TSIBAMS Chapter 31

Chapter 31

As soon as school was over, Zhou Tian ran to the next class like a little wife, looking around. Qi Guang had already slipped away without a trace, while Ye Xing was still slowly packing his bag.

“Brother Qi has been acting too abnormal lately,” Zhou Tian said thoughtfully, with a lollipop in his mouth.

Ye Xing responded in his mind, ‘You haven’t noticed that it’s not just him who’s acting abnormal, have you, little Zhou Tian?’

After packing his things, he walked out of the classroom and saw Qi Guang standing downstairs talking to a fair-skinned boy.

“Why is Bai Shu here at school?” Zhou Tian muttered to himself, looking at them.

Bai Shu? Was that the fair-skinned boy he had met at the KTV front desk?

Ye Xing looked him up and down for a while and asked, “Do you know him?”

“Yeah, I heard about him when I was in junior high. He used to be in our school…” Zhou Tian hesitated, “He was quite famous.”

It was rare to see Zhou Tian swallow his words, and Ye Xing became curious, “How was he famous?”

“Oh, it’s okay to tell you, everyone knows it anyway,” Zhou Tian finally couldn’t help it and lowered his voice, whispering in Ye Xing’s ear, “He came out to the whole school when he was in tenth grade.”

“Came out?” Ye Xing frowned.

Zhou Tian looked a little anxious at his expression and explained, “Coming out! You don’t not know what it means, do you? It means he… likes men. Logically, there shouldn’t be much interaction between the senior and junior high divisions, but this matter spread throughout the entire school, even those of us in the first grade of junior high knew about it. He almost got expelled from school.”

It wasn’t that he didn’t understand, he was just surprised. Such a thing was still considered a taboo topic in his old school, but he didn’t expect that there were such brave people in this place.

Ye Xing instantly felt that Bai Shu’s image was different from others.

Looking at this unique teenager, wearing a white hoodie without any obvious logos, he looked no different from any other student in the school, except for not wearing the school uniform. He was confidently and joyfully chatting with another boy under the sunlight.

At this scene, Ye Xing even felt that Qi Guang’s previous joke, “Even though you are good-looking, I could never be the one on the bottom!”, seemed to have some truth to it.

Damn it, no way?

Ye Xing shook his head.

He’s just acting.

“The uniform, washed and cleaned,” Bai Shu handed the bag to Qi Guang.

“That’s a bit too much, isn’t it? Coming all the way here just to deliver it to me, is Brother Xu not finding any work for you?” Qi Guang laughed and took the bag.

Bai Shu sighed, “He’s afraid you’ll get a demerit for not wearing the uniform.”

“It’s not that serious!” Qi Guang said, “Besides, does he not know that we have two sets of uniforms that we switch between?”

“I told him, but it was no use. I’ve gotten used to only executing his orders and not arguing, it’s tiring.”

Qi Guang nodded in agreement. He didn’t know if Brother Xu had become more easygoing or more childish after going straight, it was completely different from when he was little.

“Really, thank you for the trouble,” Qi Guang said.

Bai Shu patted him on the shoulder, “Don’t be so polite with me. 1984 doesn’t open during the day, so Brother Xu is just paying me idle wages. Also, Brother Xu told you to go home and study after school and go there on the weekends.”

Although Qi Guang wasn’t used to physical contact, he usually wouldn’t disrespect people, except for Zhou Tian, who never learns. He smiled, “Brother Xu is acting like the poverty alleviation office as a boss.”

It was the time when school ended, and the flow of people at the school gate was much higher than usual. Even though Qi Guang wasn’t paying attention, Bai Shu still noticed some gazes, for whatever reason, that were falling on them, so Bai Shu withdrew his hand and said to Qi Guang, “Sorry, I might have caused you some trouble.”

“Huh?” Qi Guang was completely clueless.

“Qi Guang!” Zhou Tian’s voice came from behind. He turned around and saw Zhou Tian waving at him from afar, with a blank-faced Ye Xing beside him, looking around to avoid eye contact with him.

“You guys have fun, I’m going now,” Bai Shu took two steps back, then suddenly remembered something and took out a green object from the bag, “Brother Xu gave this to you.”

Qi Guang took the small object and waved goodbye to him.

Was it chewing gum? From the appearance, it looked no different from ordinary chewing gum packaging. But would Brother Xu specifically ask someone to send him a box of chewing gum? This wasn’t a light gift with a heavy meaning, this was just being bored!

To preserve Brother Xu’s serious reputation, Qi Guang reasonably suspected that this was not ordinary chewing gum.

After looking at it for a moment, Qi Guang suddenly remembered today’s date, a cunning smile appeared on his face, and he threw it towards Zhou Tian, “Catch!”

Zhou Tian reached out and caught it steadily, “Thank you, Brother Qi!”

Then, without thinking, he pushed his index finger into the cardboard packaging, but instead of chewing gum, what came out was a very realistic black, shiny…

Plastic cockroach!

“Damn it, damn it, damn it!” Zhou Tian’s hair stood on end, and he jumped up who knows how high, landing on Ye Xing.

Ye Xing almost lost his balance and stumbled, “What the hell?”

“Happy April Fool’s Day, my former deskmate.”

A few days after April Fool’s Day was the Qingming Festival. Although this festival had no special meaning for Ye Xing, and he particularly didn’t want to have a holiday or stop his pace, even if it was just to space out in the classroom, as long as he wasn’t alone. But, since it was a holiday, he thought the only good thing about it was that he didn’t have to sit awkwardly at the same desk with Qi Guang.

For him, it was the awkwardness of actively picking a fight but losing.

For Qi Guang, it was probably the embarrassment of having his lies exposed?

But it didn’t seem like he showed any shame. He didn’t have much of an expression every day, except for studying, he was just studying, as if he was a learning machine that was wound up.

Occasionally, some girls would ask him to tutor them.

It was simply made up.

Ye Xing took down the old painting from the drawing board, packed it, and prepared to find a place to sketch. Although the more backward the place, the more it stimulated a person’s creative desire, after walking around the river twice without finding a suitable angle, he couldn’t help but send a message to Zhou Tian.

-Do you guys have any particularly special scenery around here?

-There’s a highland to the north, on a mountain, but you don’t need to climb too high. Just walk along the road to the right of the school’s back gate. There’s only one road, and when you have to turn, just follow the turn. You’ll see a pavilion, that’s the place.

-Okay, I’ll go take a look.

-Everyone else is going to sweep tombs for Qingming, what scenery are you going to see? Aren’t you scared?

-Shut up.

What’s there to be scared of in broad daylight!

Although he never dared to watch horror movies, and would feel a chill when he woke up alone in the middle of the night, but—

There are no ghosts in the daytime!

Ye Xing put his phone back in his bag and walked up the mountain with his drawing board on his back.

What Zhou Tian said was easy, just keep walking and you’ll reach the pavilion. But in reality, it took Ye Xing half an hour to walk from the school’s back gate to the so-called highland. After finally stepping into the pavilion, Ye Xing collapsed onto a chair to catch his breath.

The weather had finally warmed up a little in the last period, but it suddenly dropped again today. Fortunately, he felt the temperature when he opened the window before going out, otherwise, he would have frozen to a fool if he wore a short sleeve here.

After resting, Ye Xing put on his hat and sat upright, looking around. Putting everything else aside, it really did feel like the scenery here was unique.

In the past, whenever he went on trips, no matter what city he was in, he would always find a way to go to the highlands to take photos of the city, to feel like he was “viewing all the mountains from their peak.” But having seen too many cities, there was nothing surprising anymore.

He didn’t expect that Chen Town also had a small highland like this. It seemed like it was where old people would come for a walk after dinner and swat mosquitoes. But now, it was early in the morning, and it was also the Qingming Festival, so even the old men who did morning exercises were probably taking a day off today.

This place belonged only to him, the feeling was a bit wonderful.

He looked down at the town, there weren’t any tall buildings or crowded streets like in the photos he took before. It was as quiet as a painting. Close by, he could see the red track of his school’s playground, a rooftop of a house was full of vegetables, and colorful bed sheets were waving next to it. A little farther away, was the newly opened bus station, where a few tricycles were already lined up. A little farther… there was also a factory in the distance, he didn’t know what it produced, but the large chimney was shooting into the sky, the smoke mixing with the clouds, looking very much like it was producing clouds.

Producing clouds??

Ye Xing slapped his thigh, surprised by his amazing idea.

This was the theme!!!

With a goal, Ye Xing quickly set up his easel and chair, found a suitable angle to sit down, and picked up his brush as if he wished that his brush would create something magical on its own.

It was said that when a person is focused, it is not easy to be disturbed, but when the tree in front of him had inexplicably shaken and made a creaking sound for the fourth time, Ye Xing still felt a chill down his back.

Logically speaking, there was no wind right now.

Was it a prank? He looked around, but there was no one around.

Only some unknown birds were chirping in some unknown corners.

He never felt nervous during the day before, but today was unusually strange. Was it because it was the first time he was going up the mountain alone? Or was it because it was such a special day?

For the fifth time, the tree in front of him shook again, dropping a few leaves on his drawing board.

Slowly, slowly he raised his head, and even if there was a child smiling at him from the tree, he was mentally prepared.

But there was nothing on the tree. Ye Xing felt another chill down his back.

He even didn’t dare to move, keeping his eyes wide open and not daring to blink.

After doing some mental preparation for half a day, and silently reciting a set of four-character mottos of wealth and power, a little bit of courage suddenly entered his body.

Man will conquer nature!

He put down his brush and decided to stare at the tree, and see how it acts like a demon.

If it could really dance in the air, then he would just… change spots.

Ye Xing was just staring dumbly at the tree, for almost ten minutes, and his neck was almost stiff, and he didn’t see anything unusual. The tree really didn’t shake again.

He had already said that man will conquer nature.

He picked up his brush, ready to continue painting, and suddenly there was a rustling sound from behind.

The sound was not loud, the strange thing was that everything was too quiet, so even the smallest sound could be amplified.

Ye Xing calmed himself down, turned into a wooden statue that couldn’t move, and though he was very scared, he didn’t dare to turn his head immediately, instead he held his breath and listened.

There seemed to be footsteps, but they must be very light, every step was very cautious, and the sound was getting louder and louder.

It was getting closer to him!