chapter 28

After Old Yuan walked into the classroom, the whole class raised clamour once again.

“Old Yuan awesome!” someone shouts.

“I love you Old Yuan,” some girls shout.

Old Yuan raises an index finger to ‘shush’ them and walks up the podium with quick steps, tossing the books onto the podium, then turning to write a sentence on the top left corner of the blackboard.

The TA* that I like.

[*tl note: the pronouns 他/她/它 (he/she/it + him/her) are all read [tā], the original text included the capitalised ta]

“The main topic for this week’s class meeting,” Old Yuan turns around, supporting himself on the podium, “However you’d like to discuss it is acceptable, supporting or objecting are all fine, or if you’d like to confess that’s alright too.”

The classroom was abuzz with excitement.

“But in the future, don’t always riot,” Old Yuan says, “You’re all so close to the office, it’s exceptionally obvious when you riot. I’m also under quite a lot of pressure, if you guys kick up a fuss again it will be even harder for me to win the director and the principal over. When the time comes they’ll then give me an evaluation along the lines of ‘goes along with the students and has gotten their support but has neglected the meaning of education’.”

The floor immediately quietens down.

“Whatever you want to say or express you can do it boldly during our class meeting, but it has to be rational,” Old Yuan says, “I will get the director to come over for a listen… now we’ll start class.”

“Was the demerit Kou Chen and the others received a warning?” the class representative asks.

“Oh, I forgot to talk about this matter… the few students from our class that fought in the cafeteria previously have all gotten warning demerits regardless of the roles they played in it,” Old Yuan glances in the direction of their Bully Handler 7-man Group, “All your parents have expressed their understanding, next time when we do things we should still be a little more particular about the methods.”

The seven of them nod collectively as though they were pounding garlic.

“We’re starting class, open your textbooks,” Old Yuan flips his own book open, “Where did we stop last lesson, let’s recall together…”

After the class, Kou Chen was called individually to the classroom door by Old Yuan.

“Your demerit this time will have to be a little more severe, the director wants to give you a serious warning, as a warning,” Old Yuan says, “But I find there isn’t a need, asking you to come over individually is because your dad said you’ve been more impulsive since you were young, not quite caring about the consequences once your anger is triggered…”

“Mn,” Kou Chen nods; he acknowledged this summary his father had made of him, if he hadn’t been traumatised by sausage-making, the number of fights he’d been in could have allowed his dad to make one ton worth of sausages out of him.

“This thing that is the nature of one’s temper, right, isn’t something that can be changed just like that,” Old Yuan pats his arm, “As for me, I am usually in the school, if there’s anything look for me first, and when I can’t stand up for you, you can then consider taking things into your own hands, how’s that?”

Kou Chen grins: “Are You taking me under Your wing?”

“How about it, I won’t charge you protection fees,” Old Yuan smiles as well.

“Okay,” Kou Chen nods.

“Your money from that time has been refunded, it’s with the director,” Old Yuan says, “I’ll go get it in a bit, go to my place to take it before you go for lunch in the afternoon.”

“There’s no need,” Kou Chen says, “I’m not short on cash, why not store this money in the class fund, we can get some nice-looking class outfits for the sports meet, our class dressed like we’d been released after having served our term during the sports meet last year.”

“You and your dad have a similar way of thinking huh, when I told him about the money issue today he said this too, to put it in the class fund,” Old Yuan thinks a little, “How about this, we’ll put half…”

“All of it,” Kou Chen says.

Old Yuan looks at him, and sighs after a while: “Half, the other half will be left with me, if you’re still not short on money next semester, we’ll put it into the class fund, but if you’re short on money then come over and get it from me, how about that?”

“Alright then,” Kou Chen didn’t insist further, thinking before asking a little worriedly, “My dad didn’t argue with You did he? My personality counts as a family inheritance, his temper is quicker than even mine.”

“No no, your dad is a great person,” Old Yuan smiles as he speaks, “And very well-educated too, I could tell just after a bit of casual chatting.”

“It’s an act,” Kou Chen says.

“Education cannot be faked,” Old Yuan pats him again, “Alright, go on back to the classroom.”

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The next period was still Old Yuan’s class, Kou Chen lay on his desk for a while and found that his stomach hurt a little.

But he couldn’t tell exactly where it hurt, it was uncomfortable from his stomach to his intestines.

He closes his eyes and tries to get a good grasp; it was probably the stomach, and it was as though there was someone scraping at him inside, pain licking at him with every scrape.

This made him recall the time he had a fever when he was little, his mother, who could neither do physical work nor distinguish rice from wheat, decided to give him a Gua Sha*. She’d taken a board from who knows where and started scraping, and it turned out that the board was cracked, which tore two wounds into his back directly… What a pitiful little friend.

[*tl note: gua sha is a natural, alternative therapy that involves scraping your skin with a massage tool to improve your circulation]

It was probably because of what he’d eaten?

Earlier, his mouth had been itchy and he’d gone to buy ice cream, and because he craved it too badly, he’d bought a large tub. In the end he was unable to eat any more after having eaten half and wanted to share it with Huo Ran, but Huo Ran had indicated for him to get lost. He then tried to share it with Xu ZhiFan, Xu Chuan and the others, but they all also said that it was too cold and that they didn’t feel like eating, with even Jiang Lei, the sort of person with taste buds that had collectively committed suicide, rejecting.

In a fit of anger he’d eaten the entire tub by himself.

“Just wait for your stomach to hurt,” Huo Ran had said, “I usually never find you an economic person, yet right now you sure can go all out just for half a tub of ice cream.”

He’d even expressed his disdain to Huo Ran at that time.

And now it’s come back to slap him in the face.

He glances at Huo Ran, then rests himself on his desk face-down.

This rascal looked like he was attentively listening to the class, but in actuality, his line of sight was constantly outside the window; from this angle they could see the basketball court a few hundred meters away, but there wasn’t anyone at the court at this time, so it was uwhat he was looking at.

…It’d be more interesting than looking at the classroom in any case.

“Next I’ll be talking about the important things, those that are daydreaming get yourself together, those that are chatting please hold it,” Old Yuan looks at the people in the classroom; in actuality, the students were mostly willing to listen to his classes, so there weren’t that many daydreamers, but he still mentioned it out of habit. When he sees Kou Chen, he adds: “Those that are sleeping please wake up.”

Huo Ran collected himself, and when he turns and sees Kou Chen who was laying on the desk, he gives him a push: “Ai, don’t sleep for now.”

“I wasn’t sleeping,” Kou Chen raises his head.

Huo Ran was stunned after giving him a sweeping glance: “Are you alright? What’s wrong?”

Kou Chen was visibly chalk-white, there were even small beads of sweat on his forehead, and his lips were already pale.

“Nothing much, I’m practicing Qigong*,” Kou Chen says, completely unbothered.

[*tl note: likely to be inaccurate but he specifically says 发功 [fā gōng] which is ‘the ability of a Qigong master to send the life energy Qi (jpn. Ki) through his fingers or palms from a distance’ according to a steemit post. Basically he’s acting tough]

“You look like you’re about to die,” Huo Ran was a little anxious.”Do you fucking know how to talk?” Kou Chen turns his head, evidently trying to produce that usual vicious expression but was unsuccessful, only tugging the corners of his lips.

Without waiting for Huo Ran to speak again, he suddenly lies back down onto the desk, clutching his stomach, speaking quietly: “Fuck, my stomach hurts.”

“Teacher Yuan, Kou Chen’s stomach hurts,” Huo Ran raises his hand the next second, “His face is all pale.”

“How did that happen?” Old Yuan immediately walks down from the podium, “Someone send him to the infirmary for a look, quickly.” “Mn,” Huo Ran stands up, and was about to support Kou Chen’s arm when he suddenly sees that Xu Chuan and Xu ZhiFan had both turned their heads back, their eyes full of “Good brother have you seen our looks of anticipation”.

After hesitating two seconds he looks at Xu ZhiFan and Xu Chuan: “How about you two… go?”

“Have one go,” Old Yuan says, “Are you going for a gathering*?”

[*tl note: the phrase uses the characters for ‘gathering’ and ‘meal’ so it’s meant to be a combination of the two]

Xu ZhiFan and Xu Chuan immediately got together and executed a battle of rock, paper, scissors within a second, with Xu ZhiFan emerging victorious.

“Let’s go,” he comes over to help Kou Chen up, then walks out of the classroom.

After leaving the classroom, Kou Chen felt the sweat on both his forehead and back instantly morph into his mother’s scrape board as soon as the cold wind blew, hard at work in his stomach.

“How about you piggyback me,” Kou Chen says.

“Want some face will you,” Xu ZhiFan lifts his arm to set on his own shoulder, dragging him to walk in large steps towards the infirmary, “Hang in there a little, we’ll be there soon, a few hundred meters.”

“I was the one that created the opportunity for you to go to the infirmary to see Tao Rui,” Kou Chen says, “Do you have any conscience, our Chuan-ge didn’t even manage to go.”

Xu ZhiFan smiles: “I’ll buy you a meal.”

“Not eating,” Kou Chen sighs, “Just the thought of eating something makes me scared, can I trouble you to drag me faster.”

“Hang on,” Xu ZhiFan starts jogging while dragging him.

Kou Chen felt as though he was a massive Pitiful Little Thing.

When they entered the infirmary, Tao Rui was on the phone with her brows furrowed, her face full of displeasure, and when Kou Chen got tossed onto the bed by Xu ZhiFan, he felt that the two of them might have arrived at a bad time.

In order to swiftly gain Tao Rui’s attention, he gives two groans immediately after laying down.

“Students have come in over here now, I’m hanging up,” their disturbance gave Tao Rui a fright; she said that one line coldly before hanging up, coming over after tossing her phone into the drawer, “What’s wrong?”

“He ate a tub of ice cream, now his stomach hurts real bad,” Xu ZhiFan says.

“How big a tub?” Tao Rui asks.

“About…” Kou Chen gestures.

“As big as a takeaway container,” Xu ZhiFan says.

“That big a tub?” Tao Rui was stunned.

“Was it that big?” Kou Chen was also stunned.

“Duh, if it weren’t such a big tub, any of us would have eaten half of it okay,” Xu ZhiFan says, “Basically, the largest sort of tub that’s sold in our mini supermarket, the two-coloured ones.”

“I got it,” Tao Rui smiles, turning to get a hot water bag, “Those ones don’t even taste good though, eating so much of it… no worries, just lay down for a while, cover up.”

Kou Chen receives the hot water bag she hands over and covers his stomach with it, then turns and faces the wall.

Behind him, Xu ZhiFan was silent for a few minutes before opening his mouth: “That person didn’t look for you after did he?”

“You’re pretty worried huh?” Tao Rui says.

“Otherwise I don’t know what to say either,” Xu ZhiFan was very honest.

“He called again earlier,” Tao Rui sighs, “But it’s all good, it’s fine as long as I ignore them. When you guys woo girls or break up in the future, you’d better not be like this, it’s too ugly.”

“That’s impossible,” Xu ZhiFan starts laughing, “In any case if that person still comes looking for trouble, just say it, we’ll stand up for you.”

“I’m an adult,” Tao Rui says, “Would I need little kids like you guys to stand up for me?”

“If it weren’t for us that day,” Xu ZhiFan says, “What had you planned on doing?”

“Shout obviously, ‘help’, ‘catch this gangster’, ‘Uncle Police I don’t know him’,” Tao Rui says before sighing again, “Annoying to death.”

Kou Chen stops listening carefully to the contents of their chat after, he stares blankly at the wall, contemplating the topic of this week’s class meeting.

He was never one to speak up during class meetings, and in both middle school and high school, he’d always been either sleeping through or skipping class meetings. But the topic Old Yuan had provided this time was rather interesting, so even if he won’t speak up, he couldn’t help but think it over a little.

The TA that I like.

The ‘her’ that I like?

Who would that be?

The imaginative one?

He had thought about it before: little ladies that had the sort of appearance that Lu Huan had, he did rather like, they were cuter… and Huo Ran and Lu Huan looked rather alike, like siblings. It was only after he’d asked about it that he found out that those two didn’t share the same surname.

But Huo Ran was a tad more fun when he laughed, when his eyes squinted, he was like a Shiba Inu. Lu Huan was a girl, so when she laughed she couldn’t look like a dog.

It was only when the bell signalling the end of class rang, that Kou Chen realised he’d fallen asleep.

When he was startled awake by the sound of the bell, he felt that his stomach-ache was a lot better. He touches the hot water bag: “Damn, it’s still so hot after such a long time?”

“It was just changed,” Xu ZhiFan says, “You slept quite deeply.”

“Ah,” Kou Chen sits up, a little embarrassed, “Jie did you change it for me? Excuse me*.”

[*tl note: the phrase for ‘excuse me’ also means ’embarrassed’]

“I changed it for you,” Xu ZhiFan says, “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, it’s not like you got your diapers changed.”

“Get lost, have you been hanging around Huo Ran too long, both your mouths are too smart,” Kou Chen collapses back onto the bed, “I’m hungry.”

“I’ll go get food for you, you lay down a little longer,” Xu ZhiFan says, “Jie what are you eating? I’ll buy it back for you as well.”

“No need,” Tao Rui says, “I’ll be going out to eat in a bit, the cafeteria dishes don’t taste good, and I’m a little pickier. If you guys don’t want to eat cafeteria food, I’ll bring some back for you.”

“Forget it, that bunch is sure to come over in a bit, if they saw us receiving special treatment they’d swear for a month,” Xu ZhiFan says, “Especially Xu Chuan.”

“Will they be bringing food over for us?” Kou Chen says.

“Dream on,” Xu ZhiFan says.

As expected, that bunch hadn’t brought food for them, and not only had they not brought food, they’d only come over after they’d finished eating.

“Where’s Tao Rui?” Xu Chuan asks as soon as he enters the infirmary, “Why’s it just the two of you? We even said to come over a little later so ZhiFan can chat a little longer with her.”

“It’s alright if the two of us don’t eat, would Tao Rui accompany us and not eat?” Kou Chen sits up, tossing the hot water bag aside.

“Is your stomach-ache alright now?” Huo Ran asks.

“It’s all good now, I even slept,” Kou Chen touches his stomach, “Just hungry, and nobody cares, friends aren’t even fucking friends anymore.”

“Let’s go,” Huo Ran beckons him, “Don’t need to say it in such an obvious manner, I’ll treat you.”

“Is there still braised porky belly?” Kou Chen gets down from the bed immediately.

“Tao Rui just said to not eat greasy food, you’ll get diarrhea,” Xu ZhiFan says.

“Are you coming?” Huo Ran asks.

“He has to wait for Tao Rui to come back,” Xu Chuan says, then looks at Xu ZhiFan, “Isn’t that right?”

“As expected of a man with experience,” Xu ZhiFan laughs.

The few of them stayed in the infirmary to chat, and Kou Chen went to the cafeteria with Huo Ran.

“Yiyi give me braised pork belly,” with a glance, Kou Chen sees that there were the last two slices of braised pork belly, “How about giving me both of them since nobody else is eating anyways…”

“Broccoli stir fried with meat, steamed egg custard,” Huo Ran hands his card over, smiling at the lady in the stand, “And one stir fried spicy vermicelli*, thank you Jie.”

[*tl note: the dish is called 蚂蚁上树 (mǎyǐ shàng shù) which means ‘ants (climbing) on a tree’, possibly the most unappetising name ever]

“Alrighty,” the lunch lady receives his card, “Haven’t you eaten already? You’re eating again?”

“Ordering for him,” Huo Ran points at Kou Chen.

“Was he this vegetarian?” the lady asks as she gets the food, “I even recognise this rascal now, he eats two portions of pure meat dishes every day.”

“Give me braised pork belly…” Kou Chen leans on the glass cover; that bout of stomach pains had exhausted quite a lot of energy, and he felt a little weak just speaking at this moment.

“He’s sick today, the school doctor said to be a little more vegetarian,” Huo Ran says.

“Braised pork belly…” Kou Chen says.

“I see, he fought so well the last time and seemed to be in great health, why is he also sick now?” the lady swiftly got them the food and hands it out.

“Ate too much meat,” Huo Ran smiles, receiving the plate.

“Braised pork belly…” Kou Chen persisted.

Huo Ran drags him along to look for a table, putting the plate down: “Hurry and eat, I still want to nap a little in the afternoon.”

“You buying me a meal,” Kou Chen sits down, taking his chopsticks up and picking a strand of vermicelli up, “Means just this?”

“Tomorrow I’ll treat you to braised pork belly,” Huo Ran says.

“Really?” Kou Chen asks.

“Mn, you seem pitiful,” Huo Ran points at the plate, “Hurry and eat! It was mainly that Tao Rui said to not let you eat greasy food though, why are you so annoying, if you want to eat braised pork belly then have it tomorrow.”

“Shitty temper,” Kou Chen makes a ‘tsk’ sound and doesn’t say any more, lowering his head and starting to eat his vegetables in large mouthfuls.

He hadn’t had a few bites when he felt someone had run over, bringing along a bit of wind, and following that, they ran off again with a breeze.

Kou Chen raises his head, only to see a few girls running out of the cafeteria, unable to catch clear glimpses of their faces.

Huo Ran faces that way to look for half a day, and when he turns back, he finds that in front of Kou Chen, next to his plate, was a small accessory box.

“For you?” he asks.

“Mn?” Kou Chen retracts his gaze, and also freezes when he sees the accessory box. After opening it he freezes again for a moment, “What is this though?”

“A handmade bracelet isn’t it?” Huo Ran gets closer for a look.

“Mn,” Kou Chen takes the bracelet out; the craft was actually pretty good, a bracelet with leather and metal clasp at intervals, and there was even an abbreviation of his name on the leather, “KC, I’m only noticing today that my name is missing just one letter from KFC.”

Huo Ran starts laughing: “Did you see who that girl was earlier?”

“…I didn’t,” Kou Chen says, “You?”

“No,” Huo Ran says, “Is there a note?”

Kou Chen digs through the box: “No.”

“My first time hearing there are anonymous confessions,” Huo Ran sighs in amazement.

“This actually looks pretty good,” Kou Chen didn’t particularly mind, holding the chain and looking at it front and back, the point clearly missed within a few seconds, “No idea whether they’re easy to make, when’s your birthday, how about I make one to gift to you?”