Chapter 12
When Jiang Mu returned to Jin Qiang’s house, they were already asleep. She tried to be as quiet as possible, took a shower, and went back to her room. Then she finished some problems she hadn’t completed yet. Around midnight, she took out the math test again. She hadn’t finished the last big problem on the test. The reason was simple, she didn’t know how to solve it. So, she planned to take another look at it before going to bed.
However, when she opened the test paper, she was surprised to find that the last big question had a diagram drawn under it in pencil.
Jiang Mu remembered that her former math teacher once said that drawing diagrams is an effective way to translate a problem. It helps to visualize the thinking process and the conditions of the problem, making the solution clearer and faster.
She understood the theory, but when faced with difficult problems, she occasionally found herself at a loss for how to start. Mathematics has always been her weakness from childhood to now.
But as she looked at the diagram in front of her, she gradually started to get some ideas. The only thing she could think of was that earlier, when Jin Chao had helped her put her things into her bag, he had casually drawn it. Jiang Mu then spent another half hour solving the problem. When she finished and looked at the full set of formulas, she suddenly felt a sense of excitement. She reviewed it twice more, and just as she was about to close the test paper, she noticed a pencil mark in the bottom right corner. It was upside down, so she flipped the paper over, and to her surprise, it was the answer to the problem, exactly the same as her result.
In that instant, Jiang Mu felt an unparalleled sense of accomplishment. With problems of this difficulty, she usually only managed to score points for the first part, but it wasn’t common for her to get full marks. It was even rarer for her to solve a problem so smoothly like today.
She looked at the words left by Jin Chao and fell into a brief moment of reflection. This was the first time she had felt the gap between them, and she seemed to understand the regret she had seen in Old Ma’s eyes.
On Monday, Jiang Mu wore Jin Chao’s school uniform to the high school. Although the uniform was too big for her, she had to roll up the sleeves several times to make her hands visible. However, when she thought about how Jin Chao had once worn this uniform and attended classes here, a sense of unfamiliarity mixed with something else stirred within her.
Since Jiang Mu started wearing the uniform, people often stared at her. At first, she thought it was because the uniform was too large and attracted attention, so she didn’t pay much attention to it. But one day, after a physics class, Yan Xiaoyi asked her, “Did you notice that Old Zheng stopped next to you and stared at you for a while?”
This puzzled Jiang Mu. During the physics class, when Teacher Zheng came by her side, he specifically called her up to answer a question. While she was answering, Teacher Zheng didn’t take his eyes off her. Even after she finished, he stared at her meaningfully and said, “Diligent people are rewarded by heaven. They endure hardships and wait for their chance, like the three thousand armored men who swallowed the state of Wu.”
The motivational quote caught her off guard, and she responded vaguely, “Yeah, does Teacher Zheng often do that?”
Yan Xiaoyi glanced at the school badge on her chest and asked, “Where did you borrow your uniform from?”
“What’s wrong?”
Noticing that Jiang Mu was confused, Yan Xiaoyi explained, “When I was in my second year, I heard someone say that, a long time ago, the school used to give out special uniforms to students who won awards in city-level or higher academic competitions. Besides the certificate and scholarship, the awardees would receive a special uniform. The uniform looked the same as the regular ones, but in the middle of the badge, there would be an embroidered trophy. Usually, the trophy was silver, but only those who placed in the top three in the city or provincial levels would get a gold trophy. As far as I know, this reward system was only in place for two years before it was canceled for some reason. There was a rumor that only one gold trophy uniform was given out during those two years, but no one has actually seen it. Even we’ve never seen the silver one. Teacher Ma once confirmed this during a class in Class 5. He said the person who received the gold trophy uniform was one of his proud students. Do you know who that person is?”
Jiang Mu froze and lowered her head. She saw that the badge on her chest clearly featured a golden trophy design. Suddenly, she recalled the scene from that day, when San Lai had wanted to borrow the uniform, but Jin Chao had refused, telling her that it was the only one, so she should take care of it. He had said he didn’t even have a chance to wear it.
At the time, she thought “the only one” meant that, after four or five years since their graduation, they couldn’t find a second one. She never expected that this uniform was indeed the exclusive, limited-edition one from Tonggang High School.
No wonder so many people had been staring at her clothes these past few days. As an outsider, Jiang Mu had never known about this piece of history from high school. She dumbly told Yan Xiaoyi, “Well… it’s not mine, I borrowed it from someone.”
She was afraid Yan Xiaoyi would ask more about the owner of the uniform, and she certainly couldn’t tell her that the so-called legendary figure they were talking about was now fixing cars just a few streets away, could she?
Instinctively, Jiang Mu tried to protect Jin Chao’s privacy and didn’t speak further.
After school, she took some time to go get a haircut. Since the fifth and sixth grades of elementary school, Jiang Mu had rarely kept her hair long. She would always cut it short as soon as it reached her shoulders. Jiang Yinghan had once told her that she was already lacking in exercise and had a picky appetite. If she wasn’t careful, all the nutrients she managed to absorb would go into her hair, causing it to grow too fast, which made her feel a sense of urgency whenever it got longer.
After the haircut, her face appeared even smaller. One day, during a math class, Yan Xiaoyi quietly whispered to her, “Have you heard the news?”
“Heard what?” Jiang Mu asked.
“The boys in class are saying you have a first-love face.”
Jiang Mu couldn’t be bothered with those boys. The students in her class were actually one year younger than her, and for students, there’s always a clear psychological gap between grades. So, in her eyes, they were like little brothers.
However, ever since the “first-love face” comment spread, Pan Kai began to feel a strong sense of crisis. For the past few days, he insisted on following Jiang Mu after school. If she took the number 8 bus, he would take the number 8 bus too. If she switched to the number 12, he would switch as well. He wouldn’t stop until he saw her get home.
Since the bus company wasn’t owned by Jiang Mu’s family, she couldn’t stop Pan Kai from taking the bus. All she could do was tell him every time she got off, “Can you stop following me?”
Pan Kai would act clueless and look around randomly, and the next day, it was the same.
One day, Zhao Meijuan, who had just returned from the supermarket, saw them together. That evening, she told Jin Qiang, “I saw some boy sent your daughter home. Do you think she’s in puppy love?”
Jin Qiang said disapprovingly, “How could that be? She’s only been in school for a little over half a month. It’s not like what you’re imagining.”
Zhao Meijuan retorted, “Yeah, your daughter is perfect, but if anything happens, you know her mother will come to you and demand answers. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Jin Qiang shot her a side-eye and said, “Why do you sound more and more worked up about this?”
Originally, Zhao Meijuan had just casually mentioned the matter, but the next day, when she went downstairs to throw out the trash, she saw Pan Kai again. She even went out of her way to circle around to the side of the building, and when Jiang Mu came upstairs and saw the boy still lingering there, it was obvious to her that they were in a relationship.
Without hesitation, Zhao Meijuan took out her phone and called Jin Chao. As soon as the call connected, she shouted into the phone, “It’s happening! Old Jin’s daughter is dating! I noticed this a few days ago, and when I told Old Jin, he insisted it couldn’t be true. But I’ve seen it with my own eyes! You need to send a few people to secretly warn that boy. If something happens, that woman might blame us, and who knows how she’ll spin it!”
Jin Chao had been very busy these days, and when he received the call from Zhao Meijuan, he was also occupied. The news surprised him, but since he knew Zhao Meijuan had a tendency to exaggerate, he asked, “What exactly did you see?”
Zhao Meijuan added fuel to the fire and said, “The boy walks her home every night, and they’re holding hands happily.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course! Don’t I have good eyes?”
“Got it.”
Jin Chao hung up the phone, threw the socket wrench aside, and sat on a discarded tire, lighting a cigarette. San Lai pushed open the back door and looked at him, surprised. “Didn’t you say you were in a rush to finish the work? Why are you sitting there smoking?”
Jin Chao glanced at him but didn’t say anything. After a few seconds, he suddenly spoke, “Give me Brother Zhang Tong’s younger brother’s number.”
“Zhang Fan? Why are you looking for him?” San Lai asked as he handed over Zhang Fan’s phone number to Jin Chao.
Jin Chao stood up, walked to the backyard wall, and dialed Zhang Fan’s number, asking him to find out whether Jiang Mu was really in a relationship at school.
In Jin Chao’s view, if she weren’t repeating a year, Jiang Mu would be in her first year of university now. If she really had a boyfriend, it wouldn’t be considered puppy love, but since it was happening right under his nose, he felt he should get some understanding.
Zhang Fan was quick to gather the details. The next day, when he arrived at school, he had one of his classmates ask around. It turned out that this classmate lived in the same neighborhood as Pan Kai. A week earlier, when Jiang Mu and Pan Kai had come to visit Zhang Fan, Pan Kai had introduced Jiang Mu as his future sister-in-law.
So, the classmate directly told Zhang Fan, “Yeah, that repeat student is Pan Kai’s girlfriend.”
The news reached Jin Chao by the morning. By noon, Zhao Meijuan hurriedly called him again, urging, “By the way, when you handle this, make sure you do it carefully. Don’t upset Jiang Mu or she might try something drastic like threaten to commit suicide.”
“…Mm, I’ll talk to her tonight.”
Jin Chao hung up the phone and thought for a while. He realized he had never dealt with something like this before. He didn’t feel like he had the right to break up Jiang Mu and Pan Kai, and he certainly didn’t have the position to beat up the guy. At this point, he really couldn’t bring himself to do something like that.
Just then, he saw San Lai brushing the cat’s fur outside the shop. Jin Chao threw him a cigarette and asked, “I’ve got a question for you, how do you break up a couple?”
San Lai gave him a strange look. “Kicking down a widow’s door, drinking postpartum milk, breaking up happy couples… when did you start doing such wicked things? But if you really want to do it, it’s simple. You just go and sleep with the woman. If that doesn’t work, sleep with the man instead.”
Jin Chao thought discussing this with him was a total waste of time. He stood up and walked into the repair room, but he could still hear San Lai calling out from outside, “So, which couple are you trying to break up?”