Suddenly, This Summer Chapter 17

Li Yun Wei laughed when she saw Zhang Yuan. “My old deskmate, why don’t you speak up if you’re going to come? You made me worry about He Luo for nothing.”

“Let’s hurry up and eat!” Li Yun Wei said. “When it gets late, it’s not safe to walk around our campus. I heard a girl even got robbed sometime ago.”

Li Yun Wei took it and studied it carefully. She asked He Luo, “I have a question. Many of such reports would say the woman who bite the suspect’s tongue off and that’s how they solve the crime. Isn’t it strange? Even if it’s biting, won’t it just be biting the suspect’s lips?”

“Okay, let’s get roasted duck,” he said. “What else do you want? How about stewed lamb and stir-fried lettuce?”

“Our batteries have been charged,” replied Zhang Yuan. He Luo elbowed him in the ribs.

“In the male steps, no less,” Shen Lie added.

Li Yun Wei chirped, “Even if you have the thieving heart [intention to cheat], do you have the courage to to do so?”

“Forget it.” Shen Lie waved a hand. “I heard your people are strong drinkers. The total sales of a summer is equivalent to the entirety of the West region’s sales in a year. I’ll just teach you how to eat the roasted duck instead.” On top a Chinese prata, he placed fatty duck meat, duck skin, and then sauce-dipped slices of cuc.u.mber on it. “This is the way the authentic way to eat a Beijing duck wrap.” As he said this, he used the chopsticks to press on the edges of the prata, rolling them until it was a proper cylindrical wrap.

He Luo couldn’t hold onto the sides of the prata well enough and the wrap burst open, dispersing oil from the duck slices. Rather dispirited, she said, “How exactly can I get this done!”

“Exactly!” Shen Lie shook his chopsticks. “You have to learn this. In the future when you demonstrate this to people, you can take the opportunity to eat the whole duck.”

The mutton soup they ordered was still nowhere to be seen even though the flame under their heated pot was starting to dim. The pot was going to dry out. Zhang Yuan shouted, “Waiter, add water! I’ll give you 10 seconds.”

She was so loud that the boys a few tables over looked over. One of them, a short-haired boy, stared at her. He observed her from head to toe and, just as she was about to scold someone, he said, “You are… Li Yun Wei?”

“I’m from Zhang Feng primary school.” The boy smiled, eyebrows straight. “You don’t remember?”

“Yes, after coming here for a math compet.i.tion, I ended up studying in a high school here.”

“You’re Zhang Yuan?” Xu He Yang was surprised. “I’ve heard of you but I never met you.”

“Xu He Yang.” Turning towards Li Yun Wei, he explained, “I often see this cla.s.smate of yours on the list of school olympiads. Once I won the city’s first prize, two of the only prizes available, and was over the moon. Then when I took a better look, I realised there was still a full score award! This is the guy who won it.”

He Luo said, “I’ve never heard you mention such an awe-inspiring matter.”

“Had you continue on your path in junior high, maybe it’s you with the opportunity to study high school here.” Xu He Yang raised his head, pretending to wipe sweat from his forehead. “I’m lucky!” He added, “But now we’ve run into each other in the same university. Which department are you in?”

“This guy is a cla.s.sic good boyfriend, he’s here for He Luo.” Li Yun Wei smiled.

On the way back to the dorm, a gingko leaf spun and fell on He Luo’s hair. Zhang Yuan picked it up and said, “The yellow of gingko, the autumn of Beijing, the day is coming.”

When they read the book in their third year in high school, they were also studying the Beijing map. He Luo had pinpointed Tsinghua park as the centre and drew a circle with the radius of 10cm on the 1:100,000 map. “Oh, we’re going as far as Xiangshan!” She laughed. “In the future, let’s go see the red leaves together, okay?”

He Luo was momentarily speechless. “There’s always another chance,” she said.

*

Zhou Ying Yan said, “Zhang Yuan might as well have not come. Before he came, He Luo would only sigh now and then. But now she is depressed all day. Every time we eat at the canteen, she insists on sitting in the same spot they dined in earlier.”

“Ah, can you bring me in?” He Luo asked.

He Luo was embarra.s.sed to mention that she had been in a daze. She smiled and sighed. “Forget it, I’ll just not go.”

What he ended up giving He Luo was a work permit. “Really?” He Luo’s eyes were bright. “Doesn’t this mean I can go over to the players’ side? Thank you!”

“Ah, how can I take this? Besides, don’t you have to control the traffic?”

He Luo really wanted to go so without humility, she said, “Okay! I owe you a favour.” After watching the match, she talked to Zhang Yuan on the phone about it.

“I thought there will at least be one veteran NBA star but who knows it’s all third-tier old players.” He Luo laughed. “But it’s still very cool to be at the scene. I took the risk of being kicked out of the venue and went up to the VIP area. I took many clear photos, I’ll send you them some other day.”

“I don’t have a ticket. Shen Lie gave me his work permit and went to play at the university’s fair. Oh right, does your university have such activities of luring new students? I never hear you talk about it.”

He Luo burst out laughing. “But you’re still a cadre, aren’t you? Monitor. Zhang. Yuan.”

“Very profound self-criticism,” He Luo said. “But there’s actually many other activities outside of student unions and clubs. They’re not all bureaucratic.”

In the next few days, there were no phone calls, no correspondence.

He Luo was busy with midterms, for everyday of a week. Her department dean told them at the beginning of their year, “Whoever who fail must drop out. The curriculum of our department is difficult. Every batch there is at least 10% of people who won’t be able to get their degrees.” After discounting those who scored higher than she did in other provinces, those who majored in science over those in liberal arts, no matter how she thought about it, she felt she was firmly in that 10%. After a stressful and frightful exam week, it was not as horrifying as she first thought but she was exhausted. Only after she binged on sleep over the weekend, did she realise that there had been no news from Zhang Yuan since.

She had been brainwashed by the exams.

That night He Luo sat alone in her bed and, as soon as it was about 9, she ran to the phone booth to queue. Even if she could only talk for three minutes. Even if she only ask about weather. That would be good enough.

He Luo could hear no more.

A sweaty Zhang Yuan was dragged from the basketball court to the restaurant to celebrate a cla.s.smate’s birthday. He was drenched in the smell of smoke and alcohol. By the time he returned, it was too late to go to bathroom, so he went and got himself two bottles of hot water instead. Halfway through him was.h.i.+ng his hair in the washroom, a roommate called him. “Your pager’s ringing, it’s a Beijing number!”

The autumn wind was sweeping the leaves, the weather was gradually chilling. As time past, He Luo pulled her collars up higher. She stared at the lonely stars in the sky.

“Another 5 more minutes, okay?”

He Luo turned around in anger. “Do you want me to ask you to wait for five minutes, and another five minutes more, or do you want me to call home right now and chat for half an hour? Well?” She was not at all polite.

Only after He Luo levelled a cold glare at him, did he shut up.

He Luo was initially quite angered but after a second thought, perhaps the boy’s family or lover was also waiting in anxiety for him. Her heart softened.

“I’m not waiting anymore,” she said in a low voice. The boy gloated.

Zhang Yuan had ran all the way outside. In a snowing day, there was almost no one who would go out to make a call. He soon found a phone booth and had jammed his phone card in when he noticed it was so cold that the LCD screen was not even lit. He ran to his department head’s office and dialled the number over and over. But the phone was always engaged. When he looked carefully at the time, he saw that the paging had came half an hour ago.

His trip to Beijing was a bag of blessing and disappointment. Before he could savour the joy of reunion, there were disturbing thoughts threatening him. When He Luo called Shen Lie omnipotent, he was embarra.s.sed. It was a wake-up call for him. In his heart he introduced it was not her intention, she even avoided the topic of their college entrance exam and his failure. But it inadvertently revealed her own thoughts. He Luo was such a practical person. How would he looked to her? Did she find him too naive and too unreliable?

But He Luo’s occasional clumsiness, occasional slyness, her shy thoughtfulness, her light smile, her slight frown - all those in his eyes were indescribably good. He remembered their good old days, where their youth was their only obstacle.

Walking back, he realised he was still carrying his towel and wearing only a thin sweater. The cold wind was still blowing, covering his wet hair in light frost. Breathing out white smoke, he thought of He Luo’s hearty laughter and derived warm from that memory.

[ill.u.s.tration by Jiwoon Pak]