chapter 34

Huo Ran didn’t know whether Kou Chen usually went at this pace when he came here to eat by himself; it was as if he was a whole other person as compared to when he ate with everyone else in the cafeteria or when eating roast.

He’d never known that Kou Chen could eat this slowly.

Putting the meat into the pot slice by slice, then sipping a small sip of alcohol after eating a slice.

“This alcohol isn’t as good as Niuxiaoer,” Kou Chen says.

“Mn,” Huo Ran nods his head.

“Niuxiaoer isn’t as good as it’s dad*,” Kou Chen says.

[*tl note: likely a reference to erguotou mentioned in the previous chapter, it seems its full name is ‘niu lan shan er guo tou’]

“Mn,” Huo Ran continues nodding.

“It feels better to drink higher percentage ones for white ones,” Kou Chen says.

“Yes,” Huo Ran grins.

Although that was what Kou Chen had said, he was already a little tipsy by this time in actuality. His tolerance was significantly better than the others in their group, but this was it.

Huo Ran glances at the alcohol bottle next to him; they’ve had six small bottles, it was still acceptable.

Each bottle had been personally scrutinized by Kou Chen: they weren’t allowed to indicate stuff like ‘separation’ or ‘not being together’. In the end, Kou Chen had wanted to get the waiter to bring another bottle, but there simply weren’t any more non-repeated as well as ‘auspicious’ ones, so he gave up and stopped drinking.

And it was fortunate that he hadn’t had another bottle, because as soon as they left the restaurant, Kou Chen kept on singing songs.

They had gone to a KTV the last time and Huo Ran hadn’t gone with them, but it could be said that he listened his fill this day. He sang for half an hour, two to three lines from each song, not a single one repeated.

Kou Chen’s song storage capacity was not bad, and there were even a number of songs in foreign languages.

His phone chimed: Xu Zhifan had sent him a text.

– They’re about to lock the doors, what’s up with you guys?

– I don’t know, he’s started singing songs

Huo Ran tapped on ‘voice message’, placed the phone by Kou Chen’s mouth, recorded a few lines and sent it to the group chat.

The people in the group immediately responded with hahahaha’s and in an instant, there was nobody who was concerned about whether or not the two of them were returning to the dorm and what they should do. They collectively instructed for him to remember to record if there were more exhibitions of silly behaviour.

Only Xu Zhifan had some conscience left, reminding him after he was done sending his ‘haha’s.

– We’ll cover for you guys when they check the dorm later

– If you guys can’t get into the dorm then go to the infirmary, the back window can be opened from the outside and there happens to be two beds

“Fuck,” Huo Ran starts laughing, sending a voice message, “You even know that the back window can be opened… if we really can’t go back I can go get a room*.”

[*tl note: as in hotel room]

“You two don’t have ID cards,” Xu Zhifan says.

Ah.

That was a problem.

There were only two mobile phones on both him and Kou Chen.

“What did he say?” Kou Chen asks.

“We won’t make it in time even if we grab a taxi back now, the dorm gates are closed,” Huo Ran says, “We don’t have IDs, so we can’t stay in a hotel. Zhifan asked us to go to the school infirmary to sleep.”

“No way,” Kou Chen says, “He and Xu Chuan managed to steal the keys to the infirmary?”

“….It’s that the back window can be opened from the outside, we can climb in,” Huo Ran says.

“Oh,” Kou Chen thinks a little, then suddenly gets a little excited, “Alright, let’s sleep there. I’ve never slept like this before, it’s way too interesting, can a single bed fit the both of us?”

“There are two beds,” Huo Ran says.

“Okay, then let’s arrange them together,” Kou Chen says.

“Why though?” Huo Ran looks at him.

“Because I’m worried that I’ll fall off, the beds there are way smaller than the dorm beds,” Kou Chen says, “Hadn’t I slept there once when I had a stomach ache the last time? I only fell asleep before I hadn’t dared to turn over.”

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During school days, climbing over walls, getting in fights and skipping classes were parts of the memories of many boys, but there probably weren’t many that had slept in the school infirmary and it was likely that it was only the two of them that would have this set of memories in the entire school.

When they were about to climb the wall on the side of the school field to get into the school, Huo Ran felt a little concerned: “You jump after I go over.”

“Worried that I’m drunk?” Kou Chen asks.

“Not worried,” Huo Ran says, “You are drunk.”

Kou Chen doesn’t speak, simply doing a run-up and stepping on the wall, disappearing from the top of the wall after supporting himself with his hand.

“Fuck,” Huo Ran runs over in a hurry as well, looking downward after climbing to the top.

Kou Chen was smiling at him on the other side: “Did you see that, your Uncle Kou started climbing fences when he was three years old…”

“Didn’t you get nailed onto the fence?” Huo Ran jumps down.

“You’re really fucking good at ruining the mood,” Kou Chen glares at him.

“Let’s go,” Huo Ran says.

At the back window of the school infirmary, Huo Ran followed Xu Zhifan’s hints and scratched under the window, exerting a bit of force. The window opened a gap, then with another wrench, it opened.

The two jumped inside quietly. Because it was too close to the school gates and they were worried about being seen by security, they didn’t dare to switch the lights on, feeling their way around borrowing the light from the streetlights outside to wash their faces.

“There’s no need to put the beds together anymore,” Kou Chen pats the two beds that were arranged next to each other, “Are there blankets in the cabinet?”

“Should be,” Huo Ran searches around.

The medicine cabinet was locked but the cabinet next to it could be opened. There were two thin blankets inside, which were just about enough for these days.

He takes the blankets out and when he turns around, he finds that Kou Chen, who was standing by the beds, had already taken his top off.

“You’re not serious, are you?” Huo Ran was dumbstruck, “We came in secretly, do you have to sleep here so comfortably?”

“What’s wrong,” Kou Chen says as he removes his pants as well, patting on the back of his waist before laying on the bed, “Let death god get some air.”

Huo Ran tosses one set of blankets onto him, a little speechless, then removes his own jacket: “Hurry and decide which bed you want to sleep on, what’s the meaning of sleeping in the middle, like you’re not worried about falling in.”

Kou Chen shuffles towards the wall: “I’ll sleep inside.”

“Why?” Huo Ran actually wanted to sleep inside, after all, this was an unfamiliar… little dark room.

Kou Chen props himself up on his arm and looks at him, before shuffling out again: “I’ll sleep outside.”

“Thanks,” Huo Ran says, climbing over Kou Chen’s body to the inner bed.

He turns to lie on his side as soon as he lies down, facing the wall. No matter how safe walls were, it was still safer to have a person at his back.

“Let’s chat a bit though,” Kou Chen says from behind him, “Isn’t it too boring with the back of your head facing me?”

“Just talk about what you want to chat about,” Huo Ran says, “It’s not like it affects.”

Kou Chen cracks up, shuffling his way towards him: “I don’t know what to talk about either actually, I just feel that my mood’s pretty good today… it wasn’t too good at the start, I was a little depressed thinking that Old Yuan might have to take the blame, but after eating and talking with you, I feel a lot better.”

“If Old Yuan has to take the blame, I’ll create a ruckus in the principal’s office,” Huo Ran says.

“I’ll go with you,” Kou Chen says.

“Mn,” Huo Ran closes his eyes.

He didn’t know when he fell asleep, they’d probably chatted a bit more after but he couldn’t recall too clearly, they’d had alcohol after all.

He’d gone into deep sleep as soon as he’d fallen asleep.

It was only when someone gave his face a series of pitter pattering slaps that he woke up with a start.

“Do you guys want to make it onto the school news?” Xu Zhifan’s voice floated over from above, “Not getting up even though the sun has risen!”

Huo Ran startles awake once again, truly waking up this time.

He’d suddenly remembered that he and Kou Chen had slept in the school infirmary the previous night.

“Stop cuddling,” Xu Chuan’s voice floated over as well, “Get up quickly, Doctor Zhang and Tao Rui will be heading over for work in a bit!”

Huo Ran shoots up at once, wanting to sit up, but he only gets up halfway before collapsing back onto the bed.

Kou Chen’s arm was holding on to his waist.

“Hey!” he turns his head, finding that Kou Chen’s entire face was buried in his blanket. He reaches out to give Kou Chen’s head two slaps, “Get up!”

“How much did he drink last night?” Xu Chuan tugs Kou Chen’s arm, pulling him up with force.

“Three bottles of Jiangxiaobai,” Huo Ran says, “He didn’t get drunk yesterday, just a little high.”

“Kou Chen!” Xu Chuan pats Kou Chen’s face.

“Ai, annoying to death,” Kou Chen finally opens his eyes, grumbling, “They haven’t arrived yet have they, what are you all so nervous about.”

“It’ll be too late if they arrive!” Xu Chuan says, “Tao Rui’s still alright, but Doctor Zhang will definitely tell Old Yuan… and why are you so naked! It’s not like this is the dorm!”

Xu Zhifan tosses Kou Chen’s clothes at him: “Hurry.”3

“Why didn’t you guys give us a call to wake us up?” Huo Ran gets down from the bed quickly, folding the blanket on the bed properly, “Running over wasted so much time.”

“You think I didn’t call? Both of you didn’t answer!” Xu Zhifan says, “We took turns to call…”

He hadn’t finished speaking when the jangling of keys sounded outside the infirmary door all of a sudden.

“We’re finished,” Xu Zhifan snatches the blanket in Huo Ran’s hands and lunges towards the cabinet, but just as he was about to stuff the blanket inside, the door to the infirmary opens.

The few of them froze in their places.

Tao Rui stood outside the door with her keys in one hand and a breakfast box in the other, her face full of puzzlement.

A good few seconds pass before she returns to her senses, turning to give her back to them as she says: “Kou Chen, hurry and put on your clothes.”

“Oh,” Kou Chen jumps down from the bed, swiftly grabbing his clothes and tugging them on.

“Tao Rui-jie…” Xu Zhifan walks by the door, “This is what happened… just…”

“I got it,” Tao Rui says, “Didn’t manage to get into the dorm because you got back late and knew that there’s a window that can be opened here, isn’t that right?”

“…Yes,” the group answer honestly.

“Was it only Kou Chen who slept here?” Tao Rui turns around.

“I did too,” Huo Ran rubs his eyes, a little embarrassed.

“Hurry and leave,” Tao Rui enters the room, placing her breakfast onto the table. She waves at them, “Hurry up, someone will come in a bit.”

“Thanks sis,” the group say quietly, running out of the infirmary.

“There won’t be a next time okay!” Tao Rui adds in a lowered voice from behind, “If I catch you guys the next time I’ll get the security to catch you!”

Because they had gotten up late, there was already no time to eat breakfast after getting back to the dorm, washing up and changing; Huo Ran and Kou Chen could only go to the classroom directly.

An unexpected surprise was that Hu Yi had brought them a piece of bread and a bag of milk each.

“Fuck, you’re too thoughtful,” Huo Ran lowers his head to start wolfing down.

“I’m starving,” Kou Chen says.

Huo Ran turns his head with a start: “Why are you sitting here again?”

“It’s not that I want to sit here,” Kou Chen speaks as he eats, “Xu Zhifan took my seat.”

Huo Ran recalls a little: earlier, it seems that Xu Zhifan had indeed been walking in front of them. He glances in Xu Zhifan’s direction, but this bird man* was completely absorbed in staring at his phone, not receiving his signals.

[*tl note: was thinking to substitute this but the insult itself is funny so I decided to keep it. In this context its an insult that means ‘a chatterbox’ (makes too much noise) or ‘an annoying person’ but one of the funnier explanations I saw suggested that bird man could simply mean ‘man’ because he has a ‘bird’… either way, the English equivalent would probably be ‘dickhead’]

When the morning self-study bell rang, Old Yuan walked into the classroom on time, like he usually did.

“Old Yuan why aren’t you resting at home!” Wei Chaoren shouts.

The whole class turn their heads all at once and when they see Old Yuan, all of them stand up without anyone’s instruction.

“Sit down, sit down,” Old Yuan raises his hand at a small angle to gesture at them, “There’s nothing really wrong with me, I didn’t even need surgery, it’s only that I had a brace fixed so it’s a little inconvenient to move.”

After Old Yuan walks up to the podium, someone asks: “How did they deal with those family members from yesterday?”

“Disciplined them a little, they apologised and compensated us for the medical bills,” Old Yuan says, “You guys don’t need to pay too much attention to this issue, the school will deal with the aftermath accordingly.”

“That’s it? Not arresting them!? Not having them explain themselves!?” someone shouts, extremely dissatisfied.

Old Yuan smiles, not speaking, waiting for the indignant noises in the classroom to slowly settle before clearing his throat: “I’m not being tolerant, but sometimes, when we do things, it’s not okay to just let off steam when the impulse strikes.”

“What the school faces is it’s students. For each student, what we have to consider is not only their results, we also consider other aspects. Physical and mental health are very important,” Old Yuan says, “When something like this has happened, the student probably doesn’t feel good about it in their heart. No matter what kind of student this is, we wish to leave her some leeway, because for schools, its priority is still education, its goal is not punishment.”

Some people in the class still found it rather hard to let this go, buzzing with discussion.

“I’ll say an extra something that isn’t quite related,” Old Yuan says while beaming, “It’s nothing new anymore: parents and family, including the school, can all affect a person, but it is you yourself that decides the kind of person you can become in the end.”

“This is because they’re worried Li Jiaying can’t handle it isn’t it, her parents and uncles coming to the school to beat up unrelated teachers because of her dating incident,” Kou Chen says quietly, “If it were me, I probably wouldn’t come to school anymore, wouldn’t have the face to.”

Kou Chen’s words were in fact, pretty accurate. Everyone received the message that Li Jiaying had come to the school and applied to drop out of school herself in the group chat before second period was even over.

Everyone started their discussions at once: there were those that cursed, those that swore, and those that agreed to her dropping out on behalf of the school. There were also some that felt that she’d been disadvantaged by her parents regarding this matter, but after a whole day of discussions, nobody was able to catch wind of how the school would be settling this issue.

When it was time for dinner, the topic of everyone’s discussion had already shifted from Li Jiaying to Old Yuan’s injuries and the sports meet.

Huo Ran hadn’t been participating in the discussions the whole time and had been a little perplexed from start to finish. Perhaps this was where Li Jiaying’s story would end: regardless of whether she continued schooling up to graduation or dropped out, she was like He Hua, who had never reappeared even once in the cafeteria. Whether she stopped schooling, or transferred, or switched to not living at the dorms, she would become a small section of background related to the fighting incident this time, along with that fight they’d had in the cafeteria.

Ten years later, I’ll still pour you wine.

What will he say while pouring the wine? Will he still remember these people?

It was a little bewildering.

“I’ve asked around, the strongest competitor for 100m is Liu Yu,” Jiang Lei says as he eats, “You’ve been playing basketball with him for quite some time, so you probably know about it?”

“Mn, wasn’t he the hundred-meter champion last year?” Huo Ran says.

“There aren’t any particularly strong opponents for 400m, there weren’t many that signed up either, since you need both stamina and burst energy,” Jiang Lei says, “I look kindly on Kou Chen.”

“What about 1000m?” Kou Chen asks.

“There’s a bunch for that one. Other than Zhou Haichao whom you know, there are also two first year sports students and a number of strong ones in second year, all in science classes,” Jiang Lei ‘tsk’s, “Are you guys shocked? Only Kou Chen signed up for 1000m from humanities.”

“Tinder*?” Wei Chaoren says.

[*tl note: not sure what he means by this, but tinders help start fires, which might be an allusion to the competition between science and humanities classes?]

“But y’know, I feel,” Xu Chuan says, “The most stressful one is the relay, since we’re representing our class.”

“There’s Huo Ran and I, no worries,” Kou Chen says.

“Don’t talk too much, what if we lose?” Huo Ran says.

“Never thought about it,” Kou Chen raises an eyebrow.

This was the first mass event after they’d been separated into classes and Old Yuan took it extremely seriously: he thought that this was a fantastic chance to strengthen their class unity as well as raise their levels of class pride. Everyone was also extremely cooperative.

Even Huo Ran, who had always been unwilling to stand out, agreed with gritted teeth when he was assigned to hold the slogan up with Kou Chen.

Wu Xiaochen was standing at the head, raising the sign for Humanities Class 1 and the two of them were behind her, each holding one pole of the class banner.

It was a little silly, but Kou Chen looked to be having a good time.

“Should we wave it a little when we get to the podium?” he asks Huo Ran.

“No,” Huo Ran answers very plainly, “Please walk over upright and without looking sideways.”

“Okay then,” Kou Chen smiles as he says.

“Get ready, get ready!” Old Yuan covers his chest, “It’s our turn.”

Everyone starts fixing their clothes up and Wu Xiaochen raises the sign above her head, turning to look at both of them: “Don’t start walking with the same hand and foot out okay, you two are the coolest sign-guards in the whole school, everyone’s watching.”

“What guard?” Huo Ran asks.

“The sign,” Wu Xiaochen waves the sign in her hand, “Guarding this sign.”

“…Okay,” Huo Ran nods.

The school field wasn’t very big, after they’d entered it was just walking half a round along the tracks. They would pretty much be done after passing the podium by and could go to line up.

The few classes before them were rather good at going to the trouble: ahead of them was Science Class 8 and they were all wearing hanfu, a striking contrast against them, and when they passed the podium by, they even stopped and collectively did a greeting.

Huo Ran was staring at them, wanting to see how they were doing their greeting when Wu Xiaochen suddenly shouts: “Youth is me!”

The whole class behind her roars: “Youth is me! I’m the most outstanding!”

Huo Ran gets a fright, hurriedly opening his mouth and managing to catch up with the second line: “I’m the most outstanding!”

After shouting the lines twice, they walk up to the podium, and the school leaders on stage smile at them.

“One two three!” in the squad, Xu Chuan gives the signal.

The whole class roars at the podium: “Hoist the sails! Cleave through the waves!”

The squad then raise a gaudy, colourful sign with the people raising the sign waving it maniacally. Everyone shouts the words written on the sign all together: “Nobody stop me——”

“Nobody stop me——” Kou Chen shouts rather loudly.

Huo Ran thinks that it is pretty good; he himself had also shouted loudly.

But Kou Chen holding on to the banner and waving it maniacally along shocked him to the extreme: “What are you doing!”

“Wave it, quick!” Kou Chen says, then shouts along with everyone else, “I’m the most outstanding!”

Huo Ran felt as though he’d been poisoned, shouting as he started maniacally waving the pole along with Kou Chen.

How pathetic!