chapter 11

Only after having achieved some distance, did Huo Ran lower his head, thinking of lifting up his shirt to see whether that person earlier had had a rock sandwiched between his buttcheeks when he’d sat on his stomach, because why did it hurt this much.1

His hand had just touched his shirt, but Jiang Lei had already chased him over, and with the two members of the basketball team by his side too, so Huo Ran hurriedly put his hand back down.

“What happened?” Jiang Lei asks, “Who knocked into you?”

“Didn’t see clearly,” Huo Ran furrows his brows, “Even if I’d seen clearly I wouldn’t know him… no worries, he might’ve hit my stomach, I feel a little nauseous.”

“Do you wanna head to the infirmary? After school officially reopened there’ll be someone taking the shift,” says one of the members.

“No need,” Huo Ran waves his hand, “You two go do what you were gonna do, thanks for earlier.”

“Okay then, we’ll be heading back to the dorm,” the two members walk a few steps towards where the dorm was, before turning back again, “Captain, Old Yu says our older team members start training next week?”

“Mn, wasn’t this week getting the new members familiar with the usual arrangements,” Huo Ran nods, and after the two members have left, he rubs his stomach again, lifting his shirt and lowering his head to take a look, “Doesn’t seem like there’s anything though.”

“Can’t tell,” Jiang Lei bends down to take a look as well.

“Nevermind forget it,” Huo Ran sighs, “Let’s get back to class.”

“Did you see exactly how Kou Chen fought?” Jiang Lei keeps his voice low, “Fucking 1 v 4?”

“Didn’t see clearly, I got knocked down as soon as I got there,” Huo Ran’s brows are furrowed, turning back to glance at Kou Chen who was walking behind them, suddenly noticing that there was something in Kou Chen’s hand that reflected a bit of light, and the fright he’d gotten in that instant even made his stomach stop hurting, “Fuck, you brought a knife?”1

“Nah,” Kou Chen tosses the knife in his hand up and down, “Not mine.”

“Those guys brought it,” Xu Chuan says, “They’ve sure got nerve huh.”

Huo Ran only then realised why Kou Chen had come over to feel his stomach.3

“Got nerve my ass,” Kou Chen says, “Stuff like knives, at our school, taking it out means putting it in someone, over here, taking it out is to toss it onto the ground.”1

Boasting again.

Huo Ran sighs: “Kou Chen, did you previously go to school at a labour camp*?”1

[*tl note: i’m not sure how these work exactly, but it seems to be a camp where legal offenders are made to labour for reformation]

“Labour camp’s no big deal,” Kou Chen was very contemptuous, “There’s no way for the people at labour camp to compare to us, we can obliterate them with just the pinky toe.”1

Huo Ran looks at him, in admiration from the bottom of his heart with regards to this sort of psychological fortitude that allows him to completely disregard satire and even conveniently start to boast, unable to say a single word.

“To the infirmary,” Kou Chen changes the subject.

“What’s wrong?” Huo Ran gets nervous hearing this, after all he’d already seen the knife.

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“Check up a bit,” Kou Chen says, “I did just get hit.”

“What?” the few of them were stunned.

Huo Ran was a little blank, Kou Chen was clearly just waxing lyrical and if he’d ascended he’d have done it twice*, at that level if he wasn’t seeing with his own eyes, just listening to Kou Chen’s speech, he’d definitely have immediately classed it as boasting.

[*tl note: this part is probably (rather) inaccurate, my apologies. but she uses an idiom ‘floating clouds and flowing water’ that is used to describe ‘(an essay that is) natural and unrestrained’ which in this context probably refers to the way kou chen was talking big. the ascension part after is my own understanding because she uses the character 飞 which means ‘fly’ and usually they don’t mean literal flying]

Someone with this level of fighting capability had gotten hit?

“I originally didn’t want to retaliate,” Kou Chen worked his arms, backhandedly pressing on his back a few times, grimacing with his brows furrowed, “My dad’s said, if I got in a fight again he’d stuff me into a meat mincer machine for making sausages on the spot…”2

Hearing this statement Huo Ran felt his whole body twisting painfully.

“If I’d gotten down to it at the start, by the time you guys got here there wouldn’t have been anyone left,” Kou Chen bounces twice on the spot, “I was fucking holding my head and taking blows for half a day, and yet those dumbasses didn’t want to get done!”

“Fuck,” Jiang Lei says, “Is what you’re saying true or false!”

“Then what do you think we were doing there during those good few minutes you guys took to get here,” Kou Chen gives him a glare, “Holding a meeting?”2

“Even if you really started fighting, your dad wouldn’t know anyways, they were the ones who came looking for trouble first,” Wei ChaoRen says, “And they lost, they wouldn’t be shameless enough to tell people about it.”

“You don’t get it,” Kou Chen pats on his shoulder with a pleased look on his face.

Out of the few people present, it was probably only Huo Ran that felt he’d experienced a sudden light bulb moment.

Got it.

A master hides his abilities, disdaining to exchange blows with the opponent, then when the opponent’s arrogance reaches its peak and thinks victory is in his hand, he suddenly unleashes a blow out of impatience, and in a flash of lightning and thunder the opponent is instantly sent 3000 feet under and KO-ed just like that, so the opponent feels a severe blow dealt to his spirit as well as experiences the difference between a master’s way of ‘faking extra-ordinariness’ and his own… Huo Ran felt that Kou Chen was mainly going for the effect of the latter.

This probably wasn’t just simply faking extra-ordinariness anymore, but the highest degree of it, it was true extra-ordinariness.

Huo Ran glances at Kou Chen, he’d suddenly been able to follow the train of thought of the braggart king, and this made him extremely uneasy.1

Although he’d been able to follow Kou Chen’s train of thought, but it was only when he’d seen the fresh bruises on his back in the school infirmary, did Huo Ran truly believe what Kou Chen had said.

“Got in a fight?” the one taking the shift today was the school doctor Jiejie, seeing Kou Chen’s injuries, she heaved a sigh.

“Got beaten up,” when Kou Chen answered he even seemed smug.

“Who hit you?” school doctor Jiejie took an ice bag out of the fridge, wrapping it up using a towel.

“Him,” Kou Chen points at Huo Ran.2

“You say that one more time? Who?” Huo Ran glares at him, simply wishing he could give his skull a few shakes to see if he could drain some water out of it.

“Still wanting to fight? So fierce,” school doctor Jiejie gives him a look, “Sit down, no fighting when you’re here, I will report it to your teacher, so all of you sit.”

The way school doctor Jiejie spoke was calm and gentle, whether it was Kou Chen’s injuries or the half of the tattoo he had exposed, none of them were able to shock her, the few people in the room instantly obediently found a chair each to sit in.

“These injuries aren’t too serious, ice it a bit first, tomorrow you can cover it with a hot towel, if you find it troublesome you can also not bother,” school doctor Jiejie holds the ice bag out in front of Huo Ran, “You help him ice it for a bit then.”

“Me?” Huo Ran froze.

“Why not let me do it,” Xu Chuan stood up.

“He hit him though,” school doctor Jiejie says, “Whoever hit him shall help him ice.”

Xu Chuan sat back down.

At this point it was impossible for Huo Ran to confess what had happened earlier, so he could only grit his teeth as he stood up to receive the ice bag, walking to behind where Kou Chen was.

“Be gentle okay,” Kou Chen says, “It’s still hurting.”

This is the price for you faking extra-ordinariness using quack methods.

Huo Ran presses the ice bag onto his back.1

“Ai fuck!” Kou Chen’s bent back instantly straightens, “Why’s it so cold!”2

“Nonsense, because this is an ice cube,” Huo Ran originally thought to continue pressing the ice bag down on him to freeze this nutcase to death, but after hesitating a moment still lifted the ice bag away from him, “Were you expecting it to be hot!”2

“I just wasn’t mentally prepared,” Kou Chen props his arm on his knees, “Continue.”

Huo Ran heaves a sigh, placing the ice bag back on him.

During the 10 minutes of icing, Kou Chen kept mumbling inaudibly about how the ice bag was too cold, so cold it hurt, but the people in the room with Xu Chuan as the lead, were all chatting with Jiejie, and so there was nobody that concerned themselves about Kou Chen’s injuries anymore.

Of course, this fucking also wasn’t an injury that actually needed concern.

It had to be said that Kou Chen had actually been somewhat prepared, just a few patches of red, all gathered at the spot on the back that could best take beatings, it would hurt, but wouldn’t affect much, the continuous whining from before, was simply him being scared of pain.

After all he was someone that a pinky dislocation could make howl as though he’d let go of the human world.

“Is your stomach alright?” Kou Chen whose head had been lowered to play with his phone while he whined turned his face slightly to ask very quietly.

“It’s fine,” Huo Ran felt around on his stomach, “Felt like throwing up a little earlier, but there’s nothing now.”

“You can’t make it huh,” Kou Chen says, “Just a little bump and you’re end up like this.”

“Mn,” Huo Ran looks at the back of his head, “Not much experience, after all I don’t go looking to get hit for no reason like you do.”

Kou Chen doesn’t say anything, laughing half a day.1

By the time they’d come out from the school infirmary, there was still 10 minutes left to the last period, at this time Old Yuan went back to the classroom, so they had to go back to the classroom to sit through an inspection.

Walking into the classroom the whole class turned over to look, and someone softly asked: “What’s the battle situation?”

“Didn’t start fighting,” Wei ChaoRen answers, “Boring.”

Huo Ran looks at him, this sudden display of off-the-chart intellect made one feel as though someone else had transmigrated into Wei ChaoRen.

Kou Chen walked directly over to Xu ZhiFan’s seat and sat down, after sitting even happily tilted his chair forward waiting for Huo Ran.

“Do you still have something you need?” when Huo Ran squeezed over towards his seat he kept a grip on the back of the seat, scared that if he’d pressed onto Kou Chen’s back he’d scream bloody murder a few more times.

“Nothing’s up,” Kou Chen says, “Why, am I not allowed to take this seat?”

“I do not dare,” Huo Ran sits down, during night self-study the people in their class all sat anywhere they wanted, there seemed to be no reason for him to make Kou Chen leave.

“Ai, there we go,” Kou Chen leans on the chair and rocks back and forth, “Gotta regard me with fear.”

“Your back doesn’t hurt anymore?” Huo Ran gave him a sideways glance, rocking so merrily.

“Hurt my ass,” Kou Chen says, “It’s long been frozen numb, even now I still can’t feel a thing.”

Old Yuan entered the classroom 5 minutes before the end of night self-study, leaving them with the instructions to hurry back to the dorm and not run around those sorts of safety issues, then called Huo Ran out of the classroom.

Huo Ran was a little nervous following Old Yuan out of the classroom, scared that Old Yuan was about to ask about the fight earlier, because they hadn’t worked out a common excuse.

“Did something happen in Hu Yi’s family?” Old Yuan asks gently.

Hearing this, Huo Ran exhales in relief: “Seems so.”

“These couple of days his mood hasn’t looked right,” Old Yuan says, “Do help me tell him, if there’s anything he needs help with or anything he wants to chat about, he can come look for me, if I’m not in school, he can go to my house.”

“Mn, okay,” Huo Ran nods his head, “Thank you Teacher Yuan.”

After Old Yuan leaves, Kou Chen darts out of the classroom in a flash: “What’s up?”

“It wasn’t about earlier, it was about Hu Yi,” Huo Ran says.

“The knife got discovered?” Kou Chen asks.

“Nah,” Huo Ran remembers this, and couldn’t help but ask: “How exactly did you know he’d brought a knife?”

Kou Chen doesn’t say anything, looking at him for a few seconds, a smug smile then slowly emerged on his face, and he kept the smile for about 5 seconds, before saying: “If you beg me I’ll tell you.”2

“Hold it in then,” Huo Ran turns and enters the classroom.2

As he sat and starting packing his things up, Kou Chen walked over: “Seeing how earnest you are, I’ll tell you then.”

“Don’t,” Huo Ran says, “I don’t have a single bit of earnestness, please definitely keep your mouth tightly shut and don’t tell me anything.”3

“Will you listen or not!” Kou Chen suddenly comes right up to his ear and shouts with his voice suppressed.

Huo Ran who was completely unprepared, and in addition this voice was extremely vicious, got a fright, turning his head he saw Kou Chen’s glaring eyes.

“If you don’t listen I’ll smack you to death,” Kou Chen adds.

“…Tell me then,” Huo Ran was a little helpless, he suddenly had the momentary illusion that, if he’d said he wouldn’t listen, it seemed like the next second Kou Chen was going to yell “Fly for Laozi!” at him.5

Kou Chen hearing this immediately happily started telling him about it: “It’s actually super simple, when Hu Yi walks his posture isn’t upright you know that right, especially slack, but when I saw him returning to the dorm he was walking extra straight, when I have a knife hidden in my back I do exactly that, scared that the flesh would get cut, so usually inside I’d wear another vest or something to separate…”

“Why a vegetable knife? Not a watermelon knife or box cutter or small knife?” Huo Ran asks.

“Nonsense, box cutter or small knives would be placed in the pockets already, watermelon knife in the pants sleeve, putting something that long behind the back is dumbassery, if it doesn’t poke the butt then it’ll jab the neck,” Kou Chen says, “But the vegetable knife was my guess, it could’ve also been a noodle slicer, Hu Yi clearly looks like he lacks guts, specifically getting a vegetable knife he might not dare.”

Huo Ran looks at Kou Chen, relatively stunned.

“Fuck, that’s amazing,” Jiang Lei had been listening in the seat in front with his body slanted, and at this point was also stunned.

“Why?” Kou Chen instantly lifts a brow, “Noodle slicer?”

“Ah,” Huo Ran nods, “Yes.”

Kou Chen smiles as he pats his face, “Definitely do not worship me too much.”5

Huo Ran took a good few seconds before abruptly raising his hand to give his face a good rubbing.1

“Fuck your uncle,” Kou Chen looks at him, “My hand is clean!”

“Touch me again and I’ll take you out,” Huo Ran says.

The next second Kou Chen had stuck out his hand, aiming directly for the side of his waist, and Huo Ran keeps his eyes trained on his hand.

5 centimeters away from his waist when Huo Ran was already prepared to grab his hand and twist it behind his back, Kou Chen’s hand stopped, pausing for a moment before he took it back.

“Forget it,” Kou Chen says, “After the camping’s done.”1

Huo Ran glares at him.

“Let’s go! Back to the dorm to sleep!” Kou Chen shouts as he stands up and stretches, the classroom an echo of responses.

The bunch of people noisily walked out of the door, and Huo Ran glances at the Year 3 classrooms, there still was no movement, as though the sound of the bell signalling the end of self-study had nothing to do with them.

“Are you up for supper?” Jiang Lei asks while holding his phone, “ZhiFan says he’s waiting at the cafeteria.”

“Eat,” Huo Ran presses on his stomach, “How’s Hu Yi?”1

“Said he got tired crying so he’s sleeping, and still hasn’t woken up yet,” Jiang Lei sighs,

The school cafeteria’s supper was immensely popular, especially when the days were starting to get colder, after getting out of self-study it was like they’d eaten nothing the whole day, upon entering the cafeteria they felt like biting on even the plates.

Not sure why, but Huo Ran suddenly thought of He Hua.

She probably really hadn’t eaten anything the whole day, even having to hide while eating supper, after Kou Chen had helped her that time, he still didn’t know if there could be even a little effect at all.

“Here!” Xu ZhiFan had already bought food, there was congee and a large plate of chicken wings, in this school it was the chicken wings that were out of this world, each time they’d only eat chicken wings and nothing else.

“Isn’t there a bit much?” Huo Ran asks as he sat down.

“I also invited Kou Chen and the others,” as Xu ZhiFan was speaking, Xu Chuan and Wei ChaoRen squeezed over and sat down, and he swept a glance towards the back, “Where’s Kou Chen?”

“Went to the ghost building,” Xu Chuan took a chicken wing.

“He went again?” Huo Ran froze.

“Again?” Xu ZhiFan glances at him, suppressing his voice with his brows furrowed, “The ones that just got in a fight with the third years were you guys wasn’t it!”

“Not us,” Wei ChaoRen also speaks softly, “It was Kou Chen, it was over by the time we got there, but Huo Ran managed to catch a late arrival, got smashed into the ground.”

Xu ZhiFan looks at Huo Ran, and Huo Ran felt around on his stomach: “Just got bumped into, when I wanted to retaliate there was already no one… how do you know about it?”

“How else would I know, I was at the dorm, from third year there were people returning to the dorm, then climbed out over the wall again, from the movement you can tell they were going to the hospital,” Xu ZhiFan says, “It was only Kou Chen that’d dealt blows?”

“Yeah,” Jiang Lei nods, “1 v 4, incredible.”

“Then why’s he still headed over there?” Xu ZhiFan asks Xu Chuan.

“Not that,” Xu Chuan swallows the chicken meat, “He went to look at He Hua roasting sausages.”

“…Has his brain has been gnawed on by a chicken before?” Huo Ran asks.2

“Don’t know, we’ve also only known him one semester,” Xu Chuan laughs as he says.

“And he didn’t say why?” Xu ZhiFan asks.

“Nope,” Xu Chuan says, “He probably just wanted to tell her, that that bunch of people have been taught a lesson, and get her to stop heading over there to hide and eat.”

“Must he go to the ghost building to tell her that?” Jiang Lei couldn’t quite understand.

“It’s just someone like He Hua, if you don’t look for a deserted place to chat with her one-on-one, you probably won’t be able to say 5 words before she gets scared off,” Xu ZhiFan says.+

Huo Ran doesn’t say anything, concentratedly chewing on a chicken wing.