Liu Jun raised his head and looked at Fang Li’s bed before climbing up, rummaging through everything upside. “I’m looking to see if he’s hiding another disgusting thing in here. Eh, phone?”
There was a phone lying quietly underneath Fang Li’s pillow!
Li Zhiyong’s eyes brightened. “That’s right. Someone has to hold his belongings during the competition, but he doesn’t have many friends. He’s afraid of losing his phone, so he didn’t bother to bring it with him.”
Several people lowered their heads excitedly, but the phone was locked and they couldn’t open it.
Li Zhiyong sighed in disappointment. “We’d need a password.”
Liu Jun suddenly thought of something. “I have the form that everyone needed to fill out last year when I was the sports representative and there’s the students’ ID number recorded on it.”
He looked inside his phone for a long time and found the form he had saved there before. He quickly found Fang Li’s number and picked up the six digits of his birthday, entering it without too much hope.
“…!” It opened! Fang Li’s phone screen slowly slid open, revealing the screensaver.
Several boys eagerly found the photo album and scrolled through it one by one.
“Weird. Who is this girl? Is she someone from a female idol group?” A boy looked at the numerous photos inside the phone in bewilderment. The girl was pretty and pure-looking with long black hair and beautiful amber eyes.
When she smiled softly at the camera, she looked lovely and gentle.
Li Zhiyong responded, “I don’t recognize her, but she looks slightly familiar. Maybe she’s a small internet celebrity?”
Liu Jun flipped through the pictures, but all he could find was one person, so it was not long before he lost his patience.
He carelessly scrolled backward and suddenly saw another photo album.
It actually came with a second layer of password protection. This time, it couldn’t be opened and only the thumbnail of the first photo could be seen vaguely.
Liu Jun squinted and looked at it for a moment. It was barely distinguishable and it seemed to be taken on the sports field and it was a group photo with someone. Fang Li and… Fu Songhua?
Tch. It was only a photo taken together with that male peacock from Class 1, but he even had to make a password-protected folder for it as if it was a shameful thing.
He skipped around the folder in boredom and started flipping through the photos again when his fingers suddenly stopped.
The same girl took a selfie while putting on her make-up. Her false eyelashes and lipsticks hadn’t been put on yet, but her small, diamond-shaped mouth was still delicate and moist.
Liu Jun muttered, “Why does this girl feel so familiar?”
Suddenly, the several boys reacted simultaneously and looked at each other, opening their mouths in utter amazement. “I can’t believe it, ah. I-Is this…?”
Li Zhiyong turned his head and rushed to go outside. “Let’s go look for security and then report it to the class teacher!”
Liu Jun held him down, a bright light flashing through his eyes. “Don’t rush it. Haven’t you seen the news? The school will probably suppress the matter in order to preserve their reputations against something like a student stealing.”
Li Zhiyong looked stunned. “What should we do then?”
Liu Jun thought it over for a while, his face looking all smug. “I have an idea.”
***
In the alley outside the school, the street was full of breakfast shops and other small restaurants.
The main focus here was student consumption, so there weren’t any high-end restaurants. Most of the dishes in the restaurants were cheap home-cooked meals with many barbecue and hotpot sorts of restaurants that the students usually like to hang out at.
Come and Eat Skewers was a pretty large-scale barbeque place. Although the name was plain and simple, the entire establishment could fit several tables. This was one of the most common places to go whenever Experimental No. 3’s students wanted to get together for a group meal with lots of people.
When Ruan Qingmu and Qin Yuan entered, the restaurant was already packed with people. Every table was fully loaded and many diners had already started to gorge themselves.
“So many people?” Ruan Qingmu was startled.
The place was initially small and a table for ten was filled with a dozen more people. Many people even had to shift their chairs backward and the aisles between the tables were so narrow that this made walking around difficult.
Ruan Qingmu supported Qin Yuan, both unhurriedly moving forward. They were practically stuck there.
Qin Yuan softly said, “Mm. It’s after the sports competition. Moreover, tomorrow is the National Day holiday.”
In the corner of the hall, someone saw them and cheerfully beckoned them to their table. “Ruan-ge, here! Here!”
The two people squeezed through with incredible difficulty. There were three tables in that corner, two for boys and one for girls, full of Class 9’s people.
Except for Liu Jun’s group and several students that went home in advance tonight, the remaining thirty more people in the class were there. Even those several boys, who used to play with Liu Jun, also shyly sat in a corner.
“Main seat. Main seat. Ruan-ge has to sit here. It’s the seat of honor!” Huang Ya and the others noisily stood up and made way for Ruan Qingmu.
Looking at the quiet Qin Yuan just standing there, Bai Jing was particularly attentive for some reason and hastily pushed him inside their circle. “Boss, you’re also in the seat of honor. We’ve especially saved two chairs for you guys.”
Fu Songhua sullenly crammed in the corner with his big, tall stature and argued in dissatisfaction. “What does this mean, you guys from Class 9? I’m a guest from afar*, but you guys arranged for me to sit here?”
*T/N: A guest from afar (proverb) means that all guests who come from afar should be warmly entertained.
This was the entrance where the food would be served. Once the food was served, he would have to pass the food around so that everyone has something to eat, which would be a very tiring ordeal.
Huang Ya rolled his eyes at him. “It’s random seating, okay? Fang Li, our great hero, is going to sit next to you. What are you complaining about?”
Fu Songhua arrogantly said, “I’ve showered and changed into new clothes for this meeting. What if it’s splashed with oil later?”
He had sweated all day at the sports competition and had gone back to his dorm to shower and change his clothes before coming over, wearing a loose orange shirt from a trendy brand with the sleeves loosely pulled up and a pair of knee-length shorts underneath.