(1)
An Jing loved the evening glow the most. That slanting beam of orange-yellow light shone on the ground, stretching the shadows of everything long and thin. Time itself seemed to slow down then, as if everything in the world was watching its final afterglow.
And then, in some slightly relaxed, inadvertent moment, night would arrive. This feeling was the most magical—time suddenly fast, then slow, as if an invisible hand was casually fiddling with the hour and minute hands.
Outside the window was always that same emerald green field, but sitting inside the shell of this bus, she always felt like they were moving forward.
Yet the scenery didn’t change. The only thing moving was probably just time itself.
“Zhou Chao, your grammar in this sentence is wrong, right? For the past perfect tense…”
“Every time I see English tenses like this, I want to hit someone.”
“Xiao Jing, how do you even do this problem? I’ve been looking at it forever and I don’t even understand what it’s asking.” “Huh? What?” An Jing snapped out of her daze, “What problem?”
“This one, the last one.”
“This one? I think the math teacher said we don’t have to do it.” “At least let me figure out what it means.”
“Okay… let me see…” An Jing picked up Zhu Ying’s test paper, and the latter leaned her little face closer, scanning a few lines on her copybook. “How’s Xiao Jing’s copying going?”
“Copying classical Chinese is so boring. I’m copying Lu Xun’s text.” An Jing pouted, “It didn’t seem long when I was reading it, but it’s actually pretty long to copy, and you have to write each character carefully…”
“Pfft.” Zhu Ying flipped to the first few pages of An Jing’s copybook, then flipped back, “Xiao Jing wrote pretty neatly at the beginning, but it gets more and more sloppy towards the end. That won’t do.”
“My hand got tired…”
“Silly, the goal isn’t to finish copying, it’s to practice handwriting. You slowly write faster while keeping it neat, it’s not like you have to reach that level all at once.” Zhu Ying gently poked An Jing’s temple, “You can’t put the cart before the horse!”
“Oh, right… By the way, I understand this problem now, let me show you how to do it…” “Mhm, mhm.” Zhu Ying immediately put on an attentive expression, seriously watching the pen in An Jing’s hand draw lines on the problem, then quickly write a few numbers. But gradually, her attention wasn’t on the paper anymore. It followed the pen barrel up, up to the back of An Jing’s fair hand, then to An Jing’s slender neck, slid down a bit, and stared at the delicate and pretty collarbone for a long time.
“Xiao Ying? Xiao Ying? Xiao Ying?”
“Huh?!” Zhu Ying sat up straight instantly, like she’d been called on by the teacher while daydreaming, looking somewhat flustered at An Jing’s little face.
“So what formula can we use at this point? You should know it, right?”
“A cute formula…”
“Huh?” “Eh?”
“Were you even listening…”
“It’s all because Xiao Jing is too captivating, my attention is completely scattered!”
“You can blame me for that?” A vein twitched on An Jing’s forehead, “Be serious! Weren’t you the one who wanted to know how to solve this problem?”
“Oh, oh, mhm, mhm… Xiao Jing, can I pinch your cheek while I listen?” “Hey!”
“Otherwise I can’t concentrate!”
“I can’t explain seriously if you do that!”
“Tch, stingy Xiao Jing.”
“That’s completely not the issue of being stingy or not…”
(2)
The sunset was still far from the horizon, so even though it was evening, there was no need to worry about night arriving soon.
Having written homework for half the afternoon, plus exams all day today, everyone was already feeling a bit tired, so now was the most leisurely and comfortable rest time.
Zhou Chao took out a copy of “A Shuai” from his backpack and read it with relish.
Zhang Qiqi got off the bus, saying she was going back to the kindergarten to get something—it wasn’t far from her family’s kindergarten, just about a twenty-plus minute walk.
Zhu Ying hugged An Jing’s little face and rubbed against it vigorously, stretching comfortably at the same time: “It feels like doing homework on a bus, and then the bus has finally arrived at the station. What do you think, Xiao Jing?”
“It does feel a bit like that.” An Jing leaned back slightly, “Stop rubbing, my hair is tickling my nose…”
“I’m going to rub!”
“Are you a kitten or a puppy…”
“Neither, I’m Xiao Ying!”
Zhou Chao, looking down at his comic, chuckled softly: “You two get along really well.”
“Jealous?” Zhu Ying raised her fair chin, humming smugly.
“A little jealous.” Zhou Chao’s gaze fell on the field with sparse weeds outside the window, “Heh, I just don’t know anymore how to maintain a relationship between two people if there’s no physical relationship.” “That’s just one part! What’s more important is feelings, feelings!” Zhu Ying tightened her grip on An Jing’s arm, “Xiao Jing, when are we going to have a physical relationship?”
“Hey, hey, don’t say weird things!” “This is part of feelings too!”
“Even if… even if you want to, I… I can’t right now… It’s not like Zhou Chao, who can change back…”
“It’s fine, you two can use some tools.”
“Oh~ Not good, easy to break Xiao Jing.” “What exactly are you trying to do? To the point of ‘breaking’?!” An Jing shouted.
“Haha—” Zhou Chao closed the comic in his hand on the table, stood up, and stretched, “Sitting in this bus is getting sleepier and sleepier. I’m going down to move around a bit.”
An Jing saw the fleeting loneliness in Zhou Chao’s eyes and gently pursed her lips. Only when he walked outside the bus, standing in the field and taking a deep breath, did she poke her head out the window and shout to him: “Zhou Chao!”
“Yeah?”
“That thing… uh, about Awei, don’t blame him, okay? After all, he’s never dated a girl before, and… and he’s that kind of person…”
“I’m not angry about that.” Zhou Chao turned back, smiling faintly, “I’m just a bit helpless. But if they really could work out, that would be good. But… I can tell, she’s still the same as before.”
“Even if you tell Awei, he won’t listen at all.”
“Haha, it’s fine. It’s good to learn some lessons when you’re young. After all, there’s plenty of time to make mistakes.” Zhou Chao stuffed his hands into his pockets, “This way, he probably won’t be so easily played for a fool.”
“But what does she see in Awei anyway? He’s not handsome, not rich, and his personality isn’t that great either.” “Heh… who the hell knows.” Zhou Chao laughed and cursed, “Maybe Awei is generous with spending money on women? He’s not broke.”
“That’s true. His family sells vegetables, so his allowance shouldn’t be small either. He’s just a bit stingy. He’s probably saved up quite a bit himself…”
“When the money runs out, that woman will leave on her own.” “Poor Awei.” “Maybe it’s a life lesson every man has to go through.” Zhou Chao laughed self-deprecatingly.
“Who says? Xiao Jing doesn’t have to go through it!” Zhu Ying rested her chin on top of An Jing’s head and shouted loudly.
“Haha, that kid An Jing isn’t a man right now either.” “Damn!” An Jing unceremoniously raised a middle finger.
“Don’t just space out in the bus. I found a good spot, perfect for playing marbles!” “Are you an elementary schooler?”
“We’re only three years older than sixth graders.” Zhou Chao lightly kicked a pebble in the field, “What are you acting all grown-up for, kid? Come on, let’s go buy some marbles to play with at the nearby store.”
“Will they sell them?”
“I saw a small shop on the way here earlier. Those countryside stores usually sell both snacks and toys, and they’re all very cheap.” Zhou Chao seemed a bit impatient, “Haven’t touched them in so long, my hands are itching. Watch me destroy you today.”
“Pfft, don’t get beaten by me later.”
“Haha, this golden middle finger of mine, you think I’m joking?” Zhou Chao raised his middle finger, flexing and flicking it a few times, “And I’ve never slacked off on training, you know!”
“Eww—gross.” Zhu Ying dragged out her voice.
“What?” An Jing hadn’t yet grasped the double meaning hidden in Zhou Chao’s mischievous grin.
“Xiao Jing doesn’t need to know!”
“Haha, you’ll find out sooner or later anyway—”
(3)
An Jing lived on an island when she was little. Although it was also a village, there weren’t such long country roads or so many fields.
She followed Zhou Chao around a bend and arrived at a small roadside shop.
This was a countryside store. It looked pretty much like an ordinary farmer’s house, only two stories tall, without even a signboard.
But the owner had placed boards of toys at the entrance: a big box for a lucky draw, a small box for a cash prize draw, and small bags of plastic weapons, sticker magnets, glass marbles…
A few kids were gathered there, pooling money to buy a boxed four-wheel drive car toy. Since everyone had chipped in the same amount, they were arguing about which model to buy.
“I want the Black Giant! It’s cool!” “The Red Giant looks better!”
“That’s the villain’s car! I want the Charge Warrior!”
“Haha, doesn’t it remind you of you and A Qiang when you were kids? Back then, you two were arguing about which spinning top design to buy too.”
“Huh? How do you know about that?”
“I was buying snacks in the store back then. I saw.” “Ahem…”
Zhou Chao stood at the shop entrance, his gaze falling on those shiny, colorful marbles: “Look, they even sell those reflective marbles here. Those were rare items back in the day.”
“They’re not worth much now. But I still prefer the simpler-looking ones.” An Jing pulled down a pack of colored marbles with a somewhat matte finish, “I’ll take this pack. Boss, how much?”
“Fifty cents.” The boss sat at a low table reading a newspaper, his reading glasses looking like they were about to slide off his nose.
“Then I’ll take these shiny ones. Easier to tell apart.”
“I’ll pay.” An Jing directly placed a coin in front of the boss, “I just happen to have a coin in my pocket. I was afraid I’d lose it.”
“Alright, let’s go, let’s go, back to play marbles!” Zhou Chao excitedly urged again, “Today, I’ll let you witness the golden middle finger once more!”
“Seems like you don’t remember how fierce my bounce smash move was.”
“Ha, you just got lucky using that. You hardly ever pulled it off successfully.” “Just you wait, I’ll use it on you later!”