CH 34

Chapter 34 – Boy

This novel is only hosted on Foxaholic, copies found elsewhere are either stolen or plagiarized.

The next day, a pragmatic article on ‘Li Chuan’s Heroic’ by [Southern Weekly] was published on BBS.

Netizens who had condemned Li Chuan in the forum were slapped in the face and after a night of silence, some netizens came out to apologize.

Comment 1: “After this incident, I really dared not believe too much of BBS allegations. Starting with the photo and the content that was all made up, which discredit a hero into a pervert. I’m here to apologize to Li Chuan. You are not only a Genius but also our school’s epitome who is worthy of praise and someone to learn from.”

Comment 2: “I’m also here to admit my mistake. I’m a student of NJU and dare to acknowledge my mistake. I hereby swear that I will never readily believe online rumors in the future.”

Comment 3: “No one can guarantee what Panda Warrior reported is true, right? And this Panda Warrior is really too much, he actually exposed such private matters of the girl. In Li Chuan’s case, it’s freedom to choose one’s partner and the school is not likely to render any disciplinary action, at most just losing a few projects. But what about Schoolmate Lin Xiaoyin? Once this matter is exposed, she may lose her academic record! She is still a postgraduate student ah!”

Comment 4: “Commenter above, are you here to jest around? Your comment reminded me of the well-known phrase in Aunt Qiong Yao’s book. – What you lost is only a leg, but what about Zi Ling! What she lost was love!”

Comment 5: Is Commenter #3 a fool? What benefit did Lin Xiaoyin give you? This kind of girl really corrupts the school morale. Trying to steal a chicken only to end up losing the grain used to lure it and getting enmeshed in the web of her own spinning!”

Comment 6: “Am I the only one who wants to say that this Lin Xiaoyin is too much? The mother in the interview also clearly said that Lin Xiaoyin was one of the rescued girls too, thus it was evident that Panda Warrior’s revelation yesterday was true. She is really too much. Failed to pursue Li Chuan, she actually wanted to fabricate false charges and even implicated a year-one-high-school girl. Won’t this grieve the young girl seeing this post?”

Comment 7: “Sensational news, sensational news! Lin Xiaoyin was taken away by the police for starting a rumor and slandering!”

Those who spoke for Lin Xiaoyin in the forum immediately disappeared without a trace.

Lin Xiaoyin was invited for questioning at the police station for starting a rumor and slandering. Because of this, Li Chuan received a call from home.

On the other end of the phone, Li Chuan’s eldest paternal uncle urged him earnestly to let the matter go as the two families still need future dealings.

Curling up the corners of his mouth with a smile, Li Chuan said coldly, “It’s not that simple.”

Listening to this child’s cynical voice on the phone, Li Jianjun said angrily, “Stinky brat, what’s with your tone? Okay, stop making trouble. Let’s just forget about this matter. Yin-yin is playful but she didn’t mean to harm you and that little girl.”

Li Chuan’s parents passed away early while his eldest paternal uncle and his wife had no son of their own, so Li Jianjun adopted Li Chuan, and he addressed him as father since childhood.

“Playful?” There wasn’t much warmth in Li Chuan’s tone, “This matter is not negotiable. Grown-ups should be responsible for their own actions. Don’t worry, she will be out in ten days at most.”

“Yin-yin is still doing her doctorate program. Isn’t what you are doing similar to ruining her life?” Li Jianjun was so angry with him that his liver hurt, “Little Chuan, the family can be nonchalant with what you are doing outside or whatever business you are involved in. But this matter, you must do as I say. What Yin-yin did was wrong, but as an Elder Brother, shouldn’t you give in to her?”

Li Chuan’s voice was very cold, “That’s it, and I’m hanging up. I will be home on time for dinner on Friday, and tell Grandma I will cook for her when I get home.”

Li Jianjun still wanted to say something else, but the connection over the other end was cut off.

The three-day break after military training ended quickly. Su Qin had barely rested as it consumed a lot of her time to teach her mother to post on major forums and to choose models with Chen Meixin.

After Su Qin arranged the work for next month, she could finally relax a little and took the bus back to school.

It took about fifty minutes to arrive at the last stop from the old city district to Yunyang High School and another ten minutes’ walk to their school’s entrance.

Today was the day before the term began. The backstreet of the school was very lively; stationery shops, bookstores, snack bars and milk tea shops were crowded with students.

""

Year-two and year-three high school students had changed into their school uniforms. Passing by the entrance of a snack bar, she saw several boys in school uniforms squatting on the curb eating roast sausages. The way the boys feasted on their food greatly whet Su Qin’s appetite, hence she walked into the milk tea shop and bought a crispy skewer of roast sausage.

She was about to turn around when someone behind leaned over and pushed her forward. The big boy behind her nestled and slid his lower jaw against her shoulder before biting into the roast sausage she was holding.

Su Qin was dumbfounded.

Resting his chin on her shoulder, the big boy said in a coquettish tone, “Su-su, I still want to eat.”

Su Qin laughed with annoyance and stuffed the rest of the roast sausage into his mouth, “Eat, eat, eat all for me and don’t leave a single bite!”

Yun Fei bit into the roast sausage and stood up straight. Seeing that she was carrying a large backpack and a canvas bag in her hand, which looked quite heavy, he took the initiative to take the schoolbag off her shoulder and also carried the bag of fruit for her, and asked her, “Su-su, have you eaten yet?”

With the burden removed, Su Qin felt a lot lighter.

As the two walked side by side towards the school, she shook her head, “No, how about you?”

“Me neither, I’m waiting for you to eat with me.” Dressed dashingly cool, the big boy was tall too and attracted the gazes of many students along the way.

Yunyang High School has a rule that school uniforms must be worn on the day of admission. Students like Yun Fei and Su Qin who dressed casually looked like the year-one-high-school students.

Su Qin turned to ask him, “Then what do you want to eat? Sister will treat you.”

“Let’s drop off our stuff and go try every single thing in the backstreet, okay?”

“Huh? There are so many delicacies, can you eat them all ah? Won’t you be full to the point of bursting?”

The boy is a head taller than her, but when he talked to her, his tone was sweetly coquettish and even looked at her like a little puppy.

Unable to stand the gaze of this boy, she couldn’t help but stand on tiptoe to tug at the boy’s ear, “Okay, okay, don’t look at me with such pitiful eyes. I’ll just bring you to eat. You wait downstairs for me. I’ll come down after I put my stuff in the dormitory.”

“En, en.”

Once they arrived at the downstairs of the girls’ dormitory, Su Qin took her stuff from Yun Fei, then took a bag of apples from the canvas bag and stuffed it to Yun Fei, “Here, eat more fruit. I bought you a bag which is enough for a week.”

Hugging the fruit, Yun Fei felt warm. After the girl went upstairs, he wagged his tail and walked towards his dorm room.

Dormitory 303.

Laying on the bed, Yan Yixiao raised her pair of short legs and pushed against the bed-board of the bunk bed as she lamented, “School is starting tomorrow. I heard from the year-two-high-school senior sister that Teacher Tang looks gentle on the surface, but is actually super fierce. And she said there will be a class test tomorrow. After military training, I have almost forgotten my junior high knowledge. What should I do? I’m a little nervous.”

“We are having a test?” Su Qin came in from outside with large and small bags and felt uncertain when she heard Yan Yixiao’s words.

Sitting on the other lower bunk bed, Yu Wen was looking in the mirror as she dabbed moisturizer and hummed in acknowledgement, “Every class has a test for the new term and ours is no exception. Su Qin, I’m curious about how many points you got for the senior high-school entrance exam?”

Su Qin didn’t get a view of her exam score at all. Teacher Tang only informed her that she was accepted and got a perfect score in the essay writing. As for the subject scores as well as the total points, Teacher Tang seemed to have forgotten to tell her and she forgot to ask too.

Kneeling on the top bunk folding her clothes, Meng Sisi said, “Su-su was admitted before the senior high-school entrance exam, so she doesn’t know her score. Hey, Mosquito, what’s your score?”

The girl who got called ‘Mosquito’ looked up at Meng Sisi who was on the opposite top bunk, “Who are you calling Mosquito? Such an unpleasant nickname, I don’t want it!”

[T/N: 蚊子 (Wénzi) – Mosquito]

“Mosquito, Mosquito, Mosquito, it’s pretty nice ah, catchy and easy to remember.” Meng Sisi stuck out her tongue at her.

Su Qin took out three apples from the bag, put them in a small dish and went to the bathroom to wash them before bringing them back and gave one to each of her three roommates.

After giving the apples to the three girls, Su Qin went downstairs.

Yu Wen called out to her when she left, “Su Qin, you’re not going to have dinner with us? Let’s at least get together ah.”

“No thanks. Let’s eat together tomorrow. I’ll bring Yun Fei out to buy some stationery.”

“Eh, okay.”

After Su Qin left, Yu Wen gossiped with Meng Sisi, “Are they really siblings ah? What I see, not likely ah?”

“A very complicated relationship, you better not know.”

Even though Meng Sisi tried very hard to forget everything in Dashan, she was hurt after all and engraved in the marrow of her bones which could not be forgotten. She tried very hard to use ‘joy’ to conceal those painful experiences, but she can’t forget those kinds of encounters and will never get over it for the rest of her life.

The relationship between Yun Fei and Su Qin is too complicated. If she really wants to talk about it, she is bound to mention what happened to the girls in Dashan.

In the backstreet of the school, the stationery store was crowded with people. Yun Fei still hasn’t bought any stationery, so he pulled Su Qin to squeeze in.

Yun Fei has become obsessed with Ultraman recently; notebooks and pencil cases were of similar merchandise. In the corner of the stationery store, Su Qin was choosing the ball pens for the boy. When she turned around, she saw the big boy’s arms were covered with paper-scratched tattoos.

Azure dragon tattoo on the left arm.

White tiger tattoo on the right arm.

Clenching his fists like the hulk, he hooked his arms, “Su-su, handsome?”

“ ….. “ The corners of Su Qin’s mouth twitched, “I don’t see any handsomeness, instead a little degraded. I picked out a few pens for you, which should be enough for you to use for a while. What else do you need?”

Yun Fei pointed to the celebrity posters and stickers hanging on the wall and asked her, “Why would anyone buy these things?”

Su Qin explained to him patiently, “These are celebrities. Many students will buy their idol’s posters to paste them on the wall for daily admiration. As for the small stickers, you can paste them on your notebooks.”

Raising his hand to point at one of the celebrities, Yun Fei asked her, “Su-su, who is handsome, me or him?”

“Of course it’s the celebrity. No matter how handsome you are, are you as popular as the celebrity?” Su Qin brought him to the counter to queue up for payment. Counting the items in hand, she roughly calculated the amount and fished out fifty yuan from her pocket.

Yun Fei pursed the corners of his mouth, feeling quite discontented and muttered, “I’m obviously more handsome than him. Su-su, you are lying through your teeth.”

“Okay, okay, okay. You are handsome, you are handsome.” Su Qin counted the handful of change and didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry at the big boy’s reaction.

Yun Fei snorted out of his throat, “You wait, and I’m going to make all the girls in school buy my posters in the future.”

Su Qin handed the boss the money, but the big boy grabbed her hand back and scrambled to give the boss the hundred yuan bill first.

With knitted brows, he spoke word by word to Su Qin, “Su-su, why are you always rushing to pay? Why are you acting like a tycoon in front of me? Su-su, I’m not happy when you are like this.”

“It’s not much. Su-su can afford it ah.” Su Qin glanced at him with an amused look and explained, “Feifei, you have to remember that Su-su’s life was saved by you. In the future, no matter how much Su-su earns and how much you spend, that is what Su-su ought to give you. This is not acting like a tycoon, this is called repayment of gratitude, understand?”

The boss handed over the change and the bag of stationery to them. The students behind who were waiting in line to pay urged them, “The two year-one in front, hurry up. There are people waiting behind you!”

“Okay, sorry, sorry. We’re almost done.” Su Qin took the stuff from the boss, grabbed the boy’s wrist and dragged him out of the stationery shop.

After buying the stationery, Su Qin took Yun Fei to taste half a street of snacks.

Grilled chicken wings, cold dips, cold jelly, chicken cutlet, fried chicken skins … until their stomachs were stuffed to the brim before heading back.

There was self-study at 6.30 pm and the two of them did not reckon the time properly. As soon as they entered the school, the bell rang.

At precisely the same time, Su Qin received a text message from Yu Wen:

– Hurry back. Teacher Tang is already in the class. Teacher Tang said those who are late will be heavily punished, so you’re on your own.

Mulling over Teacher Tang’s amiable face, Su Qin felt that the gentle teacher should not punish her too ghastly considering today was the first day of self-study, right?

Bringing Yun Fei with her, she ran wildly all the way to the door of the year-one classroom. She stood still at the door and called out “Report” to Teacher Tang on the platform.

Su Qin was so nervous because she was late that she forgot Yun Fei was still behind her.

Teacher Tang is gentle after class, but stern in class, and could never let off any student who was late.

Turning her head, she saw Su Qin and the little tail behind her.

Teacher Tang said with a cold face, “Come in.”

Walking into the classroom, Su Qin stood at the door and scanned the seats in the class. There are four rows of eight seats in the classroom and only one seat left on the last row.

She was about to walk over when Teacher Tang spoke up, and her stern voice caused a chill on Su Qin’s spine.

“Yun Fei? What are you doing trailing behind?”

Yun Fei was taken aback and looked at Teacher Tang, “I want to be with Su-su.”

Since the teacher in-charge of Class 12 is on maternity leave, Teacher Tang is now in-charge of Class 1 and Class 12. Yun Fei is a student of Class 12 and she has heard a little about this child. During the exam, he handed in a blank answer sheet for English but did pretty well in the physics and mathematics exam. He couldn’t get into Yunzhong, but relying on his father’s connections, he was accepted to Yunzhong.

Yunyang High School is very strict in accepting students. If his father hadn’t done a lot of charitable deeds and donated half of the classroom building, he might not have been able to get into the school.

Teacher Tang has also found out about this student privately. There is no problem with his IQ, but he rarely communicates with other students. He followed Su Qin like a small tail all day long.

Teacher Tang asked him, “Are you a student of Class 1? You are the Class 12 student, you should go to Class 12!”

Other students burst into laughter.

Being laughed at, Yun Fei felt very uncomfortable and he didn’t quite understand the school’s logic. Why does he have to go to Class 12? Can’t he stay in Class 1?

Seeing Yun Fei’s rigidness, Su Qin grabbed him and spoke to the teacher, “Teacher Tang, Yun Fei’s situation is a bit special and he doesn’t quite understand the school rules. I’ll send him to Class 12.”

“Hmm.” Teacher Tang nodded and reminded, “Class 12 is upstairs, turn left at the end.”

Only after Su Qin left Class 1 with Yun Fei did someone discussed:

“Is Yun Fei really stupid?”

“He is usually smart, doesn’t look stupid ah?”

“Don’t know, he’s weird anyway. Su Qin and he don’t share the same surname, they’re simply not siblings, right?”

“Quiet!” Teacher Tang slammed a ruler on the desk to stop everyone from talking.

Su Qin returned from Class 12 after sending Yun Fei and took her seat when Teacher Tang chastised her by name, “Su Qin, being late for self-study tonight, you will be punished do class cleaning for a week.”

“Yes … “ Su Qin exhaled a breath.

Some students whispered in class. Teacher Tang coughed lightly and there was absolute silence immediately.

She said, “Everyone do revision tonight. The teachers of each subject will hand out tests tomorrow. We will select the class representative and arrange the seats according to the result ranking. Here, I want to remind some students that you can get into this school because the school gave you a special grant and being able to get into this class is also because I gave you an extra chance. Otherwise, based on your grades, if you want to enter Class 1, you are still way behind.”

Teacher Tang’s words clearly meant something. The students looked at one another and had misgivings in their hearts.

Who is Teacher Tang talking about?