ATLAS TRANSLATES

Häagen-Dazs ice cream, 80-gram small box retail price of thirty-nine yuan, First Experimental High’s highest treat.

The school store was noisy. Zhao Ming Qi looked painfully at his empty, pitiful wallet while pushing Li Shuang Jiang’s head against the glass counter. Ji Fan stood in front of the freezer holding a sports drink in his left hand, struggling to choose which flavor.

After deliberating for a long time without success, Ji Fan frowned and looked at Zhao Ming Qi: “Can I get one box of each flavor?”

Zhao Ming Qi immediately clutched his little wallet and exploded on the spot, not caring whether the other person was the school bully or how fierce he was: “Did your eyes grow on top of your head?! How greedy can you be! You can only pick one box!!”

Tao Zhi leaned against the window holding a box of strawberry ice cream, watching the chaos at the other end while casually scooping another small spoonful of ice cream into her mouth.

The sweet strawberry flavor mixed with the milky fragrance, the texture smooth and creamy, melting cold on her tongue.

Tao Zhi happily narrowed her eyes.

Jiang Qi Huai stood at the counter ready to pay, holding his phone and pausing as he opened the scan code. He turned his head to ask her: “What do you want to drink?”

The agreement was that the losing team would buy a bottle of water and a box of Häagen-Dazs. Li Shuang Jiang and Ji Fan had almost all picked juice and sports drinks, ready to really make them pay, but only Tao Zhi hadn’t chosen yet.

Tao Zhi looked up and scanned the shelves, thought for a moment, and said: “Nongfu Spring water.”

Zhao Ming Qi pointed at her and angrily looked at Li Shuang Jiang and the others: “See that! A one-and-a-half yuan mineral water! This is the dignity a winner should have, the style of a champion!”

Jiang Qi Huai lowered his head, pulled out a bottle of mineral water from the cardboard box beside him, paid, and handed it to him.

Tao Zhi took it and said thanks.

She actually really disliked drinking water, preferring sweet and sour things with flavor. Usually she would buy yogurt and juice to drink. Jiang Qi Huai raised his eyes slightly and casually asked: “Why are you drinking water today?”

Tao Zhi held the bottle of Nongfu Spring without opening it, pinching the bottle neck between her thumb and forefinger as she raised her arm, waving it under his eyes: “Do you know what Nongfu Spring’s slogan is?”

“It tastes a bit sweet,” Tao Zhi said leisurely. “This is the sweet water of victory, understand?”

Her mood was a bit better than this morning, and she swung the red and white bottle like a pendulum, continuing to mock him: “Don’t ask so many questions, losers don’t have the right to ask questions.”

Jiang Qi Huai: “…”

Jiang Qi Huai didn’t know why this ancestor had so much energy today.

The school store’s air conditioning was warm and cozy. After everyone finished their ice cream huddled inside, it was almost time for class to end. The boys headed back to the classroom with their arms around each other’s shoulders carrying the ball. Tao Zhi ate slowly, unhurriedly following behind, planning to go back to pack her bag and head home after school.

As soon as they entered the classroom door, Teacher Wang stood at the podium waiting for them with several stacks of test papers.

The desk was already covered with several layers of newly distributed test papers from other subjects, piled up white all over the desktop. Zhao Ming Qi wailed: “This is so much more than during National Day last semester!”

“How can you compare tenth grade with eleventh grade? You thought we were just playing around last year and it could stay that way?” Teacher Wang glared at him, chuckling ominously as he patted the test papers in front of him, “You think this is a lot now, but when you’re in twelfth grade, you’ll find you have to finish this many papers in one day. Is the physics class representative here? Hand out their physics homework too.”

Physics class representative Wu Nan came over with the papers, distributing them to the first desk of each row to pass back.

Tao Zhi stuffed her unopened mineral water into her desk drawer, propping up her chin as she waited for the papers to be passed back from the front.

Teacher Wang finished arranging things and left the classroom, but stopped at the door to call out: “Class monitor — the vice one, come to my office for a moment.”

Tao Zhi got up and followed Teacher Wang out.

The office was empty of teachers, completely quiet. Tao Zhi followed Teacher Wang to his desk, watching him sit down and pick up a stack of test papers from the desk to hand to her: “The papers just distributed to the class might be a bit difficult for you, just do what you can, I won’t say anything if you can’t finish them all. These are physics papers from the start of tenth grade, I’ve compiled some basic questions, you do these.”

Tao Zhi’s vision went dark, her expression instantly crumpling: “Huh?”

“What ‘huh’? You can score over a hundred in Chinese and English because you have foundations accumulated from middle school, but what about integrated science and math? You dare to ‘huh’ at me when you only got twenty-something points in physics?” Teacher Wang rolled up the papers and tapped her head, “Make a copy for Ji Fan too, let him do them as well. You think you can coast through the remaining two years after getting into my Class 1? Let him face reality early. You have my WeChat, right?”

Tao Zhi took the papers and nodded obediently: “Yes.”

Teacher Wang nodded: “Don’t slack off during the holidays either, it’s a good time to improve your scores. If you don’t want to go to cram school, just message or call me directly if there’s anything you don’t understand. These basic points aren’t hard to get, if you put in a little effort at your current stage, your scores can improve very quickly. You have a smart brain and your foundation isn’t bad, don’t waste it.”

Tao Zhi hugged the papers and left like a frost-wilted eggplant, the joy of beating Jiang Qi Huai from earlier completely washed away by cruel reality.

When she returned to the classroom, school was already over. Tao Zhi packed up the papers on her desk into her backpack, then felt around her desk drawer one more time to make sure she hadn’t left anything behind when her fingers brushed against something cold.

Tao Zhi paused, pulled out that bottle of mineral water, and looked at it for a few seconds.

She went downstairs and out the school gate. Ji Fan was sitting in the car playing on his phone, and looked up when he heard the car door open, moving over to make room.

“Why are you still carrying that bottle of water?” Ji Fan put down his phone and pointed at the water bottle in her hand, “You’re taking a cheap bottle of water home to drink?”

“Who said I’m going to drink it? I’m going to put it on my bookshelf like a shrine, with ‘Jiang Qi Huai’s Defeated Trophy’ written below it,” Tao Zhi closed the car door and waved her hand, “A trophy of war, understand?”

“I get it,” Ji Fan nodded and continued playing on his phone, “But Jiang Qi Huai really is quite scary. Your fake pass made everyone think you were going to pass to Li Shuang Jiang, only he ran forward. I thought that bastard was going to intercept the ball for sure, but he was just a bit short.”

Tao Zhi paused, carefully thinking back.

She had been very close to him at the time, almost shoulder-to-shoulder distance. She could actually see more clearly than Ji Fan.

That ball, he probably, maybe, certainly could have intercepted it.

But at that moment on the court every second was tense, and she was so focused on passing the ball to score that she really didn’t have time to think about all this.

A detail that had already passed, but Ji Fan suddenly brought it up.

Tao Zhi suddenly felt annoyed.

Even the bottle of water in her hand became very irritating.

Tao Zhi frowned, paused, then casually tossed that bottle of mineral water into the corner of the back seat.

Tao Zhi’s National Day holiday was extremely boring.

She dug out last semester’s tenth grade physics, chemistry, biology and math textbooks from under her bed and various corners of the storage room, spent three days going through them from the first lesson, and even borrowed tenth grade notes from Fu Xi Ling.

Teacher Wang’s compiled papers were indeed very detailed, with basic concepts on the first page, followed by basic practice questions matching the concepts. The question types were all very standard and not incomprehensible.

That afternoon, the Pretty Girl Justice League that had been quiet for several days showed activity again.

Li Shuang Jiang had done well on the monthly exam, so he was having a very leisurely holiday. He went on a two-day self-driving tour with his family, posting ten moments per day, all tourist photos like elderly travelers.

After being home for just one day he couldn’t sit still, and first flooded the small group chat:

Li Shuang Jiang: Your Han San has returned! Want to go play? Li Shuang Jiang: Want to go to Happy Valley? Heard it’s really lively during National Day.

Then he flooded the class group chat:

[Forever God Li Shuang Jiang]: Tomorrow Happy Valley team building day trip ++++++

While he was enthusiastically adding pluses, Teacher Wang emerged from the group: You’ll go to Happy Valley after finishing your homework, Li Shuang Jiang you’re living quite freely these days, what’s next, planning to travel around the world?

Li Shuang Jiang instantly went quiet as a chicken.

He pulled those who had said they wanted to go into a small group, and added Tao Zhi and the others too.

When he created the group, Tao Zhi was still biting her fingertips struggling with Teacher Wang’s papers. When she picked up her phone again, there were already 99+ messages in the group.

Tao Zhi clicked in to take a look — all familiar faces. Zhao Ming Qi was always enthusiastic about any activities besides studying and was the first to respond to his call.

Even Jiang Qi Huai was in there.

Li Shuang Jiang had also tagged them both in the group — [@Zhi Zhi Grape @Jiang Qi Huai, Huai bro and big sis don’t be quiet, just waiting for you two, are you coming or not?]

Tao Zhi saw her name next to Jiang Qi Huai’s being tagged together and felt something strange about it. She unconsciously raised her hand to scratch her nose before continuing to scroll.

[Jiang Qi Huai]: Not going.

Yes yes, the study god is busy spending a happy National Day with his girlfriend.

Tao Zhi pinched her nose and blew out a breath from her mouth, thought for a moment, then lowered her hand to type.

[Zhi Zhi Grape]: What time?

Li Shuang Jiang: How about 10 AM? It’ll probably be crowded there, let’s go early. If we get there after 10 there shouldn’t be many people queuing.

[Zhi Zhi Grape]: Can’t get up that early.

The group immediately had two +1s from Fu Xi Ling and Zhao Ming Qi. Li Shuang Jiang yielded to the majority and finally set the meeting time at 11 AM at Happy Valley’s entrance.

Ji Fan had already made plans with his old friends from the affiliated school. Tao Zhi told Aunt Zhang and Uncle Gu. Aunt Zhang thought she was going on a picnic with classmates and spent the morning making a bunch of sandwiches, hamburgers and cut fruit, putting them in plastic bags and then into food containers.

Tao Zhi watched her meticulously prepare all morning and didn’t feel right not taking them, so she got in the car carrying a bag of food.

When she arrived, most people were already there. Fu Xi Ling recognized the car from far away and ran over to wait by the road.

As soon as Tao Zhi got out of the car, the young girl came up and gave her a hug. She was wearing a short skirt with long socks, and had Mickey Mouse ears on her head. She looked much more energetic than at school, small and smiling as she looked at her: “Deskmate! Missed you!”

Li Shuang Jiang waved to her from the entrance.

The two walked over, Tao Zhi greeted the others, then watched them continue chatting with no sign of going in.

She turned her head to ask: “Is someone not here yet?”

“Waiting for Huai bro.” Li Shuang Jiang looked at his watch. “Should be here soon.”

Tao Zhi’s steps faltered, her face going slack: “Didn’t he say he wasn’t coming?”

Li Shuang Jiang grinned proudly: “Is there anyone that 700-points Li Shuang Jiang can’t handle? I called Huai bro again last night and successfully got him on board.”

Tao Zhi’s entire face went expressionless.

Li Shuang Jiang was still there looking like he wanted praise, babbling on: “I used my silver tongue, even said our Tao boss was coming, how could our Pretty Girl Justice League be without you—”

Fu Xi Ling looked at Tao Zhi, then at the oblivious Li Shuang Jiang, and secretly poked his waist from behind.

Li Shuang Jiang’s words were interrupted as he looked at her in confusion: “Why are you poking me?”

“…”

Fu Xi Ling secretly rolled her eyes: “Stupid to death, how did you score 700 points.”

Li Shuang Jiang, inexplicably personally attacked: “??”

Tao Zhi listened to their chat absent-mindedly, head lowered as she fiddled with her ticket.

The thin paper was rolled into a circle around her finger, then released. She played with it for a while until she heard Li Shuang Jiang call out beside her: “Huai bro!”

She reflexively looked up.

Jiang Qi Huai walked over from the distant street. In the early October autumn, he wore a long coat with a white sweater underneath, looking lean and tall from afar.

Tao Zhi silently withdrew her gaze, turned her head away, and casually looked in another direction.

With everyone there, Li Shuang Jiang gave Jiang Qi Huai his ticket and they went through the turnstiles to enter.

They had bought all-access passes that allowed unlimited rides on all attractions. Tao Zhi handed over her ticket, the staff tore it and put a colored wristband on her wrist.

Close to 11 AM, the whole amusement park was very lively. Food carts selling fried chicken and hot dogs lined the paths, and every so often there would be people selling bunches of colorful balloons of various shapes by the roadside.

Tao Zhi walked at the very edge of the back, almost diagonally across from Jiang Qi Huai.

The two who were always together at school were now separated by several people between them, one cold as ice, one expressionless.

Jiang Qi Huai was one thing, his face was always blank, but Tao Zhi looked different from usual too.

Even Li Shuang Jiang, who was missing a screw in his head, noticed that the atmosphere seemed a bit off.

He quietly turned his head and whispered to Fu Xi Ling: “What’s up with these two? Did they fight? Big sis isn’t even initiating conversation with Huai bro anymore.”

“Well that study god isn’t initiating conversation with our Zhi Zhi either,” Fu Xi Ling said unhappily.

Li Shuang Jiang looked left and right, suddenly struck by inspiration as he pointed to a fried chicken stand by the road: “Does anyone want to eat?”

Zhao Ming Qi was the first to raise his hand: “Me! Me! Is old Li treating?”

“I’ll treat, I’ll treat, let’s go for it,” Li Shuang Jiang hooked one arm around Zhao Ming Qi and pulled Fu Xi Ling with his other hand, dragging them both to the fried chicken stand.

Tao Zhi hadn’t even reacted before the people beside her were gone.

She turned her head and, across the air where three people should have been standing, looked at Jiang Qi Huai for the first time since entering.

Their gazes met.

The young man’s light peach blossom eyes were emotionless as he calmly looked at her.

Tao Zhi frowned, unsure for a moment whether she should look away.

It felt like looking away first would mean losing.

But she didn’t even know what she was being stubborn about.

She was lost in thought when a group of children rushed past from behind, looking about eight or nine years old, each holding a balloon and giggling as they ran between the two of them. They ran fast, and Tao Zhi wasn’t paying attention when one child brushed against her arm, bumping her sideways and making her stumble two steps.

Jiang Qi Huai took a large stride over, raising his hand to grab the fabric of her jacket sleeve and pulling her toward himself.

Tao Zhi came back to her senses, barely steadying her footing.

It was just for an instant before Jiang Qi Huai had already let go, lowering his eyes to look at her: “What are you spacing out for? Watch where you’re going.”

His tone was still icy cold, even carrying a hint of barely noticeable reproach and displeasure.

What right did he have to reproach her? And what right did he have to be displeased?

The anger Tao Zhi had been holding in for several days suddenly surged up for no reason.

She had never been one to hold things in. Any unhappiness or discontent had to be vented out. She raised her hand, pulling up the corner of her mouth, trying her best to make her tone sound natural: “Why did Your Highness come alone today?”

Where’s your Li Shu Fei?

Jiang Qi Huai looked at her calmly, his expression somewhat confused.

The others had already walked ahead, leaving just the two of them behind. Tao Zhi didn’t follow them: “Last week during the basketball game, you could have blocked that ball, right?”

She lowered her head and said slowly: “You had already guessed my fake, you could have intercepted it. That ball would determine who won. But you thought your opponent was just a girl, and when playing basketball with a girl, it’s fine to go easy, right? Since you lost because you went easy, it’s not so embarrassing even in front of your girlfriend, right?”

He probably thought the same as most people.

Because she was a girl, she definitely couldn’t play basketball as well as boys, maybe shouldn’t even play basketball at all.

Because she was a girl, so it was fine to go easy and not take it seriously.

Tao Zhi suddenly felt that her previous gloating must have seemed quite stupid to Jiang Qi Huai.

He had deliberately lost, while she was there seriously thinking she had actually won.

Like a joke.

The air was filled with the sweet scent of cotton candy and the aroma of fried chicken. The cheerful music from the nearby carousel rang clearly in their ears, and colorful lights flickered weakly in the daylight.

The young girl stood before him with her head hanging low, completely lacking her previous arrogance when looking down at him on the basketball court. Her whole person looked both sad and disappointed, quite out of place with the joyful surroundings.

After a while, Jiang Qi Huai finally spoke: “I don’t have a girlfriend.”

Tao Zhi paused for a few seconds, then raised her head to look up at him.

The corners of her lips drooped slightly, her expression wilted, but her dark eyes were bright. Her long eyelashes lifted up, looking fluffy in the sunlight, making one feel a bit itchy.

Jiang Qi Huai paused, then sighed: “And it wasn’t because my opponent was a girl.”

The amusement park was filled with music and laughter. Jiang Qi Huai lowered his eyes, his voice so faint it almost drowned in the background noise: “I went easy because you looked unhappy at the time.”