The class meeting lasted forty minutes. The principal came in person and spent half an hour praising Jiang Qiaoxi at the podium. The last ten minutes were used to encourage all students in Class 18 to learn from their classmate Jiang Qiaoxi.
Lin Qile listened while working on her English homework. Her deskmate was a bespectacled boy named Huang Zhanjie. Huang Zhanjie was doodling Rei Ayanami’s mysterious smile in his notebook. He whispered to her that the Experimental School principal had two precious darlings: one was the statue of Confucius passed down through generations at the school gate, and the other was Jiang Qiaoxi. “Our principal has been hoping for Jiang Qiaoxi to come to Experimental High School since he was in elementary school!”
Jiang Qiaoxi showed little reaction to being praised for half an hour. He continued solving problems in the back row, occasionally opening his water bottle for a sip. When he looked up, he immediately caught Lin Qile’s slight movement as she turned her head back to the front.
Jiang Qiaoxi stared at her back, at Lin Qile’s tied-up hair, and the white collar with strawberry patterns peeking out from her school uniform collar.
He put down his water bottle and continued solving problems.
On the bus ride home after school, Lin Qile sat by the window. She alternated between staring out the window and looking down at the water card in her hand with its little white rabbit sticker.
Du Shang, sitting next to her, asked, “Cherry, why do you keep looking at your water card?”
Cai Fangyuan, from the seat in front, said, “Lin Yingtao, you still haven’t paid me for that ‘He… He something Yi’ book.”
Lin Yingtao looked up and said, “My water card is almost out of money too.”
She suddenly pulled on the school uniform collars of Cai Fangyuan and Yu Qiao in front of her: “You two go recharge my water card for me tomorrow!”
Lin Diangong got off work early today and took a stroll through the nearby market. He bought a big carp and went home to cook, making a steaming hot dish: Sweet and Sour Carp.
Lin Yingtao entered the house and let out a big “Wow!”
“Dad!” She put down her schoolbag and rushed to the table. “Why did you make Sweet and Sour Carp?”
Lin Diangong poured himself a small glass of alcohol, while Mom was still in the kitchen steaming jujube buns. Lin Diangong watched contentedly as the little cat walked around the table legs. He said to his precious daughter, “I made it because you wanted to eat it!”
Manager Jiang Zheng stood in the kitchen with the range hood on, smoking half a cigarette, but the smoke lingered stubbornly.
He had been in a good mood today, receiving a call from the Experimental School principal saying that Jiang Qiaoxi had ranked first in the province in the second round. Jiang Zheng, still in his office, immediately called a nearby restaurant and ordered a table full of dishes to be delivered home.
He had wanted to wait for Jiang Qiaoxi to come home so that father and son could sit down, face to face, have a meal, and talk.
But he waited and waited. At 7:30 PM, Jiang Qiaoxi still hadn’t returned.
It wasn’t until he called Liang Hongfei that he learned that even on such a day, Jiang Qiaoxi still had to attend competition class training.
“The Winter Camp and National Finals are in November. Is there time for celebration?” Liang Hongfei retorted sarcastically.
At around 9 PM, Jiang Qiaoxi returned from competition class. He came home silently with his square backpack, changed his shoes without a word, and walked straight to his bedroom. Jiang Zheng sat on the living room sofa, smoking and watching him.
Soon after, Liang Hongfei also entered. She was holding her car keys and immediately noticed the table full of cold dishes.
The couple both had gloomy expressions.
Jiang Zheng said magnanimously, “It’s a good day today. I won’t argue with you.”
Liang Hongfei said, “If it weren’t for Qiaoxi, do you think I’d want to stay with you?”
When Jiang Qiaoxi was younger, he would stand by woodenly watching them argue. But now Jiang Qiaoxi had grown up. He seemed not to care at all about these disputes, not to care about anything in this “home.” Even making it to the provincial team didn’t give Jiang Qiaoxi much to say to them.
Liang Hongfei knocked on the door from outside: “Qiaoxi?”
Jiang Qiaoxi sat in the study, his backpack open on the desk. He just sat there idly.
The door opened.
Liang Hongfei asked from behind, “Qiaoxi, are you hungry? Should Mom make you some late-night snack?”
Jiang Qiaoxi heard her unusually gentle tone and shook his head.
He pulled open a drawer and took out a lighter.
Jiang Qiaoxi wasn’t sure if these occasional glimpses of tenderness from his mother and father were meant for him.
His brother whom he had never met, Jiang Mengchu, for all his genius, had died at thirteen. Jiang Mengchu never had the chance to participate in the national competition or make it to the provincial team. Now, Jiang Qiaoxi was walking step by step down a path Jiang Mengchu had never trodden.
209 points. Even if Jiang Mengchu were alive, he might not have done better than Jiang Qiaoxi.
Liang Hongfei closed the door. Jiang Qiaoxi took his backpack off the desk and put it on the floor. He turned on the desk lamp and sat for a while in the pool of light before him.
He stared at the light shining on the back of his hand.
A small patch of white, like a little rabbit’s fluffy ear.
“Congratulations,” Lin Yingtao had stood beside him, not looking at him, and said softly. Lin Yingtao shouldered her backpack and went home after school. As she walked, her tied-up hair bobbed up and down, still looking restless, but no longer by his side.
Jiang Qiaoxi took out a key from his backpack and opened the locked middle drawer of his desk.
Jiang Qiaoxi,
I am Lin Qile.
The little rabbit died. Do you remember it? It was four years old.
The desk lamp’s light made the old letter paper appear yellow, and the stars, moon, cola can, and black watch outlined in watercolor had faded even more.
Jiang Qiaoxi squinted. He didn’t like smoking; every time the smoke billowed out, it always hurt his eyes.
Don’t you miss me? Why do you never call me? Cai Fangyuan says you’ve changed in the provincial city. How have you changed?
Jiang Qiaoxi looked at the crooked characters on the small piece of paper, the childish, ugly drawings.
Do you remember Jiang Chunlu?
If you’ve forgotten, look at her and try to remember.
When will you write back to me?
Lin Qile
Group Mountain Construction Site Dormitory, Row 24, Unit 7
October 14, 2003
Lin Qile arrived at class early the next morning, just before morning reading was about to begin. She had forced Cai Fangyuan to accompany her to recharge her water card, and they had run all the way, nearly being late.
Her deskmate Huang Zhanjie had already opened his book. When he saw her arrive, he stood up: “Hey, Lin Qile—”
Lin Yingtao was about to take her seat when she suddenly noticed a water bottle on her desk that hadn’t been there before.
It was entirely black, with a quote from Eisenhower printed on it in English, like some kind of competition prize.
The surrounding classmates who were reading mostly looked up to observe Lin Qile’s reaction.
Huang Zhanjie said, “Jiang Qiaoxi went to study in the Little White Building. He just told me to ask you to fill his water bottle when you arrived.”
Lin Qile asked in bewilderment, “What?”
Huang Zhanjie raised his voice, and now half the class could hear: “Jiang Qiaoxi asked you to fill his water bottle!”
Lin Qile sat back in her seat, hugging her schoolbag, and stared at the daunting water bottle on her desk.
Suddenly, something tapped Lin Qile’s shoulder from behind. “Mm.” Yu Qiao called to her.
Yu Qiao was intently reading “Sports Weekly” and also handed over his water bottle.
During morning reading, Lin Qile stood at the water dispenser filling bottles, her arms full of empty containers. Just then, Du Shang came out of Class 15 with his bottle.
“Cherry, where did you get so many water bottles?” Du Shang asked as he approached.
Lin Qile gave him an unhappy look. Du Shang said, “Should I go steal a basket from the downstairs shop for you? It looks like you’re having trouble carrying them all.”
Cen Xiaoman was reading in the classroom, occasionally glancing towards the back door.
Lin Qile returned to the classroom and placed the filled bottles on Cai Fangyuan and Yu Qiao’s desks. She had also filled one for Huang Zhanjie, who stood up to let her in, thanking her happily.
Lin Qile placed the black water bottle on the corner of Huang Zhanjie’s desk, letting go as soon as she set it down, not daring to touch it again.
Jiang Qiaoxi returned before the first English class. He rarely entered through the front door, usually seeming to appear and disappear mysteriously. Competition students always had peculiar routines. Fei Linge followed him in, watching as Jiang Qiaoxi passed the podium and, for some reason, stopped at Lin Qile’s desk.
Huang Zhanjie looked up at the school’s famous academic star with admiration and said, “Jiang Qiaoxi, here’s your water bottle.”
Jiang Qiaoxi lowered his eyes to look at Lin Qile, who was sitting in the inner seat, hands over her ears, mumbling English.
The surrounding classmates all looked in their direction, whispering and talking quietly. Even Cen Xiaoman was staring at them. Jiang Qiaoxi walked back to his seat, opened his backpack, and spread out his English book.
Halfway through the English class, Jiang Qiaoxi had already emptied his water bottle.
The earliest rumor, spread by an unknown source, was that Yu Qiao, the sports representative of Class 18, and Lin Qile, who had followed Jiang Qiaoxi to this school, were childhood sweethearts. They had grown up together since kindergarten and were very close. They had been caught red-handed by their homeroom teacher, Ms. Chen, who ordered them not to “date early.”
Of course, there were also some new rumors mixed in with the old ones.
“Jiang Qiaoxi asked Lin Qile to fill his water bottle again today. Doesn’t he have his water card? Doesn’t Fei Linge have one either?”
“Why does he keep bothering her? Isn’t she already clinging to him enough?”
“I don’t think so… Lin Qile loves studying. I feel… I feel like she seems to be always circling Jiang Qiaoxi, not like what was said before…”
In the afternoon, several classes had a joint PE lesson.
After finishing her laps, Lin Qile wanted to go to Class 15’s group to listen to music with Du Shang. However, the PE teacher spotted her and dragged her to the track, making her join the girls from several classes to test their 800-meter performance.
Many girls were resting by the sidelines, either with colds, stomach aches, or dizziness – basically, anything that made them unfit for sports.
Sometimes Lin Qile wondered.
Why didn’t she get sick?
Why didn’t she get stomach aches?
Why did she rarely have menstrual cramps or faint from heatstroke during military training like other pretty girls?
According to the rules of the romance novels she had been reading lately, she had missed out on all the romantic scenarios in campus life.
However, Lin Qile thought.
If someone truly cared about me, they would care even if I wasn’t sick, didn’t have stomach aches, or low blood sugar.
Du Shang cheered passionately from the side of the track: “Cherry!! Go, Cherry!!!”
Lin Qile could only hear the wind in her ears as she ran forward desperately, faster than everyone else, with an iron taste rising in her throat.
The boys from the track team stood inside the track, some drinking water, some stretching their legs, watching the girls run.
Suddenly, Lin Qile stumbled forward, her foot slipping on an empty mineral water bottle on the ground.
Du Shang exclaimed, “Cherry!”
But in the next second after falling, Lin Qile did a forward roll on the ground and immediately stood up.
The boys from the track team were amazed, and the track immediately erupted in enthusiastic applause.
Yu Qiao, timing at the finish line, couldn’t help but smile.
Lin Qile, panting heavily with her neatly tied hair now disheveled, ran to the finish line in a daze.
Du Shang ran over with water: “Cherry, you’re amazing! How did you get up like that?”
It was then that Lin Yingtao realized she had come in first. Yu Qiao was recording the scores nearby and said, “Alright, you’re in for this year’s sports meet.”
“No, I can’t…” Lin Qile felt like she was about to faint from the run.
As she turned around, Lin Qile suddenly noticed a group of competition students walking towards the Little White Building across the track. Jiang Qiaoxi was among them, holding a book and looking at her.
Lin Qile quickly covered her messy hair with her hand and hid behind Du Shang and Yu Qiao.
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Our Generation – Chapter Notes:
Rei Ayanami: A fictional character from the Japanese anime series “Neon Genesis Evangelion.” Rei’s most notable characteristic is her almost expressionless face with just a hint of emotion – her famous “Rei smile.”
“He… He something Yi”: Refers to “Silent Separation” (何以笙箫默), a novel by Gu Man. It was serialized in Jinjiang Literature City starting in September 2003 and first published in January 2006.