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Li Anning was fiddling with domain names in the study, trying to transfer one from Godaddy to name.com, but because Godaddy’s backend was ridiculously messed up, Anning became extremely conflicted. At that moment Mao Mao pinged her on MSN, asking when she was coming back to school, and very quickly sent over the outline for the third week of second-year graduate experiments. Anning was shocked after looking at it. Sure enough, the real job of graduate students was being the advisor’s errand runner. Even helping move houses was included in the outline…
Anning: ^-^ Can’t you hire a moving company?
Mao Mao: If you pay, I approve.
Anning: …
Mao Mao: Oh right, today is 9/11.
Anning: Oh.
Mao Mao: Don’t you think on a day this important, we should call the American president or something to offer our condolences?
Anning: International calls are expensive. Keep it short.
Mao Mao: What are you planning to say?
Anning: Mm… may every year have a day like today…
Li Anning’s second year of graduate school went like this: wake up at seven every morning, YY for half an hour, return to reality, then errands, experiments, SPSS, experiments, errands, PPT…
That day, when Anning went out, she ran into Qiangwei from the neighboring dorm: “A-Miao ah.”
Anning: “Morning.”
The moment Qiangwei heard that, her face twisted. “Why do I have to wake up this early? Why do I have to stay up all night writing reports every day? Why do I not even have a man?! Tell me, why?!”
Anning: “Um… actually, I don’t have a man either…”
Qiangwei: “No, I’m definitely asking for leave today. I’m going to find a man! Miao, think of a way to help me ask the old hag for leave!”
Anning: “How about… personal leave?”
Qiangwei suddenly stared deeply at Li Anning. “How strange. You’ve got looks, figure, brains, dry humor, the whole package. So how come you don’t have a man either?”
Anning shared her indignation. “Exactly! Could it be that men nowadays just have standards that are too low…”
Qiangwei: “…I finally know why now.”
That weekend Anning rode her new vehicle home. She’d bought two bicycles before: one got stolen, the other was snatched by Mao Mao and never returned. This time she went big and bought a scooter, plus two locks. As she rode against the wind, Anning deeply felt that automatic transmission really was more comfortable than pedal-powered.
Then just as she was feeling comfortable, she crashed into a sedan. The situation was like this: turned a corner, crashed.
When Li Anning got up from the ground, her scooter sputtered once and died…
“Little girl, are you alright?”
“My scooter… came back to life…”
The driver uncle probably didn’t understand, so he asked again, “Are you hurt? Should I take you to the hospital to get checked?”
Anning sighed and patted the dust off herself. “I’m fine. Give me your business card. If my scooter really dies…” She turned around and saw a long scrape on the shiny car door. “Mm… forget it. Let’s each bury our own dead.”
Driver uncle: “…”
At that moment someone passed by nearby. He didn’t look at her, but Anning very accurately saw that he smiled.
Only later did Li Anning remember that person was a senior from their department, very famous… though she had no idea why he was famous.
A week after the scooter incident, Anning absentmindedly went into the wrong music elective class, then tragically got called on.
Teacher: “The characteristic of The Moldau lies in its constant repetition of themes and variations… then what does this repetitive rhythm express?”
Anning: “Repetition… repetition… uh… it means… repeating decimals…”
Neither side understood.
The teacher straightened his face. “Then where do you think this melody would be suitable for use? What kind of emotions does it express?”
Anning said quietly, “Suitable as an alarm clock…”
Teacher: “Stay after class.”
For the first time in Li Anning’s life, she got detention.
After all the students left while laughing and glancing at her one last time, Anning was called to the front by the teacher to stand facing the blackboard and reflect.
The Moldau (La Moldau) is selected from Smetana’s symphonic poem My Motherland. Through delicate and gentle strokes, the composer depicted the beautiful scenery along the riverbanks, portrayed the lives and customs of the Czech people, and used uniquely distinctive notes to pour out his deep love for his homeland… love…
Anning’s eyes were starting to blur. Her gaze rolled once and drifted toward the reward-student list written in the upper-right corner of the blackboard.
Qian Linlin, Li Bo, Xu Moting… Xu Moting… Moting… Anning suddenly wanted to laugh a little. Moting… did his parents hope he would never stop moving?
Anning wore an expression of deep concentration and study, finally making the strict teacher reveal a satisfied smile. So he said, “That’s enough for today. You can go now. Be more careful next time.”
Anning: “Oh.” Next time I probably won’t walk into the wrong classroom again.