Chapter 59: CH 59

Zong Yan really wanted to hunt Yog-Sothoth down and stab him with a knife.

Thirty five points, he only had thirty-five points on the exam, and now ten of those points were gone! That was a third!

His score wasn’t high to begin with, but now you couldn’t even see it.

With thirty-five points he could at least dream about Tsinghua, but now what? Now what!!!

Zong Yan wanted to grab that gray-haired evil god and shake him and shake him again. But after the tutorial session he actually disappeared for half a month. Maybe he headed to a different time and space to enjoy the show. Zong Yan was so angry his head was smoking. 

Sure enough, you can’t trust what an evil god says!!

After a short time the bell rang, and all the students in the classroom hurried to the playing field in a swarm.

A lot of the students in the science track were boys. Since gym class was usually held with two classes together, Class 3 had formed two regular teams to play soccer with the other classes.

After physical education, everyone was usually sweating, but Qingyang High School thoughtfully scheduled PE class at the end of the day.

“Zong Yan, are you going to play soccer?”

Just after Zong Yan neatly put away his copy of 《The Will to Power》, Ye JingMing came in from the hallway with a pink basketball in his hand.

As for Ye JingMing, after he’d realized his mistake during their previous, not quite heart-to-heart conversation, he now regarded Zong Yan as a comrade-in-arms of the revolution.

Zong Yan had saved his life and wasn’t his love rival. In Ye JingMing’s eyes that made Zong Yan one of his own. He packed up Zong Yan and planted him in his own camp.

Zong Yan didn’t think there was anything weird about this. After all, he hadn’t cared when Ye JingMing fought against him before. Now he just had one more person to talk to. It didn’t make much of a difference.

The way boys communicated with each other wasn’t very complicated. It could be a matter of playing a game of basketball or getting into a fight. For whatever reason, they now saw eye to eye.

Speaking of basketball, Ye JingMing taught him how to play.

All of Qingyang High School watched in wordless awe as the two teens hung out together. The question marks on the forum could fill an entire screen. Every day a special team arrived to report on the situation between the two. It took half a month before everyone finally confirmed—

They really made up.

After Ye JingMing’s group of minions began to call out “Yan Ge”, “Yan Ge”, the onlookers had to accept it as reality.

Even Ye JingMing and Zong Yan could bury the hatchet. Was nothing impossible in this world?

Everyone was numb.

“Let’s go.”

Zong Yan stood up and walked to the playground with Ye JingMing.

Time passed quickly, and soon it was almost time for winter break.

Lately Zong Yan was paying close attention to current affairs, including the news on the MU app.

The occult world had been unsettled recently. It seemed there was something wrong in New York. For weeks running they’d been calling in investigators from all over the world.

He didn’t know what was going on, but all the turmoil made Zong Yan feel a little concerned. Even though he’d reverted time, the painful memory of the fall of Jiangzhou still lingered in his mind.

Senior three was the kind of year where you felt like every minute and second was hard to bear, but after you got through it, you were surprised how quickly it passed.

Senior year was short, but compared to the other two years of high school it was so much more memorable.

Before winter break, Qingyang High School would hold a New Year’s ceremony.

The ceremony was considered a big event.

This year the Spring Festival arrived early, in mid-January, so Qingyang High School would combine the holiday with New Year’s Day, then close until after the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month.

Of course, that didn’t include the senior three students who were heading into their second semester. Senior students had to return to school on the eighth day. Shortly after that was the meeting for the One Hundred Days pledge. To put it plainly, there wasn’t a lot of time left to prepare for the college entrance exam.

Leading up to the New Year’s ceremony there would be a period of intense rehearsals after school, but by the second semester of senior three, all that would go away. Not only would it be no more, the senior students would have to participate in evening self-study after class.

Qingyang High School had student dormitories, but there weren’t that many rooms. Senior three students had priority, and a lot of them would choose to live on campus during that semester to avoid wasting as much time as possible.

Although Zong Yan’s part in the Calligraphy Club performance amounted to buying soy sauce, the scriptwriter couldn’t help but open the back door for him. Li Bai turned into a powerful player who not only had a sword dance but also played the flute.

Zong Yan couldn’t bring himself to refuse. That was because Li Bai’s costume was really stylish.

Dressed in spotless white with a jade crown on his head, his ink-black hair falling behind him, a longsword in his hand.

When Zong Yan changed into the costume and walked out, the entire rehearsal room fell silent.

One couldn’t say he was especially similar to the character he was playing. Compared to Li Bai’s wild temperament, Zong Yan just wasn’t as intense. Although it wasn’t entirely clear why, when he stood in place he suddenly captured the spirit. His every gesture and expression was like a dream from the Tang Dynasty.

“How’s the Calligraphy Club rehearsal…” The dance teacher walked through the door and saw this scene, then clapped his hands in excitement. “Yes, yes, yes, that’s the spirit! Ah, there aren’t many people nowadays who can portray this kind of ancient style. Have you studied posture before?”

“Not at all.” Zong Yan revealed a bewildered expression, and the serene aura of detachment evaporated from his body.

If he had to attribute it to something, it might be the Yun Zhong Jun card.

That persona had left something of an impact on Zong Yan. For one thing, he thought he could probably imitate the temperament of the ancients pretty well, which was most likely thanks to the card.

“Not bad. Li Bai was chosen well.”

The teacher gave him a few more pointers and told him where to stand on the stage.

This time the rehearsal after school took a bit of time. When they figured out the order of appearance and standing positions, Xia KeYan came up to him again.

To be honest, ever since Ye JingMing told him Xia KeYan might have some feelings for him, Zong Yan’s attitude towards her had become a little awkward.

Zong Yan used to get pretty nervous, and he knew he had a low EQ. When it came to that kind of thing he hadn’t given it much thought.

But it actually wasn’t the first time Zong Yan had been in that situation.

Someone had confessed to him in public before in junior high school.

“How is your flute practice going?” Xia KeYan lowered her head and stared at her toes. She didn’t look at Zong Yan, who was still holding a sword.

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“Well… I think it’ll be okay.”

A few days ago Zong Yan went to the nearby musical instrument store to buy a flute. Unfortunately, he forgot to bring it to school today for the rehearsal. However, when he tried to practice at home he didn’t have any problem playing a song.

“That’s great, but you don’t have to push yourself too hard.” Xia KeYan’s voice was soft but cheerful. “We’ll have a backing track by then. Even if you don’t play anything, the effect will be amazing.”

“Okay, I’ll try it out. If I can, I’ll play along with the accompaniment.”

The rehearsal went on a while longer.

This was the dress rehearsal as well as the final rehearsal. Everyone was energized to welcome the New Year the day after tomorrow.

In addition to the Calligraphy Club’s performance, the school basketball team was also putting on a fancy basketball demonstration. The performance was led by Ye JingMing.

Ye JingMing’s academic scores weren’t very good. Next semester he was going to be transferred to the International Department of Qingyang High School. Therefore, he took the New Year’s ceremony very seriously. He’d begun rehearsing a music program with the basketball team early on.

“Leaving? Let’s head back?”

After the rehearsal was over, Ye JingMing bumped into Zong Yan who was carrying his schoolbag. The two walked home together.

In something of a coincidence, Ye JingMing’s family lived in the same community as Zong Yan. That is, the villa community located in the city center where houses had their own small gardens. The property values were expensive enough to frighten people to death. It was a well-known gathering place for the rich and famous in Jiangzhou.

Incidentally, it seemed that Wang KeMing’s family also had a villa there.

Based on what Ye JingMing said, owning a plot of land in this community was like an admission ticket to Jiangzhou’s celebrity circle. It was equivalent to living in Beverly Hills.

Zong Yan: …

Was it that awesome? He thought about Shub-Niggurath’s wealth and fell into deep thought.

Of course, if an evil god was involved, it was entirely possible he hadn’t paid any money, sigh. 

“What did Xia KeYan ask you about?”

“Nothing, just the rehearsal.” Zong Yan scratched his head. “I forgot to bring my flute.”

“Oh.” Ye JingMing walked under the streetlamp and took a deep breath. “I’m going to the international section next semester.”

Indeed, as soon as the second semester began, he would be transferred to the International Department of Qingyang High School for the preparatory course. He was already studying for the TOEFL. After just half a semester he’d go abroad.

Other students in the class had enrolled in art programs. Plenty of students from well-off families had chosen the same path as Ye JingMing.

The fees charged by the International Department of Qingyang High School were scarily expensive. A single year cost upwards of six figures. However, the International Department had a wide range of channels. Basically, as long as you paid the tuition and passed the language test, and did some work on your own, it wasn’t difficult to get into one of the world’s top 100 universities if you could afford the tuition and passed the language test.

After all, the most important thing in college was your major. Even Harvard had its weak disciplines. The rich second generations in the International Department generally just wanted to look good on their resumes. All they cared about was the name of the school. They didn’t care what their major was, so they had plenty of room to maneuver.

“If you like her, just go confess ah.”

Zong Yan stared at the shadows under his feet as he walked. He might not be very good at dealing with emotional questions, but even if he’d never eaten pork, he’d still seen a pig run, right?

Every school had the phenomenon of puppy love, especially high school. Qingyang High School was no exception.

“Ugh. To be honest, I don’t really know how I feel about Xia KeYan.” When they reached this topic, Ye JingMing’s head began to hurt. “I know she doesn’t like me. It’s impossible for her to say yes to me.”

Zong Yan: “Then you’re really not going to confess?”

That wasn’t like Ye JingMing at all. He was short-tempered and couldn’t hide anything.

Ye JingMing: “I’m not.

“You don’t understand. When I was in kindergarten she was the little genius in class, the only one who could recite the Three Character Classic. And then she helped me when I was bullied… I don’t know if I like her or not. I just don’t want her to like anyone else.”

“Feelings ah.” Zong Yan nodded in understanding and hit the nail on the head. “Since you don’t have enough courage to gamble on it, you might as well give up. When push comes to shove, you just don’t like her enough.”

The vice captain of the basketball team looked at Zong Yan with an alarmed expression.

His intuition told him there was something wrong with this statement, but he couldn’t find a way to refute it.

No… the most important thing was how could this guy with a negative EQ say something so emotionally and philosophically apt?

“I’ll think about it again.” Ye JingMing hung his head.

Just then, the street light above their heads flickered and suddenly went out.

TL Notes:

his head was smoking – 七窍生烟 – fulminate with anger; blow a fuse; blow a gas jet; foam with rage; fume with anger; Smoke comes out of one’s seven orifices.; The smoke of one’s anger came out of one’s nostrils. – “seven orifices/apertures” means your eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth

Spring Festival – 春节 – Chinese New Year. Based on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar, observance traditionally begins the evening preceding the first day of the year, through the Lantern Festival on the 15th. The first day begins on the new moon that appears between 21 January and 20 February (Wikipedia)

meeting for the One Hundred Days pledge – 百日誓师大会 – One Hundred Days Oath Meeting (for the College Entrance Examination) – A large-scale school-wide teacher-student meeting held around February 27th – March 5th, when most high schools are 100 days from the national college entrance examination. The purpose is to “inspire students to study and prepare” for the exam, “stimulate the enthusiasm of senior teachers”, “relieve students’ nervousness”, etc. All the students take an oath about their study and life. (Baidu) If you look at some of the pledges they’re pretty intense. Reading about Chinese high school makes me so glad I never had to do that. ｡:ﾟ(｡ﹷ ‸ ﹷ ✿)

buying soy sauce – 打酱油 – buy soy sauce; pass by; don’t know anything; don’t want to talk about (online slang) – A bystander, along for the ride, someone who basically just shows their face

he hadn’t paid any money, sigh – “sigh” – from 点蜡 – “light wax” – This seems to be slang meaning to have a moment of silence, light a candle for someone, etc.

TOEFL – 托福 – Test of English as a Foreign Language

rich second generations – 富二代 – the second-generation rich; rich second generation; The second rich generation; wealthy second generations – Normally I would tl this as “rich kids” or something, but this is how I see it translated most often

even if he’d never eaten pork, he’d still seen a pig run – 但是没吃过猪肉还能没见过猪跑了 – Very common idiom meaning that even if you don’t have personal experience of something, you’re still familiar enough with it to know what to do or draw inferences about it

puppy love – 早恋 – puppy love; fall in love at an early age – Refers to romantic relationships between kids under the age of 18, typically viewed with a negative light (Baidu) The bane of parents who worry that dating will distract their kids from schoolwork and the all-important college entrance exam. It’s not uncommon for dating to be banned in junior and senior high school (by schools as well as parents) for this reason.

Three Character Classic – 三字经 – A classic Chinese text written around the 13th century, an embodiment of Confucianism suitable for teaching young children. The text is written in triplets of characters for easy memorization (Wikipedia)

hit the nail on the head – 一针见血 – pierce to the truth with a single pertinent remark; draw blood with one prick; go straight to the heart of the matter

gamble on it – 孤注一掷 – bet all on a single throw; bet one’s bottom dollar on; throw the helve after the hatchet; go for the gloves; make a last desperate effort; make a spoon or spoil a horn; make or break

Transliterated names, titles, and places—new in this chapter:

Beverly Hills – 比弗利庄园

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