TLC: Rin
Because Ma Xiaobo specifically gave repeated orders that phones weren’t allowed, on Monday morning, Duan Shumin confiscated Duan Yuche’s phone and gave him a new phone that could only make calls and text messages.
At the same time, Cao Feng was given an identical one. Cao Feng refused to accept it at first. Later, he heard Duan Shumin say that it was a gift from their bank to the customer. They couldn’t give them all out, so they were free. Only then did he accept it.
The signal in the classroom wasn’t very good either. Duan Yuche heard Zhou Zeliang say that it seemed that signal-blocking device had been installed on the top of the school building to prevent students from chatting on phones in class, but because it affected multimedia teaching and also the teachers in the school building, the device wasn’t turned on to the maximum, yet the signal was only two frames. However, it didn’t matter. Duan Yuche occasionally sent messages in class. Most of the time, he would either sleep, play PSP, or listen to songs while lying down. In short, he just wouldn’t listen to the lesson.
Cao Feng was sitting in the last row. He looked up and could see the back of his younger brother’s head. At the same table with his younger brother was a plane hairstyle wearing glasses. The two seemed to be talking. His younger brother took snacks and distributed them to the people around him.
In the morning, Duan Shumin prepared snacks for the two children, including imported chocolate and lollipops, as well as Oreos. Earlier, in the car, Duan Shumin told them to distribute the snacks to the classmates around them, saying that they could quickly make good friends and fill their stomachs if they were hungry.
Cao Feng glanced at the completely unfamiliar classmates around him. He slowly opened his school bag and wanted to hand it to the classmate at the front table, but he couldn’t take this step anyway——he had never taken the initiative to make friends.
Duan Yuche lay down on the table boredly, randomly flipped open an exercise book, drew grids on the back, and then pushed the arm of his seatmate Feiji.
Du Pengfei was taking notes and looked sideways at him.
“Come to play gomoku?” Duan Yuche asked.
Feiji was a little embarrassed, and looked up at the teacher. After all, he couldn’t bear to refuse Duan Yuche. He nodded secretly and took the book.
Duan Yuche said happily, “I’m X, you’re O.”
Ma Xiaobo took special care of him and arranged Feiji as his seatmate. In the international class, Feiji was one of the few students who wanted to learn and had good academic performance.
On the first day of school, Duan Yuche invited him to eat chocolate and potato chips. He quickly mingled with a circle of classmates around him. Good-looking people were popular everywhere. Not to mention the fact that he had a particular experience that could be used as a topic to chat about. He could imitate the French in speaking English, imitate the Italians in speaking English… he could speak any accent. Everyone was specially curious about him because he grew up in Switzerland and wanted to know what Switzerland was like and what its school was like.
When they heard that Duan Yuche’s class was like the one in the anime Cardcaptor Sakura, and that in Switzerland, they were all so free and happy before going to university, they were all speechless with envy.
After school was over at noon, Zhou Zeliang went to the back door of Class 7 to wait for his history teacher who was extending class after the bell.
The cafeteria was the most crowded after school at noon. When Duan Yuche just returned to study in China, Duan Yuche went to the cafeteria for the first time and saw so many people lining up. He thought that the taste was very delicious to be like that. He also lined up specially, only to find out later that it wasn’t.
The two went to the small cafeteria. Zhou Zeliang opened a can of cola and pushed it to Duan Yuche. He shook his head and took out a box of milk: “I’ll drink this.” He went to school in Switzerland, and he was the only one of Asian descent in the entire school. His height and physique couldn’t be compared with that of white people, and he received discrimination. He wanted to grow taller, so he had to supplement himself with calcium desperately, hoping that one day he would be as tall as his classmates.
The cafeteria was contracted by Zhou Zeliang’s uncle. Zhou Zeliang told his uncle in advance, and his uncle called out the chef once more. The two went directly to the small cafeteria and ate a small stir-fry. A lot of portions were given, and the nutrition was more balanced.
After the small stir-fry was brought up, Duan Yuche put in a straw, took a sip of milk, and said while he ladled out the soup: “It would be great if there are fried chestnuts for sale in the cafeteria. Ask your uncle if he wants to open a new stall specializing in selling fried chestnuts?”
“Okay, I’ll ask later.”
Duan Yuche said again: “It would be great if Wu Family’s Fried Chestnut could open a branch in our school.”
The one he liked to eat was at the private school where he used to study. It wasn’t far from the Experimental Foreign Language School. It took 20 minutes by car. Duan Yuche was picky in food, he thought that it was delicious and nothing else could match it.
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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“Forget it, I don’t think he is a nice person either.” Zhou Zeliang didn’t know Cao Feng. He only heard Duan Yuche say that he was the “beggar” they saw on the road that day.
With such a violent and cruel appearance, he knew at first glance that he was definitely not a good person, but he couldn’t believe that he was actually a top student.
A top student was even more annoying.
“No, he is different from what you think.” Duan Yuche told Zhou Zeliang about the embarrassment Cao Feng made because he didn’t know how to use the microwave oven. Zhou Zeliang instantly remembered that he used the shampoo sink as a foot bath, and immediately laughed.
“I took him out for Japanese food yesterday at noon. It was embarrassing. He took off his shoes and was wearing a pair of socks with holes. At least five holes in them.” Duan Yuche thought Cao Feng’s Mandarin was also very funny, but he himself wasn’t much better. When he first came into contact with German and French when he was a child, he couldn’t speak well and was despised, so he would never laugh at other people’s accents.
Zhou Zeliang was also surprised: “…This dude is also eccentric.”
After eating, the two of them found a new stronghold in the school, squatted and smoked a few cigarettes, and returned to the classroom at one o’clock at noon.
Duan Yuche saw Cao Feng talking in a low voice with Ma Xiaobo at the podium. After a while, Ma Xiaobo also went to find the vice class monitor.
The vice class monitor took the roll call according to the list of students at lunch break.
At noon in September, it was extraordinarily sultry. The fan above his head spun and creaked. Duan Yuche was lying on two books, it was too hot for him to sleep.
His family lived a bit far away, and it took an hour for Xiao Zhang to pick up and drop off by car, but the lunch break was less than two hours in total. Counting the meal time, he couldn’t go home to rest at all.
The lunch break was exceptionally difficult for him. He liked to sleep while lying on his stomach in class. Of course, there’s nothing he could do about it. He was too sleepy, he couldn’t lie down or escape. However, he couldn’t even go home during the lunch break. He somewhat envied his classmates who live in school.
At least there was a small bed. The weather was so hot and the fan wasn’t enough. He really didn’t want to stay any longer, and he didn’t understand the point of studying.
After class, he went out of the school gate with Cao Feng and got in the car.
Xiao Zhang was the only one in the car. Duan Shumin usually got off work earlier than their evening self-study.
When he went home, Duan Shumin was watching TV in the living room and casually asked, “Have you finished your homework?”
Duan Yuche didn’t move a muscle and said he wrote.
Cao Feng also said that he had written: “There is still homework to prepare for the lessons.”
Duan Shumin said, “That’s very good. If Xiao Che doesn’t understand anything, just ask your older brother.”
Duan Yuche let out an “oh”. Duan Shumin said again: “Do you still remember your Uncle Li?”
“What Uncle Li? Which one?”
“It’s just a friend of Dad. Last time you participated in his daughter’s graduation party, remember?”
Duan Yuche said that he had some impression: “What’s the matter?”
Duan Shumin turned down the volume of the TV and looked for an envelope: “He ah, there is a new cinema near your school. It has just opened and is holding events. He gave me a lot of tickets. I asked for a few. Take your older brother and your classmates to the movie after school this Friday, okay?”
“What movie is there to watch?” Duan Yuche took the envelope from his hand and opened it. There were more than a dozen coupons for movie tickets, which were valid until December.
Duan Shumin said that there was 《Garfield 2》: “You can watch this.”
“Okay.” Duan Yuche wasn’t very interested, but it’s better than nothing. It just so happened that he was planning to go shopping on Friday.
The first week of class was fairly easy, yet when the second week came, it became pressing, but because they were in an international class, and their English score was the biggest criterion, Duan Yuche was able to survive in this class. The foreign teacher in their class was a Canadian named Louis, and Duan Yuche was the only one who could talk to him.
But the Experimental Foreign Language School was too strict, much stricter than Duan Yuche’s private junior high school. They couldn’t just run around during the lunch break. In the afternoon, the student council would come to roll call in the afternoon self-study class. They weren’t allowed to leave school for an hour and a half from the end of the school day to the evening self-study. He heard that in the second year of senior high, there would be classes on Saturday, and after the Senior 3, the top class would have classes even on weekend mornings, and could only rest for less than half a day a week, which was extremely rare for him, like militarized management.
His phone was also confiscated. An old flip phone that didn’t even have the Snake game was driving Duan Yuche crazy. However, someone would pick him up and drop him off in the morning and at night, and he couldn’t find time to buy a new phone. This was completely different from his previous private school where he casually skipped classes to go out and have fun.
After a week of patience, on Friday when class was over, Duan Yuche invited several of his close classmates to go to the cinema to watch 《Garfield 2》 altogether.
He bought popcorn and sat at the end. Cao Feng sat next to him and put the popcorn in the middle. Duan Yuche let him eat it.
Cao Feng had seen the old style popcorn in the county town, and he could buy a large bag for one yuan.
But in such a cinema, a bucket was actually sold for a whopping ten yuan!
However, it had been almost ten days since he came to Linzhou. He had already learned about the price situation here. Cao Feng reached into the popcorn bucket. Duan Yuche watched the movie and also reached in to get the popcorn. The hands of the two touched in the sweet and greasy smell. Duan Yuche had no reaction, Cao Feng, however, felt static electricity all at once, his whole body stiffened, and the popcorn he had just picked up fell down.
In the first ten minutes of the movie, Duan Yuche sneaked out from the side.
Cao Feng thought he was going to the toilet. In the end, he still didn’t return after seven or eight minutes. He immediately realized that something was wrong, and also followed out, looking for him in the men’s washroom.
There’s no one.
Cao Feng began to call him.
At the phone store, Duan Yuche took out the phone card and put it in the new phone. After thinking about it, he felt that it wasn’t right, and he had to buy a new card.
The new card would be used for the new phone, and the old card would be used for the broken old phone. Otherwise, the next time he answered the phone and Duan Shumin saw him, it would be exposed.
He casually put the old phone card in his pocket, bought a new phone card with more favorable data and promotion at the phone store, and inserted it into the Nokia he had just bought. He bought the latest model with top to bottom sliding cover, and the screen was relatively large.
Cao Feng called him but couldn’t get through. He ran back and forth in the cinema several times. He anxiously asked the staff if they had seen a black-haired boy in a school uniform. The staff also said that they didn’t notice.
It was Friday and the new cinema that just opened was packed with people. Moreover, it was also open near the school, so there were so many students that it was difficult to notice which one he was talking about.
Cao Feng didn’t know where he had gone, so he ran to the Internet café where he had found Duan Yuche last time. On a hot summer night, he ran through every store and restaurant nearby, and called him while looking for him like crazy, but it was always turned off.
–
Duan Yuche bought a new phone, stuffed the accessories into his school bag, threw away the box, and went to buy something else. He then returned to the cinema. The movie was halfway through and it was almost over.
He returned to his seat and found that the popcorn was still there, but Cao Feng was nowhere to be seen.
After waiting for a while, Cao Feng didn’t come back, Duan Yuche thought to himself afterwards——He didn’t go out looking for him, did he?
He asked Feiji next to him: “Do you know where Cao Feng went?”
Feiji said he didn’t know: “It seems he hasn’t been around for a long time. He went out not long after the movie started.”
Duan Yuche said to himself, Oh no! He quickly fished out the old phone, only to find that the phone was turned off since he changed the card and never turned on just now.
He walked out of the cinema and dialed Cao Feng’s number: “Hello?”
“…Xiao Che.” Cao Feng’s tight strings in his heart relaxed at once. He squatted on the side of the road, his whole body was wet with sweat, and his voice was hoarse, “You finally answered your gege‘s call.”
“Are you looking for me outside?” Duan Yuche was a little guilty, “I’m sorry, my phone was turned off just now.”
“It’s good to know that you’re okay. Just now I found you’re gone, and I was so anxious,” Cao Feng smiled, lifting his shirt to wipe the sweat from his face and neck, showing his six pieces of wheat-colored abdominal muscles, “Have you returned to the cinema?”
Duan Yuche replied: “The movie is over. Where are you? I’ll go and find you, let’s go eat.”
“Ge will go back to the cinema to look for you, don’t run around.” Cao Feng stood up and walked in the direction of the cinema.
“Okay, I won’t run around, I’ll wait for you here at where we bought our popcorn.” After speaking, he asked again, “You didn’t call my dad, did you?”
Cao Feng replied while crossing the road: “I almost called Uncle. I thought I had lost you.”
Soon after, Cao Feng came back. Although Duan Yuche knew it was hot outside, he didn’t expect it to be this hot. His school uniform was almost completely wet, and his resolute face was full of sweat beads. He hurriedly handed Cao Feng the iced cola he had just bought, and then took out a wet tissue and handed it to him to wipe his sweat: “What do you want to eat? I’ll treat you.”
Cao Feng put the cola on his face to cool down. Breathing heavily, he said, “No, ge will treat you, what do you want to eat?”
“No, no, no, I’ll treat you, let’s go okay. Let’s go and eat Korean barbecue.” Seeing him sweating profusely, Duan Yuche really felt very sorry, and said, “Actually… I went to buy you a gift just now.”
Cao Feng was stunned all of a sudden.
Duan Yuche took out a box from his school bag with a delicate brand logo printed on it: “Here, I bought you a new wallet.” When he went to buy Zhou Zeliang a birthday gift a moment ago, he happened to see the wallet, and thought of Cao Feng——Cao Feng was short of a wallet, he just dropped by and bought one.
Cao Feng didn’t know these things, but when he looked at the leather pattern of the box, he knew that it must not be cheap: “This isn’t fitting, Xiao Che, keep it for yourself…”
“Take it, I have a wallet to use. I bought this for you. Don’t hide the money on the soles of your shoes next time.”
“I didn’t…” Cao Feng blushed and wanted to explain. He didn’t deliberately put the money on the soles of his shoes. He usually sewed it under his armpit.
Cao Feng is so endearing lol Thanks for the chapter ☺️
Thx for the ch ٩(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )و
Thanks for the chapter ♥️♥️
Thanks for the chapter ☺️
Thank you for the chapter ❤️
CF is such a sweetheart.
Thanks for the chapter.
Thnx for the translation ❤️