The Scorching Sun - 64
Fang Zhuo often couldn't understand what people found so fun about color-coordinated couples' items.
Or rather, she felt that dating was a very private matter. Before she started seeing Yan Lie, it had never occurred to her that this was something she needed to share with other people.
And Yan Lie normally seemed perfectly sensible. Yet whenever he came across this kind of promotional merchandise, it was as though he'd put on a filter a hundred times stronger than anyone else.
You wouldn't believe he was the same person.
The very first day the hat arrived, Fang Zhuo washed it clean and hid it away.
A few days later, A University officially began registration for its new students.
Since Fang Zhuo was a local, she wasn't in any hurry. She only packs up and leaves the following day.
She didn't have much luggage to begin with. Yan Lie had told her the school would provide things like bedding and washbasins, while everything else was just everyday stuff that she could easily buy at a convenience store. So she brought only a few changes of summer clothes and her new computer, packing everything into one suitcase and one backpack before taking the morning coach to A City.
Afraid she'd get lost, Yan Lie arranged to meet her at the station.
The sun was blazing overhead. When Fang Zhuo stepped toward the door of the air-conditioned coach, the wave of heat rising from the concrete road hit her square in the face, making her squint.
She dragged her suitcase down the steps, until suddenly, the weight disappeared from her hand. Yan Lie had already reached over and taken it.
"I called a taxi. It's waiting at the intersection up ahead." Yan Lie set the suitcase down with effortless ease, then casually steadied Fang Zhuo with one hand. He was wearing the white T-shirt he'd bought himself.
Fang Zhuo asked, "Didn't your dad come to see you off today?"
"He went back to work," Yan Lie said. "Besides, I didn't want him to come. He's been acting really weird lately."
Fang Zhuo thought about it for a moment. She decided whatever had gotten into Yan Chengli probably had nothing to do with her, and promptly put it out of her mind.
Yan Lie pulled the suitcase along ahead of her, glancing back several times. He clearly wanted to praise her without being too obvious, but couldn't quite hold himself back. "Your outfit looks really good today."
Fang Zhuo: "..."
Yan Lie tactfully added, "It's just missing a hat."
Fang Zhuo quickly said, "Imperfection is a kind of beauty too."
"All right." Yan Lie didn't press the matter. His thoughts were already looking ahead. "Winter's coming soon. I've been looking for a scarf lately."
Fang Zhuo immediately felt even hotter.
The taxi was waiting by the roadside, its back seat already crammed full of Yan Lie's luggage.
The driver had smoked a cigarette while waiting, and the inside of the car was still thick with the pungent smell of tobacco.
The two of them climbed into the back together, wedging the suitcases into whatever space remained. Yan Lie tapped the back of the front seat and said, "Driver, could you take us to A University?"
"Want me to drop you at the East Gate?" the driver asked. "That's where most people are. Should be where you register."
"Sure."
The air-conditioning in the back was barely noticeable. Sunlight poured through the windows, still leaving Fang Zhuo's skin burning hot. She pulled a tissue from her pocket and gave her forehead a haphazard wipe.
"Fang Zhuo."
She wiped the sweat from her face and turned toward him. Yan Lie immediately cupped her face in both hands and rubbed it from side to side, his palms cool and slightly sticky.
Fang Zhuo resisted the urge to pull away. "What's that?"
"Sunscreen." Yan Lie reminded her earnestly, "Remember to put it on, okay? It's going to be hot throughout military training. It won't start cooling down until next Monday. If you don't take care of your skin, your face could end up peeling. You need to put it on half an hour before you go out. I put this bottle in the side pocket of your backpack."
What a meticulous boy.
Yan Lie applied it with such concentration that Fang Zhuo's face had started to feel warm by the time he finally withdrew his hands like nothing had happened and tucked the bottle into the side compartment of her backpack.
The taxi stopped at a traffic light. Two impatient honks sounded from somewhere ahead, and only then did Fang Zhuo belatedly realize it.
He hadn't needed to use his hands at all.
And he had the nerve to act like a paragon of virtue!
In reality, he was just taking advantage of her.
Fang Zhuo cast a sidelong glance at him. Yan Lie sat there obediently, his gaze angled toward the greenery outside the window, looking completely innocent and defenseless. Yet anyone could feel the unmistakable happiness radiating from him.
Most taxi drivers liked to chat with their passengers. While waiting for the light, the driver glanced into the rearview mirror several times. After observing them for a while, he finally asked, "You two seem pretty happy."
Yan Lie answered first. "Of course we're happy. We're finally going to college."
The driver sighed admiringly. "No wonder you're A University students. You're this happy just to go to school. The students I've picked up before all looked miserable, like they weren't going to class but going to prison. If all young people were like you two, society would be improving."
Fang Zhuo thought privately, Uncle, you might be giving him a little too much credit. At least half of Yan Lie's happiness had nothing to do with the call of knowledge.
Yan Lie smiled without answering. He pulled out his phone and tapped away at it with nimble fingers.
The moment his hand dropped, Fang Zhuo's phone buzzed.
She unlocked it with her fingerprint, and the chat screen appeared.
They Call Me Lie: I'm just happy whenever I'm with you. [Blushing Husky]
Fang Zhuo stared at the remarkably expressive sticker for two seconds, then turned her phone face down on her lap and looked out the window.
When Yan Lie wanted to charm someone, no one stood a chance.
Both their expressions were unmistakably strange, and, as though by mutual agreement, they fell silent. The driver in front suddenly felt extremely awkward.
He encouraged them, "You don't have to whisper! Don't worry about me! Pretend I'm dead, like I'm not even here! I don't know either of you. It's not like I can tell anyone!"
Yan Lie laughed. "Uncle, don't be like that."
"It's so boring! We drive all day, and if we get passengers who don't talk, we'll go crazy. You two have got me curious now!" the driver exclaimed. "I'm a man who's been around. What haven't I seen? Don't spare my feelings!"
Yan Lie joked with him for a couple of exchanges before the road ahead began to clog with traffic. They had arrived at A University.
The driver deftly squeezed through gaps in the traffic and pulled up smoothly at the main entrance, then got out and helped them unload their suitcases.
As soon as the car door closed, volunteers nearby came over to hand them brochures, point them in the right direction, and answer their questions.
Yan Lie said he'd already come to scout out the campus the day before, so he could take Fang Zhuo through registration himself. He picked up her suitcase and led her confidently toward the residential area.
There weren't many students arriving yet, and no one was waiting at the statistics department's registration table. Two upperclassmen sat beneath a sun umbrella. When they saw a new female student approaching, they asked for her name and class, then enthusiastically handed over the relevant materials.
"This is your meal card. There's a hundred yuan on it. This envelope has a map and your counselor's contact information. You can pick up things like a washbasin, bedding, and your military training uniform in the gymnasium. If you don't know the way or you've got too much stuff to carry, ask one of the volunteers for help. The college has a little event tonight, there's a class meeting tomorrow afternoon, and military training officially starts the day after tomorrow. You've just arrived at A University, make sure you keep your phone on and stay reachable. If there's anything you don't understand, just ask."
The senior spoke quickly. Fang Zhuo was still checking the contents of the envelope when he stopped, so she looked up and said, "Thank you. I'll remember."
The senior smiled. "Junior..."
His eyes shifted, landing on Yan Lie's smiling-without-smiling face. He stopped himself and changed course. "Nothing else. Since you've got some free time these next couple of days, take the opportunity to get familiar with the campus. Have you joined your class group?"
Fang Zhuo said, "I have."
Yan Lie had actually been the one to tell her about the class group. Perhaps young people arrived at a new life carrying far too many expectations, because the messages were already hitting 99+ every day. For the sake of not missing anything important about her classes, Fang Zhuo had simply muted the group.
"All right, then. Go get your things first."
Yan Lie took Fang Zhuo to the gymnasium. They used her meal card to collect a set of bedding, then went next door for two sets of military training uniforms.
By then, there was barely room in their hands for anything else. The gymnasium and Fang Zhuo's dormitory happened to sit at opposite ends of the campus.
Yan Lie slowed his pace, explaining the different kinds of shops around them as they walked. When they reached the foot of the dormitory building, he asked, "Do you know the way now?"
Fang Zhuo was drenched in sweat, her expression troubled.
It was too difficult.
Many of A University's buildings looked rather alike, and the roads crisscrossed in every direction. She couldn't even tell east from west, let alone figure out the campus roads. All she knew was that they'd walked a very long way after leaving the gymnasium.
This school was enormous.
Yan Lie reassured her, "It's fine. Just follow your classmates when you need to go somewhere. For now, you only need to remember where the cafeteria and your dorm are. The instructors will show you around during military training. If you still can't remember after that, I'll walk you around a few more times, you'll definitely get the hang of it."
After walking all this way, the back of Yan Lie's shirt was almost soaked through with sweat.
Fang Zhuo set her backpack beside the flower bed and pulled out two tissues, handing them to him.
A patch of four-leaf clovers grew in the nearby flower bed, dotted with small pale-white and pale-pink flowers. Under the fierce sunlight, they were still growing lush and green.
Yan Lie pushed the suitcase he was carrying forward and said, "All this stuff is for you."
"For me?" Fang Zhuo exclaimed. "Why is there so much? What about your own luggage?"
"I came to campus yesterday. I already left all my luggage in the dorm, except for the military uniforms." Yan Lie curled his lips into a pleased smile as he explained, as though he'd been planning this for ages. "This suitcase has milk, fruit, some snacks, and bread. This one has a mosquito net, laundry detergent, rags, and other odds and ends. They don't look like much, but they're all incredibly useful. I was worried you wouldn't have prepared them, so I put together a set for you based on what I needed myself. It doesn't matter if there's extra. Just keep it for now."
Fang Zhuo opened her mouth, momentarily at a loss for words.
Yan Lie lowered his head slightly and leaned closer, his face alight with excitement. "Well? Isn't having such a thoughtful boyfriend great? I infiltrated the school and got this legendary shopping list from several upperclassmen."
Fang Zhuo couldn't help admiring his social skills. He could hit it off with anyone in no time. And all his little schemes were so simple and endearingly obvious. Her name, Fang Zhuo, might as well have been written across the back of every one of them.
Right now, he looked just like the cartoon sunflower on his T-shirt. Its round little head swayed in the breeze, cheeks flushed with a happy smile as it waited for the sun to favor it.
"Thank you," Fang Zhuo said. "My boyfriend."
The light in Yan Lie's already-bright eyes flickered. Then he broke into a radiant smile, thoroughly satisfied. "Your dorm's on the fourth floor. There's no elevator in this building, so I'll help you carry everything upstairs to the corridor first."
After all, this was a women's dormitory. Although there were no restrictions on male visitors during the start-of-term period, Yan Lie still couldn't stay for long.
He carried all the boxes into the stairwell, called out a quick goodbye to Fang Zhuo, and headed downstairs first.
Fang Zhuo found her dorm and carried her luggage over in two trips.
A University's undergraduate dorms housed four students each, with a private bathroom and a small balcony.
When Fang Zhuo arrived, the cramped dorm room was already packed with people.
A tall, short-haired girl sat by the desk playing on her phone. Another girl with long hair had practically brought her entire family with her. Six or seven relatives crowded around her, helping organize her desk. When Fang Zhuo entered, the entire family turned to look at her, startling her.
A middle-aged woman asked in accented Mandarin, "Where are you from, little girl?"
Fang Zhuo said, "I'm from A City."
"Oh. Didn't your parents come with you?"
Fang Zhuo answered vaguely, "Mm."
She found her bed, took the rag out of her suitcase, went to the bathroom to wet it, and began carefully cleaning.
Although dialects varied greatly from place to place, certain phrases had a subtle way of sounding familiar across them. As Fang Zhuo cleaned, she overheard the family chatting. From the gist of it, two of their comments seemed to mean something like, "She's very independent. You can tell she helps out at home," and, "Your two roommates don't seem very outgoing."
The long-haired girl was timid by nature and seemed terribly embarrassed. Once everything was organized, she kept urging her family to hurry home.
After Fang Zhuo finished wiping down her bed, the group exchanged a few polite words with her before filing out of the dormitory all at once.
As soon as they were gone, the short-haired girl in the corner let out a sigh of relief. She tossed down her phone and said, "Northerners. I've seriously never seen anything like that. I thought they'd traveled here from the other end of the country. She said it took them two hours to drive here. Her family brought two cars just to take her to college."
Fang Zhuo laughed.
"I'm Yu Qingjiang." The girl turned sideways, crossed one leg over the other, and introduced herself. "The fortune teller said my fate was lacking water, so I came south for university."
She was bright and straightforward, with thick brows and large eyes. Even her hair seemed to carry an air of brisk efficiency. She also loved joking around, carrying a slightly irreverent edge to everything she said.
Fang Zhuo walked over and shook her hand. "Fang Zhuo."
Yu Qingjiang burst out laughing. "Whoa! Are we going to be like fire and water, unable to coexist?"
Fang Zhuo gave her a languid sidelong look. She had no idea what she'd said this time to hit Yu Qingjiang's particular funny bone, but the girl couldn't stop laughing.
Fang Zhuo put everything away in the wardrobe. When she opened one of the bags, she discovered that Yan Lie had forgotten his military training uniform.
She tore open the outer packaging and was immediately hit by the strong, unpleasant smell coming from the fabric. Fang Zhuo wrinkled her nose and decided to wash it while the sun was still strong.
Before long, the other two roommates returned one after another.
With their parents gone, the little monkeys were much freer. They gathered together, exchanged contact information, and chatted animatedly about everything under the sun. Only Fang Zhuo was in the bathroom washing clothes.
When she'd finished washing the camouflage uniforms and hung them out on the balcony, Yu Qingjiang noticed them. Her expression changed slightly. "Whose military uniform is that? It's several sizes bigger than mine."
"A friend's," Fang Zhuo said.
"Your boyfriend?"
Fang Zhuo gave a quiet "Mm."
Yu Qingjiang hesitated, looking at the damp strands of hair plastered to Fang Zhuo's forehead with sweat. Her expression was still completely calm as she couldn't help saying, "Your boyfriend goes to A University too? Who makes their girlfriend wash their clothes the moment they arrive at school?"
Fang Zhuo explained, "It was no trouble. He accidentally left it here."
"Ugh." Yu Qingjiang muttered under her breath, "What a calculating scumbag."
Fang Zhuo: "..."
Fang Zhuo was naturally small-framed and slender. After sweating so much that day, her lips had gone pale, making her look frail and particularly easy to push around.
She weakly protested, "He's not." Unfortunately, Yu Qingjiang didn't seem particularly convinced.
Fang Zhuo's black backpack was clearly a cheap one she'd used for many years, and the shoes she'd left outside were all obviously inexpensive, no-name brands.
A pretty, poor, innocent, fragile little girl. Yu Qingjiang couldn't help letting her imagination run wild.
Walking over to the desk, Fang Zhuo picked up her phone and found a message from Yan Lie.
They Call Me Lie: My military training uniform is missing.
They Call Me Lie: Did I leave it at your place, or did I lose it somewhere?
Fang Zhuo replied.
Little Sun: It's here. I washed it for you while I was at it.
A moment later, the messages began popping up one after another.
They Call Me Lie: ??!!
They Call Me Lie: I just left and was about to buy another set.
They Call Me Lie: You washed it for me? [Wow] Won't it now turn into some kind of family heirloom?
They Call Me Lie: [Crying Cat]
Little Sun: I'll give it to you tomorrow.
They Call Me Lie: Okay. [Good Boy]
They Call Me Lie: Getting along with your roommates?
Little Sun: Pretty well. They're all easy to talk to.
Yu Qingjiang's voice rang out, loud and clear. "I got here last week. I was originally planning to explore A City, but who knew it'd be this hot? One walk outside and you're practically melting!"
The other two girls chimed in. "That's just how A City is. The weather's been getting so extreme these past couple of years. It only cooled down a little after they artificially made it rain."
"So I just wandered around campus instead, and signed up to be a volunteer for a day while I was at it." Yu Qingjiang said, "One of the senior girls told me there are several really handsome guys among this year's freshmen. Especially the freshman representative this year. Apparently he's a local from A City. I heard he is from A High or some kind of Experimental High School?"
They Call Me Lie: What were you talking about? Can I hear about it? Free consultation from the sidelines is available here.
Fang Zhuo took a sip of water.
Little Sun: We were talking about handsome guys.
They Call Me Lie: ??
They Call Me Lie: Did you tell them you have a boyfriend?
Little Sun: I did.
They Call Me Lie: Good. Remember to tell them your boyfriend is the class heartthrob too.
They Call Me Lie: I won't ask you to eat with me these next few days. Spend more time with them and get to know each other.
Little Sun: I know.
The long-haired girl joined in. "A High, I think. Is his name Yan Lie? I know him. He was in my class in middle school. I heard he did extremely well this time. B University even came to recruit him, but he didn't go. Our school offered him a scholarship worth several hundred thousand yuan just to keep him."
One of the other roommates said enviously, "Being a genius really means you can do whatever you want."
Yu Qingjiang said, "He registered yesterday. I went to see him because I'd heard so much about him. He really is handsome. More importantly, he's not greasy, doesn't act like a big shot, and doesn't flirt with girls."
The long-haired girl laughed. "Yan Lie is famous for being a complete straight-arrow. We weren't at the same high school, but he was still really well-known around here."
Although they weren't praising her, Fang Zhuo still felt awkward listening to them. She stiffly asked, "When are you guys going to eat?"
Yu Qingjiang paused. "Your boyfriend isn't eating with you?"
Fang Zhuo said, "He said he can't. I'll eat with you."
Yu Qingjiang's expression faltered. Suddenly changing direction, she said, "A University may be a famous school, but getting in doesn't necessarily mean all the guys here are quality material. One of our teachers once told us about a senior she knew. He got a girlfriend in college, and they kept their relationship secret the entire time. The guy refused to make it public, spent the girl's money, and even had her act as his free housekeeper. Then, the moment he graduated and found himself a rich, beautiful girl, he dumped his girlfriend immediately. Honestly, the world of high school is just too sheltered. You don't realize how ridiculously practical some men can be. Cute, pretty girls are the ones who get cheated."
The change in topic was so painfully obvious that the other two roommates had no idea how to respond.
Fang Zhuo felt a piercing gaze land on her. She looked up, and sure enough, she met Yu Qingjiang's eyes.
The two of them fell into complete silence.
Fang Zhuo's fingers trembled slightly, she lowered her head and continued typing.
Little Sun: They're talking about you.
They Call Me Lie: Really? Someone knows me? Is any of your roommates from A City?
Little Sun: If I understood correctly, I think they're saying you're a scumbag.
They Call Me Lie: ??
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