WHI – Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“……!” Lin Ting was so startled that he completely forgot he was in the ‘rich district’ and let out a curse.

Lin Ting turned around and saw the person in front of him with a smile on his lips, the corners of his eyes slightly raised with a hint of rebelliousness: “You, you like eavesdropping, don’t you?”

“You’re joking, sir.” Lin Ting took one look and knew this person, dressed head to toe in designer brands, was a spoiled brat from a prominent family. “I was just passing by.”

“Passing by?” The person smiled, turned his face away, and then slowly looked back, staring into Lin Ting’s eyes. His smile gradually faded. “Then how come I see you standing here for so long? Shouldn’t you have some judgment about your eavesdropping skills before you lie?”

Lin Ting felt that the more he tried to avoid something, the more he encountered it. He swore to himself that he had intended to have a quiet day.

“Well, I saw you were busy with important matters, sir, and I didn’t know whether to enter or leave, so I accidentally heard it all.” Lin Ting also smiled. “I’ll be going now.”

Saying that, he turned to leave without looking at the other person’s expression. But the person behind him, like a stubborn dog-skin plaster, grabbed his shoulder: “Come on, brother, this isn’t fun. You eavesdropped, fine. I even let you watch the whole thing openly. You not admitting it makes me very unhappy…” As he spoke, he gently patted Lin Ting’s face with the back of his hand.

Lin Ting felt a surge of air swallow down his throat, then churn in his stomach before he exhaled it: “Actually, I…” Lin Ting’s voice gradually lowered, and he beckoned to the person opposite him with a mischievous look.

The person showed a hint of confusion and leaned his ear closer.

“Actually, I’m doing a social survey.”

“What kind of social survey?” The person’s face clearly showed even more bewilderment.

“An-i-mal be-ha-vior stu-dy.” Lin Ting slowly finished speaking into the person’s ear, and before the person could react, he quickly took off running.

After all, they were strangers he’d only met once, so Lin Ting never held back.

.

Lin Ting regretted what he had done half an hour ago.

He was now standing on the stage, holding up the new desks and chairs, with his homeroom teacher introducing him as a transfer student. The people below were whispering to each other, and dozens of eyes were staring at him as if he were a sieve.

Of course, that wasn’t the main issue. The important thing was that the subject of his animal behavior study from half an hour ago was now sitting in the last row by the window, stretching his legs carelessly onto the desk. His chair was tilted back, his body leaning against the wall, and he was holding something, a toothpick or something else, in his mouth. He looked at Lin Ting with a rather pleased expression.

His seat was clearly arranged with intention—

The seats of the other students in the last row, while not exactly cramped, certainly didn’t offer the same space as his for stretching his legs onto the desk. He was even wearing white slippers, and for some reason, while his desk was by the window on the left, there was a large empty space to his right. At first glance, it looked like a space meant for six people was occupied by just him.

This generally fell into two categories: either arranged by the teacher, or arranged by himself.

Considering that the students at this school were all from influential families, the first possibility was quickly ruled out.

This was the class bully. Damn it, Su Li was probably going to be disappointed in him again.

“Lin Ting, you move your desk over there—” Teacher Yao, the homeroom teacher, a man with a belly as round as his head, who looked about 50 years old, pointed at the class bully.

Seriously, was this teacher naive? Couldn’t he see that this was the class bully’s territory?

The class bully looked at Lin Ting, his smile deepening, and he patted the desktop.

Things were getting interesting, Lin Ting thought. So be it, as the class bully wished.

“Oh, deskmate! What a coincidence. If I had known, we should have exchanged contact information, don’t you think?” The class bully put his legs down, turned sideways, rested his left foot on the chair, and propped his left elbow on his knee, resting his chin on it.

“Indeed. Wen, Ge.” Lin Ting gave a polite, fake smile.

He couldn’t be entirely sure if the person opposite him was the ‘Brother Wen’ he was thinking of, but the expression on the other’s face suddenly darkened, and Lin Ting knew he had guessed correctly.

“You can be my deskmate, but let’s maintain some distance. Don’t place the desks too close together, and I don’t like to be disturbed. We’ll have three rules, mutual understanding and tolerance, how about it?”

Lin Ting didn’t want to be close to him anyway. Fortunately, the area was spacious, so he moved his desk to a spot one table away from him. “That’s exactly what I had in mind.”

“You’re quite cultured. What’s your name?”

“Lin Ting.”

“Lin Ting?” The person chuckled. “I think you should change your name to Eavesdropping.”

Lin Ting merely glanced at the book in the other person’s hand. “I think you should change your surname to ‘Men’.”

“What?”

“Because you not only have no ears, but you’re also a bit of a scoundrel—Classmate Men Jian.”

“Damn it! My name is Wen Lan, are you cultured or not!” Wen Lan flung the book he had been pretending to hold, and the sudden “bang” startled everyone in the classroom. The buzzing ‘beehive’ turned into ‘Silent Hill’.

One second, two seconds.

Silence. Everyone’s movements seemed to slow down, as if making any sound would be swallowed by the monster behind them.

Only Lin Ting slowly tidied his desk and textbooks, and retorted without backing down, “Likewise.”

Lin Ting could feel Wen Lan’s gaze on him, so heavy that he could almost hear the creaking sound of his eyeballs moving.

Teacher Yao had already left. The math teacher for the first class arrived late, startled by the eerily quiet atmosphere. “You guys… today, ahem, you’re behaving well. Ah, we have a new student. It’s quite rare for someone to transfer in the third year of high school. Ah, let’s start class. If the new student has any math problems you don’t understand, feel free to come to my office, okay?”

It seemed like a new teacher, not yet hardened.

Fortunately, Wen Lan didn’t make any big moves during class. He just took out his phone and sent a few messages, then turned it sideways to play a silent game. Lin Ting glanced at the people around him who were openly taking out various phones and tablets to focus on their own things, perhaps studying, perhaps playing—in any case, their future paths were already laid out. The teachers didn’t care, the parents didn’t care, and the students didn’t care.

This situation was quite friendly for Lin Ting. It wasn’t like a bad school where the noise around him would drown out the teacher’s voice, and they were almost playing mahjong in the back row. Nor was it like those prestigious universities where students were busy striving for success. Forget about phones; even bringing a novel unrelated to the college entrance exam to school could get your parents called. Moreover, the teaching staff was strong, the lectures were logical, and the occasional thought-provoking tangents were quite interesting.

So Lin Ting also took out his phone.

“Playing on your phone on your first class after transferring? Not even pretending?” Wen Lan’s annoying tone was particularly loud against the backdrop of the quiet classroom.

“Back row! Quiet!” The math teacher’s gaze quickly locked onto the two of them, paused, and then continued the lesson.

Lin Ting thought about it, then leaned back in his chair, relaxed his back, stretched his legs, let his arms hang naturally, tilted his chin slightly upwards, and turned his face 45 degrees towards Wen Lan. He then raised his gaze from low to high, scanned Wen Lan from head to toe, and instantly turned back to the front, not forgetting to subtly hook the corner of his mouth on Wen Lan’s side.

These actions might not mean much to others, but for a class bully who had claimed his territory, it was like lighting a fuse on a bomb. Lin Ting didn’t turn his head, but he could clearly feel the air around him becoming agitated and boiling.

As expected, as soon as class ended and the math teacher left, Wen Lan slammed his hand on Lin Ting’s desk: “Do you know who I am?”

“Wen Lan.” Lin Ting looked up expressionlessly along the palm resting on his desk.

“Or, should I call you—Brother Wen now?” Lin Ting suddenly grinned mischievously, leaning in as he spoke, his voice gradually lowering. This class bully, despite his bad temper, was quite interesting to provoke.

Lin Ting had expected the young master to say something like ‘my dad is the principal’ or ‘my grandpa is the mayor’.

“This school is under my jurisdiction. Think carefully.” Wen Lan tapped his hand on the desk and then let it down.

Lin Ting smiled and patted the dust off the spot where Wen Lan had tapped. “Indeed, you can’t judge a book by its cover. You’ve become a school board member before graduating high school. It seems our Brother Wen is doing quite well.”

The man in front of him had a dark expression. Lin Ting felt a bit of pity. He was quite handsome based on his features alone, but years of belligerence had left their mark on his face, giving him a sharp, blade-like edge from his eyebrows to his mouth. He certainly looked formidable now.

“Lin Ting, we’ll see.” This was the last thing Wen Lan said to him at school that day.

.

After school, as Lin Ting walked back along the path he remembered, he realized something was wrong—

Why were there more and more people behind him?

It started with two people walking arm in arm, then four more joined them, and then suddenly a swarm of nearly ten people appeared, followed by more and more… Less than ten minutes after leaving school, he was surrounded by a throng of thirty to forty people.

Lin Ting changed direction and started walking away from the Gu family’s direction.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to cause trouble for the Gu family; he wasn’t that kind. He just didn’t want to be beaten up and seen by those upper-class people.

He remembered seeing a game arcade on the map nearby. Judging by the reviews, it seemed to be quite popular.

He would go to a crowded place first.

Lin Ting subtly quickened his pace. The group behind him also started to jog, and no one spoke in the quiet alley. Yet, Lin Ting felt it was extremely noisy: the muffled sound of dozens of pairs of shoes on the asphalt road, the whistling of the wind in his ears, the gasping breaths from jogging, and the sound of his heart pounding as if it would jump out of his throat from lack of exercise.

Lin Ting remembered Wen Lan’s words: “We’ll see.”

A school bully was indeed a school bully.

The game arcade wasn’t far. In a short while, Lin Ting could see the somewhat dated, rustic sign with multi-colored letters on a black background—Xuantopia.

At this moment, there were more than 20 people crammed inside, seemingly all high school students.

Excellent. Now Lin Ting just needed to sneak into…

Lin Ting’s train of thought broke in the next second—

The group of dishevelled youths who had been behind him moments ago stopped in their tracks upon clearly seeing the person on the dance machine at the entrance of the arcade.

The person seemed to sense the surrounding gazes, ignored the “misses” on the screen, got off the machine, and turned around—

Excellent, it was Wen Lan. What was this called? It was called “enemies meet again,” it was called “everything is a choice of Steins;Gate.”