Meng Yan's Transformation

Chapter 568 Chase Shop

On their way back to school, Zhan Yue found a stream, and the two of them washed the fruit stains off their gloves by the stream.

Zhan Mengyan suddenly pointed eastward: "Sister Yue, look, the morning star is shining."

Following the gaze, Zhan Yue noticed a piece of hawthorn peel on Zhan Mengyan's left shoulder, gleaming softly red in the starlight.

Jin County High School was shrouded in a dark, iron-gray night.

The two sisters moved along the wall like two fallen leaves, stepping on the shadows of the trees sculpted by the moonlight.

Zhan Yue held Zhan Mengyan's icy hand. The sweet and sour taste of hawthorn juice still lingered on their bodies. As they passed the gatekeeper's mailroom, they suddenly squatted down—the beam of the patrolling guard's flashlight had just swept across the spot where they had been standing.

The dormitory's pointed roof silently awaited their return.

Zhan Yue pulled out the key wrapped in layers of plastic bags from her pocket. The clanging of metal startled a few stray cats into barking in the silence. The iron gate groaned as it opened. Zhan Yue immediately braced her shoulder against the door, using this action to "cover up" the "groaning" sound.

Zhan Yue knocked lightly on the dormitory door three times, and someone opened the latch.

"Why are you back so late..."

The female classmate whispered, yawned, and then crawled back into bed to sleep.

Zhan Mengyan followed Zhan Yue tiptoeing to a lower bunk seat against the wall and near the window.

This is a long, communal dormitory with ten beds. On the east and west sides, there is a row of bed frames made of wooden planks, with thick straw mats on top to cushion the hard wood.

While straw mats alleviated the discomfort of hard bed boards, they were extremely susceptible to dampness. In rainy days or in dormitories located in low-lying areas, the straw at the bottom would often be soaked through by the moisture rising from the ground within three or four days, feeling damp to the touch. At night, the dampness could be clearly felt seeping into the skin through the bedding. During sunny end-of-month holidays, the campus open spaces were covered with drying straw mats, their golden color and rising steam creating a unique campus scene. Winter warmth in these dormitories relied on a central stove. A corrugated iron chimney pierced the roof, and the burning coal inside not only provided warmth but also served as a multi-functional drying device for students' belongings. The aroma of toasted bread slices mingled with the smell of baking cotton insoles, creating a unique winter atmosphere characteristic of student life. While the passageways were more spacious in summer, they became cramped and narrow in winter due to the stove taking up space. Bedtime was a challenge. Students slept face-to-face and back-to-back to save space, often finding their spot taken by a neighbor after getting up to use the bathroom at night. Along with the dampness and crowding came the problem of rats. Their burrows in the corners of the mud-brick walls became their free passageways, and the occasional sudden scurry past the covers would catch the girls off guard, eliciting screams from the girls and waking everyone up for a rat-catching contest…

This kind of dormitory with large shared beds is something that many students like Zhan Mengyan can only dream of – they all have to run around to find a place to stay.

The student in the next bunk opened the door and silently handed Zhan Yue two steamed buns and an enamel cup filled with vegetable porridge warmed by his body heat.

Not daring to disturb others, they sat side by side on the edge of the bed and shared the cold steamed buns, their soft chewing sounds drowned out by the murmurs of their sleeping roommates.

Moonlight swept across the gold-embossed spine of the book "Healthy Soil Cultivation and Practice Guide" under the Zhan Yue pillow, illuminating the sisters' tired faces.

This night was both fulfilling and ordinary. Only the geranium on the windowsill remembered that when the two sisters hid under the covers, their hair was still sticky with the sweet and sour taste of hawthorn from the midnight canned food.