Chapter 2- Entering the Campus
Inside the school everything was new. I was like Granny Liu when she entered the Grand View Garden [1], and I looked at that, and touched that. I hated that I couldn’t take a picture of the whole landscape. Fang Yu Ke was probably feeling like I was disgracing him, and said: “Sit here. I’ll give a classmate a phone call, and let him pick us up. On such a hot day, you aren’t afraid of the sun.”
[1] Granny Liu when she entered the Grand View Garden: Granny Liu is a character from “红楼梦” or “Dream of the Red Chamber”; the scene Lin Lin is referring to, is the scene where Granny Liu goes to visit the rich mansion, each time (most likely) gasping in wonder at all the splendor around her.I did a surprised face: “Wow, Fang Yu Ke, you can continuously speak to me in four sentences. That’s not easy, not easy.”
Fang Yu Ke glared at me, lowering his head, not speaking.
We didn’t sit under the shade for long before someone patted Fang Yu Ke and asked: “Why did you get here early?”
I lifted my head, I couldn’t see his face from under the sun. After a while I shook my head and stood up: “Hello senior brother**!”
Senior brother is a term for classmates. Often, you address people from the same hometown, classmates, or coworkers with intimate familial terms like sister or brother. Fang Yu Ke is referring to Senior Brother as someone from the same department. Lin Lin is just referring to him as a classmate (while also going along with Fang Yu Ke).Senior brother laughed and said to Fang Yu Ke: “You even brought some family members?”
Fang Yu Ke pushed senior brother’s shoulder and softly said, “What nonsense.” After this push, senior brother stood under the tree’s shade and I could see his face clearly. Small eyes, a pointed nose, a small dimple, a pointed chin. Sunlight fell through the tree leaves onto his face.
My heart jumped around a little seriously. I sucked in my saliva and blurted: “Senior brothers? What are their names?”
Fang Yu Ke rolled his eyes, and said: “Call them your senior brothers, they aren’t your department senior brothers anyways. They’re only people from our town. You don’t know them.”
I immediately followed with : “My eyes brim with tears. We are fellow neighbors, old neighbors meeting each other. It’s not a senior brother that has a relationship to me directly, but rather, a relative to my direct descendant!”
Senior brother warmly laughed, and turned his head to say to me: “You speak so eloquently. Just call me Xiao Xi.”
Fang Yu Ke flattened his lip: “You only came out for a little while and your eyes are already brimming with tears when meeting an old neighbor.”
I pretended I didn’t hear him, and laughed as I said: “Xiao Xi, I’m called Zhou Lin Lin, I’m learning German, what are you learning?”
Senior brother hadn’t said anything yet before Fang Yu Ke said: “I already told you he was my senior classmate. I’m studying economics, so he’s also studying economics. Idiot.”
Senior brother laughed, and his dimples got deeper: “I am higher than both of you.”
I immediately followed with: “Well economics is good, economics is good. Our country’s great economic development completely relies on you. How is it like the capitalist stuff we read. I initially wanted to study economics, but I didn’t test well this time, only missing by that many points, so I switched to this profession.”
Fang Yu Ke turned his head to me and glanced at me, his expression obviously saying “You’re all right, right?”.
I automatically filtered out his surprised face, and continued to exchange feelings with Xiao Xi: “Xiao Xi, in the future, you must help me more with my math problems, math is my weakness.”
Xiao Xi laughed again: “Your German Department exempted mathematics, relax.”
Fang Yu Ke who was by the side couldn’t help it, and laughed haha, putting me to one side, watching me as if I was a joke.
Since the strict rules didn’t allow us to get the keys for the dormitory because the registration day hadn’t arrived yet, we could only find nearby hotels. Xiao Xi brought our suitcases to his dormitory and began to contact nearby hotels. I didn’t think that so many people would come to school early, and all the big and small hotels nearby were full. Only one large room was left in a guesthouse located inside the school was available. I looked plaintively at Xiao Xi.
Xiao Xi said, conflicted: “If only Yu Ke had called me earlier, I could book it in advance. Now it’s a little late. You guys live there for two days, or improvise, improvise. I can vouch for Fang Yu Ke’s character. You–”
I immediately cut Xiao Xi off: “What about Fang Yu Ke goes to live with you, and I live in the guestroom.”
Xiao Xi thought about it: “We usually don’t return home for summer break, there are a lot of guys and girls living in the dormitory together. The Dorm Manager doesn’t care. The beds are a little more tight than the ones in the guesthouse. But, it is indeed very inconvenient for a girl like you. Then what about this, Yu Ke, you come with me and share a bed with me.”
Fang Yu Ke said: “I have no complaints.”
I looked at the meter wide bed (in Xiao Xi’s dormitory) and immediately felt embarrassed. In the great summer, the dormitory didn’t have space, and I was making two big guys squeeze together here. This was indeed not okay. Plus, they had knew each other earlier, and I had been someone dragged along from the beginning. I fussily let the others make do, while I chose. Otherwise, being alone lying on three beds was a little bit of a waste……
I plucked up my courage: “Then what about this, Xiao Xi, all three of us can live in the guesthouse. Anyways, there’s the air conditioning part.”
Fang Yu Ke gave a crooked expression and lightly said: “You scheme** so well, how can you not be good at math?”
算盘 (suen pan); means scheme or strategy but can also refer to abacus. Thus, Fang Yu Ke’s sentence could have had two meanings at the same time. He could have also been saying: “You scheme so well…” while saying “You use your abacus so well…”I turned back to lightly curse back at him: “None of your business.”
Xiao Xi laughed: “If you are worried about our Fang Yu Ke, I can go. Really, our Fang Yu Ke is really upright.”
Fang Yu Ke cupped one fist inside of the other (as a sign of respect, especially in ancient times), and passionately hit Xiao Xi’s shoulder.
Xiao Xi gave the final word: “All right, then we’ll arrange it like this.”
Just before arriving, Xiao Xi received a phone call, and went to help a classmate fiddle with his computer. Fang Yu Ke and I just entered the guestroom and hadn’t sat down before my mom called me. I walked towards the bathroom while answering her call.
“Lin Lin, are you used to where you’re living?”
I said: “All right. They can’t give the dormitory keys away beforehand, so we can only stay at a guesthouse.”
My mom said: “Oh, Fang Yu Ke is still taking care of you. Are you living next door to him?”
I paused for a breath: “Mom, he is sleeping in my guesthouse, and we are even inn the same house.” After the “Ah!” sound from the other side of the phone, I quietly hung up the phone.
A short while later, my mom sent me a text: Lin Lin, even though I really like that rascal, in fact, we really haven’t thoroughly investigated him. You must think through many things. Impulse is the devil.
I reluctantly returned her: Mom, I promise that in the future I will stay intact.
It passed a long time before the elderly returned me: Really, young people having passion isn’t a bad thing. Go for it!
I ran into my room, loudly shouting “Ah!”. After the time span between me and my mom’s consistent “Ah”, I let it go.
Fang Yu Ke lightly scolded me with one sentence: “Idiot.”
I grabbed a pillow and hit him on the head: “What are you cursing about?”
Fang Yu Ke whistled as he stood up: “I won’t theorize with idiots.” After he said this, he walked out.
In my anger, I used strength to kick the bed legs in return for longer cries of agony.
I lay on the bed, extremely annoyed. I thought of my mom’s crazy words, and then thought about Xiao Xi. I didn’t know if it was because I had been tired in the daytime, but I fell asleep.
When I woke up, it had already become dark outside. I rubbed my face and got out of bed, dazed, leaning on the door I squinted my eyes. I didn’t expect people wouldn’t lean on leisure, when the door was suddenly pushed open strongly. The door just happened to hit my nose, and I instantly felt two streams of heat flow out.
Outside the door was Fang Yu Ke’s surprised face. Xiao Xi and him came inside together, and saw my battle. They immediately said: “Go lie down, go lie down.”
So it was like this that I got off of the bed, but was put back onto the bed.
At first, I had a belly of fire that was going to explode towards Fang Yu Ke, but given that Xiao Xi was there, I pressed down my belly’s anger, and pretended to say like a generous lady: “In the future, I am afraid to go stand near the door. It’s too dangerous.”
Fang Yu Ke said one sentence: “Idiot, I’ve never seen anyone who was so dumb that they lay on the door frame.”
The moment I heard this, my fire exploded. I deeply sighed, and bit my teeth saying: “So sorry, I blocked your majesty’s path.”
Fang Yu Ke stuck out his lips and didn’t speak. He turned and went to the bathroom to wash his towel.
Xiao Xi brought some tampons over from the dormitory Auntie’s place, and said to me: “It’s not too convenient for me, you shove it in yourself.”
I felt that I was already not very good looking, and that I would have even less of a figure with the tampons in my nose. I covered my nose with one hand, my other hand busily putting the tampons in, saying: “No need, no need, my blood is good. It will immediately automatically stop. It doesn’t need to be so complicated.
I hadn’t even finished speaking before Fang Yu Ke grabbed a wet towel and came over, and immediately said: “You want your reputation when you’re dead, and suffer a crime while alive**.” Then he threw the towel towards my face, “Go ahead, after a while it’ll stop.”
You want your reputation when you’re dead, and suffer a crime while alive: Basically saying that she should set aside her reputation and do what she must.Originally, during this time, Xiao Xi and Fang Yu Ke came over to ask me to go eat with them. I didn’t think that after this thing happened, they could only take care of my injuries. The room was extremely quiet, there was only the sound of Xiao Xi and Fang Yu Ke flipping through magazines. I looked at the ceiling, bored, and prepared to open the TV, to spend the time, when my stomach suddenly sang “Empty City Stratagem”**. After that sound, I regretted. If I had only opened the TV ten minutes before, then I wouldn’t have been so embarrassed. My image ah, my image in Xiao Xi’s heart ah.
Empty City Stratagem: refers to Lin Lin trying to hide her obvious hunger and her stomach just screaming “I’m hungry and empty” Lol.Xiao Xi laughed: “What about I go to the cafeteria to bring the meal over. Let’s eat in herr. I originally wanted to treat you guys out to eat but I didn’t think Lin Lin had such a great fortune.”
This call of “Lin Lin” made me feel very flattered. I quickly followed with: “No problem, no problem. You can Fang Yu Ke can go, don’t think about me at all. I can put up with whatever.” I had just finished when my stomach contradicted me strongly and called out again. I was a little embarrassed.
Fang Yu Ke couldn’t continue to watch this: “Xiao Xi, let’s go, I’ll go with you to order some food.”
I turned my face backwards and stuck out my tongue. Today I had thrown away my face (reputation) all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
After the food came back, my nose was all better. Fang Yu Ke grabbed a napkin and began wiping the table. I lightly said, “OCD.” He just put me aside, and put the meal directly on the table. He didn’t even wash his hands, grabbing chopsticks, starting to eat. How could it be so troublesome? Fang Yu Ke looked at me, didn’t speak, and continued to steadily bring out more and more lunch bags.
Two vegetable meals, two meat meals, one bowl of soup, three bowls of rice. I glared at the pork for a long time, swallowing my saliva, directing my chopsticks towards the cauliflower. There were really too many rules to a lady’s etiquette. One couldn’t even eat a piece of meat. My heart burst with resentment, resentment to chewing cauliflower, while also staring at the pork.
After a while, Xiao Xi said: “Lin Lin, how can you just eat vegetables? Eat some meat. You bled so much today, you should still make up for some of your blood.”
I immediately waved my hands: “No no no, I will just eat vegetables. I am a vegetarian.”
Fang Yu Ke who had been drinking soup choked, coughing desperately. His whole face went red. He gasped and said: “Ah. She’s a vegetarian. When she went on the train she bought a bag of chicken feet and gave them away to others.”
I glared at him, lest he say the wrong thing. That was right, on the train, I did read Bossom Friend for the whole night, and I also ate chicken feet for the whole night, but what did it matter to him. He just had an extra mouth. Wasn’t he silent for the whole train ride? Why did he have to suddenly start blabbering? I rolled my eyes: “The chicken feet were bought by my mother. She suspected that I don’t usually like to eat meat, and wouldn’t grow, so she shoved a big bag in. My mom is just a little bad at that part, always thinking that I’m too skinny. I hate that I can’t gain 8-10 kilograms in just an instant. There’s no way to do so, so I can only bring her well wishes along.” I kept repenting to mom while looking threateningly at Fang Yu Ke.
Fang Yu Ke looked at me, forthright, and said to Xiao Xi: “Her mom is probably more optimistic. Lin Lin’s already like this, and her mom still thinks she’s too skinny.”
When it was nighttime and time to sleep, I was placed on the innermost bed. As for the middle bed, no one said who was going to sleep there, and I was embarrassed to ask. I waited for Xiao Xi to go bath, and then I pulled Fang Yu Ke’s sleeve, throwing in the classic movie line of: “Fang Yu Ke, from the moment I’ve known you to now, have I ever asked you any favors before?”
Fang Yu Ke looked at me: “You’ve only known me for two days. Usually how many things do you ask for?”
I was speechless, and could only bring out the final resort: “I don’t care, you’re just effeminate.”
“What do you want?”
“Very simple, you just need to sleep at the very edge of the bed.”
Fang Yu Ke looked at the bed, then he looked at me: “Do you have anything against me?”
I immediately shook my head: “What can I have against you. It’s just that I was thinking that we’ve already been face to face for so long on the train, so I’m afraid that familiarity will breed feelings. I have very specialized feelings so I won’t be good with just anyone.”
Fang Yu Ke laughed: “Idiot.”
Since I had slept for so long in the afternoon, at night when the nights went out, I didn’t feel like sleeping at all. Xiao Xi slept in the bed beside me. When the moonlight shone, his face was even more softened. The night was really good, I could observe a person without any hindrances. Fang Yu Ke that rascal was still considered gullible. He could fulfill my wish and lie to the other side. When I thought to here, I laughed haha.
It just happened that Yao Zi sent me a short text, asking me how my new surroundings were. I was excited, secretly put on my slippers and went out to the balcony, and I called her: “Yao Zi, do you believe love at first sight? What is it like to like someone?”
Yao Zi had already become excited on the other end: “It can’t be? How did you fall in love even before school began? Who is it that is love at first sight?”
I coyly said: “I also think it’s too fast. I haven’t even prepared for it yet, but I didn’t think that the meat pie would hit my head again**. Say, how much kindness and generosity do you think my ancestors accumulated over the years?”
Meatpies=luckYao Zi heartily laughed: “Lin Lin, what kind of a man made your heart so moved? Usually, you could practically be a guy. How did you fall in the river of love so quickly? It really is a day for raining brides, and marriages. The marriage is coming, and it can’t be stopped no matter what.”
I laughed heehee: “He isn’t very handsome, but he’s the very gentle type. You know? Like when he laughs, it’s very warm, that type. Hahahaha. When he laughs he also has dimples. When he talks, his voice is a little husky, but it’s the magnetic husky type. I’ll show you.” Then, I started imitating his voice. On the other end, Yao Zi already couldn’t help herself. “Agh, just keep being horny, okay? Pursue him well and bring him back for the New Year.”
I immediately accepted my command, “Yes sir, I will definitely not let down your trust. I am determined to win.” After I finished, full of silly happiness, I hung up the phone. I secretly slipped back into the room. When I closed the door, Fang Yu Ke turned around. In the darkness his eyes were particularly bright from the moonlight. I was startled and lowly scolded: “People scare people. You could have killed me from fright, okay?”
Fang Yu Ke scoffed, and didn’t speak. After a time, a sentence of “Idiot” popped out from Fang Yu Ke’s side. F**k! Talking in your sleep also includes cursing!