At dawn the next morning, Lingjing was already out of bed. Wearing an apron printed with a robot cat, she hummed as she boiled water and prepared breakfast. Come to think of it, the previous week had basically drifted by in a blur. Only now had the classes been assigned, so today could truly be considered the first day of the new semester.
Their dining table was still the old square table that had come with the rental. The three of them had bought a cozy blue tablecloth and made do with that. While eating, the two girls always liked to slip off their slippers and rest their calves on Jiaming's legs, swinging them back and forth. Sometimes they would laugh and tangle their legs together. Only when they annoyed him beyond endurance would Jiaming use the other end of his chopsticks to poke the soles of their feet and make them retreat. Of course, if they were in high enough spirits, that sort of thing might trigger another absurd storm. Who knew? Children were always the most uninhibited kind of people.
They walked to school together, carrying their empty lunch boxes. In front of the magnificent school building, they agreed on a place to meet at noon before heading for their respective classrooms. There were six classrooms on each floor. Lingjing's classroom was the first one on the second floor, while Jiaming's Class Six was at the far end of that floor. Shasha's was the first classroom on the first floor. The three of them were, for all practical purposes, completely separated.
The classroom was as noisy as ever, filled with unfamiliar faces. Unlike junior high, it was bigger, spacious and bright, and the desks were much nicer. A television connected to a computer stood in one corner at