CH 3

“Hurry,” Wei Chaoren sidled up to him right as Kou Chen walked into the room, “Go and accept respected Liang Mulan’s baptism of re-education.”

“Now?” Kou Chen started. 

“The main perpetrator has already gone, Xu Chuan too. It had nothing to do with him, but he said he wanted to go see.” Wei Chaoren said.

“Who else?” Kou Chen asked as he turned to leave.

“Xu Chuan and your daddy.” Wei Chaoren said.

Kou Chen stopped in his tracks, turned around, and asked: “And who?” 

“Your daddy.” Wei Chaoren laughed.

“Itching for a beating are you?” Kou Chen pointed at him, “Just you wait.”

“I was wrong.” Wei Chaoren immediately surrendered.

“No use,” Kou Chen walked out the room and raised his voice, “Take off your underwear and wear them on the outside.”

The class laughed behind him.

“Damn you!” Wei Chaoren cursed.

Kou Chen went down the stairs, glancing into Humanities 3 as he passed by. The dust on the floor had already been swept up, but because the floor was wood, some still remained. A few girls were busy mopping. You could see the support beams through a third of the ceiling.

“Kou Chen, you still have the nerve to look.” One of the girls mopping turned around, saying as she caught sight of him. 

It was his ex-class monitor, the beauty Lu Huan.

“I didn’t do it on purpose.” Kou Chen said.

“What happened after was on purpose, raining dust down on us.” Lu Huan said as she raised the mop half-jokingly, “Why don’t you mop it up.”

“Okay.” Kou Chen didn’t hesitate, walking into the classroom and grabbing the mop from Lu Huan. 

“Who let someone from Humanities 1 in!” Someone yelled.

“What? You selling tickets?” Kou Chen looked over.

He didn’t know who spoke, but a bunch of people looked at him, and a few of his old classmates smiled.

“Forget it, Kou Chen, are you going to the office? You should hurry, what are you hanging around here for?” Someone took the mop out of his hands. It was an old classmate that sat in front of him last semester, but Kou Chen was surprised to find out that he couldn’t recall his name within three seconds. 

Kou Chen had only been here for a semester after transferring. He didn’t know them well anyways, and now after a whole summer, it was like a brand new world.

But he still had a deep impression of Ms. Liang, because one time during a test, Ms. Liang kept going on about how you shouldn’t look down on language as a class, how you shouldn’t cheat, to people not respecting their teachers, and how she was ostracized by students in the past…

It resulted in Kou Chen not be able to write down a single word, when he could normally just bullshit through language class. He couldn’t help but say: “Even a vegetable market is quieter than this place”. From then on, Ms. Liang never really liked him, and he got thrown out of her class three times a week.

Inside the office, Ms. Liang had her back to the door, but Kou Chen could still tell that she was very unhappy as she pointed to the ceiling.

“That big of an area, it all fell, half the ceiling collapsed,” Ms. Liang said, “What kind of behaviour is this? Such a despicable thing happened in our school! It’s too despicable! It’s simply just the worst!”

“We have students fighting amongst themselves, I think fighting is a bit more despicable.” Old Yuan said.

“Half the ceiling?” Someone asked. 

Kou Chen recognized the Dean and the vice-principal.

“One third.” Kou Chen said.

Ms. Liang turned around as she heard him: “You measured it?”

“I saw,” Kou Chen said. “If you want me to measure it, I’ll go do it right now.” 

“No need, no need, ” Old Yuan gestured towards him, “Come, Kou Chen, tell us what happened?”

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“P’nf cfnfg tfjgv bo jcsatlcu ilxf atja.” Zr. Oljcu rjlv.

“I’ve never heard of it either.” Huo Ran said from off to the side. 

Kou Chen glanced at him, he could see unsuppressed annoyance written on his good-looking face.

“But I saw it with my own eyes.” Huo Ran continued.

“The point now isn’t who started it.” Ms. Liang said, “The point is that you led the whole class to jump and destroy our ceiling when you clearly knew what would happen! ”

“The ceiling isn’t destroyed.” Xu Zhifan said. 

“The paint just fell off,” Xu Chuan said, “One third of it.”

“Watch your attitude!” Ms. Liang was very angry.

“I think they’re fine,” Old Yuan said, “They’re already high schoolers, they should express their feelings without fear, and stand up for themselves. That’s the aim of our school. We can only guide them if they are willing to say what’s right or wrong.”

“We jumped because Class 3 came up angrily to accuse us of doing it on purpose.” Xu Zhifan said. “Their attitudes sucked, and they wouldn’t listen to our explanation, who wouldn’t get mad?” 

“Alright, I think we’ve got the gist of things, you guys can go back to class now.” Old Yuan waved them off.

Kou Chen turned to leave without a second thought. Everyone else followed them, and they filed out of the office.

“Mr. Yuan! Is this the type of attitude you should have when dealing with these types of things?” Ms. Liang raised her voice.

“We’ll start dealing with it now.” Old Yuan said. 

“What about an apology?!” Ms. Liang still spoke loudly.

“We’ll deal with that later.” Old Yuan answered.

“You think Old Yuan can beat Liang Mulan?” Xu Chuan asked a bit worriedly as they walked down the stairs. 

“If he can’t, then nobody can,” Xu Zhifan said. “Was Liang Mulan provoked or something?”

“Dunno,” Xu Chuan said, “The graduating students all said it’s because she’s scared of the haunted building.”

“Haunted building?” Huo Ran paused, “This one we’re in?”

“This one doesn’t even count as haunted,” Xu Chuan said. “The one beside the soccer field is the real haunted building, and it can’t even be torn down.” 

“Oh yeah, why can’t it?” Huo Ran asked.

“It’s a cultural relic,” Kou Chen looked at him, “There’s a giant stone tablet that says ‘Municipal Cultural Relics Unit’, you didn’t see?”

Huo Ran didn’t say anything, continuing to look at him.

Kou Chen met his eyes for a little bit, then he suddenly nodded in understanding: “You’re too scared to go there, right?” 

Huo Ran was about to say something, when Kou Chen patted his shoulder: “Don’t worry, not even the girls dare to go there.”

“Get your fucking hands off!” Huo Ran glared at him.

“They’re already off,” Kou Chen said. As Huo Ran turned to keep walking, he reached out and grabbed his shoulder, “Now you can say it again.”

“Go fuck yourself.” Huo Ran turned around without a moment’s hesitation. 

“Hey, hey, hey, hey!” Xu Chuan rushed between them, “This is the teacher’s office building!”

“Let’s go back to class first.” Xu Zhifan half-pushed, half-dragged Huo Ran down the stairs.

Xu Chuan looked at Kou Chen after they were gone: “What are you doing? He even spoke up for you back there, Liang Mulan said you did it on purpose, Huo Ran kept explaining that the floor split by itself.”

“That’s the price he has to pay as my dad.” Kou Chen said. 

“Alright fine,” Xu Chuan said, “Then why did you have to grab him like that?”

Kou Chen hopped down a few steps: “He makes you want to tease him.”

“…What?” Xu Chuan was a bit confused.

“Don’t you think he looks like Lu Huan?” Kou Chen said. 

“Lu Huan?” Xu Chuan stared at the back of his head. Kou Chen asked for Lu Huan’s name on his second day here, like he was interested in her or something, but Lu Huan clearly said her name when she introduced herself the day before.

Xu Chuan didn’t really understand Kou Chen’s train of thought.

“Is there a logical connection between the two?” Xu Chuan asked again.

“Dunno,” Kou Chen hopped down the last flight of stairs, “Wanna go see the haunted building tonight?” 

“What’s wrong with you?” Xu Chuan said.

“I’ve been here for so long and yet I haven’t been inside,” Kou Chen turned around, eagerness written on his face. “I wanna know what scared Liang Mulan like that.”

“Fuck off, I’m not going.” Xu Chuan said.

“You…” Kou Chen laughed. 

“I’m a girl.” Xu Chuan said.

The humanities building was beside the teachers’ office building, and you could see Old Yuan and Ms. Liang in the office through the window.

Everyone in Humanities 1 all crowded at the window, some pressed up against the glass, others piled up on the chairs and tables. 

Ms. Liang was a bit agitated, although they couldn’t hear what she was saying, they could pretty much guess from her pointing up then down. Old Yuan was a lot calmer, with practically no body language. When he turned and saw everyone, he waved them off and closed the curtains.

From a position standpoint, they were luckier than Humanities 3. After the curtains were closed, they saw that a bunch of people were standing downstairs.

“Can you see anything?” Someone yelled down.

“Nope.” Someone replied, “What can you guys see?” 

“They’re arguing,” Someone said, “They closed the curtains.”

The people from Humanities 3 still craned their necks to look up, Wei Chaoren couldn’t help but ask: “It’s not like you guys can see or hear anything, what are you doing?”

“Liang Mu… Ms. Liang said,” Someone spoke, “Before the problem is solved, before you guys apologize to us, we’re not to step foot in the classroom.”

“What, you guys are rallying?” Wei Chaoren said. 

“What’s the point in talking to them?” Lu Wei was very unhappy about the exchange going on, cutting them off.

“An apology is off the table,” Wei Chaoren said, “Be on your way now, stop dreaming.”

Twenty minutes later, Old Yuan walked into the classroom, not betraying the results on his face. 

“Old Yuan, what happened?” Someone asked urgently.

“Kou Chen, Huo Ran,” Old Yuan said, “You two were the main perpetrators, go down and clean up their classroom.”

“They already cleaned up.” Kou Chen said.

“Just pretend,” Old Yuan said, “Wave the broom around, you’re not completely in the right either.” 

Huo Ran glanced at Kou Chen. Kou Chen stood up, and he followed.

Old Yuan continued: “Take the supplies with you, so you don’t have to come back up in case they don’t let you use their stuff.”

Huo Ran sighed, looking at the broom in the corner. He realized they weren’t all new, only one looked pretty fluffy. He hurried over, even if they were just putting on airs, he still wanted a new one.

As his hand touched the broom handle, Kou Chen’s hand reached over, flicking the back of his hand harshly. He withdrew his hand in pain. 

“You…” As he grit his teeth and turned back to Kou Chen, he already had the new broom in his hand. He even smiled at him.

Huo Ran bit back the urge to curse, picking up another one. As he was about to leave, Kou Chen suddenly turned back around to pick up a dustpan with a smile, face so close to his they nearly touched. He walked out of the classroom with a ‘look at me with these two items I’m such an honest person’ expression.

Ms. Liang stood silently at the doorway of Humanities 3.

Huo Ran peered into the room, it really was empty, they were all standing outside on the field. 

But the tension from earlier had pretty much dissipated already, they were all just watching the fun now. Some of them even waved at Huo Ran and Kou Chen as they entered.

Kou Chen looked up, walking underneath the broken part of the ceiling. He stabbed the broom at the floor: “Right here, sweep.”

“…Sweep what?” Huo Ran looked down at the floor that had not only been swept but mopped too.

“Why don’t you go ask Liang Mulan?” Kou Chen bent down and started sweeping the floor in all seriousness, even lifting up the table to sweep under it. 

Drama queen!

Huo Ran saw no point in doing it, but he could only start sweeping as well.

To distinguish himself from the drama queen, he swept very half-heartedly, not even bending down.

Mainly because there was really nothing to sweep, there would probably be more dust on a desk that hadn’t been wiped all summer. 

“Take this more seriously.” Kou Chen looked back.

Huo Ran stayed silent, looking at him.

“Liang’s watching from the door, if she starts going on about ‘not respecting her’ for half an hour again.” Kou Chen glanced at the door. “I’m gonna tie you up in the haunted building for a night.”

Huo Ran hesitated, bending down through the humiliation to sweep like Kou Chen. But he was very annoyed at Kou Chen’s words: “You talk like the haunted building is yours. Even if I stand inside for you to tie me up you might not dare go inside. Keep bragging.” 

“Mhmm…” Kou Chen paused, thinking. Then he said, “Okay.”

“What?” Huo Ran started.

“You don’t need to stand there for me to tie up,” Kou Chen said. “One hour. From 12 to 1, first one out loses.”

“Going to the haunted building at night?” Huo Ran started again. 

“Relax, if you’re too scared to go, I won’t tell anyone.” Kou Chen continued sweeping.

“What are we betting?” Huo Ran asked.

“Anything,” Kou Chen said, “If I lose I’ll call you daddy.”

“No need,” Huo Ran said, “I’d prefer a daughter.” 

Kou Chen thought about it: ” How about the loser has to do something for the other? As long as it’s not against the law, you can cash in whenever.”

“Deal.” Huo Ran agreed, “What if no one loses? Or if we run out at the same time?”

“There’s no way,” Kou Chen said, “Who cares about the specifics, are you going or not?”

“I am.” Huo Ran said. 

Kou Chen underestimates him. Although he really has never been there, it’s not because he’s too scared, it’s just that the thought never crossed his mind. The school says it’s dangerous, that students are forbidden to go there.

Of course… He is scared of ghosts, but who isn’t scared of ghosts!

Everyone’s scared of ghosts, he has his own strengths. Forget about spending a night in a damn building, he’d been spending nights alone in a tent in the middle of nowhere before Kou Chen was even in middle school!