Chapter Seven

  I was forced to be tormented by Lin Qiao and Su Qi for another semester.

  In the morning, I have to be with them on the way to school. At noon, I have to be with them during lunch. In the afternoon, after school is dismissed, I still have to be with them. This quickly made me a good student who loves attending classes and going to the bathroom. Because as soon as we enter the classroom, they don't need me to accompany them except when they are having class or using the restroom.

  But soon after China's accession to the WTO, I lost my precious time of freedom to go to the toilet, because Su Qi was delighted to discover that she and I belonged to the same sex, we could hold hands together to go to the same toilet.

  I think maybe one day they'll invite me to watch when they open a room, and for the three years of high school, whether or not they actually went to open a room is still an unsolved mystery. My classmates all thought I was a wet blanket, but at the same time they were also very puzzled - as a wet blanket, I could get along with the male and female leads so harmoniously, I'm really a harmonious wet blanket.

  In this whole semester of painful trials, my soul has been sublimated.

  At first, even seeing them hold hands would make me feel suffocated for a whole day, and I even thought about poisoning Su Qi's lunchbox. But by the end of the semester, I was able to sit aside and keep watch while they hugged and kissed.

  Lin Qiao's loyalty and infatuation with Su Qi is a gentle repression of the despicable thoughts I've been hiding in my heart. He is such an upright and unyielding good boyfriend. With him by my side, the mountains and rivers seem dull, and I can shave my head and become a monk, escaping into the void.

  At that time, I also thought that I got along with Su Qi and Lin Qiao earlier than him. At that time when he didn't even know which group or row Su Qi sat in, I had so many opportunities to get close to her, but in the end it turned out like this. All I can do is sigh and say, fate is mysterious and cannot be spoken of.

  I wrote his name on my diary, Lin Qiao, Lin Qiao, Lin Qiao. The cursive script represents that he was very annoyed today, the clerical script represents that he was very calm today, the running script represents that he was very happy today, and the regular script represents that he was very silent today. I know well that in this era where even a safety net is not necessarily safe, a locked diary is also not as reliable as people imagine it to be. But with emotions overflowing, there's no way to find an outlet, so I can only write his name on my diary over and over again, Lin Qiao, Lin Qiao, Lin Qiao. Before long, I mastered all the writing styles of the two characters "Lin Qiao" from the Pang Zhonghua calligraphy book, but unfortunately, this is a skill that can never be showcased in front of people.

  In the second semester of high school, this diary filled with Lin Qiao's name was finally lost by me. After being passed around several times, it eventually fell into Su Qi's hands. The classmate who picked up the diary had a very simple idea: after breaking open the small lock on the book, he found that every entry in the diary was written with Lin Qiao's name, so he naturally assumed it belonged to Su Qi. Coincidentally, he was also very honest and immediately came to our classroom to return the diary to her.

  I came back from the teaching and research office, just to see Su Qi sitting in my seat with a pale face, holding my diary, the lock had been knocked open.

  At that time I thought, well, this day has finally come, you know, knowing is to stay far away from me, I don't want to suffer this sin anymore.

  Su Qi is a girl who loves English, and she loves English not because Lin Qiao is the representative of the English department, but because she truly loves it from the bottom of her heart. She slammed her diary on my desk and said: "Yan Song, wait for me under the ginkgo tree behind threeteagbuilding before lunch self-study."

  I said: "Okay." Thought for a moment and then asked: "What is threeteagbuilding?"

  She said: "The third teaching building."

  "I said, 'Oh, that's not the Three Teag Building, it's the Third Teag Building. And some time ago, Mrs. Zhou Cuihua, a wealthy woman who made her fortune selling pickled cucumbers, donated money to renovate it. The principal has already reported to the education department and got approval to change its name to Cuihua Teaching Building, also known as Cuihua Building.'"

  Su Qi glared at me.

  Since we've already won the first round, there's no need to pursue further, so I quickly said: "Anyway, it's under that silver ginkgo tree behind that building, right?"

  Su Qi glared at me again, and the class bell rang out loudly in her angry glare.

  The two ginkgo trees behind the Cuifang Building have lost all their leaves under the ravages of severe winter, and they stand bare to each other. If trees also distinguish between male and female, and these two trees happen to be one male and one female, it would be a particularly embarrassing thing.

  Su Qi said: "Yan Song, is that diary yours?"

  I said: "I..."

  She said: "I thought you were an exception, but I didn't expect that even you would be infatuated with Lin Qiao's beauty."

  I said: "I..."

  She said: "No, this is not true."

  I said: "I..."

  She said: "Tell me, that diary isn't yours, and you don't like Lin Qiao."

  I said: "I..."

  She covered her ears: "I don't want to listen, I don't want to listen. You must be cheating me, you're my and Lin Qiao's best friend."

  "I closed my eyes in pain and said: 'Classmate, can't you wait for me to finish speaking before expressing your opinion?'"

  Now that I think about it, at the time I could have completely denied it because there was no record of "Luo Yan Song" in my diary. But in fact, I was so eager to admit, brave enough to admit and even added some details to admit, I said: "Su Qi, I've liked Lin Qiao for one year, three months and twenty-one days, so don't be foolish from now on. Lin Qiao let me follow you guys, in order to please him, you should also let me follow as a good wife and mother. I am indeed Lin Qiao's good friend, but our friendship is still a bit lacking, you don't really like me either, I can see that too. The three of us have such a relationship, always together every day, what if I steal your thunder in the future?"

  She was stunned for a moment, her eyebrows furrowed, and she sneered: "You also overestimate yourself, do you think you can pry open my wall corner just because of you?"

  I also think that I couldn't shake her off, but losing a battle doesn't mean losing the war. For the sake of saving face, I forced myself to perk up and said: "Can't say for sure."

  Her face turned red and white, and she sneered: "As expected, it's the kind of thing a sixteen-year-old who had a child would say. You're shameless enough. If you want to steal my boyfriend, you need some capital. What do you have? Just because you were sixteen and didn't know who you had a wild child with?"

  So love is really something, it can even turn a long-term language-challenged and illogical girl into a debate expert in an instant.

  She sneered and said: "What if I say that Lin Qiao is the father of my son?"

  Su Qi's face turned green and she gritted her teeth after a while, saying: "Yan Song, you can eat whatever you want but you can't just say whatever you want."

  I said: "Haha, I was indeed talking nonsense."

  She was defeated by my shamelessness and ran away in tears, trampling the withered wild grass of winter.

  I and Su Qi's grudge was formed like this. I originally thought that letting her know I had a crush on her boyfriend would give her some sense of crisis, and she would quickly take Lin Qiao away from me. But she acted as if nothing had happened, the only change being that she no longer invited me to go to the bathroom with her.

  Not long after, it was rumored in the class that a junior in high school was crazily pursuing Su Qi and trying to drive a wedge between Lin Su's feelings. Although this junior is not as good-looking as Lin Qiao, he is also a handsome guy with a strong build, and public opinion thinks that even if Su Qi leaves Lin Qiao and gets together with this junior, it would not be considered a compromise of the masses' aesthetic values to an abnormal human environment. Therefore, in this obvious third-party intervention scandal, public opinion was generally speechless.

  Su Qi did not explicitly reject her junior's pursuit. Every morning after early self-study, a rose would be delivered to her seat. Careful classmates analyzed the glass paper wrapping the roses and found that they were not picked from the school flower bed, but bought with RMB in a flower shop. They were moved by his infatuation, and public opinion gradually leaned towards this muscular junior.

  Lin Qiao still attends his classes and plays basketball, has lunch with my pork, and still remembers to send me home after school every day. It's just that Su Qi is no longer involved in these activities.

  I said: "What's going on between you and Su Qi?"

  He shot a three-pointer, turned around and stretched out his hand. I tossed him a bottle of mineral water. He took it, tilted his head back and gulped down a big mouthful, slightly furrowing his brow as he said, "Nothing's wrong, we're just in a cold war."

  I said: "What's all this, you'd better restore diplomatic relations quickly, so I won't be uncomfortable stuck in the middle."

  "He raised an eyebrow and said: 'What did you hear? That Su Qi and I have already broken up, and now I'm with you?'"

  I chuckled and said, "You're quite well-informed, huh."

  He put the basketball in his hand and turned it around, smiling: "Yan Song, we are lifelong friends, you won't distance yourself from me because of these two rumors, will you?"

  Under the blue sky and white clouds, he said, "Yan Song, we are friends for life."

  I bitterly laughed: "How is it possible? You said so yourself, we are friends for life."

  At that moment, looking at this handsome young man in front of me who was sweating profusely, I had a very violent thought, I wanted to slap him to death.

  On Saturday evening, Lin Qiao called and said that the movie tickets issued by his dad's unit were about to expire. Coincidentally, a new film had just been released, and he wanted to find someone to go with on Sunday.

  I said: "This won't do, I'm quite busy."

  He said: "What's keeping you busy?"

  "I'm busy with everything."

  "He said: 'It's settled then, tomorrow at 2 pm, I'll come directly to your home to find you.'"

  The phone rang again and no one answered.

  He didn't know that although I'm not afraid of rumors, I'm afraid of losing control of my own heart.

  How blissful it is for an ignorant person, with just a few casual words, they can completely destroy someone's defense line, truly more powerful than a missile.

  Since this movie is inevitable, I immediately adjusted my mentality and suddenly felt that as Lin Qiao's secret admirer, being able to watch a movie with him alone in my lifetime was actually a luxury. There were so many girls at the brother school who secretly admired him, most of whom could only gaze longingly at his expensive photos, but I could gaze at the real him, wasn't that worth cherishing? It's too worth cherishing!

  I rummaged through the boxes and found a thick woolen dress that my grandmother had given me when I was full moon, put it on and walked outside for a circle, feeling a bit cold, and added a down jacket on the outside, but the oversized down jacket immediately overshadowed the dress, covering up the figure that the dress had barely managed to create. I stood there with my arms around me, hesitating for a moment, when Lin Qiao knocked on the door, I made up my mind at once, and took off the down jacket in one swift motion.

  Lin Qiao, wearing a coat, stood at the door and stared blankly, looking him up and down before saying, "Aren't you cold?"

  I rubbed the goosebumps on my neck and said, "It's not cold."

  It was unexpected to run into Su Qi and the junior who had been chasing her at the entrance of the cinema. Su Qi was holding a huge bucket of popcorn in her arms, and the junior was saying something to her with his head down. I thought the junior was really generous with his money, and immediately went to look at Lin Qiao's expression. Lin Qiao's expression was very stiff.

  Perhaps it was a telepathic response between lovers, and Su Qi, who should have turned left to enter the cinema, suddenly took a step back, completely turning around to face us. I remembered passing by a public toilet earlier, so she probably wanted to use the restroom before the movie started.

  She immediately saw us and was extremely shocked, the popcorn in her arms fell to the ground with a rustling sound. A middle-aged woman passing by sighed emotionally: "Oh my, what a waste."

  Su Qi was so angry that her whole body was shaking: "You, you..."

  Lin Qiao suddenly grasped my hand and coldly laughed: "What's wrong with us?"

  Su Qi stared at my and Lin Qiao's clasped right hands in disbelief, unable to speak for a long time, her eyes reddening with suppressed emotions. Her junior brother was anxious beside her, tugging at his ears and cheeks, while Lin Qiao remained unmoved.

  Su Qi finally burst into tears, choking with sobs: "Lin Qiao I hate you to death." After finishing, she turned around and ran towards the stairs. Lin Qiao stiffened for a moment, then suddenly flung off my hand and chased after her in big strides.

  He finally caught up with her at the stairs and held her tightly in his arms. She cried and kicked hard in his embrace. So that many years later, every time I watch the scene of the male and female protagonists reuniting due to misunderstandings in Qiong Yao's TV series, I always feel a sense of familiarity, because art indeed comes from life.

  Su Qi said: "You go find Yan Song, you go find Yan Song, you and she hold hands to watch a movie, what are you doing coming back to bother me?"

  Lin Qiao said: "Calm down, you know I have nothing with Yan Song, be good, don't be impulsive."

  Su Qi raised her head from Lin Qiao's shoulder and glanced at me.

  Younger brother came over and fiercely trampled on the popcorn on the ground, resentfully saying: "Why do I feel like I've been fooled?"

  "I said: 'Young man, you just found out, huh.'"

  He gave me a white eye: "What's so proud of you, didn't you get fooled too?"

  I said: "Yes, we've all been fooled."

  After a long time, Zhou Yueyue cried and asked me with a tear-stained face: "Song Song, how come you've never cried before? Don't you have tear glands?"

  I said: "You don't have tear glands, your whole family doesn't have tear glands."

  It's actually quite simple for Yuan Yuan not to cry out loud.

  First step, lift your head.

  The second step, close your eyes.

  So tears all flowed into the heart.

  Others can't see your weakness, they'll just think you're a proud peacock.

  The author has something to say: It's said that it's going to get colder again, everyone be careful not to catch a cold.

  P.S: Attached a song, "The Sky Has Brightened" by SHE. I think the lyrics are great, so I'll send it to Yan Song and let her reflect on herself...