Hopeless Romance (GL) - Chapter 11

Chapter 11

For Ye Du, winter break was simply a change of scenery for her lessons. She had already finished the curriculum for the second half of the seventh grade during her weekend sessions; now, she was moving on to eighth-grade material. Despite a slight dip in her ranking during the second monthly exam, Ye Du finished the term strong, even fulfilling Zhang Jianwei’s expectations by taking first place in the grade. Jiang Xinwan hadn’t missed the opportunity to “pre-order” a treat using Ye Du’s scholarship money. Ye Sangshu was also satisfied. Seeing the 148 in Mathematics, she felt confident in Mr. Wang’s teaching abilities. Finding a suitable teacher was no small feat, so she decided not to change Ye Du’s tutor for the foreseeable future. However, Ye Du hadn’t expected to run into Pei Lang at Mr. Wang’s house. She usually ignored school gossip, and though she heard his name often, she had only ever seen him clearly through a camera lens.

“Ye Du, your current issue is a lack of attention to detail. You find the logic for difficult problems easily, but you tend to lose points on calculations. Those two points you lost on the final were due to a calculation error,” Mr. Wang said. He liked Ye Du—she was diligent and quick to act on his advice. He hoped she could achieve a perfect score in Math, knowing how much harder that would become once she reached high school.

Calculations were her old nemesis, and Ye Du knew it. She had tried many methods: double-checking her homework and writing “WATCH CALCULATIONS” in large letters on her scratch paper as soon as an exam started. Yet, she still tripped up. Eighth-grade math introduced a heavy dose of geometry, a new challenge. Mr. Wang’s pace was fast; after a two-hour session, Ye Du usually felt drained.

As she prepared to leave, she couldn’t help but ask, “Mr. Wang, is that boy in Mrs. Mao’s class?” Mrs. Mao was Mr. Wang’s wife. Both taught at Yunchuan No. 1 High School, though she taught Physics.

“Yes, he’s from your school too, a grade above you.” Mr. Wang took a sip of tea and added, “Don’t let your mind wander. Learning is the priority right now.”

Ye Du found his misunderstanding rather amusing. To be fair, Pei Lang was handsome, and his presence at Mrs. Mao’s indicated his grades were solid. But Ye Du truly had no designs on him—neither for the ambiguous heart-fluttering of adolescence nor even for a simple friendship. Sometimes she felt her life was a bit dull, filled with nothing but studying. She remembered the day winter break started, when Jiang Xinwan, Wang Zhu, and Chen Pupu were planning an outing. They had invited her, of course, but the date clashed with her tutoring. The idea of asking Ye Sangshu for permission to skip a lesson to go see the snow was unthinkable. She had pushed it off, saying “next time.” But she didn’t know when “next time” would be, or if she would still have the same spirit when it arrived.

…

The alarm rang at 7:00 AM. Ye Du bolted upright, went through her morning routine, and at exactly 7:30, sat down at the dining table. The morning news on TV announced today’s date: February 7, 2007. This was the day her friends were supposed to see the snow. Because she couldn’t go, she hadn’t asked for details; the more she knew, the more her heart would ache. She tried to focus on her breakfast. Since Ye Sangshu’s vacation had started, breakfast had become more elaborate—soup dumplings yesterday, noodles today. These small culinary expectations brought a sliver of hope back into the household.

After lunch, the phone rang—a cordless landline. Ye Sangshu answered, but seeing it was a girl’s voice, she called Ye Du over.

“Hello?” Ye Du’s mind was still stuck on an unproven congruent triangle problem.

“Hello, Student Ye Du. This is the Yunchuan TV Station. Congratulations, you’ve won a prize,” a voice said. Jiang Xinwan was lowering her voice, mimicking Ye Du’s slow, steady cadence.

“What?” Ye Du didn’t catch on immediately.

“You won a prize,” Jiang Xinwan repeated, trying to sound like a professional broadcaster.

Ye Du frowned, figured it was a scam, and decided to hang up. Before she even reached her bedroom, the phone rang again. Impressed by the “scammer’s” persistence, she picked up, only to be met with a roar.

“Ye Du! You actually hung up on me!” This time, she recognized it: Jiang Xinwan.

“I hung up on you? No, I hung up on the TV station.” The absurdity of it was perfectly in character for Jiang Xinwan.

“You’re so mean! Hanging up and then acting like you’re right. Pupu, tell her!” Jiang Xinwan, sensing she was losing the argument, looked for backup.

“No way. You’re the one who teased her first,” Chen Pupu’s voice came through. She wasn’t about to encourage Xinwan’s “evil” antics.

“I’m so pitiful…” Jiang Xinwan’s self-pity was cut short by Ye Du.

“Are you guys… there already?”

“Yeah, we’re here. The snow is huge, it looks amazing,” Jiang Xinwan bragged, taking advantage of the fact that Ye Du couldn’t see her.

“Ye Du, don’t listen to her. We didn’t go. We’re still in Yunchuan,” Chen Pupu interjected, grabbing the phone. “We talked it over and decided to wait for you. There will be snow later; there’s no rush.”

“Then where are you now?” Hearing this, Ye Du felt a surge of joy—greater than the joy of ranking first in her exams.

“Xinwan and Wang Zhu are at my house. We’re watching TV and eating. Do you want to come over for dinner after your class? We can pick you up. We’ve all agreed not to do homework today.” Chen Pupu missed her friend; half a month without seeing someone she usually saw every day felt like an eternity.

Ye Du agreed without hesitation. Her friends had given up a long-awaited trip for her. Hanging up, she thought of a psychological topic she had read: Why do people need intimacy? This phone call was her answer. The math problems were still grueling and the English tapes still needed memorizing, but suddenly, it all felt more bearable.

…

Though reluctant, Ye Sangshu agreed to let Ye Du have dinner out. In the years she had raised Ye Du alone, her greatest fear was facing the silence of the apartment. Even though Ye Du was quiet and usually kept her door closed, the sliver of light from under the door provided solace. It allowed Ye Sangshu to convince herself there was a future—that her life had hope. As long as Ye Du held on, things would be a thousand times better than what they lost when Song Yu left. Yet, she refused to leave this place; she needed the ghosts of the past to remind her that she wasn’t the one at fault. It was always that man.

As Ye Sangshu sat on the sofa lost in memory, she eventually rose to heat up her own dinner.

Meanwhile, at Mr. Wang’s house, Ye Du worked on her geometry problems while waiting for her friends. As Pei Lang finished his Physics session, he finally came face-to-face with the “exceptionally gifted child” his tutor, Old Mao, always talked about. He saw a girl with a low ponytail and a sharp, focused face. Ye Du looked up from her triangles, her mind still full of auxiliary lines, and forgot to say hello.

“You’re Ye Du?” Pei Lang asked, seeing her dazed look and doubting Old Mao’s high praise.

Ye Du nodded. “I know. You’re Pei Lang.” She wanted to finish her work before her friends arrived.

“Never saw you here before. Only heard about you from Old Mao,” Pei Lang said, getting a cup of water.

“Old Mao? You mean Mrs. Mao?” Ye Du found the nickname funny. If Mrs. Mao was “Old Mao,” then Mr. Wang must be “Old Wang.”

“Yeah. She always uses you as an example to lecture me about my attitude,” Pei Lang said, crumpling his paper cup and shooting it into the trash can like a basketball.

“Curiosity—do you guys have to throw trash like that to make it go in?” Ye Du asked. Sitting in the back row, she constantly saw boys missing the bin with paper balls and plastic bottles.

“No, it just looks cool. Don’t you think?” Pei Lang replied sincerely, even mimicking the shooting motion. Ye Du offered a polite “It’s alright.”

When Ye Du and Pei Lang appeared together in front of her three friends, Jiang Xinwan and Wang Zhu nearly lost their minds. Reaction one: The school heartthrob is here? Reaction two: He’s with our friend? They were so shocked they didn’t even hear him say goodbye.

Once they snapped out of it, Jiang Xinwan took the moral high ground. “What’s going on? Confess! Leniency for those who talk, severity for those who resist!”

Ye Du stood by Pupu, looking at the hysterical Xinwan. “Pupu, did Jiang Xinwan take the wrong medicine today?”

Chen Pupu suppressed a laugh. “They’re just bored.”

“Pei Lang tutors with my teacher’s wife. We just happened to leave at the same time. It’s the first time we’ve met,” Ye Du explained, throwing her arms over Xinwan and Wang Zhu’s shoulders.

Wang Zhu recovered quickly. “Ye Du, I can pick you up every day!”

“No way! I don’t want to tutor every day,” Ye Du laughed, turning around to walk backward as she faced her friends.

“Wang Zhu, just say you want to see Pei Lang!” Pupu teased.

“Pupu! Give me some face!”

“Ye Du, get me his number! Or his landline!” Xinwan yelled.

“You’ll have to bribe me first!”

Before Xinwan could charge, Ye Du took off running. Wang Zhu and Pupu followed. They ran down the street, their laughter breaking the winter gloom. In that moment, before anything had the chance to fall apart, they had everything.