Reunion
The summer downpour came unexpectedly, drenching us fiercely. Overnight, the clouds dispersed, the rain stopped, and the entire clear sky was washed clean and shimmered with a vibrant green.
Lu Er overslept and was rushing to No. 3 Middle School. Class started promptly at seven o'clock, and she entered the gate at exactly 59 minutes past the hour.
The student on duty glanced at her but didn't write anything on the inspection form. Lu Er breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from her forehead.
The school uniforms of Huai'an No. 3 Middle School are white with blue trim, making them feel stuffy and suffocating. On a hot day, just a few steps on the road and sweat drips down.
The white short-sleeved shirt was already inadequate to prevent wardrobe malfunctions, and now, soaked with large clumps of water, it was almost transparent. The girl's thin bra straps were faintly visible.
Left with no other option, Lu Er went into the women's restroom on the first floor. She was used to keeping a change of clothes in her bag, and she just randomly picked a stall to change.
Lu Er had short, ear-length hair, which was sticky and matted together with sweat. She adjusted her gloves and clothes, casually tucking that lock of hair behind her ear to reveal her delicately shaped face.
This short, ear-length haircut had been criticized by many. But now, Lu Er was only grateful that it was short.
Otherwise, how hot would long hair get in this sweltering heat?
The school uniform she had changed out of was put into a clean small bag. After tidying up, Lu Er went upstairs to her classroom.
She was in the science stream. There has always been an unwritten rule in schools that they prioritize science over humanities, and Huai'an No. 3 Middle School was no exception.
The science classes were arranged on different floors, from top to bottom, based on whether they were key or general. Unfortunately, Lu Er's class was just one of the general classes, so she couldn't get a spot on a lower floor.
The entire high school building has six floors. After climbing to the fifth floor, Lu Er wiped his forehead and found his palms were sweaty again.
She was once again grateful for the advantages of having short hair.
The Third Middle School started its morning reading session at 7:02 AM. Lu Er entered the school just in time, and then wasted some time in the restroom, so more than half of the morning reading time was already gone.
She entered through the back door of Class 18. Fortunately, the grumpy, vulture-like headmaster wasn't there. The students standing in front were sparsely reciting "In the autumn of Renxu, on the sixteenth day of the seventh month," while the students behind had already sat back down, some even chatting.
This situation is undoubtedly more advantageous to Lu'er.
A few people in the back rows glanced at her, but she walked calmly to her seat.
The seating arrangement in Class 18 is asymmetrical, with single desks on the far left and double desks on the rest. The space between the single desks and the double desks next to them is compressed by more than half, making it look as pitiful as a sandwich cookie with the filling missing.
Lu Er's seat was one of the single tables. She stared at the aisle, which was almost completely blocked by people and filled with bookshelves with nowhere to put them, without saying a word. She just tried to hunch her shoulders and returned to her seat.
She was very careful, but she still couldn't avoid an accident.
On the second-to-last desk in the single-person row, the books were piled up far beyond the director's pen capacity. To make matters worse, the pile was extending outwards, with most of it hanging in mid-air. Lu Er, not paying attention, bumped his arm and knocked a math workbook off the top of the pile.
The owner of the textbook was fast asleep, seemingly oblivious to the world around him. Afraid of waking up and causing trouble, Lu Er quickly bent down and picked up the workbook.
As the book was returned to its original place, its owner happened to wake up.
He wore a lettered hoodie and white Golden Goose Pure Star sneakers. Every part of his outfit, from head to toe, was a designer brand.
Ruan Xiyan has a pair of bright, dark eyes, but she's still half asleep, her eyes foggy and misty like sea mist.
He roughly saw Lu Er's face, and the corners of his mouth habitually curved into a smile. A dimple hung on the left side of his cheek, not large, but it was much more glaring in Lu Er's eyes.
Lu Er looked away and returned to her original position.
—
After morning reading, the classroom was quiet. Most people were catching up on sleep, and a few were still swallowing dry buns; upon closer inspection, their eyelids were folded up.
Lu Er was in a similar situation. She was just used to it and could tolerate the drowsiness better than others.
Generally speaking, apart from the homeroom teacher checking the number of latecomers and the headmaster occasionally patrolling to check on the discipline of morning reading, the rest of the time is unsupervised.
Some students would take the opportunity to sneak out to get water. There was only one water dispenser on the fifth floor, and on hot days, students from several classes would take turns getting water, forming a line as dense as black ants.
Of course, a few clever ones turned around and went to other floors to get water. Chen Xiang was one of them; he swaggered into the classroom carrying his water bottle.
My friend, who was sleeping next to me and hadn't fallen asleep, stepped in to stop him, saying, "Give Dad some water."
"Get lost." Chen Xiang gave him the middle finger, showing no politeness whatsoever.
He put his water glass on the table and looked around. He saw Lu Er across from him and was about to call out, but after thinking for a moment, he turned and walked to her table: "Class monitor, the teacher wants you to go to the office."
Lu Er nodded to indicate that she understood. She put down the half-eaten custard bun and stood up. She paused slightly as she passed the red calendar next to the podium.
The numbers on the red calendar haven't been changed yet. There are still 298 days until the college entrance exam. No, it should be 297 days now.
Lu Er planned to make the changes on the spur of the moment. But then she remembered the homeroom teacher's matter and decided to wait until later.
Today's custard bun filling was flat and soft, sticking to her mouth with a grainy texture. Lu Er slowly licked it off with the tip of her tongue, remembering that she hadn't brought a water bottle with her when she went out.
Our homeroom teacher was Deng Lianchun, a middle-aged physics teacher, a very conventional guy, both in his teaching and in his personality.
Lu Er was quite satisfied with this aspect of him.
It can reduce trouble.
Deng Lianchun only let her take back a voluntary subscription form for the Golden Sun educational materials. He said it was voluntary, but the underlying rules were clear to those in the know.
Lu Er thought that was all, and as she turned to leave, Deng Lianchun suddenly called her back. Lu Er's heart tightened.
"Take the math homework back and hand it out. Your first class is math." Deng Lianchun pointed to the empty table next to him.
Thankfully, it wasn't about being late. Lu Er breathed a sigh of relief, picked up the stack of homework books, and left the office.
—
Back in the classroom, Lu Er noticed that the numbers on the red calendar had been changed at some point. Perhaps the student on duty remembered it and wrote it down; Lu Er didn't think much of it.
Homework was submitted and distributed in large group format. Lu Er divided the homework into four groups and then distributed his own single-seat assignments.
After placing the notebook on the table for the sleeping students in front of her, Lu Er turned around to hand it to the student behind her, but saw that the student was still sleeping. She hesitated for a moment, then took the notebook from the student behind her, placed it on the table, and passed it to the student behind the student behind her.
One spot was over a meter long, not enough to reach out with one's arm. Lu Er had to get up and go over.
The student behind her had woken up. She placed the two books she was holding on top of his mountain of books. He raised an eyebrow, smiled, and his eyes were clearer than before: "Thank you."
Lu Er remained silent and returned to her seat, appearing somewhat aloof. This was her usual style of conversation; she kept her words to herself when speaking to unfamiliar people.
Ruan Xiyan didn't say anything.
The daily routine of senior high school students is routinely monotonous. Two math periods have passed, and the students in Class 18 are still drowsy. This time, besides Lu Er, a few others, including Chen Xiang and Ruan Xiyan, are awake.
Ruan Xiyan's classmate to her right had asked for leave, so Chen Xiang plopped down on the empty bench. They were chatting, and Lu Er, who wasn't far away, could hear them clearly.
Chen Xiang: "Shall we play ball at noon?"
Ruan Xiyan replied lazily, "I'm not going."
Chen Xiang: "Why?"
Ruan Xiyan chuckled, raised her eyes, gestured to the red calendar in the distance, and read out each word clearly: "See? There are still 297 days until the college entrance exam, and you still have the mind to play ball. Time is money, don't waste my money."
"...You're sick." Chen Xiang looked like he'd seen a ghost in broad daylight. "You changed a number, and you got possessed by a ghost from the calendar?"
Lu Er couldn't avoid those sounds getting into her ears. She was memorizing classical Chinese vocabulary; comprehension-based subjects like Chinese had always been her weak point.
Not loving precious treasures and fertile lands—to love them means to be stingy. As Lu Er wrote the interpretation in his notebook, his thoughts drifted involuntarily.
It turns out that the date on the red calendar was changed by Ruan Xiyan.
The conversation between the people behind them continued.
Class was about to start, and Chen Xiang shoved someone's shoulder: "Are we going to play ball or not?"
"Hit during PE class."
"Then you won't call at noon?"
"No."
"Why?" Chen wanted to get to the bottom of it.
Just as Ruan Xiyan was about to speak, the rain outside the window suddenly began to fall heavily. The raindrops grew larger, pounding against the glass with the force of fists.
Ruan Xiyan laughed: "Look, we can't fight now."
It's raining.
—
The summer rain lasted until midday. When the sunlight peeked out from behind the white clouds, the rain had just stopped, and the road surface was dotted with bowl-shaped puddles filled with glistening pearls.
At lunchtime, Lu Er found a quiet spot under a tree and ate from the lunchbox she had brought.
There's no rule against bringing lunchboxes to school at No. 3 Middle School. Lu Er did this for two reasons: first, it made it easier to get to the classroom; second, any spot on campus was much quieter than the cafeteria.
She doesn't bring it every day. She prepares lunch the night before, sometimes because she doesn't have the energy.
Today's lunch was bok choy with mushrooms, chili and eggs, and rice. Lu Er had an MP3 player in his pocket, mostly filled with downloaded English listening materials, and occasionally a few songs.
Lu Er quietly ate his food, bite by bite.
The song playing in my headphones is on repeat; the song title is "Eleven".
Lu Er liked this song because she loved rainy days. The reason was simple: the world was peaceful and quiet on rainy days, with only the sound of raindrops. It wasn't noisy at all; on the contrary, she liked it very much.
Lu Er has always been like this. She is taciturn, like transparent oxygen, not wanting to contact others, nor wanting to be discovered by others.
They live only in their own world.
After finishing lunch, Lu Er got up and left. As if out of habit, she glanced sideways at the playground.
Ruan Xiyan did not come to play.
Huai'an No. 3 Middle School is a regular high school. In terms of teaching resources, it is neither as good as the far ahead No. 2 Middle School, nor as good as the rising star No. 7 Middle School.
The principal repeatedly emphasized to the students the principle of "diligence can make up for lack of talent" and to help them become "exam-taking experts in small towns".
All day long, practicing coding problems is the most important thing.
As a result, tests became an important part of the curriculum. There were quizzes before lunch break, quizzes before evening study sessions, big tests every three days, and large-scale school-wide exams every two weeks.
After eating, she still had to rush back to the classroom to take a quiz. Recalling the hardship of climbing five floors and the crowds in the cafeteria, Lu Er once again felt that bringing a lunchbox was a wise move.
On a hot day, rice was hard to swallow. Lu Er's mouth was parched, and she only remembered she'd forgotten her water bottle when she got back to class. She couldn't help but regret not going to the convenience store to buy some.
Regret is useless. Lu Er vaguely remembered that there were plastic cups next to the water dispenser. Not long ago, there was an epidemic, and many people caught colds. The school brewed some herbal medicine for everyone to drink.
The herbs were removed, but the plastic cup remained.
Fortunately, the plastic bag containing the cup was still there; unfortunately, it was empty.
Lu Er was somewhat disappointed, but she didn't show it on her face; she just pursed her dry lips.
The other person standing next to the water dispenser moved, turning their face towards them: "Looking for a plastic cup?"
His voice was clear and crisp, as if it had been washed by a stream. Of all the boys Lu Er remembered, Ruan Xiyan was unique.
Lu Er didn't really want to respond, but it would be impolite not to: "Mm."
“Class 15 took them.” Ruan Xiyan turned her head. Class 15 was right next to the water dispenser. “If you want one, I’ll go ask someone from their class for one.”
Lu Er knew that Ruan Xiyan was popular; he was the kind of person who could be heard throughout the entire school, and people in every class would call his name.
For some reason, she shook her head and said, "No, thank you."
When he turned to leave, his steps were much faster than usual.
—
The second period in the afternoon was PE class. Lu Er took advantage of the brief respite from the rain to dry her school uniform. During PE class, she changed back into her white short-sleeved shirt with blue trim.
The PE teacher instructed the sports representative to lead the students in a few laps, after which they were free to do their own thing.
Logically, they were supposed to run two and a half laps, but after one lap, Lu Er bent down to tie her shoelaces, and when she looked up again, Class 18 had already scattered to the four corners of the classroom.
The group disbanded, and Lu Er walked into the shade of a tree, wiping the sweat from his cheek with the back of his hand. In Huai'an City, summer is always scorching and long, all year round.
The girls rested under the shade of the trees, while the boys played ball on the playground. The science class had many boys, who were in groups of three or five. Lu Er glanced at them and spotted Ruan Xiyan.
He took off the lettered sweatshirt, revealing a similarly expensive light blue short-sleeved shirt underneath. Lu Er had glanced at it briefly while flipping through a magazine; it was Balenciaga, a brand whose price tag in department stores was four or five thousand yuan.
At that moment, Ruan Xiyan dribbled the ball and, in the blink of an eye, broke through the encirclement and made a layup.
Neat and decisive. Chen Xiang was putting his arm around his shoulder, most likely praising him, while Ruan Xiyan was talking to someone. Without much thought, Lu Er could tell he was smiling.
Lu Er withdrew her gaze and sat in a secluded shady spot under a tree, taking out an English worksheet from her pocket to work on.
A little further away, the girls were blowing small electric fans, talking about celebrities, comic books, gossip, and other topics, laughing and joking.
Lu Er couldn't understand them and couldn't fit in. She had no friends in Class 18. To be precise, she had almost no friends throughout the entire Third Middle School.
Lu Er didn't care; she kept her head down and worked on her test paper.
After an unknown amount of time, a familiar voice reached her ears, growing louder as it approached. Lu Er looked up and saw Ruan Xiyan, Chen Xiang, and their group walking in this direction.
The convenience store wasn't far behind Lu Er. Knowing they were on their way to the store and couldn't avoid passing by her, Lu Er still lowered her head a little.
Ruan Xiyan and the others walked past, chatting and laughing. Lu Er caught his breath and continued to concentrate on writing his exam paper. But things didn't go as planned.
She stared blankly at those familiar words, frequently lost in thought. Frustrated, she tapped her forehead, then focused on her work. A few seconds later, a cool raindrop patted her head.
Dark clouds gathered, and a sudden downpour caught everyone off guard. Lu Er, clutching her exam paper, hurriedly got up and ran, only to find Ruan Xiyan standing before her, holding an umbrella and watching her.
Ruan Xiyan's eyes are round, with creases that droop down like a clear early moon. He also has naturally large eye bags, and his smiling eyes instantly exude a youthful spirit.
Lu Er then realized that he dared not look Ruan Xiyan in the eye.
She hurriedly brushed past him, but at that moment, Ruan Xiyan's words stopped her in her tracks.
Ruan Xiyan said helplessly, "Are you really that eager to avoid me?"
Lu Er was a little dazed.
They knew each other just a week ago.
However, a little over a month earlier, she and Ruan Xiyan were strangers.
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