Chapter 2: “Ruan,” from Ruan Diao Huan Jiu

The lamb meat that night was not very tasty. After cooling down, it smelled a lot like actual lamb meat, and the meat was really hard. Ruan Mian only ate one skewer before Fang Ruqing took the rest and threw it away.

“All of it’s already cold, so don’t eat it anymore,” Fang Ruqing went to the kitchen and brought her a bowl of green bean soup, “When you finish it, go take a shower and rest early.”

“Got it,” Ruan Mian finished the soup in a few sips and went back to her room to retrieve her pajamas. When she came out of the shower, she ran into Zhao Shutang who was going downstairs to the bathroom.

As she wiped her hair, she paused for a moment, unsure of whether she should give a greeting, but Zhao Shutang walked past without turning her gaze and closed the bathroom door loudly.

Ruan Mian’s footsteps were small, and she puffed out her cheeks and let out a sigh. She pulled off the towel, held it in her hands, and softened her footsteps heading upstairs.

Let’s go slowly, she thought.

The next day, Ruan Mian was in a trance. Thinking that she had to go to cram school, she got up before seven o’clock. When she went upstairs to wash up, Fang Ruqing, who was preparing breakfast in the kitchen, poked her head out, “Why did you get up so early?”

“I remembered the time incorrectly,” Ruan Mian tidied herself up, then headed to the kitchen, “Do you need any help?”

“Help me take out the bowls and chopsticks then. We’ll be having breakfast soon.”

“Okay,” Ruan Mian rolled up her sleeves, took out the clean bowls and chopsticks, and arranged them one by one according to the seat. The morning sunlight fell onto the corners of the table.

Not too long after, Zhao Yingwei and Duan Ying returned from outside. The two children of the Zhao family hadn’t woken up yet, and Zhao Shuwei was going to call for them, but Duan Ying stopped him, “School is about to start. It’s rare to have time like this, so let them sleep more.”

Zhao Yingwei thought so too, and when he sat down, he looked at Ruan Mian, “Mianmian, those cram school classes are now over. You can get more sleep in the morning.”

Before Ruan Mian could speak, Fang Ruqing came out of the kitchen to answer, “She got up so early today because she misremembered the time. If it were like before, she wouldn’t be up until noon.”

Zhao Yingwei laughed, “Right now, students are under a lot of pressure, and they work hard. If they can sleep more when it’s vacation time, let them sleep more.”

The breakfast had a seemingly harmonious start. At the table, Duan Ying also had a few words with Ruan Mian, appearing cordial.
Soon after dinner, Fang Ruqing and Zhao Yingwei still had to go to work. Since Ruan Mian had nothing to do, she went with them together to become more familiar with the roads.

When she passed by Li’s Supermarket, the store was unloading goods. Ruan Mian only saw last night’s middle-aged boss directing at the side, but she did not see Li Zhi or the boy named Chen Yi.

When they reached the alley, Zhao Yingwei’s car was parked by the side of the road. Fang Ruqing then gave Ruan Mian two red tickets, “At noon, if you don’t want to stay at home, go find some friends to hang out with, and come back for dinner at night.”

Ruan Mian felt that her mother was a little overly worried, but she still took the money to reassure her, “Alright, I’ll let you know when I head out.”

“Stay safe.”

“I know.”
After the car left, Ruan Mian stuffed the money into her pants pocket, looked up at the antennas circling overhead, turned around, and walked along the roadside shops.

She spent the entire morning walking through the alleyways of Pingjiang West Alley. It wasn’t actually that large itself, but there were many alleys.

When it was almost eleven o’clock, Ruan Mian came in from the east alley and walked to the door of Li’s supermarket without any mistakes. The boss was standing by the counter and using the computer. Seeing her coming in, he showed a pure and honest smile, “What does this little girl want to buy?”

Ruan Mian took two steps in, “I want to buy some snacks.”

The supermarket was not big. There were only four rows and shelves and a door leading to the small courtyard at the back. At this time, the curtain was rolled up and hung on the wall, and Ruan Mian saw a well in the middle of the courtyard. There was a red and white porcelain basin by the mouth of the well, and next to it was the leg of a flower stand.

She didn’t stay there for too long. Using the money given by Fang Ruqing, she bought some snacks and a watermelon, carrying them as she walked back to the Zhao household.

The siblings Zhao Shutang and Zhao Shuyang had already woken up and were sitting in the living room watching TV. Duan Ying was busy with lunch in the kitchen. Seeing her come back, only Zhao Shuyang got up from the sofa to take a look.

Ruan Mian put the things on the table. She stood there thinking for a while before finally mustering up the courage to go to the kitchen, “Grandma, do you want help?”

Duan Ying didn’t raise her head, “No need.”

Ruan Mian pinched her fingers, suddenly unsure of what to say.

Duan Ying put down the kitchen knife and wiped her hand with her apron, “The kitchen’s full of oily smoke. Go to the living room and watch TV with Shutang and the others, and then we’ll eat.”

“Okay.” Ruan Mian let out a sigh of relief.

After the meal, Ruan Mian put the snacks she bought on the coffee in the living room and went to the kitchen with the watermelon.

Zhao Shutang came once, and she stood at the door of the kitchen with her arms crossed, eyes cold and sharp, “You don’t have to do this to please anyone. No matter what, I won’t accept you and your mother.”

Ruan Mian glanced at her but said nothing.

Zhao Shutang probably thought it was pointless to go further, so she turned around and left again. Shortly after, Zhao Shuyang came out of nowhere, and Ruan Mian cut a small piece of watermelon for him, “Have this.”

He took the piece of watermelon, happily bouncing away as he ran out to play.

Ruan Mian put the sliced ​​watermelon into the refrigerator, washed her hands, and returned to her bedroom on the second floor. The old fan on the floor blew directly at the end of the bed.

She lay on the bed with her eyes closed, surrounded by the cool breeze, inexplicably thinking of the boy named Chen Yi and his dark eyes.

In the middle of being half-awake and half-asleep, the image was extraordinarily clear.

The week after, Ruan Mian always went out at dusk, even walking down an alley randomly, sometimes passing by Li’s supermarket, sometimes passing by the Internet cafe. Sometimes, she met Li Zhi and his friends, but she never saw that boy named Chen Yi again.

On the day of No. 8 High School’s opening, because it was the end of the month, neither Fang Ruqing nor Zhao Yingwei could ask for leave. As such, they had to entrust Ruan Mian to Zhao Shutang who was in the same class.

On the way to school, Zhao Shutang didn’t bother to hide her attitude, “My father bought your way into my class. Other than our teacher, Mr. Zhou, I don’t want the rest of our class to know about our relationship. So, please keep your distance from me in school.”

In No. 8 High School, there were now a total of 34 classes in the second year of high school. Classes 1 to 22 were science classes, of which the first and second were science experimental classes. The remaining 23rd to 32nd classes were liberal arts classes with the final two being a scientific art class and a performing art class.

TL’s Note: In China, the “science experimental” classes were reserved for only the best students. Schools that wished to set up these types of classes need approval from the Ministry of Education or their province’s education department. To enroll in these types of classes, students had to pass a special entrance exam, and after graduating, many could enter China’s key universities without even taking the Gaokao.

Although Ruan Mian’s grades were above average; however, when she transferred to the No. 8 High School at this time, she could only be placed into the ordinary key classes. It was simply because since Zhao Shuwei knew someone at school, he paid some money to receive a place in the science experimental class that Zhao Shutang was in.

Ruan Mian hadn’t known about the transfer beforehand. By the time she knew, it was already determined, so she could not trouble Zhao Yingwei again.

Now when Zhao Shutang put it this way, she didn’t have much of a reaction, “Alright, I understand.”

The second-year students’ classrooms were in a separate building. The upper four floors were for science and the lower two were for the liberal arts. Ruan Mian studied science, and when they arrived at school, Zhao Shutang took her to the door of the class teacher Zhou Hai’s office, before returning to her own classroom by herself.

“Ruan Mian, right? I’ve seen your grades—pretty good.” Zhou Hai asked her to sit in the office for a while, “Some students haven’t arrived yet. When class starts, I’ll take you over.”

“Okay. Thank you, Mr. Zhou.” Ruan Mian sat down by the table with our backpack on her back, staring at the not-so-young classroom teacher.

Zhou Hai rubbed his fingers and took out her information from No. 8 High School that was on the table, “I see you’ve participated in many biology competitions before. You’re interested in competing?”

Ruan Mian didn’t dare to confess that most of those competitions were strictly required by the teacher to sign up, so she compromised and said, “I’m just interested in biology.”

Zhou Hai nodded, “What a coincidence. I happen to be your biology teacher for this semester.”

After chatting for not long, the class bell rang, and the whole building quickly displayed the high quality of the key class students. Ruan Mian followed Zhou Hai through each class along the way. It was very quiet with rare laughter and playing.

Zhao Shutang’s Grade 2 Class 1 was at the corner of the corridor on the third floor. Zhou Hai pushed the door and entered. Some students in the class had been Zhou Hai’s students in Grade 1, and when they saw him, they whistled mischievously, “Old Zhou, long time no see. “

Zhou Hai smiled humbly and let Ruan Mian stand beside him, “It’s a new semester, which means that we’re one step closer to the Gaokao. Now, there are some students in this class who I have brought with me in their first year of high school, some of them may have heard my name, and some probably don’t even know who I am. But these are not important, the important thing is that from now on we are a new unit. Here, let me introduce myself first. My name is Zhou Hai, the ‘Zhou’ of Zhou Gong, and the ‘Hai’ of the ocean. I am your homeroom and biology teacher this semester, and I hope you’ll all give me advice.”

There was a burst of warm applause, mixed with a few whistles.

Zhou Hai raised his hand to stop them, patted Ruan Mian’s shoulder, and asked her to step forward, “This is a new transfer student in our class for this semester. Everyone, please welcome her.”

There was another round of applause. When it stopped, Zhou Hai asked Ruan Mian to introduce herself.

“Hello everyone, my name’s Ruan Mian. ‘Ruan’ of Ruan Diao Huan Jiu, ‘Mian’ of sleep. When Ruan Mian stopped to think about what to say next, the boy who had whistled earlier suddenly took the lead and gave a round of applause, interrupting Ruan Mian’s train of thought and rescuing her from her predicament.

Zhou Hai asked her to go down and find an empty seat to sit down first. In key classes, the farther back the seats were, the less popular they were. Most of the seats in the class were occupied, and only the last seat of the first row was still vacant. Ruan Mian chose the side near the corridor.

With her introduction at the beginning, from the first row and below, Zhou Hai then asked the rest of the class to give introductions of themselves.

When the whole class finished speaking, Ruan Mian only remembered a few of the more special ones such as the whistler named Jiang Rang.

On the first day of school, there was nothing to do in the ordinary classes, but it was different in the key classes. In the afternoon, a pre-assessment was arranged, testing only on the comprehensive sciences.

TL’s Note: The comprehensive sciences are physics, biology, and chemistry.

When she heard that English and Chinese were not to be tested, Ruan Mian’s whole body let out a sigh of release. She was serious about the subjects, and she could get close to full marks in comprehensive sciences and mathematics every time. But for Chinese and English, she often struggled to make it to the edge of the passing mark, giving her headaches.

After the afternoon exam, the results were posted in the evening’s second period of self-study. Ruan Mian’s overall score in the three subjects ranked fifth in the class.

Jiang Rang came back after reading the results and specifically walked to her, “You’re amazing, new student. Biology’s so difficult, but you actually got full marks on the exam. So strong.”

Ruan Mian flipped through the book, “Next time when the exam’s on all six subjects, you won’t think so anymore.”

“What?”

“Nothing.” She looked up and smiled.

The bell soon rang for the third period of self-studying, and Zhou Hai brought the fresh biology test papers and distributed them based on the scores.

Ruan Mian was the first, and she received a lot of praise when she went up to collect the test paper. Zhou Hai even directly named her as the representative of the biology class, “Keep up your hard work.”

TL’s Note: Being a representative of a class means that you’ll have responsibilities such as delegating test papers and helping the teacher with simple class affairs.

“Thank you, Mr. Zhou.” As she took the exam, Ruan Mian saw Zhao Shutang who was sitting in the middle of the third row. The two looked at each other before retracting their gazes again.

The pace of the key class was fast and tight, and the self-study period ended with an exam paper. After school, Ruan Mian took her backpack and went downstairs first through the back door.

She walked all the way to the alley near Zhao’s house where she waited for the leisurely late Zhao Shutang. The two went home together, pretending to return from school together.

After arriving home, Fang Ruqing came over to ask Ruan Mian about her day at school. She picked up the conversation and even said at the end, “Mom, you can tell Uncle Zhou that I don’t need Zhao Shutang to wait for me to head to school. She has her own freedom, and I have my own things to do. Doing it like this is too inconvenient.”

“That’s fine too,” Fang Ruqing hesitated before saying, “Today, at school, Shutang…”

Ruan Mian said, “We’re quite fine, actually, so you don’t need to worry. There wasn’t a conflict, and Zhao Shutang isn’t the type of person to be deliberately provocative.”

Fang Ruqing loosened her furrowed eyebrows and smiled gently, “That makes me feel relaxed. Then, rest early.”

“Mm.”

The next day, as expected, Zhao Shutang hadn’t waited for Ruan Mian to go to school with her and instead left early in the morning. Ruan Mian was happy, washed up, went out to buy breakfast at the alley’s entrance, walking towards school while she ate.

She left at a time that was considerably late, almost entering the classroom at the ringing of the bell for the morning self-study period. When she sat down, she realized that there was a black backpack in the seat next to her.

It seemed to be a new deskmate. Ruan Mian didn’t pay much attention, took out the biology book from her bag, spread it on the table, and continued to study along the place she had seen before.

A second bell rang for the morning’s self-study period, and there was a rush of footsteps from outside the corridor of the back door, and then a few boys walked in.

Someone sat down in the vacant seat next to Ruan Mian. The first thing that appeared out of the corner of her eyes were two straight long legs. There was a lack of room underneath the table, so he stretched forward.

The boy’s elbow was inadvertently thrown in front of Ruan Mian’s eyes. She saw a crescent-shaped scar on it and looked up along the arm.

Beyond the straight and smooth shoulder line and angular jawline, there was a moment to clearly see the face.
Ruan Mian was stunned.

The boy’s complexion was a little pale, and the traces of staying up late was evident underneath his eyes. His eyelashes were not very long but very dense. When they fell, they were as beautiful as crow feathers.

Chen Yi set down his schoolbag, raised his eyes to meet the staring gaze of the girl above, and casually asked, “What?”

The boy’s voice was still clean and lazy, laced with some nonchalance. It fell steadily into Ruan Mian’s ears, causing her heartbeat to skip inadvertently.

Ruan Mian seemed to be hit by a huge surprise. After recovering, she was temporarily cramped and nervous, and the edges of her textbook pages were unconsciously rolled into many folds by her.

Chen Yi clearly didn’t remember Ruan Mian, and he couldn’t wait for her answer, so he said “Mm” with a more perplexed tone, the ending sound rising.
Ruan Mian’s heartbeat climbed up, and when it reached a peak, it dropped suddenly. She relaxed her clenched hands, shook her head, and said, “It’s nothing.”

It was probably because he had seen too many times like this, but Chen Yi didn’t pay much attention. He pulled a few books and put them under as pillows, directly falling asleep.

He was so naturally and recklessly unrestrained this way, but Ruan Mian next to him was sitting on pins and needles. The familiar biological symbols in front of her were like a book from heaven, and she couldn’t read a single punctuation mark.

Outside the window, the flowering period of the gardenias was about to end, and its remaining elegant fragrance drifted into the classroom along with the breeze. Ruan Mian lowered her head and heard Chen Yi’s soothing and even breathing amidst her chaotic and tumultuous reading.

For Ruan Mian, that day’s morning self-study period was long and especially unforgettable. It was the joy of reunion that belonged to her alone.

Like the cool breeze of the late summer, it couldn’t rest for a long time.