Early April, the first breath of spring, and every shade of green vied to sprout. The youthful vitality throughout the campus mingled with the lush greenery—bright, fierce, and uncontained.
During the last two periods of the morning, Qin Jiujiu didn't absorb a single word of the lessons. She only now, belatedly, realized just how overwhelming her new deskmate, He Yi, really was.
The sun had climbed higher, and the seats by the window caught a harsh glare. Both of them had taken off their outer jackets, revealing the pure white short-sleeved polo shirts of the Qingshui No. 1 High School summer uniform.
He Yi was tall with long limbs. His exposed forearms were a light wheat color, with a few veins lurking beneath the skin. When he occasionally twirled a pen, those veins would pulse with strikingly clean lines.
In contrast, Qin Jiujiu's arms were smooth, soft, and cool-toned porcelain-white, barely half the thickness of his. The visual contrast between slender frailty and robust strength was stark, like comparing a size S to an XXXL.
Several times, when He Yi accidentally brushed against her, he couldn't help muttering the word "weakling" inwardly.
When the noon dismissal bell rang, because of their earlier friction, the two didn't exchange a single word.
He Yi picked up the instruction manual, grabbed his pink suitcase, and walked ahead of the crowd with an aura that suggested he was the most important person in the world.
Qin Jiujiu didn't walk slowly either, but she didn't deliberately try to catch up with He Yi, either, so the distance between them grew wider and wider.
She watched as the boy ahead turned into a girls' dormitory building, handed Teacher Huang's approval slip to the dormitory supervisor, and had to sign in to register. Because of this delay, she finally caught up to him.
The dorm supervisor, wearing reading glasses, deliberately lifted her chin to look the new student over in Room 105.
It wasn't that she was gossiping, but a few days ago, several school leaders had personally come to inspect the previously vacant Room 105 and had gone so far as to turn an eight-person room into the school's only single student dorm. She had personally run back and forth to help with the remodeling—that required serious clout! She needed to make sure she recognized her face.
He Yi followed the direction the supervisor pointed, walking all the way to Room 105 at the very end of the first floor.
The other dorms they passed all had ordinary, thin wooden doors with mottled, faded paint, and all of them were locked for the noon break. Only Room 105 boasted a brand-new, thick, natural wood door embedded with a black digital keypad lock.
He Yi clicked his tongue twice. Was this person some kind of precious pearl, receiving such special treatment?
Electronic keypad locks had just hit the market, and he had never touched one before.
Reading the instruction manual from cover to cover, he followed the steps:
[Please enter a six-digit password, and press the pound key to confirm.]
He Yi stepped aside, gesturing for Qin Jiujiu to step up and enter the password. They were standing very close, and that rich, intoxicating scent—which Qin Jiujiu tentatively classified as perfume—assaulted her brain all over again.
A slender, fair index finger tapped against the black keypad. The fingernail had a pinkish tint, round and pretty, clearly belonging to someone who had been pampered all her life. He Yi had originally intended to politely look away, but for some reason, he simply couldn't move his eyes.
Qin Jiujiu pressed three digits. Feeling the boy's gaze and his scent right beside her, her finger on the keypad began to tremble uncontrollably. She fumbled through the fourth and fifth digits until she couldn't press anymore. Abruptly curling her finger inward, she felt a slight urge to panic.
The boy beside her suddenly let out an amused tone. "What are you shaking for?"
Qin Jiujiu found her own reaction rather inexplicable, and finally gave up trying to salvage the situation. "Can you stand a little further away? You're making me nervous!"
Their eyes collided, and the atmosphere fell silent for a moment.
He Yi couldn't quite read her meaning. If her reaction was supposed to be shyness, her tone and gaze were far too righteous and bold, showing not a shred of embarrassment.
Could it be that she was afraid he would see the password? He Yi always felt that explanation was a bit far-fetched.
[Incorrect password. Please re-enter the six-digit password and press the pound key to confirm.]
The mechanical female voice broke the strange magnetic field between them. He Yi shrugged, took a few steps back, turned around, and stopped looking at her.
Freed from the pressure of his gaze, Qin Jiujiu regained her composure, successfully changed the password and registered her fingerprint, pushed her suitcase through the door, and said to him, "I need to grab something, and then I'll have to trouble you to show me the way to the cafeteria. I don't know where it is. Is that alright?"
The boy behind her gave a muffled grunt of assent.
The entire interior of the room could be taken in at a single glance.
Over the original concrete floor, a grey mat had been laid out. Right by the entrance was an independent bathroom, a bed, a set of pink study desk and chair, a simple clothes rack, and light pink curtains. Through the anti-theft bars on the window, one could see a cherry blossom tree in full bloom outside.
The sound of the suitcase wheels rolling grew softer.
Qin Jiujiu crouched on the floor, unzipped her suitcase, and stared in deep thought at the two hundred-yuan bills tucked into the mesh pocket.
She pulled out the two red notes, checked other compartments just to be sure, and finally accepted the harsh reality: there were, precisely and only, two bills—amounting to a total of two hundred yuan!
She sat down on the pink swivel chair that came with the study desk and made a phone call.
"Hey, Dad. Have you eaten?"
A low hum came from the other end. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Qin Jiujiu cut straight to the point: "I've arrived at the new dorm. There's two hundred yuan in my suitcase."
After a short silence, the person on the other end replied, "Yeah, I put it there. The college entrance exams are right around the corner; you don't need money for anything else. I've already loaded your meal money onto your cafeteria card. Don't lose it."
Qin Jiujiu was so angry she laughed. Two thousand yuan turned into two hundred yuan, huh?
With one hand clutching her phone and the other shaking the pitiful two red bills, she swiveled her chair around to face the doorway. Seeing the person standing there looking in, she locked eyes with him and said slowly, "With only two hundred yuan, how am I supposed to survive the next two months?"
*With only two hundred yuan, how am I supposed to survive the next two months... With only two hundred yuan, how am I supposed to survive the next two months...*
The girl's eyes were like slender willow leaves, her double eyelids just the right width, with upturned outer corners and a clean, clear gaze.
Her entire aura was aloof and detached, and the words didn't sound like cross-examination—more like a simple statement of fact.
He Yi felt as though he had been hooked by the girl's direct, unblinking stare.
This sentence didn't sound like it was meant for the person on the phone; instead, it felt like it was meant for him. Otherwise, why would it want to burrow into his brain like a hypnotic spell and brand itself there?
He Yi shuddered, a strange feeling rising from the bottom of his heart: *Damn it, she really knows how to play psychological games.*
The voice on the other end of the phone chattered anxiously and angrily about one thing or another, mostly hoping she would turn over a new leaf and the like, but Qin Jiujiu stopped listening and abruptly ended the call.
He Yi subtly looked her over, noting that there was no trace of anger or depression on her face, and thought to himself, *Well, well, the little piece of work is taking it quite calmly.*
The two of them once again walked out of the dorm building one after the other. Passing by the school supermarket, Qin Jiujiu ducked inside and used cash to buy a carton of chocolate milk and a bottle of cola.
When she came out, she saw the boy waiting for her by the supermarket entrance. She walked over, and the two walked in silence all the way to the entrance of the school cafeteria building.
Qin Jiujiu shoved the cola into the boy's arms and said brightly, "Thanks for your help, Classmate He. Have a cola on me. I'm going to eat now, bye-bye~"
Without waiting for him to react, she walked straight into the cafeteria, her figure swallowed by the sea of people.
He Yi squeezed the cola bottle, his very first thought actually being: *She just spent ten yuan at the supermarket. At this rate, she'll be broke in twenty days, or maybe even faster...*
*Damn it, what does that have to do with me?!*
He Yi shook his head, trying to fling these automatically generated thoughts out of his mind.
An arm suddenly slung over his shoulders from behind. "Hey! Brother Yi! What are you up to?"
He Yi irritably shoved the cola at the guy. "Here, have a cola!"