Lunch. Xinjiang High School.
Lin Yuan was about to go to the library with Zhang Li when Teacher Wei Zhong found him at the second half of lunch break.
Seeing as the hallway was relatively empty, Wei Zhong didn't bring Lin Yuan back to his office and just began talking to him there.
"You're pretty close to that kid Zhang Li, right? That's good, you guys should help each other out, he can help you with English and you can help with maths."
"Yes." Lin Yuan nodded obediently, but he thought it was pretty much impossible for Zhang Li to improve in maths.
Teacher Wei Zhong rubbed his head and then asked, "Oh yeah, the thing your mother said before, about helping you with English? What happened with that?"
"I got a tutor."
"Really? That's good, that's good! Hehe, I guess I really got through to you before!" Teacher Wei was proud.
Many teachers have been trying to make Lin Yuan focus on English but to no avail. They thought he had a real chance at getting state or even national rankings in the college exams if his English and Chinese improved, but with the olympiad last year they couldn't push too hard.
Lin Yuan looked up at the few hairs waving back and forth as Wei Zhong chuckled.
"By the way, Lin Yuan about the olympiad…" Teacher Wei Zhong glanced at Lin Yuan and saw his face was normal and continued, "I know you're focusing on studying for the entrance exams this year but if you can drop by sometimes to the training class, I'm sure the first and second years would be grateful."
"...Okay." Lin Yuan paused for a moment and replied calmly.
Hearing his confirmation, Teacher Wei Zhong was very grateful. Lin Yuan would be a great help to those brats.
Thinking of this, he sighed deeply, "You have a lot of potential Lin Yuan, unfortunately you just started too late."
If he had started even as late as first year, Teacher Wei thought Lin Yuan was basically guaranteed in making it to the national team, but unfortunately he just missed the cut off. In fact, if he just had a bit more time then there was maybe even a chance of getting a medal in the international olympiad.
"...Actually, if you really do want to participate in the olympiad, then it's not impossible. You would have to repeat the year however…" Wei Zhong had his own selfishness, Lin Yuan was the most talented math's student he had ever taught.
But Lin Yuan just shook his head, "This was my last chance."
Although Wei Zhong didn't understand, seeing Lin Yuan's firm attitude, he just nodded, "Okay, just focus on the college exams this year. I hope to see you get into Tsinghua's Math Department!"
Hearing Teacher Wei's sincere blessing, Lin Yuan was moved, "Thank you."
…
…
…
Walking into the classroom, Lin Yuan found Zhang Li slouched on his chair watching him.
"What did Teacher Wei want?"
"He said that I should help you with maths."
Hearing this Zhang Li chuckled and shook his head, "What? Really? Hah, me and maths! What is Lao Wei thinking?! I guess he really must be getting old if he's starting to have delusions like that. I'll never improve in maths in this lifetime!"
Should you really be proud of that? Lin Yuan thought.
"Anyway, we're going to the library right? Ahh I can't wait for air conditioning." Zhang Li stretched lazily.
Just then a cold wind blew from the open window, causing him to shiver. Looking at the clear skies above, Zhang Li was suspicious.
"Hmm I just felt a dark wind pass by me…Let me calculate the trigrams." Zhang Li pinched his forefinger and his thumb together and closed his eyes, his eyebrows furrowed tightly, "Hmm, yes, yes. I can feel it, black, the colour is black!"
He turned to Lin Yuan and spoke urgently, "Lin Yuan this is a very bad omen! Disaster is imminent! Let me make a bold prediction right now…"
Lin Yuan ignored Zhang Li's babbling beside him and absentmindedly began clearing his desk. Thinking back to what Teacher Wei had said, he could help but sigh.
"There it is! There it is! You're sighing again! What's wrong, you were in such a good mood yesterday."
Zhang Li was confused. He closed the weather app he had surreptitiously opened on his phone, and leaned his head on his hand. Lin Yuan wasn't the type to have so many mood swings, but recently he's been all over the place.
Lin Yuan just felt complicated. He didn't really want to go to the olympiad training class, it would be awkward to see all of them since he'd already failed to make it to the national training camp. He didn't want consolation from anyone either. But last year the third years had come to help them even though they were probably busy studying for the entrance exam, so he felt an obligation to go.
And then there's Ning Qing…
Forget it. He will see her tomorrow anyway, there's no point worrying about it. He made a mistake and made her uncomfortable. Lin Yuan would just apologise and they could move on. She was his sister's friend and his tutor, it wouldn't be good to have things be awkward between them.
"Let's not go to the library."
"Huh? Okay, what do you want to do then?"
"Do you want to play League of Glory?"
Zhang Li was surprised. "You kid, is something really going on? You, of all people, want to play video games at school?"
"I'm older than you."
"Month."
"September."
"Hehe, I'm December… Dammit! You're the same month as Zhang Yin."
"So you should listen to your older brother."
"..."
"No, I can't play. I deleted the app already. I'm going to focus on studying this year, so don't tempt me!"
"You were playing last night. I saw you when I logged in."
"..."
"Okay, okay, let's play." Zhang Li looked around the sparse classroom, and then shifted his chair so that no one could see their screens from the hallway. He even placed a few books upright on the desk so it would block their phones.
Looking at his professionalism, Lin Yuan was impressed.
"Well, actually I got booted down to silver last night so…" Seeing Lin Yuan staring at him with a bad face, Zhang Li quickly added "Hey, hey, it wasn't my fault. My teammates were all throwing. It's better to play with you Lin Yuan, you're much better than those guys!"
"Call me older brother."
"****k you." Zhang Li couldn't help but curse under his breath.
"What did you say?"
"I said let's play a few rounds first and then go to the library, it's cooler there." Zhang Li took out some meat buns he had bought at the cafeteria from his bag for an after-meal snack.
"..."
"Come on! Come on! Join the lobby quickly!"
"..."
"Hehe…older brother."
…
…
…
School ended at around 5pm for day students but today unlike the previous day the sky was almost completely covered with heavy clouds. The rain seemed imminent.
Feeling the wind coming from outside the window, Lin Yuan, who was walking in the hallway, glanced down to look at the students walking below. Their distant figures looked particularly beautiful walking amongst the yellow stained trees.
Just when he was lost in his thoughts, he heard Zhang Li shout from behind: "Lin Yuan, are you going to walk or ride a bike? Do you want me to ask the boarding students to borrow an umbrella for you?"
Lin Yuan thought about it. Even though it looked like it could rain any second now, he didn't feel like riding his bike today, so he turned around and said, "My home is very close."
"Oh well."
"Goodbye."
"Bye!"
Lin Yuan walked downstairs with his bag on his back, squeezing into the crowd that was slowly congregating out of the school..
After leaving the school gate, street lights came on one after another. The fragrance of the osmanthus flowers became stronger. As the wind blew, the small yellow petals were blown off from the thin branches. They twirled in the air in front of him, as if dancing to some unknown music.
Lin Yuan was walking slowly down the streets absentmindedly, when he felt a buzzing from his phone. Looking down he saw that his sister had just sent him a message.
[Hey, mom told me she's coming home tonight, but I don't think we have enough groceries, and I'll be coming home a little late…]
[My dear brother…can you go buy some? I'll send you the money.]
Hearing his mother was coming, he couldn't help but feel complex, then he glanced up to the sky. Seeing the heavy clouds that looked like a large army was approaching, his face turned dark.
Lin Yuan texted back, [It's going to rain.]
[It's not much, some chicken and some pork, and maybe some beef as well? Or maybe some crab? Do they still sell crabs this time of year? Actually, just a lot of meat is fine. The grocery store is only a few minutes from our place.]
Lin Yuan couldn't help but feel that this was all just an excuse for his sister to engorge herself. He was also pretty sure there was already enough groceries for one extra person in the fridge. Lin Yuan was about to reply, when he thought of something.
"..."
[What time is she coming?]
[It's not too early around 7 or 8pm, you have plenty of time. So are you going?]
[Yes.]
[Lots of meat?]
[Fine…]
[Hehehe.]
Feeling his heavy school bag, Lin Yuan thought for a moment and then started walking quickly. His house wasn't very far, so he took only around 20 minutes to get there.
As soon as he got home, he threw his bag onto the sofa, and ran to the kitchen to get a few recyclable grocery bags. Before running out the door he didn't forget to grab his umbrella and an extra plastic bag.
Lin Yuan was walking briskly through the busy streets for a few minutes when he suddenly slowed down.
What am I doing…
He felt foolish. For a brief moment, he wanted to just turn around again, but he finally decided to keep going.
…
…
…
It was around 6pm when Lin Yuan finally reached the grocery store. By this time the rain was pouring heavily against the earth and the wind was rising.
He walked into the brightly lit store, taking a small shopping cart from the front, and headed slowly toward the meat section. He was sure they already had enough vegetables at home, and considering this store was a little far away from his house, he decided to just buy meat this time.
Lin Yuan was looking through the large array of frozen meats for a while when he spotted a short figure some distance away from him. They were stretching out on their tiptoes to get something from the top shelf. Looking at the familiar school uniform of Xinjiang No.1 Middle School, Lin Yuan was surprised.
He didn't see the person he expected but maybe this was better. He quickly stuffed a pack of chicken thighs into his cart and walked over.
"Um, do you need help?"
Hearing a voice come from behind her Ning Yao instantly turned around. Seeing Lin Yuan, she was confused.
Lin Yuan noticed that she didn't respond so he hesitated for a moment then stretched to get a bag of potato chips from the top shelf.
He glanced down at the brandless bag of plain potato chips and couldn't help but point to the shelf that was directly next to her, "These are a lot better."
He didn't like to eat salty snacks but those were the ones his sister usually bought.
Ning Yao, who had shaken off her surprise, just nodded politely, "Thank you, but this one is my favourite."
Ning Yao took the potato chips from his hands carefully and inspected the price with a serious face.
Lin Yuan didn't say anything more, but he looked thoughtful for a moment.
Then he looked down at her small cart that was on the floor and was stunned. It was filled to the brim with all kinds of red and white meats, and many of them had sales stickers on them. He didn't spot a single vegetable.
Also how is she going to carry all of that? Lin Yuan wondered.
Ning Yao was about to put the potato chips into her cart when she saw him staring at it. She didn't understand until she looked at his own shopping cart. Ning Yao had a slight glimmer in her eyes. It seemed they were the same kind of people.
She couldn't help but look at Lin Yuan with kinder eyes.
"Actually, there is a sale for those. It's in a different section." Ning Yao said pointing at his cart.
"Oh. It's fine." Lin Yuan didn't feel like walking anymore, and it was probably only saving a few extra yuan.
"Tsk."
"Huh?" Looking at Ning Yao's expressionless face, Lin Yuan thought he was hearing things.
"Did you say something?"
"No."
"Oh."
Lin Yuan felt awkward standing there. He wanted to say something more but he didn't know how to start, so after a short pause he could only say "...Well then, goodbye."
"Goodbye."
They both nodded politely to each other and turned to walk away.
"..."
Looking at Ning Yao walking in the same direction next to him, Lin Yuan felt embarrassed.
"Are you going to the checkout?"
"Yes."
"Oh."
Thankfully, Lin Yuan had longer legs, so he left her behind heartlessly. Ning Yao watched as he zipped past her and then looked down at her own legs. She turned around and headed toward the refrigerated section. She almost forgot to buy milk.