50 | That Summer
 

Gu Mingxi followed Pang Qian to the Cla.s.s 8 cla.s.sroom downstairs. Xie Yi walked out with Gu Mingxi’s backpack, smiling slightly. Gu Mingxi looked at him and his face reddened a bit.

Pang Qian’s face was still sour. She took Gu Mingxi’s backpack and put it onto her back. “Thanks.”

Xie Yi smiled, “You’re welcome.”

On the stairs, Gu Mingxi quietly bent his head and sniffed his s.h.i.+rt collar. He’d showered and changed his clothes, so there was no scent of cigarettes on him. Hi lifted his head and looked at the girl’s back. She was carrying his backpack. As she walked, there was a bounce to her step, and her ponytail swept from side to side.

For more than a month, he hadn’t had the chance to look at her like this. Although the two of them were deskmates, after cla.s.s was over, Gu Mingxi always felt unsettled. He felt that cla.s.ses were annoying, exams were annoying, teachers were annoying, and even Pang Qian was annoying. During math cla.s.s, they had to use set squares (triangular rulers), protractors, and compa.s.ses. In the past, this wasn’t a problem for Gu Mingxi, but during this period, he was always impatient and even angry about something.

Other people had arms, so drawing was easy for them. He had to use his feet to use these tools, so inevitably, there were times that he wouldn’t be able to draw well. He started to wonder, why did he have to draw these things? Why did he have to work on these exercise problems? How did it relate to his job in the future, his life in the future? Why were others allowed to live freely and happily?

Gu Mingxi also wanted to be like Xie Yi, a boy who was free and untethered. But in the end, he’d become a hedgehog, hurting many of the people beside him. Yet, he didn’t seem to feel any happier.

He sat on a bench with Pang Qian in the park. She said, “Gu Mingxi, recently you’ve been acting unlike yourself. I started to suspect that you’d been possessed by something.”

Gu Mingxi dropped his head and didn’t respond.

Something cold suddenly appeared next to his mouth. With recognition, he sucked at it. A slightly sour, slightly sweet popsicle entered his mouth. In this summer season, it was a very satisfying feeling.

Pang Qian had a popsicle in both hands. As she ate one, she fed the other to Gu Mingxi. She looked off towards the lively vendors and the kids gathering around the stalls to buy food. She couldn’t help but remember when she was in primary school.

At that time, when she and Gu Mingxi headed home, she would always drag him to go buy food to eat. He didn’t have arms, whihc meant eating snacks as he walked wasn’t very convenient, so he wasn’t happy about it. Pang Qian would just pat her own chest and say, “I’ll feed you!”

She kept feeding him snacks. From primary school to junior high, from junior high to high school. Pang Qian had never seen Gu Mingxi eat food from any other cla.s.smates’ hands before, and it was rare that someone else held his water for him. She was much the same. In all her years, she’d never fed food to anyone but Gu Mingxi.

“Gu Mingxi, do you think it would be good for me to study science?” Pang Qian took a bit on her popsicle. She turned her head to look at Gu Mingxi, “Actually, my scores for history and politics are a bit better than for science, but I hate memorizing things.”

Gu Mingxi would definitely study science. Politics was his weakest subject. Their exams required so much writing, and since he wrote with his feet, he always felt rushed for time. After every major literature, history, or politics exam, his back would feel sore. His toes were sore, and his foot hurt from being bent for so long.

He asked Pang Qian, “Do you like physics and chemistry?”

“They’re okay,” Pang Qian said. “I still think they’re kind of hard, but if I had to choose between them and memorizing history and politics, I would definitely choose physics and chemistry.”

Gu Mingxi smiled. “Then study science.”

Pang Qian put the popsicle in front of him again, and he obediently took a bite. He heard her ask, “But what if I can’t get into the fast cla.s.s?”

Gu Mingxi lifted his eyes and looked at Pang Qian.

Pang Qian said quietly, “I’m only ranked 300 something in our year. It’s not like with getting into high school, when the school could split cla.s.ses however they liked. They were able to make us deskmates through some backdoor deals. But to make it fair, they’re making all the results public this time. If I got into the fast cla.s.s unofficially, people would definitely be very upset.”

Gu Mingxi knew that what Pang Qian said was true. With her scores putting her at the tail end of Cla.s.s 2, it was very unlikely that she’d be able to get into the only fast cla.s.s.

He suddenly felt a bit worried. He couldn’t imagine the next two years without Pang Qian sitting next to him. In all his cla.s.ses, there would be no sign of her.

They already weren’t neighbors anymore. If they couldn’t even be in the same cla.s.s, Gu Mingxi felt that the distance between them would only grow greater.

He clenched his teeth and said, “I’ll plead with Teacher Dai, to let her find a way for you to keep being my deskmate.”

“No, don’t. Making such an exception is really pointless. That way, I’m guaranteed to be last in the cla.s.s! My dad would scold me after every single parent-teacher meeting. That’s really too scary.” Depressed, Pang Qian took another bite of her popsicle. Then, in a relieved tone, “Actually, Gu Mingxi, I thought about it later, and when you were deskmates with Xiao Yujing for the TV program, that was pretty good. You both get good grades. She won’t bother you about questions she doesn’t understand. If you find something you don’t understand, you can discuss it together. In any case, the two of you being deskmates is definitely better for you than the two of us being deskmates. Who knows, maybe you’ve always been coming in 3rd because I’ve been holding back your progress.”

“That’s not true,” Gu Mingxi looked at her glumly. “If you can’t get into the fast cla.s.s, why don’t I drop down to another cla.s.s. Whether your studies are good or bad depends on the person. Look, we graduated from Origin of Flight, and everyone calls that school garbage. But you and I, and Xie Yi, have all done pretty well, right?”

“You’ve gone crazy! You, going to a slow cla.s.s? Don’t be so silly again.” Pang Qian reached out and pushed Gu Mingxi to the side. She suddenly said, “Gu Mingxi, let’s go to college in Shanghai together.”

“Huh?”

“I really like Shanghai.” Pang Qian turned to look at him. “Last time we went to Shanghai, I just felt it was really awesome.”

Gu Mingxi smiled at her and asked, “Is there a school you want to go to?”

Pang Qian took a bite of her popsicle, her eyes s.h.i.+ning. “There is! Fudan!”

That was probably the only prestigious university that she knew was in Shanghai. Gu Mingxi chortled. Pang Qian said unhappily, “What, you think I can’t get in?”

Gu Mingxi’s eyes curved and the corners of his lips curved up. He kicked Pang Qian lightly with his right foot. “Of course you can get it, of course. But Pang Pang, I’m worried that I won’t be able to get in.”

Gu Mingxi put his life on the line and studied for the final exams. In the end, he came out 9th in the whole year. That was enough to get him into the advanced science cla.s.s.

Pang Qian did as usual and was ranked 355th in the end, which meant that she couldn’t be deskmates with Gu Mingxi next year.

Over summer break, because Cla.s.s 2 would be split up, Teacher Dai called all the students and organized a two day one night trip. They went to a scenic area on the outskirts of E City. Naturally, most of the cla.s.s would partic.i.p.ate. And of course, Pang Qian convinced Gu Mingxi to go.

When the big bus got to their destination, it was already noon. There were three teachers, and they organized lunch for more than 40 students. After lunch, they organized where everyone would be staying, and then everyone went to partic.i.p.ate in river rafting.

It was summer so the temperature was hot. The towering trees and cool stream around them kept the temperature down significantly. Pang Qian and Gu Mingxi both had on orange life vests. It was thrilling as the boat b.u.mped around, riding along the mountain stream. When there were particularly abrupt jolts, Pang Qian stuck right next to Gu Mingxi and even grabbed tightly to his waist.

She continuously screamed, causing cla.s.smates Zhou Nanzhong and w.a.n.g Song to laugh out loud. w.a.n.g Song said to Gu Mingxi, “Little Crab knows that she’ll be separated from you soon, so she’s taking advantage of the rafting to get close to you!”

Gu Mingxi blushed, and Pang Qian got extremely angry. She immediately dipped her hand into the water and splashed at w.a.n.g Song.

After they came back from rafting, everyone was tired and thirsty. At a small shop, they bought drinks. And someone bought a small water gun, filled it up, and shot it towards the crowd. In that short moment, everyone was outraged and rushed back to the store, emptying out the entire shelf of water guns. Pang Qian held her gun, running back and forth. Whenever she saw someone, she would shoot at them, laughing joyously. Gu Mingxi kept running to keep up with her, but there was no way for him to play with the water guns. He saw how happy he was, a smile always plastered to her face. Then, for some reason, Pang Qian turned around and pointed her gun at him.

“Hey! Everyone, get Gu Mingxi!”

At her shout, 17 or 18 guns pointed at Gu Mingxi. He clearly had no way to dodge them all, so he just ran. Soon, he was soaked with water, looking like a drenched chicken.

After playing awhile, the group of students all dispersed.

There was only Pang Qian, still boldly standing beside Gu Mingxi. She held her stomach as she laughed out loud, while Gu Mingxi stood quietly staring at her.

Then Pang Qian walked over to him and poked him in the waist. “Hey, are you angry?”

Gu Mingxi turned his head away. His hair was soaked with water, so beads of water dripped off. His clothes were stuck to his body, and you could see him heaving slightly. He was clearly a bit out of breath.

Pang Qian picked up one of his dripping wet sleeves and squeezed it. Water flowed down and she said, “Sorry. Next time, I won’t joke around with you. Go to your room and change your clothes.”

They were all staying in a small village-y hostel. Four people stayed in each room. Because of Gu Mingxi’s condition, they specially arranged a single bed for him. He and w.a.n.g Song and Zhou Nanzhong stayed in one room together.

He went back to his room on his own to change his clothes. He didn’t feel very good inside. Gu Mingxi never thought that Pang Qian would bully him like that in front of so many people. And he hadn’t expected the entire cla.s.s to go along with her.

They were obviously bullying him for not having arms. Gu Mingxi bend over and pulled out a dry s.h.i.+rt from his bag with his teeth. He hunched over and used his feet to pull off his wet pants. His underpants were also soaked through, so he felt even worse.

He trudged to the washroom with wet steps. After he wiped himself down, he changed into dry clothes. He sat on the edge of his bed for awhile, then bit onto his keys and headed back out.

The small guest house had a restaurant on the first floor. Gu Mingxi thought it was a bit odd. He remembered that when he went upstairs, all the window curtains had been open. It was bright and s.p.a.cious inside, and the workers were cleaning there. But now, the stairs down were all dark. When he got to the ground floor, he saw that the curtains in the restaurant were all pulled closed. The s.p.a.ce was all dark and gloomy. And it was also dead silent.

Gu Mingxi looked around suspiciously. Just then, a door in the corner was pushed open, and a large group of people walked out. Gu Mingxi was startled, but when he took a second look, he saw that it was his cla.s.smates and teachers. Teacher Dai, Zhou Nanzhong, w.a.n.g Song, Xiao Yujing, Wu Min, Li Xiaoyan, Jiang Zhiya… They were clapping and singing as they walked toward him.

“Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to Gu Mingxi! Happy birthday to you!”

The one standing at the front was naturally Pang Qian. She was carrying a large birthday cake, with two number candles– “17.” With a bright smile on her face, she walked up to Gu Mingxi. She looked up at his face. “Although it’s not Qixi yet, but it’s your 17th birthday by the Western calendar. Gu Mingxi, happy birthday!”

Gu Mingxi looked at her as she stuck her tongue out at him. “Aiya, you can’t still be angry at me, right?!”

Gu Mingxi kept his lips tightly closed. Then after a moment, he laughed, revealing his two tiger teeth. He said quietly, “Thank you, Pang Pang.”