EAY Chapter 15

Praise

Praise

15

Before every exam, the class teacher would give a lengthy speech, and this time was no exception, except that at the end, he specifically praised Shi Ran’s progress.

After the praise, the class teacher took the lead in applauding, and the applause in the class resounded in one piece.

Because Shi Ran had a particularly good reputation in the class, the applause was more enthusiastic than ever before, and some students whistled mischievously.

Amidst the deafening encouragement, Qi Ye looked at Shi Ran’s seat with a smile. Shi Ran stood up and bowed to everyone gentlemanly, maintaining a humble attitude.

But when he sat down and met Qi Ye’s eyes, he couldn’t help but feel a little smug, raising his eyebrows.

Qi Ye was very happy, even happier than if he had received the praise himself.

After school, they still had to go to tutoring as usual. Qi Ye was explaining today’s study scope to Shi Ran when someone suddenly stood in front of them. It was a slender and beautiful girl who generously extended her hand to Shi Ran: “Shi Ran, I saw your grades, congratulations!”

After each exam, the school would post the grade rankings in the corridor, so before the class teacher praised Shi Ran, everyone knew about his progress.

In fact, since Qi Ye started tutoring Shi Ran, Shi Ran had made progress in every exam, but the progress was not significant and did not attract much attention. It wasn’t until this time that Shi Ran squeezed into the top 100 in the grade that he was finally discovered like a pearl hidden in the sea.

“Thank you, you are?” Shi Ran shook her hand, not having much of an impression of the girl.

“How annoying, you even confessed to me in the first year of high school.” The girl felt that Shi Ran was pretending and kicked him, “Anyway, work hard and stop being so carefree all day long.”

Then, waving her hand, she left like a proud white swan.

Shi Ran was still confused and asked Qi Ye, “Who is she?”

Qi Ye said lightly, “How would I know, you confessed to her.” After saying that, he immediately walked forward.

“Heavens, when did I ever, I’ve never confessed to anyone!” Shi Ran caught up with him, frantically grabbing his arm and shaking it, “You have to believe me, you must believe me!”

“Okay, okay, I believe you.” Qi Ye finally smiled, “But it’s impossible for you not to know this girl, many people say she’s the school beauty.”

“School beauty? I’ve never really understood, aesthetics are such subjective things, why would there be school beauties or school hunks.” Shi Ran muttered, thinking for a moment and remembering, “Ah, I remember her, it was outside the school in the first year of high school, she seemed to be harassed by some hooligans, so I went over to help her out, and then those jokers around me ran over and started talking nonsense, saying that I was interested in her or something. Originally, the girl was thanking me with a smile, but when she heard them say that, she left in a huff. I chased after her to explain, but she immediately said that she could never like someone as unreliable as me, tell me, how wronged am I?”

“Then how can you not remember who she is?” Qi Ye asked strangely.

“I really don’t remember.” Shi Ran was a little proud again, “Maybe I’ve done too many good deeds on weekdays.”

“Especially like to be a hero to save the beauty.” Qi Ye’s tone turned sour unconsciously, but thinking that he was also saved by Shi Ran, he immediately closed his mouth and quickened his pace forward.

Shi Ran struggled to catch up with him, “Hey, can I take you somewhere before tutoring today?”

“Where to?”

Qi Ye didn’t expect that Shi Ran would take him to a baked sweet potato stand. In addition to baked sweet potatoes, there was also popcorn, the traditional kind that exploded out of a black and large cylinder.

The stall was doing good business. When they arrived, there were already more than a dozen people in front of them. The owner yelled that the popcorn was ready, and the customers covered their ears. Shi Ran also smiled and signaled Qi Ye to do the same.

With a “bang”, the fragrant popcorn was ready. Young people who had never seen this kind of machine applauded, and some took out their mobile phones to take pictures.

When it was their turn, Shi Ran put his hands on his hips unceremoniously, “Old man, give me two of the most fragrant and sweetest baked sweet potatoes!”

“Okay!”

The stall owner responded happily, “I’ve saved them for you long ago!”

Qi Ye also laughed. The reason why Shi Ran was so cocky was because the stall owner was none other than his dear Grandpa Shi.

Qi Ye asked caringly, “Is Grandpa’s leg better?”

“Yeah.” Shi Ran said helplessly, “He can’t stay idle at all, in addition to this stall, he also got a piece of vegetable garden to grow vegetables.”

“Grandpa is really amazing.” Qi Ye said admiringly, looking at the sweet potatoes that had already been packed, he spontaneously scanned the QR code next to him, “How much does it cost?”

“How can I take your money, no!” Grandpa Shi waved his hand pretending to be angry, “Can’t take yours.”

Qi Ye thought that it was really not easy to do a little business in this cold weather, how could he eat for free, but Shi Ran whispered a reminder: “The old man values face the most, quickly accept it and say thank you.”

So Qi Ye did as he was told, his tone obedient: “Thank you, Grandpa.”

“Hey, it’s Grandpa who should thank you, you’re tutoring my Shi Ran, that’s why his grades have improved so quickly.” Grandpa Shi said as he put on his knitted gloves to weigh sweet potatoes for customers, and after saying seven yuan, he said to Qi Ye: “As long as you like to eat these, come over to eat whenever you want, Grandpa will treat you, and you can bring your friends too. Oh yeah, do you like to eat radishes, what vegetables are you missing at home?”

Qi Ye smiled and shook his head: “No need, Grandpa, you don’t have to worry, Shi Ran and I are helping each other, he has also helped me a lot.”

“How can my grandson’s grades help you.” Grandpa Shi said happily, and handed out a bag of popcorn: “Take this too, specially reserved for you.”

“Isn’t it cold, I like to eat it hot.” Shi Ran, with a sweet potato in his mouth, touched the paper bag of popcorn and stuffed it into Qi Ye’s arms, “It’s still hot, here you go.”

“Oh, okay.” Qi Ye picked up a piece of popcorn and ate it, it was fragrant and sweet, and immediately gave Grandpa Shi a thumbs up.

“Good that you like it.” Grandpa Shi said, “That, why don’t you two go home to read today, I’ll make you something delicious.”

“I’m fine with anything.” Shi Ran peeled the skin of the sweet potato and asked Qi Ye, “Are you going?”

“C-can, can.” To hide his excitement, Qi Ye kept eating popcorn.

Before they even reached Shi Ran’s doorstep, a large bag of popcorn was almost empty, with only a few left.

“Wow, if I had known you liked it so much, I should have brought it to you earlier.” Shi Ran shook his head in admiration.

Having come here once before for breakfast, Qi Ye shouldn’t be so restrained, but this time the tutoring location was in Shi Ran’s room, which was a completely new territory. Qi Ye had to put in his best effort to devote himself to studying, otherwise it would be easy to reveal his feelings.

About two hours later, Shi Ran stretched his waist, “Let’s take a break.” He picked up Qi Ye’s cup, “I’ll refill some juice.”

“Hey, no need…” Shi Ran walked too fast and didn’t hear his weak rebuttal at all.

In this cold weather, Qi Ye didn’t really want to drink something cold, especially something taken out of the refrigerator.

He didn’t know if Shi Ran had an iron stomach, insisting that juice was best when it was ice cold.

Qi Ye unconsciously began to look around Shi Ran’s room. Besides the two basketball star posters on the wall, there were no other decorations, only the basic bed, wardrobe, and bookshelf.

Just like his personality, simple and straightforward.

Looking more closely, it was also a bit careless, the quilt on the bed was in a strange shape.

Shi Ran came in with the juice, “The old man said that he’s preparing dinner soon, here.”

A layer of frost had already formed on the outside of the glass, Qi Ye took it and unconsciously hissed, then quickly placed it on the desk, shook his hand, and sincerely suggested: “Don’t drink cold things in winter, it’s not good for the stomach.”

“Mmm, mmm, I know.” Shi Ran nodded carelessly.

“Also,” Qi Ye pointed to the bed, “Don’t you feel anything wrong when you sleep?”

“What’s wrong?”

Qi Ye couldn’t help but laugh: “You put the quilt core sideways when you put on the quilt cover.”

“Really?” Shi Ran reached out and flipped it over, “No wonder I always felt something was a little strange, oh well, never mind.”

Qi Ye said, “It’s uncomfortable to sleep if you don’t fix it.”

“It’s okay, I don’t feel it.” Shi Ran glanced at him and joked, “If you can’t stand it, you fix it for me.”

Qi Ye immediately started to move, deftly opening the quilt, finding the two corners of the quilt cover, pressing down when inserting the quilt core, like a well-trained hotel room staff, and in the blink of an eye, the quilt was covered.

Shi Ran couldn’t help but applaud in his heart, but looking at Qi Ye’s serious appearance of tidying up the bed, it was also very funny. Without thinking much, he pounced on him, wrapped the quilt around him, and rode on top of him, “Is it comfortable to sleep now, is it, is it!”

Qi Ye: “…”

I can’t breathe.