For some unknown reason, Miaomiao had lately insisted that Ansheng was performing far too poorly in his studies, and had taken it upon herself to tutor him.
Conversely, after serving as Miaomiao’s assistant for a single week, Ansheng had flatly quit. It was simply too agonizing.
When Miaomiao first began tutoring herself, hadn't she claimed it would only take two weeks at most?
Feeling rather perplexed by this turn of events, Ansheng asked at the end of a tutoring session one day, "How much longer are we going to keep doing this?"
Miaomiao froze, blinked, and fell into thought.
Perhaps she had simply spent too much time with Ansheng, or perhaps she realized that once she understood a concept herself, explaining it clearly to someone else was immensely beneficial for cementing her own knowledge. In any case, her immediate reflex every day after school had become coming straight to Ansheng’s apartment to prepare for the session.
After a moment of silence, Miaomiao nodded.
"That's true. I'd kind of lost track of the time myself. Today's Friday, so let's call this the last session. After tomorrow, I won't come over anymore."
Ansheng heaved a tremendous sigh of relief. If there were still tutoring sessions scheduled for Monday afternoon, it would clash directly with the promotional event at the merchandise store he had been planning to visit.
He had been eyeing a particular limited-edition figure and yearning for it for ages, but could never quite bring himself to shell out the money. Now that a limited-time discount had finally popped up, he simply had to go snag it!
The annoying part was that while other places usually ran limited-time sales for a day or two, why on earth did that figure have to be limited to a mere two-hour window—and in strictly limited quantities, to boot? He'd probably have to head over well in advance to keep someone else from swooping in and stealing it.
Ansheng was generally far too lazy to bother with much, but once he made up his mind, he preferred to get things done in one go if possible. That had always been his personal creed.
Watching Ansheng, who suddenly looked infinitely delighted, Miaomiao raised an eyebrow and asked, "You seem awfully happy about us stopping the tutoring?"
"Yes, I am," Ansheng replied with absolute candor.
Miaomiao stared at this otaku, whose mind was a complete mystery, feeling rather baffled.
"Isn't consolidating your knowledge a good thing? Plus, you've got someone who understands the material acting as your free private tutor right by your side. I'd say you're getting a great deal."
Ansheng shook his head, looking completely earnest. "No matter how much you study, it shouldn't take up too much of your extracurricular time. Extracurricular time is meant for playing."
"It's meant for turning the tables and overtaking others," Miaomiao countered.
"It's meant for playing."
"Is there anything in that brain of yours besides playing?"
Ansheng paused to ponder, then gave his answer. "Sleeping. Sleeping is a form of enjoyment."
Miaomiao was left speechless. There were people practically begging her to tutor them, even offering to pay, and she had rejected them batch after batch.
Granted, most of them were just drawn by her appearance and wanted to get closer to her, but there were certainly those who genuinely asked for her help with their studies.
How was it that this particular guy treated the whole thing with such utter disdain?
"I really wonder how you managed to get into Chunhe."
"Barely scraped by on the cutoff."
Miaomiao shook her head. Unable to make sense of it for the moment, she simply gave up trying. After all, these were all the other person's choices; she could only say their paths diverged, and she wasn't about to force the issue.
Perhaps she could consider offering after-school tutoring in the future. Having experienced it for two weeks, Miaomiao felt it had indeed been quite a good way to improve herself.
Packing up her study supplies, Miaomiao brushed off her skirt and stood up.
"I'm heading out."
"Oh—" Ansheng had already turned on the TV and started watching an anime; he waved a hand without even turning his head.
Miaomiao smiled helplessly, turned and walked out of Ansheng's room, locked the door, and walked a few steps to the adjacent apartment to open her own front door.
Stepping inside, she carefully steadied herself against the doorframe to take off her slippers, only realizing when her bare foot touched the floor that she had already taken her shoes off right outside Ansheng's door.
She laughed at her own absent-mindedness, walked back to the shoe rack in front of Ansheng’s apartment to retrieve her sneakers, and placed them properly by her own doorway.
Flipping on the incandescent light, she took in her apartment. The size and layout were almost identical to Ansheng's, keeping to the same minimalist, clean white aesthetic. There was no clutter scattered about, making the place feel somewhat empty.
The only difference was that where Ansheng had a low coffee table and a rug, her apartment featured a white square high-top table and a single chair, with a one-person sofa tucked into the corner.
There was no television installed in Miaomiao's home. She rarely watched TV anyway; anything you could watch on a screen could be looked up on a phone, so why go to the trouble? Besides, she rarely used her phone for entertainment either—aside from her duties as class monitor to gather information and check school notices, she had no use for it.
She placed her black tote bag on the table and pulled out a stack of textbooks and study materials. At school today, she had intended to go over geography with Ansheng, and she had already written out and organized the materials into a neat booklet herself.
Since Ansheng didn't need them, she supposed she could just review them by reciting them to herself.
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Miaomiao parted her lips and began to murmur softly to herself, her crisp, melodic whispers echoing in the small space.
About half an hour later, Miaomiao cleared her throat and stopped reciting. Her mouth felt a little dry from all the talking.
She instinctively reached out and made a grasping motion in the air over the table, but the familiar, cool ceramic touch she expected never came.
Miaomiao froze, looked up at the table, and found it completely bare.
At Ansheng's place, the very first thing he always did upon entering the room was pour two glasses of water for them both.
Ansheng figured that since she was willing to tutor him, even if he couldn't do much else, pouring her a glass of water was the least he could do.
Of course, Ansheng could also have repaid her by continuing to serve as her assistant, but that option was undoubtedly discarded by him in record time.
Miaomiao fell silent for a moment, withdrew her hand, massaged her temples, and muttered in gentle puzzlement, "Did I... study a bit too hard?"
---
Monday, after school.
The moment the final bell rang, Ansheng bolted like a man on fire toward the store selling the merchandise, having crouched by the back door and crept out a few seconds before the bell even sounded.
Hearing the commotion behind her, Miaomiao turned around in curiosity, only to find Ansheng gone—vanished the instant the class ended.
She wondered what his motives could possibly be. Since she wasn't tutoring him anymore, what was he in such a rush for?
"Four-and-one minute... I can make it!"
Stepping out of the school gates, Ansheng glanced at his phone and hurried toward the shop.
He had already scouted the location over the weekend, calculating the quickest route from the school to the store. Today, all he had to do was run flat out without thinking.
Fortunately, the shop wasn't too far from the school, otherwise he would have had to take a cab. That commercial street was choked with traffic on weekdays and had several red lights; taking a car would have spelled absolute disaster.
Walking meant only having to navigate one or two intersections, and cutting through the back alleys would save him the vast majority of the time.
In the end, after running the whole way, Ansheng arrived in the vicinity of the shop six or seven minutes later.
"Heh... I'm bound to be... among the very first to arrive..."
Leaning forward with his hands on his knees, Ansheng paused to catch his breath at the corner. All he had to do was turn the bend and walk straight ahead to reach the entrance.
He swallowed hard, wiped the sweat from his forehead, rounded the corner with a confident stride, and then froze, his eyes widening in horror.
At some point, a dense, winding queue had already formed outside the shop's entrance, snaking around in loops due to the sheer number of people.
Ansheng stared blankly at his phone: "16:09."
Aren't you lot of hardcore otaku supposed to have athletic abilities close to absolute zero?! And where on earth did all these people come from?!
A whole squad of Usain Bolts!
Ansheng felt profoundly aggrieved. He had thought that even if he wasn't the absolute first to arrive, he would at least be part of the initial wave.
Looking at the headache-inducing dragon of a queue before him, Ansheng gritted his teeth and dutifully took his place at the very tail end.
What if?! Right, what if?!
A faint sliver of hope still lingered in his heart.
Ten minutes passed. The line hadn't moved an inch.
Ansheng comforted himself by thinking that the store probably limited customer flow, so letting people in a few at a time was completely normal.
Half an hour passed. The queue shuffled forward a few steps.
Ansheng consoled himself that someone must have left a bit too much space between themselves and the person in front.
An hour passed. Ansheng finally caught sight of the limited-edition merchandise poster pasted on the door.
There's hope! Ansheng clenched his fist, feeling as though the figure was already beckoning to him.
"Attention, everyone—"
A crackling loudspeaker voice echoed from inside the store. Ansheng started, tilting his head to peer into the shop.
A store clerk holding a megaphone cleared his throat and shouted again:
"Thank you all for your support, but the merchandise is now sold out—"
Those words struck Ansheng like a bolt of lightning.
"It's... it's gone?"
Long after the crowd had dispersed, Ansheng remained rooted to the spot.
Noticing a guy still standing dead in front of the entrance, the clerk walked over, ready to ask if he needed any assistance.
"Sir, are you—"
Ansheng didn't answer the clerk. At that moment, he was utterly crushed. The merchandise he had anticipated for all those days...
It had all vanished into thin air.
He didn't even have the energy left to sigh. Shoving his hands into his pockets, Ansheng drooped his shoulders, lowered his head, and began the silent trudge home.
"Shouldn't have bothered leaving the house..."
Ansheng waited in silence at the pedestrian crossing. It was already past six o'clock, roughly the time when people were getting off work or going out for an evening stroll, and the streets were packed.
Granted, he hadn't made it to the front of the line at the shop, but now he was standing at the very front of the crowd waiting for the traffic light.
Dammit all...
As the cacophony of car horns finally ceased, the restless crowd surged forward. Ansheng quietly stepped onto the crosswalk.
"I'll just go home and honestly watch anime and play games later... Going outside is sheer misery, nothing but tragic things happen..."
As he reached the steps on the opposite side of the street, a familiar cry of surprise suddenly rang out in his ears.
"Ah—"
Ansheng frowned. Why did that sound so much like... Miaomiao?