Little Garden - 3
Fang Zhixiao told Li Kuiyi to wait for her. She was on her way over, and they could have lunch together.
Li Kuiyi thought about it and said fine.
It was just past nine. The sun was only beginning to show its teeth, yet some girls who knew better were already opening parasols. Li Kuiyi hated the heat too, she simply stayed inside the gymnasium instead of going out.
Freshman registration was being held right there. There was air conditioning, plenty of chairs, and a whole lot of people who'd had the same idea as her and decided to camp out. A gym full of restless teenagers was never going to stay quiet. Some were bouncing around excitedly after running into old classmates. Others were deep in heated discussions about the summer’s hit dramas, arguing over whether the heroine was actually in love with the male lead or the second male lead. Altogether it sounded like eight hundred ducks had been penned up together. Twenty tables lined the center of the floor, each with a class sign beside it. The homeroom teachers for Grade One sat behind their respective tables, ready to welcome the new students.
The homeroom teacher for Class 1 was a young woman with a gentle, graceful air, exactly the sort of person Li Kuiyi liked at first sight. When Li Kuiyi came up to sign in, the teacher tilted her head and smiled brightly. "Ah. Our little top scorer."
Li Kuiyi felt her cheeks grow faintly warm.
After registering, she found a seat in the bleachers nearby, and couldn't resist bragging to Fang Zhixiao.
Li Kuiyi: My homeroom teacher seems really nice!
Fang Zhixiao: Who cares? Our class has a handsome guy.
Li Kuiyi glanced toward the Class 12 sign and launched into a description. “Your homeroom teacher is a middle-aged man wearing the Polo shirt you hate, he's balding, which you also hate, and he has the beer belly you hate most.”
Fang Zhixiao: Who cares? Our class has a handsome guy.
Li Kuiyi: …Hmph.
She put her phone down, bored and aimless, but it wasn’t long until she found herself a new source of entertainment. Before coming to the gymnasium, she had taken a photo of Class 1’s roster. Now, every time a Class 1 student came to sign in, she would study their looks and general vibe and try to guess their name.
The big-eyed girl with blunt bangs and a headband, she guessed, was probably Pan Junmeng. The boy who was skinny as a reed yet had a slightly scholarly air, she guessed, was Zhou Fanghua… And then there was a girl so strikingly beautiful that she seemed to glow. She wore a pearl-white dress scattered with tiny pale-purple flowers, a pair of thin sparkling sandals on her feet, her long hair loose and faintly curled. Li Kuiyi noticed that the moment she stepped into the gymnasium, countless eyes turned toward her. Even the surrounding chatter seemed to quiet.
Her instincts told Li Kuiyi that this had to be Xia Leyi.
The name “Xia Leyi” was third on the class roster. But Li Kuiyi had seen the name somewhere besides Class 1’s list. It had also appeared in the high school entrance examination announcement published on No. 1 High School’s official website.
Xia Leyi, Grade Nine, Class 4. Ninth in the city.
The beautiful girl didn’t linger in the gymnasium. After registering and receiving her freshman handbook, she answered a phone call and hurried away. As luck would have it, He Youyuan and the other two arrived at the gymnasium entrance and crossed paths with her.
They seemed to know each other. Li Kuiyi watched as they exchanged greetings, and the girl even pulled He Youyuan aside to speak with him privately. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but she could see his face. Insufferably pleased with himself, one brow arched, the corners of his lips curled in an almost-smile. The Band-Aid was still stuck over his left cheekbone, looking as languid and careless as ever.
He was, in fact, strikingly good-looking. There was a sharpness of intelligence in the lines of his face. Which was exactly why she couldn't make sense of half the things he did. Like the completely inexplicable way he had asked, “What are you laughing at?” Or the smug way he had declared, “What good person studies ahead?”
Unreasonable and childish.
Li Kuiyi lowered her eyes and typed a few words to Fang Zhixiao.
Li Kuiyi: Don't get your hopes up about the handsome guy.
Fang Zhixiao: I'm on my way! Hopes fully up!
Li Kuiyi: …Suit yourself.
When she looked up again, the beautiful girl was already gone, and He Youyuan and the other two were heading toward the Class 12 registration table. The girls nearby had begun whispering, excitedly discussing the handsome newcomer.
At an age when most people still had dark circles under their eyes, wore drab school uniforms, and had yet to learn how to dress themselves, good looks were undeniably a scarce resource. Only a few people were bold enough to openly claim such a resource or loudly announce their admiration. Most preferred to admire from a safe distance, quietly, satisfied with a glance or a word.
He Youyuan signed in, and then the three of them moved on to Class 9's table. They really were inseparable, Li Kuiyi thought. Weren’t they supposed to register with their respective classes? Did they really have to accompany one another for even this?
Finally, they came to Class 1.
After Qi Yu signed the form, he chatted with the homeroom teacher for a few moments. Then he lifted his head, his gaze naturally settling on Li Kuiyi, and gave her a little wave as if they were old friends. “Hi.”
Caught off guard, she returned it politely. "Hi."
Only then did He Youyuan notice that the “Li Kui” whose name he had gotten wrong was sitting in the stands not far away. Today she was wearing a mustard-yellow T-shirt that made her skin look especially fair. A small reddish-brown elephant was embroidered over the left side of her chest, and the hem was neatly tucked into her light-colored jeans. If you ignored her face, the whole outfit was almost well-behaved.
What are the odds? Of all people, her again. That prickly pineapple.
He Youyuan tugged at the corner of his mouth and deliberately turned his face away, wearing an expression that seemed to say, Are we even close to her?
Li Kuiyi, however, noticed the little booklet he was holding. His hand was long and slender, the veins faintly visible beneath the skin, giving it an almost sharp-edged elegance. Yet his pinky was tilted slightly upward, like a proud little peacock.
A sentence flashed through her mind.
What good person sticks out their pinky like that?
And she even heard it in He Youyuan’s cool and dismissive voice.
Li Kuiyi couldn’t help herself. A muffled laugh escaped her.
He Youyuan thought he was hearing things, because he could have sworn he heard her laugh again. He turned toward her with an aggrieved little huff, and discover that she really was laughing. This time, there was no mistaking the meaning behind it. Her clear eyes curved slightly at the corners, the upward tilt of her lips carrying an unmistakable hint of amusement. One look and you could tell she was up to no good!
His chest tightened. He wondered if he'd put his shirt on inside out, or failed to wipe his mouth after drinking his milk that morning. He even began to wonder if he had forgotten to zip up his pants.
No. The pants he was wearing today didn’t have a zipper.
Then what, exactly, was she laughing at?
For the first time in his life, He Youyuan felt looked down upon.
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