"Who is this?" the little nurse asked in a low voice.
"My desk-mate." Zhang Shutong answered without hesitation.
"Then what about the one before?"
"She was also my desk-mate."
"Does your class have three people sitting together?"
"No."
"Then you're messing with me!"
Zhang Shutong said one was his former desk-mate, and this one was his current desk-mate, so there was no contradiction. "Why are you so focused on the desk-mate thing?"
"It feels like you're very popular with girls, little brother." The little nurse looked at him as if he were a commodity. "But among the two of them, I like the other one more."
Zhang Shutong almost thought something supernatural was happening. "How did another one pop up?"
He thought about it and said, "Oh."
"Are you talking about Ruoping? The girl with the short hair? She's my friend."
"Then they aren't friends?" The little nurse's perspective was very sharp.
Zhang Shutong said the one with medium-length hair was, of course, a friend, but this one in the green robe... He glanced at Lu Qinglian. She didn't seem to have heard their conversation and had just found a sofa to sit on.
Zhang Shutong was too lazy to explain anymore. He waved his hand, ready to leave:
"You go back to work. I'll wait outside."
"Hey, don't be shy." The little nurse teased.
Zhang Shutong thought to himself, "No, this is called avoiding suspicion."
Otherwise, a certain someone would say later:
"Student Zhang Shutong, please look away…"
Zhang Shutong walked into the corridor.
A typical man would go out for a cigarette at this point, but he was just a teenager.
A teenager should do something to waste time. Zhang Shutong propped his arm on the windowsill and stared blankly out the window.
He had been running around all day and was finally able to take a breath. It was a good time to stare into space.
There was an old building behind the hospital. He had known this for a long time. This was a characteristic of a place with slow development. The rise of new buildings would not be accompanied by the disappearance of old ones. They often coexisted.
An entire wall was covered with creeper plants. Half of them had already been blown off by the wind and were about to fall off completely.
This thing was very strange. If it was attached to a wall, even if it withered, it could form a wall of leaves. But if it fell to the ground, it would turn into mud in a few days.
Maybe it would climb up again in the spring. He stared at the creeper plant and thought he could write an essay on the topic—"The spirit of self-improvement, a discussion on the creeper plant." Zhang Shutong even had the opening line in his head, just waiting for a suitable topic to come up.
Sure enough, the newly formed study group had a significant effect. When he was idle, he was actually thinking about studying. This was only after one morning. In a few more days, would he be memorizing vocabulary while fishing? He sighed wistfully and held his chin until the little nurse patted his shoulder from behind.
The little nurse's last name was Hao. The two of them had a lot of chats at night while he was hospitalized and even exchanged contact information. The little nurse said:
"I've noticed you're always staring at that old building. You stare at it when you're in the hospital and when you're out."
"I'm just bored." In reality, it was because he was reading the book Qingyi brought him, a ghost story book. Every night, he would stare at that old house and fantasize about whether a zombie would suddenly pop out.
—The result, of course, was no. The old house was just an old house. It was a shame that Zhang Shutong had spent so many days researching it.
"Is the medicine done?" he asked.
"Yes, but she needs to let it air out before she can leave," the little nurse said in a low voice. "Looking at her clothes, is your classmate from the mountain?"
"To be precise, she's from the temple. Student Little Lu is not a caveman."
Zhang Shutong nodded. The little nurse then said:
"I knew she looked a bit familiar. When I first came to the island, I went to the temple to play. Hmm, she seemed so aloof and was a person of few words..."
"If you don't mind me asking, how old are you, big sister?"
"Twenty-three. Why?"
Zhang Shutong said it was nothing, just verifying a theory.
He had noticed before that Lu Qinglian only had a "special attack" against middle-aged and older women. It seemed it didn't work on the twenty-three-year-old little nurse.
"Actually, she's not a person of few words." For example, she was never easy on him. Zhang Shutong thought helplessly, "It doesn't matter if you're twenty-three or forty-three, you've all been deceived."
"Alright, let's not talk about this anymore. Otherwise, it'll sound like I'm gossiping behind her back." The little nurse said, "Oh, right, don't forget to come back in a couple of days to get your cast off. Director Zhang told me this morning."
"Director Zhang" was Zhang Shutong's attending doctor. Gu's father had specifically given him a heads-up. He was already the most authoritative doctor on the small island.
"When?"
"It depends on your schedule. He said you're recovering quite well, faster than he expected. You don't have to keep your arm in a sling all day." The little nurse said she was going to the bathroom. Before she left, she said, "Try to bring a new girl next time you come to get your cast off. I'm rooting for you, little brother!"
Zhang Shutong's eyelid twitched. He returned to the clinic room.
Some people stand out more because of their surroundings; others can't hide their own aura no matter where they are.
Lu Qinglian was undoubtedly the latter.
She had one foot bare and was gently tapping the top of her shoe. Her legs were together, and her hands were resting on her lap. She was sitting upright, appearing neither disheveled nor restrained.
Her eyelashes were lowered, as if she were resting her eyes.
Even sitting in a dirty clinic room, she had an otherworldly气质 (aura) about her that was completely unaffected by her surroundings. Her green robe was spotless.
Zhang Shutong used to think she had a low sense of presence, but that was a wrong impression. As long as Lu Qinglian was in your line of sight, there was something indescribable about her. She wasn't a very dazzling person, but she could always be the first thing to catch your attention.
It was no wonder so many boys had a crush on her.
So Zhang Shutong was right about one thing: she really was like a fairy who didn't belong to the human world.
"Student Lu Qinglian." Zhang Shutong sat down next to the fairy.
"What is it?"
"Did you notice that the sofa you're sitting on is missing its stuffing?"
"Hmm?"
"Some people have a habit of picking out the sponge from the bottom." Zhang Shutong looked at her hands with a bit of admiration. "I can't believe you were able to resist."
The fairy finally opened her eyes, but her cold gaze was already filled with helplessness. "Did you come back just to say strange things like that?"
Zhang Shutong was also helpless. He thought to himself, "Do you know what small talk is? It's just talking when you're bored."
"Oh, right, don't walk around too much these next few days." Zhang Shutong knew that in a way, she was also very stubborn, so he taught by example. "Let me tell you a story. It's about a person who got injured and didn't listen to the doctor's orders. They ran around everywhere and ended up with permanent side effects at a young age. Coughing and things like that were minor. They also got anxiety. Oh, right, do you know what anxiety is..."
Lu Qinglian sighed, unable to bear it:
"Don't tell me you had another dream in the short time I was applying the medicine."
"You can understand it that way for now." Zhang Shutong felt every pore on his body sighing in comfort.
"Student Zhang Shutong, I'll take it that your intentions are good." She said with a headache. "But can you please not learn to talk like me in such a childish way?"
"Uh, is it that childish?"
"More childish than the foxes in the mountain."
"Why foxes?"
"Caring about such irrelevant questions is a sign of childishness."
"I'm sorry about that."
Zhang Shutong stopped trying to make small talk. The two of them waited for a while longer until the ointment on her foot dried.
"Let's go." He got up from the sofa.
Lu Qinglian nodded. She put on her shoes and socks nimbly. As they left the clinic together, she asked again:
"Whose phone number did you give the doctor just now?"
"My mom's. She already knows you sprained your ankle anyway." Zhang Shutong helped her remember. "On Friday, the day you got hurt, she left the island. She didn't get back until Sunday. When she was tidying up at home that night, she asked me why there was an extra pair of shoes. My mom is a very gossipy person. It's too much of a hassle to explain things clearly, so I just told her what happened."
Zhang Shutong then said, "You don't know, my mom has been talking about you every day recently."
Lu Qinglian asked, confused, "Why?"
"She wants to thank you, of course. But she was with me at the hospital for the past few days and didn't have a chance to."
In reality, his mom also told him to invite Lu Qinglian to their house for a meal. At the time, Zhang Shutong thought she wouldn't go, so he said he would ask her when he saw her.
Now that the perfect opportunity had presented itself, Zhang Shutong went through the motions of his task:
"Do you want to come over for dinner tonight?"
He was expecting a cold rejection as usual. To his surprise, Lu Qinglian gently shook her head:
"I'm afraid not today. It's going to rain tonight."
So, did that mean it was okay to go when it wasn't raining?
Before he could speak, Lu Qinglian said calmly:
"What strange things are you thinking about again? I mean, I'll find some time to go to your house to get my shoes. It's inevitable that I'll have to bother your aunt."
As they were talking, they walked to the lobby on the first floor. They could see the gloomy sky from the main entrance. A plastic bag was tumbling in the wind on the sidewalk. Zhang Shutong remembered something:
"Wait a minute."
He turned back and ran.
"You..." Lu Qinglian sighed again. She turned back with him, but saw the boy go to the service desk, smile at the young female receptionist, say something, and then the receptionist took out an umbrella from behind the counter.
Zhang Shutong walked back quickly with the umbrella, confused:
"What were you about to say?"
"Nothing."
"Sighing will make you age faster. Even though you're a hundred and sixty years old, you should still be careful."
Lu Qinglian looked at him expressionlessly. Zhang Shutong smiled inwardly and walked away.
As soon as they left the hospital's main entrance, the thunder brewing in the clouds finally let out its first roar. Then, a steady stream of rain fell, soaking the cold stone path.
Zhang Shutong held the umbrella for Lu Qinglian, watched her get on the bike, and then sat on the back seat.
He watched the street scenes quickly move backward. There were occasional pedestrians, walking in a hurry. The signs on the shops along the street were lit up with colorful lights. The colorful lights were kneaded by the steam into a hazy appearance.
For some reason, this kind of weather made people want to chew gum. Zhang Shutong had no gum to chew. He only knew that this time, their distance was inevitably a bit closer. Lu Qinglian's high ponytail would always brush against his nose, making it feel itchy, like he wanted to sneeze.
"Don't wobble." Every time this happened, Lu Qinglian would warn him coldly.
Soon they saw the school gate. Lu Qinglian squeezed the brakes.
Zhang Shutong understood what she meant. He took the handlebars of the bicycle and held the umbrella in the crook of his arm. He wasn't in a hurry to follow. He just watched the girl go into the rain by herself. The dust in the world seemed to be frozen, and then fell to the ground with the rain. The gray rain soaked her green robe.
He slowly pushed the bike back to the bike shed. That pitiful tail box was still lying where it was. He picked up the tail box and reattached it, thinking, "Wait until I get my cast off, and we'll have another round by the lake."
The next time he saw Lu Qinglian was in the ninth-grade office.
The new homeroom teacher's seat was exactly where Teacher Song's used to be. Zhang Shutong looked at the drawer on the desk. It was going to be hard to get the lollipops in there back.
Ms. Xu glanced at the light rain outside the window, took a shallow sip of tea, and closed the lid of her teacup.
Zhang Shutong handed her the registration form and the payment slip. She pushed up her glasses and looked at it:
"Are all these ointments for scalds?"
Zhang Shutong didn't believe she could understand that string of strange Western medicine names. Of course, even if she did, there was nothing he could do. He could only say that Xu Zhiruo's "big aunt" was really something.
"Have you contacted your mom?"
"Not yet."
"Is the injury serious?"
"It's fine."
"Zhang Shutong, you don't seem to talk much, do you?" The homeroom teacher said meaningfully.
Zhang Shutong felt he really didn't talk much.
"Alright, go back to class first. Now, save my phone number. I want to see what other excuses you can come up with later." The homeroom teacher stopped paying attention to him. "Little Lu, you stay here. I want to talk to you alone."
Zhang Shutong walked out of the office, thinking, "She's a veteran teacher, as expected." Even until the end, she hadn't said whether she believed them or not. If other students would be nervously pondering in their hearts for a long time, it wouldn't scare Zhang Shutong.
In the second class of the afternoon, he reported his arrival and calmly returned to his seat. Zhang Shutong was already used to the surprised looks from everyone. After all, the first and second-ranked students in the grade were absent for the afternoon. He just didn't know how the homeroom teacher had explained it to the students in the class.
With her personality, even if they had really skipped class to do something, she would have kept it a secret.
Soon, class was over. He was waiting for his three friends to come and hold a trial, but they didn't. Zhang Shutong was feeling a bit puzzled when the girl in front, Wei Chenchen, turned around:
"Hey, Old Xu said she called you two to a meeting. What was it about?"
"Probably about the class's grades." Zhang Shutong thought with a laugh that this homeroom teacher was also good at finding excuses. His expression didn't change. "She said she wasn't familiar with the students in our class, but I was just there to fill a spot. She's the main person."
Zhang Shutong pointed to Lu Qinglian's empty seat.
"That's good." Wei Chenchen patted her chest. "Don't say anything bad about me."
"I won't."
The other person turned back around. Zhang Shutong suddenly felt grateful to the homeroom teacher for unknowingly solving a problem for him. He had been ready to hand over the payment slip.
He was still a bit unaccustomed to the feeling of nothing happening.
His seat was by the heater. He had just come back from the rain, and the heat next to him made him feel drowsy. To make it look more realistic, Zhang Shutong had specifically taken a little tissue, wet it under the faucet, and wiped his hair with it as he entered the office. Who knew he wasn't wet at all?
During the big break of the second class, it was time to hand out milk.
The person handing out the milk in the class had also changed. Today's milk was strawberry flavored.
Zhang Shutong put the straw in the milk. Just then, Lu Qinglian also came back.
There was still not much expression on her face. No one knew what the homeroom teacher had said to her. Had she lectured her earnestly or tried to find flaws in her story? Zhang Shutong was a bit curious and was about to ask her, when a phone call came in. It was from the little nurse. Zhang Shutong didn't know what the other person wanted. He pressed the answer button. The other person said:
"Did you forget your key here? I just found it while I was tidying up the bed."
Zhang Shutong felt his pants pocket and realized that the dorm key had slid out.