New Life and Masks (4)

Zhao Shihua blinked, the afterglow of the sunset in her memory frozen in a reflection on a nearby glass curtain wall. The bright light stung her eyes, and she wanted to rub them, but because she was training to stand at attention, she ultimately held back.

Although the team's formation was currently in the shadow of the playground's stands, Guangzhou's summer heat was far from easy to escape. The heat still emanated from the air, melting the distant silhouettes of trees and skyscrapers. Zhao Shihua felt completely parched, and if she'd coated herself in honey, it would have become delicious pork jerky. However, she didn't even crave pork jerky anymore. She looked forward to the end of the day, heading to the cafeteria for a bowl of iced mung bean soup, available only during military training.

Although military training was arduous and boring, Zhao Shihua didn't complain like her classmates. Perhaps because she'd read so many martial arts novels and watched so many heroic movies as a child, she'd always idolized superheroes who saved the planet. She firmly believed in the saying, "When Heaven wants to confer a great responsibility on a man, it must first test his mind and spirit, toil his muscles and bones, and starve his body." The pilgrimage to the West required eighty-one trials, Simba escaped before becoming the Lion King, and Harry Potter lived in a cupboard for over a decade before attending Hogwarts. Therefore, she practically embraced this kind of hardship, even when sweat streamed into her eyes, blinking it away without a word.

"Instructor, sweat is running into my eyes and I want to wipe it!" Shao Yifu, who was standing in the row behind her, suddenly shouted out his thoughts as if he had received a signal from across the air, which scared her so much that she almost turned her head back reflexively.

Zhao Shihua had heard similar reports dozens of times in the past few days. If some people were strict with themselves, then on the other side of the scale, there would surely be others who were more relaxed, as if doing so for the sake of the earth's ecological balance.

At first, everyone was still unaccustomed to military training, constantly wiping sweat, fanning themselves, adjusting their glasses, and other small movements. But after being scolded by the instructor for a long time, they gradually learned to pay attention. Only Shao Yifu was still like a child with ADHD, wiping sweat and scratching his head.

The instructor initially punished him by having him sing a military song solo in public. Unexpectedly, singing happened to be one of Shao Yifu's hobbies, which actually suited his taste. But it wasn't that he sang particularly well; it was simply out of shamelessness or a deliberate attempt to disrupt the situation. Once, he yelled the lyrics to "Unity is strength! Hey!" over and over again like a tape recorder, unable to remember the words and unable to sing the next line. The assistant instructor was so frustrated that he wanted to continue singing himself. Then, he improvised and changed the song "Returning from Target Practice" to "Soldier Dad beat the ghosts, beat the ghosts." One boy joked that it was basically a "you sing, I guess" show...

So the instructor changed the punishment to standing alone, and later to running a lap, but it still didn't work. Perhaps worried that if the punishment was too severe, Shao Yifu would collapse from heatstroke, and the instructor might end up being the one to take the blame, he simply gave in and ordered him to report every time he couldn't resist acting out, which finally calmed his restless behavior.

"Approved!" The instructor replied after a few seconds, his brow twisted in dissatisfaction. A burst of laughter erupted from the surroundings. After all, the most difficult part of military training was standing at attention, so everyone treated Shao Yifu's report as a monkey show.

"What are you laughing at? Have you reported it yet?! Stand there for five more minutes!"

There were sudden wails all around, and no one could laugh anymore. They were probably all secretly cursing Shao Yifu. However, Zhao Shihua was neither amused nor annoyed; her mind was completely focused on other things. She stared at the back of the head of the girl in the front row, and couldn't help but think back to the freshman assembly a few days ago.

That day at the conference, when Shao Yifu asked her how she knew her former name, Zhao Shihua subconsciously denied it, saying she'd simply thought of the line "One man guards the pass, ten thousand men cannot open it," and that she'd also been misled by her "poetry and literature" pretensions. Shao Yifu, however, was remarkably insensitive and didn't dwell on it, even sighing regretfully that he'd thought he'd run into an elementary school classmate or something, before continuing on with some other nonsense.

Normally, if someone had interrupted her while she was absorbed in the lecture, Zhao Shihua would have shushed them back with a "Stop!" But at that moment, fearing that Shao Yifu would be alone to ponder his thoughts, she half-heartedly agreed. She took considerable pains to steer the conversation, avoiding the past. Perhaps for this reason, the two of them seemed to be surprisingly engaging. Of course, it was mostly Shao Yifu who was rambling, Zhao Shihua nodding at him. Thanks to him, Zhao Shihua's knowledge of school history only extended to the 1990s, followed by a series of oral replays of summer sports events.

However, during the subsequent military training, Zhao Shihua was incredibly thankful for following his intuition. Because no matter how much he observed or inferred, Shao Yifu and the Guan Yifu from elementary school were not the same person. First of all, in terms of appearance, Guan Yifu as a child was an undeniably chubby kid, his face round like a steamed bun, his features squeezed in the middle like unspread beans. Meanwhile, Shao Yifu now was leaner, like a bamboo shoot, constantly growing.

This could be explained by the saying "boys change a lot when they grow up." After all, even Zhao Shihua herself looked very different from her childhood: if you look at the few photos she had from before school, you'll see she looked like a real wild child. She was dark and slovenly from being out and about all day, and half of the photos had snot hanging from her nose. Her eyes, however, were bright and lively, like a little mountain monkey. Now, she doesn't look like a monkey at all, but rather a close relative of monkeys—a normal human, with bangs and a ponytail. She looks ordinary enough that you'd be hard to find her in a crowd in three seconds.

Therefore, it wasn't the change in his appearance that confused her, but rather the difference in their personalities that was the biggest source of doubt. According to normal growth patterns, the cowardly Guan Yifu should have grown up to be a taciturn, overweight otaku. There was no way he was going to be the boy who smiled foolishly even when criticized.

For most people, unless they experience a major change, their personality won't undergo a drastic change. Even if they do change, most tend to become more reserved and quiet. Zhao Shihua herself is a case in point: as lively and active as she once was, she's now as well-behaved and quiet. Meanwhile, Shao Yifu is a hundred times more outspoken than the timid and introverted Guan Yifu of the past, and he's also a chatterbox—the complete opposite.

Besides, Zhao Shihua herself didn't want to admit the past, and Shao Yifu didn't look like he knew her before. She hadn't changed her name, and while her appearance had changed, it wasn't completely unrecognizable. Could he have selectively lost his memory?

So the only possibility left was that they simply happened to share the same name. Despite this, Zhao Shihua hesitated to jump to conclusions. She carefully collected every scrap of information about Shao Yifu, while also diligently recalling Guan Yifu's past, comparing them like a police officer investigating an undercover agent, hoping to find any similarities between the two. Shao Yifu's playful little show before others became a Conan crime scene in Zhao Shihua's eyes. She wanted to raise her index finger and shout, "There's only one Yifu!" Unfortunately, she didn't have Conan's glasses, which automatically reflected light when he discovered the truth, nor did she have Sun Wukong's piercing eyes, which could see through others' true identities.

"Hey Shihua, look to the right."

Zhao Shihua felt a gentle nudge from Zhu Miaoyan on her left, and she instinctively turned to look at her. It took a split second for her to react. She wasn't blinded by the intense afternoon sun, but rather by the memory of last night's "bonfire" party, even without a bonfire—Shaw Yi-fu, always a thorn in the instructors' side, and several other boys had joined the two instructors, arm in arm, in a loud chorus of "True Hero," as if they were longtime buddies. The more she thought about it, the more incredible it became, and she didn't even hear the instructor's commands.

"Student in the second row, can't you tell left from right?!" The instructor's booming voice was like a megaphone shouting into Zhao Shihua's ear. Zhao Shihua shuddered with fear, and her already flushed face turned even redder.

After finally making it to break time, the instructor dismissed everyone and they gathered in groups of three or four to sit in the shade under the playground stands to cool off. About ten meters away, Shao Yifu and two other boys were being punished to stand for another five minutes for some unknown reason.

"Shihua, you're not suffering from heatstroke, are you?" Zhu Miaoyan raised her hand and fanned Zhao Shihua a few times. "Your face looks a little too red, really like an apple... well, more like a tomato, because apples can be green."

"Huh? Is it that red?" Zhao Shihua took off his hat and fanned himself. Although he hadn't taken martial arts classes in several years, his body was still quite strong and he would definitely not be easily defeated by the heat. "I'm just too hot. I'll be fine after a rest."

"Then drink more water to cool down."

Zhao Shihua picked up the water cup and realized he had already gulped it down during the last break. He patted his thigh, stood up, and said, "I'll go get some water." Just as he took a step, he seemed to remember something and turned back to Zhu Miaoyan, who was sitting next to him, "Do you want me to fill some for you too?"

"Thank you!" Zhu Miaoyan smiled and said, "I can go by myself."

"Wait, I'll go with you too." Zhang He stood up and said with her.

"I'm going too!" Then a few more girls around followed.

Zhao Shihua glanced back at the seven or eight girls behind her, remembering how the bathroom scene often looked like this back in elementary school. The girls were like pearls on a string, a long string at a stretch. But she knew none of this mattered to her. It was Zhu Miaoyan who was the most popular. With her outgoing personality, cheerfulness, and humor, she had already become close friends with most of the class in just a few days.

It's fair to say that Zhu Miaoyan is a bit like Wang Zitong; their presence is like a little sun, radiant and inviting others to gather around them. Zhao Shihua also hopes to one day become someone with such a powerful allure. Perhaps because of her martial arts training, she always imagined growing up to be a great hero, traveling the world to save the world and earning everyone's admiration.

But in the end, not only did she fail to become a heroine, she was practically a dwarf, lucky to be able to survive. After all, the attraction between people is far more complex than Newton's law of universal gravitation, far more complex than simply applying a formula to a single value. Besides, she hadn't even learned the formula for universal gravitation, so she couldn't even dream of becoming the center of the universe.

As they split into two or three rows and headed for the drinking fountain at the playground entrance, they saw Zhuo Siqi and two other students, a boy and a girl, practicing goose-stepping near the flag-raising platform. Perhaps because of her tall and thin frame, Zhuo Siqi had been chosen to be the flag bearer on the first day of military training, so she hadn't participated in the class's drills. And because the instructors had different dismissal times, they rarely even ate together. Zhao Shihua only had the chance to speak to her in the dormitory.

Whether it was due to the lack of time they spent together or perhaps something to do with Zhuo Siqi herself, Zhao Shihua always felt a sense of distance from her. Zhuo Siqi had shoulder-length hair that covered most of her face, with bangs pressing heavily against her forehead, giving her a hint of coolness, even a chill. She spoke slowly, and though she would curl her lips slightly after each sentence, it felt like she was just being polite. She was like the opposite of Zhu Miaoyan: one possessed a natural attraction, the other a natural repulsion.

Zhu Miaoyan was the first to recognize Zhuo Siqi, who was standing at the other end of the runway. She had her left arm around Zhang He and her right arm around Zhao Shihua, and she said to the other two as if telling a joke, "Look! That's our honorary extra-curricular roommate."

Zhang He smiled knowingly, then suddenly lowered her voice and said, "It seems like she doesn't really like playing with us... Yesterday at noon, it was a rare lunch together, and she left early."

"Ah? I remember she seemed to say that she had something to do." Zhao Shihua recalled the scene of yesterday. It seemed that it was because she was greedy and ordered too many dishes, which led to Zhu Miaoyan and Zhang He waiting for her alone in the end.

"What's the matter? She will be reading a book when we go back." Zhang He rolled her eyes.

"She is really hardworking. She is preparing for the college entrance examination right after the military training. There are still three years left! But it makes us a little stressed." Zhu Miaoyan stretched out three fingers to make an "OK" gesture.

Although she could hear the obvious jealousy in her voice, Zhao Shihua didn't mind it. It was probably just the "bad students stick together" mentality at work. In the past, she would definitely not take the initiative to agree with anything. However, now, the scales in her heart more or less tilted towards Zhu Miaoyan's side. Compared with the unattainable equality, the immediate warmth of sticking together was more important. Zhao Shihua turned her head and found that the other two roommates were waiting for her to express her position. Almost without hesitation, she threw away her principle of never talking about others behind their backs and nodded in agreement: "Yes, yes, she is indeed a bit exaggerated."

Once bad words are spoken, it's like signing a contract of alliance, with an invisible thread connecting them. Friends grow closer not only because they like the same things, but also because they dislike the same people.

Feeling both guilty about betrayal and relieved at being accepted, Zhao Shihua chatted with the two about school, starting with their classmates. Of course, it was mainly the two on the left and right who listened with great interest as Zhu Miaoyan, in the middle, recounted the various intel she had gathered from her seniors. From military training to agricultural studies, from art festivals to science festivals, from gossip about the grade leaders to stories about the dorm manager, it was like a "New Student's Essential Survival Guide," far more practical than the school-issued "Student Handbook."

She couldn't imagine how Zhu Miaoyan knew so much inside information. Compared to her, she felt like Granny Liu entering the Grand View Garden. Plus, she'd completely forgotten about buying sunscreen and was too embarrassed to ask for it. Lately, she'd gotten so dark, as if covered in coal dust, that she looked even more like a country bumpkin. Zhao Shihua felt a tad shorter than she actually was. She wanted to pull out a notebook and write down everything she'd said, to avoid embarrassing herself later.