When he was fourteen, Lin Qile wrote in his diary:
"I don't want to think about Jiang Qiaoxi anymore, don't listen to his tapes, don't play with his dolls, this is the last time. I don't want to call him anymore, this is the last time, I swear, this is really the last time!! "
When he was sixteen, Lin Qile finished his homework at night and simply reviewed all the courses he would learn the next day in advance.
It was past ten o'clock at night, and Lin Qile sat at her desk. She seemed to have nothing to do. She lowered her head while biting her fingers.
She felt a heat in her chest, filled with many indescribable emotions. She didn't want to cry, but it seemed uncomfortable if she didn't cry.
She picked up a pen, opened her diary, and wrote a line below the words "This is really the last time" a long time ago:
"Jiang Qiaoxi kissed me. November 1, 2006."
Xin Tingting called from the South Campus and said that she heard some girls cursing Lin Qile in the South Campus cafeteria at noon. The cursing was so fierce that many people heard it.
"You kept it a secret from me. You said you and Jiang Qiaoxi didn't have a premature love affair before, but he started pursuing you as soon as you returned. He fetched water every day and even skipped classes. Now everyone in the South School knows about it," Xin Tingting said excitedly. "I heard from your former roommates during evening study today that Cen Xiaoman was crying wildly in the toilet of our school. Was it you who made her cry?"
Lin Qile explained: "I, I don't know Cen Xiaoman—"
Suddenly his cell phone vibrated. Lin Qile picked it up and saw that it was a new text message from Jiang Qiaoxi.
"Feng Letian called me. Does he like you?" Jiang Qiaoxi asked.
Lin Qile said that he was my classmate at the South School.
Jiang Qiaoxi asked, how come you are so familiar with him
Lin Qile said that when he was at the South Campus, only Class Leader Feng talked to him. Sometimes we went to the cafeteria together, but we were not very familiar with each other. He was a very nice person.
Jiang Qiaoxi asked, what did it mean to have only him
Lin Qile did not respond.
Jiang Qiaoxi said, will you come with me to the Xiaobailou cafeteria for dinner tomorrow
This happened in early November. In Lin Qile's memory, autumn gradually changed from the dusk silhouettes of the mountains, the withered sunset of the South Campus, to the ginkgo trees covering the sky of the Little White Building, and to the pair of eyes of Jiang Qiaoxi when he turned around and looked at her. At first she didn't dare to go, and Cai Fangyuan went to the Little White Building with her for dinner. Gradually Du Shang also came. One day, Yu Qiao and several boys from the school team heard from Du Shang that the chicken drumstick rice here was very delicious and fragrant, and a large group of people couldn't resist the temptation. Yu Qiao came boldly: "We have been deskmates for two years in elementary school. Isn't it appropriate for us to eat for free?"
Jiang Qiaoxi only had one meal card, and as more and more people came, it was empty after just a few days. He went to top up the card, and when he swiped the balance in the cafeteria, he saw more than 2,000 yuan, which shocked the chef.
Cai Fangyuan held up ten pairs of chopsticks and said, "Your meal card is enough to be passed on to the next generation."
Most of the people who came to eat at Xiaobailou were contestants, and some young teachers also liked to come here. Jiang Qiaoxi always ate alone in the past, or at the same table with Feilinger and Cen Xiaoman. He was very quiet and didn't talk. From time to time, classmates and younger students would come to him with books to ask him questions, which made him seem more lively.
Now, Jiang Qiaoxi was surrounded by people. Yu Qiao and Du Shang were chatting, and suddenly a sentence in the Qunshan dialect came out. Several people in the school team didn't understand what it meant, and Jiang Qiaoxi suddenly added a sentence next to him, and he actually got it right.
"Cherries." Jiang Qiaoxi said in the excitement.
"Um?"
"I want to eat the date flour buns made by Aunt Juanzi." Jiang Qiaoxi turned his head, he seemed very happy, and spoke softly.
Lin Yingtao looked at his face. In the past, Lin Yingtao had only seen her father look tipsy when he drank a little. But Jiang Qiaoxi didn't drink.
"Okay, I'll go back and tell my mom."
At noon the next day, Lin Yingtao brought the jujube flour buns her mother had steamed, put them in a lunch box, and shared them with everyone at the table. She said, "It's sweet!" Jiang Qiaoxi's fingers were covered with indelible pen ink. While explaining a problem to a junior named Qi standing next to him, he took half a bun and ate it dry.
Suddenly someone called out at the cafeteria entrance: "Qiao Xi!"
The table, which was bustling just now, suddenly became quiet.
Lin Yingtao raised her head and found that Jiang Qiaoxi's mother was standing at the cafeteria door at some point, and next to her was the school's academic director and several teachers in charge of the second year of high school.
Jiang Qiaoxi sat in the disappearing laughter, with his junior's book spread out on his knees, his junior's pen in his hand, and a jujube-flour steamed bun that he had just eaten a few bites of. He stared at his mother, but did not move, as if he did not hear her words.
Liang Hongfei looked at their table and said, "That classmate, are you Lin Qile?"
Lin Yingtao was startled when she heard Jiang Qiaoxi suddenly stand up from beside her. Jiang Qiaoxi was tall, and the chair he was sitting on was pushed back with a harsh sound. Jiang Qiaoxi walked around Yu Qiao and his group without saying a word and walked out without the slightest objection.
When Lin Yingtao turned around during the afternoon class, she found that Jiang Qiaoxi's seat had been empty and no one had come back. After school, she thought about it and carefully put the leftover jujube bun that no one had eaten into the lunch box. Cai Fangyuan said he was going to borrow notes from Jiang Qiaoxi's drawer and took the opportunity to put the lunch box in.
Dushan used to love his mother very much, and was a filial son. Now when he calls his mother who is far away in her family home, his tone is inevitably a little impatient: "Mom, you don't have to worry about me! I'm so old! I know!"
Yu Qiao celebrated his birthday. Lin Yingtao helped Aunt Yu pick garlic sprouts in his kitchen. Aunt Yu said, "Boys grow up and need self-esteem. They don't want to be controlled or criticized. They want to save face." As she said that, she looked back at Du Shang outside the door and sighed, not sure whether it was a sigh of loss or a sigh of laughter.
Lin Yingtao put the picked garlic sprouts into a small basket: "But they still want Aunt Yu to wash their clothes, cook for them, and clean the house!"
"Isn't it?" Aunt Yu was cutting the tenderloin. "Obviously, she can't do anything, but our Cherry is considerate enough to come pick some garlic sprouts for her."
At this time, someone squeezed in from the kitchen door. Lin Yingtao didn't look back, but from that height she knew it was Yu Qiao who came in. Yu Qiao squeezed in from behind them.
"Mom," Yu Qiao opened the upper cabinet and asked impatiently while searching, "Where's my can of coffee?"
"It's almost time for dinner, why are you drinking coffee?" Yu's mother mixed the crispy meat for frying and wiped her hands on her apron. "Don't rummage around, don't rummage around. I'll find it for you!"
Yu Qiao came out, and as he passed by Lin Yingtao, he peered over her shoulder. "Garlic sprouts again," he said with disdain.
Yu's mother said: "It's your dad who insisted on eating it!"
The coffee was found. Yu Qiao left, and it was very lively outside, and I didn't know what they were doing. Lin Yingtao had picked the last few garlic sprouts, and Yu's mother said, "Hurry up, Yingtao, wash your hands and go out to play with them."
The kitchen is small, and people have to walk side by side. Lin Yingtao walked out of the kitchen and saw Team Leader Yu feeding the little turtle in the tank by the wall. Du Shang took a brush from somewhere, dipped it in the coffee bottle, and painted on Yu Qiao's 17th birthday cake.
Qin Yeyun was lying on the side, propping up his face to watch, and suddenly said in disgust: "You drew it wrong! This is a football!"
Du Shang was then pushed aside by Yu Qiao. Du Shang realized belatedly: "Ah? What does a basketball look like?"
Cai Fangyuan was playing on the computer in Yu Qiao's room and threw the mouse inside: "Yu Qiao, you should check your computer for viruses!"
My cousin Yu Jin said in a baby voice, "We just killed one yesterday."
Cai Fangyuan shouted, "Yu Qiao! I'm introducing you to a new website, hurry up and come in!"
Yu Qiao was too lazy to go in: "Brother, my brother is still young, can you please stop using my computer to visit porn sites?"
Cai Fangyuan said: "Damn it, I'm here to celebrate your birthday, but are you coming or not?"
Lin Yingtao heard Aunt Yu say from behind: "Yingtao! Come in again and help me—"
Lin Yingtao entered the kitchen and saw Aunt Yu handing over a stainless steel steamer: "Take out the jujube flour steamed buns your mother made and put them in there so we can heat them up before eating."
Maybe it was because the kitchen was hot and there was a lot of steam, but Lin Yingtao lowered her head and placed the date flour buns one by one in the steamer. Suddenly, her eyes became hot and tears were about to fall.
Lin Yingtao rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, took a bowl to collect water, poured it into the pot, put the steamer on top, and closed the pot lid. Mother Yu sighed from the side: "How come Yingtao is so good at this? She doesn't need to be taught?"
Lin Yingtao grinned at her: "I helped my mother heat it up at home!"
"Oh, my daughter, it would be great if you could marry into our family..." said Yu's mother.
Lin Yingtao walked out of the kitchen. She pulled down her rolled-up sleeves, walked past Du Shang and Yu Qiao, and turned into the quieter balcony.
She squatted between pots of flowers and a washing machine, alone, and called Jiang Qiaoxi on her cell phone.
But still no one answered.
Late at night, Fuzhou Changle International Airport.
In the first floor hall of the airport, there were many staff members on duty at the reception station of the winter camp organizing committee. Among the travelers coming and going, there were students from all over the country who came to participate in the competition. They picked up their luggage and took the bus to the camp accompanied by their parents and teachers.
Jiang Qiaoxi got off the plane, carrying a schoolbag on his back, with no other luggage. He walked out of the aisle, raised his head, and glanced at the rows of ground lights outside the airport, stretching from his feet to the horizon.
As he walked down the stairs, he pulled out his cell phone and turned it on.
"Cherries?" he asked.
"Can you answer the phone now?" Lin Yingtao said.
"I'm in Fuzhou." Jiang Qiaoxi said suddenly.
"Fuzhou?" Lin Yingtao asked.
Jiang Qiaoxi walked to the reception station of the winter camp organizing committee. He took out his ID and handed it to the teacher. Then he picked up a pen with one hand and signed a form. He said to his phone: "I will go back to school in a few days."
"Were you in that winter camp?" Lin Yingtao asked.
"Well," Jiang Qiaoxi said, "it's almost over."
His voice was light, without any emotion, and unusually calm.
Lin Yingtao didn't understand. The exam hadn't even started yet, so what did "almost over" mean
"What are you doing?" Jiang Qiaoxi asked.
"I'm at Yu Qiao's house," Lin Yingtao said. Through the balcony door, she could hear everyone gathered around the cake in the living room. Lin Yingtao said, "We are celebrating his birthday with him."
Jiang Qiaoxi swallowed and the sound could be clearly heard over the phone.
"Cherry," he said, "can you celebrate my birthday next year?"
The author has something to say: －－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－
Notes to this article:
＊The China Mathematical Olympiad and the 22nd National Mathematical Olympiad Winter Camp for Middle School Students were actually held on January 25, 2007, at Wenzhou Middle School in Zhejiang Province. As the competition involves real-life awards and rankings, all aspects of the competition are fictitious in this article.