Chapter 4

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Girls are brought closer after sharing a bed with each other.

At night, Chen Ruobing and I showered and changed into our pajamas. The afternoon’s gloomy atmosphere was dispelled by the dense steam and fragrance of shampoo.

I took advantage of the rare good atmosphere and said, “I think it’s actually a good thing you got second this time.”

Chen Ruobing laid in bed with her two lower legs bent up, resting her chin in her hand as she looked at me.

I continued to say, “This way you won’t feel so much pressure anymore. Otherwise you would always have to carry the burden of being first. How tiring.”

“Yeah.” Chen Ruobing nodded and turned over so she was laying side by side with me on the bed.

“Let me play a song for you.”

I put an earphone into her ear and opened my MP3.

A cheerful melody fiercely jumped out.

The singing was different from anything I usually heard because of the singer’s strange pronunciation. It wasn’t until she heard “California,” that Chen Ruobing turned her head and incredulously asked, “This is… English?”

The “san dei” that came up in the rhythm was actually “Sunday,” the “lazy” was sung as “lei sei,” and the “fantasy” was sung as “fan ta xi.” The singer proudly sang with this unlistenable pronunciation, but this kind of arrogance and unruliness could pierce and open your heart, as if you could see the California sunshine on a late winter night.

“California…” Chen Ruobing murmured.

We didn’t speak again, our minds probably filled with California palm trees and ivory beaches.

The boy named Yang Xu was a smart guy, which you could tell by looking at his eyes. During this time, he became the talk of the grade. He used to be one of those that could only stare at Chen Ruobing from a distance, but ever since that exam, he seemed to have gained quite a bit of confidence. Between classes, I often saw him walk over to Chen Ruobing’s seat and discuss a problem or casually chat with her about something.

One afternoon a month later, I finished playing basketball and returned to class. Chen Ruobing told me that Yang Xu asked her “Can you be my girlfriend?” and she agreed.

I was shocked. I’d imagined Chen Ruobing’s boyfriend before and thought he should be the athletic type like Lin Che who didn’t necessarily have good grades. Because Chen Ruobing had such good scores, she wouldn’t care whether a boy was a top student.

In the end, she really liked another top student?

“Well, I’ve actually only been confessed to by boys like this… three times now.”

Right, in reality, all goddesses ultimately ended up in the hands of a seemingly ordinary boy who just had a bit more courage than others.

Besides, this boy was the only person who had ever defeated the goddess.

“Yeah, he seems… nice,” I said.

Chen Ruobing and I spent much less time together. Many people were dating at the time and would hide it to a certain extent, especially girls, who were sometimes not attached to their boyfriends at school. However, I often saw the more well-known couples in our grade go out to eat in the afternoon or stay with each other after school. But it seemed like Chen Ruobing didn’t care about this at all, so the whole school knew that the goddess Chen Ruobing was dating. She and Yang Xu would walk around on campus together like no one else was there, often attracting the attention of the people around them.

Except for playing basketball, I spent a lot of time in our novel when Chen Ruobing couldn’t be with me. I suddenly had a shocking idea—why should the female lead be with the scholar? She was also happy by herself. Why did men and her happiness have to be kidnapped?

The idea gushed out of my mind like a river with a bursted dyke. I urgently wanted to write this idea down—not write it straight down, but write it in a story. That was the first time I truly wanted to write a novel. It was an intense and urgent desire, as if I wouldn’t be able to wait a moment.

Later on, Chen Ruobing asked me how the story was going. I told her it wasn’t finished and didn’t tell her that I had changed the plot. When I showed it to her, she had already broken up with Yang Xu. She said it was well-written and that I should start writing things.

It didn’t snow the entire winter, and it wasn’t very cold. I wore a combination of a thin jacket, school uniform, and short-sleeved shirt the whole time. Sometimes I would only wear a short-sleeved shirt outside when I got hot playing basketball, but I never got sick. So the adults’ idea that “catching cold will cause a cold” had long since been outdated.

Translator’s Notes

1. These are misheard lyrics from English to Chinese words, although the Chinese words they misheard the English as aren’t actually words. Sunday – 散(san) dei (dei isn’t a “word” in Chinese). Lazy – 累(lei) sei (also not a “word”). Fantasy – 范(fan)他(ta)希(xi). Back

2. “Goddess” (女神) is commonly said in China to refer to girls who are beautiful, talented, etc. or girls you admire. Back

3. The expression used is “着凉会感冒.” 着凉 and 感冒 both mean to catch a cold, but the more literal translation of 着凉 is “to come into contact with cold,” so it is saying “coming into contact with cold will cause you to catch a cold.”

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