Chapter 40 The Boy Who Was Like a Poplar Tree, Destined to Die
"Wow, those dark circles under your eyes are really heavy. You could go to Sichuan now," Han Jiang exclaimed in surprise, scrutinizing the person in front of him.
"What would I be doing there?" Jiang Yueming asked, puzzled.
“Become a panda,” Han Jiang said. “Otherwise, don’t go so far. Just go to the forest park. The ticket used to be 20 yuan, but it will probably be 40 yuan after you come.”
"...Are you obsessed with money?" Jiang Yueming said speechlessly, "What are you saving up to buy for Xu Qing again?"
Han Jiang automatically skipped the next sentence and continued, "What did you do last night? You didn't sleep all night, you couldn't have been doing homework, could you?"
"Can't you think of anything good about me?" Jiang Yueming raised her eyes, feeling that they were blurry and very tired, and she couldn't open them at all.
But he couldn't say it. He couldn't very well tell Han Jiang that he couldn't sleep with the lights off, nor could he say that he could sleep, but not soundly. But he couldn't say it either; if he did, Han Jiang would definitely think he was incredibly stupid and foolish—everyone else doesn't get enough sleep, and he, on the other hand, couldn't sleep at all.
"I had a nightmare." Jiang Yueming closed her eyes.
"What did you dream about?" Han Jiang asked.
"I dreamt that you turned into a dog and chased me..." Before he could finish speaking, Jiang Yueming was punched in the back. He winced in pain, his brows furrowing. "You asked that yourself!"
"Can't you dream about me in a better way?" Han Jiang said unhappily. Anyone would be happy in this situation; who would want to be someone's dog in someone else's dream?
"Go away, you're disturbing my sleep," Jiang Yueming said. If Li Leshan hadn't been called to Wu Jinzhong's office, Jiang Yueming wouldn't have had time to chat with Han Jiang.
When Li Leshan returned, he brought back a report card. He first glanced at Jiang Yueming, who was catching up on sleep at the table, then looked up at the clock on the wall. "7:57," the bell was about to ring.
He reached out and patted Jiang Yueming's shoulder before sitting back down.
Jiang Yueming opened her eyes. She hadn't rested well for the past ten or twenty minutes and was even more sleepy than before she went to sleep.
"You're back?" Jiang Yueming took a sip of water to wake himself up.
The report card floated gleaming onto Jiang Yueming's desk. He glanced at it, and almost spat out the mouthful of water he hadn't swallowed. "So fast?!"
Is this speed at which they grade and release results even normal? No. 1 High School truly lives up to its reputation...
Jiang Yueming looked at the list carefully. Li Leshan was at the very top, with scores of nearly 360 in Chinese, Mathematics, and English.
"Damn..." Jiang Yueming quickly corrected himself, "My God, you, you..."
His gaze then moved downwards, searching for his own name. Jiang Yueming, with great self-awareness, looked directly at the next five names but couldn't find it.
"This form doesn't have a second page?" Jiang Yueming flipped through it.
Li Leshan pointed to a spot in the lower middle. Actually, Jiang Yueming's score was pretty good, and his ranking was also pretty good, thirty-fifth out of fifty-two students in the class. He was quite satisfied that he wasn't at the bottom.
"Okay," Jiang Yueming commented.
To see how easily a person can be satisfied, please see the above text.
The new school uniforms were just handed out a couple of days ago. Jiang Yueming and Li Leshan both have to wear size 180. Although they're only 1.7 meters tall now, given how they seem to grow three centimeters every year, they'll have to buy a size too big if they don't want to have to change uniforms frequently. Wearing them for three years will save them money. According to Li Leshan, the money saved is enough to buy two sets of practice questions. Years ago, Jiang Yueming didn't have experience and went through three sets of elementary school uniforms, which translates to six sets of practice questions.
The school uniforms at No. 1 Middle School are different for boys and girls. The girls' uniforms are pink, and the boys' are blue. Anyway, looking at school uniforms in China, they're really not that good-looking.
After the placement test, the opening ceremony was basically just a large meeting between the students and teachers from grades 7, 8, and 9. The day before, when the school uniforms were first handed out, you could just wear a jacket over them; if you had to change into the full uniform, you'd have to go to the restroom, which was a bit unsightly.
Li Leshan and Jiang Yueming are so tall they have to stand in the back row; they both stand out among all the junior high school students.
Furthermore, even just the fact that they were wearing identical school uniforms in the crowd made them look like models. Han Jiang was particularly unhappy and secretly slipped to the back of Class 3's line to tease them, asking if they were actually going to school or acting.
"You're just bragging." Jiang Yueming tugged at Li Leshan's hand, signaling Li Leshan to ignore the man.
"Where's Xu Qing? Doesn't she care about you?" Jiang Yueming asked. He hadn't seen Xu Qing at all these past few days since school started, except for the first day.
"Oh, she's in the line," Han Jiang whispered again, lowering his voice. "She thinks the school uniform is ugly and is wondering about it."
"She still wants to wear a princess dress to school," Jiang Yueming said with a smile, imagining Xu Qing in her school uniform. "I don't think it looks bad. Let her wear it without worry."
“I think it looks good too,” Han Jiang said. “I’m not going to chat with you anymore, I saw our homeroom teacher.”
Jiang Yueming complained to Li Leshan that Han Jiang would think Xu Qing looked good even if she wore a garbage bag.
Li Leshan smiled, and after a moment asked, "Does Han Jiang like Xu Qing?"
"Ah," Jiang Yueming was a little stunned, not expecting him to be curious about this as well, not expecting him to be so gossipy. "Yes. He must like her, otherwise he would be sticking to Xu Qing every day, like sisters."
It's safe to say that everyone knows Han Jiang likes Xu Qing, except for Xu Qing herself. Xu Qing thinks his affection is rather perfunctory and just considers it a joke. Jiang Yueming, on the other hand, doesn't care much about the two of them. Whether they become a couple or not is none of his business. Their little trio is always on the verge of collapse anyway, so maybe their relationship would be more stable…
But what does a middle school student understand about liking or disliking? Jiang Yueming couldn't explain what liking someone meant either. He just watched melodramas or idol dramas with Cui Cui. He didn't really understand why the male and female leads liked each other, got married, divorced, or remarried.
Anyway, Han Jiang kept telling him how much he liked her, and Jiang Yueming respected and blessed him, even though he didn't quite understand it.
A senior student was giving a speech on the flagpole, and Jiang Yueming stared at her, lost in thought, as she looked at her with her ponytail. From a young age, those with good grades had the opportunity to give speeches. Xu Qing had even given one in elementary school, wearing a red scarf and speaking confidently.
His gaze quietly shifted to Li Leshan beside him. The man's eyes were fixed on the flagpole, and he stood there, appearing so quiet and composed.
If Li Leshan could speak, he would probably be the one giving all the speeches, both in elementary school and now. Unfortunately, that "three minutes" that could belong to anyone else is not Li Leshan's three minutes.
The event ended with people leaving in batches by grade, but the effect was not very good; basically, some left and some stopped.
Jiang Yueming and Li Leshan had somehow broken away from Class 3 and were walking out of the playground with the crowd.
There were many people, and the exit from the playground was very small, so the playground entrance was completely blocked. Jiang Yueming wisely stood still and said, "Look, that guy over there lost his shoe."
As soon as he finished speaking, Li Leshan made a shushing gesture.
Jiang Yueming quickly covered his mouth, and a second later the guy who had lost his shoe started turning his head to look for a target.
"Hey, buddy!"
Suddenly, a woman's voice came from behind. Jiang Yueming felt that the voice sounded familiar. He glanced at Li Leshan and found that he had the same idea as him.
Looking at the girl before him, Jiang Yueming's memory drifted back to that summer when he was entering sixth grade. He met her at the Zhonghua Market while buying slippers for Han Jiang. She hadn't changed much in the past year or two; her eyes were still bright and sparkling.
"You two, you're here at No. 1 High School too?!" The girl excitedly gestured to her companion, indicating that she would be going back later.
"My name is Liu Qi, and Qi is the character with the 'king' radical." The probability of running into these two people here is extremely low, so Liu Qi was indeed very surprised.
"Oh, my name is Jiang Yueming, and this is Li Leshan." Jiang Yueming was also a little surprised. "What a coincidence."
He now finally understood just how small Shengping was. No wonder his second uncle never came home and always preferred to wander around; it turned out he might run into his former second aunt after walking a few steps, and then his former second aunt after walking a few more steps.
“Yes,” Liu Qi’s gaze shifted to Li Leshan. She pointed at him, looking a little shy. “He’s about the same height as you now. A couple of years ago, he was half a head shorter than you.”
She hadn't forgotten the time she'd inadvertently misunderstood Li Leshan. At the time, Liu Qi thought that if she ever had the chance, she would definitely apologize to him properly. This seemingly impossible "if" actually came true one day.
Liu Qi recognized Li Leshan and Jiang Yueming at a glance. Although she didn't know their names, she still vividly remembered that first glance they had at the shop in the Zhonghua Market.
“He… grew fast,” Jiang Yueming said. “You’re taller now than you were then.”
"Yes," Liu Qi smiled, "Which class are you two in? You should be on the first floor in the first year of junior high, right?"
Jiang Yueming nodded. "Class Three."
“Oh… Class 3, I think Mr. Wu is the homeroom teacher. He’s a really nice guy, he used to be our English teacher.” Liu Qi said, her voice still a little excited as she walked beside them.
The second year of junior high and the first year of junior high are not on the same floor; they have to walk to the other end of the playground and then separate into different paths.
Jiang Yueming and Li Leshan said goodbye to her. Liu Qi glanced at Li Leshan again, and for some reason, she still couldn't bring herself to say what she wanted to say two years ago.
"I... I know a little bit of sign language," Liu Qi said. She really only knew a little bit. She had thought about learning it, but the books were too dry and the tutorials too boring, so she couldn't stick with it. Because learning sign language wasn't something she needed to survive.
"I'm so sorry about that time. I don't know if you still remember." Liu Qi hurriedly recalled a few gestures from her memory, stringing them together into a somewhat immature sentence.
Perhaps Li Leshan doesn't remember, or perhaps he never cared about it at all; maybe only she remembers that moment at the Zhonghua Market. But whatever the case, Liu Qi feels it's a good outcome.
The next second, the boy, who was like a poplar tree in her memory, smiled at her. His smile was the same as it was two years ago—a little humble and a little shy.
"It doesn't matter."
Liu Qi was stunned for a moment, then ran away with a blush on her face.
"This place is really small." Jiang Yueming watched her back.
Shengping was so small that Jiang Yueming believed that the reunion of two people couldn't be called fate, but destiny. It was predestined, because the place was only so big, where could they possibly go? Much later, Jiang Yueming realized that perhaps not everyone had this fate, and that some people, once separated, were truly never seen again.
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Author's note: Those of you living near the coast, please be careful during the typhoon!!!
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