Elio’s Notes: New baby! This is just a placeholder. More chapters soon!
The day of Shao Wu’s birthday was clear and bright.
The May sky was a flawless blue without a single cloud, though sparrows frequently fluttered past overhead.
The Olympics were drawing closer. The five Fuwa mascots could be seen everywhere, along streets and alleyways alike. Even the Gaokao Countdown board standing in front of the teaching building had a bright-red Huanhuan painted on it, probably for good luck.
Elio’s Notes: The Fuwa were the five official mascots of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Huanhuan, the red mascot representing the Olympic flame, was associated with enthusiasm and good fortune.
There was less than a month left until the gaokao.
Fortunately, none of that had anything to do with Shao Wu.
He was only in his second year of high school.
His grades were good.
He was good-looking.
And he had been completely carefree.
Three months ago.
There was nothing unusual about a high school student being troubled by love.
What was unusual was that the person troubling Shao Wu’s heart was another boy.
Yang Shuyi.
Strange.
Why was it Yang Shuyi?
Yang Shuyi was not the sort of boy whose looks immediately drew attention.
To be perfectly honest, the first time someone met him, he might not leave much of an impression at all.
He was around 180 centimeters tall and, perhaps because he was still growing, looked rather thin.
His skin was the ordinary wheat-brown shade common among boys his age, perhaps a little darker, which made his eyes appear especially bright.
Yes.
Yang Shuyi’s eyes really were very bright.
But because he was always lazily lowering them, somehow they did not seem quite so bright after all.
His looks were nothing particularly striking.
What about everything else?
There was even less worth mentioning.
His grades were terrible.
He loved skipping class.
Even their homeroom teacher had become too tired to bother with him.
His personality was bad too. He barely acknowledged his classmates and was always coming and going alone.
Shao Wu often thought he was being completely unreasonable.
And yet he could never stop himself from turning his head again and again.
Yang Shuyi sat in the corner of the very last row.
It was the homeroom teacher’s specially designated seat for him.
“Shao Wu!”
During the last class of the morning, Old Chen tapped the blackboard.
“Come up and draw the auxiliary line.”
“Huh? Oh!”
Shao Wu hurriedly stood.
He had barely started toward the front when the entire class suddenly burst into laughter.
His deskmate, Zheng Xiaoning, whispered,
“This is a differentiation problem!”
Shao Wu: “…”
Old Chen sighed.
“Finished laughing? All right, Shao Wu, sit down.”
Then he turned to the class.
“Every day, you pass by the senior-year building. Do none of you see that gaokao countdown board out front? That’s counting down to your senior year too! Once they finish their exams, you become third-years. Does the way you’re acting right now look anything like third-year students?”
Then his gaze landed on Shao Wu.
“Shao Wu! What, you can already solve all the final challenge problems? Stretching your neck around to look behind you like that. Are you really that desperate for class to end?”
Shao Wu lowered his head sheepishly.
The clock hung on the wall at the back of the classroom.
Whenever Shao Wu turned around, he always pretended he was checking the time.
In reality, he would quickly sneak a glance at Yang Shuyi.
Most of the time, Yang Shuyi was asleep with his head on the desk.
Occasionally, he would sit there with his head lowered, reading.
Shao Wu had no idea what kind of book it was.
“Don’t think you still have plenty of time, everyone. Actually, you can practically consider yourselves third-years already…”
The dismissal bell rang.
Old Chen waved his hand.
“All right, all right. Class dismissed! And when you get home at noon, make sure you all take a nap!”
Shao Wu could not sleep.
After lunch, he lay on his bed with his mind completely occupied by one question:
How was he going to give Yang Shuyi some cake?
His mother had ordered a birthday cake for him. It would be delivered to school around dinnertime so that he could share it with his classmates.
Shao Wu wanted to give Yang Shuyi a piece.
But with Yang Shuyi’s personality…
He was afraid Yang Shuyi would refuse.
Shao Wu kept his eyes open until his alarm went off.
He washed his face with cold water, went downstairs, and climbed onto his bicycle.
It’s just a piece of cake!
With the May breeze against his face, Shao Wu pedaled furiously.
Worst case, he would simply walk straight up to Yang Shuyi and ask:
“Do you want some cake?”
The day of Shao Wu’s birthday.
It was May 2008.
More precisely,
May 12.
That afternoon, the Wenchuan earthquake struck.
Yang Shuyi’s father was killed in the earthquake.
Elio’s Notes: The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake struck Sichuan on May 12 and caused catastrophic loss of life and destruction across the region. The novel deliberately anchors Shao Wu’s birthday and the turning point in Yang Shuyi’s life to this real historical disaster.
Nobody got to eat Shao Wu’s birthday cake.
Not even Shao Wu himself.
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