Tan Xingwei’s eyelids grew heavier and heavier. Just a moment ago, her spirits had been soaring with excitement, but after all that activity on Weibo, she suddenly felt sleepy.
In the end, she forgot to charge her phone and didn’t remove the back pillow. She dazedly switched off the lamp, slid down, pulled the covers over herself, and fell asleep.
The next day, she woke up with a stiff neck.
She remained in a half-asleep state for another ten minutes before gradually waking up. Rubbing her sore neck, she picked up the phone that had slept beside her.
The center of the screen displayed 12:25 PM. In the top right corner, next to the red battery icon, it read “1%.” At the bottom of the screen were two messages from Tan Yinqing.
The first, from 9:48 AM: “Want to have lunch together?”
The second, from 11:35 AM: “Still not awake?”
Tan Xingwei tapped on the message, but before the app could open, the screen went black.
The battery was dead.
Tan Xingwei’s mind raced.
Tan Yinqing rarely asked her to lunch on a Sunday. They usually ate at home, so if she had to ask, the question would have been something like, “Are you coming home for lunch?”
A message like this was more likely if Tan Yinqing was out, and when Tan Yinqing was out, she rarely spent time with her.
While she was thinking, the phone finished booting up. Tan Xingwei quickly opened WeChat and sent a message to Tan Yinqing: “What lunch?”
Tan Yinqing didn’t reply immediately.
Tan Xingwei sat up, her gaze vacant.
The wait was agonizing.
The agony was mainly Tan Xingwei’s own, her mind in turmoil because it seemed to have already deduced that the “gathering tomorrow” with Su Xu that Tan Yinqing had mentioned yesterday was for tomorrow noon, not tomorrow night.
Meaning today noon. Meaning right now.
But Tan Yinqing hadn’t delivered the final blow yet, so Tan Xingwei could only continue her agonizing routine of getting out of bed, brushing her teeth, washing her face, and taking milk and bread from the fridge.
The moment the toaster announced its job was done, Tan Yinqing’s reply finally arrived.
She said: “Eating with Ah Xu and the others.”
The guillotine fell, and Tan Xingwei’s head was chopped off.
On her phone, Tan Yinqing sent another message: “You didn’t know?”
Tan Xingwei: “…I thought it was tonight.”
Tan Yinqing: “Who said it was tonight?”
A good question!
What kind of decent person doesn’t sleep in on a perfectly good Sunday and schedules a lunch gathering!
What kind of decent person treats someone to a late-night snack and then seamlessly treats them to lunch the very next day!
No offense intended, just a simple vent due to a bad mood. Apologies to anyone caught in the crossfire, it’s purely my own issue.
Tan Xingwei replied weakly to Tan Yinqing: “Have you guys started?”
Tan Yinqing sent a picture. Five dishes and a soup, every plate already scraped clean.
Tan Xingwei: “Alright.”
Since it had come to this, all she could do was eat her bread and milk.
Tan Xingwei took out the heated milk and brought it to the table with the bread. She sat down dejectedly, drinking with an empty mind, chewing with an empty mind.
She gave herself only one minute. After a minute, she pulled herself together and played on her phone as if nothing had happened.
The first app she opened subconsciously was Weibo.
And her Weibo.
First, she was surprised to see over 700 unread messages, then she realized this was her “AXXX725919” account.
There were comments on yesterday’s new post, comments on much older posts, and many new private messages.
At first, the comments section was passionately replying to Tan Xingwei’s “and then there was nothing,” with replies like, “There can’t be nothing!”, “Sister A is back, go for it!”, “Create opportunities, create opportunities!”, “Ahhh I think I see a glimmer of hope, there has to be more,” “Little X, you have to pull yourself together! Do it for me!”…
Gradually, everyone fell back into neat formation.
“Little X, stand tall!”
“Little X, stand tall!”
“Little X, stand tall!”
…
Tan Xingwei laughed while drinking her milk. Your Little X overslept and couldn’t even make it to a hot lunch. What was there to stand tall for?
It had been a long time since this Weibo account was so lively. So many words, a great accompaniment to a meal. And so, for this breakfast, Tan Xingwei finished her bread while reading these words.
The bread was finished, but she hadn’t finished reading the private messages. After cleaning up, Tan Xingwei collapsed back onto her bed with her phone.
Many familiar IDs, many familiar avatars. Scrolling through them one by one easily reminded Tan Xingwei of some nights during her freshman year.
Back when this Weibo account was at its peak of activity, she would also read private messages from these friends. Some would secretly ask her about the unwritten future, some would empathize with her secret crush, and some would share their own stories of falling for a straight girl.
Back then, Tan Xingwei could still offer a few words. Now she was older, and the price of growing up was being worn down by society until she had fewer words to say. A simple “read” and she would exit.
But she didn’t exit on everyone.
For example, the user on her screen right now, “A Pair of Small Scissors.”
A Pair of Small Scissors: “Ahhhhhhhhh is it what I think it is? Sister A is back?”
A Pair of Small Scissors: “She’s back she’s back she’s back??????”
A Pair of Small Scissors: “!!!!!”
It was clear that Small Scissors was very excited.
Tan Xingwei opened the keyboard: “Yes.”
A Pair of Small Scissors replied instantly: “Ahhhhhhh.”
This Small Scissors was no simple user. She was the only person Tan Xingwei followed on this account because Small Scissors was a great writer. She wrote her own literature on Weibo, had 100,000 followers, and back then, she had written fanfiction for Tan Xingwei.
Who would have thought? Little old them had fanfiction.
Small Scissors was dissatisfied with how their story ended. Using their personas, she rearranged the events of that summer, including what happened and forcing what didn’t, and wrote them a story with a super happy ending.
It was very good, hmm.
And when it came to writing that kind of thing, this Small Scissors was a master.
Although it was just one piece, only a little over 1,500 words, it took Tan Xingwei five days to finish, opening it only to close it again, opening it only to switch away, before she finally had the courage to read it all.
It was also, very good, hmm.
Tan Xingwei didn’t know what she had done to deserve a popular creator with 100,000 followers writing a story for her, complete with such a steamy extra. This incident spurred her social skills, and Small Scissors became the netizen she had chatted with the most in her life.
However, because this Weibo account of Tan Xingwei’s had gone dormant, they hadn’t been in contact for a long time.
Now, Small Scissors sent another message: “When did she come back? Are you in contact again? Have you met? How did you know she was back? Did she tell you? Ahhh I’m so excited I have so many questions.”
Tan Xingwei extracted the key questions and answered concisely: “We met.”
Small Scissors: “Ahhh you have no idea how excited I am. I wasn’t even fully awake this morning when my phone screen suddenly showed a notification from a special follow. I shot right up, you know you’re my only special follow.”
Small Scissors: “I thought it was for a holiday or something, like the last few times you came online just to say hi to everyone. I never expected Sister A to be back.”
Small Scissors: “I’m so excited, so excited. I spent the whole morning buried in your comments section, I barely did any work.”
Small Scissors: “Ahhh you met.”
Small Scissors: “When did she come back? When did you meet? How did it go?”
Small Scissors: “I’m so excited, I ordered noodles and haven’t eaten them yet, they’ve all gone clumpy, look.”
Small Scissors: 【Image】
Tan Xingwei was amused by Small Scissors, and her memory of Small Scissors’ personality was reawakened.
A very sincere young girl.
Little X: “Then you should eat your noodles first.”
Small Scissors: “Okay okay.”
Small Scissors: “Eating now.”
Small Scissors: “You have to tell me if there’s any follow-up, sob sob sob.”
Small Scissors: “Of course it’s okay if you don’t hehe, Little X you just do your own thing.”
Little X: “Okay, for now we’ve just met, we had a late-night snack together yesterday.”
Little X: “My sister and the others were there too.”
Small Scissors: “Ahhhhh okay okay.”
Small Scissors: “So did you two talk about anything?”
Little X: “We talked a bit, about this and that.”
Small Scissors: “Then you…”
Small Scissors: “Did you ask her why she didn’t show up that day?”
The faint smile on Little X’s face froze.
Her defenses crumbled.
She opened the keyboard and closed it, opened it again, and closed it again.
Why didn’t Su Xu show up that day?
Four years ago, a few days before Su Xu was to go abroad, everyone threw a small farewell party for her.
This “everyone” referred to Su Xu’s friends from university and high school, so technically, it had nothing to do with Tan Xingwei. She shouldn’t have been invited.
But Su Xu did invite her. And this invitation came at a time when Su Xu doted on her, when Su Xu would indulge her as long as she said a few soft words. Tan Xingwei got carried away.
Carried away into thinking she was special. So carried away that she secretly slipped a note with only a few lines into Su Xu’s bag that night.
She had so much she wanted to say to Su Xu, she even wanted to confess. So on the note, she wrote: After this is over, by the swings in the small garden outside the restaurant, I have something to tell you.
She wanted to tell Su Xu face-to-face. She wanted to observe Su Xu’s expression and attitude after every word she said. Su Xu was leaving soon, and she didn’t know when she would be back. She hadn’t thought about the future; she only thought that she would definitely regret it if she didn’t tell Su Xu.
But she was also scared; she wasn’t completely courageous. So she didn’t sign the note.
She thought, what if Su Xu was curious? Everyone there was Su Xu’s friend. Su Xu was such a good person, she would give face, she would show up, right?
Haha, the truth was, Su Xu didn’t show up.
Tan Xingwei didn’t know exactly how long she waited. She only remembered that it was very hot that night, with lots of mosquitoes, and Tan Yinqing was so annoying, constantly asking where she was.
The sky was dark that night, with no moonlight. There were a total of five streetlights visible, and frogs were croaking in the pond.
She eventually left because of Tan Yinqing’s call, asking why she wasn’t home yet when she’d said she was heading back a long time ago. Their parents were asking where she’d gone.
She went home in disgrace.
But her mood wasn’t too bad when she got home that day. The slight discomfort was only because things hadn’t gone according to plan.
It was the next day, when she couldn’t resist going to find Su Xu, that the bolt from the blue struck.
She asked Su Xu if she had found anything extra in her bag.
It was just a probing question, but Su Xu replied directly: “I knew it was you.”
Tan Xingwei’s mood shifted in an instant. At the same time, she understood everything. Su Xu hadn’t shown up not because she didn’t see the note, not because the note was from a stranger, but because Su Xu knew the person asking to meet her was Tan Xingwei.
Tan Xingwei’s emotions instantly collapsed. In that moment, she imagined many terrible, terrible things.
She thought Su Xu must finally be fed up with her. She thought Su Xu must be thrilled to finally be going abroad, to finally be rid of this pest. She thought Su Xu must have looked at the note with disdain, surely thinking she could finally stop waiting on this friend’s little sister.
Then she thought, Su Xu, if you don’t like Tan Xingwei, you could have said so earlier. Why did you have to indulge her in everything, lifting her to the heavens only to drop her to the ground? It was you, Su Xu, who said it was okay, who said you were fine with it, who said, “I’ll agree to whatever you want.”
So Tan Xingwei was in agony for a whole night, and all her emotions coalesced into three words in a WeChat message: “Was it fun?”
