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They had not been separated.
When school re-opened, it was with an almost entirely new class and new classmates. Naturally, the foursome of Li Erqin and her friends sat together.
Peng Zige was very satisfied with the way the second year of high school was beginning, and he quickly made new friends.
Because it was the top class, all the teachers taught at a fast pace. The pace was so fast that Li Erqin, who previously had to make great efforts to keep up in physics, was completely lost.
On the first quiz after school had begun, Li Erqin achieved a ‘beautiful’ grade.
Rong Si, on the other hand, had been so busy participating in some competition or other that there was hardly a shadow of him to be seen.
During the summer vacation, Peng Zige and Li Erqin had attempted to contact Rong Si, but it was even worse than during the winter vacation – they could not get in touch with him at all. Calling him or topping up the phone account were both useless.
(T/N In case you need a refresher – during the winter break, Rong Si’s phone was constantly disconnected because his ‘cousin sister’ was using his phone to watch movies while on vacation outside China and used up the credits. Li Erqin topped up his phone account several times so that they could call him)
He seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth.
There was one summer day where Su Zi and Peng Zige had gone to Li Erqin’s home to hang out. They were all sitting together, eating watermelon and watching a movie. Peng Zige had just finished spitting the watermelon seeds from his mouth when he asked abruptly, “What do you guys think, is Rong Si some kind of alien? Or the old spirit god living in the mountains?”
Li Erqin was too lazy to spit out the seeds so she swallowed all of them before saying, “That’s possible.”
Su Zi was happily chortling away. “With Rong Si’s tall and thin physique, he should be a snake spirit!”
Peng Zige concurred. “He’s so pale as well, he must be a white snake.”
Li Erqin was struck by a sudden bolt of enlightenment. “So, Rong Si is Madam White Snake!”
(T/N ‘Madam White Snake’ is one of the most famous and retold/reinterpreted Chinese legends. Ref https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_of_the_White_Snake or http://www.chinatownology.com/madam_white_snake.html for more information)
Su Zi and Peng Zige had chorused, “Ah, so that’s it.”
(Minodayz : OMG… these 3 are hilarious. Poor RS became a Madam! Hahaha CMU seriously!!!!)
At the present moment however, Li Erqin was busy scouring through her notebooks in search of nuggets of wisdom or similar questions to the problems she had gotten wrong on the last test paper. Thus, the memory softly faded away.
Although school had started some time ago, she could count the number of times she had spoken with Rong Si on the fingers of one hand. The longing she had had to repress all throughout the summer vacation had not been alleviated. Instead, that sense of being ‘so near and yet so far’ now was making her more agitated and restless.
Even more disturbing to Li Erqin was the feeling that, ever since school started, Rong Si had been several degrees more indifferent towards her. Quite a few times, she had attempted to strike up a conversation with him during the rest periods, but he had seemed rather preoccupied. On several occasions, he had not even heard anything she had said to him.
It was true that while they were on the running tracks the day of the sports meet, he had said those three words, ‘I like you’.
However, judging from their current situation, Li Erqin felt that she had adequate reason to believe something which she was really unwilling to accept – Rong Si did not like her anymore.
After all, they had just passed an entire summer vacation (where they hadn’t been in contact). Moreover, when she had previously expressed her thoughts to Rong Si, he had been ‘angry’ for a good number of days.
Could liking someone be considered a “consumable” or perishable item? It probably also had a shelf life or expiration date, right?
What would she do if Rong Si really did not like her anymore?
What if her ‘like’ for him eventually turned into one of those *’hidden loves’ where she had to love him in secret? What was she to do then?
(TN: There is a chinese phrase for this: 暗恋, an lian. Lit. dark/secret yearning)
If there was no chance that her feelings would be reciprocated, how long would she be able to continue to like him?
A year?
A month?
A week?
Li Erqin jabbed listlessly at the words in her notebook. Rong Si, Rong Si, Rong Si. The name, written all over the page, now seemed especially glaring to the eyes and painful to look at.
She propped up her chin with her hand and carefully tried to pinpoint when exactly she had started liking Rong Si.
— At the time of the Spring Festival performance?
— No, it was earlier than that.
— The day of the first snowfall?
— No, even earlier.
Li Erqin sighed despondently and switched the hand propping up her chin.
— So, when was it?
— It couldn’t possibly be the first time they met.
The words ‘the first time we met’ triggered the recollection of a flurry of images from a year ago, finally coming to rest at the moment when Li Erqin had first set eyes on Rong Si.
It wasn’t a silent, static image.
There was the clamour of cicadas singing, the sound of feet marching in unison, and the rise and fall of shouted slogans. With every breath, the smell of disinfectant mixed with the scent of summer wafting through the cracks in the windows.
And then, there was Rong Si’s tall and handsome figure standing by the door, his attractive eyes looking coolly at her and the naturally upward curving corners of his mouth slightly pursed.
Li Erqin had thought he was smiling. On closer inspection, it turned out that he was not.
To the Li Erqin back then, this was the unfamiliar, aloof and indifferent Rong Si.
Li Erqin sighed once again. These days, Rong Si kept giving off those vibes – unfamiliar, aloof and totally indifferent.
It felt like their relationship was back to where it was at the beginning.
However, it didn’t matter.
Even if this were the case, she still liked Rong Si.
＊＊＊
Rong Si had left the laboratory after completing his lab practice for the day. The instant his left foot crossed over the threshold into the classroom, his eyes searched for Li Erqin.
The petite girl was sitting at her place, and the hand which was supporting her head was slowly slipping.
With a ‘pa da’, the notebook under her elbow slipped to the floor.
However, she continued to sleep, totally unaware.
Rong Si lowered his head and smiled, then walked over to pick up the notebook and placed it gently on her table, away from the edge.
The moment his fingers left the notebook, a breeze from the window whispered past and fluttered the faintly yellow pages.
Although he had been about to walk away, he paused slightly and narrowed his eyes.
Li Erqin had spent too much time doodling and pressing down on one page, and the breeze quickly flipped the book open to that section. The entire page held only three words, repeated over and over.
Rong Si.
That was two words.
Together.
That was one word.
(TN: In Chinese, this is actually five words since “together” is three words: ‘在一起’)
Rong Si pursed his pale lips and casually sat down next to Li Erqin. Holding his chin in his hand, he was silent for a moment. He then glanced over to the examination paper that Li Erqin had tossed to one side, and he couldn’t help the smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
59.
It was really not a bad score.
When Li Erqin woke up, she almost bit the top of her tongue off. It was with total surprise that she stared at Rong Si, who was currently helping revise her paper, and she just couldn’t take in what she was seeing.
— Wasn’t he very busy these days?
— Didn’t she just say to herself that he had recently not been paying her any attention, so what was this situation now?
Then, Rong Si became aware of her staring at him and turned his head to look at her. His usually placid, expressionless eyes had a spark of amusement in them as he said, “This can still be saved.”
Li Erqin had no idea what he was talking about.
Rong Si used the tip of his pen to point at her test paper. “If you could be more careful, you would definitely not get this kind of score.”
Li Erqin continued to stare at him blankly.
Rong Si’s amusement finally manifested itself as he laughed quietly. “I have a vacant position here, would you like to fill it?”
(Minodayz: squealing!!!! The moment we have been waiting for since we read the novel intro)
“What?”
“Girlfriend.”
(Minodayz : YESSSSSSSSSSS!!! ٩( ´◡)( ´◡ )۶)
Li Erqin almost bit the tip of her tongue in shock. “What?”
Rong Si remained silent as he looked at her with a smile.
“You . . .” Haven’t you stopped liking me already?
She could not voice her question.
Li Erqin looked at her test paper and the embarrassing score written on it and immediately turned red.