Chapter 49

"Excuse me — you there. Are you a student here? Can I see your leave slip?"

At the gate of Yu No. 1, the gatekeeper called out at the sight of a student in a scarf with a bag on her back walking in.

She came over to his booth and pulled the scarf down, and having got a proper look at her, he was surprised. "Li Lan. What are you doing back now?"

The cold put a cloud of breath in front of her as she spoke. "Uncle Liu, it's been a while. I'm here to sit an exam. I haven't got a slip — shall I ring my form teacher?"

He laughed. "What do you want a slip for? Never mind. It's bitter out here, get inside."

She thanked him and set off across an empty campus.

The man beside him, seeing her waved straight through, was curious. "Old Liu, do you know that student?" Otherwise why let her through, when he normally scrutinised every slip?

Old Liu sat down and pulled the window across. "Of course I know her. Ah — I forget, you've only been here two months, so you wouldn't."

Which made the other man more curious. "Who is she, then? Some official's daughter?" Or a delinquent — though she didn't look it.

Old Liu drew on his cigarette. "Official's daughter nothing. Her parents are country people."

More curious still. "Then who is she? Stop stringing it out."

Old Liu pointed above the gate, and the other man followed his finger and found nothing there but a banner.

"You know the banner."

At the nod, Old Liu said, unhurried, "That's her."

"Ah. That's Li Lan."

And then, more curious than ever, "It says she's won two world championships. Is that true? And why is she coming in from outside — isn't she in lessons here?"

Old Liu took a hard pull at the cigarette. "True, of course it's true. That girl's done herself credit. Recommended to Peking University in her first year, two world championships in July, and after registration in September she went off to sit in on lectures at Peking. She'll be here for the school-leaving qualification exams, I expect — so she can go up next year without the entrance exam." There was an inexpressible envy in it. Somebody else's daughter.

As the school's long-serving gatekeeper, Old Liu knew everything of any consequence that happened there, let alone something as famous as this. In fact you could stop any student on that campus and get an anecdote or two about Li Lan; it was only the man who'd been there two months who didn't know.

He clicked his tongue. "Good grief. That's quite a student. So she's just come back from Peking?"

"I should think so." Old Liu speculated. "They say universities break up early. She'll be on holiday."

---

In the staffroom, the teachers gathered round her with great curiosity. "Li Lan, what's it like sitting in at Peking? Can you keep up?" She was Yu No. 1's pride, and practically every teacher had used her as an example in class, so finding her in the staffroom they couldn't help crowding round.

She put the box of cakes on Jiao Wenfu's desk — presents being awkward in a staffroom, some local confectionery was about right. "Thank you all. It's going well."

"There you are. A good student does well anywhere. She's a world champion — she'll be a favoured child at Peking as much as here. What are we fussing about?"

Once she'd seen the spectators off, she sat down to talk to Jiao Wenfu alone. He looked at his prize student, whom he'd barely seen since term began, with a broad smile. "Are you back for the holiday?"

She shook her head. "Not yet. My professor knew I was coming back for the exam and let me off early." Remembering how reluctantly he'd released her, she found it funny.

He could tell from her face that her early university life was going well. "I see. I did think even universities don't break up this far in advance. Are you going back after the exam?"

"No. I'll go back next term." The university was in its exam period anyway, and a student sitting in doesn't sit exams.

He nodded a little absently, hesitated, and then asked seriously, "You said before that you'd sit next year's entrance exam. Did you mean it?"

She hadn't expected that, and nodded as though it were obvious. "Of course I meant it."

She had gone to considerable trouble to be a top student for once; she was going to go through the entrance exam properly. A high school career without it would be incomplete.

He looked at her intently, and laughed. "Good. That's the full stop your high school years deserve."

At the bell he got up in good spirits. "You don't know where your classroom is yet. Come on, I'll show you the room and your new classmates."

She stood and followed — which was precisely why she'd come to him before going to any classroom. After registering in September she'd gone straight to Peking to sit in on lectures, and with the second-year classes reshuffled she had no idea which one she was in.

The school had been thoughtful about it and put her in his class, which was a small kindness.

He warned her on the way. "You know you haven't attended any lessons. Your name's on the roll but no desk has been kept for you, so you'll probably be sitting alone. Is that all right?"

She didn't mind where she sat. She was there for one exam and two or three days; occupying a desk for that long would hardly have been fair.

"You should find a couple of familiar faces in the new class, though."

They arrived at a room, and she looked up: Year 2 Class 1. She raised an eyebrow. So he'd moved to a fast class — and she had a fair guess about the familiar faces.

---

With the weather cold, the back door was locked, so he came in at the front, and the student sitting nearest turned round reflexively, jumped at the sight of him, assumed he'd come to check on the class and nudged the deskmate who was in the middle of sending a text.

By the time the phone was hidden, he had not, unusually, stopped at the front to survey them but was walking straight to the back — which is how the students at the front saw Li Lan behind him with a bag on her back.

Someone from her first-year class recognised her. "Li Lan?"

She smiled at the faces she knew as she went. She hadn't seen her classmates in a long while, and passing all those familiar faces put her in an excellent mood, with an inexplicable sense of coming home.

There were naturally no free seats at the front, and he led her steadily towards the back, every student turning to watch them go.

Which is the peculiar scene Wang Jing walked into. She followed the room's gaze, spotted a back she'd have known under any number of bags, hurried forward and finished with a leap onto it — and although something inside the bag dug into her, she was past caring.

"Lanlan. When did you get here? Why didn't you tell me?" She shook her from behind, at volume.

Li Lan, about to head for the desk he'd indicated, staggered under the impact and took two steps to steady herself.

She'd known who it was the instant it happened, and unloaded her without annoyance. "I wanted to surprise you."

Wang Jing pouted. "What's surprising about it?" She'd been queueing for the lavatory when she heard somebody say Li Lan had been seen behind Jiao Wenfu, and had run back without going in to check whether it was true. Surprise indeed.

He knew how close they were and waited without hurrying them. "Li Lan, that's your desk. Sit there for the next couple of days."

Wang Jing's eyes lit up at Li Lan sitting alone at the back. "You're on your own? Wait, I'll bring my books over."

He was somewhere between exasperated and amused. "Wang Jing, you have your own desk. What are you doing sitting there?"

Wang Jing was unconcerned; the next period was a study period and she could sit anywhere. She blinked at him with affected sorrow. "But sir, Li Lan hardly ever gets back — she'll be so lonely sitting there. I'll keep her company and help her settle in."

He was never very severe, and watching her perform, decided to see nothing. "You may sit there. But no talking during the lesson and disturbing everyone else."

She promised faithfully not to disturb anybody. Besides, one can pass notes; communication is unaffected.

Once he'd gone she came back with a few workbooks and started whispering excitedly — and then, catching up with herself, became indignant. "Coming back without telling me first. Am I your deskmate or not?"

She had worked it out. She, Wang Jing, one of Li Lan's closest friends, had been kept in the dark, when she told Li Lan everything. Poor form. She was extremely annoyed.

Faced with the huffing, Li Lan produced a small dark bottle from her bag and said placatingly, "All right, my fault, don't be cross. Look, I brought you a present."

Wang Jing's small tempers arrived and departed at speed. She took it without minding the lack of packaging and opened it, expecting an ordinary cap — and found a dropper, which explained the soft thing on top.

She squeezed it curiously, drew up a tube of liquid, and sniffed. Chinese medicine. She turned the bottle over a few times without learning anything and gave up. "What is it?"

Li Lan was about to answer when the bell went, so she wrote it on a scrap of paper instead: you're always saying your hair falls out. This is a serum for hair loss and growth that I made with my professor. It works quite well, so try it.