Yalan said, "Will you take me to the Elephant Valley to see the elephants?"
"I'm afraid, not possible," I explained to her that the elephants had all gone to Myanmar this season.
She was a little disappointed as if the trooper outfit would not be of any use. I quickly recommended taking her to a nearby forest reserve. My sister heard about it and wanted to go with us but was stopped by my mother. Yalan didn't know how to ride a bike, so she sat behind mine.
Along the way, we chatted. I asked her, "Yalan, what kind of soldier are you?"
She chuckled, "I have to tell you quickly before you rack your brains and shake your bike. Listen, I'm a student soldier! I'm in the same city as your university."
I was excited, "Which university are you at?"
"My school doesn't have a name. It's a string of numbers. Do you know what it means?"
"Confidential unit?"
"Yes."
"What do you study?"
"Math."
"It's not easy to learn, isn't it?"
"It's not hard if you like it. Are you interested in your economics?"
"I am in fine arts."
"What?" Yalan asked in disbelief.
I explained to her that I had changed school and major, and I didn't dare to tell my family, so she should keep the secret.
I kept talking, but I didn't hear replies from Yalan. When I looked back, she was not on the bike. I had to go back the same way and found Yalan at the top of the slope. She said I shook her off when giving way to a bus.
"Why didn't you call me?" I asked.
"I was too shy to shout. There were too many people." She added a little dissatisfied. "Didn't you feel it when you lost me?"
When we finally made it to the reserve, we saw no other tourists – the world was just for the two of us. I led her along the winding paths, through the unique trees and bushes of the tropical rainforest, admiring the exotic flowers and aquatic plants. At first, she was a little reserved but soon treated me like an old friend, sometimes holding my hand and asking me to follow her to see what she found. Her cheerfulness made me feel for the first time that this place was full of vitality with endless mysteries.
We had fun all afternoon until the sun went down and the white mist rose. While biking back, we talked more.
I asked her, "What impressed you the most?"
She replied, "Of course, it's your enthusiastic guide!"
"Yalan, you know how to talk. Why didn't you talk to me in high school?"
"You didn't talk to me, did you?"
Neither of us knew why.
She held the corner of my shirt with one hand, then grabbed my waist with both hands. The journey home was safe, and she did not fall off the bike again.
The Bai family left the next day. They had to visit other friends. Her parents were moving to Hong Kong soon, and she planned to finish military school and then decide where to go. She handed me a note, still in horrible handwriting, with the address of her school, inviting me to visit her when I returned to school.
My mother looked at the back of Yalan in departure and said to me, "Son, this girl is not bad."
***
I went back to school, quickly cleared my head of economics, and learned the disorderly, divergent thinking of the arts. I cherished every day and promptly filled in the missing basic knowledge. Tianxue was eager to help me, and she gave me her notes from the previous courses for reference.
At the National Day festival, I remembered that I should go and see Yalan. I took the bus for an hour and found the location she gave me. I didn't see the school's sign. There was a soldier guard at the gate. He made a phone call, and I stood at the door waiting. After a while, I saw Yalan in military uniform walking toward me with a dash of heroism.
"The uniform suits you well!" I said sincerely.
"Are you complimenting me or the uniform?" she asked me with a smile.
"Looks like I have to learn some vocabulary before praising you."
"Okay, don't make me wait too long," she quipped.
We came to her dormitory. Several of her female roommates were playing the Pig Heart game. When they saw me coming in, they quickly tore off the penalty paper strips stuck to their faces and pinched them in their hands. Yalan introduced me to them, "Xiaofeng, my high school classmate."
"What else?" someone asked her.
"We are from the same place," Yalan said.
"And more?"
Yalan told them to stop joking and play cards. They asked me if I wanted to play, and I answered, "I listen to my fellow Yalan." She encouraged me to play with them for a few rounds, "Help me teach them a lesson."
They put the paper strips back on their faces, and Yalan sat next to me, giving me advice. I was polite at first and quickly got a strip on my face. Then I played an all-in round and put a strip on all their faces.
They asked me what I was studying, and I let them guess. They said I should have studied science or engineering because I was good at computing. After trying again, they were still unable to figure it out. They asked me to paint a portrait of the group when they discovered I was a painter.
Yalan promised them, and she found white paper and pencils. The female soldiers found their hats and put them on and huddled together on a bed. It took me half an hour to complete the sketch, and they praised me as a professional and told Yalan that she wouldn't need to take photos in the future.
In the afternoon, Yalan took me to a nearby park for a walk. "You're good with girls," she said, and I wasn't sure if she was criticizing me or praising me. She told me to stay for the night. In the evening, the school was going to show the movie Sea of Forest and Land of Snow, and she asked me to watch it with her.
During dinner time, she took me to the guest house to book a room for the night. A few of her male classmates saw me and said to Yalan, "Since he is your fellow, we should pay some respect. Come to our dormitory, and we will ask the cook to add some dishes."
Seven or eight male soldiers took out a few bottles of liquor and got me drunk in no time. Yalan was trying to stop me but couldn't help much, so we didn't get a chance to watch the movie together, and I let her down miserably.