I Probably Won't Like Girls (GL) - Chapter 5

The school gave a seven-day break for National Day. Shi Mingyuan neither went out to play nor returned to her home in J City. Instead, she stayed put in the new apartment, not stepping out once.

“I will eat properly, not stay up late, not lie in bed, not eat junk food. I will be careful when I go out, and I won’t talk to strangers or let them into the house.”

Her parents, hearing that she wasn’t coming home for the holiday, originally planned to visit her in G City, but some business matters kept them tied up. Therefore, they could only check on Shi Mingyuan through daily phone calls.

“No need to hire a nanny for me; I’ll take good care of myself… Mom, please don’t worry.” After listening to her mother’s string of nagging, Shi Mingyuan repeatedly assured her: “You and Dad, too, don’t overwork, and rest on time.”

Only after getting her mother’s promise over the phone and hearing the click of her hanging up did Shi Mingyuan move the phone away from her ear and place it aside.

Picking up the feather duster again, she extended it into the compartmented bookshelf in front of her to clean out the accumulated dust.

She didn’t know what her father was thinking, buying such a large house when she was the only one living there.

Although most of the decorations were done according to Shi Mingyuan’s wishes, she only realized during cleaning that the so-called delicate finishing was full of hidden trouble.

Located in a bustling city area, with cars coming and going and thick exhaust fumes, as long as the window was open, dust constantly crept into the house.

Just like the wall of bookshelves in front of her, because she forgot to close the glass door, within a few days, a layer of dust had settled on the shelves.

And the crystal chandelier in the living room that her dad chose… Shi Mingyuan knew she didn’t need such bright light when she was alone, but even if the light was never turned on, the pure white lampshade would soon be covered in dust.

Shi Mingyuan disliked strangers intruding into her living space, so even though she could follow her mother’s suggestion and hire a maid to clean regularly, she was willing to clean it herself.

It took Shi Mingyuan the entire day to clean the entire house thoroughly. Afterward, she quickly locked all the unused cabinets, drawers, and rooms tightly to prevent dust from getting back in.

Finally having some free time, she took her key and went out. When she returned, she held a bouquet of lilies and a few spider plants in her arms.

She placed the lilies into the vase already prepared on the living room table. Water droplets still clung to the pure white petals, and the narrow stems and leaves were vividly green. A faint fragrance wafted from the stamens, subtly filling the living room.

After arranging the flowers, Shi Mingyuan hung the spider plants by the balcony. Their long green leaves rotated gently in the air, gradually bringing a sense of life to the house.

Shi Mingyuan looked at her handiwork with satisfaction. She took a glass of ice water from the refrigerator and quietly admired the bouquet of lilies.

The sunset streamed in through the living room’s floor-to-ceiling window, then crawled onto the long table, painting the white lilies with a fiery color and turning the light in Shi Mingyuan’s eyes a dark yellow.

Shi Mingyuan felt a sudden flash of insight and walked to the window. Looking down, she saw that the Malatang stall downstairs had opened. The harmonious couple was busy setting up their stall as usual, but today, there was one more person in the small shop.

The couple’s daughter, who had just started high school, also came to the shop during the holiday to help her parents with the business.

It was only a little past five; the sky hadn’t completely darkened, and the food street and shops hadn’t officially opened yet. But because of the good food and low prices, familiar old customers were already waiting at the stall’s entrance for the Malatang to start cooking.

The husband enthusiastically set up the folding tables and plastic stools, greeting the old customers and telling them to sit and wait, while asking his daughter to take the order notepad and write down what the customers wanted.

Through the floor-to-ceiling window, Shi Mingyuan could faintly hear the voices downstairs: “The usual?”

“Okay, I know.” The husband turned his head and spoke to his daughter in an accent that was not native to G City: “This customer wants a bowl of Malatang with wontons, and a bowl of mixed noodles with a fried egg. Go tell your mom.”

While the shop mainly sold Malatang, the wife could cook almost anything the customer wanted as long as the ingredients were available, which was why they attracted so many customers.

Shi Mingyuan had once hesitated about getting close to this family, but a certain urge in her heart told her that whether or not they would have a relationship in this life, she still wanted to see them, even if only as an observer.

That’s why she had transferred thousands of miles from J City, bought an apartment on the opposite side of the building from the Malatang shop, so she could see this family every day.

Now that she had achieved her initial vision, a renewed sense of greed suddenly took hold. She wanted to go downstairs immediately, meet the family, and exchange a word or two with them.

But she also worried that her sudden approach—she being a person who shouldn’t be here—would disturb their normal lives. Therefore, no matter how much her heart churned, she forcibly suppressed those sudden urges.

Turning back, Shi Mingyuan looked at the bouquet of lilies that was gradually being enveloped by darkness.

She walked over, picked up the entire bouquet and vase, and took it into the study, placing it on the music stand of the piano. Then she opened the piano lid, and her left hand fell onto the keys, playing a random string of notes.

Finding her touch, she sat down in front of the piano, and light, graceful notes immediately began to flow from beneath the keys.

A performance of “Secret Garden” quietly arrived on the noisy street, like a sudden clear spring pouring into a torrent. It flowed slowly, neither muddied by the torrent nor dispersed by the heat of the crowd, enveloping everyone on the street like a light veil.

“Where is that piano music coming from?” The wife in the Malatang shop heard the piano and looked up at the building.

“Probably a kid in one of the apartments practicing,” the husband guessed casually as he was busy adding vegetables to the Malatang.

The daughter also heard the beautiful piano music and looked up toward the building like her mother. Although she couldn’t locate the source of the piano music either, her eyes unconsciously revealed a look of envy.

Turning to look at her parents’ busy figures, she struggled for a moment, then silently swallowed the words “I want to learn piano too” back into her stomach.

Some things didn’t need to be said; she already knew the answer.

Pleasant holidays always pass quickly; seven days were gone in a flash.

At 7:20 AM, An Yue arrived late. As soon as she put down her backpack, she completely collapsed onto her desk, sporting large dark circles under her eyes and yawning repeatedly, looking utterly sleep-deprived.

An Yue had come directly from home and hadn’t stayed in the dorm last night. So Luo Xiaoxiao, seeing her state, curiously asked, “Where did you go this past week? You look like someone sucked the life out of you!”

“I wish I had gone out to play,” An Yue scoffed. “I spent the entire seven days helping at home, working until after midnight every day. Where would I get a chance to go out?”

Luo Xiaoxiao understood: “I see. No wonder you look like this.”

Shi Mingyuan, as usual, took a breakfast out of her desk drawer and placed it in front of An Yue. Although the sleep-deprived An Yue had no appetite, she wouldn’t refuse free breakfast.

Just as she inserted the straw into the soy milk, Shi Mingyuan’s hand reached out in front of her. An Yue, biting the straw, looked puzzled: “What is it?” If the breakfast hadn’t been from Shi Mingyuan, she would have thought Shi Mingyuan wanted her bun.

“What about what you promised me before the holiday?” Shi Mingyuan asked.

“Oh, you mean that,” An Yue’s brain, which was foggy from lack of sleep, suddenly cleared up. She opened her backpack, rummaged inside, and took out her monthly exam paper and Shi Mingyuan’s notebook, stating seriously, “I read all the notes you wrote, and I redid all the wrong questions.”

“See how seriously I completed the task you assigned? Shouldn’t I get some praise?” An Yue said smugly, practically wagging an imaginary tail.

Shi Mingyuan opened An Yue’s corrected test paper and, after a slight pause, said, “Then how about I reward you with memorizing a text? Let’s say Bai Juyi’s ‘The Song of the Pipa Player.’ That’s not too difficult, is it?”

The smile on An Yue’s face vanished instantly, and she complained bitterly, “How is that a reward? That’s clearly another task! No way.”

Shi Mingyuan just smiled without speaking. In any case, The Song of the Pipa Player was a required poem for the Gaokao. Whether An Yue memorized it now or later, she couldn’t escape it.

She finished reviewing An Yue’s corrected paper, found no major errors, and handed it back to An Yue. Just then, Luo Xiaoxiao turned around and said, “Mingyuan, can I borrow your notes to look at?”

“Go ahead.” Shi Mingyuan casually handed her notebook to Luo Xiaoxiao. After flipping through a couple of pages, Luo Xiaoxiao sounded confused: “Mingyuan, did you give me the wrong one?”

“What’s wrong?” Shi Mingyuan asked.

“The handwriting looks like An Yue’s,” Luo Xiaoxiao said.

“Let me see, let me see.” Hearing this, An Yue didn’t even stop to finish the bun in her mouth. She took Shi Mingyuan’s notebook and examined it curiously, muttering, “How does it look like mine?”

She had taken this notebook home during the National Day break and read through it, yet she hadn’t noticed any similarity like Luo Xiaoxiao had.

“Who’s as careless as you, wearing a pair of eyes for nothing? You have to look closely,” Luo Xiaoxiao placed Shi Mingyuan’s notebook next to An Yue’s monthly exam paper, pointing to the same character on both: “Look at how both of you write this ‘L’ (L is used here to approximate the shape of a particular Chinese character stroke or combination). It should only be a vertical and a horizontal stroke, but neither of you writes the vertical one straight. I haven’t seen anyone else write it exactly like you two.”