Time Passed Us By - Chapter 6

“I saw you standing on the podium today. How did it feel?” Song Jianan sat at the desk, her hair still wet, holding a cup of warm ginger tea.

When she asked this question, she smiled secretly in her heart; actually, I was standing right next to you.

At that time, they talked about music, just music, and gradually felt that the small notes were not enough. Song Jianan made her first QQ account, and Su Li was the only one on her friends list.

The QQ account was specifically made to wait for Su Li, and Song Jianan was happy just by looking at his shining profile picture.

Su Li always messages back quickly: “Nothing special, it’s just that the spotlight is very hot, and I almost fell asleep.”

She burst out laughing and replied sincerely, “I still have to congratulate you. By the way, what songs have you been listening to recently?”

“Chen Sheng’s songs. You probably haven’t about them, since they’re old songs. You must know Rene Liu, Chen Sheng is her teacher. Go listen to the song “Meteor”, the female voice is really great.”

“OK, thanks.”

The conversation ended like this, brief but fulfilling.

The next day, Song Jianan went to class. Perhaps because of the rain, she felt a little tired. She lay on the table langurously for the whole morning. When class was over, Zhang Jingkang nudged her and asked, “Where did you two go last night? How did you guys both get a cold?

She replied lazily, “Two? Who else? It rained heavily last night, so I got soaked when I went out.”

“It’s Duan Jiachen, he seems to have caught a cold too.”

Song Jianan raised her eyes but didn’t see Duan Jiachen in the classroom. Just as she was about to get up to look for him, a girl happened to walk past their class window. When she saw Song Jianan, her eyes immediately lit up: “Song Jianan, lend me your Chinese exercise book, our teacher needs to check it.”

Song Jianan blanked, but then she remembered that it was her junior high school classmate from Class 8. They were just nodding acquaintances. Song Jianan was very protective of her books and rarely lent any books or materials to others. When she was about to tell the girl that she didn’t bring any, the girl started to urge her again, “Oh, our Chinese teacher is so abnormal. He knows that we never do that kind of homework, but he still rushes us and asks our class monitor to check. It would be terrible if someone gets caught.”

Class monitor, the class monitor of Class 8, isn’t that Su Li? The words of refusal slipped away from her lips. She immediately took out the clean exercise book from her school bag. The girl flipped it open and exclaimed, “Wow, you have done it all. Your handwriting is so beautiful. Thanks, Song Jianan, I’ll return it to you after class. Thanks!” Then she picked up the book and ran away.

Song Jianan smiled helplessly, and Zhang Jingkang was surprised: “Hey, this is the first time I saw you lending a book to someone you don’t know well. By the way, they just heard from the office that we’re going to start dividing the classes into liberal arts and sciences. Have you chosen what to study?”

Song Jianan shook his head: “No, what about you?”

“Of course it’s science. I’m definitely weak in liberal arts, although I’m not good at science either.” Zhang Jingkang thought for a while, “Basically everyone in the class would pick science, except for a few girls, but I think it’s good for you to study liberal arts.”

“Really? I’ll have to think about it.”

She didn’t go home at noon to save time. She quickly ate lunch in the cafeteria and went to study at the library. She had the Chinese exercise book in her bag. An hour ago, the book was spread out on another table in another class. She didn’t know if Su Li’s eyes stayed on it for a second or longer, and whether he could remember another person’s handwriting.

How would he know? Song Jianan smiled self-deprecatingly. She sat by the transparent window, the afternoon sun shining on her body cruelly. It was warm but a little harsh to the eye. She looked up and found that the girl who used to sit opposite her every day, reading with her back to the sun, was not here today.

In the past, I always blamed her for blocking the light, making my hands feel ice cold, but now that I’m suddenly facing the sun, I’m actually a little uncomfortable.

She thought of Su Li again. If he was sitting opposite her and she left one day, would he remember that she habitually uses her right hand to lift the hair that blocks her sight, and the sunlight would shine through the lifted hair and fingers and fall on his book.

She was in no mood to read, so she took out her diary and started writing. She could be teasing, sincere, naughty, brave, and imaginative when talking to the fantastical Su Li.

“Having a crush in movies, TV shows, and novels is always dramatic, so it’s subtle and full of twists and turns, which makes me fall in love with it. In those novels, having a crush always gets the most beautiful and unexpected ending. No matter how ordinary a girl is, she will win the love of the high and mighty prince. I’ve read many of them, and I feel incredibly happy every time.”

“I would also secretly picture the chance encounters at the intersection, in the school corridor, or maybe in the next second, or maybe any certain day, he would stand in front of me and say to me, “Actually, I‘ve noticed you for a long time.”

“I spend every day in the fantasy I have woven. I really have the urge to go up to him and confess my love for him, but I know I’m not good enough for him. He is just so outstanding and so distant, and I am just so insignificant. Under logic, I can only silently crush on him and never confess. I am afraid that once I express the faultless unrequited love from my heart, it would be completely crushed by the rejection of words.”

“I asked myself what kind of feeling this is. Some people say it is a state of emotion, like Chinese ink painting, with its complex emotions, long and lingering sadness, and sweetness of being intoxicated alone.”

Perhaps it was the effect of the cold medicine she took in the morning. She fell into a deep sleep while lying on the table. She didn’t know when someone softly called in her ear, “Song Jianan, if you sleep any longer, you will be late.”

She was so frightened that she almost jumped up, and when she looked carefully, she patted her chest and said, “Duan Jiachen, you scared me to death. Is class about to start? Oh no, I fell asleep.” After saying that, she quickly packed her schoolbag and walked out of the library with Duan Jiachen.

“You must have been caught in the rain last night. You looked so spiritless this morning.” Duan Jiachen took out a water bottle from his schoolbag. Song Jianan became surprised again: “What is this? It’s black.”

“Medicine. I also sneezed with teary eyes this morning. I drank this at noon and sweated a lot, and it was fine. It’s a bit bitter, but I brought some candy. It’s the Swiss candy that you girls like to eat.”

She took the bottle and smelled it. The unpleasant bitter smell suddenly came out, choking her and knitting her eyebrows: “I don’t want to drink it. It’ll be too bitter. I’ll just let the cold get to me.”

Duan Jiachen looked a little unhappy, and his attitude was very tough: “Your mother asked me to bring it. What would I tell your mother if you don’t drink it?”

“Ah, my mom asked you to bring it? Then why did you drink this medicine? Hey, don’t glare at me, I’ll just drink it.” After drinking the bitter medicine in one breath, she quickly threw the candy into her mouth.

“By the way, Song Jianan, what will you choose between liberal arts and science?”

“I don’t know. I’m average in both arts and sciences, I’m just worst at math. I’ll think about it. Anyway, I don’t have anything I particularly want to learn or anything I’m particularly good at. But you, you’ll probably choose to study science, right?”

“Yeah, I want to study civil engineering, definitely science.”

“I’m rooting for you!”

When Song Jianan got home, she felt much better. While chewing on an apple, she asked vaguely, “Mom, what is the medicine you asked Duan Jiachen to bring today? It’s quite effective, but it tastes so bad.”

Mother Song was washing the dishes. She couldn’t quite understand because of the sound of the running water and was a little confused. She asked, “What about Duan Jiachen? I didn’t see him. What happened?”

Song Jianan was stunned for a moment, and quickly changed the subject, “Nothing, I mean the side effects of the medicine I took this morning were too severe, and I almost fell asleep when I was studying at noon. Fortunately, Duan Jiachen woke me up, otherwise I would’ve been late.”

“Mm.” Song’s mother replied nonchalantly, “I say you are such a troublesome kid. You ran home without an umbrella. You deserve to catch a cold. Go read after dinner. Don’t be cocky after receiving one scholarship.”

“Ay, I understand.” Song Jianan listlessly threw the apple core in her hand into the trash can, then went back to her room, opened her schoolbag and prepared to do some reviewing. She took out the copy of “Wang Houxiong” and thought about it, then said silently in her heart, “Thank you for the medicine.”

A week later, the whole school held a large-scale parent mobilization meeting to discuss the division of liberal arts and science classes and the establishment of art classes, and then more meetings were held for each class.

After Song’s father came home, he immediately asked Song Jianan: “Nannan, whether you want to study liberal arts or science, you can choose it yourself. We all recommend that you study arts. Although your arts are similar to your science, you have a good foundation and strong competitiveness, so it will be easier for you to learn, and then you can use more time to learn math well.”

Mother Song was even more straightforward,  “What the teacher said must be correct, Nannan, why are you hesitating? Just choose the liberal arts class.”

Song Jianan sat there sullenly without saying a word. These days, she’s been upset because she was called in by the teacher for discussions. She didn’t want to study liberal arts. Although liberal arts were indeed her strong suit, studying liberal arts meant leaving her current class and classmates. Moreover, the liberal arts classes were all in the liberal arts building. As a result, she would have no chance to see the people she looked forward to seeing every day.

“Let me think about it for a while.” She stood up and slowly walked back to the bedroom, turned on the computer, and left a message for Su Li, “I don’t know what to choose between arts and science. What should I do? I’m so conflicted.”

After waiting for a while without a reply, Song Jianan lay on the bed bored and felt empty in her heart. About half an hour later, she heard the “Beep beep” notification sound. Su Li replied, “First, choose what you like, second, choose what suits you, third, choose what you will not regret, and fourth, choose the one with the best future prospects, isn’t that enough?”

The fearlessness that I pretended to have in front of my parents and teachers, and the endless fear of the future that I tried to hide, were shattered or exploded, and were mixed up in my heart, but in the end, because of his words, I felt a little settled.

As if the clouds and fog had been cleared, the future seemed to become clear all of a sudden, and she had a clear mind in her heart.