“Teacher, she’s pregnant.”
Five years ago, as the health and hygiene class drew to a close, a boy’s voice rang out. The entire class forgot to leave, falling into a collective, disciplined silence as they turned toward the corner he was pointing at.
The homeroom teacher frowned. “Fan Li?”
Sitting there was a girl named Fan Li. She had beautiful eyes, a slender waist, and skin so pale it evoked the snow atop the Swiss Alps. The moment she looked up, a lock of black hair slid down her face, giving her the look of a startled doe—more captivating than a painting. Tucking the hair behind her ear to reveal her lovely face, she curled the right corner of her mouth into a cold sneer at the boy. “Pregnant? Pregnant my foot.”
The teacher cleared his throat. “Fan Li, watch your language.”
“I’m not talking about you.” The boy’s finger shifted slightly, pointing next to her. “I mean her.”
Fan Li turned to look at her desk-mate and let out a long sigh of relief. But she was quickly confused: why was she relieved when she didn't even have anyone she liked?
Her desk-mate was a small girl with freckles and mediocre grades who usually seemed timid and had few friends in class. She had been buried in her phone, but now she slowly lifted her eyelids to look around, shaking her head desperately. “I’m not.”
The teacher looked the freckled girl over, then asked the accusing boy, “Why would you say she’s pregnant?”
“She hasn’t had a period in three months. Her body is emitting a large amount of sweat, and her hormone secretion has intensified.”
The boy speaking was a transfer student who had arrived only two months prior. He had black hair and fair skin, and he was developing faster than his peers. His thick eyebrows were long and narrow, his nose bridge high, and his eyes large and symmetrical—almond-shaped with slightly upturned corners. However, his irises were a very pale blue. His delicate face made every middle-aged woman wish he could stay thirteen forever, before his jawline could broaden with age. On such a perfect, upright face, there was only one "perfect imperfection": a light tea-colored mole on the left side of the tip of his nose.
Not just in class, but even during morning calisthenics, his appearance caused quite a stir. Girls stole glances at him; boys turned up their noses. He almost never spoke, yet when he finally did, the content was this explosive.
“You hadn’t even transferred here three months ago.” The freckled girl gripped the hem of her shirt. “Please don't tell lies to slander people in front of the teacher and the whole class!”
“You live in the neighborhood next to mine. Every Tuesday at three in the afternoon, you go home, and then you go to a hotel on Ningbo Road to rent a room with the same adult man.”
The first period on Tuesday afternoons was PE, and the second was Geography. The geography teacher never bothered to check who was absent. Fan Li realized that indeed, every Tuesday after the free activity period in PE, her desk-mate would vanish without a trace.
“Oh, really? Do you know how far Ningbo Road is from your house?”
“Two kilometers.”
“So, you stalk me for two kilometers every day?”
“I didn't stalk you. I saw it.”
“How could you see it without stalking me?”
“I just saw it.”
“And you say I haven't had my period? Does not having a period mean I'm pregnant? I’ve never even spoken to you. I don’t know why you’re trying to set me up, but be careful not to trip yourself while trying to trip others!”
“Never having had a period and having it stop for three months after it started are two different things. Someone who has never had a period looks like her.” The transfer student pointed at Fan Li, then pointed back at the freckled girl. “Someone whose period stopped for three months after starting looks like you.”
The freckled girl’s face flushed red and then turned pale; she was speechless.
Facing Fan Li’s glaring eyes, the transfer student responded with a polite smile and continued as if nothing were wrong. “I also know that for a human, that man is not suitable to be a father. He is impulsive, weak-willed, and lacks a sense of responsibility. Genetically speaking, he is also quite substandard—he isn't old, yet his abdominal muscles are sagging; his speech is slow and reckless; and his poor eyesight does not come with the high intelligence or self-control usually associated with humans. Of course, for some humans, if their survival skills are strong enough and they have enough social resources, being a single mother is a decent choice. But clearly, you do not possess such qualifications.”
The transfer student spoke with such logic and authority that even the teacher forgot he was only an eighth-grader.
“You’re talking nonsense!” The freckled girl grabbed a water bottle from the desk, twisted off the cap, and swung her arm to splash the water at the transfer student. Fan Li had been staring at the boy and didn't see the movement; when she turned her head, she was startled by the spray of water flying toward her face and gasped.
The sound of splashing water filled the room, followed by an uproar from the class.
With that gasp, Fan Li inhaled the water directly into her nose.
“Fan Li!” The teacher rushed to her side and patted her back. “Are you okay? Did you choke?”
Subconsciously, Fan Li knew she was about to choke, and she felt she should be choking. However, the water flowed naturally through her nasal cavity and into her throat. Not only did she not choke, but she felt a sense of comfort, as if she were being nourished by fresh air...
“I’m... fine.” She pressed her throat and instinctively inhaled a bit more water through her nose.
It was still a very comfortable feeling...
From the next day onward, amidst the pointing and whispering of their classmates, the freckled girl attended class as usual, but the transfer student never returned.
That same week, the teacher announced to the class that the transfer student’s parents had come by. They said the boy suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, frequently experienced delusions and auditory hallucinations, and would be withdrawing from school to seek treatment abroad. Regarding his slander of the freckled girl, his father would persuade him to come and offer a formal apology on the day he withdrew.
The emergence of a psychiatric patient in the class was already a chilling story. But the line between a madman and a genius is thin, which made it even more hair-raising. Two weeks later, while Fan Li and her father were visiting her aunt at the hospital, she happened to see her desk-mate. The man holding the girl was plump, wore glasses, and had a face that would fail to stir desire in any woman. They were heading toward the obstetrics and gynecology department.
Seeing this, Fan Li recoiled two steps in shock. As if sensing something, her desk-mate turned to look around, scaring Fan Li so much that she retreated into the corner of the stairwell. There, she silently bumped into a thin boy.
It was the "schizophrenic" transfer student.
He was half a head taller than her. His breathing was heavy, yet its frequency was about one-third that of a normal person. She looked up slightly, meeting a pair of beautiful almond-shaped eyes.
But at that moment, she could no longer perceive them as beautiful.
Because he was standing facing the light, his blue pupils had narrowed into two thin vertical slits, and he hadn't blinked for a long time.
Fan Li had never owned a pet, so seeing eyes like those didn't make her think of a cute kitten, but of crocodiles and snakes.
These were not human eyes.
“Do you still think I have schizophrenia?” The transfer student smiled slightly.
Fan Li almost screamed. But in the blink of an eye, his pupils became round again, so fast that she thought she was the one with schizophrenia.
“I can also give you a prophecy.” He began to smile sweetly, looking so handsome that uninformed passersby paused to look. “Your period will never come.”
She had no interest in listening to any more of this and bolted.
From then on, the transfer student never appeared before her again, but the incident left a deep psychological shadow. Because his curse came true—five years passed, the college entrance exams ended, and as her eighteenth birthday approached, Fan Li still had never had a period.
Furthermore, while other girls' bodies changed during puberty by starting their periods, her puberty involved learning how to inhale water through her nose. Of course, as a girl who had been outstanding since childhood, she had an image to maintain and wouldn't easily perform this circus trick for others.
Finally, the day before her eighteenth birthday, her father told her something that seemed like it might solve the mystery.
“Your mother isn't actually dead. She’s still alive. It’s just... she might have genes that aren't quite ordinary.” Seeing the light of hope sparking in his daughter’s eyes, Fan’s father took a breath, his mouth open as if the truth were about to pour out, but after a long pause, he only managed one sentence: “Let’s talk about the details tomorrow after your birthday.”
Later, when Fan Li looked back on this conversation, she only wanted to say: *Dad, be more confident. You can drop the 'quite'.*
But that was for later. Knowing her mother was alive made Fan Li very excited. She spent her eighteenth birthday at the beach, waiting for the surprise that would follow.
However, she only received a shock.
She didn't even know if she was dead or alive. Perhaps she was both dead and alive, having likely become a sort of Schrödinger’s Fan Li.
*Her 430 Million Years* by Junzi Yize, To be continued...
***
Glossary Table:
Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation
---|---|---
范梨 | Fan Li | The female protagonist.
宁波路 | Ningbo Road | A street name mentioned in the story.
偏执型精神分裂症 | Paranoid Schizophrenia | The diagnosis given to the transfer student.
发腮 | Broaden (jawline) | Literally "developing jowls"; used here to describe a boy's face maturing and losing its delicate childhood shape.
偶像包袱 | Image / Idol baggage | A slang term for being overly concerned about one's public persona or looking perfect.
薛定谔的范梨 | Schrödinger’s Fan Li | A play on the "Schrödinger's cat" thought experiment.
君子以泽 | Junzi Yize | The author of the novel.
