c8 (1/2)

ch 8 The Summer Day the Wind Blew Past

On Jiang Jiao’s 18th birthday, ent to the karaoke bar to sing

The summer day that the wind blew past (t/n: This is also the title of a song (被风吹过的夏天) by JJ Lin Reference?)

In the dark and crowded private rooarettesJiao, was singing with another boy She was a pretty good singer The way she closed her eyes when she sang made her look a bit like Da S, who played Shancai in Meteor Garden For no reason, this soft, eht of the girl that once sang on a bar’s narroooden stage The way her singing was open and indifferent, her eyes aloof This sudden ot up and went outside (t/n: Da S is the nickname of actress Barbie Hsu, who played the main character in the hit 2001 Taiwanese drama, Meteor Garden)

The late August sun roasted the earth The high altitude sun continuously spit out blood-red rays The world had becoet a taxi and jumped inside, “To Nanshan”

The air conditioning inside the taxi h the rearviewcasual shorts and a t-shi+rt, in the o to Nanshan If he didn’t have a problem, he must be crazy

FiveAs expected, it was Classry shout came from the other side, “Dead cockroach, where are you?”

cockroach was Class’s nickname for me I don’t really remember where it came from anymore, but it probably s, flies, ive me, for my memory has been rather poor recently I can only remember that as a form of retaliation, I’d chosen the nicknaree to it Under her tearful gaze, I changed it to “Du,” which she readily accepted She’d said happily, “Dus with substance inside”

(t/n: Their nicknames didn’t really come out of nowhere, by the way I assume part of the reason is that the words sound like parts of the character’s naláng) for Zhang Yang)

She had this ss, that I just had to listen to

“Hurry and talk Why aren’t you talking? Where are you?” She was getting impatient

“Bathroom,” I said

“Why’ve you been gone for so long?”

“Taking a shi+t,” I said

“cockroach!” she yelled “I don’t care, you’d better show up right now!”

I hung up and turned off my phone

Nanshan waswhile, the car stopped on a narrow street The driver said, “This is as far as I can go It’s hard to turn around if I drive up farther”

I payed the taxi fare and got off It washere, and I was a bit confused about how to get going I followed the mountain road, as I pondered hoould find the place I wanted to go to Just as I wished, the heavens gave an answer I really didn’t knohere to go any down the mountain She carried a snized her, and I suspected she recognized me too

When she lifted her head and saw uard She lowered her head and kept walking doanting to pretend that she hadn’t seenWhen she passed by rabbed onto her arm

She looked up, even more flustered, but she didn’t speak

“Take me there,” I said

She wanted to break free from my hold

“If you don’t take ,” I threatened

“Let go first,” she said lightly

I let go, and she looked over er Then she turned around and walked up the mountain I followed her up, and very quickly, I was too tired to keep going The petite figure in front of h About ten reide The whole place was a ce sun It was utterly silent and tranquil She tooktrail Shortly after, she stopped

I knee’d reached our destination

I don’t knohy, but my heart felt a bit panicked I saw a bunch of fresh flowers on the gravestone in front ofelse, I wasn’t sure As I approached, I saw the photograph on the gravestone It was black and white Young, beautiful, a face I hadn’t seen in awhile Those fearless eyes My heart suddenly felt like it was being pulled out by someone, and then tossed into the air In a ain

I couldn’t help but kneel down,uncontrollably They fell down to the grass, quickly evaporated by the sun

“She was at peace You shouldn’t have come to bother her” I don’t knobeside me with the red umbrella spoke

“Who are you?” I asked her

“It’s not important who I am,” she said coldly

“Are you her good friend?” I asked with some uncertainty “You look familiar, but I’m not sure where I’ve seen you before”

She said, in an even colder tone, “We went to the same school I saw you all the time Actually, we’ve met a few times”

I remembered!

Memories of the past flashed in my mind, and my heart felt an inexplicable shock

“You killed her,” she said “She don’t forgive you It doesn’t matter if you cry”

After she finished speaking, she opened her red uround, ran ahead, and grabbed hold of her “You must have been there before she died Tell ?”

“I heard you got into auniversity,” she asked

I nodded

“Congrats,” she said

I shouted iive me that crap, tell me what I want to know!”

She didn’t seem to be afraid ofat all At least, I don’t knohat she said”

“Please tellto coax her

“Maybe you should go ask Blackie” She dropped that sentence, and left without turning back

Perhaps it was because the evening was approaching The burning sun finally felt dulled A cool breeze blew across theas the far off clouds slowly floated past I hadn’t expected a heavy rainstorm to coed coer Bean-sized raindrops hit my body I didn’t have anywhere to hide, and neither did I want to hide Let the rain fall harder Let it fall and shatter everything on the world I didn’t expect any kind of redemption In this ht back to when I stood outside heron a snowing, winter evening I thought of when her warm feet came closer to mine In this storm, let me remember it, with no one to bother me

With no one to bother me…

When I got back to the city, it was already 10 at night The temperature was still as warm, even after the storm My hair and clothes, which had been soaked, had already dried up

Because I couldn’t hail a taxi, I walked for a very long tiirl who also went to visit Bala Maybe she visited often I wonder how she usually returned ho way, she would surely fall to the ground fro tired

I didn’t expect for Classht near my house

At first, she’d been crouching on the ground When she sawat e into a new dress, and I noticed she’d even redone her hair Her dark, reddish hair wasaround her head

I walked over to her

“I’m 18 years old,” she said

“Happy birthday,” I said

“I got my hair permed,” she said

“It looks bad,” I said

Her face twitched, and then she started to cry She didn’t throw herself intoher, but in the end, I didn’t

So we stood there like that, at an impasse

With a heavy heart, I waited until she finished crying

But she just kept crying

I

Fortunately, no one passed by this scene But even if someone did pass by, it wouldn’ttime already No matter what happens around me, people weren’t curious anymore

Finally, I pat her back, saying, “Alright, if you cry too much, you’ll turn old Your new hairdo already h”

She lifted her head to look at me, “You don’t like it? I know you like it!”

“What are you saying?”

“You can’t forget her I know you can’t forget her!” Jiang Jiao grabbed at her hair, crying and screaet about h!”

“Okay,” I said

She looked atwhat she had said But I just kept looking at her, sticking to what I decided

She looked at me hatefully, then pushed me away and ran forward In front ofat her, she didn’t see, and I ran to her quickly, pulling her out of the way

The motorbike came to a halt It was only a millimeter away from us

“You’re crazy!” The man on the motorbike was about 40 years old or so After he scolded us, he drove off

Class Jiao’s wild and curly hair brushed my cheek It was very itchy I wanted to push her away, but she was holding onto htly

She sobbed,” cockroach, don’t stop liking me Please, don’t leave me”

“We’re through You said it, not me”

“I rong, I rong,” she acknowledged her mistake, faster than the blink of an eye

“Okay,” I pushed her away lightly “I’o ho else, we’ll talk tomorrow, okay?”

“Send me home, okay?” she said “The road ahead is really dark You know, I’ll get scared”

I was really tired And I was so hungry I was seeing stars But there was no way out of it, I could only walk her back hoo After a few steps, she moved my hand to her waist After we turned the corner to an alley, I clearly felt her shudder

“Next week, we’ll leave this place” In a tre voice, “I really hate it here After we leave, let’s never come back How about it, cockroach?”

I forgot to ot into the sa, the sahai to study, but because I liked Beijing, she ended up choosing the Beijing university

“Okay,” I said

“I won’t cause trouble in the future,” she said “I’ll be good”

This kind of promise, I’d heard it a thousand times before

After we left the alley, my hand involuntarily pulled her a bit closer This street looked coht It seeh here together On the side of the road, there was a broken, old house I’ll never forget that winter night I rushed over, and Jiang Jiao had been tied up by Blackie and his guys Blackie held a shi+ning knife to irl in front of you, or you take this knife and take care of it yourself!”

That was the day Bala was buried Floating in the sky were the last snowflakes of spring

I said to Blackie, “Let Jiang Jiao go This has nothing to do with her!”

“I’ll be the one to decided whether it has to do with her,” he said “Slap yourself ten tio How about it?”

I said, “Ten? That many?”

“Quit your fucking crap!” He stepped forward and kicked my shi+n, and I painfully fell to my knees

Blackie pointed the knife to irl, definitely could fool one But top student, did you ever think about the consequences of fooling someone?”

At that moment, the sound of police sirens neared

Blackie put his knife away, “What did you do?”

I stood up with great effort, and said coldly, “I called the cops”

“Don’t forget, your phone is in my hands!” Blackie called “If I’m unhappy, this will end up in Bala’s cousin’s hands”

“So what?” I said “It won’t explain anything”

Blackie leapt atand useless thing, with an ugly expression I held the knife to Blackie’s neck, forcing the Jiao

“Don’t let her go,” Blackie said, with bloodshot eyes “Big deal if we all just die together!”

“Think about your great future, this isn’t worth it,” I said to his lackeys “Before the cops show up, get away!”

Four or five kids looked around at each other, and in the key moment, they chose the, even went to untie Jiang Jiao After she was released, she sat in the corner, unable to get up

I let go of Blackie, “You should get out of here too”

He looked at me in disbelief

“If you don’t go, it’ll be too late!”

“This account isn’t settled One day, I’ll be back to take care of it!” Blackie spit out the words before running off

I went over to help Jiang Jiao up With a pale face, she asked, “Did you really call the cops?”

“Would it have helped?” I said

Still, I really had to thank the police car that passed by

That tihtened I had to stay with her for three days and nights before she was brave enough to step through the school doors

Of course, it was very peaceful here now Class Nothing happened to Blackie He just left, and I heard that he would never be returning

Never coood too

In a short half year, a lot of things coht The s that disappeared would never be seen again, would never return, but had left behind a thin, pointed needle It kept piercing into your heart, unable to be pulled out When it wanted you to hurt, you hurt

“We’re back atto ht a cake If you don’t come to celebrate, how can that be?”

She was always like this, playing its, one step at a tih I wasn’t happy about it, I surrendered tostomach

“Okay,” I said

Jiang Jiao lifted her face to look ay me, “cockroach, you’re done for”

“What?”

“You’ve already said, ‘Okay’ three times today It see else”

“Oh (affirmative),” I said

“Come on, it’s my birthday Can you be less absent minded?”

“Oh, okay,” I said

It was the weekend I was standing at the phone stall in thephones

School would be starting soon, so a lot of people were there to buy a phone I stood for so long, my feet eak And I had to talk so one dry At 6 o’clock, it could be said business wasn’t bad I sold eight phones

The uy really kno to get things done Look, all your customers are female”