In the light of the setting sun, the two people stood still, one inside the door and the other outside, both remaining silent, looking at each other calmly.
"......"
"......"
Jiang Yao let out a long sigh and confessed, "I am what I am, a firework of a different color."
(t/n: he's quoting the song "" by Leslie Cheung)
"......"
After Yin Che thought back and wondered to himself why he'd blurted out such a stupid question, he kicked out at him, "Fuck off, go explode."
The story about Class 1 turning in their own math teacher spread around the whole grade the next day. At this age, students had a bit of a rebellious mindset, liking to challenge authority.
Students turning in their teachers for such a thing, at least in the history of First High, was unprecedented, so the story sounded particularly cool and really fucking awesome.
"For the first time, I feel so honored to be part of this class," Zhang Ke said, "I can now walk with my head held high and my back straight."
"Wherever I go now, I feel like everyone is watching me," Han Meng fluffed his hair, "but that has nothing to do with this matter. It's because I'm naturally beautiful."
Chen YingYing said, "Vom, I'm going to throw up. Let me remind you two, today is Friday and Lao Wu said that the grade ranking for the mid-term exams will be released and sent home to our parents. You're guaranteed to receive your parents' eager greeting when you get home."
Zhang Ke: "......"
Han Meng: "......"
The new teacher named Ma had taught them the whole week. The school had seen that there were no problems with her capability and that she was able to take on two classes, so she'd officially become the math teacher of Class 1.
As for Chen ShuMei, she'd felt that she couldn't stay with a group of students who had turned her in, plus she couldn't hold her head up among her colleagues after what happened, so she'd taken the initiative to resign and moved to a high school in another district. The students there were far less obedient than at First High, so they'd probably drive her mad.
When they learned about this, Class 1 was stunned:
"No way, we just wanted her to apologize, that's all."
"She'd rather leave than apologize, would she go so far as to die to save face?"
Others asked, "Did we go too far?"
Jiang Yao turned his head and asked his deskmate, "What do you think? If you think it's too excessive, it's not like I can make her come back and continue to teach us."
Yin Che wrote down a series of formulas carefully, "We didn't force her, it was her own business to handle and she herself chose to leave. So it can't be regarded as too excessive."
Jiang Yao chuckled, "That's a good way to put it."
This brat, turns out that he's not a holy mother, but then why did he take the blame for me? I don't understand......
In the last class session in the afternoon, Wu GuoZhong didn't mention the matter. He just said with a chuckle, "The rankings have been sent to your parents, remember to remind them to take a look."
The students before him wailed in anguish.
In fact, no matter how much trouble they were during the day, they were just a group of teenagers who were worried about their grades and who wanted to get into a good university. They weren't that rebellious and hadn't yet become that cynical.
At best, they were just a little stubborn and sensitive, like young saplings that had just sprouted small branches, slender but tough, eager to grow, but also longing for encouragement and consideration.
If they were trampled upon recklessly, these saplings would become twisted, possibly not able to bounce back.
If they were not easily cowed, these young people would one day eventually turn into towering trees.
After the last leaves of the parasol tree fluttered outside the window, the temperature finally dropped over ten degrees.
Whether it was the boarding students or the day students, they seemed to be glued to the bed in the morning, unable to get up no matter what.
Zhang Jiaozhu as always was dedicated to standing at the school gate every day to catch latecomers and these days, the list of those he caught was so long, much longer than before.
After he took that group of careless students back to the Moral Education Department to write self-reflections, he actually caught another student arriving late to school.
"Jiang Yao! What's the matter with you! You're a boarding student, how can you arrive late!"
Jiang Yao froze in place, but knew he had no escape, so he chuckled in embarrassment, "Laoshi, I was doing my homework last night until 1AM. I stayed up working so hard so late that I didn't hear my alarm this morning."
Actually he'd been talking to Wang XiaoRou until about 9PM last night before convincing his sister to sleep. Then Zhao Cheng had called again and said, "Yao Ge, watch out, that guy you took care of last time, the one with words written all over his face, didn't you post that to your school forum? Someone in our school saw it and now they're guessing that you transferred to First High."
The students of First High and Eighth High often checked out each other's forums. Jiang Yao's ability to stay hidden at the First High for so long was because of Zhao Cheng, who was the admin of the Eighth High forum.
Out of fear that information about him would leak and could be used against him by an enemy, the forum rules had banned any discussion about him whatsoever.
So even if the First High students often visited Eighth High's forum, they were only vaguely aware that there was such a ferocious person at Eighth High, but the specific details about him weren't clear.
Originally, he had been hiding perfectly, but in the end, an Eighth High student happened to see the video of Rong Wei on the First High forum that day.
Those black oil pen marks, that familiar term 'bastard', that abnormal method of insulting someone, why did it look so much like it came from the hands of a certain Dong Cheng school tyrant who existed outside the bounds of human nature?
Jiang Yao's transfer to First High was only known to his closest buddies. Other students thought he'd gone abroad or transferred to another city. Otherwise, with his caliber of alpha, how could he not be the focus of his new school and how could there be no news coming out about him at all?
No one would've imagined that he'd hide in their own city, that he would transfer to Eighth High's brother school and swagger around First High every day.
So far, except for his Class 1 classmates, few people outside his class even knew him. Even the previous viral posts about the sports meet had quickly been suppressed by other news.
When Zhao Cheng reminded him of this, Jiang Yao immediately went on guard and summoned his xiongdi that very night to report the Rong Wei post for deletion.
While they were at it, they pushed other posts to the top. By the time they finished, it was pretty late, so he didn't hear his alarm in the morning.
In the end, Zhang Jiaozhu was someone who'd been around the block, so from start to finish, he didn't listen at all as Jiang Yao tried to weave a messy excuse. He dragged him straight to the Moral Education Department to write a self-reflection and released him after the morning self-study session finished.
Jiang Yao hadn't eaten breakfast, so he was starving to death, but the first class was about to start, so he had no time to go to the snack counter to buy some food and had to rush to the academic building.
Halfway there, he came across a familiar person right in his path.
"Hey, CheChe!" Jiang Yao called out.
Yin Che drew close, looking at him with a strange expression, "I thought you died in the dorm."
"No, I was caught by Zhang Jiaozhu and taken away to write a self-reflection. Why'd you come out here? Looking for me?"
"Don't talk nonsense, let's hurry back, class is about to start." Yin Che turned back towards the academic building.
Jiang Yao stared at him blankly, then caught up, "You were really trying to find me?"
Yin Che paid him no mind, fishing around in the pockets of his thick winter uniform. He took out something wrapped in a plastic bag and threw it at his chest.
Jiang Yao looked down and saw that it was two of the meat steamed buns that were sold in the dining hall in the morning. They were both still warm, so holding them in the palm of his hand was like cupping a tiny stove, a little hot.
"Fuck......you bought these for me?" Jiang Yao was shocked, "Why are you suddenly treating me so well?"
Yin Che turned his head, his small face mostly covered up by the collar of his school uniform, his skin as fair and soft as the steamed bun in his hand.
"It's a gift to thank you. Thanks for helping me before," Yin Che spoke the words as quickly as possible, then turned his head and ran up the stairs, like a fleeing bunny, so fast he couldn't catch his tail.
Jiang Yao didn't know if he wanted to laugh or cry. He walked up to the classroom holding the buns in his hands. Before the English teacher came in, Zhang Ke caught sight of him and asked, "Yao Ge, what are you holding?"
"Steamed buns." Jiang Yao noticed his deskmate looking out the window, looking as if this had nothing to do with him and said deliberately, "CheChe bought them for me!"
Yin Che immediately whipped his head around and glared at him.
Zhang Ke hadn't had enough for breakfast. He saw that he had two buns in his hand and had originally wanted to ask for one, but when he heard that they'd been bought by Yin Che, he instantly tossed that idea away.
Jiang Yao went to sit in his own seat and offered his deskmate an intimate smile, "Why'd you run so fast just now? I didn't have enough time to express how touched I felt."
"Express my ass, they'll get cold if you don't eat them."
"Eat, eat, eat, then did you eat breakfast?"
Yin Che hesitated for a moment, "......I ate."
I actually didn't eat.
Jiang Yao lowered the meat bun that he'd lifted up to his mouth, "I'll give you one."
"No, I——mm......"
Acting without thinking, Jiang Yao directly pressed the bun against his mouth, "Open up, be good."
Yin Che was stunned into silence. He hesitated for a moment, then slowly opened his mouth.
The color of his lips were light, but not too pale, and the shape of his lips was also very nice-looking. Whenever he opened his mouth to eat, he poked his tongue out as well without realizing.
Jiang Yao suddenly thought that the steamed bun in his hand was extremely hot, almost too hot to hold steadily.
Yin Che lowered his eyes, his slender eyelashes fluttering, and took a small bite of the bun.
At that moment, Zhang Ke turned around to ask the person behind him to copy their homework and his eyes inadvertently swept across the back row. He jumped in surprise and threw his notebook into the air, "Mommy!"
Following a beautiful arc, the notebook slapped Xu BeiNi in the face just as she entered the door.
"......"
"Xu-laoshi, I......"
"Well done, Zhang Ke!" Xu BeiNi threw the notebook back, "Come see me at noon today to recite the text from memory!"
"Spare me, Xu-laoshi!"
Zhang Ke's shout roused the two people in the back row. Yin Che hurriedly leaned away, chewing the outer skin of the steamed bun, and said awkwardly, "The taste is okay, I'm not hungry, so you can just eat it."
After he said that, he felt like something was wrong again. He'd just taken a bite of the thing, how could it be okay for someone else to keep eating it?
Jiang Yao didn't seem to care at all, holding the bun he'd bitten and eating it up in a few more bites. Then, he stuffed the other bun into the storage area of his desk and said, "You can eat the other one later."
"......"
After a while, the bell rang to begin class and Xu BeiNi started to talk about yesterday's homework. Jiang Yao suddenly said, "Fuck, why did I eat the bun you'd just bitten?"
"......how would I know." Yin Che squeezed his pen tightly, "You ate it on your own, don't act so disgusted."
"I'm not disgusted, it's just......"
Why does it feel so wrong........
During self-study in the evening:
The classmate sitting by the door shouted again, "Jiang Yao! A girl is looking for you!"
The Class 1 students were getting used to this, so fewer people heckled him, and most continued to chat about their own business.
Zhang Ke watched Jiang Yao and Bai YuWei leave and heaved a sigh of relief, "Thanks to Bai YuWei, my worldview has been restored again. Thankfully, things aren't like I thought."
Chen YingYing said, "What did you think?"
Zhang Ke stroked at his long, non-existent beard, "The mysteries of heaven must not be revealed. I'll be beaten if I leak the info."
When Jiang Yao came back, he was smiling happily, so Zhou HaoLiang turned around and said, "You're pleased as punch, Yao Ge, what are you so happy about? Did Bai YuWei respond to you?"
"Nope. I'm not worried, I'm taking my time."
Yin Che tossed the origami star he'd just folded in the time between classes into his pencil case and said, "You'd better move fast, watch out or your person will run away with someone else."
Jiang Yao replied, "That's impossible, the two of us are hitting it off. Just now we were roasting her ex-boyfriend."
"......the two of you talk about that kind of thing when you go out in the evening?"
"Is that not okay? Her ex-boyfriend really has a ton of faults."
Zhou HaoLiang said, "I know her ex-boyfriend, isn't it actually......" Halfway through his sentence, Zhou HaoLiang suddenly cut himself off, "Aiya, I haven't finished my homework yet, I'm gonna work on my homework."
It was quite the unnatural transition.
Yin Che originally wasn't interested in hearing this kind of gossip, but seeing how strange he was acting, he asked casually, "Who is her ex-boyfriend?"
Jiang Yao smirked, "It's your stinky didi."
"......"
*Bang!* There was a loud noise from the back row and everyone in front of them jumped in shock. Chen YingYing said, "Fuck, who dares to act out in Laoniang's territory——"
At that moment, a certain no-nonsense beta was chasing his alpha deskmate around to kick him.
Chen YingYing finished, "......you two continue."
After returning to the dorm, Jiang Yao was still feeling depressed over his pants, so he ran over to the dorm next door to knock, "Open the door, brat! Don't just hide inside quietly, I know you're in there! Open the door, open the door, open the door, openthedoor!!"
"Why are you being so annoying?" Yin Che opened the door, "I'm about to sleep."
The brat was wearing white, fluffy, wool pajamas and looked awfully warm.
It really made a certain someone want to give his face a little pinch.
Jiang Yao resisted that dangerous impulse and forcibly pushed his way in while holding his uniform pants, "Take a look, can you see how dirty my pants got after you kicked me? Shouldn't you pay me some cleaning fees?"
"How much?" Yin Che picked up his phone from his bedside. "Is a hundred yuan enough? Take the money and leave my room."
Since when was Jiang Yao actually making him compensate him with money? He casually threw his pants to the floor and said, "So you do have your phone? Then look at the class group chat, everyone's talking right now, you should also say a few words occasionally."
"What is there to talk about, I can never cut in on their topics."
There wasn't much proper discussion going on in Class 1's chat, it was all just memes or idle chat. In one night, they could post over a hundred messages, venting out the agony of not being able to use their phones during the day.
Jiang Yao said, "It's okay if you don't talk to them, but why won't you chat with me? From the start of the term to now, I can count all the messages we've sent with my ten fingers."
"Don't you usually get enough opportunities to chat?" Yin Che threw his phone back on the bed, "Besides, what do you and I have to talk about? You should say talk to your girl."
"Even after chatting with my girl, I still think that it'd be fun to chat with you." Jiang Yao pulled out a chair and sat down, "I don't really understand the subjects girls like to talk about, they aren't very interesting, so after chatting for a bit, I don't really want to chat anymore."
"Didn't you enjoy chatting with Bai YuWei tonight?"
"Ah, that's because we chatted about your di all night......"
And now I'm talking to you.
After Jiang Yao finished roasting Yin Ze with Bai YuWei, Bai YuWei had said, "Yin Che is actually really nice to his didi, but sadly his didi doesn't appreciate him."
Jiang Yao had suddenly had a strong desire to say what was on his mind, "Yeah, my deskmate is way too pure, being so kind to that white-eyed wolf, but what's the point? If he distributed the kindness he showed towards his didi to other people, who knows how many times more popular than his stinky didi he'd be."
Bai YuWei had laughed, "That's honestly true, Yin Che is also very good-looking, so he'd definitely be popular......too bad he's a beta."
"What's wrong with being a beta? If you want a high attractiveness rating, he has a high attractiveness rating; if you want someone strong, he's strong; he's no worse than an omega or an alpha."
"Then would you consider dating him?" Bai YuWei had suddenly asked.
Jiang Yao had been stunned, "......no way."
The expression in Bai YuWei's eyes said 'so you say.'
Jiang Yao had felt a sense of guilt for some unknown reason. He hadn't known where the guilt had come from, but it had felt as if he'd done something wrong.
"Don't speak ill of my di behind my back. If I find out you did it again, you won't have enough pairs of pants to handle all my kicks."
Yin Che walked over right in front of him and said calmly, "Also, if you don't understand the topics she likes, you'll just have to learn to like them. If you can't do that kind of thing for the person you love, then how can it be called love?"
Jiang Yao patted his chest as if frightened, "So fierce, you'll scare people, eh."
"I'm just offering you advice, that's all."
"Ge has probably dated more people than you've met in your entire life." Jiang Yao smiled, "I know how to date, don't worry."
If Zhao Cheng were here, he'd probably say, "You know fuck all, have you ever seriously chased after someone? Have you ever had a relationship last more than a week?"
Jiang Yao was completely shameless and full of confidence as he said, "When Ge's future marriage is settled, I'll help introduce you to someone. You just watch and learn from me, don't waste this beautiful time of your youth on dating......"
"No need," Yin Che pursed his lips, then parted them again to say, "I have someone that I like."
—
The author has something to say:
Now: Open up, eat the bun, be good.
Later: Open, eat ______, be good.
—
Footnotes:
1. Holy mother (圣母): historical term for the Virgin Mary and for the mother of an emperor, modern slang for a bleeding heart or innocent person
2. Mysteries of heaven...... (天机不可泄露，): idiom, meaning I'm not at liberty to tell you
3. White-eyed wolf (白眼狼): ingrate, thankless wretch
—
It's totally normal for a girl to constantly complain to her new boyfriend(?) about her ex-boyfriend, right? 🤔