Holiday

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Before the winter break, we gathered at school to collect our quality reports and holiday assignments. Suddenly, I realized that after an entire semester, I still didn’t have Ling’s contact information. There was a QQ account named “Lin Quan” in the math competition and club groups, but it didn’t seem like her. I had sent two friend requests yesterday, but neither was accepted.

I asked her about the QQ account. “That account is mine, but my mom knows the password. In other words, she mostly uses it. Sorry, I’ll approve your request when I get home today. Just tell her you’re the class monitor from the next class,” she replied.

“Wait, I’m not... doesn’t that mean she can see everything we say?”

“...Yeah. She also knows my phone password. It’s common for her to go through my message history. But if you want to talk to me privately...”

She smiled slyly, suddenly pulling me into the storage room and closing the door. Before I could react, she took off her bulky black coat and pulled out a small red button phone, about the size of a palm. “I haven’t had time to tell you—I secretly got a new SIM card at the nearby service center a few days ago. You just need an ID to get one. Then I bought this phone at the store near the school gate. It’s a used Nokia 150 for two hundred yuan. That store can even recharge your phone credit for you. I picked this one because of its long battery life—they say one charge can last a month. It should be fine from now until the end of the winter break—there aren’t many days anyway. Oh, and I also registered my own email with this number...” she whispered near my ear.

I was stunned, and it took me a while to realize I should ask for her new number. I wasn’t sure whether to praise her cleverness or sigh in resignation.

“You didn’t have to go through all this trouble... I just wanted to chat. At worst, you could delete the chat history.”

“It’s not for you,” she tilted her head, and I realized I might have been reading too much into it.

“But... from now on, send any messages to this new phone, okay? Because... I don’t want to delete our chat history.”

She slipped the phone back inside her coat, then opened the door and stepped out. I followed her, feeling indignant. “It’s clearly wrong for her to snoop on your phone...”

“What’s the use of being ‘wrong’? Since I got my first phone at ten, she told me, ‘You can’t have any secrets on your phone when your mom’s around.’ And then she would... well, ‘snooping’ isn’t even the right word—it was more like openly going through everything. Checking usage time, reading message logs.

“Later, a neighbor girl taught me to convert my messages into pinyin letters and encrypt them with a simple password. That person couldn’t understand it and even asked me what it meant. I proudly demonstrated—shifting all letters three places forward, the message read: ‘Come to your house to study at 3 p.m. tomorrow.’ She gave me a look like she wanted to eat me alive, said I was being sneaky, and forbade me from ever using such tricks again. I never really knew who was in the wrong.

“But... now, since she can openly look at my phone, I can openly outsmart her!” As if pouring out years of grievance, she leaned on the railing and shouted at the sky.

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I didn’t know what I could do, so I did what I always do—I handed her a piece of candy. Eating sweets helped distract from bitter thoughts, or so I hoped.

The New Year was coming, meaning the winter break was nearly over (we had math competition classes starting on the sixth day after the holiday). With a heavy schoolbag full of unfinished homework, I returned to my countryside hometown and occasionally sent Ling little updates about the Spring Festival on her phone.

┌ Grandma made rice wine... very sweet, low alcohol content, kids can drink it too. ┘
┌ The chicken farm has expanded again!
Attachment: Rooster.jpg ┘
┌ It’s the 29th of the twelfth lunar month, steamed lots of steamed buns! Where will your family celebrate the New Year? ┘

She usually replied once or twice a day.

┌ Hello, Gu Heqing >w_
┌ I have to go back for ‘punishment’ tomorrow morning... I’m going home to the countryside too, won’t bring my phone to avoid getting caught (recently I’ve been hiding it inside the piano bench; they probably don’t know you can store things there). So don’t message me these two days—I won’t be able to reply w┘

My pocket vibrated. I quickly pulled out my phone—had to reply while she was online (?).

┌ Punishment? Although visiting relatives during the New Year is indeed painful... ┘
┌ I thought Ling’s grandparents would live in Jiang Lin City too... maybe we could meet in the countryside! ┘

Reply:

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┌ I have a cousin my age studying in Nanjing. Every few years (like this year), he comes back once. Then... it’s all about parents competing with each other ;_; ┘

I wanted to say more, but on the other side came:

┌ They’re back from shopping, bye bye ┘

My fingers hovered over the screen.

The class bell rang.

“I want to keep listening to Teacher Ling’s lectures. The teachers on the podium sometimes drift off while talking, but...”

“Ah, sometimes I don’t really want to listen either. To put it simply, listening to a lecture is like being fed by the teacher; reading and researching on your own is like a buffet—you definitely feel differently. If it were me, I’d prefer the buffet.”

“Then I... I want Teacher Ling... to feed me...” Halfway through, I suddenly blushed, realizing what I said.

“Shut up! What devilish words!” Ling flopped her head onto the desk, burying her face in her sleeves.

“Ah, sorry! I didn’t mean it! Are you okay?” I shook her shoulder, but she pushed me away. “Alright, alright, class is starting. Don’t cause a fuss in the second row. Behave and listen to your Teacher Ling.”

But why was your face red too?

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