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Chapter 13 – Winter
After the sports meeting, the temperature dropped rapidly and almost every day was cloudy.
The Ginkgo tree facing their classroom window had a lot of leaves.
Chi Tang covered her nose with the sleeve of her school uniform, and said in a low voice, “It smells.”
Next to her, You Yu’s writing movement stopped, and she quietly raised her sleeves and sniffed.
Chi Tang saw it out of the corner of her eyes and said, “It’s not you. It’s the ginkgo outside.”
Although the Ginkgo trees were beautiful, their fruits had a strange smell.
Chi Tang could not bear the smell, and whispered: “You sit by the window, closer than me, can’t you smell it?”
You Yu shook her head: “I’m good.”
Chi Tang took out a mask from her bag and put it on. The front desk couldn’t bear the smell. He complained twice, but when he saw Chi Tang wearing a mask, he still mocked Chi Tang, “Making a fuss, do I need to wear a mask?”
Chi Tang had never been used to every yin and yang person, and she said, “If you’re afraid of being called squeamish if you wear a mask then don’t.”
Sometimes Chi Tang was weird. After she did what others wanted to do but didn’t do, those people would taunt her, as if every place where a crowd gathered couldn’t tolerate aliens, even when it came to small differences.
Chi Tang was particularly sensitive to smells. It was uncomfortable to be disturbed by the smell. She couldn’t concentrate in class. She frowned every time she was in the classroom for two days.
Before long, the ginkgo fruit on the ginkgo tree was picked.
Chi Tang found out for the first time, a little surprised, “The ginkgo fruit is gone?”
Next to her, You Yu lowered her head to read and said, “Well, Ginkgo fruits can be used to make soup. During the lunch break, the cafeteria teacher brought the basket and picked it.”
Chi Tang didn’t ask how she knew, but felt subconscious nausea at the so-called ginkgo soup, “So smelly, how can the soup be cooked?”
She didn’t want to go to the cafeteria because of the stinky ginkgo fruit, so she went to the small shop to get some bread.
You Yu: “It uses the fruit inside to make soup. There’s no smell.”
Chi Tang raised her hand and refused. She didn’t believe it, she would never drink the soup made from that smelly thing!
The temperature was dropping steadily. Autumn seemed like a cross between summer and winter. Winter had arrived before they had had a chance to enjoy Autumn.
Getting up early in winter had become a test of willpower. It was particularly difficult to leave the warm quilt. However, their headteacher, Lao Fang, was a health-conscious middle-aged man. They were asked to get up early for a run and exercise. When they got up every morning, they were all covered everywhere from the snow because of the run.
Among the shrunken students, You Yu stood out from the crowd. Where everyone else wore sweaters or changed thick coats, she still wore her school uniform jacket but changed from short sleeves to long sleeves. It was especially thin.
Chi Tang wanted to ask her if she didn’t have a sweater, but felt that she didn’t need to ask. She knew the answer already. There were very few things in You Yu’s cabinet, few clothes, and nothing that would provide sufficient protection against the cold winter.
Do you want to buy it for her? Since getting closer to You Yu inexplicably, Chi Tang had often troubled this question, do you want to help her?
But she usually brought You Yu a bottle of water and the girl always insisted to pay her back. Even if it wasn’t money, You Yu would find a way to repay her. Chi Tang had bought her two bras a while ago and to this day, You Yu kept feeding her questions, trying to help her with her studies as a way to repay her kindness.
If she bought her another piece of clothing, You Yu would keep count of the money. It was better to ask her to buy it herself. If she didn’t accept it would be very troublesome.
You Yu sat by the window. It happened that there was a small gap in the window that was not tightly pulled. After the winter, every night for self-study, there was always a lot of wind, and all of them shivered in the classroom because of that gap, although Yu Yu didn’t seem to care.
“Let’s sit in another position, I want to sit inside.” Chi Tang said suddenly.
You Yu was surprised by the statement. When she looked up at her, she was still a bit at a loss. She changed with her without hesitation. She didn’t react until the evening self-study preparation bath.
You Yu was confused. She thought, does Chi Tang think I wear too little? Is she worried about me getting a cold?
As she thought of this, she saw Chi Tang coming out of the bathroom, still with steam inside. In winter, they didn’t have daily baths but Chi Tang took the same number of baths as her, and Chi Tang often took baths before her.
You Yu entered the bathroom and closed the door. Not surprisingly, she saw Chi Tang’s hot water card placed there and did not take it away.
Before, You Yu always took the card down and put it aside, but this time, she picked up the card and opened the door to go out, put the card on the bed of Chi Tang, “Your hot water card. You always forget to take it.”
Chi Tang was wiping her hair, looking at the hot water card, humming.
You Yu turned to leave, and heard Chi Tang say behind her: “Next time I forget to take it, you can just use it”
You Yu couldn’t help but smile, feeling a little bit sad again in her heart, she turned around and reached out to the upper bunk.
Chi Tang: “What?”
You Yu: “Take my hand.”
Chi Tang looked at her for a moment before lowering her hand. You Yu suddenly felt that Chi Tang was like a cat when Chi Tang stretched out her hand, her expression full of vigilance and uncertainty.
Chi Tang found that her deskmate’s hands were warm, much warmer than her cold hands and feet this winter.
You Yu: “I am not afraid of the cold. I used to be at home and used cold water in winter. I am used to it.”
Chi Tang: “Oh.”
A few days later, You Yu put on a sweater. The yellow sweater didn’t look new, but it looked good, soft, and thick. Chi Tang didn’t see her wearing it before, so she won’t know where it came from.
“Let’s change our seats back.” You Yu suggested. She had something to cover herself and she didn’t look cold anymore, so she didn’t need Chi Tang to sit by the window to block her from the wind.
Chi Tang didn’t want to expose her thought that it was not enough for the outside, and she insisted: “I said I want to sit by the window.”
You Yu: “Okay.”
The next day, Chi Tang found the teacher in charge of the class and found a school worker to fix the window, and the thin gap was gone. When the final exam was about to fall, it snowed.
Chi Tang had never lived in Nanlin City before. She won’t know if there had been heavy snow in the city in the past years, but her hometown was a small county next to Nanlin City. According to her memory, there seemed to have been heavy snow.
Local students from Nanlin in the classroom said that they had not seen such heavy snow in recent years.
During class, people kept looking out the window. When class was over, most of the classroom was empty, they had all run out to see the snowflakes.
It didn’t take long for the snow to fall, and there was not enough snow on the ground, but everyone was very excited.
Chi Tang hadn’t seen heavy snow for a long time, so she held her head and looked at the window for a long time. The teacher in the class took the classmates to review at the front podium, and she couldn’t help turning her head to look at the heavy snow outside the window, watching the branches and trees covered with snow, and watching the snow on the ground slowly thicken.
The bad-tempered math teacher called her name.
“Chi Tang, the teacher is standing on the podium, not standing outside the window to give a lecture. What are you looking at? If you want to see, how about you go outside?”
Chi Tang then retracted her gaze and stared at the book with a sullen face.
The math teacher called on the names of a few more students, and they all had a scolding session before saying: “You will take the exam right away after returning for the Chinese New Year. This is the last chance to work hard this year. Go back to see your parents!”
Chi Tang sneered, her parents never cared about her grades, and what she got in the exam did not prevent them from quarreling and scolding her.
However, You Yu gave her a notebook after class, “I have done a summary of the test papers myself, as well as classic questions. Do it twice. The final exam will be almost the same.”
Chi Tang: “I don’t need it.”
After she said that, she felt a sense of deja vu as if she had already told You Yu several times.
You Yu: “It’s okay to do it again. It can help you improve.”
Chi Tang suddenly said, “Have you heard this sentence on the Internet?”
You Yu: “What?”
Chi Tang: “Family may deceive you, friends may betray you, math can’t.”
You Yu covered her mouth and laughed so hard that she couldn’t stop.
Chi Tang’s expression was indifferent, was it so funny?
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