During the winter break after finals, the school arranged extra classes for the seniors. Bai Zilu could only stand miserably behind the school's iron fence and gaze soulfully at Ji Tang and the two who brought her food, like a sad ballad named Tears Behind Bars.
Rest. There was no such thing as rest. The newly revised liberal arts textbooks could make you bald in minutes. Six thick compulsory politics volumes. You deserve them. Bai Zilu glared hatefully at the politics books. It is all your fault. You left me no time to be with my wife.
She had never longed for the term to start so much.
Ji Tang, on the other hand, felt as if she could finally breathe. Something in Ji Tang's heart was about to break through the soil, and she had not yet decided how to face this seemingly carefree yet more attentive than anyone else silly girl.
In truth, Ji Tang had vaguely seen Bai Zilu's feelings, but Ji Tang did not dare respond, afraid it would be nothing more than a false mirage.
Only Bai Ziyuan was very happy. Raised very comfortably by Gu Qianran, Bai Ziyuan even started planning where to go when Bai Zilu turned of age. The second year's coursework was not hard for Bai Ziyuan to begin with, and with Gu Qianran's explanations her grades stayed steadily within the top five of the year.
Little Bai: sorry, having an almighty girlfriend really lets you do whatever you want. [smug.jpg]
As for that almighty girlfriend Gu Qianran, it was even more outrageous. The secret code to being number one in the grade turned out to be zoning out in class, gaming after class, casually dating and counting money in between.
At last, after Bai Zilu endured six long weeks, winter break finally ended. The Ji Tang that Bai Zilu missed day and night finally returned to school. Ji Tang, unusually, was not sleeping. She was very serious as she negotiated with her deskmate. If you leaned in, you would hear Ji Tang say: hurry hurry, give me politics and history to copy, I will give you chemistry and physics.
Facing the dense pile of liberal arts questions, Ji Tang refused from the depths of her soul. Why did compulsory subjects and proficiency exams have to exist. Grass. Please do not use her politics grade to judge the sincerity of her love for the country.
Xu Wei glanced at Ji Tang with a smile in her eyes and turned to copy Ji Tang's chemistry.
Watching her busy classmates, Bai Ziyuan poked Gu Qianran, who was curled on the desk sleeping like a big cat, feeling a little bored. "Why is everyone obsessed with last minute homework."
"Haiz, little cutie, that is called the student's special romance." Gu Qianran's voice was sticky with drowsiness. Be honest, who has not made up homework at the last second. As the saying goes, one night, one workbook, one black pen, one miracle.
Or a corpse. Not everyone had Ji Tang's hand speed, daring to challenge making up politics and history at the same time. Bai Ziyuan looked at some classmates who truly had not written anything and silently lit a candle for them in her heart. Much of her homework had been helped by Gu Qianran. Hehe, you have the answers, I have the girlfriend.
The senior schedule was staggered from the second years, so Bai Zilu no longer had time to look for Ji Tang. Lately teachers had piled on tasks. She could hardly keep up. Some assignments kept her writing until one or two in the morning.
The sound of a fine drizzle outside made her more irritable. Raining again, she thought. Though it was a spring rain, it always carried a chill.
It was the last class of the afternoon, and the teacher, for once, dismissed at the bell. Bai Zilu slung her bag and wandered aimlessly around the campus, only sprinting back to the dorm when the rain lightened. By then the sky was nearly pitch black.
"Damn. I am soaked." She muttered, then pushed the dorm door open.
No one.
Bai Zilu frowned. Gu Qianran and Bai Ziyuan had basically stopped coming back to sleep, but where had Ji Tang gone.
She ran downstairs to ask the dorm supervisor and learned that Ji Tang had checked out of the dorm. She sat dazed in the empty room, listening to the rain and not knowing what to do.
She thought for a bit, sketched Gu Qianran's home address and the others roughly in her mind, fished out an umbrella, and ran out of the dorm. Deduct points then. Right now she only wanted to ask Ji Tang why she had moved out without a word. Right now she just wanted to be with Ji Tang.
The rain grew heavier, with a hint of thunder to come. Bai Zilu pressed her lips into a line, and still stubbornly ran toward Ji Tang's place.
The rain came down harder and harder, and Bai Zilu's thin silhouette looked especially slight in the downpour. Slanting drops lashed her, clammy and cold. She hated this feeling. It was her one childhood shadow.
At four years old, after arguing with her parents, she had run out of the house. She went too far and was not found until half the night in the rain. Back home she burned with fever and nearly died. She remembered that solitary helplessness all too well. She began to resent her own impulsiveness. Childhood memories intertwined with the present, and she crouched in pain as her vision blurred.
Hands shaking, she dug out her phone. It was past ten. She planned to call her little sister. She tapped the number and waited.
At home, Ji Tang suddenly felt a jolt in her heart, as if she had forgotten something important. What had she forgotten. She paced the room anxiously, but could not think of it.
A bolt of lightning ripped across the sky with a roar, and the loose wire in Ji Tang's mind snapped into place at once. Bai Zilu. Ji Tang had forgotten to tell Bai Zilu she had moved out. Bai Zilu must be alone in the dorm. The rain outside was so heavy, and she was so afraid of thunderstorms.
Thinking of this, Ji Tang snatched up her trench coat and ran for the door. At that moment, the phone on the coffee table rang. Ji Tang had not planned to answer, but a voice in her heart urged her to pick up.
It was a call from Bai Zilu. Ji Tang answered in a hurry. A weak voice edged with tears came through the line. "Little Yuan."
Ji Tang understood that Bai Zilu had mistaken her for Bai Ziyuan. Hearing the rain mixed with her voice, Ji Tang's heart tightened. This silly girl had really come out. With one hand holding the phone and the other pulling on shoes, Ji Tang asked urgently, "Where are you."
Bai Zilu did not hear the difference in the voice and kept murmuring something. Ji Tang could not hear clearly, so she repeated again and again, "Bai Zilu, this is Ji Tang. Where are you. I will come to you."
Saying this, Ji Tang flung the door open and shot out like the wind.
Bai Zilu paused, then named the street in front of Ji Tang's building. The rain still fell, and all she could hear was a muffled voice from the other end. She thought she had heard Ji Tang. Impossible. At this hour how could Ji Tang be with Bai Ziyuan, and even more impossible to say she was coming out to find her.
She laughed at herself and refused to hold on to that faint hope. "Heh, come out to find me. In the rain. One person gets soaked and the other goes looking. Is that possible. Is it not laughable. What is this, an idol drama."
"Too bad life is exactly this dog blood."
The familiar cadence sounded from behind her and from the receiver at the same time. Bai Zilu turned in shock and saw Ji Tang standing behind her in disarray, holding a large umbrella. Ji Tang gently draped a coat over her shoulders, took her hand, and brought her under the umbrella.
"Clearly afraid, so why come out anyway." Ji Tang held Bai Zilu's icy hand tight, heart aching.
The most fragile string in Bai Zilu's heart was plucked. She pressed her face to Ji Tang's chest and let out a low sob. She had been so afraid, but the moment Ji Tang appeared, she felt not so afraid.
Ji Tang always gave her a sense of safety. In that moment, she heard something louder than the rain. It was her heartbeat. No, wait.
Bai Zilu suddenly raised her head and saw Ji Tang looking at her gently. On the way here, Ji Tang had thought a great deal, and finally realized Bai Zilu had left a deep mark in Ji Tang's heart already, indelible. She had been avoiding it, but the body does not lie. Hearing Bai Zilu's voice, Ji Tang had run out before she even registered it.
When Bai Zilu hugged her, Ji Tang clearly felt Bai Zilu's feelings. Ji Tang decided not to run anymore. Even if it were a mirage, she believed this was not one sided. After all, the one who taught her to reach out bravely was the source of her courage.
In the tangled rain, their heartbeats were astonishingly in sync. Ji Tang set a soft kiss on Bai Zilu's lips, then took her warmed hand.
"Come on. Let us go home, girlfriend."