CH 22

[I’ve been taking my exams at the last exam venue from junior high to senior high for so many years and I’ve never seen such an overwhelming display of affection. It’s that bigshot from our school. You know Shen Juan right? The Shen Juan who beat his desk mate until he turned into a vegetable and had to be suspended so he’s repeating his second year now right? And for this exam, we’re both in the same exam venue.]

[Wait a second, didn’t he almost beat his desk mate to death?]

[? What’s the difference between beating to death and beating until you become a vegetable? But is this even the main point? Can you stop interrupting me?]

[Fine, go on.]

[In any case, it’s that Shen Juan. He had just opened! Up! A carton of soymilk! for a girl!]

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[….]

[After the girl took two sips, she said she had bought it! for him!]

[….]

[Mbl ckt cspp nyzxzu pyke. “Mbld fwpv zlyhl kv vblal. R’zz eakdj kv zyvla.”]

[….]

Mbl rasnvsap sq vbl lmyx hldwl bye ulv vs yaakhl yde lhlausdl oyp saktkdyzzu pwrrsple vs vyjl yehydvytl sq vbl zypv qlo xkdwvlp vs xyjl zkvvzl nblyv pbllvp cwv vblal olal yzps psxl obs bye fwpv tkhld wr yde fwpv pvyavle rzyukdt sd vblka rbsdl, dsv lhld yrrlyakdt yp vbswtb vblu bye vbl kdvldvksd vs nblyv.

Nynl pvsnjkdtp vssj vbl nbydnl obkzl vbl rasnvsap byed’v yaakhle vs qaydvknyzzu asypv bla qaklde. [Ebyv jkde sq alynvksd kp vbkp? Psd’v usw vbkdj kv’p pnyau? Mbyv Fbld Kwyd oyp ynvwyzzu yczl vs qkde y ryavdla.]

Waklde: [Ebu nyd’v R qkde xu ryavdla? Tl zssjp ps bydepsxl yde bsv, hlau bydepsxl yde bsv.]

Waklde: [Gde blzrkdt vs vokpv y nyr srld kp nsdpkelale y zshl yqqyka?]

Nynl pvsnjkdtp: [Fwal, bl’p bydepsxl cwv R oswze cl pnyale. Rq R tlv kdvs y alzyvksdpbkr okvb bkx, R’x pnyale vbyv sdnl bkp ydtla’p vakttlale, bl’zz ralpp xl ytykdpv vbl oyzz yde clyv xl wr.]

Nynl pvsnjkdtp: [Zsw’al dsv vbl sdl obs’p blal ps usw esd’v jdso. Zsw esd’v jdso bso dyvwayzzu ckt cspp vokpvle sqq vbl nyr sq bla eakdj!! Tl zssjle zkjl bl bye esdl kv plhlayz vkxlp!! Gp kq bl wdpnalop kv lhlaueyu. Tl eked’v lhld srld bkp lulp, bl fwpv vssj kv yde wdpnalole kv.]

Lace Stockings: [He even wanted the girl to just leave the drink for him to sip later!!! Isn’t this basically asking for an indirect kiss!]

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Friend: [So, did the bigshot drink it in the end?]

Lace Stocking silently twisted her body. Lin Yujing rolled her eyes and ignored Shen Juan’s words, downing the contents of her walnut soymilk. She then threw the empty carton into the trash can at the corner of the back of the classroom.

Lace Stocking: “….”

Lace Stocking quietly turned her head. [No. This sister is too cool. She threw her soymilk away after finishing it.]

Friend: [She ignored the bigshot’s words, finished the soymilk, threw it away and was still able to live after all that? I might have to start believing your words about this love affair.]

A minute later, her friend sent her the link to a thread. [Why did you create a thread in such a hurry?]

–

Lin Yujing did not have a single idea that the reign of terror in the last exam venue had been broadcasted to all the exam venues through someone’s phone. She also didn’t think it odd that every single person in the room was looking in their direction.

He was a bigshot after all. It was natural for him to attract gazes. Lin Yujing even remembered the first time Shen Juan appeared at the entrance of Class 10, the entire class went completely silent. The visual effect was much more profound compared to what was going on now.

She finished the carton of soymilk, and lightly threw it into the trash. Shen Juan’s ears twitched and he raised his head, glancing at her. “You finished it?”

“Hm?” Lin Yujing, “Ah, I did.”

Shen Juan: “Weren’t you going to give it to me?”

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Lin Yujing looked at him weirdly, “I’ve already drank from it though, did you still want it?”

Shen Juan looked at her in silence for 5 seconds and slowly let out a sound of realization. He straightened his back and sat further in his seat.

He furled his brows, looking at the edge of the table in a daze, finally appearing sober.

The bell signaling the start of the exam rang and the proctors entered the venue. They collected the students’ phones and urged them to place their bags in the front of the classroom.

Lin Yujing took out two pencils from her bag and placed her bag in the front. She originally wanted to give Shen Juan a pencil but just as she turned her head, without even saying anything…

Shen Juan lazily let out a yawn and slowly turned his body to the side, taking out a pencil from his pocket. He twirled it in his hands before leaning back and slowly taking out a folded white paper from the pocket of his sweatshirt to use as scratch paper.

How hateful.

The order of subjects to be tested followed the same order as how the college entrance examinations were going to be held, it was just that they were on a tighter schedule. In the morning, it was Chinese and math and, in the afternoon, it was arts and sciences and English, each subject would only have 15 minutes of break in between.

Having never experienced the exam order in the last exam venue, Lin Yujing finally gained some first-hand experience. There was practically no sound of writing at all in the entire classroom and one of the proctors sat in front on the podium playing on his mobile phone, the other a bit more decent, going around in circles if one could ignore how relaxed he looked.

During the first exam which was Chinese, those sitting in the front were writing at tremendous speed, appearing as if they at least wanted to put some effort in whereas the people at the back looked as if they had already given up. Lin Yujing looked at the brother sitting diagonally in front of her taking his time writing his name and used 30 seconds to finish all the multiple choice questions before laying on the desk and going back to sleep.

His strokes were very fluid and his movements very bold, making it hard for one to ignore him.

The difficulty of Eighth High’s monthly exam was pretty standard, though, compared to the subsidiary school she was in, it was still slightly inferior. Lin Yujing went through the questions quickly and was too lazy to check them after finishing since she didn’t find them difficult at all.

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She put down her pen, leaning back slightly and swept a glance at Shen Juan sitting at the side.

Shen Juan lowered his head and was currently doing the essay portion. He had already written quite a lot. Lin Yujing glanced at him and saw his densely filled exam paper.

Lin Yujing raised a brow.

She originally thought that he would be like Cheng Yi, the type to be too lazy to write a lot of characters on the exam.

Among the group of three, Lu Jiaheng had a decent grade while Cheng Yi met all the conditions of a poor student of his age. If he were to be a student of Eighth High, then he would probably be among the last row of students in leather biker jackets sleeping on the desk.

If he could, he would choose to write one character less and would definitely refuse to write more. He was decent in other subjects but she usually saw his Chinese exam papers being mostly left blank. He wouldn’t even use an extra punctuation mark, merely just settling on a topic and considering it done, too lazy to elaborate.

The subsidiary school she went to was quite strict in supervising. There was one time when the class teacher and the grade director took turns and reprimanded him for a while and Cheng Yi finally started writing the essay.

He wrote a dialogue.

“Have you eaten?”

“I have.”

“What did you eat?”

“It was pretty good.”

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—Each dialogue took up one row and, in this way, the blank sheet was quickly filled with 800 characters.

At that time, Lin Yujing wanted to say that to have a quick-witted friend like him was the blessing of three lifetimes.

–

Once you were finished with the exam, you could hand it in early. Lin Yujing felt that there was nothing else to do once she handed her papers in and she couldn’t stay in the classroom as well so she simply didn’t hand it in and laid on her desk to sleep.

After finishing the last exam of mathematics in the morning, she raised her head and saw that Shen Juan actually revealed his true face.

Shen Juan’s exam papers were on the table. On top of it was a pen. His hands were stuffed inside his sweatshirt’s pocket and he leaned back sloppily in his chair. The two front legs of his chair hung suspended in air while the two at the back supported him, swaying slowly under his control.

At that moment, Lin Yujing had the urge to give it a kick.

She wanted to see how the school tyrant would look like falling to the ground on his butt.

But for the safety of her life, she ended up dropping the thought.

The bell signaling the end of class rang and the proctor came over and collected the papers. Shen Juan walked very quickly, walking to the front upon getting up. Lin Yujing remained seated, tidying up her desk. She placed the pencil and the scratch paper together and just as she was about to get up and head to the front to get her bag, a shadow fell over her desk.

Lin Yujing raised her head.

Shen Juan lifted her bag and placed it on her table before leaning against a desk, “Want to have lunch together?”

Lin Yujing looked up at him.

Shen Juan would usually have lunch together with his former classmates in the third year, He Songnan and the others. This was the first time Lin Yujing had received an invitation from her desk mate, making her feel overwhelmed by the favor of a superior.

She thought for a moment and earnestly asked, “Did you forget to bring money?”

“…”

“I have it,” Shen Juan let out a long exhale. “I don’t need you to pay for me. What do you want to eat? It’s my treat.”

His sigh sounded really deep, making Lin Yujing confused as to why, however, she suddenly recalled the youth saying “I don’t earn much, just enough to pay off my daily expenses.”

Lin Yujing felt a little bad. Someone who relied on tattooing to make a living also had to study. Even when he was getting involved in fights in the summer, he still didn’t forget to do this homework. Though he didn’t listen in class, he still filled out his mock papers. He didn’t seem like a rich school tyrant and he even wanted to treat her.

What a proactive and admirable attitude to learning!

He had even brought a pencil for the exam! And scratch paper to boot too!!!

“No need. I’ll treat you.” Lin Yujing quickly said. She stuffed the pencil and paper into her bag and stood up, pulling the bag’s zipper. “What do you want to eat?”

Shen Juan raised a brow and looked at her for a while but didn’t refuse. He then shifted away his gaze and started walking towards the door, “I don’t really have anything special I want to eat. Let’s just go for whatever.”

Lin Yujing had pretty much tried out all the restaurants near school so she knew which shop had delicious food and which shop was just average. She knew which shop was clean and which shop immediately made her want to go to the toilet after eating. Since this was her first time treating her deskmate to a meal, she wanted to express a bit of sincerity.

The two people walked out of the venue together and Lin Yujing folded her fingers one by one while listing out the options, “We’re excluding stir fried ho fun and the beef noodle shop, they’re not very clean. Hotpot and barbecue would just make us smell and we wouldn’t be able to come back in time. Do you eat stir-fried vegetables?”

“Yeah,” Shen Juan looked to be in good spirits, the corner of his lips hooked up, his person languid, “I’m fine with whatever. I’m not picky.”

After deciding on stir-fried vegetables, the two people exited the school gates. Lin Yujing also nodded and raised her eyes, “Then-”

She paused, her voice coming to a halt.

On the street across from the school gates, a familiar car could be seen parked. It was Meng Weiguo’s favorite car, having specially brought it from the city to this place.

The man wore a casual suit, standing beside the car. The contours of his face were deep and handsome. The passing of time simply hadn’t left a mark on his figure, his appearance remaining very youthful but his temperament was calm, forming a sharp contrast with the bright fresh senior high youngsters in the surroundings.

Several girls went over from the side and turned their heads to measure him before huddling together and giggling.

The school gates were very crowded as everyone had just finished their exams and students whose class had just ended were rushing outside. Lin Yujing stood in place and suddenly didn’t budge. The people behind her got impatient and pushed her. “Are you walking or not!”

Shen Juan raised a hand and suspended it behind her, casting a glance at the back.

A very tall boy was standing behind them and upon coming into eye contact with Shen Juan, he shrank back, curling his fingers and retracting his hand.

Lin Yujing suddenly turned around and started going back without another word.

But because there were too many people coming from behind, her path was completely blocked.

She frowned impatiently, her whole person appearing gloomy with a suppressed vexation. She suddenly turned her head. “Let’s postpone this to another day. I’m not eating today.”

Shen Juan looked up. “Hm?”

“Let’s forget about today,” Lin Yujing said. “I’ll treat you on another day. Feel free to choose whatever you want to eat, is that alright?”

Shen Juan raised a brow. “No way.”

Lin Yujing took a deep breath. “I don’t want to eat anything today. I want to go back to the dorms and revise. We have arts and sciences in the afternoon and I’m not confident I’ll do well. Let me treat you on another day, I won’t go back on my word.”

Shen Juan looked at her fixedly, his dark eyes like the color of ink. “Today is today.”

Lin Yujing restrained the urge to hit him. She didn’t know why this guy, who usually had foresight and wouldn’t pressure her with many questions, was suddenly being difficult today.

Almost everybody had left the school gates, walking towards the outside leaving the two people standing by the gate. One of them was even the legendary bloodthirsty school tyrant who was a bit more conspicuous.

Liin Yujing glanced at the sight across and saw that Meng Weiguo was leaning against the car, looking in her direction.

She turned back around, her back facing the school gates and suddenly pulled the chest area of Shen Juan’s sweatshirt. Caught off-guard, Shen Juan bent his back and the distance between the two closed immediately, their heads nearly bumping together.

His eyes widened a little, feeling taken aback.

“Classmate Shen, can you be serious?” Lin Yujing lowered her voice, her lips just hanging right beside his face and due to the very close distance, Shen Juan could even see her eyelashes quivering slightly.

Her actions clearly looked like she was asking for a fight but her voice was soft and pressed down very low.

It was as if she was admitting defeat, or begging for forgiveness. “Please.”

“….”

Fuck.

——————–

The author has something to say:

Boss Juan: I’d like to summarize a thousand words into one—fuck.

It’s not right to curse. My friends, please don’t learn from Boss Juan.

I had some matters to deal with today so this chapter was late by an hour. Sigh, I’m sorry.