chapter 16.2

Kou Chen turns his face away holding his laughter in, Lu Huan doesn’t usually speak in this manner, he didn’t know whether it was because she’d gotten a little nervous since she was speaking to the Director, but the way she spoke was so prim and proper it was like she was going off to die a hero’s death.

After he was done keeping his laughter down he then felt a little amazed, the few of them exchanged looks, it was likely that out of everyone present no one had expected that Lu Huan would make this sort of move, after all they were no longer in the same class, and even had some history with Class 3.

“There are actually a number of people that know about this matter,” Lu Huan walks into the office, a little nervous, but her voice rather loud, “Maybe they felt a little scared, since that group has numbers on their side, and maybe also felt that it’s none of their business… if the matter hadn’t gone out of hand like it had today, I probably also wouldn’t… wouldn’t have come forward to talk about it.”

“It’s alright, you can tell me about it individually,” the Director softens and slows their speech, but when they turn back to look at the bunch of them, they still roared as per usual, “Follow your respective form teachers out, explain what happened earlier clearly!”

To a university-affiliated school, a group fight in the cafeteria in itself already wasn’t a small issue, much less it having implicated a “good student”, all of them were very quickly separated into three batches by the Director, then brought to different offices to discuss in detail.

Huo Ran’s group followed Old Yuan into the office, Old Yuan and the Director were not the same, from start to finish his attitude had been rather peaceful.

Without taking much time up the whole sequence of events had been made clear, just that Huo Ran had gotten a little tired, because while they were explaining Kou Chen had refused to open his mouth, so it had been up to him to narrate Kou Chen’s history of fronting, even having to go around a few details…

“How much did they take from you?” Old Yuan gives attention to the financial problem first.

“Don’t know,” Kou Chen has a look of complete indifference, and seeing that Old Yuan doesn’t believe him, he heaves a sigh, “I really don’t know, after my dad gave it to me I hadn’t even counted it actually.”

“No worries, this I will clarify later on,” Old Yuan says as he takes his wallet out, “Do you still have money to eat? I’ll give you some first…”

“Ai,” Kou Chen leaps up from his chair at once, “Have have have have have, don’t don’t don’t don’t…Thank you Teacher Yuan, I really do have, the money in the card from last semester I haven’t even finished using yet.”1

“Oh,” Old Yuan glances at him, “Don’t act tough, you have to tell me when you’re out of money.”

“I guarantee that I’ll tell you,” Kou Chen nods his head.

Old Yuan keeps his wallet, sweeping a glance across all their faces: “Regarding this matter I believe all of what you’ve said, and firstly I want to affirm your intentions to seek justice for a suffering classmate, it’s very good.”

The group of them listen obediently, waiting for that ‘but’.

“But regarding the method of choice it wasn’t very suitable,” Old Yuan says, “I know kids your age, right, think that if anything happens ‘telling the teacher’ is pretty humiliating, since it makes it seem like you’re incapable, but this issue still should’ve been told to a teacher first.”

The group of them stay silent for a moment, before Xu ZhiFan clears his throat: “Actually about this issue, what I felt was that even if we reported it there wouldn’t be any use, because fundamentally they didn’t hit anyone, Hu Yi had seen once, she’d gotten a kick, but she probably didn’t get hurt, and He Hua herself also hadn’t asked for help, so on the surface it may look to be nothing too serious… On the contrary Li JiaYing has pretty good grades and is even a subject representative, earlier today a look at how Teacher Lü was and you could tell they completely hadn’t known, probably even being under the impression that this was a good student, so even if this issue had really been reported, nobody knows what the final result could be in the end.”

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Old Yuan doesn’t speak, and only gives a few nods after half a day had passed, then thinks a bit more and sighs: “This perception of yours… when students don’t trust their teachers, it is a problem us teachers should reflect upon, but I still want to emphasise, that while for other teachers I won’t guarantee, but with me, I definitely will not disappoint all of you.”

Old Yuan stands up, giving a pat onto all their shoulders according to sequence: “There are still 2 years, let us all slowly nurture our feelings, and build up trust in each other.”

Only after giving Old Yuan the relevant information and some extra chatting, did the group of them come out from the office.

The first class of the afternoon had already started ten minutes ago, but outside the office there were still students sticking their heads out and craning their necks, and taking one look across, pretty much all were from their class.

Even with his peripheral vision Huo Ran could see that Kou Chen had become more particular about the way he walked, switching to a style that would match the bgm of a hero’s appearance within a second.1

“How was it?” someone asks with a suppressed voice from afar.

“It’s nothing,” Jiang Lei directs his similarly suppressed voice in that direction, “We’ve now already been released*…”

[*tl note: he says ‘released’ as in ‘released from jail’]

“All of you return to the classroom for lessons first, if you want to report the battle results you can do it slowly in the classroom, if you discuss it here are you not afraid the Director will hear,” Old Yuan says, “If there’s anything I need to ask you about I’ll look for you again.”

“Will we get a demerit point?” Jiang Lei asks.

“University-affiliated schools haven’t had an instance of a fight as severe as this one in many years,” Old Yuan gives each of them a look, “You should all mentally prepare yourselves to call a parent in.”

When leaving the office, Huo Ran glanced towards the disciplinary department, the Director’s imposing aura was shocking, Liu Yu’s group all had their heads bowed, and there were two that were kneeling on the ground because there hadn’t been enough chairs, so this scene looked to be rather familiar, if they hugged their heads it would be even more familiar.

“Judging from what Old Yuan has said, even if there aren’t any problems with our intentions, the outcome was still too serious,” Jiang Lei says, “We probably won’t be able to avoid getting a demerit.”

“The crap are you afraid of,” Wei ChaoRen says, “Get a demerit then so be it.”

“I’m not afraid…” Jiang Lei says.

“He’s excited,” Xu ZhiFan says, “His dream is to get a demerit.”

“As expected of a bro,” Jiang Lei sticks his thumb up at him, “Understanding me so well.”1

“Kou Chen, if your dad finds out you’ve gotten a demerit, do you have to come over to my house to hide out for a few days, because I feel he might march to the dorm to make sausages,” Wei ChaoRen looks at Kou Chen.

“This one’s not a problem,” Kou Chen says, “On my record there’s actually already a demerit, he’s used to it.”

“Fuck, why do you have one recorded?” Huo Ran was a little shocked, asking it out loud offhandedly, “For hitting a teacher?”

Kou Chen gives him a glance, then suddenly lifts one eyebrow, some smugness showing through in his cold façade: “Hitting a teacher doesn’t count for shit.”

“Take it as I’d never asked,” Huo Ran says.

Even at this time he still doesn’t forget to act all that!

The verdict on this matter hadn’t come out even after the afternoon had passed, but Old Yuan hadn’t asked them to go over to clarify anything, which showed that Li JiaYing’s gang hadn’t been able to come up with any sort of suitable excuse for themselves.

They’d originally wanted to go over to Class 3 in between lessons to give Lu Huan their thanks, but after further discussion were afraid they’d end up attracting some sort of trouble for her.

“How bout 1 of you send her message,” Huo Ran says, “We can’t not even say ‘thanks'”.

Kou Chen takes his phone out, finding Lu Huan’s contact from his previous class’ group chat, then sending her a friend request: “A good model student like her, will probably only look at her phone after school’s done…”

But he hadn’t finished speaking, when his phone chimes; Lu Huan had already accepted his friend request.

“Looks like she ain’t really too much of a model huh,” Jiang Lei says.

“What do I say?” Kou Chen asks as he looks at the open chat.

“Just… ‘thank you’ probably,” Huo Ran thinks a little, “Then…”

He’d only finished half of what he was going to say, but Kou Chen had already swiftly typed those two words and sent them out.

– Thank you

Huo Ran looks at him: “You’re just doing it like this?”

“I’ll just directly treat her to a meal,” Kou Chen asks, “Sending a message like this is awkward as hell.”

– You’re welcome it’s what I should do

Lu Huan’s reply had come in.

Huo Ran looks at these two awkward and polite lines on the screen, and also doesn’t know what to say anymore, so he simply waves his hand: “Let’s talk about it again when we meet up after school.”

During the last period there were a few that could no longer bear it and had run to the disciplinary department, then come back to report that there was already nobody left in the office.

It was only when school had let out and everyone was preparing to rush to the cafeteria, that Old Yuan came over: “The few of you, after the vacation get your parents to come in to discuss with me.”

“Is there a verdict on how to settle it already?” Xu Chuan asks.

“Not so quickly,” Old Yuan says, “Don’t be too stressed, but this method of using violence to settle problems must absolutely never be used again in the future.”

“Got it…” the few of them drag their voices out.

When they were in the cafeteria for dinner, Li JiaYing’s group never showed up, He Hua doesn’t show up either of course, so it was only their Bully Handler 7-man Group that, even though they were sitting in the innermost seats to eat, still continued to receive gazes from all around.

Huo Ran wasn’t too used to being watched like this, when he played basketball the spectator area was a circle full of people, but he was never as self-conscious as he was now, so he could only engross himself in eating.

“Kou Chen I’m asking you,” Wei ChaoRen pauses to drink a mouthful of soup, “If Li JiaYing had hit your face earlier today what would you have done?”

“There’s no way she’d have hit,” Kou Chen says, “Her 2 slaps were like in slow motion.”1

“I said ‘if’, ‘what if’!” Wei ChaoRen says, “Would you have retaliated?”

“Bullshit, if you were bitch-slapped by someone would you care if they were male or female,” Kou Chen says, “In a fight there are 3 types of people, male, female, and people who hit Laozi’s face.”4

Huo Ran laughs after hearing this, almost choking, he turns his head away to cough for half a day.

Kou Chen sends a few slaps onto his back: “Can even choke when you eat, how did you become basketball captain with this sort of constitution.”

“Get lost,” the slaps on his back cause Huo Ran to aggressively cough two more times.

“Today was rather worth remembering,” Jiang Lei suddenly comes out with this without rhyme or reason, “Although it was a fight today, but it’d count as a meaningful fight right!?”

The group of them stay silent for two seconds, then start nodding one after another.

“Lu Huan,” Wei ChaoRen suddenly stands up, waving his hand at the entrance.

All of them turn to look over, and Lu Huan is smiling as she walks over: “Are you guys alright? Have they told you how they’re planning to settle it?”

“Have to call our parents in after the vacation,” Xu Chuan says, “Thank you for today, and… did you say there were others that would testify with you? Who are all of them, thank them all together.”

“It’s nothing,” Lu Huan was a little embarrassed, “When I went over where was there the time to look for the others, it’s just that the few of us in the dorm all know about it, so we could all testify, I’ll just have to tell them about it tonight, and there were originally already a lot of people who knew, just that nobody was willing to come out with it.”

“You’re capable huh,” Jiang Lei keeps his voice low, “Impromptu in front of the Director?”

“Was afraid that if I went back to contact people before I went it’d give them a chance to recover*,” Lu Huan smiles with some embarrassment, “Then again I was kind of agitated at that time, so I couldn’t really bother, when I knocked on the disciplinary department’s door my hand was totally shaking.”

[*tl note: she uses the term ‘recover’ as in for gaming, such as when the monster heals/regenerates]

Lu Huan glances behind her as she speaks, a few girls had helped her to reserve a seat, and were currently looking this way, she then walks two steps in that direction, before turning back again: “I’m going over to eat now, everyone thought you were all very cool* today!”

[*tl note: could also mean ‘handsome’]

Jiang Lei had been facing the side, watching as she’d gone over and had taken a seat before abruptly turning his head back, his hand gently patting the table twice: “Kou Chen Kou Chen.”1

“I’ll add you into a group you add her yourself,” Kou Chen gives him a look, taking his phone out.

“You know too well,” Jiang Lei rubs his hands.

In order to be at ease setting out while bringing Noob Squad along, the matter about having fought and needing to call in a parent, Huo Ran planned to only tell his family right before having to return to school after vacation had ended, Dad wasn’t really a problem, but if Mom found out, she’d probably have to buy a satellite phone in order to chase him into the mountains to nag at him.

“Be aware of safety,” Mom says.

In contrast to fighting, Mom was way less worried about him going into the mountains to trek, cycling, or camping in the wilderness, so other than this one line, she pretty much didn’t have anything else to say.

Dad was more thorough, asking about the route, destination, resting spots planned for the middle of the journey, the phone numbers of everyone else going on the trip, and even looking his equipment once through.

“If you’re bringing newbies then you should try as much as possible to look for more campsites,” Dad looks at the map, “The abandoned campsite at Old XiKou* counts as one, the one at Bai Mao Po would be fine as well, we’ve both gone there before.”

[*tl note 1: couldn’t tell whether this was a name or not so I left it, but xikou also means ‘mouth of a river’]

tl note 2: ‘bai mao po’ translated would be ‘white fur hill’]

“Mn,” Huo Ran nods his head.

They’d been there once, there weren’t many newbies that knew about it, it was a place for veterans to stopover though, he had gone with his dad twice, and had been able to bump into people both times; being able to bump into people even in the wilderness, was a rather great comfort to the heart.

At 8 o’clock Huo Ran left the house, cycling to Kou Chen’s house to look for him.

To leave the city one had to pass Kou Chen’s house by, so Huo Ran had already told them beforehand, that there was no need for them to pick him up, and that he’d head over there early morning, so there’d be no need to take detours.

Not detouring was a habit, from the moment he leaves the door he counts the journey to have started, so every step was a joy, even if it were in the district, in the city, all were considered to be a part of the joy.

Kou Chen’s family lived in the best district in the northen part of the city, Huo Ran was not surprised, after all this was someone that could toss who knows how much money out with the raise of a hand.

At the entrance of the district he gave Kou Chen a call, and not even a minute had passed before Kou Chen had run out: “Have you eaten breakfast?”

“I’ve eaten,” Huo Ran says.

“Let’s go,” Kou Chen gives his bike a look, “Can this bike of yours carry an extra person? On the back wheel can a person stand on it?”

“Can’t carry you,” Huo Ran says.

“Fuck, it’s not like I’m fat,” Kou Chen says, “You get down, let me ride it for a bit, from now on I have to start conserving my energy, if I can not walk then I won’t.”

“…Isn’t your energy storage capacity a little too low,” Huo Ran gets off the bike.

“Fighting took up energy,” Kou Chen hops onto his bike, pedalling slowly, “Later at my house don’t mention the thing about the fight okay, I haven’t told them about it yet.”

“Mn,” Huo Ran responds.

Huo Ran’s impression of Kou Chen’s father, was fundamentally about the same as that of a butcher, after all Kou Chen had always been yammering the thing about being made into sausages.

But today they didn’t manage to meet, only seeing his mother at the entrance of their family’s garage, looking very much alike Kou Xiao, when they stood together they looked like a pair of sisters.

“Is your name RanRan?” Kou Chen’s mom asks.

“Hello Auntie,” Huo Ran answers, striving to correct her, “My name is Huo Ran.”

“RanRan,” Kou Xiao tosses her backpack into the car, turning to yell at him, “We’re gonna drive up to that something-village entrance then park the car and go into the mountains right?”

“Right,” Huo Ran was a little helpless.

“RanRan,” Kou Chen’s mom pulls his hand over to hold, “Come inside to sit for a while?”

“There’s no need Auntie,” Huo Ran quickly says, “After putting the things in we’ll be setting off, if we set off earlier we can be a little more relaxed time-wise.”

“Like this huh, then I’ll go get some fruit for you all to bring along,” Kou Chen’s mom pats his hand, turning to walk into one of the yards beside.

“RanRan,” Kou Chen walks over, placing his arm onto his shoulder, “Your bike will be placed in the garage then?”

“…Mn,” Huo Ran gives him a look, “What did you call me?”

“RanRan,” Kou Chen repeats it once extremely exaggeratedly, but very quickly takes his arm off and away from his shoulder, asking, “Want to see the dog?”

“Yes,” Huo Ran answers immediately, his attention instantly directed away from the way he had been addressed.

Kou Chen places his fingers beside his mouth, blowing a whistle.

A dog bark sounds from inside the flower hedge in the yard, and following that an Alaskan jumps out from behind the hedge, of a very large size, its movement when jumping out incredibly strong and robust, without tripping or falling.

“Call him Gege!” Kou Chen points at Huo Ran.

The pup barks at Huo Ran twice while wagging its tail.

“It’s rather obedient,” Huo Ran says, “Can I touch?”

“Go on and touch, this dog’s a fool, anyone can touch,” Kou Chen gives the dog’s ears a few pinches, “Let Gege touch for a bit.”

“What’s it called?” Huo Ran reaches his hand over, letting the dog first give it a sniff.

“Kou ShuaiShuai*, nickname ShuaiShuai,” Kou Chen says, “Sounds good doesn’t it?”

[*tl note: ‘shuai’ means ‘handsome’ (or cool), so ‘shuai’ x2 = ‘handsome’ x2]1

“…Ah,” Huo Ran looks at the… Kou ShuaiShuai, that had already placed its head near his hand, giving its head a few scratches, with this sort of name, when Kou Chen said it out loud he’d actually even seemed to be somewhat smug, “You really know how to pick names huh.”

Kou ShuaiShuai very happily folds his ears backwards.

Huo Ran couldn’t help but hold his head up to give him rubs, Kou ShuaiShuai was very affectionate, with this series of rubs his eyes had gone all squinty, all the while leaning onto his leg.1

“Is it a male dog?” Huo Ran squats down to give it a hug, plastering his face onto its neck to nuzzle.

“Mn,” Kou Chen also squats down, squeezing the dog’s paws, “Cute isn’t he?”

“Cute,” Huo Ran nods.

“He has another nickname,” Kou Chen says, “Called ‘Lil Cutie’.”3

“Get lost!” Huo Ran keeps his voice low.

Kou Chen squatted beside him laughs for half a day.

Kou Chen’s mom probably had some misunderstanding regarding this trip of theirs, because besides the fruit, she’d even stuffed a bunch of other edibles in the car, Huo Ran even saw a chest of milk.

“These can only be left in the car,” Huo Ran only speaks up after the car had driven out of the district, “There’s no way to carry these.”

“It’s alright just leave them in the car, my mom’s like that,” Kou Xiao says, “Her mind doesn’t have the concept of trekking.”

“Don’t you not have it either,” Kou Chen was doing the usual, leaning onto Huo Ran’s body, taking his phone out, “If I hadn’t stopped you, you could’ve brought 10jin worth of skin supplements and make up.”1

“I haven’t even brought sunscreen now okay!” Kou Xiao really couldn’t take this lying down.

“There’ll be quite a lot of time spent in the mountains,” Old Yang comforts her, “You won’t be under the sun too much.”

“I tan super easily,” Kou Chen says, “Not even half of summer would have passed before I already become charcoal…”

“Here,” Kou Chen touches Huo Ran’s hand, then puts a piece of chocolate onto his palm.

Huo Ran temporarily gives up his intention to push him away, unwrapping the chocolate to stuff into his mouth.2

“Look over here,” Kou Chen snaps his finger, “I’m taking a photo.”

“Wha…” Huo Ran turns towards the voice, and realising that Kou Chen’s phone was currently aimed at him, he quickly raises his hand to block, “What are you doing?”

“To commemorate our setting off,” Kou Chen adjusts the camera angle a little, getting both of them into the frame, then uses his fingers to give a few pokes on his chin, “Turn this way a little.”

“Is this silly or what?” Huo Ran was a little speechless, whenever he set off he never took selfies.

Kou Chen doesn’t answer, directly snapping the photo.

“Let me see,” Huo Ran says, although he hadn’t wanted to take the photo, since it was already taken he still wanted to check it.

“Handsome,” Kou Chen hands the phone over to him, starting to sing, “Why am I this good-looking*…”1

[*tl note: lyrics to 我怎么这么好看 [wǒ zěnme zhème hǎokàn] by zhang dawei]1

Huo Ran tosses the phone onto his body: “Shut up.”

The whole way Kou Chen was pretty excited, misbehaving in all sorts of ways, laying for a moment then sitting up for a moment on the backseat, Huo Ran felt that this was a dog tossing about back and forth next to him.

Upon arrival at the parking location, and after alighting the car, only then could Kou Chen’s excitement be considered to have faded a little, because the path towards the village was now in sight.

“Do we start walking from here?” he asks.

“Mn,” Huo Ran sends his location to Dad, “Cars can’t enter.”

“There are villages that cars can’t enter?” Kou Chen says, “Weren’t they able to pass through each and every village already?”

“The road that cars can enter on is on the other side, it can’t get to where we want to go,” Huo Ran takes the map out, pointing it out for him, “We’re here, the road in the village that cars can fit is here.”

“Where do we want to go?” Kou Chen asks.

“Ideally would be here,” Huo Ran points at the village at which he wanted to eat free-range chicken.

“Pretty far,” Kou Chen takes a look, “How many days do we have to walk?”

“Realistically would be here,” Huo Ran doesn’t answer his question directly, only pointing at somewhere that wasn’t even midway.

Kou Chen looks intently for a while: “Then your sacrifice is pretty big huh?”

“It’s still alright,” Huo Ran says, “Since it’s not like I’ll be bringing you along every time.”

“Really?” Kou Chen asks.

“Really,” Huo Ran nods.2

On this stretch to enter the mountains, there were three entry points, although the route Huo Ran had picked was a little longer, the scenery along it was nice and was also one of the flatter ones, since everyone he was bringing along was a newbie.

“I think this road is still alright,” Kou Xiao was full of confidence, “It’s not hard.”

“How long is this road,” Kou Chen gets up close to Huo Ran’s ear and asks quietly.

“Around 5km,” Huo Ran also answers quietly, “After this there’ll be a short section of river tracing, I think your sister would be just about done there.”

“No don’t,” Kou Chen starts laughing, “No matter what we have to last one night, I haven’t even slept in a tent in the wilderness yet, I get agitated just thinking about it, even if I have to carry my sister we’ll persist until night time.”

Huo Ran remembers the two-person tent he was carrying in his own backpack, and heaves a sigh.

After finishing a section of earthen road, Huo Ran leads them to turn onto the small road on the side, a road made up of large stones that had started to have a bit of a downward slope.

Old Yang and Kou Xiao were walking ahead, their impetus looking to be rather vigorous.

“What kind of road is this?” Kou Xiao asks, “A road for pasturing cattle?”

“It used to be a small river,” Huo Ran says, “But now there’s no more water… Up ahead there’s a rather high ridge, be a little more careful, go down from the side.”

Old Yang goes down first, then turns to offer his hand to Kou Xiao: “Come, slowly.”

Huo Ran watches for a bit, the way Kou Xiao had gone down was rather agile, way stronger than what he had imagined.

He jumps down the ridge following the stones on the side, then turns back to look at Kou Chen.

“Come,” Kou Chen had been preparing to follow him down, but seeing that he’d turned back, immediately stops.

“Come what?” Huo Ran was a little baffled.

“Support me a bit of course,” Kou Chen says, “What if I jump down and dislocate something?”

“I’ll help you fix it,” Huo Ran says, “If you can dislocate anything jumping from this height I’ll piggyback you all the way to the destination.”

“Fuck,” Kou Chen laughs, “Just with you saying this I should fall my way down from here.”

“Then you fall,” while Huo Ran had said it like this, in consideration of how Kou Chen was a nutcase that wasn’t too easy to predict, he still raised his leg to step onto the pile of soil on the side, this way if Kou Chen really fell his way down, he could still stop him a bit.

“I’ve noticed,” Kou Chen jumps down, staring at him, “When you play basketball, and at times like this, you’re not quite the same as how you usually are.”

“Ah?” Huo Ran responds.

“You’re pretty cool, if this were a girl*, by now she would’ve become interested in you*,” Kou Chen pats the leg he had stepped onto the soil pile, then whistles as he walks forward.2