Chapter 11

For a long while, I couldn’t figure out what to say. Lin Baixin stepped in and answered for me.

It wasn’t anything serious, really. For safety reasons, students who had reported in early all had to answer the same routine questions: whether they were local, whether they’d be going home in the next two days or staying in the dorms, and, if they were staying, whether their rooms needed to be checked. The school was still allowing free movement for now and hadn’t imposed any restrictions, but the dorms had a curfew. Everyone had to be back in their rooms by 9:30 p.m., or they’d be recorded and lose points.

“She’s staying in the dorm,” Lin Baixin said. “She has to go out during the day, and I’ll bring her back at night.”

Teacher Qi made a note. Most local students wouldn’t have reported this early, but there were always exceptions. She naturally assumed Yu Min’s parents were too busy to look after her, so she gave a few reminders. Once school officially started, there would be a week of military training. If a parent wanted to come to school and see their child then, they’d need approval from the homeroom teacher first, or they wouldn’t be allowed in.

“Have you gotten your meal card and water card?”

“Not yet. We’ll go do it later.”

“You can’t use cash at school anymore. It’s not like your old school; whether it’s the cafeteria or the little shop, you have to recharge a card to spend money. Get it all done today. In a couple of days, when there are more people, you’ll have to line up.”

“Okay. Thank you, Teacher Qi.”

Lin Baixin also handled Yu Min’s card application and top-up. The cards could only be recharged with cash. Since this was Yu Min’s first time living on campus and she didn’t have much experience, she hadn’t brought much money with her. Lin Baixin had prepared in advance and, without a word, opened her bag and handed the cash to the staff.

Eight thousand into the meal card; a few hundred into the water card.

At No. 1 Middle School, even the most expensive meal in the cafeteria was only fifteen yuan a serving, and the usual ones were six or eight. Eight thousand yuan would be enough for Yu Min to eat for a whole semester and still have money left over.

While the cards were being recharged, Lin Baixin sent Yu Min off to buy water, so Yu Min didn’t know how much money had been put in. If she had known, she would have stopped her. She only had less than a thousand yuan on her, and for a student, that amount was perfectly reasonable. Lin Baixin deliberately sent her away and kept her in the dark from start to finish. Even after Yu Min got the card back, she still didn’t realize there was that much money inside.

After all, the school’s meal card and water card weren’t bank cards; they didn’t send text alerts when money was added.

Lin Baixin’s flight was at night, so Yu Min couldn’t see her off. Aunt and the others wouldn’t allow it; if she went along, she’d only get in the way. There wasn’t an airport in Siping County itself; they had to drive to Jincheng to catch a flight. Uncle Xiao would drop Lin Baixin off and then head straight back to the school where he taught. He wasn’t going back to Siping County tonight; he’d return next week.

Still, Lin Baixin did what she said she would. Even though she’d only given Teacher Qi an offhand answer earlier, she still brought Yu Min back to No. 1 Middle School later that evening and saw her all the way to the dormitory building.

Yu Min wasn’t good with words. Faced with the impending goodbye, she wanted to say something, but when she opened her mouth, no sound came out, as if some invisible restraint had tightened around her throat and blocked every word.

Lin Baixin spoke first. “I’m going.”

Yu Min was like a block of wood; no matter how hard she tried, she still couldn’t react in time. By the time Lin Baixin had already walked off, she finally came to her senses and hurried after her.

Unfortunately, Lin Baixin had already driven away. She couldn’t catch up.

Feeling utterly deflated, Yu Min stood at the school gate for more than ten minutes. Her lips pressed together, she only came back to herself when a classmate she knew passed by and called her name.

By the time Yu Min returned to the dorm, the other three roommates had all arrived. The whole dorm had moved in early without any discussion. One of the three was the same girl who had greeted her at the school gate; she had been Yu Min’s middle school classmate.

Meeting by chance was fate; sharing a dorm room was fate piled on top of fate. The girl excitedly grabbed her and rattled off introductions to the other two new classmates like beans pouring from a sack: “Ye Qian, Liu Wenwen, this is the top student from my old class, my idol, Yu Min. I can’t believe it’s such a coincidence. The dorm assignment must have been random, right? On the way here today I even told my mom I wondered if I’d run into someone from my old class. And then, boom, I got lucky and ran into you, Minmin.”

The other two roommates were both outgoing, even more enthusiastic than the classmate Yu Min already knew. She wasn’t used to how familiar they were, so she awkwardly nodded and answered a few casual questions. She was a slow starter; in front of strangers, she was practically mute, a solid gourd with its mouth sewn shut. She really didn’t know how to handle this kind of socializing.

Living in a communal dorm required an adjustment period. At the very least, Yu Min needed a long time to get used to it. She had been a day student all her life, and living in a dorm meant there was almost no privacy. School rules forbade hanging up bed curtains; even mosquito nets weren’t allowed. The single bed was less than a meter wide, and if you rolled over while lying down, you could bump into the iron frame. The mattress was hard too... Yu Min was getting ready to shower, but the dorm bathroom was too bare-bones, with not even a rack for clothes. There was only a pitifully small hook; if you wanted to shower, you had to hang up a bag and put your clothes inside it.

But at least it had its own bathroom and shower. The annual dorm fee was only eight hundred yuan. More importantly, Yu Min’s expenses were all waived, which meant she was basically staying for free. It was hard to be picky about a place that didn’t cost money.

The bathroom door was broken and wouldn’t close; maintenance had already been reported, and the dorm aunt said a repairman would come fix everything together in a couple of days.

Yu Min had just taken off her shirt and hadn’t even managed to turn on the water when one of her roommates, not knowing she was inside, carelessly shoved the door open with a loud bang and was about to come in... Yu Min was so startled that she hurriedly turned around, her face going pale. The roommate immediately squeezed her eyes shut and kept apologizing: “Sorry, sorry, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you were in there. I didn’t see anything, I really didn’t see anything.”

She really hadn’t seen anything. She hadn’t even made it inside; after catching a flash of movement in there, she’d hurriedly backed away. The roommate was sincere, and after Yu Min finished washing up and came out, she handed over a can of cola as an apology.

“Did I bump into you just now? It’s all my fault. I thought no one was in there, and I pushed too hard. I heard a thud; did I hit you?”

It was midsummer. Yu Min was bundled up tightly; the weather was hot, and the water had been hot too. Her neck and face were both red. She shook her head and denied it in a voice as soft as a mosquito’s buzz. “You didn’t hit me. I’m fine.”

“I definitely won’t do it again. Sorry. Next time, before I go in, I promise I’ll ask first whether anyone’s inside. I was just trying to shower too; moving dorms was exhausting, and I was sweaty all over. Don’t mind me, okay? Don’t take it personally.”

Since the girl had apologized so earnestly, if Yu Min kept picking at it, she’d only seem petty. The other girl clearly hadn’t meant it. They were both girls anyway; making a fuss over something like this would be stranger.

She accepted the cola. Yu Min wiped her hair. The dorm didn’t allow hair dryers. Apart from the air-conditioning area, there wasn’t even a power outlet anywhere in the room; if you wanted to dry your hair, you had to go queue up by the dorm aunt’s place.

Even at night, a day of thirty-seven or thirty-eight degrees didn’t really cool down. Yu Min was so overheated she felt dizzy. By the time she finished drying her hair and returned to the dorm, the skin from her neck to the area behind her ears was still red.

The dorm lights went out at eleven sharp. They weren’t collecting phones tonight, so Yu Min, not wanting to disturb the others, slipped under the blanket and checked her phone. There was indeed a message on WeChat, but it wasn’t from Lin Baixin. She should be on the plane by now, almost in Kyoto, right?

The message was from Aunt, telling her to study hard and to contact the family if anything came up.

Yu Min hesitated over whether to reply when the roommate across from her suddenly spoke in a low voice. “Yu Min, could you dim your phone a little? It’s too bright; it’s hurting my eyes.”

The blanket couldn’t completely block the glow from the phone, and it was still affecting the others.

Yu Min put her phone away and stopped looking.

On the day school officially started, Teacher Qi personally checked the dorms and collected everyone’s phones. No. 1 Middle School was under closed management; any electronic devices that could connect to the internet were prohibited.

Ordinary MP3 players were an exception. They didn’t connect to the internet, and you could download English listening materials onto them, so anything that helped with studying was allowed.

This year’s freshman grade had thirty-two classes in total: one small elite class, seven fast-track classes, and the rest parallel classes. Different names, but in plain terms, they were divided by grades. Only the top thirty students in the school could enter the small class, Class 32.

Yu Min had naturally been assigned to Class 32, while Zhou Jin ended up in fast-track Class 7.

Zhou Jin could only look at Class 32 from afar and sigh. He probably didn’t have the luck to get into the small class in his life. His mother always compared him to Yu Min and lectured him with her, which was a real headache.

“Back when you weren’t around, she compared me to my sister. Now it’s even worse; we’re in the same grade, and every single day she uses you to put me down. I’m miserable, seriously cursed. Why are you guys so amazing? How are your brains wired? We all have one nose and two eyes, so why is there such a huge gap?” Zhou Jin lamented, looking utterly tormented.

Yu Min didn’t chat about useless things. After listening to him complain, she only asked, “Has your sister gotten there yet?”

“How would I know? She probably has,” Zhou Jin said carelessly. “She’s a big person; she’s not going to get lost. Why? What are you asking about her for?”

Yu Min hedged, “Nothing. Just asking.”

“She’s not your sister; why do you care about her so much? My sister does the same thing, always asking about you. Honestly, am I really the younger brother to both of you? I’m the youngest one here. Why don’t you care about me? Was I picked up from somewhere?” Zhou Jin was overflowing with resentment. After being criticized too many times, he was terribly wronged.

Yu Min didn’t care whether he had been picked up. Compared with his troubles, she would rather put her energy into the important matter of military training.

High school military training wasn’t very intense; it was nothing more than practicing standing at attention and running. It ended at 7:30 in the evening, even earlier than evening self-study.

Yu Min’s new deskmate was another old acquaintance from middle school, also a top student with excellent grades. Her name was Wen Yun. Wen Yun also had an older sister, Zhao Shiyu. The two were from a blended family, but they were a proper pair of sisters.

Coincidentally, Zhao Shiyu was also in Class 7. Unlike ordinary students, Wen Yun had a hearing impairment. She didn’t live on campus; her sister was specially allowed to commute with her and also didn’t stay in the dorms.

Yu Min got along very well with the sisters, especially Wen Yun. Wen Yun was also the type who didn’t like talking much; the two of them sat together as deskmates, and most of the time they got along peacefully.

As for Zhao Shiyu, she was the exact opposite of Wen Yun: noisy, energetic, restless, and always looking for loopholes. Zhao Shiyu even brought a phone to school and generously told Yu Min, “You can borrow this one. Shh, don’t rat me out. Keep it quiet.”

Yu Min didn’t dare use it. After a moment’s hesitation, though, she still agreed.

“Mm. I won’t.”

Zhao Shiyu made an OK gesture, thumped her chest, and gave a melodramatic, heroic guarantee. “From now on, your calls are on me. If you need anything, come find me; I’ll do whatever it takes.”

Yu Min wanted to make a phone call, but after a very long time, she still didn’t.

She didn’t dare call, and she had no standing to call.

“What’s wrong with you?” Wen Yun lifted a hand and waved it in front of her face, treating her as if she were tired from training. “Are you feeling unwell?”

Sitting on the edge of the playground steps, Yu Min raised her head and looked up... It was another clear day. Was it clear over there too?