A Cold and Aloof Top Student Is Relied Upon - Chapter 26

Chapter 26: After the Holiday

◎Tea Party◎

After parting with Bai Tan, Gu Zhu went straight to the supermarket and found Gu Baozhi, who was picking out discount beef. She helped her push the shopping cart, and as she listened to Gu Baozhi say that she was going to make her some braised beef to take back to school, her frantically beating heart finally began to calm down.

Sitting on the back of Gu Baozhi’s electric scooter, she unconsciously glanced at the spot where the car had been parked. The woman and Bai Tan were long gone.

The world was so small. So small that she had to bump into someone she didn’t want to see after all these years. It was either the eighth or ninth year; time had passed so quickly as she grew up, so quickly that she had almost forgotten about a person named Luo Ning.

She hugged Gu Baozhi’s waist and silently prayed that Gu Baozhi and Luo Ning would not meet.

Back home, she and Gu Baozhi spent a very normal and relaxed day together.

Gu Baozhi had taken a monthly holiday, so they worked together to burn mugwort to fumigate the house, steamed some pre-made rice dumplings, and paired it with the braised beef she had cooked the night before. With a bowl of corn and pork rib soup, it was a very delicious lunch. When she was about to leave in the afternoon, Gu Baozhi packed some for her to take away. Gu Zhu didn’t refuse. She counted on her fingers and realized that, without her noticing, she now had many more friends to share food with.

Because she was afraid of running into Luo Ning, she didn’t let Gu Baozhi drive her. She just hugged her goodbye at the door and said, “Mom, please rest more. Don’t work too hard, and don’t worry about me. I’ll contact you if anything happens.”

Gu Baozhi brushed a stray hair from her face. She wasn’t good with pretty words or overly sentimental language. Fortunately, she had a pair of skillful hands, and she had raised the little baby who used to nestle in her arms this way. But she didn’t know when, the more Gu Zhu grew up, the more panicked she felt. Sometimes, she even wished that time could stand still and Gu Zhu could remain a small child. She could carry her on her back wherever she went, and no one would be able to take her away.

“You be careful on your way. If I have time on Friday, I’ll come pick you up.”

“Okay, goodbye, Mom.”

She didn’t run into the person she’d imagined at the school gate and let out a sigh of relief, but she ran into the girls’ basketball team on her way up to the dorm.

The staircase wasn’t very wide. Girls in team uniforms, carrying basketballs, came down in small groups, laughing and chatting. She slightly moved to the side, waiting at the corner for them to pass.

As they walked past her, someone stopped. Gu Zhu looked up and saw Lin Ye holding her jacket in one hand, a half-smile on her face, staring at her.

Basketball players were generally tall, and Lin Ye was no exception. Because of her sport, her physique was also a little wider than the average person’s. When she got closer, it felt like she was pinning Gu Zhu in a corner.

Gu Zhu frowned, quite displeased. “Is something wrong?”

“Nothing.” Lin Ye shrugged. “Can’t I, a normal person, have a chat with our resident genius?”

Gu Zhu didn’t understand why Lin Ye repeatedly found a reason to provoke her. They didn’t have many interactions. The first time was when she went to the house where Gu Baozhi worked to find her and happened to run into Lin Ye, who was also there.

At that time, she didn’t actually know who Lin Ye was. She didn’t pay attention to the school’s girls’ basketball team or anyone else. She only cared about her own little world, and besides studying, there was nothing that she would spend her time on.

Later, one time, she walked past the basketball court and was almost hit by a basketball. Lin Ye apologized with a playful smile, and that was when she realized they were schoolmates.

“I don’t have time.” She wasn’t a soft-tempered person. Lin Ye’s attempts at causing trouble were too obvious. After one or two times, Gu Zhu couldn’t help but feel annoyed. “You’re blocking the way. Please move.”

A fist suddenly brushed past her face. Lin Ye put her hand on the wall behind her, her eyes fixed on her like a vicious dog, tracing her unchanging expression. Those aloof eyes, staring intently at her, made her spine shiver with excitement.

That’s right. Aloof and distant, the kind that made people want to pluck her from her pedestal. To melt a frozen flower from the snowy plains in their hands and listen to others’ regret and sorrow, that would be even more gratifying.

Gu Zhu’s gaze fell on the hand propped up behind her. The joints of the human body were fragile, just like the principle of leverage with a fulcrum, effort arm, and load arm. As long as she applied it correctly, even someone without martial arts experience like herself could easily dislocate it.

She calculated and simulated the move multiple times in her mind. The silent moment made people mistake her for being dazed. Just as Lin Ye’s hand was about to touch her cheek, she reached out, grabbed the other’s wrist, and was about to make her move when a voice broke the tension:

“What are you guys doing?”

Everyone looked in that direction. Gu Zhu’s eyes met the person standing at the top of the stairs. Bai Tan had probably just returned, carrying a bag of fresh bedding. Her baseball cap was tilted up, revealing sharp eyes as she stared at them.

Seeing Gu Zhu cornered by a group of people, Bai Tan threw her bag to the side, pushed the people who were blocking her out of the way, and quickly went over to pull Lin Ye away. She put her arm around Gu Zhu and asked, “What’s going on, campus bullying?”

With the tension so high, passing students instinctively took a detour. Some, afraid of something happening, stood a little further away to watch, ready to call for help if needed.

Seeing Gu Zhu obediently protected by Bai Tan, Lin Ye’s face fell, but then she let out a scoff and laughed. “Don’t be so dramatic, little cousin. Don’t misunderstand, it’s just a normal conversation between students, right, Gu Zhu?”

Bai Tan frowned, about to tell her she was full of it since she had eyes, but Gu Zhu grabbed her hand and pulled her back instead. “I’ll report this to the dean. Stay away from me in the future.”

She finished speaking, and without waiting for Lin Ye’s reaction, she walked over, picked up Bai Tan’s bedding bag, and pulled her upstairs.

Lin Ye hated Gu Zhu’s dismissive attitude the most. Because she didn’t care, there was no ripple in her composure. She took a step, about to grab Gu Zhu’s hand, but was stopped by Gu Tong, who was behind her. “That’s enough, Lin Ye. It’s time for practice. We should go.”

Gu Tong had always stayed out of Lin Ye’s business. As long as she didn’t cause an incident that would affect the basketball team, she would turn a blind eye. And it wasn’t just her; everyone on the team was probably the same. Although Lin Ye was headstrong, she was a good team captain on the court. Gu Tong didn’t want any trouble, so she had to speak up and intervene.

Lin Ye shook off her hand, reined in her temper, and didn’t say anything more. She glanced at the spot where the figures had disappeared on the floor above and signaled for the team to go downstairs.

There would be other days. Trying to threaten her? Dream on.

On the other side, Gu Zhu took Bai Tan back to the dorm. As soon as they entered, Bai Tan grabbed her and meticulously checked her over. Only after confirming that she wasn’t hurt did she let out a sigh of relief. “Next time, I’ll find a chance to get a sack and beat her up. That little brat has no manners.” After saying that, she pulled Gu Zhu into the bathroom, turned on the tap, pumped some hand soap, and started rubbing the lather. “We touched something dirty. Let’s wash our hands thoroughly.”

Gu Zhu didn’t refuse. She just watched Bai Tan’s muttering face in the mirror as her palm was rubbed and rinsed under the running water. Out of a strange impulse, she suddenly held the hand and stopped her from moving.

Bai Tan’s movements froze. For a moment, the only sound in the small space was the running water.

After a few seconds, she turned off the water and took a paper towel to dry her hands. “When is your birthday?”

Gu Zhu took the paper towel, balled it up, and threw it into the trash can. “The eleventh day of the winter month.”

“I mean, on your ID card.”

Gu Zhu finally looked at her. Bai Tan’s eyes were deep and had a sense of aggression. Gu Zhu felt like a prey caught by a cunning hunter, and she was stiff for a moment. “December sixth.”

“Hmm, that’s one hundred and fifty-eight days until you turn eighteen. Wait here for me.”

Gu Zhu watched as she said that and ran out of the dorm. She followed her out and leaned on the railing, watching her go down the stairs two steps at a time, just like the first day they met.

She waited at the stairwell, guessing what Bai Tan was up to. In less than ten minutes, the girl came back with a bag.

Bai Tan was panting. As soon as she got upstairs, she grabbed Gu Zhu’s hand and pulled her back into the room. She took out the things in the bag and held up a hook. “Where do you want to hang it?”

It was a wall calendar, and a very familiar one with a lunar almanac fortune-telling. Gu Zhu had seen it on the counter wall of the school supermarket’s owner. The date on it had already been torn off up to today.

“How about next to your bed? You can just tear it off before you go to sleep.”

Gu Zhu didn’t object and let her do what she wanted. The hook was stuck to the end of the bed, a place where she could easily reach and tear.

After hanging up the calendar, Bai Tan clapped her hands, pointed at the numbers on the calendar, and said, “One hundred and fifty-seven times. When you tear off every page, it means you’ve turned eighteen.”

When you turn eighteen, you can do many, many things. For example, learn to drive and get a license, drink beer, go online all night, and… hold hands, kiss, and fall in love.

A calendar was truly a magical thing. It divided infinite time into a finite series of pages. After turning yesterday, it was today. As long as you tore it off, tomorrow seemed to be guaranteed to come.

It always allowed people to foresee tomorrow.

After the calendar was hung, Gu Zhu took the rice dumplings and braised beef that Gu Baozhi had packed for her to the 512 dorm. It turned out that many people in the dorm had also brought rice dumplings.

“Hey, it seems everyone had the same idea. I’ll go get more people.” With that, Yu Lili grabbed Qin Tian’ai and ran out. They knocked on doors, both from their own class and the next, and invited everyone, “Come and have some rice dumplings if you’re free!”

Before long, a bunch of people came. Whether they were strangers, acquaintances, or just people they didn’t know well, they all squeezed together.

“Don’t worry, there are still almost two hours until evening self-study. We’re having a fifth-floor tea party. Put out whatever you have to eat and help yourselves!”

The people in 512 were very welcoming. It seemed that all the social butterflies on the entire floor were gathered here.

Gu Zhu and Bai Tan were squeezed together, looking from a distance as if Gu Zhu was sitting in her lap. It was the first time she realized that a single dorm room could hold so many people.

So it seemed that being a social butterfly was not only something you were born with but also something that could be contagious. The people who were a little reserved at the beginning quickly opened up. They were all chattering, a line here, a line there, from the most popular songs, to the most popular dramas, to the latest celebrity scandals. Later, they even talked about how the dean’s thick hair was actually a wig and the tragic story of the math teacher from the next class who was locked out in the hallway by his wife after a fight and had to kneel there all night. They described everything so vividly that it was as if they had been hiding under the bed and had heard it themselves.

Late at night, when Gu Zhu was about to go to sleep, Bai Tan suddenly came over and knocked on her door, slipped into her room, and tore off the calendar page that had already passed.

“One hundred and fifty-six days.” Bai Tan squeezed the calendar page, blew her a flying kiss, and left.

The sound of the paper tearing seemed to also leave a mark on her heart. Gu Zhu stood under the dim night light, feeling as if Bai Tan had kissed her forehead from a distance. “Goodnight,” she thought. Impatient little Miss.

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