Chapter 10.2

After the second class in the afternoon of the next day, the whole school was exempt from attending classes. The class began to prepare to decorate the classroom. The girls gathered in a circle, blowing balloons and tying ribbons. A warmth was borne in the whole classroom, everyone was extremely excited and in high spirits.

Meng Shengnan was tying the ribbons.

“I heard the class monitor say that there are four or five performances in the evening.” Nie Jing tied the balloon while saying.

Meng Shengnan glanced at Li Yan subconsciously.

Nie Jing asked: “Eh? What did you make?”

“A cuckoo.”

“It’s so beautiful, teach me.”

Xue Lin also made one too, acting smug, “Look at my roses, don’t they look good?”

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Meng Shengnan shook her head: “I haven’t finished reading any of them.”

“So slow?”

“What about the book you took from me?”

Fu Song smiled: “It’s lying on my bedside.”

“When will you return it to me?”

“I’ll give it back to you when you return the books.”

Meng Shengnan made a ‘Che’ noise.

“What happened to the review you said you were going to write last time?” Fu Song asked.

“I’ve finished.”

“What book or movie was it?”

Meng Shengnan scratched her cheek: “A book I read in the past, I just wrote it randomly.”

“No wonder.”

“What?”

Fusong laughed: “You can score 55 on the Chinese composition essay.”

“The kind I write is different from our essays.” She was a little embarrassed.

“Write to confess to someone?”

Unexpectedly, he said it so directly, Meng Shengnan was left speechless.

Fusong smiled again: “What university do you want to enter in the future?”

“What about you?” Meng Shengnan didn’t think much about it.

Fusong paused, and said, “I want to go to the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.”

Hearing them talk, Nie Jing glanced over in silence, then turned back to watch the show without making a sound.

“To study philosophy?” Meng Shengnan’s eyes widened.

Fusong laughed and asked again what university she wanted to get into.

Meng Shengnan said: “I haven’t thought about it yet.”

The classmates who were performing were all hyped together, interrupting their chat. Li Yan was wearing a miniskirt and came on stage, preparing to do a hot dance. Meng Shengnan sat quietly in the crowd, looked at her and then lowered her head to glance at her blue and white school uniform, there were some snowflakes sprayed on by her classmates.

No one would dislike a girl like that

She had a pretty face and body, she could also dance. Meng Shengnan watched very seriously, and then looked sideways at Fusong. As expected, people couldn’t look away from beautiful girls. Later, someone shouted from underneath.

There were whispers everywhere.

“Is that Chi Zheng at the door?”

“Oh My God.”

“Sure enough, handsome guys match beautiful girls.”

“……”

Meng Shengnan pursed his lips and slowly raised her head to look towards the back door. The boy leaned against the door with one hand in his pocket, his school jacket had its zippers open.He was tall and thin, carrying a frivolous smile, there was a warmth in his gaze that she couldn’t put words to.

Li Yan twisted her waist and ran to the boy amidst the roars from the classroom.

In an instant, Meng Shengnan remembered the scene from a few days ago during their afternoon physical education class. She had been standing in the back door with trepidation, listening to the words of the boy and girl who were becoming enamored with each other, flirting without restraint.

She closed her eyes and looked away.

On the way back at night, she rode her bicycle alone. Once again, she passed by the same Central Square as last time, but the small pots of chrysanthemums were gone. There weren’t any sounds of laughing and chatting behind her, the scene of the boy carrying the girl in his bicycle had long faded. She even came to think, on this night, how passionate they would be.

He was in Science (10), she was in Humanities (4).

They were separated not just by a building, but by a whole world.

After New Year’s Day celebration, everyone returned to a state of intense studying. It was the same for Meng Shengnan, for them all, the most important thing was still their studies. She was not as brave as Sheng Dian, she was already used to keeping everything in the deepest depths of her heart.

At that time, days passed faster than flying.

Because of what happened during the mock exams in November, she was fourth from the bottom, so in the upcoming arrangements for the final exams, Meng Shengnan was placed into the 26th examination room in the Science (22) classroom to take her exam. During that time, the second floor of the building was being renovated, there were not enough classrooms, so several humanities students were placed in the last few science exam rooms, and she happened to be among them.

At that time, she revised from dawn to dusk.

“Meng Shengnan, what is the line before ‘Ten thousand saplings shoot up beyond the withered tree’?” In the morning recital session, Nie Jing was reciting a Chinese poem.

“Thousand sails pass by the sunken ship.”

Nie Jing asked again: “What is the line after ‘Won’t you drink one last cup of wine with me’?”

Meng Shengnan had just reviewed this one yesterday.

That afternoon, she was reading, reciting the next line silently, and then she saw a tall and thin figure passing by the window. That person seemed to glance at the classroom subconsciously, he was probably looking for Li Yan.

“Quick, what is the next line?” Xue Lin came up to ask.

After a while, Meng Shengnan replied blankly: “There are no friends west of Yangguan.”

“You are absent-minded again.” Fusong interrupted suddenly.

Nie Jing pursed her lips and glanced at the boy.

Meng Shengnan returned to her senses, “Huh?”

“If you are absent-minded, you won’t see black from white, nor will you hear the thunder and drums blaring beside you.” Fu Song said.

The three girls went: “…”

From her birth till now, to say who was the most special person Meng Shengnan knew, if Fu Song was to be the second then no one would dare claim the title of the first. In the classroom, she held back a laugh. Xue Lin was even worse and laughed upfront.

“Fusong, I have a question I specifically want to ask you.” Xue Lin rode the tide and asked.

The boy raised his eyes.

The girl cleared her throat: “Have you been like this since childhood?”

Meng Shengnan looked at him, and Fusong glanced at his deskmate.

“How many points did you score on your math test?”

He didn’t respond and instead asked back, there was a huge gap between the two questions. Meng Shengnan and Xue Lin went blank for a moment, and Nie Jing couldn’t help but be curious.

The girl did not back down and answered generously, “77, does it matter.”

Fu Song shook his head: “It’s too low.”

“What?” The girl was taken aback.

“No wonder your logic is so bad, and your question is so immature.”

The three girls: “…”

Xue Lin was not willing to back down: “Are you looking down on me? I will get 120 marks sooner or later.”

“Do you know the saying: dripping water penetrates the stone?” Fu Song smiled.

The girl didn’t believe that he could say anything special out of this.

Fusong continued: “In the struggle between the stream of water and stone, the stream always wins, do you know why?”

The girl was already dazed, she had completely been led astray by her deskmate.

“Why?”

“Not because of strength, but because of persistence.”¹This idiom actually means that persistent effort overcomes any difficulty, which is what Fusong is trying to get at here, perhaps he’s saying Xue Lin does not persist enough to do well or maybe he’s encouraging her, this is up to interpretation.

Three girls: “…”

In this atmosphere of a weird question and answer session, the final exam that made everyone feel relieved yet also worried at the same time finally arrived. In the last exam before the Lunar New Year, everyone was ready to go. Xue Lin was even more determined to prove herself, tormenting herself everyday through revising, she was only missing a red bandana around her head that wrote the word, “Struggle.”

The afternoon before the exam, it was the last class before the year²reminder this is in reference to the end of the year in the Lunar Calendar ended.

Xue Lin was still chattering about a parabolic equation with her deskmate, and Nie Jing also waited in line to talk to him with the factors exercises in her hand. The two of them were really striving ahead with this momentum. Meng Shengnan had already packed up her schoolbag in advance and said goodbye, leaving the classroom.

In the corridor, there were girls chatting behind her.

There was a male voice greeting the girls, and only one girl responded to the class monitor, saying goodbye. When the boy walked away, a girl bumped the arm of the the person next to her.

“Li Yan, why do I think our class head is a bit interested in you?”

The girl who was asked snorted contemptuously.

“Who would like him, he’s flattering himself.”

“That’s true, how can he compete with your Chi Zheng.”

The girl smiled triumphantly.

“By the way, which examination room are you in?” the girl asked again.

“11.”

The girl said: “I am in 14, we should be on the first floor, right? Which exam room and class is your Chi Zheng in?”

“He seems to be—”

Meng Shengnan slowed down her steps and listened carefully.

“Which one?”

“I think Science (22).”

–

[TL’s Note: I love the line: they’re separated by a building, but actually they’re separated by a whole world. TTTT my poor FL let me pat you and hug you, you deserve the world!!!!]