3、
Friday afternoon, Anning and the others were coming back from the lab building when they saw a blood donation bus parked outside the school gymnasium, surrounded by crowds of people.
Qiangwei: “Back in the day, I went to donate blood once, and they kicked me off. Sigh, there were too many Type B donors that day, so they said they didn’t want Type B… What’s wrong with Type B?! You’re Type B! Your whole family is Type B!!”
Anning: “Actually, if both parents are Type B, there’s a seventy-five percent chance their child will also be Type B, so the probability of the whole family being Type B is pretty high.”
Qiangwei finally exploded. Mao Mao and Shen Chaoyang lowered their heads and laughed.
In the end, Mao Mao and Anning went to donate blood while Chaoyang comforted Qiangwei.
As it turned out, Mao Mao’s Type B blood was selected, while Anning’s Type O blood was rejected because she weighed less than ninety jin.
The exact words were: “Miss, your weight doesn’t meet the standard. Donating blood under the required weight can easily cause problems. Look, if you donate blood, afterward we might even have to give you a transfusion—”
Anning: “……”
When Anning signed Mao Xiaoxu’s name in the blood donor registry, she noticed a familiar-looking name in the box above it: Xu Moting. The handwriting was beautiful. Anning thought he must have practiced calligraphy before.
Out of boredom, she started tracing the name on a piece of scrap paper beside her, somewhere between cursive and semi-cursive script. Then she saw Mao Mao’s painful expression. Actually, at first it had been Anning who wanted to donate blood, with Mao Mao accompanying her… Anning turned to look outside the bus door.
At that moment someone came up. Anning let out an “Eh”—third rib ah… He nodded slightly to the two nurses drawing blood. Seeing her sitting there, he seemed startled for a moment, then walked over and lightly swept his gaze across the tabletop before locating the gray cellphone half-covered by papers. As he walked away, he glanced at the copied name she’d written, vaguely thoughtful and slightly suspicious.
At the time Anning thought: Could it be that the messy draft I copied was his?
That night Anning chatted with her cousin as usual.
Anning: Today when I went along to accompany someone donating blood, I saw a handsome guy. Mm… actually it’s the third time I’ve seen him.
Cousin: Oh. Speaking of which, I actually ate lunch today. I’d decided not to.
Anning: You normally don’t eat?
Cousin: What do you mean normally don’t eat?! Today was the first day I decided not to, and I still ended up eating…
Anning: ……
Another peaceful day passed.
That weekend Anning didn’t go home. As usual she went to the library to kill time, mainly because there was air conditioning there.
This time, the moment she entered, sterned-faced teacher called out “Hey” at her. “Student, come over here!”
Anning looked around. Nobody else. Helplessly she walked over. “Teacher, do you need something?”
The other party pulled out a book from the shelf behind him and tossed it onto the counter. “Don’t leave personal belongings in the library in the future. It increases our workload.”
“……This isn’t mine.” Although she read all sorts of books, Introduction to Contemporary Chinese Diplomacy was probably not something she’d read before.
“Your name is Li Anning, right? I remembered correctly?”
“Y-Yes……” No way? He’d already remembered her name?
“Then it’s yours. When you returned books the other day, this one was mixed in with them. Alright, hurry up and take it away.”
The sterned-faced teacher ignored her after that and bent over the computer busily. Through the glass behind him, Anning saw that sterned-faced teacher was… stealing vegetables. Mm, truly very busy.
In the end, Anning took Introduction to Contemporary Chinese Diplomacy and quietly settled into a seat to gnaw through it.
Halfway through, two girls sat down across from her. About ten minutes later, they started chatting.
Girl A: “Didn’t my apartment building catch fire this summer? When I ran out, my boyfriend was already outside. So I asked him why he didn’t wait for me. My boyfriend said, ‘Of course I had to run out first. If I didn’t run out, how could I save you?’ I instantly suffocated.”
Girl B: “That’s why you broke up with him?”
“Well actually…” Girl A laughed. “I’d wanted to dump him ages ago. You know I’ve always admired Senior Jiang.”
Girl B: “Senior Jiang ah… I remember that Fu Qiangwei from the Physics Department often comes to our Literature Department looking for him, right? Really wonder what she’s planning.”
Girl A: “Sima Zhao’s intentions, obviously.”
Anning: “Actually… Qiangwei’s surname used to be Sima.”
“……”
One minute later, the two girls across from her fled the scene…
Anning returned to her book. At noon, on her way back to the dorm, she habitually asked her two homebody roommates if they wanted lunch brought back. Both replied that they were dieting. But just before reaching Gourmet House, she spotted Qiangwei, who was pulling someone aside to talk… Anning then remembered this was the famous senior who had walked by during the scooter-versus-sedan incident.
“Miao!”
Her dream of quietly slipping through another entrance was shattered by that loud “Miao!” She could only walk over.
Qiangwei: “Come come, let me introduce you two. This is my college roommate, Li Anning.”
This time he finally smiled openly at Anning. “So it’s you?”
Anning: “……No.”
Qiangwei: “Anning, this is a senior from my alma mater, and of course also my current senior! You’ve definitely heard of him. He’s from the Chinese Folklore Department. He’s the one who handles our school journals and newspapers.”
Anning saw both of them looking at her. She probably ought to say something, so: “Senior, what… what’s your name?”
Later Jiang Xu recalled: Li Anning absolutely had the ability to gently and softly annoy people to death!
That day Anning accompanied Qiangwei and the famous senior to dinner. It really was just dinner. Anning silently ate the entire time because she was hungry. In the middle she received a text from her cousin: “The golden age for dieting should be before twenty-five. I also think dieting before twenty-five is easy.” Complete nonsense!
Anning sighed. Dieting really was the mainstream of the world.