Chapter 74

Chapter 68: The Break Time War

The next day, when Wen Liang went to school, he was prepared. He scanned the 21 bus for a long time but didn't see Si Yajing's figure. Normally, people have a routine for work, and except for irresistible natural disasters, the time difference for taking the bus in the morning is usually within one or two minutes. Since they had met before, the probability of meeting again should be over 90%. Therefore, it was very likely that Si Yajing had deliberately changed her bus time to avoid the awkwardness of the previous encounter.

Wen Liang sighed in relief. It was Friday, and there was no chemistry class, so he could avoid Si Yajing's questioning. After the weekend, when he came back to school on Monday, perhaps last night's incident could be forgotten. Wen Liang smiled bitterly to himself, knowing that this was almost a delusion. After receiving such a big favor from her last night, he would have to pay a price.

When he arrived at school, many people were already active. On his way to the teaching building, he happened to meet Ji Su. She was early this time, holding hands with Meng Ke, chatting about something. Wen Liang called out, and Ji Su turned around, her face lighting up with surprise. She hurriedly turned and went down two steps before realizing she was too excited and stood there modestly. When Wen Liang walked up, she handed him a warm soy milk. Meng Ke, seeing this, looked cold and unhappy.

Wen Liang suddenly thought, could it be that Ji Su was working part-time at the soy milk shop? She was diligent and beautiful, and could only work after 5 PM, which was right after school. These characteristics fit perfectly!

Ji Su might have felt that with the current situation at home, she needed to earn some money to help out, but she couldn't work for too long, so she chose to work for one or two hours after school. The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. However, in this era, unless the family was extremely poor, it was rare for high school students around sixteen or seventeen to work part-time, especially not for a girl as beautiful as Ji Su.

Wen Liang didn't want to ask in front of Meng Ke, thinking about whether to talk to her after school. He smiled and said, "Ji Su, I admit Qinghe soy milk is very good, but even if you eat bird's nest and shark's fin for too long, you'll get tired of it."

Ji Su exclaimed and tried to grab the soy milk bag back, her face turning red with embarrassment. She said in a low voice, "I, I..."

Meng Ke walked over, snatched the bag, and with a red face and a frown, said, "You still have the nerve to say that? Su Su saved her breakfast money to buy this soy milk for you and didn't even eat breakfast herself. You, you've made me so angry!"

Ji Su stomped her foot, blushing and said, "Why did you have to say that?" She pulled Meng Ke and turned to leave.

Meng Ke ignored her, turned around, and threw the bag back, saying coldly, "I just found out today. You deal with it!"

Wen Liang caught the bag and suddenly wanted to slap himself. He remembered that all the money at home had been given to his uncle to use for connections, and Ji Zheng was away, while Su Rui was bedridden. He should have thought of this earlier.

After the second class, all the students gathered on the playground for the radio calisthenics. Some classes were positioned at the back, and they could take a shortcut through a small path to the toilet. As soon as the music for the eye exercises started, the toilet would be crowded with people chatting, smoking, reading martial arts novels, fighting, negotiating, and discussing which window served the best food. Everyone was there, doing everything except the exercises.

Every day during the break time, a war was waged between the problem students and the school administration. The students used all their ingenuity to avoid going to the playground. They started by taking sick leave, but when the teacher refused to approve too many, they forged the signatures. When the administration and the student council inspected, they would show the forged notes. Later, the homeroom teachers would receive fake sick leave notes from the administration. In Class 2-7, the forgery was so simple that all the students learned it. Once, the administration received twenty-nine sick leave notes, seventeen of which had the same reason: stomachache. The teacher leading the inspection thought it was a food poisoning incident. After checking, they found out all the notes were fake.

This shameful exposure led to the administration taking control of the sick leave approval. Only the head of the administration could approve leave, similar to how the death penalty approval was later centralized to the Supreme Court. There was a small incident where a student from Class 2-8 tried to sneak in with a fake note from Class 2-7 but was caught by the observant teacher. This student was later known as the "shame of Class 2-8" and an honorary member of Class 2-7.

After the sick leave approval was centralized, hiding under desks became the most popular choice. The classroom door was locked from the outside, and they would come out after the inspection. This method quickly spread and was very popular among the students. However, the administration countered by having teachers carry a bunch of keys to check suspicious classrooms, often catching a whole group of students.

During this period, many creative ideas emerged. The administration, unable to tolerate the chaos, decided to conduct roll calls on the playground. Thousands of students gathered, and the administration used the full strength of the student council and two students from each class to form inspection teams. They would check the attendance with the class lists. Any class with missing students would be required to stay on the playground for a roll call. One absence would result in a severe warning, two in a major demerit, and three in expulsion.

Despite these measures, the number of students avoiding the exercises remained high. It was a very frustrating problem. Why would they rather hide in the toilet, risk punishment, and endure the smell to avoid twenty minutes of exercises?

Wen Liang understood later that they were just using the methods of their time to resist the oppression of their era.

"Eye exercises, first section, massage the Tianying acupoint."

Wen Liang closed his eyes and pressed his fingers on the Tianying acupoint. Suddenly, Liu Zhihe's voice came from beside him, "Brother, what did you do yesterday? My dad came home so late and dragged me out of bed to give me a long lecture, telling me to learn from you."

Wen Liang realized that Liu Zhihe had somehow ended up next to him, while Ren Yi was in the line for Class 4. The positions of Class 3 and Class 4 were close, but he hadn't noticed the change.

"Nothing much, just told your dad that we're good friends and that you take good care of me at school."

"Really?" Liu Zhihe spat, "If I believe you, I'm a pig!"

Wen Liang looked around; there were too many people to talk freely. He smiled and said, "How about this, let's go to the second floor for lunch, my treat."

Liu Zhihe understood and nodded, rubbing the Jingming acupoint. "Is Tan Yu really your brother?"

Wen Liang thought he was going to say something about Tan Yu and turned to face him. "Yes, Old Liu, for my sake, don't mess with Tan Yu."

Liu Zhihe said irritably, "Why are you so worked up? I don't have the time to bully him. Since he's your brother, I just wanted to warn you. That girl Bei Mi isn't a good person. She had a bad reputation in junior high and is just here to trick people from other schools."

"Bei Mi? Who's that?"

Liu Zhihe looked at his expression carefully and laughed bitterly. "Brother, stop playing with me. I actually saw confusion in your eyes! Damn, we're this close, almost sleeping together, and you still don't trust me?"

Wen Liang was speechless. "I'd rather hug a pig than you. Save it! Tan Yu is indeed my brother, but I've been busy lately and haven't paid much attention to him. What's going on? I remember Tan Yu wasn't like this before."

In his previous life, Tan Yu lost his beloved sister and became as introverted as Wen Liang. They met by chance in high school and quickly became good friends, sharing the darkest times of their youth. After that, until Wen Liang's rebirth, they had been inseparable for almost ten years, attending the same university and living in the same city. Wen Liang knew Tan Yu well—quiet and repressed in school, timid but bold, and after graduation, talkative and a womanizer, two completely different personalities.

Could it be that because Wen Liang saved Tan Xue in this life, Tan Yu's second personality had emerged earlier?

"Not like this? Brother, don't joke. That guy is a total pervert in Class 10, accepting anyone who comes his way. He even chats with the class beauty, Jin Xiao. What can't he do?"

Wen Liang hadn't heard this before and was surprised. "Isn't it good to be favored by the class beauty? What's your logic?"

"Haha, you'll see. Let's talk more at lunch."

Liu Zhihe moved to the left, stepped back, and then forward, disappearing quickly from the line of Class 4. Wen Liang was amazed and angrily said to Ren Yi, "Brother Yang, is this how you defend the left flank of the Nationalist army? You exposed the command post to the Japanese without a word? If this were wartime, you'd be Chen Shimei!"

Ren Yi was confused and leaned in to ask, "I can barely understand the first part. What does Chen Shimei have to do with the war?"

Just then, the music for the "Eighth Set of Radio Calisthenics, First Section, Stretching Exercise" started. Wen Liang pushed him away and started doing the exercises.

Ren Yi kept asking, "What's the connection? I know Chen Shimei, but he didn't fight in the war..."

After the exercises, the students dispersed in all directions, with the most heading towards the toilet. Wen Liang finally managed to get away from Ren Yi and found Xu Yao in the crowd. She was chatting with a group of girls, and when Wen Liang listened, he couldn't help but smile.