Yang Shuyi looked up, a trace of confusion on his face.
Shao Wu pulled the wedding sweets from his pocket and suddenly felt a little embarrassed. A week had passed since school started, and his conversations with Yang Shuyi had consisted entirely of the same two lines repeated over and over: “Where’s your homework?” “Forgot it.”
And now, out of nowhere, he was holding out this bulging, bright-red bag of wedding sweets and asking him whether he was hungry.
It was a little strange.
“Did… did you eat breakfast?” Shao Wu asked awkwardly. “Sister Shan gave these to me.”
Yang Shuyi: “…”
Yang Shuyi stared at Shao Wu. Shao Wu stood there clutching the bag, unable to decide whether he should let go or pull it back. Fortunately, a few seconds later, Yang Shuyi spoke.
“Thanks.”
He took the sweets, tore open the bag without hesitation, and pulled out a piece of chocolate. Dove.
“Um… Sister Shan told me to tell you to redo yesterday’s homework. The essay she assigned.”
Yang Shuyi bit into the chocolate. Without looking at Shao Wu, he kept his eyes on the test paper. “The homeroom teacher told me to finish this first.”
Shao Wu thought, Then write it!
Oh. Right. He couldn’t.
“…Want me to teach you?”
Yang Shuyi said, “Sure.”
Conveniently, their next period had been changed to self-study.
Shao Wu spent the entire class in the office. Meanwhile, Yang Shuyi crunched his way through the whole bag of sweets. They were sitting very close. Every so often, Yang Shuyi’s shoulder brushed against Shao Wu’s, and the sound of him chewing came from right beside Shao Wu’s ear. Eventually, Yang Shuyi simply ate his candy at a leisurely pace while Shao Wu bent over and helped him work through the test paper. Luckily, Shao Wu had already completed the same paper the night before.
The hand holding his pen grew sweaty. He felt as though his ears had suddenly become absurdly sensitive, practically turning into a pair of furry dog ears that twitched in time with every crunch Yang Shuyi made.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, Yang Shuyi suddenly leaned closer. His lips almost brushed the back of Shao Wu’s head. “That’s enough. Don’t do the last two.”
Shao Wu froze at the sound of his voice so close by. “Why?”
“The homeroom teacher knows I can’t do them.”
Shao Wu: “Oh… okay.”
Yang Shuyi stood, grabbed the test paper, and placed it on Dong Ming’s desk. Then he turned toward Shao Wu. “Let’s go. Class is almost over.”
Shao Wu suddenly remembered. “Your English homework…”
With his back to him, Yang Shuyi said, “I’ll give it to you this afternoon.”
Technically, he was supposed to hand it directly to Sister Shan.
But Shao Wu hesitated for two seconds and said nothing.
Back in the classroom, Zhu Jingjing asked quietly, “Where did you go?” Although Yang Shuyi and Shao Wu had entered the classroom one after the other, Zhu Jingjing clearly did not think the two of them could possibly have anything to do with each other.
“I… went to help Sister Shan enter some grades.” Shao Wu had not even had time to wonder why he was lying.
“Mm.” Zhu Jingjing nodded and went back to her novel.
There were five minutes left before class ended. There was not enough time to do homework, but Shao Wu could not concentrate on reading either. He flipped aimlessly through his history textbook and found himself thinking again of the spotless pages in Yang Shuyi’s book.
Resting his chin on his hand, he turned his head as though it meant nothing at all.
Yang Shuyi was asleep with his head on his desk.
Eat your fill and then go straight to sleep, huh… But could that tiny bag of wedding sweets really have filled him up? The steamed buns in Yang Shuyi’s desk came from a shop near the school. Shao Wu had tried one once and never bought another. The wrapper was thick, there was barely any filling, and it was unbearably salty.
But they were cheap. Very cheap.
Yang Shuyi slept facedown with his head resting on his arms. From Shao Wu’s angle, he could see the faded collar of Yang Shuyi’s pale-blue school shirt and the slight protrusion of his shoulder blades.
Yongchuan No. 2 High had two sets of uniforms: a short-sleeved summer shirt and a long-sleeved autumn jacket. It was September and still hot. Most students wore their own T-shirts and only put on the autumn jacket during the flag-raising ceremony. The summer shirt was made from synthetic fabric that did not absorb sweat and felt stifling against the skin.
Yet Yang Shuyi was one of only two people in their class who still wore the summer uniform. The other was a boy who weighed around ninety-five kilograms and needed the roomier school uniform because of his build.
That afternoon, Yang Shuyi really did hand in his English essay.
It was two minutes before class. The classroom was noisy, and Shao Wu was sitting at his desk spacing out. Yang Shuyi walked so quietly that he seemed to make no sound at all. He suddenly appeared beside Shao Wu and placed a thin exercise book on his desk. “My homework.”
Shao Wu jumped. “You actually wrote it?”
Yang Shuyi looked at him. “So were you messing with me?”
Shao Wu realized immediately that he had said something stupid and shook his head. “No. I just didn’t expect… you’d finish it so quickly. I’ll take it to Sister Shan right now.”
Yang Shuyi looked at Shao Wu. Then, unexpectedly, he smiled. “Class representative, English is next period.”
With that, he turned and walked away.
Shao Wu remained frozen for five or six seconds before pinching his own earlobe and asking Zhu Jingjing, “English is next?”
Zhu Jingjing said, “Damn. I just suddenly realized Yang Shuyi is pretty handsome.”
Shao Wu: “…Is he?”
“Seriously! That smile just now, wow. Not bad, not bad.” Zhu Jingjing excitedly lowered her voice. “He’s usually so inconspicuous that I never even noticed!”
Shao Wu thought, It would be better if you kept not noticing.
“You know, Yang Shuyi…” Zhu Jingjing lowered her voice even further, almost to a whisper. “His family is kind of… you know.”
“Kind of what?”
“I overheard Teacher Cui talking about it in the office last time. Things are pretty tight in Yang Shuyi’s family. His grandfather is paralyzed, and his grandmother has some illness, I forget what. Anyway, she’s in poor health. And his mom divorced his dad.”
Shao Wu frowned. “He…”
“His dad drives a freight truck. He’s away on long-distance routes all the time and doesn’t have time to look after him.” Zhu Jingjing pursed her lips. “So that’s why he’s like this.”
Neither of them needed to explain what like this meant.
Yang Shuyi. A student who spent most of his time asleep with his head on his desk, who did not listen in class and never did his homework. Studying seemed to have nothing to do with him.
“I heard Teacher Cui say he was already like this in first year. His homeroom teacher back then was Kong Huanhuan. You know her, right? She teaches Chinese. She’s terrifying.”
“I’ve heard of her.”
“Even Kong Huanhuan couldn’t do anything with him. She couldn’t expel him either. It’s not like he fought people or dated anyone. He just wouldn’t study. Kong Huanhuan called his dad to complain, and his dad actually said, ‘I’m busy. I can’t come. You teachers handle him.’ After that, even Kong Huanhuan stopped bothering. Since he never caused trouble, she just let him do whatever he wanted.”
“…So Dong Ming’s trying to manage him now? He didn’t do his homework yesterday, so Dong Ming made him finish it in the office.”
“No idea.” Zhu Jingjing shrugged. “But seriously, he really is handsome. How did I only just notice?”
The bell rang. Sister Shan stood at the lectern and said gently, “Class.”
The students stood. Shao Wu opened the front cover of Yang Shuyi’s exercise book.
“Good… morn… ing… teach… er…”
The exercise book was new and very thin. It was actually the cheap kind sold outside the school gates for fifty fen a copy, the sort that opened vertically. The last time Shao Wu had used a notebook like that was in elementary school. Everyone else bought their own exercise books, some big, some small, all relatively sturdy. And because there were so many girls in their class, the notebooks came in every imaginable design.
Yang Shuyi’s handwriting looked a little like an elementary school student’s too. It was not attractive, but it was perfectly legible. The essay prompt read: Suppose you are a high school student named Li Ming and would like to spend one semester as an exchange student at XX High School in Canada. Write an email to Miss Wu at the school asking for specific information about the exchange program.
Yang Shuyi had begun:
Dear Wu, How are you?
Shao Wu pressed his lips together and closed the exercise book.
Before evening self-study that day, Shao Wu went to Sister Shan’s office again. He held a thin exercise book in his hand, the fifty-fen kind used for English homework.
“Teacher, this is Yang Shuyi’s homework.” Shao Wu handed it to her.
Sister Shan took the exercise book, opened to the first page, and skimmed it. “This isn’t actually that bad.”
Shao Wu said nothing.
“There are just too many awkward sentences. His grammar is weak.” As she spoke, Sister Shan circled several places with a red pen, then handed the book back to Shao Wu. “All right. Give it back to him. Tell him to hand his homework in on time next time.”
Shao Wu nodded. “Okay.”
Sister Shan’s office was on the second floor, while their classroom was on the fourth. Shao Wu walked very slowly the whole way back. Yet even after he entered the classroom and stepped onto the balcony, his heart was still pounding.
Fortunately. Fortunately, Sister Shan had not asked, Why didn’t Yang Shuyi come hand in his homework himself?
And Yang Shuyi… Yang Shuyi was sitting with his head lowered, reading. The pages were clearly not the size of a textbook. Shao Wu had no idea what book it was.
Fortunately, Yang Shuyi had not asked either, Where’s my exercise book?
Shao Wu unrolled the exercise book he was holding and tore off its cover. The weather had been above thirty degrees for days, and even the nights were hot and stifling. The air conditioner was running inside the classroom, so nobody came out onto the balcony. Shao Wu’s forehead was covered in sweat. He could not tell whether it was because of the heat or because he felt guilty.
He tore the cover into pieces. Tiny, tiny pieces.
The three characters spelling Yang Shuyi on that cover… Shao Wu had written them.
The English essay Sister Shan had just read… Shao Wu had written that too.
He had bought this exercise book himself during the dinner break.
As for the one Yang Shuyi had actually given him, Shao Wu had carefully hidden it in his schoolbag, tucked between two thick volumes of Five Years of Gaokao, Three Years of Mock Exams.
He comforted himself with the thought that Yang Shuyi’s essay had simply been too awful. He had only wanted to spare him one more scolding.