48 Hours a Day

“Hmm.” Bai Qing looked slightly uncomfortable. It was her first time going to KFC with a boy alone, and it felt strange to her.

Zhang Heng went to a corner and called Qin Zhen. Unfortunately, Qin Zhen was a bigger spender than him. The pocket money he had saved for two months had been spent on buying a pair of sneakers. It was the weekend now, and he had not gotten his pocket money yet.

After that, Zhang Heng contacted his grandfather. Much to his relief and surprise, grandpa wired him the pocket money in advance without asking any questions. Zhang Heng was relieved. When he returned to Bai Qing, he found that she had already paid for his meal.

“I ordered you a child’s meal that comes with a toy.”

“Huh?”

“Just kidding. I ordered a meal for two, but I only want the burger and drink. You can have the rest,” Bai Qing chirped. “Ah. I’ll return the money to you...”

“No need,” Bai Qing shook his head and said, “You bought me milk tea before.”

“The price of milk tea is nothing when compared to a KFC meal. Besides, I’ve always copied your homework, and it’s just not right getting me something like this,” Zhang Heng said, taking a quick glance at the menu to look for the price of the meal that Bai Qing just paid.

“You don’t have to pay me back.” Bai Qing waved her hands at Zhang Heng again and again, “You helped me before. I was blocked by girls outside the school last semester. You were the one who helped me out of that sticky situation.”

“Wow. You still remember that incident?” Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.

That incident was completely unwarranted. She did not know the sports committee student from the next class, but the latter seemed to like her a lot. The boy was close to some bad apples, the kind of students that dropped out of school, worked an illegal job, but when someone asks them to do something horrible, they couldn’t stomach doing so. People like them would usually hang out in a group and wander around aimlessly.

Among these was a young lady who was the girlfriend of a member of the sports committee. When she noticed that her man had his eye for another girl, she gathered her friends and ganged up on Bai Qing.

Bai Qing was dumbstruck when they ganged up on her. Fortunately, Zhang Heng left school late that day, and the moment he saw her getting surrounded, he walked over and pulled her away. When girls saw that a boy had come to her aid, they did not dare do anything other than provoke her with words that weren’t too kind to the ear. The mob then watched the two leave the school. A month later, Bai Qing’s parents had decided that they’d fetch her to school and pick her up every day.

Some time had passed since it happened, and if Bai Qing hadn’t mentioned it, Zhang Heng wouldn’t have remembered at all. Bai Qing did not want to dwell on the issue of who should pay the bill. So, she passed the receipt to Zhang Heng

“Please get the meal. I will look for a place.”

“Sounds good.”

During the weekend, the number of people visiting KFC rivaled that of the mall, and one had to be lucky enough to find a seat. Fortunately, when Zhang Heng got the set meal, Bai Qing had found a two-person seat in the corner as well. She waved at him.

Zhang Heng walked over with the tray and looked at the drink and the burger in front of him. “You choose first...” they both blurted in unison.

“Then I shall pick first because I’m very thirsty.” Bai Qing decided on a cup of lemon oolong tea and a chicken burger, then pushed the tray to Zhang Heng. Zhang Heng had spent a long time investigating the case that he was working on. Without saying a word, he devoured his burger in a few bites and gulped down half a glass of cola in one breath.

“Do you want more food? I can go and order

more.”

Bai Qing took her time to enjoy up her burger. By the time Zhang Heng finished his meal, she had only gone through less than a third.

“There are still some fries and drumsticks. It should be enough for me,” replied Zhang Heng as he yawned.

“Am I really that boring?”.

“Ah, no. It’s not about you. I just didn’t get enough rest in the past two days,” Zhang Heng explained.

“Hmm... You went looking for that older brother again?”

“No, this time I was busy with something else,” Zhang Heng said.

“You are always so mysterious,” Bai Qing commented.

Zhang Heng changed the subject. “What about you? What are you up to?”

“Me? I’m just doing my usual stuff, studying and revising whatever I learned in class. It’s only today that I have the time to come to the mall,” said Bai Qing as she bit the straw.

She still felt kind of nervous when she talked to Zhang Heng and had no idea where to look. The truth was, she had known Zhgn Heng for some time now, not to mention that they were tablemates as well. The truth was she had known Zhang Heng for some time now. Logically, she should have felt comfortable talking to Zhang Heng.

Could it have been the mall’s air conditioning? Bai Qing unconsciously rubbed her arm.

The two soon embarked on a great chatting session. They talked about volunteering at the college entrance examination. Bai Qing was gradually relaxed over time, even telling Zhang Heng about her family.

“Lately, I feel my dad’s been getting weirder.”

“Oh, why say that?”

“He used to socialize with his clients and come back late every night. My mother quarreled with him all the time because of this. He recently started to come home early, and I caught him looking at family photos we took a long time ago. This is the weirdest past: He’s always taught us never to look back on the past. I haven’t seen him taking the initiative to look at the family photos.” Zhang Heng’s expression instantly changed when he heard about Bai Qing’s father. “Did he do other strange things?” Bai Qing waved her hand. “No, my dad is a very serious man. He doesn’t usually smile. Sometimes I don’t even dare to talk to him. He doesn’t do anything stranger than that, I guess?” After a pause, she continued. “Is he in a midlife crisis? Is that why he looked through the photos?”

Zhang Heng did not know if he had become a little sensitive, thanks to what happened to the college student. He had started getting suspicious of everyone that acted differently, thinking that they had to be one of those creatures. Certainly, flipping through an old photo album proved nothing for now. Human beings were not machines, and regardless of how mundane the person was, they couldn’t possibly do the exact same thing every day. Out of cautiousness, however, Zhang Heng said to Bai Qing, “If your dad does anything unusual in the future, you can tell me about it.”

1

“What’s the point?” Bai Qing raised her eyebrows, “Can you control my dad?”

“I can’t control your dad, but it’s always good to have someone to talk to,” Zhang Heng said. To conceal his true intentions, he then added, “Of course, you can talk to me about other things.”

Bai Qing obviously misunderstood the meaning of the statement. Her face flushed, and she lowered her head to stare at her shoes. After a while, she glanced at her watch. “Oh crap. The movie will start in 5 minutes! How did we talk for so long?”

“Go catch your movie first,” said Zhang Heng.

Bai Qing hurriedly took out her homework from her canvas bag and passed them to Zhang Heng before leaving. She thought for a while before finally saying, “Don’t forget to bring them back to me on Monday.”