Chapter 22: Popsicles Are Better Than Little Puddings.

On the fourth day after the two pots of Endless Summer Hydrangeas were placed on the balcony, the monthly exams quietly arrived.

The exams used individual desks. Each class was split into two exam rooms, with alternating seat assignments. Exam Room One held the humanities students, and Exam Room Two held the science students.

Yu Ting was still assigned to his original classroom, though his seat was now in the second row.

On the first morning, they had the Chinese language exam. Yu Ting was the first to enter the exam room and, as usual, was working on his physics workbook.

He had just ticked one multiple-choice question when someone else arrived. At the same time, a box of mochi landed beside his hand.

Four plump, white mochi, like four bars of creamy soap. Two of them, faintly pink, were strawberry mochi. The other two, hinting at a pale golden color, were mango mochi.

A bottle of milk was set down next.

A glass bottle, without any label.

Yu Ting looked up. Lu Jue had already walked over to the first row of the next section.

Besides the mochi and the bottle of milk, Lu Jue had only brought a single pen. He sat down and immediately put his head down to sleep.

Yu Ting’s slightly parted lips closed again. After a few seconds of silence, he silently tore open the mochi packaging, ate one strawberry and one mango, and finished the milk as well.

The milk bottle was exceptionally fine and beautiful, the glass crystal clear and bright, with a smooth, even mouth. So Yu Ting kept it. After cleaning it, it could serve as a pen holder, or to hold a few stems of fresh flowers.

When it was time for the exam, the proctor stepped onto the lectern. Yu Ting put the remaining two mochi into his desk.

Receiving the exam paper, Yu Ting pressed his pen cap and, for a moment, lifted his eyes to glance ahead and to the right.

Lu Jue was already answering the questions.

“…”

He wasn’t just blindly picking answers without reading, was he?

Yu Ting pressed the pen cap down and withdrew his gaze.

Yu Ting’s strength in the sciences was peerlessly outstanding, but his Chinese single-subject score was also within the top ten of the grade. He was especially good at writing essays. During the first-year final exams, the teacher hadn’t been able to restrain themselves and gave his essay full marks.

This time, the Chinese exam was on the difficult side. The essay topic was very abstract, making it easy to misinterpret and go off-topic. Yet Yu Ting still finished half an hour early.

His pen drew a final period in the last square, marking the end. Yu Ting clicked his pen cap down.

He generally didn’t recheck his papers.

This was his experience: the first pass had the highest accuracy rate.

But he also never handed in his paper early.

One minute before the end bell rang, he packed up his pen bag. Only when the bell actually rang did Yu Ting go to hand in his paper.

As he passed the front-right, he glanced at Lu Jue. Lu Jue was still racing against time to write his essay, the gridded page filled densely.

That afternoon, they had the math exam. This monthly math test was unusually simple. Half an hour in, students began handing in their papers one after another.

Yu Ting set his cleanly written paper aside and began calculating problems from his own mind on his scratch paper. As the ending bell approached, he stopped writing. Something occurred to him, and he glanced ahead.

As expected, Lu Jue was still writing furiously.

By this point, there were only five or six students left in the exam room. As soon as the bell rang, the proctor hurriedly urged them, “Pens down! Pens down! Get into good habits. The Gaokao won’t give you even one extra minute…”

Yu Ting waited for Lu Jue in the hallway. Not far from the teaching building was the basketball court.

Grade 11 Class 3 still had one more exam that evening, but the students who were already done had gathered to play ball.

Several of the school’s most popular boys were on the court, drawing a growing crowd of spectators.

Yu Ting only swept his gaze over once. When he turned back, he saw Lu Jue following his line of sight.

“Wanna play ball?” Lu Jue asked.

“No.”

The two of them descended the stairs side by side. Yu Ting suddenly asked, “How did you do?”

“Pretty good.” Lu Jue sounded confident, not like he was faking it at all.

“…”

When he’d handed in his paper, Yu Ting had glanced over Lu Jue’s answers. He’d applied the formulas, and every problem was calculated out to a dense, detailed solution.

Every single one was wrong.

He might not even get any points for the steps.

Yu Ting was about to say something, but the next second, he pressed his lips together. Maybe Lu Jue genuinely thought he’d done well.

There was one time Li Chengxi scored 56 on a math test, and his parents were so happy they gave him a six-figure red envelope. They also wanted to give one to Yu Ting for the month he’d spent tutoring Li Chengxi.

He naturally hadn’t accepted it.

Just then, Lu Jue mumbled something. Yu Ting didn’t catch it. He tilted his head and asked, “What?”

Lu Jue also turned his head to look at him, the corner of his mouth curving up. “This way, we’ll still be deskmates.”

Exiting the teaching building, the cheers from the basketball court became even clearer. Yu Ting took two or three seconds to process this. He understood. It was about the seats being rearranged based on monthly exam scores.

He’d always chosen the last row. He was allergic to chalk dust, and sitting in the front rows often meant eating chalk dust, especially in summer.

He’d never cared much who his deskmate was either. As long as they didn’t affect his studying, he didn’t mind anyone.

Yu Ting didn’t know how to respond for a moment, so he simply said, “Oh,” and changed the subject. “I’m going to the canteen.”

“I’ll come too.” Lu Jue smiled. “The housekeeper asked for the day off today.”

A short while later, the housekeeper, who had already cooked and set the table, received a message: “Not coming back. Help yourself to the food.”

~

After the monthly exams came the weekend. Early that morning, while the sky was still dark, Zhao Rufei rushed to the fish market and bought back a large crate of live octopus.

Zhao Rufei signed, “Fresh off the boat, super fresh! This evening, we’ll invite your Aunt Zhang’s family over and have a live octopus hotpot.”

She smiled and signed again, “You should invite Little Lu too! The more people, the livelier!”

When Yu Ting’s phone call came in, Lu Garden had an uninvited guest.

Guan Ning stomped his foot, swearing an oath. “Bro, you have to believe me! I was just running my mouth for show, I swear I didn’t go to Uncle Lu to snitch!”

Lu Jue’s expression was blank. When the phone rang, his cold features instantly softened. He finally spared Guan Ning a glance. “Get out.”

Seeing that Lu Jue was acknowledging him, Guan Ning immediately broke into a grin. “Got it!” He ran off in a bouncing, skipping gait and closed the door behind him.

Lu Jue answered the phone at the same time. “Morning.”

Yu Ting was doing his homework; the faint scratching sound of a pen could be heard. “My mom is making live octopus hotpot tonight. Do you want to come?”

“I’ll be there.”

Yu Ting added, “Aunt Zhang… the housekeeper who works at your place. She’ll be there too. Is that okay with you?”

Lu Jue pushed open the window and looked down at the Endless Summer Hydrangeas that had spread into a large patch in the courtyard below. The corner of his mouth lifted. “Oh, so your housekeeper works at my place. She probably hasn’t seen me before.”

“Alright.”

With the time set for six o’clock, Yu Ting hung up. He did some practice problems for a while, then eventually put down his pen and went out to clean up early.

He mopped the floor until it shone, polished the dining table and coffee table until they gleamed, changed the sofa cover, and watered all the flowers and plants in the yard. Then, Yu Ting took a pair of scissors and cut two Endless Summer Hydrangea blooms, each as wide as a rice bowl, from the yard. He brought them inside and placed them in the glass milk bottle, setting it on the dining table.

After finishing the cleaning, Yu Ting rode his bike to the shop to buy drinks and snacks.

Zhang Minhua had a daughter, around six years old. Yu Ting picked out candies and biscuits that little girls liked, and grabbed a few Creamy Little Pudding Popsicles as well. As his gaze swept past the salted ice pops, Yu Ting’s fingers paused. He grabbed a few of those too, stuffing them into the bag before going to check out.

When he was almost home, his phone buzzed furiously in his pocket. Yu Ting stopped by the side of the road and pulled it out. The incoming call was from Li Chengxi.

“Brother Ting, let me set up a WeChat account for you!” Li Chengxi sounded drunk, his voice low. He laughed. “Your QQ video calls never connect.”

Yu Ting steered his bicycle with one hand, holding the phone with the other and pushing the bike toward home. “Is something wrong?”

“Nothing really.” Li Chengxi laughed. “Just wanted to… see if you’ve put on any weight!”

“Okay.” Yu Ting said, “I’ll check the scale when I get home.”

“You’re outside?”

“Yeah, buying some things.”

Li Chengxi immediately asked, “Did you like those egg tarts from last time? I have a friend flying back to the country this week. Want them to bring you a few boxes?”

“No need.” Yu Ting said, “I’m not really used to them.”

“Fine.” Li Chengxi let out a low chuckle. A silence stretched for two seconds. Just as Yu Ting thought he was about to hang up, Li Chengxi suddenly asked, “You’re getting along well with your new deskmate, right?”

He was already home. Yu Ting stopped the bike. He wasn’t surprised Li Chengxi knew about Lu Jue; Li Chengxi was still in contact with him, and he definitely still had other friends at No. 2 High School. Knowing about Lu Jue was normal.

He took the plastic bag off the handlebars and carried it inside. “Yeah, he’s a good person.”

Li Chengxi’s voice suddenly turned deeply melancholic. “Brother Ting, I regret it. I shouldn’t have listened to my parents and gone abroad.”

Yu Ting went into the kitchen and opened the fridge, crouching down to put the ice cream and popsicles in the freezer. “What exactly is going on?”

A long silence followed over the phone. Yu Ting waited patiently, not making a sound to disturb Li Chengxi. A minute passed before Li Chengxi laughed very lightly. “Brother Ting, have you liked any girls lately?”

The topic had completely shifted. Yu Ting closed the freezer door and stood up. “No.”

“What kind of girl do you like?”

“Never thought about it.” Yu Ting considered his words, then said, “Is it a relationship issue? I can’t help you with that.”

Li Chengxi laughed aloud. “Sort of. I’ll tell you when I come back at the end of the year.”

~

A little past five in the afternoon, Zhang Minhua’s family arrived.

Zhang Minhua’s husband was an honest, hardworking man. Upon entering, he immediately took the large and small bags of ingredients into the kitchen and got busy.

Their daughter, Little Minmin, made a beeline straight for Yu Ting’s room. “The rain stopped!”

The little girl’s words still had a milky, childish lisp. “The rain stopped” was the nickname she’d given Yu Ting. [T/N: Yu Ting’s name sounds like ‘rain stopped’ in Chinese(Yu = Rain, Ting = Stop).]

But she hadn’t run a few steps before Zhang Minhua scooped her back. “Don’t bother your brother while he’s studying. Go watch TV in the living room!”

Yu Ting opened his door and came out, his eyes curving slightly. “I’m done studying. Let me take her out to play for a bit.”

“Yay!” Little Minmin quickly slid down from Zhang Minhua’s arms and dashed over like a gust of wind to hug Yu Ting’s leg. Her chubby, fair face beamed like a little sun. “Brother, I want a Little Pudding!”

When she was asking for treats, she’d still call him brother.

Yu Ting bent down and patted Little Minmin’s head. “Okay.”

Zhang Minhua chuckled merrily. “Only one, alright! We’re eating soon!”

She then asked Yu Ting, “Your mother said you have a friend coming. Is it that Li?”

She could never remember Li Chengxi’s name, only having a vague impression of a tall, strapping, rather handsome young man.

“No.”

“Oh.” Zhang Minhua didn’t ask further and went into the kitchen to help.

Yu Ting went to get a Little Pudding popsicle and led Little Minmin out to the yard.

He tore open the wrapper, took out the Little Pudding, crouched down, and handed it to Little Minmin. The little girl blinked her big, bright eyes. “Aren’t you having one?”

“I already ate.” Yu Ting curved his lips into a smile. “You eat it.”

Little Minmin suddenly leaned close to Yu Ting’s mouth, sniffing like a little puppy. Her lips puckered into an unhappy pout. “Your mouth doesn’t smell like Little Pudding! The rain stopped, you’re lying!”

Yu Ting continued smiling. He lifted his hand and very gently ruffled Little Minmin’s hair. “I’m not lying. I ate a popsicle. It wouldn’t smell like Little Pudding.”

Little Minmin immediately thrust her Little Pudding up to his mouth. “Popsicles aren’t as good as Little Puddings! You have a bite too!”

Yu Ting obediently took a small bite from the side.

Only then did Little Minmin start eating her ice cream, fully satisfied. As she ate, she pulled a pretty little beanbag from her pocket. “Brother, let’s play beanbag toss!”

“Okay.”

Yu Ting had just stood up when his phone abruptly buzzed once in his pocket.

He pulled out his phone.

It was a text message.

[Lu: Popsicles are better than Little Puddings.]