Xue Rui felt conflicted. The cafeteria's leftover bins were piled high, yet who could have imagined that in this very same place, someone was gnawing on a steamed bun as hard as a rock.
He casually tossed the bun onto the ground, and it rolled far away.
Lin Ruoxi hugged her knees, her body tense as she sat frozen in place, not daring to move. Her eyes were fixed on the dust-covered bun in the distance.
When Xue Rui noticed this, he kicked the dry bun away. Out of sight, out of mind.
Lin Ruoxi's lips parted, as if to say something, but seeing that Xue Rui was in a foul mood, she lowered her head again.
"Are you mute?" Xue Rui hated trying to communicate with withdrawn kids like her; he didn't have the patience for it.
He placed the food he had just gotten in front of Lin Ruoxi and said curtly, "Eat."
The moment the words left his mouth, he was struck by a sudden, inexplicable sense of guilt. 'Isn't she hiding here to eat precisely because she's afraid of being seen?'
'The girl in front of me has her pride. She's probably afraid of others laughing at her or pitying her.'
'And what I'm doing right now is nothing but condescending charity.'
After a moment's thought, Xue Rui put on a roguish, devil-may-care air and said in a thuggish tone, "The cafeteria food is pig slop, and they don't even let you waste it. What kind of bullshit rule is that?"
"There are students on duty by the leftover bins taking names. If you leave too much, our class loses points. I don't want to get chewed out by the homeroom teacher, so you'd better finish this, or else..."
To encourage students to conserve food, the school arranged for a few students to stand guard by the leftover bins every day with notebooks.
If a student wasted too much food, points would be deducted from their class's overall score. Eventually, the consequences would trickle down, and the student responsible would be singled out for a lecture by their homeroom teacher. This was the excuse Xue Rui had fabricated.
'But, students policing other students? How effective could that really be?'
With Xue Rui's "prestige" among his peers, no one would have dared to write down his name even if he'd dumped a full tray of food in the trash.
Of course, Lin Ruoxi wouldn't know this, because she never left any food behind.
Lin Ruoxi understood she was being coerced. Her hands trembled slightly as she took the food tray.
"What? Do I need to feed it to you?" Xue Rui snapped.
"I... I'll eat. Please... please don't be angry," came a soft, sweet voice that was surprisingly pleasant to the ear.
Lin Ruoxi picked up her chopsticks and took tiny bites of the braised pork. She kept sneaking glances at Xue Rui, and whenever she saw him supervising her, she would hurriedly stuff a few more bites into her mouth, her cheeks puffing out like a hamster's.
In the end, she truly couldn't eat another bite, leaving one whole steamed bun.
"This is yours." Lin Ruoxi summoned her courage and held out the clean, white steamed bun.
A whole steamed bun could be taken out of the cafeteria and saved for the next meal, but since Xue Rui had bought this one, she felt she had to give it back to him.
"Who wants that thing? Just throw it out if you can't finish it." Xue Rui didn't take it, simply turning and storming away.
Leaving that corner and seeing the bright, clean cafeteria, he finally shook off the oppressive feeling and cursed under his breath, "Damn it, this is 2012, not 1912."
Xue Rui found it hard to imagine that in this era of abundance, there could be a student so starved they were sallow and emaciated.
After muttering a few more curses, Xue Rui suddenly forgot why he'd come to the cafeteria. 'Oh right, wasn't I going to ask Lin Ruoxi why she was suicidal?'
His expression darkened. 'Given her situation, is there even a need to ask? If I were her, I'd probably find life meaningless too.'
If this were "President Xue" from twelve years in the future, the loose change that slipped through his fingers would have been enough to support Lin Ruoxi all the way through college graduation.
But now, Xue Rui was just a high school student. His only asset was the fifty yuan Gu Muxue had given him this morning. He simply didn't have the resources.
...
Since he had given his lunch to Lin Ruoxi, Xue Rui decided to head to the school's snack shop to grab something to eat.
By watching the students walking around with ice cream bars, Xue Rui quickly located the snack shop by seeing where they were all coming from.
It was just that the things for sale inside were utterly nauseating.
There were all kinds of latiao, shredded squid, "Tang Monk Meat"... most of them fifty cents a pack. Xue Rui had zero appetite for any of it, but other students were devouring them with gusto.
There was also a motley assortment of crispy instant noodles and packaged bread...
It was all junk food.
'A one-yuan bread?' Xue Rui frowned as he picked up a loaf in cheap packaging, tossing it back onto the shelf.
In the end, he bought a six-yuan loaf of bread and a bottle of Coke. This was already among the few items in the shop that could be considered "expensive."
He took a bite of the cream-filled bread. It was so cloyingly sweet it made his throat ache, and it had a certain indescribable, low-quality taste.
'These students must have a fucking high poison resistance,' Xue Rui mused. He glanced at the production date: August 28, 2012.
Unsure if it was expired, he asked a student standing nearby, "Hey, what's today's date?"
The student was clearly taken aback for a moment, then glanced at his watch. "August 27th."
Xue Rui was speechless.
The good news was that the bread hadn't expired. The bad news was that today was the 27th, and the bread was supposedly produced on the 28th.
Xue Rui crumpled the bread into a ball and threw it in the trash. He vigorously rinsed his mouth with Coke, spitting it out into a nearby planter. He had actually managed to buy bread that was "produced tomorrow."
Xue Rui often scrolled past videos about "nostalgic snacks" on social media. The comments were always full of people complaining that the new versions "just weren't the same," whining that they didn't have the taste of their youth.
Well, now Xue Rui had gotten his hands on the "genuine article," but he couldn't feel happy about it in the slightest.
Accustomed to frequenting high-end restaurants, Xue Rui's palate had become incredibly picky. He found the food of his high school years almost impossible to stomach.
...
On an empty stomach, Xue Rui slept through the afternoon, only to be jolted awake by nightmares several times. Each time, it was the same vision: Lin Ruoxi, lying tragically in a pool of her own blood, staring right at him.
He used to only dream of Lin Ruoxi every few days. But now that he was back in high school and interacting with her more, she was appearing in his dreams far more often—the old saying "what you think of by day, you dream of by night" was probably true.
Lin Ruoxi was a girl dealt a bitter hand in life. Xue Rui knew he shouldn't blame her.
But her death had tormented him for so many years. His own sudden death had likely been caused by the resulting poor sleep quality. To say he felt no resentment at all would be a lie.
'I'm going to lose my damn mind!' An inexplicable anger flared up in Xue Rui as he stared at Lin Ruoxi's frail back. 'Probably just cranky from waking up.'
It was now afternoon, which meant it was free activity time.
No. 2 High wasn't run with the same military-style discipline as other schools, so the time between four in the afternoon and the start of evening self-study at seven was a free period for activities.
WHACK! Suddenly, a small hand slapped him hard on the shoulder, making him jump.
"Son of a..." Xue Rui instinctively shot up to retaliate, but when he turned, he saw it was the girl who had mouthed off to him in the cafeteria—the one with thick braids and a sprinkle of freckles.
This was Gu Muxue's little follower, a whole head shorter than him.
Xue Rui stared down at her for a good while but couldn't for the life of him remember her name. He recalled that they used to be close, but all he could dredge up now was her nickname: Short Melon.
"This fair maiden seems unfamiliar. Dare I ask your name? And for what fine matter do you seek my counsel?" Xue Rui picked up a fan he'd folded from an exercise book and drawled in a theatrical, old-fashioned tone.
A flash of confusion crossed the girl's eyes, but she recovered quickly and played along with a slight curtsy.
"Greetings, Young Master Xue. This humble girl is named Mei Lili. Why is it that the Young Master is not seeking out Gu Muxue today?"
Xue Rui's brow furrowed instinctively at the mention of Gu Muxue's name. He snapped his paper fan shut.
"I'm not going. I've chased her for years without getting anywhere. I can't keep throwing good money after bad. It's time to cut my losses."
Mei Lili was visibly stunned. She never imagined such words could come from Xue Rui's mouth. She tried a threat: "Aren't you afraid some other boy will win her over?"
"If *I* can't win her over, who can?"
Xue Rui sneered. 'Gu Muxue is a raid boss on Hell difficulty. You think you can just clear that stage? Not a chance.'
Mei Lili glanced around conspiratorially and gestured for Xue Rui to lean in closer.
Xue Rui leaned in, curious, only to hear her whisper, "Muxue went to the bathroom three times this afternoon."
"You keep track of shit like that? You've got the makings of a secret agent," Xue Rui said, giving her a strange look.
"How can you be so dense? Take a guess why she went to the bathroom so many times."
"Her third pilgrimage to the porcelain throne? Sounds like frequent urination, urgent urination, and an inability to fully empty the bladder," Xue Rui said, ticking the symptoms off on his fingers.