Male students at the engineering and technology universities all enjoy playing soccer. Tech U's soccer team is ranked second in the city. Sometimes the Engineering U would surpass the Tech U, if they happened to have a genius forward that year.

Kan's specialty was his banana shaped free kick, which sent the ball straight toward the blind spot of the goal.

No, no, no, not that kind of level of the Chinese National Team.[1] Anyway, Yaonan's skills could rival Beckham!

He was injured by that damned Sui Xiaoxi! A bowl of piping hot veggie soup of hers spilled all over Yaonan's left hand!

Wasn't it strange though, Yaonan only burned his left hand, his feet were without a scratch. Why couldn't he play?

Sui Xiaoxi is an easy going girl, though sometimes oblivious of her surroundings. She has no interest in sports whatsoever; and never went to any school sporting events. Her only interest is her burgeoning literary writing career.

Well, never mind that. Let's find out what happened that fateful day. Xiaoxi and her good friend Mu Xue went to the cafeteria after class. They talked about the article Xiaoxi had posted online two months ago, which had just reached 200 hits.

She's always so optimistic, but Mu Xue's having difficulty navigating. Since this bowl of veggie soup was thick, simmering with white smoke, filled up to the rim of the bowl, Mu Xue was holding it extra carefully for fear of spilling it. At the same while, she tried to make sense what Xiaoxi was talking about. She was in a awkward posture, stretching her ears while holding her body back.

Everything went on innocently. Finally, Xiaoxi concluded, "My writing will be more than hot!"

Xiaoxi had been turning sideways to talk to Mu Xue while Kan Yaonan was laughingly chatting with his teammates. If they just brushed by each other, nothing would have happened. But it so happened that when Xiaoxi turned around, that bowl of hot veggie soup came right in front of Kan Yaonan. He couldn't stop himself in time.

***

Yaonan had a painful expression on his face. His teammates surrounded him and used their sleeves to brush off the hot veggie strips so they wouldn't get burned themselves. It looked like his clothes were soaking wet, his wrist was swelling and turning reddish. The teammates made a quick decision; without waiting for Yaonan's reaction, two of the teammates helped him to go to take care of the wound.

"If anything happens to Yaonan, we absolutely will have you pay!"

The onlookers also gradually dispersed. Xiaoxi dejectedly bent down to pick up her soup bowl. Just as she was about to leave with Mu Xue, she saw there was a bowl full of rice and food set on the table next to her. Did the food belong to the student whose hand just got burned by her? She wondered.

She was in no mood to eat at the cafeteria anymore. She went back to dorm with Mu Xue. She's shaking her head, what they just said---didn't make any sense! He injured his hand, why couldn’t he kick the ball anymore? Maybe he's playing handball? But handball is played with two hands, why did they say kick?

***

Almost the entire soccer team blamed the loss on Xiaoxi's spill.

Yaonan tried to calm him down. "I'm ok now. My arm is only swelling with some blisters."

Yaonan laughed. " Yeah, last night I was twisting and turning because of the pain. So you should say happy words to cheer me up!"

Lao K and Yaonan were both second-year students in the Master's program of Computer Science.

"Er......that trouble making girl is at the gate trying to make friends with the security guard. She was talking so fawningly......"

So the roommate impersonated Xiaoxi. "Dear security guard, do you know which dorm is Yaonan living in?"

Lao K was not amused. But before he could make any comment, there came a clear and crisp female voice. "Yaonan! Yaonan! Yaonan......"

Technology and engineering colleges are always nicknamed "the monks' temple." It is quite normal to have an 8 to 2 male to female ratio at the Tech U. For easy management of the male students, the school built several dorms for male students spreading over a large lot. At the main gate, there's a security post and Xiaoxi was right here trying to get some information from the guard.

"Dear security guard, it's building no. 23, right? Then I'm going in now!"

She yelled for Yaonan for a while; as for why exactly she called him in such an informal manner, it's because she didn't know who he was at all! She only heard the other boys call his first name that day, and she was too embarrassed to ask around about him. That's why she called him awkwardly like they were close friends. She thought about asking Mu Xue about him, but Mu Xue wasn’t into sports either and didn't know anything about the soccer team. Xiaoxi felt very remorseful to the school soccer team. She decided she had better come to apologize in person.

Yaonan was quite handsome and evidently Xiaoxi remembered how he looked clearly. She certainly could tell who is or is not Yaonan.

"I came to apologize." Xiaoxi answered matter-of-factly.

Xiaoxi wasn't too happy by now either. "I came to apologize alright, but isn't this Yaonan a bit fake? His hand got burned, why couldn't he kick a ball? I think he just used it as excuse......"

"Hey, how can you grab other people's stuff like that?!"

"Yeah, but......"

He turned around to go upstairs after saying that.

Alright, she admitted, Yaonan was quite handsome.

Since Xiaoxi was already inside the men's dorm, how could she retreat without accomplished her mission? Never! After the 17th boy walked into Yaonan's dorm, she made a decision.

"Yaonan, sorry! I'm sorry that I hurt you! I sincerely apologize with all my heart!"

She shouted so loud that a lot of heads stretched out of the windows, waiting to see what would happen next.

"Damn, this woman's way too shameless! She's not embarrassed at all! I feel abashed for her!"

Lao K gave him a long face. "Yaonan, be careful. Maybe she's playing some prank ...... or maybe she's trying to seduce you?"

"What! Sincere just by screaming and yelling?"

***

Suddenly, she saw a shadow at the staircase. She looked more closely, a tall man walked to the doorway. The door’s threshold seemed too low for him. He had to lower his head when coming out the door.

She suddenly, without realizing why, felt her heart racing, her face turned red; she got really nervous all of sudden. She grabbed her sleeves standing in front of him, but couldn’t properly speak.

Xiaoxi now truly felt sorry. Such an outstanding person (a graduate student? a star player of the soccer team? --- that was all the information Xiaoxi was able to gather), got burned on his hand by the hot soup that she had spilled. If, by any chance, there was any bad side effects ...... Xiaoxi wouldn't dare to think any further. When she saw his left hand wrapped with dressings, secured by a sling, resting at the front of his chest, Xiaoxi felt a blow to her heart. She sincerely apologized. "I'm truly sorry, xuezhang."[4]

Xiaoxi lowered her head and said in a small voice, "I caused your team to lose the most important player and the match. Your teammates are so scary!"

Realizing that she was acting a bit more coy than she intended, she cleared her throat and assumed a serious tone, "Then does this mean you have forgiven me?"

Xiaoxi smiled happily too. "En. Then you take good care of yourself. I'll go to your next match to cheer you guys on!"[5]

He turned back again, question marks in his eyes.

"It's ok. The ointment from the school's clinic isn't bad......."

Yaonan felt a sharp pain when he tried to move his left hand. He had a slight expression of helplessness on his face.

Xiaoxi felt she had to put the tube into his hand to make sure he took it. Without thinking too much, she held the tube in one hand and tried using the other hand to grab Yaonan's right hand so she could put the tube into it.

There was nothing. There was no hand.

Under his heavy jacket, she grabbed onto an empty sleeve. His right arm was gone below the elbow.

"You better go." His face was now without any expression.