CH 35.2

The amount of time that Han Shi Yu and Yang Mo were both at home weren’t much. At evening, Yang Han went back home and temporarily stayed for a night. It just so happened that Han Lang also came to visit, bringing along the little corgi from her home.

Yang Han excitedly picked up the corgi, Gu Gu and rubbed him all over while gauging how many more days until her summer vacation arrives, when she can finally have a dog of her own.

Han Shi Yu could only stay at home for one more day and then he would have to return to work the day after. Hearing that, Yang Han shared a little of the affection she gave Gu Gu to him.

It rained lightly at night.

A dim lamp was lit in the courtyard.

Han Shi Yu was sitting on a small stool while holding up a blue umbrella. Yang Han also moved a small stool over and sat beside him.

“Old Han,” Yang Han said, “When are you coming back this time?”

Han Shi Yu replied, “I’m taking the flight the day after tomorrow, well…it’ll be a month this time.”

Yang Han rubbed her fingers together and asked, “About a month later, our school has a science and technology art festival. Parents are invited too.”

Han Shi Yu: “Go ask your dad. He probably has the time for it.”

Yang Han turned the umbrella on her shoulder around, stealing a glance at Han Shi Yu.

Han Shi Yu wasn’t a perfect father. But…his shoulders had gotten wet for his daughter on rainy days before and had rushed back overnight because of some news from home. Always worrying about the important life events in his daughter’s life. Even though Yang Han was only sixteen years old, but in her father’s eyes, she was already a ripe cabbage eyed by many wild boars.

But, he’s a good father.

Yang Han replied, “Oh…”

She suddenly remembered when she was in elementary school and went to the mall with her two dads. At that time, Han Shi Yu wasn’t the topic of discussion for everyone just yet.

She was very comfortable, holding one of their hands in hers and the three of them formed a picture of the word ‘凹’. Or if Yang Han was excited and, on a whim, she would hang in between them, right in the middle while giggling. At that time, she was very proud of the envious gazes from the passerbys.

Later on…in junior high school, she was affected by some gossip going around. Her mind gradually became more sensitive and she had rarely gone out with them anymore.

Yang Han suddenly missed those days and wanted to go back to that day again.

Han Shi Yu patted the top of her head.

Yang Han looked up at him.

He smiled, “I can try my best to come back earlier.”

He then asked, “We can go together?”

The rain continued to fall on their umbrellas in pitter patters. The warm yellow light from the lamp reflected in Yang Han’s bright eyes, swirling a little as the corners of her eyes curved.

When Yang Han returned to school the next day, she found out that something bad had happened.

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She placed her school bad down and said hello to Liu Zuo Ye, noticing an injury on her arm.

Yang Han hurriedly asked what happened, but she only shook her head and said, “It’s just a mild burn. It’ll heal in two or three days’ time.”

Xu Jia’s eyes were red as she told Yang Han what had happened.

It turned out that their class’ proposal was on par with another class who had won the bid. But towards the end, most of the teachers who were also the judges, still favored their proposal more.

The students from the other class who found out about this, told their class officers. They were so anxious that they went to the school principal before the start of the final selection.

The principal received an anonymous letter from a student who said it was their first time doing event planning. It was filled and written with such sincerity, stating that they only wanted to seek a little advice to ease the tension. The principal then answered the letter seriously.

However, during the final selection, on the column of the proposal’s instructors, the principal’s name appeared there. Moreover, her words also appeared in the column for any suggestions for improvement.

The instructors were usually the team leader or a teacher who had read the proposal, approved and acknowledged it. Perhaps it was out of some psychological effect, and because the two proposals were already seen as extremely comparable – the judges, teachers and students ultimately chose the other class.

When the girls were discussing this matter, Liu Zuo Ye happened to overhear it.

Liu Zuo Ye had always been one to eat on her own, alone. These girls thought they had avoided the senior tenth class’ usual eating area, but as they saw Liu Zuo Ye walk past them to put her food tray away, their faces turned blue.

Yang Han suddenly felt a surge of suffocating anger in her heart as she listened to Xu Jia.

Honestly, in a situation like this, there wasn’t much that Liu Zuo Ye could have said. After all, ‘most of the teachers who were also the judges favored their proposal more’ was just an assumption, not something publicly certified.

Or should they have exposed them—that the principal wasn’t really their instructor?

No one would admit to their pandering, and the principal did indeed write a letter of advice for them, so it’s reasonable to refer to her as their instructor.

If Liu Zuo Ye had went to “expose” them, she would only receive a thorough breakdown as an answer – they would “sensibly” tell her why the judges chose the other proposal as well as advising her not to think so badly of others at such a young age.

People will always prepare two sets of reasons in advance for their choices. One to explain their failure, the other to reinforce their success.

During evening break when these girls came to see Liu Zuo Ye, she didn’t say a single word back. She was in the water room getting hot water. This group of people kindly came over to “befriend” her.

When she ignored them and turned away to leave, her cold expression was enough to let them know she had overheard them earlier.

Liu Zuo Ye didn’t want to chew them out with words. She knew she couldn’t do anything about this awkward situation so she didn’t let it bother her to the extent of being angry.

This group of girls were a little annoyed by her attitude. They reached out to grab her, but accidentally knocked over the hot water then.

Yang Han looked at Liu Zuo Ye’s wound and felt tears prick at her eyes.

Liu Zuo Ye noticed Yang Han’s fingers lightly trembling while holding her hand, so she said comfortingly, “It’s okay. I also returned the favor.”

At that time, there weren’t that many people in the water room. Liu Zuo Ye used her scalded, red arm to pin the culprit to the wall, throwing out a sentence of, “keep your mouth and hands in check”.

Although the girls did not actually suffer any substantial injuries.

“These kind of things, well, you’ll encounter them quite commonly in your workplace. Sometimes, it’s hard to get ahead with just being competent, and you need to be a little smart about it too.” Fang Jia sighed, “We can’t say they’re in the wrong since they didn’t break any rules…” He said, “Just that it doesn’t feel great to find out about the truth.”

Xu Jia said angrily, “Guess I’ll go to construction sites and move bricks in the future. If I have to face this kind of thing at work, I’ll surely die from anger.”

The atmosphere seemed to have been eased by Xu Jia a little.

Yang Han was silent, not knowing what to say.

During recess time, that group of people came to their class to look for them.

It was a group of arrogant boys, who heard that the class they won against, went to harass their female classmates. So they came to ask for an explanation.

Anyone could guess that it was the girls from last night, who had cried their eyes out and said a bunch of nonsense to them.

Liu Zuo Ye was never afraid of things like this. Just as she was about to get up, she was kept in her seat by Lu Yue Ming and Yang Han.

Lu Yue Ming said, “I’ll go talk to them.”

Fang Jia and Shang Xue also came over. Shang Xue swung an arm around Lu Yue Ming’s neck, the three of them said, “They’re treating us as if we don’t have male students in our class.”

Shang Xue rolled up his sleeves and said like a big fool, “Sister Liu, just wait. They burned your arm yesterday, today we’ll cut off one of their arms.”

Liu Zuo Ye: “…….”

Watching them leave to negotiate with them, Yang Han’s frown remained and the suffocating anger in her heart was ignited.

She gritted her teeth and said to the class president who came over to check on them. “Class president, can we still bid for another event?”

Class president: “We can, but the original event has been taken, so we can only apply to hold it independently. But to organize a completely new event, it will be really, really hard to get an approval.”

Yang Han said, “Then, let’s start with writing a proposal now. We’ll hold it independently.”

She added, “We must win against that class.”

Everyone in the class looked at each other.

A self-organized event would have been a little less popular than an original event held over the previous years. Furthermore, among all the regular events, the flea book market was always one of the most popular ones.

The class president said, “…What kind of event will we be doing then?”

Yang Han said, “Apply for a science and technology seminar.”

Class president: “Ah?”

Liu Zuo Ye raised an eyebrow.

Xu Jia seemed to have understood what she meant. She widened her eyes and said, “E-Eldest princes…you don’t mean…”

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“I’ll invite the main speaker,” Yang Han said, “It’ll be Han Shi Yu, the president of Ji Xun technology company.”