Chapter 33

Ch.33

After the morning self-study period was over, the subject representatives started collecting home work.

He Xiao Meng started collecting the English homework from Song Yu Meng’s group. The students at the back all handed up their English homework to Song Yu Meng, but when she was organising them, she realised Yi Ran hadn’t handed hers in.

She turned around wanting to remind Yi Ran to hand in her homework, but she found her frantically copying the answers. Seems like she didn’t do the English homework.

Song Yu Meng didn’t think copying homework was anything bad, she frequently copied homework too, but when she saw that the paper Yi Ran was copying from had “Xu Yuan” written on it, her attitude changed completely.

She suddenly felt uncomfortable, the more she looked at Yi Ran, the more upset she got. Thus, she turned to He Xiao Meng and said: “Yi Ran didn’t hand in her homework, note down her name.

Yi Ran, who was frantically copying down the answers, quickly shouted: “Don’t, don’t, don’t! English class rep, show me some mercy, I’m almost done copying, don’t note down my name!”

He Xiao Meng laughed. “Hurry up, I won’t write your name down.”

Song Yu Meng’s heart grew even more sour, noticing Yi Ran smiling at He Xiao Meng. Suspicion and alarm suddenly flashed in her mind: Smiling so happily, could it be that He Xiao Meng likes Crazy Yi?

But she soon crossed it out, consoling herself: No no no! Crazy Yi probably doesn’t like this sort of innocent, sweet, foolish girls, right?

“Alright alright, I’m done, here it is!” Yi Ran handed both Xu Yuan’s homework and her own to He Xiao Meng and smiled at her.

She was just smiling slightly, but Song Yu Meng wasn’t happy, lashing out at Yi Ran. “You copied your homework, I’m going to tell the teacher.”

It’s not completely out of the question that she wanted to attract Yi Ran’s attention.

Yi Ran’s smile froze on her face, she never expected Song Yu Meng to say that. But her stiff smile quickly came back to life again.

“Eh, you’re going to tattletale on me copying homework? Sure, then give me your maths homework first before going?”

Song Yu Meng was pressured immediately. “You, you, you, you’re shameless!”

“Now then you realise I’m shameless?” Yi Ran smiled cunningly. “Can’t hand it in? Then how about this, we both won’t tell on each other. How’s that?”

“Whatever.” Song Yu Meng mumbled.

He Xiao Meng stood by one side looking at them. They looked as if they were just enemies, but she had a suspicion their relationship wasn’t just all that. A shred of anxiousness crossed her heart.

The two of them had the same thought. They said they wouldn’t tell the teachers, but……

Yi Ran went to tattle to the maths teacher while Song Yu Meng went to report to the English teacher.

“Teacher Chen, Yi Ran didn’t hand in the English homework, she even copied the answers from others!” Song Yu Meng also said a bunch of other stuff like Yi Ran not paying attention in class, eating snacks all the time and such.

Chen Ling was incredibly angry after hearing it. “This Yi Ran, she really doesn’t care about this major subject that can give her 150 marks[1]. Ever since I started teaching English, she has never seriously paid attention!”

Chen Ling went to Tang Xiang Ping’s office to discuss Yi Ran with her, and Song Yu Meng tagged along behind happily.

But when they went in……

“Well well, Song Yu Meng. What great timing, I was just about to look for you!” Tang Xiang Ping sat on her chair with a stern expression. Yi Ran stood by the side, smiling cheekily.

Song Yu Meng was confused, what’s going on? Why did she feel like something bad was going to happen?

“Song Yu Meng, I hear you’ve never done maths homework.”

Now she understood, Crazy Yi wanted to drag her down too!

Chen Ling guessed the situation and said: “What a coincidence, Teacher Tang. Yi Ran never hands in my English homework either, and she doesn’t listen in class too.”

“Well done, you both really have chemistry, tattling on each other at the same time.” Tang Xiang Ping looked at them. “Spit it out, what are you guys going to do?”

The two of them stood together, not daring to say anything.

“Keeping silent? Alright, then you’ll both have to copy your own homework five times. If you’re not done, you can’t go home today. And you’re not allowed to attend physical education class this afternoon either. Stay in the classroom and copy.” Tang Xiang Ping even followed up with a question: “This isn’t too much, is it?”

“It’s not.” The two of them forced themselves to say it. How could this not be too much! It’s practically asking for their lives! Wouldn’t their hand be crippled after all that?

They really ended up harming themselves while trying to hurt each other!

On the way back, the two of them were fighting again.

Yi Ran: “Tell me, why did you have to go complain all of a sudden? Great, now you’ve dragged yourself into trouble.”

Song Yu Meng couldn’t hold back either: “Who are you to say anything, didn’t you tattle on me too!”

“…… Forget it, let’s just say we’re both unlucky and not blame each other. Let’s hurry up and get the copying done.”

The English homework was four pages of reading comprehension, with plenty of words to copy. The maths homework wasn’t light either, with a bunch of long-form questions. Copying everything five times really wasn’t an easy task; both their hands felt like it was going to fall off.

When it was time for physical education class, the students all went down with just the two of them left in class copying.

“Forget it, I’m not copying anymore!” Yi Ran threw her pen on the table and rubbed her sore hand.

Song Yu Meng didn’t want to copy either, and she kneaded her sore hand.

“I still have two copies left. You?”

Holding up three fingers, Song Yu Meng said: “Three.”

“Let’s not copy anymore. Let’s grab some fresh air on the rooftop, I really want to vomit from all this copying.” Yi Ran suggested.

“Go yourself if you want. What if you get caught again by Tang Seng?”

“We already snuck out of school once, what’s the rooftop in comparison? Let’s go!” Yi Ran grabbed Song Yu Meng’s arm and ran towards the rooftop.

The two of them leaned against the railings to catch their breath. Another cheer erupted from the basketball court on the field, with the recipient seemingly being Liu Luo Yang.

Yi Ran looked at Song Yu Meng and said: “Seriously, did you consider what I said to you the last time? Do you still like Liu Luo Yang?”

Song Yu Meng lowered her head. “I don’t know.” She had considered what Yi Ran said to her, but she couldn’t figure it out and she didn’t want to think about it anymore.

“The person involved can never see things clearly. You’re not Liu Luo Yang’s type. He likes girls like Xu Yuan, so give up. It’s never going to be possible between you two.” Yi Ran knew this would hurt her pride, but she wanted Song Yu Meng to realise the truth.

Song Yu Meng didn’t seem to be too hurt though, asking in return: “Then what about you?”

“What about me?”

“What type do you like? It can’t be the pure type like Xu Yuan right? Or those silly, sweet girls? Like…… He Xiao Meng.” Her casual tone hid traces of seriousness.

Listening to her baseless conjecture, Yi Ran wanted to laugh. “Continue, is there no more?”

Song Yu Meng was shocked. “What! Then what other types do you like? You’re that scummy?!”

Yi Ran smiled and rapped a knuckle against the top of her head. Song Yu Meng covered her head with both hands and said pitifully: “Why did you hit me?”

“Because you’re silly, can’t I?”

She looked at Yi Ran’s slight smile and her heart relaxed. She had a sort of intuition that told her, although Crazy Yi didn’t say it out, she didn’t like either of the two girls.

……

After the fourth period was over, everybody went for dinner while the two fo them were still copying their homework in the classroom.

At exactly 6pm, Yi Ran finished her five copies of English homework first, while Song Yu Meng still had one page left to go.

“Ha! I’m done, Scaredy Cat!” Yi Ran happily stuffed the paper into her desk and wanted to rub it into Song Yu Meng’s face that she could go for dinner now.

But Song Yu Meng didn’t react. She was still gripping onto her pen and copying. However, her fingernails were white and her face was pale too, while she was copying very slowly.

Yi Ran felt something was wrong and bent down to ask: “Are you okay? You don’t look good.”

Song Yu Meng didn’t reply, her eyebrows were knitted together and her lower lip had been bitten to the point that it was almost bloodless. One hand was still copying, but her other hand was pressed against her stomach.

Yi Ran immediately panicked. Her first thought was that it was cramps, but counting the dates, it shouldn’t be.

She suddenly recalled that in the novel, Song Yu Meng had gastric problems. With half an hour to the usual dining time, it was definitely gastric.

Yi Ran immediately worried, snatching her pen away and pointing at the door. “Stop copying, we’re going to eat now!”

“There’s one copy left, give it back to me!” Song Yu Meng had a surprising amount of strength left to fight with Yi Ran, struggling to get her pen back.

“I’ll copy the last time for you, you don’t have to worry about me getting stomach aches, I don’t have gastric problems.”

“Why, why would I care about you! It’d be best if you starved to death!”

Yi Ran’s tactic was certainly useful. Song Yu Meng really obediently went to have her dinner and with food in her stomach, it wouldn’t hurt anymore.

Although she said she didn’t care, Song Yu Meng was still worried about Yi Ran going hungry, so she bought some bread and milk at the commissary, but she was too embarrassed to hand it to her personally.

Song Yu Meng was looking for Su Xiao Xiao to ask her to bring the food to Yi Ran, but she couldn’t find her.

She saw Xu Yuan on the exercise field and originally, she was incredibly reluctant to ask her for help, but since class was going to start soon and Su Xiao Xiao was nowhere to be found, she thought that Xu Yuan was probably the only person left to bring it to Crazy Yi.

“Hey! Give these to your deskmate, you’re not allowed to say I bought it!” Song Yu Meng was prejudiced against Xu Yuan and she couldn’t bring herself to speak nicely. She shoved the bread and milk into Xu Yuan’s hands and walked away.

Xu Yuan looked at the items, but didn’t refuse.

Xu Yuan arrived at the classroom later than Song Yu Meng, and she sat down next to Yi Ran. Placing the bread and milk on her table, she said: “It’s for you.”

Yi Ran stopped copying the maths homework and asked: “You got this for me?”

“Yeah. Do you not like it? Do you want me to buy something else for you?”

Yi Ran smiled slightly. “It’s okay, I quite like these. Sorry for making you spend money, thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Sitting in front, Song Yu Meng felt like she was about to explode. She must have been stupid to ask Xu Yuan for help! When were these things bought by her? She really could act! Shameless! That Crazy Yi was stupid too, she couldn’t even guess that Song Yu Meng was the one who bought it! Would that green tea be so kind?!

The more she thought about it, the more upset she got. But she didn’t know Yi Ran was looking at her back and smiling secretly.

Right before the evening self-study started, Yi Ran finished copying the last copy of maths homework.

She patted Song Yu Meng’s shoulder gently, and she turned around, asking fiercely: “What!”

Yi Ran gulped and handed the homework to her, asking: “What’s wrong, who angered you?”

“Am I angry? I’m very happy, you’re blind!” Song Yu Meng snatched the homework and turned back around.

Yi Ran: “……”

Song Yu Meng opened the book to see if Yi Ran finished copying, and when she got to the last page, she saw a row of words.

【Don’t be angry anymore, okay? I know you bought all these for me. The bread and milk are super delicious, thanks Scaredy Cat！

P.S.: Can’t you give them to me personally next time? What are you being so proud for?】

Song Yu Meng smiled at the note, her mood lifting instantly. Alright, she’ll take back what she said just now, Crazy Yi still had some brains left!

But who was she calling Scaredy Cat?! Crazy Yi’s the Scaredy Cat!!!

After class, Su Xiao Xiao went over to find Song Yu Meng and saw her happy smile. Her good mood had lasted for an entire class.

“Xiao-Yu, are you very happy? What are you smiling at?” Su Xiao Xiao scratched her head.

“Am I? Am I very happy?”

“Yeah! It’s super obvious, okay?”

Song Yu Meng didn’t realise that because of a single sentence from Yi Ran, she had been in such a good mood for the whole class.

[1] English can give a total of 150 marks in the Gaokao examination, hence it’s considered a major subject. Gaokao totals up to 750 marks.