CY – Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

“Lu Bai is really sick,” Yin Li stirred her milk tea with a straw. “Why couldn’t he say whatever he had to say inside? He had to stand at the doorway, making us two unable to touch the food on the table.”

“You two can start eating, Tian’er… I don’t mind,” Lu Bai argued defensively, his neck stiff, and he glanced at Zhang Xiaotian beside him.

“I don’t mind either,” Zhang Xiaotian chimed in.

“How can that be!” Yin Li exclaimed. “This meal today is mainly to celebrate Xiaotian’s excellent grades!” With that, she quickly picked up her milk tea and held it out to the group.

“Let’s clink glasses quickly, I specifically saved half of this and the ice has melted completely.”

“Alright, alright,” the group quickly raised their drinks, clinking them together while speaking over each other. A jumble of congratulatory remarks mixed together, resulting in no one clearly hearing what the others said. Zhang Xiaotian felt a bit speechless, while the other three paused for a moment, then burst into laughter. Han Chengcheng managed to maintain some composure, but Yin Li and Lu Bai were practically rolling on the floor laughing.

“How can you hahaha…” Lu Bai laughed so hard he almost slapped the table. Zhang Xiaotian quickly grabbed his hand, and once caught, Lu Bai didn’t struggle, instead leaving his wrist in Zhang Xiaotian’s grasp.

Zhang Xiaotian also laughed inwardly. Indeed, how could these people have such poor coordination?

“What did you just say?” Yin Li straightened up after her laughter subsided, and seeing Lu Bai’s face, she almost started laughing again.

Lu Bai said, “Of course, it’s congratulations to Tian’er for successfully defending his title. What did you say?”

“Defending his title, hahaha, what a joke?” Yin Li laughed. “I said congratulations to Li An on getting slapped in the face once! Chengcheng, what did you say?”

“I just said congratulations to Xiaotian on achieving good results,” Han Chengcheng replied.

Zhang Xiaotian just listened and didn’t say what he had said. In fact, he hadn’t said anything. This was his first time celebrating himself with a toast, and his mouth didn’t know what to say. Moreover, he didn’t think it was anything worth celebrating. He was still thinking about how he would fob Lu Bai off if he asked him later, but the other three had already changed the subject.

“Lu Bai, is your project tomorrow or the day after?” Yin Li, seemingly starving, grabbed a piece of lettuce and ate it, not caring if it was cooked.

“Tomorrow? Or the day after? I don’t remember,” Lu Bai shook his head. “My mind is full of tomorrow’s poetry recitation. As for the project, whatever. I’m not going to get any good rankings anyway.”

“Are you nervous?” Han Chengcheng asked Lu Bai.

“Damn, I’m so nervous,” Lu Bai feigned a cry of despair.

“Pfft, you’re not nervous at all,” Yin Li exposed him without hesitation. “He’s definitely excited, wishing it was tomorrow already so he could wear that suit and show off.”

“How could I be so superficial…” Lu Bai mumbled softly, then as if imagining tomorrow’s scene, he chuckled twice. “But it is quite handsome, I’m telling you…”

Yin Li immediately put on a look of unbearable distress.

“What, I won’t say it then! Go eat your food!” Lu Bai put on a “I won’t bother with her” expression. After a while, he turned and asked again, “Is the class teacher coming tomorrow?”

“I don’t know. Probably like last year, staying until after the opening ceremony,” Han Chengcheng said, sipping her milk tea. “What’s up? We can bring our phones tomorrow, so does it matter if he’s there or not?”

“I’m afraid he’ll want to talk to me tomorrow,” Lu Bai said, his eyes fixed on the pot, snatching a meatball from under Yin Li’s chopsticks before she could.

“Hiss!” Yin Li couldn’t reach across the table to get it back and could only glare at him. “You just wait. Even if Old Zhang doesn’t remember to find you tomorrow, I’ll help him remember!”

“Spare my life! Good disciple, spare your master’s life!” Lu Bai quickly put more meatballs down.

“Why would the class teacher want to talk to you? You did quite well on this exam, didn’t you?” Han Chengcheng asked.

“The overall ranking did improve, but the English score isn’t very good,” Yin Li said.

Zhang Xiaotian remembered that he hadn’t had time to check the grade-wide ranking list, and they had helped him check his own scores. He lowered his head and quietly asked Lu Bai, “What did you get in English?”

“51,” Lu Bai leaned in and whispered to Zhang Xiaotian, his voice even smaller. After saying it, he seemed to find his own score ridiculous and chuckled a couple of times.

51? Zhang Xiaotian was shocked. He thought that Lu Bai, with his good overall score and being one of the top students in physics in the grade, would at least pass English.

“Everyone has things they aren’t good at… why are you so surprised?” Lu Bai had never seen Zhang Xiaotian with such a blank expression and gently nudged him with his shoulder.

The two across from them started laughing again.

“What are you laughing at! What’s so funny? I’m a point higher than last time!” Lu Bai pretended to be angry and tapped the table with his drink bottle. “Laugh when you two score higher than me!” He then turned his head and saw a hint of a smile on Zhang Xiaotian’s face.

“Deskmate! Even you’re laughing at me!” He then chuckled himself.

“51, hahahaha, only one point higher, who else would the class teacher find if not you?” Yin Li patted Han Chengcheng’s shoulder. “He’s going to get scolded to death by the class teacher tomorrow, hahaha!”

“Nobody cares about you!” Lu Bai stuffed a piece of beef into his mouth, almost choking. He coughed and laughed a couple of times.

“Our class’s Lu Bai, has a good-looking brain but doesn’t use it!” Yin Li suddenly sat up straight, pinching her milk tea with two fingers. Her tone changed as if imitating someone, “All day long, I don’t know what he’s thinking about. Is that brain rented, too precious to use?”

This time, not only Lu Bai, but Han Chengcheng also clapped her hands in laughter.

Zhang Xiaotian guessed that Yin Li was imitating a teacher, but he had been in the class for too short a time to have the honor of seeing the original speaker in person. He also laughed a couple of times, then lowered his head to eat.

Yin Li and Lu Bai continued to imitate the class teacher back and forth, while Han Chengcheng listened with a smile. Suddenly, she noticed Zhang Xiaotian, who had been quietly eating with his head down, diagonally opposite them. She glanced at the table and called out to Zhang Xiaotian,

“Um, Xiaotian?” She picked up the tissue box on the table. “Do you want tissues?”

This question drew the attention of the other two. Zhang Xiaotian, startled by being suddenly called, thought for a moment and realized he did need them, so he nodded. Just as he was about to thank her, he suddenly realized he didn’t actually know her name very well.

In fact, so far, he could count the names he remembered in Class One on one hand. He even only knew Yin Li’s name from hearing Lu Bai mention it often.

And yet, she had just congratulated him on his good grades…

Zhang Xiaotian’s “thank you” got stuck in his throat, and he felt too embarrassed to take the tissues.

“Xiaotian, just call me Han Cheng like Lu Bai,” Han Chengcheng seemed to sense what he was thinking. “Everyone in the class calls me that.”

“Oh, really!” Yin Li said. “You’re Han Chengcheng, but only I call you Chengcheng in class.”

“So what?” Lu Bai asked.

“I can understand calling Han Cheng that, after all, look, Han Chengcheng, the last two characters are the same, so it’s simplified. But why do they call Li Yuxin ‘Li Yu’?” Yin Li asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe there are too many people with three-character names in the class, so it’s too troublesome to say the full name, and they just simplify it for everyone.”

“Then why don’t you simplify Xiaotian’s name like that?”

Lu Bai frowned. “Is Tian’er someone who can be fooled like that! Besides, think about it, does that sound good?”

Just calling the first two characters of the name… that would be…

Zhang Xiaotian suddenly felt that Lu Bai calling him Tian’er was nothing.

“Oh my, ‘Li Yu’ sounds good, doesn’t it?” Yin Li rolled her eyes. “And ‘my Tian’er,’ Chengcheng, can I call you ‘my Cheng’er’ from now on?”

“No, no!” Han Chengcheng quickly put food on Yin Li’s plate upon hearing that. Yin Li ate the food, but didn’t stop talking. “Isn’t that too cheesy, calling someone ‘Tian’er’ or ‘Di’er’…” She then deliberately shivered, angering Lu Bai enough to snatch all the meatballs from her side. Han Chengcheng joined in the laughter, and after the two of them stopped fooling around, she asked Zhang Xiaotian again:

“Xiaotian, what did your good friends from Class Four used to call you?”

Zhang Xiaotian felt a bit awkward.

He vaguely sensed that Han Chengcheng was intentionally throwing him a topic, so that the meal wouldn’t be dominated by Lu Bai and Yin Li. However, he didn’t have any close friends in Class Four, which was probably beyond Han Chengcheng’s expectation.

After all, people who make friends easily are common, but people like Lu Bai are not.

However, this question clearly piqued Lu Bai’s interest. He looked at Zhang Xiaotian intently, not even bothering to snatch meatballs, waiting for Zhang Xiaotian’s reply. Zhang Xiaotian, with a forced smile, said, “Just… call me by my name, or something like that.”

“Just by your name?” Lu Bai asked. “Nothing special?”

“Tch.” Lu Bai snorted a couple more times and turned back to eat. Zhang Xiaotian seemed to detect a hint of pride in those interjections, but he didn’t know where that pride came from. Fortunately, Yin Li started talking about something else, and the topic quickly ended.

The meal was lively. When Yin Li and Lu Bai parted ways at the entrance of the hot pot restaurant, they even made a bet. They bet on whether the class teacher would talk to Lu Bai before or after the opening ceremony. Yin Li bet that the class teacher would bring it up the moment he saw Lu Bai tomorrow, while Lu Bai believed that the teacher was used to his grades and wouldn’t rush to schedule a talk. They agreed that the loser would buy the winner water for a week, and they even dragged Han Chengcheng and Zhang Xiaotian to be witnesses before they settled down. As Zhang Xiaotian left with Lu Bai, his mind was still filled with the energetic conversations of Yin Li and Lu Bai.

Lu Bai seemed to still have energy left. He walked a few steps ahead and asked Zhang Xiaotian, “Are you going straight home?”

Don’t want to go home, don’t want to go home, don’t want to go home…

Zhang Xiaotian could practically see the words in Lu Bai’s eyes. But he had only told his mother he was going out for a meal, and he couldn’t guarantee his return time if he went somewhere else. But if he said he was going straight home…

He felt a bit reluctant.

“Then, how about we go to the supermarket?” Zhang Xiaotian tentatively suggested.

“Fine.”

Lu Bai’s face clearly showed “Is that it?”, but the time wasn’t really suitable, so he didn’t propose any other options.

“Then we’ll walk towards your place and I’ll take you straight home.”

Perhaps it was because they had talked so much at the dinner table, Lu Bai didn’t initiate conversation as usual. Zhang Xiaotian also remained silent, his mind replaying the scenes from dinner. As he was thinking, he suddenly remembered what Lu Bai had said to him before the meal.

Lu Bai had seemed to be facing him directly then, his eyes fixed on him.

“I really admire you, truly…”

Oh my goodness! Zhang Xiaotian suddenly realized, no, he felt extremely embarrassed! He could even feel his face turning red, burning from the top of his head downwards. He glanced at Lu Bai beside him out of the corner of his eye and found that the latter seemed oblivious, making him feel like he was overthinking things.

“Tian’er, did you see that Labrador that just ran past?” Lu Bai called out to Zhang Xiaotian, urging him to look back. “That dog is so fat!”

“Saw it.” You look like a dog.

Zhang Xiaotian’s place wasn’t very far from school, and coincidentally, Lu Bai’s home was in the same direction. Since moving here, he had been driven to and from school. It was actually Zhang Xiaotian’s first time walking home, and Lu Bai, upon hearing this, insisted on showing him the scenery along the way and sharing his fond childhood memories. Zhang Xiaotian felt it was unnecessary, but he couldn’t dissuade him and followed him through several small alleys, taking a detour.

This area, once the most prosperous part of the city, now had a sense of twilight. Coupled with the unrealistically high and undecreasing housing prices, the buildings here presented a mixed scene of old and new. Trendy and avant-garde shops opened along the street, starkly contrasting with the old campus across the road that hadn’t been renovated yet. However, the gently falling night veiled both in a drowsy weariness. As they walked through the unrenovated alleys, they felt as if they were walking through the veins of this old city. Even the rigid and proper Zhang Xiaotian felt a sense of secret novelty and romance.

“I grew up in this area and used to come here to play by myself,” Lu Bai walked at a brisk pace with Zhang Xiaotian. Occasionally, when they passed an intersection and saw shops across the street that were out of place with the surroundings, he felt like he had discovered a temporal rift. “These shops are all new. It wasn’t like this before,” Lu Bai said, pointing as he walked. “There used to be everything here, gold shops, clothing stores, and my mom knew all the owners. My mom always told me to play with their kids, but I found them younger than me and didn’t want to play with them, so I told them to hide well and then I’d sneak away.”

“Weren’t you ever caught?” Zhang Xiaotian asked.

“Of course, I was. After a while, those kids weren’t stupid anymore, so they stopped playing with me,” Lu Bai chuckled as he said this. “Hmph, who needs to play with those brats.”

The two walked around the residential area and finally found a rusty swing. They both looked at the metal swing, neither of them sitting on it first.

“Is this also a childhood memory of yours? Aren’t you going to show me?” Zhang Xiaotian asked.

Lu Bai was surprised. “Damn, this swing hasn’t been taken down yet? How many years has it been…”

Zhang Xiaotian was also surprised. “No way, do you only know if it’s been taken down when you pass by here on your way home?”

“I don’t take this route when I go home. I always take the main road outside the residential area with streetlights,” Lu Bai said, pushing the swing with his hand. The moment it moved, it made a grating sound.

“You didn’t want to go home, so you took me on a detour?” Zhang Xiaotian raised an eyebrow at him.

“So what?” Lu Bai raised his eyebrow in return. “Besides, how can we relive childhood memories without taking a detour?”

“Fine,” Zhang Xiaotian sighed.

The alleys were like a maze. Zhang Xiaotian was almost dizzy later and was tired of walking, deciding to call it a day.

“We haven’t gone to the supermarket yet,” Lu Bai objected, but Zhang Xiaotian vetoed it.

“Supermarkets don’t have childhood memories.”

“How can they not? When I was little…” Lu Bai tried to argue again.

“Next time,” Zhang Xiaotian said. “Definitely next time!”

This time, it was Lu Bai’s turn to sigh.

Without the detour, Lu Bai quickly took Zhang Xiaotian to his neighborhood. Before leaving, he reminded Zhang Xiaotian, “Be early at school tomorrow, okay?”

“I know,” Zhang Xiaotian directly saw through his ulterior motive. “To see the handsome you early.”

“Heh heh,” Lu Bai grinned, revealing a row of very white teeth. “Then it’s settled! I’m leaving!”

He walked backward a few steps, said goodbye a few more times, and then turned to leave.