The Fading Away of Our Youth (So Young) Chapter 16

When Zheng Wei returned to the dormitory, her whole body was so cold that it was stiff. Ruan Ruan and Zhu Xiao Bei prepared her some hot water, and the moment they saw her, they pushed her into the bathroom. The moment her skin touched the hot water, she felt that she was alive again. The second day, Ruan Ruan got a fever, her company, Zhu Xiao Bei, who had always eaten well said that her head hurt. Zheng Wei thought that she would also get seriously sick, after all, she was the one who had went through psychological and mental trauma, but after she lay down for a few days, she felt justified. Proving that she was the strong one who could never be beaten to death, the next day she woke up, very refreshed, without any problems in the world. She felt sincere sorrow and loss for the loss of her liveliness.

In such a complex state of mind, she managed to pa.s.s the finals mediocrely, when she finished her last cla.s.s, “Applied Mechanics”, the school break was coming soon. According to their Architecture and Engineering Colleges, after every school year ended, there would be a small yard gala before the break, each cla.s.s was a unit, and there were one or two people per show, to let everyone be lively and relax. Zheng Wei’s cla.s.s had a guy who was doing a one person comic monologue, and they also had a few girls who sang “On Wings of Song”, and actually won applause.

After their own cla.s.s shows ended, everyone would return to their seatings, Zheng Wei and Ruan Ruan went back to Xiao Bei and He Lu Ya’s side–the two had made a special trip to come see their roommates.

“Oh, Zheng Wei, you sing pretty well.” Zhu Xiao Bei saw her acting strange in the past few days, and simply said something nice.

Zheng Wei didn’t benefit, and waved her hand, “There’s nothing technical about it.” Her demeanor was still unhappy. Xiao Bei and Ruan Ruan exchanged glances, and felt that if she told them what was wrong, her heart would be able to take it easier.

The few people didn’t say anything, and watched the next show, tomorrow it would be time for the break, and a lot of students had already returned home, so the auditorium wasn’t full. The last program in the gala was a dance of Chen Xiao Zheng’s cla.s.s, right after the host finished, Zhu Xiao Bei’s eyes brightened, “Look at their cla.s.s, we’ll see if that rascal gets on the stage or not?”

“Booring.” Zheng Wei wasn’t interested at all. After the program began she couldn’t help but look up a bit, but there wasn’t him. She thought about and it made sense, he was such an arrogant and prideful person, how would he dream of entertaining people.

“That middle girl dances pretty well, her small hips are soft.” Xiao Bei reviewed as she watched.

“That one looks like Ceng Yu.” Ruan Ruan said.

Xiao Bei glanced over at Zheng Wei and immediately refined her statement, “I was about to say, who would be so ugly, so it was her, she looks like she’s doing the Yangge dance.”

Zheng Wei giggled, “Suure Xiao Bei, don’t pretend. Others are dancing better than you.” To tell the truth, she also thought Ceng Yu danced very well, Ceng Yu was also pretty good looking, and her studies were great, she heard that her personality was bold, and her father was their college’s a.s.sociate dean, and her dancing was so good. These types of girls would definitely latch onto him, and he wasn’t unhurried, underneath she was a meaner person, no wonder she, the Jade Small Flying Dragon both gave a big somersault.

As she thought, the last dance ended, the gala had the properties of a compet.i.tion, during the judge’s scoring, the female host whose face had been painted so white that it looked pure came out, she smiling said, “Right now, we are going into the nervous score-making session, before the results come out, would anyone like to come and perform……” Her sentence was obviously just a prearranged sentence, because within the Engineering and the Architecture colleges, there would definitely not be anyone who volunteered to be onstage, so she only stopped for a second, and continued, “If there isn’t, I would like to invite Ceng a.s.sociate dean to come up and sing “Northern Spring”.” The moment she stopped, Northern Spring came on, the a.s.sociate dean grabbed the microphone and smiled as he waited for the song to begin.

Everything was perfect, and the host prepared to go off of the stage, smiling, when all of a sudden one of the audience said, “Slow down! I want to perform.”

The host’s smile froze in place, and she didn’t recover yet, the person who had volunteered was actually a round-faced pretty maiden.

“Big sister, don’t say things so quickly, did you not see my raised hand?” Zheng Wei said this as she went towards the stage.

Ruan Ruan pulled her back, and softly said, “Don’t be reckless, we are thinking of going to KTV nearby the school!”

“I don’t want to.” Zheng Wei shook off Ruan Ruan and swiftly went to the small stage, “Didn’t you ask if anyone wanted to perform, I want to sing.”

Zhu Xiao Bei grabbed her face, “OMG, don’t tell anyone that I know her!”

Ruan Ruan saw Ceng a.s.sociate dean laugh, and automatically moved away. “Northern Spring” also stopped. The experienced host recovered her brief surprise and smiling, asked Zheng Wei: “What a brave maiden, what would you like to sing?”

Zheng Wei thought about it, “I want to sing “Love’s First Taste”!”

Ruan Ruan laughed under the stage, she said to the miserable Xiao Bei, “Let her play around, she’s been holding it in for these past few days.”

The host and the sound engineers exchanged for a while, and finally, not without regret, they said to Zheng Wei, “I’m sorry, we do not have the accompaniment of the song in our library.”

Zheng Wei frowned, “You don’t have this song? Then let me see what you have.”

She walked over to the sound engineer and flipped through the songs, they actually didn’t have “Love’s First Taste”, she pointed with some dismay to “Love’s Price” and said, “Then I’ll sing this one. Since I’ve come up, I know how to sing this song anyways.”

The host was helpless and could only nod to the sound engineer, in a short time the melodious prelude sounded. Zheng Wei had a good sense of the music, and her sound was raw, but she knew how to listen, but a girl who looked like a doll closing her eyes on the stage and moving to the music  singing “Love’s Price” was indeed a delightful scene, the judges and the leaders of the college laughingly whispered, and talked about who this interesting girl was.

Ruan Ruan was the first in the audience to applaud. Since she couldn’t stop her, she could only cheer her on. Zhu Xiao Bei and He Lu Ya both pa.s.sionately followed.

“Do you still remember our young dreams,

Like flowers that will never wither,

I have gone through those blowing winds and pounding rains,

Seeing things change, seeing vicissitudes.”

　　……

Chen Xiao Zheng sat in the last row, Ceng Yu had hoped that he could go see her dance, but there wasn’t anything else, and he had come with his cla.s.smates. The moment Zheng Wei went on stage, he heard a small area around him booing, within the Architecture and Engineering Colleges, many people knew of Zheng Wei’s pursuit of him. He didn’t say anything but put his hand on his chin as he watched Zheng Wei, drunk in her singing, this was the first time he had seen her since he had run away last time, he thought, what kind of a person is this, that she would even do something that would make everyone’s eyes pop.

His silence seemed to make the students around him more outrageous, they began to yell, “Zheng Wei–Chen Xiao Zheng, Zheng Wei–Chen Xiao Zheng.”

Her eyes inadvertently drifted over, but it was very dark in the audience and he didn’t know if she had seen him or not, but he still instinctively looked away.

“A Zheng, are you going to go up to the stage to perform?” A student pushed his shoulder, and he shook the hand off, and went out of the auditorium, by himself.

“Go, go, people have to learn to grow up,

Go, go life will inevitably go though pain

And we have shed sad tears before, and sadly broken our hearts,

This is the price of love……”

Chen Xiao Zheng took a deep breath in the suddenly quiet air. In truth, her sound was pretty nice, but–it was too bad (that they can’t get together).

The morning of the second day, half of the dormmates had gone. Only Zheng Wei, Ruan Ruan and He Lu Ya were left. He Lu Ya wasn’t in a hurry to leave because her home aws in the suburbs. Zheng Wei and Ruan Ruan were on the same train, and its appointed time was about 7:00pm. Ruan Ruan organized her luggage and helped Zheng Wei pack. Zheng Wei didn’t have anything to do, and didn’t lend a hand. The dormitory’s computer was packed up and she could only run over to Xu Kai Yang’s dormitory to use his computer to play games.

While packing, the boy’s dormitory was extremely messy, Kai Yang lived in the city so his things were still where they were. When he saw Zheng Wei had come, he happily sat next to her and watched her play.

Xu Kai Yang and Lao Zhang were in the same dormitory building. Zheng Wei hesitant when coming, whether she would meet that annoying monster or not, but after she thought about it, he should have already returned by ow. Kai Yang’s computer was on the table closest to the table, she played games, but she still couldn’t help herself go along the hallway and look for him, but she didn’t see him, she didn’t know if she was disappointed or relieved.

She played and played, when Kai Yang’s dormmate came in, he waved to Zheng Wei and walked over the side of the TV and stuffed a disc in, the moment Zheng Wei saw the black bag that he had used to hold it, he knew that it wasn’t anything good, Kai Yang was the first to speak, “Ah, a girl is here, what kinds of things are you going to play.”

The dormmate looked at Zheng Wei, and seemed to feel wrong, he gave a resigned sigh, and ejected the DVD, and said, “Girls make for complications.”

Zheng Wei couldn’t stand this, “What are you saying, I didn’t see anything before, you’re fussy all right, I can watch it, no problem!”

Kai Yang hesitated, “This isn’t good.”

“No problem, who’s against who, people with pure hearts are always snow white.” Zheng Wei patted his shoulder.

The film wasn’t anything creative, it was a third rate Korean erotic film, there were many similar love plots that came and gone, Zheng Wei would glance up from time to time but didn’t think there was anything interesting. But this was her first time watching these kinds of colorful films in the male dormitory, so she felt very strange, plus Xiao Kai’s face which kept getting redder and redder and made her feel like this was more interesting.

Today, the guy’s dormitory was extremely messy, with chaotic footsteps sounding the hallway. Zheng Wei suddenly heard a far sound that seemed to say, “A Zheng, I thought you just left, you’ve come just in time, I didn’t bring my keys.”

Zheng Wei’s ear suddenly picked up the sound and immediately began to pretend as if she was concentrating on her computer game, and changed her side while talking to Kai Yang, her eyes brightened as she looked towards the door. That sound hadn’t come for too long before she saw Chen Xiao Zheng coming from the stairs, walking towards his dormitory. When he pa.s.sed by Kai Yang’s dormitory, he walked by, unfeeling, and didn’t even try to look inside at all.

“Ai ya, I died again.” Zheng Wei moved the mouse a bit, “I’m not playing anymore.”

She didn’t know why her feelings seemed to instantly go to an all time low, she obviously told herself, that she wasn’t going to care about that as*****, but after she saw him, the deer in her heart, why did it start jumping around so much. The fact that he didn’t look inside was perfectly normal, he didn’t know she was inside, if he knew, it would be strange if he didn’t avoid her by going far away, Zheng Wei sourly thought about it, hmph, since he didn’t like her, then if he hated her and felt that she was annoying, that was also good, at least she wouldn’t be completely out of his heart, the best part would be if she was in his nightmares every night.

She closed the game, even after she had learned the game after an hour and 30 minutes, she didn’t know what to do. At this time, she could see Chen Xiao Zheng grabbing his clothes basin to the public laundry room.

This guy really loved to be clean, the legendary guy who was the only one to clean his clothes every day was him, it looked like those were not empty words. Kai Yang also observed the change in her mood, he looked at her, and didn’t say anything.

Zheng Wei felt very bored but she didn’t know why, she didn’t feel like leaving immediately, so she watched the TV, her heart flying to Cloud Nine. (She’s still at Kai Yang’s dorm right now)

It hadn’t pa.s.sed five minutes before she found that Chen Xiao Zheng’s hands were wet from was.h.i.+ng, and he came back later, pa.s.sing through Kai Yang’s dormitory again.

The alarm in Zheng Wei’s heart went off, according to the law of her famous Small Flying Dragon, a jerk was going to pa.s.s through here for the fourth time, there was likely to be something fishy going on. She calmly waited behind the screen and waited and watched.

It hadn’t pa.s.sed too long before he came through there again, lowering his head. Silently, Zheng Wei said, “1, 2, 3……10……” When she counted to 16, he grabbed another empty basin, even though he looked straight ahead and looked very justified, he couldn’t conceal from her sharp eyes, she was almost certain, he definitely had a problem!

Just before she was about to meet the enemy, all the experts are “ever changing, and I shall not give in”, she threw all her temper into it, and wanted to see how her enemy was going to do, no matter what, she wouldn’t be afraid!

When he pa.s.sed by  her for the seventh time, Zheng Wei bluntly hugged her chest, in front of the entrance, if he saw her, she would ask what he was doing. This time, he ran out of patience and stopped in front of the door, and said gruffly, “Zheng Wei, get out.”

Zheng Wei was slightly annoyed, she thought, who are you to order me around, what right do you have? She sat where she was and raised her chin defiantly, “Why do I have to go out, you, if you have the guts, get inside!”

She didn’t think that Chen Xiao Zheng would have a wrinkled brow and actually come in, and pick her up like a rag. Zheng Wei’s eyes went wide open, “You……what do you want, what do you want to do?”

Kai Yang quickly used a hand to protect her and said to Chen Xiao Zheng, “What do you want to do?”

“Don’t worry about it, this has nothing to do with you.”

Kai Yang was thrown for a second, and Zheng Wei was half dragged half carried by Chen Xiao Zheng and grabbed outside. He pulled her to the other side of the corridor, at the corner and only then let her go. Zheng Wei was shocked and smoothed down her wrinkled clothes, and put two arms in front of her chest, “What are you doing, do you want to plunder my beauty or my riches?”

He felt that it wasn’t funny at all, with a bit of confusion and disgust he appraised her, “Are you a girl or not?”

This was a great insult to Zheng Wei, she put her hands down and raised her head, “Who are you saying isn’t a woman?”

“I have never seen a girl watching those kinds of movies at a guy’s dormitory, you have no brain.” He said contemptuously.

So it was because of this, Zheng Wei vented her air, and opposed him, “What does it have to do with you, I like watching those things.”

He was apparently annoyed, “If you want to do such a disgraceful thing then go, but don’t keep telling others that you…….and me, I’m embarra.s.sed for you.”

Zheng Wei’s white face reddened, “I……what you? Didn’t I tell you, I won’t play with you anymore! Even if I had something for you before, right now I don’t have anything, so go as far as you can away from me!”

Chen Xiao Zheng’s anger came out, “I know you type of people will only have three minutes of pa.s.sion, so you can’t do anything.”

“How can I not do anything, you’re like the stone in the pit, what can I do? Nothing!” Zheng Wei brushed off the invisible dust on her clothes and walked away.

“I warn you not go to those kinds of things.” After he said that he felt uneasy, what position would he use to warn her?

Sure enough, she turned around, and didn’t say anything for a while before, “What-does-it-have-to-do-with-you?”

She saw him and didn’t know if he was embarra.s.sed or angrily blus.h.i.+ng, and did not forget to add the phrase, “If you want to manage me, you must be my ‘something’ (boyfriend)!”

She said this to deliberately anger him but she didn’t think that Chen Xiao Zheng wouldn’t reply after he heard the words, and would look down, thinking something.

This couldn’t be, had she really opened the stone? Had G.o.d felt her bitter heart? While he was struggling with his inner conflicts, she waved her hand in front of his face, “Chen Xiao Zheng, may I ask if you are Chen Xiao Zheng?”

He waved her aside, “Don’t be annoying.”

She straightened, indignant and said, “Don’t say that I didn’t give you an opportunity, I gave you 10 minutes, if you don’t acknowledge it then I’ll take it that you’ve accepted, 1……2……time’s up!”

He reminded her, “Your rhythm isn’t right!”

“As humans, we count the rhythm like this, what do you not understand? Earth is very dangerous, go back to Mars.”

He finally couldn’t help but laugh, “It should be you who goes back to Mars.”