Chapter 13: 13

Shen Shao, who was the subject of gossip for most of the journey, returned to his rental apartment at four or five o’clock in the afternoon. The interior of the apartment was already neat and tidy. He did a little cleaning, made the bed with clean new sheets, and put away the things he brought. Then he could rest at ease.

That night he slept well. When he woke up the next morning, he put on workout clothes and ran a few laps around the community. Then he went out to buy breakfast and some meal ingredients. When he came back, he helped an old lady carry her groceries upstairs. After finishing his breakfast at home, he began to review the study materials for upcoming lessons. After a few days this became a daily routine, although sometimes he helped an old lady or old man carry something upstairs, and sometimes he was empty-handed.

The textbooks for senior year one were intended to lay a foundation for further study. Shen Shao spent several days previewing the material for the main subjects.

However, when he heard that a small new hot pot restaurant had opened nearby, he was greedy and put away his books. He went out the door with his wallet.

Furong City had a lot of greenery, and the banyan trees on both sides of the street were lush, giving people a feeling of freshness and vitality. Although the sun was blazing down, pedestrians didn’t feel the glare on the sidewalk.

Shen Shao walked leisurely to the door of the small hot pot shop. Because of his professional habits in his previous life, he carefully looked at the restaurant’s decoration. It had a bit of an ethnic style, with bright and sparkling windows and waiters wearing white uniforms. It gave diners the impression they didn’t have to worry about cleanliness issues when eating here.

He walked into the restaurant, found a small table for two, and sat down. He ordered a mandarin duck hot pot and several other dishes he liked. The waiting time for the pot was a little long. Shen Shao happened to be sitting near the window, and he began to observe the neighborhood outside.

There are several office buildings nearby with a lot of white-collar and gold-collar workers. There was also a public square with a cultural theme not far away. People came and went frequently, so it was a good choice to open a shop here. At least it had sufficient customer flow.

After eating the delicious meal, Shen Shao emerged from the restaurant smelling of hot pot. As soon as he reached the corner, a man in a black suit bumped into him.

“Sorry.” The man in the suit stepped aside, made a gesture of invitation, motioning for Shen Shao to go first.

Shen Shao didn’t mind and simply smiled at him. After walking a few more steps, he looked back. Three men all wearing the exact same style of suit were standing with the man who’d bumped into him, and in the middle of the four was a teenager. Shen Shao saw only the boy’s back, but there was the aura of a rich young master all over him, that is, a kind of legendary nobility.

Tsk, tsk. Shen Shao looked away. He’d better study hard, make progress every day, and strive to become a self-made rich man like that.

“Second young master?” The man in the suit saw that the second young master had stopped in his tracks. He felt a little puzzled and followed the young man’s line of sight. He immediately saw the teenager he’d just bumped into. “Is there something wrong with that person?”

The teenager averted his gaze, shook his head slowly, and continued forward without saying a word.

Seeing this, his bodyguards followed him without asking more questions.

When the last day of August arrived, it was raining and the weather was a bit cool. Shen Shao dressed in a long-sleeved shirt with a hat, jeans, and sneakers. He looked in the mirror and inwardly felt satisfied with his appearance. He went downstairs, got on his new bike, and headed to school.

There were fifteen classes in senior year one. Class 13 through 15 were the experimental classes with sixty students each. Shen Shao was assigned to Class 15, and his classroom was on the third floor of the second teaching building. When he walked into the room, about half of the students were already present. The seats in the front row were full. He looked around and finally found an empty seat in the fourth row.

His deskmate was a somewhat thin boy with glasses. After seeing Shen Shao sit down, he moved his chair back to make room. He was probably shy, because he didn’t say a word despite glancing at Shen Shao several times.

Shen Shao saw his embarrassment and took the initiative to speak. “Hi, my name’s Shen Shao.” 

“H-Hello.” The boy blushed. “My name’s Liang Cheng.” He took out an unopened bottle of Sprite from the desk drawer and handed it to Shen Shao. “Please have some.”

Looking at his deskmate’s nervous appearance, Shen Shao couldn’t bear to refuse. “Thanks.” He took a sip of the Sprite. Seeing that the other boy’s face had finally relaxed, he put down the drink and said softly, “Do you know when the teacher will get here?”

Liang Cheng glanced at the classroom. “Most of the students have arrived. The teacher should be here soon. Um… what school did you go to before?”

“I’m an external student. You probably never heard of the school I went to,” Shen Shao said with a smile. “I’m not too familiar with Furong City. If I go to buy study books in the future, can I ask you to come with me?”

“No problem.” Liang Cheng nodded hurriedly. “I’m familiar with the area. If you need to buy anything in the future, just let me know.”

“Thanks.” Shen Shao saw the boy was finally able to talk to him easily, and the corners of his lips curved up.

Not long after that, a middle-aged man with glasses came in, followed by another man and a woman. From the way they were dressed, they were probably teachers.

When the students saw the teachers walk in, they immediately quieted down. The middle-aged man stepped onto the podium. He saw that all the students were sitting properly, so he began to introduce himself. “Hello, everyone. I’m your head teacher, Zhang JiaHe. I’m also your Chinese teacher. When we’re in class, I’m your teacher, and after class, I can also be your friend. If you have any difficulties, just come to me and I’ll try my best to help you solve them.” After this brief speech, he introduced the two teachers behind him. “This is your English teacher, Liu Ling. This is your math teacher, Cai ShengSheng. Everyone, let’s applaud to welcome the two teachers.”

The whole class applauded. After the other two teachers introduced themselves and left, Zhang JiaHe made some initial changes to the seat assignments, and then went over the usual school discipline and class rules. After that, he said, “There are sixty people assigned to our class, and there are sixty students here. It looks like everyone’s excited about high school life. Right now, let’s have everyone give a brief self-introduction in front of the class so we can get familiar with each other. This is also a good way to start your lives as high school students.”

That was when Shen Shao had his first chance to appreciate the high level of these students. Many of the teenagers who introduced themselves spoke fluent Mandarin, and they spoke vividly without any stammers or pauses. In a one minute-long self-introduction, many of them left a vivid impression. As expected of the strongest high school in the province, these students represented an all-around high level of development of morality, intelligence, physique, and appearance.

When it was Shen Shao’s turn, he attracted the attention of many of the girls as soon as he stood on the podium. After all, he happened to have an appealing face. No matter the era, liking handsome faces is a common disease.

“Hello everyone. My name is Shen Shao. Not the Shao that means ‘young master’, the Shao from the Hundred Family Surnames. If you think I’m taking advantage of you by asking you to call me Shen Shao in the future, you can also call me Xiao Shen or Xiao Shao. Of course, Shao Ge works too.”

The students laughed loudly, and a boy called out, “How is calling you Shao Ge not taking advantage of us!”

Shen Shao scratched his head and said, “We were all assigned to the same class, which is a kind of fate. In the future, please give me advice. Together we’ll make progress every day!”

Shen Shao stepped down from the podium amid the friendly jokes and laughter of his classmates. Next it was Liang Cheng’s turn on stage, and he stammered and introduced himself. When he returned to his seat with a pale face, he looked at Shen Shao and felt a sense of admiration. How was Shen Shao able to behave so confidently with so many people watching?

Zhang JiaHe, who was standing beside the podium, couldn’t help but look over at Shen Shao a few more times. As the class teacher of Class 15, he certainly knew which students were assigned to his class and already had an impression of Shen Shao, the external student with the highest score on the admission test. Zhang JiaHe was a Chinese teacher, but he understood how difficult the exam questions were. When the computer randomly assigned the students to each class, the teachers of the other two experimental classes sighed with regret for a while after Shen Shao wasn’t assigned to them.

“Hello, my name is Zhou ZeYu….”

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Shen Shao finally remembered—that is, Zhou ZeYu had also scored high enough to enter an experimental class. As it turned out, the two were assigned to the same class.

After introducing himself, Zhou ZeYu winked in Shen Shao’s direction before returning to his seat and sitting down.

“Shen Shao, do you two know each other?” Liang Cheng noticed Zhou ZeYu’s action and asked curiously.

“Yeah.” Shen Shao nodded. “We happened to meet when I went to check the admission test results.”

“It’s nice to already have a new friend.” Liang Cheng was a little envious. He’d never been good at socializing. In junior high school he got good grades, but the students in the class used to call him a nerd, and he didn’t have many friends. When he saw Shen Shao speaking to him in such a friendly way, he immediately labeled Shen Shao a good classmate.

Hearing this, Shen Shao smiled and didn’t say anything.

After the students finished introducing themselves, they began to hand out textbooks and workbooks. When he held the ink-scented books in his hands, Shen Shao felt a lot more excitement than he showed on his face. In his last life, he never had the chance to sit in a high school classroom and study. In this life, he was finally able to realize his dream.

After the teacher handed out the books, everyone was allowed to go home. When Shen Shao left the classroom, someone patted him on the shoulder. He looked around, and as expected, it was Zhou ZeYu.

“Man, we’re really lucky to be assigned to the same class,” Zhou ZeYu said. He was holding a few textbooks he was going to take home to study. His other hand was on Shen Shao’s shoulder. “Do you live on campus or outside?”

Shen Shao said the name of the community he lived in. Liang Cheng, who happened to be walking next to them, looked a little excited and said, “Shen Shao, I live in the same community as you. In the future, we can go to school together.”

Zhou ZeYu looked at the somewhat skinny Liang Cheng and smiled. “I live in the neighborhood nearby. Why don’t we go to school together in the future?”

Liang Cheng nodded vigorously.

Shen Shao looked at them and finally understood those online jokes in his previous life about “making an appointment to go to school” and “being so close they go to the bathroom together”. Although it was a bit childish, he couldn’t deny it felt good.

“OK, let’s meet in front of our community at 6:50 in the morning.” Shen Shao patted Liang Cheng and Zhou ZeYu on the shoulder. “Anyone who’s late has to treat the others to a drink.”

“No problem!” Zhou ZeYu breathed an inner sigh of relief. He just came to class and already made two friends. That was a good start.

Therefore, their happy high school life began with the friendly atmosphere of making an appointment to go to school together.

 

TL Notes:

mandarin duck hot pot – 鸳鸯锅 – A two-flavor hot pot. The pot is divided down the middle so the diners can enjoy two different flavors of broth. “Mandarin ducks” a common reference to an affectionate or happily married couple

gold-collar workers – 金领 – gold collar worker; highly-skilled worker

self-made rich man – 富一代 – rich first generation (as opposed to a rich second generation)

fluent Mandarin – 流利的普通话 – I think this means the students weren’t speaking the local dialect of the area, or it could mean they spoke standard Mandarin without much of an accent. It could also mean they were speaking in a confident, outgoing way

Hundred Family Surnames – 百家姓 – A classic Chinese text composed of common Chinese surnames, originally compiled during the Song dynasty (960-1279). The book lists 507 surnames (Wikipedia)

nerd – 书呆子 – Alternatively: bookworm, pedant, bookish

 

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

second young master – 二少 – Èr shào

young master – 少 – shào – This could also be translated “Childe”, but that’s a bit old-fashioned. It means “the son of a rich family”. It has the same pronunciation as Shen Shao’s personal name (邵 – Shào). When people hear his name, they might think he’s being addressed as “Young Master Shen”, hence the joke about “taking advantage of you”

Liang Cheng – 梁城

Sprite – 雪碧 – A lemon-lime flavored soda

Zhang JiaHe – 张家和

Liu Ling – 刘玲

Cai ShengSheng – 蔡胜生 – Cài Shèngshēng

Xiao Shen – 小沈 – Little/Young Shen

Shao Ge – 邵哥 – Older brother Shao. Since all the students are in the same grade and roughly the same age, if they call him this instead of Xiao Shen or Xiao Shao, it might signal they look up to, admire, or are interested in him

ge – 哥 – Older brother. Also a common way to refer to an older man of the same generation as yourself

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