Time Passed Us By - Chapter 2
When did she start paying attention to this person? Every day, whether it was walking bikes and accidentally passing him by at school, taking a quick glimpse of him after school, or when the radio gymnastics music started, she could always see him at one glance. Perhaps she quietly wished that he passed by her, touching shoulders, making her face red and heart beating.
It seemed like there were so many opportunities to see him, but there were actually very few. There were so few that as long as she got one glimpse, she would feel full of joy. It was almost like tasting honey—sweet and full of delight.
The scores came out right after the final exam. Song Jiannan performed decently, placing among the upper middle ranks in her regular academic class, only her weak mathematics grades still held her down, not budging one bit, leaving her to rely only on her strong Chinese and English.
Song Jianan was assigned to clean the window for the afternoon cleaning. She was a little tired as she moved the stool to the corridor and gently wiped the window. Her mother’s words hung beside her ears. She was nothing more than disappointed in her, and Song Jianan could only sigh at her grades.
Everyone around Song Jianan was immersed in discussing the exam, and the conversation of the girls in the next class rushed into her ears like a ghost, “This time Su Li placed first in science again. The math was so hard and he could still score 148 points. He’s too good!”
“Yes, if Qin Yuanyuan didn’t score better than him on the minor subjects, the first place would have been him this time.”
“Hey, I think the two of them are a good match. I don’t know if it’s true, but it seems like the two are quite close.”
“Psst, you should tone it down a bit. Do you want the whole school to hear? Let’s go to the food stalls and buy something. Come on.”
The conversation stopped abruptly, and the two girls left hand in hand. Song Jianan’s hand slowly pulled away from the glass. She jumped off the stool, wiped her hands, and then silently dragged the stool back to its place.
There is an eye-catching sheet of paper on the blackboard of the back wall of the classroom. It has the names of everyone in the class, followed by the university they hope to enter in two years. She saw that Renmin University of China was written behind her name, and a sense of loss and powerlessness came over her. She stood still for a while without saying a word, then picked up her wallet and left. Zhang Jingkang, who was sweeping the floor in the back, saw Song Jianan’s depressed look and quickly shouted after her, “Song Jianan, where are you going?”
“To the library.” Song Jianan quickly threw down those three words and left without looking back. Zhang Jingkang shook her head and told the people beside her, “I’m guessing she probably didn’t score well. She’s looking out of it.”
Each book is neatly arranged on the shelf in a certain order like little tin soldiers in a military parade. Song Jianan liked this feeling of traveling through the books; she liked putting her finger on the spines, moving across slowly until she found the book she wanted.
The sensation she felt changed constantly; some books were rough, and some were soft. Sometimes her finger would suddenly get stopped. After the pause, her finger would continue to slide through the sea of books like an interesting game.
She wanted to find a geometry book to make up for her terrible math skills. She thought of Su Li’s math grades ranking first out of the whole grade, and all of a sudden she had an indescribable sense of loss and inferiority.
Song Jianan heard a rustling sound from the aisle nearby and looked up. The afterglow of the sunset shone on the man, casting a mottled shadow on the bookshelf behind him.
She didn’t notice the sound of light footsteps passing by. She looked up again and saw it was an unexpected person. He still had the same indifferent expression with his sleeves casually rolled up to his arms, carrying a bunch of books in his hands as he was walking towards the reading area.
Not knowing what had happened, Song Jianan felt her heart beat faster. The thought of whether or not she should take a glimpse occupied her mind. She hurriedly put the book she had in her hand away, picked up another book, and followed him to the reading area.
Su Li’s back was tall and straight. His right hand was resting on his forehead, leisurely tilted to one side. His sharp jawline and straight nose could be seen from the side. His soft hair danced with the breeze. His left hand occasionally turned the pages of the book, then picked up the pen and wrote a few strokes. He still had earphones in his ears, and the corners of his mouth were slightly raised.
It must be very nice music. I wonder which singer he would like. Song Jianan secretly thought that if there was a chance, she would recommend an album by Lisa Ono, a Japanese singer who grew up in Brazil. Her slightly hoarse and very magnetic voice is full of nostalgia, a bit romantic and a bit carefree, like the cool breeze and warm sunshine whispering in their ears, a faint feeling, just like his aura.
Among the pile of books beside him was a copy of Wang Houxiong’s Complete Interpretation of the Mathematics College Entrance Examination. It seemed like a gold medal tutorial book that everyone in the intensive class had. She quickly took a piece of paper and wrote the title down. Suddenly, someone patted her shoulder. She turned her head and saw the person looking at her note curiously. Then, he pulled out a chair and sat down. He said in a low voice with disdain, “Math doesn’t require so many reference books. People without talent should just save their time. You’ll never learn well even if you try your best.”
Song Jianan turned her head away angrily, pretending not to see him, so Duan Jiachen smiled and pulled her book away, “Are you mad? I’m telling the truth. Don’t buy those crappy reference books. Just ask me if you have any questions.”
Song Jianan thought he was being noisy and glared at him fiercely, “Duan Jiachen, how many points did you get in math for you to show off here?”
“143. How’s that? It’s pretty average. It’s mainly because the examiner is way too harsh. I wrote a few steps less, and she showed no mercy in deducting my points. As for the difficulty, only the last question of the last problem was hard. I didn’t get to finish it because I ran out of time.” Duan Jiachen was rocking his chair proudly. Unexpectedly, a person came up from behind and was hit by the chair. The pile of books in his hands fell to the ground with a crash, scaring everyone reading in the library.
Song Jianan was also startled and stood up. Everyone’s eyes were focused on them, except for Su Li. She glanced awkwardly at that boy who didn’t move at all, hurriedly picked up the books from the ground, picked up her book, and walked out.
Even Su Li didn’t have time to take a look.
Back in the classroom, Song Jianan packed up her bag and prepared to leave, when Duan Jiachen came up to her again with a smile, “Song Jianan, you’re so mad just because you didn’t do well on math. You really can’t stand failures.”
“If you’re so skilled, then go compete with the intensive class. Don’t use me to gain confidence,” Song Jianan said coldly as she put on her schoolbag, grabbed her keys, and left.
Duan Jiachen called after her, then dug out a very new book from his messy desk drawer and handed it to her, “Wang Houxiong. I bought this a long time ago, and I haven’t even turned a page. You can have it.”
She looked at him suspiciously, feeling that Duan Jiachen looked very uncomfortable. He stuffed the book into her hands and said, “We’ve been classmates since kindergarten, comrades for years. By the way, lend me your English notes to copy. I barely passed the exam this time, and my English teacher almost wanted to kill me. You see, we’re helping each other out now.”
Song Jianan smiled, took the book, pulled out her English notebook, and passed it to him, “Don’t make any creases, and you have to return it to me the day after tomorrow.”
Afterward, Song Jianan sorted out test papers in the teacher’s office. By the time she went to retrieve her bicycle, it was already pretty late. At the end of the dark corridor, through the glass window, she looked up at the tiny lights and countless shadows in the distance, which were depressingly terrifying.
The lights in the corridor were off, and she stood alone on the dark stairs, slowly and carefully walking down holding the handrail. Even so, she missed the last step, and her heart almost jumped out of her throat.
Suddenly, a faint light appeared from the stairs of the floor below, followed by the sound of footsteps. As if she was clutching at straws, Song Jianan hurriedly quickened her pace. Even though she couldn’t see the figure very clearly, there was no doubt that the figure was the one she was surprisingly familiar with.
Su Li held a keychain that emitted a small light in his hand, and its faint white light illuminated the steps under his feet. He had a stack of test papers in his arms, and it seemed that he had also just come back from sorting out test papers, but he didn’t seem to notice the gentle footsteps above his head. Song Jianan thought that he must be listening to music with his earbuds on again.
For three floors, she followed him with every step on the stairs, even keeping pace with him, and turning the corners when he turned. The wind blew the test paper in his hand, making a rustling sound, a very crisp sound that touched her heartstrings.
Tiny motes of dust danced in the pale, dim light, keeping the same beat as her beating heart.
Looking at his back, Song Jianan suddenly wondered, if this road had no end, should she keep walking like this? If he turned around and saw her, what kind of expression should she use to face him?
But she was so small and self-abased that she had to be cautious even while looking at him. Even if he turned around and saw her, he wouldn’t recognize her if they met again the next day. To him, she would always be an invisible existence.
This would always be a secret she would keep to herself.
Su Li did not go to the garage but walked straight to the school gate. Song Jianan saw him enter the white car that was parked in front of the gate. The car started and disappeared in a blink of an eye.
Song Jianan silently went back to the garage to get her bike, feeling a little happy and a little melancholy. Su Li’s face appeared and disappeared in her mind. There was always a hint of sorrow between that gloomy boy’s eyebrows, but even so, he still attracted all her attention.
She secretly told herself that maybe people judge others by their appearance, and Su Li stood out so much that she couldn’t help but pay attention to him.
Song Jianan rode her bike slowly, neon lights flashing all the way. She walked into a familiar bookstore and carefully selected reference books. She then entered the music store she often went to and bought Lisa Ono’s new album.
After doing all this, she finally calmly let out a smile, facing the cool breeze of early summer, and secretly cheering herself up.
Storyteller Li7_7a's Words
This is my first time translating a novel! I hope you'll enjoy this story as much as I do (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧
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