Jiang Qiaoxi went to the Little White Building during the afternoon self-study period. The building was crowded, with many students studying for competitions in the study rooms and corridors. As Jiang Qiaoxi’s figure appeared, it drew complex gazes filled with dissatisfaction, envy, and admiration.

Heaven had blessed him with such talent, yet he didn’t cherish it.

Jiang Qiaoxi stood at the stairway corner near the rooftop on the top floor, where cigarette butts littered the ground. He asked a senior from the third year to buy him cigarettes. The rooftop door was open. Jiang Qiaoxi took the lighter offered to him, lit a cigarette, and put it between his lips. He walked onto the rooftop, leaned against the rusty green iron door, sat on the steps, and smoked.

The senior from the third year also came out. There was no one else on the rooftop at the moment.

“I heard from Xiao Man that you’re dating someone recently?” the senior asked.

Jiang Qiaoxi didn’t look up, as if he hadn’t heard.

“Even if you’re dating, that’s no reason to quit the national training team, right?” the senior said.

Jiang Qiaoxi replied, “They’re unrelated. Don’t mix them up.”

The senior chuckled.

“I don’t think they’re unrelated,” he said. The wind was strong, causing the door to bang against its frame repeatedly. “I bet even the education bureau leaders know about your puppy love.”

Jiang Qiaoxi listened and tapped off some ash.

“Aren’t you worried?” the senior asked.

“More people knowing doesn’t change anything,” Jiang Qiaoxi said.

The senior was taken aback, furrowed his brow, and then smiled.

“Jiang Qiaoxi,” he said, “I never realized you had this kind of personality.”

Lin Qile sat by the window. Her red pen had run out of ink, so she borrowed her deskmate Huang Zhanjie’s to correct her mistakes. A group of boys were gathered around Huang Zhanjie’s desk, chattering about something. Lin Qile finished correcting her work and turned to look out the window, tilting her face upward.

In late autumn, darkness fell early. During the last self-study period, the classroom lights were already on. Lin Qile couldn’t see the sky or trees outside, only her reflection in the window glass.

She examined her eyes, nose, and lips, secretly imagining herself becoming beautiful like Jun Ji-hyun or Liu Yifei. Then she would date Jiang Qiaoxi, and wow, by the time they got married, everyone would envy them!

But Lin Qile looked the way she did, and she had to face reality.

Huang Zhanjie was writing his blog address for the boys: “ayanamireilove dot blogbus dot com.”

“How often do you write?” the boys asked. “Can’t you just write it down for us to see?”

Huang Zhanjie looked up: “It’s not just for you to see. Many Douban friends want to read it too!”

“Ooh—” A wave of teasing voices rose around them. “Dou—ban—friends—”

Huang Zhanjie’s cheeks reddened as he raised his thick, coarse eyebrows.

Cai Fangyuan, sitting in front of Huang Zhanjie, told a few boys that he was setting up a website. He planned to scan the comics that Huang Zhanjie had written lyrics for and upload them all. “It’s still under construction, not ready yet!” Cai Fangyuan said with a frown, looking very serious. “Once it’s done, we’ll put ads on it!” He patted the books on Huang Zhanjie’s desk. “Then we’ll both be rich, it’s just a matter of time!”

“When will it be ready?” the boys asked. “Are you not going to let us see them until then?”

Cai Fangyuan said, “You can check out our Douban group first, called ‘Love 1990 Fiercely.’ Help us promote it!”

“Wow, not just love, but fierce love,” a boy nearby said. “Sounds so R-rated.”

Cai Fangyuan looked to the side and said, “Yu Qiao, and Lin Yingtao, how about you two sponsor me a bit for server costs?”

“What?” Lin Qile turned away from the window, disappointed that no matter how she looked, she didn’t resemble Jun Ji-hyun.

Cai Fangyuan solemnly declared, “When Huang Zhanjie and I make money, we’ll give you shares, with dividends!”

Yu Qiao, solving problems behind them, looked up: “How about this: just give me the dividends directly. Isn’t that more efficient?”

Everyone laughed. Cai Fangyuan couldn’t do anything about Yu Qiao and glanced at Lin Qile: “Lin Yingtao, what about you?”

Lin Qile looked at him and reluctantly searched her school uniform pockets, checking both her jacket and pants pockets.

She found a 50-cent coin and a folded one-yuan note.

“Here,” she said, seeing Cai Fangyuan turn away in annoyance, rolling his eyes. She asked, “How much dividend will I get?”

“Bunch of paupers!” Cai Fangyuan said exasperatedly, putting his “New Concept English 3” book on Huang Zhanjie’s bookshelf before standing up and leaving.

Jiang Qiaoxi returned from outside. As he walked down the corridor, he lifted his collar to smell it, though he couldn’t detect any scent himself.

He didn’t know how Lin Yingtao’s nose could be so sensitive.

“Senior Jiang! Senior Jiang Qiaoxi!” someone called from behind.

Jiang Qiaoxi turned to see it was Qi Le, a first-year junior.

“You came to the Little White Building without telling me!” Qi Le ran up to him excitedly. “I… I have a few questions I wanted to ask you… Can I… can I ask?”

From a young age, Jiang Qiaoxi rarely interacted with his classmates. However, in the competition class, he was quite familiar with a few juniors who loved mathematics and often sought his help.

Jiang Qiaoxi walked to the corridor window, took Qi Le’s math olympiad book, and placed it on the windowsill. He began to quickly examine the problems.

Qi Le stood beside him, secretly looking up and observing him.

Senior Jiang had always seemed cold and distant, unapproachable, with a somewhat solitary nature.

But when it came to discussing mathematics, Senior Jiang became very approachable, patient, and unpretentious. Unlike other seniors, he was willing to explain even simple problems, as if casually demonstrating a beginner’s game.

Qi Le couldn’t believe that Jiang Qiaoxi didn’t like mathematics.

He was the most gifted and inspired person in mathematics that Qi Le had ever seen. How could someone face the same subject for ten years without loving it?

The problems were quickly explained, and Jiang Qiaoxi returned the book to Qi Le, preparing to go back to class.

Qi Le suddenly said, “Senior Jiang, my dad said that the national training team doesn’t start training until the end of December… Even though you’ve repeatedly said you won’t go, they’re still keeping a spot for you.”

Jiang Qiaoxi glanced at him but said nothing more as he entered the classroom.

Rumors circulated in school that Jiang Qiaoxi’s mother had an extreme temperament. With the school leadership’s persistent persuasion and teachers’ reluctance to lose such talent, Jiang Qiaoxi finally agreed to compromise.

He said he would reconsider participating in the training.

However, during regular classes, he no longer touched Olympic mathematics at all. From morning to night, he studied for the SAT. Jiang Qiaoxi’s goal was so clear that there was no room for negotiation.

As night fell, Jiang Qiaoxi smoked by his desk, overhearing his parents talking outside, which soon turned into an argument.

After Liang Hongfei was discharged from the hospital, things were calm for a while, but gradually, old habits resurfaced.

Liang Hongfei and Jiang Zheng had already lost one son; they couldn’t bear the thought of Jiang Qiaoxi leaving for a distant place.

But for now, they had no way to control him.

“They probably all think it’s a shame,” Lin Qile said to him on the phone, her voice uncertain. “Come to think of it, you used to study mathematics from morning to night and were so good at it. It is a bit of a shame…” She asked, “Do you want to continue with the Math Olympiad?”

Jiang Qiaoxi said, “No.”

Lin Qile said, “It’s okay. If you like mathematics, you can continue studying it in America.”

Jiang Qiaoxi laughed.

“You used to tell me all the time that Americans were bad,” Jiang Qiaoxi lowered his head, taking the cigarette from his mouth to exhale. He enjoyed moments like this. “You even told me not to go to America.”

Lin Qile didn’t respond.

“Lin Qile,” Jiang Qiaoxi said.

Lin Qile felt uncomfortable being addressed so formally by her full name.

“What?”

“Your English isn’t good enough,” Jiang Qiaoxi said bluntly.

Lin Qile retorted, “I got 120 on the last quiz. That’s pretty good. It was even worse in middle school.”

She talked about how she used to take extra English classes at South School and almost went to New Oriental, but luckily she did well on the midterm exam in her first year of high school, saving the money: “Then I bought a new phone!” she said gleefully. “My dad bought it for me.”

Jiang Qiaoxi lowered his head, listening to Lin Yingtao’s familiar mumbling about everyday life. He fell silent and continued smoking.

Lin Qile didn’t understand why Jiang Qiaoxi suddenly brought up her poor English. After finishing her homework that night, she took a shower, roughly dried her wet hair, and sat back at her desk. She opened her New Concept English Book 3, ready to review the last lesson.

Lin’s mother called from outside, “Yingtao! You haven’t washed your underwear yet!”

Lin Qile abruptly closed the “New Concept English 3” book.

In the comic story, the male protagonist threatens the female protagonist, saying she can’t return to Japan because this is Hong Kong, he’s a Hong Kong triad boss, and he won’t allow her to go back.

The female protagonist says she will go back and earn money to buy a plane ticket herself!

The male protagonist smirks: “That’s perfect. You can choose to sell your body to me!”

“With your conditions, you can earn 300 Hong Kong dollars per time. If you take 10 clients a day, you can earn a lot of money in one night…”

Lin Yingtao, wearing her pajamas, curled up in her blanket, reading the story with wide eyes.

Just then, her phone on the bedside vibrated.

Jiang Qiaoxi texted: “What are you doing? Why aren’t you replying to my messages?”

Lin Qile asked him: “How much is 300 Hong Kong dollars?”

Jiang Qiaoxi replied: “A bit over 300 yuan.”

Lin Yingtao was secretly shocked: Just over 300 yuan??

After a while, Jiang Qiaoxi sent another message: “What do you want to buy?”

Lin Yingtao had only intended to take a casual look out of curiosity, but she ended up reading the comic until very late. As she lay in bed, drifting off to sleep, she kept dreaming of bizarre scenarios. Was it because the quilt was too heavy, making her face flush and struggle to breathe?

Jiang Qiaoxi’s school uniform often carried a scent like a grassy field after rain. Lin Yingtao didn’t know what it was, but she had always found it pleasant. More often, there was a lingering smell of cigarettes. However, when Jiang Qiaoxi kissed her, there was no cigarette smell, only the scent of pen ink on his fingers.

Jiang Qiaoxi looked down at her. He had taken off his school uniform jacket and was wearing a white T-shirt. He had always been fair-skinned with red lips, especially up close, he didn’t look real, with his eyelashes lowered like a comic book character. When Jiang Qiaoxi said “Yingtao,” it was always soft, always seeming to carry a hint of a sigh. Every time Lin Yingtao heard him call her like this, it was as if she had been hit by the “Expelliarmus” spell, leaving her completely defenseless.

When Lin Yingtao woke up that morning, her hair was a mess, and she had sweated a lot. She sat in her bed, clutching her stomach in pain. She remembered that just before waking up, she was telling Jiang Qiaoxi, “No, no, 300 yuan is too little!”

Her mother came in: “Why aren’t you getting up yet?”

Lin Yingtao frowned, suddenly feeling like crying, just feeling very wronged.

“Yingtao, what’s wrong?” Her mother noticed her daughter’s unusual state, her face unnaturally red. She walked over and felt her forehead, “You don’t have a fever?”

“Mom, I got my period…” Lin Yingtao said miserably.

Holding a cup of brown sugar water, Lin Yingtao went to school in a gloomy mood. She sat on the bus, ignoring everyone, leaving Du Shangyi confused. When she arrived at school and ran into Jiang Qiaoxi in the corridor, Lin Yingtao acted as if she’d seen a ghost and quickly turned away.

Jiang Qiaoxi was even more puzzled.

The class monitor, Feng Letian, said, “Lin Qile, it’s your turn for classroom duty today. Remember to clean the blackboard.”

Lin Yingtao rarely had menstrual cramps, and she didn’t know why it came early this time, making her stomach hurt so much and feel so uncomfortable.

After the first class, Huang Zhanjie casually asked, “Lin Qile, have you seen my New Concept English 3?”

Lin Yingtao, lying on her desk, shook her head vigorously.

Huang Zhanjie stood up. As soon as he left his seat, Lin Yingtao quickly took out the suspicious “New Concept English 3” from her schoolbag and stuffed it into Huang Zhanjie’s desk drawer.

“Lin Yingtao?” Suddenly, Cai Fangyuan’s devilish voice came from behind, from the seat next to Yu Qiao, “So you took it?!”

Jiang Qiaoxi, sitting in the last row, put down his pen. He had wanted to send a message asking Lin Yingtao why she had been lying down all class and why she ran away when she saw him in the morning.

Cai Fangyuan and Lin Yingtao started arguing in front.

“Just tell me if you read it or not!” Cai Fangyuan asked.

“I didn’t! I didn’t!” Lin Yingtao refused to listen.

“Impossible!”

“I said I didn’t read it!”

“I can tell from your expression that you did!”

“Who wants to read your messy comics anyway,” Lin Yingtao said angrily.

“If you didn’t read it, how do you know it’s messy comics?” Cai Fangyuan burst into laughter.

Feng Letian said, “Um, Lin Qile…”

Lin Yingtao stood up angrily, though her demeanor lacked force. Her complexion was noticeably poor. She grabbed the blackboard eraser and began wiping the board at the podium, her other hand clutching her uncomfortable stomach.

Yu Qiao engrossed in reading the Sports Weekly, struggled to contain his laughter. Despite his efforts, his shoulders occasionally shook as he chuckled.

From the back row, Jiang Qiaoxi inquired, “Cai Fangyuan, what’s going on?”

Huang Zhanjie, having searched the neighboring class without success for his missing book, returned to his classroom in a state of anxiety. To his surprise, he found the academic prodigy Jiang Qiaoxi seated in the last row, leafing through his copy of “New Concept English 3.”

The mathematics genius flipped through the comic book at an astonishing speed, pages rustling rapidly.

Lin Yingtao finished erasing the blackboard in a daze. As she turned to return to her seat, her face ashen, she caught Jiang Qiaoxi’s eye. He had just finished examining the book and looked up at her with a mixture of confusion and amusement. Lin Yingtao instantly spun back around and resumed scrubbing the blackboard with renewed vigor.

At that moment, their homeroom teacher, Teacher Chen, entered the classroom. Pleasantly surprised, he exclaimed, “Look at Lin Qile! See how diligently she’s cleaning the blackboard!”

Our Generation –  Chapter Notes:

 Jun Ji-hyun: A South Korean actress. In 2001, the romantic comedy “My Sassy Girl,” in which she starred, became wildly popular across China.

 Liu Yifei: A Chinese actress. In 2004, the xianxia drama “Chinese Paladin,” in which she starred, became a hit series.

 ayanamireilove.blogbus.com: The blog address Huang Zhanjie registered on BlogBus.

 Douban: A social networking website founded by Yang Bo (online nickname “Ah Bei”) on March 6, 2005.

 “New Concept English 3”: An English textbook series jointly published in 1997 by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press and Pearson Education China Limited.

 New Oriental: An education and training institution founded in 1993.

 In December 2006, the exchange rate between the Hong Kong Dollar and the Chinese Yuan was 1.01:1.

 Expelliarmus: One of the most commonly used spells in the “Harry Potter” series.