It Seems There is Light

The tail of March ushered in the last cold air.

Jiang Yuan, who had always been in good health, actually fell ill again.

Shi An wanted to take her to the hospital for a full body checkup, but Jiang Yuan refused, saying straight out that he was making a fuss.

For several days, Shi An’s mind was on Jiang Yuan, until Shen Qiaoqiao put a box of lozenges on his desk, and he realized he was too sick to speak.

His throat was so spasmodically sore that he didn’t dare to swallow anything.

Shi An gently rubbed the knot of his Adam’s apple with one hand and thanked Shen Qiaoqiao with a bit of effort.

Shen Qiaoqiao asked him cautiously, “You’ve had a cold for a long time, it’s not good. Are you… en, not taking your medicine?”

Shi An was stunned.

He also felt that his cold had taken a bit too long this time, and only when Shen Qiaoqiao said so did he snap back to his senses.

The headache was almost a common occurrence for him, Shi An never thought about how to trouble himself. The cold would always be better. It was not a serious illness and you couldn’t die from it. Just leave it alone.

Yan Liang once complained about his logic.

On days when the temperature changed and the season changed, Yan Liang would definitely prepare cold medicine for him, put it in his school bag the night before, and check if he remembered to drink it after school the next afternoon.

The medicine that should be taken three times a day, Shi An could remember about it once or twice at most, and sometimes he might not remember to take it even once a day. Yan Liang came to check on him, and then he would take out the medicine in a hurry, but he was reluctant to throw it away, so he had to hide it secretly and say that he had already drunk it.

This time Yan Liang did not watch him take the medicine.

Shi An went through his school bag again, a little disappointed.

After the lunch break, Shi An went to the school infirmary.

The school at this time was very quiet as there were no people. The wind and sand blew over the leaves, and the sunlight was blown straight on the leaves, like a tree of glass.

When Shi An walked into the infirmary, he found someone in the infirmary standing with his back to him.

The tall and straight back, it was clear that the weather was still a bit cold, but he was only wearing a white shirt. His sleeves were rolled up exaggeratedly, revealing his slender and white forearms.

Yan Liang turned around with the medicine and saw Shi An standing by the door, slightly stunned.

“Yan Liang.” Shi An stood in the light sunlight and tiny floating dust, a little strained to call him out, his voice was terribly dumb.

Yan Liang felt the corner of his forehead twitch as he listened to his voice, and turned around again to ask the school doctor to get another lozenges for his throat.​

The young school doctor climbed on the table and held the phone to watch a movie, the sound was turned down, and the melodic lazy tune could be faintly heard.

Yan Liang took the tablet and swiped his card once more, handing the plastic bag to Shi An.

Shi An came over and looked at the bag and spoke with some hesitation, “For me?”

His voice was so mute that he couldn’t speak much, he basically just moved his mouth. Yan Liang understood and was a bit amused: “If not for you, who is it for?”

Yan Liang came to buy him medicine.

Shi An was a little happy, gently curled his eyes, said thank you in a breath, and reached out to take the plastic bag.

His voice was really mute to the point that he could hardly speak. Yan Liang was a little distressed and cursed Shen Qiaoqiao in his heart.

Weren’t all girls supposed to be meticulous?

Yan Liang frowned disapprovingly and asked, “Didn’t your girlfriend buy you medicine? What’s wrong with her?”

The word ‘girlfriend’ was a bit garbled by Yan Liang, so Shi An didn’t hear it clearly and wanted to ask him again what he said. However, just as he was about to speak out, he was choked by a dull pain from his vocal cords and turned his head away to cough.

Yan Liang sighed and reached out to pat his back.

Shi An straightened up and said nothing, but smiled gently at him, his eyes curved in a beautiful arc.

Shi An did not argue with the name ‘girlfriend’ anymore and Yan Liang looked into his amber eyes and felt his heart being gently twisted.

The afternoon sun shone softly through the half-opened window and shone right on Shi An. Yan Liang clearly saw his own reflection in his clear, clean pupils.

Shi An’s eyes were so clean.

His whole body was so clean.

Yan Liang felt like a child with a bad heart, wearing dirty shoes deliberately stepping into the cold white soft snow, until there were black paste marks on the spotless snow, then letting out a satisfied and mischievous laugh.

Yan Liang fled Shi An’s sight, not daring to look again.

He was harboring an unspeakably bad intention for such a clean person——it was probably shameful.

“It’s time for class,” Shi An spoke a little arduously, clearing his throat a few times before speaking, “Shall we go?”

The shadow of the tree filled the room with sunlight, whirling all over the floor, swaying slowly under the feet.

Yan Liang nodded. ​

Shi An took the medicine Yan Liang bought for him and held it carefully in his arms.

After the cold air, the weather really started to warm up. People began to take off their jackets one after another. The boys playing basketball exaggeratedly only wore short sleeves. ​

Shi An obediently drank all the medicine Yan Liang had bought.

Shi An liked the cold weather, the sky looked far away, the wind was warm and the sun wasn’t too blinding.

When the weather was warm, he wouldn’t catch a cold anymore. Yan Liang no longer came every day after school to check whether he had finished his medicine, so he could see Yan Liang less often.

Their commute to and from school was often staggered, and Shi An noticed that Yan Liang no longer came to the door.

Ling Yue was very busy lately and came to the dessert shop much less often, Yan Liang also had stopped coming. The store seemed to be extraordinarily cold.

Shi An was sitting behind the counter with a book in his hands. There were few customers in the store. The white gauze curtains were opened and closed by the wind, and the sunlight formed a road that became fat and thin, flashing back and forth on the wooden floor.

There seemed to be something different, but at the same there seemed to be nothing different.

When Shi An passed by the small basketball court, Yan Liang still greeted him loudly, the basketball spinning at his fingertips shining faintly in the sunlight.

Sometimes he would run into Yan Liang who went out to take out the garbage at night, and Yan Liang deflated his mouth and spat at him about how lazy Yan Zhao really was, saying that they would take turns to take out the garbage but it turned out to be him every day.

Yan Liang often reminded him on WeChat to remember to eat breakfast, still in the style of a sentence with several emojis, as if his emoji packs would never end.

But Shi An still felt a strange sense of disharmony, as if Yan Liang was getting farther and farther away from him.

It wasn’t clear. Obviously Yan Liang still smiled so brightly at him; the white pointy little teeth were showing on the lips, and the dark pupils were always glowing.

Shi An could only admit that he thought too much of himself. After all, his position in Yan Liang’s heart and Yan Liang in his heart was completely different.

This difference determined that he would always be the one who suffered from gains and losses.

In mid-April, the first year organized a nine-kilometer hike, scheduled for Friday afternoon.

The head of the grade solemnly warned the students, who were excited as if they were on a spring trip, many times that this was a serious social activity, not a fun activity.

However, everyone took the hike as a spring trip and was so excited that they couldn’t even listen to the class and the dormitory was full of snacks.

Friday came very quickly. They got on the bus at one in the evening and swayed slowly on the bus until two in the evening when they arrived at the place. The grade president began a long speech about the event, speaking passionately until close to three o’clock, when the hike began.

They went to a seaside park with a nice environment and there were not too many visitors there.

At first, they started in the order of class number from smallest to largest, but soon they all made a mess.

Cheng Yuan walked very fast, and the people in Class 3 followed him with bitterness. Shi An was at the end of the team. After more than ten minutes, he was a little tired, so he simply slowed down.

Cheng Yuan successfully lost all the students in Class 3.

When the real walk started, everyone realized that nine kilometers was really not too close.

The weather had begun to pick up, the temperature was a little high, and the sun made people dizzy. After a long walk, even the sea breeze couldn’t stop the sweat from flowing more and more.

Some people walked very fast, some people walked slowly, and the team was often disconnected. In order not to break away from the group, some people behind have to walk a few steps and run a few steps, so they were too tired to even breathe.

After walking for nearly an hour, the team became more and more chaotic.

Some girls were tired of walking, screamed and lost their temper after following the team. Many boys helped girls carry their things, their left and right hands were full, and their face was full of sweat but they couldn’t spare their hands to wipe them, they could only scream and grieve.

Shi An walked in the middle of the line. His physical strength was not good; he was a little tired, but he didn’t want to be at the end. Everyone walked fast, so he had to walk and run for a while.

Shi An was once again going to fall into the lower middle position, so he had to get ready to start running again. There were quite a few people running, and his ears were full of the sound of running.

Shi An felt a little cold when he got out of the bus, but now it was almost maddeningly hot.

He didn’t often sweat, but his bangs were already mostly wet and the tips of his hair were slightly tied to the ends of his eyes, irritating them to the point where a thin mist seeped out from under them.

Shi An felt like he had never been so hot in his life.

When he ran to the top of the team again, he stopped and took out the candy from his pocket. He peeled the candy wrapper before stuffing it into his mouth, using the sweets to suppress the dizziness.

The temperature was so high that the candy melted into his fingertips, and the air was filled with the sweet, creamy scent of milk candy. Shi An couldn’t stand the sticky fingertips and couldn’t bring himself to reach into his school bag for a tissue.

Shi An had to slightly stretch his fingers with some disgust. Sweat stuck on his face and dripped into his eyes along his hair. It was itchy and painful, but he couldn’t wipe it.

Shi An was a little annoyed and lowered his head to blink hard.

In his peripheral vision, he saw someone stop next to him and fumble a bit to find a tissue for him.

Shi An saw the corner of the person’s clean white clothes and sneakers, which smelled like lemon soap mixed with a light sweat.

Then the person took the tissue and carefully placed it over his eyes.