Hello, Old Times Chapter 51

Chapter 51: All Is Well

Yu Zhou Zhou changed her shoes at the door then walked into the living room. Lin Yang’s house seemed to have some small changes from before – but she couldn’t remember what had changed.

Childhood memories are very selective. She could remember Lin Yang’s awkward expression in front of the kindergarten slide and the sorry state he was in after being smashed with the lunchbox but couldn’t remember what colour wallpaper his family used back then.

“Do you want to eat some fruit? I’ll pour you some juice, do you want peach, kiwi or pineapple juice? Right, there’s also chocolate pies and plums. Wait a bit, I’ll bring it over!”

Lin Yang completely threw the thought of the school pointer into the back of his mind and turned to focus on the great cause f feeding pigs.

When he carefully walked to the front of his room with the plate in his hand, he raised his head and saw Yu Zhou Zhou slightly leaning forward looking attentively at his bookcase. Her gaze moved little by little across the books stacked on his bookcase.  

Her thin waistline encapsulated her teenage body that had just started developing. Yu Zhou Zhou didn’t brush her hair into a ponytail instead, her hair was brushed into a half up hairstyle that was fixed into place with a light blue seashell hairclip. The rest of her soft long hair was draped across her shoulders and flowed like satin with her movements. Lin Yang’s gaze followed the strands of her hair and fell on her thin shoulders. The school’s poor quality uniform was a little transparent during the summer and he inadvertently caught sight of her light blue bra straps near her neckline…

“Lin Yang?”

The call almost caused the guilt-stricken Lin Yang to choke to death on his own saliva. Yu Zhou Zhou took over the plate from Lin Yang who was coughing violently and placed it on the study desk before turning to look suspiciously at him, “You’re alright right?”

“No!” Lin Yang hurried lowered his head to rummage in the cabinet under his desk and pulled out a light blue cartoon folder. Inside, the folder, he pulled out a piece of paper and passed it to Yu Zhou Zhou, “Mhm, for you, to rewrite another copy.”

Yu Zhou Zhou took over the piece of paper and quickly filled in the basic information on the first side then stared in a daze at the large blank space on the other side.

“Write it well, if you don’t, I’ll make you rewrite it again. I’ve got a lot of copies anyway!”

“I can’t write it.”

Lin Yang fumed with anger, “What exactly do you want to do?”

“Show me what some of the other people have written in your friendship log okay?”

Lin Yang was stunned for a moment then handed the large folder over to Yu Zhou Zhou before sitting by her side, watching with interest as she flipped through it page by page with her slender, snow white fingers – the contents of the friendship log made him very proud.

Everyone had filled up their pages, they gave very high praises and very beautiful well-wishes. There wasn’t the slightest bit of insincerity – except for Yu Zhou Zhou.

Hope you have a bright future and everything goes smoothly. How lame, he couldn’t believe she could even think of it.

When Yu Zhou Zhou read Ling Xiang Qian’s page, there wasn’t any sentimental well-wishes in the message box, only fragments of memories. The familiarity and intimacy between the lines weren’t faked. It was a natural self-confidence, as if there had never been any doubt that they would always be together in the future.

That natural intimacy was just like the unintelligible message with typos at the back of Jiang Chuan’s page. At the end, he had even included, ‘Lin Yang, go eat shit! Whilst it’s still hot!’

Then, she saw Yu Ting Ting’s.

At first glance, the standard message and graceful handwriting wasn’t the slightest bit special.

However, the last line was calmly written there.

‘You will always be the best captain in my heart.’

Only this time, it was missing a ‘Happy Birthday’. Yu Zhou Zhou turned to look at Lin Yang. He was reading it with relish and seemed to have completely forgotten the existence of that anonymous glass apple from that year.

Yu Zhou Zhou closed the log, “Okay, I’ll write it.”

Lin Yang happily spread the piece of paper out on the table and handed her a blue pen.

He didn’t expect though that Yu Zhou Zhou didn’t have the intention of writing a long paragraph. She moved her pen and wrote out four words.

“All will be successful”

Lin Yang nearly spat out blood, “What are you doing, did I ask you to come here just to write those four words?”

Yu Zhou Zhou shook her head, “Look carefully, these four words are different to those four words!”

It was all will be successful, not all will be well.

“Everything is already going well for you and everything is as you wish so I don’t wish this for you. These four words are what my grandma told me, I always thought that this is the best blessing and I’m only gifting this to you.”

Yu Zhou Zhou was very serious. Lin Yang suddenly didn’t dare to raise his head to look directly into her bright eyes and could only stare down at his grey slippers. He was still somewhat unhappy, “What’s good about it?”

“The meaning of all will be successful means that the result of everything will always be a little bit better than what you originally imagined.”

Yu Zhou Zhou raised her right hand and used her index finger and thumb to measure out her meaning of “a little bit” in front of his eyes. Lin Yang’s gaze though, passed right through the gap between Yu Zhou Zhou’s index finger and thumb and directly connected with Yu Zhou Zhou’s smiling eyes.

Lin Yang lowered his head, took the piece of paper from her hand and said awkwardly, “Oh, okay. Then so be it.”

After speaking, Lin Yang immediately began to regret it. Once Yu Zhou Zhou completed her task, she naturally can leave but he was reluctant and didn’t know what excuse to use to get her to stay.

However, Yu Zhou Zhou was exceptionally cooperative today and didn’t go against him, nor…nor bully him.

“Do you have a complete set of Disney cartoons in your house?”

“Mhm, I watched it when I was younger,” Lin Yang took them out from the top of the closet with difficulty, “Do you want to watch?”

“Okay, I’ve never watched it before.” Yu Zhou Zhou randomly picked out a box, “Let’s watch Snow White then!”

How silly. Lin Yang swallowed this comment back into his stomach and turned on the TV with a smile. After the movie started, he took an apple from the tray and bit deeply into it then passed a bag of Wang Wang snow cookies to Yu Zhou Zhou.

Yu Zhou Zhou watched in silence. Just as Lin Yang was so bored that he was about to fall asleep, she suddenly said, “Snow White doesn’t look like this.”

“Have you seen her in real life before?”

“You don’t understand,” She shook her head, “Let’s not watch it, it’s boring.”

Lin Yang switched off the TV and looked a little helplessly at Yu Zhou Zhou. He didn’t know what she was thinking while sitting on their sofa, she even looked a little sad.

“Lin Yang, which fairy tale is your favourite?”

Lin Yang was very taken aback by this question and thought for a while before replying, “Cinderella… How about you?”

Yu Zhou Zhou smiled, “I like The Nightingale. It was written by Andersen and tells the story of a king and a nightingale.”

“I haven’t watched it before,” Lin Yang was curious to everything that Yu Zhou Zhou was interested in, “Tell me about it?”

“In the future,” After Yu Zhou Zhou spoke these words, she was stunned for a while and turned her head somewhat unnaturally to look at Lin Yang’s desk, “Oh, did your family buy a computer?”

“Mhm,” Lin Yang nodded, “The system in our school computers is really too bad, it’s actually still Win32.”

However, Yu Zhou Zhou didn’t care the slightest bit how bad the Win32 system was. Lin Yang felt that she was a bit restless and didn’t know what she was worrying about. Her slight fell again on the bookshelf and she looked at it blankly for a long time.

Lin Yang raised his head as well and saw that yellow casette placed on the left side of the top shelf at one glance, the 64 in one ROM. He had once stepped on a chair to place it there incredibly carefully but yet he had never once played it before.

“Zhou Zhou, why didn’t you want to play it with me before?” Even he thought that this type of question was very naïve but he really wanted to know.

“There’s no why.” Yu Zhou Zhou shook her head then suddenly smiled, “Lin Yang, let’s play together! We’ll play that ROM.”

The poor 64 in 1 ROM, after all these years, none of the three people, Brother Yu Qiao included, had played before.

It was Contra, the third level again. Yu Zhou Zhou seemed to not have improved at all but she was not the slightest bit anxious and dragged Lin Yang down with an ease of mind. Lin Yang didn’t say anything, only standing on the side shooting to help cover her until she could clumsily catch up herself.

It was a simple game, but it took a long time to play.

When playing Squirrel Wars,  Yu Zhou Zhou always made her hat wearing squirrel sneak up on her companion, Lin Yang, raise his squirrel in the air then throw him towards the cobra. In the end, Lin Yang finally couldn’t bear it anymore. He put down his controller and shouted at her, “Can you stop bullying me?”

Yu Zhou Zhou rolled her eyes at him, “You’re willing! Who told you not to dodge?”

Lin Yang’s words were stuck in his throat. Indeed, he was willing. He never dodged, where it be in the game or in person.

He leaned over, resting his chin on his left hand, he started smiling at the GAME OVER screen.

“Alright, I’m willing.”

—

Yu Zhou Zhou welcomed a sky of red clouds on her way home. When she turned around, she could see Lin Yan still standing on the balcony waving at her and could seemingly imagine the silly smile on his face.

She lowered her head with a sour twinge in her nose and walked away in large strides without looking back.

—

The long graduation ceremony finally ended. No matter what, Zhan Yan Fei and Yu Zhou Zhou were both considered the main figures of their grade. They appeared alongside Lin Yang, Ling Xiang Qian and the others at the ceremony to recite poetry or give a speech as student representatives. They each performed their duties and acted the final scene.

“So you’re going back to the west of the city to study?”

“Mhm, at 35^th Middle School. Zhou Zhou, which middle school did you decide to go to in the end?”

Yu Zhou Zhou mysteriously shook her head, “I won’t tell you but later, I’ll write to you.”

There were tears in Zhan Yan Fei’s eyes,”Zhou Zhou, you’re the best girl I’ve met.”

Yu Zhou Zhou smiled, “You’ll always be Little Sparrow in my heart.”

Fortunately, neither of them said, ‘We’ll always be best friends.’

Yu Zhou Zhou watched from afar for a while as a group of students and parents crowded around Teacher Yu who was holding fresh flowers.

Teacher Yu had repeatedly told Yu Zhou Zhou that she wanted to chat to her parents but Yu Zhou Zhou’s mum would always sneer and say she was “greedy”. A few months before, Yu Zhou Zhou’s mum had finally freed up time to have a serious discussion about Yu Zhou Zhou advancing into middle school and they had a long chat.

“What help can your teacher give? All she wants is to collect some more gifts while she still can. I’ve already helped you look into the matter of going to Normal University Affiliated Middle School, don’t worry Zhou Zhou.”

“What?” Yu Zhou Zhou was extremely astonished, “I can go to Normal University Affiliated Middle School?”

“Why not?” Her mum looked puzzledly at her, “Normal Affiliated School also accepts students for a price. If we pull some connections and pay an additional 20,000 for the school fee then it’ll be fine. We can even find someone to help us get into the best class, what’s so hard? Previously, I was too busy. Tomorrow, I’ll get this thing sorted for you.”

All the previous issues with Maths Olympiad and her future could actually all be solved by money and connections yet she had thought that she had been thrown into a desperate situation.

An absurd sense of surprise appeared on her face then quickly disappeared.

“But mum, I don’t want to go to Normal Affiliated School,” She said clearly, word by word.

No one forced her.

The heroine, Yu Zhou Zhou, jumped off the cliff voluntarily for an unfamiliar, beautiful new world.

When the crowd had dispersed a bit, Yu Zhou Zhou raised the courage and walked to stand in front of Teacher Yu.

Teacher Yu who was sorting out the flowers she was holding raised her head to see the delicate face of the girl in front of her. She didn’t say any parting words to Yu Zhou Zhou, instead, she frowned and mentioned the matter of going to school again.

“Yu Zhou Zhou, what exactly are you thinking? I’ve never seen a student who doesn’t care as much as you, in the end, your student file was transferred to…”

“Teacher Yu,” Yu Zhou Zhou interrupted her for the first time ever.

“Teacher Yu, actually, you can be a good teacher.”

Teacher Yu was stunned and looked at Yu Zhou Zhou at a loss.

“But you don’t want to at all.”

Yu Zhou Zhou finally uttered the words that had been accumulating in her heart since first grade. She turned around and left without hesitation.

—

Lin Yang finally escaped from the crowd of parents and students backstage. He ran out of the gate of the theatre, just in time to see Yu Zhou Zhou leaving, with her bag on her back.

“Zhou Zhou!” He shouted loudly without any hesitation – his parents were on a business trip together.

Yu Zhou Zhou turned her head back. He happily pulled on her bag straps, “Zhou Zhou, should we go home together?”

“I have something on today.” Yu Zhou Zhou lowered her head, not looking at him.

Lin Yang sighed in disappointment, “Alright, then the next time we meet will be when school starts. During the summer break, I’m going to Europe with my mum and dad, dad needs to go for business and is bringing me and my mum along to travel. It’ll probably take a while so we probably won’t be able to meet. However, we’ll be able to meet again once school starts. I’ll bring you gifts, I’m going to lots of countries.”

Yu Zhou Zhou forced a smile, “Oh, have fun and safe travels.”

Lin Yang didn’t sense her abnormality in the slightest and was still talking to himself.

“Say, will we be assigned to the same class this time?”

Yu Zhou Zhou raised her eyes, there was an emotion flowing in her eyes that he couldn’t understand. She moved her lips as if wanting to say something but finally only smiled.

“Mhm. It’s not for sure, perhaps…we can be split into the same class.”

We’ll see once the time comes..

Lin Yang rubbed the back of his head, as if the area that he was split by a lunchbox back in first grade by was still painful.

The September 1^st sky was particularly gloomy.

Lin Yang stubbornly waited until everyone at school had pretty much all left before reading the class name lists that on the wall one by one.

Yu Zhou Zhou wasn’t on there at all.

You lied to me. Lin Yang stared silently at the black words on the red paper on the wall as if wanting to stare a hole through it.

She was always lying to him.

That year, the fourth concubine had told the emperor, I’ll be back again tomorrow.

But just like now, she didn’t appear.

The 13 year old Lin Yang was already a little man but standing by the fence in the rain, he cried himself into a mess. The French chocolate in his hands that he had specially brought back for her. It had long melted in the dry autumn weather and now, wet in the rain, it was even more unsightly.

Yu Zhou Zhou used her departure and failure to show up to bully him one last time.

She said, everything is already going well for you so I wish that all will be successful for you, that the result of everything will always be a little bit better than what you originally imagined.

Big liar. Lin Yang gritted his teeth.

When did everything go well for him?

In a certain corner of this world, there was a person who has never gone with what he intended.