No. 2 High divided its students into humanities and science tracks at the end of their first year. Once the students had chosen their tracks, the school used their final-exam scores to sort them into advanced and regular classes. But there were only eight classes in Shao Wu’s year, seven science classes and a single humanities class, so with only one humanities class there was no point distinguishing between advanced and regular.
Shao Wu was better at the humanities than the sciences, and he liked them more anyway, so naturally he chose the humanities track.
His mom had some objections. “Everyone says if you master math, physics, and chemistry, you can make your way anywhere in the world. Your chemistry and biology scores aren’t bad at all, so why insist on studying humanities?”
Shao Wu had a Qiaolezi ice cream bar between his teeth and answered indistinctly, “Because I like humanities.”
“Can liking something put food on the table? I heard from Xiao Wen that all the special-admission students are in your class! Those kids never study properly…”
“Come on, that’s not true. My deskmate trains in long-distance running, and she did several pages of Five Years of Gaokao, Three Years of Mock Exams during evening self-study today. Mom, you can’t look at people through tinted glasses and discriminate against them…”
Elio’s Notes: Five Years of Gaokao, Three Years of Mock Exams (《五年高考三年模拟》), commonly shortened to “Five-Three” (五三), is an extremely well-known Chinese exam-preparation series used by high school students preparing for the gaokao, China’s national university entrance examination.
“All right, all right, I can’t win an argument with you.” His mom rubbed his head. “Are you hungry? I’ll make you a bowl of noodles.”
Shao Wu turned a page of his politics textbook and nodded vigorously. “Put in extra pickled long beans!”
His mom went into the kitchen to cook the noodles, and Shao Wu’s gaze returned to the open textbook. He stared at the four bold characters meaning Functions of Government, then gradually began to space out. Today was September 1, the first day of the new semester. Humanities Class 1 had forty-nine students, eight of whom were special-admission students. Those students always seemed to attract attention at school: most of the art students were good-looking and fashionable, and while everyone else still let the loose legs of their uniform pants hang shapelessly, they had already altered theirs into narrow pencil pants; the sports students, meanwhile, were all lean and athletic, and because they had special permission not to wear their uniforms during training, their athletic T-shirts always stood out amid the sea of blue school uniforms.
Yet Shao Wu had not remembered a single one of those special-admission students’ faces, apart from Zhu Jingjing, his deskmate, because he had seen that boy. He had chosen humanities too.
That… that… what should he call him? For now, Xiaoyaosheng would do. Afterward, Shao Wu had asked his older cousin about it, and she told him that the white-robed character he had seen in the game was called Xiaoyaosheng.
Seats were assigned according to height. The boys formed one line and the girls three, because that was simply how brutal the gender ratio in a humanities class was. Shao Wu was 172 centimeters tall and stood fourth in the boys’ line; Xiaoyaosheng was taller and stood tenth.
Shao Wu glanced back at him. Two sports students stood behind Xiaoyaosheng, laughing and talking about something, while he simply stood there with his head lowered, neither looking around nor speaking, as though the entire world had nothing to do with him.
His eyelids were still half lowered too. Hey, Xiaoyaosheng, how come there was nothing xiaoyao, nothing carefree about him at all? He looked downright wilted.
“You two.” Their homeroom teacher jerked his chin toward the classroom. “Sit over there.”
Shao Wu entered the room, organizing his books while greeting his new deskmate. By the time he looked up again, Xiaoyaosheng had already taken a seat far away from him.
“All right, everyone’s seated, yes? Then I’ll introduce myself first.” Their homeroom teacher stood at the lectern and pushed up his glasses. “My surname is Dong. Dong Ming, with the ming from mingjiao, ‘to call out.’ Though I imagine most of you already know who I am.”
Of course they did. Dong Ming taught politics. Supposedly, twenty years ago, he had been the handsomest male teacher at Yongchuan No. 2 High. Unfortunately, after twenty years, only the male teacher part of that description remained. The previous semester, Dong Ming had been in charge of a graduating senior humanities class, and his students had produced one admission to Peking University, one to Tsinghua University, and two to Fudan University.
In a small county town like theirs, that naturally made him famous.
Dong Ming looked at his watch. “Forty minutes until dismissal. Let’s keep the introductions simple. We’ll start from the first row.”
The first girl was tiny and wore purple-framed glasses, giving her a lively, impish look. “Hello, everyone. My name is Li Ruyan. Ru as in ruguo, ‘if,’ and yan as in yiran yixiao, ‘a charming smile.’ My hobbies are playing the guzheng and watching anime. My favorite is One Piece. Come talk to me anytime!”
The moment she finished, another girl called out, “I watch One Piece too! Who’s your favorite?”
The rest of the class laughed good-naturedly. Dong Ming nodded. “You two can discuss that in private! Okay, next!”
Before long, it was Shao Wu’s turn. The atmosphere in the classroom had already relaxed. Whenever someone introduced themselves, they turned toward the rest of the class so everyone could see their face. Shao Wu was sitting near the middle of the classroom, so he could have faced either direction.
Yet for some inexplicable reason, he shifted slightly toward Xiaoyaosheng.
“Hello, everyone. My name is Shao Wu. Shao as in jieshao, ‘to introduce,’ and Wu, written with the characters for ‘mouth’ and ‘heaven.’” Xiaoyaosheng had his head lowered, seemingly reading something. “I don’t really have any special hobbies. Usually I just like reading and listening to music.”
Elio’s Notes: Chinese characters have many homophones, so when introducing a name, speakers often clarify which characters they use by giving a familiar word containing the character or describing the character’s components. Shao Wu is doing exactly that here.
“Shao Wu,” Dong Ming said with a smile. “Shao Wu ranked first in the placement exam for this class. Everyone can ask him about study methods and exchange ideas with him.”
At once, the entire class looked toward Shao Wu. Zhu Jingjing exclaimed under her breath, “Damn, you’re amazing! I’m relying on you for my homework from now on!”
But Xiaoyaosheng… he was still looking down.
Shao Wu forced himself to say, “…Thank you, sir.”
After a while, it was finally Xiaoyaosheng’s turn. Shao Wu swallowed. He had no idea why, but somehow he felt even more nervous than the person actually giving the introduction.
Xiaoyaosheng stood up. He did not drag his feet, nor was he particularly brisk. He simply stood at an utterly ordinary speed, in an utterly ordinary way.
At last, he raised his head and opened his eyes fully. Only then did Shao Wu see that his eyes were a glossy, luminous black, dark and rich yet startlingly clear. For no particular reason, they reminded him of the full moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
“Hello, everyone. My name is Yang Shuyi. I usually like playing basketball. I’m happy to be classmates with all of you.” His voice was still slightly hoarse, and his tone was also… very ordinary. Not cold, but not overly enthusiastic either. It was the same ordinary tone countless other students had used during their introductions.
Then came the next student, and the one after that. Xiaoyaosheng lowered his head again.
Shao Wu thought to himself, Yang Shuyi… Which shu? Which yi? Either way, the name sounded remarkably fitting for Xiaoyaosheng. He meant the Xiaoyaosheng from Fantasy Westward Journey.
As for this boy sitting there with his head down, he really was very ordinary and very inconspicuous.
So why couldn’t Shao Wu stop looking at him?
Shao Wu thought that perhaps it was because they had met before, but Yang Shuyi didn’t remember.