The mutton that night was not very tasty. After cooling down, it had a strong muttony smell and the meat was very tough. Ruan Mian only ate one skewer, and Fang Ruqing took the rest away to throw out.
“Don’t eat anymore since it’s cold now.”
Fang Ruqing went to the kitchen to bring her a bowl of mung bean soup, “Drink this and take a shower, rest early.”
“Got it.”
Ruan Mian finished the soup in a few mouthfuls, went back to her room to get her pajamas, and after taking a shower, she bumped into Zhao Shutang who was going downstairs to the bathroom.
She stopped wiping her hair for a moment, hesitating whether to say hello in those few seconds. But Zhao Shutang had already walked past her without glancing to the side, and even closed the bathroom door noisily.
Ruan Mian chewed her lips and sighed softly, took off the towel in her hand, and lightened her footsteps going upstairs.
Take it slow, she thought.
The next day, Ruan Mian woke up before seven thinking she still had remedial classes. When she went downstairs to wash up, Fang Ruqing poked her head out from the kitchen preparing breakfast, “Why are you up so early?”
“Got the time wrong.”
Ruan Mian tidied up and walked to the kitchen, “Need any help?”
“Then help me take out the bowls and chopsticks, we’ll have breakfast soon.”
“Okay.”
Ruan Mian rolled up her sleeves and took out the clean bowls and chopsticks, arranging them neatly by the seats. Morning sunshine fell on the table corners.
Soon, Zhao Yingwei and Duan Ying came back from outside. The two Zhao children were not up yet. Zhao Yingwei was about to call them when Duan Ying stopped him, “School is starting soon, let them sleep more while they have the time.”
Zhao Yingwei agreed. As he sat down, he looked at Ruan Mian, “Mianmian, now that you’ve finished remedial classes, you can also sleep in more in the mornings.”
Before Ruan Mian could reply, Fang Ruqing came out from the kitchen and said, “She only woke up early today because she got the time wrong. Usually she wouldn’t get up before noon.”
Zhao Yingwei laughed, “Students nowadays face great pressure and hardship. Letting them sleep in more during the holidays is good.”
Breakfast seemed to have a harmonious beginning. At the dining table, Duan Ying also spoke a few words with Ruan Mian, looking quite intimate.
Soon after the meal, Fang Ruqing and Zhao Yingwei still had to go to work. Ruan Mian didn’t have much to do, so she went out with them to re-familiarize herself with the area.
When they passed Li’s supermarket, the shop door was unloading goods. Ruan Mian only saw the middle-aged boss from last night directing to the side, but didn’t see Li Zhizhe or that boy named Chen Yi.
By the time they reached the alley entrance, Zhao Yingwei’s car was parked at the roadside. Fang Ruqing stuffed Ruan Mian two red banknotes, “Go out with your friends if you don’t want to stay home at noon. Come back for dinner tonight.”
Ruan Mian felt her mother was worrying too much, but still took the money to reassure her, “Okay, I’ll let you know if I go out.”
“Be safe.”
“Got it.”
After the car left, Ruan Mian stuffed the money into her pant pockets. She looked up at the crisscrossing antennas overhead, then turned and walked along the shops by the roadside.
She spent the whole morning walking through all the alleys and lanes in this area of Pingjiang West Lane. The scope was not big, just many alleyways.
Close to eleven, Ruan Mian came in from the east alley entrance and unerringly walked to the entrance of Li’s supermarket. The boss was standing next to the counter pressing on a computer. Seeing her come in, he revealed a simple and honest smile, “What can I get for you, young lady?”
Ruan Mian walked in a couple steps, “Getting some snacks.”
The supermarket was small, with only four rows of shelves. At the very back was a door leading to a siheyuan courtyard1. The door curtain was rolled up and hung on the wall. Ruan Mian saw a well in the middle of the yard, with a red and white porcelain basin next to the well mouth, and a corner of the flower rack nearby.
She didn’t linger inside for long, used Fang Ruqing’s money to buy some snacks and a watermelon, then carried them back to the Zhao house.
The Zhao siblings, Zhao Shutang and Zhao Shuyang, were already up, sitting in the living room watching TV. Duan Ying was busy preparing lunch in the kitchen. Seeing Ruan Mian come back, only Zhao Shuyang crawled up from the sofa to take a look.
Ruan Mian put her things on the table and stood there thinking for a while, then mustered her courage and went to the kitchen, “Grandma, need any help?”
Duan Ying didn’t even lift her head, “No need.”
Ruan Mian fidgeted with her fingers, suddenly not knowing what to say.
Duan Ying put down the kitchen knife, wiped her hands on her apron, “There’s too much oil fumes in the kitchen. Go watch some TV in the living room, we’ll eat soon.”
“Okay.”
Ruan Mian breathed a sigh of relief.
After the meal, Ruan Mian took the snacks she bought and put them on the tea table in the living room, then carried the watermelon to the kitchen.
In the meantime, Zhao Shutang came over once. She stood in the kitchen doorway with her arms crossed, her gaze cold and piercing, “You don’t need to do all this to ingratiate yourself with anyone. No matter what, I will not accept you and your mother.”
Ruan Mian glanced at her without a word.
Zhao Shutang probably felt it wasn’t worth it either, and turned to leave again.
Soon after, Zhao Shuyang somehow crawled out. Ruan Mian cut a small piece of watermelon and gave it to him, “Here, eat up.”
Holding the watermelon, he hopped and skipped away to play.
Ruan Mian put the sliced watermelon in the fridge, washed her hands, and returned upstairs to the bedroom. The old standing fan directly blew towards the end of the bed.
She lay on the bed with her eyes closed, randomly thinking of that boy named Chen Yi for some reason, and remembering his pitch black eyes.
It was especially clear in that seeming waking yet dreaming state.
In the following week, Ruan Mian would go out every evening, randomly walking down an alley. Sometimes she would pass Li’s supermarket, sometimes that internet cafe too, getting to know Li Zhizhe and his friends, but she never saw that boy named Chen Yi again.
On the day No.8 Middle School started, because it was month-end, neither Fang Ruqing nor Zhao Yingwei could ask for leave. They could only entrust Ruan Mian to Zhao Shutang, who was in the same class.
On the way to school, Zhao Shutang didn’t hide her attitude at all, “You got into our class with my dad’s money. Other than Teacher Zhou, I don’t want anyone else in class to know about our relationship, so please keep your distance from me in school.”
There were a total of 34 classes for sophomore year in No.8 Middle School. Classes 1-22 were science classes, with Class 1 and 2 being science experiment classes.
The remaining Classes 23-32 were liberal arts classes, and the last two classes were science-arts and liberal arts-arts classes respectively.
Although Ruan Mian’s grades were still decent, transferring to No.8 Middle School at this time meant she could only go to a regular advanced class. But Zhao Yingwei knew people in the school and spent some money to get her into Zhao Shutang’s science experiment class.
Ruan Mian didn’t know about the transfer to the experiment class beforehand. By the time she found out, it was already set in stone, so she didn’t want to bother Zhao Yingwei about it anymore.
Now that Zhao Shutang said this, Ruan Mian didn’t react much either, “Okay, got it.”
The sophomore teaching building was in a separate block, with the top four floors for science classes and the bottom two floors for liberal arts classes. Ruan Mian took science classes, so Zhao Shutang brought her to their head teacher Zhou Hai’s office door and returned to the classroom first.
“You’re Ruan Mian right, I’ve seen your grades, quite good.”
Zhou Hai let her sit in the office for a bit first, “Some students haven’t arrived yet, I’ll bring you over when class starts.”
“Okay, thank you Teacher Zhou.”
Ruan Mian sat by the desk with her schoolbag, staring at this teacher who didn’t seem very old.
Zhou Hai rubbed his fingers and took out her No.8 Middle School documents from the desk. “I see you seem to have participated in quite a few biology competitions before. You’re interested in competitions?”
Ruan Mian didn’t dare say most of those competitions were compulsory enrollment by teachers. She compromised and said, “I’m just comparatively more interested in biology.”
Zhou Hai nodded, “What a coincidence, I’m your biology teacher this semester.”
After a short chat, the class bell rang. The entire teaching building quickly demonstrated its quality level as an advanced class school, with Ruan Mian walking past every classroom with Zhou Hai. They were all very quiet, with hardly any laughter or playing around.
Zhao Shutang’s Class 2 was on the third floor corridor bend. Zhou Hai pushed open the door to walk in, and some students who were Zhou Hai’s students since freshman year playfully whistled seeing him, “Old Zhou, long time no see!”
Zhou Hai smiled benevolently. He had Ruan Mian stand beside him, “We have a new transferred student joining our class this semester, everyone welcome her.”
There was applause from below again. After it died down, Zhou Hai had Ruan Mian do a self-introduction.
“Hello everyone, my name is Ruan Mian. Ruan as in exchanging wine2, Mian as in sleep.”
Ruan Mian stopped speaking when she was wondering what else to say. The boy who whistled earlier suddenly started clapping.
The applause interrupted Ruan Mian’s train of thought, also saving her from the predicament.
Zhou Hai asked her to go find a seat.
In advanced classes, the further back the less popular the seats. Most of the class seats were already taken, with only the last row of the first block still empty. Ruan Mian chose the one closer to the corridor.
After her self-introduction, Zhou Hai had the other students start self-introducing from the first row down.
By the time everyone was done, Ruan Mian only remembered a few special ones, like the whistling boy called Jiang Rang.
The first day of school was uneventful for regular classes, but not advanced classes. There was a diagnostic test in the afternoon, biology and physics combined.
Hearing there was no English or Chinese, Ruan Mian heaved a huge sigh of relief. She had vastly different scores for different subjects. Science and math, she could test close to full marks every time, but Chinese and English often struggled near the pass line, giving her a headache.
After the test in the afternoon, the results came out after the second self-study period ended at night. Ruan Mian ranked fifth in total score for the three subjects in class.
Seeing the results, Jiang Rang deliberately came to stand in front of her, “Amazing! Scoring full marks for such a difficult subject like biology on your first test, impressive!”
Ruan Mian flipped through her book, “You won’t think that way next time when we test all six subjects.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing.”
She smiled up at him.
Soon the bell for third period rang, and Zhou Hai brought in the freshly printed biology test papers, distributing them in order of high to low scores.
Ruan Mian was first. Going up to take her test paper, she received quite some praise, with Zhou Hai directly giving her the biology class representative spot, “Keep up the good work.”
“Thank you Teacher Zhou.”
Walking back with the test paper, Ruan Mian saw Zhao Shutang sitting in the middle of the third row. Their eyes met for a moment before each looked away again.
The pace in advanced classes was tight and fast, finishing a test paper per self-study period after school. Ruan Mian packed up her bag and went downstairs first from the back door.
She waited at the alley entrance near the Zhao house until Zhao Shutang finally arrived, and the two went back home together, pretending they came back from school together.
After getting home, Fang Ruqing came over to ask Ruan Mian about her day at school. She selectively summarised it, then added, “Mom, let Uncle Zhao know, Zhao Shutang doesn’t need to specifically wait for me to go to school anymore. She has her own freedom, and I have things to do too. It’s too troublesome this way.”
“Alright then.”
Fang Ruqing hesitated, “Did Shutang today at school…”
Ruan Mian said, “We’re good, don’t worry. No disputes arose. Zhao Shutang is not that unreasonable.”
Fang Ruqing’s furrowed brows relaxed as she let out a gentle laugh, “That puts me at ease then. Go rest early.”
“Mm.”
The next day, as expected, Zhao Shutang didn’t wait for Ruan Mian to go to school together, leaving early in the morning instead. Ruan Mian was at ease with the freedom. After washing up, she bought breakfast at the alley entrance and ate as she walked towards school.
She left late, barely making it into the classroom at the morning reading bell3. As she sat down, she noticed a black schoolbag on the seat beside her.
Looks like she had a new deskmate.
Ruan Mian didn’t think too much of it. She took out her biology book from her bag, opened it on the table, and continued reading from where she left off last time.
The second morning reading bell rang. Hurried footsteps sounded from the corridor outside the back door, followed by a few boys walking in.
Someone sat down in the empty seat beside Ruan Mian. The first thing that appeared in the corner of her eye were two straight long legs stretched out under the desk that didn’t have enough space.
The boy’s elbow bumped Ruan Mian by accident. She saw a scar resembling a crescent moon shape on it. Her gaze followed along his arm upwards.
Past the smooth and straight shoulder line, and the angular jaw, the instant she saw his face clearly—
Ruan Mian froze.
The boy’s complexion was somewhat poor, with lingering signs of overnight exhaustion under his eyes. His lashes weren’t very long but very dense, beautiful like raven feathers when lowered.
Chen Yi put down his schoolbag and met the girl’s fixed gaze, casually asking, “What is it?”
The boy’s voice was still clean and lazy, a little nonchalant, steadily falling into Ruan Mian’s ears and unintentionally disrupting her heartbeat.
Ruan Mian was as if struck by tremendous delight and excitement. After regaining her senses, she felt a short-term embarrassment and tension, creasing the edges of many pages in her textbook subconsciously.
Chen Yi clearly didn’t remember Ruan Mian anymore. After waiting for her reply for a long time without success, he let out another querying “hm” in a heavier tone, lifting the end.
Ruan Mian’s heart leapt along, reaching an utmost high before plummeting sharply.
She loosened her clenched hands and shook her head, “Nothing.”
Perhaps having seen similar things many times, Chen Yi didn’t think much of it either. He propped up some books on his elbow as a pillow and immediately fell asleep.
He was so unrestrained and carefree, while Ruan Mian beside him was like sitting on pins and needles. The familiar biology symbols before her now seemed like heavenly scriptures. She couldn’t comprehend a single punctuation mark.
The remaining faint and refined fragrance of the catalpa flowers outside, no longer in season, drifted into the classroom with the breeze. Ruan Mian lowered her head, listening to Chen Yi’s steady and even breathing amidst the noisy sounds of reading.
That morning self-study period was a long and especially unforgettable one for Ruan Mian, representing a private joy of reunion for her alone.
Just like this late summer’s cool breeze, unable to calm for a long time.
- Traditional Chinese residential compounds with houses surrounding a courtyard. Read more about the siheyuan complexes here. ↩︎
- The Ruan in her name is ?, a homophone for the word ?? meaning to offer/exchange wine. ↩︎
- Chinese schools have a morning reading period before class where students read quietly at their seats before the teacher arrives. The bell signals the start of the school day. ↩︎
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