As usual the "It was during year x" kind of sentence opening had to be used. Everyone who are used to being a student will have this problem, you cannot remember what you did in year 2005, but if you were to break it down to school years like Junior 1 Junior 2 Junior 3 Senior 1 Senior 2 Senior 3, you will start to have an unceasing torrents of memories.
It was during 1st semester of Senior Year 3, Arts student Chen Xiaoxi had to take 4 hours' worth of bus ride with her friends and a teacher to a place she had never been to before. She will be there to take part in an art class for half a month.
One day before departure, Chen Xiaoxi asked Jiang Chen on the way home from school, "I'll be leaving tomorrow, will you send me off?"
"I won't," he said.
"Oh." Chen Xiaoxi couldn't hide her disappointment, "Tomorrow is Sunday, you don't have anything on tomorrow, you should just send me off."
Jiang Chen wasn't in the mood, "Who said I have nothing on, there's the Physics Olympiad that I'm participating in this Sunday."
"Hurhur*, I forgot," she scratched her head, "All the best, there shouldn't be a problem for you to claim the 1st prize home ya?" (T/N: that's just a laughing sound LOL.)
"Easier said than done," he glared at her.
"Of course it's easy, I'm not the one participating in the competition…"
Chen Xiaoxi heaved a long sigh, "What to do? I think I'm starting to miss you even before I'm gone."
Jiang Chen acted as though he couldn't hear, "Have you sorted out your luggage and stuff?"
"Nope, my mum doesn't want to help me with it," Chen Xiaoxi complaint, "she said she wanted to watch * and doesn't have time. I think she just has a stepmother's heart." (T/N: A Chinese drama loosely translated to 'The Heart of A Stepmother's Spring'. Which was an actual drama in 1998.)
Jiang Chen laughed, "You can't pack it yourself?"
Chen Xiaoxi said, "I don't believe my mum won't do it for me! I will fight her!"
After dinner, Chen Xiaoxi was in her room packing her luggage, her mother was outside watching The Heart Of A Stepmother's Spring and wiping her tears. Suddenly there were knocking sounds coming from the windows as though something was thrown at it. Chen Xiaoxi propped her head out and saw a man standing downstairs, throwing small pebbles at her window. She got a shock, the alley was dark without streetlights, and she couldn't see exactly who the person was, she turned back to her room but quickly snuck her head out again and asked softly, "Who's there?"
"Jiang Chen," said the voice.
"I'll come down now!"
Chen Xiaoxi literally rolled and crawled down the stairs wearing her pajamas and house slippers.
"Why did you run so fast for?" Jiang Chen was shocked by her way of running, how her feet did not come in contact with the floor.
"I was scared that you might run away," Chen Xiaoxi said sheepishly.
"I'm here, where can I run to?"
"How would I know where you can run to? I usually can't find you," said Chen Xiaoxi.
Jiang Chen was speechless, she follows him everywhere, except with the exception of not following him into the washroom. She still said she usually couldn't find him?
"Why did you look for me for?" Chen Xiaoxi had an idiotic smile, "Miss me? Coming to kiss goodbye?"
"Your skin is really thick," Jiang Chen commented, then he reached into his pocket and pulled out something like a few pieces of poker card, "This is for you."
"What is this?" Chen Xiaoxi took it and looked at it under the streetlight, "200 telephone card*? Why are you giving me a telephone card?" (T/N: 200 is a telephone card brand in china.)
Jiang Chen said, "My house has a lot of such things, people gave them to us, I don't need it so I'm giving it to you, don't you have to call when you are out?"
Actually, he requested Auntie Li to buy that stack of cards for him before he left home this morning, but Chen Xiaoxi doesn't have to know about this.
"My mum bought one for me," Chen Xiaoxi said, "If you give me this much I wouldn't be able to use them up, and they are all 50RMB."
Jiang Chen shrugged, "If you can't use them up then throw them away."
He turned around to head home, Chen Xiaoxi frantically called to stop him, "Wait awhile, thank you for this."
"Ye," he said, and left.
"Aiya why are you always in such a rush to leave, you need to pee?" Chen Xiaoxi blurted out and immediately regretted, we looked down to explain, "My mum always said that to my dad…"
Jiang Chen solemnly returned his footstep, "What else do you want to say?"
"Nothing much," Chen Xiaoxi used her left foot to step on her right foot, "It's just that I won't be able to talk to you for a period of time, I can't bear it."
Jiang Chen sighed in his heart, he calmly said, "Didn't I give you telephone cards?"
"Ah?" Chen Xiaoxi looked up in surprise, "So I can call you?"
Jiang Chen said, "The telephone card is with you, it's your choice who you want to call."
Chen Xiaoxi smiled till her eyes almost can't be seen, "I'll call you every day, don't you not pick up my phone oh~"
Jiang Chen said, "What's there to call every day? I'll pluck my house phone's cord out."
Chen Xiaoxi said, "Don't be like this, I promise I'll only call an hour a day."
"An hour?" Jiang Chen glared at her, "You think I'm so free?"
"How about half an hour?"
"Half an hour every day, what are you? News broadcast?"
"20 minutes?"
"No."
"10 minutes?"
"No."
"5 minutes?"
"No."
"Are you doing this purposely? If you don't want to, then why are you giving me telephone cards?" Chen Xiaoxi stomped her feet.
Jiang Chen reciprocated her question, "Didn't I say my house has too many of these and no one is using it?"
"I'm going home…" said Chen Xiaoxi.
"You need to pee?" asked Jiang Chen.
Chen Xiaoxi, "….."
Every 7PM since then, Jiang Chen's house telephone will ring along with the news broadcast. Jiang Chen will rush to pick it up before Auntie Li does it. Auntie Li frequently gets scared by the Jiang Chen who gushed like a wind to the telephone. For a period of time, she had to look around before picking up the phone to ensure that Jiang Chen didn't have the intention of answering the phone.
Every time Jiang Chen picks up the phone, he will stay silent for a few seconds before saying, "Hello."
Not sure how Chen Xiaoxi was able to determine that the "hello" was his voice. Regardless, she will happily drag her voice and say, "Jiang Chen, hellooooooooooooooo~"
She was telling him about how her tutor looks like a caveman, about how her class has a student who self-proclaimed to be Picasso, but no one is able to understand what was drawn. In order to save money, she had to replace a meal everyday with instant noodles, and she wants to puke when she smells it… Either way, she will continue talking non-stop by herself. Sometimes the call ended in less than an hour, if he had known, he would have agreed with an hour per day.
Afterwards Jiang Chen asked Chen Xiaoxi, how she was able to determine it was him just by a "hello".
Chen Xiaoxi thought that it was only natural, "I said that if I were to call, you will pick up."