first went to college, his family was not very well-off, and he was busy every day teaching, delivering takeout, working two or three part-time jobs, and occasionally going to the mountains and rivers to make some money. He worked so hard that he missed out on all the romance and fun of university life. Now that graduation is approaching and he's still single, he'll have a lot to regret if he looks back on his university days!

  He was thinking wildly, just trying to find an excuse for himself to pursue that unknown girl. Excuses were easy to come by, but opportunities were hard to get. He kept glancing at the phone number left on his palm, with four "X"s, and the incomplete phone number seemed like an unsolvable mystery. Four digits, not a difficult combination, exactly 10,000 possibilities. To find that girl's phone number among these 10,000 possibilities was unimaginably difficult. Even if he called in the person who cracked the Da Vinci code, it wouldn't work, especially with time being so tight. Otherwise, Jianrong really had an urge to dial each of the numbers one by one.

  After a long time, I don't know how long it was, the classmates in the class had all left, and the teaching building was almost silent. Dan Yong finally got up and wandered around the school for several rounds, still with no idea, but what he thought more about was that gentle and elegant smile, sometimes beautiful, sometimes the numbers between the beauty and himself.

  For a moment, he felt that the beauty had no bad feelings towards him, otherwise there would be ten thousand reasons not to leave her phone number. Anyway, it was just a fleeting encounter, and neither of them would blush whether they were rejected or not. He always felt that the girl's smiling eyes seemed to be playing some kind of joke on him.

  But this joke is too difficult, out of 10,000 phone numbers, who can pick the right one, isn't it just a refusal?

  Lost in thought, I missed lunchtime and was so preoccupied that I even forgot to feel hungry. Before I knew it, the phone rang, and when I picked up, it was Si Mu Xian on the other end, speaking anxiously:

  "Hurry back, boss, the sports department brothers and Lei Ge can't hold on anymore......"

  As soon as he heard this, Shan Yong's heart sank, knowing that something was wrong. Lei Dapeng had invited all the girls from the student union, and it seemed that he had provoked public anger...