Jiang Cheng’s daily schedule was tightly packed. He usually went straight home after school without even dropping by the convenience store. Since he was always a bit distracted and not working as well in the brief time he was waiting for dinner to be ready, Gu Fei made him go back straight after school, and would bring the food over once it was all done.
After dinner, that was basically it for the day. There was nothing else to do at night aside from review notes, memorize passages, and churn through question banks. Of course, Jiang Cheng still made time for recreation. Their exercises in bed might have been physically taxing, but they were very mentally stimulating…
Going to Wang Xu’s place to have meat pies today was probably the first publicly acceptable form of entertainment they’d had in the past two months.
“I used to think that Yi Jing was enough of an overachiever,” Wang Xu lamented as he pedaled beside them, “but after seeing Jiang Cheng, I finally realized I was naive.”
“Isn’t Yi Jing working pretty hard, too?” Gu Fei said.
“It’s not the same.” Wang Xu glanced at Jiang Cheng. “Lately, I’ve noticed that Jiang Cheng’s lost even more weight than her.”
“…Shut up,” said Jiang Cheng.
Best to stop saying that he’d lost weight. In both ingredient quality and quantity, the meals Gu Fei made every day were enough to raise prize hogs. If Wang Xu was saying Jiang Cheng had lost weight, Gu Fei might just pry his mouth open and shovel food in through a funnel.
“Hey,” Wang Xu said, pulling up beside Jiang Cheng. “Overachiever Jiang, have you decided what school you want to go to? Have you decided on a major?”
“Nope,” said Jiang Cheng.
“Really?” Wang Xu was baffled. “Don’t people always say things like, This overachiever had his sights set on this one university ever since he was a little kid, and now he’s finally made it—you know, the whole inspiration porn thing…? How can you still not know at this point?”
“I,” Jiang Cheng said, turning to look at him, “can go anywhere I want to. There’s no need for me to have set my sights on anything from a young age.”
“…Goddamn.” Wang Xu glared at him. “I hate you overachievers and your empty bragging!”
“It’s not empty.” Jiang Cheng grinned. “My bragging is rock solid.”
“Die mad about it,” Gu Fei said from beside them.
“What the hell?!” Wang Xu yelped. “Fix your attitudes, please! You’re coming to my place to eat! At least treat the meal provider with a little bit of kindness!”
Wang Xu’s dad, Wang Er—or maybe his name wasn’t Wang Er, though Jiang Cheng never had asked what his name really was… Well, either way, Papa Wang’s meat pies really were the best he’d ever had. Even the ones with corn filling and only a few shavings of meat were surprisingly delicious.
Of course, after he’d finished a heap of corn pies, he still topped it off with three more pork belly ones.
“Oh my!” Wang Xu’s mom glanced at the empty baskets on the table when she came in to drop off their side dishes. “How did you guys eat so fast?”
“He’s fattening up for the winter,” Wang Xu said, pointing at Jiang Cheng. “Overachievers are a different breed. He eats like this and still gets skinnier every day.”
“You have the gall to say that?!” Wang Xu’s mom smacked the back of Wang Xu’s head. “Whatever you ate all went to your body! There’s nothing left for your brain!”
“Hey!” Wang Xu shot his mom an embarrassed look. “Don’t do that in front of my friends.”
“Do what? So what if I do?!” She smacked his head a couple more times for good measure.
“It’ll make him stupid,” said Gu Fei.
“Oho, it’s too late for that. Been whacking him like this since he was little, he might be stupid already.” She set two plates of beef jerky down on the table. “Try this. It’s delicious—spicy and not tough.”
Jiang Cheng picked up a strip and stuffed it into his mouth, and Wang Xu’s mom grinned at him. “You like our meat pies a lot, don’t you, Jiang Cheng?” she said.
“Yes.” Jiang Cheng nodded. “They’re amazing.”
“We’ll have new versions coming out around New Year’s,” she told him. “If the food at home gets too greasy and heavy around the holidays, feel free to come over and have some meat pies!”
Jiang Cheng blinked at her for a moment, then nodded. “All right.”
“You talk so much,” Wang Xu said, giving his mom a push. “Go back to work and let us talk.”
After she went out, Wang Xu closed the door to the main dining room. “Sorry about that, Jiang Cheng. My mom doesn’t know…”
“It’s fine.” Jiang Cheng smiled. “Really.”
It’s almost New Year’s. If Wang Xu’s mom hadn’t mentioned it, it never would’ve occurred to him that it was almost the end of the year. All he’d thought about was that it was almost winter break, and that he had extra classes even then. Everyone in his class expressed their reluctance to accept this harsh reality.
And yet Jiang Cheng never made the connection between winter break and New Year’s. Or maybe he just didn’t want to think about it.
A heart as calm as water after a storm wouldn’t necessarily remain unperturbed over the holiday season. After all, it was the time of year for families to come together. A time of warmth, and laughter, and cheer.
There was always such a fixation on the Spring Festival, and on the unrelenting misery of those unable to go home and celebrate it with family. It seemed to be etched deep in the very bones of all Chinese people. Whether you cared or not, at this time of year it was inevitable that your mood would change along with the gradual proliferation of red decorations swarming your surroundings.