“Wow Song Yu Meng, you don’t have the second textbook so you take the third textbook to try and placate[1] me?” Old man Zhang saw it when he was checking their tables. “The cover of the book isn’t the same, but you’re not even scared of being found out.”
He pointed at the door. “Go accompany Yi Ran outside.”
Song Yu Meng sulkily got up and walked out, complaining the whole time. She thought Yi Ran would be so nice as to give her the book, turns out it was a trap!
Yi Ran was leaning against the wall and when she saw Song Yu Meng’s face, she smiled cheekily.
Even though Yi Ran knew what was going on, she purposely provoked Song Yu Meng. “Eh, why are you out here? Didn’t I give the book to you?”
“What do you think! What was the meaning behind giving me the third textbook? You did it on purpose, didn’t you?” Song Yu Meng was half angered to death, she had never seen such a shameless person before.
“Sorry, I must have taken the wrong book accidentally.” Yi Ran didn’t even believe her own words. Alright, she’ll admit, she did it on purpose.
Song Yu Meng didn’t want to acknowledge her, so she purposely took a big step to the left to put distance between the two of them. When there was a large enough distance, she stood there with a “happy” expression.
Yi Ran went up in front of her and coaxed: “Don’t be mad. I’ll make it up to you and bring you out to play, okay?”
Song Yu Meng turned her head away and said petulantly: “Not okay! What’s even fun in school?”
“Who said I’ll bring you to play in school? I meant we’re going outside to play.”
“Going outside? How?” Song Yu Meng was shocked.
“By flipping over the wall. Everybody’s in class, and we’re skipping class to go and play. Don’t you think it’s pretty cool? How about it? Are you going?” Yi Ran continued coaxing her.
“No way!” Song Yu Meng didn’t even have to think about it. “You’re a bad student, don’t lead me astray.”
Yi Ran scoffed. “Cheh! Without having skipped class once and flipped over the wall to go and play, your high school life wouldn’t be complete!”
“You can’t be scared, can you?” She teased. “No way, this big miss can also be scared? Looks like you’re really a scaredy-cat hahaha, coward!”
Song Yu Meng ground her teeth and stared at Yi Ran. “Who’s a coward!”
“Aren’t you? Then why don’t you dare to go out and play with me?”
“Go then! Who’s scared!”
Even though Song Yu Meng knew Yi Ran was purposely provoking her, she couldn’t keep her composure, agreeing for the sake of her reputation.
The two of them snuck down the starwell, avoiding the security cameras and the patrolling teachers to reach the wall at the rear school gate.
The wall wasn’t high, just around 2.5 metres. It wasn’t difficult to climb if you got a running start and jumped at the right time. All you had to do was use your forearms’ strength to pull your upper body up, then you’d be pretty much good to go.
But Song Yu Meng wasn’t gifted athletically. She didn’t have a lot of strength and she couldn’t pull herself up the wall. Yi Ran couldn’t bear to watch anymore, what if they were discovered? So she hugged Song Yu Meng’s thighs and lifted her up.
“Wow, you’re so heavy! You should go on a diet!”
“What the hell are you talking about! This lady’s not even 50kg![2]“
After struggling for a bit, Song Yu Meng finally flipped over the wall. Three seconds later, Yi Ran flipped over too. Nobody had realised the two of them had snuck out to play.
Yi Ran brought Song Yu Meng to the newly opened amusement park. Inside, there wasn’t only rides, there was even a small zoo. Because it was in the middle of a work day, and the park was newly opened, there weren’t many people inside.
“Ah! I want to see the giraffes!” Song Yu Meng ran around in a good mood. She had already wanted to come to this new amusement park, she never expected Crazy Yi to bring her here.
“Run slower! Wait for me!” Yi Ran had just bought the tickets and she chased after Song Yu Meng.
Song Yu Meng wasn’t going to wait for her. She ran all the way to the giraffe enclosure.
There was a wooden safety fence on the outside and inside, it was a spacious exhibit with a few giraffes inside. One was extending its long neck to eat leaves off one of the trees.
Song Yu Meng plucked a few leaves off and held it in her hand, holding it out to the giraffe. The giraffe obediently ate those leaves and even stuck out its tongue to lick Song Yu Meng’s palm.
She wasn’t disgusted at all, even patting its head and smiling happily.
Yi Ran stood by the side unhappily. Was she not even better than a giraffe?
She bought a piece of bread from a nearby vendor and held it out to the giraffe to get in on the action.
But the giraffe didn’t even look in her direction.
“Hahaha, looks like it doesn’t like you much.” Song Yu Meng teased, then pulled off a few more leaves and fed it to the giraffe.
“Look, it really doesn’t like you!”
Yi Ran sullenly took a bite of the bread. “Then it’s dumb, leaves aren’t as nice to eat as bread.”
“Try harder to find an excuse, why don’t you.” Song Yu Meng sighed then continued: “If only you were as cute as the giraffe.”
“Am I not cute?”
“Cute my butt, you’re super dumb, okay?” Song Yu Meng smiled, her eyes becoming tiny crescents, looking as innocent as a little girl.
Yi Ran covered her smile with a hand. Clear and bright eyes shining like stars, her originally-calm heart felt like it was stirred up by the wind. She thought this side of Song Yu Meng was really good looking.
The two of them passed by a carnival store on their way, one that let you shoot balloons for prizes. One of the prizes was a fuzzy Psyduck toy in the cabinet.
Standing a few metres away, Song Yu Meng pointed at the doll and said: “Look at that, Crazy Yi. Don’t you think that duck looks like you? Silly and dumb!”
Yi Ran raised an eyebrow: “You called me silly?”
“Dumb!”
Yi Ran smiled. “Do you want that toy? I’ll win it for you.”
“Can you?” Song Yu Meng looked at her doubtfully.
“Why not? It’s just shooting some balloons, how difficult could it be?”
To prove herself, Yi Ran bought 30 bullets. The owner said that as long as she could hit 15 balloons, she could take the toy.
Yi Ran thought: Isn’t 15 too easy? So she shot the first pellet, full of confidence.
It missed.
Yi Ran’s smile froze on her face and she looked at Song Yu Meng awkwardly. “It doesn’t count, I haven’t gotten used to the feel of the gun yet, I’ll definitely hit the next one!”
Song Yu Meng looked at her with a “really? I don’t believe you” expression and held back a smile.
Yi Ran took a deep breath and slowed down her breathing, aiming for the second shot.
The balloon exploded with a loud sound, she did it.
“See that! I said it was a feel[3] problem, you didn’t believe me.” She got a bit cocky.
Song Yu Meng looked at her speechlessly. Did she say she didn’t believe her? She didn’t say anything at all, it seems like?
Overconfidence breeds failure. The next 10 shots were all missed.
Song Yu Meng laughed. “Can you really do it?”
Yi Ran tsk-ed. “What are you worried about? There are still 18 bullets.”
Out of the remaining bullets, 10 missed. It was such a pity, Yi Ran almost got the toy.
A small seven-year-old boy came up to their side and bought thirty bullets. Raising the gun, he shot quickly and the balloons popped just as quickly. Within five minutes, he had shot all 30 bullets, hitting 27 balloons. He grabbed the toy and swaggered off.
Yi Ran stared at him, dumbfounded. Kids these days were so good? Song Yu Meng was shocked too. Both of them looked at each other, then Song Yu Meng chuckled.
“Hahaha, you’re so lousy Crazy Yi, you can’t even beat a seven-year-old kid!” She pouted. “My toy’s gone.”
Yi Ran walked over and pressed her hand to her head. “Didn’t you say the toy looked like me? Why would you want the toy over me?”
“What! Who wants you?!” Song Yu Meng knew Yi Ran was just mocking her, but her face reddened. “I don’t want you! You’re nowhere as obedient as the toy, all you do is make fun of me.”
“Then what if I was to be more obedient?” Yi Ran smiled, eyes shining with anticipation.
“I still don’t want you!” Song Yu Meng walked away, the flush still obvious on her face.
Yi Ran refused to give up, catching up and continuing to probe: “Why don’t you want me?”
“Because you’re super annoying!”
Song Yu Meng’s lips were curved up when saying this. Yi Ran didn’t think she actually found her annoying. It would be more likely if she said she liked Yi Ran.
After that, the two of them went up in the Ferris wheel.
The Ferris wheel got higher and higher, until it reached the top. Everything below become a small black dot.
Yi Ran suddenly thought to ask something that had been bothering her for a long while.
“How did you start liking Liu Luo Yang?”
Not expecting this question, Song Yu Meng’s face froze. She lowered her head, recalling the incident.
Five years ago, Song Yu Meng had just started junior high and her deskmate was Liu Luo Yang. At that time, she just thought this guy looked clean and nice.
But during one of the self-study periods, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her abdomen. It hurt to the point she couldn’t sit up, sprawling on the desk like she was injured.
Her cramps had started again.
But at this time, Liu Luo Yang didn’t care that it was still during class. He carried Song Yu Meng and rushed to the medical bay in front of everybody in class.
At that time, Song Yu Meng’s first reaction was embarrassment. After all, it was her first time being carried by a guy, and in front of so many people as well.
But her second reaction was that her heart started beating wildly, and she felt this guy was really handsome. A ray of sunlight had shone across Liu Luo Yang’s face at that time, and she was smitten.
But five years had gone by and Song Yu Meng only vaguely remembered this incident and that ray of light. As for how it felt like to fall for him, she had already long forgotten it.
Yi Ran heard it and smirked, finding it ludicrous. “That’s all?”
Honestly, she had thought Liu Luo Yang had done something incredible to let Song Yu Meng love him to this extent. She had even envisioned something like Song Yu Meng falling into the ocean and Liu Luo Yang jumping in to save her, that sort of ridiculous situation.
She didn’t think it was just carrying her to the medical bay when she was having cramps??? Yi Ran didn’t know what to say. Should she say she was sentimental, or just plain foolish?
“What do you mean, that’s all!” Song Yu Meng said petulantly. “Don’t you think it’s very romantic?”
“Romantic? I just think you’re super foolish. A fool that gets moved easily. You say I’m a fool, aren’t you more foolish than me?”
“I’m foolish?” Song Yu Meng stood up and bumped her head on the roof of the carriage. Tears sprang to her eyes from the pain and she quickly sat down again, both hands on her head. “How am I foolish?”
“You just are.” Yi Ran said. “This isn’t being moved and liking someone. It’s called being moved by yourself, it’s a misunderstanding.”
“No, it’s not.” Song Yu Meng rebutted softly.
Yi Ran smiled softly. “I carried you to the medical bay when your cramps acted up while you were running too. I even flipped over the wall to buy medicine for you. Based on your criteria to fall for someone, shouldn’t you fall for me too?”
“No- no way!” Song Yu Meng blushed again and stuttered.
“So, how could this be liking someone? I think you just misunderstood your own feelings towards Liu Luo Yang.”
Song Yu Meng kept her head lowered, playing with her fingers.
Yi Ran looked at her seriously. “Think it over. If you think you still like him, then forget I said anything.”
The ferris wheel slowly descended, and everything below them slowly got larger.
Song Yu Meng gazed at the scenery, lost in thought. She had always strongly believed she really liked Liu Luo Yang, but Yi Ran’s words made her confidence shake.
She could no longer tell if she really liked Liu Luo Yang, or if she even knew what “like” was.
Going back to the school, the teacher wanted to call the two of them back into the class midway through the physics lesson.
But there was nobody outside the classroom.
“Where are they?!”
[1] 敷衍 – This is a pretty difficult word to translate into English. I’ll give you guys an example. If someone asks you if they’re pretty and you just want to get them off your back, you can be like “yeah sure, you’re pretty.” but you don’t really mean it. I guess the close enough word would be “perfunctory”, which is what I used previously, but I can’t use it in this sentence. Jump back up.
[2] 一百斤 – This is the Chinese unit of measurement for weight, catty. It’s like, 1 catty is usually equivalent to 500 grams in China. There are different estimates in different countries, but since this is a China novel, I’m going with 1 catty:500 grams. Jump back up.
[3] 手感 – I’m not sure what I should translate it to either, it’s literally “hand feel”. When you say 手感不怎么好, it can be that something doesn’t feel good in the hand, or that it doesn’t feel right.