Missing (Revised)

Liu Chang'an stood up, took a small plastic bag, touched Zhou Dongdong's high-waisted ponytail as he sat there shaking his Zhou Dongdong, and walked to the thatched railing near the riverbank.

"Zhou Dongdong is so cute. It's so nice to be a child; even if you're chubby and round, people still like you," Bai Hui said enviously, following behind Liu Chang'an.

"All looks and no substance, she's just a foolish child no matter what." Liu Chang'an glanced at Bai Hui. "And you're nothing more than a foolish young girl."

Bai Hui clearly didn't think Liu Chang'an was praising her, but she wasn't angry either, because this was the normal Liu Chang'an speaking, indicating that he didn't have any emotions.

Perhaps the things she cared about were not what he took to heart at all. Bai Hui felt that she didn't want him to misunderstand anything, and it was just based on his advice and comfort at certain times in the past.

"I told my roommates I was going to take them to eat all over Junsha." Bai Hui coughed lightly and began to talk.

Since it wasn't a promise to treat Liu Chang'an to all the food in the entire Junsha, Liu Chang'an nodded in envy.

"They asked if they could invite a few classmates, and I said yes... I originally thought they would invite people from the next dorm, but it turned out they invited four people from another boys' dorm. They're all classmates, so I couldn't say anything." Bai Hui said, while stealing glances at Liu Chang'an's expression.

"Do you think I'd believe you went from having two followers in high school to having four followers in college?"

Bai Hui nodded repeatedly, then her neck stiffened, and she stammered, "I just felt... I didn't want you to misunderstand. After all, Lu Yuan and Qian Ning made me quite embarrassed that night. Who knew you wouldn't think I didn't learn my lesson, that a leopard can't change its spots... I didn't really need to tell you, but we're friends now, right? It's still necessary to maintain my image."

"Normal interpersonal interactions, whether between the same sex or the opposite sex, are necessary. Don't overthink it. Qian Ning and Lu Yuan are just young and immature; they probably didn't mean any harm. They've probably regretted it now. We can still be friends. There's no need to take it too seriously... After all, all the tragedies and resentments in this world originate from this. We always get hurt because we care too much." Liu Chang'an glanced at Bai Hui, surprised that the young girl had thought about so many things in such a complicated way.

"I think all men are the same. They fawn over you all the time, just for... well, you know... Once they realize they don't have a chance anymore, or that someone else has beaten them to it, they show their true colors and become ugly," Bai Hui said with a sneer.

"What are you sneer about?" Liu Chang'an took out a melon seed and threw it at Bai Hui's face. "I'm a man too, or I'll throw you into the river."

"You've never flattered me..." Bai Hui pouted, pressing down on a sunflower seed that had somehow gotten stuck to her face. Her tone was slightly aggrieved and coquettish, but she immediately realized her mistake and straightened her face. "Anyway, we've been friends for so many years, and if someone just says I'm selling myself, they believe it. I'll never believe that I can be friends with boys again."

"So you mean you want to be my enemy?" Liu Chang'an said disdainfully. "All my enemies are dead."

"Can you distance yourself from this?" Bai Hui helplessly made a gesture of moving a wisp of air to the other side. "Why do you always feel like I'm talking about you?"

"No, I want to stand with the vast majority of men you despise. If I distance myself and let you condemn all other men, what's the difference between me and a simp?" Liu Chang'an waved his hand.

Bai Hui pressed her hand to her chest. She shouldn't have worn a shirt under her Lolita dress today; she was a little annoyed.

However, she found Liu Chang'an to be a truly peculiar person. Every time he spoke to her, she would be furious with him, but afterwards, talking to him would relieve some of the pent-up emotions in her heart, and she would feel relaxed. As a result, she would still be happy to chat with him next time, only to be so angry with him that she felt like she was going to explode.

"Hmph, aren't you just like any other man in front of An Nuan? You indulge her every whim!" Bai Hui and An Nuan often chatted. Since Bai Hui became a Yellow Diamond VIP, she could freely enter and leave An Nuan's space without leaving a trace. She also discovered that after she became a VIP, An Nuan followed suit, which meant that An Nuan actually Bai Hui and regarded her as a potential rival in some way.

An Nuan also talked about her relationship with Liu Chang'an. Girls usually show off in front of others, but she didn't mention any of Liu Chang'an's annoying traits. She just kept showing off their love, and there was so much to see.

"You need to distinguish between the tolerance, pampering, and even a degree of capriciousness that arises from mutual care in a relationship, and the one-sided, bottomless appeasement and sacrifice of self-respect. Some people can't tell the difference, like you. You see a man pampering and tolerating a woman, and immediately call him a 'simp.'" Liu Chang'an shook his head. "I only eat dog meat; I'll never be a dog."

"I think boyfriends are just girlfriends' devoted lapdogs." Bai Hui was still unconvinced. Liu Chang'a Bai Hui's words made her feel a little sour. Is being in love really such a wonderful thing? Nobody believes that.

"Then you're just a stupid dog, wait for your personal lapdog." Liu Chang'an started peeling sunflower seeds, and casually asked, "Want some sunflower seeds?"

"Thanks, we got some too, goodbye." Bai Hui huffed and puffed as she went back to her classmate's table.

Liu Chang'an put the sunflower seed shells into the plastic bag he had just picked up. Maintaining hygiene and reducing littering is everyone's responsibility.

As Bai Hui walked back, she could hear from the lingering voices of her classmates who had their backs to her that they were discussing her and Liu Chang'an.

After all, men and women can be represented by yin and yang. Yin and yang are the two polarities, which give rise to the four symbols, which in turn give rise to the eight trigrams. The rumors about the relationship between men and women that the eight trigrams refer to originate from this. Humans' love for gossip, their enthusiasm for gossip, and their creation of gossip are simply the principles of heaven and earth.

Besides my roommates Yan Xiang, Li Hongman, and Zhao Yu, there were also Wang Wuyang, Lao Maigao, Guan Yuan, and Zeng Changhe from another male dormitory.

"Have you ordered yet?" Bai Hui, with her hands behind her back and holding her bag, didn't sit down but bent over and glanced at the menu.

The people at the table snapped out of their daze, Yan Xiang said with a grin, "Just now Zhao Yu asked what 'sheep testicles' were, and we told her that she clearly has a boyfriend, but she's pretending to be innocent."

Bai Hui remembered being tricked by Liu Chang'an into eating this nauseating stuff, and couldn't help but look up at Liu Chang'an, who was eating sunflower seeds. Her eyes then returned to her own, and she smiled slightly.

Her smile had a soft glow under the incandescent light of the barbecue stall. Today, she was wearing a rather short Lolita dress, but it was very fitted, the kind with a ribbon at the back and Butterfly. Coupled with ten-centimeter square-toed high heels, she looked very tall. Most Lolita dress enthusiasts, also known as Lolita girls, would often look broad-shouldered and thick-waisted if they wore a shirt under their Lolita dress, but Bai Hui had a slender frame and a thin waist. Her shoulders looked a bit broader than usual, but it also made her bust appear fuller. Even this simple bend over was very eye-catching.

"Order some more, we're almost done," Guan Yuan, a boy separated from Li Hongman, said to Bai Hui. Peers always think only of themselves and rarely care about the needs of others. Guan Yuan had a light mustache and wanted to appear more mature than his classmates.

"I'll just grab something... um, I'll have an ear of corn." Bai Hui, with her waist tied up, knew she couldn't eat much, so she casually ordered a grilled ear of corn and handed the order to the waiter.

The waiter confirmed the details, took the order, and left. Only then did Bai Hui sit down.

"Was that someone you know just now?" Li Hongman asked a seemingly pointless question, though she was actually asking on behalf of Guan Yuan.

Guan Yuan is Li Hongman's schoolmate. Although they weren't very close before, they ended up in the same university and class, which is quite a coincidence. They usually chat quite a bit.

Bai Hui nodded with a hint of reserve. She was trying to figure out how to naturally and subtly shift the topic to Liu Chang'an, but it seemed everyone was already in the mood for gossip.

Li Hongman pretended to be very interested and asked again, "He's quite tall, is he handsome?"

Liu Chang'an had his back to them the whole time, so they couldn't see him clearly, but they could all feel that the boy standing there gave people a very comfortable feeling, as if the river breeze was blowing in their faces, carrying the wind from the forests on the opposite bank.

"He was my deskmate in high school..." Bai Hui didn't say whether Liu Chang'an was handsome or not. If she said he was handsome, she felt a little embarrassed and didn't want to admit it because he always acted like he had his tail wagging in the sky, and like Gao Dewei, he liked to treat girls as inferior beings. If she said he wasn't handsome, she was also a little unwilling to do so, not wanting to belittle the impression he left on his roommates and classmates.

"My deskmate."

Zhao Yu smiled and nodded. She and her boyfriend weren't deskmates, but they only sat across the aisle from each other during their senior year of high school before they got together.

Everyone else joined in, laughing and saying "My deskmate!" except for Guan Yuan.

"You guys still sit together as boys and girls in your senior year of high school?" Guan Yuan asked, somewhat incredulously, then looked around.

Everyone shook their heads. This situation was indeed quite rare. After all, it had been proven that teenagers were more likely to develop feelings for each other over time than people of any other age.

"It's just him and me in the class." Saying this made Bai Hui's face flush with guilt. But did he really need to deliberately explain that he used to sit with An Nuan? Was it necessary? Was it even important? Would others care? Why go through all that trouble, as if he were deliberately emphasizing something?

"Oh... oh... a chosen pair?" Zeng Changhe, sitting opposite Bai Hui, chuckled, glancing at Guan Yuan. Sure enough, Guan Yuan's expression was calm. In fact, everyone in the dormitory must have talked about the girls in the class. As the person in charge of military training, Guan Yuan and Bai Hui on the girls' side naturally had some daily contact. Guan Yuan liked to talk about Bai Hui more in the dormitory, and everyone could sense that he had some feelings for her.

Bai Hui blushed and glanced at Liu Chang'an, who had already sat back down and was arguing with Zhou Dongdong, as she lowered her head to drink water. She thought Liu Chang'an was such a fool, liking to argue with children.

"No... He's not very attentive in class and likes to read extracurricular books. The teacher was worried he would disturb his deskmate, so she moved him to sit with me."

"Aren't you afraid it will affect you?" Lao Maigao was a lean young man who was cracking sunflower seeds loudly.

"Back then, we didn't get along very well. If I ignored him, he wouldn't talk to me either." Bai Hui was telling the truth. She still missed those days. Although some of the things she did with Liu Chang'an were infuriating, now she just found them laughable. Liu Chang'an always quietly did things that had nothing to do with studying, which felt better than the male classmates around her now, who always seemed to have something lurking inside them.

"He managed to get into Xiangtan University? That makes sense, he must be a local student, Xiangtan University's admission scores are definitely lower for local students." Guan Yuan frowned, then relaxed.

Bai Hui frowned as well. Although Liu Chang'an was sometimes looked down upon, which should have been a happy thing in theory, Bai Hui found herself unable to feel happy now. Her voice carried a hint of sneer, "Xiangtan University's admission score in our area is more than a hundred points higher than the provincial first-tier university cutoff, and he... is among the top fifty in the province."

Everyone was astonished and looked back in disbelief at Liu Chang'an sitting at the other table. Top 50 in the province? What does that mean? In 2017, the two universities in Capital admitted 156 students from South Hunan. In other words, if Liu Chang'an had applied, he would have been absolutely guaranteed admission.

"Then why is he at Xiangtan University?" Guan Yuan felt uneasy hearing the faint sarcasm in Bai Hui's tone, as if it were directed at him, or perhaps she was unhappy that someone was looking down on Liu Chang'an.

"So what if you're at Xiangtan University?" Guan Yuan's roommate, Wang Wuyang, chuckled. "You look down on your own school?"

"People strive for higher positions, water flows downhill; his choice of Xiangtan University was inherently abnormal," Guan Yuan stated matter-of-factly. "I'm just stating the facts."

Bai Hui didn't want to talk about this. Did she have to recount the story of Liu Chang'an's "Wherever you go, I'll go" when he filled out his college application? The female protagonist in that story was An Nuan, what did it have to do with Bai Hui? She didn't want to talk about it, and she was too lazy to talk about it.

"It's rare, but not unheard of. Some people get into universities in Hong Kong first, but then come back to retake the entrance exams for universities in mainland China. There are also people who could go to Harvard and MIT but don't go." Zhao Yu and Guan Yuan were at odds.

"That's an idiot!" Guan Yuan chuckled. Zhao Yu was Bai Hui's classmate after all, and there was no point in arguing with Zhao Yu. "Forget it, let's not talk about him anymore. Everyone has their own ambitions."

Just as he finished speaking, something round came flying at him, hitting Guan Yuan squarely on the forehead. Guan Yuan winced in pain, leaned back, and fell to the ground.

"Who? Who threw me?"

Li Hongman helped Guan Yuan up. Guan Yuan's forehead was covered in oil, and his face was smeared with cumin and seasonings. He wasn't injured, but he looked utterly disheveled.

Liu Chang'an walked over, holding a string of sheep testicles that was only half full.

"Why did you hit me?" Guan Yuan asked angrily, glancing at the sheep testicles in Liu Chang'an's hand and the "weapon" that had hit him, and immediately confirmed it.

"You insult me, I'll smash you. Don't you understand such a simple principle?" Liu Chang'an continued eating his lamb testicles. "Are you an idiot?"

The group initially wanted to target the culprit, but since it was Liu Chang'an, they all felt that Guan Yuan had brought it upon himself.

"How did you hear that?" Bai Hui was extremely embarrassed, even though it had nothing to do with her.

"I think you'll gossip about me to others, so I'll prick up my ears to listen. If you say bad things about me, I'll make you learn the airplane dance from Zhou Dongdong." Liu Chang'an had little interest in eating with strangers, so his attention was naturally scattered. He wasn't far away, and he was downwind, so he could hear everything.

"I didn't..." Bai Hui quickly interjected, trying to clarify that saying Liu Chang'an didn't like studying shouldn't be considered a bad thing, it was all true... But what was this "airplane dance"?

"I'm sorry, please don't mind him. We were just chatting casually. He was just being blunt and didn't mean any harm," Li Hongman said to Liu Chang'an.

"Why are you apologizing for him?" Liu Chang'an glanced at Li Hongman, then turned to Guan Yuan and smiled. "Are you trying to look like Yang Tandan by putting cumin and chili powder on your face?"

Guan Yuan was furious. "Did I put the cumin and chili powder on my face myself?" Guan Yuan pointed at Liu Chang'an. "Let me tell you, you'd better stop. To be fair, I didn't name names just now. If you take it personally, don't blame me!"

"You're right." Liu Chang'an thought for a moment and said that it made a lot of sense. Then he slapped Guan Yuan across the face. So what if he's right? Liu Chang'an was a little annoyed. He was always the one who tried to reason with others first. Guan Yuan was actually trying to reason with him first. Did he want to hit him? He might as well do it first.

Guan Yuan stumbled and turned to the side. Liu Chang'an's hand speed was too fast, and Guan Yuan had no way to dodge. He felt dizzy and sat down on the ground.

Guan Yuan's roommates rushed over to help Guan Yuan up, but even with the enraged Guan Yuan restrained, they couldn't possibly help him fight Liu Chang'an. They had only just become roommates; how could they possibly stand up for Guan Yuan? The other party was clearly a local; how could they possibly gain the upper hand in a fight?

"Stop fighting... Liu Chang'an, let it go?" Bai Hui saw Guan Yuan being beaten and felt that Liu Chang'an should also vent his anger. She didn't want to help Guan Yuan or sympathize with Guan Yuan; she just didn't want things to escalate.

"Okay." Liu Chang'an nodded. Actually, he didn't necessarily need Guan Yuan to apologize. If he apologized, that would be fine; if not, he would give him a slap to make him understand that apologies can be effective in many situations.

Several girls also comforted Guan Yuan... It wasn't that all the classmates were afraid of Liu Chang'an, but rather that everyone had their own judgment. Guan Yuan had to be so sharp-tongued, so he couldn't blame others for slapping him.

Zhou Shuling ran over and pulled Liu Chang'an back. At first, she thought Liu Chang'an was just chatting and joking with his classmates, but she only realized what was going on when Liu Chang'an slapped her.

"What's wrong?" Zhou Shuling asked, tugging at Liu Chang'an's arm.

The All-Star also expressed their concern, offering a kind reminder: "Xiao Liu, I won't say whether it was right or wrong for you to hit someone, but please don't do it in front of a child."

"It's nothing." Zhou Shuling smiled and waved her hand, though she was a little unhappy with All-Star's comment. In her opinion, Liu Chang'an liked Zhou Dongdong; why did he need outsiders to give him advice?

"It's nothing, someone just cursed at me. Let's keep eating." Liu Chang'an picked up another string of sheep testicles; these have to be eaten while they're hot.

The All-Star also wanted to eat lamb testicles, but resisted. Otherwise, Zhou Shuling might have thought, "Aren't you single? Why are you eating this stuff? Are you planning something?"

(Zhou Dongdong)

The people at the next table couldn't continue eating so easily anymore. Guan Yuan felt embarrassed and wanted to get back at them. He picked up his phone as if to make a call, but his roommate and the girl kept advising him to stop making a scene and that things would be better if he backed down.

Taking a step back only makes him feel more cheated, and enduring only makes him angrier. Guan Yuan couldn't help but slam his hand on the table. At this moment, Bai Hui sneered, "You asked for it!"

Guan Yuan was stunned for a moment, "I only said one thing to him, and he rushed at me and attacked! Is it still my fault?"

"Of course it's your fault. I've never seen Liu Chang'an ever be in the wrong." Bai Hui was getting angrier the more she thought about it. How could she have such an idiot classmate? Xiangtan University, many forests, and many birds, so there are all sorts of scoundrels there.

"Fine, you guys can eat slowly." Guan Yuan couldn't save face anymore, so she got up and stormed off to the road to flag down a car.

Several girls called out a few times, and his roommate hesitated whether to chase after him. Bai Hui's face darkened. "We're eating, it's my treat! You all ran away, how rude of you!"

Bai Hui had said all that, so no one bothered with Guan Yuan anymore. Everyone was ignoring him, so why would he hold a grudge against everyone? There was no point in associating with someone like that; let him be.

Li Hongman was most familiar with Guan Yuan, and at this moment she could only shake her head. Guan Yuan usually liked to put on a mature act, but in reality, boys his age had no social experience at all. How mature could he be? He was just trying to create a persona for himself.

After they finished eating, Liu Chang'an and Zhou Shuling both had some beer. All-Star were driving and didn't drink at all. Women with children generally don't like men they don't know well drinking and driving; it's a bad sign. All-Star were very considerate.

This time, Liu Chang'an sat in the passenger seat, while Zhou Shuling and Zhou Dongdong sat in the back. He could tell that All-Star was actually the traditional, marriageable man with good conditions, but Zhou Shuling didn't like him at all. There was nothing he could do about it, so Liu Chang'an gave up trying to play matchmaker; such a small favor was meaningless.

When the car arrived at the residential area, Zhou Dongdong was already asleep, so Zhou Shuling couldn't carry her anymore. Liu Chang'an came over, picked Zhou Dongdong up, and carried her back in his arms.

"Goodbye, sweet dreams," the All-Star greeted with a smile.

"Take care too," Zhou Shuling waved her hand politely.

Liu Chang'an went back and put Zhou Dongdong on Zhou Shuling's bed. Liu Chang'an looked at her and said, "She's not a little kid anymore. I'll make her a bed tomorrow. You should let her learn to sleep alone."

"You can even make beds?" Zhou Shuling almost laughed, always feeling that Liu Chang'an had all sorts of strange talents. "I'll just go buy one."

"No, I'll do it."

After Liu Chang'an finished speaking, he left. Zhou Shuling smiled, sat down on the edge of the bed, and stroked her sleeping daughter's round little face.

As the saying goes, half of life is spent in the day and half in the night. During the day, we may be in a hall or a room, a boat or a carriage, but we are never in a fixed place. At night, however, we are confined to a single bed. This bed is something we share for half our lives, and even more so than our spouses. Of all things, nothing is more precious to us than this.

The importance of a bed is self-evident. Moreover, with the progress of the times, beds are also evolving. Some beds even possess special abilities, such as binding spells or putting people to sleep. I often hear people say that their beds don't allow them to get up, and it's probably true, otherwise why would everyone say the same thing?

Liu Chang'an wanted to make a new bed. On Qixi Festival, he bought a lot of materials, which were more than enough to make another small bed. Liu Chang'an took out the boards, came up with a design, and then took out the ink line to draw the ink line.

After busying himself for a while, Liu Chang'an went to brew tea. He took the tea and lay on the balcony for a while, parting the leaves of the sycamore tree above. He could see a patch of night sky peeking through, with a few stars twinkling faintly, but they weren't very bright... In Junsha, there weren't many days when you could see a brilliant starry sky. It depended on the weather and luck. The dust in the city air always made people unconsciously forget about the starry sky, and also forget its mystery and awe-inspiring profundity.

Some say that only the starry sky and the moral law in one's heart are worthy of awe. For Liu Chang'an, the moral law is sometimes an unfathomable thing. It is possible to have it, but the sense of awe may be lacking. However, the starry sky above Liu Chang'an is indeed one of the few things he aspires to.

Sometimes he wondered if he had originated from a meteorite that crashed to Earth countless years ago. If so, where did that meteorite come from? Was it random, or did it carry some kind of mission? Or perhaps it wasn't a meteorite at all, but a UFO? A space life pod? Like the story in Prometheus?

After gazing at the night sky, which didn't have many stars, Liu Chang'an finished his tea and prepared to continue his work when he received a call from Bai Hui.

Liu Chang'an took it casually, "What is it?"

"Guan Yuan... Guan Yuan has disappeared!" Bai Hui's tone was somewhat urgent.

Who is Guan Yuan?

The one who insulted you today!

"Oh."

"This matter might get you into trouble." That was the real reason Bai Hui called Liu Chang'an.

"Logically, as an adult, he shouldn't be considered missing now. Have you reported him missing?" Liu Chang'an turned on speakerphone and started sawing wood.

"What are you doing?" Bai Hui was startled by the sound of a saw cutting something, because she remembered this kind of sound associated with saws in many horror movies.

"Sawing wood."

"You're sawing wood in the middle of the night?"

"Or are you sawing someone up?"

"Don't scare me... Guan Yuan's last message to Li Hongman was that he would settle accounts with you sooner or later... If he really disappears, the police might use this last message to question you about some things," Bai Hui reminded Liu Chang'an.

Liu Chang'an continued sawing wood, waiting for Bai Hui to continue. There was no doubt that if they couldn't contact her for such a short time, or if there were no other circumstances, it wouldn't have come to the point of involving a missing person and the police.