Little Garden - 6
Curiosity didn't just kill cats.
It could also keep He Youyuan awake until the middle of the night.
Naturally, he had no intention of accepting any compensation. He said "No need," with cold finality and walked away from the cafeteria with what he considered considerable dignity. Of course, before making his dignified exit, he'd stared at Li Kuiyi for a full five seconds, waiting for her to explain why the bill came to thirty-seven yuan and fifty cents.
As it turned out, the Prickly Pineapple was a cold-blooded shopkeeper who gave only only the total and not a breakdown.
Fine. If she wouldn't tell him, she wouldn't tell him. His math was good enough. He could work it out himself.
The training uniforms were rented. A hundred yuan deposit for five pieces: cap, shirt, jacket, pants, shoes. That made twenty yuan apiece. He'd gotten the T-shirt, trousers, and shoes dirty, which came to sixty yuan altogether. But since clothes weren't ruined, just dirtied, so sixty was obviously too much. So she must have applied a discount...
He Youyuan did the calculation in his head. If the final compensation was thirty-seven yuan and fifty cents, that meant she'd charged him at 62.5 percent of the original price.
A 62.5 percent discount. Which was… an even stranger number.
What a pain.
Whatever. She could calculate it however she wanted. He couldn't care less.
Irritated, He Youyuan rolled over in bed. Three seconds later, he suddenly snatched up the phone beside his pillow, opened Baidu, and typed: "Does the number 37.5 have any special meaning?"
Baidu: 375 represents "want to kiss" in chat slang.
Tsk!
The next morning, He Youyuan had two faint gray circles under his eyes. His skin was pale, even the slightest change in his complexion would stand out. When Zhang Chuang sat down across from him with his tray, he couldn't help taking a couple of looks. "What kind of trouble were you getting into last night?"
He Youyuan's gaze drifted into the distance. He leaned back in his chair as he quietly chewed his food. After a long while, he finally answered, "Used a spinning pineapple as a meat shield. Played Plants vs. Zombies all night."
Zhang Chuang took a bite of his chicken leg, grease running down his fingers, and asked curiously, "Didn't you quit playing that?"
He Youyuan's expression still has no emotion. "I needed to vent."
"Oh."
Zhang Chuang went right back to wolfing down his food, too lazy to care what He Youyuan was venting about. The guy was impossible anyway. You could smash his game controller and he'd shrug it off, but if a dog stepped on his foot he'd hold a grudge for weeks. His capacity for taking things personally seemed to expand and contract at random.
Having not slept all night and then trained under the blazing sun all morning, He Youyuan was visibly worn out. His eyes drooped, his lashes hung low, and he spoke even less than usual. Even his usually reckless, dazzling face carried an uncharacteristic shadow of melancholy.
Zhang Chuang glanced at him again and lowered his voice with a sly grin. "Come on, man. You sure you were just playing games last night? Nothing else?"
"You son of a... Can you at least check where you are before you open your mouth?" He Youyuan gritted his teeth and kicked him under the table.
"I didn't even say anything!" Zhang Chuang snickered, looking pleased with himself. "God, don't tell me you took it the wrong way. I was just asking if you got into a fight last night, seeing how out of it you look. That's all."
Like hell. He Youyuan opened his mouth to fire back when, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted two people standing in the aisle beside him. And of all people, it was Li Kuiyi and the girl who had spilled the Yangchun noodles all over him.
A thousand curses came thundering through his mind. She... she hadn't heard all that, had she?
And if she had, what was she going to think?
Would she decide he was some shameless degenerate whose mind was permanently stuck in the gutter?
But he'd literally done nothing!
Alright, fine, the spinning pineapple as a meat shield might have carried a tiny bit of personal grudge, but did karma really have to come for him this fast?
Or was this Miss Pineapple actually his natural-born nemesis?
He Youyuan's face went numb. "You..."
At the same time, Li Kuiyi spoke too. "I..." She paused. "You go first."
He Youyuan studied her expression warily. She looked the same as always, no disgust, no judgment, and he secretly let out a small breath of relief. Folding his arms across his chest, he put on his best righteous indignation. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh. After you left yesterday, we talked it over." Li Kuiyi exchanged a glance with Zhou Fanghua. "We felt really bad about scalding you, so we bought you some burn ointment."
Li Kuiyi held out her hand. A small tube of ointment lay forlornly in her palm.
She had bought it at a pharmacy the night before. Zhou Fanghua lived on campus and didn't have a pass that allowed her to leave, so she'd asked Li Kuiyi to go for her.
Zhou Fanghua was too embarrassed to go find He Youyuan in Class 12 herself. Li Kuiyi, seeing her distress, assumed she simply didn't know how to get the medicine to him. She mentioned that she had a good friend in Class 12 and could ask her to help. But before she'd even had a chance to ask Fang Zhixiao, the two of them had run into He Youyuan himself in the cafeteria.
Li Kuiyi pointed toward his profile. "What a coincidence. He's right over there."
Zhou Fanghua pressed her lips together, hesitating. For one thing, He Youyuan looked intimidating, and she wasn't brave enough to approach him directly. For another, bringing him the medicine in the cafeteria was really no different from taking it to his classroom. Either way, she'd have to endure a whole round of people staring, and she hated having that many eyes on her.
So she tugged gently at Li Kuiyi's hand. "Can you talk to him for me?"
"Was the burn serious?" Li Kuiyi asked, following up. "If it was, we can cover the medical expenses."
A burn?
He Youyuan had indeed been scalded by the noodle broth, but when he'd showered at home the night before, his skin was only slightly red. It could hardly be called an injury.
Then he remembered. Last night, when Li Kuiyi asked if he'd been burned, he'd glared at her and said, "Yes. Of course I was" just to spite her.
You reap what you sow. Here he was, still tangled up with Prickly Pineapple, and it was entirely his own damn fault.
"Ahem." He cleared his throat awkwardly. "It's not serious. I put some ointment on it. It's fine now."
"Are you sure?" Li Kuiyi looked doubtful. His complexion did seem worse than usual, a little sickly.
"What's there to be unsure about?" He Youyuan lifted his eyes to her.
"All right." Li Kuiyi set the tube of burn ointment in front of him. "Then take this."
Did she not understand plain language?
"I'm. Not. Injured." He Youyuan stared at her, enunciating every word.
Li Kuiyi stared back at him in bewilderment. "I know. But it's useless to us if we keep it."
What she didn't say was: At least you'd have some use for it.
He Youyuan nearly choked on his own rage.
What was he, a garbage disposal? Anything they had no use for got dumped on him?
Honestly, as someone who had been receiving love letters from girls since kindergarten, He Youyuan had dealt with hundreds upon hundreds of them. He'd never met anyone like this Prickly Pineapple, someone who loved being sarcastic, loved to act cryptic, and somehow had absolutely no sense of when to stop.
There was no comparison like a bad comparison. He suddenly found all those girls who had pursued him seem sweet, charming, sunny, and sincere.
And another thing. It was another girl who had crashed into him. Why was Prickly Pineapple the one handling things with him? Who was she to her? Her spokesperson?
"I don't want it." He Youyuan tossed out the words irritably, picked up his tray with a stiff expression, and stood. He walked straight over to the tray return station nearby.
Li Kuiyi watched his retreating back in a daze, then silently exchanged another look with Zhou Fanghua. After a moment, she analyzed the situation. "Our guess yesterday was right. He really does have a bad temper."
Zhou Fanghua nodded worriedly.
At that moment, Zhang Chuang, who had been watching the entire exchange without understanding a thing, raised a fist to cover his nose and gave a quiet cough.
Only then did Li Kuiyi realize that Zhang Chuang was still sitting there. Embarrassed, she said, "Sorry. We didn't mean to talk about your friend like that in front of you."
Zhang Chuang: "..."
Brother, when you meet someone like this, you might as well just accept defeat.
Li Kuiyi didn't see He Youyuan again until military training was over. Fang Zhixiao would sometimes chatter to her about him, saying things like, see, being handsome is its own blessing. School hadn't even officially started and bold girls were already sending him snacks, drinks, and love letters.
Li Kuiyi said nothing.
She began to realize, belatedly, that in the few encounters she'd had with He Youyuan, things always seemed to end with him getting angry. Worse, she had no idea what he was angry about.
Was it because of her?
But she hadn't meant to make him angry. And if he really was the same "He Youyuan" she had met before, then she actually owed him a thank you.
His wasn't exactly a common name, after all. However, the He Youyuan now looked nothing like the "He Youyuan" in her memories. That boy had been tan-skinned, with his hair shaved extremely short. Beyond that, all she could vaguely remember was a pair of eyes, black and white sharply distinct.
So Li Kuiyi asked Fang Zhixiao, "Do you have He Youyuan's contact information?"
Fang Zhixiao was horrified. "What do you want it for?" Then her expression transformed into delighted disbelief, like watching a thousand-year-old iron tree finally bloom. "Don't tell me you've fallen for him too?"
Li Kuiyi shook her head. "No. I need to ask him something."
"What?"
"I'll tell you when I find out."
Fang Zhixiao's gossip radar went off like an alarm. She whipped out her phone, found the class group chat, and dug out He Youyuan's QQ number. "Here. This one."
Li Kuiyi searched the string of numbers, and soon, a user popped up. The ID read: Bro's Got a Great Build.
What kind of "build"? Body? Face? Hair? Blood type?
Talk about self-obsessed.
On the day of the opening ceremony, the gymnasium was packed with new students, all bright-eyed, energetic, and buzzing with life. Everyone was giddy that military training was finally ending, while also wondering whether the school leaders had moved the ceremony indoors because even they couldn't take the heat. Whatever the reason, once the air-conditioning started blowing, life suddenly felt worth living again.
No one was really listening to the long-winded speeches from the school leaders. They were the usual platitudes about golden autumn breezes and looking toward the future. Their words became background noise for students sneaking naps, whispering, or scrolling on their phones.
After what felt like half a century, the host finally moved to the next item on the program. "...And now, please welcome Li Kuiyi from Grade One, Class 1, to the stage to speak on behalf of all the new students. Let's give her a warm welcome!"
The gymnasium erupted in laughter.
"Li Kuiyi" sounded almost exactly like "Li Kui," the name of a legendary brute from Water Margin.
Might as well change her name to Marco Pineapple, He Youyuan snorted.
Suddenly, the phone in his trouser pocket vibrated twice.
He lazily pulled it out. It was a verification message.
Li Kuiyi stepped onto the stage and adjusted the microphone to the right height. Her expression was calm. "Respected school leaders, beloved teachers, dear fellow students, good afternoon! I'm Li Kuiyi from Grade One, Class 1. It's a great honor to stand here..."
He Youyuan felt strangely disoriented. He looked up from his phone screen toward the stage. The girl up there had tied her hair back into a short ponytail, her camouflage T-shirt still neatly tucked into her camouflage trousers. Her clear, gentle voice flowed through the speakers and landed soft in his ear.
Hello, He Youyuan. I'm Li Kuiyi.
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