CH 2

Chapter 2 – New Turning Point

“Maybe……he picked it up.”

“Picked it up?”

Something so small could be picked up?

“As if I’d believe that!” Jiang Yufan frowned. He followed Yue Zhishi to the second floor of the junior high school building and continued asking, “Even if he picked it up, how would he know that you’re Yue Zhishi?”

Yue Zhishi asked back, “Am I not recognisable enough?”

“That’s true……” With that mixed face, Yue Zhishi was a popular topic of discussion when he first came. Jiang Yufan however felt that it was strange, “I was scared to death just now. When I saw Song Yu wearing that arm band, I thought you were finished.”

Yue Zhishi leaned against the handrail to catch his breath, “So extreme?”

“Why not? Breaking the rules on the first day back to school and even running into the cold and aloof Song Yu who is on duty. When he grabbed you, I thought he was going to reprimand you on the spot.”

Almost reaching their classroom, Yue Zhishi turned and shushed him before quickly walking in.

It was very good timing. At this moment, the class leader was calling attendance. Yue Zhishi tried his best to hide his heavy breathing and stood at the door with his hair slightly curled up from the running, “Teacher………”

The head teacher Wang Qian was a young male teacher in charge of teaching Chinese. He got along with the students well but also wouldn’t hesitate to be strict when necessary. Fortunately, Yue Zhishi had always had a good student reputation and his grades were also good so Teacher Wang didn’t make it difficult for him, “Come in.”

But Jiang Yufan was not so lucky.

Wang Qian had a playful smile on his face, “Why, isn’t this our class’s regularly late guest?”

“Teacher Wang,” Jiang Yufan rubbed his head, “I was only later than Yue Zhishi by two steps.”

“Yes, and I think this standard is pretty good.” Wang Qian raised his hand, “From today onwards, you are only allowed to be two steps later than your desk mate or you will stand for the entire morning study session.”

“Huh?” Jiang Yufan’s scrunched up his face as the rest of the students in class 8 laughed.

“What are you huh’ing for? Get in.” When Wang Qian was done saying this, he began knock some senses into the other students, “Small matters are fine, but you better be good during the opening ceremony. If you’re caught by the director, I won’t be able to save you. After being publicly sentenced, you will make a name for yourself before you even enter senior high. I guess that can be a way to make sure you didn’t attend junior high school for nothing.”

Everyone secretly laughed. Only Yue Zhishi who still hadn’t recovered running earlier was in a state of confusion as he tried to stuff his bag under his table. No matter how he tried, it just didn’t go in. He eventually reached in and pulled out a delicate royal blue gift box.

Strange. He took a closer look.

“Who gave it to you this time? How great, already getting a gift on the first day back to school.” Jiang Yufen whispered from his table, “It’s nice being handsome.”

“That’s not it.” Yue Zhishi raised his head and glanced at Wang Qian before opening the gift box. Inside was a exquisite white pen and a bottle of ink and there was also a card. He didn’t touch the pen and just opened the card to read the contents before putting it back under his table.

The gossipy Jiang Yufan shuffled over, “Which class? That pen doesn’t look cheap.”

Yue Zhishi pursed his lips and seemed to be in thought.

“We don’t disband and go home right after the opening ceremony, right?”

“Yeah, we probably have to go back to the classroom. Why?”

“I want to go to class 11 and return this.”

Everyone in class had stood up and was ready to go to the school auditorium. Jiang Yufan didn’t understand the Yue Zhishi’s honest act of returning a gift, “Are you serious Le Le? You’ll hurt the girl’s feelings.”

Yue Zhishi was a little hungry. He opened his bag, pulled out a rice bread from inside, tore it open and ate half in one bite. He spoke a little muffled, “If I don’t return it, she might think I agreed but I haven’t so it’s wrong to do that. And right now, I’m only in third year of middle school. I shouldn’t be dating.”

Please read this from kk translates

Jiang Yufan was incredulous, “My heavens, where did this obedient baby come from? That guy in the class next door has already changed girlfriends three times last semester. Forget it, you wouldn’t be able to understand what it feels like to be heartbroken.”

Heartbroken.

It was true that Yue Zhishi couldn’t understand it but he weighed up the seriousness of being heartbroken or being deceived and firmly made up his mind.

“I will tell her properly.” Yue Zhishi quickly swallowed the bread in his mouth and stood up with the other students. From his bag fell out a medicine box which looked brand new. He bent over to pick it up and tried to put it in his pocket, but the pockets of the school pants were too small to fit. He then tried to tear open the packaging, but the quality of the plastic packaging was just too good.

“Come on, let’s go.” Jiang Yufan tugged him.

“Oh, okay.”

The entire school swarmed into the auditorium. As soon as he entered, Yue Zhishi saw that there was no bin around, so he quickly finished the last bite and placed the folded packaging in his pocket.

Peiya was one of the most well-known high school in this local area. Compared to score focused education like the neighbouring schools, this school took a foreign education route and many students move on to study abroad for their further education. There was even a saying that goes ‘Only half of Peiya’s students take the college entrance examination’. Coupled with the fact that the school was rich and could afford the land it occupied, the junior and senior high school departments had never been separated.

With such a huge student volume, the annual opening ceremony naturally became the school’s major event. No matter how free or uncontrolled you may be, today was a day where nothing should go wrong.

The senior high school students entered first and sat in the auditorium according to their class. Compass stood at the front arranging everyone: “Junior high school class 3-6 to 3-11 sit in the centre.

“Huh?”

“Why is it the blue class again?

“Have to sit on the ground again.”

The summer school uniform for the junior high school students are of a light blue short-sleeved shirt while it is white for the senior high school students. Because the winter knitted vest is also these two colours for the two departments, over time, everyone started using the colour of the uniform to represent the junior and senior high school students.

Everyone started to look for a place to sit. After not seeing each other over summer, the first thing the girls did was to get together and gossip. After all, this was a topic everyone loved to talk about.

“Did you see the confession wall last night?”

“No, who is it this time?”

“A junior high school second year confessed to Senior Song Yu. Wrote heaps. Seems to have been secretly crushing on him for a whole year.”

“Wow the school idol……really courageous.”

“Did our school vote on the school idol? I don’t remember casting a vote.”

“No but Song Yu has been accepted by almost everyone. They even dared to go after him. I have never seen him be close to any girl. Let alone those in junior high school, there aren’t any in the senior high school department.”

Hearing Song Yu’s name, Yue Zhishi was a little pleased, but he also felt a little uncomfortable inside. His face felt a little itchy. He tugged at his hair a little and looked around, his eyes slowly following the crowd. The class leader had organised everyone’s seats and Yue Zhishi was sitting at the very back of the group of boys. The focus of the gossip of the girls in front changed from the hot topic of a junior high school second year girl confessing to a third year senior high school senior had changed to the topic of how many school idols there were in Peiya.

“Later, there was an argument under that confession wall. Someone said that Song Yu has a poker face and likes to ignore people so he’s not as good as Yue Zhishi from the junior high school department. I almost laughed to death. To think that I would eat melon seeds in my own class.”

“What do they mean not as good? Le Le is pretty good looking. Isn’t a mixed-race face nice? And he has good personality.”

“Some said that he’s too young, but they argued and argued and they basically concluded that there can be a school idol in each of the senior high school and junior high school department. After that, everything was settled.”

“Hahaha, that’s true. I would really like to see the two of them stand together to compare.”

“Just putting them together in the same frame is difficult enough. They have no connections at all.”

Jiang Yufan perked his ears, listening to this conversation for a while. He then started teasing, “Little Le Le is not bad. You’re even compared with Song Yu.”

Yue Zhishi had his neck craned, searching for Song Yu’s figure in the auditorium and was not paying attention to the girl’s conversation. Being told something like this by Jiang Yufan all of a sudden, he was confused, “Huh?”

At this moment, one of the girls at the front turned around and grinned, “Le Le, what do you think about Senior Song Yu’s appearance? Aside from his character.”

After entering junior high, this was the first time he was asked about Song Yu at school.

Yue Zhishi felt a little guilty. It was the same feeling as when he hid outside the examination centre, waiting for Song Yu to come out. He started unconsciously blinking faster as he tried to think of a stranger-like response.

“Senior Song Yu is very handsome, and his grades are good.”

But in the end, he couldn’t hold back the desire to speak up for him, “And I think there is no problem with his character.” Yue Zhishi’s tone was very serious, “He just doesn’t like to talk, it doesn’t mean that he has a bad personality. Although he looks a little scary, he’s actually very nice….”

The girl listening felt that it didn’t sound right. She interrupted and asked with some confusion, “Wait a minute, how do you know that he’s nice?”

Sure enough, he wasn’t good at hiding.

Yue Zhishi couldn’t speak for a moment. At this moment, Jiang Yufan stepped in, “I have to say, Song Yu really is a better person than I thought. Today he was on duty and he picked up Le Le’s name badge and gave it back to him. He even helped him hide it from Compass.”

“Really?”

“A heroic act.”

“As expected of a handsome guy!”

The ceremony began. The class leader reminded them to be quiet and the gossiping quickly came to a stop. Yue Zhishi breathed a sigh of relief. That was too close. Considering their ability to gossip, if they really found out about their relationship, they will definitely not stop talking about it.

The speeches at the beginning of each year are almost the same. The leader stood there talking while the students listening down below were about to lose their minds. After a while, it changed to the junior high school department representative who was also a female student from their class. Yu Zhishi straightened up and listened attentively to show his support but the lights in the auditorium were too bright, causing his head to slowly bend back down like a wilting sunflower.

He didn’t know if it was because he ate the bread too quickly, his stomach felt a little uncomfortable. It was as if there was a clump of cotton stuck in there, unable to go up or go down.

Rubbing his stomach, Yue Zhishi stared at a small black spot on the tip of his canvas shoe. Focusing at this spot for a while, that small spot gradually spread and grew, like a low-pressure cloud. Applause came from all directions, signalling the end of the speech. This sound poured into his ears like boiling water, burning into his chest cavity, the steam inflating his lungs.

There was a small commotion among the students. His throat was dry and itchy, like it was being tickled by a feather. Yue Zhishi lowered his head to clear his throat as the new student representative stepped onto the stage.

Please read this from kk translates

After approaching the microphone, there was a sharp screech from the speaker, as if it was calling for everyone’s attention.

The next second, a low voice came from the uncooperative microphone.

“Sorry.”

Yue Zhishi immediately raised his head to look at the person on the stage, his chest rising and falling rather quickly.

“Good morning everyone, I am Song Yu from class 3-5.”

His heart started racing. It was a pathological kind of racing.

Just as those girls had mentioned earlier, Song Yu’s good looks were recognised and acknowledged by everyone. His long and narrow figure as well as his sharp eyes however gave him a strong sense of oppression and detachment.

It was difficult finding traces of emotion on his face.

On the contrary, Yue Zhishi’s features were soft and youthful, making him appear unthreatening. His almost transparent amber eyes also made him look innocent and sincere.

“Today is the first day of school……..”

Song Yu lowered his eyes, his gaze falling onto the small folder resting on his forearm. His tone was calm as he spoke, and he would occasionally look up at the audience with a quiet gaze.

Yue Zhishi had always liked listening to Song Yu read, no matter what the content was, but right now something wasn’t quite right. He clearly wanted to carefully listen to every word, but he couldn’t seem to concentrate. His dry and itchy throat also appeared to have worsened.

His lungs felt like it was compressed and narrow, the airflow unable to go in or go out.

Oh no.

This reaction was all too familiar. Yue Zhishi pulled out the packaging from his pocket to check. His breathing gradually got more and more difficult.

Sure enough, he had made a mistake. Ordinary bread of this brand and their rice bread only had a difference of a small symbol on the bottom right corner, everything else was exactly the same.

Yue Zhishi suffered from severe wheat allergy. In addition to the common rash and itchy throat, he also would experience the most uncomfortable reaction – allergy related asthma. This symptom only appears when he has made a lot of contact with the allergen.

The auditorium was too quiet. The only thing that could be heard was Song Yu’s voice and the gradually worsening wheezing from his chest.

His first reaction was regret. Regret that he had left his medicine in his desk. Who would have thought that he would have an allergic reaction the one time he left it behind?

But this thought didn’t last long and his instinct to call for help took over. The asthma taking away his strength, Yue Zhishi struggled with difficulty to lean forward and grab Jiang Yufan by the arm.

The people around him also found it strange.

“A new semester also means a new beginning.”

Standing on the stage, Song Yu had his eyes lowered as he read his manuscript.

The students in the audience suddenly started to turn rowdy and it was concentrated at the end of a certain class. Several even stood up and formed a circle. The other students in the other classes also noticed it and craned their necks to see.

“This can be regarded as a critical point in life. The turning point is just ahead….”

Song Yu didn’t care much about what happened. His personality was just like that. He only occasionally raised his eyes and just happened to see a person lying on the ground through the chaotic crowd.

“Le Le! Are you okay?!”

The director who was unclear of the situation hurried over to maintain order, “Hey which class are you? What are you doing?”

Jiang Yufan was kneeling on the ground, his voice anxious, “Teacher! Someone’s not feeling well!”

The speech stopped abruptly, and it was followed by a clatter. It was the sound of the folder falling. The sound was amplified by the loudspeaker and seemed to sound particularly rushed and sudden.

The director looked over. There was no one on the stage, “It’s all messed up!”

The student responsible for filming stood there stupidly with his camera. For a while, he didn’t know whether he should chase after the student representative or continue aiming it at the empty space on the stage.

There was an incident during the ceremony and stopping the speech could be considered a normal response, but the representative had walked off without a word.

And that person was also Song Yu.

It was too abnormal.