CH 44

This unexpected encounter was interpreted differently in both Jiang Li and Chi Fan’s hearts, the former was: What a coincidence! The latter was: What a coincidence?

To coincidentally meet twice a day, Jiang Li felt quite surprised in his heart. Without waiting for Chi Fang’s response, he then raised his hand to greet, “Chi Fang tongxue1. What a coincidence.”

Is it an actual coincidence, or did you do it on purpose?

Chi Fang was really feeling suspicious of him.

Before yesterday, he had no impression of Jiang Li. Before that, Feng Yu seemed to have mentioned to him that Jiang Li liked Xu Haowen, and he didn’t take it to heart at that time, let alone knowing what Jiang Li looked like.

However, after he rescued him by chance yesterday,  the two suddenly crossed paths for some reason. Firstly, Jiang Li picked up his lighter and returned it, then he bumped into Jiang Li when he was skipping class, and now he bumped into him again when he’s helping his grandfather to return something in the police station, this coincidence was hard to not make him feel suspicious. 

Chi Fang nodded towards Jiang Li like before, but this time he asked one more question, “Why are you here?”

“I bought my glasses yesterday and came to pick them up today.” Jiang Li said, “In fact, I saw you yesterday as well, it was here.”

As soon as he said that, Chi Fang suddenly remembered that the person who stared at himself at the entrance yesterday afternoon was Jiang Li! Suddenly, he felt a subtle sensation in his heart. 

…What a shitty fate.

Chi Fang swore in his heart and was planning to leave when he heard Jiang Li ask, “Chi Fang, have you eaten? If you haven’t, I’ll treat you? I really want to thank you for yesterday!”

Chi Fang’s house was just nearby, he ate at noon before coming over, but even if he didn’t eat, he wouldn’t promise Jiang Li, because he didn’t like to eat with people he didn’t know well, so he said, “I’ve eaten.”

“Oh …” Jiang Li was a little disappointed to hear that, his shoulders slightly drooped down.

Chi Fang saw what happened and remembered Feng Yu said that the relationship between Jiang Li and his classmates was poor, and he was often ostracised. Chi Fang inexplicably felt bad and added another sentence, “You don’t need to take it to heart, I just saved you on the way.”

“That won’t do.” Jiang Li shook his head, looked at him and said in a firm tone, “As the saying goes, a drop of water shall be returned with a burst of spring, not to mention the grace of saving my life.”

The phrase, “a drop of water shall be returned with a burst of spring,” automatically turned into Feng Yu’s words, “The saving grace must be returned with one’s lifelong devotion,” in Chi Fang’s ears and his expression suddenly became incomprehensible.

Jiang Li saw his expression change in a second and asked with concern, “What’s wrong? Where do you feel uncomfortable? I will accompany you to the hospital for a checkup.”

“… No, really, I’m leaving.” Chi Fang waved his hand and walked the other way. After walking for a while, he found Jiang Li was following him, so he stopped and asked him, “Why are you following me?”

“I’m not.” Jiang Li pointed to the bus stop sign in front of him, “I just want a ride back to school.”

Chi Fang: “…” You better not be following me. 

Both of them were going back to school, so naturally they were going to take the same bus. When they were waiting for the bus, Chi Fang stood nearly two metres away from Jiang Li, obviously didn’t want to have any communication with him.

Jiang Li didn’t know that Chi Fang had an impression of him being ill-intentioned towards him because of Feng Yu. However, he knew that rushing things wouldn’t work out, so he didn’t continue to dwell on it, and boarded the bus with him one by one when the 105 bus came. 

The bus was already full of people, Chi Fang waited for Jiang Li to stand before specifically finding a place to stand further away from him. Jiang Li saw and felt puzzled in his heart, was he a fierce beast or a great flood?

Even System noticed it and asked strangely, “Lord Host, I think the male lead seems to be keeping a bit of distance from you.”

“Your feeling is not wrong.”

Jiang Li pondered for a moment, his brain was very nimble, and with a little speculation he associated the possible reason.

Because of Chen Jialin, the original host’s liking for Xu Haowen was already an open secret in classes five and six, and since Chi Fang was in the same class as Xu Haowen, he thought he wouldn’t be unaware of it.

A community like homosexuals, no matter in school or society, it wasn’t a favored existence. It was no wonder that Chi Fang had such a reaction.

Jiang Li told his speculation to System and it said it was very likely, after all, in his previous life, after Jiang Li made his relationship with Jiang Zhan public, some of the fans who initially said they were going to support him for life instantly stopped being his fans.

“Then the target this time seems hard to be captured,” System said.

“Not really, there’s no need to rush, let’s study well first and work hard every day.”

“… you seem to be very interested in going to school.”

“It’s not bad, it’s nice to experience student days once again.”

Jiang Li and System were chatting in his heart, and didn’t pay attention to the bus that was going to turn at a junction. He didn’t grab the handrail at that moment and his whole person took several steps backwards and bumped into Chi Fang who was at the back accurately.

Chi Fang plugged the headphones to listen to songs once he found a place on the bus. He was suddenly bumped, so he reflexively reached out to hold the other person. After standing still, he found that it was Jiang Li who should be standing one metre away from him.

Chi Fang: “…” Damn, this gay is scamming me ah?!

“Thanks.” Jiang Li gave his thanks once he stood firmly, looked up and coincidentally saw the tense outline of Chi Fang’s chin. He realised that Chi Fang was not in a good mood and quickly pulled away from him.

Seeing that he was so sensible, Chi Fang was a little more comfortable and put the headphones that he had just knocked off back into his ears.

There were not many buses in the small county and as there were many stops that the 105 bus passed by, there were also many passengers. It was afternoon rush hour to work and school and after a few stops, Jiang Li felt like he had been squeezed to go inside the bus, his position was changed several times. 

Along the way, almost no passengers could be seen getting off the bus but more people were boarding the bus. Every time Jiang Li felt that the carriage had been too crowded to fit more people, there were always two more people squeezing into the bus at every stop. Everyone was sticking to each other, unknowingly Jiang Li was squeezed to the side of Chi Fang, the two were standing close together.

Chi Fang usually rode a bicycle to school. When he came back at noon, his bicycle’s tire was accidentally punctured. When he sent it to the repair store near his home to change the tire, the bicycle mechanic was not in, so he had to leave the bicycle and take the bus to school.

It was so crowded along the way that Chi Fang doubted his life, especially the place where Jiang Li’s arm was sticking felt like it was burning, making him feel uncomfortable. He immediately got off the bus when he reached the station, strided towards the school entrance and Jiang Li was left far behind.

Jiang Li also didn’t care, since there was still some time before class. He slowly walked back to the classroom.

When he returned to his seat, Chen Jialin’s seat in front of him was empty, and it was said that he had taken a leave of absence.

Regarding the incident of beating him the previous morning, Jiang Li was not worried that Chen Jialin would say it out. He looked powerful, but in fact he was timid inside and was a bastard who only knew how to bully the weak. He usually made a show in class, but once he saw Chi Fang and his group, he didn’t even dare to fart. 

When the class was about to start, Jiang Xingyu came over to collect his English homework, Jiang Li took the homework book from the drawer to her, and seeing that the other party was looking at him, he took the initiative to ask, “What’s wrong?”

Jiang Xingyu shook her head and said, “You’re doing fine, good luck!” Then she went on to collect other people’s workbooks.

Jiang Li was dumbfounded by the abrupt words and then he realised what she meant.

This was probably the first kindness from his classmates, but unfortunately the original Jiang Li could not feel it anymore.

It was English class in the afternoon. Teacher Zhu, who taught English, liked to call people to stand up before class to read the content of the lesson to be taught later. Her gaze slowly swept across the classroom, and froze when she saw Jiang Li, she thought a new student came into class. She looked down at the seating chart, and called out with an unsure tone filled with doubts, “Jiang Li? “

“Here.”

Jiang Li stood up from his seat and nodded towards her.

The young female teacher stared wide-eyed, then smiled gently: “It’s really you, huh? I thought I was mistaken. The new hairstyle is good, boys should be clean and fresh like this to look good.”

Teacher Zhu had just graduated from the teachers’ training college last year. She was only afew years older than the students. Her personality was relatively gentle, and was a teacher that the original host liked more.

Hearing her compliment, Jiang Li smiled at her in embarrassment.

“Since you’re standing up, read the last part of the content in Unit 9, any difficulty?” Teacher Zhu asked gently.

“No.”

Jiang Li replied, picked up the book and flipped to the article she was talking about and began to read it.

Although Jiang Li’s appearance and temperament have changed, most of the students in the class still had the impression that he liked Xu Haowen, that he was gay and a pervert. So, even though he was good-looking, they didn’t have any intention of getting in touch with him and were not interested in his reading aloud at this moment.

However, when Jiang Li read out the first sentence, everyone froze, especially the teacher on the podium.

Jiang Li’s pronunciation was very standard, with a little unobtrusive London accent, which was very comfortable to listen to, and his reading was very fluent and smooth throughout, without the slightest bit of pause, and the foreign letters on the book seemed to be transformed into Chinese in his eyes.

Teacher Zhu chose an essay written by a famous writer during the Republic of China. Jiang Li’s voice was gentle and crisp as he told the story hidden in the text, like the fresh morning dew and the charming evening sunset.

It took him only a few minutes to turn everyone from being indifferent to being unsatisfied that the reading had ended. 

It was also at this moment that everyone realised that he had changed more than just his external appearance. 

Towards Jiang Li’s performance, Teacher Zhu was very surprised. He did not make a single mistake in his reading, the intonation was clear and precise, and his reading was so accurate that he could be considered a model of reading recitation.

After praising Jiang Li a few sentences, Teacher Zhu asked him, “Have you been taking remedial English lessons recently?”

“I’ve been cramming on weekends, and I usually try to watch some original English dramas and movies to practice.”

Jiang Li lied expressionlessly, the original host had been working part-time during the weekends and didn’t even have time to attend lessons. The reason why his English was so good was that he practised it in his previous life for a Hollywood blockbuster.

Hearing how diligent he was, Teacher Zhu was satisfied and praised him more before she started the class. She then carried out the last unit exam of the semester in the second period.

After the exam, she made a point of urging the other students to study harder like him.

After a year of being classmates, this was the first time a teacher had told everyone to learn from Jiang Li. For a while everyone had an indescribable feeling, but they had to admit that Jiang Li was indeed better than them in this aspect.

However, there were some people who thought that Jiang Li only memorised the content of the article the day before, and today he was performing in front of the teacher specially, so it was not worthy to learn from him.

However, those who thought so were soon slapped in the face.

Two days later, Teacher Zhu announced the ranking of the test results on the podium. Jiang Li scored 148 points, ranking first in the class, beating the second place Jiang Xingyu by 19 points.

The class watched dumbfoundedly as Jiang Li walked up to the podium to receive his test paper. When the teacher asked him to give a speech to encourage everyone, he was silent for a while and said in a sincere tone, “Actually, I lied last time, it’s useless to just work hard.”

The crowd: “?”

Jiang Li looked at them and showed a standard smile, exposing his eight teeth: “The main thing is to rely on a good brain.”

The crowd “…”

Are you fucking saying that our brains are not good?

classmate