Documentary

Lu Er pulled back the tent flap and came out, only to find that she wasn't the only one outside. A few girls and boys were gathered by the stream, some playing games, others using their phones as light to play Dou Dizhu (a card game).

"Teacher Xiao Lu." Ruan Xiyan's deliberately soft voice came from behind him. He was wearing a short-sleeved shirt with letters on it and looked cheerful.

Lu Er unconsciously tiptoed and jogged over.

When she got to Ruan Xiyan's side, she noticed that he was carrying a telescope.

Lu Er asked in surprise, "Where did you get this?" She vaguely remembered that Ruan Xiyan's package didn't contain any heavy items.

"I borrowed it from the research center." Ruan Xiyan blinked twice and made a vertical line to her lips. "Don't tell anyone. The director promised to lend it only to me."

"oh."

Lu Er recalled the curator standing at the entrance of the research museum today. Her movements were efficient, her brows furrowed, and when she reprimanded those restless students who tried to touch the exhibits, her voice was so loud it made everyone around her ears ring. Lu Er found it hard to imagine how Ruan Xiyan had managed to get her to give in.

Pretty boys with sweet words are easy to like.

Lu Er followed him to a semi-open hillside. Tonight, the entire mountainside was bathed in moonlight and starlight, with faint halos around the moon and stars like scattered silver.

Lu Er shone a light on him as he adjusted the focus knob. As Ruan Xiyan adjusted it, he explained, "To aim at a specific position, loosen this knob. To fix it, turn it back. You can turn this fine-tuning lever to center the field of view." He turned the focus knob, "and once the image is clear, it'll be almost there."

He clapped his hands: "Come on, take a look."

Lu Eryi leaned closer and saw that the moon's surface was cratered and dark, like a bomb crater. It looked as if the moon had been rained on and developed mold.

"Is this the moon?" she raised her voice. "There are craters on it."

"right."

Ruan Xiyan smiled and said, "Try looking at the stars, hmm?"

Lu Er looked away, and just as she was about to turn her head to look at him in confusion, she felt her hand being gently lifted. Ruan Xiyan took her fingers one by one, placed them on the knob, and then withdrew his hand: "Turn this."

Lu Er's eyelids twitched slightly. She did as instructed, using the finder scope to aim at the stars on the horizon. After focusing, Lu Er discovered the Big Dipper. Dubhe was at the head, and Pleiades at the tail, forming a dipper shape. In the telescope, stars like Merak and Phecda were no longer faint points of light, but resembled shimmering discs.

"So beautiful," she exclaimed softly.

Ruan Xiyan reminded, "The Big Dipper should also be visible."

The two stayed there for a long time. Lu Er got tired of standing, so he stepped back and squatted on the hillside to look at Ruan Xiyan.

Before Ruan Xiyan introduced her to astronomy, Lu Er had no prior knowledge of this subject. Now, her gaze slowly lingered on him, and everything Ruan Xiyan had shared with her—this boundless starry sky, that magical Milky Way—felt as if Lu Er were sharing a separate universe with him.

Upon realizing it, Lu Er's heart skipped a beat, a subtle increase in the speed of that novelty.

Her mouth opened uncontrollably: "Ruan Xiyan."

Ruan Xiyan didn't turn around: "What's wrong?"

What is your zodiac sign?

He turned around and smiled teasingly: "What does Teacher Xiaolu want to do?"

"I am a Leo."

“I was born in January,” Ruan Xiyan said. “I’m a Capricorn.”

Lu Er suddenly felt a pang of regret; it would have been nice to have used a telescope to see the constellations of the two people.

Will there be another chance in the future?

I think... that's all.

—

After camping in the wild for a night, Lu Er felt uncomfortable all over, as if she had been whipped with a long branch. When asked, Xu Ting and the twins said they had the same feeling: "The ground in the suburbs is so uneven. When I slept, I felt uncomfortable everywhere."

When Lu Er woke up, she found some small, red, and itchy scratches on her arms and calves.

Xu Ting exclaimed as if she had discovered a new continent, "You have such delicate skin! None of us have it. You truly live up to your name, the Princess and the Pea."

Lu Er scratched her head, feeling a slight itch, and then pulled down her trouser leg: "This is dermatographic urticaria, I've had it for a long time."

When Lu Er was a boarding student at elementary school, he would sleep on a bed in the dormitory. Often, when he woke up, he would find several scratches on his body for no apparent reason, some large and some small. He learned that it was dermatographic urticaria, which was not a big problem and would heal on its own, so Lu Er got used to it.

But this time, the dermatitis urticaria was a bit too itchy. After breakfast, as Lu Er and the others in the group set off to find interviewees in the town, the itching in her arms intensified once again.

Ruan Xiyan walked beside her and saw her clutching her hand: "Bite bitten you?"

“…No.” Lu Er’s fingers, which were scratching, suddenly felt a chill. She looked up and saw that she had scratched her wound until it bled. “It’s dermatitis urticaria.”

Lu Er tore off a piece of paper to stop the bleeding and explained, "It's not a big deal." Seeing that Ruan Xiyan was still looking down at her arm, she subconsciously added, "I often get these kinds of small wounds. Using a band-aid is... a waste. Don't worry about it."

Ruan Xiyan was unusually quiet. After a while, he looked away and said, "Be careful next time."

The challenge of how to shoot an English documentary was unanimously handed over to Yan Songqi. The reason, according to Xu Ting, was that he proudly declared, "You've returned from abroad; you've definitely seen plenty of foreign documentaries. You figure out how to shoot it."

"Do you have some kind of misunderstanding about international students?!"

Despite saying that, Yan Songqi finally picked up the script and pondered the shooting method. An hour later, he showed the script to everyone: "We certainly can't ask others to speak English, so we need a translator. The current division of labor is: photographer, reporter, and post-production editor."

After discussion, Xu Ting was to be the reporter, Yan Songqi the post-production editor, the twins Sun Yuanyuan the photographer, and Lu Er the translator. Only Ruan Xiyan was left without a position, so after some thought, Team Leader Yan decided that Xu Ting, Ruan Xiyan, and Lu Er would take turns being the reporter.

Their first interviewee was the owner of a beef noodle shop in the small town, an elderly man. It's said that the first step in a project is the hardest, and when the old man so readily agreed to their request, Lu Er and his group thought they had finally found their spring.

As a result, the old man rambled on and on about all sorts of everyday things. At one point, he was asking about Sun Yuanyuan and Sun Yuanyuan's families, and then he suddenly raised his voice and asked, "Which one of you is a top student?" After Lu Er was pushed forward, he asked her about her academic performance with a smile, inquiring about her grades from the first year of junior high to the second year of senior high, including weekly tests, monthly tests, and final exams.

After spending several hours with the old man and politely declining his warm invitation to stay for dinner, the six set off to find their next interviewee.

The second group consisted of tourists visiting Qingmeng Mountain Town. This young woman, a middle school teacher, readily agreed to their request. She not only proactively asked if they wanted to speak in English, but also cooperated exceptionally well with their filming throughout the entire process.

As they were about to set off to find the third person, Yan Songqi stroked her chin and said, "Why don't we find people of different age groups? That way, our group will have more highlights. An elderly person, a young person, and we can even find a child."

Xu Ting was still sore from back pain, and with noon approaching, she complained in a sob, "I'm tired, I don't want to go. I've been through so much, team leader, can I go have lunch first?"

Sun Yuanyuan and Sun Yuanyuan squatted down like mushrooms: "We also want to eat lunch."

Yan Songqi couldn't get through to her, so she looked at Lu Er and Ruan Xiyan and asked, "Shall we eat first?"

"I'm not hungry yet," Lu Er shook her head, and Ruan Xiyan followed up, "Me neither."

"I'll go check out the nearby kindergartens; I should be able to find someone to interview."

Ruan Xiyan chimed in, "I'll go too."

Xu Ting and the twins sat at a four-person table in the hot pot restaurant. She watched Lu Er and Ruan Xiyan's departing figures and said in a low voice, "Do you believe that these two are unrelated, or do you believe that Yan Songqi and I are mother and son?"

Sun Yuanyuan said confidently, "I believe you."

Sun Yuanyuan felt an icy chill the moment Yan Songqi entered: "I think you should... take a look back."

"Xu Ting." Yan Songqi tapped Xu Ting on the shoulder and said with a smile, "You'll have a part in the editing."

—

Lu Er and Ruan Xiyan followed the navigation to the nearest kindergarten. Seeing the gate tightly shut, Lu Er suddenly realized what was happening and rubbed her forehead in slight frustration. It was summer vacation; no wonder the kindergarten wasn't open.

The summer heat was intense, and Lu Er hadn't brought any water; her mouth was parched. Remembering that Ruan Xiyan had come with her, she looked towards a milk tea shop by the roadside: "Want some milk tea?"

“Okay, then we won’t go in.” Ruan Xiyan turned her head to the side. Lu Er looked over and saw a few children playing basketball on the small cement basketball court. “We’ve found our interviewee.”

Is it still mango pomelo sago?

"Yes, thank you for your help, Ms. Koji."

Lu Er walked into the milk tea shop. In the air-conditioned, subtly fragrant little room, only a little girl who looked about ten years old sat at the counter. Upon seeing her, the girl immediately jumped off the stool: "Sister, what would you like to drink?" The girl's headband was a bright red bow, which looked like it was fluttering as she jumped.

"A cup of mango pomelo sago, 30% sugar, less ice, and a cup of coconut milk tea."

Ruan Xiyan walked towards the children and asked them in a generous manner, "Kids, would you like to help your brother with his homework?"

The group of children stared at him warily, exchanged glances, and then simultaneously walked past him to the basket on the other side.

"Hey, I'm not a bad person." Ruan Xiyan pouted and called out to a chubby boy with a roll of fat on his chin who was about to run past him, "You guys have a pitching contest with your brother. If you win, you can do your homework with your brother. If you lose, your brother will treat each of you to a cup of milk tea, okay?"

When Lu Er walked over to him carrying the milk tea, that's what she heard. She said, somewhat amused, "Aren't you bullying a child?"

Ruan Xiyan, though unconvinced, retorted, "I'm just a kid too. There are more of them than me, so I'm the one who's at a disadvantage."

The chubby boy was truly intimidated. He hesitated, glancing back several times as he ran back to a boy. The group whispered something to each other, and then the other children returned one after another: "Let's begin."

Ruan Xiyan won the competition without any suspense. The children, looking dejected, started blaming each other: "It's all your fault, Little Fatty! You wanted milk tea and dragged us along, now you've lost!"

"You clearly want to drink too! No, you just want to take this opportunity to see Xiaohao because she's angry with you and ignoring you!"

The instigator then jumped out, smiling and acting as a peacemaker: "Alright, alright, stop arguing. I'll even treat you to milk tea. But after you finish, one of you has to choose someone to help me with my homework."

The children looked at each other, then excitedly ran to the milk tea shop. A boy lagged behind; Ruan Xiyan glanced at him and remembered that he was the one who had just been blaming Little Fatty.

"Brother," the boy suddenly spoke, gesturing with his head, "Is that woman your girlfriend?"

At midday, under the bright sunshine, Lu Er rested under a mango tree in the distance. A breeze stirred, and clusters of green shadows swayed on the ground. As the wind picked up, the shadows fell onto her face.

Ruan Xiyan lowered her gaze: "No."

"Oh." The boy kicked away a pebble. "Then, brother, do you know what 'like' means?"

The boy stared at the pebble: "Xiaohao is my best friend. She lives in that bubble tea shop. We had a fight yesterday. She said she doesn't like me at all anymore. But I'm so confused. I have no idea when she ever liked me."

"..."

Ruan Xiyan looked into the distance, her gaze settling on Lu Er, who was sitting under a tree. There, a white cat had appeared out of nowhere. The girl peeled a sausage and tiptoed to feed it to the scruffy stray cat.

She leaned forward slightly, her hair seeming to have grown longer, with a few strands brushing against her collarbone. The white cat finished its piece of skinned meat and eagerly moved on to the next, inadvertently licking her palm. Lu Er's expression softened, and her dimples, rarely seen, appeared on her cheeks.

Ruan Xiyan smiled, revealing dimples. He lowered his eyelashes, his voice like a summer breeze. He said, "To like someone is to want to be good to them, to want them to always smile."

There are many definitions of what one likes, but for children this age, knowing this is enough.