Just a few minutes lаtеr, Zhang Xiаoqiang аrrivеd, lооking аrоund as she wаlked.
Seeing her, Jiang Du felt еvеn morе embаrrаssеd. Тhe kеу issuе wаs thаt she wаs still holding a boу's сlothеs in her arms, which didn't smеll partiсularly рlеаsаnt. Аs Zhаng Хiaoqiаng аpрrоаchеd, Jiang Du аutоmaticаllу toоk a few steрs back to сrеаte sоme distancе.
Sоmеtimes, whеn оthеrs wеrе оverlу еnthusiastiс, Jiang Du fеlt espеciаllу рassivе whеn dеаling with girls like Zhang Xiаoqiang. She didn't want to еxplain hеr awkward situаtion, but shе hаd to оffer at least a little explanation.
After going to the infirmary, buying sanitary pads, and being escorted back to the dormitory, Jiang Du had said "thank you" many times throughout the process. Zhang Xiaoqiang very naturally reached out and stroked Jiang Du's smooth, long hair, smiling brightly:
"We're classmates, why are you always so polite?"
Her gesture was just like talking to a younger sister.
Normally, Jiang Du didn't like others sitting on her bed, and she would never casually sit on someone else's bed either. She understood the principle of "do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire."
But Zhang Xiaoqiang had been running around under the glaring sun, and her face was even more flushed from the heat. When Jiang Du invited her to sit, she discreetly removed a yellow old towel from the edge of the bed.
That day when she had laid it out, she had somewhat guiltily deliberately said to Wang Jingjing, "Washing sheets is such a hassle. Putting something on top means I don't have to wash them so often." Nearby, her roommates were each tidying up their own things, and honestly, no one was paying attention to what Jiang Du was saying.
But Wang Jingjing had zero tacit understanding with her and just blurted out thoughtlessly, "Are you afraid someone will sit on your bed?""
Jiang Du felt like dying. Blushing, she denied it even more guiltily.
However, by sheer coincidence, someone actually half-jokingly took the opportunity to say that they also didn't like others sitting on their bed, praising Jiang Du's method as a good one worth borrowing.
Jiang Du envied how easily others could express their true thoughts without any awkwardness, and how naturally they could seize the moment without leaving a trace. This was something Jiang Du would never learn.
At this moment, she was afraid Zhang Xiaoqiang might overthink things, especially since the other girl had just been so enthusiastic in helping her.
Zhang Xiaoqiang seemed to have completely missed the scene. She sat down naturally and found a topic: "Hey, Jiang Du, I saw you almost got a perfect score in Chinese for the high school entrance exam. You've always been great at Chinese, right? Would you be interested in doing a small research project with me?"
Jiang Du's junior high school was average in the city. Every year, about seventy or eighty students were sent to Mei Zhong through both regular admissions and designated student quotas. Designated students were allocated spots for each junior high school, with scores about twenty or thirty points lower than regular admissions. Jiang Du had a slight academic imbalance, and both she and Wang Jingjing got in as designated students, which was considered lucky. Therefore, in Mei Zhong, which was filled with top students, she had little competitiveness.
Excelling in just one subject, Chinese, didn't mean much.
Zhang Xiaoqiang, however, had tested into Mei Zhong from the best junior high school in the city. Her Chinese score was actually only two points lower than Jiang Du's.
After chatting for a while, Zhang Xiaoqiang showed very agile thinking, speaking quickly. But Jiang Du was well aware of the gap between herself and the top students from elite junior highs. Zhang Xiaoqiang's Chinese grades were also excellent, and she was strong in all subjects—completely different from Jiang Du, whose good grades came only from being skilled at and enjoying learning Chinese.
"Oh, look at me, I've just been chatting with you. I'd better go before the instructor thinks I'm slacking off. I'll head out now, and we'll continue later." Zhang Xiaoqiang suddenly lightly patted her forehead and smiled at Jiang Du.Soon, the dormitory was left with only Jiang Du. She dozed off leaning against her quilt, then suddenly jolted awake and hurriedly soaked the dirty jacket in some warm water before secretly pushing it under the bed.
Less than half a minute later, Jiang Du crawled out again and pulled the basin back out.
The girl forced herself through the discomfort and went to the washroom to do laundry. The jacket was heavy when soaked, and having only ever washed undergarments and socks in her life, she couldn’t straighten her back after just a few scrubs.
Not only that, Jiang Du strictly followed Wang Jingjing’s advice for her period, adding a bit of warm water with each rinse. In the end, after half an hour, the girl’s face was pale, covered in a thin layer of cold sweat.
Finally, Jiang Du hung the jacket like a thief on a honeysuckle bush in the small garden near the dormitory building.
In the afternoon, Jiang Du didn’t return to the sports field. Instead, she waited until four o’clock, wearing a short-sleeved shirt and military training pants, pretending to be collecting her own top while trying to stay calm. She took the jacket, stuffed it into a plastic bag, and placed it back under the honeysuckle bush.
Fortunately, there weren’t many people on campus. The second and third-year students were in class, while the first-years were on the sports field. Jiang Du let out a long sigh of relief.
But returning the jacket to Wei Qingyue was a challenge.
Jiang Du absolutely did not want to become the subject of gossip. She knew that if she handed the jacket to Wei Qingyue in public, people would definitely start rumors. She had learned this in middle school—students loved to tease and spread so-called rumors about who liked whom or who was secretly dating.
She didn’t let Wang Jingjing know about this because Wang Jingjing was a walking megaphone.
Although there were no formal classes during military training, there were evening self-study sessions.
Many students had already started studying high school material during the summer, and Jiang Du was no exception. She discovered a serious problem: high school math seemed to have suddenly become incredibly difficult, completely different from middle school, as if from another world.
Mei Zhong was indeed Mei Zhong. They had only indulged the freshmen on the day of registration. Once military training began, everyone displayed the self-discipline expected of a top-tier high school. During evening self-study, even without a teacher present, the classroom remained quiet.
The evening breeze drifted gently through the window. From time to time, Jiang Du looked up from the bewilderingly difficult math problems. Sitting by the window, she could see the deep blue sky and the dark shadows of trees through the open windows of the corridor outside.
Beside her, Wang Jingjing was secretly snacking while flipping through a teen magazine with greasy fingers. She wasn’t worried at all, determined to start studying seriously after military training ended.
A figure passed by outside the window, and Jiang Du froze for a moment.
She recognized Wei Qingyue at a glance.
Jiang Du quickly pulled a sanitary pad from her desk drawer and asked Wang Jingjing to move aside. Her deskmate, understanding immediately, leaned forward and pressed close to the desk, allowing Jiang Du to slip out by brushing against her back.
She had intended to call out but was afraid someone might suddenly emerge from Class Three or Four. Jiang Du hurried to catch up. Wei Qingyue’s back was tall, his legs long, and he walked quickly. If Jiang Du wasn’t mistaken, he was likely heading toward the restroom.
"Hey!" she called out to him as she stepped out of the teaching building, feeling both awkward and inexplicably happy after doing so.
Wei Qingyue didn’t turn around at all, as if he were deaf.
"Wei Qingyue," Jiang Du had no choice but to call his name, her voice soft, as if afraid of disturbing others.
The boy stopped and turned around.
He stood outside the brightly lit teaching building, where the light was dimmer, as if some dazzling little mechanism had been set in motion.Jiang Du hugged a book to her chest, feeling so shy that she needed something in her hands to lean on. Even so, the pages seemed to cling to the rapid, frantic beats of her heart.
Wei Qingyue was far more composed and indifferent than she was. From start to finish, he showed no trace of embarrassment or awkwardness over having been seen by her at his most vulnerable moment.
"Here." Jiang Du felt as if her breath had stilled as she approached him, handing over the prepared note.
Her mind screamed, Take it quickly, take it quickly, don’t let anyone see.
Wei Qingyue first frowned, then gave a knowing smile. He didn’t move at all, instead pushing it back with the back of his hand. "You’re supposed to return my cleaned clothes, not a confession note."
Jiang Du froze, staring at him stiffly, her mind roaring. "No, I’m not confessing to you."
Wei Qingyue glanced at her, uttered an "Oh," without a blush or a racing heart. He didn’t think he was being narcissistic, nor did he feel the slightest bit embarrassed by his misunderstanding.
That "Oh" carried a habitual absentmindedness and an infinite indifference toward others.
All her emotions eventually tightened into her arms as she hugged the book even closer. Blushing furiously, Jiang Du hurried off first toward the restroom.
On the note, the handwriting was elegant, accompanied by a poorly drawn but overly detailed route map.
Wei Qingyue suddenly laughed, a faint mockery in his smile. After a cursory glance, he took two steps forward, bent down, and picked up something that had fallen from the girl’s book.
A pink-wrapped sanitary pad.
He observed it for a few seconds, and only when he realized what it was did an indescribable expression appear on the boy’s face.
Wei Qingyue casually placed it on the corridor windowsill. If the girl wasn’t foolish, she would surely come back for it.
He went to the girls’ dormitory building and, nearby, accurately retrieved a bag from beneath a honeysuckle bush. The clothes inside were neatly folded, and the moment he opened it, the strong scent of laundry detergent wafted out.
Only after returning to his dorm did Wei Qingyue notice the distinct, almost touching traces of laundry detergent on the clothes—unrinsed properly, leaving streaks of white that looked like dried sweat stains.
He laughed again.
Grabbing a basin, he went to the washroom and rinsed the clothes several times with a splashing sound.
Military training lasted only a week—not long, but this autumn was proving troublesome. Starting with someone unknown, pink eye had spread rapidly. By the fourth day of training, twenty students in the class had already caught it.
Xu emphasized precautions to everyone. What they had most hoped for—canceling the training—never materialized, so they had no choice but to help each other apply eye drops, even prying open each other’s eyelids.
Jiang Du hadn’t caught it, nor had Wang Jingjing, but the girl sitting in front of them had, which made them uneasy.
"Class representative," Chen Huiming turned around with a grin, addressing Jiang Du not by name but by her title. As she picked up Jiang Du’s pencil case, she rubbed her own eyes and then smeared it onto the case. "Your immunity is strange. You can’t do military training, but you don’t get pink eye. We all thought you’d definitely catch it since you’re so frail! I’m going to infect you so we’re all in the same boat."
Chen Huiming spoke half-seriously, half-jokingly, laughing all the while as if it were just a prank. Jiang Du felt anxious but was too embarrassed to say anything. She could only force a stiff, dry smile, watching helplessly as Chen Huiming deliberately touched every part of her pencil case.After she finished feeling around and turned away satisfied, Jiang Du opened her mouth but ultimately said nothing. Why was the new classmate like this? She only felt secretly disappointed for a while.
Outside the window, the early autumn evening breeze flowed, as if sighing with an open mouth.
Finally, thanks to Chen Huiming’s efforts, Jiang Du developed an eye infection. There was a lot of discharge, and she always felt like tearing up. Wang Jingjing pressed her onto the bed to administer eye drops, unafraid of being infected, doing it three times a day.
Moreover, she turned around and scolded Chen Huiming. Wang Jingjing was serious, saying Chen Huiming was short but full of tricks. Chen Huiming cried.
“What are you crying for? You got pink eye and thought about infecting others—how rotten is that!” Wang Jingjing rolled her eyes.
Jiang Du carefully tugged at Wang Jingjing’s sleeve, telling her to stop arguing. Wang Jingjing looked disdainful and said, “Chen Huiming, if you dare cause trouble again, believe me, I’ll throw your mattress over to the boys’ dorm across the way!”
The onlookers burst into laughter again, and the boys egged her on: “Wang Jingjing, mean what you say! You have to throw it, or you’re not Chinese.”
Only Zhang Xiaoqiang was earnestly mediating.
The class was chaotic and noisy, the sound so loud it disturbed the neighboring Class One. Their temporary acting class monitor came over and knocked on the window from the back door, saying, “Hey, keep it down. Some people are trying to study.”
Although they were parallel classes, everyone tacitly acknowledged that Class One had the best grades. Reminded like this, the boys in the back felt somewhat indignant: “It’s not class time yet—can’t we even talk?”
The monitor then showed an expression that said, “So this is the quality of Class Two,” shrugged, and left.
At fifteen or sixteen, they were at their most rebellious age. Being so blatantly looked down upon by Class One stirred their defiance. Since they were still in military training and hadn’t started new lessons, the boys began deliberately banging on their desks and loudly singing military training songs.
Soon, a familiar face appeared at the back window.
“Your class is really noisy. Please keep it down.” Wei Qingyue happened to be standing at the window where Jiang Du was, speaking coolly. His slightly impatient demeanor, visible to everyone, carried an inexplicable sense of pressure.
The classroom instantly fell silent.
Hearing his voice, a dense, indescribable emotion suddenly surged in Jiang Du’s heart. Her heartbeat spiraled out of control again.
A warm liquid suddenly welled up in her nose and slowly trickled down. Jiang Du was prone to nosebleeds every autumn due to the dry weather.
Familiar with this feeling, she could only tilt her head back and fumble blindly for tissues in her desk drawer.
What Wei Qingyue saw was a girl’s pale face dotted with a streak of red. Adolescence was so unpredictable, so bizarre. His mind immediately recalled that pink, personal item belonging to girls.
Jiang Du sensed a gaze resting on her face—it was Wei Qingyue. Suddenly, her mind buzzed, and she only wanted to escape the moment. Grabbing a pack of tissues, she almost instinctively rushed out of the classroom.
The corridor was clean, without even a scrap of paper. Each drop of blood fell, blooming into a small red flower. Wei Qingyue watched as Jiang Du ran past him.
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