I never lived with a female except my mother, let alone a girl of my age. I was super nervous, and also excited and joyful on top of that.
Early Summer was in the shower, the sound of the water stimulated my imagination. But the bitter-faced dog was guarding his keeper at the bathroom door, he destroyed all my chances to take a peek. He stared, with his sharp and deadly eyes, at any male who dared to get close to the bathroom.
My phone rang, it was my father, unexpectedly.
"Son, your uncaring mother just arrived, I a.s.signed someone to transfer money to your bank card, it should cover your school fees and living cost. We might not come back for quite a while, you take good care of yourself."
"Actually I just made money by renting a room out."
"What? You really rented a room? How many tenants?"
"Just a little girl..."
"Oh, just a little girl. If possible, refund her 100% or even 200% of the rent and let her leave. You can live a good life without renting out any room."
"Dad, that"s not cool, I promised her that she can live here and she already paid rent for a whole year!!"
"No, how can you just rent our house out that easily! Besides you are all alone at home, letting strangers into our house could be dangerous."
It took me quite some time and effort to convince my father that I did the right thing.
"OK, son, if you insist, I respect your decision, your are a grown-up now. Be nice to the girl."
"Will do, dad."
"And I want to repeat your mother"s warning, DO NOT rent out the room on the left side of the corridor upstairs and DO NOT get to the attic. You must remember this! OK, son, that"s it, see you."
After hanging up I recognized that I forgot to tell father one thing, Early Summer was surprised by the layout of the guest room, which was almost the same as her house"s. But that did not seem important, plus father only did one-way contact, I could not call back, so let it be.
"Shu Yuan, it"s till early and I couldn"t not fall asleep, can we hang out for a while?" Early Summer walked to me in a bath robe, drying her hair with a tower.
I have to say, she does not have any curves, small b.o.o.bs for sure. But I could not keep my eyes off her fair-skinned legs. I was barely this close to the opposite gender and I had almost zero resistance to a Loli"s charm.
I gave her a gla.s.s of water, we started to talk while watching TV, I told her what my mother said.
"Do not open the room on the left side of the corridor upstairs and do not go to the attic."
She asked for the reason out of curiosity, I could not make up any excuses after scratching my head for a while, so I decided to tell her the truth.
"When I was little, my parents told me that my ancestors did antique business for a living, they bought this house from a foreigner and according to my ancestors, there were some antiques who became demons, so they had to seal them in the attic and the room upstairs."
I finished my story and Loli laughed so hard that she crouched on the couch. The bitter-faced dog gave me a nasty look, as if I just told a lousy joke.
"Eh...OK, maybe they just piled my stroller, diapers, toys up there and never tidied up the rooms, so it"s unnecessary to open, so..." I tried to fix my poor expression.
"That"s very interesting, Shu Yuan, thank you, I had a great day. I"m off to bed, good night," Early Summer waved at me, I stood up and said "good night" politely.
My room was on the left side of the stairs and Early Summer"s, the right. I started to picture how Early Summer stripped off her clothes, lied down on the bed and fell to asleep. The scent of the young lady pervaded this old house, even gave me an illusion that the furniture was blossoming.
Maybe, my spring, is bout to come(1)?
My phone rang again, to my surprise, it was my head teacher(2) Mr. Mo.
"Yuan, haven"t slept yet?" Mr. Mo sounded sad and older than usual.
"Mr. Mo? It"s late, what"s the matter?"
I did not talk much at school, but I was a good student, and teaches barely called me at night.
"I just got notified, one student from our cla.s.s, He Dawei, jumped off the building to commit suicide."
"Wh...What..." I tried to picture this He Dawei"s face in my mind but I failed. I was not good at making friends with my cla.s.smates, but I knew this one. He was in charge of sports(3) and had good muscles, his grades were not as good but he certainly knew how to get along with people.
"It seems to have something to do with domestic violence, he"s still in comma, and I just got to the hospital."
I could sense that Mr. Mo was sad and helpless, but, why did he call me? I was not the cla.s.s leader(4), just an introverted student with great grades.
"Yuan, I was disturbed and just wanted to talk to you. It"s late, you should get rest."
"Sorry, Mr. Mo, I"m not good at comforting people. I just hope Dawei will be okay."
"Thank you, Yuan. You don"t talk much, but you are a good kid who can give me comfort."
I thought it was the ending sign and was ready to say "good night" while Mr. Mo suddenly asked:
"Yuan, did a transfer student move in to your house?
I was shocked, how did Mr. Mo know about this? Did some "paparazzi" from my cla.s.s saw me when I accompany Early Summer to fetch her things at the hotel and followed us all the way home? Jerk!
"Yuan, I did not intend to question your personal life. It"s just, eh, you are young, leaving with a girl could be distracting, I hope you can focus on your study." Mr. Mo sounded serious and caring.
"Yes, Mr. Mo."
I didn"t know what to say.
"OK, see you tomorrow then, good kid, let"s pray for Dawei. Good night."
"Good night, Mr. Mo."
I hang up, an baffling feeling came up and it felt wrong, my illusion faded away and all the flowers were gone. I was fretful, so I got up, planned to get some air at the balcony.
I opened the door and was shocked again.
Early summer was standing silently at my door in a green floral pajama. Her body was glowing slightly, I was not sure if It"s an illusion.
I was stunned and did not know what to do.
Annotations:
(1)One"s spring comes: in Chinese it means he or she might start a relation.
(2)Head teacher: in China, students stay in a stable cla.s.s and have a cla.s.sroom, teachers come and go. Each cla.s.s has a head teacher who not only teaches but also care about students. Students can turn to this head teacher when he or she has trouble, also the head teacher may talk to a student if he or she is not on good behavior.
(3)Student in charge of sports: since students stay in a stable cla.s.s, they vote for leaders. The student in charge of sports is usually someone that is good at sports and a.s.sists the P.E .teacher in organizing all sorts of sport games. There are also student in charge of study, student in charge of music, etc.
(4)Cla.s.s leader: the leader of the cla.s.s, who a.s.sists the head teacher of the cla.s.s in managing the whole cla.s.s.