Senior Brother
Filming for the documentary was finished, and it was past noon. After a short rest at the hotel, everyone set off for their return journey.
The bus, carrying forty people, was filled with drowsy passengers. Yan Songqi quickly chased them away: "Hey, don't fall asleep yet, let's assign roles in the play."
“I thought about it and decided that we would film the first scene of Act V, which is the final scene of Twelfth Night where the characters reunite. There are quite a few characters, so we’ll make some changes. The six of us will be mainly divided into six roles: Viola, Orsino, Olivia, Viola’s brother Sebastian, Toby, and Antonio.”
Xu Ting, who was already feeling sleepy, felt even more dizzy upon hearing this: "Aurio went there, the Au family?"
“The story might be more melodramatic than you imagine,” Sun Yuanyuan interjected. “The female protagonist is a woman disguised as a man who falls in love with the duke, but the duke sends her to woo the woman she likes, who instead falls in love with the female protagonist disguised as a man.”
Xu Ting: "..."
Yan Songqi coughed: "Because there aren't many boys in our group, only two girls can play female roles in the adapted play. The rest will need to be played by women in drag. You guys don't have any objections, right?"
Everyone agreed: "No."
"Let's decide by drawing lots."
Yan Songqi tore a piece of paper from his notebook and crumpled it into a small strip. The six people took the strip from his hand one after another.
Ruan Xiyan was sitting on the inside of Lu Er's seat and couldn't get up easily, so Lu Er picked one out for him and handed it to him. He smiled and said, "Thank you."
Lu Er glanced at the iPad lying on his lap, with a Usachi drawn on the screen: "Your digital drawing is also amazing."
“After all, I’m an art student.” Ruan Xiyan held the electronic pen and with a few strokes, a simple little eight appeared on the paper. “This isn’t difficult to draw either.”
Lu Erxin's heart stirred slightly: "May I give it a try?"
Ruan Xiyan handed her the iPad. Lu Er rested her left arm on the iPad, her right hand holding the pen tip, slowly outlining the shape on the screen. It was Xiao Ba, although the lines were a bit rough.
Lu Er chuckled softly, a sigh almost imperceptible in her voice: "So ugly."
“Digital drawing is difficult, but this is definitely an improvement over the first time,” Ruan Xiyan said, trying to reassure her.
Yan Songqi called their names from behind: "Did you two see the slips of paper? What did you draw?"
“Me?” Ruan Xiyan waved the note, “Osino.”
"Let me see." Lu Er opened her slip of paper, and Ruan Xiyan peered up at her. "Vio...Aura. Is she the main character?"
"Yes. That's settled then. Lu Er will play Viola, Xu Ting will play Olivia, Ruan Xiyan will play Osino, and I'll play Sebastian. Sun Yuanyuan and Sun Yuanyuan will play Toby and Antonio respectively. I'll send the prepared script to the group chat, and you can find time to memorize your lines."
After explaining the matter, everyone went to play on their phones. Ruan Xiyan's pen kept leaving a few dots of ink on the screen, indicating that she was distracted.
The bus was moving at a steady speed, and most people were fast asleep. The sunlight filtering through the green sycamore trees, sometimes faint and sometimes deep, shone on their faces like melting orange candy.
His face was turned towards the window, his mind racing. If he remembered correctly, Duke Orsino and Viola, in the end, seemed to become a couple.
–
It was already 3 PM when we returned to the summer camp base. After a short rest in the dormitory, Teacher Mina tagged all the members in the group chat and invited them to attend an English lecture in the auditorium on the first floor. Apparently, the speaker was a senior student who had graduated from Qingdao University and was currently studying for an MTI program in a foreign university.
Upon hearing the news, Lu Er paused slightly, a wave of nostalgia pulling her back to before she was nine years old. Lu Er's special connection to Qingda University stemmed from the fact that both Lu Zhan and Xu Qingri completed their undergraduate studies there. When the two were invited back to their alma mater to serve as dissertation defense committee members, they would take Lu Er along.
Lu Er followed the crowd to the vicinity of the auditorium when her phone suddenly rang. She took it out to look; the caller was Lu Guoyang.
Lu Er stepped back to the open space outside the auditorium to answer the phone. Amidst the surrounding noise, she turned on the speakerphone: "Uncle, what's up?"
"Xiao Er? How's summer camp? Have you eaten yet?"
Lu Er glanced at the increasingly empty entrance and said directly, "Second Uncle, if you have something to say, just say it quickly, I still have to go to class." She didn't think that someone who called to inquire about her well-being when the summer camp was almost halfway through was simply being concerned.
"It's nothing serious." Lu Guoyang's voice carried a hint of guilt after being exposed. "It's just that, did you earn any pocket money this summer? I heard from your brother that you were tutoring, right? Did you earn enough for seven hundred yuan?"
After saying that, he muttered to himself, "If I have the money to sign up for summer camp, I should also have some extra pocket money..."
"Do you remember the 1,000 yuan book fee we talked about last time? Your teacher called me and said that you're one of the students who haven't paid yet, and asked me to urge you. If you... still have the money, please pay it first. If it's really not enough... Uncle will use his New Year's money to cover it for you."
Lu Er switched screens and jumped to the group chat, where she found a list of people who hadn't paid their book fees yet, which the homeroom teacher had posted a few hours earlier. It included her, but Lu Er hadn't had a chance to reply yet.
She calmly replied, "Uncle, I have the money to pay. I forgot to check, I'll give it to the teacher later. If you don't need anything else, I'll hang up now."
The other person seemed relieved: "That's fine then, I won't bother you anymore, I'm hanging up now."
Lu Er hung up the phone, lowered her eyes, and replied to messages in class. She found the class monitor's payment QR code in the chat history and transferred 1,000 yuan to her.
She put away her phone and prepared to leave when she noticed a man had appeared beside her. He was handsome, wearing a brown suit jacket, his shirt tucked into his belt, looking every bit the intellectual.
The young man looked at her in surprise: "I didn't mean to eavesdrop. But, are you Lu Er?"
Lu Er was also surprised. Seeing her expression, the young man smiled gently and said, "Do you remember me? I am Jiang Zhun. Teacher Lu gave me some guidance. We met when we were young."
Lu Er remembered. Back when Lu Zhan was incredibly busy with interpreting, the organizers had assigned him an assistant interpreter. The assistant's surname was Jiang, and he had a son who was six years older than Lu Er.
One day, while attending a conference rehearsal, Lu Zhan left Lu Er, whom he was too busy to look after, backstage. Assistant Jiang had already spoken with the conference organizers and arranged for his son to get a temporary pass. Knowing that Lu Zhan was having trouble, he asked his son to help take care of her.
That person was Jiang Chun. Jiang Chun had studied interpreting with his father since childhood. He had received guidance from Professor Lu Zhan in his professional courses, which enlightened him and made him deeply respect him. As a result, Jiang Chun also extended his affection to Lu Zhan's daughter.
Later, Jiang Zhun met Lu Er several times at the company's year-end thank-you party, Qingdao University's anniversary celebration, and Professor Lu's funeral.
In his memory, she was just a little girl who was only as tall as his waist, but now she looked like she had completely shed a layer of skin. He almost didn't recognize her if he hadn't heard her on the phone.
"...Long time no see." Lu Er hadn't seen him for eight years and didn't know what to say for a moment.
Jiang Zhun gazed at the girl, his tone somewhat wistful: "I haven't seen you since Teacher Lu left, have I? I didn't expect you to have grown up so much... I'm sorry, I've brought up something sad."
Lu Er shook her head, and Jiang Zhun continued, "Are you living with your uncle's family now? I overheard you on the phone... Are you doing alright?"
"It's alright," Lu Er said, trying to sound as calm as possible.
The older she gets, the less adept she becomes at handling these situations. Catching up with old friends inevitably involves reminiscing about her life before she was nine. There are objects, people, and memories. Especially the eight years that have passed have already distanced her from the past.
"You're here for summer camp, right?"
"Hmm." Lu Er now knew who was going to share the lecture with them.
Are you still interested in translation?
Lu Er paused for a moment: "Yes, I will probably study translation in the future."
Jiang Zhun stared at her face, mustered his courage, and said, "Actually, my family did want to adopt you." Jiang's parents had a good relationship with Lu Zhan's family. After that heartbreaking accident, Jiang Zhun's parents ran around for Lu Zhan and Xu Qingri's funeral, wishing they could do it all themselves.
Before making this suggestion, Jiang's parents consulted Jiang Chun, who had no objections. However, after considering it, they learned that Lu Er had already been adopted and taken away by their second uncle's family.
"Brother Jiang Zhun, thank you for your kindness." Lu Er bowed to him. "It's been a long time, and I'm doing quite well now."
Jiang Chun paused for two seconds, then changed the subject, saying, "I didn't have your contact information back then, so we missed each other for quite a few years. Now give me your phone number? If you have any problems in this area in the future, or if you have financial difficulties, you can come to me."
"Okay, thank you, Brother Jiang Zhun." Lu Er gave him her phone number.
-
The boys from dormitory 211 came out of the building and were on their way to the auditorium. Wei Ting let out a shrill scream and grabbed Ruan Xiyan's shoulder tightly: "I just found out that Ye Xinyu confessed to you and you rejected her?"
Li Zhilan nodded while playing on her phone: "Yes, you're the last one who was kept in the dark."
Wei Ting still found it hard to believe: "She's the school beauty at No. 7 Middle School! A universally acknowledged school beauty! How dare you reject her!"
"..." Ruan Xiyan's shoulder was so hard that his nails dug into her flesh. He helplessly pulled away, "I was also the school beauty at No. 3 Middle School, so what? The school beauty rejected the school beauty, so you won't give yourself to me?"
"If you're the school beauty of No. 3 Middle School, then who's the school heartthrob?"
"I'm the school heartthrob too, is that wrong?"
Wei Ting's attention was diverted, and he stared wide-eyed: "Ruan Xiyan, you are so shameless."
After some lighthearted banter, Li Zhilan caught a glimpse of someone outside the auditorium door: "Coming out so late, I thought we'd be the last ones. There are two more people over there."
"Maybe they're a young couple who've hit it off." Wei Ting realized he couldn't pull Ruan Xiyan away, so he turned his head and saw her staring intently at the man and woman. "What's wrong? Did your boyfriend fall for someone?"
Ruan Xiyan watched the two people walk into the hall, her tone inexplicably a little sullen: "Stop talking about them, and about me."
Ruan Xiyan and her roommates entered the auditorium at the very back of the crowd. Seating was left to chance; Wei Ting was about to invite Ruan Xiyan to the back row on the left for easier slacking off, but he saw her sit down in the front row on the right without looking back.
Just as Wei Ting was about to call out to Ruan Xiyan, Li Zhilan, sensing something was wrong, quickly covered Wei Ting's mouth: "Never mind him, let's go."
Lu Er found Jiang Zhun's WeChat account by phone number, sent a friend request, and felt someone sit down next to her. A gaze shifted over her: "Is anyone here?"
"Nobody's here," she said, putting her phone away.
A man strode into the center of the auditorium. Jiang Zhun first gave a polite self-introduction, and then gradually demonstrated English learning techniques to everyone through the slides behind him.
Ruan Xiyan wasn't really interested in the lecture, but she also wasn't interested in playing on her phone. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and tried to make conversation: "What exactly is your dermatitis urticaria?"
"That's right, if you scratch it a few times on the skin, it will leave red marks more easily and won't fade as quickly." Lu Er turned her arm over to demonstrate to him, "When I was bored as a child, I would write on it."
Lu Er showed him the injury from that morning; the bleeding had stopped, leaving a narrow, dark gray scab: "My skin is quite sensitive, but it doesn't affect my daily life much."
"Oh, that's fine then."
As if it were just his imagination, Lu Er felt that Ruan Xiyan wasn't in a very good mood. To put it simply, he was like a little dog with its head down and tail drooping.
The chat ended, but Ruan Xiyan was still distracted, glancing at the stage and then at Lu Er: "Teacher Lu, do you know that senior brother?"
Lu Er looked over, and he immediately looked away, unconsciously touching the bridge of his nose: "I just saw you guys outside, chatting quite familiarly."
Lu Er didn't think too much about it: "He's the son of my dad's former colleague, an older brother. We ran into each other today and chatted for a bit."
"I see."
That illusion seemed to have vanished, Lu Er thought. The lost puppy turned into a happy puppy.
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