Little Garden - 8
What a nerve! She came to a foreign country as an envoy and was still throwing her weight around like that. Anyone who didn't know better would think she'd come here to start a war!
He Youyuan sucked hard on his milk, cheeks puffed, and glared sideways at the back of Prickly Pineapple's head out in the hallway. Sparks practically flew from his eyes.
He had drawn his sword and unsheathed his blade, only to discover that she'd come for a friendly exchange, while he was no mighty general either, just a guard stationed at the city gate.
All he could do was watch through the window as the "scallion-oil-noodle diplomacy" outside proceeded in full swing.
"Delicious, delicious. As expected of a Zhejiang University top student. Even plain scallion oil noodles taste better when he buys them.” Fang Zhixiao rolled a chopstickful of noodles and stuffed them into her mouth, nodding enthusiastically as she continued to lavish Su Jianlin with praise.
Love really did make people blind, Li Kuiyi thought silently.
Then the next second, Fang Zhixiao picked up the fried egg from the bowl and carefully held it to Li Kuiyi's lips. "Here, have the fried egg. Open up."
So love wasn't quite that blinding after all. Li Kuiyi blinked, instantly revising her opinion. At least Fang Zhixiao could still remember that she loved fried eggs. She couldn't have been completely blinded by love.
Li Kuiyi opened her mouth and took a bite. The egg was fried to perfection, golden and crisp, the edges of the white just slightly charred. It had that firm, chewy texture she liked best.
Delicious, delicious. As expected of a Zhejiang University top student. Even plain fried egg taste better when he buys them.
Tch. So unrefined. He Youyuan turned his head away in disdain. He and Zhang Chuang would never eat with the same chopsticks.
"What else did Su Jianlin say to you?" Fang Zhixiao took another slurp of noodles and began probing for details.
"Nothing." Li Kuiyi shook her head. "He just gave me a birthday present."
"Oh." Fang Zhixiao deflated a little. It wasn't jealousy, exactly. She knew Su Jianlin was Li Kuiyi's uncle. The relationship might look like an advantageous headstart, but in reality it shut down any possibility of romance. Even without a drop of shared blood, there was still morality and propriety to consider, wasn't there?
Still, she couldn't help feeling a little envious. "I wish Su Jianlin would give me a birthday present too. What did he get you?"
"I don't know. I haven't looked yet."
That was so Li Kuiyi. Her self-control was on another level. In Fang Zhixiao's eyes, anyone who could receive a present and still resist opening it was made of stern stuff. And this was the present from Su Jianlin, no less.
"Honestly, you really are..."
Before Fang Zhixiao could finish her sigh, a sharp reprimand came from behind. "You two girls, what do you think you're doing?"
The two of them jumped and turned around. A male teacher was walking toward them. He wasn't tall, but he was lean and upright, with hawk-sharp eyes and deep creases etched across his face. Fang Zhixiao immediately tensed and swallowed a huge mouthful of noodles with a gulp. She didn't recognize him, but Li Kuiyi had dealt with him several times before and knew that he was Chen Guoming, the Grade One Director.
At the opening ceremony, he had spoken from the podium too, though few of the kids below had bothered to listen.
Scold her, give her hell! He Youyuan gloated, a wicked smile curling at the corners of his mouth. Underhanded diplomatic tactics deserved to be nipped in the bud immediately.
Chen Guoming walked toward them with his hands clasped behind his back, his expression stern. But the instant he saw that one of the girls was Li Kuiyi, his expression softened. Even his tone became noticeably warmer as he smiled gently. "Li Kuiyi, what are you doing out here?"
Of course. This was the top student he had personally poached from Experimental High School over the summer alongside the No. 1 High School admissions office. A precious little treasure they'd paid a hundred thousand yuan to bring over.
Li Kuiyi decided to tell the truth. She pointed at Fang Zhixiao. "I brought breakfast for my friend."
Chen Guoming gave an understanding "Oh," then raised his wrist and glanced at his watch. "It's six thirty-five already."
Morning reading at No. 1 High School started at seven, but students were required to be in class by six forty. Past that, it counted as late.
Li Kuiyi knew the rules well enough, but she nodded anyway. "Thank you, Teacher. I'll head back to class now." With that, she exchanged a glance with Fang Zhixiao and turned to run off.
Fang Zhixiao immediately packed up her unfinished noodles and forced a dry laugh. "Teacher, I'm heading back too." Before Chen Guoming could react, she slipped into the classroom like a rabbit bolting for cover.
He Youyuan's grin froze on his face. Wait. Was this really Chen Guoming? He remembered on Freshman Registration Day, he'd been busy helping repair a wall and hadn't paid much attention to his Homeroom Teacher, Old Ma's lecture. After school, he'd been hauled to the office for a scolding, where they happened to run into Chen Guoming, who hadn't wasted a word before joining forces with Old Ma to give him a thorough dressing-down.
Such a good kid! Chen Guoming watched Li Kuiyi's back disappear down the corridor with a satisfied smile. Then he turned his head and saw that good-looking boy from Class 12 staring at him with open indignation. Chen Guoming's expression instantly hardened. He walked over to the window, reached out, and gave He Youyuan's hair a vigorous swipe. "He Youyuan, why aren't you doing your morning reading? What are you gawking at?"
He Youyuan: "..."
Unbelievable. Even watching from the sidelines got him shot.
Saturday's weekly exam arrived on schedule. Whether the question-setter meant to give these overconfident freshmen a reality check, or whether there simply wasn't enough material yet to test them broadly and the only option was to dig deeper, the result was the same. The exam was brutally difficult.
Math in particular was a nightmare. They'd only learned sets, yet the teachers had somehow managed to wring a hundred different variations out of them. Most of the questions were beyond the syllabus. By the end of the exam, everyone's mind was a blur, they could barely remember what the symbols for intersection and union even looked like anymore.
As soon as the dismissal bell rang, the teachers collected the papers, and the classroom immediately erupted into a competition to see who had "bombed" the hardest.
"Ahhh, why was it so hard? I couldn't do any of it!" someone wailed.
"I left eight questions blank. Can you believe that? Eight!" someone else grimaced through gritted teeth.
"That's nothing. Almost the entire second half of my paper was blank."
One complaint followed another. Each insisted they'd done terribly, only for the next to declare that they'd done even worse. The classroom became a boiling pot of complaints. Yet everyone understood the unspoken rule: when top students said they hadn't done well, you could treat it like a fart. All it was good for was making a little noise.
Zhou Fanghua slowly packed up her pencil case, ears pricked as she listened to everyone's "sob stories." She wanted to believe they were telling the truth. Or rather, she desperately hoped they were telling the truth, because she genuinely hadn't been able to solve the questions. She wasn't asking for a good score, just not so spectacularly bad that she stood out.
But she couldn't convince herself of that. She could see that Li Kuiyi's paper was completely filled in.
There always seemed to be someone like that in school. No matter how difficult the questions were, she could sit there calmly and work them out.
Was it talent? Or was she simply more hardworking? But Zhou Fanghua had spent half a month around Li Kuiyi and hadn't noticed her putting in any more effort than everyone else. If anything, while others were studying hard, Li Kuiyi would sometimes drift off, leaning against the window to watch the sunset.
Then it had to be talent. What a depressing answer. All those advantages someone was born with, all those strengths written into their genes, drew more envy than anything earned through hard work, because it was effortless, and sometimes it simply couldn't be forced into existence no matter how hard you tried.
That was why some people were willing to fake an image of "I don't really study." To many, "smart" was a higher compliment than "hardworking."
"Did you know how to do all those questions?" Zhou Fanghua couldn't help asking.
Li Kuiyi shook her head seriously as she packed her schoolbag. "No. I wasn't sure about Question 10. I could only eliminate A and D, so I guessed between B and C."
"What did you guess?" Zhou Fanghua perked up. She hadn't known how to solve that one either and had randomly picked C. If she'd happened to choose the same answer as Li Kuiyi, that would be great. She had a feeling that even when Li Kuiyi guessed, her chances of getting it right were probably better than hers.
"I picked B. I already chose C for Questions 8 and 9, I figured the odds of C coming up again were lower."
Zhou Fanghua: "..."
So she'd gotten Question 9 wrong too.
Yep. Definitely shouldn't compare answers.
Saturday night was the one night of the week when students didn't have Evening Self-Study, their sole chance to truly relax.
Li Kuiyi left the school gate and headed first to the small bookstall by the entrance to buy magazines. This stall was a treasure she had discovered recently. The magazines were dirt cheap. Yilin, Reader's Digest, Youth Digest, all two yuan a copy. Literature and Art Vision only five. Sometimes she could even find Harvest or Contemporary Literature. The only downside was that the magazines were usually "out-of-date" by quite a while. Li Kuiyi didn't mind. She hadn't read them anyway, so what did it matter which issue? Besides, the magazines were the perfect amount to finish on a Saturday evening.
After rummaging through the pile, Li Kuiyi unexpectedly found a copy of Huacheng from 2011, containing an article by Wang Anyi. She bought it on the spot.
It was past six now, dusk was deepening. The orange-red sunlight burst through the clouds and poured over the treetops and distant buildings, gilding everything in the distance.
A crowd of people stood waiting at the bus stop outside the school, craning their necks toward the road. The sunset glow fell across their dark hair, wrapping each head in a soft halo of light.
Li Kuiyi decided to take the bus home.
She'd been planning this for a while. She liked riding the bus around sunset, preferably in a window seat, with her earphones in, music playing as familiar buildings, streets, and storefronts sweeping past her eyes like an old film. For this, she had even brought her phone today.
Unfortunately, from school to her home was only two stops.
She would ride a few more, then, until nightfall.
Bus No. 6 came slowly into view, lumbering forward like a heavy blue whale before swaying to a stop. Li Kuiyi stepped forward and flowed on with the crowd.
Perfect. There was still a window seat in the last row. She went over and sat down, slipped in her earphones, and turned to look outside the window. The sky hung between day and night, the streetlights already glowing faintly like distant stars. The cabin was warm with the press of bodies, most of them students in No. 1 High School uniforms, chattering excitedly about their weekend plans.
"Hey, Li Kuiyi?"
Someone suddenly called her name.
Li Kuiyi came back to herself and saw Qi Yu standing nearby, one hand braced against the back of another passenger's seat. He gave her a small wave.
She took out her earphones, surprised. "You take this bus home too?"
Qi Yu smiled and pointed toward Zhang Chuang and He Youyuan, who was pretending to be dead. "No. We're meeting some middle-school classmates to play pool around Nandu Commercial Street."
Zhang Chuang waved too. He Youyuan, however, kept one hand wrapped around the grab rail and turned his face away, pretending neither to see nor hear.
So annoying.
Saturday was supposed to be the happiest time of the week. Why did he have to run into Prickly Pineapple again? What rotten luck.
To avoid getting worked up by her again, it was best not to have anything to do with her.
A taut string seemed to run through He Youyuan's nerves, but he pretended nothing was wrong and chatted with Zhang Chuang in fits and starts. One stop passed. Safe. Two stops passed. Safe. Three stops passed. Safe.
Two more stops, and he'd be completely in the clear!
The sky gradually darkened. The city lights started coming alive, swapping the streets for a flowing nightscape. Inside the bus, the lights flickered to life with a soft click, illuminating the interior in dim and mellow glow. Several groups of passengers had gotten off; the bus grew increasingly empty.
The seat beside Li Kuiyi became vacant. Qi Yu walked over and sat down, naturally falling into conversation about the math exam that afternoon. "The last big problem, what was your answer?"
Li Kuiyi thought for a moment. "The one asking for the range of e? I think it was from the square root of seven divided by four to three times the square root of two, open on the left and closed on the right."
"Nice. That's what I got too." Qi Yu nodded. "What about the last multiple-choice question?"
Li Kuiyi said, "That one's probably missing a condition. If a is an integer, then the answer is definitely B, but if…” She analyzed it for a while before finally reaching her conclusion. "...so in the end I went with B."
"Your reasoning matches mine," Qi Yu said. "I only stopped myself from choosing C again because I'd already picked C for Questions 8 and 9."
The two exchanged a look and smiled with perfect understanding.
He Youyuan had been keeping an eye on them from the corner of his eye the whole time, just in case Prickly Pineapple suddenly decided to make trouble for him. Now the corner of his mouth twitched. What was going on here? Surely, these two weren't going to be like a turtle staring at a mung bean, falling for each other at first sight?
Not on his watch! He couldn't just stand by while his brother walked straight into a pit of fire. So he called out to Qi Yu, "We're getting off soon. Why are you still over there?"
"Getting off?" Qi Yu looked up, baffled. "Even when we get to the next stop, there's still one more stop after that!"
Unexpectedly, that reminded Li Kuiyi. It was already dark. She should get off and go home.
"Oh, I'm getting off soon."
Qi Yu moved aside to let her out. "Be careful on your way home."
"Mm." Li Kuiyi nodded. "You too."
To He Youyuan, of course, this was all "making eyes" and "secret trysts.” He rolled his eyes in silence. Who would've guessed? Prickly Pineapple looked like she had renounced all worldly desires, yet she was actually this greedy. Adding him as a friend on one hand while making moon eyes at his brother on the other.
What, she wanted both of them?
Li Kuiyi walked to the rear door to wait for her stop. He Youyuan stood on the other side of the door. Neither acknowledged the other. Zhang Chuang looked between them curiously, commenting, "You two standing here look just like Heng Ha, the Gate Guardians."
The hell did he say? He Youyuan was just about to argue when the driver slammed on the brakes. He lurched forward with the sudden momentum.
Fortunately, he had a firm grip on the rail. The girl beside him, however, couldn't seem to keep her footing. Her hand slipped on the grab bar, and she was thrown straight toward the door.
Li Kuiyi thought she was definitely going to fall. In the split second of desperation, she raised one arm to shield her head.
Then, suddenly, a strong hand caught her arm and pulled her forcefully toward him.
The clean, unmistakable boyish scent flooded her senses.
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