“What are the activities tonight?”

As get off work approached, Xiao Bao stretched his waist and turned his head to ask Chen An, who was sitting next to him.

"No." Chen An shook his head.

"Will you go to the bar or KTV to relax?" Xiaobao suggested.

"One other day, I plan to have a good rest tonight." Chen An said.

"Okay, I'll go to the station to pick up a few distant relatives from my dad's side. I can't take you home after get off work." Xiao Bao said.

"It's okay, I'm very grateful for you to come and pick me up in the morning."

Xiaobao said it was a road trip, but in fact, they needed to go around a big circle to Chen An's house. It took at least six or seven minutes to drive. It was a righteous man who could come to pick up Chen An in the morning, and this kind of thing was not once or twice.

"Brother, why do you say thank you? OK, I'm in a hurry to take a step first."

Xiaobao picked up the bag and stood up from the seat. He smiled and patted Chen An on the shoulder and walked towards the check-in area.

As soon as Xiaobao left, the girls in the office began to pack their things and prepare to leave. From time to time, they could hear their chatting about the evening arrangements. After Chen An saved some important documents on the computer, he stared blankly at the dim sky outside the glass window in his seat, and didn't know what he was thinking for a moment.

"Chen An, you haven't left yet?"

After a while, Lin Hui's voice suddenly came from far to near.

Chen An turned around and saw Lin Hui standing behind him and looking at her with a smile. She was holding a fashionable dark blue one-shoulder women's bag in her hand. Her hair that had been folded down was put down and she combed it into a beautiful middle-part hairstyle.

"I just want to be quiet suddenly." Chen An whispered.

"Do you have time to have a meal together?" Lin Hui said with a smile. "Think about it, we haven't had dinner together for a long time, so we'll talk about it by the way."

"I thought you wouldn't pay attention to me anymore." Chen An said with a wry smile.

"Are I just such a stingy person in your eyes?" Lin Hui covered her mouth and chuckled. "Okay, okay, after all, everyone has times when they are in abnormal emotions. Just understand each other, but I have to declare in advance that you should not misunderstand anything if you invite you to dinner."

"Don't worry, I have already put down what I should have put down." Chen An turned off the computer and said with a smile. "Since the beauty has made an appointment, how dare I, a big man, refuse? Let's go."

...

The place where the two of them had a meal was a newly opened Thai restaurant in the city. Several people in Lin Hui and their girls' group were already strongly recommended. With a taste of it, Lin Hui nodded and agreed as soon as she said that.

"I haven't tasted such a delicious meal in a long time."

During the meal, Chen An suddenly sighed after eating a few dishes.

"I think it's okay. For me, Thai food is a bit heavy. It's okay to eat it once or twice occasionally. If I eat it for a long time, my stomach will not be able to stand it." Lin Hui, who had taken a sip of Tom Yum Soup, commented.

"If you eat jerky cakes and other mixed grains all year round, and then eat modern food, I'm afraid anyone will feel extremely delicious." Chen An sighed.

"Why haven't I heard that you've eaten these grains for a year?" Lin Hui joked. "Is this your experience in that dream brought back reality?"

"If I say it's true, I'm afraid you won't believe it." Chen An shook his head. "And in the later stage of my dream, I had never eaten normal meals at all. I rely on energy injections to maintain normal Chen Xin metabolism."

"Tsk tsk, I feel that the dream you are talking about is getting more and more outrageous." Lin Hui said speechlessly after eating a few lemon shrimps.

"So the more outrageous things are, the less people are willing to believe them." Chen Anduo.

"...Chen An, I think you are a little hysterical." Lin Hui suddenly looked at Chen An with a serious expression.

"Maybe." Chen An stopped talking about this, but instead turned the topic to other places. "I heard that you have been busy with the postgraduate entrance examination recently."

"How do you know? Oh, I understand. It seems that I must have asked you for a while." Lin Hui was stunned for a moment and suddenly realized.

"I asked Bao... When did you give Xiao Bao such a nickname?" Chen An couldn't help laughing.

"Who made him gossip more than us girls? Nothing in the company can hide from him. I don't know who said it in the group last time, everyone recognized his nickname." Lin Hui smiled sneered. "But don't tell him about this!"

"Don't worry, I still have this credit." Unfortunately, there was a traitor in your group. Xiaobao who should know must have known it, Chen An thought so.

The dinner quickly came to an end in a dull state. Because Lin Hui also had online courses on postgraduate entrance examinations tonight, she said hello to Chen An and then took a taxi home first.

Looking at the taxi gradually disappeared from sight, Chen An knew that perhaps this might be the last time the two of them had dinner together.

In a bustling street market, Chen An, who didn't want to go home for a while, simply wandered around aimlessly and felt the long-lost modern urban life. In his ears, the shops along the street were playing the sound of speakers promoting the welcome. In his eyes, the pedestrian couples coming and going were filled with a warm and harmonious atmosphere. Under the hazy neon lights at night, Chen An felt a sense of loneliness and desolation in a foreign land. It was obvious that this was the world he belonged to, and this was his real hometown.

Inadvertently, he saw an erect easel on the street. Next to the easel, a young and beautiful girl was sitting on a low chair playing with her cell phone boredly.

He walked up to him and asked intently.

“How much does a sketch cost?”

"If it's a simple sketch, it's only 30 yuan." The girl stood up and greeted when she saw the business coming. "I have some of my own sketches here. If you are worried, you can take a look at my sketching skills first."

As he said that, the girl took out a sketch book from the painting bag next to the chair and handed it to Chen An.

Chen An took the sketch book and looked through it. Although his appreciation level was limited, he could roughly judge that the girl's sketch level was good. At least every sketch portrait seemed to be lifelike.

"The sketch is good, but the sketch I want you to draw has some special requirements, because the sketch I want you to draw is not me, but a friend of mine, but I don't have a photo of that friend, so I can only let you draw based on my own description. What do you think? Of course, the price is easy to negotiate."

Chen An returned the painting to the girl who was looking at him. After hearing Chen An's words, the girl clearly showed a look of distress.

"This... sir, your requirements seem to be too high. I don't know if I can draw them according to your description at my level. Otherwise, you can roughly draw his appearance on the drawing paper first, and I'm slowly modifying them according to your description?"

"good!"

Chen An nodded in agreement, and the girl immediately took out the pen box from the painting bag, jumped out of it, and handed the sketch book to Chen An.

"Sir, you can draw the person you want to draw on the blank page behind the drawing book."

Fortunately, Chen An's painting skills are not like soul painters, and he can roughly simply depict a person's appearance. Unfortunately, in the eyes of girls, Chen An's painting skills are really inferior to beginners.

After a moment, the girl began to make repeated modifications based on Chen An's original painting and opinions. Perhaps it was the first time to experience this strange sketch. The girl tried very hard to draw. I don't know how long it took, but the girl finally completed the sketch that Chen An asked for with sweat.

"Is your friend a foreigner? What a handsome young man."

As a painter, the girl is naturally the first person to appreciate paintings. Looking at the figures formed on the paintings, she couldn't help but feel curious.

"She is indeed a foreigner, but she is a girl who looks like a boy."

Chen An took the freshly baked sketch from the girl, which vividly depicted the appearance of Alex.

"Ah... I'm so sorry." The girl quickly apologized after hearing this.

"I am very satisfied with your sketch. How much does it cost?" Chen An shook his head, immersed himself in the portrait in his hand.

"This..." the girl looked at the time on her phone and said embarrassedly. "Because of your special request, I spent a long time and energy on this sketch, so I plan to charge you two hundred yuan... What do you think?"

"Is it two hundred? OK."

Chen An took out his wallet and paid directly. Before leaving, he thanked the girl.

"Huh--I met a big customer. Although I was a little tired, it was worth it tonight, and I finished the work!"

The girl sighed at Chen An's departure back and a happy smile appeared on her face.

After all, learning to draw is quite expensive, especially for people from a poor family background. Usually, girls will rely on drawing and painting in the streets to subsidize the expenses in this area, which can at least reduce the burden on the family.

...

When I got home, my parents were watching TV attentively on the sofa in the living room, but as soon as I saw Chen An, my mother immediately didn't care about the TV plot and nagged him. My father had long been used to it, so he just nodded to Chen An and continued to devote himself to the TV series.

"I said An An! If you eat outside in the future, remember to tell your family in advance so that you won't waste any extra meal."

"I understand." Chen An smiled at his parents. He returned to the bedroom to put down the sketch portrait of Alex, and turned on the computer at the same time, preparing to buy a suitable photo frame online and hang it in the bedroom.

After finishing his own affairs, Chen An returned to the living room and sat with his parents to watch TV. He discussed the plot of the TV series with his parents from time to time. At this moment, he just wanted to accompany his parents whom he thought he would never see again.

Before going to bed, Chen An lay on the pillow and stared quietly at the ceiling above his head, recalling every bit that happened today.

Zhuang Zhou dreams of butterfly, Zhuang Zhou.

Am I living in a dream or reality?

And after tonight.
Chapter completed!