Lin Qile was called to the blackboard by the math teacher to solve a problem.
She walked to the front, picked up a piece of chalk, and read the question. She began calculating quietly on the side, tapping the chalk gently on the board as she wrote, focusing intently on her work.
The math teacher stepped down from the podium and looked at the students. Unexpectedly, she noticed Jiang Qiaoxi, a student who usually paid little attention to her lessons, sitting in the last row and suddenly glancing up at the blackboard.
“Jiang Qiaoxi,” she said with a smile, “Come on up, our math Olympiad genius! Write your solution next to Lin Qile’s!”
Some students began whispering among themselves. Fei Linge looked up from his desk to see Jiang Qiaoxi put down his math Olympiad book and stand up.
Jiang walked to the podium and stood beside Lin Qile, towering over her by more than ten centimeters. He took a yellow piece of chalk from the tray at the bottom of the blackboard and began writing numbers effortlessly.
Lin Qile was writing her solution diligently when suddenly her chalk slipped, breaking the tip. She quickly looked for an eraser but found it was out of reach, with someone standing between her and it. Without looking at the boy next to her, Lin Qile used her finger to erase the mistaken number.
By then, Jiang Qiaoxi had finished writing his answer. He bent down, took the eraser, and placed it between himself and Lin Qile. He put down the chalk and walked back to his seat.
Cen Xiaoman looked up from her desk, tucking a strand of long hair behind her ear. She glanced at Lin Qile’s back, then at Jiang Qiaoxi as he returned to his seat.
The math teacher approached the board and examined Jiang Qiaoxi’s solution. Smiling, she watched as Lin Qile hurriedly finished the last few steps and arrived at her answer. Lin Qile put down the chalk, dusted off her hands, and returned to her seat.
Lin Qile had made a mistake in one of the steps. After class, she ran to the teacher’s desk to ask questions. Back in her seat, she turned around to discuss the problem with Yu Qiao. Yu Qiao sat behind her and didn’t look like a diligent student, but his grades consistently ranked in the top ten of the class, excelling in science subjects despite being slightly weaker in Chinese.
He took Lin Qile’s pen but didn’t bother with her notebook. Instead, he wrote the solution directly on the margin of the sports newspaper he was reading. “Do you understand now?” he asked, looking up. Lin Qile tried to tear off that corner to look at it but accidentally ripped half the newspaper. Yu Qiao hadn’t finished reading it, causing the boys around him who were also reading the paper to laugh.
Jiang Qiaoxi sat in the last row, not saying a word.
Fei Linge leaned in quietly and whispered, “That girl who went to the blackboard earlier, isn’t she the one who came looking for you in middle school? Did you recognize her?”
Jiang Qiaoxi turned a page in his math Olympiad book, appearing to be in a bad mood, and ignored him.
Fei Linge was puzzled.
Jiang Qiaoxi had come to school. Fei Linge, who had been by his side for years, was used to the occasional glances from girls, the repeated attempts to get close, and the “chance encounters.”
Lin Qile, that girl from Qunshan, remained seated at her desk. Fei Linge stared at her back, expecting her to slip up. But he soon realized that apart from talking to Yu Qiao and a few other boys, she just studied with her headphones on. Even when going out to get water during breaks, Lin Qile stopped using the back door. She walked past the front row under the podium, as if deliberately avoiding something.
“Who are you staring at, Fei Linge?” someone asked teasingly. “Your eyes are so intense.”
Fei Linge picked up a red-covered “Piao Miao Lu” from his desk and threw it at them.
Lin Qile wasn’t an unlikeable girl. The first to notice this were Yu Qiao’s basketball-loving, burly friends.
Earlier, they had only heard that a girl from the countryside had followed the academic star Jiang Qiaoxi here. Later, Yu Qiao told them that it wasn’t the countryside, but just an outstation project site of the Electric Power Construction Group. The little girl had grown up with Yu Qiao, Cai Fangyuan, and Du Shang. She was just an ordinary girl, maybe a bit mischievous.
At lunch break, Lin Qile followed Yu Qiao and the others to the small cafeteria. Many of the school team members were sitting there. When they saw her, they asked Yu Qiao, “What’s her name again? Lin what?”
Cai Fangyuan looked down at the menu and said, “Lin Qincai!”
The next second, Lin Qile’s palm landed on his face.
Lin Qile realized for the first time that she could greet the students here, though most were boys with whom she had little in common.
Still, few girls paid attention to her.
While eating, Du Shang flipped through his tattered copy of “Zhu Xian” and complained to Yu Qiao, “Qian Yeyun borrowed my second volume of ‘Zhu Xian’ two months ago. When is she going to return it?”
Yu Qiao replied, “Why don’t you ask her yourself? Why are you asking me?”
Qian Yeyun soon finished her classes and came to eat with them. She sat between Lin Qile and Yu Qiao.
Everyone here knew that Qian Yeyun was Yu Qiao’s “sister” and needed to be looked after by everyone.
Upon seeing Qian Yeyun, Du Shang fell silent, not daring to press the issue.
During the lunch break, Yu Qiao went to play basketball again. Du Shang accompanied Lin Qile on a tour around the school campus.
“Cherry,” Du Shang said, “are those people from Class 18 still bullying you?”
Lin Qile shook her head.
The midday sun was scorching, so they walked under the trees. There was a statue of Confucius in front of the square. Du Shang said that the principal loved this statue and personally dusted it every day. “We’d better keep our distance from it,” he advised.
Students who had finished lunch were strolling around the campus. Du Shang introduced each place to Lin Qile: the library, the tennis court, the piano room… When they reached the entrance of the white building facing the square, Du Shang said, “This is the school’s Little White Building.”
“Those top students and competition participants often come here to study,” Du Shang explained, then turned to look at Lin Qile, squinting his eyes. “Cherry, where else do you want to go? I’ll take you there.”
“Du Shang,” Lin Yingtao pointed at his face, surprised, “you have a mustache now.”
Du Shang was taken aback. He touched his upper lip.
“Of course! How old do you think I am?” Du Shang hurriedly said, “I’ve had it for a while now, just forgot to shave today…”
Lin Yingtao observed him, “You’re not wearing band-aids anymore, and there’s no scar on your face!”
Du Shang said cheerfully, “Do I look more handsome now?”
Lin Yingtao pondered for a moment.
“It’s okay,” she said.
Lin Qile went to the school supermarket to buy snacks. Having just started school here, her mother had given her plenty of pocket money. She invited Du Shang to have a cola and eat an ice cream cone with her.
As they passed by the basketball court, Lin Qile stood on the sidelines, watching the basketball scramble that she couldn’t quite understand. Yu Qiao saw her from the court and walked over, abandoning the ball.
“Eating by yourself?” Yu Qiao asked her, “Go buy another one.”
Lin Qile said, “It’s expensive, four yuan!”
Yu Qiao scoffed, “How stingy can you be!”
Du Shang raised his half-eaten ice cream, his lips still covered in chocolate, “Here, Yu Qiao, I’ll share a bite with you!”
Yu Qiao caught the basketball passed by his teammate and immediately smashed it into the net right in front of Du Shang and Lin Qile. The ball bounced back, the net shook violently three times, and Du Shang and Lin Qile standing outside spat several times. Their faces, ice creams, and clothes were all covered in dust.
The game immediately came to a halt. Yu Qiao was laughing so hard on the court that he could barely stand, earning him a flurry of punches from Lin Qile.
Lin Qile stood at the water tap on the first floor of the teaching building, washing her hair with a sour face. Her hair was full of dirt, frustratingly filthy. Yu Qiao stood beside her, wearing school uniform pants and a basketball jersey on top. He was exhausted from laughing.
The class teacher, Teacher Chen, passed by and raised her voice, “Yu Qiao, where’s your school uniform? Put it on!”
Yu Qiao innocently pointed at Lin Qile, who was wearing an oversized school uniform.
“What’s going on here?” Teacher Chen became even more nervous, “Lin Qile, where’s your school uniform?”
Lin Qile was still busy wringing water out of her hair and couldn’t respond to Teacher Chen. Yu Qiao raised his hand from the side, holding a grimy school uniform – oh, the girls’ one.
“I’m warning you, no early dating!” Teacher Chen immediately said sternly, “Studies are important! You must obey school rules and regulations! Early dating is not allowed!”
Upon hearing this, Yu Qiao kicked Lin Qile, “Did you hear that?”
Lin Qile, gripping her hair, turned back angrily and cursed, “Are you crazy?”
With her hair still wet, Lin Qile walked up the stairs. She passed by many people. Suddenly, a very faint smell of tobacco wafted past her.
Lin Qile unconsciously looked up.
Jiang Qiaoxi passed in front of her eyes and walked into the classroom.
As Lin Qile stood at the bus stop eating ice cream after school, she turned her head and saw a group of boys wearing the same school uniform as her, huddled together smoking under a tree.
“Are boys allowed to smoke at our school?” she asked, seemingly casually.
“As long as teachers and parents don’t see, it’s fine,” Cai Fangyuan said, playing with his handheld game console.
Lin Qile asked, “Do you smoke too?”
Cai Fangyuan looked indifferent, “I can’t get used to it, but I tried it in middle school. Smoking, hah, who hasn’t tried it?”
“Middle school?” Lin Qile exclaimed in surprise.
Cai Fangyuan finished a round of his game and looked up at her. Just then, the bus arrived.
“Back when we were in the competition class in middle school,” Cai Fangyuan boarded the bus and found a seat, “Jiang Qiaoxi took the lead, and all the boys in the competition class smoked.”
Lin Qile sat in the empty seat in front of him. For a while, she couldn’t believe what she had heard.
When the bus reached their stop, Lin Qile got off and asked, “Don’t… don’t your parents care?”
Cai Fangyuan said, “Of course they do.”
He added, “But Jiang Qiaoxi’s parents don’t care. It doesn’t affect his studies anyway.”
At the end of September, the Provincial Mathematics Association announced the list of provincial team members for the 2006 National High School Mathematics League. Eight students from the Experimental High School were selected for the provincial team, among them, Jiang Qiaoxi from Class 18 of the second year, ranking first in the province with a total score of 209 points.
In November, Jiang Qiaoxi and the other seven students would head to the Mathematics Competition Winter Camp to participate in the national finals assessment.
When the list of provincial team students was posted on the commendation board, it was during the afternoon break, and many students went downstairs to look. Lin Qile was queuing to get water; the water dispenser was next to the back door of the classroom.
Lin Qile stood with her head down, waiting for the hot water to fill her cup. She looked up and, through the gap in the back door, inadvertently saw the last row.
Jiang Qiaoxi was sleeping at his desk.
Lin Qile lowered her head again.
Lin Qile filled one cup, screwed on the lid, and then put Cai Fangyuan’s cup under the dispenser.
More and more students lined up behind her.
A shadow emerged from the door and stopped beside her as if to cut in line.
Lin Qile looked up and found that Jiang Qiaoxi had somehow woken up. He was standing in front of her, looking down at her.
The corridor was noisy, and laughter occasionally erupted from the queue behind. Jiang Qiaoxi had made it to the provincial team, and the next class meeting would probably feature special praise for him. The principal would likely come to their class again, enthusiastically praising him for half an hour.
Jiang Qiaoxi’s hair was tousled from sleep, and there was an extremely faint scar on his forehead, visible only at close range.
“Can you get me a cup of water too?” he asked Lin Qile.
Lin Qile looked at him.
Jiang Qiaoxi lowered his eyes, glanced at Lin Qile’s face, and then at her water card with its small rabbit sticker.
“I didn’t bring mine,” he added.
The water in Cai Fangyuan’s cup was already overflowing, and Lin Qile quickly turned off the tap. Jiang Qiaoxi placed his black cup, printed with an Eisenhower quote, on the water dispenser.
“Jiang Qiaoxi, can’t you just queue up yourself?” someone behind them laughed, “Why are you cutting in front of Lin Qile?”
“How come you’re mooching off a girl’s water card?”
“Jiang Qiaoxi, do you know Lin Qile? Are you two close?”
Fei Linge, having finished looking at the commendation board downstairs, took a photo with his phone and ran upstairs frantically.
Jiang Qiaoxi didn’t respond. He stood beside Lin Qile, hands in his pockets, silently watching the numbers on Lin Qile’s water card tick down.
Lin Qile pressed her lips together, standing motionless amidst the surrounding chatter, looking very quiet.
Jiang Qiaoxi suddenly said, “I made it to the provincial team.”
Lin Qile looked at him.
“Congratulations,” she said softly.
Jiang Qiaoxi nodded as if that was exactly what he wanted to hear.
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Our Generation – Chapter Notes:
“Piao Miao Lu”: “The Chronicles of the Misty Continent,” a fantasy novel set in the Nine Provinces world, written by author Jiang Nan. First published in June 2005, volumes 1, 3, 4, and 5 have red covers.
“Zhu Xian”: A long novel written by author Xiao Ding from 2003 to 2007. The first six volumes were published by Zhaohua Publishing House in mainland China in April 2005.