Ch10 - Didn't You Say That Jiang Jize Was More Handsome Than Me?

Translator: Callis

Xu Xing caught up with his assignments after the end of his third class. He sandwiched the daily exercise notebook and his exam paper in his exercise booklet and glanced behind him. Lu Che just so happened to not be in his seat. He tossed his assignment onto Lu Che’s desk without much thought and headed towards the sports field for physical education with Wang Zicong.

It was five o’clock in the afternoon and the sun was setting in the west; everyone’s shadows on the track field had become thin and narrow. With the first glance at Wang Zicong’s shadow, he thought that he had lost 50 pounds.

When Xu Xing arrived at the sports field, he saw Ke Di leaning against the fence separating the school building and the back of the field. Ke Di had changed into sportswear with his name printed on it, his entire body warm and sweating. He had a half finished bottle of mineral water in his hands, and the gulping of water was audible.

At the fourth class every afternoon, the physical education students needed to participate in drills. Each drop of sweat they shed on the training field was one less tear of regret for next year’s body.

Xu Xing went over to greet Ke Di: “Ke Di.”

Ke Di turned around and said: “Class Monitor, you’ve come to participate in physical education class?”

The large beads of sweat travelled down his cheek as the other flashed him a wide grin with white teeth.

Xu Xing asked: “Who will be in charge of lining up the physical education class later?”

Ke Di was a physical education student and was a member of the class’s sports committee. When he went to participate in the drills, his position on the committee became vacant. As the class monitor, Xu Xing naturally knew about the situation in advance and needed to make the proper preparations for it.

Ke Di turned to face Xu Xing. He raised his arm and draped it over the fence, pressing his water bottle against his chin. He spoke with a smile: “I already discussed it with Fu Er Dai. He’ll be in charge of leading the group. This won’t interfere with class.”

Xu Xing nodded: “Oh, that’s good. Work hard at your drills!”

Xu Xing and Ke Di were chatting idly when they happened to see Jiang Jize along with a boy and a girl walk over as a trio.

Jiang Jize was holding two roasted sausages in his hands, and he took nibbles while blowing his warm breath over it. When he raised his head and saw Ke Di, he asked: “Where’s Lu Che?”

Ke Di waved over Jiang Jize and said with a grin: “Chu-ge must be stepping on the class bell before he would come down. It’s still early.”

Jiang Jize laughed, probably feeling that his own question was too dumb. He casually passed the other sausage into Ke Di’s hand, and walked around Xu Xing with the other two students.

Xu Xing looked back. He saw that the female student next to Jiang Jize was the girl with the curly, waist-length hair from the dating rumors, and the one from the overpass. Xu Xing couldn’t help but ask Ke Di: “Ke Di, isn’t this person Jiang Jize? Is the person next to him his girlfriend?”

“Which one?”

With a sausage in his mouth, Ke Di casually glanced back and saw Jiang Jize and the others round a corner, heading into a stairwell.

The thick layer of cumin on the sausage burned Ke Di’s tongue and he hissed: “It shouldn’t be, I haven’t heard him mention it.”

Xu Xing couldn’t help but give a slight sigh of relief when he heard the response: If Jiang Jize wasn’t single, then the emotional issues between him and Xiao Shun would become even more complicated.

Just as Xu Xing’s mind started turning, he was startled by a familiar voice —

“Class Monitor, how is it that I hear you caring about Jiang Jize every time I come?”

Xu Xing unwillingly turned his head and saw Lu Che approaching, then lean against an iron railing. He was tall and had long legs; he looked regal, but he had a frigid smile on his face.

Xu Xing: “……”

Damn it, I really don’t know why he shows up every time!

Fu Dai appeared from behind Lu Che. Standing at the top of the stairs, he was half a head taller than Ke Di. With a move as quick as lightning, he grabbed the roasted sausage in Ke Di’s hand, placed it in his mouth, and bit into it. He turned around and commented absentmindedly: “The Class Monitor has a girlfriend?”

Xu Xing: “No……”

Ke Di uncapped the water bottle and took a gulp of water. He asked with a laugh: “The Class Monitor unexpectedly doesn’t have a girlfriend. Is it because no one can meet his standards?”

Xu Xing shook his head with a half-hearted laugh, saying: “I’m not insistent on this matter, the Gao Kao is more important.”

Xu Xing certainly never held too much interest towards dating in the past. To put it another way, he had never met a person that he liked. Now, when he thought of the connection between his left hand and his ‘little brother’ and his chrysanthemum being tied to Lu Che, he couldn’t voice his hardships.

However, once Xu Xing’s words were out in the open, he heard Lu Che’s scoff.

Lu Che looked at Xu Xing with glinting eyes. He folded his arms and the corner of his lips quirked up; he pondered over and repeated the words that Xu Xing had just said: “Not insistent?”

The magnetic voice pushed on the hidden meaning of the words; Xu Xing was the sole person who understood — not insistent, but you were deliberately throwing yourself into my arms everyday? Not insistent, but you will take advantage of me sleeping on my desk during evening self-study and sexually harass me? Not insistent, but you keep thinking about my friend whenever you see him?

Xu Xing: “……”

This person is very annoying!

When Lu Che saw that Xu Xing was pretending to be dumb and didn’t answer, he smiled lightly and casually said to Ke Di: “It’s normally that the Class Monitor doesn’t have a girlfriend. After all, his taste wouldn’t be too similar to ours.”

As soon as Xu Xing heard this, he immediately straightened his body, alert. He glared at Lu Che with narrowed eyes and was prepared to jump into action; he was ready to jump up and cover Lu Che’s mouth at any moment in order to prevent words like “gay” from tarnishing his purity.

Ke Di asked curiously; “Why? Are you pointing out that the Class Monitor’s standards are too high?”

Lu Che was delighted when he saw Xu Xing’s nervous appearance. His deep gaze glittered in amusement, as if it was imbedded with stars. Folding his arms, he replied with a gleeful expression: “To some degree, Class Monitor’s sights are certainly set very high. Perhaps, like choosing one out of ten thousand?”

The corners of Lu Che’s lips curved up and he raised his eyebrow at Xu Xing.

Xu Xing: “……”

Do you want some face?

Xu Xing and Lu Che couldn’t strike up a conversation at all. Just as he wanted to leave first, he heard the preparatory bell for class ring.

Ke De was also preparing to return to the track to take part in the drills. The four people split in two directions.

Xu Xing walked in front, with Lu Che leisurely following behind him. Xu Xing was annoyed and wanted to break away from Lu Che when he heard the other casually ask from behind him: “Class Monitor, between me and Jiang Jize, who do you think is more handsome?”

“……”

Xu Xing didn’t turn his head to scold the other: “You’re insane.”

Lu Che had been scolded, but he didn’t get angry. He suppressed a smile and asked in a low voice: “I’m more handsome?”

“……”

At the end of his patience, Xu Xing shouted: “I choose Jiang Jize!”

The footsteps behind him suddenly stopped.

Xu Xing couldn’t help but look back. He saw Lu Che standing in the same place, his thin lips curved slightly, but there wasn’t a hint of a smile in his eyes. Even his voice was cold: “Then you have no hope.”

Jiang Jize liked girls of small statures, the soft and delicate ones that could rouse his desire to protect them. Xu Xing was not only the wrong sex, but he would have been filtered out from a glance because of his height of 1.8 meters.

“……”

Xu Xing gave up the possibility of explaining it and quickly walked away to avoid Lu Che going crazy again.

In the first physical education class of their third year, the teacher gave a step-by-step lecture, and then listed a series of arrangements for the close relationship this semester had with the Gao Kao.

With the absences of the sports committee member, the physical education teacher guided all the students through the warm-up exercises before class. The four columns gathered into lines and jogged around the sports field twice with space between them. After, there were less than 20 minutes before it was the official time for class to start.

The free time during physical education class was a reward; parents and teachers usually itched to push them to take advantage of every moment and study for 24 hours a day, but the physical education and homeroom teachers advised them to temporarily put down their books. They needed to focus when it was time to study, but they should also have fun when it was time for that.

Xu Xing and Wang Zicong went to the equipment room to get a pair of badminton rackets and found an empty space in the front of the basketball court that was free from wind. Tang Mian, their reserve team member, was sitting on the three-step staircase to the side; she was also temporarily acting as the score-keeper and took responsibility for cheering them on. She shouted at Wang Zicong: “Cong Cong, jia you! Beat Xing Xing off the court!”

Xiong Huan placed her earbuds in and sat quietly beside her, memorizing words.

Wang Zicong’s face scrunched. He didn’t dare to thank Tang Mian for her cheer of ‘jia you’. Rather, he gave Xu Xing a cautious smile and fawningly said: “Xing Xing, we’ll play slowly. You must help me burn fat and lose weight.

Xu Xing stood in place and waved the racket: “Serve, serve.”

As a childhood friend, of course Tang Mian knew of Xu Xing’s strength — when Xu Xing had been chased barefoot down a hundred meter alley by Uncle Xu with a feather duster, he had only been able to save his face by relying solely on hitting with a badminton racket, giving him an unparalleled hand.

Wang Zicong didn’t know of the brilliant achievements Xu Xing had made in childhood, but he knew that in the second year of high school, Xu Xing had come in second place out of the whole school in the badminton competition. The senior who had won the championship that year had already graduated.

Xu Xing’s playing style was fierce. He stood still and his racket went back and forth with clean motions. He completely slaughtered Wang Zicong in the first five matches.

After six victories in ten rounds, Wand Zicong was hung up on the very last ball. Only now did Xu Xing slowly turn into his training partner; his tricky returns had turned gentle and easy. He no longer used as much speed and force. The speed of the shot was very slow. In order to catch the ball, he ran up and down, like a donkey with a red apple dangling in front of it. However, he didn’t feel like Xu Xing was playing with him. Rather, he was full of joy when he received the ball and felt that his skills had improved.

The “mutual respect” between the pair had been dragging on for a very long time. This round, Tang Mian stamped her feet and couldn’t help but change sides and grumble: “Xing Xing! Hurry up and beat Cong Cong off the court! I’ve been sitting here and been bitten by half a day’s worth of mosquitoes!”

Xiong Huan, who was sitting beside her, took out one ear bud and looked down to see that Tang Mian was sitting with her legs open. Her sitting posture was not elegant. She raised her hand and lightly patted Tang Mian. There was a faint smile on her face, but she said in a cold voice: “Sit properly.”

Tang Mian gave an “ah”, and pulled her legs together while giggling. She obediently maintained the same ladylike sitting posture and Xiong Huan.

On the basketball court.

Fu Dai had just received the ball from his teammate and casually glanced at the stands. He happened to see Xiong Huan’s delicate smiling expression. He was distracted for a split second until his teammate shouted: “Hurry, pass the ball!”

Fu Dai returned to his senses and his body reacted quickly. However, he hadn’t thought through his quick reaction, and the basketball violently smashed into the slope in front — with an overwhelming, thunder-like roar, it struck Xu Xing.

Xiong Huan’s slight smile was like the butterfly effect.

When Tang Mian turned around to see the soaring basketball, her expression changed and she shouted: “Xing Xing, look out!”

Xu Xing heard the noise and looked at Tang Mian in surprise. Tang Mian watched in alarm as the large, hard ball was on a set path straight towards the back of Xu Xing’s head.

Wang Zicong shouted: “Watch out for the back!”

After hearing Tang Mian and Wang Zicong’s warnings, Xu Xing turned his head to see a dark shadow flash before his eyes. Startled, he wanted to step to the side to avoid it. However, he slipped on the sole of his feet and fell to the ground together with the person behind him.

Xu Xing heard a groan from the person underneath him that he was using as a meat pad. Xu Xing immediately apologized, but the other person still had a mind to crack jokes: “Class Monitor, you really don’t forget to take advantage of me, anytime and anywhere.”

The voice was familiar, the scene was familiar. Xu Xing rolled himself up in a single movement and turned to see Lu Che half lying on his back on the ground.

Lu Che had intercepted the ball just in time and fell to the front because of the force, but he had already subconsciously avoided Xu Xing. How could he have known that Xu Xing would unexpectedly become unsteady and fall to the ground with him —

Xu Xing’s fall made no sense at all, but Lu Che thought about it and felt that it seemed like there was still a bit of reason to it.

The teammate retrieved the ball Lu Che had returned to the court. Fu Dai shouted over to Lu Che: “A’ Che, are you alright?”

Lu Che waved and gestured that the other didn’t need to run over, answering: “I’m fine.”

Lu Che propped up his upper body and rubbed his right wrist. He hissed in pain, but his eyebrows had only furrowed slightly. He sat up and patted away the gravel on his palm. With a mocking smile still on his face, he said to Xu Xing: “Class Monitor, didn’t you say that Jiang Jize was more handsome than me? Then why don’t you throw yourself into his arms and think of me as a bully?”

“……”

Xu Xing swallowed the words of concern he had for Lu Che back into his stomach. He felt that this person was crazy!

Xu Xing hadn’t known that he was nearly hit in the head by a basketball. He thought that Tang Mian had shouted at him to be careful because Lu Che had suddenly appeared behind him. He placed the blame for the situation onto the red string and its practical jokes and had no choice but to say to Lu Che: “Please hide yourself a little more in the future, I also don’t want to come into excessive contact with you.”

Xu Xing was already so worn out that he didn’t want to explain. To get the red string to restrain itself a little, it would be better for him to avoid Lu Che himself.

What’s more, wasn’t it Lu Che who had said last time that “it was fortunate that he hid quickly”? If you can hide quickly, then continue to do so! Go and hide!

Please, I’m begging you!

Lu Che laughed: “It’s the first time that I’ve seen a scammer make such a request of their victim. Class Monitor, you can’t help yourself, right? Now you’re directly letting me know — ‘I can’t bump into you, don’t you love to hide’? How can you do such a thing?”

“……”

Xu Xing was ashen-faced, completely speechless.

Although it wasn’t what he had originally hoped, the true situation really was like this!

What could he do? He was also truly desperate!

Lu Che snorted, his right hand clenching around nothing. He raised his hand and pressed his fist against Xu Xing’s forehead and lightly pushed him back, casually wiping away a bead of sweat with his thumb. “If I had just dodged, I think you would have been smacked stupid.”

“……”

Xu Xing unhappily leaned back, frowning: “What are you doing?”

Lu Che stood up, brushed the dust off his back, and went back to the court.

Only when Lu Che was gone did Wang Zicong and Tang Mian dare to approach. Tang Mian squatted beside Xu Xing and whispered: “Xing Xing, Lu Che just helped block the basketball for you. How can you say that you don’t want to be near him?”

Wang Zicong repeatedly nodded.

Tang Mian and the others had neither arrived too early nor too late. They had heard Lu Che’s early mocking of Xu Xing, only that Xu Xing had told the other to make himself scarce.

Now Xu Xing had discovered what the situation truly was from their words. He gave out a loud sound of acknowledgement. He understood that it was him who was in the wrong this time, but he couldn’t put down his face and let it go.

Could it be that he needed to go thank Lu Che?

Fine, fine.

In contrast, Xu Xing offered up thanks in his heart.

Lu Che needs to stop asking questions he won’t like the answer to (⁎˃ᆺ˂)