The morning classes passed in a flash.
The school was full-time, and at noon the other students went to the cafeteria. Song Ge didn’t stay in the classroom either. She went to the wall, stepped on a few stones, and climbed nimbly up a crooked tree. With a quick leap, she landed on top of the wall.
She hadn’t been there long when a boy of about eleven or twelve rode up on a bicycle.
He propped the bike against the wall and stood on a pedal. Song Ge crouched on top of the wall, leaned down, and grabbed the takeout box he handed up to her.
The school’s meal plan was expensive, and Song Ge couldn’t afford it. The school also wouldn’t let delivery drivers inside. The wall was too high for her to climb from the outside, even though she could get up it from within the school. So this was the only way.
The boy was the son of a woman who ran a nearby cold-noodle stall.
Luckily, he didn’t mind the three yuan Song Ge paid him. He brought her lunch at the same time every day.
Song Ge handed him the money, took the box of noodles, and was about to use the tree to climb down.
But the boy said, “Sister, I’m not coming tomorrow.”
Song Ge froze and looked at him. “Why not?”
“My dad’s sick,” the boy said. “Mom thinks maybe a dog bit him. He chewed up the blankets this morning. Mom says we have to take him to the hospital, so she might not open the stall tomorrow.”
“Okay,” Song Ge said. “I understand. Thanks.”
“Of course. Bye, Sister!”
The boy rode off. Song Ge turned, pushed off from the tree, and jumped down.
As soon as she landed, she saw a balding, middle-aged man standing not far away.
The dean of discipline was furious. “Song Ge!”
Song Ge sighed and hid the noodles behind her back. “Could you pretend you didn’t see me, sir?”
“Should I pretend I didn’t see this? Just look at yourself! Again and again! How many times has it been? You never learn!”
Song Ge said nothing.
The dean was beside himself. “Don’t think you can live off your parents’ sacrifice forever just because they died! The government gave you the chance to attend a school with resources like these. You should be grateful. You should work hard and serve your country one day!”
Song Ge had heard this so many times her ears were nearly numb. The words went in one ear and out the other. She didn’t say a thing.
When he finished, the dean looked at her with exasperation. “Come eat in my office. What kind of look would it be if the other students saw you hiding here?”
“No thanks,” Song Ge said. “I asked the stall owner to add cilantro. It smells strong. I don’t want to stink up your office.”
The dean pointed at her, fuming at her flippant attitude, then turned and strode away.
Song Ge stood alone behind the tree and ate her noodles.
They were pretty good, actually.
But after eating cold noodles for two or three months straight, even good food started to taste like nothing.
Song Ge scraped up the last two fried soybeans soaked in the sour sauce, closed the container, and thought that the little cake from that morning must have been delicious. She’d eaten it in such a hurry, she hadn’t really tasted it.
When Song Ge returned to the classroom, most of the students had come back from the cafeteria.
A boy from another class was there. He was tall, handsome, and sunny-looking. He wore the school’s short-sleeved uniform and an expensive mechanical watch. Sitting across from Tong Xiangyu, he was surrounded by two girls who looked shy and flustered.
He only had eyes for Tong Xiangyu.
Whatever he said made her press her lips together and smile. “Sure.”
“Then it’s a promise,” he said with a grin. “If you don’t come, I’ll die of thirst on the court!”
Tong Xiangyu laughed softly. “How could you? There are plenty of girls who’d bring you water.”
“But I only want you to.”
This kind of scene played out every few days.
Song Ge was used to it.
She wasn’t interested, but she knew the boy’s name: Fan Mingyuan, a transfer student from the year before and the heir to Fan Real Estate. His family was rich, he was tall and handsome, and he was good at basketball. Plenty of girls liked him.
Rumor had it he’d started taking lessons from six or seven tutors to improve his grades.
Not to take over the family business, but because Miss Tong liked boys who did well in school. He wanted to change for love, and had made such a public show of it that everyone knew.
No one could resist that kind of bold, wholehearted pursuit.
Song Ge glanced at Tong Xiangyu’s slightly flushed cheeks and figured it would only be a few days before she said yes.
It had nothing to do with her.
Song Ge looked away and returned to her seat.
The first class after lunch was math, the easiest class to sleep through.
Song Ge opened her textbook and laid it over her head. She couldn’t understand a word, so she might as well catch up on sleep.
But her sleep was restless. Just as she’d finally nodded off, the roar of aircraft overhead woke her.
Kecheng was a prosperous provincial capital with two large airports to the north and south, but neither was near the school. She never heard planes like this.
Song Ge’s hearing was unusually sharp to begin with. After being woken again and again, she grew irritated and pulled back the curtain to look outside.
Strangely, there were not only commercial airliners in the sky, but quite a few fighter jets as well.
Was this some kind of military exercise?
Song Ge didn’t stare for long. She took a tissue from her pocket, twisted it into two wads, and stuffed them in her ears.
By the time the noise she couldn’t block out finally woke her from a deep sleep, there were hardly any students left in the classroom. Everyone was crowding along the hallway railing, excitedly looking outside as if something amazing was happening.
Song Ge pulled out the tissue. The noise of the onlookers grew twice as loud.
She frowned and was about to stuff the tissue back in when a terrified scream rang out!
The scream was like a stone dropped into a still lake. A wave of screams followed, one after another, filling the entire school building.
The entire building.
The students who’d been watching from the hallway scattered in panic. Some screamed as they ran down the corridor. Most rushed back into the classrooms.
“Close the door! Hurry!”
“Get inside!”
“Wang Duoduo, close the door!”
“The windows! Close those too!”
“Help! Someone’s killing people at school! Aah!”
The quiet hallway erupted in chaos. The screams were so loud they could have split Song Ge’s eardrums.
She didn’t hesitate. She shoved the tissue back into her ears.
Bang, bang, bang!
“Yuyu! Tong Xiangyu! Are you in there?”
The door suddenly swung open again.
Fan Mingyuan ran into the classroom, and someone immediately shut the door behind him.
“What’s happening?” Tong Xiangyu asked, her pretty face pale with fear. “Who’s killing people outside?”
“It’s not a murder. It seems like someone came down with rabies and started biting people.” Fan Mingyuan took the opportunity to hold Tong Xiangyu’s soft hand. As captain of the basketball team, he was tall and muscular, the picture of safety and reliability. He gazed at Tong Xiangyu and spoke tenderly. “Don’t be scared. I’ll protect you.”
Tong Xiangyu felt uncomfortable and pulled her hand away, blushing.
Song Ge lifted the curtain and saw several students running for their lives behind the school.
Could one person with rabies really send the entire school fleeing?
Then she remembered what the boy who brought her noodles had said at noon: his father was sick, possibly after being bitten by a dog, and had chewed up the blankets that morning.
