Chapter Fifty-One: Leave Me Alone, I'm Annoyed

"Well, you were the one who strayed first. Yuyan Yanqing, just look at the half of the corridor by your class—so dry and comfortable. Now look at ours, it's already frozen over. Your side basks in sunlight, with the rich behind gilded doors, feasting and drinking; ours is cold and damp, with bones freezing in the street. It's not like we want it to be this cold, but that's just the way things are. Maybe I should put up a speed limit sign at the door to avoid accidents?" Dong Yanyan leaned weakly on her mop handle.

Ren Jiaxuan shot her a sideways glance. "Can you stop sulking when you’re bantering with me? Is smiling going to kill you?"

"Ah? Sorry about that!" Dong Yanyan forced a smile, turned back into the classroom, and placed her mop at the back. Ren Jiaxuan followed her in, pulling at her arm with a mischievous grin. "Hey, why are you everywhere I go? Dong Yanyan, are you secretly into me?"

Dong Yanyan looked at his fingers, then at his annoying face, and laughed at herself. "You really don’t have to worry about that. I never pine for someone already taken! Excuse me!" Hugging her books, she brushed past his arm and hurried downstairs. She despised people who held onto what was in their bowl while eyeing the pot, and hated even more that he sought validation at her expense in front of everyone, using her troubles for amusement—such behavior was simply unkind.

She loathed most the person who did exactly that, yet never uttered a word in her defense. Thinking about it made her sad. But she really couldn’t let herself dwell on it; if she did, she’d become the despised third wheel, wouldn’t she? She brooded over this, feeling somewhat desolate.

Ren Jiaxuan was a little stunned by how quickly she disappeared. He looked around the classroom, curious. "Did any of you offend her today? Why is she so down?"

*

That afternoon, when Yu Xia returned to the dormitory, she didn't spare Dong Yanyan a kind word, slamming things about. Dong Yanyan didn’t feel like explaining herself.

"You’re everywhere, thinking you’re the only one who matters. No matter what anyone does, you have something to say—even when mopping the floor, you’re bossy!" She finally couldn’t hold back.

"Fifth Sister, don’t be like that. Didn’t Ren Jiaxuan defend you just now? She was actually helping you out, can’t you see?" Li Hui, working on her homework in the lower bunk, shot her a look and spoke with annoyance.

Yu Xia stopped fussing and scratched her head, thinking for a while. "So that's what happened! I finally get it now. Fifth Sister, you’re not angry, are you?"

Dong Yanyan hadn’t expected that, of all her roommates, Li Hui was the one to speak up for her. Her heart warmed, and she smiled. "Sister, you’re so kind."

Yu Xia looked up at her, sulking. "So I’m not good?"

"Let’s call it even. If you help me get dinner tonight, I’ll forgive you!" Dong Yanyan squinted her eyes, magnanimous.

"No problem! Hey, Fifth Sister, I think Ren Jiaxuan likes you. Why else would he keep coming to our class?" Yu Xia laughed.

"He already has a girlfriend. Besides, he teases every girl he meets—he’s just bored." Dong Yanyan mumbled, hugging her quilt.

No need to fetch dinner tonight, which meant she could linger a bit longer in bed. Her bed now had a layer of sponge, two blankets underneath, and two quilts on top—finally, it felt warm. But what she feared most in winter wasn’t the cold, but that her roommates always hung their wet clothes under her lower bunk. Of course, everyone did it, which made the room even damper. She’d quarreled with Yu Xia about it before, but after thinking it over, what was the point? The laundry room was even colder, and clothes often went missing. Gritting her teeth, she made do. Peace in the dormitory was worth more than anything.

*

That night, Dong Yanyan returned to the classroom with a newly bought seat cushion to review English. Tomorrow the teacher would ask questions in class. She thought of Miss Tian, who was rather pitiful; every lesson only she and Liu Siying held the fort for her. The boys all focused on their major subjects, scoffing at English; as for the girls, they thought English was easy and paid little attention, at most cramming vocabulary a couple of days before the exam to scrape a passing grade. Li Hui and Liu Ying studied diligently, but Miss Tian disliked their accents, so every class she only called on two people—oh, plus Jiang Fan, that made three. Jiang Fan was the English course rep.

She looked up and saw Jiang Fan and Liu Siying at the front, reciting English. They greeted her as she walked in.

Song Mingcheng wasn’t there; only Lin Feng sat at the back, engrossed in his Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering book. When he saw her enter, he pulled out a cassette tape from his desk and handed it over with a smile. "Yanyan, I saw the Polydor collection you were looking for the other day, so I bought it for you."

Dong Yanyan was surprised, reached out for the tape, and smiled, head lowered. "Thanks. How much was it?" She opened her pencil case, took out twenty yuan from the hidden compartment, and handed it to him.

Lin Feng paused, a little displeased. "Don’t bother with that. I give you a tape and you want to pay me?"

Dong Yanyan felt awkward. "Oh, thank you then." She tucked the tape into her desk.

Lin Feng looked at her, sighed, and packed his books before leaving.

Once he was gone, Dong Yanyan carefully retrieved the tape from her desk, caressing the deep blue cover absentmindedly. Just a few days ago, he’d gone with her to the music shop, and now, in the blink of an eye, he was someone else’s.

She tore open the plastic wrapping and placed the tape in the classroom’s rear cassette player. The first song was "Red Sun" by Hacken Lee. Not wanting to disturb others, she kept the volume low and sat nearby, listening intently.

The back door was kicked open by Leng Haoyang, letting in a rush of cold air. Yang Ruining darted in, giggling, her icy hand affectionately touching Dong Yanyan’s face. "Yanyan, did you solve that calculus problem Liu Ying gave you? Let us have a look!"

"Take it if you want! It’s on my desk!" Dong Yanyan held her hand and smiled. "Where have you all been, messing around? Your hand’s frozen like ice!"

"Just went out for ice cream! Here, have one! What flavor do you want?" Yang Ruining opened her big plastic bag for Dong Yanyan to see. Dong Yanyan picked a cream-flavored one and tossed two more to Xu Cheng and Zhang Lei. Yang Ruining handed out two more to Jiang Fan and Liu Siying.

Zhang Lei took a big bite of his ice cream, exclaiming how refreshing and cold it was.

Dong Yanyan, nibbling her ice cream, couldn’t help but recall the years of posts about heating and ice cream on Tianya. Whenever regional differences were mentioned, the threads soared. There were always southerners shouting, "You northerners turn up the heat so high, then eat ice cream to cool down—such wastefulness, so unenvironmental, balabala…"

Those who’d never been to the Northeast could never know the joy of eating ice cream in the depths of winter.