Episode 33: Left Ear (33)

  I think I know who it is.

  Li, Yu.

  But I know I definitely won't take the initiative to look for her again.

  I'm leaving now. Goodbye.

  Jiang Jiao was right, leaving this place, everything will get better. I saw Li Er again at the train station.

  They were all here to see Yu off.

  He saw us and said with great delight: "We're on the same bus now, this is great! I was worried that there would be no one to talk to on the way and it would be boring."

  Jiang Jiao's oily mouth and slippery tongue: "Being able to travel with the champion is our greatest honor."

  Someone beside her interrupted, presumably her mother, saying: "Li Er, you must work hard, next year will be your turn."

  She still had that small face, not speaking. Nor looking at me, as if I had never known her before.

  We got on the bus, and Yu happened to be in the same carriage as us. We swapped seats to sit together, and Jiang Jiao asked Yu with a sly tone: "Was that little girl your girlfriend just now?"

  "No," Yu said, "She's my cousin. She's a high school sophomore at our school."

  "High school sophomore?" Jiang Jiao said in surprise, "She looks so young, just like a junior high school student." After finishing speaking, she pushed me and said: "Cockroach, you say, isn't it? Doesn't she look very small?"

  "Who?" I feigned a puzzled expression.

  "You mentioned Li Er, didn't you see her last time?"

  "Oh." I said.

  Then I fell asleep, and when I woke up, I found an unread message on my phone: Wish you a smooth journey. I looked at my watch, it was 11 o'clock in the night, the train was swaying back and forth, Jiang Jiao and You Ta were both asleep. I ran to the junction of the carriage to smoke, then I picked up the phone and dialed that number.

  The phone was answered quickly by a woman who spoke in a very low voice, probably because she was afraid of being overheard by her family.

  "I am Zhang Yang," I said.

  "I know," she said.

  "I've arrived in Beijing and I should change my phone number, will you send the new number to this mobile?"

  "Yes," she said, "I borrowed Yuta's old mobile phone, but I don't usually turn it on. Today is an exception."

  "Why is it an exception?"

  "I'm waiting for your call," she said.

  "What the heck, how did you know I was going to call you?"

  "I'm not telling you." She's at it again!

  "You must study hard and make progress every day."

  "I will," she said. "Next year, I'll go to Beijing to attend university too."

  "Okay," I said.

  "Maybe I'll write you a letter, maybe not."

  "Whatever."

  "Well... goodbye."

  "Goodbye."

  I hung up the phone and saw Jiang Jiao standing beside me. She asked coldly, "Who were you secretly calling?"

  "My dad," I said.

  "He didn't even come to see you off." Jiang Jiao pouted.

  I didn't say anything, and she said: "I've never seen a father like you."

  "Shut your bloody mouth!" I cursed her.

  She didn't say a word. The train shook even more violently, Jiang Jiao suddenly lost her balance, fortunately I caught her in time, she fell into my arms, giggling and said loudly: "It's so exhilarating! We're finally leaving! Woo-hoo..."

  For a while, I really thought I had forgotten about the past.

  At that time, I had just arrived in Beijing and was living a very regular life. During the day, I attended classes, at night, I tutored two junior high school students, and on weekends, I would stay with Jiang Jiao in her house near the North Fifth Ring Road to watch movies. No one cooked for us, so we went to the supermarket to buy a lot of instant food, eating until our intestines had no feeling left.

  Jiang Jiao started smoking openly in front of me, with his exquisite foreign cigarettes. I wasn't used to them, so I stuck to my Red Double Happiness, which was cheaper and more practical. We basically met once a week, spent a long time smoking, watching movies, and went to bed at 3 or 4 am. The next day, we'd wake up in the afternoon and continue smoking and watching movies.

  Jiang Jiao loves watching Korean dramas, but because I don't like them, she accommodates me by watching police and bandit films. I'm not picky about police and bandit films, whether they're American, Hong Kong-Taiwanese, or mainland Chinese, as long as there are gunfights. Jiang Jiao said: "As soon as the weekend arrives, I go to the audio-visual store and buy a big pile, the owner thinks I'm buying them for business, to rent out to students."

  "Well, then rent it," I said while eating a bowl of instant noodles. "Why not make money if you can?"

  Jiang Jiao glared at me: "I won't abandon that person!"

  Dei, the daughter of the nouveau riche, followed her.

  Jiang Jiao leaned on my shoulder: "Cricket, studying is really boring, I want to drop out."

  "So what do you think is interesting?"