Chapter 27 — The Unattainable Goddesses
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Then Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu came down the stairs from the second floor arm in arm, drawing sidelong glances from many of the boys. To the vast majority of those seated there, the two were princesses high above them all — visible, but utterly beyond reach.
Many of the boys did not even dare look them straight in the eye. Wei Zhao watched the two of them leave the school cafeteria, then went with Kang Xiaofeng to the management office by the cafeteria entrance.
"Wei Zhao, you were staring at Shen Yushu and the others the whole time, weren't you?" Kang Xiaofeng asked.
"Just looking around." Wei Zhao felt a little embarrassed.
"Ah, give it a few days and you'll understand — they're not our princesses. Tang Zhi is." Kang Xiaofeng looked at Wei Zhao with sympathy. And yet, back when he had first enrolled, hadn't he too secretly harbored a crush on Shen Yushu and Gu Mengyao? But as he grew older, he came to understand the gulf between them.
That all men are equal is a lovely fantasy. Anyone even slightly mature will understand that between people there has never been equality. "Behind vermilion gates, the stench of wine and meat; on the roadside, bones of the frozen dead" — that is no joke, but a fact of existence.
And the lives of Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu were brilliant, many-hued things. The charmed, princess-like existence they led was not something a plain, ordinary boy like him could ever step into.
So although many in the class knew that Gu Mengyao did not much care for Zhong Yongliang, they were equally clear that within this class, he was the only one with any standing to court her.
The card application went smoothly enough — after all, they were handing money to the school. The canteen manager claimed the place turned no profit, but only a fool would believe that.
Wei Zhao produced his student ID, prepaid two hundred yuan, and had his canteen card in hand without the slightest trouble. On the way out, though, Kang Xiaofeng grumbled, "Brother, what did you go and load that much money on for?"
"To eat. Why, what's wrong?" Wei Zhao was baffled. Kang Xiaofeng had been shooting him looks the whole time he was paying, and he still had no idea what the fellow was driving at.
"This is the school canteen, you know. Hand them your money and it's all smiles, but the day you stop eating there and want your refund, just you wait and see. We're in our last year of high school already — who knows how much longer we'll even be eating here? Load on that much at once, and come graduation you'll be making trips every other day to get it back. Who's got that kind of time?" Kang Xiaofeng said, half in reproach.
"Ha, is that all? It's fine. It's only two hundred yuan. Look, we go through ten-odd yuan a day — two hundred will be gone in a month or so." Wei Zhao laughed without a care. "And if they won't refund it, so be it. Worst comes to worst, the two of us skip a day's meals and come here for a proper blowout."
"Aren't you the free spirit," Kang Xiaofeng said approvingly. "If the restaurants off campus weren't even pricier, I wouldn't touch this canteen at all."
"We're lucky to have anything to eat." Wei Zhao was not a picky sort. The canteen fare might not match the skill of the chef Uncle Qing had sent over yesterday, but it was at least a good deal better than the little snack shop Widow Wang ran at the head of the village.
Back in the classroom, he found that most of the students had not gone out to play. Time in the final year of high school was precious and tense. This was the divide in a person's life: strive and struggle, and a key university might lie ahead; slip up even a little, and one might fall by the wayside.
Anyone who tested into No. 1 High School was among the best, and no one wanted to be outdone. Those sons of the elite were the exception, of course — at this moment they were out on the sports ground playing basketball to their hearts' content, or off campus in internet cafes playing online games.