Chapter 12: 12

Jiang Xiao looked at him with a smile and asked, “Anything else you want to ask?”

Lin HeYuan nodded, and his facial expression didn’t change. He didn’t even notice his ears were red. Maybe because he felt he’d wronged the other person, he was a little embarrassed.

After talking to Jiang Xiao again, Lin HeYuan didn’t think he was a bad guy like his sister had described. Jiang Xiao was friendly, not at all aggressive, and had a cute smile, a bit like the next door neighbor’s big dog.

Even in Class 15 he was studying hard. He wasn’t completely unmotivated.

“Do you remember who bought that watch?” Lin HeYuan cleared his throat, hesitated for a moment, and said, “My sister, she…”

He couldn’t help thinking about that incident.

“The store owner might remember,” Jiang Xiao said. “I’ll take you there after school.”

Then the bell rang, and the two couldn’t talk anymore. Lin HeYuan went back to Class 1 but he continued to think about it.

He secretly rubbed his ears. Now that the temperature had faded, they weren’t as red.

Jiang Xiao didn’t seem so bad, Lin HeYuan thought to himself.

In the afternoon, Jiang Xiao used to go home with Ye YingYing, but now Ye YingYing rushed off to art class as soon as school let out. Jiang Xiao also had to do his inventory check, so they couldn’t leave together.

Today he was walking with Lin HeYuan, which was pretty amazing.

Lin HeYuan was about the same height as Jiang Xiao. Ye YingYing constantly chattered, but Lin HeYuan didn’t talk much at all. When he heard Jiang Xiao say the watch was sold by him, he thought Jiang Xiao meant it was sold in his family’s shop. Now he realized it was a small business Jiang Xiao ran himself.

Jiang Xiao skillfully tidied up the merchandise on the shelf and rearranged some disordered items one by one. Then he asked the boss about the watch.

That watch was really expensive. It was the most expensive thing Jiang Xiao had brought back, and it sold for nearly three hundred yuan. The boss thought about it and still had an impression. He described the buyer to Lin HeYuan.

“I got it.” After listening to the few characteristics the owner remembered, Lin HeYuan thought of who it was. He knew the boy was from another junior high, but didn’t think of him before. “Thank you very much.”

The video store owner waved his hand, “You’re welcome.”

Jiang Xiao heard their conversation and saw that everything was clear, so he ignored them and took inventory, sorting and counting. He took out the ledger and checked it, then walked over and prepared to reconcile the books with the boss. When he turned back he saw Lin HeYuan was still standing there.

“You didn’t leave yet?”

The matter of Lin HeYuan’s sister had already been explained, but when he looked at Jiang Xiao straightening up, he suddenly had more questions. He wasn’t able to walk away, so he waited.

He remembered that Jiang Xiao used to be in Class 1. He had good grades before, sometimes even a bit higher than his own. Lin HeYuan didn’t talk a lot, and he didn’t have any friends in the class. Naturally, he didn’t have much contact with Jiang Xiao.

He focused on studying with all his heart. He didn’t pay attention to people who were selling things, and he didn’t care what was popular among the girls in school. Jiang Xiao’s scores had improved a while ago, but he wasn’t in the top ten, and Lin HeYuan didn’t have time to pay attention to the middle and lower ranked part of the class. Now he saw how much Jiang Xiao had changed and he was shocked.

Selling things and studying seriously again, Jiang Xiao… was pretty busy?

Lin HeYuan speculated silently to himself, and guessed the reason for the decline in Jiang Xiao’s grades. A junior high school student, but he had to learn to earn his own money. Maybe the situation at home wasn’t good, and that’s what happened.

He felt more sympathy for Jiang Xiao. The other person had done pretty well to adjust himself like this.

Jiang Xiao didn’t know Lin HeYuan had so many twists and turns in his mind. He got the accounts sorted and took the money, then left with Lin HeYuan. “Is there anything else you wanted to ask?”

Lin HeYuan didn’t know what to say. He and Jiang Xiao weren’t friends. They’d only talked a few times. But the little he knew about Jiang Xiao and the flavor of their interactions made him feel this person was quite interesting. He couldn’t help but want to explore it.

Jiang Xiao saw he wasn’t saying much, so he found his own topic to talk about.

“You shouldn’t push your sister too hard,” Jiang Xiao said. “Girls that age can be rebellious. It’s not a bad thing to be young. Lead it in a good direction and it could become motivation.”

Lin HeYuan: “… You’re pretty certain of yourself.”

But Jiang Xiao’s tone was light, so he relaxed a bit.

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“I saw you reading in class,” Lin HeYuan said. “Are you getting serious about studying again? It’s too bad Class 15 isn’t a good place for it.”

He remembered that he’d just seen a bunch of people fighting there. What a shambles.

“No, Class 15 is all right. If students don’t like to study it doesn’t mean they’re bad people,” Jiang Xiao said. “The teachers are patient, too. If you really want to study, you can study anywhere. And that fight wasn’t a big deal. Those two are just the type who shoot from the hip. They decided to let their fists do the talking. They were fine again after class.”

Lin HeYuan blinked. He didn’t understand.

“So you just watched them fight from the beginning?”

Jiang Xiao laughed. “Lin HeYuan, you’ve never been in a fight, have you?”

“Of course not.”

“Both of those two are friends, but they got into an argument recently and haven’t been getting along. They needed to let off steam, but it was really okay. Waving their fists around was just a way to vent. You could see at a glance they weren’t hitting very hard. Although it looked like a big to-do, it was mostly for show. They were just swinging their arms,” Jiang Xiao said. “Besides, little classmate Lin, the best time to persuade someone not to fight isn’t right at the beginning. When two people are angry and can’t stand it anymore, it’ll be your bad luck if you try to intervene. Wait until they’ve fought a round, past the most aggressive time. That’s when you can persuade them. On the one hand, the worst of it has passed. On the other hand, it gives both sides a chance to step down.”

Lin HeYuan: “…”

It was like he’d just learned something he’d never be able to use.

“So that’s the reason.” Lin HeYuan pursed his lips. He was a model student, but listening to Jiang Xiao’s serious talk about the fight didn’t make him angry. On the contrary, he thought it was interesting. But he didn’t forget to give advice. “You can’t follow their example. You should study hard in the future and avoid fighting.”

“I don’t fight, I never fight, I believe in peace and prosperity.” If no one bothered Jiang Xiao, he naturally wouldn’t go looking for trouble. “But let me make one thing clear. Aside from quality issues, I don’t accept returns or exchanges. Your sister has been using that watch for a long time, so I won’t give a refund.”

His tone clearly wasn’t serious. There was a touch of banter in it. Lin HeYuan had been in a bad mood today, but in the company of such a lively person he couldn’t help but smile.

Jiang Xiao was like a little sun.

Lin HeYuan looked even better with a smile than with a straight face. Face-con Jiang Xiao stared at him with a rapt expression. He thought little classmate Lin was pretty interesting. Also, he was number one in the grade.

Jiang Xiao rolled his eyes. It was rare to see Lin HeYuan in such a good mood. He mustered up his courage—

To ask if he could borrow his math notes!

They’d agreed that he should study hard, and he needed to learn everything from the first year. Jiang Xiao couldn’t miss this opportunity.

And Lin HeYuan didn’t refuse. He seemed to be in a good mood. “I’ll give them to you during evening study.”

Consider it a thank you to Jiang Xiao for helping him.

Sure enough, Jiang Xiao received the math notes as promised during the evening study period. The first in the grade was indeed worthy of his title. The knowledge points were organized clearly one by one. Even the handwriting was beautiful.

Jiang Xiao flipped through the pages and found that Lin HeYuan had specially marked the key points for him and pasted in small transparent labels, such as “key points”, “will be on the exam”, “easy to make a mistake” and “out of scope”, which were concise and clear.

Turning to the last page, he found a slightly larger note. Five words were written there: Don’t fight, do more problems.

If it weren’t for the evening study session, Jiang Xiao would have laughed out loud.

This Lin HeYuan guy was really interesting!

 

TL Notes:

Next chapter: Return of the Scum ٩(◕‿◕)۶

I believe in peace and prosperity – adapted from 和气生财 – Friendliness is conducive to business success; Amiability attracts riches; An even temper brings wealth; Good-naturedness is a source of wealth; Harmony brings wealth; Peace breeds wealth.

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

little classmate Lin – 林小同学 – MC’s nickname for Lin HeYuan

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