Hello, Old Times Chapter 88

Chapter 88: I Could Tell With A Single Look

Yu Zhou Zhou heard Lin Yang let out a sign of relief the moment the two left.

“Who is that girl…” He muttered with a frown.

Yu Zhou Zhou shook her head. She sat down in front of the table and started to slowly eat with her head down. The food that Lin Yang had picked were all very light, sauteed Chinese broccoli, scrambled eggs with black fungus, dry-fried green beans and chrysanthemum oatmeal porridge.

“You don’t like meat?” Yu Zhou Zhou was very curious. In her impression, boys were all carnivores who couldn’t live without meat.

“Do you like it? I was afraid that you wouldn’t like greasy food so…Wait, I’ll go back…”

“No need, I quite like it!” Yu Zhou Zhou stopped him and motioned for him to sit and eat together.

The two quietly drank the porridge as if it was not a cafeteria but a study room and they were completing maths papers separately.

Lin Yang ate without tasting the food. It was the first time he had eaten with Yu Zhou Zhou face to face. Last night, he sent the invitation half deliberately and half from impulse. After sending it out, Yu Zhou Zhou’s text response took a while to return and he didn’t dare press the ‘view’ button for a long time.

He didn’t even know whether he wanted her to agree to him or to simply refuse.

He had insomnia and his previous recollections because very noisy in the night. He was almost late for school in the morning. Inside his school coat, he wore a dark grey cashmere vest over a white shirt which was his favourite outfit. In the morning, he couldn’t find it no matter how hard he tried but he finally managed to dig it out and put it on yet he felt a bit contrived and embarrassed. Hence at lunchtime, he quickly put on his school coat before rushing to Class 7 to find her but like this, the vest was covered up so the outfit that he specially put on became meaningless.

Suddenly, he felt like his actions were completely like a woman.

Immediately following, he heard Yu Zhou Zhou’s laughter. He raised her head, the girl on the opposite side had a gentle smile that was somewhat peaceful.

“Your outfit is nice,” She said.

Lin Yang felt so embarrassed he almost wanted to go and crash into a wall.

He took a deep breath, put his chopsticks on the table and looked at her solemnly, “Zhou Zhou. I have something to tell you.”

Suddenly, someone shouted from behind, “Lin Yang!”

No matter who it is, damn you! Lin Yang turned with a disheartened face to look at the person who had called him. It turned out to be Chu Tian Kuo.

“I was planning to go find you this afternoon. Since I’ve bumped into you here, let’s set the basketball match for the two classes. The time for the open class qualifiers has been confirmed so we have two self-study classes on Wednesday and Friday afternoon which is straight after the lunch break and gives ample time. If we don’t set it now, Lu Yu Ning is going to laugh that our class doesn’t dare take on the challenge.”

Lin Yang took a while to react then nodded, “Oh.”

“What oh, have you lost your spirit?” Chu Tian Kuo looked up and was a little astonished to see Yu Zhou Zhou who was still slowly drinking her porridge with her head down on the other side of the table.

“Yu Zhou Zhou? Why are you…oh,” He quickly changed the subject, “The time of the farewell party has also been set, it’ll be Thursday afternoon after the third class. It happens to be the first class meeting after the start of the new semester. We won’t have the farewell as the main theme to save you guys from feeling awkward. Just think of it as coming back to hold another class meeting.”

“Thank you for being so considerate, I got it.” Yu Zhou Zhou raised her head and smiled.

“Let Xin Rui know as well.”

“Go and tell her yourself.”

Chu Tian Kuo raised his eyebrows in surprise, “Why? Did you guys fight?”

“You’re thinking too much,” Yu Zhou Zhou smiled, “Anyway, it’s better for you to tell her yourself.”

 Chu Tian Kuo didn’t continue to ask why. He nodded then bid farewell and left. When he left, he winked at Lin Yang and whispered, “It’s a pity I didn’t notice this entire time that you secretly advancing in the dark.” Lin Yang directly elbowed him in response.

After Chu Tian Kuo left, Lin Yang cleared his throat and discovered that what he had wanted to say after taking a deep breath and building up the courage had been dispersed. He scratched his head and thought for a long time then suddenly slipped out an invitation that came from nohere.

“Come and watch me play basketball.”

Yu Zhou Zhou didn’t look up, “Why?”

Lin Yang froze and scratched his head before slowly saying, “Because… I’m good at basketball.”

He almost bit his tongue off after speaking. What kind of reason was this?

Yu Zhou Zhou suddenly thought of ‘Slam Dunk’ which felt so far away it was as if it happened in her past life.  When she was in elementary school, there was a period where she had resumed diplomatic relations with Lin Yang. At that time, she would always chatter how much she liked Kenji Fujima, Akira Sendoh, Hanamichi Sakuragi and Hisashi Mitsui…

But actually, she had never watched anyone play basketball in real life.

She thought to Allen Iverson again. Mi Qiao’s man who was laying awkwardly on the desk with half his face ripped off.

A smile appeared on her lips, “Oh, then I’ll go and take a look, when is it?”

Lin Yang who originally felt very embarrassed from his self-boasting instantly burst into a smile. Yu Zhou Zhou had an illusion that she was raising a dog.

“I’ll let you know once I set the time, you definitely have to come!”

Yu Zhou Zhou looked at him and nodded.

The both of them were pretty much full so Yu Zhou Zhou decided not to avoid it any longer. She looked at him directly and asked, “Lin Yang, why are you looking for me?”

Ling Yang stared into Yu Zhou Zhou’s eyes as if he wanted to look into the window of her soul.

“Nothing.”

“What?”

“There’s really nothing.” Lin Yang shook his head resolutely, “At least, there’s nothing for now.”

He picked up the tray and stood up, “The collar of my school uniform is crooked and my hands are tied, help me straighten my collar.”

Yu Zhou Zhou had just put her pack of tissues into her pocket. She looked up at him in surprise.

Lin Yang stared at her stubbornly, with an expression that said, ‘if you don’t help me straighten my collar then I won’t leave.’ As the people in the cafeteria came and went, Yu Zhou Zhou suddenly felt a ripple in her heart.

She lowered her head and pretending to be indifferent, stretched out her hands to gentle straighten the collar of his uniform but her fingertips trembled slightly.

“Okay.”

“Let’s go back to class!” Lin Yang beamed brightly.

The clattering sound of the plate return area echoed in the spacious cafeteria, mixed with the noisy chatter of the people coming and going. In that crowded space with the fragrant smell of food, Lin Yang who had felt chaotic for an entire year suddenly felt the pieces of his heart were slowly coming together to make a complete picture.

“Zhou Zhou!”

As Yu Zhou Zhou returned to the entrance of her class, Lin Yang shouted at her from behind.

“What?”

“…Nothing.” Lin Yang clenched his fists silently. There were some things that could be said later.

There was still time to say it after it was done.

“Our basketball match against Class 1 is on either Wednesday or Friday lunchtime. You have to come and watch it!”

Without waiting for Yu Zhou Zhou to react, Lin Yang turned around and ran. His baggy white school shirt was propped up by the wind as he ran, and he felt like a bird about to fly.

In this year, or to say, in these ten years, the map that he had been haphazardly forming together with his intuition was spread out clearly underneath his feet in that moment.

This time, he didn’t want to say it. Whether it was an explanation or justification, a confession or a promise.

There would be no more speak of forever.

But he won’t be confused or feel embarrassed again.

—

“Ha, I heard it all.”

Yu Zhou Zhou turned her gaze away from the corner that Lin Yang disappeared to, onto the smiling Mi Qiao, the girl who had disappeared for the entire morning.

“You’re back,” Yu Zhou Zhou greeted her.

“You speak like a little daughter in law. Tch tch, are you here to wait for this lord to return?”

Mi Qiao lifted Yu Zhou Zhou’s chin with her index finger and said with a teasing smile, “Come on, give this lord a smile.”

Yu Zhou Zhou gave her brightest smile.

She only felt that Mi Qiao was really interesting.

Mi Qiao took a big step back in fright, “Man, I’ve never seen someone who cooperates so well like you. You you you, you… who are you?” After speaking, she smiled embarrassedly and scratched her head.

“I’m Yu Zhou Zhou.”

Mi Qiao raised her eyebrows slightly after hearing this as if suddenly remembering something then immediately smiled.

“Oh, I’m Mi Qiao.”

Yu Zhou Zhou nodded, “Hi Mi Qiao.”

Mi Qiao scratched her head, “You’re too polite. Hello, you… can you do me a favour and tear the poster on the desk off with me?”

Yu Zhou Zhou looked at the ghastly looking Allen Iverson, “You’ve compromised?”

Mi Qiao shook her head, “No, I need to change to another copy.”

Yu Zhou Zhou burst into laughter, “Okay, I’ll help you.”

They squatted in front of the desk and cut off the transparent glue with a craft knife. However, for the sake of sticking it on firmly, Mi Qiao had used too much double sided tape and it was difficult to clean up. The two worked hard until they were sweating and the first class in the afternoon was about to start but the desk was still in a terrible state.

“Just ensure it and stick a new poster on tomorrow to cover it up.”

“Mhm, I know,” Mi Qiao clapped her hands then rubbed the sweat off her forehead, “Thank you Zhou Zhou. In return, I’ll keep everything I heard just now a secret.”

“What did you hear?”

“Isn’t that your boyfriend?”

Yu Zhou Zhou couldn’t help laughing, “No.”

“Then who is he?”

Yu Zhou Zhou thought for a while but suddenly realized that she couldn’t set a status for Lin Yang. He wasn’t a friend nor a normal classmate, who was he?

She shook her head, “He…”

“I understand, he’s chasing you.” Mi Qiao shook her messy short hair. Her tanned skin had a sickly pink colour from the labour in tearing up the poster just now. She smiled in a gossiping manner, the corners of her lips curving in kindness.

“No…”

“Aiya, you guys like to make things too complicated, thinking about this and that. Remember, return to one’s origins, what’s that sentence in English, something ground…”

“Down to the ground? It doesn’t mean returning to one’s origins…”

“This lady said it is so it is! From now onwards, it’ll mean a return to one’s origins!” The classmates around them had started to sit down. A lot of people looked at Mi Qiao who was dragged out in the morning with a gaze of looking at a monster but she didn’t care in the slightest and still continued to loudly explain her point of view as if there was no one around, “In short, face your own feelings. He likes you so he’s chasing you. I can tell with a glance.”

Yu Zhou Zhou’s face turned red and wished that she could rush up to seal Mi Qiao’s lips.

She discovered that in front of Mi Qiao and Lin Yang, her memories and emotions were recovering a little.

All emotions except hate.