Chapter 13 (1/2)
Chapter 13: Everyday is a Blue Sky
In the past two to three weeks, He Luo’s entire family resolutely did not bring up the topic of Zhang Yuan, studying abroad, or her diary. Every single day, He Luo burned the midnight oil, holding a book sitting next to her parents in the study. “Your health will suffer if you continue like this.” They comforted their daughter, “As long as you have tried your best, we wouldn’t blame you.”
“We have an agreement. If I don’t do well on the test, I will blame myself.”
He Luo went to school everyday equipped with instant coffee. Each time before Chemistry cla.s.s, she would gulp down three cups of it, making her bright and alert. By the time Chinese and English cla.s.ses rolled around, if she really felt sleepy, she would arrange her books into a pile on her desk and rest behind it.
When she woke up, Teacher Qiu was instructing them on the instrument pipa. He Luo quietly asked her deskmate, “Where are we now?”
“‘We both are fallen people [degenerates] in the world; if we have met now, why bother if we have once known each other’ [proverb: Since we are already fated to meet now, why bother if we have known each other in the past],” Zhao Cheng Jie replied.
Teacher Qiu walked over. “What did you say?”
“I said, ‘We both are people fallen from world’,” he replied honestly.
“I think you have also fallen..” Teacher Qiu knocked on his desk. “I’m saying it on the stage, and you insist on repeating below the stage.”
“That… that…”
At recess, Zhang Yuan said, “Degenerate, let’s play basketball in the afternoon?”
“Kao! What degenerate!” Zhao Cheng Jie went over swinging his fist. “See if I don’t hit you!”
“Why hit me?”
“You know I don’t hit women!”
“You’re playing basketball in the afternoon? Didn’t you say you would tutor me?” He Luo asked.
“When you yawn, you open your mouth wider than a hippo’s,” Zhang Yuan teased. “Go and lie down for a while. You are wasting your youth like this.”
*
After the finals, He Luo became really ill; her fever refusing to subside. The doctor said it was excessive fatigue.
When Tian Xin phoned, she said, “You must be crazy to finish 17 sets of maths test papers in a week! But your results like this must be so much better than last time’s.”
“I can’t say it would be much better, but it will definitely be better,” He Luo replied. “That’s because it’s a very terrible limit. I can only be infinitely get closer to it but never reach.”
“You are truly obsessed! Let’s not talk about exams anymore!” Even across the line, He Luo can imagine Tian Xin rolling her eyes. “Once you get better, we’ll go the amus.e.m.e.nt park, okay?” She deliberately emphasised the word ‘we’.
“Who will be going?” He Luo asked.
“Hehe, whoever you want, you can have.” Tian Xin snickered. “So, will you be able to come?”
“I will try!”
As Mom had to leave for Tianjin for the elections, she was worried about leaving her daughter behind. Dad patted his chest and promised that he will care for He Luo properly.
“You can splurge and eat lavishly outside. But Luo Luo has to stay home and eat light meals,” Mom said.
“You’re really underestimating me.” Dad turned to his daughter. “Is your appet.i.te still that poor? I will cook cuc.u.mber and persimmon scrambled eggs. Is that okay?”
Mom and He Luo turned towards the three bowls of so-called noodles on the table and exchanged a look.
“Isn’t this glue?” He Luo asked.
“Didn’t you forget to filter the water?” Mom stirred the noodles with the chopsticks.
“Aiya, I was too busy skinning the cuc.u.mbers…” Dad said, “But you can still tell it is noodles, yes?”
“I lost my appet.i.te just looking at it.” Mom put down the chopsticks. “Sticky and murky.”
He Luo’s nose dripped from the burst of warmth coming from the bowls.
“Does it look like He Luo’s mucus?” Dad asked, making Mom laugh.
“You are still nevertheless a learned person. Pay attention to your image.” A helpless He Luo understood that this was her parents’ way of trying to ease the family mood.
*
Mom’s plane ticket had already been booked and cannot be refunded. After much consideration, she decided to send He Luo to her grandmother’s place. After being cooped up in her room for a few days, He Luo was just happy to leave home for some time to end her days of being a prisoner.
Although her parents did not expressly forbid her from being lovers with Zhang Yuan, neither of them dared to call each other often. She could only take advantage of the time Dad is in the office.
Even then, Dad would return home at lunch break to check on her. Being at Grandma’s place she was relatively freer. She could occasionally take a walk outside using the ultimate s.h.i.+eld: “Ah, I have to go and buy Grandpa’s birds Red Arrow and Phoenix fleas.”
Sometimes at this point they would hear the gentle sound of birds chirping.. Grandpa was a little hard of hearing. He asked, “Sounds like our family’s Red Arrow! Did you open the birdcage again?”
“I don’t think so. Let me go and see.” He Luo ran to the balcony and waved at the people on the other side of the street. Under the shade of the lush weeping willow, Zhang Yuan was propped on his navy blue bike, supporting his weight on one leg. His shadow stretched his leg as long as they could go; in his acid-washed blue jeans , he seemed as laid-back as the summer afternoon sky.
The wind had gone still, leaving the million strips of green silk hanging. His slender fingers were tapping on the handle of the bike serenely. His whistling was crisp and subtle, like smoke rippling from the willow(?).
On the balcony, He Luo sighed and gestured OK. The bird song continued.
“You are sounding more and more like the real thing!” She giggled. “Be careful my Grandpa comes out one day and put you in a cage.”
“Even if you want to see me every day, you don’t have to get your grandfather capture me,” he retorted. Zhang Yuan got off his bike and pushed it next to him. “Let’s walk together.”
“We can only walk,” He Luo replied, disappointed. She had just watched the movie Comrades: Almost a Love Story and was envious of how Maggie Cheung leisurely swayed her legs, sitting on her side on the bike, humming Teresa Teng’s Sweet Honey: “Sweet honey, your smile is like sweet honey.” And he forcibly pedalled, a little crooked, carving out a path for happiness.
She glanced at Zhang Yuan’s precious bike: narrow tires, no backseat.
“Why don’t your racing bike have basket or a backseat? Where do you put your school bag and lunch box?”
“I carry my school bag. As for the lunch box, it’s wrapped so it can go into my bag.” Zhang Yuan grinned. “If there are so many burdens front and back, can I still show off my speed?”
“Oh.” She was even more disappointed. “Show off.”
*
It would be the parents-teacher meeting in another two days. Lin Shu Zhen had called a few of the active students to help out.
“We just had spring cleaning, now we have to clean again,” Tian Xin complained. “The weather is so hot, I want to go play in the riverside.”
Li Yun Wei interrupted her. “Stop whining. If Teacher hears that, she would say, ‘You have to clean your face every day. If you let your parents see such a dirty cla.s.sroom, even if you don’t feel like losing face, I will feel like losing face!’”
He Luo placed a mint she had just bought from the roadside stall into her mouth before pa.s.sing it to everyone else. She found Zhang Yuan in the hallway, who was dragging his feet.
“Help me take it [feed me],” he said. “My hands are dirty.”
“My hands are not clean either. I just washed the rag earlier, I didn’t clean my hands carefully after.”
“But you have already eaten one and you are still alive and well. It should not be toxic.” Zhang Yuan smiled. “Whoever died the earliest is the greediest!”
“You dare say that about me?” He Luo planted her palm on the back of his neck. “I’ll freeze you to death!”
“Why are your hands so cold?”
“Don’t you know our school uses underground water? It is cool even in summer.”
“It is really cold,” Zhang Yuan said, holding the tip of He Luo’s finger.
“Ah! I didn’t see anything, I didn’t see anything!” Tian Xian who has run out to the corridor immediately covered her eyes.
“Hey, you two better keep it down! Aren’t you scared of letting the parents see?” Li Yun Wei scolded. “They will be coming in awhile.”
Several sets of booklets have just arrived and needed to be moved from the office to the cla.s.sroom for the parents. Understanding that He Luo had just recovered, her cla.s.smates let her stay in the cla.s.sroom to hand out the reports.
Parents started arriving. He Luo asked for the child’s name and handed over the report card, school and cla.s.s ranking, as well as comments on conduct to every parent.