Secret Messages

Chapter 1: The Secret Messages application

Shancai forced out a smile as kind as possible. "Yes, Qinghe. I think you told me that more than once all day long." She said, trying to look as joyful as possible.

The young man nodded several times, smiling blissfully, and Shancai wondered for an instant if he heard what she just told him. "Tell me, why didn't you apply?" He asked, pouting. "We could have been together in the Council!"

The young woman bit her lips, embarrassed. He also asked her several times, and she always gave him the same answer. "You know very well that with my part-time jobs, I don't have time for other activities, Qinghe." She told him, but the young man had just turned to F4, or rather F3 now. "And you?" He asked. "Why didn't you apply? Considering your popularity, you could have had enough influence to get interesting projects through!"

Meizuo and Ximen looked at each other with a jaded look while Daoming Si, annoyed, answered him sharply, "Hey! We have to manage the bridge club already, you see!"

Qinghe shrugged, and, like someone who compulsively switched from one television channel to another with his remote control, he went on, "Never mind! You can all help us anyway!" He exclaimed, his overwhelming enthusiasm starting to tire them all. "We're working on a project with a mobile application. We're going to need testers, and if you're part of it, I'm sure you'll be a great advertisement for us!"

Seeing that their three seniors would soon silence Qinghe more or less gently, Shancai finally intervened, "Qinghe?" She said, smiling as softly as possible. "What if we talk about that tomorrow? The boys just said goodbye to two of their friends, and I think they think about something else for the moment. As for me, I'm quite tired, and I would like to come back home."

Qinghe's eyes widened, and he nodded compulsively. "Oh, Ok, Ok, Ok!" He quickly said, "Don't worry, we'll talk about that tomorrow!"

Shancai smiled to thank him. Daoming Si turned away, his hands stuck in his pockets, with still a grumpy look on his face. Qinghe reflexively chased after him, and Shancai refrained from sighing wearily. She met Meizuo's and Ximen's glances, who winked at her, before inviting her to pass in front of them.

Lei and Jing might already be far away, somewhere in the sky, between Shanghai and Paris.

***

The next morning, Shancai woke up with a heavy heart. She had spent the night dreaming about Lei and Jing, but also about giant pineapples trying to talk to her, but she couldn't hear them and ended up showing her the strangest application on their phone to understand the language of fruit.

Rubbing her eyes lazily, she wondered how such ideas could grow in her head. After yet another yawn, she finally decided to get up and went to greet her parents, who were already sitting at the breakfast table. She listened distractedly to her parents, talking as images of violins and live pineapples continued to jostle in her head.

The day promised to be quite long, and she felt a little wearier.

Suddenly, her mother called her, making her startle. She met Dong Lizi's surprised look, and it was like an electric shock. She had to shake herself! She was Dong Shancai, the vivid plant. Like her, she had to stay strong, resistant, and brave! She raised her fist in the air, nodded her head, and hurriedly swallowed her breakfast under the worried gaze of her parents.

When she arrived in Mingde, in front of the amphitheater where she was to have her class, she saw Qinghe pacing about, and Lizhen looking at him exasperated. As soon as he saw Shancai, he rushed towards her, and the girl realized that he must have been waiting for her impatiently.

She suspected that he might want to talk to her about his famous app, and couldn't help wondering if it would help her understand the language of pineapples (although, coming from Qinghe, it should be the language of bananas). "Shancai, Shancai, Shancai!" He yelled, and several students passing by turned to look at them. "That's it; the application is ready; we can move on to the test phase!"