Tattooed Whales

The next morning, Jiu Lu met Ma Xiao Ye at the school’s entrance. He had also came on foot and ran to catch up with her.

The two walked side by side towards the classrooms. Ma Xiao Ye wore a plaid shirt with white half sleeves and a pair of jeans. Though his clothes were ordinary, it looked especially neat and youthful on him.

Jiu Lu looked at him for a moment: “Where’s your bicycle?”

“Oh, I left it at Bai Hua Road last night.” His bag hung on his left shoulder, but his right shoulder sank slightly at the question.

“I thought you were playing basketball yesterday?” Jiu Lu glanced at him.

“Yeah,” Ma Xiao Ye scratched the back of his head and continued, “Since it was still early when we ended, we decided to eat supper at Bai Hua Road.” As it was nearing the time for classes to start, groups of students rushed to the front, and some boys even jumped onto Ma Xiao Ye and latched onto his neck and joked around.

Jiu Lu lowered her head, and waited before it was only the two of them left. “I was waiting for your call last night.”

Ma Xiao Ye’s footsteps slowed down and as naturally as he could, he replied, “I could have left early, but Liang Xu was going on and on about how hungry he was and insisted on supper. I forgot about the time as we chatted.” He lowered his head and looked at her: “I wanted to call when I got home, but it was too late and I was scared that I’ll wake you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Seeing a pair of clear black eyes staring at him made Ma Xiao Ye felt guilty. He averted his eyes. “Did… you wait very long?”

Jiu Lu paused for a few seconds and smiled relaxedly. “Not really. I slept at ten.”

“That’s good.” Ma Xiao couldn’t help but sigh.

The two walked in silence for a while before Jiu Lu changed the topic. “Ma Ye, it’s your birthday next Wednesday.”

“You still remember?”

“Of course.”

“So what present will you be giving?” His shoulders, along with his bag strap raised in excitement.

“A secret for the time being.” Jiu Lu smiled weakly but asked again, “What are you planning to do? Are you going to find Liang Xu again?”

“You dislike him?”

Li Jiu Lu played around with the bag containing her breakfast and pretended, “Not really.”

“He’s not a bad person, he’s just a little dense. If there’s a chance…”

The duo spoke as they walked up the stairs. Jiu Lu’s shoulder suddenly hurt and she unconsciously turned to look back. However, her hair was pulled and her head was forced to go along in another direction. Liang Xu jumped from behind and very comfortably, rested his arm on Jiu Lu’s shoulder. “What are you talking about?”

Jiu Lu frowned slightly. Her shoulder really hurt; Liang Xu really treated her like a boy. Jiu Lu raised her shoulders, but Liang Xu was like superglue1, and she couldn’t shake him off. With two tall boys at her side, Jiu Lu was sandwiched in the middle.

“Be careful.” Ma Xiao Ye slapped away Liang Xu’s arm. “She’s too small for you to throw your weight onto.”

“Man, you care too much!” Liang Xu laughed.

The relationship between Ma Xiao Ye and Li Jiu Lu was actually a mystery to outsiders. For some reason, the duo was extremely aware of their actions and how it might come across to others. It was no wonder that even Liang Xu, who often hung out with Ma Xiao Ye was unaware of their dynamics and as such, behaved so unruly around her.

Liang Xu lifted his chin and asked, “What were the two of you talking about?”

The trio reached the classroom, where the Department Head was currently inside checking for name tags.

Ma Xiao Ye lowered his voice. “Talking about where to go on Wednesday.”

“Wednesday? Your birthday?”

He nodded.

“A celebration! First let’s find a place to eat, then we can go sing karaoke or play two rounds of……”

Li Jiu Lu knew that there was nothing for her to talk about. She hastened her footsteps while Liang Xu continued to ramble on behind in excitement. Just as she was about to enter the classroom, her hand that was still holding her breakfast just now felt empty.

“Who did you bought this for? Smells good.” Liang Xu asked. Jiu Lu, who was failing to control her emotions replied, “I haven’t had breakfast.”

“What a coincidence. Me too.” Without hesitation, he used his hands to grab a bun from the bag and took a bite. “Treat it as you’re dieting then. Aren’t girls afraid of gaining weight?” As Liang Xu chewed and chewed, he studied the type of filling that was used for the buns and frowned. He then stuffed the entire bag back into Jiu Lu’s arms and said, “Flavour’s too plain, you can have it.”

“It’s fine.” Li Jiu Lu was almost steaming but tried her best to control her anger as she walked to her seat.

“Oh, thanks then.”

Jiu Lu smiled, but felt as though she was reaching her limit. Liang Xu however, was absolutely unaware of how Jiu Lu felt, and returned to his seat happily feeling like he got a great bargain. Jiu Lu gritted her teeth; her books made a loud sound as she put them on the table. One of these days, she thought darkly, she ought to sew that irritating mouth of his shut.

The morning passed just like that, and it was time for the second period, physical education. Jiu Lu, who was still dead earlier on, immediately lit up at the chime. The boys threw their stuff around, changed into their jerseys and sports shoes and ran towards the running tracks. Physical education for the third year female students were not as strict; after taking attendance and assigning a few responsibilities, they were free to do as they liked. They were just not allowed to return to the classrooms. This was a new rule set in place to strengthen the balance between studying and resting for third year students. After the teacher had taken attendance, Jiu Lu quickly rushed to the small snack shop beside the dormitories, bought two bottles of mineral water and out of an unknown desire, also bought a small bottle of glue.

When she was done, the boys in the class was divided into their love for football teams. Some were fervent supporters of AC Milan, especially Ma Xiao Ye, who idolised Maldini. The entire football field was filled with red and black jerseys and Ma Xiao Ye, was undoubtedly the most eye-catching.

Jiu Lu stood beside the field for a few minutes, just watching as he ran with the wind, and as he waved towards a direction opposite Jiu Lu. Li Jiu Lu’s eyes followed his sight, and saw Mo Ke Yan with two other girls standing together, laughing and chatting about.

The ball coincidentally rolled towards Ma Xiao Ye and he easily maneuvered the ball with only a foot. But when he turned around, he finally saw Li Jiu Lu. He seemingly froze for a few seconds before waving to her too.

But because of his daze, the ball was stolen away by his opponent. The field immediately erupted into laughter.

Li Jiu Lu turned back and walked for a few meters before sitting down on a grass patch beside the tracks.

Right behind her was the school’s swimming complex, but it was divided by metal fences and was uncrossable. Outside the metal fence was a huge tree, and the shade it provided was just enough to hide from the scorching sun. Jiu Lu leaned on the tree and opened a bottle of water.

The boys on the field played with extreme enthusiasm, and after about ten minutes Liang Xu exited the match, his head drenched with sweat. Upon seeing her, he made his way towards her. The warning bells in Jiu Lu’s head rang.

As expected.

She hadn’t thought about the consequences when buying the bottle of glue; she had brought it out of spite and wanted revenge for what had happened to her in the morning. So automatically, Jiu Lu twisted open the glue’s cap, turned away from Liang Xu and applied a layer of glue on the mouth of the bottle.

“Want me to keep it a secret?”

Spoken in a clear and deep voice, with a raised intonation at the end. Only 7 words, all spoken rather lazily.

Seemingly shocked by lighting, Jiu Lu jolted and her hands lost control of the glue bottle. The glue bottle was now half empty, with majority of the glue running out from the mouth of the bottle.

She raised her head hastily, and saw a boy standing across the metal fences, leaning comfortably against the tree bark, smiling at her.

“What did he do to anger you?”

Li Jiu Lu stood up, now directly facing the sun. “It’s you?” This time, she successfully identified him, he was the ‘Swimming Trunks’ she saw yesterday.

“You remember me?”

Jiu Lu didn’t have time to answer. She threw a glance towards the direction of Liang Xu, raised a finger to her lips and gave Chi Jian a “Shh”. Upon hearing her voice, Chi Jian raised an eyebrow but mimicked her actions. In an act of solidarity, he raised his index finger to his lips and followed her.

Like a gust of wind, Liang Xu rushed up to Jiu Lu. “Ma Xiao Ye is too much. Too competitive.” He then grabbed the bottle of water from Jiu Lu and continued, “Did you see? How he ran around the entire field?”

Li Jiu Lu glared at the bottle in his hand and just for a second, felt like snatching it back. But before she could stop him, Liang Xu tilted his head back, his lips already on the mouth of the bottle, and drank its content in huge gulps. Only when half was gone did he realise that something felt wrong. He frowned and without any indication, he suddenly threw away the bottle in his hand.

“What is this taste…… Ah -“

Li Jiu Lu took in a huge breath of air, already regretting what she had done.

Liang Xu covered his mouth with his hands, but when his hands were brought down, they were bloody.

In disbelief, Liang Xu’s eyes widened and stared at Li Jiu Lu. “You, you, you…….”

He couldn’t speak for a while.

Instinctively, Ju Lu shifted the blame. “It wasn’t me.” Only after she spoke did she realise how dumb she was. She sighed, and decided to not talk. Fishing out tissues from her pockets, she tiptoed and gently pressed it on his lips.

This shocked Liang Xu even more, and he seemed to be blushing at Jiu Lu’s actions.

The air froze for a few seconds before someone from the field shouted for Liang Xu.

“Coming.” Liang Xu shouted back, turned his head and looked at Jiu Lu for a while. Seemingly in a low mood, he muttered, “There’s only two of us here. If it weren’t you, could it be have been me?”

Li Jiu Lu was at a loss for words.

“Liang Xu.”

Liang Xu lifted his head and searched for the voice, and then finally realise that there was still a person standing by the tree.

“Jian Ge!”

Chi Jian walked out.

“A prank.”

“….. You did it?”

Chi Jian smirked and nodded. When he smiled, his front teeth bit onto his lower lip, giving off an image of mischievousness. Unexpectedly, Liang Xu heaved a sigh of relief, anger nowhere to be seen and smiled. “I knew it. She couldn’t possibly have treated me so. Ah, my lips were almost pulled out, Jian Ge, you’re really scheming.” He then threw the bottle towards him.

The bottle hit the metal fence, and water from it splashed out. Hands in pockets, Chi Jian only straightened his arms and ducked sideways, which resulted in most of the water splashing on his back.

Liang Xu walked closer, “Came to swim?”

Chi Jian nodded. “Saw that you were having PE as I was leaving.”

“Yeah, football.” Liang Xu spoke, and then suddenly thought of something. “Wait. You know each other?”

Only separated by a metal fence, the two looked at each other but neither of them spoke up. The people from the field called for Liang Xu again, and this time, the voices were mixed with swears. He replied impatiently and then turned to speak to Chi Jian. “Jian Ge, we’ll talk again when I visit the shop.” He then hesitated for a while and asked Jiu Lu for more tissues.

“Sorry for blaming you.”

Liang Xu ran off, but the tissues with his blood were still on the ground.

“You know him?” “Lu Lu?”

The duo spoke at exactly the same time.

Li Jiu Lu closed her mouth and Chi Jian asked again, “Lu Lu?” His eyes focused on her face. “I heard Director Jiang calling you that.”

“……”

“What’s your full name?”

Li Jiu Lu didn’t tell him. “You knew him and yet you followed me in pranking him?”

“I wanted to listen to your explanation afterwards.”

“……”

Li Jiu Lu’s face unconsciously redden in embarrassment. She swore that this was a prank that sprouted from spite and immaturity. But not only did it not reach its effect as a deterrent, she was almost caught by him too.

If it wasn’t for ‘Swimming Trunks’, she really didn’t know how to explain herself to Liang Xu.

“Then why did you help me?”

Chi Jian clicked his tongue softly. “Couldn’t bear not to.”

Li Jiu Lu froze and went into a daze as she raised her head.

This was probably the closest they have ever been.

Tall built, with a body sturdier than peers his age, single eyelids, short and thin eyebrows, and a straight and tall nose.

But Jiu Lu didn’t like his smile. Even the smallest of curvature from him would unknowingly attract the attention of everyone. He was too frivolous, too flippant.

“Why couldn’t you bear not to?”

Chi Jian lifted his chin, taken aback by her straightforwardness. Suddenly speechless, he didn’t know how to answer her. Instead, his eyes shifted up and down as he scanned her carefully.

She appeared to be extremely petite, a small nose, a small mouth, a pair of big eyes equipped with a very pure gaze. But for some reason, Chi Jian had an inkling that though she may appear to be very docile, it was not something to be taken advantage of. She wasn’t what she appeared to be; she possessed a hidden spirit.

“Scared that you’ll be backed into a corner.”

And with that sentence, he changed the topic. “Why aren’t you telling me your name?”

She lowered her head and kicked the dirt on the ground. Just then, a whistle sounded from the field and Jiu Lu turned back to face him.

“I need to go.”

“See you later then.”

Li Jiu Lu picked up the unopened bottle of water, walked for a few steps and turned back. “When are you visiting your grandmother? I’ll return your goggles to you.”

Still standing in his original spot, Chi Jian met her eyes.

“It’s nothing,” He said. “No rush.”