Chapter 101: Getting a Haircut

(1)

The fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival.

On the way back, they were still riding in the same pickup truck driven by Uncle Zhou Chao.

The truck wasn’t fast, but for the kids going home, it still felt like the wind.

Everyone was lamenting that tomorrow school would start, feeling both troubled and looking forward to the school days ahead.

“This winter break was clearly very long, but it flew by in the blink of an eye…”

Yang Lingfei lay against the side railing of the truck bed, letting the wind lightly mess up his hair.

“Yang Lingfei, you really need to shave your hair. The school will definitely be strict about appearance when classes start,” Fang Qiang reached out to touch his thick hair but was slapped away.

“Don’t touch it, you’ll mess it up.”

“Tch, so girly. Why keep your hair so long?”

“Cough!”

An Jing, holding the sleeping Zhu Ying, cleared her throat—feeling as if she had been caught in the crossfire.

“An Jing, I wasn’t talking about you.”

“My hair’s even longer than Yang Lingfei’s.”

“Yeah, An Jing, your hair’s definitely going to get caught too.”

“I’m thinking of going for a buzz cut…”

“Don’t buzz it, just cut it short and choppy, just a little shorter.”

“Wang Wang, why are you shaking your head so hard?”

Wang Xinru blinked her big watery eyes and then shook her head even more vigorously.

“What’s up? Did you eat some kind of head-shaking pill?”

Fang Qiang looked puzzled.

“This hairstyle is trendy now, okay? Japan and Korea all do it. Only here do they crack down so hard.”

Yang Lingfei scratched his head.

“When I get back, I’ll trim it a bit. As long as it doesn’t cover the ears, it should be fine.”

“Speaking of which, my hair was already a bit long before, but the duty teacher didn’t catch me when I entered school.”

“That just means they took you for a girl,” Fang Qiang said, resting his arm on his knee.

“If you meet a teacher who knows you, you won’t get away with it.”

“I’ll have to fix my hairstyle when I get back too.”

Zhou Chao ran his hand through his bangs.

“My bangs are too long.”

“When I get to university, I’m definitely going to grow some wildly cool long hair.”

“Aw, Wei, you with long hair?”

An Jing’s eyes started to glaze over.

“I can’t even imagine that.”

“Probably a gust of wind would blow a bunch of dandruff all over the place.”

“Your sister!”

***

(2）

Gray clouds blanketed the sky.

The week of good weather seemed to have ended, and today the sun didn’t show its face at all.

The wind that blew was tinged with chill—seeming to signal that cold air had moved south again.

—Early spring is like this, back and forth.

When it’s warm, it feels like summer is just around the corner, but when it’s cold, it’s as if winter has returned.

An Jing hugged herself and sneezed, waving at Zhou Chao sitting in the passenger seat.

They had waited at the school gate to be picked up, and on the way back, Uncle Zhou dropped everyone off there again.

Though the town was small, not many people shared the same route home.

At the first traffic light, the group split up, each heading in different directions.

“Xiao Jing, caught a cold?” Zhu Ying tilted her head.

“A bit cold today…”

“An Jing, you’re too weak. You have to exercise more!”

Zhang Qiqi, who shared part of the route, gave her a firm pat on the shoulder.

“Otherwise, how can you satisfy a girl?”

An Jing rolled her eyes skyward.

She thought that, with this girl’s constitution, no amount of exercise would help Zhu Ying—after all, there was no ‘equipment’ to satisfy anyone!

“Xiao Ying, how about coming over to my place to hang out today?”

“Sure! Qiqi, why suddenly want to come to my place?”

“To check out your boudoir. So? Are you coming, little brat?”

…You go play then, I’m going to get a haircut today.”

“Oh~ I get it. You’ve been hanging out so much that it’s nothing new now, right? You two—”

Zhang Qiqi smirked as she pinched her own chin, eyeing the two.

“Don’t tell me you’ve done this and that?”

“Not only this and that, but that and that too, oh yes!”

“Hey hey hey—don’t talk nonsense…”

“Xiao Jing, going for a short haircut today?”

Zhu Ying tilted her head, watching her.

“Hmm… I wonder how you’ll look with short hair.”

“Just a trim. Too short looks bad.”

An Jing didn’t want to regret getting a haircut every time she looked in the mirror.

“Anyway, the school only requires it not to cover the ears. Even if it covers a little bit, it should be fine. We’re in third year; the homeroom teacher won’t bother with such trivial things…”

“Want me to help you decide?”

“Aren’t you going home with Zhang Qiqi?”

“Xiao Jing’s still more important!”

“You two, don’t treat me like air!”

Zhang Qiqi pretended to be annoyed.

“Xiao Ying too—once you have a boyfriend, you forget your besties!”

“You two have fun. School starts tomorrow; maybe it’ll be so busy there won’t even be time.”

An Jing scratched her head.

“Although I heard from the seniors that our school doesn’t have night study, but who knows if they’ll change it this year…”

While they were talking, the covered market street came into view.

Under the eaves and street lamps here, various lanterns hung everywhere.

In the corner of the square, even more lanterns were piled up, seemingly to be displayed tonight.

Since city management wasn’t strict in small towns, compared to big cities, the festival atmosphere here was even stronger.

Of course, the downside was traffic jams, so sometimes there would be fewer vehicles in the countryside, yet the traffic would be slower than in big cities…

“Wanna go see the lanterns together tonight?”

Zhu Ying playfully scratched An Jing’s palm before letting go of her hand.

“Sure.”

“Hope it doesn’t rain tonight.”

“Yesterday’s weather forecast said it might rain.”

“Rain doesn’t matter; we already had our break early anyway.”

“Releasing sky lanterns feels different from the lantern fair.”

Zhu Ying blinked.

“Even if it rains, we have to go!”

“Ah… okay.”

“Bye~!”

“Bye, see you tonight.”

***

(3)

Probably because she had been spending so much time with Zhu Ying recently, An Jing was already feeling a bit strange being alone.

Walking home, she kept wanting to turn and say something to the person beside her, only to realize that Zhu Ying had already gone home.

Cars still sped along the highway.

By the fifteenth of the first lunar month, everything had settled back into normal.

There were fewer cars than during the days around the New Year.

Most of the time, the roads were empty, and only occasionally a car would pass by—that was the usual.

But big cities were different.

At this moment, they were probably bustling.

The small square outside the apartment was also decorated with a few lanterns, including one shaped like the characters Lantern Festival placed right at the entrance.

The lights were on, but they were electric, not flame.

An Jing couldn’t find any wires on the ground, guessing the lanterns must have batteries inside…

The sky was gloomy, and the lantern light was a bit dim.

The man who often came here to sing for tips was here again today.

Though the audience was sparse, he always came.

Today he wore simple casual clothes, and unusually, he wasn’t singing but sitting on the flower bed playing guitar leisurely.

A little girl holding a helium balloon was his only audience today.

But he didn’t seem to mind.

Perhaps this song was for the world—the trees and grass were his audience…

Listening to the soothing music, An Jing returned to the apartment.

Opening the door, the music from the square flowed inside as well.

“Huihui, I’m home!”

The house was cold and empty, no response.

“Huihui?”

An Jing changed into slippers, put her backpack in her room, then went to check the kitchen and bathroom.

“Not home? Whatever, I’ll get a haircut first. Let me see if the water heater’s on…”

She muttered while glancing at the red light on the heater, then headed outside—but stopped as she passed the dining table.

A note weighed down by a vase lay on the table, written in fluorescent marker.

“Xiao Jing, Feifei and I went out to play today. If you’re hungry when you get back, there’s a bowl of leftovers in the fridge to heat up, or you can eat out. We might not be back tonight. —Yu Minghui.”

An Jing read the note quietly, muttering, “Out together again, like a couple.”

Just as she reached the door, she turned and opened the fridge to look at the bowl of leftovers.

It looked like potato stewed with chicken pieces, but was mushy and unappetizing.

“I’ll just get some instant noodles after my haircut.”

An Jing snapped the fridge shut, put on her shoes at the door, and slammed the door behind her.

The rain began to patter down at that very moment, then quickly turned into a downpour.

The sky darkened suddenly, as black as midnight.

“Such heavy rain… can we even see the lanterns?”

An Jing stared blankly at the blurred world outside the corridor.

If it weren’t for school starting tomorrow, she might just turn back home and curl up in her cozy bed with her computer.

But some things have to be done no matter how much you don’t want to.

She grabbed an umbrella from home, held it tightly with both hands, and cautiously stepped onto the rusty metal stairs.

The street lamps near the apartment were not lit, and the dense rain blurred the world ahead.

Luckily, An Jing knew every corner of the neighborhood so well that even in the dark she could find the barber shop.

This wasn’t the only barber shop near the apartment, but it was definitely the cheapest.

A haircut was only three yuan, the same price for both boys and girls.

At this moment, the shop seemed to have no lights on. Behind the blue glass sliding door lay a mysterious world.

The barber’s spinning pole at the door had long stopped turning, and the signboard had lost its prefix characters, with only the right half of the character and the words barber shop hanging on faintly.

The barber was squatting at the door, smoking.

His stubble and melancholic eyes made him look full of stories…

“Boss, is a haircut still three yuan?”

“Price went up this year, five yuan.”