That summer, later on, she would often think of such a pair of eyes.

Her best friend Jason Walker would come over to sleep with Brian Clark whenever her parents were away on business. Jason Walker would lean close to her ear, breathing warm air, and say, “My mom bought me a bra, you know? I don’t wear those little camisoles anymore, it’s the kind adults wear. Do you have a bra?”

Brian Clark’s face grew hot in the darkness. She was held by Jason Walker, who carefully, tentatively, guided her hand onto something soft. Her heart pounded wildly.

Jason Walker continued, “My mom said that when girls develop to a certain point, they should start wearing one. Feel it, right? I’m not like you, Princess Flat-chest Brian Clark.”

As she spoke, she covered her mouth, half laughing, half teasing, making Brian Clark’s face turn even redder.

“I’ll feel yours too, okay?” Jason Walker negotiated with her, and after saying that, she sneakily touched Brian Clark, then let out an “Aiya,” covered her mouth, eyes wide, “When did you start developing too?”

Brian Clark pulled over the silk quilt her grandma made in the countryside, covering her mouth, her voice buzzing, “I don’t know either.”

Jason Walker just kept laughing, a stifled, sneaky laugh, afraid the adults next door would hear, her voice low like a little hen out of breath. Jason Walker was really something, bold and fierce, always scolding the boys in their class until they didn’t even dare to fart, especially her deskmate, a boy named Eric Grant. She’d tug his ear and make him lend her his math homework to copy, totally unreasonable. Even so, Jason Walker bounced around for three years, and somehow, during the high school entrance exam, she performed exceptionally well and got into the best school, Mei High, together with Brian Clark.

Eric Grant didn’t do as well as her, which was really strange—she copied his homework every day, but still scored better than him?

Some things in this world just don’t make sense.

For example, Jason Walker started using sanitary pads in seventh grade, while Brian Clark, whose birthday was a few days before hers, was about to start high school and still hadn’t used one.

But, thank goodness, after a few nights of whispering and sleeping together with Jason Walker, on a morning just before school started, Brian Clark found a red stain on her bedsheet.

Jason Walker immediately gave her a crash course, took her to pick out sanitary pads, taught her how to use them, and reminded her not to catch a cold or eat ice cream… nagging like an old mother.

The bathroom was filled with the faint scent of a first period, and the overwhelming, nameless sadness of a young girl—somewhat embarrassing, like a finely textured piece of jade being turned over and over in the palm.

At this time, it started raining in the city, and it kept raining. Grandma looked at the wastebasket and asked Brian Clark if she’d gotten her period. Brian Clark felt inexplicably ashamed. Raindrops fell on the leaves outside the window, and the days felt like a bronze mirror covered in green rust, damp and misty, a stark contrast to the blazing sun of early summer.

Brian Clark worked hard to wash the bloodstains that had accidentally gotten on her underwear. She was easily embarrassed, and the faint marks that wouldn’t come out of the white cotton underwear were the very shape of her shyness at that moment.

At the end of that summer, the young girl Brian Clark truly began her long and confusing adolescence.

Chapter 2: The Start of School at Mei High Is Always Bustling...

The start of school at Mei High is always bustling.

A banner welcoming new students was stretched across the main gate, replacing the one that had been celebrating the top college entrance exam scorer all summer.

But the honor roll was crowded with new students’ parents, heads packed together, the eyes of middle-aged people shining with rare light as they pointed at the names behind the glass—Tsinghua, Peking University, Fudan… The parents praised them one after another, as if that beautiful future was something their own children could reach in three years.

Grandpa was there too, standing tall and cleanly dressed, maintaining the dignity of a retired worker. He was jostled by the crowd, but still craned his neck, trying hard to see the names on the honor roll.

“Old man, stop squeezing in here. The real business is to see which class the kid’s in.” Grandma started tugging at her husband.

There were no honors classes in the first year of high school, only regular classes, sorted by entrance exam scores, and once they filled up, they started over from Class 1.

“Baby, did you see which class you’re in?” Grandma found Brian Clark in the crowd. The two girls stood close together, searching for their names.

Suddenly, Jason Walker let out a shriek and shook Brian Clark’s arm hard: “Class 2! God must have heard my prayers—we’re both in Class 2! This is just awesome!”

Brian Clark, frail as she was, could barely keep her balance from being yanked.

Grandma, hearing this, was delighted: “Jason is in our class too?”

Next came finding the dorm. Jason Walker ran ahead, shouting that she had to grab a good spot.

The girls’ dorm for first-years was on the way to the cafeteria. On the balcony, the upperclassmen’s colorful clothes were already hanging out to dry. As Jason Walker rushed to the dorm, her mom and Brian Clark’s family followed behind at a slower pace.

The spot by the door was the worst—people coming and going, noisy, and cold in winter. Jason Walker snagged a bunk near the balcony, tossed her backpack up, and plopped down on the lower bunk, smiling at the other parents who soon came in: “Auntie, this bunk is taken.”

Jason Walker was sly—right across was the boys’ dorm. She’d heard that after lights out, the boys would whistle at the girls’ dorm, some would show off by playing guitar, or shout out love poems… In short, the gossip at Mei High was enough to make your heart flutter, and Jason Walker couldn’t wait to dive into her brand new high school life.