Section 8: Left Ear (8)

  Part 2: I'm a bad girl, I think, from the day I was born, it's been like this.

  They said that I was terrible from the moment I was born, crying for three days and three nights, from morning to night, from night to morning, non-stop, as if to express my greatest protest against coming into this world.

  Of course, I don't remember the things when I was just born. In fact, there are many things that I have forgotten. I am always good at forgetting. On the first day of vocational school, the school asked us to fill out a form with an item called "specialty". I wrote two big words on it: forget.

  The teacher stared at me with wide eyes. Then she gritted her teeth and said, "Don't you know what 'special talent' means?" I bit my pen holder and pretended to be stupid, looking at her. She shook her head and walked away.

  I took the pen out of my mouth and burst into laughter.

  Just then, a tall boy suddenly jumped in front of me. He was really tall and blocked all the sunlight in front of me, which made me very unhappy. He stared at my face and asked me: Are you the legendary Laila?

  I sat on the table, swinging my legs and pinching my throat, saying: "I didn't know I was so famous."

  "My name is Heiren." He declared with his head held high, "I've been planning to pursue you since I knew you were coming to our school."

  On weekend nights, the blacks want to challenge the Tianzhong basketball team captain. They've been making a fuss about this for many days now. They're jealous of those proud sons of heaven in Tianzhong and won't give up until they win. At 10 o'clock this morning, I was still sleeping when the black man called my phone, shaking the entire pillow non-stop. I pressed the speakerphone, like holding a loudspeaker, listening to him excitedly shouting on the other end: "Old lady, come see how I'm going to take them down!"

  The basketball court at the technical school was old and worn out, but there was a white incandescent lamp hanging from the top of the backboard, similar to a handheld lantern. When the wind blew, the light would sway back and forth, giving it a nice feel. However, no one took care of this place, so during every holiday, many kids came here to play night basketball.

  I stopped at the edge of the basketball court. Nobody noticed me. The black guy was a bald head, he liked to wear black sleeveless T-shirts and white ivory earrings, with well-developed muscles. Not long after I entered school, I heard rumors that two pregnant girls in our school fought each other for him. But I didn't mind, because I would never get pregnant with his child. Just thinking of the black guy's uncle's back that day made me want to laugh, heaven helped me, right?

  When I arrived, the black man seemed somewhat inexplicably excited, he politely kissed my hand and said in a windy manner: "Thank you for your visit, madam."

  I really want to kick him hard in the stomach. He continued to shout at the people behind him, "Take care of your sister and bring a stool!" It was only then that I saw two little blond-haired kids standing behind him, with single eyelids, their mouths hanging open, looking silly and childish. They took off like they were being chased by someone.

  I felt both annoyed and amused, so I turned my face away. As I did, I saw a boy standing against the basketball hoop across from me. He was wearing a hat with the brim pulled down low, making it impossible for me to see his face clearly. But I could tell he was chewing gum, his cheeks moving up and down.

  The place where I stood was actually not far from them. The black man threw the basketball in his hand neatly to him, and then he said let's start.

  He caught it and started dribbling. His left hand freed up to take off his hat, the hat flew out and fell at my feet.

  Just as he raised his head, I saw the outline of his face under the faint white fluorescent light. A long time later, I kept recalling that moment, recalling how my heart was like a container filled with water, and then suddenly pouring it all out, so-called turning the world upside down, probably like this.

  I'm normally not interested in this kind of sports competition at all, but that day I sat on a hard bench and watched the whole game.

  The result of the game was a 1-3 showdown, and surprisingly, Hei Ren lost. In the end, Hei Ren wiped his sweat and said loudly: "Damn it, I admit defeat, Zhang Yang you're something else, in this world only you are a real man."

  I saw the boy called Zhang Yang slowly packing his bag, and after putting it on his back, he walked in front of me. He didn't glance at my floral skirt or green eye shadow; it seemed like he hadn't even looked at me. He simply bent down, picked up his hat, put it back on his head, and left without saying a word.

  As expected, I followed Zhang Yang. Once out of the school gate, I simply took off my shoes. This way, he wouldn't hear my footsteps. He was about 150 meters ahead of me, a bit far, but I could still keep up. I didn't know what motivated me, I just really wanted to know where he was going, Xiao Bai Yang, such a lovely boy. A strange softness grew in my heart, mixed with the pain on the soles of my feet, making me feel invigorated.

  I held my shoes in my left hand and the hem of my skirt in my right, tiptoeing through the quiet night as I followed a boy I had never seen before. Luckily, he walked along a route that was almost deserted, or else how many people would have stared at me with curiosity? I didn't know; in fact, at that moment, my mind was a complete blank - I just felt like following him wherever he went.

  Actually, my tracking action that day didn't succeed. After turning a few corners, I couldn't find Zhang Yang's shadow anymore. I sat down on the side of the road with some disappointment, put on my shoes and rubbed my sore feet. Just as I was thinking about what to do next, someone gently patted me on the shoulder.

  I heard a very pleasant male voice asking me: "What are you following me for?"

  I turned around and saw Zhang Yang.

  "Hey!" I jumped up, "So you're here!"

  "You're Lai Ba La," he said, "I recognize you."

  "Hmm!" I said with a smile, running my fingers through my curly hair, "Is it because I'm so pretty that you remember me so clearly?"

  He took a glance at me, perhaps to verify if I was really beautiful, but he didn't make any comment about it. Instead, he said, "There's a lot of broken glass on this road, it would be very dangerous for you to walk barefoot!"

  I really suspect that he has eyes on the back of his head. He's really, really too handsome, too extraordinary, this is simply beyond my control.

  I put one of my index fingers into my mouth and gently bit it to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

  "Go home, it's late." He said with a smile and turned to walk away quickly. The second time I saw Zhang Yang was at the ramen shop.

  I love going to the ramen shop near Litiang High School, their noodles really suit my taste. As soon as I walked in, I saw him sitting at a two-person table by the window facing the street. Across from him was a little girl with two braids, wearing a white cotton t-shirt with a row of small dolls printed on it. They looked like a couple at first glance, but they were trying hard to pretend to be strangers, which suddenly made me want to laugh. I took out a pack of cigarettes from my jeans pocket and lit one up using the matches provided by the shop.

  I burst out laughing. Jump up! ~~~~~!!!!!!