Classmate Number Seven - 6
The sound of the chopsticks hitting the floor was barely audible. Apart from Xing Anya, who sat beside Qi Xia, no one else noticed.
Xing Anya shot her a puzzled look. Qi Xia's heart tightened.
"I didn't have a good grip," she said, her voice slightly strained.
"I'll get you a new pair."
"Okay. Thanks."
While Xing Anya went to fetch them, Qi Xia bent down to pick up the fallen chopsticks. Beneath the table, hidden from everyone else's view, she finally dared to let her eyes drift toward Chen Xifan.
He was wearing white-and-green sneakers today. His long legs sprawled carelessly beneath the table, giving him the air of a careless young master, languid and effortlessly refined.
By the time Qi Xia picked up the chopsticks, Xing Anya had returned. She took the new pair and went on eating, her expression unchanged, though the braised pork rice in her bowl had somehow lost its flavor. She chewed absently on a piece of greens.
Does he have a girlfriend?
Who… is she?
Before long, a whole string of questions had found their answers.
No sooner than Chen Xifan announced that he had a girlfriend, Xu Youfei and He Xiao burst out laughing at the same time.
Xu Youfei laughed so hard she nearly doubled over. "Ge, your girlfriend isn't that pile of airplane models you have at home, is she?"
"What's wrong with that?" Chen Xifan raised an eyebrow, making no attempt to deny it.
He Xiao clicked his tongue and shook his head, looking like a man watching someone throw their life away. "You're hopeless, obsessed. You treat airplanes like your wives. Feel sorry for all those girls throwing themselves at you. They don't even know that in Young Master Chen's heart, not even the prettiest girl in the world can hold a candle to an airplane."
Chen Xifan's expression remained placid. "They can't."
"Honestly, what a waste of that face."
"Eat your food. One more word and you can forget about that signed jersey."
A few days earlier, a famous overseas sports team had held a fan meet in Jing City. Their signed jerseys were impossible to buy, no matter how much money you had. He Xiao had spent days pleading, cajoling, and practically begging on his hands and knees before Chen Xifan finally agreed to help.
Now, He Xiao knew better than to provoke him. He hurriedly raised a hand to his mouth and mimed zipping it shut.
Xu Youfei could barely contain her laughter. "He Xiao, you're such a wimp!"
Only then did Qi Xia understand. Chen Xifan's girlfriend was an airplane model.
The weight in her heart, heavy as though it had been filled with water, slowly began to lift.
She took a sip of the free yogurt the cafeteria handed out, peach-flavored, with just a hint of sweetness.
After lunch, the two boys went to play basketball, while Xu Youfei walked back to the classroom with Qi Xia and Xing Anya. Along the way, Qi Xia couldn't resist asking, "Feifei, does Chen Xifan have a lot of airplane models?"
"Yeah, tons. Every year, all the gifts he gets for his birthday are airplane models. He could probably fill an entire room by now. What, are you interested in them too?"
Qi Xia had no choice but to lie. "Not really. I have a friend back home who's really into airplanes, and his birthday's coming up. I was wondering if I should get him an airplane model."
Xu Youfei immediately offered a solution. "Here's what we'll do. I'll send you the number for an aviation enthusiasts' group later. Remember to join. Everyone in there loves airplanes, you can find models of all kinds. My brother's in it too. He says it's pretty reliable."
"Okay. Thanks, Feifei."
Xing Anya couldn't resist joining in on the gossip. "When Chen Xifan said he had a girlfriend just now, I nearly died. I thought I'd stumbled onto some earth-shattering secret about our school heartthrob."
"Hahaha!" Xu Youfei wasted no time dragging her cousin. "You girls didn't know? My brother's an aerospace fanatic. In his eyes, even the most beautiful woman in the world isn't as good-looking as an airplane."
"When I was little, I went to his house once and accidentally cut my finger on one of his airplane models. You know what his first reaction was? He went to check whether the model was damaged. He didn't even care about me! I was furious!"
Xing Anya blinked. "So our school heartthrob is kind of a straight-lace guy, huh?"
"That's putting it mildly. He's got plenty of embarrassing stories." Xu Youfei grew more incensed the longer she talked. "Did you know my brother has a nickname? Princess Chen."
Qi Xia slowed to a stop. She remembered. Someone had indeed called him Princess Chen outside Baita Lane.
"Why not Prince? Why Princess?"
"Because my brother's skin is ridiculously delicate. When he was about five or six, our whole extended family went abroad for a trip and stayed at a hotel. It was a five-star place, with impeccable service, but after just one night, his skin broke out in an allergic reaction. He insisted something was poking him. So all of us kids started calling him the Princess and the Pea."
Xing Anya nodded. "That actually makes sense. I'm a girl, and I still feel inferior to our school heartthrob sometimes. His skin is incredible. I've never seen anyone that fair."
"Oh, wait. Qi Xia's pretty fair too. I'm so jealous of people who are just born with beautiful skin..."
The corners of Qi Xia's lips lifted ever so slightly.
So he liked airplane models. No wonder his QQ profile picture was an airplane, too. And so that was where the nickname Princess Chen came from.
A quiet, secret delight stirred inside her. She knew a little more about Chen Xifan now, just a little.
*
The last class on Friday was physical education, everyone began making their way to the athletic field. When the three girls reached the first floor, they happened to run into their math teacher, Zeng Wei.
Zeng Wei called them over. "Do you girls know where Chen Xifan is?"
Xu Youfei had only just woken up from her nap, still yawning. "No idea. Haven't seen him."
"I haven't noticed either," Xing Anya said.
Qi Xia knew exactly where he was. He was still sleeping in the classroom. When she'd left a moment earlier, she'd deliberately turned around to chat with the girl behind her, using the opportunity to sneak two glances at his seat.
Chen Xifan had been sprawled over his desk, his tousled black hair peeking out above a school uniform jacket draped over him. Half his face was buried in his arms, his skin pale with a cool, almost luminous whiteness.
As Qi Xia passed the back door, she'd heard He Xiao ask him, "You going to P.E.?"
"Later," Chen Xifan had mumbled. "Tell Old Wu for me."
And then everyone had gone downstairs, leaving him to sleep even more soundly, perfectly at peace with the world.
Qi Xia parted her lips, but in the end, she followed the others and told Zeng Wei, "I don't know either, sir."
She was timid, and she wasn't particularly good at hiding things. If she'd admitted Chen Xifan was still in the classroom, Xu Youfei and Xing Anya would have asked how she knew, and her little secret would have been exposed.
She didn't dare, and she couldn't. Everything connected to Chen Xifan was a secret she had to keep hidden from the light.
Zeng Wei said, "I'm about to head over to the Academic Building for a meeting. Do me a favor and check whether he's in the classroom. If he is, tell him to come straight to Room 501 in the Academic Building. There's a problem with his math competition registration form."
With that, Zeng Wei left for his meeting. Xing Anya and Xu Youfei were in a hurry to use the restroom, so Qi Xia had no choice but to go back to the classroom alone and pass on the message.
She and Chen Xifan had barely spoken since the beginning of the school year. Even though all she had to do was deliver a simple message, she still felt so nervous that she kept taking deep breaths.
Step by step, she climbed the stairs, rehearsing what she would say in her head. Her heart hammered faster with every step, as if it already knew the encounter waiting for her.
Before she realized it, she had reached the classroom.
Chen Xifan was no longer asleep. He was chatting with a boy from another class, someone Qi Xia recognized as Song Qingzhuo from Class 7, who often came looking for Chen Xifan and He Xiao.
It was March, the spring breeze slipping through the corridors was soft and mild. Little by little, Qi Xia's skin began to burn.
She moved toward him slowly and stopped behind his chair, doing her best to keep her voice steady.
"Chen Xifan, the math teacher wants to see you."
Perhaps she'd spoken too softly. Chen Xifan didn't hear her at first. Song Qingzhuo turned to look at Qi Xia, then patted Chen Xifan on the shoulder.
"Hey, there's a girl looking for you."
Only then did Chen Xifan turn around.
His face was bright and open, his features softened by an easy warmth that was almost intoxicating, like spring wind brushing across her skin.
When he saw who was standing behind him, Chen Xifan rose from his seat. His expression remained calm. "What is it?"
"The math teacher wants to see you."
"Hm?" This time, perhaps to hear her better, he leaned slightly toward her.
A fresh scent of mint reached Qi Xia. In that instant, her heart nearly stopped.
Her ears felt unbearably hot. She lowered her eyes, not daring to look at him, and raised her voice.
"He wants you to go to Room 501 in the Academic Building right now. I think it's about the competition."
"Got it. Thanks."
The moment she'd delivered the message, Qi Xia fled the classroom and hurried downstairs, walking as fast as she could. She didn't stop until she'd put a considerable distance between herself and the room.
Class had already begun. The second-floor corridor was empty. She took a moment to steady her breathing, yet everything still felt dreamlike.
As luck would have it, her shoelace had come undone. Qi Xia turned her back to the stairs and crouched down to tie it.
By coincidence, Chen Xifan and Song Qingzhuo were coming downstairs at that very moment. Their footsteps drew closer. Hearing their voices, Qi Xia's heart tightened again.
She quietly edged farther toward the corner, making sure they wouldn't run into each other.
Song Qingzhuo asked, "I don't think I've seen that girl before. What's her name?"
"Transfer student. Qi Xia."
Hearing her own name spoken in Chen Xifan's voice, Qi Xia couldn't help smiling.
Then Song Qingzhuo said, "The 'Qi' from up-and-down anxiety? That's a pretty interesting name."
"No." Chen Xifan drew out the word lazily. "I think it's the Qi from Qi Jiguang, and Xia as in summer."
The smile hadn't even left Qi Xia's lips before it froze.
How could she describe the feeling?
A bitter ache spread from the corners of her eyes all the way to her heart, so painful that she wanted to cry. But at that age, with the limited experience and understanding she had, she couldn't yet comprehend why.
It would take many years, when Qi Xia was walking alone across her university campus beneath a sky full of stars, for her to finally understand.
A secret crush held so much sweetness and so much sorrow, yet in the end, it was nothing more than a one-woman play, written, directed, and performed by herself.
She had rehearsed it countless times, but to him, she was nothing more than a female classmate whose name he couldn't even remember properly.
That night, after evening self-study, Qi Xia returned to Baita Lane and posted a QQ status.
March 17, 2013
[I really want to tell him my name is Qi Xia. Qi as in pitch-black, Xia as in summer.]
The next day was the weekend. When Qi Xia woke up, she discovered that something had gone terribly wrong in her QQ Space.
She'd forgotten to set last night's status to private. By now, several comments had already appeared.
Xu Youfei: Who? Tell me who! Does this "he" mean what I think it means? Xia Xia, you'd better come clean.
Xing Anya: Something's up with you.
Tang Qiao: Our Xia Xia, what's wrong with you?
...
Friends she'd added throughout middle and high school, the active ones and the long-silent ones alike, had practically all been summoned by that single post. Plenty of others had messaged her privately, asking what was going on.
At six in the morning, the last remnants of sleep vanished from Qi Xia's mind. She sat on the bed with her phone in hand, mortified and terrified.
At least she'd never been shameless enough to add Chen Xifan on QQ. Qi Xia felt profoundly grateful for that now. Otherwise, trying to explain herself would have made everything even more suspicious.
After an hour of agonizing thought, she finally came up with a reason that sounded reasonably convincing. She posted another status, explaining that she'd gone to a bookstore to buy a book and register for a membership, but the owner had written her name down as the "down" in the phrase "up-and-down anxiety."
Perhaps because Qi Xia had always seemed so well-behaved, a girl who looked incapable of telling a lie, no one questioned her story. A string of laughing comments followed, and the whole incident passed without a hitch.
Just to be safe, Qi Xia decided to register a second QQ account, one she could use to record the feelings she kept hidden from everyone else.
She happened to have two phone numbers, one from Lancheng and one from Jing City. So she used her newly issued Jing City number to register the account.
The process was simple, and it didn't take long. She left the profile picture and introduction untouched. As for the nickname...
After a moment's thought, she changed the default name to a three-character username:
Classmate No. 7.
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