Resisting Winter

By the time the evening study session was over, it was fully dark.

When Bai Lu came back from the bathroom, Jiang Ru was still lying on the table, surrounded by a circle of girls.

Her own seat was taken, so Bai Lu sat at the back and waited.

A bunch of people’s conversations came to her ears.

“Don’t cry Ruru, it’s all over school.”

“Okay, don’t be sad.”

“There are still a few days before the exam, you can’t affect the results.”

“Yes, the exams are the important thing.”

“……”

Bai Lu took the time to take down the school bag she hung on the table and closeed the zipper. She carried the bag on her shoulder, her shoulder shook slightly, but she adapted to the weight of the school bag and moved forward.

She came to stand at the edge of the group of girls.

In this group, she is the most inconspicuous and average looking, not tall, has small features, with a pair of large glasses.

Bai Lu’s hair was light in color, especially noticeable in the sunlight, a light blonde, and many times she was called out of line by the head teacher in gym class and asked if she had dyed her hair.

In fact, she was just mildly malnourished.

The group of girls had not yet dispersed, and were still chattering.

Unfortunately, these science and technology female high school students are not very good at comforting people. They just whispered not to affect the result half of the day. Their cheering up effort only went to vain.

Back to the present, the time has passed almost half an hour.

“Hey? What’s going on?” Liu, the class teacher of the next class, came in and started probing, “It’s so late, why are you still dilly-dallying?” He waved his hand, “Hurry up and go. Whatever you want to say, say it tomorrow.”

The teacher came to drive the students away, so the girls carried their bags and left.

“Then we’re leaving.” A girl turned her head, and only then did she find Bai Lu standing next to her, still waiting.

“Oh, Bai Lu.” Several other girls also turned around and looked at Bai Lu, and instructed in a word.

“Please persue Ru Ru more later on.”

“Yeah, you guys are in the same dorm.”

A girl leaned down and whispered in Bai Lu’s ear, “Tell her not to be sad, that boy is so bad, he is not worth it.”

Bai Lu: “……”

This is a big deal, if you want to break the pot, don’t break it in front of her.

Sure enough, the girl started to cry even more miserably.

The girls want to persuade again, but the bell rang. This is the last bell of the day. Bai Lu glanced at the wall clock, it has been nine forty.

Bai Lu: “Go home, it’s too late.” After a pause and she added a sentence, “I will persuade her.”

The girl all left, only Bai Lu and Jiang Ru were left behind.

Bai Lu touched Jiang Ru’s arm and whispered, “Let’s go too.”

The girl was still sobbing, not knowing if it was because the classroom was empty, but her sobs became more pronounced.

Bai Lu sat for a while, at to ten o’clock, she said: “If you do not go to the dorm.”

Jiang Ru did not move, Bai Lu said again: “I will tell auntie to open the door, so that you can enter if -“

“Then you go!” Jiang Ru suddenly pranced up and tilted her head from the desk to look at Bai Lu.

Bai Lu thought, in fact, she should be glaring at herself, but because she had cried too many times recently, her eyes were swollen into a peach-like shape, and the glaring was looking like a pitiful stare.

There’s a lot of people could be found in the world who are not able to get a good deal on a lot of things. Jiang Ru was one of them, specially if she was angry.

“Bai Lu, I’m sorry ……” she slurped word by word, “I’m sorry ……I shouldn’t be mean to you… …”

Bai Lu sighed, “What are you apologizing to me for.”

Jiang Ru who look like lost her soul was sitting like a dummy, her hair was messy. Bai Lu took her hand, “Come on, get up.”

Jiang Ru did not move from her seat. Bai Lu said, “Let’s go back to the dormitory and talk slowly.”

Bai Lu is small, her voice is also small, and her delicate tone has a calming effect, Jiang Ru was pulled up by her.

“Let’s Go.” Bai Lu said.

Sixth High School is the provincial key high school, gathered nearly two thousand outstanding high school students of the province.

Because not all students are local, Sixth High School has a student dormitory building. The rent was pretty cheap, only eight hundred yuan a semester, four students in a room. A expensive rooms are twelve hundred yuan, two students can live there.

Bai Lu and Jiang Ru are roommates in a double room.

When walking towards the dormitory building, Jiang Ru kept her head down. Bai Lu held her and walked in front of her so that she wouldn’t hit the street light directly.

After a few steps, Jiang Ru stood still.

Bai Lu turned back.

Jiang Ru is a little taller than her, but also very thin. She had a long and thin neck, that looks like a little duck.

Bai Lu still remembers the first time she saw Jiang Ru. She looked the least conspicuous among the seven or eight students, with a ponytail tied behind her head, with big eyes and a wide smile, and a smooth forehead.

The teacher introduced her and said, “Look at her, she must be a smart kid”.

Jiang Ru smiled shyly, and for some reason, sat down beside Bai Lu and got along with her.

Jiang Ru looked at the ground, the dim streetlights in the campus shone on her, making her shadow longer.

“I want to go out ……,” she whispered.

Bai Lu: “Go where.”

Jiang Ru: “I want to go out ……”

It’s late at night and only the cafeteria is still lit in the distance. It’s actually summer vacation time, and the city’s high schools are catching up on progress with the examination. High school students would start classes in August.

Because school ends too late, the school has to supply night snacks to the residential students, and the cafeteria is usually open until 10:30.

Bai Lu said, “How about going to eat something first, I’ll treat you.”

Jiang Ru let go of her hand and shook her head, “No, I’m going out, go back by yourself.”

“It’s so late, you can’t come back if you go out, what about the night bed check.”

Jiang Ru is determined, said what she wanted to say and refused to go back to the dormitory.

She turned her back and headed to go outside. Bai Lu looked at her leaving back, dumbfounded.

Jiang Ru walked, feeling an extra presence of a person behind her. She looked behind and saw tiny Bai Lu holding the strap of her school bag with both hands, walking behind her.

Jiang Ru said, “Are you coming with me?”

Bai Lu did not say anything, but nodded her head.

The summer night was warm but restless and calm. Jiang Ru smiled at Bai Lu and took the initiative to reach out and pull her.

“Bai Lu you are so nice.”

Bai Lu pulled the corners of her mouth in a smile.

They left the campus and reached to the street in front of their school. There were not many vehicles on Huanghai Street at the entrance. Bai Lu turned back, looked at the dormitory building, thinking that tomorrow, it would be hard to wake up.

Jiang Ru didn’t think so much and kept walking. She looked more energetic after coming out of the school, and she started speaking more.

“Let’s go to his school.” Jiang Ru said, “Do you think it’s okay if I call him to come out?”

The “he” in Jiang Ru’s mouth, Bai Lu heard about him many times. She also saw his photo in Jiang Ru’s cell phone, but did not see him in person.

Jiang Ru started talking to Bai Lu about ‘him’ more than two months ago.

That day, she ate at the wonton store in front of the school next door, but she forgot to bring money and her phone was out of battery. She was so embarrassed that she didn’t know what to do. But then, a boy, who was also eating dinner at the store helped her.

He is Xu Hui, a junior college student at a vocational and technical college two blocks away from the Sixth Highschool.

Whenever she mentioned him, she couldn’t help but smile.

She said he was fond of her and liked to hold her hand.

Jiang Ru had dimples, and women with dimples smiles extra sweetly.

They have been together for two months, and in the last week, Jiang Ru’s smile has suddenly disappeared.

When Bai Lu asked her what happened, Jiang Ru said that a woman had snatched Xu Hui away.

The woman was in Xu Hui’s class, and Jiang Ru gnashed her teeth every time she mentioned about her.

“Shame on you! Stealing someone else’s boyfriend!”

Bai Lu whispered, “Is he that good?”

Jiang Ru controlled her anger again and gave a half-hearted answer in a whisper, “Just good.”

Bai Lu had seen Xu Hui’s photo, he was indeed very handsome.

Jiang Ru and Xu Hui only had one photo. The Jiang Ru in the photo pulled Xu Hui to take the picture, but the boy in the the picture did not show a smile. He was wearing a blue and white school uniform, his hair slightly messy.

Bai Lu has no difficulty understanding Jiang Ru was charmed by him. Xu Hui had an aura not quite like a young man of seventeen or eighteen – whether it is pretend or real.

While walking with her head down, Bai Lu suddenly felt Jiang Ru reach over.

She looked forward and saw Jiang Ru with her mouth slightly pursed. She was helping her to straighten the collar of her school uniform.

“Why is your collar always crooked?” Jiang Ru’s voice was soft, “I saw it many times when I was doing lunchtime exercises.”

Bai Lu lowered her eyes, “I don’t know.”

Jiang Ru smiled, “You’re too thin, this is the S size school uniform, you’re still big in it.”

Bai Lu also smiled, “You’re skinny too.”

Jiang Ru’s smile faded a bit and sighed softly, “I think I’m getting fat ……”

“What?”

Jiang Ru: “You do not know the girls in his college, are good at dressing up.”

Bai Lu said faintly, “Is that so…..”

Jiang Ru: “I used to think that studying is the most important thing for girls, the girls who study are always good girl. But ……” Jiang Ru said, the corners of the eyes became a little red as she spoke, “I now think that girls who like to dress up can be good too……”

Bai Lu did not say anything, Jiang Ru keep talking to herself, “Even if you do not look good, you still have to be able to take care of yourself.”

Bai Lu gazed upward and saw Jiang Ru’s braided up hair.

Jiang Ru used to only wear ponytails, but recently began to study various kinds of braided hair.

She had long, enviable hair that was dark and straight, and looked much prettier than Bai Lu’s malnourished, light-colored curls.

The sixth-grade science girls also liked to take care of their beauty and dress up. Every day Jiang Ru will find out her favorite braids from magazines and compare the length, color and softness of her own hair with those of the models, while Bai Lu sits next to her and watches her calculate with a serious face.

Bai Lu: “Don’t be sad.” She sincerely advised Jiang Ru, “love and breakups have to be experienced, you ……” she thought of wording in her mind, and said, “you hold yourself now, and when you recall about it later, you will laugh out. “

Jiang Ru pursed her lips, half whispered: “I do not want to break up. Two months from today is his birthday …… September 6. I would have liked to give him a birthday present.”

“There is almost a month.” Bai Lu said.

After crossing the road, they went through an old-fashioned neighborhood, which is faster than walking from outside.

The neighborhood was quiet and much darker than the road.

Bai Lu took Jiang Ru’s hand and walked forward in silence.

She gradually smelled a fragrance, in the quiet summer night, in the far away and dark road, the smell was unmatched.

Jiang Ru seems to feel something, suddenly said: “flowers.”

Bai Lu turned her head, Jiang Ru looked deep into the darkness.

Before Bai Lu had a chance to ask, Jiang Ru had already pulled her over.

The fragrance grew stronger.

Jiang Ru led her to the roadside, the path is flanked by households. Because it is an old-fashioned neighborhood, all the homes have their doorsteps to circle the flower garden.

The flowers are small and tiny, moon white and pale yellow. Blooming together and hidden in the dense bushes.

Maybe it’s good to have live and light fragrance flowers. People here have agreed to the same thing, planting the same kind of flower on both sides.

“Smells nice, doesn’t it?” Jiang Ru said, “It smells good.”

Bai Lu said, “You know this flower?”

“Of course I know it.” Jiang Ru bent down, picked up a small flower from the ground, and blew on it. She had a sweet face, “He was the one who told me about it.”

The flowers were in two colours, one white and one yellow. Jiang Ru separated the two small flowers, the white one was inserted in Bai Lu’s hair, and the yellow one was kept for herself.

After inserting it, she took a half step back to admire it. Bai Lu asked, “What kind of flower is this?”

“Lonicera.”

Saying this, she snorted and let out a laugh, “Bai Lu, you look so dumb ah.”

Bai Lu looked at her and did not say anything.

Jiang Ru patted the back of her hand and said softly, “You are really nerdy.”

Bai Lu slowly smiled too, as if she was inexplicably smiling when she first met Jiang Ru.