Chapter 5

“What are you doing here?”
At the sound of Jing Ming’s voice, Du Ruo’s internal alarms wailed. She spun, on instinct, thinking he meant her.
The dorm entrance was awash in light; inside, Jing Ming stood before that beautiful girl, hands in his pockets, face icy and unreadable. Not so much as a muscle twitched, except for a slight, almost invisible arch of his brow, sharp enough to make your heart skip.
Du Ruo knew firsthand, Jing Ming was the master of micro-expressions. He could freeze a person out with a single glance, not even needing words. That trace of contempt at the corners of his eyes was more brutal than any insult or punch.
Thank god he hadn’t spotted her. Du Ruo exhaled, hugely relieved.
Li Wei hurriedly scooted behind a tree, trying to avoid notice. He whispered, “That’s my roommate. Also my high school classmate.”
Du Ruo pretended not to know Jing Ming at all, completely unfazed. “Oh, okay.”
Min Enzhu, unfazed by Jing Ming’s frostiness, reached for his hand with a bright smile. “Have you eaten yet? I haven’t, ”
Jing Ming darted back a step, dodging her completely. “If you have something to say, then spit it out. Otherwise, go.”
“Why’d you block me?” Min Enzhu was still sweet, tilting her head playfully. “Seriously, I say a couple of words and you get all mad? Where’s this temper coming from?” She reached out and poked his stomach, only for him to swat her hand away, impatient. “That’s my temper, deal with it.”
Not the type to melt at a soft touch.
Min Enzhu took a step closer, muttering something meant for Jing Ming’s ears only.
On Du Ruo’s end, she took the books from Li Wei and noticed a slip of paper inside the first one. “What’s this?”
“Oh, those are the required textbooks. That sheet has the list of recommended reading.” Li Wei unfolded it for her, a long lineup of reference books, none of them cheap.
“Do I really need to buy all these?”
“Absolutely. Those few texts aren’t nearly enough.” Li Wei neatly folded the sheet and tucked it back inside.
Du Ruo broke out in a cold sweat. Luckily, the Jing family had sent her some extra spending money for clothes, otherwise, her living expenses were going to be stretched to the breaking point.
The late-evening darkness disguised every flicker of emotion on her face. She was still lost in thought when chaos erupted on the other side.
Jing Ming had enough. After standing there a moment, he turned and headed for the dorm.
In one bold move, Min Enzhu lunged and wrapped her arms around him from behind.
It was Prime shower hour, group after group of guys, towels and caddies in hand, marched in and out.
Jing Ming froze, then immediately pried her arms free.
Min Enzhu was clinging to him, tottering as he tried to break free, but she wouldn’t let go. “Okay, okay, I said the wrong thing, all right? It’s my fault, okay?”
Jing Ming’s pale face flushed with a rare hint of color. He scowled, embarrassed and angry. “Min Enzhu, what are you playing at?”
Min Enzhu grinned. “Just playing.”
Jing Ming: “Let go!”
Min Enzhu: “Nope!”
Jing Ming: “What are you, some clingy mutt?”
Min Enzhu: “Woof!”
Jing Ming: “…”
Jing Ming kept his poker face, staring up at the sky, his chiseled features torn between holding in a laugh and sheer exasperation.
Min Enzhu hugged his waist, giggling uncontrollably.
Li Wei, watching all this from the sidelines, couldn’t help but snort too. He strolled over: “Okay, okay, you two can stop flirting and fighting now.”
Jing Ming’s face turned a shade deeper. “Who’s flirting?!”
Min Enzhu finally let go.
Li Wei said, “You two have been like this since high school, even now in college, still at it.”
Min Enzhu shot Li Wei a pleading look, silently begging him to have mercy, and not poke Jing Ming’s ego any further.
Li Wei gave her a quick conspiratorial wink to show he understood.
Min Enzhu steered the conversation away with a grin. “I thought I saw you just now, but didn’t say hi.”
“I came down to handle something,” Li Wei said, glancing back, “This is my classmate, ”
Trees crowded thickly along either side of the road, their branches forming a leafy canopy. Pale patches from the scattered streetlamps spotted the ground.
“Huh? Where’d she go?”
Du Ruo was already gone, arms full of books, melting into the crowd under cover of night, making her escape.
“Fast runner!” Li Wei scratched his head. “I was about to introduce our class belle to you guys, too.”
Jing Ming scoffed, clearly unmoved by the prospect of a class belle. He stepped down the stairs and walked away.
Li Wei called after him: “Hey, where are you going?”
Jing Ming: “Dinner. You coming?”
Li Wei: “Already ate.”
Jing Ming just waved a hand, not looking back, and kept going.
Min Enzhu caught his hand as she followed, flashing Li Wei a bright smile over her shoulder. “Let’s hang out next time!”
…
Du Ruo hauled the stack of books back to her dorm, heart pounding madly, skin slicked with sweat.
So hot I could die!
She fanned the collar of her T-shirt, trying to cool off. The other three were off somewhere, good, she wasn’t in the mood to gossip about Jing Ming anyway.
No time to even flip through her books; she yanked out her shopping list and started adding up the prices for the texts she still needed.
Four hundred thirty-six yuan.
Her monthly living allowance was a thousand, but before school started, the Jing family had given her an extra six hundred for clothes, which would just about cover her books this time.
But what about later? Emergencies always popped up…
Brazenly asking the Jing family for money? She couldn’t stomach it, especially with Jing Ming’s expression flashing in her mind.
Only a single desk lamp was on in the dim dorm. She leaned her cheek on her hand, lost in thought at the table.
Suddenly, the door flung open. He Huanhuan burst in, carrying a basket of toiletries, breathless and dramatic: “Oh my god, those northern public baths are just, unreal!”
Du Ruo shut off her phone calculator in a hurry. “What happened?”
He Huanhuan flicked on the main light and tossed her basket on her own desk, still panting. “Northern girls are intense! Their bathhouses don’t have partitions, fine, but not even a curtain?!”
Du Ruo’s eyes went wide. “What?”
“Everyone totally naked, baring all, me staring at you, you eyeballing me, everyone just scrubbing themselves down. Chests, butts, water flying everywhere… The minute you walk in, it’s just flesh! Flesh! All that gleaming flesh! I nearly passed out.” He Huanhuan was going for full dramatic effect, the shock of northern living had clearly hit hard.
“Where’s Xia Nan and Qiu Yuchen?”
“They said that’s just how bathhouses work here. Ugh! I’ve never even bared my butt in front of my own mom! Xiao Ruo, you get me, right?”
“I get it… Wait. Really no partitions, no curtains?”
“None! … Wanna go see for yourself right now?”
Du Ruo shook her head furiously, like a rattled drum. “No way. Your description was enough for me.”
The two of them sat there in gloomy silence, contemplating the shared misery.
After a while, Du Ruo asked, “So, where are we supposed to shower?”
“Pretty sure there’s a shower room behind the laundry.”
“But no hot water.”
“Sigh…”
“Sigh…”
They both let out grumbling sighs at the same time.
College hadn’t even really started and already it was all worries and problems.
That night, just before bed, Du Ruo sat at her desk, looking back on everything that had happened since she’d arrived in Beijing. She thought it over and finally wrote one thing, just one, on a sticky note:
“Study hard.”
She stuck it to the wall above her desk.
That was it, study hard. There was no other way.
But classes wouldn’t start for another two weeks, because all freshmen had mandatory military training first.
In September, Beijing was still baking hot.
The sky was impossibly blue, not a single cloud.
Three o’clock in the afternoon, the sun roasted the earth. The light was so fierce, it scattered in flashes across the pavement like a shattered mirror, stabbing right into your eyes.
On the sports field, the new freshmen gathered in camouflage uniforms, divided by departments into neat formations, standing at attention in perfect rows.
Du Ruo’s formation had been standing in silence for over half an hour.
At last, the drill instructor spoke: “At ease!”
“Sit where you are, rest for fifteen minutes.”
The crowd sagged with relief, rustling, groaning, sweat dripping everywhere as everyone collapsed.
Girls were in short supply in their department, so Du Ruo and her friends stood in the first row. Behind them, it was all boys, row after row.
Du Ruo sat cross-legged, pulled off her hat and used it to fan herself. Her hair was sticking to her scalp, and sweat dripped from her face and neck.
He Huanhuan was sneaking candy, and handed one to Du Ruo. She took one look at Du Ruo and cried, “Xiao Ruo, why are you sweating so much? Yuchen! Look at her!”
Qiu Yuchen handed over a tissue. “You really that bad with heat?”
“It’s not that.” Du Ruo wiped her face, soaking the tissue instantly. She sighed, “I just sweat really easily.” She worked her way around Qiu Yuchen to grab her water bottle.
Qiu Yuchen swatted her butt as she went by.
Du Ruo: “…”
She crouched by the edge of the track, tilted her head back, and gulped down half her water before she glanced backward and nearly choked.
Jing Ming was at the head of the second-to-last row, and just then glanced her way, coolly taking in her bedraggled state, before turning back to his friends, unfazed.
Du Ruo felt her whole chest fill with indignation.
Right now she looked like a total mess, while he was all crisp in his uniform, stupidly good looking, standing at attention for half an hour like it was nothing.
After a week of this training, she’d gotten two shades darker, and he was still ghost-pale.
Even the UV rays played favorites.
She screwed on her water bottle, let out a silent string of curses at the universe, then trudged back to her spot, resigning herself to letting the broiling track cook her backside.
Xia Nan pulled out rosewater spray, misting her face in the heat.
A cloud of spray drifted over to Du Ruo. She reflexively dodged.
Xia Nan aimed the bottle at her. “Hey, hold still. You need hydration too.”
Du Ruo tightly shut her eyes and turned her head away. “No thanks. The more you spray, the drier my skin feels.”
“It’s hydrating, how could it make you drier?”
“Come on, the heat like this, standing right under the sun, it evaporates instantly. When it does, it actually takes more moisture from your skin,” Du Ruo said.
Xia Nan deflated, quietly putting the spray away.
The field was full of students slumped over, suffering through the heat.
Du Ruo wilted like a forgotten leaf, twisting further away from the sun to find shade.
She was absentmindedly fanning herself with her hat when, suddenly, from the corner of her eye, she noticed something odd: on the path connecting her spot to the edge of the formation, every boy in every row happened to shift at exactly the same moment. Suddenly, she had a clear line of sight all the way to Jing Ming.
On instinct, Du Ruo slammed her hat back onto her sweaty head, trying to salvage what little dignity she had left.
Jing Ming was all relaxed, laughing with the guys. Maybe he felt her stare, because his eyes flicked in her direction for a second, then paused, brow knitting like he was distracted, before he dug his phone out of his pocket, glanced at it, and looked up at the stands.
Du Ruo sighed in relief, curiosity piqued, and followed his gaze.
Min Enzhu was on the bleachers, chin propped up, sunglasses shading her tiny face.
Jing Ming grinned, cocked his chin at his girlfriend.
Min Enzhu beamed back and waved.
The boys around Jing Ming let out a cheer of “Oooh!”
“Cut it out!” He shot them a look, half-laughing, half-scolding.
Du Ruo turned away, remembering the scene a week ago, Min Enzhu clinging to Jing Ming and shamelessly acting cute. The memory was oddly, achingly sweet, a feeling she didn’t quite recognize.
She’d never been in a relationship, not even had a secret crush.
Her whole life had been books, nothing else. She never realized a girl could be like that.
Love…
What did it feel like?
She honestly had no idea.
But… she was just a little bit curious.
That flutter of emotion washed over her for a second, as faint as a breeze on a lake, gone before it could leave a mark.