The only light came from the meager shop signs leaning against the roadside.
On the dim street, passersby hurried along, heads down, rubbing their hands together.
We walked in silence, holding our steaming sweet potatoes, neither willing to break the awkward atmosphere.
Finally, the more impatient of us couldn't hold back.
"Where's your dad? Didn't he say he was coming to pick you up?"
"He had something come up at the last minute. He's not coming."
"Oh!"
"Mm."
"Uh..."
"Huh?"
"What's your name again? Theo?"
"Yeah."
"Thanks for the sweet potato, Theo!"
"Qian Duolai, I'm the one who should be thanking you!"
4
After that day, the two of us finally broke the silence.
We'd still exchange a few words from time to time.
The content was mostly pointless drivel.
Life didn't exactly become more colorful because of that one incident.
The chubby kid still spaced out day after day after day.
I still studied day after day after day.
The only change was that we seemed to have silently acknowledged each other as someone familiar.
That was all.
Perhaps because my academic scores were so outstanding, my name quickly spread across the entire grade.
So some people who shouldn't have noticed me found me.
One day, an upperclassman from eighth grade came looking for me.
Short hair, heavy makeup, skinny jeans, no uniform, bean-shaped shoes.
Wait—wasn't that the same girl I'd encountered at the school gate? The suspected girlfriend of Old Five from the South Gate?
I turned to leave.
But she grabbed me.
"Qian Duolai? I hear you're pretty full of yourself, huh?"
Hearing that, I felt like—why do these kinds of cringey lines actually get spoken in real life?
So greasy, so disgusting, so stupid.
And they had to drag me into it.
It instantly reminded me of those classic scenes from those bossy-bad-boy-falls-for-me dramas I watched as a kid.
I nodded with a grin.
"Yeah yeah yeah, nowhere near as full of yourself as you."
Then I shook her off and ducked into the classroom.
The class bell happened to ring.
I sat in my seat, still recovering from my brush with danger.
Theo next to me noticed my look of having narrowly escaped death.
He twirled a pen in his chubby hand.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, just some suitor who won't stop bothering me."
Clatter.
Someone's pen dropped.
I was too drained to care. My remaining energy couldn't support a spectator's stance.
As school was about to end.
I started strategizing again.
How to get home today.
Those people were impossible to shake off.
That girl didn't look like a decent person either.
Seriously, can't they just study like normal?!
If they don't want to study, can't they at least do something law-abiding?!
Do they have to throw their weight around bullying people in this rinky-dink third- or fourth-tier city?
So annoying. What do I do now.
What if I get surrounded and beaten up outside the school gate?
I stood by the doorframe again, dejected.
When spacing out and looking around.
I spotted...
Theo coming out of the teacher's office, holding papers, walking this way.
I preempted him.
"Why aren't you heading home so late?"
"The teacher called me in..."
"Oh."
"What about you?"
"None of your business."
"...Wanna walk together?"
"Fine!"
Maybe because it was the weekend.
Theo's dad came to pick him up.
Driving a really fancy car.
I didn't know what brand it was.
But it looked impressive.
Theo opened the back door and motioned for me to get in first.
Then he slowly climbed in and shut the door.
Once inside, I quickly greeted him.
"Hello, Uncle. Sorry to trouble you."
The man in the driver's seat turned around with a warm smile and greeted me back.
"Hello hello, you're Xiao Zhe's seat-mate, right? He mentions you a lot."
Theo, who'd just gotten in, immediately interrupted his dad.
"Dad, drive."
After saying goodbye to Theo and his dad, I went home.
Still reflecting on it.
Theo and his dad were quite different.
Theo was the stocky, zoned-out type.
Didn't talk much, wore simple clothes, mostly solid colors.
Theo's dad was pretty chatty. The father and son had pretty different personalities.
I spent a simple, fulfilling, happy Saturday and Sunday at home.
At Monday's flag-raising ceremony.
There was an additional public disciplinary announcement.
The principal, who rarely spoke, took the stage.
A familiar name was read out.
"Eighth grade, Class 4, Li X. Yue—repeated unexcused absences, defiance of teachers. On November 23, 2015, in the basement of Building X at Wangyue Residential Community, assembled multiple people and repeatedly beat their classmate Wang, resulting in permanent disability. Li X. Yue has been taken into custody by the Sycamore City Police Department. Due to the severity of her actions and the significant social impact, in order to enforce school discipline, Li X. Yue is hereby expelled. We hope all students take this as a warning..."
The principal's not-quite-standard Mandarin was broadcast across the entire playground through the speakers.
Instantly a wave rippled through the crowd, and people started buzzing.
Everyone started chattering away at once.
"I know, I know—Li X. Yue, that short-haired girl in eighth grade."
"Is it that girl who doesn't wear uniform, the one with super thick foundation?"
"Didn't her mom supposedly go to the principal's office to beg? I heard she came all the way from their hometown and kneeled there crying."
"What's the point of begging? She and a few of them nearly beat a girl to death. The girl's parents went straight to the police and filed charges, and they won't accept a settlement."
"She totally deserved it. She was always bullying people. This is just karma."
"For real—oh oh, I also heard that when she was taken away by the police, she was actually pregnant!"
"What? Really? Oh my god, yeah yeah, I've also heard that in their group, if the girls don't have money, they have to... you know... with those older guys to get protection."
"Yeah, I heard she has to go back to the countryside... to have the baby..."
"She's not going to school anymore? But she's only in eighth grade!"
"Eh, people like that don't think beating people up or getting pregnant is a problem."
"Sigh..."
"..."
Someone sighed.
I tucked both hands into my pockets.
My neck pulled back into my scarf too.
For once, I wasn't reviewing English vocabulary. I was spacing out.
Li X. Yue—I knew her. She was the one who'd tried to pick a fight with me. I'd been worrying that morning about what to do if I ran into her again.
And then that same morning, she was expelled at the flag-raising ceremony.
I couldn't help but sigh, but I didn't feel any sympathy. If you do something wrong, you have to bravely face the consequences.
Age has nothing to do with it.
5
The bitter cold of deep winter always seemed to assail me with biting chill.
Every breath turned instantly to white mist.
I shivered in my thick cotton coat, not wanting to get up from my seat and run to the water dispenser in the back to get water.
Then Theo would quietly get up from his seat, take my water cup along with his, and go get water for both of us.
Holding the steaming cup of hot water against my chest, it felt like the winter chill could be chased away in an instant.
I wasn't in the mood to study anymore.
Finally I could understand what "In the dead of winter, the inkstone freezes solid and fingers cannot bend or stretch" from the ancient essay meant.
The previous period had been taught by a substitute teacher for Chinese class.
When calling my name, the substitute teacher pronounced it as "Qian Duo Lai" (money come a lot)—probably because of a dialect.
And even commented that I had a nice name.
The class immediately burst into laughter, and everyone turned to look at me.
They seemed to want to see me squirm.
Too bad for them.
I'm a kid with a strong heart.
I sat there unfazed, like a stone Buddha.
Let them laugh. What can I do about it.
They weren't going to see me crack under their stares.
But Theo next to me kept glancing at me every now and then.
Like he wanted to say something.
After class, a few of the teasing guerrilla brigade came over.
Crowding around my desk.
Starting to mock my name with snide remarks.
"Qian Duo Lai, Qian Duo Lai, Qian Duo Lai's family has no money, wearing broken shoes carrying a bag, touch your pockets and there's not a single dime."
Later, when I was bored and chatted with some Taoists, they said that speaking without virtue and spouting nonsense creates negative karma, and it all gets tallied up in the afterlife.
Putting aside the credibility of that for now, the moment they said those words, I genuinely wanted to send them straight down to pay a visit to King Yama.
Before I could blow up and stand up, Theo stood up first.
"Can you guys give it a rest?" The chubby kid's face turned red as he shouted.
Probably nobody expected the normally soft-spoken chubby kid to suddenly lose his temper—they all froze, not saying a word.
Maybe someone recovered.
One of them started smirking at the chubby kid.
"Why do you care? Do you like Qian Duolai or something?"
Then Theo said the line I'll never forget for the rest of my life.
"Yeah, who doesn't like money coming in?"
Even though he used "Duo" (many/much) instead of "Duo" (the character in Duolai), the sentence sounded like a confession, and it left me instantly frozen in my seat.
The room went silent too.
The class bell rang right after.
My heart...
It felt like...
Had drifted away with that long, drawn-out bell tone.
For a long time after that, we were both stuck in an awkward state around each other.
I started getting annoyed, unable to focus on writing in my workbook.
Whenever I looked at my books, the chubby kid's words would pop into my head.