Chapter 9 The Boys Side by Side Make Rapid Progress
“But your cuff is torn, it was definitely sewn by your grandma. Because I’m not very good at it,” Li Leshan explained in sign language.
For someone like Jiang Yueming, it's perfectly normal for his clothes to have holes here and rips there. But considering it's a school uniform, he toned it down a bit. His pants were bought by Cuicui at the Zhonghua Market, who said they were of exceptionally good quality.
The phrase "exceptionally good quality" automatically filtered into "extremely durable" in Jiang Yueming's ears. It meant that no matter how much he crawled around, climbed trees, or went into rivers, it could withstand any hardship.
It was this incredibly durable pair of pants that put Jiang Yueming at the forefront of modern fashion. Back then, bell-bottoms with hems that could sweep the ground and make you walk with a swagger were all the rage, and young people flocked to them. Jiang Yueming, however, scoffed at them, finding them sloppy. So, he turned some of his perfectly normal pants into ripped jeans, with holes here and there. Cui Cui always teased him, saying, "Who would have thought that these pants would become fashionable ten or twenty years from now?"
You can't rush Jiang Yueming to do things; you have to make him genuinely want to do them. If he truly wants to do something, then it's very easy.
He's really mastered sign language quite well. He can understand Li Leshan's simple sentences now, and in a year or two he'll be able to understand them all. He'll be able to sign for Li Leshan very smoothly, and the two of them will communicate without any problems. They can understand each other's thoughts with just a glance, which is even more comfortable than having a translator.
Han Jiang and Xu Qing are both unhappy about spending so much time together lately with Li Leshan.
"Why are you always hanging out with Li Leshan!" Han Jiang complained. Because Jiang Yueming had stopped coming to visit, Xiao Bai's exercise levels had decreased significantly throughout the week.
"Why are you always with Li Leshan!" Xu Qing complained. Jiang Yueming only cared about playing with Li Leshan and didn't bother to include her.
"What are you two so reluctant about?" Jiang Yueming lazily propped his head up and looked at the trees outside the window. He couldn't avoid looking at the trees either; Han Jiang looked like a wronged woman, and he didn't want to look at Xu Qing either.
"What are you and Li Leshan doing? You don't even know what he's saying! He's been gesturing to you for ages, what's the difference between that and talking to a brick wall?!" Han Jiang asked, puzzled.
"What the hell kind of analogy is that?" Jiang Yueming retorted. "I know, I really know that."
It seems I have no choice but to show off my skills against these two, otherwise, he, Jiang Yueming, must be really bored.
Amidst the two men's expressions shifting from disdain to confusion to surprise, Jiang Yueming explained with particular pride, gesturing in the air with his hands. Of course, the two men couldn't understand a word he was saying.
"See that? The sentence is 'Wait for me after school.'"
The phrase is, "The weather is really nice today."
Then, he even added a line: "This line is 'Han Jiang is an idiot.'" Of course, the last line was his own personal addition.
...
"Wow, Jiang Yueming, you've actually become a sign language interpreter!" Han Jiang exclaimed in surprise.
Xu Qing was also surprised, and a little envious, "Could Li Leshan teach me?"
"What are you thinking? I've been begging for a long time..." Jiang Yueming said. Actually, it hadn't been that long. Li Leshan taught very patiently, but it would take a long time to get Xu Qing to give up the idea.
"Then what about this sentence? What does this sentence mean?" Han Jiang asked, pointing blankly at the last gesture Jiang Yueming made.
Jiang Yueming had no intention of explaining anymore. His gaze suddenly shifted from the window to the textbook, where he stared intently at the open Chinese textbook, while desperately and subtly trying to wink at Han Jiang.
Han Jiang didn't understand what he meant.
He then winked at Xu Qing.
Xu Qing didn't understand either.
"Yin Guiying is outside..." Jiang Yueming said in a low voice.
It was a self-study period, and Han Jiang and Xu Qing shouldn't have been here. They had only come over for a short break, but they were stunned by Jiang Yueming and their feet seemed to be rooted to the spot, completely forgetting the time and place.
The two were slow to react, and Jiang Yueming was completely at a loss. He decided to "turn himself in," but only on behalf of Han Jiang and Xu Qing.
"Teacher Yin, those two standing at the door are disturbing my studies!" Jiang Yueming sacrificed his friends for the greater good.
"Damn it, Jiang Yueming! You're a real scoundrel!" Han Jiang shouted silently, and he and Xu Qing ran away without stopping under Yin Guiying's gaze.
“They wouldn’t be here without you,” Yin Guiying said, patting Jiang Yueming’s head.
Jiang Yueming was a little unconvinced, since these two had come to him on their own initiative. Under Yin Guiying's watchful eye, Jiang Yueming couldn't do anything underhanded, so he could only look at the questions while pushing the paper airplanes and paper boats in his desk drawer further inside.
This week it's Class 4's turn to clean the school, which is divided into three areas. One is the playground downstairs, including the sandpit. Another is the corridor where the entire fourth grade is located, plus the toilets at the very end. The third is the water room outside the teachers' office.
Actually, there's one more place where it doesn't really matter where you are. The most enjoyable and least enjoyable parts of the entire cleaning area are already clear: the playground is the most enjoyable, where you can sneak in some playtime, hopscotch, and if you're lucky, you might even find some marbles someone else has dropped. Cleaning the hallways and toilets is the least enjoyable, because the fourth grade isn't on the same floor; classes one and two are on the floor below, meaning you have to clean two toilets.
This put the class monitor in a difficult position. The class monitor was a little girl, so assigning tasks was really hard to do because it was embarrassing to assign any toilets.
The women's restroom is fine for one person or a few girls to use, but what about the men's restroom? Let the girls in? Absolutely not! Let the boys in? Calling out names feels like offending someone… She was so anxious she was almost crying.
Just as she was getting anxious, Jiang Yueming from the last row suddenly raised his hand, his arm high in the air, "Jingyi, I'll do it!"
It wasn't because Jiang Yueming was good at enduring hardship. Although part of the reason was to avoid making things difficult for the girls, the main reason was that cleaning downstairs would allow him to run into Li Leshan more often.
For a whole week, Jiang Yueming managed to run into Li Leshan.
Han Jiang couldn't help but ask him, "Are you crazy? You're so happy about cleaning a toilet. Did you find money in the toilet?"
"He must have gone mad. Jiang Yueming is now actively looking for work to do," Xu Qing said confidently.
Jiang Yueming couldn't explain it to them. He kept saying, "For the honor of the class, for the rotating red flag!" But whether or not the rotating red flag was awarded had nothing to do with Jiang Yueming; it was about Yin Guiying's reputation. However, simply seeing Li Leshan wasn't enough to make him so happy. He could at least chat with Li Leshan for a while every day.
Jiang Yueming was cleaning the corridor when she came across Li Leshan. "Let's go buy pancakes after school. From Uncle Liu's. Mention my name and you get a 50% discount."
It's a limited edition, and the 50% discount is only valid for Li Leshan. For people like Han Jiang and Xu Qing, forget 50% off, they'd have to offer a 12% discount.
Li Leshan didn't know how many times he had seen Jiang Yueming today; it was probably the fourth time. Jiang Yueming's appearance rate in his life was already higher than that of Teacher Tian, who was his homeroom teacher.
Uncle Liu's pancake stall was always packed; by today's standards, it was a top-tier pancake vendor. His modified tricycle had a blazing coal stove in the back, with buckets of batter, baskets of eggs, jars of sweet bean sauce, and bowls of chopped scallions lined up in a row. Every day after school, the line stretched from the roadside all the way to the school gate. Uncle Liu was skilled; he rolled the pancakes incredibly fast, so business was booming. Setting up a stall near the elementary school was a wise move, since elementary school students' meager savings, besides going towards stickers, marbles, and Water Margin cards in instant noodles at the school gate shop, were mostly spent on snacks.
Jiang Yueming used all the money she had left each week to buy snacks instead of credit cards. Ice cream for 50 cents for two sticks, five packs of spicy strips, sesame seed cakes sprinkled with sesame seeds—whatever she got her hands on, she would stuff it into Li Leshan's arms first.
This shared school commuting relationship caused Jiang Yueming and Li Leshan's relationship to advance at a meteoric pace. Why three "meteoric leaps"? Jiang Yueming felt that one "meteo" wasn't enough, two "meteos" were somewhat lacking, and only three "meteos" could fully express this rapid development—it was meant to be emphasized!
His relationship with Li Leshan progressed rapidly. Han Jiang's relationship with him, however, plummeted dramatically. It was a straight, unwavering decline. This really worried Jiang Yueming. The boy now acted like a "resentful woman" every day, and wouldn't even let Xiao Bai play with him anymore. That was a really strong threat.
But Jiang Yueming had plenty of ways. With a raised eyebrow and a daring glance, a wicked idea popped into his head. If he couldn't play with Xiaobai, fine, he'd just "steal" Xiaobai away.
That afternoon after school, Jiang Yueming suddenly appeared in front of Li Leshan, carrying a small white dog. The little white dog was more excited than Jiang Yueming, wagging its tail incessantly, and looked just as silly as Jiang Yueming.
Li Leshan took two steps back and stood quietly to the side, intending to see what kind of trouble Jiang Yueming was up to this time.
"Isn't it cute, Li Leshan?" Jiang Yueming lifted Xiaobai forward a little.
"It's alright," Li Leshan nodded.
"Did you pick it up?" Li Leshan asked. Jiang Yueming hadn't told him he had a dog; if he really did, he probably would have told him on the very first day they met. Jiang Yueming couldn't keep secrets; on the first day, he'd told him everything—how many people were in his family, his aunt's name, his sister's name. So if he really had a dog, he definitely wouldn't have waited this long.
Moreover, Jiang Yueming's compassion is so overflowing, it's like the Lijiang River flooding. Picking up stray dogs or cats on the roadside is exactly in line with his style.
"NONONO." Jiang Yueming waved his hand. This was one of the few English words he knew. He had started learning English in the third grade of elementary school, so he had been learning for two years now, but Jiang Yueming's English vocabulary was still limited to yes, no, and bye.
"...Then, was it stolen?" Li Leshan raised an eyebrow slightly and asked again.
Strictly speaking, taking Xiaobai away from right under Han Jiang's nose without asking does indeed border on "stealing." But Jiang Yueming, thick-skinned as ever, still waved his hand confidently. He hugged Xiaobai and rubbed its head: "How can a scholar's actions be called stealing..."
These were words Jiang Yueming learned from her neighbor, an older sister who was in college. At that time, they hadn't yet studied the text "Kong Yiji".
"Now he calls himself a scholar," Li Leshan thought to himself. "Just two days ago he said he was illiterate."
However, the puppy seemed quite close to Jiang Yueming, so it was probably a friend's dog. Otherwise, given Jiang Yueming's attitude, it would be a miracle if he wasn't chased for two blocks.
"Would you like to hold it?" Jiang Yueming looked at Li Leshan expectantly and pushed Xiaobai forward a little more. The puppy barked in response, its bright black eyes looking at Li Leshan.
Li Leshan didn't respond. He looked at Xiaobai, who was small and looked very friendly and well-behaved.
Just when Jiang Yueming thought Li Leshan was going to refuse, he saw the person next to him, who was cold and uninterested in everything, extend his hand.
"Li Leshan, you like dogs?" Jiang Yueming asked hurriedly. He had originally thought that someone like Li Leshan probably liked Chinese, math, and English the most, and had nothing to do with cats and dogs.
Li Leshan only held the puppy for a short while, his movements slightly stiff. The puppy was very well-behaved and didn't move. He quickly and carefully handed the puppy back to Jiang Yueming, paused for a moment, and then shook his head.
He didn't like dogs. He had been chased by a dog when he was a child and used to be a little scared of it. But he didn't know why he wasn't as afraid of Xiaobai. Maybe it was because Xiaobai was close to Jiang Yueming, or maybe he thought Xiaobai was a bit like Jiang Yueming. Anyway, they were both silly. Thinking about it that way, he didn't feel there was anything to be afraid of.
And Jiang Yueming really likes it, so refusing it would probably be a disappointment.
Jiang Yueming assumed Li Leshan was just being shy. He was always shy, and Jiang Yueming knew that too. He didn't find anything wrong with it; on the contrary, he found it quite endearing. It would be strange if Li Leshan could be so open about liking someone.
As the sun set, Jiang Yueming and Li Leshan walked side by side on the bridge. Little Bai, unable to contain its energy, ran off exceptionally far, dashing forward with boundless joy, then stopped to look back at them, barking twice to urge them on. The waters of the Lijiang River shimmered, the setting sun reflected in its surface, flowing quietly.
The Lijiang Bridge is especially beautiful at this time of year, so beautiful that in a few years or ten years, the county will develop it into a tourist attraction and name it Rainbow Bridge. At that time, the bridge will be incredibly crowded. So crowded that some people will meet and gather here, so crowded that some will part ways and then reunite…
Later, everyone knew that the bridge was the Rainbow Bridge, and few people called it the Lijiang Bridge anymore. But as the years passed, Jiang Yueming still called it the Lijiang Bridge, as if he was stubbornly insisting on calling it that, and the boy who walked alongside him on the bridge back then was still by his side.
A note from the author:
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Thank you for the nutritional solution from Zhixin Baby!
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