BSS - Chapter 26
Chapter 26
The winter break was, at most, only fourteen days long.
Deng Chuan kept her promise to Su Mian and the others, riding her bike to the library to study every day. She could study at home, of course, but on the not-so-long ride from home to the library, the cold wind hit her face, and so did the vibrancy of life. It made Deng Chuan feel like she was still a living person with a living heart, not yet completely numb from the cold, regimented life of studying.
So she tirelessly made her way to the library every day.
There were many students like her studying at the library, and at noon, people would often rest their heads on their desks for a nap. Deng Chuan didn't have the habit of napping. Occasionally, when she looked up from the dense sea of vocabulary words or politics questions, the sight before her made it seem as if she were still in a classroom at No. 1 High School.
Even the scent of medicated oil or cooling balm that reached her nose was so similar.
In this scent, she smelled the essence of life—how the lives of countless people highly overlapped. So mechanical, quiet, day after day, yet the scent it exuded was pungent and real. It made one want to let out a huge sneeze at dusk. To shatter its quiet composure.
Deng Chuan rode her bike home in such a dusk.
The evening was bustling. The aroma of dinner cooking from many, many homes lingered in the streets, carrying an inexplicable hint of firewood that made it feel like returning to a village.
Smelling this, Deng Chuan's stomach grew even hungrier.
The red light came on, and she stopped with the flow of traffic. Time still passed, but her stillness seemed to stretch it out. Deng Chuan had one foot on the ground, poised to set off at any moment. The red light was like the eye of a falcon, staring down at her, a perfect bird's-eye shot capturing her figure.
Red lanterns were hung along the street. On the crosswalk, people walked by carrying bags big and small, filled with New Year's goods. A mother held the hand of a little boy, who was carrying a box of Spring Festival couplets. As they walked, he looked up and said something to her.
Deng Chuan's heart softened in the evening breeze.
Suddenly, someone gently tapped her arm. She pulled her gaze back. Looking to her side, she saw a group of students also waiting for the light. Judging by their uniforms, they were from a nearby middle school and were still having supplementary classes. A girl with long hair showed her a phone screen displaying a WeChat QR code.
Deng Chuan froze for a moment, then turned her head back forward.
She was wearing a baseball cap and dressed all in black. To the group, her action seemed incredibly cold. In reality, she was quite embarrassed, feeling the girl's gaze fixed on her arm as if it were about to burn a hole through it.
The group laughed awkwardly and started chatting about something to ease the tension.
Deng Chuan felt even more uncomfortable.
Thankfully, the red light turned green just then. Deng Chuan couldn't wait to surge forward. Her bicycle took the lead, darting out as if it were running.
The wind whistled past her ears, and Deng Chuan's mood lightened again. This, she felt, was the rhythm she was familiar with.
She sped along, stopping at the entrance to her residential complex to buy a jianbing guozi. She had it with an extra egg, chicken strips, and a crispy cracker, plus lots of sauce. Wrapped in a paper bag, she devoured it while it was still piping hot before unhurriedly opening her front door.
No one was home. This was also something she was used to. First, she turned on the lights, changed her clothes, then looked for something to eat in the fridge.
Once she sat down at her desk in the evening darkness, she would casually chat with Xu Wei for a bit. Usually, she'd talk about what happened that day. Xu Wei seemed especially busy after returning home and would only reply to her messages at night.
Today, Deng Chuan told her about what happened at the traffic light. She felt the point of the story wasn't the WeChat QR code, but how embarrassed she had been.
Xu Wei replied after a while: Very youthful.
She added: Since rejecting them was embarrassing, you shouldn't have rejected them.
Deng Chuan boldly asked her: Could you bear it?
For the first time ever, Xu Wei replied with an unprecedented: ?
An instant reply, at that.
Deng Chuan laughed out loud at the question mark. She felt Teacher Xu's persona had crumbled a little more. But, afraid that Xu Wei might actually be angry, she took a picture of her desk and said pitifully: No one's home, and I've been studying all day.
Deng Chuan: I haven't even had dinner.
Xu Wei said: Order takeout.
Deng Chuan: But I don't want to wait.
Even through the screen, Deng Chuan could feel Xu Wei's speechlessness: You won't eat just because you don't want to wait?
She didn't like this preachy tone of hers and replied: I'm not eating.
Xu Wei said: Then stay hungry.
Oh.
Deng Chuan stared at the chat window. She knew Xu Wei clearly thought she was being childish, but she didn't say it outright, only using a kind of adult perfunctoriness to brush the matter aside lightly.
So annoying. She really didn't like it.
She didn't know how the conversation had ended up like this. Dejectedly, she tossed her phone onto the bed and opened a thick packet of winter break practice tests.
Fortunately, her mood didn't affect her focus. She picked up where she'd left off in the afternoon, finished the last few major questions, and completed a test paper.
Just as she got up to get a glass of water from the kitchen, the doorbell suddenly rang.
A delivery driver brought a steaming hot bowl of duck blood and vermicelli soup. The order slip only listed Deng Chuan's name as the person who placed it.
But she knew who had ordered it.
Deng Chuan unwrapped it with a reverent heart. She opened WeChat; Xu Wei hadn't sent any messages.
She typed a little nervously: I'm eating now.
She added a cute cat sticker.
Perhaps the cat sticker worked its magic, as Xu Wei quickly replied: Mm.
Deng Chuan asked cautiously: Are you angry?
Xu Wei said: Not angry.
Looks like she was angry. Deng Chuan chewed on her chopsticks and continued to type: How do you know my address?
Xu Wei said: I'm your homeroom teacher.
Fine. Deng Chuan then asked her: So, is the homeroom teacher coming for a home visit?
She was the only one home right now.
Xu Wei replied quickly: No way.
Oh.
She took a disappointed bite of the fresh, tender duck blood. She sent the upright Teacher Xu a red envelope.
Almost the next second.
Teacher Xu: ?
Deng Chuan explained: For the takeout.
Teacher Xu said generously: No need. She added, Just remember to eat on time.
A little while later, Teacher Xu had to go out, so they stopped chatting. Deng Chuan finished the entire bowl of duck blood and vermicelli soup in one go and sat back down at her desk, full of energy.
That night, she was invigorated, studying until her dad came home from a social engagement and was shocked to see she was still awake.
New Year's Eve arrived quickly, as expected.
On the afternoon of the 30th. Deng Chuan sent a photo to her group chat with Su Mian and Pei Qingyu. It was of the empty library. There was hardly anyone there, just a few white-haired old men still reading. Sunlight streamed in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, and dust motes danced in the air.
Pei Qingyu sent a series of ellipses, then asked her what the plan was after dinner.
In previous years, Su Mian was always the one to plan things like this. But this year, Su Mian was in Beijing for the New Year and was going to have New Year's Eve dinner with some new classmates.
Deng Chuan said honestly: Haven't decided.
Pei Qingyu seemed to think for a moment before suggesting: Then let's go do some graffiti outside my art studio. That whole wall needs to be painted. It's so annoying, they're making us do manual labor right before exams.
Deng Chuan asked her: Can I paint anything?
Pei Qingyu said: Paint whatever you want. I'll fix it for you.
Alrighty.
That day, Deng Chuan went home in the afternoon. A large group of relatives had gathered early at her house. After the New Year's Eve dinner, the adults were about to set up the mahjong table. Deng Chuan took advantage of the chaos to slip out the door.
Pei Qingyu was waiting for her at the entrance of the complex. She was carrying a large shoulder bag filled with cans of spray paint. The bottles and cans knocked against each other inside, clanking and rattling.
She hopped on her small electric scooter and drove Deng Chuan through the streets and alleys. The streets were crowded with young people out to have fun. A few years ago, they had been among them, holding fireworks or sky lanterns.
But that hadn't been allowed in recent years.
They drove all the way to the art studio. The rolling shutter door was shut tight. The white walls on either side had already been painted, with a few unformed pieces of graffiti scattered across them. They were the works of Pei Qingyu's classmates from the studio. Rushing home for the New Year, they had left without finishing.
Pei Qingyu put the bag down on the ground, zipped up her jacket, stretched her limbs, and stood at a distance to size up the layout.
She said to Deng Chuan, "Go ahead. Paint whatever you want."
Deng Chuan picked out a can of black paint. She stood by the wall, observing it while shaking the can, which rattled in her hand.
"Wait. Put on a mask first." Pei Qingyu pulled two black masks from her pocket. "The paint will splash on your face."
Deng Chuan put on the mask, shook the can for a while with a rattling sound, then pressed the nozzle. Paint sprayed onto the white wall, mottled and fluid.
The feeling of creation was wonderful. Deng Chuan stretched out her arm and painted several long branches on the white wall. They also looked like slanted tree shadows, a corner of a dark night's jungle.
Pei Qingyu was already busy at work on the other side. On the wall was a half-finished piece of hers: a huge male lion. The brushwork was very realistic, its long mane flying, but the background was a deep blue, like a king of the land flying through the deep sea.
Deng Chuan watched for a moment, then also picked out a can of deep blue. She began to spray large patches of deep blue onto the wall. Set against the black branches, it didn't look like the deep sea, but rather like fragments of the night. Next, she layered bright yellow in the upper right corner, outlining the faint halo of a moon.
The bright and dark colors collided. A corner of a moonlit jungle took shape, lying on one side of the white wall like a deep, hazy dream. Deng Chuan sprinkled a few spots of yellow in it to serve as moonlight. Deng Chuan was tall, so the area she painted was large. From a distance, it looked like a mirage, capable of pulling a person in.
Deng Chuan put down the paint can. Her clothes were already splattered. Her voice muffled by the mask, she called out to Pei Qingyu, "I'm done. Is this okay?"
Pei Qingyu stopped to look. After a moment, she took off her mask and caught her breath. "Yeah, that's fine. Let's leave it like that."
She said, "-Wait for me a bit. I'm almost done. We can go for a walk later."
Deng Chuan smiled behind her mask, her eyes curving. "Okay."
She stepped back a bit. The rattling sound of Pei Qingyu's spray can was in her ears. She took a panoramic photo of her masterpiece and sent it to Xu Wei.
In the chat history, the thumbnail of the photo had the same color scheme as the other person's profile picture. When she clicked on it, she could see many similarities.
For example, the hazy tree shadows, the dizzying moonlight, the deep blue night sky.
Just like the many, many nights they had spent together in the past.
Deng Chuan believed that Xu Wei would notice it too.
Unfortunately, the other person didn't reply immediately.
Deng Chuan stood by the roadside, bored, and casually scrolled through her Moments.
Su Mian had posted a photo of a dinner party. She liked it, indicating she had seen it.
Her classmates were all posting about their New Year's Eve dinners or watching the Spring Festival Gala. She wasn't very interested, so she exited.
She returned to the chat page with Xu Wei. Still no activity.
Eager for a reaction, she clicked her tongue impatiently. A cold wind blew down her collar, making her shiver.
Suddenly, the status in the upper left corner changed. The contact name 'Teacher Xu' was replaced by '... is typing'.
Deng Chuan watched her phone with rapt attention. After a while, the status had changed several times, but no message came through.
She suddenly understood. Xu Wei was hesitating.
The more one anticipates, the more torturous it is; the calmer things seem, the greater the struggle.
Deng Chuan's fingertip tapped the voice call button. Steeling herself, she placed the call.
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