Monday. Sore waist and aching back.

It seemed like only after knowing about this matter did she become aware of her body’s sense of weakness. Even raising her hands to tie up her hair in the morning was laborious, so she simply let her long hair hang loose over her shoulders. When she reached the stairway entrance, she ran into two class representatives who were discussing problems this time. As soon as they saw her, they immediately called out: “Long Qi, homework!”

She turned around to look at the subject, slowly taking the homework booklet from her bag. Just then the bell rang. One girl blurted out: “Hurry up…”

This time Long Qi didn’t say things like “what’s the rush” that she would normally say. After handing in the booklet, she went upstairs. The two class representatives remained where they were, looking at each other and making obscure eye signals.

After stepping from the stairway into the corridor, she looked toward the east classroom and happened to see Jin Yiken on the balcony. He was there alone, both elbows resting on the balcony edge, thinking about something. His figure seemed very heavy. As if sensing her gaze, he also looked this way.

One person in the east, one in the west, separated by the clamor of three or four classes in between. They looked at each other from afar for two or three seconds, the meaning profound. Then, accompanied by the bell, Long Qi withdrew her gaze and walked alone toward the class on the west side.

She didn’t speak throughout the entire morning of classes, just propped her chin up and twirled her pen, lacking any vitality or spirit.

Dong Xi was different.

Dong Xi had tied up her hair today, with the bangs at her forehead completely swept back—unexpectedly neat and attractive, as if she and Long Qi had swapped their usual styles. But she still didn’t talk much. During class she looked at the podium. Long Qi looked at her across half the classroom’s distance. Both their gazes rested where they usually rested.

She endured until the PE class near noon. The teacher had the students do their routine running. Before blowing the whistle, Long Qi asked for leave.

But the teacher didn’t let her idle. She gave her the task of going to the equipment room to get shot puts. Long Qi asked: “How many?”

“One basket.”

Everyone knew shot puts were heavy. Having one girl carry a whole basket was too impractical. The teacher was originally joking with her, then conveniently called out to Dong Xi, whose knee had been injured: “Dong Xi, you don’t need to run either. Go with Long Qi to get the shot puts.”

Dong Xi looked over at the sound and walked out from the queue preparing to get on the track.

The equipment room wasn’t far, just at the northernmost edge of the field—a five or six minute walk. Long Qi walked in front, Dong Xi behind. But Long Qi’s steps were slow, so before long the two were side by side.

“Your health isn’t good, is it?”

Dong Xi spoke lightly. Long Qi looked at her.

Then answered: “Didn’t sleep well last night.”

Dong Xi nodded.

“You left early that day.”

“Mm.”

After responding, remembering something, Long Qi asked: “After I left that day, did anyone come looking for you?”

The original words should have been “did anyone come to give you trouble?”

Dong Xi shook her head.

Long Qi nodded: “Did you stop logging into your campus account after that?”

Dong Xi looked at her.

She said: “I left you my phone number. It’ll be more convenient to contact each other in the future.”

The wind blew gently. Dong Xi said: “I’ll save it tonight.”

They just arrived at the PE equipment room. Long Qi found the basket holding the shot puts. It was filled very full. Even with both of them lifting together it was still somewhat strenuous, and inconvenient to walk. So Dong Xi found another basket and divided the shot puts into two batches. Each person responsible for one basket made it somewhat easier.

When carrying a basket of shot puts out of the room, she felt one or two seconds of dizziness, then quickly recovered. Dong Xi walking in front didn’t notice, but one person did.

Or rather, he might not have known she experienced dizziness, but had been watching her since she entered the equipment room. So as soon as he saw her holding the shot put basket, he walked directly from the ball court in this direction.

She only noticed when footsteps reached her side. As soon as she turned her head to look, her hands suddenly became empty. Jin Yiken wordlessly took away her shot put basket. She looked at him. He walked forward without looking to either side. When he reached Dong Xi, he used his other free hand to take her basket too. One person took responsibility for both of theirs.

This approach was quite clever. Several classes taking PE together had just finished running and returned to the field. Those who saw only thought he was helping Dong Xi. When he walked, he didn’t have any exchange with her.

After PE class, during lunch time, Jin Yiken sent her a text message telling her to go to a private room at a small restaurant off campus.

There were quite a few students eating lunch off campus, while she usually stayed in the classroom solving it with one piece of whole wheat bread and a box of yogurt. Thinking it was to talk about things, she also brought these two items when she went.

But when she entered the private room, she saw he had already ordered a whole table of dishes. He sat in the main seat.

Outside the door, two-thirds of the hall across a corridor were students from their school. Long Qi removed her earphones while closing the door, placing the yogurt and bread on the table across from him. Jin Yiken pulled out a chair beside himself: “Come sit here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Come sit here first.”

After sitting in that seat, Jin Yiken lifted a bag from under the table and took out several fresh-keeping boxes containing dishes from the bag one by one—meat, vegetables, cold dishes, and one filled with mangoes and cherries.

“Had Donna make them this morning.” As he spoke, he poured the steaming soup from the thermos into a bowl.

Donna was Jin Yiken’s family’s Filipino maid. She was especially good at cooking, and her mouth was especially tight. The matter of Long Qi staying at his place for those few days hadn’t leaked from her mouth at all. Long Qi had also mentioned that her braised lion’s head meatballs were especially authentic. But this didn’t prevent her from asking again: “What do you mean by this?”

He finished serving the soup and also set out the bowl and chopsticks, saying: “No particular meaning. Just want you to eat better.”

Then he pointed at the soup: “Crucian carp soup. I looked it up—it’s good for your body right now.”

Long Qi didn’t pick up her chopsticks. He took out a bag of chocolate beans from the bag. She wanted to eat the chocolate beans first. When she reached for them, he lifted them to the side. He pointed at the food with his finger.

“Can’t eat that much. I usually just solve it that way.” Long Qi reached back for the yogurt.

He said: “You’re not doing activities recently. What figure are you maintaining?”

“Have you thought it through yet or not?”

“Isn’t the time not up yet?” he replied.

After this exchange, Long Qi sat silently for a while, then picked up her chopsticks, picked up a small half piece of lion’s head meatball and placed it on the hot rice. Jin Yiken watched her.

She ate a small bite with the rice, chewed, then slowly picked up more food. He kept watching her.

While drinking soup, he reached out and touched her temple, smoothing the long hair by her cheek behind her ear. Then, while stroking her forehead with his thumb, he looked at her profile as she ate for a long time. Long Qi didn’t say a word.

After finishing a whole bowl of rice, she ate one or two pieces of mango. He asked: “What else do you want to eat?”

“I’m full.”

“What do you want to eat tomorrow?”

Long Qi put down her chopsticks, gently turning her head away to avoid the stroking of his palm. The two sat without speaking to each other for a while. After that, she looked at him: “Do you really want it?”

He rested both elbows on the table edge.

“If I had pursued you in a normal way, if we had dated normally for a year, would you want it a little more than I do?”

She shook her head: “If you had pursued me in a normal way, we wouldn’t be together at all.”

Jin Yiken sighed.

He never sighed. His emotional expressions facing her had always only been smoking or laughing, but this time he sighed. Long Qi wanted to speak, but suddenly there was some subtle movement at the private room door. As soon as she looked over, Jin Yiken reacted a step faster than her and stood up.

The movement outside became a bit louder. Someone was quickly leaving the area. After Jin Yiken opened the door and went out, Long Qi followed. When she reached the door frame, she heard a “bang” sound of someone being slammed against a wall. Walking out of the private room, she saw Jin Yiken had already efficiently restrained the male student. He didn’t let the person leave. One hand pressed the male student while the other hand took the student’s phone to check. After Long Qi came out, the male student looked at her. Jin Yiken immediately said: “You go back inside.”

“Did he take photos or record audio?”

Jin Yiken walked toward Long Qi while pointing at the male student, with an aura of “if you dare leave, I’ll ruin you.” The male student’s face was unfamiliar, seemingly a junior from year one or two. After being pointed at like this, he stood rooted to the spot with a pale face. Long Qi was led back to the private room, hearing him say: “Stay here and don’t come out.”

Then with a bang he closed the private room door and continued back to handle the matter.