C4 Chapter 4

“Uh…” She thought for a while. After what felt like forever, like she’d finally worked up the nerve for something huge, she said slowly, “Liang Jing.” Afterward, she glanced around, like she was checking to see if anyone had overheard.

Seriously? It’s just a name—why act like it’s classified? I shot her a look and went back to fighting sleep. I was finally about to doze off when someone kicked my leg twice. I forced my eyes open and found her staring at me with those big eyes.

“What is it?” I asked, exhausted.

“I’m bored. Talk to me.”

I rubbed my forehead. “Fine.”

She lit up. “Okay! Then tell me—where are you headed?”

Still rubbing my forehead, I muttered, “Anlin.”

She clapped. “No way! I’m going to Anlin too. What are you going there for?”

Half-asleep again, I mumbled, “College.”

“What college?”

“Anlin Institute of Engineering and Technology.”

“Holy crap!”

I jolted upright. I swear that “holy crap” wasn’t me. There wasn’t anyone else at the table, so if it wasn’t me, it had to be the sweet, innocent-looking girl across from me.

So girls can talk like that too, huh? I thought.

But Liang Jing was even more fired up than I was. “Wu Xiaogang, we’re going to be classmates! I’m starting there this year too!”

Me: “Oh.”

Liang Jing kept spiraling. “Fate, fate—this is totally fate. I meet a local on the train to college! What does that mean? It means the universe is hinting that my theory is right! Oh, oh—how old are you this year? Eighteen or nineteen?”

Me: “Sixteen.”

Liang Jing froze. “You’re what?”

I cleared my throat and shouted at her, “Sixteen!”

After that, she was the one who went quiet. All the way until we got off, she refused to talk to me.

I had no idea what I’d said wrong, and I wasn’t about to coax her—I was tired. Really tired. If she wasn’t talking, at least it was peaceful. I fell asleep. When I woke up, we still hadn’t arrived, but I heard her sitting on the floor, muttering to herself, “No way… Am I really that old? What if I get to college and I’m the oldest one there? What am I supposed to do… what am I supposed to do…”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. So that’s what she’d been worried about. Honestly, she overthinks more than the pig back home.

She caught me smiling and demanded, cheeks puffed out, “What are you laughing at?”

I clamped my lips shut. “Nothing. You just reminded me of a relative.”

“Who?” she asked.

“My pig. You two look exactly alike when you puff your cheeks out. Hahahaha!” I cackled like a total menace. Seriously—after a good sleep, everything feels funny.

“Y-you… you…” Liang Jing’s face turned bright red, but she couldn’t get a full sentence out. She managed three “you”s in a row and somehow got even redder.

Seeing her like that just made me laugh harder, like it shook all the travel fatigue right out of me…

After we got off the train, there was no way she was letting me out of her sight. Don’t get the wrong idea—she was clinging to me because she wanted to drag me to the university and settle one thing: was she getting old, or was I getting younger? If she was getting old, she’d beat me to death out of sheer frustration. If I was getting younger, she’d beat me to death to make up for all the worrying she’d done on the way.

So, dear readers, I’m doomed…

That said, I was actually pretty happy to go with her.

What—think I was after her looks? Please. I’m not that kind of guy. I was after her… not being directionally challenged! Hahahahahaha…

Two hours later, I stared at her—map in hand, sweating like crazy—and asked helplessly, “Do you actually know where you’re going?”

She shot me a look. “Obviously. You think I’d dare go alone to your hometown in the middle of nowhere if I couldn’t find my way?” Then she went right back to studying the map, muttering, “That’s weird… this isn’t right…”

All of a sudden, she yelled, “No way—this is a 1998 map! I was barely born then! What kind of scam is this? That shady seller actually sold me an outdated map—I’m gonna curse his whole family line!”

With that, Liang Jing tore the map into confetti and said flatly, “Since we’re lost because of someone else’s irresponsibility, I guess we’ll have to take a cab over there… Yep. That’s the only option…”

I didn’t say a word. I quietly picked up the pieces from the ground and found the cover. The date printed on it clearly read June 2016—this was obviously the latest map.

So she was the one who got lost. Got it.

I silently tossed the paper away. No matter what, I couldn’t let her know I’d seen through her little scheme. Otherwise, my fate might not end up much better than that map on the ground.

I swallowed hard, nodded carefully, and forced out two words. “Call a cab.”

Then I grabbed a bike nearby and started tinkering with it like I was about to fix it.

Liang Jing stared at me, horrified. “What are you doing?”

“Isn’t that what you said? Call a… cab… right…?”

Liang Jing: “……”

…………

It wasn’t until I was sitting in the taxi, enjoying a seat cushion about ten thousand times more comfortable than a train, that I finally said, all relaxed, “So that’s what ‘call a cab’ means. You just flag one down. City folks really love making everything complicated—coming up with all these extra words. No wonder people get confused.”