ATLAS TRANSLATES

It rained in Pingcheng during those two days of the monthly exam, and the temperature also plunged sharply. Ruan Mian had forgotten to close her window the previous night before going to sleep. When she woke up the next morning, she found her throat feeling a little dry and sore.

Fang Ruqing and Zhao Yingwei had already left early in the morning. Ruan Mian couldn’t find any cold medicine at home, so she just swallowed two lozenges before going to school.

The classroom for Class 1 had already been rearranged into an exam venue. The large classroom now only contained thirty desks, with the rest stacked at the back.

Ruan Mian found her desk and sat down. Not long after, Zhou Hai came in and said there would be normal morning reading class, and for students without seats to squeeze together with those who had seats.

Meng Xinglan immediately pulled over a stool and sat next to Ruan Mian.

By then quite a few students had arrived in the classroom already. Ruan Mian looked around but didn’t see Chen Yi anywhere, and couldn’t help sighing.

Ever since that evening last Friday when Ruan Mian had run into Chen Yi at Lijia Supermarket, she had spent the entire weekend berating herself, feeling that she had lost her proper manners when facing him.

Not to mention the way Chen Yi had looked at her – sarcastic and cold. It stuck in her throat and she couldn’t get over it for a long time.

Thinking of this, she couldn’t help sighing again.

Meng Xinglan, who was doing speed reading exercises next to her, spared some attention for her: “What’s up with you, sighing so early in the morning?”

“Nothing.” Ruan Mian scratched her cheek. “I’m just bad at Chinese. Our first exam is in this subject, so I’m a bit nervous.”

Meng Xinglan laughed. “Don’t be nervous. Our Chinese teacher is very reasonable. Even if you fail, the most he would do is make you stand for a week in his classes. He won’t get violent, don’t worry.”

Ruan Mian pursed her lips, wanting to say something but stopping herself: “…”

Meng Xinglan found her reaction hilarious. She collapsed on the desk laughing nonstop. “Oh my god, I can’t take it. Ruan Mian, how can you be so cute?”

Even if it was the first time being called cute, Ruan Mian still couldn’t laugh.

Just as she was at a loss, she suddenly caught sight of someone at the door from the corner of her eye. She hurriedly sat up straight and said, “Teacher Zhou is here.”

Meng Xinglan immediately stopped laughing and picked up her book, reading aloud.

She was pretty convincing in her act.

Zhou Hai walked around the classroom twice, then went out to the hallway to chat idly with teachers from other classes. He didn’t come back in until right before the end of morning reading, just to mention a few exam-related matters.

Ruan Mian took this chance to look around the classroom again, and saw Chen Yi sitting among the crowd in the seats near the door.

He wasn’t wearing his school uniform today. Instead he had on a plain white hoodie, with a small string of unrecognizable black letters on the chest. His fair complexion already leaned cool in tone, which was further accentuated by the clothes, making him look even more aloof.

Ruan Mian had never seen a boy paler than him.

She retracted her gaze. Zhou Hai had also finished speaking. The class became noisy for a while.

Those taking the exam in the same venue left the classroom in groups, while those like Ruan Mian and Meng Xinglan, who were in different venues, split up after reaching the teaching building.

Venue 46 was in the multimedia classrooms of the Politics and History building. Basically all the students taking the exam there were the bottom-ranked ones from the ordinary classes. Ruan Mian was the only student from an advanced class.

The proctoring teacher even took an extra look at her when checking off names, seemingly puzzled why a student from the advanced class of an advanced high school would end up in this exam venue.

Ruan Mian pretended not to notice. She took the exam paper passed to her from the student in front and quickly skimmed through it. When the bell rang, she started working on the paper.

The morning passed with just the one Chinese exam. The school had no mandatory requirement for lunch break, so Ruan Mian ate outside of school and took a nap at home.

When she woke up from the nap, her sore throat had developed into headaches and feverishness. She stopped by a pharmacy on her way to school, and when she came out, she saw Chen Yi and Jiang Rang and a few other boys walking out of a milk tea shop by the roadside.

The boys were chatting and laughing. The few girls walking between them also had milk tea in hand, smiling radiantly.

Ruan Mian stood at the roadside. A gust of wind from the alley blew over, and she couldn’t help lowering her head to cough a few times. The cold wind rushed into her throat, making her cough until her face was flushed red.

The two days of exams passed in a flash. Originally the next day would have been the start of the long National Day holiday, but unfortunately at that time a flu virus was rampant in Pingcheng. Ruan Mian was unlucky enough to catch it, and spent the entire holiday hospitalized.

On the last day of the holiday, Meng Xinglan found out Ruan Mian was sick and insisted on coming to see her.

Ruan Mian still remembered the agreement with Zhao Shutang at the start of the semester, so she didn’t invite Meng Xinglan over to her home. They met up at a hot pot restaurant near Ruan Mian’s place instead.

Meng Xinglan had gone south with her parents to a seaside city for vacation right after school let out. She even brought back some local specialties for Ruan Mian.

After giving the gifts and well wishes, she stretched her hand out to Ruan Mian as if showing off a treasure. “Do you like my new manicure?”

The girl’s fingers were slender and fair, the nails full and rounded. She had on a layer of pink nail polish, dotted with pearls and polka dots, looking cute and playful.

Ruan Mian nodded and sincerely praised, “It’s really pretty.”

Meng Xinglan retracted her hand, smiling contentedly. “This salon is right under my building. I’ll take you with me next time if you like it.”

Ruan Mian nodded in agreement.

After the hot pot, Meng Xinglan was in no hurry to go home. She took Ruan Mian to the milk tea shop on the street, and they each got a drink to chat idly in the shop.

Their topics went from the human geography of the seaside city to the recent monthly exams. Meng Xinglan suddenly remembered something. She hurriedly swallowed the tapioca pearls in her mouth and said, “Oh right, I heard Jiang Rang say the other day that Teacher Zhou is going to reshuffle the class seating after this monthly exam ends.”

Caught off guard, a tapioca pearl got stuck in Ruan Mian’s throat. She lowered her head to cough violently for a few seconds before catching her breath. “Change seats?”

“Yup.” Meng Xinglan said, “Teacher Zhou plans to rearrange seats according to grades, following his habit from sophomore year I think – putting the top and bottom ranked students together, second top with second bottom, and so on in pairs.”

This was no doubt a bolt from the blue for Ruan Mian. She spaced out for a full half minute before finding her voice again. “I wonder who my new deskmate will be.”

“Don’t worry about it. No matter who it is, they’ll definitely be better than that jerk Chen Yi.”

As the person sitting in front of Ruan Mian, Meng Xinglan had barely heard any interaction between her and Chen Yi this past month.

She assumed from the start that Chen Yi looked down on Ruan Mian, and naturally hoped Ruan Mian could get a new deskmate who would treat her sincerely.

What Meng Xinglan didn’t know was that for Ruan Mian, even disregard was far better than him not being there at all.

Ruan Mian stayed out with Meng Xinglan until nightfall. When it was time to part, Meng Xinglan took the bus home while Ruan Mian saw her off from the bus stop, waving: “See you tomorrow!”

Ruan Mian also waved back a couple times: “Yeah, see you tomorrow.”

The bus door closed, and its lights gradually faded into the colorful neon nightscape, becoming blurred until invisible.

Ruan Mian was still holding the bag of local specialties Meng Xinglan had given her – coconut powder, coconut cakes, coconut shortbread, and so on, a whole series of coconut-derived foods.

She turned and walked into the alley, passing Lijia Supermarket. Li Zhi stood inside the shop and looked up to see the dispirited girl. He called out, “Ruan Mian.”

Ruan Mian snapped back to reality and went into the store. “Li Zhi.”

“Mm.” Li Zhi looked at her. “What are you up to?”

“Just got back from eating with a friend.” Ruan Mian took out two boxes of pastries from the bag and handed them to him. “My friend brought these local specialties, try them.”

Li Zhi didn’t take them. He jerked his chin to the side. “What a coincidence. My friend just brought me some local specialties too. You should keep those and eat them yourself.”

Ruan Mian looked to the side where he had gestured. There was an identical paper bag sitting next to the checkout counter. She retracted her hand.

Li Zhi tapped the edge of the glass counter with his fingertip. “Speaking of which, you know this friend too – Chen Yi, right?”

Ruan Mian said she knew him and added, “We’re in the same class.”

“Not just classmates, huh?” Li Zhi smiled. “He told me you two are deskmates.”

Ruan Mian didn’t know what kind of impression Chen Yi had given Li Zhi about her. But it probably wasn’t good, considering how sensitive and pretentious she was, barely exchanging a few sentences on a normal day.

Her eyes flickered and she said flatly, “We’re deskmates for now, but not for much longer.”

Li Zhi smiled. “Oh? Is he bullying you?”

Ruan Mian swiftly denied it. “No, the teacher wants to reshuffle seats based on grades.”

“I see.” The two didn’t chat much longer. Ruan Mian received a call from Fang Ruqing and gestured to Li Zhi that she had to go back first.

Li Zhi nodded without speaking, mouthing a silent “see you” at her.

Ruan Mian walked out still on the phone, and Li Zhi watched her departing back pensively.

By the time Ruan Mian got home, Fang Ruqing was helping Duan Ying make dinner in the kitchen. Hearing the door open, she came out from the kitchen. “Why so late? You said you’d come back early.”

“I accidentally lost track of time.” Ruan Mian changed into slippers and handed Fang Ruqing the bag she was holding. “My friend brought these local specialties.”

Fang Ruqing took it and asked her a few questions before taking the bag to the living room. “Shuyang, see what your sister brought you!”

Kids this age loved fun activities and tasty food. The quirky packaging of the specialties was especially eye-catching. Zhao Shuyang opened several, but only took a bite of each before not eating anymore.

Ruan Mian walked over and saw the pastries he had casually tossed onto the table. Her lips moved but in the end she didn’t say anything, noticing Fang Ruqing watching her.

After dinner, Ruan Mian returned to her room to study. As usual she waited until everything was quiet outside before changing clothes and going downstairs to wash up.

In the night the wind picked up again outside, blowing the autumn rain against the glass, dripping and pattering. Ruan Mian was woken up by the noise and checked her phone – it had just gone past four.

She rolled over bundled in her quilt, closed her eyes to listen to the rain outside, but felt not a shred of sleepiness. She stayed like this until dawn broke.

Ruan Mian got up much earlier than usual today. Going downstairs, she came across Fang Ruqing preparing breakfast in the kitchen. She didn’t go over, walking straight into the bathroom instead.

When she finished washing up and came out, Fang Ruqing was standing outside holding the paper bag she had brought back yesterday night. “I saved some for you, take them back to your room.”

Ruan Mian declined.

Fang Ruqing put the bag in her hands anyway and turned to walk to the kitchen. “Have breakfast before going to school. I made your favorite pork and preserved egg congee.”

Due to the sudden financial crisis this year, the foreign trade company Fang Ruqing and Zhao Yingwei worked for had taken quite a big hit, and had been massively laying off people recently. To keep her job, Fang Ruqing had been working overtime every day until late into the night.

Seeing her mother’s clearly thinner figure, Ruan Mian didn’t have the heart to refuse after all.

After breakfast, Ruan Mian left alone for school as usual. By the time she got to the classroom, the class was back to its original pre-exam arrangement.

But Ruan Mian knew this wouldn’t last for long.