Chapter 31

“Ah? Class 6! We’re done for! Bai Kou! Pei Yue is in Class 6!”

Lu Tongtong let out a startled cry.

Bai Kou snapped out of her daze. Amid Bai Xiaochu’s puzzled question of “Who? What’s done for?”, she hurriedly turned around and ran back to her room, pulling out her phone from her schoolbag.

It wasn’t until nine days later that Pei Yue replied to Bai Kou.

And the message was particularly polite, just one line: 【Thanks for your concern, I’m much better now.】

Bai Kou had been lying on the sofa spacing out when she received the message. She quickly flipped over, lay on her stomach, furrowed her brows, and typed away rapidly:

【Oh my god/tears/you finally showed up! Tongtong and I said that if you didn’t reply to us this week, we’d storm the hospital to find you!】

Pei Yue replied with a Minion hugging emoji.

Bai Kou thought for a moment and then asked: 【So when can you be discharged?】

After sending the message, Pei Yue didn’t reply right away. Bai Kou waited boredly and casually scrolled up with her thumb.

During the latter part of summer vacation and the beginning of the school term, Pei Yue had been extremely terse with her words. No matter what Bai Kou asked, Pei Yue only responded with “Mm,” “Oh,” or “No.”

Bai Kou stared at those sparse “Mm”s spaced every couple of lines and furrowed her brows for a moment.

Tap tap tap.

Now, this Pei Yue who had just recovered from a serious illness was surprisingly willing to type: 【I was discharged the day before yesterday and am recuperating at home now.】

She added: 【How are you and Tongtong doing?】

Bai Kou’s elbows were getting tired from propping herself up, so she sat up, her feet slipping into her slippers: 【/sunglasses/Mm-hmm! We’re totally fine! Don’t worry!】

Pei Yue replied with an “Mm” after a while.

For the following week, Pei Yue still couldn’t return to school for classes, and fearing any lingering virus, Bai Kou and Lu Tongtong weren’t allowed to visit her home either.

However, every evening, Bai Kou and Pei Yue’s chat sessions grew longer and longer.

Bai Kou was very concerned about Pei Yue’s physical condition and also curious about who had been taking care of Little Lantern and Yellow Doudou during Pei Yue’s absence—after all, Pei Yue had once mentioned that her aunt was rarely home.

As they chatted, they decided to switch to video call, with Pei Yue holding up Yellow Doudou for Bai Kou to see.

Starting a video call required installing a webcam on the computer, along with headphones and a microphone.

It was a bit of a hassle.

But the next morning, Bai Kou made her request to Bai Xiaochu, and that evening, Bai Xiaochu brought home two boxes and tossed them to Bai Kou to install herself.

With her previous experience installing the Wacom, Bai Kou handled the whole process smoothly this time. When Yang Wanxi came over to their house to pick up the senior high notes, Bai Kou successfully connected with Pei Yue.

“Hello? Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?”

Yang Wanxi came out of Bai Yuqiao’s room, holding a black notebook. Just as she was about to knock on Bai Doudou’s door, she heard this voice from inside.

On the phone?

Knock knock.

Yang Wanxi gently rapped on the door twice and called out with a smile, “Bai Doudou—”

Bai Kou, dressed in pajamas and facing away from her with a white over-ear headset on her head, sat rigidly in front of the computer and ignored her, continuing to ask, “Hello? Hello? Pei Yue, can you hear me?”

“…”

Yang Wanxi slowly released her hand from the doorknob, thoughtfully watched Bai Kou for a moment, then backed out, closed the door, and quietly left.

In 2009, video call quality wasn’t great. Their faces appeared hazy in the chat window, tinged with an eerie blue-green hue.

There was network lag, and the video stuttered.

After Bai Kou finished asking, a full ten seconds passed before Pei Yue, who was holding the guinea pig, nodded on the other end.

Bai Kou let out an “Oh” and pulled the microphone on her headset closer: “Then why aren’t you talking?”

Another five seconds. Pei Yue leaned forward first, her elbows nearing the table. She smiled faintly at Bai Kou, then lowered her head to pull her microphone closer too. Her voice was very soft: “I… haven’t seen you in so long, so I’m a bit… shy.”

Bai Kou pressed her headset, furrowed her brows as she listened, then burst out laughing: “Hahaha, right, we’re basically online friends now.”

Tap tap tap.

The icon in the bottom right corner flashed. A bun-head avatar messaged Bai Kou: 【Whatcha doing?】

Bai Kou: 【Video chatting/penguin swaying left and right/】

Yang Kuikui: 【Oh, didn’t your computer not have a webcam?】

Bai Kou smiled at the screen, smugly typing: 【Installing a webcam isn’t hard, piece of cake.】

The bun-head went offline, then came back online a second later: 【Garlic】

Bai Kou: 【/Yellow Doudou question mark/】

Yang Kuikui: 【You win, you’re impressive!/pig/88.】

Bai Kou: 【/cheering/8~】

She then closed the chat window and looked back at the video interface. Pei Yue was still keeping her head down, fiddling with Yellow Doudou.

After several days of video calls in a row, Pei Yue finally stopped being as silent as she had been at first.

One moment she held up a hedgehog to show Bai Kou, the next she hugged the cat and made it wave its paw at Bai Kou.

It made Bai Kou laugh nonstop. “Pei Yue, I think your cat looks just like you, with that same dazed vibe.”

Pei Yue paused. “I… I’m not dazed.”

“Hahahaha.” Bai Kou laughed even harder, cupping her face toward the camera. “But right now, you’re super dazed, hahahahaha.”

“…” In the video, Pei Yue furrowed her brows with a half-smile for two seconds before conceding, “Fine, whatever makes you happy.”

Pei Yue never mentioned to Bai Kou how sulky she had been all summer.

Throughout the entire summer vacation, she had proactively invited Bai Kou out 11 times, only to be turned down each time.

Though she kept telling herself that Bai Kou must have genuinely been busy and not just brushing her off, the accumulated rejections still made her heart sink more and more—she felt like she was dispensable to Bai Kou, who had two older sisters and her best friend in the same class.

She had originally resolved not to be someone dispensable.

But…

The video call ended.

Pei Yue stared blankly at her friends list for a while, watching the group marked with a single “.” change from (1/1) to (0/1).

Bai Kou had gone offline.

A black iPhone lit up its screen.

【7:21】

【Thursday, September 1st】

【→Slide to unlock】

“Click.”

“Wow.” Lu Tongtong leaned her head close to Bai Kou’s shoulder. “The iPhone 4 screen is so clear.”

Bai Kou nodded and tapped into the App Store. “The ‘Wei’ thing you told me about last night… what was it?”

“WeChat.” Lu Tongtong took the phone from Bai Kou’s hand. “I’ll find it for you.”

The page loaded, showing a green-and-white icon. Lu Tongtong tapped download.

The internet was a bit slow. While waiting for the download, Lu Tongtong opened the camera app, raised her hand, and “click” took a photo of Bai Kou’s profile as she gazed into the distance.

Bai Kou turned her head at the sound. Lu Tongtong shoved the phone in front of her face. “Look look, this camera is super clear too!”

“Yeah.” Bai Kou looked quietly for two seconds, then suddenly raised her gaze to Lu Tongtong’s face. A trace of sadness flitted across as she said, “Tongtong, are you really going to board at school? Then we won’t see each other once a week.”

“Yes, I’ve already told my mom. She’ll take my stuff to school this afternoon.” Lu Tongtong patted Bai Kou’s shoulder maturely. “Do we really need to see each other every day for our friendship? Besides, I’ll come to your school every day at noon, and the three of us can eat lunch together.”

Bai Kou finally smiled. “Okay!”

As Bai Kou and Lu Tongtong chatted about how military training at the city high school would start tomorrow, Pei Yue appeared from the end of the road on a black electric scooter.

Bai Kou spotted her, stepped down from the curb, and waved at Pei Yue.

“Pei Yue’s finally here.”

Lu Tongtong turned to look too. “Why is she riding so slowly? High school second years have to check in at 8:30, right? It’s almost eight now, and she doesn’t look hurried at all.”

Bai Kou laughed. “She’s not Yang Wanxi; she probably calculated the time just right.”

“Achoo—” Someone far away in Nanjing, attending university, sneezed hard.

Bai Kou sat on the back seat and held onto Pei Yue’s waist, leaning down to ask, “Pei Yue, where should I put my feet?”

“Here here here, probably this footrest.” Lu Tongtong pointed at the spot, answering before Pei Yue could.

“Oh.” Bai Kou tried stepping on it after hearing that, then lightly patted Pei Yue’s waist twice with the hand holding on. “Pei Yue, take a look, is this right?”

Pei Yue glanced down slightly, scanned it, and responded faintly, “Mm, yes.”

It was time to part.

Bai Kou was especially reluctant. Sitting on the back seat, she hugged Lu Tongtong who stood beside her. “We can still see each other tonight for one last time before military training! See you tonight!”

“Wahhh, I’ll miss you!” Lu Tongtong said.

Pei Yue didn’t turn her head the whole time, only glancing at the electric scooter’s rearview mirror with the corner of her eye—

Inside, Bai Kou had her hair in a neat high ponytail, her face completely shed of the baby fat from junior high, looking almost the same age as her, like a high schooler.

On the way to school, Pei Yue rode steadily, even slower than the bus at startup.

Feeling the speed wasn’t dangerous, Bai Kou let go of Pei Yue’s waist, leaned down slightly, and focused on studying the newly downloaded WeChat on her phone.

The interface… looked kinda tacky, not as user-friendly as QQ.

Should she add a friend first to try?

【Sis~ Do you have a WeChat ID? ovo】 Of course, the first one had to be her sister.

Unfortunately, after waiting five minutes, her sister still hadn’t replied.

Bai Kou “Mm”ed with a frown, exited QQ and switched back to WeChat. After scrolling around and finding it boring, she put down the phone, leaned close to the shoulder in front of her, and asked, “Pei Yue, do you know about WeChat?”

“Mm.”

Pei Yue had grown up too, different from before—her voice was cooler, and she spoke even less. In Bai Kou’s words, listening to Pei Yue talk was like squeezing toothpaste.

Fortunately, Bai Kou was long used to being the one squeezing that toothpaste.

Hearing Pei Yue’s “Mm,” she immediately placed both hands on Pei Yue’s shoulders. “Have you registered then?”

Pei Yue again: “Mm.”

The two arrived near the city high school around 8:15.

But Pei Yue didn’t ride straight to the school gate. She took several turns and entered a residential complex next to the city high school.

Pei Yue went to park in the underground garage, so Bai Kou waited alone under a tree, looking up at the gaps between the leaves.

After parking, Pei Yue jogged all the way up, only stopping near the uphill entrance.

Her chest rose and fell slightly, her breathing a bit rapid. She saw Bai Kou standing on the slope, on tiptoes trying to touch a dangling green leaf.

The wind picked up.

The green leaf swayed lightly, and spots of light from between the tree shadows fell on Bai Kou’s hair and face. Bai Kou squinted and took advantage of the gust to give a little hop.

“…”

Pei Yue’s breathing gradually steadied, but her heart fluttered like that leaf finally hooked by Bai Kou’s fingertip, swaying gently.

She recalled a scene from long, long ago—Bai Kou standing on the slope by the small shop, her at the bottom. Bai Kou had waved at her with a smile: “Bye-bye! See you next time!”

Perhaps that was when she first—

“Pei Yue, you’re so slow.” Bai Kou interrupted her. “It’s almost 8:20, aren’t you scared of being late?”

Pei Yue came back to herself, strode up quickly, smiled at Bai Kou as she drew near, and said warmly, “Don’t worry, we’ll make it.”

Bai Kou suddenly narrowed her eyes, hands on hips, inching her face closer to Pei Yue.

“…” Pei Yue nervously stepped back half a pace. “…What’s wrong?”

“How do you do it?” Bai Kou asked.

“Do what?”

“Like—” Bai Kou stepped back, gesturing wildly in the air. “How do you pull off that super aloof vibe? Can you teach me? I want to change myself a bit for high school.”

…Pfft.

Pei Yue was amused. She really wanted to say that anyone else calling her aloof would make sense, but how could Bai Kou think she was aloof?

They left the complex and headed toward the school.

Pei Yue walked beside Bai Kou, occasionally glancing sidelong at her as she checked QQ. Tap tap tap, tap tap tap—new messages kept popping up on Bai Kou’s phone.

So busy already this early.

Who could it be?

Pei Yue lowered her gaze, her good mood suddenly sinking again.

The closer they got to the school gate, the more Pei Yue thought that Bai Kou would probably make a bunch of new friends in high school. She wondered what place she would hold in Bai Kou’s heart once those new friends appeared.

Pei Yue’s worries were completely unnecessary.

There was no need to wait for “later.”

Just as the two were about to step through the high school gate, Bai Kou suddenly exclaimed in surprise right beside her—

“Hey! Tao Miao!”

Looking ahead, it was a completely unfamiliar face, yet she ran toward Bai Kou excitedly as if they were old friends.

“Bai Kou!”

The other girl gave Bai Kou a solid hug. “I was just wondering when you’d show up!”

Pei Yue pursed her lips and said, “Bai Kou, I’ll head in first then.”

“Okay, bye-bye!” Bai Kou replied with a beaming smile.

Bye-bye.

With Lu Tongtong, it had been “see you tonight.”

Pei Yue had no words to say. She withdrew her gaze and walked toward the school building without expression.

But she had not taken two steps.

She heard Bai Kou call out to her from behind again.

“Pei Yue——”

She turned around and saw the morning sun, golden and brilliant, sprinkling across Bai Kou’s face.

Bai Kou curved her eyes at her. “Wait for me at noon oh! We’ll eat together!”

“……”

Pei Yue tried to hold back for two seconds, but she still couldn’t control herself. The corners of her mouth instantly curved up just like Bai Kou’s. Then, without a trace of coldness, she bent her eyes into a smile and called back loudly.

“Good——I’ll wait for you——”