It was the end of December when Meng Shengnan received the New Concept Writing Competition semi-finals notice.
At that time, it was approaching the end of the term, and the studying atmosphere in the class was very strong. There wasn’t even any time to rest after class and chat with classmates. The tables were filled with mock exams and textbooks, every person had their heads down studying the cosine function and parabola. Even the anticipation of the upcoming New Year’s Day was not at the forefront. The main point was that Old Wet had told them the seating would be arranged according to their finals results and their parents would be informed, it wasn’t a simple bluff like last time.
Meng Shengnan was immersed in English.
“My God, your correct rate is too high.” She didn’t know when Xue Lin had come over.
Nie Jing also took a closer look: “Why did you choose B? I just did it yesterday, I think it’s A.”
Meng Shengnan said: “I haven’t checked the answers yet.”
“I just checked the answers, it’s B, did you look at it wrong?” Xue Lin looked at Nie Jing.
Nie Jing frowned, “Really? Let me check.”
The self-study class was peaceful. Meng Shengnan wanted to take a break after finishing her English questions when the 170 centimetre male class head suddenly stood up and walked to the podium, knocking on the blackboard.
“It’s New Year’s Day[1] the day after tomorrow, the head teacher asked us to do something for fun.”
This phrase suddenly set off a rolling wave of excitement in the classroom, and the students who had been bored out of their minds from studying could finally find an excuse to slack off, the people in the back row started to jeer.
“Li Yan can dance!”
“The class head should sing a song.”
“That’s right, all the honors yesterday–”
Meng Shengnan couldn’t help going blank when she heard Li Yan’s name. She quietly swept her eyes over with her peripheral vision and then silently retracted her gaze, continuing to look down and flipping the pages to her book. After that, the class leader passed over the arrangements for the New Year’s Day party to several of the class committee members, and she and the Chinese class representative were responsible for buying decorations for the classroom.
The two normally only greeted each other in class.
However, she didn’t know that the next day, the Chinese class representative had something on last minute so she left everything to her. Meng Shengnan was dumbfounded. At the time, it was noon when school was over, and she had informed her parents the day before about this matter. Thus, she was wandering on the long street outside the school alone in that afternoon.
It was cold outside, and Meng Shengnan casually entered a second-hand shop.
There were many things that filled her eyes when she went inside. She wandered around a few times, bought a small box of snow sprays, and also a bunch of balloons, posters, and ribbons. After walking around for a while, she stopped at the school supplies.
Qi Qiao knew that Meng Shengnan had a very special hobby.
This girl liked to collect books and only used white paper for everything she wrote and drew, her school bag filled with more than twenty pencils. There were also seven big white rabbit lollies, which would be put into her mouth when she was racking her brains to write. So, when she saw the simple and elegant black pencils on the counter, she couldn’t walk away. Read the latest chapters at novelping(.)com.
“Boss, how is this sold?”
The fifty-year-old woman looked over and said, “That’s sold in the whole box, it’s a new good, ten pencils for seven dollars fifty.”
Meng Shengnan calculated the money left in her pocket, and then took all her items over to pay the bill.
The boss said: “A total of 107 dollars.”
Meng Shengnan took out all her money and put it on the table, and the boss counted them one by one.
“Not enough, young girl, you’re two to three dollars short.”
Meng Shengnan was startled, going “Huh?”, the class fees had all been spent, and so she fumbled around for change. Her backpack was turned over and over, there wasn’t even a cent left. She stood in front of the cash register with her eyebrows furrowed, wondering whether to put down the box of pencils. The boss looked at her kindly, Meng Shengnan sighed, and was about to reach out for the pencils when a voice came from behind.
“I’ll take a box of Yellow Crane Tower[2].”
She was almost directly frozen in place.
At that time, her back was numb, even her head was buzzing, her eyes staring blankly straight ahead without turning her head. The distance was so close, once again it was the same sort of encounter. The voice was so familiar, the scent from his body was also so familiar that she didn’t react in time, almost so nervous that her heart stopped beating. The boss passed the cigarette behind her, and the boy directly gave a twenty dollar bill.
She bit her lip and slowly lowered her head to pretend to look for change, her fingers trembling.
“The rest is hers.” In the next second, a casual voice echoed over.
She was taken aback.
She didn’t dare to move her body at all, the action of her looking in her bag had long stopped, as if she was afraid of him hearing even her breath. The wind chimes hanging on the door curtain of the second-hand shop jingled suddenly, and there was no longer any movement behind her.
She turned her head slowly.
The boy was long gone from the shop, unable to be seen, this was when Meng Shengnan finally came to her senses. The wind gradually blew heavier, and later she walked to school with the box of things in a daze. The cold wind that blew over could not dissipate her blushed cheeks. As she walked, she began giggling and then regretted her slow-wits just then that caused her to lose a good opportunity to talk to him. Fortunately, Qi Qiao was not around at that time, otherwise she would have definitely called her stupid if she saw her like this.
Two boys were hovering to the side of the street behind her.
“Have you bought the gift?” Shi Jin asked.
“No.”
The boy took a cigarette from the box and stuck it in his mouth.
“I’m saying this as a brother, but you don’t seem to care enough about Li Yan.”
“And you care?”
“Sh*t.”
The boy smoked the cigarette, “She is too annoying.”
“It’s easy for you to stand there and criticise, look over, there are quite a few beauties in the Ninth High School, no matter what Li Yan is one of the best, are you still not satisfied?”
The boy raised his eyes: “You are lonely.”
Shi Jin went, ‘Tut tut.’
“Can you not reveal your brother’s pains?”
The boy sneered: “Looking at you, no wonder.”
“F*ck.”
The two boys talked more obscenely, one after the other.
During that time, Meng Shengnan had already returned to the classroom. It was quite tiring to carry the large box back. She panted and laid on the table, ten minutes had already passed since she last saw him. Meng Shengnan still couldn’t help but laugh and then frown after a few seconds. In the afternoon, she was full of energy and her mood was exceptionally good.
Fu Song asked her with a smile, “What happened for you to be so happy?”
Meng Shengnan smiled and said nothing.
The good mood that day continued until she went to bed at night, and she was so happy that she couldn’t sleep all night. Her whole body tossed and turned, repeating the soft music over and over again in the repeater by her ear, giggling even in her dreams until the sun rose.
Waking up, and then going back to sleep.
[Translator’s note: Naw our FL is so cute, getting happy over a small interaction. Meanwhile….do boys always talk so obscenely??? Tsk tsk, this is why us girls need to stay away from bad boys!]
[1] note this is the Western New Year’s Day, not the Lunar New Year
[2] cigarette brand