Chapter 7

Bai Lu and Xu Hui finally reached the wonton store. They went into the store and sat down. But when ordering, Bai Lu suddenly had a thought, What kind of wonton would she like to eat?

A girl like Jiang Ru, who is slender, sensitive and naive …… what kind of wonton did she eat the day she ran into him?

Before, when they went to the cafeteria together every day, Jiang Ru’s meal size was very small. Even with the high load of academic life of Sixth Highschool, she could only eat up to two bowls of rice per meal.

She likes to eat green vegetables, but can’t tolerate spicy food. If she eats even a little spicy flavored food, her face will be completely red.

“Have you chosen yet?”

Bai Lu looked up. Xu Hui sat across the table. His chin was resting on the hand resting on the table. The other hand was boringly tapping on the table.

“You’ve been looking at it for half a day.” He said.

The waiter standing next to her waiting also looked at her. Bai Lu returned to her senses and pointed to the menu and said, “Sorry …… just, just the three fresh ones of these.”

Service Arts students didn’t have any classes on Saturday. So, the school was basically empty on weekends. Students were coming and going out in pairs, far less lively than weekdays.

The wonton store had at most a five or six people scattered on the whole store. Xu Hui and Bai Lu sat on their seat. Xu Hui looked a little tired. He was looking out outside while waiting for the food to be served, but yawned several times in the meantime.

“Did not sleep well?” Bai Lu asked.

Xu Hui said faintly, “…… no.”

Bai Lu said softly, “Is there something on your mind?”

Xu Hui glanced at her, Bai Lu was sitting a little hunched over, because of her position, she appeared to be even smaller. He shook his head, changed the subject and said, “Your home is also in this neighborhood?”

Bai Lu: “Well, I live in this neighborhood.”

When the wontons were served, Xu Hui pulled out a pair of handy chopsticks from the chopstick tube next to him and took the vinegar bottle. After drawing two circles around the wontons, he finally stirred them with his chopsticks.

The meal was quiet; Bai Lu was sick and had little appetite.

Halfway through the meal, Xu Hui’s cell phone rang.

He kept his mouth shut and took out the phone with one hand to connect.

“Hello?”

“……”

“I’m out to dinner.”

“……”

“When?”

“……”

“Not today …… and not tomorrow, I’m going to sleep at home, the night after tomorrow.”

At the end of the call, the tone of voice his became more and more impatient.

“I said no. Did you not understand? Love my foot. Don’t wait for me and play on your own.”

He cut the call, turned off the phone, and slammed it on the table.

Bai Lu shrunken her neck, whispered: “Were your friends looking for you?”

“Hmm.”

When Xu Hui had almost finished eating, Bai Lu added, “Do you go to this high school next to the store?”

“Right.”

“Which grade?”

“Senior year.”

“Wow.” Bai Lu whispered, “You are a college entrance examination candidate then.”

Xu Hui seemed to be hungry and fished out the last bit of crumbled wonton and ate it.

“Studying is tiring, isn’t it?” Bai Lu said.

“Not tired.” He casually responded and brought the vinegar over next to him and added a little to the soup.

Vinegar.

Bai Lu stared at his movements and added, “Is it stressful to go to school?”

Xu Hui thought it was funny but still lightly hummed. He held the bowl up, drank a few mouthfuls of soup before setting it on the table. He pulled out two napkins from the paper draw on the table and wiped his mouth.

“You asked so much about me, what about you?” Xu Hui’s dark eyes looked at her, “You’re a student too, right?”

Bai Lu nodded.

“Which school.”

Bai Lu blushed a little and waved her hand in embarrassment.

“Study is tiresome …… don’t ask.”

Xu Hui called the waiter and pulled out the money from his back pants pocket.

“Don’t, don’t!” Bai Lu hurriedly stopped him, “No need for you to pay, I’ll do it.”

Xu Hui: “No need.”

“Last time you also helped ……”

Xu Hui frowned, “I said no need.”

His tone was not good, as if he does not want to be disagreed with. Bai Lu closed her mouth and stopped talking.

After finishing the bill, Xu Hui stood up, stretched his arms high and yawned.

The shirt rose with it, revealing a fine, narrow waistline.

“That’s it, then.” Xu Hui carried the fruit bag, and did not wait for Bai Lu to say anything, turned around and walked out.

Bai Lu sat back in her seat. She tilted her head sideways and looked out the window at the teenager’s back, pondering.

That afternoon, Bai Lu went to the Tesco supermarket across from the Sixth Highschool.

She bought a bag of limes, two jars of honey, and a glass jar.

When she returned to the dormitory, it was already close to evening. Saturday’s self-study ended at five o’clock, and the following six-thirty to nine-twenty was voluntary. Some students who were tired of studying were already ready to go home at this time.

Bai Lu spent the day outside, drained of energy, and dragged her sick body towards the dormitory.

In front of the dormitory, Bai Lu ran into an unexpected person.

“Wu Hanwen?”

Wu Hanwen was standing on the steps at the entrance of the dormitory building with his school bag on his back, as if he was waiting for someone.

“You’re back?” Wu Hanwen saw Bai Lu and came down from the steps. “How sick still running around all day.” When his eyes swept the plastic bag in Bai Lu’s hand, Wu Hanwen raised an eyebrow, “Yo, you still went shopping? Minor injuries don’t go down the fire line ah.*”


[T/N: Small injuries can cause big problem if not taken care of properly.]

Bai Lu was powerless, so she didn’t bicker with him and waved her hand, “I’m tired, I won’t talk to you.”

“Hey?” Wu Hanwen called out to Bai Lu, “Don’t ah, I wait for you half a day.”

Bai Lu turned her head and said breathlessly, “Huh?”

Wu Hanwen frowned, “Can you take off the mask? You look like a ghost.”

Bai Lu took off her mask, and Wu Hanwen also took out a stack of test papers from his school bag.

“Here, the last exam paper was sent to me. The top half is yours, the bottom is mine. This afternoon Mr. Bao talked about the math paper. Mine had notes on it, and Mr. Bao asked me to give it to you.”

Bai Lu took it and saw his score.

127…… not bad. Bai Lu was more satisfied with his score than him. She then casually turned to the following test paper, 148.

Bai Lu looked up and saw Wu Hanwen’s calm face.

Bai Lu inserted the test paper in the shopping bag, “The study committee president really worked hard.”

Wu Hanwen: “That’s right.”

Bai Lu: “I’ll go back first.”

“How is your cold?”

“Nothing, common cold. I will take some medicine and sleep it off.”

“Take Sunday off too, get well and come back on Monday.”

Bai Lu gave a soft ‘mmm’.

Wu Hanwen looked at her, “Why are you so tired, what on earth have you been doing?”

Bai Lu slowly turned her head, “Do I look tired?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not tired.” She stared at him, yet seemed to be speaking to herself, “…… I went out for the day.”

Wu Hanwen looked at her with a bizarre expression, “Is your brain burnt to stupid?”

Bai Lu shook her head and went into the building.

Back in the dormitory, Bai Lu fell face first onto the bed and lay there for more than twenty minutes before getting back up again.

When she went to the bathroom to wash her face, she remembered the lemons she brought and went to get them to wash. Suddenly she remembered that she was missing two more things, a knife and salt.


Jiang Ru has a lot of small things, Bai Lu used to not pay attention to them. Now that Jiang Ru was gone, Bai Lu realized that life alone was uncomfortable.

Bai Lu looked at herself in the mirror. She looked even more haggard because of her illness.

Her mind drifted off to what she heard from her classmates-

[It’s horrible, did you know that Jiang Ru stole the family’s money to go for cosmetic surgery?]

“Why did she ……” Bai Lu has not been resting well lately. Her eyes were red. In the dim light of the bathroom, there was a vague feeling of gloom.

She gently screwed on the faucet, finished showing and wore some casual clothes. After drying her hair, she took her meal card and went downstairs.

The school cafeteria mainly deals with food and stationery and simple daily necessities. Bai Lu bought two knives and two packet of salts from the shelves.


When queuing up for the checkout, Bai Lu ran into a group of boys from her class eating at the cafeteria. The head of the group was Wu Hanwen.

“Yo.” Wu Hanwen also saw Bai Lu, when his friends went to pick out food, he came over, “Fate ah, you came down to eat?”

Bai Lu shook her head.

Wu Hanwen glanced at the knife Bai Lu was holding and opened his mouth slightly.

“What’s that?” Wu Hanwen looked at Bai Lu with a suspicious face, “You’re not doing black magic or something, are you?”

Bai Lu’s throat was in pain, she did not want to talk. She pointed outside, meaning ‘you may stay, I’m out’.

The boys choosed their food and Wu Hanwen followed them to the back of the line.

Bai Lu went back to the dormitory. First, she boiled some water to disinfect the knife, and then took out the lemons, rubbed them with salt and washed them again. On the table on a clean paper, she removed the head and tail of the lime, and cut them into thin slices.

She also washed the empty glass jar and poured a layer of honey underneath.

She laid the lemons one by one, then poured a layer of honey, after that laid the lemons again and poured the honey again.

When the jar was full, she sealed it and screwed on the lid. Keeping the jar unintelligible, Bai Lu used paper towels to wipe the surrounding area clean, and finally brought it out the door to find the hostess aunt.

“Auntie, can I borrow the refrigerator?”

The dormitory building had a common freezer on each floor for the convenience of students. But to avoid taking it by mistake, students have to register with the hostess aunt before using it.

“Oh? honey-stained lemon?” The aunt nodded in approval while registering, “You’re quite good at enjoying yourself in the summer.”

Bai Lu smiled, “I have a cold and want to eat something cool.” Bai Lu said and gave the jar to the hostess aunt, “Please help me put it on the fresh layer.”

“Okay, got it.”

When she returned to the dormitory and finished washing up, it was already nine o’clock.

Bai Lu took her medicine, set her alarm clock and went to bed.

But she couldn’t sleep, her nose was stuffy, she was practically breathing through her mouth. Her mouth dried out because of this and she woke up in the middle of the night once.

The next day, Bai Lu went to the aunt to get the lemon jar, surrounded the jar with a new hand towel and put it in her bag before heading out.

Bai Lu stood on the path going to the vocational school for a while.

For the first time, she noticed the lonicera flowers in the sunlight.

The white parts faded away and the golden flowers began to attract attention.

She came to the neighborhood of Xu Hui’s house.

It was even quieter than before, there was no sound of rain.

Bai Lu gently knocked on the door.

She waited for a moment but heard no movement, so she knocked again, and finally someone answered.

Xu Hui’s voice was low, lazy and filled with sleepiness.

“Who ……”

Along with the voice, the sound of slippers shuffled on the floor and the door opened.


Xu Hui was dressed in black shorts, with his lips opened a little, half droopy eyelids from sleep, and his hair in a mess. But in the morning light, his scruffy appearance has a sense of freshness.

Bai Lu said, “It’s me.”

Xu Hui stared at Bai Lu, half asleep, half awake, his gaze was more direct than before, but also more confused.

He said in a low, dumb voice, “…… What are you doing here?”

Bai Lu raised her hand and whispered, “To return you this.”

Xu Hui slowly looked down, it was his umbrella.

The creased umbrella was soaked in the rain so she dried it in the sun. Because of this, the surface of the umbrella returned to flat. The umbrella in Bai Lu’s hand was folded cleanly and neatly, the buckles were also fixed, now looking like a new umbrella.

Xu Hui’s gaze moved from the umbrella to Bai Lu’s face, his gaze was a little deeper than before. He just looked at her without speaking.

Bai Lu said softly: “Two legs of the umbrella was broken, so I used glue to stick to fix it, it may not be too strong ……”

Xu Hui still did not speak.

Bai Lu waited for a while, but Xu Hui still did not speak. She lowered her head even more, and said softly, almost inaudibly.

“For helping me a few times …… thank you.”

A quiet and sudden laugh left his mouth, Xu Hui leaned against the door and lazily hed.