Classmate Number Seven - 3
Qi Xia’s lashes trembled. She lifted her eyes and met Chen Xifan’s gaze head-on.
Chen Xifan had the classic peach-blossom eyes, their outer corners slightly elongated and gently upturned, always holding a soft, luminous warmth.
He wore a short black down jacket, its zipper undone and the front hanging open over a gray hoodie. The two drawstrings dangled at different lengths, asymmetrical and casually untidy.
Qi Xia’s breath caught for a moment. She could barely string her words together.
“The umbrella... If you give me the umbrella, then what about you?”
“I’ve arrived.” Chen Xifan tilted his head and pointed toward a black sedan parked not far away.
Its hazard lights were flashing. Rain had dampened the body until it gleamed beneath the streetlights, the car waiting silently in the curtain of rain.
“Thank you.”
As Qi Xia walked back to the residence with the umbrella, her fingers rubbed over the handle. It still felt faintly warm.
Raindrops mixed with tiny flakes of snow struck the canopy, sometimes softly, sometimes with greater force, like the erratic rhythm of her heartbeat.
Qi Xia turned to look back along the road they had come from. In the hazy darkness, the black sedan was already gone. Only the streetlights remained, glowing in lonely silence.
When she returned to her room, her phone rang.
It was a cheap, off-brand smartphone with decent battery life. She hadn't charged it in two days, yet it still had seventy percent remaining.
The moment she answered, Qi Yuan’s voice came rushing through the receiver.
“Big Sister, are you doing okay at Auntie’s house? Is the big city pretty? Have you gone to see the Forbidden City?”
Qi Yuan was six years younger than her and in primary school that year, still a little kid who knew nothing about the world.
Qi Xia filtered out anything unpleasant and said, “Auntie treats me very well. Of course the big city is beautiful. I haven’t been to the Forbidden City yet.”
“Oh, then take pictures for me when you go. Lots and lots of pictures.”
During most of their phone calls, Qi Yuan did the talking while Qi Xia listened quietly.
The little girl never seemed to run out of things to say.
“Today, Great-Aunt took me shopping. She bought me drawing pens and storybooks.”
“Did you ask her to buy them?” Qi Xia’s heart tightened.
Given the circumstances the sisters were in, they really had no business asking for anything. Being able to attend school and have somewhere to eat and sleep was already more than enough.
“No! Great-Aunt bought things for Cousin, and she bought some for me too.”
Qi Xia let out a quiet breath of relief.
She knew that her uncle and aunt were both good people. They ran a breakfast shop, and when Qi Liguo was still alive, he would send them anything delicious they came across. Her aunt had attended parent-teacher meetings on Qi Xia’s behalf, and during holidays, the two families would gather for meals.
Qi Xia was only afraid that even their kindness might eventually be worn down by the weight of everyday life.
Qi Yuan, naturally, had no room in her mind for such worries. She asked eagerly, “Big Sister, have you finished writing The Bird and the Fish? When can I read it?”
The Bird and the Fish was an original story Qi Xia had written for fun. Quiet and introverted, she had only one real hobby: writing.
Their family had never had much money. Once, when the sisters were out shopping, Qi Yuan had fallen in love with a collection of fairy tales and refused to leave the bookstore. But Qi Xia hadn't had enough money in her pocket to buy it, so she had coaxed her sister by saying that she could write stories just like those herself.
From then on, Qi Xia gave her imagination free rein, and Qi Yuan gained unlimited access to fairy tales. On countless nights when she could not fall asleep, she drifted into dreams inside her sister’s stories.
Qi Xia laughed. “Yuan Yuan, you really are my most loyal reader.”
“Of course! The stories you write are the best in the whole world.”
“I’ve been a little busy lately. I’ll write whenever I have time. You’ll be the first person to read it when it’s finished.”
“Okay. It’s a promise.”
After reminding Qi Yuan of a few things, Qi Xia spoke with her uncle for a while as well.
Fortunately, his attitude toward her remained just as warm as ever. He told her not to worry, that Qi Yuan was doing perfectly well on Yizhou Island. The little girl had been eating so much that she had gained two pounds, and he would treat her exactly like his own daughter.
Some of the worry lifted from Qi Xia’s heart. She quietly thanked him.
After ending the call, Qi Xia opened the umbrella and left it spread out on the floor to dry. By the time she finished a hot shower, the canopy was already dry. She folded it carefully, thinking that she would return it to Chen Xifan the next time they met.
But when would that be?
He seemed to come to Grandma Chen’s house only on weekends or when he went skiing.
Even though she had no idea when she would see him again, the thought of their next meeting made her lips curve helplessly upward. At least then, she and Chen Xifan would have a perfectly legitimate reason to speak.
At sixteen, with her world so gray and dim, it was as though a crack had opened in the sky, allowing the faintest sliver of light to spill through.
Two years earlier, when she had been ostracized and grown so anxious she nearly cried because she couldn't find a teammate, he had stepped in and eased her embarrassment. Whether Chen Xifan had done it intentionally or not, Qi Xia had always been grateful.
And today, he handed her an umbrella once again...
Qi Xia opened QQ and posted an update visible only to herself.
February 14, 2013
[I saw him again.]
February 20, 2013
[Thank you for the umbrella.]
The next few days were busy for Qi Xia.
Every morning, she took the bus to Dongmian Residential Complex, where she stayed for the entire day.
Whenever she had a little free time, she would play with Cao Yu or read and work on exercises. Most of her hours, however, went toward cooking and doing housework. After dinner, she cleaned the kitchen before taking the bus back to Baita Lane. By then, it was usually past nine at night.
Because of this, Qi Lanjing had gotten into an argument with Cao Shuwei. The atmosphere at home had become painfully strained, and Cao Meng, along with her grandparents, looked at Qi Xia like she was some kind of walking disaster.
Qi Xia had no idea how to handle it. She simply became more and more careful, terrified of making even one mistake. During that period, she didn't see Chen Xifan, which meant she had no opportunity to return his umbrella.
At the end of February, Jingda High School began its new semester.
Qi Xia rose early on the first day of school. She had already familiarized herself with the route the day before, she didn't ask Qi Lanjing to accompany her and took the bus to school alone.
Perhaps because it was the first day of term, the entrance to Jingda High School was jammed at seven-thirty in the morning, the road outside transformed into a sprawling parking lot.
Once she entered the school grounds, Qi Xia stood beside the sports field and studied the campus map. She needed to find the teachers’ offices first and report in.
The affiliated high school wasn't particularly large, it was easy enough to navigate. Before long, she found her homeroom teacher, Hu Zhonghai, on the first floor of Zhiyuan Building.
“Good morning, Teacher. I’m Qi Xia, the transfer student assigned to Class 5.”
Hu Zhonghai was in his forties, slightly heavyset and wearing glasses. He had been preparing his lessons at his desk. At the sound of her voice, he looked up and smiled.
“Oh, Qi Xia, right? Come on, sit down.”
Qi Xia approached and took a seat. On his desk, she saw two sets of textbooks and four school uniforms.
Hu Zhonghai pointed to the textbooks. “The textbooks used in Jing City are different from those in F Province, we’ve gotten you a new set. Take two sets of uniforms with you when you leave.”
“Okay.”
Hu Zhonghai searched through the many documents scattered across his desk before pulling out a report card. His tone turned earnest.
“I’ve looked over your grades. Overall, they’re fairly average, but your Chinese is excellent. Scoring 130 means you have a very strong foundation. Your mathematics and physics, on the other hand, are a little weak.”
“But don’t worry too much. You still have a year and a half before the gaokao. Take some time to adjust to your new surroundings, then gradually catch up.”
Qi Xia nodded obediently. “I understand. Thank you, Teacher.”
“Good. Sit here and wait a little while. Once the other transfer student arrives, I’ll take both of you to the classroom.”
So there was another transfer student. That explained why everything on the desk had been prepared in duplicate.
Five or six minutes later, Qi Xia finally met the other newcomer.
She was a bright, cheerful girl named Xu Youfei. Both of her parents were diplomats, and she had transferred back to the affiliated high school after her parents were reassigned for work.
Xu Youfei was the sort of person who could strike up a conversation with anyone. She also had a fearless, larger-than-life social confidence. On the way to the classroom, she hugged her books and uniforms to her chest and chattered nonstop with Qi Xia.
“We’re clearly destined to meet. We might as well become deskmates.”
Qi Xia smiled gently. “If the teacher agrees, I’d be happy to.”
When Xu Youfei learned that Qi Xia had only recently arrived in Jing City, she said enthusiastically, “I may have moved abroad when I was seven, but my whole family is originally from Jing City, I know quite a few people at this school. Don’t worry. I’ve got your back from now on.”
There was something almost comically streetwise about the declaration. Qi Xia couldn't help laughing.
“You know a lot of people at school?”
“Yeah. My cousin is here, along with a few friends I’ve known since childhood. Anyway, don’t worry. No one’s going to dare bully us.”
Perhaps Xu Youfei really was talking too much. Hu Zhonghai, who was walking ahead of them, glanced back. Xu Youfei immediately clamped her mouth shut.
The classroom for Year Two, Class 5, was on the third floor. When Hu Zhonghai pushed open the door, several mischievous boys called out greetings.
“Old Hu, you’re here! We’ve come to wish you a belated Happy New Year! May you strike it rich and have good luck in everything...”
Hu Zhonghai laughed as he scolded them. “Sit properly, all of you. Didn’t you hear the bell? What kind of behavior is this during class time?”
He stepped up to the podium and cleared his throat.
“The New Year has just passed, and you’ve all grown a year older. That means we’re one step closer to the gaokao as well. I hope everyone can settle down and focus on your studies, make up for last year’s regrets, and achieve new results this year. Understood?”
A wave of enthusiastic applause swept through the room. Hu Zhonghai raised a hand for silence before continuing.
“We have two new students joining our class this semester. Let’s give them a welcome.”
He beckoned for the newcomers to come up and introduce themselves.
Naturally, Xu Youfei, the fearless social butterfly, went first. She stood confidently before the class.
“Hello, everyone. My name is Xu Youfei, you can call me Feifei. I spent most of my time abroad before this, but I’ve always loved classical Chinese poetry and traditional Chinese clothing. I’m pretty good at sports too. I’ve trained in taekwondo, and I even have a red-and-black belt...”
One of the students gave her an enthusiastic response.
“Fei-jie, you’re awesome!”
“Little brother, sit down. Sister Fei isn’t finished yet!” Xu Youfei declared. “In one sentence, my grades are the only ordinary thing about me. Everything else is extraordinary. You’ll find out for yourselves.”
Her lively, mischievous introduction came to an end, and the class burst into laughter.
The warm atmosphere left Qi Xia slightly stunned. She hadn't expected Xu Youfei to blend in with everyone so quickly, on the very first day of school.
Qi Xia actually envied people like her. They were witty and entertaining, unafraid of attention, moving through everything as though nothing could throw them off balance.
That innate confidence and brightness were things Qi Xia could never learn.
Then it was her turn.
Qi Xia stepped onto the podium and looked straight ahead at the blackboard at the back of the classroom.
“Hello, everyone. My name is Qi Xia. The Qi in pitch-black, and the Xia in summer. I used to attend school in F Province...”
After that, her mind went blank.
Right on cue, a boy called out, “A little fairy from the south!”
His tone was flirtatious, followed by a whistle. The awkwardness dissipated, and the classroom grew lively once more.
Hu Zhonghai slapped the desk to restore order, then pointed toward two empty seats in the first row of the third group.
“You two, sit there for now.”
Students at the affiliated high school sat three to a row, with two deskmates each. Qi Xia took the middle seat. Xu Youfei, whom she already knew, sat to her right. Her left deskmate was another girl named Xing Anya. Thin and wearing black-rimmed glasses, she looked like the kind of student who excelled academically.
There was not much to do on the first day of school. During the morning study, the teachers of each subject gave them the usual warnings and instructions before leaving them to their own device.
As soon as the teachers left, Xu Youfei busied herself socializing with the students in front of and behind them, while Qi Xia quietly read her book.
She flipped through the textbooks, discovering that the materials and exam formats used at the affiliated high school were different from what she had been accustomed to. Even the pace of the lessons was far ahead of what she had known before.
Qi Xia leaned toward Xing Anya and asked softly, “What time do we usually finish school?”
Xing Anya patiently explained, “There are extracurricular activities after four-twenty. If you don’t want to participate, you can leave directly.”
“Four-twenty?” Qi Xia asked in surprise. “Don’t we have evening self-study?”
“The affiliated high school doesn’t have boarding students, so of course Senior One and Senior Two don’t have evening self-study. But if you want to attend, you can. It runs from six-thirty to nine-thirty every day, in the lecture hall of the Senior Three teaching building.”
Qi Xia knew her own limitations.
Her grades had been fairly outstanding in middle school, but she hadn't done as well in high school, remaining somewhere around the middle of the class.
Now that she has transferred to Jing City, if she did not start working harder than everyone else, she might very well end up at the bottom.
Wanting some company, Qi Xia gathered her courage and asked, “Do you attend evening self-study? We could go together.”
“I have one-on-one tutoring at six, so I never attend evening self-study. But since you’re new, I can take you to the lecture hall today.”
So that was how it worked.
Students who didn't attend evening self-study were not necessarily giving up on studying. They were simply moving somewhere else to study more effectively.
The educational resources available in a major city were abundant, luxuries that students from smaller places rarely had access to.
Once again, Qi Xia felt the unevenness of the world. She let out a silent sigh.
“Okay. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Before long, the bell rang.
Qi Xia remained in her seat, earnestly previewing a passage in her English textbook.
Someone came over to speak with Xu Youfei.
“Not bad, Miss Xu. You’ve spent so long in America, and your Chinese is still pretty fluent.”
“Hey, He Xiao, don’t look down on people!” Xu Youfei snatched the three bottles of yogurt from He Xiao’s hands and distributed them among Qi Xia and Xing Anya. Then she asked, “Where’s my brother? My dad said he’s in Class 5 too. Don’t tell me he’s deliberately hiding from me.”
“No idea. A-Fan was called away by a teacher first thing this morning.”
A-Fan...
The name reached her by chance. The pen in Qi Xia’s hand slipped out of control, dragging a sharp line across her scrap paper.
She immediately laughed at herself.
She was being too sensitive.
There were twenty classes in each grade at the affiliated high school. Although Chen Xifan attended the same school, how could he possibly be in Class 5 too?
After He Xiao left, Qi Xia asked Xu Youfei, “Is your cousin in our class too? What’s his name?”
“Yeah. My dad and his dad are cousins, so we’ve known each other since we were little. But I take my mother’s surname. My cousin isn’t surnamed Xu. His surname is Chen, and his name is...”
She was interrupted by a rush of hurried footsteps. Several boys entered the classroom, laughing and joking among themselves.
Someone shouted loudly, “Chen Xifan!”
There was something almost magical about that name. Qi Xia’s thoughts tore away from the conversation at once, and she turned around even faster than the person being called.
Then she saw a familiar figure enter through the back door.
He stopped beside the desks in the last row of the first group, unscrewed his water bottle, and took a sip.
At the end of February, the classroom heaters were still running. Chen Xifan removed his down jacket and draped it over the back of his chair, revealing the blue-and-white school uniform beneath.
He was tall, with long legs, and somehow made the colors of the uniform look brighter simply by wearing them.
The moment Qi Xia recognized him, she froze.
As though sensing something, Chen Xifan lowered his water bottle and looked in her direction. Fortunately, Qi Xia noticed the movement before he fully turned his head. She hurriedly looked away and lowered her eyes.
It felt as though an unexpected happiness had fallen from the sky and struck her squarely in the chest. The emotions it stirred were impossible to describe.
Sweetness, sourness, a tangled mixture of every possible feeling.
But Qi Xia knew one thing for certain.
At that moment, sweetness outweighed everything else.
By the time she came back to herself, she could no longer concentrate on the passage in front of her. She gripped her pen tightly, yet could not write a single word.
Chen Xifan, meanwhile, walked over.
His jawline was sharply defined, and his long legs drew the eye.
“Chen Xifan, where did you go first thing this morning?” Xu Youfei asked. “I couldn’t find the teaching building, and you didn’t even answer when I called.”
“Administration building,” Chen Xifan replied, somewhat absentmindedly.
His voice was just as it had been before, clear and mellow, carrying a hint of casual indifference.
Realizing that his voice was right beside her, Qi Xia’s thoughts grew even more chaotic. She propped her head up with one hand and did not dare to look up.
Not only that, but her ears were burning.
Chen Xifan said, “This is a form the transfer students need to fill out. Once you’re done, take it to Room 303 in the administration building.”
Xu Youfei accepted the two forms and handed one to Qi Xia. Then she called after Chen Xifan as he prepared to leave.
“Hey!”
“I just transferred here today, everyone in class has already welcomed me, but you haven’t. And my deskmate is a transfer student too. Is this really how you’re going to treat the two new students?”
Xu Youfei had been picking fights for as long as Qi Xia had known her, and she was doing it deliberately now.
Chen Xifan turned around, both hands tucked into his pockets. One eyebrow lifted, and his voice was languid.
“Xu Youfei, give it a rest. I haven’t settled the score with you over that snowboard yet.”
At that, Xu Youfei immediately became obedient. She muttered, “I just thought... pink looked nice. You’re so petty!”
Chen Xifan had been born into privilege, someone who had never had to worry about material things. One of the clearest manifestations of his pampered upbringing was that no one was allowed to touch his belongings without permission.
That did not mean he was domineering or unreasonable, though. Xu Youfei had modified a snowboard he was particularly fond of without asking him first. He was understandably upset, but he knew when to stop, and he wasn't the sort to hold a grudge.
“All right. Don’t do it again.” Chen Xifan let out a soft, amused huff. “Welcome to both of you. Lunch is on me.”
Qi Xia’s heart leapt at his words, welcome to both of you, only to plunge straight back down just as suddenly.
It was beating far too quickly.
Only after Chen Xifan had returned to his seat did Qi Xia carefully turn around and steal a glance at him while no one was paying attention.
Unfortunately, all she saw was the clean, elegant line of his back.
Outside the window, the steady patter of water continued. It was early spring, when the weather could turn warm and cold without warning. The snow that had accumulated along the eaves throughout the winter was finally beginning to melt.
Qi Xia slipped the form into her desk and lowered her eyes to her English textbook.
The page happened to contain a sentence:
Not all tachycardias mean you have heart disease.
Not every racing heartbeat is caused by illness.
Perhaps sometimes, it was because you had fallen in love with someone.
---
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