Fleeting Midsummer

KISS（2）

All words in italics were originally in English

The next day, within my haziness, I was woken up by three pairs of eyes brimming with resentment.

My throat nearly discharged smoke as I waved to them: “Hey, don’t stand in front of me and block the way. If you don’t have anything to do then pour me a cup of water.”

Julie obediently went to go pour some water. The water sounds flowed in the midst of the quiet dorm. I smelled something fishy: This was the quiet that comes before a rainstorm…..

I got off the bed and quickly took the cup: “I’ll do it myself, I’ll do it myself……” while looking at the three of them.

I drank the water, feeling as if I was drinking cardboard [1]. I was really being stared at so much that I got goosebumps. So I could only gain the initiative by striking first: “I can’t do with people like you. If you have things to say then say it. Why are you ravaging my mental vigor?”

Wang Jie held the manner of the leader of the dorm. She dragged a chair and sat in front of me: “Lin Lin, do you remember what you did last night and how you returned?”

After she reminded me, I began to recall what had happened. Sitting upright and still, I tried to recall anything, at all costs.

Julie was someone who would suddenly erupt with anger, and almost as if she was shooting me with machine gunfire: “Wang Jie, don’t look at her trying her best to remember. You’ll know as soon as you see her empty expression. She forgot everything. If you don’t believe it, look her face to face for a whole day. I bet that before she remembers everything you’ll fall apart first.”

Sure enough, the scariest people are the people that know one better than oneself.

Wang Jie persevered: “Then do you remember what you did last night?”

I had some impressions: “I went out to hold a welcoming dinner for my friend. Before, he was out of the country, rarely does he ever come back for a whole half year. This time, he even came to Beijing. It’s too rare…..”

Ah Tao made a rest motion [2] with her hands, and cut me off: “Stop stop stop, I’m not interested in your person who travels far from home. Tell us who you went with and what you did.”

“I went with Fang Yuke. We didn’t do anything. We talked and drank…..”

Julie patted her thigh: “Finally, we’ve gotten to the main point. What happened after you drank the wine?”

I continued to remember: “After we drank, we still talked. Then, we drank some more…..” omg, stopstop, I seemed to have done a very brave thing. Was it real or an illusion? Did I do it? Did I not do it? Did I do it? Did I not do it? As I thought, I casually repeated: “Did I do it?”

Julie directly swatted my head, rather than patting her thigh: “You’ve thought of guys to the point of becoming crazy. In all your confusion you’ve already thought of getting onto the bed and settling the matter in one go after drinking? You don’t even know if you did it. Yesterday from your foolish laugh, if anyone did do anything to you, then they would have to be doubly blind and deaf.”

Actually, I wasn’t referring to this much later step. I only wanted to know if I had kissed him or not, along with some of the foreplay and so on…...

“You came back covered completely. But,” Wang Jie calmly said, “when Fang Yuke sent you back home, your clothing was not in good order.”

Julie also wailed: “Look at you. You won’t change your character. From a little age, you’ve learned how to take advantage of a male. After this gets out, will you be able to marry? Last night when you returned, you were even hauling Fang Yuke out to tear off his clothes. And you even blamed the other person for having too many buttons. I even blushed for you. Fang Yuke didn’t dare bring you back to his house, but when he carried you on his back, your shouts that involved your tearing heart and splitting lungs...ohhhhhh”

Julie had sure been immersed into last night’s memories. It wasn’t clear if she could be Dao Ming Si’s mom, but she could definitely be Shan Cai’s mom’s substitute [3].

Ah Tao continued to supplement: “Don’t worry, this time you started off successfully. All the girls in the girls’ dorm and even the Dorm Manager Auntie has remembered you. Of course, I believe this kind of gossip has already reached Ru Ting who is vacationing in Europe. I’m afraid she’ll immediately return. Alas, the fire has started in our backyard, and disaster will escalate into a miserable wall.” Ah Tao looked like she was mourning for her country and for the citizens, but how long would she pretend for? Immediately, she patted my hand and said, “Then we will have a great show to watch. Lin Lin, you must fight on, so that making the gossip post sticky on bbs won’t be in vain.”

Cold sweat started forming as I listened: “Then what did Fang Yuke say?”

Julie stuck one leg over the other and said, “So we must say that Fang Yuke is a good person. He personally helped you wipe your face and even told us to explain everything, and made us take very good care of you. He even said that when you sleep, you might kick the blankets off and told us to be more careful. Say, what have you been hiding from us? How many times have you gone over to Fang Yuke’s house? How come he knows that you can even kick off two blankets off the bed?”

Alas, before when I had been cramming for computer class, I had fell asleep on his bed many times…...

Julie saw that I looked extremely depressed. So she added oil onto the fire and asked: “Did you know how many enlightening remarks you issued last night? That was practically an undisguised attack, an attack that occurred in front of the whole girls’ dorm….. But this type of suicidal method challenge really let us feel very sad. The listeners all cried. If you have these types of thinkings, then you must wait until the time is right. In addition, asking for numerous autographs, when you have a 1% chance of success isn’t great to publically declare. Right now, you’re so bombastic…..oh dear…..”

I couldn’t stand Julie’s talkative and flippant manner: “What exactly did I say?”

“Hehe, you said,this famous blossom has a master. Lin Lin has come to plow through and loosen the soil. I have taken advantage of my concubine, Fang Yuke tonight! I’ve even kissed him…..”

O. M. G. She wouldn’t be kidding me, right……

At that time, phones that could take pictures were all high end phones, but I also forgot that in this school, many people who could read were **. Last night, my shameful performance was uploaded to the Web by some busybodies. This was the first time I thanked our old dorm’s dusky lighting which made the expression on the person not that distinct. But on the whole, I looked like I had practically run out of a mental hospital.

It wasn’t too long before I received Fang Yuke’s text: “Have you woken up? Shan Shan wants us to go to his hotel and meet up. In the afternoon, we’ll go to the Summer Palace.”

I didn’t want to go. As a child, to even now, I had done stupid things, but I had never done such a stupid thing ever. If I really were to go, I would have to have skin as thick as a city wall.

But if I didn’t go, it would look like I had a guilty conscience…..

Right when I was considering, Shan Shan texted me: “If you don’t go because of yesterday’s matter, all the flesh on my body will despise you.” Alas, when did this rascal get such a high IQ?

My IQ wasn’t that high either. As I was forced by Shan Shan, I obediently went.

After I got downstairs, I first met up with Fang Yuke.

I had never been so quiet in my entire life. Seeing him come out from his dorm, I lowered my head even more and waited for judgement like a sinner who was about to be executed.

Fang Yuke was also very quiet, as if he had offended me somehow as he stood next to me. The two of us blockheads stood in our original place for a while. By and by, absolutely all the females with bigger mouths had already begun to discuss it: “This is the pair that caused all the torment last night right?”

After I heard this, even if I was very brazen like the atmosphere, I also had to shift my steps and begin moving.

The whole way, we remained silent. It sure was weird.

Yesterday on the bus, we had even fought and quarrelled. Sure enough, making oaths and promises with a poisonous tongued person was too malicious. I couldn’t bicker with him anymore.

I rigidly laughed: “Fang Yuke, I’ll make your brain make a sudden turn.”

Fang Yuke was as cold as ice and frost, as he preserved a fixed attitude.

I continued: “A tortoise walks over a pile of poop, but he only leaves three footprints on top. Why?”

Fang Yuke did not speak.

I drily laughed: “Because one foot was used to pinch his nose.”

Fang Yuke continued to maintain his silence. His eyebrows didn’t raise at all.

“There was a pig who walked along, until he reached another country. What did he change into?”

Fang Yuke’s acupuncture points had been pressed. He didn’t react at all.

I could only reveal the answer to the riddle: “He became a pig.” But, this time, even I had been injured harshly by this corny joke. Alas, I wanted to explain many things, but I only wanted to speak about pretentiousness and not about sullenness.

“That---last night---I didn’t mean anything---the matter when my lips touched your face, you don’t have to worry about it. Just take it as you’ve been bitten by a dog, a pig has nipped you, or even that a cuckold has pressed down on you.”

Fang Yuke suddenly said, “Zhou Lin Lin, just try drinking like this in front of anyone else in the future.”

I saw that things had made a change for the better and immediately put my left hand on my heart, as my right hand made a fist: “Yes master. This little one won’t get drunk anymore.”

Fang Yuke supplemented: “Do not falsify my ideas. I meant that you would no longer drink wine, not that you should no longer get drunk. You can’t control yourself at all, so you can’t stop yourself from getting drunk even if you tell yourself to not do so.”

I explained: “My capacity for liquor is actually pretty good.”

“But your liquor taste is bad.”

I lowered my head. I really had no way to retort. “Actually, isn’t it me who has come to a disadvantage? I used my mouth, but all you did was offer your face respectfully. Even mosquitors, houseflies and small flying insects have kissed your face before. Why must you mind it so much and get angry? I’ll just take it as I ate some snacks, and I’ll let it go. You compensated for your loss with your first kiss, and I also compensated for that. Can we call it even?”

Fang Yuke’s complexion had changed.

But as for now, my brain was recalling my conversation with Julie last night: “Julie, if I said, when I kissed Fang Yuke , I wasn’t completely intoxicated, so my consciousness was aware, but I still kissed him, what does that mean?”

“That means you have a porn heart at all times.”

“Say something decent.”

“All right. According to the Duke of Zhou’s ‘Thoughts by Day, Dreams by Night’, or according to Dr. Sigmund Freud’s analytical reasoning of the spirit, this means you’ve been wanting to kiss him for a long time. After the alcohol numbed you, you threw off all restraints and directly controlled your brain to do it.”

“And you even said I had a porn heart.”

“That isn’t the same. Why would you kiss that turtle, and even hug him to the point of no return afterwards?”

“Then that means, I retained my normal esthetics while in between being intoxicated and aware.”

“But the words you said after you got drunk can’t be explained with esthetics. In reality, you’ve been wanting to pry open the corner for a long time, right? Alas, it turns out even you are a outward cold but passionate inside type of woman……”

“Are you saying that Fang Yuke, my counterpart has wants a male-female relationship? Im possible. I liked Xiao Xi to the point that he enjoined with my bones. How could I be having an affair?”

“Did you fall in love with Xiao Xi or did you fall in love with the feeling of being fond of someone else? San mao said, Some people’s love only has one type ‘The moodiness of that time’. If your counterpart misses this, and regards their moodiness as a romance from long ago, it is childish in itself. You and Fang Yuke have been together for so long. So long, that it surpasses the time you and Xiao Xi have been together, and it even surpasses the time Ru Ting and Fang Yuke were together. It is quite normal for familiarity to breed fondness.”

“Extreme hogwash……”

“Don’t worry. What does life care more about? Eggs.”

I pretended I carelessly asked Fang Yuke: “Do you think it is possible to like someone for so long, and then realize you like someone else after just one night?”

Fang Yuke firmly shook his head.

“Why?”

“If you wanted to discover it, then you should have discovered it earlier. Why would you realize it after so long?”

“What if your head is stupid?”

Fang Yuke glared at me. I reacted and immediately said, “I’m saying if. Maybe you only like your memories of that person, but isn’t it also a type of liking? So if you get her, and immediately find out that before, you were only living in a fake facade of a world, but the reality makes you wake up, and it turns out that the person you like only exists in that time.”

Fang Yuke glared at me: “When did you become so perceptive? Love has originally been something that cannot be planned out. If it is not planned, then it can only begin from being laid back, and end casually. But that’s because your feelings aren’t deep enough for the other person, and you’re looking for an excuse for your feelings.”

When he finished, I was more depressed. On one hand, I had suddenly felt that my feelings towards Xiao Xi had become vast and indistinct. On the other hand, if I wanted to really like Fang Yuke, then I would really be consigned to eternal damnation--- as I repeated a disaster, and liked someone who had someone else in their hearts. For me, I really lay down wherever I fell.

[1] I think the English equivalent would basically be cardboard since no one says: “That tasted so bad I felt I was eating a rock.” I’ve heard cardboard most of the time soo

[2] Rest motion- think back to an orchestra or band director and the motion they make when they stop a song or come to a rest.

[3] Go search up Meteor Garden on wikipedia T_T All these Meteor Garden refs are driving me crazy! I feel like I should actually watch it now xD

[x] And if you have any questions over anything else, just ask! I pretty much stopped adding footnotes after seeing this chapter was so long T_T orz. But I hope you enjoyed it xD