The next day, Lu Tong got up before dawn.
He slept more comfortably than ever before. Qin Chu’s pheromones were domineering1the Way of the Hegemon / abbr. for 霸王之道 / despotic rule / rule by might / evil as opposed to the Way of the King 王道 / overbearing / tyranny / (of liquor, medicine, etc) strong / potent and overbearing in his body. His mild fever and chest pain symptoms were relieved by a lot immediately.
He touched his chest, feeling a little exasperated, and thought to himself: Could it be that from now on I can only rely on Qin Chu’s pheromones?
Half an hour later, the dormitory staff auntie knocked outside the doors one by one to signal the students to get up.
Qin Chu was woken up by a knock on the door. When he sat up, Lu Tong had already been leaning on the bed and reading a book for a while. The cover was in a light yellow color. It was originally placed on Qin Chu’s desk. 《The Little Prince》 by Jean de Saint-Exupéry is a fairy tale book.
When Lu Tong heard the movement, he raised his eyes to see that Qin Chu was in utter disorder after sleeping, and there were still a few disobedient hairs sticking out above his head.
Very well behaved.
He held back his laughter and focused his eyes on the book.
In the book, it was written: She (Little Rose) has been dressing up carefully for so long. But now, she yawned and said: I just woke up. I’m so sorry, my hair is still messy — — At this time, the love of the little prince arose spontaneously.
The school bully?
Lu Tong turned a page and shook his head in his heart: Strong in appearance but weak in reality? What kind of school bully fights over ice cream with others?
After Qin Chu packed up, Lu Tong reminded him, “Today is the midterm exam. Have you taken your admission card and pen?”
Although, as far as Qin Chu’s grades were concerned, it would be the same even if he took a pen or not.
Qin Chu opened the drawer and took out a 2B mechanical pencil from it. He pressed it twice and found that there was no lead in it.
“I packed it for you.” Lu Tong had already expected that he would not take the exam supplies seriously. So he packed an extra set in advance.
Qin Chu held the transparent bag in his hand and shook it, “Are you trying to repay the favour?”
Lu Tong, “Got up early in the morning to ask for a beating?”
Qin Chu held out his hand, “My ice cream, two sticks. Last night’s deal.”
Lu Tong glanced at the heavy rain outside the window and raised his eyebrows, “Are you sure?”
The temperature dropped quickly during typhoon days.
When Qin Chu arrived at the classroom, most of the students were already wearing long-sleeved jackets.
Ji Rang came in through the door, “Give way. What time is the exam in the morning? Did I forget?”
He saw Qin Chu. He looked him up and down and raised his thumb, “Awesome. The first person at Provincial No. 1 High School to eat popsicles on a typhoon day. Bking that is entirely worthy of a title. Did you guys elect the King this year?”
Ji Rang looked at Qin Chu’s school uniform again — — A long-sleeved coverall over a long-sleeved school uniform. Pulling off blue and white attire with the same blue and white model inside.
“Fashionable.” He lamented.
Qin Chu, with a popsicle in his mouth, slapped Ji Rang on the back of the head and said, “F*** off to the side. Where’s Qin Shiwu?”
Ji Rang, “I don’t know. Why are you looking for him? He is taking the exam in the multimedia classroom.”
Qin Chu, “Nothing.”
— — Of course, it was to show off before the popsicle melted and to wipe out last night’s shame.
Ji Rang looked back, “Speak of the devil2
.”
Qin Chu turned around, and Qin Shiwu was walking towards the classroom while wearing his school uniform.
Qin Chu stops him, “Hey, devil. He is calling you.”
Qin Shiwu hurriedly said, “Do you have a pen? I don’t have one!”
Qin Chu saw that he was missing the point and slowly put the popsicle in his mouth and took a bite.
Qin Shiwu：？
He remembered.
“Where did you get your popsicle from?!”
Qin Chu was triumphant and asked proudly, “Where do you think?”
Qin Shiwu gritted his teeth, “Lu Tong bought it for you?!”
Ji Rang, who was walking in the front, stumbled: Lu Tong. When did they meet Lu Tong? No, the point is that Lu Tong bought popsicles for Qin Chu? Fuck, I couldn’t have woken up.
Ji Rang froze, took a few steps back, and asked, “This popsicle isn’t poisoned, is it?”
Qin Chu ate the last bite and stuffed the garbage into Ji Rang’s hand, “Take it away.”
Ji Rang, “…… Obviously I didn’t come back to collect garbage.”
Qin Chu, “You have now.”
He ripped open a second one.
Qin Shiwu thought that Qin Chu, this person, would just eat one and forget about it. But he didn’t realise that he was planning to eat a second one in front of him.
“Did Lu Tong buy this one too?”
Qin Chu took a bite and said, “Obviously.” He made a ‘two’ gesture, “Two sticks.”
Qin Shiwu’s face contorted sourly, “He only bought me one.”
Qin Chu pointed at him with a popsicle and said, “That’s normal. Why would he buy you two?”
Qin Shiwu said, “Are you not afraid of being poisoned if you take so many in one breath!”
Qin Chu, “I’m happy to.”
Qin Shiwu was enraged and cursed, “Old ba***! If it wasn’t for a son getting split open by a clap of thunder if he hit his father, you’d be under the building right now3dead!!!, you know!”
Qin Chu disapproved, “Can you beat me?”
Qin Shiwu thought about it, and he really couldn’t beat him.
So he became even more angry and walked out of the classroom fuming.
Qin Chu, “Hey.”
Qin Shiwu didn’t look back or pay attention to him.
For Qin Chu, dealing with this little brat was not easy. A hand reached out and caught the back of Qin Shiwu’s collar.
Qin Chu loved to catch him like this.
Sixteen years later, he carried Qin Shiwu in the same way as he would a kitten.
Qin Shiwu was grabbed by his lifeblood and screamed while making threatening gestures.
Qin Chu tsked, “What are you screaming for? Are you a pig being taken to get killed?”
“Who’s a pig! Who’s a pig! who’s a pig!” Qin Shiwu was not willing to give in and struggled under Qin Chu’s hands.
Qin Chu slapped his hand ferociously, “Don’t move!”
Qin Shiwu, “Ying4Onomatoepia for crying.”
Turned obedient.
Qin Chu caught his puppy paw and looked at it. The bruise from last night’s beating by the auntie had almost healed.
The boy took the beating, and Lu Tong wiped tincture for him. The effect came quickly today.
Qin Chu asked, “Does your hand still hurt?”
Qin Shiwu chattered like a magpie, “It stopped hurting a long time ago. I’m definitely not afraid of a bit of pain.”
Qin Chu pinched him with a blank face.
Qin Shiwu screamed like a pig getting slaughtered.
“Hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts. I am dying of pain!!!”
Qin Chu, “Isn’t this painful? You’re young. What’s the point of pretending to be cool?”
He let go of Qin Shiwu’s collar and encouraged, after thinking for a moment, “Take the test well.”
Qin Shiwu said disdainfully, “It’s you who should take the test well! Let me tell you, I’m not like you.”
Qin Chu leaned against the railing and ignored him.
Qin Shiwu rolled up his sleeves and said, “This big brother has travelled across time, from sixteen years later. Do you know what it means to travel across time? That means you have the golden finger! In the novel, I am the main character. Do you understand! How can a mere midterm exam be difficult for me?”
Qin Chu laughed, “Protagonist, do you have a pen?”
Qin Shiwu touched his whole body and said, “No.”
As soon as he looked up, he saw Lin Xiaomian in front of him and immediately chased after her.
Fortunately, Qin Shiwu and her, the top student deskmate, were assigned to the same examination room. So this examination naturally depended entirely on Lin Xiaomian.
Ji Rang waved his hand at Qin Chu, ”I’ll go to the exam room first. By the way, Gao Yuting came to see you yesterday.”
Qin Chu, “Who is she?”
Ji Rang, “…… Don’t be like this. She is the one who asked you for your WeChat account last time. You should at least remember her name. I met Old Zhao just now. She is going to the hospital for a physical examination today. So she asked me to deliver you a sentence — — At least get 200 points in the test.”
Qin Chu deliberated carefully for a moment, “It’s a bit difficult.”
Ji Rang, “You got 100 points last time, and this time you will get 100 points too. So it will be 200 points. Stop talking about it. I’m leaving. You hurry up too, or you’ll be late later.”
The seats for the midterm exams in Provincial No. 1 High School were all rearranged.
Before last year, Provincial No. 1 High School had always arranged the seats according to the exam results. Those who ranked higher in the previous term results would have their seats in the front for this midterm exam. Starting from the first class and working backward, the students who were the worst in the exams were basically assigned to the multimedia classroom or the canteen5You write exams in the canteen?!!.
In this way, the students who did well on the exams would get better and better, and the students who did poorly on the exams would only get worse and worse as they had nowhere to copy from. Over time, the parents of poor students couldn’t stand it. They believed it to be discrimination against their children. So they made calls to the Education Bureau. So starting this year, the Provincial No. 1 High School had to cancel that way of allocating seats.
However, in order to prevent students from copying each other’s examination papers, the mixed mode of examination was retained.
The students in the third year of high school did not take the exam with them, and the students in the first and second departments were seated alternatively to take the exam.
In other words, in a class, the first-year students sat in one row and the second-year students sat in another row, and the first and second classes were separated. There were very few opportunities to meet acquaintances, which greatly reduced the possibility of cheating.
— — If you can still meet acquaintances after such a messy arrangement, you could only say that their fate was predestined.
This was how Lu Tong met Qin Chu.
He never thought that he and Qin Chu would take the exam in the same class.
Qin Chu came late, and he appeared at the classroom door only after Lu Tong had already sat down.
As soon as he appeared, the eyes of several female students in the classroom brightened significantly.
…… Attracting bees and butterflies6(fig.) to flirt.
Lu Tong spat out.
The teacher at the door obviously recognised Qin Chu. He let out a laugh and asked, “You didn’t bring any cheat sheets, did you?”
Qin Chu, “I didn’t bring it.”
The teacher laughed, “I should believe you? I might as well believe that pigs will fly. Be well-behaved today, and don’t let me catch you cheating.”
Qin Chu went to his seat, sat down, and turned his head to look at Lu Tong.
Lu Tong still remembered the matter of helping him cheat and had a huge headache.
The radio was playing the student’s code of conduct for the examination.
The two invigilators took the opportunity to go out for some fresh air.
As soon as the people on the podium left, the crowd below became lively.
Like a pot of boiling water, it kept rolling.
A boy with shifty eyes7crafty-looking (idiom) in front of Qin Chu asked around about their scores, “What’s your score? What was your score last time?”
“How much can you get in Chinese8(PRC)(as a school subject)?”
“How about English? Just lend me your listening test, and I’ll copy it.” #
“Are you also taking your physics exams here? They don’t seem to change places during the midterm exams. During these few days, we are all comrades in arms!”
Discussions like these kept reaching Lu Tong’s ears.
The boy in front of Qin Chu didn’t know who he was asking and suddenly burst out with a small sound of surprise.
“Four hundred and twenty points! Such a high score! What class are you in? I don’t usually see you!”
“I’m from the second department.”
“Not bad. How many points did you get in math?”
“I’m average in math. It’s unstable……”
“It’s okay. It’s okay. How many points did you get in your previous final exam!”
“…… Just sixty points.”
Sixty points.
It’s a big deal.
“Brother, you are not a simple person if you scored sixty points on the high school math test.”
“Can you give your answers to me to copy later?”
Qin Chu let out a laugh as he listened.
The classmate in front of him turned back and asked, “Are you copying or not?”
The seat of the sixty-points was a little closer to Qin Chu, so it would be safer to pass a note from Qin Chu if he was copying.
“I’m not copying from him.”
That person asked, “Then can you pass the answers for me later?”
Qin Chu, “I won’t help.”
That person felt that Qin Chu was a bit unreasonable. But a chance encounter would not lead to a fight in the examination room.
He turned his head. And Qin Chu stretched out his long leg and kicked Lu Tong, “Hey. People with sixty points in math want to give me their answers to copy for free. Aren’t you feeling pressured?”
Lu Tong was sitting in his seat with a cold temperament. Except for Qin Chu, who had no eyesight, other people didn’t dare talk to him when they saw his paralysed face.
Qin Chu was idle and teased him, but he simply ignored him.
Unfortunately, this person couldn’t read one’s countenance. After failing to tease him once, he kicked him a second time, “Speak. How many points did you score in your previous final exam of math?”
Lu Tong coldly said, “One naught five.”
Qin Chu froze for a moment, “Quite high. What’s the full mark for math?”
Lu Tong’s mouth spat out three words in a cold voice, “One naught five.”
Translator’s corner
Thank you so much for reading the chapter. If you liked my translation and wanna support me, you can comment down your thoughts or send me a Kofi.
KO-FI
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