Since Linlin wasn’t arrogant with the others and responded kindly as long as they spoke to her politely, everyone crowded around her at once.
Dong Xiaomin tried to slip away from the group, but Linlin caught her hand. “Wait. We’re going to the cafeteria together later.”
A flicker of delight rose in Dong Xiaomin’s heart, and she obediently stayed by Linlin’s side.
The drill instructor had already gone to the other dormitories. Linlin taught her roommates a few tricks for folding their quilts, and after they followed her instructions, their beds looked much neater.
Sun Lina was too embarrassed to come over, so she kept struggling on her own.
But the more anxious she became, the worse her quilt looked. She could only lose her temper while repeatedly glancing toward Linlin, hoping Linlin would take the initiative and come help her.
Linlin noticed, but didn’t go over.
Sun Lina had such a nasty mouth. Linlin wasn’t a punching bag—why would she walk over and make herself suffer?
Besides, Linlin didn’t like Sun Lina. When Sun Lina looked over again, Linlin deliberately shifted to face the opposite direction, turning her back on her.
Sun Lina ground her teeth in fury. But the drill instructor would be coming to inspect their living quarters that evening, so she had no choice but to continue battling with the quilt.
Linlin and Dong Xiaomin went to the cafeteria hand in hand.
Seeing that Sun Lina was still struggling, the others kindly went over to help. “Sun Lina, Linlin has a pretty good personality. You should stop picking on her.”
Sun Lina flung the quilt down. “When did I ever pick on her? She’s the one picking on me!”
Everyone was speechless and stopped trying to persuade her.
They all had their own things to do. If Sun Lina wanted to make trouble for herself, then let her.
By dinnertime, everyone else had gone to the cafeteria too.
Only Sun Lina remained in the dormitory.
She pounded the quilt several times, unable to understand how things had ended up this way.
If you always looked down on others from a superior position, how could you expect them to offer you their sincere friendship?
Sun Lina didn’t understand this, but Linlin seemed to have been born knowing how to be considerate of others.
The school provided financial aid. Every student received a full meal subsidy of 19.5 yuan, which they had to exchange in the cafeteria for food coupons and grain coupons.
Female students were allotted thirty jin of grain each month, while their vegetable-food coupons were worth roughly eighteen yuan.
Calculated this way, the meal subsidy issued by the school was just enough to cover the students’ three meals a day.
Fine grains and coarse grains were priced differently as well.
Dong Xiaomin was used to being frugal, so for lunch she bought only some coarse grains and a vegetable dish.
Linlin thought for a moment. “Xiaomin, I want to eat both meat and vegetables, but I can’t finish two dishes by myself. How about this? I’ll get one meat dish, and we can share it. What do you think?”
Dong Xiaomin wasn’t stupid.
A vegetable dish cost only two cents, while a meat dish cost twenty cents—a tenfold difference.
She didn’t want to take advantage of Linlin, but neither did she want Linlin to compromise herself just to accommodate her. She looked up at Linlin. “All right. But I’ll get the meat dish tonight, and you get the vegetables.”
“Okay!” Linlin gave her a radiant smile, making Dong Xiaomin feel a little dizzy again.
Dong Xiaomin had done the calculations. Two meals costing twenty-two cents a day would come to only six yuan and sixty cents a month. She could simply eat a steamed bun in the morning. By the end of the month, she would still have saved more than ten yuan—a huge sum of money to her.
While they ate, both girls kept trying to put pieces of meat into the other’s bowl. In the end, they were both laughing.
After finishing dinner, formal military training began.
Linlin and Dong Xiaomin were not in the same class, so naturally they had to separate.
The highest temperature in the capital at that time was only a little over thirty degrees Celsius, but the heat was stifling.
After standing for two hours, the students were all wilted like eggplants hit by frost.
Linlin wasn’t feeling well either, but she gritted her teeth and persevered.
Finally, the drill instructor blew his whistle and called out, “Take a ten-minute break where you are!”
The students all cried out “Ah!” as though they had been freed, then scattered in groups of three or five to look for water.
There were only three girls in Linlin’s major, including her, and they had all been assigned to different dormitories.
The three of them sat together and introduced themselves.
One of them asked curiously, “Linlin, how come you’re not sweating at all? Aren’t you hot?”
The weather was sultry, and there wasn’t even the slightest breeze in the air. Everyone else was drenched in sweat, while Linlin alone remained completely dry.
“I don’t sweat easily. Maybe it’s just my constitution.”
Linlin was certainly hot too, but she simply didn’t sweat. At most, her fair, pink cheeks took on a gorgeous flush like peach blossoms, and she still looked bright and refreshed.
The other two girls clicked their tongues in amazement. “You really have an excellent constitution. We’re so jealous.”
Linlin shook her head. “My mother is a doctor. In traditional Chinese medicine, sweating is considered a way for the body to expel impurities and keep the meridians flowing. The fact that you’re sweating like this is actually normal—it means your body is getting rid of toxins.”
She spoke so earnestly that although the other two girls still envied her ability not to sweat, they felt much better about themselves.
The three girls were sitting together beneath the shade of a tree when a boy hurried over from the other side of the field.
He walked straight up to them, bent slightly as he caught his breath, and placed several chilled sodas in glass bottles on the ground.
“These are for you.”
His gaze passed over the other two girls and landed directly on Linlin. “My name is Lu Zeyu. You handed me my military training uniform this morning. Let’s get acquainted, Linlin.”
Linlin looked up at him.
Lu Zeyu was very tall, easily over six feet by the look of him.
He had thick brows, large eyes, a high brow ridge, and a straight nose. When he smiled, he revealed a neat row of white teeth. In a crowd, he was certainly considered exceptionally handsome.
Linlin raised the water bottle in her hand to indicate it. “Thank you, but I have water.”
Lu Zeyu smiled and held the sodas out a little farther. “I already bought them. Just take one.”
Linlin shook her head. Just then, the drill instructor’s whistle rang out.
“Fall in!”
Linlin used the opportunity to stand. She gave him a slight nod, then turned and left.
The other two girls hurried to their feet and followed her, leaving Lu Zeyu standing alone beneath the tree. Not one of them had taken a soda.
He clicked his tongue, tossed the bottles aside, and returned to his unit.
Linlin had attracted a great deal of attention as soon as she entered the school, so naturally, many people saw what had happened.
Seeing Lu Zeyu’s failed attempt, they were a little surprised—but at the same time, it seemed entirely within expectations.
Military training continued until evening. When they were dismissed, the clouds along the horizon had been burned a brilliant orange-red.
The students dragged their aching legs toward the cafeteria in groups of two and three.
Linlin and Dong Xiaomin had agreed to meet beneath a large tree. The two girls from earlier came running over.
“Linlin, is Lu Zeyu trying to pursue you?”
Linlin shook her head. “I don’t know.”
To Linlin, “dating” was still an abstract concept. She could sense the affection others felt for her, but there was no textbook she could study. Her mother had asked her to experience romantic love, yet she still had no idea where to begin.
“He definitely is,” one of the girls said. “I heard Lu Zeyu’s family is very well-off, and he’s handsome too. Lots of girls like him.”
“Oh.”
Linlin’s attitude was indifferent, and the other two girls’ enthusiasm quickly faded.
Just then, the drill instructor walked over. “Linlin, your brother is waiting for you at the school gate. Go see him in a little while.”
