Chapter 76 – Lipstick

You Yu’s birthday was May 10th, her eighteenth birthday.

It was Sunday. Chi Tang came back from a half-day holiday and secretly hid a small bag under the rest of the pillow. After putting it away, she felt it was too secret and difficult to find. She hooked out a corner of the small bag with my hand and exposed it outside the pillow. At this glance, she was satisfied.

Putting the good things in, Chi Tang climbed to her upper bunk, pulled up the quilt, and pretended to be taking a nap.

Before long, the door of the dormitory was opened, and the footsteps of the people who came in were very light. Chi Tang could easily recognize that this was leisure. She would notice whether anyone was resting in the dormitory as soon as she entered the door. When the others returned to the dormitory, they were kicked and argued with for a while. They were massive, and they had to speak and laugh loudly. They were reminded that they had found someone resting in the room.

You Yu came in and closed the door. She put something on the desk, probably books and notes. After putting them out, she stood in front of the bed and looked at her for a while. Although she couldn’t see it, Chi Tang could feel her gaze. After looking at it for a while, she felt a hand touching her quilt and called her gently.

“Chi Tang?”

The voice was very soft, and Chi Tang didn’t move, as if she hadn’t heard it. You Yu probably felt that she was asleep and didn’t call her again. Chi Tang could only hear the slight movements and guessed whether You Yu saw what was under her pillow now.

She listened carefully, and soon after, she heard the rustle of the new material bag and the sound of the box being opened.

Then there was no movement for a long time. Chi Tang thought to herself, Did You Yu like this gift or not? She couldn’t calm down. She wanted to sit up and look down directly, but she couldn’t help it.

Chi Tang thought about what gifts to give to the tour for her 18th birthday for a long time.

She became an adult at 18. She thought that this year’s birthday, and other years’ birthdays, should always be a little different, and the things given should also be meaningful. After thinking about it for a long time, she finally found a suggestion online—sending lipstick.

It’s not because of marketing slogans like “women are born with lipstick” or “how many lipsticks should women have,” but rather because lipstick appears to have a different meaning. It was always associated with the word “woman,” and at 18, from girl to woman, it was like buds blooming.

Chi Tang had previously watched an ancient love animated short film in which the heroine met her favorite person. Every time she went to see her sweetheart, she had to turn a little red on her lips. Later, she got married, dressed in wedding clothes, and sat in front of the mirror with red lips. Chi Tang felt very charming with such camera language and an episode of red makeup. So when she saw the suggestion of lipstick again, she immediately decided.

They were only in high school; students were not permitted to wear makeup, and she typically uses a facial cleanser. She went back to buy lipstick. Because of the hurry, she still went in a school uniform. When she walked to the counter, she was a little overwhelmed by the dazzling lipstick. The sister behind the counter looked at her as if she were watching a child wearing an adult’s shoes.

The scene was a little shameful, reminding her of the time she went to buy a bra in her freshman year of high school.

Walking on the way after buying lipstick, Chi Tang thought that according to You Yu’s personality habits, she should not like this gift. You Yu usually took care of herself, clean and tidy. She never deliberately dresses up. Unlike other beautiful girls of this age, she probably won’t use this lipstick.

Besides, would she not understand what she means and think it’s perfunctory for her to buy lipstick? Those straight men who didn’t know what gifts to give their girlfriends on the Internet all bought lipstick. Isn’t she the same as those stupid straight men?

Therefore, Chi Tang regretted halfway, but she bought everything, and it was difficult to change them temporarily. She didn’t expect other gifts, and finally took them back and gave them out to avoid facing the pictures that You Yu didn’t like. She pretended to sleep there.

The dormitory was silent. Chi Tang was very sensitive to the sound and listened carefully. She heard You Yu open the package and get the exit red, and tapped again. It should have opened the lid.

She should put it away after watching it, right? Chi Tang comforted herself again. Even if she didn’t like it, You Yu would say nothing. At worst, she would make up something she liked next time, such as a lot of exercise books… It’s not right. They were about to graduate, and they couldn’t finish buying too many exercise books.

Chi Tang’s thoughts wandered around her mind, and suddenly she heard footsteps as if she had gotten up and gone to the bathroom. Chi Tang moved her heart and sat up quietly and looked at the box open in the lower bunk. Did she try it out? She stepped onto the ladder and went to the bathroom barefoot to look inside.

You Yu stood in front of the mirror and applied lipstick strangely. It was my first time using it. Although it was depicted seriously, it was probably because the lips were too dry and some were unevenly applied. The warm red color had a unique beauty to this girl, who usually looked quiet. because of the bright colors or because of her look.

You Yu raised her hand subconsciously to cover her eyes. Chi Tang also had a kind of embarrassment, but she wanted to laugh again. After about three seconds, she walked into the bathroom and stretched out her hand. “I’ll help you paint it.”

She was not very good at it.

And when she helped apply it, You Yu kept subconsciously squeezing her lips. She had to pinch her face slightly and “shut your mouth.”

You Yu opened her mouth slightly and looked at her all the time. Chi Tang could feel that the cheeks under her hand were slightly hot. Even her fingers got hot.

Looking at her for a while, You Yu lowered her eyes slightly, and her lips couldn’t help but bend. This scene seemed to be inexplicably familiar. Chi Tang suddenly remembered the animated short film she had seen. The scene of the heroine who indulged in love wanted to say that she was still resting and couldn’t be suppressed.

“… alright.”

It failed. The outlined lip shape was too rigid, even a little funny. Chi Tang couldn’t help raising her hand and rubbing it on You Yu’s lips,”… I didn’t apply for it well. Let’s apply it again. “

You, Yu, took her hand and suddenly leaned towards her.

Chi Tang’s throat moved, standing motionless, holding her lipstick hand on the washstand.

In the afternoon of May, the blazing sunlight fell at their feet and on the white tiles, reflecting bright white light.

The shadows of the two slender girls in the mirror slowly approached, and after a while, they slowly separated. Their lips were the same red. The originally dry lips were no longer dry, and the thick color was diluted and neutralized, which looked bright.

The girl with glasses showed an unprecedented bright smile in the sun, like a blooming flower.

Chi Tang saw herself in the mirror on her side. The lips were bright red, and even some were red-stained outside the lip line, just like You Yu.

She put down the lipstick she forgot to put down in her hand, raised her hand, took off Yu Yu’s glasses, and whispered, “Happy birthday.”

Then it came up, warm and fragrant red.

After You Yu’s birthday, it was less than a month away from the college entrance examination.

Everyone learned in the dark. On the eve of the exam, Mrs. Ke, who had been asking them to study more quickly, suddenly said to them, “Tomorrow is the exam. Let’s have a good rest today. There are only two classes in the afternoon, and the evening self-study is not used to maintain good health. “

After being tense for so long, it suddenly became empty, and everyone was a little uncomfortable. She didn’t let herself read and do exercises, and she didn’t even know what else she could do.

Because they were worried about what problems students would encounter when they went out without permission and would delay the exam, all students living in school could only stay at school.

In the evening, although Mrs. Ke said that she didn’t need to study late, many people still went to the classroom. Some of them were to surprise them before the exam, and some of them simply couldn’t forget the evening self-study, so they subconsciously came over.

A group of people in the classroom were too nervous to learn. What they didn’t want to learn didn’t know what they could do.

Wei Xingxing proposed, “Where do we sing here?”

For the song, everyone’s eyes were on Chi Tang.

During the usual evening self-study, Mrs. Ke walked near the Class 3 classroom and heard a song. She stood by the door and looked in and saw Chi Tang singing with a guitar in her arms, singing ancient Chinese poems. Mrs. Ke laughed. Unexpectedly, the student would sing all the texts to be memorized in Chinese as songs. It’s quite interesting, and it’s really beautiful.

The melodious music echoed in the classroom, and many people in the class either sat or stood quietly. Mrs. Ke also listened from outside the door. When these “text songs” were performed, another song, “Farewell,” was substituted.

“Outside the long pavilion

The grass by the ancient road is green.

…

The end of the world

The corner of the earth

Knowing that it is half-sing.

…”

Every year’s graduation season, there was such a farewell. After graduation, each of them had their own direction, and it was rare to have such a moment.

After listening to the song, Mrs. Ke was a little sad and smiled again. In the end, she still didn’t enter the classroom and left quietly.

During the three days of the college entrance examination, Chi Tang didn’t remember how she passed. She only remembered that Mrs. Ke repeatedly stressed that she should remember to bring the admission ticket before the exam. Don’t be nervous and follow the other instructions. It was the wrong eye. This last level passed like this.

It’s a little unexpectedly fast. She thought about the college entrance examination very hard before, but she experienced it, and she seemed to feel nothing.

On the day after the exam, the senior high school students gathered in the classroom again. She didn’t know who started it first. They cheered and shouted in the classroom, and some people tore books and threw away their homework and test papers. This seems to be a tradition. At this time of year, a layer of paper would be laid under the third year of high school.

Chi Tang did not take part in the liberation celebration of this group. She clenched the things in her hand, stood in the corridor, and looked down, waiting quietly.

After the exam, You Yu was called by Mrs. Ke to get something. She walked downstairs with a pile of paper in her arms and heard Chi Tang’s familiar voice calling her.

“You Yu!”

You Yu subconsciously looked up and saw Chi Tang standing in the corridor on the second floor.

Chi Tang smiled at her, stretched out her hand, and asked her brainlessly, “Do you like it?”

You Yu saw something refracting bright light in the sunlight on Chi Tang’s hand, which seemed to be a ring. She still held another one in her hand, and a red string tied to the plain circle floated in the air.

You Yu suddenly understood something. Her heart suddenly beat fast, and the smile on her face couldn’t help rising. She stood downstairs and said, “I do!”

The whole Zhiyuan building was very noisy. Many people were cheering and laughing, and their voices were insignificant. But they all heard each other’s voices clearly as if something isolated them.

Chi Tang leaned slightly upstairs and raised her arms gently.

In You Yu’s eyes, the ring tied on a red string crossed the blue sky on the graduation day and fell towards her. She couldn’t help stepping forward. Her hands loosened, and the pile of paper in her arms fell to the ground. She raised her hand and grabbed the ring accurately.

The class bell rang.