Chapter 82: CH 82

Chapter 82 – High School (1)

With a foot on the bench, Wen Ruan held onto the blackboard and stepped on the rickety chair.  Then she lifted her hand and started to copy the class timetable stroke by stroke.

Then vigorously and automatically she replaced all the sports and activity classes with Mathematics and Chinese Language lessons.

The bell for the morning self-study class had already rung 5 minutes ago but the classroom was still in a lively chaotic mess.

In the far left of the classroom, a male student was sitting beside the window slurping on some noodles with his mouth stained with oil while holding up a hotdog in his hand.  Now and then he would lift his head and shout to the side.

“Little Fatty, give me some of your spicy noodles!”

A small group of girls was gathered in the middle of the classroom chatting without holding down their voices and from time to time, there would be bursts of uncontrolled laughter.

“I don’t believe it!  How handsome can he be?”

“Anyway, I can’t be sure.  I only heard from the adjacent school that when the girls looked for the power-forward of the basketball team to ask for his WeChat, the queue could even line up to the door of the classroom.”

“What is that guy’s name?”

“I’m not sure but it seems the surname is Fu.”

In the last row, a boy with a head of spikey hair shouted.  “Who can lend me a book to copy homework?!……..”

His deskmate immediately picked up his trail and added.  “You can help me to copy mine as well!”

‘Scram!”

*Ka-chi*

Wen Ruan took a deep breath.  The tip of the chalk scratched across the blackboard with a screeching sound and the last word was completed.

She threw the remaining chalk into the slot attached to the blackboard then clapped off the dust on her hands and turned around to walk to the podium.  With both hands resting on the podium, she said softly.

“Classmates, this is a self-study session, please be quiet.”

However, no one seemed to pay any attention to her at all and the lively and jubilant atmosphere seemed to get louder and louder.

Wen Ruan had long known that this would be the case.

She was very calm.  First, she yawned slowly and then tossed the blackboard duster up and down in her hand.

The next second, she slammed the duster on the podium forcefully.

*Bang*

A loud bang sounded and even the podium shook slightly.

All the voices in the classroom instantly turned quiet as if a pause button had been pressed and everyone turned their heads to look in Wen Ruan’s direction.

The boy who was eating noodles swallowed hard, bit off the noodles, and slowed down his chewing motions.

A rustling sound began in the class.

“It’s over, it’s over, why is she on duty today?”

“Shhhh, keep your voice down, sit down, and don’t talk.  I don’t want to die in the hands of this ancestor.”

Wen Ruan did not look angry at all and even showed a friendly smile.  She turned her head to look at the noodle-eating boy and asked with gentle emphasis.

“Finished eating?”

The boy shrank his shoulders.  “No……not yet.”

“……..”

Wen Ruan was so angry that she wanted to laugh.

“No?  What do you mean by no?  Did I ask you a question?  I want you to hurry up and stop talking!  I can overlook the fact that you’re eating noodles during self-study class but who permitted you to eat garlic?  It’s alright if you cook your noodles with garlic but damn it, you’re eating raw garlic!  Why do you think your deskmate is hiding in the last row?”

The noodle-eating boy glanced at the garlic that he had placed on the table and quietly used his hand to sweep them into the drawer.

Although he had shrunk timidly into a ball, he still could not help but explain.

“My mother said that eating garlic is good for the body…….”

Wen Ruan threw a glance at him.

The boy’s voice turned hoarse instantly.  “I won’t eat anymore.”

After settling the first classmate, Wen Ruan raised her head again and set her eyes on the group of girls in the middle of the classroom.  She coughed and before she could speak, the girls obediently moved back to their seats and sat up straight.

Then they picked up their books and quickly began to read at random.

“The autumn of Renxu!  The Seventh Month is in sight!”

(The above is the first line of a poem written by the poet, Su Shi in the Song Dynasty about a rafting trip he took with his friends on a moonlit night in Chibi. )

The next step was to deal with those few ‘spiky heads’ sitting in the last row at the back of the classroom.

But when Wen Ruan raised her eyes, those people quickly picked up their books, followed suit, and started to read randomly.

Wen Ruan was silent for a while and then interrupted them.

“Don’t be so nervous.  I just wanted to remind everyone that what you copied just now is not today’s homework.”

“It was homework for the day before yesterday.”

“……”

***☆☆☆***

Wen Ruan only came down from the podium after the morning self-study class ended.

To demonstrate fairness in students’ placement and division of classes at the start of school, a reshuffle was carried out and placement was arranged at random.

By coincidence, Wen Ruan’s class was randomly assigned with two-thirds of the high school freshmen of ‘spiky head’ representatives.  It was either the international student’s family who had made use of money to get him admitted into the school or the international student was admitted through connections.

Initially, there was no one to control them and even the class teacher did not show any concern.  Everyone was just waiting for the placement test to be held half a year later.

It was until one day a spiky head representative bullied a girl and made her cry in class.  Wen Ruan made him write an apology letter containing 3000 words and read it out on the podium.

That spiky head representative was not someone to be provoked and that afternoon, Wen Ruan was challenged to a one-to-one fight in the woods.

It was said that the scene on that day was very tragic.

Anyway, in the end, the spiky head representative was carried out of the woods by two fellow students.

After that, the class teacher discovered that as long as Wen Ruan coughed, for some unknown reason, the students in that vicious and most difficult-to-control class would not even dare to fart.

Therefore, Wen Ruan was awarded official titles and ranks and took up important positions such as Discipline Committee Member, Class Monitor, Squad Leader, Party Committee Secretary as well as Sports Committee Member.

At the end of the first class, the class teacher looked at the timetable on the blackboard and wiped off the afternoon classes with a slight smile.

“It’s like this, our school had organized basketball games with other schools today and the first-year students are selected to watch the games.  At the very least, the arena must be filled, therefore the afternoon classes are canceled.”

The classmates who were feeling drowsy just now instantly woke up.  Then the whole class broke into warm applause and happily sent the teacher on her way.

Qin Sushan poked Wen Ruan’s arm and whispered into her ear.

“Did you hear that there’s a power forward in the basketball team from the school next door?  I heard he is very handsome!”

In high school, Wen Ruan did not have much interest in love and handsome boys.  At that time, she was obsessed with playing multiplayer online games with friends and programming the models in the game.

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So her attitude was also very perfunctory and just nodded.  “Um.”

Qin Sushan was anxious.

“It’s true, believe me!  They say he’s the kind of extraordinary guy who is extremely cold with a little irresistible seductiveness, the kind of cool handsome guy that is similar to the ‘flower of the high mountains’!”

Wen Ruan showed a shocked expression.  “When did your vocabulary become so rich?”

“No, that’s not the issue.”  Qin Sushan coughed.  “Just a question for you…….  Handsome guy……would you like to see?”

“No.”

Wen Ruan lay lazily on the desk and then glanced at the group of girls gathered at the side who were screaming while discussing the basketball game.  She lifted her index finger to rub her ears and showed a lack of interest.

“I’m not interested and since there are a lot of people from the first year attending, so even if I skip the games, no one will notice.  It’s better to go to the canteen to buy some popsicles and come back to play the King of Glory in the classroom.”

Qin Sushan pondered over it and had the same thought as well.

After all, she doesn’t understand basketball, so even if she sits there, she can only look at the little brother’s face, and anyway, she can’t see anything from so far away.

Besides, she had long gotten tired of watching the basketball team in her school.

So she and Wen Ruan happily decided to skip the basketball game.

It was only ten years later.

That Wen Ruan realized it was not a basketball game she missed.

But her husband.

***☆☆☆***

When it was the lunch break at noon, Wen Ruan was still on duty, so nothing much happened in the class.

But at this moment, a girl named Zhou Yao who was sitting in the corner suddenly stood up.   She walked up to Wen ruan and whispered.

“I’m going to the toilet.”

Wen Ruan threw her a glance.

The rims of Zhou Yao’s eyes were slightly red and her voice was very soft when she spoke.  She looked like she was cowering as though she was scared of something.

Wen Ruan hesitated but in the end, she did not probe and just nodded.

*Psst*

Just as Zhou Yao stepped out of the classroom, Qin Sushan signaled with her eyes, waved her hand at Wen Ruan, and gestured for her to come over.

As soon as Wen Ruan walked over, Qin Sushan lowered her voice and whispered into her ear.

“Did you see the footprint on Zhou Yao’s school uniform just now?’

“Footprint?”  Wen Ruan frowned.  “I didn’t notice.”

“Ai, I heard that recently several senior girls are bullying Zhou Yao and extorting money from her.  I guessed that the old students are bullying her after seeing that she is gentle and weak.”

Qin Sushan gritted her teeth and said.  “Most probably Zhou Yao had been called out by those people since she went out with her eyes all red just now.”

Wen Ruan frowned, straightened up, and glanced in the direction Zhou Yao had left.

At this moment, the class teacher suddenly appeared at the door of the classroom and called out softly.  “Wen Ruan, come over here.”

***☆☆☆***

As the basketball game was scheduled to be held in the afternoon, all the teachers and committee members of the Student Union had to gather at the venue to make preparations and take over their duties.

But because it was a chaotic time and there was a shortage of manpower, therefore, each class had to send a representative to help.

Wen Ruan’s task was quite simple.  She only had to go backstage in the conference hall to sort out some equipment such as speakers or microphones that would usually be used.

The conference hall was not far from the basketball hall and the temperature had started to rise.  However, the backstage was cool like a breeze was blowing through which made people unexpectedly comfortable.

The things inside backstage were piled up in a mess.  Moreover, the conference hall was only used once at the beginning of the school year and never used again thereafter, so a layer of dust had collected on the surfaces.

Wen Ruan sighed and was about to patiently filter through the things when she suddenly heard a voice beside her……

“What do you mean you don’t have money?  Aren’t your shoes quite new?  It’s just 300 yuan and you can’t take it out?  Who are you deceiving?”

“Sell off your phone.  Looking at your poor state, it’s useless for you to have a phone.”

“That’s right.  Do you know how much Sister Lin’s cup that you broke costs?  Little sister, you have gained from this deal.”

Extremely unfriendly voice.

A tone with some evil provocative intent that also held a hint of sarcasm.

Even without looking, Wen Ruan could guess what was happening.

“I’m sorry but I really don’t have that much money.”

A voice that seemed to be sobbing.

Very familiar.

It was Zhou Yao.

Wen Ruan paused her actions of sorting out the equipment.  She put the things down quietly then straightened up and looked in the direction of the voices……..

It should be coming from the next room……..

Wen Ruan took a step forward and was about to go next door when she accidentally tripped over something.

Startled, she turned her head around and saw……..

A boy………

His arms were resting on his knees with a black hoodie over his head concealing his fine and soft black hair.  His whole body was hidden in the shadow of the corner and it was impossible to see his face.

But even so, his whole body still exuded an inexplicable aura that made others feel that the air around them was a little cold and oppressive.

At this moment, he seemed to be dispirited and weary and looked like he was taking a nap here.  Although he felt Wen Ruan bump into him, he did not say anything and just raised his eyes slightly.

Wen Ruan was taken aback.

Although she was not able to get a clear view of the boy’s expression, she was still able to feel his gaze resting on her distinctively.

Completely indifferent.

It seemed his mood was in a frozen state without any trace of visible emotion but it made others feel a sense of frostiness in their hearts.

“Sorry……”

Wen Ruan apologized softly and walked around him.

There were indeed many students who came to the backstage area of the conference hall, to slack off or rest.  Therefore, it was not surprising to find people sleeping here.

But what she did not know was that……..

The boy did not shift his eyes away but just looked at Wen Ruan deeply.  A long time later, he lowered his eyes and his Adam’s apple rolled up and down.  However, he did not say a word and just lifted his hand to gently pull down the edge of his hoodie and closed his eyes again.

As if all this had nothing to do with him.

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