Chapter 9 Yang Kang

  Yang Kang and Mu Nianci went home together.

  Yang Kang had originally planned to eat the ice cream and then go to school, where he would eat rice noodles later. He was going to take his time getting home after it got dark. However, a very special reason led Yang Kang to accompany Mu Nianci on a long walk instead. Along the way, Mu Nianci walked with her head down, eating her ice cream, while Yang Kang just bit into his own ice cream and looked around, neither of them saying much.

  Until the fork in the road, Yang Kang's family and Mu Nianci's family were no longer on the same path. Yang Kang felt that if he didn't speak up now, he would never have another chance, so he suddenly stopped and said in a very cautious tone: "Mu Nianci, I've had something on my mind that I wanted to tell you..."

  "What's going on..." Mu Nianci's heart was like a nest of rabbits that had been blown up, and when she looked up, she saw Yang Kang's bright eyes staring at her without blinking. Mu Nianci had never thought that someone as lazy as Yang Kang would have such a serious look on his face.

  "Can I borrow your notes to copy?" Yang Kang sighed, "Lao Qiu's handwriting is like a turtle crawling, I really can't see it clearly."

  Mu Nianci was dazed. She nodded and took out her notes from her backpack for Yang Kang.

  "Good fellow," Yang Kang burst out laughing, "Will you also help me with the notes for the next class?"

  Mu Nianci hesitated for a moment and didn't answer.

  "It's okay, never mind." Yang Kang said hastily.

  But Mu Nianci smiled and said in a low voice: "Okay."

  Yang Kang excitedly took his notes to be photocopied. He had never thought that Mu Nianci was already planning to quit the competition tutoring class. Mu Nianci wasn't a particularly clever girl, and even if she wasn't afraid of Qiu Chuji's cigarette smoke, she really couldn't stand Old Qiu cramming an entire semester's worth of university courses into one month of lectures in a force-feeding style. The result was that she didn't have any time to spend on other subjects, and if she couldn't win the competition, the college entrance exam would be a truly terrifying thing for her.

  Mu Nianci was originally just an ordinary girl, which almost predetermined that she couldn't imitate someone like Yang Kang. She should have stuck to her ordinariness, learned the ordinary courses suitable for her, taken the college entrance exam, and attended some ordinary university. Mu Nianci had been ordinary since childhood, and when she came to realize this, she didn't mind bluntly admitting that she was indeed ordinary. Admitting to being ordinary wouldn't kill anyone, would it? So that day should have been Mu Nianci's last tutoring session.

  At that crossroads, Mu Nianci made up her mind to grit her teeth and continue - Yang Kang was waiting for her notes from the next class.

  It was at this crossroads that Mu Nianci had to choose between changing herself or continuing on her original path.

  She can be the original ugly duckling Mu Nianci, or she can transform herself into Mu Nianci who is with Yang Kang. However, these two versions of Mu Nianci cannot coexist. Yang Kang is a high-flying person who can see swans flying overhead but not ducks passing by under his feet. So can this little duck really fly over Yang Kang's horizon?

  When making this choice, Mu Nianci didn't know. Watching Yang Kang happily running with his notebook under the sunset, jumping up and down like a monkey, Mu Nianci thought of a certain drizzly morning, the lazy eyes of a white-clad youth on the high-rise building.

  In Mu Nianci's life, there was once such bravery.

  When Mu Nianci was flipping through her blue-covered diary in the dormitory of Bin Da, recalling these things, although the memories were clear, they had already become distant. Mu Nianci could bet with Yang Kang that he wouldn't remember what she wore on that day. The result was undoubtedly that Yang Kang would definitely forget even his classic white school uniform from high school, let alone Mu Nianci's blue skirt that day.

  But that blue skirt was still pressed at the bottom of Mu Nianci's wardrobe, although Mu Nianci could no longer wear it, but she knew it was still there, so she would feel very relieved.

  In Huang Rong's drawer, there were stacks and stacks of "dolls". Mu Nianci's drawer was locked, inside which was the "Legend of the Eagle Shooting Hero" borrowed from Yang Kang but forgotten to be returned. There were also Christmas cards sent by Yang Kang every year, comic strips drawn in two different styles, one of her and Shu Bi, and a handkerchief given by Yang Kang to bandage her wound - even the bloodstains on it had turned dark grey.

  In addition, her long hair was tied with the birthday flower that Yang Kang gave her. In her school bag, there was a mirror given by Yang Kang. Yang Kang had taught her how to play badminton and she still dominated the whole class, unbeatable.

  Mu Nianci was all Yang Kang's flavor, fortunately Yang Kang's flavor wasn't too bad.

  Yang Kang's tone was lazy. Yang Kang couldn't remember what he said to Mu Nianci yesterday, and he didn't want to see Mu Nianci in a corner of the campus tomorrow. Yang Kang hoped that Mu Nianci existed somewhere at Bian Da, only appearing when there were important events, such as alumni gatherings or Qiu Shi's birthday, would suddenly jump out and grab him to rush over. But usually when he was drinking, playing cards, or playing online games, it was best if Mu Nianci didn't exist, otherwise Mu Nianci might tell Wanyan Honglie, and his outcome would be very bad.

  Is one's own existence just an alarm clock?

  Mu Nianci smiled faintly, her smile very lonely.

  "What's wrong with Yang Kang's grandson?" Huang Rong slammed the table and shouted, her momentum even stronger than Guo Jing's. Mu Nianci felt that if she gave Huang Rong a kitchen knife, Huang Rong could directly go out and threaten Yang Kang to come see her.

  "Don't be so loud!" Mu Nianci was frightened. She and Huang Rong were good friends, and she had only told this matter to Huang Rong alone.

  "You don't even dare to tell him to his face, and he's still bullying you!" Huang Rong said resolutely. Once she got indignant, Huang Rong forgot about that awkward evening in the library when she and Guo Jing couldn't bring themselves to say anything, assuming that all "I love you"s in the world should be bright and transparent. If Yang Kang didn't immediately grab a guitar and sing a serenade under their dorm window, Huang would have every reason to think he was a first-class scoundrel who toyed with his female classmates.

  Poor Yang Kang had only touched Mu Nianci's hand while dancing, if he had to take responsibility for that - then the responsibility he needed to bear was a bit too much.

  "It's not his fault either..." Mu Nianci said in a low voice.

  Huang Rong blinked, stunned. In her life, the only boy she had ever really dealt with was Guo Jing, and he absolutely followed her lead, doing whatever she told him to do, and waiting by her side when she said nothing. As for how to subdue a troublesome character like Yang Kang, Huang Rong truly had no experience at all.

  Only Huang Rong and Mu Nianci were left in the dormitory, Mu Nianci hugged her knees and stared blankly, while Huang Rong could only flip through fashion magazines to relieve boredom.

  "Easy does it!" Huang Rong rolled up a magazine and tapped her own little brain with it.

  "Sister, this won't do!" Huang Rong, with a very experienced air, swiftly climbed up onto Mu Nianci's upper bunk, tweaked her hair, and then felt the fabric of her clothes.

  Mu Nianci sat there dazed, while Huang Rong picked up a comb and removed her hairpiece to help her comb her hair.

  "You're not charming enough, your hairstyle is too plain, and your clothes don't match with your hair. We need to think of a way to make that Yang Kang kid come here and fawn all over you," Huang Rong said, biting on Mu Nianci's hairpin while flipping through fashion magazines with one hand and helping her comb her hair with the other.

  "This long hair won't do, either cut it short or come with me to straighten it."

  "Your forehead is quite wide, you can't not have bangs. I'll go get that electric comb of mine, don't run away."

  "Yang Kang's gift of a flower headband has no taste at all, I'll just throw it away! I have a crystal one with inlaid smoke pattern, I can lend it to you, anyway I don't wear it myself."

  "I'd better go find a necklace. A round-necked dress without a necklace is bare and not good! I'll go get my tortoiseshell necklace."

  "You're so thin... Put on some blush..."

  Huang Rong had been teasing Mu Nianci for two hours, but when it was her turn to show Mu Nianci the small silver mirror she had brought with her, Huang Rong suddenly became a bit dazed.

  Mu Nianci took the small mirror from Huang Rong's hand and quietly looked at another self in the mirror.

  After staring for a long time, Mu Nianci finally put down the mirror and said in a low voice: "It seems..."

  "You monster!!!!"

  Then Mu Nianci chased Huang Rong all the way to the end of the dormitory corridor. Just then, Guo Jing happened to finish his studies and came running to see Huang Rong. Huang Rong was laughing and hiding behind Guo Jing's back, holding onto his arm. Guo Jing, not knowing what to do, opened his arms and shielded Huang Rong behind him, as if playing a game of eagle catching chickens.

  It was at that moment that Mu Nianci realized she was truly lonely.