Ye Xi watched her munch on her salad, wondering if she'd have a chance to eat again later.
While An Mudie noisily finished chewing her salad, Ye Xi reckoned that the salad appeared to be delicious afterall, so she decided to grab some more for herself later.
An Mudie sipped a bit of water before introducing herself "By the way, my name is An Mudie. What is yours?"
"Ye Xi. "
"Do you mean the character, Ye, for 'leaf' and the character, Xi, for 'west?' "
"En. "
"Can we be friends? If someone bullies you, I'll protect you!" Determination flashed within An Mudie's eyes as she spoke.
Ye Xi peered at the girl's pure eyes and began to feel a little guilty. She replied lightly, "If I refuse to become your friend, will you still standby and to watch when people bully me?"
"No way!" An Mudie's voice bursted louder, attracting attention from people sitting at neighboring table. However, she realized this too late, and quickly shrank back into herself in a vain attempt to reduce her presence.
Ye Xi couldn't help herself from laughing at An Mudie, only stopping to tease her. "Well then, let's be friends in the future," she said.
This stunned An Mudie. She found that Ye Xi's laugh appeared remarkably beautiful. Soon, Ye Xi's joyful atmosphere infected her, and she couldn't help but to laugh along. Making friends at this new school felt so nice.
Although Ye Xi and An Mudie officially established their friendship, their interactions did not change much.
An Mudie was born foolish and lacking in any sense of propriety.
Ye Xi, on the other hand, already reached an age where she could accept an implicit friendship calmly. In the adult world, many reasons existed for forming friendships, most of which remained unspoken. Adults understood everything tacitly, so not much change resulted from defining the relationship.
An Mudie disregarded Ye Xi's silence, while she chattered incessantly about her past, her observations in school, her expectations for the future, and so on.
Amidst the chattering, Ye Xi fetched another salad for herself. Oddly enough, although the salad tasted good, It didn't taste amazing. The reason why it appealed to Ye Xi so much so greatly, when An Mudie consumed it, must originated from the hungry way she ate it.
After lunch, they decided to explore their dormitories.
On the way there, An Mudie praise the school's beautiful layout.
Ye Xi could relate, since the campus also amazed her when she first arrived.
At this time, Ye Xi overheard envious gossip between two girls as they walked by.
Girl A: "I heard Ding Xiuxiu became a model?"
Girl B: "Good for her. She's the most beautiful girl in school, and Lin Meimei and Zhang Mengmeng, who are close to Ding Xiuxiu, also get the opportunity to appear on camera. "
It's all ABB names. What the hell?
(T/N: ABB is a certain order of writing Chinese characters or names i.e. Lin 'Mei Mei' or Zhang 'Meng Meng')
Ye Xi disagreed at first, but, suddenly, an idea flashed across her mind, reminding her that she had ignored something important. However, the idea hovered at the edge of her mind, so she looked towards An Mudie to say, "I have something to do, you head to dorm first, please."
With that said, Ye Xi stopped following An Mudie, turned around a corner, and snuck into the botanical garden nearby.
This behavior confused An Mudie a little. However, Ye Xi asked her politely, so she understood better than to follow Ye Xi.
A bluestone path, wide enough for two people to walk side by side, led from entrance of the botanical garden. This footpath curves and winds around trees that grow thick trunks and lush leaves - indicators that someone maintained and grew them devotedly. Around one bend, the trees grew so dense that they even blocked the path.
Ye Xi strolled along the path and passed the blocked corner, when her view suddenly changed. A pond laid at the end of the road, covering an area of about twenty square meters, surrounded by stone chairs, pavilions, and flowers planted along the borders.
Ye Xi walked to one of those stone chairs, sat down, and absentmindedly stared at the lake. Many thoughts churned through her mind, and, for a moment, she could not figure out a single clue.
Ye Xi vaguely recalled reading a novel where the current situation resembles the plot. She complained about the names of the lead characters, as well as the names of all kinds of villainess in there. She also complained that all of those names, except for the female protagonist's name, resembled a buy one get one free situation. But she read this novel so long ago, that she couldn't remember anything else about the book, making her want to punch her head.