CY – Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

“Write faster, everyone, keep it up!” Yin Li waved the folder in her hand with great vigor. She specifically turned to Lu Bai and emphasized, “You two had yesterday off, so you need to make up for yesterday’s work today!”

Lu Bai put on a pained expression. “You can’t treat me like this! I brought honor to the class yesterday. You can’t just discard me after I’ve served my purpose!”

Yesterday afternoon, Lu Bai participated in the relay race as usual. Due to his outstanding performance in the morning, Guan Yue directly assigned him to run the anchor leg. Perhaps influenced by Lu Bai, the others also stopped treating it as a formality and gave it their best. Class One, uncharacteristically, developed a competitive spirit outside of academics. United, they surprisingly reached the finish line at the same time as another class, tying for first place.

“You contributed on the field, but we who don’t have events weren’t idle either,” Yin Li said, picking up another small stack of A4 papers. “Class Two has decided this year to compete with us for the Spiritual Civilization Award. Yesterday, they wrote many drafts but didn’t submit them, all to make us complacent so they could catch us off guard. Today, when I went to submit our drafts, I saw Class Two had submitted a pile that high. If we don’t work overtime today, we won’t catch up to them!”

“I’m back,” Han Chengcheng said, along with a few others who had just gone to submit cheering drafts and gather “intelligence.”

“How was it?” Yin Li hurried to greet them.

“Currently, Class Two has submitted the most, with our class second,” Han Chengcheng reported. “But they’re receiving too many submissions now, and the student council found a lot of repetitive content when reviewing them. They’re now stating that repetition won’t count, and any discovered instances will be sent back for rewriting.”

“Tsk, it’s all Class Two’s fault,” Yin Li grumbled. “No matter, we can still beat them by ten streets with our quality.”

“For a cheering draft, it’s hard to avoid some similarities in content…” Lu Bai didn’t quite understand. “There are only so many events; how much variety can you really create?”

“It doesn’t have to be just about the athletes,” Han Chengcheng was already preparing to write. “You can also write for the volunteers, the cheerleaders, the referees, the teachers from each class, and even those who performed.”

“Then, by that logic, you can also write for the organizing committee…” Zhang Xiaotian murmured beside him.

“Alright, let’s do it!” Yin Li declared with a flourish. “Let’s write now!”

“This is even allowed…” Lu Bai had intended to slack off with Zhang Xiaotian, but seeing Zhang Xiaotian already writing, he scratched his head, feeling too embarrassed to rest alone.

While the sports field was a battlefield, the scenes in the spectator stands varied among the classes. The regular classes and specialty classes were having a lively time, while the experimental classes were all diligently wielding their pens. This was clearly a battle exclusive to the experimental classes, with Class One and Class Two showing the most determination.

“Oh, still writing?”

As Class One was engrossed in writing, they suddenly heard a voice. A student sitting nearby looked up to see a volunteer from Class Two passing by while collecting trash.

“Just writing this, how many points will you get?” the person said, patting the “Volunteer” armband on their sleeve. “You bookworms who only know how to study. No wonder you can only get the Spiritual Civilization Award.”

“Oh right, at this rate, you might even lose the Spiritual Civilization Award this year!”

“Damn it!” Li An, who had been playing games while writing drafts, threw his pen down in anger at the remark. “If you’re so capable, beat us in the next monthly exam!”

“Ooh, ooh, getting angry!”

The group from Class Two walked away laughing. Li An slammed his desk and sat down. “I’m not writing anymore. Who cares about some Spiritual Civilization Award!”

“Li An, instead of thinking about how to win, you’re giving up first!” some students below were displeased, while others, like Li An, didn’t want to write.

“Shouldn’t our class also send more volunteers? And have a few people take pictures, which we can then send to the student council,” Han Chengcheng asked Yin Li.

“How about this: we’ll go by study group order, starting with the first group, to pick up trash. Each group will arrange their own people to take photos, and the photos will be sent to Chengcheng uniformly,” Yin Li habitually issued orders, then asked Li An, “Is this arrangement okay, Class Monitor?”

“It’s fine, let’s do it,” Li An stood up abruptly. “First group, follow me!”

While writing, Zhang Xiaotian secretly asked Lu Bai, “Is Yin Li also a class cadre? The organizational committee member?”

“She’s not a class cadre,” Lu Bai chuckled at the question. “Our class doesn’t have an organizational committee member.”

“No organizational committee member?”

“Not only do we not have an organizational committee member, but we also lack many other positions,” Lu Bai explained. “For any activity, the class teacher usually assigns someone to organize it, or whoever can’t stand it takes the initiative. Li An usually only acts when something directly concerns him; otherwise, he doesn’t bother with anything else. Yin Li, well, she’s the type who can’t stand it.”

“Yin Li even criticized Li An before for not taking responsibility, but Li An retorted that Yin Li was being nosy, which infuriated Yin Li. Yet, she still gets involved next time.”

“I see many people in the class listen to Yin Li,” Zhang Xiaotian observed, looking at Yin Li.

“Not everyone is as clueless as Li An…” Lu Bai shook his head.

The last day of the sports meet proceeded with this peculiar busyness. It wasn’t until the afternoon when the student council announced that they would soon start tallying the class points that Zhang Xiaotian and Lu Bai joined the last group to pick up trash.

As the sports meet neared its end, most of the trash on the school grounds had been collected by the class volunteers. Their group was only picking up fallen leaves and paper scraps, which was very easy. Lu Bai dragged an empty snakeskin bag and held a tree branch, swinging it with a rustling sound when no one was around.

“Tian’er!” he called out to Zhang Xiaotian, who was picking up paper in front. When Zhang Xiaotian looked back, Lu Bai impressively twirled the branch like a sword.

“Let’s spar a few rounds!”

“You’re crazy,” Zhang Xiaotian stood still. “Don’t hit anyone else.”

“Hmph, no one wants to play with me,” Lu Bai shrugged and slung the wooden stick over his shoulder. “What have you been picking up? The ground looks pretty clean, there’s nothing there?”

“I’ve already cleaned everything up ahead, so of course, you can’t see anything behind you.”

“Then take a break, let me pick up some,” Lu Bai quickly walked up to Zhang Xiaotian, shoved the wooden stick into his hand, and reminded him, “Hold it properly, don’t lose it for me.”

Zhang Xiaotian felt a bit disgusted by the dirty and rough wooden stick, but he still held it properly and didn’t discard it.

The last group seemed to be out for a stroll. The entire group only brought back half a bag of trash. After dumping it at the school’s garbage station, they returned to their class just as the main stage announced the points ranking for each class over the past two days. In the first year, Class One also took first place. When they began announcing the second-year rankings, everyone’s hearts grew anxious. The announcements were made from lowest to highest rank, and as the list progressed, the surroundings became quieter. When they announced the third place, the silence was almost palpable. At this point, only Class One and Class Two remained unannounced.

“Second place…” The school broadcast station equipment was quite old and often had intermittent static. It was precisely at this moment that it malfunctioned, leaving everyone’s hearts empty. Some people, anxious, couldn’t help but curse. As if deliberately building suspense, the principal’s voice then came from the broadcast: “First place is…”

“Damn it, I wasn’t even nervous!” Lu Yibo’s distinctive voice came from Class Two. Many students who had been holding their breath let out a chuckle. Zhang Xiaotian had worked hard all day and was inevitably anxious at this point.

As if having captured everyone’s attention, the principal slowly continued: “First place, Class One!”

The air froze for a moment, then erupted into a thunderous cheer. The students from Class Two were indignant. Someone shouted loudly at Class One, “We’ll show you in the next monthly exam!”

“Show us what? Losers!” If Li An had a tail, it would have been wagging to the sky at this moment. He even took a few people to show off in front of the Class Two students, earning playful scoldings from some of his friends there.

“He’s really showing off.” Yin Li deliberately rolled her eyes behind his back, but it was clear she was also very happy. Lu Bai was packing up his things and sighed, “Having a sports meet is really tiring, even more tiring than classes.”

“Then next year, when we have our sports meet, you can go back to class,” Yin Li said.

“I’d rather not,” Lu Bai grinned. “It would be too boring without me.”

“You’re so thick-skinned.” The four of them chatted and laughed while packing. Li An finally did something a class monitor should do and started organizing everyone to move the desks and chairs back to the classroom. The sports meet finally concluded.

Before school ended, Zhang Xiaotian received a call from his mother. She said she had to go on a business trip for a month and was already at the airport, so she wouldn’t be able to pick him up for school. She asked if he needed her subordinate to come and take care of him. Zhang Xiaotian felt he didn’t need it and politely refused. His mother didn’t say much, only telling him to take good care of himself and to call her if anything came up. Zhang Xiaotian let out a heavy sigh after hanging up. Lu Bai saw him finish his call and walked over, asking, “How are you getting home?”

“Walking,” Zhang Xiaotian replied.

“Then let’s go together,” Lu Bai said, slinging his backpack over his shoulder.

This time, Lu Bai didn’t lead him on detours through small alleys, which Zhang Xiaotian found a bit regrettable. Those alleys were too numerous and chaotic. Yesterday, bored at home alone, Zhang Xiaotian had wanted to go for a walk. Without someone leading him, he had almost gotten lost in that old residential area. It wasn’t as interesting as when he walked with Lu Bai. However, this main road was also good. It was wide and bustling. Walking without talking wasn’t boring because there were conversations everywhere, and you could overhear someone’s gossip if you weren’t careful…

Lu Bai stifled a laugh, tugging at Zhang Xiaotian’s sleeve, his attention entirely focused on his ears. Zhang Xiaotian slowed down as Lu Bai tugged him, trying to act as if nothing was happening. As he went down a step, he almost slipped. Lu Bai quickly pulled him up. After they steadied themselves, the gossip had already moved away.

“What a shame,” Lu Bai said with a look of regret. “I was just getting to the exciting part.”

“You’re something else,” Zhang Xiaotian wished he could smack him on the head. “Listening so intently, why didn’t you follow them home to listen?”

“Going to their house wouldn’t be appropriate, that would be too rude,” Lu Bai shook his head.

“And this isn’t rude?”

“It’s not just me hearing it!” Lu Bai said shamelessly. “Besides, I won’t spread it around. I don’t even know them.”

Taking the main road home was much faster. Before long, Zhang Xiaotian saw familiar buildings in the distance. He suddenly felt that this road was too short.

“My mom is on a business trip,” he said.

“Mm,” Lu Bai nodded. “So?”

“For a month,” Zhang Xiaotian said. “So for this month, I’ll have to go home by myself.”

Lu Bai said, “Oh,” and then smiled, “Then after that, we can go home together.”

Zhang Xiaotian looked at him.

“Going home alone isn’t as interesting as going together,” Lu Bai said.

Zhang Xiaotian looked away.

Indeed, it was more interesting together.