Chapter 4

T/N: Quick one today, I’ll be using – XXX – for scene changes. These are just short sentences in the original story that are like “In the classroom”, “Outside the classroom”, “The classroom next door” and such.

Sidenote: I skimmed through the last few chapters because the chapter titles in Chinese was pretty… interesting… and good lord, it gets SPICY at the end. Don’t worry though, it remains pretty PG, no explicit smut (jjwxc doesn’t allow their authors to write sex scenes, they’ve been clamping down hard lately). Now I’m extra motivated to translate quicker so I can get to the fluffy parts ASAP. Plenty of double update days incoming, it feels like!

– Outside the classroom –

Song Yu Meng was unhappily leaning against the wall, taking her punishment of standing outside the classroom with a gloomy expression on her face until she saw Yi Ran also walking outside for punishment.

“Ya, why are you also out here? Weren’t you gloating inside just now?” Song Yu Meng was still putting on airs.

Yi Ran rested her back against the wall and lowered her head slightly to look at Song Yu Meng: “You think I wanted to come out? I got shouted at by that irritable old man. It must be menopause.”

Song Yu Meng’s frown lifted by a bit, looking much better.

Yi Ran saw it and half-seriously joked: “Your expression just now was terrible to see, as if someone owed you money.”

The moment she finished her sentence, Song Yu Meng’s lips twisted downwards again and she scowled at Yi Ran with her cheeks puffed out like an inflated pufferfish. Somehow, Yi Ran found it weirdly adorable.

“What the hell do you care? This lady is happy to have that expression, not like you can do anything about it!”

“Okay, okay, okay. I can’t do anything.” Yi Ran continued, “Then are you feeling better now? You have a companion for your punishment.”

Song Yu Meng rolled her eyes and snapped: “As if, could you be happy after being scolded by that old man?”

Yi Ran shrugged: “It’s not that bad. But you do have to thank me though. If it wasn’t for me entering the class first and getting scolded, just based off his temper, you probably would have been scolded even more terribly.”

Song Yu Meng lifted her head and met Yi Ran’s gaze, “What? You want this lady to thank you? Hmph, forget about it. Who told you to go into the classroom first? You deserve it.”

This haughty attitude, if it was anybody else, they would have felt at least a little bit upset by it. But Yi Ran just couldn’t bring herself to be angered, most likely because she knew Song Yu Meng’s personality was just this way.

“Yes yes yes, you’re right, I deserve it, okay?” Yi Ran admitted helplessly before continuing to complain about Teacher Zhang. “Let me tell you something, did you know how that old man scolded me in front of the whole class?”

After hearing that, Song Yu Meng pricked up her ears in anticipation of the story.

Yi Ran took a few steps backwards and faced Song Yu Meng, imitating Teacher Zhang and pointing at Song Yu Meng: “Aren’t you something, Yi Ran? How dare you be late for my class, scram to the back and stand there! Don’t think that you have an excuse for being late just because your results for physics aren’t bad! What do I always say? Your grades can be bad but you need to have a good attitude towards your studies!”

Yi Ran imitated him perfectly with exaggerated movements and expressions, right down to the exact cadence of his speech, amusing Song Yu Meng until she was laughing uncontrollably.

“Hahaha, you deserve it, Crazy Yi! It’s retribution for always disturbing this lady!” Song Yu Meng held her stomach as she continued laughing with tears in her eyes.

Everybody says laughter is contagious, Yi Ran also started smiling although it wasn’t as exaggerated.

“Happy now?”

Song Yu Meng hmph-ed softly, “Did I seem very happy? I’m just fine.”

As if she could be just fine, seeing her hated rival get scolded to this point was incredibly satisfying!

She was obviously smiling so happily just now, how could she be “just fine”? “Arrogant brat.” Yi Ran muttered it under her breath, so Song Yu Meng couldn’t hear.

Tang Xiang Ping’s office was coincidentally on the leftmost side of the second storey, once she walked out, she could see the entire walkway.

It was just at this moment when she walked out of her office to see the two of them standing outside the classroom.

During the morning self-study period, Tang Xiang Ping didn’t see the two of them in class so she knew they must have been late. She was just planning to invite the two of them into her office after class for a chat, but it was a pleasant coincidence that she managed to bump into them right out of her office.

Seeing Tang Seng staring at them and walking over, the two of them felt their hearts thumping.

“You two, come with me to my office.”

Song Yu Meng / Yi Ran: That’s it! We’re being invited for tea again[1]!

……

After class, the walkway slowly got more crowded and noisy, although this had nothing to do with two people.

– In the office –

Tang Xiang Ping sat on her chair, pushing up her rectangular spectacles with one hand as she glanced between Song Yu Meng and Yi Ran.

The two of them sat there stiffly, waiting for the scolding to start.

“Tell me, what are the two of you doing? Yesterday, I emphasised not to be late and to arrive before 7:20am. Well, today, you’re not just late, you missed the entire morning self-study period. Utterly unbelievable.”

Yi Ran’s lips moved, wanting to explain herself, but she gave up in the end. She had nearly forgotten she had transmigrated, and in front of someone nicknamed Tang Seng, she would probably get nagged even worse if she tried to explain the situation.

In the real world, Yi Ran had just graduated from senior middle school. Her grades… Well, they were just as lousy as they are now, except for sciences, which she did well in.

Usually, Yi Ran would skip classes and sneak out of school to play. Sometimes, she even fought with the hooligans near her school. In the eyes of her classmates and teachers, she was absolutely a bad student, so she was regularly scolded.

Therefore, this bit of scolding from Tang Xiang Ping was nothing at all to her.

Song Yu Meng was the same, she started playing with her hair out of boredom.

She totally had an air of nonchalance. After having had tea so many times, it was nothing out of the norm for her. After all, it was the same old nagging that she heard every time.

Looking at the behaviour of the two in front of her, Tang Xiang Ping’s voice got harsher: “Look at yourselves, how are you going to be good students? Your teacher’s talking to you but you don’t even respect her.”

The bell for the next class rang.

“Get to class, I won’t pursue this anymore. Since you two were late today, your punishment is to take on the cleaning duties. Go back to class now.”

Song Yu Meng walked happily along the corridor. From her upturned lips and light steps, anybody could tell that she was extremely pleased.

Yi Ran scratched her head in confusion. What was so good about being punished with cleaning duties? Did Song Yu Meng’s brain malfunction?

So Yi Ran walked swiftly towards her and blocked her way. With a tone that was reserved for the mentally challenged[2], she asked: “Eh, what are you so happy about? You really want to be free labour?”

Song Yu Meng raised her chin, “Hmph! What do you know? Liu Luo Yang gege is also assigned to cleaning duties today, how could I not be happy with this situation?”

Yi Ran: “……”

What else did she expect? Yi Ran couldn’t understand how she was so happy over just being able to share cleaning duties with Liu Luo Yang, so she rolled her eyes and spat out: “What an idiot.”

Hearing those words, Song Yu Meng exploded, pointing at Yi Ran and shouting: “You’re the idiot! You’re the crazy one! Crazy Yi! If you dare to say anything about this lady again, I’ll beat you!”

“Beat me?” Yi Ran folded her arms and approached Song Yu Meng with a sinister smile while squeezing her hands into fists. “Why don’t you try it?”

Song Yu Meng’s arrogance immediately evaporated and she took a step backwards. The sight of Yi Ran getting into a fighting stance made her heart race with anxiety.

Song Yu Meng hadn’t forgotten about how she was hurt the last time she fought with Yi Ran.

“Why are you so quiet? Didn’t you want to hit me?” Yi Ran said smugly.

“Stop being so arrogant! We’re in school, if you hit me, just wait for me to report you!” Even though she was terrified, Song Yu Meng wouldn’t lose to anybody in trying to be imposing.

Yi Ran dropped her fists as the sinister smile she had on warped into a mocking one. “Scared?”

“Are you crazy?!” Song Yu Meng’s embarrassment and irritation dissolved into anger as she stormed back into the classroom.

Yi Ran looked at her retreating back and chucked. She could imagine just how angered this lady was from her shadow.

She’s definitely interesting, it seems like the future won’t be as boring as Yi Ran thought.

……

After the two of them returned to the classroom, the English teacher walked in. She was a young, beautiful teacher who was rich and never wore the same outfit twice.

Teacher Chen Ling: “Class begins.”

Xiao Meng, the class rep for English, instructed the class: “Stand up.”

“Good morning boys and girls.”

“Good morning Miss Chen.”

“Sit down please.”

With the first class of the year, Teacher Chen didn’t jump straight into a new lesson, opting instead for a spelling quiz.

“I’m going to pick two people, these two students will write their answers on the board while the rest of you will stay in your seats and write it down there.”

Teacher Chen surveyed the class, with everybody keeping their heads lowered. Yi Ran’s head was the lowest of all, praying silently in her heart: Please please please don’t choose me!!!

Yi Ran’s scores for mathematics and science were above average, but her scores for Chinese, English and geography were worse than dogshit, with English being the worst of all with a score of around 30 marks.

But Song Yu Meng was the complete opposite, with terrible scores for her sciences but doing well when it came to the humanities subjects.

Teacher Chen eventually looked at the first row and pointed at Xu Yuan and Liu Luo Yang, “Let’s have you two come up and answer then.”

Immediately, the other students in the class all teased: “Oh~~”

Yi Ran raised her head with a look of confusion, unsure why they were teasing the pair.

After a few seconds, she finally remembered. Xu Yuan and Liu Luo Yang were still in an ambiguous stage right now, but they were widely viewed as the power couple in the school, one pure and one handsome, so of course more eyes would be on them and the school boards[3] would be plastered with gossip about the two of them.

One of the latest pieces of gossip circulating on the school board was that Liu Luo Yang liked Xu Yuan, and Liu Luo Yang himself gave this comment a thumbs up, resulting in all the teasing from the class.

As opposed to all the cheering, Song Yu Meng was sitting there grinding her teeth in anger, cursing out Xu Yuan in her mind.

Both Liu Luo Yang and Xu Yuan were blushing in response to the teasing and when Teacher Chen saw their distress, she called for order: “What’s there to tease? Have you all forgotten how you should act in a classroom? If anybody else acts like this, there’ll be extra homework today.”

With the threat of extra homework, nobody else dared to say anything, taking out their spelling books obediently.

“Brunch.”

The sound of pens scratching against paper filled the classroom as students began writing in their books, while the two students wrote on the blackboard with chalk.

Only Song Yu Meng was left stewing in her anger, refusing to even move her pen. She stared hatefully at Xu Yuan, with such a fierce expression in her eyes as if she wanted to eat her up[4].

Damned white lotus! What an act you’re putting on! Song Yu Meng continued cursing in her heart.

Coincidentally, Yi Ran didn’t write anything either, twirling her pen in her hand with an insouciant air. Teacher Chen recited over ten English words, but she couldn’t write one down at all.

“Painful.”

Yi Ran leaned back in her chair and sighed as she looked at the other students scribbling intensely. What a boring English class.

Suddenly, Yi Ran noticed Song Yu Meng.

Her cheeks were puffed up and she was trembling in anger, along with that vicious gaze, it was really quite scary to behold. Was she looking at someone or trying to eat someone alive?

Yi Ran’s lips twitched, isn’t watching Song Yu Meng more entertaining than doing the spelling exercise?

Teacher Chen had already noticed Song Yu Meng’s behaviour for a while. She glanced at her many times but Song Yu Meng didn’t get the hint, so she had to single her out.

“Song Yu Meng, write your own words down, why are you staring at Xu Yuan?”

The whole class turned to look at her before Song Yu Meng tore her gaze away.

Yi Ran chuckled, rejoicing at Song Yu Meng being called out.

“Yi Ran, what are you laughing at? Don’t think I didn’t see you staring at Song Yu Meng.” Teacher Chen held a book in one hand and she placed the other on her waist. “What? Does she have English words on her face to warrant you staring at it so intensely across the classroom?”

“Hahaha—”

The whole class burst into laughter and Yi Ran’s face turned red. Song Yu Meng’s face was redder still, partly because of embarrassment and partly because she was cursing Yi Ran in her heart.

Is she sick in the head! What is she looking at me for?! Crazy Yi must be crazy!!!

After she finished her mental rant, she glared over at Yi Ran.

Yi Ran locked gazes with her, then lowered her head and covered her mouth to stifle her laughter.

Please, she was just trying to find some entertainment. How would she know Teacher Chen would catch her!

What bad luck!

[1] 被请去喝茶 – being invited for tea sounds like a good thing, but it’s not in this context. In case it’s not clear, there’s usually no tea or drinks to be had, just a scolding.

[2] 用关爱智障的语气问 – Bit difficult to translate, basically speaking in a tone that’s softer and slower so that mentally challenged (Idk if this term is insulting please don’t cancel me) people or people with learning disorders can follow along easier.

[3] 学校墙 – Literally means school wall, but think of it as a forum for students to chat etc.

[4] 像是要把许愿吃了一样 – I know we usually think of “eating someone up” or “wanting to eat someone up” in a sexual context, but this one here has more of a negative connotation.