(1)
Monday, May 17, 2010.
With less than a month left until the high school entrance exam, even a brief moment of leisure in the afternoon brought an inexplicable sense of tension.
It felt as if every minute spent slacking off now would become a difficult problem on the exam that one couldn’t solve.
The cloudless sky poured sunlight unsparingly into the classroom. Some students sitting by the windows pulled the curtains shut, while others chose to open the windows. In any case, the ceiling fans had already begun to spin with a whoosh-whoosh sound.
The summer in this small town seemed to have arrived unusually early this year.
Almost all the boys had already put on short-sleeved uniforms and shorts, but most of the girls were still wearing jackets and long pants. Even though their foreheads were covered with fine beads of sweat, they only unzipped their jackets a little to cool down.
A few girls who couldn’t bear the summer heat became the targets of teasing by the boys. These kids, right in the middle of puberty, could always find ways to vent their endless energy.
The short-sleeved uniform was too thin. Not only could you see the color of the undershirt underneath, but if you sweated a lot, you could even glimpse the fair skin tinged with a hint of pink.
Middle school girls, even if their faces weren’t pretty, mostly had healthy and well-proportioned bodies. For boys bursting with hormones, that was an irresistible temptation.
“Middle of May and it’s already so hot we need the fan on…” An Jing looked up at the green ceiling fan above. “But having it on level five is still a bit chilly.”
“There are a lot of people in the classroom. At home I don’t even need the fan yet.” Zhu Ying rubbed her flushed cheeks. She had just woken up from a nap, and there were marks on her arm from sleeping on it, along with some sweat from her face being pressed against it.
“Awake? Lunch break isn’t over yet.”
“The boys in the back are too noisy, they keep bumping into desks… Can’t sleep anymore.” Zhu Ying licked her dry lips. “Xiao Jing, come buy some water with me?”
“Huh…? Kind of lazy to move. Once I move, I’ll start sweating.”
“Come on, come on. Let’s buy some chilled drinks.”
“I want to eat an ice cream…”
“Isn’t there one in the vending machine too?”
“Okay! Then let’s get a Green Tongue!”
“No problem. Let’s go?”
An Jing watched Zhu Ying stand up and stretch, tossed her pen back into the drawer, and quickly squeezed through the narrow aisle.
Somehow, the gap between the two middle rows of desks was getting narrower. An Jing’s and Wang Xinru’s desks were almost touching, and the space between them probably wasn’t as wide as a textbook.
During lunch break, students were going up and down the stairways. The closer they got to the first-year floor, the more students filled the hallways.
They seemed to have nothing to do at all, shouting and running around everywhere. Even if a teacher passed by and reminded them, they would quiet down for only a short while. As soon as the teacher left, everything went back to normal.
“Such carefree lives…” Zhu Ying couldn’t help sighing. “Not a single worry.”
“When I first started middle school, I felt the same way. I thought middle school would last a long time, but three years really passed much, much faster than six years of elementary.”
“When we get to high school, will it go even faster?”
“If you have more things to think about, time passes quickly.” An Jing gently touched the white wall beside her. Since it was freshly painted, it was smooth and cool. Even as she ran her hand along it, not much dust got on her fingers.
“The sun is so strong…”
“It’s just early summer sun. It’s still pretty mild.” An Jing squinted slightly. “I actually think it’s nice. There’s a feeling that nothing is urgent yet, so you can take your time and waste it.”
“Oh~ Early summer does give that feeling. Probably because the days are longer? It feels like night comes very late, so I can’t help but procrastinate. Lately, I’ve been finishing my homework an hour later than in spring.”
“High summer is different. It’s hot like an oven. If you don’t have AC at home, you just want time to pass faster.”
“But high summer is also summer vacation. When vacation comes, you want time to slow down.”
“Yeah, people are so contradictory… This year’s summer vacation should be easy. Finally, no summer homework.”
“That’s not certain. What if the high school assigns summer homework too?” Zhu Ying patted her pockets, but this time she didn’t pull out any candy. “Huh… I’m out of cola candy.”
“Huh? Assigning summer homework before school even starts? Damn…”
“Maybe not, it’s uncertain.” Zhu Ying felt around An Jing’s jacket pocket, pulling the fabric so much it became crooked. “Xiao Jing doesn’t have any either?”
“…I only brought a few peanut candies in the morning. You said they weren’t good, so I gave them away.” An Jing helplessly pulled her clothes back up. “Stop digging around. You’re going to pull my clothes off.”
“Xiao Jing—” Zhu Ying’s expression suddenly turned serious. She stared at An Jing’s chest for a few seconds, then helped straighten her clothes. “Have you noticed something?”
“Uh… What…?”
Zhu Ying tilted her head and looked out the stairwell window. “The lotus in the big pot in the flower bed downstairs has already grown buds.”
“Huh? Uh, what about it? It’s summer, isn’t it normal for lotus flowers to bloom?” An Jing looked confused.
“It’s not just the lotus that’s grown buds… Other places have grown buds too.”
“Huh…?”
Slap!
“Hiss—Don’t hit so hard! That hurts!”
“Is it because touching it hurts, so you never really looked closely?”
“…”
“What?”
“You’re so dense, Xiao Jing! Do I have to spell it out?” Zhu Ying grabbed An Jing’s hand and pressed it against her own chest. “See? Can you feel it?”
“Uh…”
“It’s bigger, right? The short-sleeved uniform is a bit see-through. If you wear it now, it’ll be easy to notice… Even if you wear long sleeves, you should keep the zipper up to be safe.”
“Ah.” An Jing suddenly felt a headache. “I was thinking of ditching the long sleeves once it gets hotter…”
“No way. Then even the bumps would be very clear. Unless you wear a camisole, but if you do, it’ll be discovered.”
“Damn—When will I graduate?” An Jing couldn’t help groaning. “Wearing long sleeves in summer is going to kill me from the heat.”
“It’s not that bad. Most girls wear long sleeves even in summer, don’t they?”
“Come to think of it, I’ve always wanted to ask—it’s still okay now, but in June, wearing long sleeves, isn’t it hot?”
“It’s okay… If you sit still, it’s not hot. Plus, long sleeves protect you from the sun, so you won’t get tanned.”
“Man, I already feel a bit hot in this weather.” An Jing sighed. “Is there any other way? Why do we have to grow chests anyway? Seriously…”
“It’s the law of nature. As for solutions… there aren’t any.” Zhu Ying snickered. “Who knows, Xiao Jing, yours might get really big later.”
“Don’t say such terrifying things! I can’t even imagine it. Wouldn’t it be really uncomfortable? Wouldn’t it be inconvenient to move?”
“You’d better ask Xiao Ru about that.”
“Oh, right. I almost forgot. Yours—”
“Well, I do, okay!”
“Talk nicely, don’t pinch my thigh! Oww, oww—”
By the time they reached the ground floor while horsing around, both were starting to sweat. This was when they really needed something cold to cool off.
In summer, a new vending machine for ice pops would be added downstairs. The most expensive item was a three-yuan chocolate ice cream, and the cheapest were the fifty-cent old-style ice pops and little puddings.
An Jing inserted a shiny new coin and pressed the button for “Green Tongue.” This thing was technically jelly, not ice cream, because it didn’t melt easily and could be sucked on slowly, making it one of An Jing’s favorite ice treats.
“There are so many people buying drinks…”
“How about going to the vending machine on the other side of the playground? There’ll be fewer people there.”
“Mm—Sure, let’s go there!” Zhu Ying nodded and brought her little face close to An Jing’s mouth. “Hey, let me have a taste?”
“Don’t bite it all off… Not even half. Green Tongue is meant to be eaten slowly.”
“I know.” Zhu Ying licked the tip of the jelly pop and then bit down gently. “Mm… Actually, you could make this yourself, right? Buy a bunch of jelly, throw them in the freezer, and they should be frozen overnight.”
“But peeling off the plastic lid on those jellies is such a pain. Sometimes you can’t even open it when you break it. This one is much more convenient.”
“Then buy the big jellies. Those are easy to open.”
“Those are expensive. About the same size as this, they cost three yuan each. This one is only one yuan.” An Jing stuffed most of the Green Tongue into her mouth and sucked hard, making her whole body shiver. “Ahh—so good. Summer really needs frozen treats like this.”
“If I eat something too cold, my teeth hurt.” Zhu Ying swallowed the Green Tongue in her mouth. “This kind is fine. But if it’s like ice cubes, one bite and my teeth will ache for a while.”
“Sensitive teeth, huh? Fei Jie was like that before. She went to the hospital and bought a special toothpaste, and now she’s much better.”
“What toothpaste?”
“I don’t remember. Let’s check when we get back, and I’ll tell you the brand. But I think it’s only available at the hospital. I’m not sure if you can buy it outside…”
“If not, we can ask at the pharmacy?” Zhu Ying unzipped her jacket a little. “Whew, why does the playground feel so big?”
“Because the sun is so strong.” An Jing grabbed Zhu Ying’s wrist. “Xiao Ying, let’s walk under the shade.”
“But that’s the long way.”
“It’s better than walking straight through and having the sun shine on your face. I couldn’t even open my eyes just now.”
“I get the feeling this summer will be especially hot… Maybe it’ll reach over forty degrees?”
“Isn’t it that temperature every year? I think this summer will be especially long. Ah, suddenly I don’t want to go out during vacation.”
“No way! We’ve already planned so many places to have fun. We absolutely have to go out! Every single day!”
“Whoa, spare me…”