CH 3

When the others heard the name “No. 44 Middle School”, they became unusually silent. 

The students from No. 44 Middle School had the lowest promotion rate (to high school) in Ronggang City. It was also a place where delinquents gathered who repeatedly violated the law and discipline, and it also had a notorious reputation for having bad school culture. Almost every playful student living near Jiangdong Road would be threatened by their parents with “if you don’t study, you will be sent to No. 44 Middle School”, which demonstrated how bad the school’s reputation was.

Fang Zhao was the first to give a concerned and sympathetic look at Yu Ran, “I heard that your teachers there often didn’t conduct classes, is that true?”

“True,” Yu Ran nodded, “But in the third year of middle school, the teachers taught us very seriously.”

That was true, but Yu Ran had omitted a premise: he had dragged the teachers who didn’t conduct classes into the hallway and beat them up, so since then no one had a perfunctory attitude when they taught the third years of middle school. 

At that time, Yu Ran had only done it on an impulse. After all, one of his principles in school was “don’t involve adults”, but he didn’t regret it afterwards. On that day, the first monthly exam results of the third year of junior high was announced, but the math teacher had no intention of explaining the test papers at all. The math teacher had only said “It’s a waste of time to teach you guys anyway, a bunch of losers who can’t do anything” before turning around and leaving. Yu Ran, who was prepared to listen carefully, immediately stood up, and moved his hand against an adult for the first time.

After that incident, Yu Ran was suspended from school, which almost affected his registration for the high school entrance examination. However, thanks to him, ordinary students who wanted to study properly got the teaching they deserved.

“Is there a fight every day at your school?” “I heard that a girl got pregnant, is that true?” “Do the parents know that the students there fight?” Some people around him were curious and rushed to ask Yu Ran questions.

Before Yu Ran could answer, the homeroom teacher told everyone to line up and go to the auditorium for the entrance ceremony.

Yu Ran, who was relatively taller among boys, stood at the end of the line. Seats for each class were arranged in the auditorium in advance, and class one was the closest to the front so they could clearly see the faces of the teachers on stage.

After singing the national anthem, the opening ceremony of Chengjun High School officially began. The first forty minutes were spent on long and boring leadership speeches, and only when it was the turn of the student representatives, did the drowsy audience finally gain some spirit.

“Dear teachers, dear classmates, hello everyone, I am Chu Mian from senior year one, class one. I am honored to be able to speak today as the freshman representative…”

Yu Ran was sitting in the second row, and from the beginning of the ceremony, he had been looking down and  playing on his mobile phone, and hadn’t raised his head for a moment. Just as he heard the calm and deep voice over the loudspeaker, a sense of déjà vu made him look at the stage. 

On the stage, the boy had his head lowered as he read his speech from the script, he looked tall and his clean white shirt made his shoulders look wider. He occasionally glanced briefly at the audience, but his eyes never stopped at anyone’s face.

Te Ejc tfjgv atf rteaafg rbecv bo j qtbab yflcu ajxfc ogbw yftlcv tlw jcv aegcfv tlr tfjv ab rff j ofk ulgir tjralis tlvlcu atflg qtbcfr. Lf delmxis vlufrafv atf ecfzqfmafv fwbalbc lc tlr tfjga jcv aegcfv tlr ojmf ab ktlrqfg ab Mjcu Itjb: “Pr atlr ybs, atf bcf sbe uesr pera ajixfv jybea…”

“Yes, Chu Mian, the one from a prestigious middle school outside Ronggang,” Fang Zhao leaned towards Yu Ran a little so it would be easier to talk, “I heard that many of them outside Ronggang gave up their scholarships before the high school entrance exams because they didn’t plan to go abroad, or wanted to go to another school to study science. But every year there are people who can’t get into the city’s top three schools because they fail to get a high enough score on the high school entrance exams, so they can only study on loan. How miserable! Can you imagine how much of a psychological loss they’d feel? ”

Yu Ran got it now — it was very likely that this Chu Mian couldn’t keep up his grades because he was addicted to playing video games, so he only managed to get into Chengjun despite coming from a middle school that had prestige nationwide. Of course, Chengjun wasn’t considered mediocre either. After all, it was the second batch of model “Triple A” schools in Ronggang City, and even though it’s position had remained in the middle, neither at the top nor at the bottom, in recent years, it still had a stable university acceptance rate and hence attracted local students. 

It was just that for someone of Chu Mian’s background, it was quite embarrassing to get admitted to Chengjun.

After Chu Mian, the freshman representative, finished his speech, he bowed to the audience in an exemplary manner. The wave of applause from the audience was overwhelmingly deafening, and Yu Ran heard a few girls in the back row excitedly commenting on Chu Mian’s looks. It was normal for young girls at this age to start to have thoughts about love and they made no secret of their admiration in their words.

Even Fang Zhao couldn’t help but sigh in admiration: “Chu Mian is really handsome. I’ve long heard people say that he is particularly good-looking; this is why when you entered the classroom today, we thought you were Chu Mian,” Then he turned to Yu Ran and said, “But I think you are more handsome. Chu Mian’s eyes are too feminine, not manly enough.”

Yu Ran was originally looking at the podium in daze, and only when he heard Fang Zhao speak did he pull his attention back, “Huh? Did you just say that I am handsome?” Seeing Fang Zhao nod, Yu Ran came to life, “Fang Zhao, I’ll make a deal with you as my friend! In the future, I will be responsible for covering you in Chengjun, and you will be responsible for praising me.” 

“You have a very clear division of labor,” Fang Zhao let out a laugh, “You said you graduated from No. 44 Middle School, so do you like to fight?”

Yu Ran: “You may not believe me, but the rule of our No. 44 Middle School is — just fight it if you don’t agree.”

Fang Zhao: “You guys are too aggressive… Hey, then how about this, if there’s a fight in the future, you will be responsible for fighting, and I will be responsible for cheering for you.”

Yu Ran: “Damn, so you’re not gonna do anything?” 

Fang Zhao thought for a moment and said, “I’ll clap for you.”

The friendship between the boys heated up rapidly in the bickering and frolicking. After the entrance ceremony, Yu Ran and Fang Zhao also added each other as friends on QQ, and then mocked each other’s usernames. Fang Zhao looked at his phone and read out Yu Ran’s username aloud, “‘The wolf is hiding next to the dog’? What are you reading, niáng?”

“It’s ‘Liang’.” Yu Ran had originally felt that his username sounded like the return of a prodigal son to become tough and tender, but after Fang Zhao read it out directly, he immediately felt ashamed.

Back in the classroom, it was the homeroom teacher’s turn to give a boring entrance speech. In order for everyone to hear her clearly, she turned off all the ceiling fans, and everyone had to restrain their restlessness. Halfway through her speech, someone knocked on the door and told the students to get their books from the library, and the students immediately regained their spirits and ran out. 

Chengjun High School was bigger than Yu Ran had imagined. There was a bridge connecting the two buildings. There was also a wide green soccer field that could be seen from a high vantage point, and the library, although small, was built independently. In terms of the overall environment of the school, Chengjun could definitely be ranked among the best in Ronggang City.

Yu Ran grabbed a pile of “Language —  Mandatory Book One” from the table in front of him. He was not sure if he had taken enough for everyone in his own class, so he wanted to confirm it with someone else. As soon as he looked up, he saw Chu Mian standing next to the circulation desk checking the booklist. Yu Ran walked over to him without thinking. He said “Hey,” raised his chin and asked, “Still remember me?”

Chu Mian indifferently lifted his lower eyelid, his thin lips closed tightly, ignoring him.

Yu Ran was not surprised that he was ignored by him again and said with a chuckle: “Pulling a long face again? Seems like you still remember me.” 

Chu Mian did not deny this time, and asked Yu Ran bluntly: “Still want to fight one-on-one?”

“Fight what? Didn’t you delete your account?” Although Yu Ran was tall, he was still half a head shorter than Chu Mian, so if he wanted to look directly into the other party’s eyes, he had to raise his face slightly. “Doesn’t it take a long time to get to the top of the server? You sure deleted it easily.”

“I just don’t want to see the losing record,” Chu Mian said casually, “Also, if you delete the account by yourself, you can still see the CG of crossing the Naihe bridge. That’s way much better than just having the data erased by the system.”

“Sounds quite ceremonial… Hey, since you also love to play games, why don’t we go play LOL after school?” Yu Ran took the initiative to invite him. He felt that the two of them being in the same class was fate, and new students should be polite to each other. “Let’s not worry about what happened last time. You can give me a face this time.” 

The students who got the books all reported to Chu Mian before they left. Chu Mian was busy counting the number of books and replied to Yu Ran without looking up, “I don’t care that you accidentally caused me to faint last time, but this time you stay away from me.”

Chu Mian voice didn’t have any emotional inflections when he spoke, and if one were to ignore the content of what he said, one would even think that his way of speech was somewhat gentle.

“Why do you always have this attitude, can’t you be kinder?” The smile on Yu Ran’s face faded, “Why do you just refuse to accept the fact that I had ‘helped you out’?”

“Do I need to?” Chu Mian asked him back, “It’s obvious that you were the one who had meddled in other’s business.” 

“If I hadn’t meddled in, you would have been stabbed,” Yu Ran was a little annoyed, “What’s wrong with you, have you never learned how to say ‘thank you’? Don’t leave after school, I’ll teach you.”

Hearing this, Chu Mian raised his heroic eyebrows, finally willing to raise his face to look Yu Ran in the eyes, “Or do you want to fight one-on-one?”

It was just that this time the fight was changed from a virtual game to the real world.

“Since you’re so delicate and  prone to fainting, I’ll fight you with only one hand, okay, little princess?” Yu Ran, relying on the ”special power” in his body, made no secret of his contempt, “Let’s make the rules fairer. If you win, I will call you brother, and if I win, you will call me Dad.” 

Being provoked by him like this, Chu Mian’s frosty face finally showed some heat, and he said with a smile: “You don’t have to make it so troublesome. If you win, I’ll let you do whatever you want. If I win, you will disappear. ”

Yu Ran was stunned. The air conditioner of the library blew right on the back of his neck, making him shrink his neck untimely in the tense atmosphere.

He stared at Chu Mian, the sharpness under his eyes suddenly disappearing without a trace, and said angrily: “Fuck, you say such scary things. If I disappear, won’t the teacher take disciplinary action against me for being absent?”

Chu Mian couldn’t help but knit his brows. 

He subconsciously wanted to explain that what he said about “disappear” was merely a metaphor, which could be inferred as “shut up and be quiet” and “keep your distance”. After all, the emotional state of the two people just now was obviously to suppress each other’s aura first by using harsh words. He didn’t expect that Yu Ran would take it literally, which caught Chu Mian, who was originally poised for a fight, off guard and made him choke on the air.

Just at this moment, Chu Mian clearly felt that his body was beginning to feel heavy. He could not move, so he directly threw the pen and paper in his hand to the nearest table.

The crisp sound of the ballpoint pen dropping sounded like a war cry to Yu Ran. He hesitantly asked Chu Mian, “Are you sure you want to fight with me in the library?”

But Chu Mian didn’t answer the question, “I want to sleep.” 

As soon as the words left his mouth, Chu Mian stilled and closed his eyes, his body lost the strength to support him and fell straight to the ground facing Yu Ran.

“Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing?” Yu Ran subconsciously stepped forward to help him, stretched out his hands from under Chu Mian’s arms and hugged his back. As a result, the pile of books in his hands all got scattered on the ground, which caught the attention of everyone in the library.

“I said to fight one-on-one, I won’t let you deceive people like this!” Yu Ran separated his legs back and forth to stabilize his center of gravity. The collar of the summer T-shirt was quite open, so he could clearly feel Chu Mian’s protruding Adam’s apple pressing against the skin of his shoulder socket, making him feel a bit itchy as and when he moved a little.

At first glance, their posture looked like a tight embrace, but in reality, Yu Ran was supporting Chu Mian’s weight fully. It was not until the male teacher nearby came over and carried Chu Mian to the infirmary that Yu Ran was able to catch his breath. 

Fang Zhao came over to help him pick up the language books that had fallen on the ground, and asked in passing, “What were you two doing sticking like glue just now?”

Yu Ran hugged the book and froze for a few seconds before answering with puzzled eyes, “Chu Mian said he wanted to sleep…”

“Then what?”

“He just fell asleep on me…” Yu Ran looked confused.