Merry Christmas.

On the cell phone, Jing mother said unenthusiastically: "Xiaoran insisted on giving you a surprise, not letting me tell you. But you also know that she this child to do things are quite big, I am afraid she lost ...... you received her?"

Afraid that Liang Ran would fall, Jing Huan subconsciously reached out to support her, and the doll also pressed against her back, "Well, she's next to me."

Jingmama was relieved: "That's good, the weather is cold lately, you guys wear more, Merry Christmas."

"Well, so are you."

Liang Ran noticed something was wrong and asked, "Huanhuan, who are you talking to on the phone?"

"My mom." Jing Huan hung up the phone.

"Huh?" Liang Ran pouted, "I said I wouldn't let Auntie tell you ...... So you already knew I was coming?"

Before Jing Huan could say anything, Liang Ran's hand wrapped around the back and grabbed the little Xiang Jing doll in Jing Huan's hand.

"So this is my Christmas present?" Her disappointed expression didn't last more than two seconds before she smiled sweetly again, "The Nine Warriors' Demon Child Muppets?"

Jing Huan was slightly stunned and subconsciously looked at the person beside him.

He couldn't say that he wanted to give it to the boy next to him.

It's weird how boys give Muppets to each other.

Compared to him, Xiang Huaizhi is very calm.

He lowered his eyes to the doll in Liang Ran's hand and moved away after just one glance, not even changing the curve of his mouth.

Liang Ran hugged Jing Huan for a while before releasing him, and when she saw the person beside Jing Huan, her smile became more polite: "Hello, I'm Jing Huan's sister."

"Hello." Nodding to Huaizhi, "To Huaizhi, it's his senior."

Hearing the familiar words, Liang Ran's brows furrowed for a moment, but quickly loosened as she looked over at Jing Huan: "It's such a cold day, you could have just come to pick me up yourself, so why bother having a friend come with you."

Jing Huan licked his lips, and even though Xiang Huaizhi had known about Liang Ran for a long time, he still felt a subtle sense of embarrassment now that they were standing together.

But apparently, he was the only one who felt that way.

"That's okay," said Huaizhi, "I happen to be free today."

Jing Huan's lips opened and closed, but in the end he said nothing.

And just like that, his elaborate Christmas confession date turned into a pick-me-up.

Jing Huan even suspected that Xiang Huaizhi thought that he had asked him out just to pick up Liang Ran.

"So where are we going now?" Liang Ran winks, "If I don't have other plans, I'll just go back to the hotel and drop off my bags."

Jing Huan naturally couldn't leave his sister behind.

He looked at the small Xiang Jing in the woman's hand and thought, "She is also considered half an aunt of yours, so take it.

He sighed and said, "Go to dinner."

On the way, Jing Huan had been trying to find an opportunity to text Huaizhi, explaining that Liang Ran's arrival was just an unexpected event.

But Liang Ran hadn't seen him for too long and excitedly took his arm and talked the whole way.

"I still like our domestic meals, foreign countries are full of fast food, even if it's high in calories, it's also especially hard to digest." Liang Ran pinched her face, the delicate skin was pinched out of a curve by her, "Look, I've gained weight."

Jing Huan looked at Huaizhi's back with a heavy heart and responded half a beat later, "Not fat."

Just so all the way to the restaurant, Liang Ran smiled as soon as he entered the box, "HelloKitty is already my hobby in high school, how come you still remember it now?"

Jing Huan: "......"

It was really accidental.

He was close to Liang Ran, but not really close enough to pay attention to what things she liked in high school.

Jing Huan glanced over to Huaizhi, who had already restrained his smile and was dropping his eyelids, not knowing what he was thinking.

As the three of them took their seats, Liang Ran sat next to Jing Huan, who had even less opportunity to send a message to Huaizhi.

Liang Ran's character is very feminine, no matter what she looks like or what she says, it's all warm and soft. The menu of this store is painted with a lot of cute animated characters, so pink and lovely that she couldn't take her hands off of it for half a day, and even took countless pictures of it, and if it wasn't for Jing Huan's stopping her, she would have even wanted to buy the store's menu.

After taking pictures of the menu and the restaurant, after taking pictures of the restaurant and the dishes, at the end of the day, she held her cell phone in both hands and looked at Xiang Huaizhi, who was sitting across from her, with a prayerful look on her face.

"That ......" she asked, "Can you take a picture of me and Huanhuan?"

To Huaizhi, he put down his chopsticks, "Good."

Liang Ran smiled and was about to hand over his cell phone when he saw the man across the room raise his own cell phone camera ahead of him.

Liang Ran hurriedly put down his cell phone, gently tilted his face and leaned on Jing Huan's shoulder, who seemed to have gotten used to this kind of action, and gently pursed his lips without avoiding it.

"Huanhuan, smile and don't purse your lips again." Liang Ran said without lifting his head.

Jing Huan : "I'm laughing ...... didn't purse my lips."

Takes a few shots at Huaizhi, then puts her phone down and says, as she sends the photos, "You siblings have a great relationship."

"Yeah," Liang Ran said with a smile as she took a sip of lemonade, "I can't even get married with this crowd at home spoiling me."

Jing Huan said, "If you don't want to marry, then don't. It's not like your great-aunt and uncle can't afford to support you."

"Then it's better to forget about it." Liang Ran guffawed, "I've been cheated on once, but I still believe in love."

Jing Huan's expression stiffened for a moment, and he immediately looked up at the person across from him.

Huaizhi smiled very lightly, his reaction extremely muted.

Jing Huan breathed a quiet sigh of relief, but his back remained stiff.

"I sent the photo to you on WeChat." Xiang Huaizhi put away his cell phone and said.

Jing Huan let out an "oh", put down his glass of water, and unlocked his phone with the intention of forwarding it to Liang Ran.

Liang Ran was waiting with his cell phone in hand.

The moment her phone was unlocked, she saw a certain particularly familiar APP icon on the screen. Liang Ran raised her willow eyebrows and asked offhandedly, "Huanhuan, you went back to playing Nine Heroes again?"

The other two at the table gave a noticeable lurch.

Jing Huan froze, quickly opened WeChat, and said vaguely, "What?"

"Nine Warriors." Liang Ran says, "I see you have the Nine Man Exchange app downloaded on your phone."

Jing Huan: "......"

Jing Huan instinctively didn't want to mention anything about the game, he opened the photos and handed them to Liang Ran, "Do you want to see which one you want, or should I send them all to you?"

Liang Ran's eyes were immediately filled with photos.

She smiled and brought them over, looking down one by one, her smile fading the more she looked.

Reasoning.

Her ID photos are better than these.

And how did ...... this brother manage to keep Huanhuan's face despite taking such ugly pictures of her?

Only after a long time did Liang Ran ask, "Huanhuan ...... which one of me do you think looks better?"

She was too embarrassed to make a request for a reshoot and had to politely ask for help from those around her.

Who would have thought that Jing Huan swept his eyes down and took the phone back, "They all look good, I'll send them all to you."

Liang Ran: "......"

She whispered, "Okay."

Jing Huan moved her finger to forward the photo, and just as she was about to lock the screen, her phone vibrated gently.

He instinctively crooked his cell phone screen to keep his sister from seeing it.

To: [snowman]

An expression that won't be seen, like it was accidentally pressed by mistake.

Jing Huan stared at the snowman for a while, his tight heart finally relaxing a little. He slowly opened the emoticon.

Jing Huan: [Santa Claus]

When the food came up, Jing Huan was busy serving soup to the other two, trying to put an end to the conversation about the game with good food.

"Thanks." Liang Ran took the soup and suddenly said, "Actually, the more I think about it during this time, the more I regret it."

Jing Huan bowed his head and sipped his soup, "What does ...... regret?"

"It shouldn't have been canceled in the first place." Liang Ran said.

Jing Huan almost spat out his soup.

"It's not that I can't part with it, in fact, that number didn't cost much, it's just that I don't think it's worth it because of a ......." Liang Ran wiped his hands with a wet towel and then began to straighten his hair, not noticing the expressions of the people around him, "And I actually quite like playing Nine Heroes."

Xiang Huaizhi was pinching his cell phone looking for an emoji when he heard their conversation and paused slightly in his movements.

Jing Huan's eyes blinked rapidly, and he made a couple of random hmmm's, "Did you order enough food? Do you want to add a little more?"

"I can't eat." Liang Ran whispers, "Ask your friends, if you don't have enough, add more."

The voice was small, but Xiang Huaizhi heard it carefully as he said, "I'm enough too."

So Liang Ran gently pulled up the broken hair around her ear with her pinky finger and asked, "Huanhuan, why don't we go back and play Nine Heroes together?"

Jing Huan: "......"

"I've got it all figured out... I'll play a female Rogue," Liang Ran said with a smile, "so I can PVP with you."

The waiter brought up the coffee and Huaizhi took a sip, which was bitter.

He picked up the butterball next to his cup.

Jing Huan said, "Forget it, you're too easy to fool."

He just doesn't get it.

Don't they say that once bitten, twice shy?

How come his sister isn't like the others?

"That's why I want you to stay with me," Liang Ran said, "We'll create a new account and go to a different area to play, instead of staying in Mirror Moon."

Toward Huaizhi, he tore open the package with a start, "Mirror Mirror?"

"Yeah, I've played in Mirror Moon before," Liang Ran looked over at him, "Why, do you play Nine Warriors too?"

Thinking of his and Jing Huan's husband-and-wife title, Xiang Huaizhi was silent for a few seconds, then said, "Well, but not in that district. Did you just say pinned? Why?"

?

Jing Huan was a bit bewildered.

To Huaizhi Why did ...... take the initiative to mention this?

Liang Ran froze as well, but she wasn't willing to make it too clear when she was getting so much flak from the forums at the time.

She smiled, her tone casual, "Nothing, just met Zha Nan."

As we all know, Nine Heroes is considered half of a large-scale dating online game. The official forum alone can produce four or five 818 posts a week, so it can be seen that the Zha Nan standardized women inside abound. I guessed some of this in the introduction to Huaizhi, and I'm not surprised.

But somehow, there was always a strange feeling in his heart that he couldn't describe.

Liang Ran smiled slightly, "Speaking of which, that guy's screen name is kinda like yours."

The cream ball is halfway down as Huaizhi loses control of his hand.

Jing Huan said busily, "Isn't that a substitute trainer ...... What has that got to do with the owner of that number?"

"I know, but it's not like I know what that substitute trainer is going to be called." Liang Ran asks to Huaizhi, "You don't mind, do you?"

Putting down the creamer ball to Huaizhi, I looked at the cream that was pouring into my coffee, and suddenly lost my appetite.

Halfway through, he said, "Don't mind."

Jing Huan saw the empty creamer ball and pushed her own coffee out without much hesitation, "Brother, why don't you drink mine?"

Huaizhi looked up at him, his expression unchanged.

Jing Huan locked eyes with him for a few seconds, and somehow, the same feeling of weakness that he had felt before spread upward from the soles of his feet, making his back tingle.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

To Huaizhi, he shook his head, "No."

He took a sip of his coffee and it was definitely too sweet.

After that, Xiang Huaizhi didn't listen carefully to the conversation between the two men across the table.

His face was impassive, and his fingertips kept rubbing his coffee cup unconsciously, not taking a second sip until he checked out.

This store's checkout is at the front desk, Jing Huan stood up, "Then I'll go to the checkout first."

It's a small amount of money, and Liang Ran won't fight him for it.

As Jing Huan got up, his arm accidentally brought the paper bag behind him, and it fell to the ground with a small muffled sound.

He subconsciously bent down to pick it up, but accidentally pulled the paper opening, the bag in the way to eat on the way he pressed some, so pulling, the opening out of control, the bag "popped" open.

The delicate roses are exposed.

After a few seconds of silence on the table, Jing Huan closes the bag.

It's weird to send dolls between guys, and even weirder to send roses.

So when Liang Ran's puzzled gaze was cast over him, his first reaction was to hand out the flowers.

"......"

The moment he handed it out, Jing Huan began to regret it.

He could've said he brought the flowers for Lu Wenhao and the others!

He couldn't wait to tap his brain to hear if there was any water in it.

Liang Ran frowned a little in confusion, and without looking at it, he took the bag and put it behind him, "So many gifts?"

Jing Huan gave a low hmmm and glanced furtively at Huaizhi.

Toward Huaizhi, his eyelids drooped and he scanned the roses, then withdrew his eyes and lifted his hand to drop the package of butterballs next to his cup.

Jing Huan went to settle the bill, and there were only two people left at the table.

As Liang Ran was adding filters to his selfie, the person across from him suddenly spoke.

"At the risk of sounding presumptuous," Xiang Huaizhi looked up at her with a smile on his lips, "can you tell me your ID in Mirror Flower Water Moon?"

......

After settling the bill, Jing Huan returned to the table and helped Liang Ran carry his bag, "Have you booked a hotel?"

"It's booked, it's across the street," Liang Ran said, "Give me the bag, I'll just go there myself."

"I'll give you a ride." Jing Huan said.

Liang Ran: "I'm not a kid anymore!"

It was close to ten o'clock when I walked out of the restaurant; it was cold this time of year, and usually there weren't many people on the streets by this point in the evening.

But today is different, today is a holiday, this point is the most lively, a whole snack street are still open in business.

After Liang Ran left, Jing Huan tugged his scarf up a bit, wondering if it was too late for him to go back to the florist and buy another bouquet.

The cell phone in her pocket buzzed incessantly, and Jing Huan took it out to look at the @'s from the major discussion groups.

He looked and laughed: "Lu Wenhao is drunk and in a drunken frenzy. Drunk at ten, really useless."

Say to Huaizhi, "You are also a poor drinker."

"Neither did ...... " Jing Huan said.

"Drink less in the future," said Huaizhi, "and don't touch it if you can."

Jing Huan didn't retort, he dropped his cell phone back into his pocket, put his hands in his pockets, and whispered, "Then ...... you'll hold my drink anyway."

Huaizhi's lips moved without speaking.

Jing Huan said, "I'm kidding."

Silence fell again between the two.

The further we walked towards the school, the more Jing Huan felt something was wrong.

For a moment, he turned his head in a small circle and stole a glance toward Huaizhi.

The boy's face was as usual, and no other emotions could be discerned except that he did not speak.

Is it just him?

How he felt to Huaizhi seemed not too happy.

The silence directly pushed the plan to make another trip to the florist to death.

Approaching the back door, Jing Huan's footsteps unconsciously slowed down a lot.

He looked at the older man who was sitting in the security booth and all he said was, "It's a rare day when it's not snowing."

To Huaizhi: "Uh-huh."

"This restaurant tastes mediocre, I won't come next time." Jing Huan said.

"Good."

Jing Huan sighs.

Shit.

The confession ...... he had been brewing for so long just fizzled out.

"Then you go in." Jing Huan said.

To Huaizhi, without stopping, "I'll go to your place first."

The small fire that was about to go out was resurrected.

Jing Huan clenched his fists darkly in his pockets and nodded with a fake calm, "Good."

Forget it.

Two grown men, what's with all the bells and whistles!

No flowers and no rag dolls, dads can confess just as well!!!!

As soon as I walked to the apartment area the holiday spirit was gone, as usual there was not much around, except for a Santa Claus posted on the apartment door.

The pattern is also extra ugly.

When they reached the place where they had last said goodbye, the two stopped with great understanding.

So here's the question.

Should he invite Huaizhi upstairs?

After all, if it became a thing, with a lone man, he wasn't sure what he would do.

Jing Huan's thoughts momentarily became a bit skewed, and he hurriedly yanked that little bit of his mind back.

"So what, brother ......"

"Your sister is Ran Xin," interrupted Huaizhi.

These words were like a cool breeze that directly doused Jing Huan's chaotic thoughts.

He froze and looked up to meet Huaizhi's gaze, "Ah ...... right."

To Huaizhi hand hanging at his side, by the wind blowing a little cold. I don't know how long it took before he asked, "When did you realize that my number wasn't my own?"

An uneasiness grew in Jing Huan's heart.

What's that supposed to mean?

Is it a recount? In the present?

"Just," Jing Huan's voice trailed off, "getting married."

Dropping her eyes to Huaizhi, she stated, "So, you've been thinking I was lying to your sister before Zha Nan."

Jing Huan was completely baffled: "I ...... was, I did think ...... before"

Throughout the night, Xiang Huaizhi drank only half a cup of lemonade. The coffee had too much milk and was too sweet for him to drink.

So much so that now, he felt his throat go a little dry, "And then you bought a female number to come to me, for your sister."

Jing Huan's heart sank.

He had a bad feeling about this.

He gritted his teeth, "Yeah, but I confessed to you before, you said you already knew-"

Jing Huan didn't say anything further, and neither did Huaizhi.

I don't know how much time passed before Xiang Huaizhi said, "It was a misunderstanding, I thought ......"

Why?

He thought Jing Huan really liked him, but due to his gender, he didn't dare to pursue him head-on, which is why he resorted to this tactic.

Jing Huan vaguely guessed it, and his face gradually turned white as he realized how optimistic he had been all this time.

Optimistic enough to think that hiding your gender and cheating on someone's feelings is something easily forgiven.

In fact, when he heard Liang Ran give out his ID, Xiang Huaizhi realized it completely.

Spare a thought, he was still a little undeterred.

Thinking back carefully, the boys were also full of surprise and dismay the first two times they had loved ones.

And what are those? Guilt? Feelings of weakness? Afraid to say no?

Suddenly, Huaizhi felt a bit amused, both by him and by Jing Huan.

Jing Huan's head was blank, the ventriloquist he had made on the way back had long since been forgotten, his lips opening and closing, "Brother ......"

"Uh-huh." To Huaizhi interrupts him again.

In a few seconds, though, his expression had cleaned up, and he said, "I was mistaken about the other time, and wasn't intentionally trying to take advantage of you."

Jing Huan: "......"

What ah.

To Huaizhi: "There is also a lot of what was said before, and there is no need to take it to heart."

Jing Huan was about to be pissed off at himself.

He tried to speak, but his mouth felt like it was sewn shut with needles, and even his breathing was a little lighter.

"Go back," he was finally heard to say to Huaizhi, "and Merry Christmas."

When Jing Huan came back to his senses, Huaizhi was already far away.

I don't know how long it took, but Jing Huan took a few deep breaths, and white mist drifted out from his mouth and nose, quickly dissipating into the air.

He knew it.

What starts sparsely will only end up unexplained in the end.

Jing Huan stood in front of his apartment for a long time until the security guard came out to ask again, then he shook his head slowly and turned to go home.

Stepping into the elevator, Jing Huan looks at herself in the doors and remembers that she has a lot to say that she didn't have time to say.

Like Merry Christmas.

For example, HelloKitty is ordered for you, little Xiang Jing dolls are fished for you, and roses are used to confess to you.

But he's in no position to say that, because he's a liar through and through.

Jing Huan stood quietly for a moment until the security guard's concern came over the intercom again, then he raised his hand and wiped his eyes hard.