translator: daisy
Wan Guanxi laughed and moved to slap the other’s shoulder: “Full marks to this fraud!”
Sheng Renxing quickly dodged the attempt by shifting sideways.
After a while, he asked again, “Are you sure that the building really wasn’t donated by your family?”
“…”
“Yes, of course it was. Even the principal was appointed by them.” Sheng Renxing stared at the other blankly.
“Fuck!”, Huang Mao screeched horrifyingly, “That’s so fucking awesome! No wonder he listened to you so obediently!”
“…” Sheng Renxing observed Wan Guanxi for a long time, and finally came to the conclusion that this idiot really took his words at face value. Shaking his head, Sheng Renxing wondered what possessed him to fight this brainless person that morning.
Jiang Jing also didn’t bother clarifying the situation and just stood there laughing his head off. The loyalty he had shown Huang Mao earlier was now completely nonexistent.
Sheng Renxing nodded: “Yes, but no one else knows, so don’t spread this around!”
Jiang Jing’s shoulders shook more violently.
“That’s for sure!” Wan Guanxi patted his chest, “Knowing me, I won’t utter a word even if someone holds a knife to my throat!”
“…” If you dare to speak out, I’ll be the one holding a knife to your throat.
The others began grinning at the spectacle like a switch had flipped.
With class in session, there weren’t many students milling around the halls when the group made their way towards the building for second years.
However, when they walked into the courtyard, the laughter halted instantly.
Stuffing their hands in their trouser pockets, the group sauntered along to an imaginary beat as they swung their hips in an exaggerated manner.
Sheng Renxing quizzically moved towards Xing Ye, and then looked up just in time to see a bunch of faces pressed against the window in the second year building staring down at them.
“…” If it wasn’t for the brightly shining sun, Sheng Renxing probably would’ve scared himself half to death.
Xing Ye had his hands shoved in the pockets of his school uniform, and his feet were close together. With his head lowered, and his spine slightly arched, he looked every bit like the group’s younger brother they happened to bring along.
There wasn’t a trace of joy on Xing Ye’s face despite escaping punishment, and he looked even paler than when that teacher had threatened to expel them.
When they were all joking just now, Xing Ye didn’t involve himself.
It was a silent anomaly.
Sheng Renxing similarly lowered his gaze and thought, “was it because his parents would get notified of the incident?”
Only then did Sheng Renxing realize that beating up a teacher was not such a lighthearted and trivial matter as the others had led him to believe.
If it had been his previous school, expulsion would have been the first order of business.
But at the same time, that school wouldn’t have tolerated a teacher who never came to class either.
While Sheng Renxing was feeling out the situation, a sharp whistle suddenly cut him out of his reverie.
The group had just walked under a certain building. Within a classroom on the first floor, a boy poked his head out and whistled loudly at them.
He then gave them a big thumbs up.
The boy’s classmates also heard his reaction and in turn created a large commotion to show support.
The teacher banged on the podium with an iron ruler: “Is everyone revolting or something?! Sit down!”
Most of the students silently disagreed with the statement, but quietly went back to their seats.
Sheng Renxing stared down at this scene and promptly realized that his act of comparing this school with his previous one was incredibly stupid.
Walking towards the second floor, he beckoned to Xing Ye: “Wait here for a bit.” He then headed towards his own class.
Sheng Renxing stood outside the window and gestured to Chen Ying.
Chen Ying gave him a complicated expression, but handed over a bag acquiescently.
There were still three yuan of loose change inside.
He quickly turned around and retraced his steps back to the staircase.
Huang Mao and the others had already gone up, leaving only Xing Ye, who leaned against the handrail.
Sheng Renxing handed over the bag: “Here, for you.”
Xing Ye didn’t take it. Instead, he asked puzzledly, “What’s this?”
“It’s breakfast. Didn’t you say that you haven’t eaten yet?” He shook the bag slightly, which gave off a crinkling sound.
“?” Xing Ye was stunned at his comment. “When did I say that?”
Now it was Sheng Renxing’s turn to be surprised: “When you were taken away by those teachers.”
The two stared at each longer for a long while before Sheng Renxing cursed. “What did you actually say that time?”
Xing Ye smiled softly: “I told you not to come.”
“Then what were you doing shaking your head!” Sheng Renxing raised his voice a little, and couldn’t help but laugh at this incredible coincidence.
Xing Ye joined in and reached out to take the bag: “Thanks, how much was it?”
“You really didn’t eat yet?” Sheng Renxing glanced at him suspiciously, “I’m just repaying you for that mask money.”
Xing Ye shook his head playfully: “It’s too late for that.”
Seeing that the other wasn’t going to leave straight away, Sheng Renxing asked, “If I didn’t go, how would you have ended up?”
“Those threats were just for show, they wouldn’t really have followed through with them.”
“So sure?” Sheng Renxing raised his eyebrows.
“The last student expelled was involved in a gang fight with knives at the school.” Xing Ye reached out and pointed to the playground outside.
“……what?”
“One of them was sent to the hospital and later died of serious injuries.” Xing Ye lowered his eyes and looked at the iced soy milk. The condensation around the cup had dripped onto the ground, causing a small puddle of water to pool around him.
“Fuck!” Sheng Renxing gasped in shock, “Your campus culture is pretty wild! But didn’t they say that the principal was new?”
“Yeah, so he’ll probably use us as an example for whatever new incident occurs next.” Xing Ye took out the soy milk and glanced at him, “Thank you.”
“For what?” Sheng Renxing peered at Xing Ye before looking down at the soy milk in his hands. Looking away, Sheng Renxing then gently touched the studs on his ears.
Xing Ye announced in an upright attitude: “To thank you for donating that building.”
“?” Sheng Renxing raised his eyebrows, utterly speechless for a moment, “You were listening?! I thought you were gathering wool.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“Mn.” Xing Ye replied and started walking up the stairs. Sheng Renxing followed.
“Do you still need to take any more exams?”
“Ah right, I haven’t finished that exam yet.” At this rate, he’s going to be at school writing exams until evening. Cracking his knuckles, Sheng Renxing asked, “Are you coming back to sleep?”
Xing Ye originally wanted to refuse the offer; he had slept well last night and wasn’t in desperate need of a nap.
However, before he could get any words out, the other cut in: “There’s an invigilator today, so I don’t know if she’ll let you.”
Xing Ye tilted his head: “Who is it?”
“Teacher Hu, I think?” Sheng Renxing pondered. “Although, when the proctor first introduced herself, she said ‘Teacher Alive.’ In terms of her appearance, she looks about fifty to sixty years old, with long hair and glasses.”
“Mn, I see.” Xing Ye nodded in a thoughtful manner, “Then I won’t sleep.”
“?” Sheng Renxing was stupefied by the other’s declaration that he subconsciously smiled.
Xing Ye gave off an earnest and studious aura when he replied, as if it was a long mathematical question that he needed to give serious deliberation to.
“I didn’t realize Xing ge had this side to him.” After laughing, Sheng Renxing gave a big thumbs up.
Although it wasn’t at all uncommon for high school students to act in a nonsensical manner, Xing Ye behaving like this invoked a bizarre sense of wonder.
It wasn’t until Sheng Renxing saw that ‘Teacher Alive’ again that he finally stifled his urge to burst out laughing.
To hold back, Sheng Renxing bit the insides of his cheeks and focused his eyes straight ahead.
With an extremely tense expression as if he was about to go on the battlefield, the teacher was stunned. When she handed back the papers, she deliberately added: “These questions are pretty difficult, so no one will blame you for not being able to solve them. After all, these exams are just a formative check to see where your skill levels are at.”
“What? Oh!” Sheng Renxing took a deep breath, “Thank you, teacher.”
By the time he finished writing, the classroom had already long been in an uproar.
It was like a long awaited event had finally occurred as Sheng Renxing stepped inside With eager and excited eyes, half of the students turned to stare at him.
“?”
Immediately after his bottom touched the chair, the two students in front of Sheng Renxing whipped around.
Sheng Renxing: “Do you want money for that errand?”
“Huh?” Chen Ying’s expression turned blank in confusion, and quickly replied, “No no!”
“Oh.” Sheng Renxing answered, and lowered his head to read.
Momentarily caught off guard by the other’s interruption, Cheng Ying didn’t know how to continue his line of inquiry. He kidnapped the fat student next to him for help, who managed to blurt out, “Sheng ge!”
This screech alerted the teacher: “Chen Ying!”
The student in question visibly shook in fear and turned towards him.
“After just interrupting me, you can’t even let the new classmate go? How do you have so many mouths?! Go stand outside!”
“I…” Chen Ying opened his mouth, but before he could get anything out, the fat student hurriedly stood up. Giving him a wide berth to the door, he whispered sheepishly, “My fault again?”
“Go!” The teacher slammed the table.
Chen Ying gave his deskmate a sharp glare before running outside towards the window Sheng Renxing was sitting at.
After a while, he whispered: “Sheng ge? Sheng ge?”
“…” Gossip is indeed the first driving force of mankind.
“What do you want to know?”
Chen Ying immediately widened his eyes: “Xing Ye and the others really went to beat up Wang Dahai last night?”
“Nope. I was actually there to testify.”
“Oh”, Chen Ying dragged out that one syllable, and then asked again, “But how does the situation involve you?”
“Because I was with them last night.”
These were the lines Sheng Renxing repeated back at the principal’s office.
“How come you guys were together?” Chen Ying asked wondrously.
“After fighting in the morning, the evening’s the perfect time to clear up any misunderstandings.” Sheng Renxing replied blandly, as if he was reciting a script.
“Oh”, Chen Ying scratched his head, feeling that something wasn’t right, “But how come it didn’t include us two?”
He gestured to the fat student.
Before Sheng Renxing could muster a logical explanation, the fat student came to the rescue. Turning around, he quickly cut off Chen Ying, “That misunderstanding doesn’t even involve you! Did getting punched twice make you one of the leading culprits!”
“I fought back, okay! I also blocked a punch for you!” Chen Ying fired back. “And besides, Xing Ye didn’t participate either. How come he went?”
The fat student pointed at him: “Then you go invite Xing Ye out for dinner and explain that you also want to clear the misunderstanding with him!”
Chen Ying’s face rapidly changed color, and he angrily shook his finger at the other: “I’ll go if you go!”
“I’m not going!”
“Oh!? Don’t have the courage to?”
“Yup! I don’t!” The fat student waggled his eyebrows smugly.
“…” Sheng Renxing leaned his chair back to avoid the inevitable spray of saliva heading towards him.
“I think that you all are incredibly courageous!” The teacher gritted his teeth, “Xiao Qiang! Go stand outside!”
“Fuck!” The fat student stood up gloomily and trailed outside like a dejected spirit.
Sheng Renxing was silently grinning when he turned around to see the teacher staring directly at him.
“…”
He also went out to join them.
The three stood in a row in the corridor, and Sheng Renxing glanced helplessly at the two who were still squabbling.
Turning around, he caught a glimpse of the many students in the classroom who were sneakily taking peeks at him. After getting caught, they would immediately retract their gazes.
“Didn’t you guys fight with them? Why are you still afraid?”
What happened to the righteous ardour of these hotblooded modern men?
“Ah, it’s not that we’re afraid in the traditional sense of the word”, Chen Ying explained, “Long story short, they’re just different from us.”
The fat student nodded in agreement. “Yeah. They came from Yanjiang Street, and are properly accustomed to these unsavory matters.
“Yanjiang Street?” Sheng Renxing recalled what Wei Huan had warned him about.
“Yeah!” Chen Ying nodded. Thinking that the other didn’t know where it was, he added, “It’s the place next to your uncle’s bar.”
“My uncle told me not to provoke Xing Ye.”
Chen Ying glanced at him, not expecting that the other party would get entangled with Xing Ye on the very first day.
“That’s right!” The fat student agreed. “When he came to stop that fight, I thought that he was going to whip out a knife and hack me into pieces.”
“I’ve been worried all day that he would come for retaliation, and was ready to call my dad to pick me up.” Chen Ying followed suit and sighed.
The fat student quickly changed his tune: “Fuck, you’re so useless!”
“You say one more word!”
“He won’t.” Sheng Renxing replied, interrupting the imminent quarrel. Turning towards Chen Ying, he asked, “Does uncle and Xing Ye know each other?”
“Huh?” Chen Ying scratched his head, “I don’t know, he didn’t say.”
“Oh.” Sheng Renxing replied. He suddenly wanted to check his phone, but it was still in the classroom.
He glanced back at the classroom, and took in this new feeling.
This was the very first time that he had been called to stand outside as punishment.
And it was because of trivial gossip.
And being forced to relay trivial updates.
However, the two next to him didn’t feel a trace of embarrassment at dragging him into this situation at all, and continued arguing like a raging fire.
Sheng Renxing stepped forward and leaned against the corridor.
The building was in the shape of an “n”, and their class was on the leftmost straight line, directly facing away from the class on the other straight line.
There were also some flowers and plants sitting along the railings on this side of the corridor. The students were responsible for watering them everyday.
He grabbed a leaf and peered inside the flowerpot. The soil was littered with chewing gum, cigarette butts, and ballpoint pens.
“…” One could clearly see how much attentive care was shown towards them.
Sheng Renxing also stuffed the leaf he pulled out into the flowerpot and looked around.
On the opposite side of the hallway, there was a male student who was lying sprawled out on the floor. Wrestling with the pen and papers in his hand, he glanced up at Sheng Renxing and smiled.
Although they didn’t know each other, they were both students standing outside as punishment. Sheng Renxing nodded in response.
Next to him were two guys deep in conversation, and one of them leaned dangerously back against the railing.
Does every class have a doorman responsible for welcoming and socializing with other members or something?
Sheng Renxing exhaled and looked up.
And just happened to see Xing Ye lying on the railing, staring at him. Seeing him look over, Xing Ye opened, closed, opened, and then closed his palms.
What sort of strange greeting was this?
Sheng Renxing lifted two fingers towards his brows and saluted.
Xing Ye smiled in his direction.
The other then lip synced: “Punishment, stand, outside?”
Xing Ye shook his head, “Getting, some, air.”
Saying this, he pinched his index finger and thumb together near his lips, and then unpinched them.
Even though they were separated by a floor, Sheng Renxing could still see the other’s faint lip color.
He blinked, and momentarily thought that Xing Ye was blowing a kiss. As if possessed, Sheng Renxing awkwardly clenched his fist and crossed his thumb with his index finger, making a finger heart.
Xing Ye looked gobsmacked, but kept up his weird hand signal and grinned unabashedly at the other.
Only then did Sheng Renxing realize that it was a smoking gesture.
Cursing interally, his ears turned red in embarrassment.
With a calm and composed front, Sheng Renxing lifted his other hand up casually as he recalled the different methods of making hearts on the Internet.
One way was crossing the index finger with the thumb. Another method would be placing the thumbs and index fingers together of both hands to make a bigger heart. One could also…the third method would be…Sheng Renxing forgot.
So he used his index finger to randomly draw a heart in the air.
Sheng ge didn’t misunderstand, he just wanted to show you all the different ways to make hearts!
That male student who was doing homework witnessed the entire spectacle and craned his head to see who it was above them.
“Go away please”, Sheng Renxing prayed quietly.
Sheng Renxing peeked at the other out of the corner of his eye.
Upstairs, Xing Ye finally finished laughing. Stretching out his right hand, he swiped the air from left to right, then to the bottom left, top, bottom right and top left.
Sheng Renxing stared at the imaginary star.
After school was over, he headed back to class and checked his phone notifications, just in time to see the WeChat message Wei Huan sent.
Uncle Wei Huan: [Have you been busy with classes recently? Let’s have a meal tonight?]
Sheng Renxing thought about it: [Okay.]
The other side quickly sent a seal drawing a heart.
“Fuck.”
After that whole disastrous encounter, Sheng Renxing didn’t want to see another heart for a long time.
In the afternoon, after Sheng Renxing finished all his exams:
While Teacher Yu collected the papers, she asked him casually, “Are the questions difficult? How does it compare to your previous high school?”
“They were okay.”
Does this even need to be asked, Sheng Renxing thought, “The questions at my previous school were more difficult.”
Teacher Yu nodded: “It seems like the curriculum there is also a little bit ahead of ours.”
Not just a little.
Sheng Renxing nodded regardless, “Mn.”
“You got good grades before, right? Why did you suddenly transfer to our school?”
The other followed her downstairs: “Because of some incidents that happened at home.”
Teacher Yu nodded in understanding: “No matter what happened before, since you have come to our school, it’s a new start. Study hard.”
Sheng Renxing nodded again, “Mn.”
“If you’re having trouble adjusting, just tell a teacher. We will help.”
“Okay. Thank you, Teacher Yu.”
…
Even after leaving school, he still didn’t understand the point Teacher Yu wanted to express to him.
As Sheng Renxing walked across the street, a car drove by and honked at him.
One of the windows was rolled down, and Wei Huan waved at him from inside: “Get in.”
While holding the steering wheel with one hand, he turned his head around occasionally to glance at Sheng Renxing: “How’s school?”
“Huh?” Sheng Renxing teared his eyes away from the window: “It’s alright.”
“Can you keep up with the curriculum?” Wei Huan asked again.
Sheng Renxing dropped the polite act that he kept up while chatting with the teacher and smiled, “Who’s keeping up with who?”
Wei Huan also smiled: “Do you think the school can keep up with your progress?”
“If they were third years instead of second years.” Sheng Renxing tilted his head prettily like a model.
“When they say that nephew is like uncle, I finally believe it now.”
“Did you also get good grades?” Sheng Renxing was amused by this uncle of his.
“I did alright.” Wei Huan imitated the other’s tone, “Well enough to go where I wanted afterwards.”
Sheng Renxing continued to rejoice: “Didn’t you say that you studied abroad?”
“Yeah.” He glanced back and made a turn, “To pursue art and true love.”
“Hm?” Sheng Renxing was surprised, “So you were successful?”
His mother didn’t mention this.
Wei Huan peered at him through the rear-view mirror and grinned: “Guess?”
Sheng Renxing didn’t ever hear of his uncle’s wife: “You weren’t?”
The other hissed, “You’re so direct.”
After a pause, he added, “Does your uncle look like the kind of person who can’t successfully chase after people?”
“So you caught them?” Sheng Renxing widened his eyes curiously.
“I caught them.” Wei Huan smiled, “But not true love.”
Sheng Renxing stared at him and blinked: “What do you mean?”
His uncle turned around and sighed fondly, “Little kid.”
Thinking about it for a while, the other finally understood, “So the bright moonlight has turned into white rice?”
Wei Huan chuckled agreeingly.
“Scumbag man.”
“Ah?” Wei Huan watched his nephew grin and scolded again, “Little brat! Have you chased anyone?”
“Do I still need to?” Sheng Renxing raised his eyebrows.
“Brat! Don’t learn from me!”
Sheng Renxing: “Fuck,” he couldn’t help but laugh, “I really haven’t.”
“What about your favorite sport? How about the piano? I heard from your mother that you used to play it all day and night.”
“I didn’t really like it.” Sheng Renxing thought, “It was all because of some stupid man who beat me in a competition, and I wanted to win against him.”
“You really don’t like anything?” Wei Huan raised his eyebrows unconvincingly.
“Nope.” Sheng Renxing shook his head.
Growing up until now, he genuinely didn’t have any favorites. Within Sheng Renxing’s dictionary, there were only ‘annoying’ and ‘not annoying’ things.
Songs, sports, musical instruments, clothes, food… even if you got rid of the annoying one, he still wouldn’t pick the others.
“What about the little girl you talked about in junior high school?” Wei Huan asked.
“Ah.” Sheng Renxing said, “So my mother tells you everything.”
He scratched his hair: “It was just two weeks, one could hardly call it dating.”
“You didn’t like her?” Wei Huan asked.
“I didn’t dislike her.” Sheng Renxing scrunched up his face.
“So you liked her.”
“…” The other fell silent. After all, at that age, what did one know about love?
At that time, the girl chased him rather fiercely. Since she was rather pretty and all his friends had girlfriends at the time, Sheng Renxing agreed.
After three days, it all became very annoying. As if the title of ‘girlfriend’ was a gold medal, she waved it around and began demanding all sorts of things from him, such as to not smoke, drink or ride motorcycles.
This behaviour was very popular at the time. If a girlfriend didn’t make requests, that meant she didn’t actually love him. On the other hand, if a boyfriend didn’t obediently listen to their partner, it meant that he didn’t actually love her.
One of his friends, Qiu Datou, was the same. In the face of his girlfriend’s various restrictions, he took them all to heart and was very pleased with them.
But ever since Sheng Renxing was young, he hated being ordered what to do. Not getting angry on the spot was already showing great restraint, much less actually following through with it.
They broke up on their first date when the girl wanted to hold hands. It was summer. There was no difference between holding hands and touching a stove, so Sheng Renxing avoided it.
The girl finally exploded and asked: “Do you love me or not?”
Sheng Renxing’s annoyance had also reached its limit. He didn’t expect that dating someone would be such a disastrous affair and replied, “To be honest, I thought I had hired a babysitter.”
They broke up on the spot.
Seeing that he was still silent, Wei Huan tossed the ball back: “Scumbag man.”
daisy: hehe sxr’s tragic tale of his ill-fated middle school romance 
also i’m really sorry that this chapter is late ;-; vaccine woes .-.
How to get a boyfriend 101: unintentionally flirt. Bonus points if he flirts back.
I completely agree with you!
Thanks for picking it up Daisy and get well soon!
thanks for the well wishes and thank you for reading <3
xd ngl everytime i read your comments i laugh a little bc it’s spot on !!
Unintentionally flirting only works if you are as handsome and explosive as Sheng Ge, you made me laugh though thank you
Also thank you so much to daisy for picking this novel up, it’s such a wonderful novel and made me fall in love after reading the synopsis. The previous translator did an amazing job and had to stop due to unfortunate circumstances so it was all the more meaningful when it was picked up again. Thank you so much Daisy for your time and effort, and you are doing a fantastic job. (Sorry my vocabulary is limited)
aaa thank you so much for your kind words! i’m blushing 😔😳i totally agree! eve is so amazing for introducing to us this wonderful novel and doing such a good job translating it~ i hope that i can do it justice from now on <3thank you for reading and it’s no problem! (your vocab is very large what are you talking about 🧐
Thank you Daisy! If you felt bad because of the vaccine, I hope you feel better now!
aaaa thank you for the well wishes and for reading <3 i hope that you stay safe as well!
thanks for the chapter <3
thanksies for reading, as always <33
Lmaooo tbh relationships in middle school suck. Everyone wants to get a boyfriend/girlfriend simply because it’s like a trophy and they’re not single anymore.
Ah, i remember one of my first relationships in middle school…. we “dated” for 2 months but only saw each other live 2 times. AND IT WAS SO AWKWARD. We barely spoke and just silently walked…. it was awful. I think it traumatized me.
Ty for the chapter!!💜💜💜