FWP Chapter 2

Chapter 2.2 Ants

Zhou Zhao had a fiery temper.

On the first day back after the Qingming holiday, he banished me to the front row.

I don’t know what he said to the homeroom teacher, but when I entered the classroom, the desk next to Zhou Zhao’s was already empty.

After not seeing him for one night, Zhou Zhao seemed much more distant.

I looked around, and some classmates were looking at me.

“Where’s my desk?”

Zhou Zhao’s hand rested on the desk, a pencil held between his fingers. He rotated the pencil from his index finger to his little finger, then back again, looking at me with his characteristic cold gaze. The language representative collected homework, reaching our row. She gestured for me to look at the desk under the podium in the first row, “Teacher Zhang moved you to the front, give me your Mock Exam 3 paper first.”

All morning, I couldn’t hear what the teacher was saying.

I was sitting in a place where I could see the blackboard without effort. Chalk dust drifted in the air, the teacher’s lips moved, Zhou Zhao lowered his head, where was I?

During the break, I lay on the desk, and through the desk, the sounds inside this teaching building connected to my body. I knew that downstairs was the top class of the second year arts stream. They seemed to be preparing for the monthly exam. I heard everyone clearing their desks and arranging the exam hall. Several girls were chasing and hitting a boy, their laughter was soft, but the trailing sound was sharp like a whistle. Further away, on the first floor, there was a small shop. The owner was using a trolley to move boxes of drinks. He went over the threshold, and the bottles full of drinks jumped and fell heavily. I heard him take out a lighter from his pocket, strike a spark with a “ch-ching” sound, tobacco was burning, he took a deep puff, pulled open the change drawer, and several coins clattered against the drawer door. His hand rummaged through the coins, finally finding a bottle opener. The opener hooked onto a bottle of soda or beer, he opened it effortlessly, then took a sip. The sound of him swallowing climbed over the walls, clinging to every brick stacked upwards, spreading like thin threads over the wires of the rotating ceiling fan. His joy climbed into my ears. I knew I had been cut off.

From Zhou Zhao.

/

I think Wanderer is sick, mentally.

He hasn’t spoken to me for three weeks, nor has he asked me how I managed to persuade the homeroom teacher to give him a better seat.

Has Wanderer forgotten that he’s my only friend in this class? If he deliberately doesn’t talk to me, I’m basically in a state of isolation.

After dinner, I told Xiaomei, and Xiaomei also said this classmate was sick.

Xiaomei is the aunt my dad hired to take care of me. She cooks very well and has studied baking. When I study late at night, she cuts fruit platters for me.

I think Xiaomei is wrong, not entirely right. I know why Wanderer is angry, but I don’t understand why he has the right to be angry.

After summer began, the school changed the uniforms. I only came last winter, and the homeroom teacher asked me to buy a summer uniform at the student affairs office.

The student affairs office is good at passing the buck, telling me to find the school worker, who will take me to the warehouse to get it.

How would I know where the school worker is, or where the warehouse is?

I went back to the classroom and wandered around, and only Wanderer was in the class. He recently added unnecessary pressure to his studies. Those brand-new notebooks are Error Correction Notebooks that he put together by sleeping one hour less each day.

Error Correction Notebooks are good and bad. Wanderer, a stubborn person, obviously doesn’t know how to study. I walked over and kicked his desk.

Wanderer looked up, wearing the short-sleeved shirt of the summer uniform, which was a little transparent.

I touched my nose. It was the first time I had seen Wanderer’s face in three weeks. Wanderer didn’t speak, and neither did I. After a while, Wanderer asked, “What?”

“I need to buy a uniform, do you know where to buy it?”

Wanderer thought for a while and said that at this time, you can only find the school worker to get it from the warehouse.

So all I needed to do was find Wanderer.

Wanderer took a piece of scrap paper and started drawing a map on the back. I was impatient with this fussing and asked him to take me directly. I slowed my breathing, waiting for Wanderer to nod. He often nods to me. Sure enough, Wanderer nodded, stood up, and his shoulder brushed against mine.

On the way to find the school worker, Wanderer said, “Thank you for helping me get a new chair.”

I was a little surprised, so he knew.

“I know, Chen Buchu took my chair away.” Wanderer’s hands were in his pockets, and he walked a little briskly.

Chen Buchu? Who is that?

Wanderer raised his eyebrows, “You don’t know who Chen Buchu is? He used to sit to our right, third row from the back.”

I don’t remember. Chen Buchu is not a good name, unclear. I said, “Does he have a brother named Buqing?”

Wanderer rolled his eyes.

A summer uniform costs 110, and you can try it on. I grabbed the collar and took off my clothes. Wanderer, who was originally standing next to me, suddenly turned his face to the left. I was afraid he would strain his neck by turning too fast.

I thought we could skip the unpleasantness of getting glasses and took the time to ask, “Is your neck okay? Did you get a cramp?”

Wanderer turned his neck back to show that he was fine. As soon as he looked at me, his eyes fluttered. I was confused. Did I have nails on my body that poked his eyes?

/

Zhou Zhao asked me for a small favor yesterday afternoon. Now he’s asking for my help again today.

I don’t know why he has so many favors to ask.

This time, Zhou Zhao’s chair was broken. He saw new chairs in the warehouse yesterday. He looked so relaxed carrying the chair, he obviously didn’t need help. Zhou Zhao blinked and said he didn’t remember the way.

After going to the warehouse for two days in a row, the school worker remembered us.

Zhou Zhao wore his new uniform, standing with his hands on his hips, browsing through the chairs. He seemed to be strolling through a furniture store, and he even beckoned me to look at the engravings on the old chairs.

“CLH, I like you. Who is CLH? Cai Lehe?”

Zhou Zhao is from the North, and when he says “Lehe,” he emphasizes the “Le” sound, as if he’s treating other people’s affection as a joke.

I found one and pointed it out to him, “Don’t want to go to school, want to go online.” Zhou Zhao really liked it and took out his phone to take a picture.

There are fewer people who want to go online, and more people use the back of the chair as a confession wall. After watching for a while, Zhou Zhao told me seriously that this Cai Lehe must be a very popular boy. He had already seen five girls who liked Cai Lehe.

I asked, “What if it’s a boy?”

Zhou Zhao “ahhed” and tilted his head to examine the back of the chair, “The writing is so round, it should be a girl.”

“Suppose. Suppose it’s a guy.”

Zhou Zhao licked his lips, narrowed his eyes, and made a mischievous comment: “If a guy likes a guy, then it’s gay, so there are gays here too.”

I could barely breathe. Zhou Zhao put his arm around my shoulders like a good buddy. He leaned close to my ear, his breath a little warm.

“Let me tell you, at my old school, there was also a gay couple. Those two were acting strange all day, and whenever they argued, they would use a knife to cut their arms, making them look like two tattooed arms. I was thinking, aren’t these two idiots?”

“Wanderer, you have to be careful. My friend told me that you’re the type that gays like the most.”

/

“What type?” Wanderer asked me, word by word.

I thought his expression was a little scary. The warehouse was very big, and there weren’t many lights installed. His face looked like a blank piece of paper. I hugged him, and he was especially cold. I subconsciously rubbed his arm. “It’s the type that gays like, big eyes, high nose, red lips,” I thought of what Li Tinglin said and reached out to pinch Wanderer’s waist, “and also the waist, some gays like thin waists, you have to be careful when you enter society.”

Wanderer broke away from me. He wanted to laugh, but he laughed reluctantly. He pointed at me, “You touched my waist, you’re also gay.”

That’s humorous.

I laughed out loud, and for the first time, I thought Wanderer had a bit of a sense of humor. I grabbed a new chair and walked out with him.

“If I was gay, Youlemei would chase me with a knife for eighteen thousand cuts.”

After walking a few steps, Wanderer didn’t catch up with me. He asked me who Youlemei was.

I scratched my head and said shamefully, “I forgot about that, I’m not a single dog.”

Youlemei’s real name is Yu Zipei, who looks very much like the female lead Jiang Yuchen in the Youlemei advertisement. After I transferred to No. 16 High School, Yu Zipei was 1,100 kilometers away from me. I hadn’t told Wanderer about Yu Zipei. Now that he mentioned it, it made me feel like it was another lifetime.

I haven’t seen Yu Zipei for a long, long time, even though we’re a couple.

On the way back to the classroom, I found a deserted bamboo forest and asked Wanderer to keep watch for me while I took out my phone to call Yu Zipei.

She picked up quickly, “What’s up?”

“Hey, hey, you’re going a bit too far. We haven’t seen each other in so long, don’t you miss me?”

Yu Zipei sneered and started greeting me personally. Her dad teaches Chinese literary history and gave her a very high level of quality education. I like her baring her fangs and claws like this, and I also stole a few curse templates from her.

Wanderer squatted not far away, looking at the ground, his lips softly pursed. The sunlight shone straight through the bamboo branches and cut onto him. The upper half of his face was very bright, which made me unable to see his eyes.

I said to Yu Zipei, “Hey, how do you coax your best friend when she’s angry?”

Yu Zipei stopped sneering. She took a big gulp of watermelon juice, and the slurping sound was a little irritating, “Zhou Zhao, are you brain dead? It’s fine if you quarrel with your dad, but you still make me have a long-distance relationship. I give you a deadline to kneel in front of me after the college entrance examination, kowtow three times and say I’m wrong a hundred times.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll kneel. How about I lick your feet?”

Yu Zipei and I argued with each other, but in the end, I didn’t get any good advice.

Before hanging up, Yu Zipei stopped playing around and turned back into Yu Zipei. Yu Zipei said, “I’m very worried about you. Li Tinglin doesn’t want me to bother you, but I’m worried every day.”

“Zhou Zhao, please come back soon, I’m waiting for you to come back.”

/

There are twelve ants here. The wind is very cold. He finally said to the other end of the phone, I miss you too.

If there is a disaster of space-time regression in the world, please let it happen to me.

I don’t want to like Zhou Zhao anymore.