GPS translations

四百粉福利：过门六章一次发完666（上）

这是真福利吧

略略略 爱你们哟

1

 

It was snowing lightly outside, the year at its end. The masses, in a rush to get home, were stuck halfway through their way home.

 

 

A rickety folk song was played on repeat, and none of the two in the car spoke a single word, awkward silence between them.

 

 

Xu Xilin had a hand on the steering wheel. He looked up through the windshield, watching rows and rows of cars extend all the way to the horizon. Brake lights flashed on and off around them—it was going to be a long time before he could drive through the traffic. Xu turned his gaze to the left, and saw Mr. Do Xun prop up the side of his face by one hand, spacing out.

 

 

Thought it had been many years since they last met, Do Xun was aiming for ignoring Xu Xilin's presence for the whole ride.

 

 

Xu Xilin sighed to himself. Then he suddenly decided to swerve the car round in the tiny gap they were in, showing off his driving skills along the way, and successfully wove out of the traffic jam, snaking into a tiny alley.

 

 

Do Xun finally paid attention to him, swiveling his gaze to glance at him.

 

 

Xu Xilin immediately reacted to it—he had been extra alert to Do Xun's presence since the start of the ride. 

 

 

"I think that taking a smaller road will be faster—"Xu Xilin said.

 

 

"So that you can get rid of me sooner?" Do Xun laughed scathingly.

 

 

"—and I can also get a few flowers along the way."They both opened their mouths to say something, and then went quiet simultaneously. 

 

 

Xu Xilin frowned, looking like he was going to go on a rant, but then decided to put up with Do Xun.

 

 

 

"What are you getting pissed off about? You know that he's been like this since forever." Xu Xilin thought, and turned his attention back to weaving through the tiny lanes.

 

 

The northwest winds weaved into a discordant harmony with the barking of dogs, and the folk singer's voice became wispier and wispier, close to breaking. Xu Xilin stopped the car in front of a store that called itself "*Lao Ye". He dug his phone out of his pocket and called a contact.

 

 

"Hey, it's me. I'm in front of your flower shop. Bring me a few orchids or kumkrats or something like that—I need them for New Year gifts."

 

 

"So you're bothering to buy flowers, *'Lin-zi? I watched the stars tonight, and did a telling for ya—they say you're gonna encounter some misfortune soon!"A swaggering voice shouted from the other side of the phone.

 

 

Xu Xilin: "......"

 

 

The flower shop's window on the side of the street flew open, and a non-mainstream-styled young man with a tiny moustache poked out of it. The apparent dumbass set down his phone, concentrated his energy in his belly, and yelled out with an even louder voice, "Did you hear that Do Xun's back?"

 

 

Xu Xilin wished that his arm were two meters longer so that he could slap that dumbass right onto the window frame.

 

 

The window on the shotgun's side rolled down slowly, revealing Do Xun's face. "Yeah, I've heard."

 

 

The store owner's expression twisted into a strangled wild chicken's.

 

 

Then the muted store owner and a stony-faced Do Xun helped Xu Xilin carry the plants into the back of the car together. Before the two left, the shop owner scratched his head for quite a while, and then finally decide to pull Xu Xilin back, asking, "So, uh, there's a class reunion next week, are you going to attend it?"

 

 

Xu Xilin wanted to get rid of the awkward people as soon as he could. He answered detachedly, "I'll think about it for a while."

 

 

"Just go. You haven't showed up even once in many years," The shop owner retorted. Not even wanting to look at the flower shop owner's face, Xu Xilin didn't reply. He merely waved, and drove away.

 

 

Half an hour later, they finally arrived at the hotel Do Xun was staying at. Do Xun got off the car without speaking a single word, and stood outside of it, staring at Xu Xilin silently.

 

 

Xu Xilin let out an inaudible relaxing sigh. "That'll be it. Get some rest—I'll have to leave now."

 

 

Do Xun nodded, and then dug inside the pocket of his coat, realizing the cigarette box inside was empty. He instinctively asked, "Hey..."

 

 

Xu Xilin stopped the car half a meter away. "Hmm?"

 

 

Do Xun stopped himself from asking, You got a cigarette?: he remembered that Xu Xilin didn't smoke.

 

 

Xu Xilin never smoked, and even never drank any alcohol if he didn't have to. When he was young, he was always careful in fights—he was that type of person that didn't look responsible on the outside, but actually was inside.

 

 

"You need anything else?" Xu Xilin asked.

 

 

"Was it because you didn't want to see me that you never went to any of the reunions?"

 

 

"......"

 

 

Do Xun probably could never leave any mental personal space for anyone, being the *wooden club he was.

 

 

"I've simply been busy for the past few years." Xu Xilin said stiffly.

 

 

"So you're not busy this year, right? I'm going. Are you?" Do Xun locks his burning gaze on him.

 

 

When Do Xun spoke, it brought up a thin layer of white steam. He stood in the stern winter like a sharp sketch, lacking red and green colors.

 

 

He did look good, Xu Xilin had to admit—but his gaze had daggers hidden in them, and a knife concealed in the tip of his tongue. An exquisite and clean human arsenal. Xu Xilin's eyes were close to being pierced through by how sharp he was. He could only give him a skimpy and perfunctory answer.

 

 

"If I'm free on that day, maybe. I'm not sure." Xu Xilin said.

 

 

Do Xun had nothing else to say. He stood in stiff silence, and watched Xu Xilin leave, perfect manners and perfect politeness and perfect small talk and all.

 

 

"Can you please turn back and give a me a single glance?"Do Xun thought desperately.

 

 

I'll jump down from a rooftop for you to turn back and look at me.

 

 

Unfortunately, Xu Xilin couldn't read his mind and drove away cleanly, not leaving a even a single trace.

 

 

Do Xun lost his chance to jump off a building.

 

 

The horrible folk song was still on repeat in the car, and Xu Xilin drove, the dusk surrounding him, closing into him from all directions. His vision was blurry—perhaps a fog?

 

 

It was the thirteenth year since he and Do Xun had known each other. 

 

 

They've been together, broke it off with each other, wanted to be together forever, and also wanted to never see each other again.

 

 

A notification popped up on his phone, and it let out a small "ding!". Xu Xilin glanced at it—Do Xun had even bothered to give him a full-star rating.

 

 

The sky was still clear, the ground was still heavy, the traffic jam was still there, the Earth still hadn't destroyed itself yet, and the rest of the years he had was still rich and plentiful.

 

 

But the school buildings and papers and pens of the past were left bygone.

 

 

—and the only one that became anew was the person from the past.

 

 

 

 

Author's Note: 

 

 

The only novels I've written of the same genre/topic is Their Lives(BL) and Flowing Fifteen Years(BG). They're both terrible, so from the past data, this is probably going to be terrible too.

 

 

Translator's Note #1:

 

 

1)Lao Ye: Chinese speaking language for maternal grandfather.

 

 

2)Lin-zi: Xiao-Lin-Zi in the original text. Xiao meaning little, Lin as in the last character of Xu Xilin's name, Zi just to accentuate the "young(er), little" meaning and add some verbal stuff—kind of like chan in Japanese but doesn't have the same complete meaning-ish effect.

 

 

3)Wooden club: Bangchui in Chinese. Basically means someone who is dumb when it comes to Chinese social interaction and its messy properness. (Me!)

 

 

Translator's Note #2:

 

 

So I've encountered a really, really serious problem with translating this: I CANT STOP CRYING IT'S SO GOOD ASDFGHJKL ahhhh

 

 

Oh, and I probably won't be able to update frequently: I'm also working on another project(also one of priest's novels), but I won't say which one lol. Hope you enjoy this, and don't forget to leave comments and votes!!!

Part One: Scallions

 

2

 

Thirteen years ago, the young man who owned the flower shop had no mustache, and Do Xun was merely a self-centric, arrogant teenager that hated the world and everything in it.

 

And Xu Xilin, no matter if he was willing to admit it himself or not, was a complete troublemaker back then—

 

“Tch, go away.” Xu Xilin kicked his dog away with the tip of his foot, saved his backpack from the dog’s mouth, and stuffed the cigarette box that peeked out of the bag back.

 

The dog acted like it had smelled something, and howled at him hysterically.

 

The dog’s name was *Dou-dou. Dou-dou was presumably a mix of Japanese Spitz, German Shepherd, and Chinese Rural—a mongrel in every meaning.

 

There’s a saying that “people are ordered into 3, 6 and 9 standards, and dogs have their differences on loyalty.” Beans was a tramp of a dog––a bully to the weaker ones but a coward in front of the stronger ones, enjoyed provoking who it shouldn’t every now and then—especiallywhen he wasn’t supposed to.

 

Xu Xilin was extremely annoyed by it, and wished that he could strangle it to death every day. “Do you care so much that you’re everywhere?”

 

Unfortunately, there was someone that gave it the right to do that.

 

Once it barked, Grandma shouted from inside the house. “*Xiao-Lin, are you bullying Dou-Dou again?”

 

“As if I’d dare to,” Xu Xilin hauled his backpack onto his back, “I’m heading out for school, Grandma.”

 

“So early?” A middle-aged woman came out of the kitchen, saw what Xu Xilin was wearing, and fussed over him. “Why are you not wearing your down jacket again? What are you wearing inside? Are you wearing *autumn clothes inside? Pull down your jacket zipper and let me check.”

 

This was Ms. Du, the *housekeeper his family had hired, who had a very, very far away relation with his mom, and if they counted the removed, cousins, all that relative stuff, Xu Xilin would have to call her his aunt. (first cousin, once removed’s wife: complicate Chinese relations lol)

 

He grudgingly pulled down the zipper of his jacket, but then pulled it back up swiftly. He turned round and dashed out, yelling, “I’m wearing them, I have stuff at school, gotta go, bye Auntie!”

 

Ms. Du’s eyes were keener than a needle. She spotted that he only had a short-sleeved T-shirt worn under his jacket, and chased after him, bellowing, “Get back here! You don’t even have your autumn pants on, don’t you? How dare you clown around on a cold day again—I’m going to tell your mother later!”

 

Xu Xilin ran as fast as the wind, disappearing out of her voice’s reach within seconds.

 

Jeez, which 16-year-old hottie wears autumn pants?

 

Class began on two twenty p.m, but the school required students to arrive before two o’clock. It wasn’t even 1:30 p.m yet, so Xu Xilin ran downstairs, checked that there wasn’t anyone around, and called a cab, headed to Moon’s Half Curve with a pack of *soft Zhonghuas as a gift. (Soft Xhonghua: a type of cigarettes)

 

Moon’s Half Curve was the local entertainment venue. Though it was considered a legal venue, it still spurred quite a few ravishing “city-legends”, and was on the list of not-allowed places for high school students to visit. Xu Xilin had to pretend that he didn’t saw the driver’s unspoken condemning gaze on him the whole drive.

 

Xu Xilin had a *brother named Song Lianyuan. When Song Lianyuan was young, Xu Xilin’s mom had helped him and his family out a lot, so on every festival and holiday, he always brought a few gifts and made sure to visit—no matter the weather—and saw himself as half an older brother to Xu Xilin. Xu Xilin didn’t had to be so impersonal with his older brother, but this time he didn’t only require Song Lianyuan’s help, and Xu Xilin couldn’t let Song owe someone a favor on his behalf.

 

This time, it was because of his *deskmate. (the classmate who sits next to you and has his/her desk joined with you/shares the same desk with you—>see bottom for diagram)

 

Xu Xilin’s deskmate was a boy named Tsai Jing, who was extremely talented, and often published his essays in the newspaper with the help of their writing teacher. He was also very, very nice—he never kept the money he was paid for the essays to himself, and bought drinks for the classmates that helped him out in bad times. Unfortunately, one thing he also had was an unlucky family—his parents passed away early on, and left him to his uncle, who spent his time gambling, drinking, eating and whoring. His uncle’s wife had kicked him out and kept the kids, so with no other place to stay at, Tsai Jing had to scrape by staying with his uncle, using holidays and weekends to do a few part-time jobs. A few, short tofu-sized articles, helped by the writing teacher, was also a source of income—mainly serving as pocket money.

 

But even scraping by had became a struggle recently: his jackass of an uncle had recently acquired a tremendous loan.

 

The people asking for their money back couldn’t find the one responsible, so they called up a few gangsters to corner Tsai Jing near Sixth High School every day. The boys in the class always made sure at least three or five boys accompanied him after school before of that. But that surely wasn’t a long-term solution––Tsai Jing didn’t dare to even leave home on weekends, which also meant that he had to give up the job at a McDonald’s that he had searched so hard for.

 

Xu Xilin thought about it, and came to the conclusion that gangster business could only be solved by other gangsters, using his own resources, namely his cousin, the experienced Song.

 

After the errand, Xu Xilin arrived late at school.

 

It was less than two weeks after school had began, and the majority of the students still had their minds soaked in *lucky money and the winter vacation. Plus, Sixth High School had lots of *non-residential students, which caused their first period of the afternoon to have awful discipline, something that could only be described with the word outrageous.

 

So the school arranged for teachers to wait for the students at the school entrance every noon. Students who entered the school after the 2p.m. bell rang would be locked outside, had his or hers or whatever’s scores taken off, and forced to write a self-reflection. Not only were school catching students that were late, they also were aiming to catch boys with weird clothing, and girls with their hair down. Most girls would prepare a hair band, tie up a loose ponytail right before they passed through the school gates, and pull the hair band right after they passed “inspection”.

 

“I won’t need the receipt, thanks.” Xu Xilin grabbed his empty schoolbag and slid out of the car. He narrowed his gaze, and saw that there was already a line of unlucky bastards lining in front of the school gates listing their class and number.

 

It would be really, really dumb to walk over straight into their prepared noose right now. While the pot-bellied grade director lectured the caught students, he crept undetected to the west side of the gates. There was no fence there, only an iron fence slightly taller than a human.

 

Young Mr. Xu’s brilliant skills on climbing over a wall was to the point where it was legendary. He reached out his arm, grabbed ahold of the top of the fence, and used it to support his weight while he flipped over it agilely, the bottom of his pant leg not even touching the fence in the slightest bit. He was so nimble that even the wild cats wandering in the school couldn’t resist stopping to watch him.

 

He smoothed out his jacket, and walked across the sports field swaggeringly, waving at the line of people waiting for their points to be taken off from afar. Coincidentally, the grade director turned back at his direction the same moment. Xu Xilin reacted immediately, dashing right away. 

 

The grade director narrowed his eyes at Xu Xilin’s back, asking, “What’s the problem with that student?”

 

The unconcerned line of people answered, righteously betraying the traitor that had just swaggered to them. “Climbing––over––the––wall––”

 

OUTRAGEOUS! WHAT IS ALL THIS! HOW UNORGANIZED AND UNDISCIPLINED!

 

The grade director stood stumped for a moment, then bristled with anger, yelling at the top of his lungs: “Get over here! Which class are you in!”

 

Xu Xilin ran like a tornado close to the ground, and thought, “Only a really, really stupid dumbass would do that.”

 

At the same moment, the east side of the 2nd Educational Building. Do Xun had his hands in his pockets, strolling around aimlessly, bored out of his mind. His father and the female teacher that had three tons of perfume sprayed on were touting each other. It annoyed him to an absolutely intolerable extent. He had absolutely no expectations for his future school experience, and he really, really needed to smoke a cigarette right now. So he slipped away discreetly and found a secluded restroom.

 

When he passed through the long corridors, he saw a group of boys wearing gym clothes. Maybe students who had just finished PE class. They shared the same thoughts with Do Xun, coincidentally––they were also sharing a pack of cigarettes in a secluded corridor.

 

One of them craned his neck to glance out the window. He jabbed the person beside him, “Hey, Wu Tao, look at that guys...doesn’t that look like your class’s Xu *Tuanzuo?”

(Tuanzuo=the leader of a group, originally used in the KMT army to call someone that is one’s direct superior)

 

The boy with the buzzcut, Wu Tao, stuck his head out of the window, right in time to watch Xu Xilin dash past them. Perhaps it was because Xu Xilin felt his gaze on him, so Xu Xilin glanced up, and blew a kiss to the people upstairs. Then he ran straight into the educational building on the side.

 

After quite a while, the round-shaped grade director finally came, screeching, “Halt––”

 

The secretly smoking group of troublemakers burst out in laughter. “Dope, dude.”

 

After Do Xun witnessed the entire gigantic, ridiculous joke of an event, he thought, “Do they don’t have enough brain that they have to make up for it with yelling? So fucking annoying.”

 

He stuffed his earbuds in unconcernedly, and went into the tiny restroom at the end of the corridor. He locked the door on the last stall, lazily pulling out his cigarette with Linkin Park blasting in his ears.

 

After he was done, he flicked the ash off himself, ready to leave. But just as he pushed the stall’s door open, a staccato of footsteps sounded from the outside. A crash sounded, and a guy flew inside sideways, his back hitting right on the heater. The guy didn’t even scream. A short groan came out of his mouth, and his limbs twitched a few times weakly. He fell so hard that he couldn’t climb back up.

 

The guy had Sixth High School’s white uniform on. He had a sickly yellow complexion, was thin, and the corners of his clothes were yellowy, the results of having been washed too many times. Clutched in his hands was a tattered cloth school bag.

 

The boys that were just clamoring outside walked in. Three, with one of them as their leader. The guy named “Wu Tao” crossed his arms, and kept a lookout for them, leaning against the bathroom door.

 

Do Xun’s eyes narrowed, his footsteps stopping.

 

The leader knelt down, tilted his head, and observed the boy writhing on the ground. Then he pulled the boy up by his hair, and slapped his face, asking, “Us brothers haven’t treated you badly, have we?”

 

The guy trembled so hard that he couldn’t speak.

 

The leader hit the guy’s face a few more times, every time harder than the last, basically slapping him at the end. “We haven’t tricked you, or offended you, right? So tell me why us brothers, after only two rounds of cards, not even ten minutes, was told off to the old jackass dorm keeper? Huh?”

 

The guy that was picked up craned his neck with all his strength, trying to relieve the pain in his scalp, the tendons in his neck rising up on the skin. “No...it...wasn’t...me!”

 

The leader scoffed, and smashed his face onto the heater’s vent clutching his hair for about four or five times. “Oh, it wasn’t you, so who was it? Me?”

 

Wu Tao, who was standing at the door, suddenly cut him off in a cold tone. “Class’s about to start, get it over with.”

 

The sentence was like an command. The guys that were previously watching aside surrounded him, stepping on him one by one, asking him “Was it you?” every once in a while. After a while, the guy finally couldn’t take it anymore, and admitted incoherently. The perpetrators finally finished, ending their “interrogation”.

 

“It’s okay as you admit it, don’t worry, we’ll make sure to take care of you later on––we’re leaving.”

 

Once they finished talking, the bell rung, and the young perpetrators left with a hustle. After quite a while, the beaten-up guy finally crawled up weakly. He touched his face, and felt the nosebleed there. His back hunched, he walked over to the faucet. Twisting the faucet open, a tiny stream of water came out, and he carefully rubbed the sleeve of his uniform that was pressed on the ground. His hands shook.

 

Then he sniffled his nose––not because he had cried, but because his nose was still bleeding.

 

He pressed the wet corners of his clothes flat, and walked out, numb.

 

After it had been quiet for a while outside, Do Xun walked out of the tiny stall. He glanced at the nosebleed on the floor, and brushed the already dried bead of blood aside with his shoe.

 

“City’s key high school, non-unified exams school?” He laughed coldly at the comet-like trail of blood on the ground. “Bullshit.”

 

 

3: Do Xun

 

Xu Xilin dashed into the corridor, rushed onto the 2nd floor, kicked Class One’s back door open, and ducked into it. He smoothly grabbed a random person’s uniform jacket dangling on the back, and briefly shook the dust off it, changing it on without any hesitation. Then he rolled up his jacket and stuffed it into the bag, threw it under the table, messed up his hair with one hand and took off Tsai Jing’s glasses with the other, stuffing Tsai Jing’s glasses on bridge of his nose. A successful transformation.

 

“What, a human conjuring act?” Tsai Jing commented.

 

“Whatever,” Xu Xilin replied, “Whose jacket is this?”

 

“I think it’s Lao-Ye’s”

 

“Lao-Ye” was the guy sitting in front of them’s nickname. His surname was Lao––the same one as the Lao in *“Lao Tou Zi”. His entire name was also a simplified matter: Lao Cheng. When Kang Xi’s Dynasty first broadcasted on the Central 8th channel, dear classmate Lao Cheng was infatuated with it , and also gained a habit of calling himself “Ye”. After a while, he went up two generations straight, and became the entire class’s *“Lao-Ye”.

 

“Lao-Ye” did not have quite the outstanding handsomeness. His face was sandwiched in between three layers of pimples on the inside and three more on the outside. He twisted back to look at them once he heard himself mentioned, and then he spread his “tumbling in red dust face”to wink at Xu Xilin, speaking in a pinched, high voice, “This is something given by the female king, and I won’t let anyone else take it. Please take yours off and give it to me, *Er-Ye.”

 

Xu Xillin’s face was the shade of a vegetable’s. “My dear *Qi-Guan, the ‘youth and beauty cracking pimples’ on your face is already enough to make into a fried dish, so can you not tarnish the holy name of the gorgeous youth?”

 

Lao Cheng’s heart, as fragile as glass, was absolutely shattered by these peasants. Hurt, he clutched his chest, and walked over to the blackboard to heal.

 

After all the people not needed were gone, Xu Xilin finally lowered his voice and spoke to Tsai Jing, “I’ve solved that problem of yours. From now on, the people looking for their money back will only hunt your uncle down, and they won’t bother you anymore. If you feel like it, maybe you can talk with that McDonald’s again after school today. See if they’ll give you another chance, and if they won’t, let them give you the night shift, and I’ll get a few guys to help you out regularly.”

 

Tsai Jing’s glasses were taken off by Xu Xilin, so his eyes couldn’t really focus, which made him seem extra stunned. “Thanks.”

 

He went silent for a moment, and felt like a mere “thanks” was too easy for something like this. “Xilin, if anything happens in the future…”

 

“Stop,” Xu Xilin laughed, “Don’t repay me with yourself, I’m still pure.”

 

Tsai Jing laughed awkwardly, but his brows were still tightened up. “How much did you spend?” He asked timidly.

 

Xu Xilin did not just simply spend some money—he was close to being broke after this errand.

 

Though he had quite a lot of pocket money usually, he was generous when it came to paying for meals, and did not have even the slightest bit of sense when it came to saving money. And all his newly received lucky money were in a bank card. He could get it if he wanted to, but he didn’t dare to—because that card was registered under his mom’s identification card, and she had a savings alert on her phone. A sudden large withdrawal would definitely alert her, and the empress dowager would have him interrogated herself within five minutes.

 

But to Tsai Jing, Xu Xilin pressed his upper lip to the bottom one, and swallowed in every bit of the difficult situation he was in.

 

“Don’t worry, I spent only three bucks buying my brother a popsicle.” 

 

It wasn’t that he was a saint that never left a name on every good deed he made. If it was someone else, it might’ve gone another way, but Tsai Jing, really, Xu Xilin couldn’t. Tsai Jing’s days were simply too miserable. Even a simple class fee was paid in a large handful of banknotes. If he let Tsai Jing know that he owed him such a large favor, though Tsai Jing would be grateful to him, it would be hard for them to stay such close friends anymore.

 

Tsai Jing couldn’t taste the feeling in his mouth, and put a hand on Xu Xilin’s shoulder. “Brother……”

 

Before he could give his speech of gratitude, the furious grade director burst into the room from the front door, and interrupted Tsai Jing’s whole stomach of *mixed feels.

 

The whole class went silent suddenly. The grade director was close to having a heart attack from all the running, scanning the room to search for the student he was chasing, but failed to find out Xu Xilin due to the “dress up”. Brimming with anger but with no subject to direct it at, he screeched, “Class is going to start soon, and only this class is a mess! You’ll be in third grade next year, what are you all planning to do? Ah? Don’t you guys need to act like the experimental class you’re supposed to be? What’s next class? Why is the teacher not here yet? Off reincarnating?”

 

The English teacher, who had just arrived at the door with a folder under her arm, walked straight into a cannonshot.

 

The grade director glared at the innocent teacher, and kept on going. “Some young comrades also need to check their work attitude, if you’re fooling around yourself, how are you going to manage the students?”

 

Finished, he walked out, feet limping, flab swinging.

 

Involved even though nothing was her fault, the English teacher immediately swung her ponytail around, picked up a chalk, and turned around and scribbled the word “menopause” on the board.

 

“So, before we start class, we’re going to have a short lesson on vocabulary outside the curriculum.” The teacher straightened her glasses. “‘Menopause’, meaning when one stops having periods completely. It can be used in ways such as ‘menopause symptoms’......”

 

The whole class burst into roaring laughter.

 

For the first half of the class, the teacher stood on the same side with the class, and it was quite the merry course. Unfortunately, the teacher wasn’t able to stay on the same boat with the students for long, and she quickly unveiled her nature of being the “class enemy”. She passed out a set of fill-in-the-blank practices, which had ten articles in total, all of them long, unnecessarily extended, and a giant pain in the ass, as homework.

 

After class was dismissed, except for those who needed to go to the bathroom, no one got up from their seats. Everyone wanted to finish at least one article before the next class started.

 

This was when Do Xun came into the room with the homeroom teacher.

 

The two straps of his backpack were on one side of his shoulder, and his perfectly clean shirt collar stuck out of his gray jacket. He didn’t look up even once when walking.

 

Someone murmured a single sentence. *“Is there anyone who transfers schools in high school?”

 

In the front of the classroom, the homeroom teacher clicked on the lecturn twice with her knuckles. Then she patted the boy’s back, smiling brightly. “Be quiet, everyone. Today a new family member is joining our class.”

 

The homeroom teacher’s nickname was “*common jasmine orange”, and she was also known as “kills within three steps”. She fervently loved perfumes with pungent smells, which also helped her avoid mosquitoes in the summer. When she talked, she loved to use parallel-structured sentences, and adored all sorts of expired chicken soup for the soul. Her mood was always as agitated as the roaring sea.

 

Can’t really figure out why this specific physics teacher just can’t be chill.

 

But today, no one got goosebumps because of her “family member”—all of their gazes were stuck on the newcomer. The young adolescents, male and female and others, used only a second’s moment to to reach a consensus—this guy was really attractive. A pair of straight, neat thick brows and a pair of raven black eyes—he even had a face full of an uncaring attitude.

 

The homeroom teacher clapped her hands together kindly. “Come here, Do Xun, introduce yourself to the class, let them know you.”

 

The whole class, out of respect for the gorgeous face, gave the hottie a moment of silence to speak.

 

Who knows that the hottie didn’t give them any *“face”, opened his eyes, and swept his gaze over the whole class. Then he moved the piece of gum in his mouth from one side to the other. “Missus, where do I sit?”

 

“*Qilixiang”, left to dry on the lecturn, purple-d into an awkward eggplant. Her expression stiffened. For a split second, she really wanted to teach this little son of a bitch a lesson, but unfortunately, there was 3000 dollars worth of kindness newly deposited in her shopping card, so she couldn’t.

 

“Qilixiang” was stuck in an awkward position, unable to go forward, unable to take a step back. She decided to pretend that she hadn’t been offended. Giving herself a graceful way out, she replied, “How are a young man like you so bashful? Let’s see, there’s a few empty desks at the back of the classroom, take one, and if you’re not near-sighted, you’ll have to sit in the last row, my apologies. We’ll adjust it in the future…”

 

Before she could finish her sentence, she saw the little bastard walk towards the final row, ignoring her.

 

Qilixiang: “......”

 

She bit back her anger, stuffed her hands in her pockets and rubbed them, and felt like she needed at least 6000 dollars’ worth of “kindness” next time.

 

Do Xun’s skin was very pale, giving his features the illusion of ink on paper. His eyes were half-lidded, his double eyelids extending towards his temples. A straight nose, but thin lips. He gave off an icy mood, but a silent one.

 

If a pretty girl was walking on the streets, more women would stare at her than men. It works the other way too. Most female high schoolers hadn’t reached the level where they could drool at a guy’s face publicly, but the guy’s had already started to whisper at each other.

 

Lao Cheng turned back and prodded at Xu Xilin’s desk with his pen, whispering to him, “Where is this guy from? New here, but dares to pull our *Xiang-Xiang down?”

 

Xu Xilin though this Do Xun was pretty good-looking, and blatantly stared at him, shaking his head as a uncaring reply to Lao Cheng.

 

Lao Cheng shifted the focus of his attention quickly. “The two of you, give your ‘*yellow leaflets’ to me.”

 

The “yellow leaflets” weren’t actually banned 18+ books—they were Sixth High School’s self-printed practice books. The school forced the students to buy it, and everyone had one. More than four hundred pages thick, it did not have even one character of nonsense. All of them were questions, with no answers at the back.

 

Class One of second grade was the science experimental class. And it had a faster course progress than all the other classes. So Lao Cheng, the ultimate asshole, spent all of his breaks digging answers from the students a meter within him. After cross-comparison, he would combine them into a private set of answers, and sell them to both normal classes and liberal-arts classes preparing for finals.

 

Xu Xilin casually pulled out a book from his desk and gave it to him, toned down his free and unorganized posture, and pulled his chair, which was a meter away from his desk, back to where it should be, giving Do Xun some space.

 

Lao Cheng kept on screeching. “This is the math one! I’ve already done the math one this semester, I need the physics one!”

 

Unfortunately, Lao-Ye has lost his place as the emperor’s favorite—seeing as Do Xun was about to take a seat, Xu Xilin stood up to help him out, completely ignoring Lao Cheng.

 

But before his well-intentioned hands could reach out, with a crash, Do Xun has placed his desk where he wanted it to be—a meter away from the person in front of him, Xu Xilin. They were so far apart, the *Chu river Han boundary could be drawn between them. 

 

Xu Xilin: “......”

 

Do Xun had a really, really good memory, and instantly recognized that Xu Xilin was the guy that ran past downstairs earlier. And from the sports students’ attitudes, they’re in the same group of friends.

 

He loomed above Xu Xilin and gave him a look full of distaste, a large and bold-lettered “Fuck off” written in his expression.

 

Translator’s Note: 

 

1) Lao Tou Zi: a character from the novel “The Smiling, Proud Wanderer” written by Jin Yung

2) Lao-Ye: maternal grandfather

3) Er-Ye: Second Lord(Er: 2nd, Ye: Lord)

4) Qi-Guan: an character from Tsao Xue Qin’s Dream of the Red Chamber, an actor(hence the Guan)

5) common jasmin orange: a plant that has a very distinct smell. Its name in Chinese is “smell can spread over seven miles”, “Qilixiang”. Usually used in cooking(leaves), a herb. 

6) face: Chinese politeness, social requirement, complete bullshit

7) qilixiang: Chinese for common jasmin orange

8) Xiang-Xiang: Qilixiang(the homeroom teacher)

9) yellow: Chinese for inappropriate stuff

10) Chu river Han boundary: a boundary between two warring sides back in ancient China times(the Chu-Han contention)

 

Note#2: “Mixed feels”

 

I don’t want you guys to be mistaken because of the translation—not of these feels are romantic(I’m scared that the words I use will make you guys misunderstand stuff)

 

Note#3: “No one transfers schools in high school!”

 

In countries like China, people work extremely hard in junior high for their entrance test to senior high. They spend a lot of effort, and that’s why it’s so rare to transfer schools in senior high, as they might not be able to get into one that’s as good as their old one, which they worked so hard for. 

 

Finally, I get to say something:

Happy New Year, people!