“You don’t like flowers?” Jiang Nian asked.
Qiao Qing Yu let out a deep “mm” from her throat.
“Why?”
“Just,” Qiao Qing Yu paused, “find it superficial, so I can’t bring myself to like it.”
Since she had hidden Qiao Bai Yu’s existence, she couldn’t possibly tell Jiang Nian about that unjust incident involving flowers. She was just starting seventh grade then, when one day she found an elegantly wrapped bouquet of pink roses on her bed after returning home. It must have been from some boy for Qiao Bai Yu, who was bedridden with a severe cold. Seeing Bai Yu sleeping soundly, Qing Yu quietly held the roses in her arms, lowering her head to smell them intently. This scene was caught by Li Fang Hao, who suddenly burst through the door.
“They’re not my flowers,” Qing Yu threw the bouquet away as if electrocuted, “They’re not mine.”
“They’re not mine either.” Bai Yu’s weak voice came from the upper bunk, startling Qing Yu.
“I’ve been in bed all day and haven’t gone out,” Bai Yu turned over with difficulty, “I don’t dare accept anything from anyone right now.”
“Whose are they then?” Li Fang Hao was about to explode, her sharp gaze wavering between the sisters.
Qing Yu wanted to explain, but Bai Yu beat her to it: “They’re not mine. Qing Qing, you’re in middle school now, entering puberty. If any boy shows interest in you, you absolutely cannot give in, understand?”
Qing Yu still clearly remembers her shock at that moment. “I didn’t,” she repeated, biting her lip as tears welled up in her eyes.
She could see Li Fang Hao’s dilemma: believing the younger daughter would hurt the elder daughter’s face, but believing the elder daughter might wrongly accuse the younger one. Bai Yu lay back down after speaking, while Qing Yu, full of grievance and anger, pitifully held onto Li Fang Hao’s hand, tears falling rapidly.
After a while, Li Fang Hao stroked Qing Yu’s head: “Qing Qing is sensible, don’t accept flowers from others in the future, you must be careful about this. For a girl, the most important thing is to maintain your dignity…”
Though the words were sincerely directed at Qing Yu, Li Fang Hao’s eyes kept glancing at the upper bunk of the bunk bed. Qing Yu understood that the mom was using her education of Qing Yu to educate Bai Yu, just not wanting to hurt her sister’s self-esteem. Through tear-blurred eyes, Li Fang Hao’s opening and closing mouth seemed to exhale cold air, making Qing Yu feel increasingly cold, from outside to inside, chilling to the bone.
“You’re so unique,” Jiang Nian’s words brought Qing Yu back to reality, “but the way you just spoke, others might think you’re like the fox who couldn’t reach the grapes and called them sour, doing it on purpose… because Ye Zi Lin was talking about being the class beauty, not actual flowers.”
Being called “unique” for the first time, Qing Yu felt somewhat flattered and continued speaking frankly: “I don’t like terms like class beauty or school beauty either, they sound like they’re all about appearance, with no substance.”
Jiang Nian frowned, retorting unhappily: “That’s not true, our school’s beauty Wang Mu Mu is not superficial at all, her grades are excellent, you probably can’t match her.”
Qing Yu realized she had been extreme. She shook her head, trying to shake away the lingering image of Bai Yu’s pretty figure in her mind. “Don’t affect my life,” she warned her sister in her head.
Walking toward the tray return area, Qing Yu and Jiang Nian happened to be right behind Ye Zi Lin and his group. The boys walked extremely slowly, loudly discussing a pretty freshman girl called “Tian Tian,” then suddenly rushed to throw their dirty plates into the plastic bin, making loud clattering sounds as if trying to drown out everything else. Qing Yu frowned in disgust, her gaze wandering to the cafeteria’s glass doors, where she found Ming Sheng already standing there, his thin frame in a loose athletic shirt casually leaning against the doorframe, head slightly lowered, looking at his phone, oblivious to everything.
After staring intently for two seconds, Qing Yu withdrew her gaze. The sun was overhead, and though he was bathed in brightness, he gave off a cool impression, perhaps because students entering and leaving the cafeteria had chosen the other glass door. “A sense of distance,” Qing Yu thought, affirming her assessment.
This was the second term, the first being “a sense of superiority.”
After observing Ming Sheng for two days, he indeed behaved as his father had said, “lawless.”
He showed up late in the afternoon on the first day of school, and immediately refused the “class monitor” position assigned by homeroom teacher Sun Ying Long, his attitude was lazy and unrestrained, making Qing Yu marvel at Sun Ying Long’s good temper. He left early too. Slept during English class, disappeared during PE and computer classes, reportedly playing basketball with the sports team students in the gymnasium. Didn’t do homework.
However, after learning about Ming Sheng’s grades, Qing Yu felt these words somewhat misunderstood him. Maintaining a position in the top fifty at Huan No. 2 Middle School while not being a bookworm, excelling in painting, basketball, and piano, having impeccable looks that made him universally popular, commanding respect among male students, and coming from a privileged family – what reason was there not to be “arrogant”? Someone outstanding in every aspect had every right to be rebellious.
He not only had everything but could also do as he pleased. Qing Yu envied him from the bottom of her heart.
However, her conclusions of “superiority” and “distance” couldn’t help Qing Yu grasp the soul of Ming Sheng’s characters.
These past two nights, she had specifically set aside time to carefully imitate Ming Sheng’s handwriting. The stroke beginnings needed to be elevated, the endings wild, the writing process flowing in one breath. But no matter how hard she tried, switching between soft and hard brushes, she could never express that fierce feeling. “Strange,” Qing Yu thought of Ming Sheng’s fresh and bright image, “he doesn’t look like a villain.”
In her final attempt, the first few characters were passable, but the characters for “horror” were all bluster, making the whole paper reveal traces of clumsy imitation.
Qing Yu hoped Ming Sheng was a man of his word, otherwise her secret observation and imitation would seem like wishful thinking. On the other hand, she hoped Ming Sheng wouldn’t be too particular, after all, no one, including himself, could write characters that were “the same.”
Before PE class on Friday, Qing Yu took advantage of everyone at the gymnasium to secretly slip her rolled-up final product into Ming Sheng’s desk. This was the last day of the “one-week” deadline, considered fulfilling her obligation. The class bell had already rung when she ran toward the gymnasium, but Qing Yu was in high spirits. However, as soon as she entered the basketball court in the gymnasium, her soaring mood was suddenly yanked down.
Everyone who had already gathered was staring at her, including Ming Sheng standing to the side and back. When he looked at Qing Yu, there was a strange smile in the corner of his eye, his thoughtful expression identical to when his father saw Qing Yu days ago. The warning alarm in her mind automatically went off, and Qing Yu jogged to join the ranks, her posture tense as if afraid of slipping at any moment.
She stood on the right side of the front row, separated from Ming Sheng in the right rear by two people. After the PE teacher explained the key points of dribbling and passing, everyone was told to practice separately in freely formed teams. Qing Yu was holding the basketball, and had just met Jiang Nian’s gaze in the distance when a voice came from beside her: “Team up with me, Qiao Qing Yu.”
Over there, Jiang Nian sheepishly ducked her head, making a “please go ahead” gesture. Before Qing Yu could speak as she stiffly turned around, Ming Sheng had already snatched the basketball from her hands: “Follow me.”
He dribbled the ball out of the crowd, incidentally clearing a path for Qing Yu amid sideways glances. Qing Yu stood frozen, an ominous feeling preventing her from taking a step.
Ming Sheng stopped at the other side of the gymnasium.
“Go on, Qiao Qing Yu,” Guan Lan, who was closest to Qing Yu, pushed her playfully, “A-Sheng’s going to teach you basketball!”
Compared to the ominous feeling, the curious gazes from all around were harder to endure. So Qing Yu steeled herself and ran toward Ming Sheng to meet everyone’s expectations, leaving all the excited onlookers behind.
Her premonition soon proved correct.
“Your handwriting is quite good,” Ming Sheng said, throwing the ball to Qing Yu, “has some of my style.”
Before Qing Yu could speak, he languidly added a second sentence: “So, you can do something for me.”
“What?”
“Do my homework.”
Qing Yu stared incredulously at his handsome face showing no shame, and after a while managed to squeeze out: “Why?”
“Because I don’t like doing homework,” Ming Sheng answered straightforwardly.
“No.”
“Many people are eager to do my homework,” Ming Sheng looked down at her, “but I look down on their terrible handwriting. I’m very picky.”
“I have no obligation to do your homework, you can’t because…”
“It’s not an obligation, it’s compensation,” Ming Sheng coldly interrupted, “that boyfriend of yours from your hometown, He Kai tore up the sign I wrote, and can’t compensate me with an exact copy, you doing my homework will count as compensation on his behalf.”
“I wrote it for him, I just put the compensation characters in your drawer.”
“The same?”
Qing Yu was stumped, her lips trembling slightly from sudden anger.
Ming Sheng ignored her anger-filled eyes and continued airily: “Doing my homework will be a secret between us, congratulations on being able to keep my secret.”
“Even you can’t write two identical characters! This is an impossible task!” Qing Yu stared straight at Ming Sheng, “You’re doing this on purpose, you’re going too far!”
“Think what you want,” Ming Sheng shrugged indifferently, “I advise you to obediently do my homework, otherwise your fate will be worse than He Kai’s.”
“Senior He Kai, he,” Qing Yu paused slightly nervously, “what did you do to Senior He Kai?”
Ming Sheng glanced at her sideways, looking impatient: “You can’t help him, but you can help yourself.”
“I said no.”
“If you’re willing to do my homework, I won’t tell everyone about your sister Qiao Bai Yu,” Ming Sheng turned his head away from Qing Yu, “after all, you consider yourself above others, surely you don’t want classmates to know you have a,” he deliberately dragged out his voice, pausing meaningfully, “sister who degraded herself and died young from AIDS, do you?”