CH 27

Translation checker: Rin

Editor: Junyans

They had painstakingly rehearsed the stage drama for almost half a month but missed the audition time because the lead actor had an accidental nosebleed. Because of this Yu Ran felt very ashamed to face Ye Xi. However, Chu Mian was obviously very happy. Anyway, as long as he didn’t have to wear that dress with deformed aesthetics anymore, class honor was of little significance to him. 

“It’s a pity that I didn’t have time to take pictures.” Yu Ran sighed. “When you put on that dress, even Lady Gaga can’t compare to you.”

In the morning during the break, the large classroom was empty and quiet, and only the two of them were drawing blackboard newspapers in the room. This was the work that Yu Ran had taken the initiative to take over from Ye Xi in order to make it up to her. Chu Mian had been dragged along by him forcefully to write calligraphy.

After Chu Mian had finished writing, he put down the chalk and blew the white dust off his fingertips. He cocked his head to see Yu Ran still drawing a border on the leftmost side of the blackboard. He was not drawing something normal like flowers — he seemed to be drawing a sea wave, and the direction of its flow was faintly visible.

Yu Ran stepped on the chair, his school uniform sleeves were rolled up, and he stared at the lines intently. Chu Mian didn’t make a sound so as not to disturb the other party, and waited for him to finish a part of his drawing before asking, “When did you start drawing?” 

“Maybe in the first year of my junior high school, or maybe in the second year, I forgot. In fact, what I had learned at that time was to draw graffiti. Have you seen the painted wall at Lanwan Square?” Yu Ran lowered his head, picked a new piece of chalk and broke off one end of it. “There’s a robot that I drew there.”

Lanwan Square could also be regarded as a famous attraction in Ronggang. Chu Mian sometimes passed by there and he had indeed seen the graffiti wall, but he had never paid much attention to it. After all, the pet trade fair had been held nearby a few years ago, and Chu Mian didn’t want to recall losing Marija.

But now he found out that the thing he didn’t care about was connected to a person he knew, so it was a small surprise for him.

Chu Mian said, “Then I’ll go and see it next time.”

“I don’t know if it’s still there, I had drawn it a few years ago.” Yu Ran continued to draw on the board. “What do you think of the row of walls in the parking lot of our school?”

Chu Mian tried to stop the other party from putting his reckless idea into action: “Don’t draw in our school, you’ll be punished.”

“Then, where should I draw?”

Chu Mian thought for a few seconds, and said, “Another school.” 

Yu Ran laughed: “You are a bad egg.”

After hanging out with Yu Ran for a long time, Chu Mian’s thinking also unconsciously deviated from the proper path. Although Cui He’s words were “You just revealed your true form”, Chu Mian still insisted that there was a crucial difference between himself and Yu Ran — he used his brain before speaking, while Yu Ran had no brain at all.

After the music of the radio exercise outside ended, the students returned to the class one after another. Every time Yu Ran washed his hands in the bathroom, he had to wipe his hands on Chu Mian’s body, taking advantage of the time he was unprepared. While joking and playing, they got drenched all over, and the black school uniform looked very conspicuous when it was stained with water, so when they entered the classroom together, they attracted a lot of attention.

It just so happened that recently, boys often bought a kind of candy toy gun from the shop. There were several empty shells in Yu Ran’s bookcase. He impatiently filled the toy gun with mineral water, then stood up and held up a small water gun, and threatened Chu Mian with a majestic voice: “I’m going to spray you with water!” 

At this time, no matter what the whole class was doing, they all stopped and stared at Yu Ran in amazement.

Chu Mian wanted to lower his head and pretend to be concentrating on his homework to draw a line with the other party but Yu Ran immediately said in a high-pitched voice, “Haha! Watch daddy shoot you all over your face!”

After speaking, his index finger frantically pulled the trigger, and the inner parts of the plastic water gun issued a series of “creaking” noises.

The atmosphere in the classroom fell into dead silence. Fang Zhao hurriedly whispered from behind: “Yu Ran, Yu Ran, don’t play anymore, the teacher’s here.” 

When Yu Ran turned his head, he saw Bai Yuzhu standing at the door asking him with a stiff face: “Didn’t you hear the class bell ringing?”

He immediately hid the small water gun in his pocket and returned to his seat unhappily.

Bai Yuzhu informed the whole class: “It’s time to change seats at noon. Each column will shift to the direction of the window. From now on, every Monday morning, remember to change seats after you come. Also, there’ll be earthquake drills before the inter-class exercise in the afternoon. All of you, be quick. Don’t delay. Do you hear me?”

Yu Ran replied loudly: “Yes!” 

The homeroom teacher immediately rolled her eyes at him, and tapped her finger twice in the air, signaling him to behave.

“Oh, I’ve to sit by the door this afternoon, it’s not the exclusive seat for the protagonists,” Yu Ran was reluctant to let go of his current seat, but after he pondered for a bit, he found that there were other benefits too, “Hey, Chu Mian, can you open the back door for me in the future?”

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Yu Ran lightly shook Chu Mian’s arm to harass him. After receiving no response, he took a mechanical pencil and wrote the word “sb” on the wall next to Chu Mian, and then drew a downward facing arrow, pointing to Chu Mian.

After entertaining himself, Yu Ran couldn’t help but sigh, feeling a little disappointed.

No matter how much he tried to focus, his body never showed the feeling of being full of warm currents like last time. It seemed that it was just a coincidence at that time, and the day when he would officially awaken his superpowers was still unknown. 

Only the word “dammit” remained in Yu Ran’s heart. In another month, it would almost be winter. If his body could be as warm as a hot bath in the cold wind, how relaxing and happy he would feel.

In the afternoon, an alarm echoed from the radio during the big break.

Everyone remembered that there was going to be an earthquake drill, so they immediately put down their pens and lined up to go down the stairs following the teacher’s instructions. Ronggang was located in the North China Plain. The local children had never experienced an earthquake since they were young, so they didn’t feel a sense of crisis. They didn’t even bother to hurry up in this drill.

As they walked out of the school building towards the playground, their Physical Education Teacher Dou, who was supervising them on the way, urged: “Do you have any sense of urgency? Still talking and laughing here. Imagine that there’s an earthquake now, and you guys won’t be able to escape it at all! ” 

But at this moment, everyone heard a loud roar from the back of the group: “Run! Earthquake! If you don’t run, you’ll die!”

Everyone turned their heads in astonishment, only to see Yu Ran running forward with all his strength as if no one else was present, and the hair on his forehead was standing up against the wind, revealing his anxious eyebrows.

He rushed directly from the back row to the front of the group, racing against the clock to reach the empty green space.

Cui He almost swallowed the bubble gum in fright: “Fuck, this idiot’s so fucking serious.” 

Fang Zhao nodded in agreement: “And it’s even more stupid to be serious.”

Teacher Dou was very pleased: “Everyone should learn from Yu Ran, you should’ve this kind of sense of crisis.”

Amidst the laughter of the class, Chu Mian felt a trace of shame for Yu Ran. But Yu Ran himself was waiting for them triumphantly on the playground, without any sense of shame.

However, because of his very positive attitude just now, the director specially praised the Class 1 of first year on stage after the drill, and everyone was very happy. 

“Hey, it can’t be helped, the Sports Committee has to have this sense of responsibility.” After Yu Ran returned to the classroom, he praised himself while ruffling his hair.

But he couldn’t be happy for too long, for he felt a trace of coolness between his legs, and looked down to see that his crotch was wet.

“Fuck me!” Only then did Yu Ran remember that he hadn’t taken out the small water gun he had stuffed in his pocket that morning. As a result, when he had been running intensely just now, some parts of the water gun had come off, causing the water to leak out. He quickly took out a few pieces of paper and pressed them in the damp place.

He wanted to go out to get some air to make the school uniform dry faster, but the Language Teacher had already entered the door holding the textbook in her hand: “Hurry up and go back to your seats and take out a paper for Dictation. I forgot the Dictation yesterday, why didn’t you guys remind me? The first one, nièshì…” 

In Chengjun Middle School, if you hadn’t experienced Language Teacher Wang’s speed of speech, you didn’t know what true bitterness was. When everyone wailed and begged her to recite the obscure words slowly, the machine gun-like mouth of Teacher Wang had already proceeded to Classical Chinese.

Yu Ran took a lot of time to find the paper for Dictation and couldn’t keep up with the rhythm, so he directly gave up writing the previous words, and focused on wiping his pants with his head down.

“Are you finished? Stop writing even if you haven’t finished. The students from the last row get up and collect them.”

Chu Mian was the first to get up. He knew that Teacher Wang often did Dictation suddenly, so he always kept a few blank sheets of paper in his bookcase so as to be able to keep up with her speed of speech every time. 

When he walked to Yu Ran, Chu Mian put his own paper on the table for the other party to copy, but when he lowered his head, he saw that Yu Ran’s hands were hanging down, he was holding a tissue and wiping the wetness between his legs vigorously.

Chu Mian was taken aback by this sensitive scene. He turned his face away, and hurried forward to collect other student’s Dictation papers.

“Take out “Sunshine Classroom”!” Teacher Wang stepped off the podium. “Who didn’t write their homework? Xue Zifan, did you write it? I know you didn’t write it, go out. What about you, Yu Ran?”

Yu Ran looked for his homework hastily. “Huh? I forgot.” 

“Okay, you go out as well, come back in when you’re done writing.”

Yu Ran simply obediently went to stay in the corridor, and high-fived with Xue Zifan who had been driven out with her just now. The two usually did not complete their Language class’ homework. Originally, Teacher Wang used to be very angry with them, but recently she calmly asked them to leave the classroom every day.

“Great God, how much are you still short?” Yu Ran bent over and lay on the window sill. “I only have two units left to write, do you want to copy it?”

Xue Zifan replied calmly: “I’ve written them all.” 

“Huh? Then why did you come out?”

“I didn’t want to attend the class.” Xue Zifan yawned.

Yu Ran gave him a thumbs up. “The Great God is always the Great God.”

If someone asked him who he admired the most in the class, Yu Ran would definitely say Xue Zifan. This person especially liked to talk back to Teacher Wang during Language class. He didn’t argue, but instead used a very slow speed of speech to answer sloppily. Every day, he would provoke the short-tempered Teacher Wang, making her extremely angry. Other students would be scared out of their wits just by watching, but he would still remain calm and breezy. He talked normally with his classmates in private. Only in front of Teacher Wang did he imitate the speaking speed of “Guo Degang imitating Li Jing“. 

“Great God, teach me.” Yu Ran got tired after copying half of his homework, and chatted with Xue Zifan, “I don’t need to predict the future, just let me see human tails like you.”

Xue Zifan said: “This can’t be taught, you’ve to open your Heaven’s Eye.”

“How do I open it?”

“Poke yourself blind first.” Xue Zifan stared at him with wide eyes very hard. “Then replace it with a new one like I did.” 

“Fuck, you’re messing with me.” Yu Ran pushed him and immediately gave up the idea of opening Heaven’s Eye.

Bored in the corridor, Yu Ran quietly walked to the back door of the classroom and observed Chu Mian’s profile as he earnestly listened to the lecture. After a while, when the whole class was reading the text in unison, Yu Ran knocked on the glass of the back door to attract Chu Mian’s attention.

Chu Mian knew that it was impossible for Yu Ran to finish his homework properly outside, so he turned to look over.

Yu Ran deliberately made a face and pressed his nose to the transparent glass, his nose was almost flattened. Chu Mian chuckled lightly. Seeing that Teacher Wang didn’t look this way, he reached out to the back door lock and opened a gap for Yu Ran. 

“I want to buy a gouache after school,” Yu Ran whispered, “to draw the blackboard newspaper.”

Chu Mian nodded and agreed to accompany him.

The two discussed whether to take the subway or the bus. Chu Mian heard that Yu Ran’s voice was a little hoarse. Maybe it was caused by shouting too loudly during the earthquake exercise in the afternoon.

He turned sideways, took out a box of throat lozenges from his bag, and handed it out the door. 

“What flavor is the candy, is it delicious?” Yu Ran could not read the foreign language on it.

“Mint flavor,” Chu Mian whispered to him, “It protects your throat during the voice changing period.”

Yu Ran immediately revealed a smiling expression, went back with the candy, and continued to lie on the windowsill to finish his homework.

Xue Zifan stared at his lower back for a while, and said casually: “Yu Ran, your tail’s up.” 

Yu Ran subconsciously covered his tailbone.

The after-school bell rang, and Yu Ran finally finished his Language homework and escaped Teacher Wang’s clutches successfully.

He returned the throat lozenges to Chu Mian, but the other party said, “You can keep it.”

Yu Ran stuffed them into his pocket unceremoniously. 

The two took the subway to go to Ronggang Academy of Fine Arts. There were various types of gouache in the shops there, and they should be able to buy something suitable for drawing a blackboard newspaper.

It was the peak time and the subway was overcrowded, and the two of them were shaking slightly while holding the hanging ring. When Yu Ran got tired from standing, he released the hanging ring and leaned on Chu Mian.

“I want to sit,” Yu Ran stared at the row of passengers in front of him, and whispered to Chu Mian, “Who do you think will get up at the next station? I guess it’s that long-haired woman.”

Chu Mian followed his gaze and looked over. “She just put on her earphones. This means that there’s no need to listen to the announcement of the next station for quite a while, so she won’t get off so quickly.” 

Yu Ran scanned the others again: “What about the one carrying the suitcase?”

Chu Mian said, “He’s sitting too lazily. If he had to get off at the next station, he must be sitting upright and holding the suitcase now.”

Yu Ran felt that Chu Mian’s analysis was well-founded and very convincing.

“I think it’s the one in the red jacket. She has been staring at the name of the station.” Chu Mian made a judgment, and arched his elbows at Yu Ran. “Looking at her position, she’ll probably leave from the left exit. You can sit down as quickly as possible by standing on her right.” 

“Okay.” Yu Ran quickly walked through the crowd and squeezed in front of the aunt Chu Mian had pointed out. He was poised, waiting for the subway to stop so that he could take a seat.

Finally, the bell rang and Yu Ran watched the lady in red move her lower body.

“It’s now,” Chu Mian reminded him, and did not forget to push him. Yu Ran gave a hurried “mmn” and sat down without thinking.

— He sat directly on the lap of that aunt. 

“Huh?” Yu Ran turned his head in surprise, and was met with a pair of equally surprised eyes.

The aunt asked him sincerely: “Young man, can’t you see that there’s a person sitting here?”

“I’m sorry!” Yu Ran didn’t expect the prediction to fail, and quickly apologized before standing up. When he turned his head again, he found that Chu Mian was squeezing into the crowd little by little, trying to stay away from him.

“Fuck.” Yu Ran immediately followed and grabbed Chu Mian’s schoolbag. “You fucking cheated me.” 

“I don’t know how to read minds.” Chu Mian tried to keep his expression calm. “Who told you to be so lazy? It’s only a few stations away but you want to sit. Muggle.”

Yu Ran couldn’t make a loud noise on the subway, so he wrapped himself around Chu Mian’s arm and pinched him hard.

When the two left the subway station, it was already dark.

“So what does “Muggle” mean? Why do you always call me that?” Yu Ran pulled Chu Mian’s arm and didn’t let go. “Is it a curse?” 

Chu Mian said indifferently: “Don’t you know how to search on Baidu yourself?”

“Right.” Yu Ran had actually forgotten this method. He quickly took out his mobile phone to search for the term, and found that it referred to an ordinary person who lacked any sort of magical ability in “Harry Potter”

Yu Ran let go of Chu Mian’s arms, stood there in surprise and forgot to walk. He looked at him incredulously and said, “You call me ‘Muggle’, doesn’t that mean that—”

“— you can do magic?” 

The reasoning was clear and impeccable.

Chu Mian could only sigh with a sneer.

“I knew it.” With a gentle smile on the corners of his lips, Yu Ran approached Chu Mian and looked up at him. “Sure enough, you were the one who had awakened me that day.”

Chu Mian denied: “It’s not me, your ‘awakening’ has nothing to do with me. Don’t lump us together.” 

“It’s you, I can feel it,” Yu Ran said confidently, “When I look at you, I feel warmer than when I look at others.”