MNL Chapter 13

Chapter 13: The Fight – Ten o’clock, at the school gate.

Chapter 13: The Fight – Ten o’clock, at the school gate.

The hazy sky was blocked out by the black curtains, making the room somewhat dim. Xu Jing leaned back on the sofa with his eyes closed. Due to their similar habit of arriving just on time, they had been going to school together in the mornings for the past few days.

Because they lived so close, any slight noise from next door could be heard. So, he had been waiting for the sound of 602’s door closing.

In the dim environment, the sleepiness that had been forcibly shaken off gradually eroded his remaining consciousness. Xu Jing impatiently took out his phone to check the time and realized that he was about to be late.

He cursed under his breath, grabbed his bag, and was about to leave when he unexpectedly saw Shen Yan also coming out, with someone else standing beside him.

The girl’s face was extremely delicate and small, her pink curly hair slightly messy. A black mini-skirt accentuated her long, straight legs, which were dazzlingly white. She looked both alluring and innocent.

Although their posture wasn’t intimate, they were coming out of the same apartment at the same time.

Xu Jing’s mind went blank for a moment. Shen Yan also didn’t expect Xu Jing to still be there at this hour, creating an extremely awkward situation.

Jiang Pei yawned incessantly, not noticing any of this, and urged, “I’m so sleepy, hurry up and go, you’re going to be late for school.”

Shen Yan hummed in response and said, “I’m leaving.”

Hearing what the girl said, Xu Jing suddenly felt like his behavior of waiting all night for an apology was incredibly stupid.

Although he still hadn’t figured out what happened last night, the scene he just witnessed filled Xu Jing with anger.

Since he was already late, and the duty teacher today was the strict Zhou Yan, Xu Jing simply went with the flow, walking along the road at a leisurely pace. Shen Yan seemed to have the same idea, so the two walked on opposite sides of the street.

After arriving at school, they brazenly walked in through the main gate. As expected, Zhou Yan was standing in front of the flower bed with a stern face and his hands behind his back, staring unblinkingly at the gate.

Linhe No.1 High School had a two-hundred-page student handbook, the first rule of which was strictly prohibiting students from being late. If caught by the duty teacher, they would definitely be called into the academic affairs office for a scolding. It was rumored that some upperclassmen had been lectured for an entire morning for this.

Seeing the situation, Xu Jing didn’t hesitate, and Shen Yan also calmly walked forward, completely resigned.

But two seconds later, the expected didn’t happen. Zhou Yan simply glanced at them and urged in a low voice, “Hurry up and get to class.”

His expression was still as stern as before, but the words he spoke surprised them. However, they weren’t stupid and quickly left before the head of the grade level arrived.

Xu Jing completely didn’t want to pay attention to Shen Yan, nor did he allow any chance of walking together. He walked very quickly the entire way, the two figures drifting further and further apart. In an instant, they seemed like strangers again.

Fortunately, the morning self-study session today was for Chinese. Liang Yin usually didn’t come down to walk around, mostly sitting at the podium reading or preparing lessons. Xu Jing’s seat was closest to the back door, so almost no one noticed when he came in. Zhou Ji was reading his book very seriously and only glanced at him after noticing Xu Jing’s arrival, before immediately immersing himself back into his loud reading.

Due to the extremely poor sleep quality last night, Xu Jing was too lazy to even eat breakfast. As soon as the bell rang, he collapsed to sleep. Cha Fei’ang didn’t dare to disturb him when he saw this and went to the cafeteria with Zheng Tong.

This period of time passed quickly. Xu Jing was vaguely poked awake by Zhou Ji, only to realize that class had already started. He took out a pen, but then noticed a bag on his desk.

Inside were a pancake, boiled eggs, and milk.

Xu Jing frowned and turned to ask, “What’s this?”

Zhou Ji didn’t speak, but quickly wrote a few words on a piece of paper and pushed it in front of him.

It said: “I’ll tell you after class.”

“…”

Regardless of the class, Zhou Ji was always as diligent as ever, and his grades were indeed proportional to his efforts. He ranked second in the class on the entrance exam. Although his score wasn’t as heaven-defying as Shen Yan’s, his learning was very solid.

Seeing this, Xu Jing was too lazy to ask more.

This class happened to be English. Li Qin had always been concerned about Xu Jing’s performance in class. Seeing that he was in poor condition, she stopped explaining and called him to stand up.

“Xu Jing, tell us, what are the meanings of ‘upset’?”

The entire class knew Xu Jing’s English proficiency, so they all turned around with expressions of anticipation. Zhou Ji was a very good deskmate, subtly pointing to the location of the word for Xu Jing, but Li Qin said directly after seeing this, “Zhou Ji, why don’t you just say it louder, and I’ll pretend I didn’t hear it.”

The others laughed. Zhou Ji’s face turned bright red, and he instantly didn’t dare to move.

Li Qin knew that Xu Jing definitely wouldn’t be able to answer. Calling him up was just to remind him to focus, after all, no teacher wanted to see such a good student only neglect their subject.

She was just about to let Xu Jing sit down, but didn’t expect the person standing to suddenly speak, and then recite all the meanings word for word, even in the same order as the book.

The entire class fell silent.

“Classmates, I’m getting old and my eyesight isn’t very good. Can you help me see if this is really Xu Jing?”

The second joke finally livened up the atmosphere of Class 104. In fact, not only Xu Jing, but many people were drowsy during the first class in the morning, which was English.

It was also by chance that these words were all in the two photos Shen Yan had sent. Xu Jing had studied them quite seriously yesterday and hadn’t forgotten them even now.

As soon as class ended, Cha Fei’ang turned his head, incredulously saying, “What’s going on, Brother Jing, have you been secretly studying behind our backs?”

Xu Jing was too lazy to respond, pointed to the breakfast on his desk, and asked, “Who put this here?”

Cha Fei’ang shrugged and shook his head. “I don’t know. Zheng Tong and I saw it when we came back.”

“Wait.”

Xu Jing looked over, only to see Cha Fei’ang suddenly reveal a malicious smile, saying, “Since it was secretly placed on your desk, they don’t want you to know. Such a thoughtful thing as sending breakfast must be from someone who secretly admires you.”

Xu Jing gave him a ‘you’re sick’ expression.

Since coming to this school, he hadn’t talked much with girls, so where would he get any secret admirers?

Zhou Ji’s expression was strange. After Xu Jing noticed, he asked him, “Do you know?”

“I don’t know.” Zhou Ji shook his head like a rattle-drum.

Cha Fei’ang chimed in again, his expression mischievous, “How could Student Zhou know? He only has studying on his mind. Trust me, it’s definitely what I said. Brother Jing, not bad, you’re about to be single no more so soon.”

It was getting more and more outrageous. Xu Jing picked up the math book on his desk and threw it over. “Shut up.”

The school’s opening ceremony was held this afternoon. Xu Jing had originally planned to use the excuse of not feeling well to ask Liang Yin for leave, but after Liang Yin heard this, she wanted to call Qin Xin, saying that a parent had to come to pick him up.

Without a way out, Xu Jing had to give up this idea and go to the playground. Fortunately, the weather was cool today, and the oncoming wind made people feel refreshed.

In some ways, Cha Fei’ang and Yan Zhe were really similar, especially in their love of joining in on the fun, which was exactly the same. Xu Jing was annoyed, decisively pulling the zipper of his jacket to the top, burying half of his face, only revealing part of his tall nose, silently listening to Cha Fei’ang’s words with a deaf ear.

“So, do you see if it makes sense? That breakfast is the best explanation. Some time ago, a girl from the next class inquired about you to me. She’s very beautiful. I think it might be her. Should I ask?”

Xu Jing lowered his eyes. “Yeah, makes sense.”

Cha Fei’ang leaned back, asking, “Are you really listening to me?”

“Nonsense.” Xu Jing lazily lifted his eyelids, saying, “I know the breakfast was pretty good. Don’t stand so close to me.”

Cha Fei’ang: “…”

Is the focus on the breakfast?

The focus is on the person who sent the breakfast!

There were no teachers around. Xu Jing didn’t want to listen to Cha Fei’ang’s nonsense anymore and was thinking of finding an opportunity to slip away when he heard the host say, “Next, we invite the freshman representative, Shen Yan, to speak.”

The person who was about to leave stopped.

No wonder Shen Yan had gone into the office twice today. He thought it was because of being late this morning.

When the host announced this name, the scene became somewhat restless. When Shen Yan came on stage, there were obviously more people whispering below.

Indeed, even the school uniform couldn’t hide the unique temperament of the person on stage. Broad shoulders, narrow waist, tall and slender figure. The cold voice was amplified by the microphone, making it even more pleasant to hear. He didn’t make any gestures while speaking, and his calm expression seemed unhurried.

At this time, an extremely discordant voice came from a pile of exclamations, “A guy acting like this, I really can’t stand it.”

Although he hadn’t forgiven Shen Yan yet, Xu Jing did feel a little unhappy after hearing these words.

Ever since Shen Yan came on stage, that person had been gossiping non-stop, even saying many things that were unbearable.

“Didn’t your mom teach you how to talk? Our class’s Yan Shen is number one in the grade based on his own strength. What’s he acting? He’s bursting with handsomeness just standing there.” Cha Fei’ang couldn’t bear it anymore and looked at the boy with a provocative expression.

Hearing this, the other party sneered, dismissively saying, “Hehe, with the environment of the entrance exam, who knows if his score was cheating.”

“Damn it, that’s it for my temper. You’re from Class Three, right? What’s your name?”

“What? Wanna fight?”

“What are you doing!” The patrolling teacher walked to the very back and scolded in a low voice, “Don’t you know that the venue needs to be quiet? Is it appropriate to be noisy?”

Cha Fei’ang’s face turned red with anger. Just as he was about to retort, he felt the person behind him tug at his clothes.

After the teacher left, Xu Jing turned his head. The boy was slightly intimidated by this cold gaze, but he didn’t want to lose face. Just as he was about to speak, he heard the other party say, “Ten o’clock, school gate.”

Boy: “…”

“Did you hear that? Ten o’clock, school—school gate?” Halfway through speaking, Cha Fei’ang realized that something was wrong. How did this directly turn into a challenge?

The people on the side didn’t want to cause trouble and could only pretend they didn’t hear. Although the boy was unwilling, he could only grit his teeth and reply, “Come on then, don’t be nowhere to be seen when the time comes.”

The visible range above was very wide. Before Shen Yan stepped down, he couldn’t help but glance over there again. The person at the end of the line had a casual stance, and the loose school uniform hid his slender body.

Strangely, even from so far away, he seemed to be able to feel that Xu Jing was a little angry at this moment.