The sky turns dark slowly.
The lights start to turn on. Duan Jia Xu watches Sang Zhi and straightens his lips. Sang Zhi couldn't make out his expression.
Sang Zhi says heavy-heartedly: My Pa Ma never hit me."
Duan Jia Xu says: "I hit you?"
Sang Zhi looks at his eyes and stays calm and collected: "No?"
Duan Jia Xu smiles. "Do I say no?"
"....."
He starts to examine her and suddenly notices that Sang Zhi's clean uniform has a mark. It is located nearby her collar. It's clear that there is a cigarette mark.
Duan Jia Xu thinks that he sees wrongly. He gets closer to her.
Sang Zhi thinks he is going to scold her, she straightens her lips. She resigns herself and extends out her hand and places it in front of him.
Duan Jia Xu points out her collar. "What happened?"
Sang Zhi is startled and looks at him. She notices that there is a cigarette mark on her collar. She wipes it, but it cannot be wiped out.
"Xiao Hai." Duan Jia Xu asks lowly. "Someone is bullying you?"
Sang Zhi hesitates and nods.
Duan Jia Xu's expression changes. He examines her again whether she has any injury. He frowns: "Why aren't you telling Ge Ge?"
"I don't want to make trouble for you. My Ge asked me to behave well. Don't make trouble for you." Sang Zhi says. "I also don't plan to hide it, I'll tell my Pa Ma about it."
Duan Jia Xu asks patiently: "Did you being hit?"
Sang Zhi thinks about it and shakes her head. "She just patted by face, took my twenty dollars and asked me to give them more money tomorrow."
"Why did you go there?"
"My friend called me." She thinks of Yan Zhen Ru and her expression changes too. She says lowly: "She is afraid so she called me to go together with her."
Duan Jia Xu finds this absurd. "How could she not tell her parents/"
"Because those people said that if we tell our parents, they will go find us everyday at our school." Sang Zhi just answers everything he asks honestly. "So she doesn't tell her parent."
Duan Jia Xu kneels down after he listens to her. He looks at her on the eyes.
He suddenly says: "Give me your hand."
He clearly doesn't look like he is going to give her something. Sang Zhi is confused and doesn't move. After a while, she gives her hand.
Duan Jia Xu raises his hand and slaps her palm.
It's just a soft slap, it sounds like a clapping.
Sang Zhi immediately takes her hand again. "What are you doing?"
Duan Jia Xu says lazily: "Hit you."
"...."
"Xiao Hai, listen to me. In the future, if you are deceived to go to that kind of place, no matter how good friend she is to you. You also cannot go." Duan Jia Xu stands up and strokes her head. "Do you understand?"
Sang Zhi says dejectedly: "But you also cannot hit me."
"Em? Why?" Duan Jia Xu laughs lowly. "If you don't listen me...."
Sang Zhi is on alert.
"If Ge Ge sees you once, I'll hit you once."
"......."
—–
It's getting late. They don't stay there for a long time.
"This time you are quite bold?" Duan Jia Xu holds her arm and walks. "This time you don't cry even you are bullied?"
Sang Zhi: "Anyway they don't hurt me."
"Where did you friend go?
"I don't know."
"In this age you should have a good understanding right? if this friend isn't treating you well, then it means she is a bad friend. Don't be friend with her again."
Sang Zhi just nods silently.
"I get it."
Looking at how she seems to listen well to him, Duan Jia Xu doesn't mention anything else. He asks. "The time my Ge picks you up, how do you guys usually go home?"
Sang Zhi says: "With the public bus."
"Public bus?" Duan Jia Xu raises his eyebrows. "Don't you feel afraid that your leg will be trampled on?"
Sang Zhi hums. "No."
They go to the bus stop and passes the Nan Wu University gate. There are a lot of people coming out of the university. It's because it's almost dinner time.
Duan Jia Xu seems to not hear her words, he plans to take a taxi to send her home.
Very quickly, a male student with his bicycle passes by. Duan Jia Xu knows that male student. The male student just greets him. "Xue Zhang (Senior), Hi."
Duan Jia Xu suddenly calls him. "Lin Hai."
That man stops. "Ah?"
"Could you lend me your bicycle, I return it to you later at night?"
"Okay." Lin Hai gets off his bicycle and notices Sang Zhi. He says curiously: "Xue Zhang, this your Mei?"
Duan Jia Xu says "em."
"Xiao Mei Mei (Little sister), hi." Lin Hai waves her hand at her and runs toward the front gate. "Then Xue Zheng, I'll leave first. My girlfriend is waiting for me!"
"Okay." Duan Jia Xu pats the dust on the back seat. He says to Sang Zhi. "Xiao Hai, Ge Ge carry you back home okay?"
Sang Zhi doesn't hesitate and walks toward him.
Duan Jia Xu smiles and jokes: "Why are you so happy ah?"
"......"
"You even laughing secretly?"
Sang Zhi touches her lips.
She doesn't smile.
The time she is thinking how should she refute, Duan Jia Xu already gets on the bicycle. He urges her: "Get on."
"......"
Shameless.
Because of his words, Sang Zhi feels a bit awkward. She gets on slowly and clutches the two sides of the seat.
The time she is well-seated.
Sang Zhi says: "Ge Ge, I am done."
Duan Jia Xu looks at her and says: "Xiao Hai, are you missing your hands?"
What does he mean?
Sang Zhi raises her hands puzzlingly: It's here."
"Then why aren't you holding Ge Ge ah?" Duan Jia Xu clutches her wrists and places it on his waist. "Why should you hide them?"
Sang Zhi's breath turns sluggish. She clutches his clothes.
Duan Jia Xu starts to cycle.
The temperature is warmer than the morning. She could hear the sound of the wind, her own breath.
The scent of the air.
She couldn't make it out.
Whether the sound that she hears is the sough of the wind.
Or perhaps it's her heartbeat.
—-
It's a silence for a while.
Sang Zhi's heartbeat starts to turn normal. She feels bored. She starts to chat with Duan Jia Xu. "Ge Ge, where does my Ge go?"
Duan Jia Xu: "He seems to accompany someone to go to interview."
"Ah?" Sang Zhi thinks about it. "The interview for a job?"
"Em."
"Isn't my Ge Ge at his third year? Why should he find job now?"
"Internship." Duan Jia Xu says: "If the internship doesn't affect our schedule, it'll be okay."
Sang Zhi: "Oh."
She asks: "Then Ge Ge, aren't you going to do internship?"
"Em, this semester I still have classes."
"Then when are you planning to have one?"
"Next semester, perhaps when I get to the fourth year."
"Will you find it near the school?"
"No." Duan Jia Xu says: "I'll find it near my home."
The wind touches her face. Sang Zhi feels a bit hollow. "Ge Ge, you don't plan to stay at Nan Wu?"
"Em." Duan Jia Xu smiles. "Ge Ge should go home."
Sang Zhi: "Oh."
After a while.
Sang Zhi asks again: "Ge Ge, when are you planning to go home?"
"Em? Why are you asking so much questions today?" But he doesn't sound impatient. He answers slowly: "I'm looking at the situation first, I haven't planned it well."
San Zhi is afraid that she will make him unhappy. She asks cautiously. "Will you go home before the turn of the year?"
Duan Jia Xu: "No."
"........."
Why isn't he going home for the New Year...
Sang Zhi is puzzled but she doesn't dare to ask so much questions.
Without realizing, they have arrived at her apartment building. Duan Jia Xu stops the bicycle and looks at her. He asks her. "Could you go up by yourself?"
Sang Zhi nods and says: "Thank you Ge Ge." And is about to get inside.
Duan Jia Xu calls after her. "Wait for a while."
Sang Zhi stops and turns her head.
She watches Duan Jia Xu walks toward her. He bends his body and puts something on her pocket.
The time she is about to take it out, Duan Jia Xu pinches her cheek lightly and shifts her attention. He reminds her: "Go home and remember to tell your Pa Ma."
"....Oh."
The time she arrives home, it's a dinner time.
Sang Zhi mentions what happened to her parents and makes both of them feel surprised.
Li Ping immediately contacts Lao Shi. Sang Rong asks her for the detail and calms her mood down. He asks her to not to be afraid.
Sang Zhi indeed doesn't feel afraid, she nods. She finishes her dinner and returns to her bedroom. She gets ready to do her homework. The time she is about to take it out, she remembers wha she did before. She strokes her pocket.
It seems like a paper?
Sang Zhi takes it out.
It's a twenty dollar.
It is old and wrinkled paper money. It's clear it's not hers. It seems like he is giving her twenty dollar to make it seems she isn't being blackmailed. It's his way to comfort her.
Sang Zhi looks at it for a while and jumps on her bed. She rolls herself with the blanket. Her face is blushed. Then she puts out her head.
She looks at the ceiling and laughs.
She stands up and straightens out the paper. Then she presses it into her sketchbook. Then takes out her phone to find Duan Jia Xu's phone number.
She notices that his phone number shows that he is from Yi He City.
Sang Zhi has heard about that place though she never goes there. She thinks about it and starts to browse about that city. She just finds out that it needs three hours from Nan Wu to Yi He.
It's a bit far.
Sang Zhi hesitates and looks for an university there.
She looks around at her table and notices a star paper. She takes one and sits up. She writes on the paper.
— "In the future I'll not play again with Yan Zhen Ru."
2009.11.05
She folds it quickly to a star and throws it into a milk glass. Then she takes out another paper. This time she writes it slowly.
After a while.
That milk bottle becomes her record.
She puts it again.
During her puberty, it's her greatest secret.
— "Though I don't really want to admit it, but I seem to start liking someone."
2009.11.05
Liking your Ge Ge's friend, a man that seven years older than her.
At her first awakening of love as a young girl.
—
The next day after the school ends.
Sang Zhi as usual stays inside her classroom to do her homework. When Sang Yan comes up to pick her home. This time she doesn't need to wait till 05:00 p.m. At 04:30 p.m., Sang Zhi notices Sang Yan.
This time he also bring his other two roommates.
One is Duan Jia Xu, the other one is Chen Jun Wen.
It seems like he is picking him up to scrape together enough people to play Mahjong.
Sang Zhi tidies up her things quickly and walks toward Sang yan. She peeks at Duan Jia Xu and then looks at Sang Yan again. She asks: "Ge Ge, why are you taking people to pick me up today?"
Sang Yan darts a look at her: "Last night those people who blackmailed you yesterday, they ask you to come over today right?"
Sang Zhi nods: "Why?"
"Take us there."
"...."
Thinking of those female students and she looks at those adult men, Sang Zhi is speechless: "Don't go over there..."
"Xiao Gui." Sang Yan says: "With me, you do not let anyone to bully and jut be quiet, okay?"
Chen Jun Wen starts to echo him: "That right, that's right!"
Duan Jia Xu just smiles.
"...." Sang Zhi: "oh."
Sang Zhi takes three of them to that alley.
Sang Yan: "Xiao Gui, how do they do look like? Don't get in."
Sang Zhi: "Three female students."
"......" Sang Yan pauses: "Female?"
"Em. The boss is taller a head than me, her hair is red." Sang Zhi thinks about it. "She is a mixing colors woman."
Chen Wen Jun's anger just disappears. "Female..... it's a bit influencing my action."
Sang Yan laughs coldly: "No matter it is man or woman."
Chen Wen Jun seems to lose his willingness to fight.
Chen Wen Jun feels that three men fight three women are too embarrassing. Sang Yan just lets Chen Wen Jun stay to take care of Sang Zhi. Then he and Duan Jia Xu get inside the alley.
The alley is messy and smell.
There's a stained billboard with words "Internet Cafe". After hearing a noise after a while, three women come out.
Duan Jia Xu takes out his cigarette box and takes out one cigarette to smoke. He smokes it and looks over.
The woman in front is a match from what Sang Zhi says.
Those female students are disappointed to see two of them. They just wave their hand and want to go back inside.
Sang Yan plays with his lighter and calls after them. He says cooly: "Tong Xue (Student)."
The female students with red hair stops walking and turns her head. She says puzzlingly: "you called after me?"
Sang Yan doesn't speak up yet. Duan Jia Xu just takes initiative to speak up.
"I heard....."
His eyebrow raises up and says gently and vaguely: "You asked my family's Xiao Hai to give you money to spend ah?"