On Friday after the last class, Wu Jincheng started to pack up his desk, looking like he was getting ready to leave. His classmates asked: "Class monitor, why are you packing up?"
Wu Jincheng said: "The gaokao (college entrance exam) is only a few days away. I've asked for leave to review at home."
"What!!" The classmates exclaimed, "Is that allowed?"
"Everyone, quiet down," Teacher Chen appeared in the classroom to answer their questions, "As long as you have your parent's signature, you can go home to review. Of course, for most students, I still recommend that you stay at school so you can come to teachers if you have any questions."
A student raised their hand: "We just need our parent's signature?"
Teacher Chen said: "You also need my approval. You can only go home if someone is there to take care of you. If there's no one watching over you, can you really review well in these last critical days relying only on self-discipline?"
She lectured them sternly for a while, getting through Wu Jincheng's last bit of time left in the class. The other students were busy discussing whether they should ask for leave and didn't pay much attention to the monitor's departure.
Except Ji Yunyun.
She caught up with him at the school gate: "Class monitor!"
Wu Jincheng turned around calmly: "What do you want?"
"Is it you?" Ji Yunyun asked.
Wu Jincheng: "It's none of your business."
Ji Yunyun clenched her fists: "Why did you do it?"
"Do you think you're very righteous?" Wu Jincheng retorted, "Do you think Miao Tong is a good person? She died and you insist on finding out the truth. Have you ever thought about how she brought this on herself?"
Ji Yunyun was stunned.
"No one is better than anyone else. Don't be so naive," he said coldly as he turned and crossed the street.
Around the street corner, a police car was waiting for him.
"Ji Yunyun," someone called her from behind. It was a tall, strong boy. "What were you and the monitor talking about?"
Ji Yunyun rolled her eyes: "None of your business!"
The boy said: "Are you planning to review at home?"
Ji Yunyun: "No."
The boy said: "Neither am I."
Ji Yunyun: "I didn't ask you."
The boy said: "Are you going to the library to review tomorrow?"
Ji Yunyun: "Why?"
The boy said: "I live nearby. If you go I can save you a seat."
Ji Yunyun: "I'm going."
The boy said: "Are you going home by yourself? We can go together, I also take bus #4..."
Before the boy could finish speaking, they suddenly heard a car horn. A car pulled up beside them.
The window rolled down and Ji Feng sized up the boy: "Who said Yunyun is going home alone?"
"Bro?!" Ji Yunyun's eyes widened as if she had seen a ghost. "What are you doing here?"
"What do you mean what am I doing here? Of course I'm here to pick you up. Did you think I was just passing by after eating my fill?" Ji Feng glanced at her. "Hurry up and get in the car. Are you waiting for me to open the door for you?"
So annoying. Ji Yunyun muttered under her breath and waved her hand, then got into the car.
The boy opened and closed his mouth, then obediently watched her leave.
Ji Feng interrogated his sister: "Who was that?"
"Our class learning commissioner."
"Oh? He looks more like an athletic commissioner to me. A learning commissioner? Is he any good?" Ji Feng looked doubtful.
Ji Yunyun exploded: "Don't underestimate him! His grades are excellent, top 5 in the year."
Ji Feng snorted.
"Hey," Ji Yunyun suddenly turned and asked him, "I just saw the class monitor get into a police car. Was that him?"
Ji Feng: "Yes."
Ji Yunyun was silent.
Ji Feng asked her: "Do you want to know why?"
"Are you going to tell me?"
"I will," he said. "You discovered it."
By all accounts, Ji Yunyun should have felt excited by these words. But the reality was the opposite - she didn't have any excitement or eager anticipation. On the contrary, she felt uneasy.
Ji Feng looked ahead steadily as he spoke evenly: "The truth is often absurd and cruel. There is not always joy in righteousness defeating evil. But no matter what kind it is, we can only accept it."
Ji Yunyun pressed her lips together and gritted out: "Fine, tell me."
Ji Feng kept his word and told her the whole truth without reservation.
Ji Yunyun: "..."
The truth was much too different from her deductions!
"I wasn't originally planning to tell you before the gaokao," Ji Feng glanced at her. "Teacher Jian insisted you could handle it. I even made a bet with her - for the sake of your brother's wallet, it's not shameful to cry."
Ji Yunyun retorted: "You just wanted to have dinner with her, right?"
Ji Feng: "That's nonsense."
His little sister exaggeratedly rolled her eyes, took out her wallet, pulled out a 100 yuan bill, and handed it to him: "Here is 100 yuan to fund you. Get some flowers when you go to dinner. Look at Teacher Jian's romantic prospects, then look at yourself. Can you have some sense of crisis?"
Ji Feng laughed angrily: "What are you nitpicking about, brat?"
"You, you!"
After the weekend, Ji Yunyun returned to school as if nothing had happened.
Ji Feng made good on his promise and called Jian Jing out to dinner.
She asked: "Where are we eating?"
"Don't wear a skirt," he said.
Following his advice, Jian Jing wore a t-shirt + hot pants + baseball cap + sunglasses.
Ji Feng judged: "You're dressed like an undercover celebrity."
"I'm a celebrity right now."
Ji Feng: "Aren't you feeling yourself a bit too much?"
Hearing his tone, Jian Jing said coldly: "If you regret asking me out to dinner, just say it. I'll go back right now."
"Don't," he grabbed her by the arm, opened the car door, "A bet is a bet. Get in."
Only because of their history did Jian Jing reluctantly get into the passenger seat: "Where are we going?"
"You'll know when we get there," Ji Feng gave her fair warning. "It's not somewhere nice though, be mentally prepared."
Jian Jing pressed her hand to her forehead, calm and composed: "It's fine, I don't have any expectations of you anyway."
After driving for half an hour, the car stopped on a shaded tree-lined alley. Ji Feng bought two bottles of water and parked in the back entrance of a small grocery.
"Let's go. This way we won't get towed." He handed her a bottle of water. "Follow me."
Jian Jing's curiosity was piqued. This didn't look like a place to eat. She quickly caught up to him. Ji Feng took a small path where the trees blocked most of the sunlight, making the wind feel cool and fresh. By the roadside was a short brick wall. Bushes were growing out of the crevices between the bricks, unknown wildflowers blooming.
He said: "Can you climb over?"
"Who are you looking down on?" Jian Jing said. "It's so short."
"Nothing less expected from Teacher Jian," Ji Feng complimented her. He nimbly climbed over. "Don't worry about climbing over. No one comes here anymore."
Jian Jing didn't need to activate her Snow White powers. With her own strength and agility, the two meter wall was easy.
She climbed up swiftly and looked down below. There was a cracked cement road. Although there were weeds everywhere, at least she wouldn't step into mud. Only then did she leap down without worry.
"Where is this?"
"My high school. The school relocated, the developer went bankrupt, and only half was torn down before this place was abandoned." He lifted his chin at the two teaching buildings still standing in the distance, the exterior walls gray and covered with wind and frost.
Jian Jing gave him a look but didn't ask why he had brought her here to eat.
Once human traces disappeared, nature's vitality would thrive. The grass and weeds were extremely dense, the coarse stalks and leaves easy to cut bare skin on.
At first, Jian Jing regretted wearing shorts. But she soon felt it was very interesting. Her agility and flexibility allowed her to nimbly avoid all obstacles, as if she was on an adventure.
But the lush bushes soon disappeared.
The sports field was still there. No matter how hard the weeds tried, they didn't even reach ankle height. The concrete steps poured from cement were still very firm. Only the occasional stubborn weed was able to poke out a shoot to flutter in the wind.
Ji Feng walked up to the highest level and looked out at the abandoned campus. After a while, he suddenly said, "Teacher Jian, the day I received news my dad died, the school happened to be having a sports meet here."
In October, the bracing wind carried the sweet osmanthus scent. Even today he could still remember the principal's opening speech at the ceremony, nonstandard Mandarin.
"Every year at the sports meet, the monitor would find someone to sign up for the 1000 meter run. I still remember her. She had good grades and was also beautiful."
He casually brought it up, then changed the subject. Jian Jing gave him a sideways glance but went along and asked: "First love?"
"Curious?" Ji Feng looked at her and laughed. "I won't tell you."
Jian Jing: "I'm not curious, thanks." You can keep talking about the sports meet."
“Sports Day...” He thought about it, sighed, “Back then I was really too naive, a thousand meters? When I was in college I ran three thousand meters every day, plus strength training, it was miserable.”
“Why did you choose to go to this public university then?” she asked.
Ji Feng said: “To serve the people.”
Jian Jing: “Bullshit.”
“Believe it or not.” He turned around, “Let’s go, you must be hungry. Let me think, it should be around here.”
He took her through the precarious teaching building, and climbed over the fence next to it.
Strangely, just across this wall, the quiet tranquility of the deserted garden instantly turned into a bustling street. Walking down this road, after less than three hundred meters, you could see a small market.
Ji Feng found a rice noodle shop and ordered two bowls of beef tripe rice noodles, saying to her: “Come and try it.”
“If it doesn't taste good, I'll beat you into a pig head.” Jian Jing sat down and picked up a rice noodle.
“Would I come all this way just for nostalgia if I wasn't sure?” He laughed, “I guarantee it tastes good.”
Jian Jing tried a bite doubtfully.
It turned out to be really good, the kind of typical place with poor ambience and no fancy exterior, but the boss had probably been honing his craft for decades.
Just a regular bowl of beef tripe rice noodles, but the broth was light yet flavorsome, the rice noodles were chewy and springy, the beef tripe was crispy and fresh, a rare treat.
“When I was a student a bowl only cost 12 yuan, prices have gone up.” He finished half a bowl in one go, then waved his hand again, “Boss lady, one more order of braised beef.”
“Coming up.” The boss lady went into the kitchen, scooped up a piece of braised beef with a spoon, chopped it on the chopping board with a few cracks, and brought out a small plate of diced braised beef, “Eat slowly.”
Ji Feng pushed the plate over, “Eat more, eat until you’re full.”
Jian Jing speared a bite with her chopsticks. The braising was very flavorful.
But she still had to nitpick, “I won’t bet with you anymore in the future, you’re so petty, treating me to rice noodles but no soda.”
Ji Feng: “...One more bottle of Coke.”
“A cold one.”
“A cold one, a cold one.” He had a defeated look on his face.
After eating their fill, they headed back.
Ji Feng went back on duty, Jian Jing took a nap at home.
Waking up from her afternoon nap, the sun was shining brightly outside. She played with her dog for a while, tossing the ball for it a few times, then slowly wandered into the study and created a new document.
These past two days, she had been thinking about starting a new book. There was no other way, money flowed out too easily, she had to work hard earning it back, but she didn’t have inspiration for the Demon Doctor series yet, and didn’t feel like writing the fourth book for now.
Authors were just fickle like that.
Time to write a new story then.
It would still be a mystery, of course, but more lighthearted and fun, not too heavy.
What to write?
Scenes flashed through her mind.
The young couple dating under wisteria vines, the girl who fell off the rooftop, the student escorted into a police car at the school gate, and the quiet, desolate old campus bathed in sunlight.
The young know not worry or sorrow, always seeing suicide and death lightly.
Murder and youth, that could be interesting too.
She finally typed a new title into the document.
- Case Files of the Sleepwalking Girl
Author’s note: It’s about time to start a new book, can’t keep milking that Demon forever =0=
Why do I keep wanting to write about food lately...
