The Bright Moon CH1
On the day the postgraduate exam results were released, it was also Xu Can's 20th birthday.
After checking her results, she didn't need to wait for the cutoff scores to be announced to know—she had aced the preliminary exam.
She finished her shift and happily headed home, only to find two burly men blocking her door. Her birthday gift was delivered by a thug dressed in leopard print and wearing a gold chain, who handed her a court summons along with a small bucket of red paint.
The thug's voice was loud as he warned her to step back to avoid getting splashed.
Then he threw the bucket, splattering the paint onto the wooden door, creating a free-flowing pattern that had a certain American street graffiti vibe.
The iron bucket clanged loudly as it hit the ground and rolled a few times before settling on the concrete floor of the hallway.
Before leaving, he ordered her to pay back the money quickly.
……
The thug didn't splash paint on her directly, but she had stood too close. The hem of her navy blue skirt was dotted with red paint when the bucket hit the door.
Xu Can opened the door, still shaken, and immediately received a call from her father. He hesitated and stammered, telling her that he had borrowed some money and needed her help to repay it. The amount wasn't much—200 000 yuan, plus interest, making it 235 000 yuan in total.
Xu Can couldn't process what he said next.
She vaguely remembered that during the gruelling period between working and studying, her father had come to help cook with her. Before leaving, he had asked her to sign a piece of paper, claiming it was to show off to Mr. Wang because her handwriting was beautiful.
The looming exams had left her no room for distractions. She only knew that her father was helping a friend watch a warehouse, sleeping there, and earning four to five thousand yuan a month with food and accommodation provided.
He hadn't caused her trouble in a long time.
She had been careless just this once. Just once, really...
Xu Can tiredly hung up the phone and went to sleep.
The next day, when she went to plead for leniency, she discovered that the 200,000 yuan debt wasn't in her name.
An honest uncle, with tears welling in his bull-like eyes and wrinkles deep as knife cuts around them, told her that if she didn't repay the money, he wouldn’t be able to pay his son’s medical fees.
And the debt she signed? The principal was 1.8 million yuan. The creditor hadn't come to demand it yet, most likely because the interest hadn't grown fat enough.
Xu Can had no way out, truly no way.
She was a good student, skipped grades, had beautiful handwriting, but she had no idea how to conjure money to fill the hole her father had dug. She didn't know how to escape these burdens. Life was damn hard.
The uncle with the bull-like eyes said his son was waiting for life-saving money. How could she study in school while his son died?
Xu Can agreed it was indeed wrong. So she handed over her secretly saved 12 000 yuan to him.
Then she went to the rooftop, climbed over the railing in the dark, and jumped straight down.
Blood trickled from her mouth as she lay on the hard asphalt, with only one thought left: she wasn’t able to see Tong Mingyue one last time.
At the time, she only felt unwilling to accept this fate.
__________________________________________________
"Hey, I heard you missed the chemistry principles exam?"
Xu Can was lying on her desk when someone poked her shoulder with a finger. She turned her head, and two streams of tears slid down her cheeks.
Her face pale and her eyes vacant, she looked up.
Guo Xiaoya was startled by her unusual appearance, quickly put down her meal and touched Xu Can's forehead. "What's wrong with you? Are you really unwell? Can you manage the two exams tomorrow?"
The dormitory's long fluorescent light was especially bright, they reflected in Xu Can’s pupils in a ring of white.
Xu Can bit her lips and remained silent.
Guo Xiaoya had her back facing the light, making her soft facial lines appear slightly more defined, her eyebrows were raised, making her eyes look bigger, almost glaring at Xu Can.
Her nose to her temples were dotted with cute little freckles. Her mouth kept moving.
Xu Can stared at Guo Xiaoya's face for a long time, sighed quietly, and said, "Why is it you I'm seeing in the end? Such a waste..."
"What are you talking about?"
Guo Xiaoya was confused, unsure what Xu Can was talking about. She checked her forehead again, finding no fever, and boldly poked her shoulder harder, "even if you missed an exam, it's just one subject. You need to pull yourself together..."
Guo Xiaoya's words felt muted to Xu Can's ears, like a distant dream, their contents becoming irrelevant.
"I know you were rejected three times by Professor Tong even though you just wanted to help. Pull yourself together! After the exams, I'll take you to her office! As long as she's still an associate professor without her own office, there’s no way she can ignore you completely!"
"......"
Guo Xiaoya's words struck Xu Can like a thunderclap.
Memories from before her death came rushing back before becoming illusory, as if it were just a dream. She immediately became clear headed again.
The computer screen in front of her dimmed from inactivity.
Before it went completely dark, Xu Can reached out and quickly touched the trackpad, checking the time in the upper right corner.
Saturday afternoon, 6:14 PM.
She clicked on the year...
Xu Can looked at Guo Xiaoya in disbelief, "Let me ask you a serious question, what year is it? What are we doing?"
"What's the matter, did you time-travel or something?"
Guo Xiaoya, relieved that Xu Can was okay, pulled her dinner onto her own desk. "What did you dream about? We still have two exams tomorrow. Think of something yourself, genius."
Xu Can opened and closed her mouth, wanting to say time-travel wasn't trendy anymore!
But she held back, turning instead to flip through the textbooks on her desk, "Principles of Chemistry." Inside, pages filled with highlighted points and dense notes in the margins.
There was another book, "Structural Chemistry," also filled with extensive notes.
Slowly, she remembered. It was the final exams of her sophomore year. Two more exams, and then it would be winter break.
Looking at the packed review materials, Xu Can finally felt a sense of reality.
Touching the handwriting in the books, familiar yet slightly strange, she felt comforted. But...
She had already graduated and had been accepted into a graduate program...
Anyone who's been to college knows that textbooks from a year ago are practically the same as textbooks from a previous life! For Xu Can who had already died, how many lifetimes would that make?
Her stomach growled.
Xu Can suddenly craved something greasy. She dug out her wallet, ready to buy fried chicken from the cafeteria.
Only to find an old, worn 20 yuan note, missing a corner.
Poor, she was really poor.
But tomorrow, she’ll have money. A whole 100,000 yuan.
__________________________________________________
Guo Xiaoya who was eating her dinner was still worried about Xu Can missing an exam. "Are you really okay? Maybe you should rest early. You've studied enough, no need to cram..."
She turned her head and choked on her hotpot from what she saw, tears streamed down her face from the spiciness.
She coughed loudly, "Cough, cough... what are you doing..."
Xu Can, holding a small mirror, tucked a stray hair behind her ear. She looked up slightly, gazing at Guo Xiaoya for two or three seconds, her eyes suddenly smiling brightly. "What's wrong? Can't I look in the mirror?"
Sure you can.
But she wasn't the type to look in the mirror while studying.
Xu Can had a fairy-like face, with naturally curved, raven-black lashes framing bright eyes. Her delicate nose, and naturally rosy, diamond-shaped lips. Her features were perfectly balanced, as if crafted by the heavens.
But beauty in reality doesn't conjure fairy tale castles.
She was just checking.
In her previous life, the debt collectors had slashed her face. The wound wasn't deep, and it had healed well, leaving only a faint scar. Now her skin was smooth and milky white, without that familiar scar.
Her chin wasn't as sharp, with a hint of baby fat.
Xu Can lowered her eyes and clenched her fist tightly under the table.
Since she had another chance at life, she vowed never to be in such a desperate situation again..
Guo Xiaoya, still reeling from Xu Can's earlier backwards glance, joked, "don't flirt with me. I already have a boyfriend. Go flirt with your Professor Tong instead!" (TN: the author used 电 here which means to fry or shock but is slang for flirting)
Xu Can smirked, "Share your meal with me."
"Sigh..."
Xu Can sat next to her, sharing her friend and roommate's spicy hotpot, eating while crying.
Guo Xiaoya, true to her Sichuan roots, added so much spice that Xu Can's face turned red. After finishing, her forehead felt like it was steaming. But the physical tears washed away some of the emotional pain, and she felt better.
"Go study." Guo Xiaoya handed her a napkin and cleaned up the takeout boxes. "I'm going to shower."
"Okay."
Xu Can, now full, returned to her desk to study. Biting her pen, she looked at the familiar yet slightly strange knowledge. It felt like she was rebuilding the Great Wall, but she was happy to do so.
She loved studying. Hard work always paid off, and the effort put into learning had never betrayed her.
When Guo Xiaoya returned, Xu Can started asking questions.
Guo Xiaoya answered a few, thinking Xu Can was just checking answers or testing her. But then she realised that the meal seemed to have made Xu Can stupid.
She was asking about basic concepts and even structural chemistry calculations!
__________________________________________________
The next day.
Xu Can entered the exam hall at 10am. After finishing her paper, she looked at the clock above the blackboard. 11 o'clock. Half an hour left before she could hand in her paper early.
Bored, she lay down to sleep.
The invigilator, having checked around the examinees multiple times, kept walking around the room, noticing someone was sleeping. He approached her and took her paper.
"Student, there's still time. Don't give up," the invigilator picked up the paper, his eyes focusing on the neat handwriting and correct answers.
Beautiful handwriting, good answers and no blanks.
Xu Can rubbed her neck; the classroom desks were too low to sleep comfortably. "Professor, I'm done."
Before she finished speaking, the students around her who were frowning and biting their pens in deep thought all turned to look at her.
The invigilator put down her paper. "Oh... oh... okay, go back to sleep then."
"Okay."
Xu Can replied and without hesitation, went back to sleep.
Comments
Post a Comment