When the entire class finishes making introductions, homeroom teacher Xie Dingnan starts going through the syllabus.
His monotonous voice draws Chen Xingze into ennui and he yawns.
About ten minutes later, the teacher smiles and says, “Time’s about up. Everybody, tidy up and let’s make our way to the auditorium for the welcoming ceremony.”
Students mill about in the halls, moving forward like a river. Chen Xingze walks along listlessly with his hands in his pockets. He yawns again, sleepiness still lingering over him. Around him is the quiet swathe of chitter chatter of students who are meeting for the first time and still stuck in an endless cycle of polite formalities.
Oh, except for one person.
Lu Hao’s outgoingness surpasses Chen Xingze’s expectations. He chatters continuously beside him, talking about this and that, his speech laced with an enthusiasm that makes outsiders think they’ve been friends forever.
Have they ever been that close? Chen Xingze tries to think back, but he can’t think through the post-siesta fog in his brain, so he simply lets Lu Hao keep talking, the other boy’s voice constantly entering his ear.
The welcoming ceremony is similarly boring, a bunch of miserly school head-of-this-and-thats gazing down at the crowd of sleepy students, speaking excitedly about the history of the school. It takes a full twenty minutes for them to finish their spiel, after which the host calls for a representative of the incoming class to come make a speech; the top scholar of their year, Qin Bo, from Class 1.
Qin Bo’s presence on stage pries Chen Xingze’s sleepy eyelids back open.
There are student speeches too?
“So that’s the top scholar, huh? No wonder he looks like a good student. You two went to the same middle school, were you classmates? Did you know him well?” Beside him, Lu Hao is still running his mouth, words popping out like popcorn. “Oh right! I just remembered, I have gum, you want some?” He starts digging through his pockets.
Ignoring him, Chen Xingze glowers at the stage. It should have been You Xiaolin standing there.
He knows that despite You Xiaolin’s introversion, he’s ambitious and proud. Yutian Middle School had had such high hopes for him to the extent of waiving all his school fees, but in the end he’d lost to the one standing on the stage right now. Chen Xingze wondered how terrible You Xiaolin must feel.
If only he could see him…
And then, perhaps because of a year’s accumulated worth of wistfulness, it triggers the Pygmalion effect. As soon as he wishes he could see You Xiaolin, his eyes are drawn to a corner he hadn’t noticed before. When they first entered the auditorium, Chen Xingze had searched Class 1’s seating area for a long time but hadn’t found You Xiaolin, yet there he is, in that inconspicuous corner.
He’s just a silhouette seen through the gaps between the seated crowd of students, but Chen Xingze recognises him immediately. His slender, snow-white neck, his dark black hair, head tilted slightly downwards… he seems to have grown up a lot.
Chen Xingze’s heart starts beating faster. He has no idea how he persuaded himself to not contact You Xiaolin for a whole year; getting into this high school is the most brilliant decision he’s ever made.
His eyes are still glued onto that tiny glimpse of neck when suddenly, You Xiaolin moves. Chen Xingze blinks, and watches as You Xiaolin and a group of seven to eight students stand up together and make their way before the stage.
He’s going on stage too?
Chen Xingze sits up straight and perks his head to catch the host’s speech.
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.
“…extra care for poverty-stricken students is an important element of education reform and expansion, and both the government and our school values education and individual performance. In order to aid our students in need financially so that they don’t drop out of school, in order to ensure that students in need can study at ease, and to grow and mature healthily, the school—“
As Chen Xingze listens to the rolling cadence of the host’s voice, first he’s stunned, and then he feels a rush of heat sweep through his head. There is nothing but the blood roaring through his veins in his ears, and his hands start shaking uncontrollably. He sneaks a glance over at You Xiaolin. The latter is still quietly next to the stage, looking down.
Just like before when he’d been bullied, he doesn’t fight back, but his face is pale.
Bunch of psychos…
Was this school completely mad?
“Now let’s welcome the assistant headmaster, who will be awarding this year’s students in need their scholarships.” The host smiles, and raises his arms to lead a round of applause.
“Aiya, found it.” After digging through his pockets for what feels like eons, Lu Hao has finally found the gum. He wipes his sweat and is about to hand a piece too Chen Xingze when unexpectedly, he leaps up. Chen Xingze looks so indignant that Lu Hao almost feels a gust of wind swirl around him.
The auditorium is silent in the aftermath of Chen Xingze’s sudden movement. Everyone around him stares at him in astonishment. Lu Hao tugs on his sleeve and asks in a low voice, “Oi… what are you doing? Hurry and sit!”
Everyone’s attention, including the group of “poverty-stricken” students on stage with You Xiaolin at the head, is drawn towards Chen Xingze. Anger fuels the fire within him, his emotions bursting like a geyser. He pays no mind to the looks thrown his way. He randomly points a finger to a timid-looking girl sitting over in Class 5’s area and shouts: “There’s a snake under your seat!”
The girl catapults out of her seat, ignoring the fact that everyone is staring at her, and clutches her face, screeching. She grapples her way as far away from the seat as possible. Her screaming sparks a chain of reactions, the row of delicate girls sitting near her all leaping up and screaming at once. The auditorium had been darkened intentionally for the ceremony, and in the curtain of darkness, no one can tell whether there really is a snake or not; one person hides and then everyone else hides, and soon the scene deteriorates into a fiasco.
The teachers scramble to take control of the situation while everyone else watches on in entertainment. On the stage, the poverty-stricken students take their scholarships one by one from the open-mouthed assistant headmaster and head off the stage.
“Chen Xingze! Get over here!” When the situation has somewhat calmed down, Xie Dingnan comes for Chen Xingze. Before Chen Xingze leaves, he looks over towards the stage. The slender-necked youth over there appears to be staring in his direction.
But he can’t see clearly enough.
“Who is that, which class is he from?”
“A sudden psychotic breakdown?”
“He must be crazy.”
“Shut up!” Amidst all the gossip, only one voice stands contrary to the rest. Everyone looks over at Lu Hao, who suggests seriously, “What if there really was a snake?”
“…..”
For a long time after Xie Dingnan takes Chen Xingze outside, everyone’s focus is still on the incident. It is, after all, the only interesting thing about this long, boring ceremony. In contrast, Chen Xingze the instigator is calm and serene inside. He’s not afraid of facing the furious homeroom teacher.
Rather than bringing him to his office, Xie Dingnan simply leads Chen Xingze to a nearby patch of trees.
“What is going on with you? Why did you suddenly decide to wreck havoc back there?” he asks, glaring at Chen Xingze brusquely. Chen Xingze doesn’t reply. “How could there be a snake in the auditorium? Was that supposed to be a prank?” Chen Xingze continues not speaking, and so Xie Dingnan warns, “If you still refuse to say anything, I’ll have to contact your parents.”
Whatever you want.
As if reading Chen Xingze’s mind, Xie Dingnan lets out a sigh. Just when Chen Xingze thinks the teacher is about to really call his parents, Xie Dingnan lets out another drawn-out breath.
“Are you too nervous because of starting school? But that’s not an excuse to play a prank. I’ll leave this matter be, but don’t do this again. Once you’re in high school, you’re not a child anymore. Go back to the classroom and take a break.”
After a pause, Chen Xingze looks up and notices the patch of forest behind the teacher.
Experimental High School’s campus is quite nice, large expanses of green lawn, trees with thick, sturdy branches that must be decades old. Most of the trees in the forest are peach trees, mostly bare now because of the recent autumn rain. Only a few petals remain on the branches, reddish pink and billowing against the wind.
Maybe the teacher brought him here to lecture him so that he wouldn’t be afraid, as a new student.
“Sir.” Chen Xingze calls out to Xie Dingnan, who’s about to go back to the auditorium, “…I’m sorry.”
The teacher stops for a second, then nods. “Mm, don’t do it again.”
Chen Xingze goes back to the classroom alone. It’s quiet there; he sweeps across the room. This is the place he will be spending the next three years. He sits down in his seat in the last row, and feeling slightly fatigued, closes his eyes and lays down on the table, waiting for the welcoming ceremony to end.
His classmates must think he’s mad, for causing such a drama on the first day of school.
A bitter smile graces the face he has buried in the pitch black crevice between his arms and the table.
He doesn’t regret it. It was the only thing he could think of doing in that situation, and he has no idea whether it helped You Xiaolin or not; maybe everyone had already gotten a list of the poverty-stricken students elsewhere and he’d done it all for nothing. But even so, it doesn’t matter. He would rather die than have to witness You Xiaolin’s pale face in the face of everyone’s gossip.
Suddenly, a fresh, sweet minty scent assaults his nostrils. He raises his head slowly, perplexed. A tall boy is bent at the waist, surreptitiously trying to stuff a thin piece of gum towards his nose.
“Ah, you caught me.” Lu Hao cracks a smile and puts the gum in front of Chen Xingze before squeezing himself into the neighbouring seat.
Chen Xingze blinks. “…What are you doing here?”
“I snuck out,” Lu Hao says matter-of-factly.
How does someone with a personality like yours sneak anywhere? But before Chen Xingze can ask, Lu Hao shoots him a concerned look.
“Are you okay?”
“What?”
“Didn’t the homeroom teacher call you out? Did he yell at you?”
“Oh… no, just told me not to do it again.”
“That’s good.”
Chen Xingze watches Lu Hao let out a relieved sigh and feels warm. Lu Hao was genuinely worried about him.
“Why’d you suddenly do that?” Lu Hao follows up.
Maybe because Lu Hao has a sunshine quality about him, or maybe because his eyes are too bright, or maybe because his sincerity touches Chen Xingze—whatever the reason is, Chen Xingze decides to tell him the truth.
“Because I can’t stand how they do things.”
“What kind of things?”
“Calling the poor students up to show them off,” Chen Xingze says coldly.
Lu Hao studies him with gleaming eyes, as if not understanding.
Chen Xingze creases his brows. “Don’t you think it’s too much?” Or was he the one who cared too much?
“When did that happen?”
“Huh?”
Lu Hao looks baffled. “How come I didn’t see any poor students on stage?”
“…..”
It suddenly occurs to Chen Xingze that right before the incident, Lu Hao had been too busy digging his pockets for gum. All of a sudden, the air goes out of him and he collapses back onto his table.
Meanwhile, Lu Hao belatedly says, “So that’s why you caused all that drama? So no one would notice the poor students? Is there someone you know among them?”
Someone he knows…
Does someone he loved for six years count as someone he knows?
Chen Xingze gives a wry smile. “Ya, my friend,” he explains vaguely. Then he descends into a bottomless pool of memories. After a few beats, he suddenly realises how quiet it’s gotten and turns around to find Lu Hao staring at him with wide, starry eyes. The scrutiny makes the hair on the back of Chen Xingze’s neck rise. “What?”
“That’s so badass.” There’s an uncharacteristic solemnity to Lu Hao as he grabs onto Chen Xingze’s hand, and, just in case the subject of his adulation didn’t hear him, repeats himself:
“Chen Xingze, you’re so fucking badass!”
Poor Chen Xingze’s gay face blushes a crimson red at the sudden flattery.
“What the heck…” he murmurs haltingly, shrugging aside Lu Hao’s hands before turning to the side and fanning himself.
ah, do they really do that? they gave a whole speech and then called up the kids.. that’s sort of not necessary QAQ
thanks for the chapter <3
The school is so desperate to show off its charity? It must be really Hard for the Kids to be called ‘the poverty stricken students’. Chen Xingze was right to do that.
Thanks for the chapter!