When Xu Zhiqiu drew close, he reached out and held her shoulder, keeping some distance between them.
Xu Zhiqiu looked at him, puzzled by his behavior.
"It's getting late. Eat your fill and get some rest." He let go and stood up, his loose, furry robe trailing on the floor.
Xu Zhiqiu sat cross-legged in her original spot and picked up the bowl of fish soup that had already gone cold. Seeing that he had yet to leave, she said, "I said I wanted to see your face. Why are you hiding it? Is it because you're not much to look at, so you don't want me to see what you really look like?"
"Hmph." He gave a soft snort, then turned to Xu Zhiqiu. "If I wanted to sleep with you, do you think I'd care what my face looked like?"
"Oh." His words instantly silenced Xu Zhiqiu.
He noticed Xu Zhiqiu's timidity, his gaze unreadable.
By the time she had barely filled her stomach, he had already gone outside. Xu Zhiqiu lay like a corpse on the hard floor. There was a blanket spread beneath her, but it was no bed, after all. The floor was made of wooden planks, and the bed back where she lived was wooden too, but sleeping on the two felt different. A bed was still better.
After meditating for a while, she got up, retrieved her backpack from the corner, unzipped it, and took out her phone. She found that its battery was below five percent and it had no signal. She couldn't sync the time; all it could do was take pictures.
So she opened her photo gallery and looked at the delicious food she had eaten before, missing all those nights of barbecue.
Before Xu Zhiqiu could swipe through more