You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 21 Part 3

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 21 Part 3

The principal’s office wasn’t too far away from the sports field. Ruan Yu walked along a tree lined path to go to the field as her ear was assaulted by the chirping of cicadas.

It wasn’t too hot today. After Ruan Yu reached the field, she sat on the bleachers. On the green field, there was a group of boys playing soccer.

Ruan Yu took out the memo pad and pen which she carried with her and started to write on the pad: “June 5, cloudy. I came back to Su City’s First High School today……”

Suddenly she heard someone yelling from the field: “Watch out!”

She looked up and saw a soccer ball coming straight at the bleachers. Fortunately, the ball hit the railing in front of her and fell to the ground.

Her heart skipped a beat.

The one who kicked the ball quickly ran towards her. He stood below the bleachers to look up at her while gasping for air: “Xuejie, are you alright?”

Ruan Yu was surprised. 

Wasn’t this the short-haired boy who was talking to Xu Huaishi back in the cafeteria?

How would he know that she was “xuejie”?

Ruan Yu rose up and moved forward. She shook her head and said: “I’m alright.” Then followed by: “Why did you call me Xuejie?”

The boy laughed, showing his mouth full of white teeth: “Then are you Xuemei?”

It looked like he was just being polite when he addressed her as “Xuejie.”

Seeing Ruan Yu only smile without saying anything, the boy continued to ask while holding the soccer ball in his arm: “Xuemei, what are you doing here?”

Ruan Yu felt safe to talk to this boy since he didn’t seem to know Xu Huaisong directly. Besides, she didn’t want to act too aloof to him. She shook the memo pad in her hand and said: “This is like my field trip, to record my life.”

“Field trip? Are you an artist? Or a writer?”

“I’m sort of a writer.”

“What do you write about?”

“Romance novels.”

“Then, you know a lot about dating?”

Ruan Yu didn’t know how to respond but saw the boy throw the ball back to other players before climbing up the bleachers to come beside her: “Teach me how to chase after girls!”

Ruan Yu couldn’t help laughing out: “Which grade are you in?”

“2nd year.”

“You’ll be a senior soon and you’re still thinking about dating?”

He gave her a look: “Boring. All you adults are the same.”

Ruan Yu chuckled at the boy’s bluntness: “Didn’t you call me Xuemei just a little while ago?”

“I said you aren’t a Xuemei.”

As he was talking, he squeezed through between the railings to jump down the bleachers. Then he took off his jacket and randomly threw it on the racing track.

Ruan Yu walked two steps forward to call him: “What’s your name?”

The boy didn’t even turn his head back, but waved at her with his back to her: “Zhao Yi. Yi with che and shi, not Tie!”[1] He ran to join other players on the field afterwards.

Ruan Yu sat a while longer on the bleachers. She wrote on the memo pad: “During your graduation trip, make sure you confess to her.” She tore off the sheet, walked down the bleachers, and stuffed the piece of paper into Zhao Yi’s jacket pocket.

She then received a call from Liu Mao. He apologized to her that he had met some important clients while in Su City and had to drive them back to Hang City.

“Ah, is that so?” Ruan Yu thought about it before saying: “It’s quite alright. I’ll just buy two tickets for the high speed train……”

“Wait, wait.” Liu Mao interrupted her: “There will be one more seat available in my car. I can take auntie home. Why not let auntie ride in my car, it’ll be more comfortable than taking the train. Be careful on the way back by yourself.”

Ruan Yu thought it would be a good arrangement.

She said: “En. Then I’ll trouble you with taking my mom back.”

[1]: This is common in Chinese when speaking about how to spell something. His name is 轶 (yì) and to let her understand which yi character, he mentions the characters 车 (chē) and 失 (shī) which are the two parts that form the character yi. Since 轶 (yì) looks very similar to 铁 (tiě, means iron) and it looks like people have mistakenly called him Zhao Tie, so that’s why he’s emphasising that it’s not tiě.

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.