There was a lot of homework. Not long after the school gates opened, Wan Da and the others had already gotten to class and exchanged homework assignments while gobbling breakfast.
Wan Da was halfway through copying an assignment when his sharp ears caught wind of someone pushing open the door. He glanced up and let out a sigh of relief, then he did a double take. Still with half a dough stick in his mouth, he said, "Good morning, Yu-ge... what's the matter, back pain?"
Xie Yu was in a bad mood and was still a little dizzy. He walked straight to the back row. "No."
"Ah, don't turn the page." Wan Da glanced back down and found that Luo Wenqiang had turned a page of Liu Cunhao's math exercise book. "I'm not done copying, wait a minute."
The two continued copying homework for a while without further incident. Wan Da, transcribing attentively, didn't even look up when he reached for more breakfast. After a beat, Luo Wenqiang finally couldn't take it any more. "Can you stop eating my buns?"
Wan Da swallowed the bite in his mouth. "I thought something seemed amiss. I didn't buy beef mince buns..."
He Zhao held a paper cup and was getting water at the back of the classroom. When he heard this, he couldn't hold back a laugh.
As he laughed, he remembered the strange scene from gym class the previous day. He asked, "What were you doing with those two girls yesterday?"
Wan Da paused mid-chew.
Luo Wenqiang was halfway through copying an answer. He stopped and met Wan Da's eyes for two seconds. "......"
Their class couple was now known throughout the school, and no matter how Class 3 tried to make official announcements or explain things away, it was no use. After they had stopped the two girls outside the basketball court, another thread popped up that day on the class forum. Someone from Class 3 said they are upstanding best bros. Who on earth believes that?
The comments below were nearly identical. Please, isn't this a case of 'there are no 300 taels of silver here?'¹
Nope, I don't believe it.
Whoever believes it is an idiot.
There were too many responses to the thread and the three of them couldn't even keep up with replying.
He Zhao hadn't paid much attention and was just asking off the top of his head, but now he thought their reactions seemed amiss. After getting hot water, he pushed the paper cup into Xie Yu's hands and said, "You two... did something happen?"
Luo Wenqiang was so nervous he couldn't even keep his tongue straight. "No, no, nothing happened!"
Liu Cunhao was not there yet, so Wan Da had an idea and pushed all the blame onto their class rep. "It's... it's like this. Hao-zi was on the student council, right? Someone came looking for him for student council stuff."
Luo Wenqiang let out a sigh of relief and gave Wan Da a thumbs-up on the down-low. "Good idea."
The explanation made sense, so He Zhao didn't keep asking.
Xie Yu took the cup of hot water He Zhao handed over. His hands were half-hidden in his sleeves, and his fingers poking out were faintly red from the cold. He held onto the cup and asked, "What's this for?"
"Pay more attention, all right?" He Zhao sighed. "You didn't even realize that you got sick? Just try taking off your jacket again next time we play basketball."
Xie Yu really hadn't been feeling well the last couple of days, but he hadn't paid much attention, thinking he had just caught a slight cold. A minor thing. Now that He Zhao had spoken, he sat frozen, holding the cup.
