Hints at GL - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

During the brief life of studying abroad, one of the most common things international students do in their spare time is drop by each other’s places. There are many reasons for these visits: feeling lonely, looking for a partner, not knowing how to cook, being dragged along by a friend, and so on.

Zhong Ning didn’t know the classmate who was visiting this time at all; he had been invited by the male roommate who was studying Engineering. Since they were strangers, she didn’t need to go to the great trouble of cooking a big meal.

It was still early. Zhong Ning put the meat, which had been marinating in barbecue sauce all night, into the oven and walked over to sit on the sofa by the kitchen counter, planning to brush through Facebook to pass the time.

Jing Yang, on the other hand, had dressed up meticulously. Standing at the kitchen door looking at her, his reason for not participating remained valid: “Darling, I’m going to accompany my sister.”

Zhong Ning curled into the soft sofa without even looking up. “Go ahead, you sister-obsessed maniac.”

She didn’t hear clearly what Jing Yang said in response, but she suddenly noticed a status update posted by Su Yuan a few days ago—”You are a wanderer, do not drop anchor.” The rare use of Chinese stood out sharply amidst a string of English status updates.

Under that status, many people had left strings of question marks for Su Yuan, but Zhong Ning understood the sentence the moment she saw it. Previously, she had only occasionally discovered that Su Yuan had similar tastes to her, having seen her “like” many bands such as Maybeshewill and 65daysofstatic.

So Su Yuan also liked My Little Airport? Zhong Ning felt as if a warmth in the depths of her heart had been nudged, and a touch of sweetness brushed past her lips.

Without a second thought, she switched to Traditional Chinese and replied: “You are a wanderer, do not drop anchor, even if she smiles ever so beautifully :)”

Zhong Ning smiled, but she didn’t expect a reply to pop up quickly: “Occasional aftertastes are most appropriate.” Su Yuan had actually continued writing the lyrics following her lead. Ever since that meeting at the bar, she often chatted with Su Yuan, but for some reason, Zhong Ning suddenly felt that compared to the frequent private message chats over the past few nights, this somewhat childish interaction of reciting lyrics made her heart flutter more.

Smiling faintly, she involuntarily curled deeper into the sofa and typed a few words: “After dropping anchor, who would want to look again?” What came after that? Zhong Ning slowly recalled, “You are a wanderer, do not drop anchor, ordinary people find it hard to resist…”

Reciting to this point, Zhong Ning finally began to feel that something was off.

Although she occasionally saw Su Yuan write some lyrics on FB, this time, why did she suddenly feel that this wasn’t just a common and coincidental case of liking the same band? From the very beginning, Su Yuan was talking about herself…

Occasional aftertastes are most appropriate; after dropping anchor, who would want to look again?

Could this be Su Yuan’s true thoughts? Thinking of this, Zhong Ning was suddenly at a loss. Indeed, she wasn’t quite sure if Su Yuan was truly interested in her to begin with. Moreover, for someone as perfect as Su Yuan—no matter how critical one was—if she just crooked her finger, let alone herself, anyone would probably walk over with a blushing face.

Would such a person ever drop anchor for anyone?

Su Yuan did not reply again.

Just then, the living room door was pushed open, and the sound of enthusiastic conversation drifted in along with three people—one man and two women. They seemed to be business school students as well. Zhong Ning switched from her comfortable leaning position to a polite guest-welcoming state. She pulled her thoughts together and waved to them with a smile. “Hi.”

It turned out these two women lived in the neighboring building. Since they were all in the business school, they had met the Engineering roommate during lectures and had done seminar workshops together.

If it were a social butterfly like Jing Yang, he would probably know exactly who they were just by hearing their names. However, precisely because Jing Yang wasn’t there, Zhong Ning was too lazy to deal with so many strangers alone, so she sat to the side, listening to their chat intentionally or unintentionally, and picked up her phone again.

Her mood was complicated, yet her sharp eyes still spotted a few more photos of Su Yuan on Instagram, three of which were tagged and posted by the same woman.

The environment where the photos were taken was very dark, but one could vaguely discern a vast living room. The woman was hugging Su Yuan’s waist from behind, her curvaceous body leaning against Su Yuan’s slender back. Only a part of Su Yuan’s exquisite side profile was visible; she seemed not to have noticed the other person taking a selfie.

Besides that, there was even a separate photo of a heart-shaped cake, also tagging Su Yuan, with the caption: “Bigggg day!!”

Zhong Ning sensitively noticed a stranger replying to Su Yuan below: “BD?” Her heart skipped a beat. Su Yuan hadn’t replied, but that woman with the voluptuous figure had: “Yes.”

She frowned and, feeling quite unhappy, clicked into Su Yuan’s page. The status still showed “Single.” Looking further down, she caught sight of that “Yes” again.

That comment made Zhong Ning feel uneasy no matter how she looked at it.

She didn’t know if this sour feeling was caused by those hints that were too obvious to ignore, or by that light kiss at the bar. But when she realized it, Zhong Ning suddenly felt that this version of herself was very annoying.

She could probably realize that Su Yuan’s feelings for her might just be a passing whim. No matter how one looked at it, their two worlds were too far apart. If she fell for it now, she feared it would be impossible to get out unscathed.

But realizing it was one thing; being able to do it was another.

As she thought, her mind drifted back to the comments on FB, and her mood became somewhat conflicted.

Just then, Zhong Ning vaguely heard the others mention in their chat that one of the fair-skinned boys was studying Financial Mathematics. She was slightly startled and involuntarily raised her voice to ask, “Excuse me, do you know Su Yuan?”

The boy was taken aback. “Su Yuan…” He didn’t seem familiar with the name. Tilting his head, he said, “A lot of people don’t know each other’s Chinese names. You should say the English name; maybe I can remember then.”

“Anna…”

“Oh, Anna!” The boy’s eyes widened with a look of realization.

“Who is it?” Neither of the two girls with him understood.

“Oh, it’s the one I greeted at the library entrance last time,” the boy explained patiently. “Remember? It was a very cold day. She was dressed very thinly, in skinny jeans and black Martins, leaning against the door smoking a cigarette.”

Zhong Ning’s heart began to thump. She simply couldn’t associate this image with Su Yuan.

One of the girls did remember. “I know now. At first, I thought she looked super cool smoking, but turns out she’s quite nice. She has a very beautiful smile.”

The boy quickly added, “…But it’s normal that you guys aren’t well-acquainted. Anna doesn’t live in the dorms or a shared house. Her family has a house in London. A genuine rich and beautiful girl.”

The other girl interjected, “You said last time she’s from Hong Kong?”

The boy nodded. “Yeah, Hong Kong. What’s interesting is that at the beginning, I saw her speak a few words of Cantonese. I thought she was from Guangdong and tried to talk to her, but it turned out she doesn’t speak Mandarin.”

The girl suddenly chimed in, “Speaking of which, I’ve noticed many Hong Kong people can’t speak Mandarin. It’s understandable for Anna since she’s a BBC, but Hebe in our major grew up in Hong Kong and can’t speak it either.”

The others nodded thoughtfully.

The boy suddenly remembered something, leaned in closer, and continued, “By the way, let me tell you a little gossip…”

“Our major has very few people, so we all know each other. There’s this handsome Turkish guy—yeah, the one you guys are crushing on. He liked Anna and pursued her like crazy from the very start. In the end, it fell through…”

The two girls covered their mouths in surprise. “For real? That Turkish boy is very handsome.”

The boy said in a low voice, “Don’t go spreading this around, but I heard Anna told him straight out that she’s not interested in men.”

The cluttered sounds of discussion erupted everywhere because of his single sentence. Zhong Ning felt as if she were being seen through. The image of Su Yuan leaning down to kiss her couldn’t help but flash through her mind. Realizing her face was turning red, she coughed uncomfortably, leaned her arm against the side of the sofa, and stopped talking.

Just then, she felt her phone vibrate.

The screen showed a message from Facebook—a private message in Traditional Chinese from Su Yuan: “What are you doing?”

Zhong Ning hadn’t yet recovered from her daydream just now. She bit her lip with a flushed face. “…” She couldn’t exactly tell Su Yuan she was inquiring about her. With a tremble of her hand, a reply was sent out: “Eh, why is it in Chinese? Don’t you not speak Mandarin?”

Su Yuan’s reply was slow; the window kept showing “Sending.”

Zhong Ning’s state of mind finally stabilized. She remembered… Su Yuan suddenly reached out to chat because just a few minutes ago, she had recited lyrics with her.

A private message arrived, still in Traditional Chinese: “Mhm, but I know how to use Google.”

Zhong Ning was stunned.

An image suddenly appeared in her mind: Su Yuan’s exquisite brows slightly furrowed, her slender fingers sliding repeatedly, checking Google Translate on one hand and copying it over on the other…

Could it be that she specifically went to Google just to chat with her? She had been wary of Su Yuan just a moment ago, but now Zhong Ning suddenly felt this considerate gesture was quite heartwarming, and she couldn’t help but smile faintly.

Zhong Ning finally remembered to answer her question: “Just getting ready to eat. There’s a boy here from your Financial Mathematics major.”

Su Yuan’s reply was simple and clear: “Who?”

Zhong Ning thought for a moment; it seemed the fair-skinned boy in front of her had introduced himself. “…Leon?” She typed a few words uncertainly.

After a long while, Su Yuan replied: “Are you guys on a date?”

Zhong Ning vaguely sensed a bit of sourness through the screen and couldn’t help but answer mischievously: “Yes, on a date.”

But after the words were sent, she didn’t receive a reply from Su Yuan for a long time. She felt a bit hesitant… Had she taken the joke too far? The other party didn’t like being tested. Feeling a bit vexed, she typed a line: “Sorry, I was just joking :(“

After a while.

Zhong Ning suddenly noticed Su Yuan had posted a photo on Instagram. Before she could check it, she received a reply: “I saw the status Leon just posted. You guys are having a group meal.”

So she knew I was lying all along…

“It’s okay, you can go on dates with others.” Immediately after, Su Yuan sent another reply, not forgetting to add a smiley face.

Zhong Ning suddenly felt their conversation had taken a strange turn… Who asked for your permission? Her face flushed. The more she thought about it, the more unsettled she felt, so she went to look at the photo Su Yuan had just posted. Amidst the swirling smoke, those clear eyes were slightly lowered, and her lips were holding a pot-shaped object…

She couldn’t help but return to the private message page and ask: “What is that you’re smoking?”

Su Yuan seemed to look it up for a while before replying: “Shisha.”

Something in Zhong Ning’s brain must have short-circuited because she actually raised her voice to ask the others present: “What is shisha? Is it a drug?”

The other boy in the dorm studying Biomedicine was simply helpless. Although he didn’t know why Zhong Ning suddenly brought this up, he believed this should be a matter of common sense. “Shisha is not a drug; it’s just a type of tobacco.”

Unfortunately, his reply was too late; Zhong Ning had already sent the message… Only then did she realize what question she had asked Su Yuan: ‘Are you doing drugs?’ For a moment, she wished she could find a hole to bury herself in.

After a long while, Su Yuan finally sent a reply, just four short words: “You are so cute.”

Zhong Ning bit her lip unwillingly, but she couldn’t hide her increasingly flushing cheeks.

Finally, Su Yuan sent another private message: “Are you free tomorrow night?”