Chapter 38 At the end of June, the college entrance exam results were released…

At the end of June, the college entrance examination results were released. The results of No. 1 High School were not bad, but slightly worse than in previous years, which made Fang Minzhou, a senior high school student, more and more uneasy.

Fang Minzhou compared her last semester's final exam scores with this year's cutoff scores, racking her brains trying to figure out where she could get a few more points. Just a few more points would be great, giving her more choices. But what would those choices be? What major should she study? Thinking about this, Fang Minzhou got stuck again.

It's like taking a longer route in a maze game, but still not reaching the end. With so many forks in the road, which door should she knock on?

He turned to analyze Wang Kan's grades, but the more he analyzed them, the more troubled he became, and he didn't know if Wang Kan himself had taken them to heart.

With the summer vacation coming to an end and tutoring finished, Fang Minzhou finally relaxed a little. Time felt as empty as white noise, and she was lost and didn't know what to do.

The day before the typhoon arrived, Fang Minzhou's parents had to work overtime. She originally just wanted to go downstairs to grab a bite to eat, but on a whim, she slowly walked all the way to No. 1 Middle School, bought a cup of milk tea first, and then went to eat pork rib noodles.

After finishing her noodles, Fang Minzhou browsed around a nearby bookstore and bought the latest geography and fiction magazines.

Stepping out of the bookstore, the sky was ablaze with the colors of sunset. The air was still warm, but the wind was cool, rustling the leaves.

The dark purple clouds on the horizon grew more and more beautiful, like a shimmering silk ribbon winding across the sky, its edges gradually tinged with a radiant red light.

Fang Minzhou looked at the photos again and again, then took out her phone to take pictures. No matter how she tried, she couldn't capture the effect she saw with her own eyes. She thought of the photos Wang Kan had sent her. Were they like this when he took them? But all the photos he sent were beautiful. Or was it that the clouds in Zhangcheng were different from those in Nancheng?

Fang Minzhou wanted to find a place to put her things down, but there was a wall on one side and a tree on the other. After going around in circles, she could only hold them in her hands. At this moment, she saw Sun Tong.

She saw her too.

From Sun Tong's slowed pace, Fang Minzhou knew that she, like herself, felt embarrassed.

But more than feeling awkward, Fang Minzhou was surprised to run into Sun Tong near the school. She lives near the school? Then why does she live on campus?

After hesitating for a while, Fang Minzhou smiled slightly.

A few steps away, Sun Tong stood in the shade of a tree. She was wearing a black short-sleeved shirt and blue school pants, carrying supermarket plastic bags in both hands. Her glasses, as always, concealed her expression, as if she could silently blend into the twilight.

Fang Minzhou was genuinely embarrassed at this point. She might have been annoyed with someone else, but with Sun Tong, it seemed like there was nothing to hold a grudge against.

Suddenly, Sun Tong adjusted the plastic bags in her hand, put one of them on her wrist, and walked over to Fang Minzhou, extending her free hand.

A plastic bag hung between the two of them. Fang Minzhou saw that it contained some food ingredients, while another bag next to their legs contained some daily necessities and looked heavier.

After realizing what was happening, Fang Minzhou handed the milk tea to Sun Tong, while still carrying the bookstore bag herself. "...Thank you."

The clouds were beginning to darken. Fang Minzhou quickly snapped a few photos with her phone, but without the milk tea in her way, the pictures didn't look any better. Fang Minzhou put her phone back in her pocket, took the milk tea back from Sun Tong, and thanked her again.

In a gesture of goodwill, Fang Minzhou offered to help Sun Tong carry the bag, but Sun Tong declined. Fang Minzhou remained silent, and in the silence, a motorcycle sped past, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Fang Minzhou wasn't a talkative person, but when she met Sun Tong, who was even less talkative, she inexplicably felt a sense of responsibility and wanted to liven things up between them: "Do you live near the school?"

Sun Tong looked at her and said, "I'm currently living in the school's teachers' dormitory."

Fang Minzhou was stunned.

The teachers' dormitory consists of several small white buildings outside the back gate of the school, enclosed by iron railings, forming a small courtyard. It is generally for teachers who live far away.

“I didn’t go home. I wanted to stay in the dormitory, but the school wouldn’t allow it. Teacher Zhan was very kind and let me stay in her dormitory.”

Fang Minzhou opened her mouth and responded.

More than regretting asking the wrong question, she was puzzled as to why Sun Tong had told her all this.

This should have been a "big deal," involving why Sun Tong didn't go home and whether it was against the rules for Teacher Zhan to let her stay in the teachers' dormitory. But Sun Tong spoke casually about it, and Fang Minzhou was forced to act as if she wasn't surprised at all.

Sun Tong suddenly smiled, a smile of ambiguity, like a knowing smile, yet also carrying a hint of mockery, whether at herself or someone else, the smile was small and fleeting, "I'm leaving."

She walked past her, the two plastic bags rustling softly. Fang Minzhou turned to look; her back was still very straight, but her narrow shoulders were uneven.

She hesitated for a moment, then walked over to Sun Tong and took one of the plastic bags from her hand: "...Let me get one for you."

Being so close, Fang Minzhou could now clearly see the surprise in Sun Tong's eyes behind her glasses.

The teachers' dormitory looks better than the students' dormitory. In the height of summer, it is shaded by green trees. For the students of No. 1 Middle School, this place is either a sacred place or a forbidden place. Fang Minzhou used to just pass by the gate at most.

Stepping inside, however, reveals its age; the white walls are peeling, and the stair railings are rusty. There are five floors, two apartments per floor, and no elevator. But compared to other tenement buildings, the hallways are clean, without any trace of small advertisements.

Teacher Zhan's dormitory was on the third floor, and there were handwritten Spring Festival couplets pasted on the security door. Sun Tong took out her key and opened the door. Fang Minzhou could see the entire one-bedroom, one-living room, and one-bathroom apartment from the doorway. The home decoration was also very simple.

"So, did it satisfy your curiosity?" Sun Tong asked her.

The statement was not very friendly, but because the tone was flat and emotionless, it didn't make Fang Minzhou feel too uncomfortable as to be attacked.

She wasn't curious about what the teachers' dormitories looked like; what she was really curious about was why Sun Tong hadn't gone home for the last New Year's Day holiday or this summer vacation, but... she shouldn't use "curiosity" to describe this question.

After seeing the obvious signs that only one person had lived in the room, the answer was a taboo that was about to be revealed, and Fang Min didn't know what to say for a moment.

She felt somewhat guilty.

She didn't have any malicious intent to pry; she was just treating her current doubts as small talk. But in reality, she was tacitly assuming that Sun Tong didn't live near the school, wasn't she? However, if Sun Tong didn't want her to know, she could have easily glossed over it, but she didn't, even though she didn't hide her wariness and hostility.

She regretted talking too much and wondered why Sun Tong had told her all this.

This made Fang Minzhou feel inexplicably that Sun Tong was deliberately telling her about her life, and then waiting to observe her reaction in order to... judge what kind of person she was?

But why?

For a long time, Fang Minzhou thought that she was the only one competing with Sun Tong, because she felt that Sun Tong had never regarded her as a competitor.

She handed the bag back to her, saying, "I just wanted to help you carry it."

Sun Tong looked at her for a few seconds, then asked, "Would you like to come in and sit for a while?"

That being said, there was no feeling of welcoming her.

Fang Minzhou shook her head, and Sun Tong didn't stand on ceremony any longer. She turned around, went inside, and took out two fist-sized peaches, handing them to Fang Minzhou. "These were sent by Teacher Zhan."

Fang Minzhou realized that Sun Tong was acting as a guest-receptionist on behalf of Teacher Zhan.

“I remember Teacher Zhan mentioned that the peaches from her hometown are delicious,” Fang Minzhou said.

Teacher Zhan's classes always get straight to the point, with a fast pace and lots of content. He rarely talks about trivial matters. The only time he mentioned peaches was because he was discussing a topic about fruit ripening agents.

Sun Tong paused slightly, then smiled genuinely, a rare occurrence. "Yes, it's very sweet."

Fang Minzhou opened the bookstore bag, revealing the covers of novel magazines. A little embarrassed, she took out a geography magazine and placed it in front of her. "...Just something I bought randomly. Have you been reading anything lately?"

She noticed some of the books she had borrowed from the library on Sun Tong's desk when she passed by earlier.

Sun Tong put the peaches into the bag, then went back to get two more, stuffing the plastic bag bulging, but didn't respond to Fang Minzhou's earlier words.

Fang Minzhou didn't know whether to be angry or speechless. A sense of unease from having intruded on someone else's privacy was also bothering her. In the faint scent of peaches, she thought she might as well just leave, but unexpectedly Sun Tong brought up another topic, a very sudden topic. She asked her, "Who were you planning to send those photos to?"

Fang Minzhou instinctively wanted to deny it, but then she paused, remembering Sun Tong's honesty.

"Are you dating Wang Kan?"

Fang Minzhou felt as if she had been stabbed in the heart by those words. She forced a show of composure and feigned surprise, "...No. Who told you that?"

“No one told me, I just guessed.” Sun Tong crossed her arms and smiled faintly, letting Fang Minzhou know that she had probably seen through her thoughts. “During the spring outing, I saw you and Wang Kan talking by the lake.”

Fang Minzhou suddenly understood. She had inadvertently learned Sun Tong's "secret," so Sun Tong wanted to reciprocate.

She quickly calmed down. "Can't we talk by the lake? We're not dating."

Sun Tong looked at her for a few seconds, as if she believed what she said, but her meaningful gaze clearly told Fang Minzhou: You better not have it, otherwise, you'll be very stupid.

At this point, Fang Minzhou finally felt offended.

Although she was surprised that she could understand Sun Tong's thoughts, because if she were to find out that Sun Tong was "in a relationship," she would definitely be very surprised as well, but whether it was stupid or not... what did it have to do with her?

"...I'm leaving." Fang Minzhou maintained basic politeness as she said goodbye to Sun Tong, who did not reply.

After Fang Minzhou turned around and walked down two steps, she heard Sun Tong's indifferent voice behind her: "I know someone who I heard had pretty good grades when she was in school."

Fang Minzhou turned around and saw Sun Tong leaning against the door, her posture unchanged. "Later, because she fell in love, she stopped studying and didn't get into university. Now she's living a miserable life."

Wh-what?

Fang Minzhou stared at Sun Tong in disbelief.

Was she...was she warning her, or cursing her? The next second, with a "bang," Fang Minzhou woke up with a start, took a step over two flights of stairs, and angrily slammed her fist on the door.

The door reopened, and Sun Tong waited patiently for her to give her feedback.

"...What do you mean?" Fang Minzhou suppressed her anger.

"How you interpret it is exactly what you interpret it to mean."

No matter how positively Fang Minzhou tried to think of Sun Tong, at this moment, she couldn't see much concern for her in Sun Tong's attitude. All she saw was the disdain and belittling of a self-proclaimed victor towards a loser.

She idealized her too much, thinking that with her achievements and talent, it was normal for her to have a bit of personality, but everything has its limits, and she wasn't so great that the whole world had to make way for her.

Teacher Zhan lent the dormitory to Sun Tong so readily, which must be because she hoped that Sun Tong would study hard during the summer vacation. However, Fang Minzhou couldn't help but think cynically: Does Teacher Zhan know that Sun Tong is this kind of person?

"I don't know who you're talking about," Fang Minzhou said, trying to remain calm to maintain her composure. "But I want to ask, how do you define her being miserable right now? Even if she really isn't doing well, is it just because she's in a relationship or didn't get into university?"

"And even if she's not doing well now, does that mean she won't be better off in the future? Isn't there a chance for her to start over?" Fang Minzhou said, unable to contain her excitement.

Whether she tried to argue or was just being stubborn, she was determined to refute Sun Tong right now. Sun Tong seemed surprised by her impulsiveness, her expression changing slightly, though she quickly regained her composure. She placed her hand on the doorknob, as if to close the door, and said in a cold tone, "Fine, if you don't understand, then forget it."

Fang Minzhou was turned away, so she knocked on the door again and rang the doorbell a few times, but this time the door did not open.

She took a deep breath, really wanting to curse. She didn't even want to drink the milk tea anymore. She went downstairs and threw it into the trash can by the door.

The last glimmer of red light lingered on the mountaintop in the distance. The entire courtyard was pitch black except for the light from the streetlights. It was so quiet that there wasn't even the sound of insects chirping, and it seemed as if no one lived there.

Originally, the teachers had all gone home for the holiday.

Fang Minzhou stopped in front of the courtyard gate.

The bag in my hand felt heavy and slipped down, making my hand ache.

Thinking that Sun Tong might be living here alone for the entire summer vacation, Fang Minzhou calmed down a bit, as if a stronger wind was roughly wiping her face.

If Sun Tong was just trying to show off his superiority in front of her, he could have just said so directly. There was no need to beat around the bush and mention other people. Besides, who exactly is that girl? Does such a person even exist?

Fang Minzhou found her really strange. If she cared, why couldn't she speak properly? But was she really concerned? Was she worried that her grades would suffer because of her relationship?

...And why can't she go home?

Fang Minzhou didn't want to think about it anymore, and she couldn't find an answer, so she walked towards the station.

While waiting for the bus, I took out my phone. It was completely dark, and several rows of photos of the sunset were displayed upside down in my album, making my phone screen glow brilliantly.

She picked and chose, but still didn't send the photos.

She was probably still influenced by what Sun Tong said earlier, even though she didn't think that much when she took the photo.

How did Sun Tong guess that she intended to send the photo to Wang Kan? Did she have something written on her face? Couldn't she have kept it as a souvenir for herself?

Recalling that time in the bookstore, the sweet atmosphere between Yuan Yue and Shen Luming was full of flaws, and on the swaying bus, Fang Minzhou looked out the window and fell into deep thought.

When she got home, her parents weren't back yet. Fang Minzhou turned on the lights, walked to the coffee table in the living room, and took the peaches out of the bag one by one and placed them on the fruit plate.

I received another message from Wang Kan, a photo of the river view, followed by a diary entry like a primary school student writing, saying he'd been dragged to a river cruise again, and he really didn't know what was so interesting about it, it was hot and crowded, and he was so bored...

Fang Minzhou sat on the sofa in the living room, watching Wang Kan's rambling. She felt as if she had traveled through time and space, and the river breeze of Nancheng suddenly improved her mood. But at the same time, the other side of the scales weighed down again.

That same conflicting feeling remains; happiness is always tinged with burden, neither high nor low, maintaining a balance.

"How annoying," Fang Minzhou thought. She hated her own overthinking and wanted to do something recklessly.

With that in mind, she carefully arranged the fruit in the fruit plate, took a picture, and sent it to Wang Kan.

Wang Kan sent a series of thumbs-up emojis and then said: "It's a birthday celebration."

Fang Minzhou smiled; she was no longer angry. When she was truly happy, she chose to ignore all her troubles.

Sun Tong leaned against the door, coldly warning her; Ouyang Qian's lonely profile was blown by the night wind; Yuan Yue's shy expression was on her youthful face; Wang Kan, who was listening to the lecture, noticed her gaze and then gave a mischievous smile... Many people and many things floated into Fang Minzhou's mind, frame by frame, demanding her answers, but she could only write "Solution" on the blank answer sheet, because the questions themselves were vague.

Wang Kan: You like to eat peaches?

Fang Minzhou: It's alright.

Wang Kan: Do you prefer firm peaches or soft peaches?

Fang Minzhou: Either way is fine.

Wang Kan: I like to eat hard food.

Fang Minzhou: Oh

Wang Kan: ...

Wang Kan: Is Zhangcheng about to be hit by a typhoon?

Fang Minzhou: Hmm

Fang Minzhou: Did you memorize your English words today?

Wang Kan: /sweat

Wang Kan: I memorized it. Which day didn't I memorize it?

Fang Minzhou: /pouting

Wang Kan felt like he was going crazy, actually finding the expression cute; he imagined Fang Minzhou herself making that expression.

As the ferry set sail, Wang Kan leaned against the railing at the stern, the humid evening breeze blowing in his face. Looking out, the lights on both banks were dazzling.

He continued texting Fang Minzhou, his head down. He would be able to return to Zhangcheng next week. This summer, he hadn't been able to watch a movie with her yet.

But being rejected was not unexpected.

Wang Kan: /Feeling wronged

Fang Minzhou remained unmoved, thinking that she had just righteously told Sun Tong that she and Wang Kan had no relationship.

Wang Kan: Let's not watch a movie, just meet up.

Wang Kan: My birthday is next Wednesday.

Wang Kan: /Pitiful/Pitiful/Pitiful/Withered/Withered/Withered

The propeller stirred up white waves, just like his mood at that moment. In his anxiety, he finally received a message from Fang Minzhou, and his phone almost fell into the river.

Fang Minzhou asked him: Where should we meet?

...But the way you're saying this makes it sound like underground party members are about to make contact?