Chapter 7 (Revised)
The cafeteria is on the left side of Mingde Building, a ten-minute walk away.
Lin Jiu and Yang Bing went there quickly, and when they came out of the side door of the cafeteria, it was already ten o'clock.
Lin Jiu looked at the card for a few more seconds before putting it in his schoolbag for safekeeping to avoid losing it. He had loaded the card with 500 yuan, enough for food expenses for the next month.
On the way to the school gate to pick up the luggage, Lin Jiu asked Yang Bing: "Mom, do you want to walk around the school with me?"
Yang Bing didn't stop walking. "I'll put your things in the dormitory and then go home directly."
Lin Jiu was not disappointed when he heard this. He felt that it was something he had expected, and he didn't say anything else.
The girls' dormitory is very close to the school gate.
Turn left after entering the school gate, pass the artistic Sports and Arts Building, walk to the end and turn right again. Walk straight for a while and you will reach the iron gate of the girls' dormitory.
Lin Jiu walked in carrying his suitcase and immediately saw the dormitory distribution map on the wall.
The location of the dormitory manager's dormitory is highlighted in red above.
There are three dormitories. All the students in Lin Jiu's class are assigned to Building B, and the dormitory manager's dormitory is on the first floor of Building B, near the gate.
Lin Jiu put the suitcase next to Yang Bing and said to her, "I'm going to get the dormitory key first."
Yang Bing put the snakeskin bag on the ground with a thud, nodded, and said, "I'll watch here."
Lin Jiu ran to the dormitory manager's office, but the door was locked. He waited for ten minutes, but still no one showed up.
Lin Jiu told Yang Bing about the situation, moved her luggage to the second floor, and decided to choose a dormitory first. The school did not assign dormitory lists, so she could choose her own dormitory.
There are three dormitories to choose from, namely 204, 205 and 206.
When the two reached the second floor, all three dormitories were occupied and no keys were needed to open the doors.
Lin Jiu spent five minutes choosing room 206, which was less crowded and near the stairs. The dorms had the same layout: six people sleeping in bunk beds, a bathroom, and a balcony with a sink. There were no desks, but there were six wardrobes next to the bathroom.
There is currently only a mother and daughter living in dormitory 206. They chose the lower bunk near the wardrobe, and the other beds are unoccupied.
Lin Jiu chose the lower bunk opposite the wardrobe, far from the door, and separated by a wall from the washbasin.
Lin Jiu put the suitcase next to the bed, said hello to Yang Bing, and went downstairs to get the key from the dormitory manager.
This time, the dormitory manager was finally there.
When I returned to the dormitory, the two adults inside seemed to have chatted for a few minutes. They used Guicheng dialect, which sounded very friendly.
When the girl's mother saw Lin Jiu coming in, she immediately pointed at her daughter and said, "Her name is Zheng Ying. You two should live in the same dormitory. You can take care of each other and play together."
Zheng Ying graduated from Gaoting Town Middle School, not the same school as Lin Jiu. But they both got into No. 4 Middle School in their small town.
There seems to be a sense of similarity, an inexplicable intimacy.
Lin Jiu looked at Zheng Ying a few times, nodded with a smile, and said "hmm" a few times, which was considered as agreement.
Lin Jiu had a small, round face, and was naturally friendly. Zheng Ying, who had been silent, saw her smile, and her tense nerves relaxed a lot, and she smiled back at her.
Zheng Ying's bed was almost made, and her mother was about to go back. She suggested to Yang Bing, "Why don't we go down together?"
"Okay." Yang Bing nodded without hesitation. "I have something to say to my daughter. I'll go with you."
"No rush, just finish what you need to talk about." Zheng Ying's mother walked over to the bed and sat down.
Yang Bing waved to Lin Jiu to go into the bathroom.
As soon as Lin Jiu entered the door, Yang Bing stuffed five hundred yuan into her hand and said, "Call me when you want to go home and I'll pick you up."
Lin Jiu nodded and replied, "I understand."
She wanted to go home, but Yang Bing couldn't come to the school to pick her up; the round trip was too long. She could just take a bus to the urban-rural intersection or the village entrance, and Yang Bing could pick her up the short distance. This wasn't her first time staying at a boarding school, so she understood the process.
After the adults left, Lin Jiu and Zheng Ying were left in the dormitory.
Zheng Ying sat on the bed, seemingly with nothing to do. Lin Jiu glanced at her and said, "I'll clean up first. We'll go to the cafeteria for lunch together."
Zheng Ying readily agreed. She then took out her MP3 player, put on headphones, and lay on the bed listening to music.
Lin Jiu wasn't a germaphobe, but she maintained a basic standard for hygiene. The dust on the iron bed rails was visible to the naked eye. She cleaned the bed with a damp rag, then wiped it dry with a dry one. Once the bed was dry, she replaced the cotton mattress and sheets, then put on a thin quilt.
Later, she chose an empty closet, cleaned it briefly, and put the clothes neatly inside.
She took out a sticky note and pen from her bag and walked over to Zheng Ying's bed. Zheng Ying took off her headphones and asked, "What's wrong?"
Lin Jiu wrote his name on the sticky note and said, "I'm going to stick it on the cabinet. Do you want it?"
Zheng Ying was a little surprised, "It can be like this..."
Lin Jiu tore up the note and handed it to her, "You write first, I'll go post it."
Soon, Zheng Ying came to Lin Jiu and put her name on the selected cabinet.
Lin Jiu stuffed her suitcase under the bed and briefly cleaned up the dormitory. Her face flushed and she was sweating. She stood with her head tilted back, and the oscillating fan on the ceiling blew for a long time before the sweating stopped.
......
At half past eleven, the sun was shining brightly.
Lin Jiu and Zheng Ying each opened a parasol, took their card and went to the cafeteria to eat.
The cafeteria has three floors. They went to the first floor, ordered two dishes from the window, and ate very full.
The cafeteria has two entrances: a main entrance and a side entrance. The main entrance faces the plastic basketball court, while the inside is near the stairs leading to the second and third floors. The side entrance faces the girls' dormitory, a few dozen meters away, sandwiched between a tall rockery and surrounded by numerous camphor trees.
Lin Jiu preferred the side door. There was a row of faucets outside the wall where he could wash his hands before and after meals.
After going out the side door, Lin Jiu and Zheng Ying heard the sound of a basketball hitting the ground when they returned to the dormitory.
When I walked a few steps to enter the main road, I saw three or two boys playing basketball enthusiastically diagonally opposite.
Lin Jiu glanced over, saw no handsome guy, and ruthlessly averted her gaze. She didn't understand basketball; she only knew that the ball had to go into the hoop, nothing else. She had no interest in the sport.
In front of the dormitory gate, Lin Jiu stopped and asked Zheng Ying beside him: "Do you want to go for a walk outside the school and buy some daily necessities?"
Zheng Ying thought for a few seconds and nodded in agreement.
So, Lin Jiu turned a corner and took Zheng Ying to the Sports and Arts Building opposite the gate.
The first floor of the Physical Education and Arts Building was a 7-shaped corridor. They walked slowly in the shadows, passing by the convenience store and bookstore, and then out of the school gate.
The streets outside the school are not very wide, but they are full of shops: milk tea shops, fruit shops, breakfast shops, eyeglass shops... everything you could imagine.
Lin Jiu and Zheng Ying first familiarized themselves with the surroundings, then went into a large supermarket and bought everything they needed.
I left home empty-handed and returned to school with a full load.
When going upstairs to the dormitory, Lin Jiu vaguely heard the sound of chatting.
After a few seconds of identification, she said to Zheng Ying, "It seems to be coming from our dormitory."
Zheng Ying froze, seeming a little nervous. "No way."
When they were about to walk up the last staircase, Lin Jiu lowered his voice and said, "This should be our dormitory."
After hearing her words, Zheng Ying fell silent, as if preparing himself mentally.
Lin Jiu glanced at Zheng Ying and found that she was even more hesitant than he was. With a determined heart, he walked to the dormitory door, carrying his things in both hands.
The dormitory door was half-open, with a crack.
Lin Jiu lifted his foot and gently pushed the door open.
The chatter stopped abruptly.
There were three of them. Two sat on the bed next to Lin Jiu's, and one sat on Zheng Ying's bed.
Lin Jiu smiled politely at the three of them, quickly walked to the bed, put down his things, and sat on the bed.
Zheng Ying followed her in and stood beside her bed.
The girl sitting on Zheng Ying's bed seemed to realize something and suddenly stood up. "You two are our other two roommates, right?"
Lin Jiu nodded and replied simply: "Yes."
The girl pointed to the upper bunk and said, "My name is Tang Yue, and I live in this bed." She looked at Zheng Ying, touched her head, and said apologetically, "There are no stools in the dormitory, so I sat on your bed. Sorry."
Zheng Ying quickly waved her hand and said, "You can sleep on my upper bunk. It's okay to sit here."
Tang Yue didn't refuse. Climbing up and down was really troublesome. She smiled and sat down: "Then I won't be polite."
Zheng Ying smiled and sat down too.
There are six beds in total, but there are five people, basically everyone is there.
In the next ten minutes, everyone briefly introduced themselves and stated the time they arrived.
The tall girl, Zhou Qing, occupied the upper bunk next to Lin Jiu. The thin, petite girl, Zhou Kexin, occupied the lower bunk. They had arrived at about the same time, both had the surname Zhou and were from Changhe Middle School, so they were quite close.
As for Tang Yue, she was from Jingshan Middle School and had arrived later. She had a cheerful personality and quickly became familiar with Zhou Qing and Zhou Kexin.
During the five-person chat, Tang Yue was unusually active, acting as a kind of leader. Lin Jiu suspected she had been a class leader in junior high, adept at stirring the atmosphere and controlling the flow of conversation.
Lin Jiu thought he was a quiet person, but he didn't expect Zheng Ying to be even quieter. It seemed like she was not used to this kind of group chat and basically didn't speak.
Around three o'clock.
Tang Yue suggested to everyone that they go for a walk in the street in the city center.
Lin Jiu wanted to go out and explore, so she agreed. Zheng Ying saw her go and followed her.
Not long after, the few of them arrived at their destination by bus.
Lin Jiu rarely ventured into the streets of the city center; she mostly wandered around the area near the village entrance where the bus stopped. So, she memorized the route so she could come here alone later.
Tang Yue stopped when passing by an inconspicuous shop entrance.
She turned and pointed to the entrance and asked, "Want to go to the bookstore?"
Zhou Qing: "Okay, I can buy some teaching materials."
Zhou Kexin raised her hand and said, "I want to go shopping."
Lin Jiu looked around carefully and found an inconspicuous sign that read "Manfen Bookstore".
She looked at Tang Yue and said, "I want to go in and take a look, too."
Zheng Ying did not comment.
Seeing this, Tang Yue led the way inside and said, "Follow me."
The bookstore was huge, stretching as far as the eye could see. Lin Jiu had never been to such a large bookstore before, and was curious. He separated from Tang Yue, Zheng Ying, and the others and wandered around on his own.
The shelving was filled with a dizzying array of high school supplementary materials, and even more test papers. To be honest, Lin Jiu had never seen so many test papers before.
She thought every set was good and wanted to buy them all, but she was short of money... so she finally chose a math supplementary book.
She made a mental note of the place, planning to come back again in the future.
After returning to school.
Lin Jiu and Zheng Ying went to the cafeteria, while Tang Yue and the other two went to eat outside the school.
While sitting at the table eating, Zheng Ying suddenly said to Lin Jiu: "I saw a few people I know, let's go say hello to them."
Lin Jiu: "Okay, go ahead."
Zheng Ying carried the food tray and walked towards her friends.
Lin Jiu looked at the empty table opposite him, turned his head and fixed his gaze on Zheng Ying, and found that she was sitting next to a few boys and started talking.
I didn’t expect Zheng Ying to be so popular with the opposite sex.
Lin Jiu averted his gaze and lowered his head to concentrate on eating the food on the plate.
When they were almost done eating, Zheng Ying came over with her tray and sat down across from her. The boys ate quickly and had already put down their plates and left.
Zheng Ying noticed her gaze and explained, "Two of them are my junior high school classmates."
"Your class is pretty impressive. So many people got into No. 4 Middle School."
Zheng Ying looked up: "Actually, we are the only ones in our class who took the exam."
Lin Jiu: "That's pretty impressive."
Zheng Ying asked, "Do you have any classmates in this school?"
Lin Jiu replied, "There's a boy in my class who also came to No. 4 Middle School. But I'm not familiar with him."
......
On the first day of school, only the boarding students have evening self-study.
There weren't many people, so the classroom was quite empty.
Lin Jiu chose a seat by the window in the last row, and Zheng Ying sat to her outside.
Yuan Hui gave a few instructions about morning self-study, stayed for half the class, and then left the classroom.
The bell rang for the end of get out of class.
Lin Jiu and Zheng Ying went to the bathroom between Mingde Building and Mingzhi Building.
The bathroom is clean inside.
The tiles were incredibly white, spotless. The cubicle looked newly installed, with a brand new door lock and almost no signs of use. The water tank was also spotless.
Lin Jiu was very satisfied with this and came out of the cubicle feeling quite happy.
After washing her hands, she was about to leave with Zheng Ying when the person in the cubicle shouted, "Teacher Zhou, how come this bathroom has changed so much after not seeing you all summer?"
Teacher Zhou turned off the faucet and wiped his hands with paper while saying to the people inside, "A wealthy student came. His secretary came to the school and thought the bathrooms were too bad, so he paid for them to be renovated."
The sound of water being pumped was heard, and a female teacher with a ponytail came out of the cubicle and asked tentatively, "Could it be that he also installed the air conditioning in the classroom?"
Teacher Zhou smiled and replied, "It really is him."
The ponytailed teacher said as she washed her hands, "There are so many wealthy students in this school, but I've never seen anyone with such a large family. I hope there will be more of them, so they can completely transform the school."
Teacher Zhou sighed softly, "What are you daydreaming about at this hour of night?"
The ponytailed female teacher leaned over to Teacher Zhou and asked, "You're well-informed. Do you know some inside information? Tell me what's going on. Which class is that student from?"
"He's very low-key and doesn't allow anyone to reveal anything. Put away your curiosity..." The voice gradually faded away as it got further away.
Lin Jiu suppressed his curiosity and returned to the classroom with Zheng Ying.
For convenience, Lin Jiu originally wanted to go through the back door. Seeing Zheng Ying enter the front door, he followed her.
The podium was empty, so everything went smoothly. The narrow aisle was slightly congested.
Two boys sat in the second or third row, facing the aisle, chatting. The tall, thin boy sat on a stool, the short, stocky boy sat on a table, the two of them, one in front of the other, using their legs to dominate the narrow aisle.
Zheng Ying passed the tall and thin boy and waited for the boy at the table to get up and give her the aisle seat.
Lin Jiu stopped at the table of the tall and thin boy.
The tall and thin boy tucked his legs under the table, looked up at Lin Jiu, was stunned for a moment, and then slowly looked her up and down.
His gaze was too obvious...unconcealed.
Lin Jiu frowned and glanced at his outfit calmly. A loose short-sleeved shirt and loose-fitting shorts in the same color, a normal outfit.
She turned her head and glared at the tall and thin boy, and he turned his head away.
The next second, Zheng Ying walked forward. Lin Jiu quickly followed and returned to his seat.
Yuan Hui didn't come to the second evening study session. The classroom was relatively quiet.
As Lin Jiu lowered his head to look at his math textbook, he heard a subtle movement up ahead. He looked up and saw two more desks standing in front of him.
The short and strong boy sat in front of her, and the tall and thin boy sat in front of Zheng Ying, and the two of them huddled together and whispered.
Not long after, the tall and thin boy threw a note on Zheng Ying's desk. Zheng Ying read it, not knowing what was written on it, and threw it back.
Lin Jiu glanced at the two of them and then lowered his head to read.
A minute later, a piece of paper appeared on Lin Jiu's desk. Zheng Ying had pushed it over.
Lin Jiu was confused and glanced at Zheng Ying. She gestured towards him, indicating that he should open the note.
It says: What's your Penguin ID?
“…”
The two boys were very concerned about Lin Jiu's movements and frequently turned back to look at her. When the tall and thin boy noticed her gaze, he looked directly at her.
Lin Jiu then realized that this was what he wanted.
She resisted the urge to roll her eyes, lowered her voice and said coldly, "No." She threw the note back on Zheng Ying's desk.
She didn't like the boy and didn't want to give him a call. Moreover, she didn't like chatting with boys, so even if she added him, she wouldn't want to chat.
The tall and thin boy was rejected in person. He was stunned at first, and felt a little embarrassed. He muttered quietly: "How old-fashioned! He doesn't even have a Penguin account."
After hearing this, Lin Jiu did not argue.
I sneered in my heart and cursed: You're crazy.
The classroom was very quiet, everyone was having evening self-study. She didn't want to argue any more and lowered her head to read.
The two boys rolled back to their original seats in shame.
After evening self-study get out of class, Zheng Ying leaned over to her and asked quietly, "You really don't have a Penguin account?"
Lin Jiu looked at her and said, "Yes."
"Then why don't you explain?"
"Why explain?"
Lin Jiu asked back, Zheng Ying was silent: "......"
Lin Jiu asked her: "What did he say to you?"
Zheng Ying: "Ask me if I have your Penguin ID, I say no."
Lin Jiu nodded without saying anything.
Zheng Ying looked at Lin Jiu carefully and said, "Lin Jiu, do you know which facial feature is the most beautiful on your face?"
Lin Jiu's brain short-circuited for a moment. This question came without any warning, it was too sudden. After thinking for a few seconds, she said: "I don't know."
Zheng Ying said seriously, "You have the most beautiful eyes."
"Yeah?"
"Um."
Lin Jiu tilted his head and used the window glass as a mirror, looking carefully at his own eyes.
Double eyelids, long round eyes, long and slightly curled eyelashes, no more...
She didn't understand how Zheng Ying came to her conclusion.
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