In a self-study room at Provincial University Law School, Miss Xu Xiaoyan glanced a few times at her textbook, then couldn’t help but look at the digital watch on her wrist again.
Above the displayed time, there was a small row of numbers - a calendar – reminding her that tomorrow was the Teachers’ Day that she and Yan Fei had planned for.
The thought of this made Xu Xiaoyan feel both regret and anxiety.
She had only known about going to school naively, unaware that celebrating Teachers’ Day at university was different from when they were in the county. In the small county, every time Teachers’ Day was celebrated, the two weekends adjacent to it were adjusted to coincide with Teachers’ Day, thus creating a mini vacation.
So she had agreed with Yan Fei that he would come during the holiday.
However, she naively waited until the weekend before the day before yesterday, when she discovered that there was no break for Teachers’ Day, making it a bit too late.
When reminded to call home in a hurry, she received news from home that Yan Fei was nowhere to be found, probably already on his way to the Provincial City!
Who would have guessed that she spent all day Sunday running around aimlessly in the dormitory, without seeing Yan Fei. She hadn’t seen him today either and didn’t know if he had arrived at all.
"Hey! Xiao Xingxing, stop looking so gloomy. So what if you don’t have time to be with your boyfriend! It’s not like the sky is falling, besides, you can be with him after classes tomorrow, why worry! We’re all waiting to eat the big fish your boyfriend brought!" A few girls sitting nearby, all her dorm mates, advised her when they saw Xu Xiaoyan looking worried again.
Several girls had been living in the same dormitory for several days and were now familiar with each other. Once someone started talking, others began to chime in.
"Yeah, yeah! Seriously, I never noticed before that your boyfriend is so generous. How big a fish did he catch for you? The fishbone was so long, I’ve never seen one like that!"
"Yeah! Everyone else’s boyfriend is so good, except for our silly one. He got great results from his internship, and even offered to invite the whole dormitory to have fish, but didn’t think to invite me! It’s okay if he didn’t invite me, but he purposely told me how big the fish was that someone else’s boyfriend brought. I’ve never seen someone so silly..."
"Stop pretending to be cute after you’ve got your way you silly girl, your Lezi brother has been waiting for you for several years in college, what more do you want! If it were me, I would have found a youthful one, and ditched you, the old wife..."
"Oh! Someone is itching for a beating, you want me to beat you so bad that you won’t be able to take care of yourself, right? I’ll deal with you when we get back to the dormitory!"
As several of them whispered to each other, Xu Xiaoyan watched their antics, gradually smiling, but the worry in her heart was not much alleviated.
"Butterfly, butterfly!" A rather loud voice suddenly rang out in the study room.
During the day, there were quite a few people whispering in the study room, such as Xu Xiaoyan and her dorm mates, who had been hiding in the corner whispering. But people shouting out loud were very rare.
Many people instinctively looked in the direction of the sound.
They saw a girl sitting by the window, craning her neck to look outside.
This self-study room was actually an old-fashioned classroom, with three windows on the back wall that overlooked a row of green trees planted behind the building. The girl was sitting by the window at the front. At this moment, her head was almost sticking out of the window.
But when the others looked over, they didn’t see any butterflies. They just saw the girl looking out by herself.
The girl’s companion, seeing that most people were looking in their direction, quickly tugged at her clothes.
The girl came back to her senses, turned her head and saw that many people were looking at her. She promptly blushed and sat down.
There was a ripple of laughter in the study room.
This laughter, on the contrary, provoked the girl, who loudly insisted, "Really, there was a butterfly, very big, really!"
"What’s so great about a butterfly? No matter how big it is, how big can it be? As big as a palm?" Someone blurted out unthinkingly.
"Yes, it was that big, and it was blue, a very, very beautiful blue." The girl, hearing someone question her, defended herself.
"As big as a palm? And blue? You must have seen it wrong!" Many people thought the girl must have mistaken.
They had seen butterflies on the campus, but they were all common small white or yellow butterflies. There were also big ones, but none as big as a palm, and none were blue, which nobody had ever seen.
At this moment, there was no sign of the butterfly outside the window, and the girl had no way to argue, so she just looked outside with a hint of hope, seeming to wish the butterfly would appear again to prove her right.
"Behind, behind, at the window behind, look quickly, blue butterfly..." Suddenly, a voice rang out with surprise.
Almost everyone’s gaze immediately turned toward the last window.
Those sitting against the back wall couldn’t see, and some impatient ones even got up from their seats and ran over to take a look.
Anyone who glanced once would understand why others were surprised and excited after just one look.
There really was a palm-sized blue butterfly.
At this moment, the butterfly was gently fluttering its wings outside the window, landing on the windowsill, its wings still slightly quivering.
Xu Xiaoyan was sitting by this window. When she heard someone shouting, she turned her head instinctively and saw a blue butterfly within her reach.
It was a truly beautiful butterfly.
The blue on its body was not constant, but rather spread from the center of each wing from light blue to dark blue, appearing beautiful and somewhat dreamlike.
Whether it was the light blue or the dark blue on its body, it would remind people of a clear sky or an endless sea.
Just as the first girl who saw it said, it was inexpressible in words and could only be described as extraordinarily beautiful in a feeble attempt.
It was a blue so pure and almost enchanting, something that human effort could hardly match. Only nature’s magical work could create such a beautiful thing.
Looking at the nearby butterfly, Xu Xiaoyan, as if possessed, reached out to touch it.
When she reached out her hand, as if afraid that her rashness would scare the butterfly away, someone instinctively tried to stop her saying, "Don’t..."
Xu Xiaoyan hesitated slightly, her hand stopping in mid-air.
As if she shared a profound understanding with it, just as her hand was suspended in the air, the butterfly fluttered its wings slightly and flew up. Just when many thought the butterfly would fly away, it lighted gently on her finger.
Seeing this, the study room was thrown into chaos, with people gasping in surprise and others expressing their envy. Some even shouted: "Catch it, make it a specimen!"
However, the butterfly didn’t give people much time to observe, it quickly flew off her finger, circled around her once, stayed briefly on her hair, then flew higher and higher, finally escaping through the window.