Classmate Number Seven - 7
Qi Xia spent the next half hour tending to her new QQ Space. Writing up her profile, changing the page skin, putting care into every little detail. There was something deeply satisfying about building a place of her own, and she lost herself in it, enjoying every minute.
There was an old laptop in the room, one Chen Grandma had no longer used because it was outdated. Qi Lanjing had worried Qi Xia might need a computer, so she'd borrowed it for her.
With some free time on her hands, Qi Xia opened the laptop and continued writing The Bird and the Fish. By ten o'clock, she'd reached exactly two thousand words. She posted the entire piece as a journal entry on her QQ side account, tidied up a little, and left for Dongmian Residential Complex.
While waiting for the bus at the entrance to Baita Lane, she happened to stand beside two girls. One was trying to convince the other to send a friend request to a certain boy.
"Ah, I don't dare. What if he doesn't accept?"
"Who cares? Just send it first! You can see what a handsome guy gets up to every day once you're friends. Seriously, doesn't that tempt you?"
"No, no, no. If he rejects me, it'll be so embarrassing."
...
Qi Xia stared ahead, lost in thought.
If I sent Chen Xifan a friend request, would he accept it?
Her intuition told her that the boy had his own boundaries, and there was a good chance he wouldn't. Just like that rainy night when he'd lent her his umbrella. It had been simple good manners, nothing more.
The truth was, they weren't close.
The girl beside her was still murmuring away. Qi Xia pressed her lips together. If she was honest with herself, she wanted to appear on Chen Xifan's friends list, too.
Weekends, for Qi Xia, were always filled with more housework than she could finish.
When she reached Dongmian Residential Complex and pushed open the door, she found the living room in disarray. Toys and clothes lay scattered across the floor, while a small mountain of unwashed pots, bowls, and dishes had piled up in the kitchen.
If Qi Xia didn't do it, Qi Lanjing would have to handle everything when she came home that afternoon.
Qi Xia didn't complain. She cleaned the living room and kitchen until everything was in order, then sat on a little stool and spent some time memorizing vocabulary. Not long afterward, her uncle, Cao Shuwei, came home.
She had no idea where he'd been, but from the look of him, he probably hadn't slept all night. He sat in the living room smoking one cigarette after another, scattering ash across the floor, then ordered Qi Xia to cook him a bowl of noodles.
She did as she was told. Once the noodles were ready, Cao Yu wanted to go outside and play. Cao Shuwei brushed her off, telling Qi Xia to take Cao Yu downstairs and stop disturbing him while he rested.
There was an open space outside Dongmian Residential Complex, fitted with a basketball hoop and plenty of children's playground equipment.
Cao Yu played on the slide for a while. Then she noticed another child eating a lollipop and pouted.
"Cousin, I want candy too."
Qi Xia rubbed the little girl's head and smiled. "Okay. Let's go get some."
Qi Xia managed to save thirty or forty yuan from her weekly allowance. She took Cao Yu to the supermarket, bought her a lollipop, and picked up a bottle of Coke for herself. Then the two cousins sat on little stools outside the entrance, soaking up the sunlight.
There was an internet café beside the supermarket. Not long afterward, a group of boys who looked like they'd spent half their lives online came out. Qi Xia spotted Cao Meng among them.
He had a cigarette hanging from his mouth and was laughing with a bleached-blond boy, one arm slung over his shoulder.
"The guy's shoes just now. Those were the AJ Dior collab, right? Gotta be over twenty grand."
"Don't believe everything he says. Those were probably knockoffs at best. The real ones are a darker shade than his. I've seen someone wearing the originals at school."
The blond boy clicked his tongue. "Students at your school have that much money? What's his name? Now I kind of want to meet him."
"Chen Xifan. You know Huanyu Investment Bank on Financial Street? He's the son of the bank owner. Second year at our school, ridiculously rich, and generous with his money too. Heard he once gave a friend a camera worth tens of thousands."
"Jesus. A guy like that, and you haven't tried to get close to him?"
"I'd like to, but he's not in my year, and we aren't in the same class."
...
In that moment, Qi Xia felt as though she'd swallowed a mouthful of dirt. The disgust rose slowly, thick and unbearable.
She lowered her head, pretending she hadn't seen anything, but Cao Meng noticed her and Cao Yu anyway. After saying goodbye to the blond boy, he called out, "Cousin," then squatted down to play with Cao Yu.
On the way home, Qi Xia carried the sleeping Cao Yu on her back. She and Cao Meng exchanged a few halfhearted words, and somehow the conversation turned to Chen Xifan.
"Cousin, that Chen Xifan in your class..."
"We're not close."
Cao Meng glanced at her, clearly wanting to say more, but Qi Xia gave him no opening. Without another word, she walked straight past him and headed upstairs.
Behind her came a dismissive scoff.
Qi Xia pressed her lips together and lengthened her stride.
She could more or less guess what Cao Meng was thinking. He wanted to use her position in Class 5 to get closer to Chen Xifan.
Qi Xia didn't want to become anyone's stepping stone, nor did she want Chen Xifan hounded by someone like him. More than that, she couldn't bear to see the pure, uncomplicated feelings of adolescence stamped with some other motive.
*
At the beginning of April, the second-year students sat their first monthly exams.
In the days leading up to them, Qi Xia nearly worked herself into an anxiety disorder. She memorized vocabulary while walking, thought about unfinished corrections to her mistakes while eating, and even dreamed of sitting in the examination hall, writing furiously until her hand cramped.
Qi Lanjing thought she'd studied herself silly. On the morning of the exam, she pressed a hand to Qi Xia's forehead.
"You're not running a fever, are you?"
Only Qi Xia knew the truth. She simply couldn't bear the thought of her scores being embarrassing.
Chen Xifan was first in the entire year. At the very least... at the very least, she couldn't come in last. If she could squeeze out a few more points, perhaps their names would sit a little closer together on the rankings.
Even though that didn't actually mean anything.
The two days of exams passed quickly. The teachers at Jingda High School worked with astonishing efficiency, and by the following day, scores for each subject were already coming out. At noon, when Qi Xia and Xing Anya returned from lunch, the class monitor, Wei Yupeng, blocked their way into the classroom.
"Qi Xia, you're incredible! You got 137 in Chinese, first in the entire year! You should've seen Old Hu in the teachers' office. He was practically grinning from ear to ear!"
"That's amazing!"
Her classmates crowded around to congratulate her.
Qi Xia froze, then finally processed what he'd said. Relief washed over her. She'd done well in Chinese, so perhaps her other subjects hadn't gone too badly either.
As it turned out, her instincts had been right.
When the year-wide rankings were posted that afternoon, Qi Xia had scored 560 points in total, placing twenty-ninth in her class and somewhere in the five hundreds across the entire year. Apart from Chinese, she'd improved by three or four points in every subject compared to her previous performance.
The ranking sheet was pinned to the blackboard at the back of the classroom, and a crowd of students kept gathering around it, looking again and again. Qi Xia found Chen Xifan's name.
712 points. First in the year.
A difference of 152 points.
I have to work even harder, Qi Xia told herself.
After school that day, it happened to be Qi Xia and Xu Youfei's turn to do classroom duty.
Once they'd taken out the trash, the two girls linked arms and went to the restroom. The restroom was separated from the athletic field by a strip of greenery. Qi Xia came out first and stood beside it, waiting for Xu Youfei.
She lifted her head and swept her eyes across Court One, where Chen Xifan played most often. Almost every day, during breaks and after school, he could be found there.
But today, she couldn't see him.
A little disappointed, Qi Xia puffed out her cheeks and looked away.
Then someone tapped her shoulder.
Xu Youfei had appeared beside her without her noticing.
Qi Xia jumped. "What are you doing? You scared me!"
"What are you looking at? You look like you've lost your soul."
"Nothing. There was a girl walking past just now. She was really pretty, so I looked a little longer."
Xu Youfei didn't buy it. "Who? Was she prettier than you?"
"Don't flatter me like that. I used to be ugly."
Qi Xia meant it. She wasn't fishing for compliments.
Xu Youfei's gaze lingered on her face, reluctant to move away. They'd known each other for over a month now, long enough to be comfortable together, yet Xu Youfei still found herself stealing extra looks at Qi Xia.
The girl's skin was fair, and none of her features were flawless on their own, but together, they made a face so beautiful it was almost unfair. Her quiet personality only added to it. There was a cool, distant quality about her, like she belonged to some untouched, otherworldly place.
There's only one problem, she hardly ever spoke. She kept to herself, never competing, never making a fuss, so it was easy for people to overlook her.
Xu Youfei hooked an arm around her shoulders.
"Being ugly was then. You're pretty now, and that's what matters, right? Come here, my little fairy. Give me a hug."
On the way back, Xu Youfei announced that she was hungry and wanted snacks. Qi Xia was feeling a little peckish too, but the school store had already closed.
They reached the third floor and turned around the stairwell corner.
A familiar figure came into view.
Chen Xifan was holding an orange basketball. He'd just finished playing, judging by the fine sheen of sweat on his cool, pale cheeks and neck. The loose strands of hair across his forehead were damp, and his blue-and-white school uniform brought out a youthful charm that was softened by something effortlessly attractive.
Qi Xia stared for half a second too long.
Her heart skipped.
Chen Xifan was walking toward them, his head lowered as he spoke with their math teacher, Zeng Wei. As they drew closer, Qi Xia caught a string of numbers from Zeng Wei, apparently a QQ number belonging to someone in charge of a competition. He reminded Chen Xifan to add the person.
"Got it," the boy answered, sounding only half interested.
Once he'd finished giving his instructions, Zeng Wei hurried away. Qi Xia instinctively looked aside, lowering her head as though she were absorbed in walking, doing everything she could to make herself inconspicuous.
"Ge, what were you talking about? Wow, why are these teachers always looking for you?"
Chen Xifan glanced at Xu Youfei but clearly had no intention of answering. He simply spun the basketball in his hand, making his position on the matter perfectly clear: mind your own business.
Xu Youfei pouted. "We have nothing to say to each other, so I'll be going."
"Wait."
Chen Xifan stopped her and tossed the basketball over.
"Take it back to the classroom."
Xu Youfei climbed onto the opportunity like a ladder. "You want me to do you a favor? Then you need to show a little sincerity. Got anything to eat? Xia Xia and I are starving."
Chen Xifan stood with his hands in his pockets, looking faintly helpless. Still, he reached into his school uniform jacket and pulled out two packets of snacks, handing them over.
Two little cakes. One strawberry, one red date.
"Hao Xiao gave them to me. They should be safe."
Xu Youfei didn't hesitate for even a second. She took the red-date cake, tore it open, and bit into it.
The other cake remained in Chen Xifan's hand.
The boy raised his eyes toward Qi Xia and held it out, silently indicating that she should take it.
They weren't particularly close, but Qi Xia's mind had already stopped functioning properly. Her palms were sweating. She forced herself to maintain a calm expression and met his eyes.
"No, thank you..."
"Hm?"
Chen Xifan tilted his head, looking a little puzzled.
"Didn't you say you were hungry?"
Perhaps he thought she didn't like cake. He reached into his pocket again, pulled out a box of mints, and held those out instead.
"What about these?"
"I..."
At that point, refusing again would have been awkward. Qi Xia accepted the strawberry cake with both hands.
"Thank you," she said softly.
"Nothing."
Chen Xifan lifted his chin toward the two girls.
"See you."
The sun was sinking into the west, scattering the sky with streaks of evening color. Bathed in the fading light, the boy's figure grew smaller and smaller as he walked away.
Qi Xia kept her expression perfectly normal and returned to the classroom with Xu Youfei.
All the way there, her heart thudded so hard it felt ready to leap from her chest. The strawberry cake in her pocket seemed to radiate heat, burning against her palm.
Qi Xia thought she would remember this little incident for a very, very long time.
That day, the boy she liked had given her a strawberry cake.
And for the entire night, her dreams tasted sweet.
---
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