The Fading Away of Our Youth (So Young) Chapter 10

To Our Youth That is Fading Away Chapter 10

Sometimes it was strange, that night, before she had caught up to Chen Xiao Zheng, Zheng Wei had never heard of him before, or found that this person existed, of course, maybe he used to pa.s.s by her countless times, or maybe someone had said this name in front of her before, but back then, this person and this name were meaningless to Zheng Wei, so she absolutely was not aware.

When she began to pay attention to this guy, he was suddenly everywhere. Initially, the Department of Architecture and the Department of Civil Engineering were the same, with a fairly close relations.h.i.+p with each other, and in the same building. It was almost like you only saw it when you looked down. Plus, Zheng Wei even surprisedly found that this rascal actually was actually a minor celebrity, a ton of people in the college had heard of him, who was nothing more than last year’s admission champion, his grades were pretty good. And he even won an award at the architectural design compet.i.tion, just like what Ruan Ruan had said. The old teacher of Engineering Graphics also often mentioned him, as if he was his star pupil, she had even heard his name from Li Wei Juan’s lips at one of their meetings (where they talk about guys).

And this guy could actually make Li Wei Juan, such a proud and arrogant girl crave him. Zheng Wei thought, people that are the same really attract to form groups, Li Wei Juan, who was such a prudish person might as well form her own country with him. So when Li Wei Juan praised Chen Xiao Zheng, Zheng Wei felt revulsion and scoffed. Of course, Li Wei Juan said that Zheng Wei had biases towards other people, in her mind, maintaining a good example for other students was the key. Zheng Wei didn’t argue with her, but one day while she walked with Ruan Ruan at school, she inadvertently stopped at a bulletin board, on it was the three best students’ names and pictures for each grade level. That paper impressively included one of her most disgusted faces of all time.

At that time, Zheng Wei said: “Evil, why do I see that rascal everywhere, he’s practically lingering everywhere.”

Ruan Ruan said, “People have always been like this, once you are determined to pay attention, naturally everything will have his shadow.”

Zheng Wei looked out the window, with an expressionless face she said, “What academic achievers, I might as well stop learning, my end result is always mediocre.”

Ruan Ruan didn’t know how to persuade her, so she ignored this, and several days afterwards when she pa.s.sed by the window she found that a mustache was drawn on Chen Xiao Zheng’s picture, she could not help but laugh.

Zheng Wei also didn’t know why she would have those emotions everytime she saw Chen Xiao Zheng, the moment she saw him, she felt like the entire universe was burning. That period when she had gone over to Lao Zhang’s dormitory was also a source of dissatisfaction but afterwards, his disdain, disgust and indifference was something she hated even more.

She had always believed: Knowing ourselves, finding an invincible reason, no matter how long it takes, Chen Xiao Zheng’s bottom line was slowly uncovered by her. According to Lao Zhang and her informants, Chen Xiao Zheng was considered native to the town, his house wasn’t too far away in G-City in a medium sized industrial city, he had no siblings, she automatically ignored all the words about his achievements and only remembered that Lao Zhang had said before that Chen Xiao Zheng usually tried to keep from publicity, and didn’t count as the type that was too hard to get along with. He had an att.i.tude of ‘If people don’t make me, I won’t make them’ so he was somewhat of an eccentric character, thus he didn’t have any great partners, most of the time he was alone, and he wasn’t keen to partic.i.p.ate in any of the activities his dormmates were having, but made little comment. He loved cleanliness, and was slightly over the top, his bed and its surroundings was the only clean spot in the whole dormitory. The fact that he had a habit to wash the next set of clothes every day was a miracle in Lao Zhang and the others’ eyes. But the only thing that made his dormmates feel like it was too much, was that he extremely hated it when people smoked in the dorm. Whenever someone had a puff, he would discourage it, or open the doors and the windows. No matter if he had cla.s.s or didn’t have cla.s.s he would get up in the morning, punctually, was.h.i.+ng the clothes, cleaning his bed area, sweeping the ground, and doing morning exercises. He wasn’t happy when people woke him up, but after a long time he had become accustomed to it.

Then again, he was impossibly finicky, but his grades were good, his notes were notoriously meticulously neat. Often, he would be the one to make a notes template for the lazy people in the cla.s.s. His homework was also naturally the most popular reference, every time they had to an experiment, people would rush to be his partner, which was not only more effective, but he didn’t have to worry about the report, as for the final exam, the people who asked to sit next to him drew lots. Under this great force, his popularity was not bad.

After Zheng Wei understood this, she felt that this person simply had all the characteristics of a psychopath, wasn’t he the same type like Hitler and Hannibal Lector from “The Silence of the Lambs”? The people she couldn’t understand most were hypocrites, really perverted people, so as long as his figure appeared in her sight, her body hairs would automatically stand on end, and she would enter a state of war. Towards her vexatious and provocative state, Chen Xiao Zheng began to rebut a little bit, but it was often too troublesome, so he would often flee, when he saw her shadow, he would detour to avoid it, but when he couldn’t he would act coldly. One time he couldn’t stand it anymore and angrily said, “Zheng Wei, aren’t you tired of being like this all the time, just let it go.” Zheng Wei would laugh facing the sky, and left in victory, later singing as she walked along the path, she would feel too good.

Ruan Ruan said, “The fact that Chen Xiao Zheng met you is really bad, people like him would say these kind of things, don’t torment him all the time.”

Where was Zheng Wei willing to follow this rule, unable to let go of the matter with Chen Xiao Zheng had already become her instinct, the moment she saw him, her blood would boil, in the process she even felt very entertained, and had already risen to the full enjoyment of life, so there was a time when she said: “A change in att.i.tude is actually very fun,” to Ruan Ruan all the time.

When it was lunchtime, Zheng Wei and Ruan Ruan brought their bowls to the school’s big cafeteria to eat. While they walked, the two discussed with great interest, the newest entertainment gossips. Meal times were always crowded in the cafeteria, every window was full of starving students. The school actually had better food at the teacher’s lounge and small restaurant, but it was more expensive, usually the people living in better circ.u.mstances would choose to go there, it would also eliminate the need to get badly beaten just to eat. When Zheng Wei was with Xu Kai Yang, they would go to the small cafeteria, Xu Kai Yang was more picky about his food, he didn’t like communal feeding cuisine and would often let the chef of the small kitchen make an easy small meal, the two would share. Zheng Wei didn’t like to take advantage of others, and even though Xu Kai yang would always try to pay, she would always ask that they both swipe their own cards, the two, “Eating like this is more comfortable.” She said this every time and he didn’t force her. Zheng Wei and Ruan Ruan also went to the small restaurant many times, it was here that they got to know each other more.

It was all hedonistic ideologies, the food wasn’t bad, under these good conditions who wasn’t’ willing to eat more, but people always had to pay with money, it was also hard for girls to buy a little of what they liked, most times it was clothes, snacks, or books so it was normal to be embarra.s.singly short of money, so the small restaurant was great, but one couldn’t go often, so they mostly went to the midst of the big cafeteria’s rolling powerful currents, plus Zheng Wei was a pa.s.sionate person, Ruan Ruan was also ready to adapt, there she could eat as well as the food. The cafeteria had it’s pros, there the uncles and aunts who were in charge of making the food for Zheng Wei recognized Zheng Wei’s sweet smiling face. Every time they would give her two more spoons of food, which used to make Zhu Xiao Bei who had a greater order than Zheng Wei envious. But at this place, lining up made one’s head hurt, because in order to maintain the normal order of the meal, the Managing Committee of several students, with red armbands would walk around, following the slowly moving procession.

She could see the mob but she couldn’t see the head,” Ruan Ruan, I’m hungry.”

Ruan Ruan also had a bitter face, “I didn’t even eat breakfast.”

“Ah, it’s really hard to mix up the food,” Zheng Wei sighed, and was extremely bored, so she used her spoon to hit her bowl, softly singing “Lian Hua Liao”(genre of folk song with accompaniment of bamboo clappers) that Ruan Ruan had taught her.

“(still singing)……” her voice wasn’t loud or soft, the people behind her and before her could hear her clearly, they saw a delicate girl, and laughed in succession, Ruan Ruan laughed until she had to rub her belly, “You really have talent.” Zheng Wei couldn’t help but laugh to, and continued to sing, Ruan Ruan listened, and suddenly found that Zheng Wei’s pitch abruptly changed, it had its initial feeling but it had a resounding sound now, even the knocking on the bowl was murderous, Ruan Ruan’s first reaction was, Oh no, she can’t have seen Chen Xiao Zheng now right? She looked in the direction that Zheng Wei was looking and found, that guy who was wearing white, who had just gotten his meal, if the person beside him wasn’t Chen Xiao Zheng then who would it be?

Zheng Wei saw Chen Xiao Zheng first before realizing that he even had a person by his side, it was a tall plump girl, with long hair, oval face, insignificant to the small eye, she wasn’t particularly pretty but her flesh was well distributed, she had a quiet temperament, she looked pleasing to the eye, Cheng Xiao Zheng lowered his head to talk with that girl, both of their mouths holding smiles, the two people walked along the cafeteria door, and as people had to squeeze into the room, he carefully protected her from this.

Zheng Wei gritted her teeth in her heart and thought, this guy, he was usually so disdainful, and she had even thought that he was born like this dead appearance, but it turned out he could also laugh, and he laughed so lewdly to other girls, he absolutely had some tricks up his sleeve. Her heart thought about it, her mouth didn’t stop, “(singing).” She gritted her teeth and found that she still couldn’t help herself, as she ran a few steps to the cla.s.smate in front of her smiling, “Big brother, let me borrow that armband from you.” That honest guy hadn’t come to his senses when the armband and the guy disappeared out of sight.

Chen Xiao Zheng and that girl were walking towards the cafeteria when he saw a serious Zheng Wei appear in front of him, he immediately felt his head hurt, “What do you want to do now?”

This time, Zheng Wei’s att.i.tude was good, she laughingly used her fingers to point at her arm band on her left arm, “Cla.s.smate, I am on the Managing Committee today, today I would like to help you weigh your food, to see if you have enough, how many bowls of rice did you choose today, two……three? ……four? ……Nevermind, I’ll know after I measure it.” She turned over Chen Xiao ZHeng’s bowl from his hands, running in front of the weight next to her, she dumped the food onto the weight plate and even enthusiastically arranged it on the plate. Then, she returned the empty bowl to Chen Xiao Zheng, “All right, the numbers match up. Thank you for your cooperation.”

Chen Xiao Zheng hadn’t reached out his hand to take his bowl, and he looked down, as if he didn’t know what to think.

“What, you don’t want your bowl anymore? Oh……I understand now, why don’t I help you put your food back into your bowl?” Zheng Wei acted as if she was oblivious to his concerns and continued, laughing.

He finally looked up at her. She only then found out that his face was strangely ugly, he turned his head away from Zheng Wei, as if forcing himself to calm down a bit, then he only said, “Are you doing playing around? Was it fun? I am thoroughly fed up with, is this okay, I’ll apologize, you’ve won, please don’t appear in front of me again.”

Haha, he had finally admitted defeat, she had won. But why wasn’t Zheng Wei happy at all, her heart felt like something unknown was pressing it down, very heavy, overbearing, like she almost couldn’t breathe. She didn’t laugh anymore and watched him, still holding the bowl stubbornly in front of him.

Chen Xiao Zheng’s voice was as cold as his expression, “I don’t know what you want to do, you want to play, a lot of people will play with you, but don’t come to annoy me, I don’t have as much time or strength like you, and I don’t have the circ.u.mstances like you that I can just waste a bowl of rice like that, you really make people hate you.”

Ruan Ruan also felt that she had wronged him too, she even got out of line, and quickly wlked over, tugging her friend’s sleeve, “Wei Wei, go order something……” She looked up to see Chen Xiao Zheng, and thought, these two were really enemies, “Sorry, she didn’t have any evil intentions, do you want us to get you another one?”

Chen Xiao Zheng shook his head, “I don’t dare trouble you.” He coldly took back his own bowl from Zheng Wei’s hands and turned to the shocked girl behind him, “Let’s go.”

When he walked by Ruan Ruan, he suddenly thought of something and said, “Ruan Guan, I really don’t know how you stay friends with those types of people.”

Zheng Wei’s eyes suddenly reddened, she bit her bottom lip and faced him and that girl saying: “Chen Xiao Zheng, I hate you……I hate that you hate me this much!” However the last few words were swallowed in her stomach.

Ruan Ruan also didn’t know what to say, she only grabbed her hand, “Didn’t you say that your stomach was hungry, go eat.”

Zheng Wei didn’t know what type of anger she was having right now, she pushed Ruan Ruan aside, didn’t even eat, and walked back to the dormitory. Ruan Ruan chased after her, “What’s wrong with you, why are you mad at me?”

“Don’t care about me, you guys are a team, I don’t deserve to be your friend.” Zheng Wei said as she walked.

“You really took his words for real?” Ruan Ruan laughingly said.

Zheng Wei stopped at this moment, and suspiciously looked at Ruan Ruan, “Why would he know your name, you’re so familiar with him, but you didn’t tell me before.”

Ruan Ruan sighed, “I only said a few words with him at the Foreign Languages corner, right, we do know each other, but you hate him so much, why would I tell you these things?”

“You still tricked me, I hate it when people trick me the most, you’re just like him, I’m going to ignore you from now on.” Zheng Wei angrily walked faster and faster.

The usually peaceful Ruan Ruan was also a bit annoyed, she didn’t keep chasing but stood where she was, saying to Zheng Wei, “You’re mad that I tricked you, and you still care that I know him? Since you hate him, why force yourself to care about everything concerning him, but caring is no use, you can’t do anything to him, unless, he is yours……”

Zheng Wei who walked in front, suddenly began to plug her ears and run away, “Zheng Wei, you a**hole!”