Xin Hexue saw Lin Oufei for the third time in the teachers’ office.
The affiliated elementary school had an administration building, separated from the teaching building by a playground. The teachers’ offices were all there, except for the homeroom teachers’ offices. There were four classes per floor, and the four homeroom teachers shared one office arranged at the end of the corridor.
Third-grade Class One was the farthest from the homeroom teachers’ office, and was located at one end of the corridor. So, their homeroom teacher always said upon entering the classroom that their class was the noisiest on the entire floor.
Xin Hexue was carrying a stack of National Day holiday homework. The last morning class had just ended, and other teachers weren’t around. Only their homeroom teacher was still grading the math homework for the class next door.
“Teacher, except for Sun Wuhao who is absent today, all other classmates’ homework has been collected.” Xin Hexue said.
The teacher tapped the desk beside her. “Put it here.”
Xin Hexue had just put it down and was about to leave.
“Class monitor, wait here for a moment. I have something to tell you.”
The homeroom teacher stopped him, then turned to look at Lin Oufei standing nearby. She needed to deal with Lin Oufei’s matter first. “I gave you the midterm exam papers earlier. The subject teachers have graded them, and I’ve seen the results. Your foundation is very good, full marks in math and English. Why didn’t you write the essay for the Chinese paper?”
Because he had just transferred, Lin Oufei was still wearing the provincial experimental school’s black-and-white uniform. He lowered his eyes, his expression indifferent. “There is nothing worth writing about. Isn’t the placement test for assessing our level? 75 points is enough.”
Xin Hexue blinked. He remembered the midterm Chinese exam paper had a themed essay, “A Happy Thing.”
The homeroom teacher opened her mouth. “Forget it. You’ve just transferred. If there’s anything you can’t adapt to, come and tell the teacher. Have your mother come to school again tomorrow; there are some procedures that need an adult to handle.”
Lin Oufei nodded. “Understood, teacher.”
He looked up and saw Xin Hexue opposite the desk, staring towards the back of the office, his pupils dilated like a cat’s, unable to hide the slight surprise and annoyance.
Noticing Lin Oufei looking at him, he quickly composed his expression.
‘What did he see?’
Lin Oufei looked back.
Someone was holding both sides of the second-floor window. He pushed off hard with his feet, and lodged his knees against the metal window frame.
A Lu Yang was climbing up.
The homeroom teacher had her back to the window so she didn’t see what was happening.
Xin Hexue’s voice was a bit tense as he tried to grab her attention. “Teacher, what else did you need to tell me?”
The homeroom teacher remembered something. “Oh, it’s about next Monday’s flag-raising ceremony and induction into the Young Pioneers. Students from our class will be tying red scarves for the first graders joining the Young Pioneers. You’ll need to stand on the flag-raising platform. Pick a few clever ones to go together. Our class needs to send ten students in total.”
Xin Hexue composed himself. “Okay.”
Homeroom teacher: “That’s all. You can go for lunch.”
Seeing the homeroom teacher about to pack up, Xin Hexue said anxiously, “Teacher!”
“What’s wrong?”
Lin Oufei watched coldly as Lu Yang secretly took a comic book from the newspaper rack. When he noticed that Lin Oufei was watching, Lu Yang quickly made a shushing gesture.
The rack had many miscellaneous books and small toys, obviously confiscated from students.
Xin Hexue was still trying his best to cover for Lu Yang, buying time. “Teacher… um… there are still students in our class who haven’t joined the Young Pioneers.”
Outstanding children joined in the second semester of first grade. Most of the remaining children successfully joined in second grade.
Only a very few “mischievous students” would drag it out until third grade.
“You mean Lu Yang, right?” The homeroom teacher said with amusement. “He’s practically turning the classroom upside down; there are his footprints on the ceiling. There’s a reason your previous homeroom teacher didn’t let him join.”
Out of 365 days a year, Lu Yang spent 200 standing in punishment at school.
The remaining days were school holidays.
Xin Hexue’s lips twitched. Thinking of Lu Yang still stealing books at the back of the office made it even harder to speak.
“Teacher…” His eyes shimmered with moisture as he glanced around, reluctantly speaking against his conscience for Lu Yang. “Actually, Lu Yang is already improving. He really wants to join the Young Pioneers too. He usually helps me check for students not wearing red scarves at the school gate.”
‘He is very bad at lying.’
Lin Oufei saw that Xin Hexue’s hands were behind his back, his thumbs were probably fighting each other.
Lu Yang was quietly climbing onto the iron window frame with the book in his hands.
Just as he was about to succeed, the homeroom teacher suddenly noticed Lin Oufei was still standing beside her. “Huh? If there’s nothing else, you can go for lunch. You can attend classes this afternoon, right?”
“Teacher.” Lin Oufei said calmly. “Behind the office.”
“What?”
The homeroom teacher turned around.
Xin Hexue’s pupils contracted.
A faint sound of something heavy hitting the grass came from below.
Lin Oufei said, “The window wasn’t closed. If it rains, the rain might blow in.”
Fortunately, the homeroom teacher turned around just as Lu Yang hurriedly jumped down. Xin Hexue let out a sigh of relief. “It’s okay, teacher. I checked the weather forecast last night, it’s sunny in Lingzhou City today. Keeping the window open allows ventilation.”
……
“That little bastard! He definitely did it on purpose!”
Lu Yang was furious.
“No cursing.” Xin Hexue sternly pressed him down onto the hard wooden chair. “Sit properly.”
The school doctor was out for lunch at noon, but it didn’t matter anyway. Only mercurochrome and thermometers were ever used in the school clinic.
Lu Yang swallowed the curses at the tip of his tongue and said angrily, “You were there, you saw it. Why didn’t that guy call the teacher earlier or later, why exactly when I was about to jump out the window?”
In his hurry to jump down, Lu Yang scraped his knee on the edge of the flower bed.
Xin Hexue: “Who told you to go steal books from the office?”
Lu Yang said righteously, “That was a scholar’s matter, how can it be called stealing? I paid to rent the book. Clearly, the homeroom teacher took my things.”
For some reason, Xin Hexue sighed. He took a cotton swab and disinfected the wound on Lu Yang’s knee with the medicine.
Seeing his brows and eyes drooping, Lu Yang said nervously, “This doesn’t even hurt, don’t worry.”
“But how will you explain this to Auntie Zhu?” Xin Hexue asked.
“Falls and bumps are common. As long as no parents come asking for medical fees, my mom won’t ask in detail.” Lu Yang said seriously. “Ever since I started playing with you, my family rarely beats me anymore.”
When Lu Yang was still in the countryside, he was like a wild child. The kindergarten teacher made a long-distance call to Zhu Cuifeng to complain, “Your son hit all the children in the class, claiming he’s conquering the world starting from Little Doctor Kindergarten.”
Zhu Cuifeng and Lu Guoxing asked for leave from the factory, took the train back overnight, arrived at the kindergarten and asked, “Where is our son?” The teacher pointed…up in the tree.
Xin Hexue asked, “Did uncle and auntie beat you up then?”
“Beat? Of course they beat me up.” Lu Yang said. “They beat me so hard I blacked out. That’s why I didn’t remember the lesson.”
“Do you know what the most severe beating I ever got was for?”
Lu Yang put down the medicine bottle and moved a chair for Xin Hexue.
“When you were discovered climbing my window?” Xin Hexue recalled. “Or when you hid the birthday candles for me in the wardrobe and ended up setting it on fire?”
“How do you remember all of them?” Lu Yang said. “Neither.”
“One summer, my grandma came to visit me here. Before returning to the hometown, she gave me eight yuan pocket money. My mom said I did so poorly on the math final, so she confiscated my pocket money.”
That was a full eight yuan! How many egg pancakes and radish cakes could that buy?
Lu Yang was unwilling.
He decided to get his money back. Heaven rewards the diligent, he actually found two red bills in a shoebox under his parents’ bed.
“Of course I couldn’t take them. Taking eight yuan might be fine, but if I stole a hundred, wouldn’t my mom hang me up and whip me?”
Xin Hexue nodded. “That’s right.”
So Lu Yang went shopping and put the remaining ninety-two yuan back.
The next day, he went to find Xin Hexue to play, limping.
Lu Yang shrugged. “At least her son is good at math.”
Xin Hexue: “…”
A memory rippled quietly.
He suddenly understood. “Was it the time you gave me the hand-crank pencil sharpener?”
“Didn’t the princess complain that the old pencil sharpener always got his hands dirty?”
Lu Yang said.
He had carefully selected a precious Black Cat Sheriff printed hand-crank pencil sharpener.
“For you.”
Lu Yang handed over the stolen book…the final volume of “The Legend of the Condor Heroes.” It was the only volume Xin Hexue hadn’t read yet.
His long eyelashes lowered, and Xin Hexue looked at Lu Yang’s knee. “Does it hurt?”
The mercurochrome had dried, and the knee was swollen, looking quite pitiful.
Lu Yang swiped his thumb across his nose, pretending to be cool, “It doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t hurt at all.”
“Ow!”
Xin Hexue pressed his knee.
“Still saying it doesn’t hurt? You’re just pretending.”
Xin Hexue laughed slightly.
His fingers gently touched the swollen wound, then he blew on it. “Poof, poof, heal, heal.”
His eyelashes were long and dense, his cheeks snow-white, his pursed pink lips slightly puffed as he carefully blew cool air.
Lu Yang thought in a daze.
[What is this, the princess’s magic spell?]
“It’s not magic.” Xin Hexue’s eyes curved. “My brother used to coax me like this when I was little.”
……
They didn’t go home for lunch at noon. Their family had bought meal tickets for the school canteen. Just by taking a lunch box and handing the ticket to the serving auntie, they could get lunch.
Seeing it was Xin Hexue, the auntie smiled happily and gave him an extra half-scoop of meat and vegetables.
“Thank you, auntie.”
The child looked quiet and polite.
Then Lu Yang came to the window, grinning widely, “Auntie, I want more rice, lots of meat.”
As a result, the auntie’s hand “trembled”.
“When will the canteen get extra-large spoons?”
Lu Yang sat down at the table, muttering.
Xin Hexue picked out his meat to give it to him, but Lu Yang covered his lunch box. “If you give it to me, what will you eat?”
Xin Hexue said the meat today was a bit fatty, and he didn’t like it.
Later he’ll go upstairs to the fifth grade to find his brother for some biscuits, so there was no need to worry about him going hungry.
After lunch, their bellies were full and round.
Lu Yang, who was showing signs of a growth spurt in height, went for another serving of rice before letting out a loud burp.
Xin Hexue went to find Zhuang Tongguang after finishing his own meal and didn’t stay with him.
The preparatory bell for afternoon classes rang, and Lu Yang swaggered alone in the corridor.
The thought of changing seats in the afternoon made him so happy he wanted to jump.
That Sun Wuwu had been Xin Hexue’s deskmate for half a semester! He had been sick of looking at him for a long time!
But once he got back to being Xin Hexue’s deskmate, he would forgive everyone in the world.
Lu Yang lifted his gaze and noticed two people standing at the classroom door.
“Lin Oufei, you just transferred. We’re just changing seats this afternoon.” The homeroom teacher asked. “Is it okay for you to sit with Xin Hexue? He’s the class monitor. If you have any difficulties, you can talk to him.”
Lin Oufei: “I have no objection.”
Author’s Note:
Lu Yang: I have objections.
