But as long as Nono didn’t say anything outrageous at this moment, Lu Mingfei would be okay with whatever she asked him to do.
Lu Mingfei quickly took out his money. “What flavor do you want?”
“Vanilla with strawberry sauce,” Nono replied, taking off her baseball cap and running her fingers through her dark red hair.
Lu Mingfei could only part with his cash. The three of them strolled along the riverside, enjoying their ice cream. The locust flowers fell onto Chen Wenwen’s white dress and Nono’s baseball cap. Nono bounced around, as if she had springs in her feet, while Chen Wenwen spoke to her softly. Lu Mingfei followed behind the two girls, feeling a bit left out, as Nono had taken over the conversation and completely sidelined him.
“Does Lu Mingfei say a lot of bad things about me?” Chen Wenwen asked.
“No, he said he really likes literature, so he joined the literature club.”
“Oh, you guys are middle school classmates?”
“We’re elementary school classmates. I’ve been studying in the U.S. ever since, just came back recently,” Nono turned to Lu Mingfei. “Do you remember the ivy climbing the wall of our teaching building? I went back to see it the other day; it’s already climbed up to the roof!”
Lu Mingfei nodded vigorously, thinking that this ice cream was worth it. Nono was a trustworthy businesswoman; her words were vivid and lively.
“Are you an immigrant?” Chen Wenwen asked.
“No, I have a Chinese passport. I’m just here to study; I’m a sophomore this year.”
“Did you skip a grade? Lu Mingfei is still in his senior year.”
“Oh, we’re not in the same class; I’m his senior,” Nono lied smoothly, looking like someone who could lie without batting an eye. “Isn’t that right, Lu Mingfei?”
“Yeah! Senior!” Lu Mingfei replied seriously.
Nono laughed brightly.
They eventually parted ways at the intersection, with Lu Mingfei and Chen Wenwen continuing on while Nono headed in the other direction. Lu Mingfei watched Nono’s cheerful figure as she hopped away, feeling that the girl seemed somewhat unreal, always giving off the impression that she might disappear at any moment.
These past few days, Lu Mingze had been very unhappy because “The Mark of the Setting Sun” was often offline, which made him anxious. As a result, he monopolized the notebook, not giving Lu Mingfei a moment’s peace. Lu Mingfei knew his brother was feeling a bit resentful about his own luck and wanted to talk to someone, but he was also keen to hear him out… except he just didn’t have the time to sneak off to an internet café.
While Auntie nagged that Lu Mingze couldn’t spend all his time online and should study more to have a future, she still sent Lu Mingfei to buy breakfast milk for the next day. As Lu Mingfei stepped out, he heard his brother suddenly getting agitated, arguing loudly with Auntie.
He didn’t go downstairs but walked up the stairs to the top floor. Above was the rooftop, piled with buzzing air conditioning units. The stairs leading to the rooftop had a bit of a horror movie feel, cluttered with cardboard boxes, two broken motors, and discarded sofas and wooden coffee tables, all covered in dust, with gaps so narrow he could barely fit. At the end, the property management had set up an iron gate with a sign that read “Rooftop Closed.” Lu Mingfei adeptly jumped over the trash like a nimble kangaroo, the shadows outside the iron gate only a step away, with countless stars twinkling above.
Lu Mingfei squeezed through the gap in the iron gate and stood beneath the vast sky full of stars. He took a deep breath and gazed at the city under the night sky.
This was his secret territory. Here he was free to enjoy the wind, the light of the sky, and the various scents of the changing seasons in the city. Sometimes it smelled of locust flowers, sometimes of leaves, and sometimes of the sweet scent of pineapples from the street vendors below.
He sat on the edge of the rooftop, feeling like he was perched on a cliff, dangerously light, like a bird flying high on the breeze.
The entire city was lit up, its hard skyline obscured by the lights. The skyscrapers in the business district appeared from a distance like square cages woven from light, while in the distance was a vast lake, adjacent to which traffic flowed on the elevated road, car lights merging into a stream of light. Lu Mingfei felt that each point of light in that stream was a living firefly, bound by the arc-shaped, elongated elevated road, desperately rushing forward in search of an exit.
He pondered where his own exit lay and thought about Chen Wenwen.
After parting ways with Nono in the afternoon, Chen Wenwen suddenly said she wanted to take a look by the river. On the riverside, dandelions bloomed on the grass, fluffy little balls everywhere. Chen Wenwen picked a lot of them, placing them in a paper bag along with the bluebells, and sat by the river with Lu Mingfei, taking off her shoes to dip her feet in the clear water. Chen Wenwen said that once they got to university, everyone would be going their separate ways, and they might only meet during summer break. It could be a long time before they saw each other again; many good friends faded away like that.
As she said this, Chen Wenwen’s eyes filled with sadness, even more than when she read Duras’s “The Lover” during her first year.
Lu Mingfei sat beside her, looking into her eyes as the wind scattered the dandelions from her bag onto the water’s surface, resembling a light snowfall.
Deep in his heart, Lu Mingfei felt a small bird fluttering.
Just then, his phone in his pocket vibrated.
“Is this Lu Mingfei?” came Nono’s voice on the line.
“Yeah,” Lu Mingfei replied.
“I have a secret to tell you: Professor Guderian is flying to Beijing tomorrow. You’d better decide tonight whether you want to enroll. We don’t have many spots available; if you wait too long, you might miss your chance.”
Lu Mingfei felt a surge of anxiety. “Can’t you wait until tomorrow? Tomorrow…”
Tomorrow he was going to do something earth-shattering, a matter of success or failure hanging in the balance. If Chen Wenwen accepted his confession, he wanted to stay in China; if not, he would have to go off to study in America, leaving behind a legendary tale at his high school, a guy whose life was a complete failure but ended up with an acceptance letter from an American university.
“It can’t wait; Professor Guderian has already booked his flight,” Nono’s tone was quite cold.
Lu Mingfei remained silent for a long time, scratching his head. “Then I understand.”