Ban Feng Isn't Crazy

Ban Feng Isn't Crazy

"Ban Feng, save me!"

A cry for help reached his ears, and Li Banfeng jerked upright from his sleep.

Who was talking?

Every bed was empty; only He Jiaqing was crouched on the floor, packing his luggage.

He Jiaqing looked up. "Awake?"

Li Banfeng looked at He Jiaqing. "Were you the one who just told me to save you?"

He Jiaqing frowned. "Still muddled from sleep? Help me pack. There isn't much time."

He Jiaqing was leaving tonight, by train.

Over four years of university, he had been Li Banfeng's best friend.

Li Banfeng checked his phone. It was already three thirty.

After sharing a meal, it would be time to see him off at the station.

Li Banfeng jumped down from his bunk and helped He Jiaqing pack a pile of miscellaneous things.

"Want the toothpaste?"

"Yeah!"

Li Banfeng accurately tossed the toothpaste into He Jiaqing's suitcase.

"Want the meal card?"

"It's yours."

Li Banfeng accurately tossed the meal card into his own drawer.

Within five meters, Li Banfeng had never missed when throwing something.

"Want the diploma?"

"No."

Li Banfeng accurately tossed the diploma into a wastebasket three meters away.

What He Jiaqing admired was precisely this carefree spirit of Li Banfeng's.

He did not even ask why He Jiaqing did not want his diploma. He just casually threw it away.

Want meant want, and not want meant not want. It was that simple. Li Banfeng never made simple things complicated.

Throughout four years of university, He Jiaqing had only one friend, Li Banfeng, because he admired Li Banfeng's temperament.

Li Banfeng also had only one friend, He Jiaqing, because Li Banfeng had a history of mental illness. Those who knew him generally kept their distance.

Li Banfeng opened a cardboard box. It was full of envelopes, each containing dozens of photographs.

He Jiaqing liked photography. He liked using film cameras, and after every shoot, he had to rent a darkroom and develop the pictures himself. Four years of university had filled an entire box with photos.

"Do you still want these photos?"

He Jiaqing hesitated. "Pick out a few good ones to take. Don't keep the bad shots."

Li Banfeng selected several envelopes and handed them to He Jiaqing. "These are the good ones."

He Jiaqing did not check them and put them into his suitcase.

Li Banfeng selected a few more envelopes. "These are photos of your girlfriend. They all came out bad. Throw them away."

He Jiaqing froze. "They all came out bad?"

Li Banfeng nodded. "They aren't even wearing clothes. They definitely came out bad."

He Jiaqing snatched the photos away and stuffed them into his suitcase.

At a barbecue restaurant outside the campus gates.

He Jiaqing poured Li Banfeng a drink. "Over the past four years, there's something I've always wanted to ask you, but I could never bring myself to say it."

Li Banfeng shook his head. "I don't like men."

He Jiaqing choked on his baijiu and coughed for a while. "That's not what I wanted to ask. I mean your name—why Ban Feng? Does it have some special meaning?"

At this question, Li Banfeng's brows relaxed and the corners of his lips rose, revealing a somewhat stiff smile.

If it had been anyone else, they would have tried to stay away from Li Banfeng at this point, because this was a sign that his emotions were unstable.

But He Jiaqing was not worried. When Li Banfeng's emotions were unstable, he smiled; when he was in a good mood, he wore the same smile.

He was in quite a good mood now, and said with great interest, "That starts with Old Woman Wu from our Welfare Institute. Old Woman Wu was the most educated person there. She had seven children under her care, and she gave all seven of us our names.

"The seven names were Ban Shan, Ban Luan, Ban Ling, Ban Ya, Ban Gang, Ban Yue, and Ban Feng.

"You know, among mountains, peaks stand tallest. I was the most outstanding of the seven, so Old Woman Wu gave me the name Ban Feng."

He Jiaqing thought for a moment. "I've met this Old Woman Wu. When you were hospitalized, she came to see you. But she seemed not to call you Li Banfeng. She called you Li Baisha."

Li Banfeng nodded. "Because she was always asking me to buy cigarettes for her. Back then, she liked smoking Bai Sha, so she called me Li Baisha.

"Before that, she called me Li Hongmei. Before that, Li Yingchun. There was a time when life was good and her cigarettes were good too, so she called me Li Furong."

He Jiaqing picked up a lamb kidney skewer. "Then why is your surname Li?"

Li Banfeng said, "Because the old man guarding the Welfare Institute was surnamed Li."

He Jiaqing nodded. "Then he must have been a man of great virtue and prestige."

Li Banfeng shook his head. "He was Old Woman Wu's husband. He liked foreign cigarettes, so he called me Li Camel."

At dusk, the two walked out of the barbecue restaurant.

Li Banfeng held a napkin, wiped his mouth, and tossed it unerringly into a trash can four or five meters away.

He Jiaqing praised him again and again. "Never miss within five meters. We've been brothers for four years—how come I never learned that skill from you?"

Li Banfeng looked at the trash can. "Mindset. The important thing is mindset. As long as you keep your mindset steady..."

Li Banfeng shifted his gaze into the distance. A woman in her early thirties, dressed in a gray skirt suit, was walking toward them with a smile.

Teacher Song.

The two hurriedly greeted her.

Teacher Song taught mathematics at the College of Science. Her short hair fell to her ears, framing her round, fair face. Beneath her round-framed eyeglasses were a pair of deep, intelligent eyes.

Seeing the two students, Teacher Song's lips curved upward in a smile, and two sweet dimples appeared in her cheeks.

Those two dimples had become the fantasy on the tissues of countless boys at the College of Science.

She was as beautiful as the morning sun!

So full of life, so reassuring.

Li Banfeng was still watching Teacher Song's receding figure when He Jiaqing lowered his voice. "There's a walnut-shaped birthmark on her left peach!"

Li Banfeng stared. "You've seen it?"

He Jiaqing proudly let out a drunken burp. "Advanced math, linear algebra, probability theory—when have I ever failed a class?

"And look at the way Teacher Song looks at me during class. Could it possibly be the same?"

"I didn't pay attention to her gaze," Li Banfeng said, his eyes narrowing and his expression turning solemn. "But that birthmark you mentioned—I remember it being on the right."

"How could it be on the right? You must remember wrong..." He Jiaqing froze too. "You've seen it too?"

Li Banfeng shook his head repeatedly. "I'm a decent man."

He Jiaqing was unconvinced. "You've seen Teacher Song's peaches, so how are you still a decent man?"

Li Banfeng answered with great seriousness, "I looked at them decently, so I'm a decent man!"

He Jiaqing was somewhat disappointed. "How could it be on the right..."

He had never seen Teacher Song's peaches. His girlfriend, Lu Xiaolan, had told him about the birthmark; Lu Xiaolan had seen it with her own eyes in the changing room.

"Did Lu Xiaolan lie to me, or did I remember wrong?" He Jiaqing looked at Li Banfeng very seriously. He was truly disappointed. "I think she lied to me. She's always lying to me."

Talking as they walked, the two arrived downstairs from the women's dormitory and picked up He Jiaqing's girlfriend, Lu Xiaolan.

Lu Xiaolan wore her hair in a ponytail, displaying her delicate features and girlish innocence in full.

Just like the tight dress she wore today, which also displayed her dainty, exquisite figure.

She was the prettiest girl in the College of Science, a title recognized by eighty percent of the college's boys.

Though they knew each other well, He Jiaqing could not resist showing off to Li Banfeng. "Look at my wife. She's like a beauty stepped out of a calendar poster."

A calendar poster?

What era was that from?

He Jiaqing always had a peculiar affection for old things.

But Li Banfeng felt nothing for Lu Xiaolan and could not even be bothered to give her another look.

"To be fair, I still prefer Teacher Song's figure." Li Banfeng looked at He Jiaqing with great seriousness.

"To be fair, my wife has plenty of fairness too. You can't judge fairness just by size; you need a comprehensive comparison..." He Jiaqing watched Lu Xiaolan emerge from the dormitory building and worked hard to defend his girlfriend.

The three took a taxi together to Yuezhou East Station.

At the station, Li Banfeng saw He Jiaqing to the turnstiles. The moment of parting had come.

He Jiaqing said to Li Banfeng, "Brother, you've had quite a bit to drink. When you get back to the dorm, give me a call."

Li Banfeng smiled. "Why would I call you? Are you afraid I'll get lost?"

He Jiaqing shook his head. "I'm not afraid you'll get lost. I've had quite a bit too, and I'm afraid I'll fall asleep after getting on the train. Give me a reminder—I need to pee."

Li Banfeng did not understand. "You need me to remind you to pee?"

He Jiaqing said very seriously, "What if I wet my pants?"

Li Banfeng still did not understand. "With your wife there, would she let you wet your pants?"

He Jiaqing shook his head. "She sleeps harder than a pig. Even if the train derailed, she wouldn't wake up!"

Lu Xiaolan looked offended and punched He Jiaqing.

Li Banfeng also complained, "You're about to board, and you're talking about derailment? That's bad luck."

After chatting a while longer, an announcement sounded on the platform. "The 1160 Train will soon begin ticket inspection. Passengers, please bring all luggage and belongings to Waiting Room 96."

He Jiaqing looked at Li Banfeng. "I'm going."

Li Banfeng sniffled, as if he were about to cry.

He Jiaqing shook his head. "Stop pretending. It doesn't look convincing at all. You can't cry anyway."

Over four years of university, Li Banfeng had cried many times. He had used tears to win his counselor's sympathy and deceive the academic affairs office into trusting him, but He Jiaqing knew he had been pretending every time.

He was right. Li Banfeng could not cry at all.

Li Banfeng also felt that fake crying was not good, but as He Jiaqing's best friend, he ought to say a few more words at a time like this.

After a long silence, Li Banfeng said only one thing. "Take care of yourself."

"You take care too." He Jiaqing picked up his suitcase and passed through the turnstiles with Lu Xiaolan.

Lu Xiaolan asked casually, "Why did you ask Li Banfeng to call you?"

He Jiaqing gave a wicked grin. "Are you jealous?"

Lu Xiaolan snorted. "Get lost! Marry him and live with him, then!"

He Jiaqing pinched Lu Xiaolan's nose. "Don't be mad. You know he has mental illness. He drank so much tonight, and he's going back alone. I'm a little worried."

Lu Xiaolan linked her arm through He Jiaqing's and said softly, "Actually, Li Banfeng is a pretty good person. It's just that his crazy manner is frightening."

He Jiaqing said with a solemn face, "Ban Feng isn't crazy. I went with him to the psychiatric department at Third Hospital. Doctor Wang said it didn't count as crazy. He was discharged after only a week."

Lu Xiaolan laughed and followed He Jiaqing toward the ticket inspection gate.

He Jiaqing repeated himself, "Ban Feng really isn't crazy. You absolutely must remember that."

PS: Salad isn't crazy either. Dear readers, you absolutely must remember that.

Dear readers, hurry up and invest in the new book!

(End of chapter)