PREFACE
I heard the story about Jingqiu from an old grandpa. He was trying to repair a woody chair that looks older than him at that time. I am not able to prove its reality because the story happened long time ago. But when grandpa said, "That's all.", tears just ran out of the eye socket unexpectedly . It is not a long but complicated story. Please brew a cup of oolong tea and give me some time to report what he said carefully.
CHAPTER 1 (JINGQIU's POINT OF VIEW)
"They say nothing last for ever..."A song rings in the ear unpreparedly. The heart is firmly grasped by a giant hand. Jingqiu feels difficult in breathing. All the memories are oncoming towards her and swallow her and roll her into a endless hole. She beard not to cry but failed.
Another hot summer hits the small northern city by accident. Camphor trees aside the road hurry to draw out shiny green leaves. Even there is no time for the elder uncle who sells ice cream in front of the school gate to push the movable icebox out of his room. Here comes the summer.
Jingqiu quietly stepped outside the room with a meal box, closed the door and took a deep expiration. Mom and younger sister are still asleep at home. She stands still for a while, comb her black hair by hand, and flatted her dark blue school uniform carefully which costs a month of spending of her family. Mom, younger sister called Yaya and Jingqiu even only have streamed bread for dinner for nearly one month. Thinking of the uniform, Jingqiu feels sorry to mom and Yaya. She even begged her mom to give up buying the uniform. But her mom, who used to be a middle school teacher said, "We can get through that. It is honorable to dress in the uniform of top middle school in this town." When she looked up again, she has been in front of school gate.
It is time for lunch in a second. Sunshine at noon is burning. Heat, light and smell diffused in all directions. The temperature makes the brain operate in a strange way. Everything is covered by a layer of hot gas to be seen untruthfully.
Thinking of finding a quiet place for passed through the corridor of the third floor with an old aluminum meal box quickly. At this time, the aisle would always be noisy. And the atmosphere is too heavy to take a breath. The strange mixed odor, which consists of the tasty smell of food and the heavy sour of sweater after taking the volleyball class, spreads arbitrarily and stimulates the sensitive olfactory nerve.
She keeps the head down to avoid strange looks from students standing on the aisle. "Maybe they are laughing at my old-fashioned shoes that is fixed several times." Jingqiu is are some obvious patches at the junction of upper and sole on the shoes. Her paces are gonna be faster and faster. Suddenly, with a sound of astonishment arising, the meal box is overthrown down to the ground. The lid of the meal box bounces several times, draws a half circle and stops beside a poached egg. The noisy aisle immediately falls into silence. Like playing an old movie, the film was stuck at the attractive point. Everyone watching the movie have to hold their breathes to wait for next shot.
Jingqiu raised the head up from a mess of her lunch and look at the reckless boy in front of her. Slowly, she spit out a word, "Apologize." With voice fading, people in the crowd make different sounds: somebody surprised, someone contemptuous even someone sighing. At that moment, Jingqiu's mind is full of the hunched back of mother waiting for distributed eggs in line. Regardless of the looks from the crowd, she clenches teeth and grabs her trouses which is washed to fade into white tightly. A few seconds later, she repeats the word in a higher key, "Apologize!" Finally, the boy has some reactions, steps towards Jingqiu and stoops slightly. Then, he responses gently, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do this." Seeing this, she releases her facial expressions easier and pay attention to the boy inadvertently. He has two knife-shaped eyebrows and starring eyes. There is no single fold on his white stand-up collar T-shirt.
"He must be one of the children of high-ranking officials." Thinking of this, Jingqiu can't help curling the lips down. This kind of people are far away from her like living in another end of the world. And she surly believes that she will never have intersection with those people.
The boy might be unwilling to see the mess for another longer while. He said he can clean up and turns back to take mop from behind of the door and rubs quickly.
Finally it was time to go home after school. Jingqiu was hesitating whether to put the algebra book back to bag. Suddenly, a dazzling flash crossed the gray sky. Then a sound of thunder strong enough to shake the earth knocked her heart. She thought she can run back home as quickly as possible instead of drenching her clothes. Because she forgot to bring an umbrella with her.
It seems the god refused to cooperate. In the half way home, the sky turned black and storm arrived. Jingqiu had to hide herself under a eave on the wayside. She flicked the drops quickly before filtering into her uniform. When worried about mother's voice full of reproach, she saw a figure getting closer and closer through the rain. It is that rich boy who overthrew her meal box at noon. Thinking of this, she can't help frowning. Is he supposed to get on his father's private car and just pass by? He ran towards her and stood by for a certain distance under the eave. A few seconds later, he turned to her and said, "What a coincidence!" His smile was warm and pure. Jingqiu cannot find any loophole behind the smile.
Her brain experienced a pause shortly. Did he talk to me actively?
Looking at his outstanding figure, she thought of what she heard today. "Jianxin is top student in the school. He always gets highest scores among senior students. In addition, his father is one of top military commanders. The girls who like him can be carried in more than five trunks. If there is anybody doesn't like him, she must be a fool."
If any, I am the only one. She cannot help laughing out slightly. But realizing someone beside her, she stopped immediately.
Time stepped by quietly but slowly. The rain, clapping on the glazed tiles roof and flowing along the curb by her feet, makes a mixed symphony. The sky was darker. Jingqiu sighed unconsciously and held out her hand outside the eave to feel the rain.
Everything has reflected in Jianxin's eyes. He dragged his uniform out of bag and passed it to Jingqiu.
"Here you are."he looked at Jingqiu sincerely and said, "Don't worry about me, My home is not far away from here. I can run back." Then something flashed through his eyes. He added, "I'm Jianxin, senior student, section1."He stuffed the coat into JIngqiu's hands and rushed into the heavy rain.
May be afraid of been refused, he didn't have time to say goodbye.
Without having reaction, she stood still and gazed the back disappearing behind the curtain of the rain. It is too late to say "Thanks but...".
She just met him only once, didn't she? Why did he...
Anyway. She shook head, covered her head and bag by his large-sized uniform. A mixed smell of grass and sunshine surrounded her. Different from the rainy day, the smell made her mood up a little.
She didn't even know why.
Jingqiu gave him school uniform back at a golden afternoon. Before that she folded the uniform and packed it by a cloth bag with scattered flowers carefully. She didn't notice her carefulness. Too high temperature dries the clothes easily. It is still summer.
CHAPTER 2
The leaves are blowed to be rustling in hot wind. The shadow of camphors on the school playground has been shortened and enlarged several times.
Pasts has been changed into memories and started to fade away. But there is possible that it is arranged to happen to Jingqiu.
Comfortable days are flying. It seems that the raging noise made by cicada disappears overnight. The sunset also has changed from bright red to orange yellow. .The interval after school is the best time of a day. Jingqiu is thinking. She steps to playground alone. The moment that feet touched the artificial turf a strong feeling of delight takes root and germinates at the bottom of the heart. Like a vine covering the mind, she takes deep breath greedily. Two feet loses control so as to run quickly. After speeding run, she slows down and notices others on the playground are playing basketball. With curiosity, she goes to see. Getting closer, she recognizes one of them, the tall boy who hits her at noon. Unexpectedly, the boy turns around, finds Jingqiu staring at him under a locust tree and shake hands to her.
Something happens only in one second, especially a feeling called like.
An instant, the instant that eye contact of the two collides. Jingqiu was flurry for a second somehow. The air is frozen. It seems that the sound of thousands of pigeons winging arises by your ears. Hundreds of leaves on locust tree rub against the wind to rustle. The heart beats chest heavily. Jingqiu turns back to the boy and runs away from the school yard.
At night, Jingqiu tosses and turns. She covered the head by a thin blanket. Some images always come into flashing in the brain again and again. That boy is different when he is playing basketball. She started to doubt if it is the same person who overthrew her delicious lunch of sweater after strenuous exercise, his white T-shirt was stick to his body. Tall figure, muscular body were outlined. Thinking of this, Jingqiu touches her hot face and gets angry with herself and complains, "What are you doing, you poor girl!"
Something has been arisen in mind. Like hearing a thunder exploring in your ears but you still keep eyes closed. What on earth is it?
This summer just passed by as a crowd of birds flied across the blue sky. They are the final crowd in this summer. Everything is gonna be strange. For example, she said she needed a pair of sneakers to attend sports meeting. The next day there laid a pair of new sneakers under her chair. It is exactly her size. In addition, those rich girls in the class next door didn't laugh at her old-fashioned appearance but smiled to her constrainedly. She can't help shivering when thinking about this.
Furthermore, whenever she turned back, she always can find Jianxin's smiling face towards her in a not far distance. She heard other girls talking about his icy face lasting for thousands of years. But what happened to her? His eyes are filled with something, maybe called spoiling temporarily. This is a kind of thing that makes her face burning, her heart beating and her eyes roving. But the big paradox is that she found she clinged to his eyes.
After the third class, Jingqiu stepped on the stairs leading to the rooftop of teaching building. Few people knew the quiet place. That made her delighted. Math teacher, the "antique", kept talking for 50 minutes. She even saw his saliva splash into the air and fall down the desk in first row under sunshine. She really thought her mind needed a break.
A second before she pushed the door, she heard a sound of two people. Out of curiosity, she opened the door a crack.
She swore it was the most beautiful scene she ever saw.
But she rushed downstairs subconsciously. "I hate any beautiful things!"she thought.
Two lips were sticky together, one of a girl and the other of Jianxin. A long dress blowed by soft wind. And the shadow of a familiar but strange back was covered the girl's.
Jingqiu seemed to hear the sound of thousands of wings flapping, see snowflake drifting profusely and disorderly. Eye sockets swelled with pain. Disappointing tears flowed out of the stream. Her face immediately wet.
She had no idea how she finished last class and went back home. She had no idea why this fall was extraordinarily full of sorrow.
The following a week, Jingqiu was struggled with herself. She exerted all her strength to ignore the special eyesight from someone. She didn't understand why she was so angry. Jianxin is not her boyfriend.
Suddenly one day Jianxin ran to her and drag her arm tightly instead of looking at her in a distance. She was surprise for a few seconds but showed a offish face.
"Hey, listen to me,"his voice was full of regret, "What happened that day..."
"That is no business of mine,"She interrupted him and tried to conceal her shiver voice, "I'm not your girlfriend."
She had thought several solutions but this one.
A second later, she fell into a warm embrace. The familiar smell, the same as his uniform, filled every part of her mind. She saw a spot soaring down through a raincloud.
She opened her month but cannot make any sound. A sound arose by her ears, "I love you, it is long time."
A bicycle flied through small stalls on narrow streets. The boy, only wearing a vest, rode the bicycle borrowed from his neighbor trippingly. A girl, covered by a heavy military coat, sat on a trabeated iron stick in front of the boy.
They rode through fall to winter. The stark branches said good bye to leaves and stood still against gray sky.
Nothing is not changing. Everyone knows that.