September 1st was the official start of school at No. 8 Middle School. The new high school freshmen who had just finished military training took off their cheap military training uniforms and put on the uniform standardized school uniforms. They stood on the school track and field with the upperclassmen to listen to the school leaders’ speeches.
The uniforms were all one color for the entire grade. At first glance, it was a dazzling sea of white and light blue mixed together.
The flagpole divided the field into two sections. To the right were the Grade 10 liberal arts classes and the new Grade 10 students, to the left were the Grade 10 science classes and the graduating Grade 12 class1.
Ruan Mian stood among the girls of Class 10 Science 1.
The late September heat still lingered in Pingcheng. Under the blazing 90 degree sun, people felt drowsy. Ruan Mian had her eyes closed, feeling the sun’s warmth through her eyelids. Abruptly, a weight fell on her shoulder as Meng Xinglan beside her also leaned forward, pushed by the crowd. But her head remained lowered and she yawned sleepily, “How much longer are they going to talk? I want to go back and sleep…”
“It should be ending soon.” Ruan Mian said.
Meng Xinglan made complaining noises as she straightened up, looking impatient.
Ruan Mian felt her pocket and took out a White Rabbit milk candy from her pants pocket. “Want some candy?”
She turned her head to offer the candy, and in the span of a few seconds, swiftly glanced at the end of the boys’ line where Chen Yi was chatting and laughing brightly with Jiang Rang.
Meng Xinglan didn’t notice Ruan Mian’s little action. She took the candy and unwrapped it, popping it in her mouth. Before she even finished chewing, they heard Vice Principal Wu Yan on stage announce the end of the opening ceremony. Meng Xinglan couldn’t help stretching her arms above her head and said in a long, drawn-out voice, “Finally over.”
They were supposed to leave orderly by class, but in the end it still turned into a chaotic jumble as people streamed towards the exits in all four directions.
Meng Xinglan linked arms with Ruan Mian as they headed for the east gate closest to them. “What’s our next class?”
“I think chemistry, I didn’t really pay attention.”
The closer they got to the exit, the slower the crowd moved. Ruan Mian raised her hand and wiped the sweat from her nose in the stifling heat.
The stream of people slowly shuffled forward. After getting off the grounds, Meng Xinglan pulled Ruan Mian to the small supermarket inside the school. “What do you want to eat? My treat.”
Ruan Mian very politely only took a bottle of water.
Meng Xinglan: “…”
There were many people inside the supermarket. While waiting to pay, Ruan Mian went outside first to wait for Meng Xinglan. Soothing, nostalgic music played from the campus PA system.
A song was nearly finished when Meng Xinglan finally came out of the supermarket, holding a black plastic bag in her right hand and two ice pops in her left.
She walked over and handed one to Ruan Mian. “Here, Chen Yi’s treat.”
“Hmm?”
Ruan Mian’s hand had just touched the cold packaging when her fingertips turned icy and her heart thumped like thunder. “What?”
“I bumped into him just now inside.”
Before Meng Xinglan could finish speaking, Chen Yi and a few others walked out of the supermarket.
Ruan Mian subconsciously clenched her hand, nearly crushing the ice pop.
Chen Yi didn’t look over here. With his arm around Jiang Rang’s shoulder, he walked down the steps.
Instead, the bespectacled boy walking last paused and glanced over. His voice was gentle as jade, “Meng Xinglan, aren’t you going?”
“In a bit, you guys go first.”
Meng Xinglan had just taken a bite of her ice pop and her teeth chattered from the cold, making her voice indistinct.
Liang Yiran didn’t say more, simply told her, “Eat lunch with us later.”
“Got it.”
The four left one after another, up and down the steps until they were out of sight. Only then did Ruan Mian emerge from the imbalance and discomfort in her heartbeats. “Let’s go back to class too.”
On the way back, Meng Xinglan explained to Ruan Mian, “The one with glasses just now is Liang Yiran from Class 1. He’s my neighbor and we’ve known each other for years.”
“Childhood friends?” Ruan Mian asked.
“Pretty much.”
Meng Xinglan elaborated, “He and Chen Yi were classmates in 10th grade, along with another called Shen Yu who’s in the class next to ours now. The four of them – him, Liang Yiran, Jiang Rang, Chen Yi – were best friends in 10th grade and still are now, I guess.”
Ruan Mian didn’t expect there were these connections. For the moment, she was too surprised to feel anything else.
Meng Xinglan swung the bag in her hand. “Want to eat with me later? Anyway, you sit with Chen Yi now, you’ll get familiar sooner or later.”
“No, Teacher Zhou wants to discuss the competition stuff with me at lunch.”
“Oh, alright.”
As Meng Xinglan walked, the back of her hand inadvertently brushed against the ice pop Ruan Mian was holding. She was reminded, “If you don’t eat it soon, it’ll melt away.”
Ruan Mian returned to her senses and looked – there were only a few bites left before it would be gone, though it hadn’t completely melted yet. She carefully took out the remainder and bit down.
It was icy and sweet.
Like the cool evening breeze of summer, leaving one yearning.
During the time Ruan Mian sat with Chen Yi, they didn’t interact much. Ruan Mian restrained herself, while Chen Yi simply didn’t care.
Before National Day arrived, the school held a midterm exam. The exam rooms were assigned based on final grades from 10th grade.
As a transfer student, Ruan Mian didn’t have a ranking at No. 8 Middle School. Teacher Zhou had submitted her diagnostic test score from the start of school.
On Friday afternoon in biology class, Teacher Zhou walked in holding the class allocation sheet. “Class monitor, post this on the back wall.”
The girl sitting in front stood up to take the sheet and headed to the back with tape.
At the same time, Zhou flipped open the folder beside him and gently said, “This midterm is your first formal exam since starting school. I hope everyone can perform their best and not embarrass our class’s reputation as the advanced science class.”
“Also, the school sports meet will be right after National Day. Although we’re the advanced class, we also emphasize all-around development in morals, wisdom, physique, aesthetics, and labor2. So I hope everyone will sign up enthusiastically.”
Teacher Zhou took a stack of signup sheets. “Come, student affairs committee member, pass these out to the students.”
The class monitor Fu Guangsi had just finished posting the exam list and hadn’t returned to her seat before being dragged by the student affairs member Lin Chuan to help pass out the sheets.
Ruan Mian received a signup sheet and quickly scanned it from top to bottom. Finally she wrote her name after the 50 meter sprint and 3000 meter run.
Meng Xinglan turned around and asked, “Mian, what did you sign up for?”
Ruan Mian: “Fifty meters and 3,000 meters.”
Meng Xinglan: “…”
At the same time, abrupt coughing sounded from next to Ruan Mian. She and Meng Xinglan looked over simultaneously.
They saw Chen Yi calmly raise his hand to wipe the water droplets from the corner of his mouth, twist the bottle cap shut, and pretend as if nothing had happened.
Although Meng Xinglan knew Chen Yi, they weren’t very close. Usually when Liang Yiran wasn’t around, she didn’t dare joke around with Chen Yi.
Now, she also pretended nothing had happened and silently looked away, picking up Ruan Mian’s signup sheet to confirm before responding in a conflicted tone, “3000 meters, you’re really something.”
Ruan Mian laughed. “It’s fine, I’ve run even farther before.”
Meng Xinglan was at a loss for words and gave her a thumbs up.
Ruan Mian didn’t say more. From the corner of her eye she saw the water droplets still on Chen Yi’s desk, and her smile deepened slightly.
After class, Meng Xinglan pulled Ruan Mian to check their exam locations on the list at the back.
Adding up Ruan Mian’s scores in the four subjects, she ranked last in Class 1. Her overall grade also wasn’t high enough, assigned to Exam Room 46, quite far back compared to the top students.
But she didn’t pay it much attention. After glancing at Meng Xinglan’s seat number, her gaze moved up the list and finally stopped at the first row.
Other than the name Chen Yi, the rest of the details in this row – exam ID, room, and seat number – were all 1’s.
Exam Room 1 and Exam Room 46 were far from each other, not just marginally. Ruan Mian sighed silently to herself.
It was the last Friday of September. No. 8 Middle School had a tradition of no self-study on Fridays towards the month’s end.
After school, Ruan Mian participated in the big cleanup, then Meng Xinglan took her to find the exam location.
Meng Xinglan was in the same Exam Room 1 as Chen Yi, very far from Ruan Mian’s Exam Room 46, not even in the same classroom building.
After checking the room, the two went off-campus for dinner.
Meng Xinglan didn’t live in this area but it wasn’t too far either. Just one bus stop from Pingjiang West Alley.
After eating, Ruan Mian waited until Meng Xinglan boarded before turning to walk into the alley. Passing the Li Family Supermarket, she went in to buy two pens.
It was Li Zhi working in the shop today. Ruan Mian hadn’t seen him for some time. Before school started, she could see him working in the shop 5 out of 7 days a week.
After checking out, Li Zhi saw her school uniform and took the initiative to chat, “You’re also from No. 8 Middle School?”
“Mm, I just transferred this term.”
Ruan Mian stood at the counter fiddling with the coins she had received in change.
“Grade 10?” Li Zhi asked.
Ruan Mian nodded slightly.
Li Zhi oh-ed and asked again, “Arts or science?”
“Science, not arts.”
Li Zhi smiled. “What a coincidence, I have a friend in Grade 10 science at No. 8 too.”
Ruan Mian guessed he was talking about Chen Yi. She blinked and didn’t tell the truth. “Oh really, quite a coincidence.”
More customers came into the shop. Li Zhi ended the conversation, “I’ll introduce you two sometime when there’s time.”
“Sure.”
Ruan Mian took her things, “I’ll get going first, don’t let me keep you.”
“See you around.”
Ruan Mian had just walked away when Chen Yi came into the shop. Li Zhi suddenly recalled that Ruan Mian and Chen Yi should have met before, on that night over a month ago.
She had gotten lost and stumbled upon his internet cafe. Then she had mistakenly taken him for the kebab stall owner and ordered 20 lamb skewers.
Thinking of this, Li Zhi chuckled to himself. He put away the coins on the counter and looked up at Chen Yi. “What brings you by?”
Chen Yi raised his brow and smiled. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that? What are you doing back at this time, skipping class or skipping school?”
“Neither.”
Li Zhi corrected him. “It’s break.”
Chen Yi squinted at him, clearly disbelieving.
Li Zhi was in Grade 12 this year. Although No. 10 Middle School wasn’t as strict as No. 8, they wouldn’t be on break this much earlier.
“It really is break. That crumbling classroom building at No. 10 collapsed a bit more yesterday. The school decided to take this chance to repair it for safety reasons.”
Li Zhi scratched his cheek. “Anyway, enough about me. Have you eaten?”
“Not yet.”
Chen Yi took a lollipop from the counter. “Come on, close up shop and let’s eat at my place.”
“No thanks.”
“No one’s home.” Chen Yi said.
Li Zhi swiftly locked the door and took the keys. “That red braised pork ribs your aunt made last time was pretty good.”
At Chen Yi’s house, Li Zhi changed into slippers. He and Chen Yi flopped onto the sofa, one on each side, with Chen Yi’s orange cat lazily nestled between them.
Chen Yi’s aunt brought them fruit and juice.
Chen Yi asked her to make an extra red braised pork ribs dish for dinner. When he turned back, he saw Li Zhi making a heart with his hands over his head.
Chen Yi’s brow twitched. He grabbed a pillow and flung it over. “Don’t disgust me.”
Li Zhi laughed and dodged it. He bent down to pick up the pillow that had fallen by his feet and patted it before placing it back. “If you’ve got something to say, just say it. No need for violence.”
Chen Yi sat back down and casually asked about the girl he had seen buying things at the shop entrance earlier, “That girl before I came to find you, do you know her?”
“I do.”
Speaking of Ruan Mian reminded Li Zhi of something. “That’s right, she’s also in Grade 10 science at No. 8, same as you.”
“I know.”
Chen Yi glanced at him and said indifferently, “She’s my deskmate.”
Leave a Reply