It was a deep night and everything was quiet. The electric fan facing the bed seemed to be broken. The buzzing sound turned into a strange clicking sound, one after another, becoming surprisingly loud.
Fu Shitian felt uncomfortable after hearing this and struggled to open his eyes from his sleep.
Under the bright moonlight, a gentle and beautiful young woman was sitting on the edge of her bed with a furry rabbit doll on her lap.
"Mom?" Fu Shitian spoke in a daze. Suddenly he was startled and sat up, wanting to throw himself into the woman's arms.
But the woman drifted away in an instant, stood beside the desk a few steps away, and looked at Fu Shitian quietly.
Fu Shitian missed his target and fell awkwardly on the side of the bed, looking up at the woman.
"How are you doing?" the woman asked her with a slightly distant smile.
Fu Shitian bit her lip, not daring to answer directly, and only murmured, "Mom, I got into college."
“Come on…” the woman said helplessly, “How are you doing?” She was obsessed with this question, asking it gently yet cruelly.
Fu Shitian had no choice but to cry. She rolled off the bed barefoot and admitted her fault in a sobbing voice, "I am not doing well, Mom, I am wrong, I am not doing well..."
She stretched out her hands and wanted to hug the woman, but no matter how fast she ran, the woman was always a few steps away from her.
The road ahead was getting darker and darker, and the woman's face, vaguely filled with mockery, was drifting further and further away, becoming fainter and fainter...
"Mom, I was wrong, don't go... don't go..." Fu Shitian woke up with a violent tremor.
Inside the house with the window open, the curtains fluttered gently, and the sky outside the window was just beginning to turn slightly white.
It’s a dream again.
But the feeling of angina was so real. Fu Shitian covered her eyes with one hand and hugged the bunny doll in her arms with the other hand. After a while, she sniffed, wiped her tears, and turned to look at the alarm clock.
It's five fifteen.
Fu Shitian sat up, turned the wet pillow over, let the rabbit doll sit on the pillow, put on his watch, got out of bed and walked out.
After washing and changing her clothes, it was only half past five. She took her keys and tiptoed out to the market to buy vegetables. This was a job she had taken over from Wang Meifen since she was twelve years old.
By the time she finished buying groceries, cooking the rice and frying the dishes, Fu Jiantao and Wang Meifen had just finished washing up and came out to eat.
Fu Jiantao is a plumber, and he usually leaves home at around 7 a.m., depending on how far the construction site is. Wang Meifen works at a 24-hour convenience store, and if she has an early shift, she has to leave home by 7:30 at the latest.
Before leaving, Fu Jiantao told Fu Shitian: "Call me as soon as you find out the results, okay?"
Fu Shitian nodded in response.
It was 8 o'clock when the exam results would be available. She went back to her room, got her admission ticket, and knocked on Fu Siyu's door: "Xiao Yu, can you open the door for me? Can you lend me your computer to check my results?"
There was no response in the room, so Fu Shitian hesitated and repeated it again.
"Oh, it's so annoying." Fu Siyu's irritable voice finally came from far away, and the next second, the door opened with a "click".
When Fu Shitian pushed open the door, Fu Siyu had already thrown himself back onto the bed, burying his head in the pillow.
Fu Shitian was afraid of disturbing Fu Siyu, so he sat down in front of the computer chair quietly, turned on the computer and opened the score checking webpage.
She had always thought that she was not nervous, but when she finished entering all the information and was about to click to query, she found that her fingertips were shaking - it turned out that she was still nervous.
However, after she clicked the query button, she was worried for a long time, but the webpage was... lost
Fu Shitian was a little confused, and quickly repeated the steps again, but it was still the same. She turned her head to look at Fu Siyu, bit her lip, and continued to repeat the steps.
Ten minutes later, Fu Siyu asked her impatiently, "You haven't finished checking yet?"
Fu Shitian clicked on the query and said embarrassedly: "Well, maybe too many people are checking, and the system seems to have a problem."
As soon as she finished speaking, she suddenly raised her voice and exclaimed, "Ah, it's out!"
Fu Siyu couldn't help but follow her call and turned to look at the computer screen. After seeing the score starting with 6 and the two-digit ranking behind it, Fu Siyu cursed softly: "Shit..."
Fu Shitian felt relieved, and a dimple appeared on the corner of her lips. As soon as she closed the webpage and the computer, Fu Jiantao called back to ask about her grades.
"Uncle, I found out. Um, I just checked..." Before she finished speaking, Fu Siyu urged her to go on the phone. "Go on the phone. I'm still sleeping."
Fu Shitian nodded to her apologetically, walked out quickly, closed the door, and then continued to report the results to Fu Jiantao.
Fu Jiantao was overjoyed, "I told you that our Tiantian could do it." He seemed to be sharing the good news with the people around him, and he was extremely happy. After a while, he continued to instruct Fu Shitian: "I'll call your aunt to tell her. Have you called your grandma? Call your grandma too."
Fu Shitian's smile faded a little, and he said softly, "Okay."
But she didn't make this call until she went out.
At 9:40 in the morning, she arrived at her usual parking spot in front of the milk tea shop. On the road outside the pedestrian street, there was an endless stream of cars. After Fu Shitian counted a hundred cars, she had to take out her cell phone to call her grandmother.
"Grandma, it's me, Tiantian."
The voice on the other end was cold and indifferent, "Yeah."
"My college entrance exam results are out. 652. I should be able to go to Shenda University."
The old man's voice did not contain any joy. He was silent for two seconds and then said, "I see. Shen Da, in Shencheng, right? Your father..."
Fu Shitian's heart ached, fearing that she would say, "It's closer to your father, so you can go see your father when the time comes."
Fortunately, she said, "Your father can also study. Hum, that's the only thing you are like him. Is there a scholarship? How much is the tuition?"
"I don't know if there is any scholarship. The tuition is 5,400 yuan a year." Fu Shitian replied honestly.
The old man cursed: "You are so expensive, you lose money, you just spend money." After cursing, she said angrily: "I spend so much money to raise you, you should be filial to your father when you become successful in the future, do you understand?"
Fu Shitian lowered his eyelids and replied, "I will, grandma."
After hanging up the phone, in the midsummer wind of June, she actually felt so cold that she wanted to shiver.
While she was still in a daze, someone patted her from behind and put his arm around her shoulders.
She turned around and saw Chen Xizhu, who was beaming with joy: "How is it? Score?" After seeing Fu Shitian's expression, Chen Xizhu's smile suddenly faded, and she was a little confused and said: "What's wrong with you? Why do you look so bad? Is it... not ideal?"
Fu Shitian shook his head, adjusted his mood, and suddenly burst out laughing.
Chen Xizhu was stunned for a moment, thinking that Fu Shitian was teasing her on purpose, and immediately patted her arm in dissatisfaction: "Well, you, when did you become so bad? You are teasing me on purpose, right?!"
Fu Shitian rubbed the forearm that was patted and laughed softly, "You are in such a good mood, it seems that we must be alumni?"
Chen Xizhu raised her eyebrows, took her arm and walked towards the milk tea shop together, and said proudly: "How is it? Are you happy? Sister, I can protect you again."
Fu Shitian agreed to her request very good-temperedly.
The milk tea shop was facing the backlight, and Fu Shitian was dazzled by the sun. She unconsciously thought, would the sun in Shanghai be warmer than here
I think so.
At least that's what I remember.
As more and more senior high school students showed up at the door of the milk tea shop at noon for class, Fu Shitian's summer vacation was gradually coming to an end.
August 30th is the reporting day for the School of Business Administration of Shanghai University.
Fu Jiantao had to rush to finish the work at the construction site and couldn't leave, so he asked Wang Meifen to take leave to send Fu Shitian over. Wang Meifen just frowned, but Fu Shitian said tactfully before she could say anything: "No need, uncle, I'll go by myself. I'm an adult now, and I should exercise my independence. Besides, it's not far, it's only more than an hour by car."
She declined Chen Xizhu's offer to go with her mother, and took the bus alone to the high-speed railway station to Shanghai.
It was her first time taking a high-speed train, and she was a little nervous, but luckily she followed the person in front of her from picking up the ticket to checking it, and she didn't make any mistakes and got on the train smoothly.
An hour and a half later, the train arrived at its final stop, Shencheng, and Fu Shitian got off the train with the crowd. She stood on the platform, looking up at the blazing sun in the sky and the busy city, and a look of nostalgia gradually emerged in her eyes.
There were fewer people on the platform. She collected her thoughts, pushed two suitcases, and walked laboriously towards the exit carrying a large bag that was almost as long as her upper body.
The square at the exit was filled with welcoming teams from various schools. Fu Shitian left the station and stopped there, still hesitating. Three boys in volunteer uniforms approached him and asked, "Classmate, are you a freshman? Which school are you from?"
Fu Shitian reported the name of Shenda University, and one of the boys waved his hands enthusiastically and called another boy over. The two of them helped her carry her luggage and took her to the Shenda University welcome bus.
All the way from the bus stop to the college registration point, Fu Shitian didn't have to walk hard because of the help of the welcoming seniors.
The senior who helped with the luggage said that this year, Shenda Accounting was enrolling in a large category, which was included in the business administration category. There were a total of 14 classes and six professional streams. Fu Shitian stood in front of the notice board looking for her name, and finally found her name at the fifth name of Class 6. She couldn't help but continue to search with a little expectation.
Soon, she saw the two black lead characters "Shi Yi" in the middle.
It seemed as if fireworks were exploding in Fu Shitian's heart—they were actually in the same class!
Her joy was so obvious that the senior's eyes lit up. "Did you find it?"
Fu Shitian smiled and nodded.
The two of them looked for the dormitory arrangement chart, registered at the registration point, received their campus cards, and walked towards the dormitory building together.
The dormitory is a high-rise building with 15 floors in total and an elevator. Fu Shitian is in room 1317, and Shi Yi is in room 1315, one bedroom away from her.
When passing by 1315, Fu Shitian looked into the room deliberately. 1315 was empty, as if no one was there.
The senior student walked her to the dormitory door, wiped the sweat off his face and said, "Your girls' dormitory, I won't go in."
Seeing him sweating profusely, Fu Shitian felt very embarrassed and took a drink from her bag to give it to him. The senior shook his head and refused, then asked her for her QQ number, saying that she could ask her any questions in the future, and that he was willing to be her guide on weekends to help her get familiar with the school environment.
Fu Shitian is quick to accept good advice.
She pushed open the half-open dormitory door and walked in. After taking two steps, she heard a laugh above her head: "I heard it all."
Fu Shitian was startled and looked up, only to find a round-faced, doll-haired girl sitting on the upper bunk. She leaned out her head and looked at her with a smile: "Hello, I'm Zhang Lulu, from the 6th class of Industrial Management, your roommate."
Fu Shitian thought she looked very kind, so he relaxed a lot and smiled back: "Hello, I'm Fu Shitian, also from Class 6."
"You are so beautiful." Zhang Lulu suddenly praised her, "No wonder a senior wanted to hit on you as soon as you arrived.
Fu Shitian's face suddenly turned red to his ears, and he said awkwardly: "No, no, I just mean well."
Zhang Lulu smiled and didn't make things difficult for her. She changed the subject and asked her if she came alone. She told her that she had come a day early and that two other people had already come to the dormitory but were leaving now. She told her about the allocation of beds, lockers, etc. and taught her where to buy mattresses, mats and various daily necessities.
Fu Shitian wrote down everything, thanked her, went downstairs and bought a mattress and mat downstairs of the dormitory. Then, she followed the campus map given to her by the senior and went to the shopping mall opposite Dongdaemun to buy daily necessities.
On the way, Fu Shitian was holding an umbrella, and she was counting the things she wanted to buy on the memo on her phone. Because she heard Fu Jiantao and Wang Meifen quarreling over how much living expenses to give her the night before she left, Fu Shitian didn't dare to accept the extra living expenses Fu Jiantao gave her. She was the second in the liberal arts in the county, and both the county government and the school gave her scholarships, but the scholarships were used by her grandmother as tuition and living expenses for the past four years. Now, she only has 1,800 yuan in her summer salary and 600 yuan in living expenses paid by her grandmother.
Living expenses were limited and there were many expenses at the beginning of the school year, so she only dared to buy a small number of necessary things.
The supermarket was bustling with people, and there were students and parents in front of every shelf.
Fu Shitian stood in the toiletries area, comparing prices and picking up a small can of cheap shampoo and shower gel. She turned around and prepared to move to the next area, when she suddenly saw a tall girl standing in front of the laundry detergent shelf not far ahead.
Fu Shitian's heartbeat suddenly became rapid.
The girl had long hair that went past her shoulders, and the side of her hair that was facing her was tucked behind her ear, revealing her fair and pink ears.
Just by looking at her profile, Fu Shitian recognized her—it was Shi Yi.
It was Shi Yi whom she had been thinking about all the time.
She was wearing the simplest white T-shirt and sky blue cropped jeans. She had a small watch and a delicate silver bracelet on her fair wrist, which was resting on the armrest of the shopping cart. She was as clean as a bamboo orchid, and seemed to be out of tune with the bustling city atmosphere around her.
Taller, whiter and thinner than the occasional glimpse she made on the projection.
Much more beautiful too.
Fu Shitian forgot what to do and couldn't take his eyes off.
As if he had sensed the burning gaze not far away, Shi Yi suddenly turned around and looked precisely at Fu Shitian.