Chapter 4: Let's Go Find Aliens Together

——"The aliens are hidden in this small town."

This is what Ji Chunzao said. But...

"Is it true?"

Yan Jingxing found it unbelievable.

"Then, can you take me there now?"

His voice unintentionally became louder, with a tone of doubt and excitement.

"Maybe you can't see them now."

The girl rolled her bangs gently with her fingers, looking like she was seriously contemplating, but her words sounded mysterious.

"According to my observation, the appearance of extraterrestrial beings is often related to the seasons."

"Ah?"

This was news he had never heard before.

On TV shows like "Animal World" and "People and Nature," animals often go into heat, reproduce, and migrate with the seasons.

Could it be that the habits of extraterrestrials are similar to Earth's animals?

He moved his mouth, feeling half-skeptical. No, more like ninety percent skeptical.

"Anyway, you just have to wait! When the time comes, I will naturally call you, and we'll go find the aliens together."

Ji Chunzao's tone was as if Patrick Star was telling SpongeBob, "Let's go catch jellyfish together," ridiculously casual.

"...Alright."

Hearing his agreement, the girl grinned, revealing a big smile and her white, snow-like teeth. She even patted his shoulder with force.

There was her identical radiant smile just like the first time he saw her at the beach.

Bathed in the generous and intense sunlight of summer, he felt a slight dizziness again, but didn't know why.

...

Time flew by, and it had been half a month since Yan Jingxing transferred to Baiyue Town Experimental High School.

Afterwards, Ji Chunzao, in front of him, showed a kind of "revealing true colors" feeling.

Similar to his first impression of Yan Jingxing, her real personality was indeed lively, even too lively.

After making the agreement to "go find aliens together," this girl immediately changed her attitude. She came to his desk every day after class, and none of the friends he was familiar with from his previous school seemed as annoying as her.

It was no wonder that she was so lively. After all, apart from him, the transferred student, Ji Chunzao isolated herself from the others in the class.

Yan Jingxing finally understood why some classmates found her annoying. This girl, as long as she started talking about her favorite topics, her little mouth would chatter endlessly, completely disregarding the reactions of her audience.

As for the so-called "favorite topics," there was only one—

Yan Jingxing doubted whether she repeated it so many times because she had no evidence, trying to brainwash him into believing in the existence of aliens.

However, he would not be fooled.

At this age, Yan Jingxing had not completely abandoned the childish fantasies of his childhood. The reason he came back that day was because he hoped he could really see aliens.

Ji Chunzao said she would take him to find them, but in reality, she just chatted with him every day, showing no signs of taking any action. This made him feel dissatisfied—

"Ji Chunzao, have you found them?"

As soon as class ended, the girl seating at the last row rushed over, holding a large-format hardcover book, with a hurried pace.

"Not yet."

Hearing his question, she replied nonchalantly.

"It's not time yet; you just have to be patient."

Saying that, she placed the book on his desk.

"What's this again..."

He almost blurted out "UFO Illustrated Guide to Earth" upon seeing the cover but swallowed it back.

"Never mind; I haven't finished reading the one you gave me last time."

Yan Jingxing said, moving the books that were almost covering his homework.

"You, you take it first."

Unexpectedly, Ji Chunzao showed an eager expression, trying to put the book in his drawer. This move left him puzzled.

Who forces someone to borrow books?

"Hey, what's going on?"

Pressed by Yan Jingxing's questioning, the girl finally revealed the truth.

"My aunt saw me reading light readings last time and got angry. She said she was going to throw away all my things. So..."

She complained with a dejected look.

"I clearly read it after finishing my homework."

Aunt? Isn't Ji Chunzao living with her parents? He was a little confused but felt it wasn't the time to ask.

"Are you giving me unwanted things again?"

He said without a good mood.

"No, no." Ji Chunzao shook her head like a tambourine. "I just put it here and asked you to help me keep it. I'll take it back later."

"Fine."

Yan Jingxing didn't mind and promised it shrugging his shoulders.

After Ji Chunzao left, he found classmates around him and those nearby were giving him strange looks.

On the first day, Ji Chunzao talked to him, and every day after that, she came to find him. Such things naturally couldn't escape the attention of others.

In this era, everyone regarded puppy love as a dangerous beast, and any slightly better relationship between a boy and a girl would attract attention in a high school environment, especially when one of them was the most prominent weirdo in the class.

Feeling the gaze of others, Yan Jingxing began to realize that he might be regarded as a fool, just like Ji Chunzao, who was fanatical about aliens.

Ah, what a carefree guy, he thought.

Maybe because she had no other friends in the class, Ji Chunzao felt indifferent.

The next day, Ji Chunzao forcefully gave him a book related to superpowers.

On the third day, she came with a bag containing three books. For some reason, the girl looked a bit nervous and a bit sad.

On the fourth day, she brought a bunch of water monster-shaped dolls and an exquisitely crafted plastic and metal spaceship model. She seemed reluctant to part with them. Yan Jingxing initially felt that his dormitory couldn't fit her things anymore, but seeing her expression, he softened and agreed again.

On the fifth day, Ji Chunzao didn't come to school.

For the next two days, she was absent. Yan Jingxing felt a little worried and couldn't help but ask the homeroom teacher. The teacher said she took sick leave with the help of her family.

On the eighth day, Ji Chunzao finally returned to school. However, that day, the girl did not come to find him as usual.

During class, he couldn't help turning his head several times, secretly observing the figure sitting in the back.

The hair, with a bit of natural curl, fell like water plants, and the bangs covering her eyebrows seemed as if they had never been combed.

No one could see her expression at the moment, but based on his impression and understanding over the past half month, plus a little intuition, he felt that there seemed to be a melancholic atmosphere enveloping her...

Was it because of a low mood?

Until after four classes, he didn't see the girl in front of him, and he began to feel uncomfortable.

During the self-study period at noon, Yan Jingxing couldn't help it. He tore off a corner of his notebook, wrote a caring question on it, crumpled it into a ball, took advantage of the classmate on the platform who was responsible for discipline not paying attention, and threw it toward the back.

The paper ball hit Ji Chunzao's head directly, burying itself in her dense black hair.

"Nice shot."

The students beside him marveled in a low voice, and there were also whispering and laughing sounds.

He marveled at the accuracy of his throw and then noticed that Ji Chunzao was giving him a fierce glare.

After a while, the paper ball was thrown back.

"All my collections in my room were thrown away by my family."

There was only this sentence on it, and nothing else.

...

The twilight cast a slanting glow, and the flow of people on the campus gradually diminished. The private cars that blocked the entrance dispersed, leaving only occasional students and faculty coming out of the cafeteria.

Yan Jingxing walked back to the dormitory with his backpack. The paths he stepped on had become familiar.

The lights in the teaching building went out one by one as the night fell, leaving only a few offices with lights on. The soothing yellow light penetrated the glass windows, casting a warm and bright glow inside.

Streetlight poles struggled to dispel all the darkness in the corners. Walking along the small path under the tree shadows, the tireless chirping of insects gradually filled the deep ambient sounds. Occasionally, a family of wild cats could be seen lightly passing through the grass, making no sound.

Yan Jingxing was a boarding student. The day his uncle helped him with the transfer procedures, he moved in. He usually only went home on weekends.

To prevent accidents, the school didn't allow boarding students to leave the campus gate during normal hours. Therefore, the liveliest place in the evening was the dormitory building.

The building was divided into male and female sides, although they were in the same building, each side's corridor was separated by an iron gate and could only be entered from their respective entrances.

After a day of classes, Yan Jingxing walked to the third floor, placed his backpack on the desk, and sat down to rest.

At this moment, his roommate sleeping on the upper bunk leaned out and asked, "Want to play cards later?"

Boarding students were prohibited from bringing any electronic devices and entertainment items. However, students always found their ways to deal with school rules and teachers, making a showdown against school regulations and teachers a necessary part of campus life.

"Aren't you afraid of getting caught by the dorm supervisor?"

"It's fine. As long as we put things away before the regular patrols, it's okay."

Yan Jingxing waved his hand. "I'll pass. There's quite a bit of homework assigned today, and I'll be back too late."

Although he had just transferred in, Yan Jingxing quickly became acquainted with his roommates. After all, they were all boys of the same age, with restless and unruly hearts, experiencing similar environments, and caring about similar things.

With six people in one dorm, and only two of them were from the same class, while the rest were from different classes, they coincidentally showed a sly smile.

"Is it really because of too much homework? Aren't you secretly going on a date?"

"...What are you guys talking about?"

He frowned.

"I heard you're quite close to Ji Chunzao."

"How do you guys even know about that?"

"Of course, it was me who said it." The roommate from the same class had no guilt about his gossiping behavior.

"But everyone has heard of Ji Chunzao's name before." Someone added, "A famous oddball in the whole school."

"Do you remember the most famous thing about her?"

They exchanged enthusiastic conversations, seemingly having quite an impression of the girl's outrageous behavior.

"Yeah, I remember. It seems like it happened last semester?" A roommate said, "She won an award in the aerospace model competition in the city. During the flag-raising ceremony, the school praised her and let her speak. But halfway through, she suddenly shouted into the microphone, 'UFO is coming soon! Everyone run!' Then she hastily jumped off the platform and ran away before anyone could react. That was in front of the whole school..."

"..."

Yan Jingxing was speechless. He had previously felt that Ji Chunzao had an air of ignoring others when she clung to him, but he never thought she could do such things in public.

Did she go too far?

Just imagining that scene was embarrassing enough to make his toes curl. If it were him, he might recall it every night and find it hard to sleep.

Ji Chunzao, this girl, surpassed his imagination in both her degree of nonchalance and thickness of her skin...

"So, are you two really dating?"

Someone asked.

"The things on your desk, aren't they hers?"

"Of course not."

Yan Jingxing immediately shook his head.

He began to doubt whether it was a correct decision to make an agreement with Ji Chunzao in a moment of whimsy.

It's fine to accompany her in her antics, but if he had to embarrass himself with her, it wouldn't be worth it.

"Really? I heard she's quite pretty."

"Really? I totally didn't notice."

"But aren't you in the same class as her?"

"But she always leaves her hair so long, covering her whole face, like a female ghost. Who can see it?"

"What about Jingxing? You should have seen what she looks like, right?"

"..."

Can I say that the first time I saw her, I mistook her for a mermaid in the sea?

But such words couldn't be spoken in front of others. So, he vaguely diverted the topic.

...

Today's math problems were more challenging than usual. Yan Jingxing stared at the light, lost in thought, but his mind had long wandered away from the homework.

Come to think of it, he didn't really meet Ji Chunzao much today.

Based on the sentence on the note and her recent behavior, it seemed that something happened on her side, like a conflict with her aunt, and things were thrown away at home. After returning to school, she looked dejected and spiritless.

Yan Jingxing hesitated; should he try to comfort her?

Speaking of their relationship, they were familiar, but they had only known each other for a little over ten days. Despite appearing close to others because Ji Chunzao always approached him in a lively manner, in reality, they were still a distance away from the term "friends."

As the saying goes, "Familiarity breeds contempt." Even a junior high school student like him understood this logic. They hadn't reached the level of discussing family matters yet.

"...I'll just take a shower."

After hesitating for a while without finding an answer, his head started to ache. He decided to temporarily shelve this question.

...

The dormitory's bathroom was communal, right downstairs.

After taking a refreshing shower, Yan Jingxing returned to the dormitory. Glancing at the clock on the table, it was already nine o'clock.

The school's designated lights-out time was ten o'clock, and the dormitory supervisors would come for patrols in half an hour. He prepared to climb into bed and sleep. The once noisy corridor gradually became quiet.

However, at this moment, there suddenly erupted a burst of commotion outside the room.

He was momentarily stunned, pushed the door open, and saw people from more than one dormitory coming out to see what was happening.

The corridor was already crowded with curious onlookers, and someone excitedly shouted:

"Yan Jingxing! Who's Yan Jingxing? Someone is looking for you!"

...Huh?

Yan Jingxing opened his mouth in surprise.

"Make way, make way!"

"Hey, wait, I told you to wait downstairs. How did you come up directly..."

A girl with long hair briskly took big steps at a time up the stairs, agilely weaving through the crowd of onlookers. Following that, under the enthusiastic gaze of a group of boys, she rushed to the corridor.

"Room 309, this is it."

She ran, panting, and quickly spotted Yan Jingxing, who was standing dumbfounded at the door.

"Come with me."

The girl grabbed his wrist, pulling him to go outside.

"W-wait, where are we going?"

"Do you even need to ask?"

She turned her head, wearing a strange expression as if saying, "What are you talking about?"

"—Of course, we're going to look for aliens! Didn't we agree on that a long time ago?"

...I knew it.

Ji Chunzao's voice was clear and unreserved, making everyone in the corridor hear her answer loud and clear.

Shouldn't have asked.

Under the astonished gazes of the onlookers, Yan Jingxing couldn't help but cover his face, feeling that he indeed asked a foolish question.