4、
The next day Anning gnawed on breakfast while heading to her public elective class. She always entered exactly when the bell rang. Qiangwei waved at her from her seat. Watching Anning slowly stroll over, she couldn’t help saying to Shen Chaoyang beside her, “Do you think Miao came to attend class or stroll through the streets? Old Zhang’s already glaring at her.”
Shen Chaoyang: “Have you ever seen her get anxious over anything? What am I supposed to do about my lab report? It’s due now!”
Qiangwei laughed. “Brother, sooner dead, sooner reincarnated.”
Shen Chaoyang: “……You’ll be buried with me?”
Qiangwei: “I’ll burn paper money for you.”
“If you’ve got the guts, burn me real money!”
Shen Chaoyang moved her bag aside to let Anning sit down. “Where’s A-Mao?”
Anning: “She twisted her waist.”
Qiangwei was shocked. “Mao Mao’s waist… it’s already that thick. How could she still twist it?”
At this moment Student C beside them leaned over and said to Anning, “Miao ah, what a pity. If you’d come five minutes earlier, you could’ve seen a handsome guy.”
Chaoyang clicked her tongue. “He wasn’t that amazing, right? Just had a slightly better figure.”
Person D in the back row: “Certain Yang, you absolutely have sour grapes syndrome.”
C: “I think he came to negotiate something with Old Zhang? Could he be planning to attend our class?”
D: “When I went up to hand in my report earlier, I deliberately lingered for a bit. He seemed to be getting the class roster from the teacher or something.”
Anning casually said while opening her backpack, “Probably someone from the student union?”
Everyone froze. Thinking back on the scene, it really did seem likely.
Qiangwei smiled maliciously. “Could it be the student union is finally making a huge blacklist?”
C, D, Chaoyang: “Then you’d definitely be first on it!”
After Old Zhang finished teaching Quantum Statistics that day, Anning originally planned to audit a medical course over at the Bioengineering Department. But after class she discovered it was raining outside. Out of the three of them, only Shen Chaoyang had brought an umbrella. A tiny Western-style umbrella with lace edges and several hollow embroidered flower patterns in the middle.
Qiangwei: “What exactly is this umbrella supposed to do? Even if you use it for sun protection, sunlight still leaks through it!”
Chaoyang: “I just thought it looked pretty.”
Qiangwei: “Fine. Go on, take a spin in the rain and let big sister see just how pretty it is. Miao’s— you—”
Anning: “Mm… Weiwei ah, please don’t use ‘Miao’s’ as a substitute for curse words, thank you.”
Qiangwei exploded again.
In the end they called the person with the twisted waist to bring them an umbrella.
Mao Mao: “But I twisted my waist ah.”
Qiangwei: “Then twist your waist all the way over here!!” At the end she added, “And stop talking nonsense unless you never want me to sign attendance for you again.”
When Mao Mao came running over, Chaoyang laughed and patted her shoulder. “You’ve worked hard, brother.”
Anning comforted her: “As long as your waist is okay…”
Everyone fell silent.
On Wednesday they helped their advisor move house. This was actually a pretty depressing task. If you did well, it was only expected. If you did badly, it became a question of ability. It might even affect your “usual performance grades.” When Anning and Mao Mao entered the office together, two other students were already there.
Their advisor introduced them: “These two are from the Diplomacy Department. From now on they’ll be in your group. Different departments, different research topics, but I hope you’ll all help and improve one another.”
“Definitely definitely! We’ll absolutely help each other, teacher, don’t worry.”
This was the first sentence spoken by the person who last night, after hanging up on the advisor, had cursed eighteen generations of his ancestors for moving their graves and sworn to heaven that if she replied to him one more time she’d take his surname… Anning gazed out at the beautiful transition between late summer and early autumn.
Still, Anning thought the Physics Department and Diplomacy Department had absolutely nothing in common, so how were they supposed to help each other? Later Anning felt she was really stupid. Truly. When she and a fellow from the Diplomacy Department were carrying a table upstairs together, she deeply realized the profound meaning behind the phrase “help and improve one another”…
During a break, Anning sat beside a flowerbed enjoying the cool air. One of the fellow students walked over and sat beside her. “You’re called… Li Anning?”
“Mm.” Anning was slowly drinking water.
“Do you remember me?”
Anning tilted her head to look at her. “You are…” Which meant she didn’t remember.
The other girl didn’t mind and smiled. “Last time at the noodle shop, I overheard the conversation between you and your friends. It left a deep impression on me. I just didn’t know your name was… Li Anning. I haven’t introduced myself yet. Cheng Yu.”
Every time she paused for a second before saying “Li Anning,” Anning felt there was hidden meaning behind it. So Anning replied, “Oh, I’m called Li Anning.”
At that moment her phone buzzed. It was a message from her cousin: “Dòngtǐ,” damn it, it’s pronounced dong! I’ve been pronouncing it tong all this time! Say it out loud yourself. I laughed myself to death on the spot! During class!
Anning pronounced it silently once and bit her lip… mm, it really was a somewhat perverted pronunciation.
Cheng Yu raised an eyebrow slightly. “What’s so funny?”
Anning coughed lightly, thought for a moment, then said, “When God wishes to destroy someone, He first makes them crazy… I think that saying makes a lot of sense.”
Awkward silence.
The male student from the other department nearby had also heard it and laughed. “So the things God says are this interesting? What other things has the old man said?”
Anning: “Mm… the entire Bible was spoken by Him.”
The two Diplomacy students: “……”
Afterward they reflected on themselves. How had they ended up unable to hold a conversation against someone from the Physics Department? The conclusion they reached was: this girl’s train of thought is abnormal.
After the moving incident, Anning rested for an entire day. The following day she went home and had her mother apply medicated plasters to her lower back. She was a local, so commuting was convenient. Taking the bus from the school’s back gate to home took exactly fifty minutes and seventeen seconds. She had calculated the average, median, and mode. This answer was extremely precise.
That night she accompanied her mother in watching television. Seeing an old Western-style mansion, Mrs. Li said, “Ningning, this house is really beautiful.”
Anning: “Mm, yeah… the floors look like they’re coated with tung oil…”
Mrs. Li: “Yes yes.”
Anning: “Tung oil seems to catch fire pretty quickly.”
Mrs. Li: “……”
Mm… Anning admitted she was very good at killing conversations.