Although the academic pressure in the north was not particularly high, the rhythm of the key class in No. 2 High School was not slow in the slightest either. Especially since Gu Yuan had just transferred over from an international school, his course progress was still behind by a whole section.
The last Chinese class of the morning served as the finale. For the last class before the exam, the Chinese teacher naturally had nothing much to teach, generally just letting them memorize ancient literature, read essay materials, and the like.
There were still five minutes until class ended, and Gu Yuan was memorizing an ancient prose passage he had just encountered.
A paper ball flew onto his desk. Once opened, crookedly written on the paper was: Walk with me after class, I will take you to eat, sun.
Gu Yuan looked back to see Sun Kai raising his eyebrows at him, reaching out his hand to make an OK gesture to Sun Kai, and then crumpling the paper back into a ball to toss into his desk drawer.
Just as the bell for class to end rang, Gu Yuan had just closed his book and placed it in his desk drawer. Raising his head to look, half of the class seemed to have refreshed and vanished directly. He had never experienced this kind of rhythm of fighting for food before, completely unable to imagine how this group of people could be so wild.
Before Gu Yuan could react, he was dragged up by Sun Kai. Sun Kai explained while running, “Run fast! If we wait any longer, all the delicious food will be gone!”
He turned his head to look at Lin Che, who was still slowly putting his textbook into his desk drawer, “Are we not waiting for him?”
“Oh, no need! If we wait for him, we won’t even have plates to eat!” Sun Kai waved the two meal cards in his hand, “I will buy it for him, and then he can take his time coming over.”
The two sprinted out of the teaching building, which was simply like a hundred ghosts walking in broad daylight.
Gu Yuan felt that even if Su Bingtian came, he would have to drink soup. Gu Yuan had never seen this kind of spectacle, running until he was out of breath, “Wait, wait for me!”
Sun Kai did not let go either, pulling Gu Yuan along and caring only about running forward, “Hurry, hurry, hurry! If we are any slower, Lin Che will almost catch up to us!”
Gu Yuan looked back, seeing that Lin Che had just walked out of the teaching building, this old gentleman taking a slow stroll as if taking a walk.
They finally arrived at the cafeteria entrance. Before even stepping inside the cafeteria, they smelled the aroma of various foods mixed together, interspersed with all kinds of talking voices, which could be said to be extraordinarily bustling.
Gu Yuan thought he had finally finished this race, yet just after walking into the cafeteria, he saw a dozen people queued up in front of every single window.
He could not help but let out a sigh. From childhood to adulthood attending school, he had never experienced this kind of spectacle. At his previous school, he only ate lunch at school, eating at a buffet-style cafeteria.
Before Gu Yuan could recover his senses, he had already been dragged into a queue by Sun Kai.
“Fortunately, this place still has food to eat, and this is the most delicious one.”
Gu Yuan raised his head to look. Hanging over the window in front of the queue was a sign for braised pork rice, with a few photos of braised pork rice written on top.
“Is our school cafeteria this popular?”
Sun Kai had a face full of pride, “Don’t look at how small this cafeteria is, this is the most delicious cafeteria among all high schools in the whole of Beilin City, without exception!” Sun Kai added, “We are known as Beilin City Special Grade Eating High School.”
Fortunately, the cafeteria auntie served food quickly. After queuing for less than ten minutes, Gu Yuan got the food in hand, and taking a look, it was indeed quite good, with large chunks of braised pork, a splash of gravy poured over, paired with a few pieces of green vegetables, and half a braised egg, having meat, eggs, and vegetables all included.
Just as Gu Yuan turned around, he saw Lin Che sitting at a table not far away, waving his hand toward him. He thought to himself: This person certainly knows how to enjoy himself.
Sun Kai was good in every aspect, except that his mouth could not stay idle at any time.
“I heard that this school opening exam was prepared by the teachers of our class, and it feels like it has already exploded!”
Sun Kai got so excited that several grains of rice sprayed directly onto the table in front of Lin Che’s bowl.
He was excited while talking and naturally did not realize it, continuing to talk to himself, “I feel like after finishing this exam we will be tortured to death by Old Liu.”
Lin Che, on the other hand, silently slid horizontally over to the opposite side of Gu Yuan to continue eating.
When Sun Kai raised his head again, he discovered the person in front of him had already run off, asking with some confusion, “Brother Che, what is wrong? Why did you move opposite Gu Yuan?”
“Is your front tooth taking a vacation?” Lin Che took a glance at Sun Kai and then took a glance at the grains of rice on the table.
“…” Sun Kai only now noticed the grains of rice on the table, let out a heh-heh smile, and said, “Sorry, next time I will exercise more restraint.”
Gu Yuan silently scooped up his rice while watching the two people beside him. Without knowing when, Lin Che had already finished eating his rice, causing him to let out an involuntary exclamation, “Do you eat this fast?”
“I am not like you, chewing slowly and swallowing carefully, eating like a little girl.” Lin Che rested his chin on his hand, staring at Gu Yuan as he uttered these words.
The rice in Gu Yuan’s mouth had not been swallowed down yet, and being spoken to by Lin Che like this, he choked it out. Gu Yuan wanted to use his hand to block it, but found it was already too late.
Instantly, Lin Che’s face darkened by several shades directly, saying through gritted teeth, “You two! What is going on with you today!”
Gu Yuan looked at the grains of rice stuck on Lin Che’s face mixed with his own saliva, pulled out a small packet of tissues from his pocket, and picked at it for a long time. This packaging seemed to be stuck together with superglue, the more anxious he got, the harder it was to open.
Lin Che snatched the paper in Gu Yuan’s hand all at once, pulled out a sheet, and then tossed it back to Gu Yuan.
He said through gritted teeth to the two people, “Next time, neither of you sit opposite me to eat!” After speaking, Lin Che cleared his bowl and left.
Looking at Lin Che’s back, Gu Yuan felt that he had inexplicably offended Lin Che several times over these two days, his guilt feeling pulled completely full.
After finishing the meal, the ones returning to the class were still the two people who came together at the beginning. Sun Kai walked in front, comforting Gu Yuan, “Don’t care too much. Lin Che just looks a bit fierce, but in truth he is very nice.”
“I feel like I should still buy him something. Is there a supermarket in No. 2 High School?”
Sun Kai pondered for a moment, “There is one, but there isn’t much in terms of items.”
The supermarket was right between the cafeteria and the teaching building, not far from the playground. Gu Yuan followed Sun Kai, looking at a row of small single-story houses before him. The one at the very edge was the supermarket, next to it was the infirmary, and further along nothing could be discerned anymore.
Walking into the supermarket, it was indeed just as Sun Kai had said.
It was a very small supermarket with only a few shelves, most of which were filled with learning supplies and daily necessities.
Gu Yuan aimlessly strolled through this supermarket that could be seen to the end at a glance, looking at Sun Kai beside him who was chugging ice water, and asked, “What do you think Lin Che would like?”
Sun Kai suddenly raised his finger as if having a sudden stroke of inspiration, “Hmm, I guess he likes doing practice problems.”
Gu Yuan let out a light sigh, “Big brother, I cannot buy him an exercise book, can I? Besides, the supermarket doesn’t have them at all.”
“Then you just buy something casually. It’s mainly the thought that counts, right?”
Gu Yuan saw a box of candy on the shelf that looked quite good, feeling heavy when bounced in his hand. However, this kind of thing was generally something that did not live up to its name. Taking a look at the price, it was indeed just as he thought, this small box costing over twenty yuan, more expensive than the lunch eaten today.
Gu Yuan said to the boss, “Boss, just this one.” Hesitating for a moment, Gu Yuan still picked up a pack of Band-Aids.
Just after returning to the class, Liu Jingming was already standing on the class podium arranging the exam hall.
No. 2 High School had money, and plus each class did not have many people, every student had a single desk. For exams, just pulling apart some distance was enough, and for the school opening exam there was no need to swap classes or seats either, saving a lot of trouble.
Returning to his seat, Gu Yuan looked at Lin Che, who was already lying on the desk with his eyes slightly closed, his eyelashes fluttering along with his breathing, appearing as if he had already fallen asleep.
Gu Yuan held that box of candy in his hand, not knowing how to give it to him. He planned to extend his hand to wake him up, but at a distance half a centimeter away from Lin Che, he pulled back again.
Turning back to his desk, Gu Yuan pulled out a pen, tore off a small strip of paper from his notebook, wrote some words on it, and planned to simply roll it up and put it inside the candy box. Opening the iron box that felt heavy when bounced, there were only ten small pieces of candy inside, making Gu Yuan feel he had lost out completely.
Gu Yuan was like a cat catching a mouse, holding that box of candy in his hand and placing it gently onto Lin Che’s desk.
The original plan was to drop it off and turn back quickly, but just after dropping it off and before pulling his hand back, Lin Che raised his head, their eyes meeting each other.
“That, about noon, I am sorry, I did not do it on purpose.” Gu Yuan spoke up first.
“It’s fine.” After speaking, Lin Che shifted his gaze, switched to another arm, and lay down facing the other direction.
With his head resting on one arm, his other arm was placed on the desk, extending to the side and back of Gu Yuan.
He easily handed the item to Lin Che, and Lin Che also forgave him, the process being far more trouble-free than Gu Yuan’s deduction.
In a few minutes, a teacher entered holding a thermal cup in one hand and exam papers in the other, handed out a stack of papers to each row, and sat on the chair.
Invigilating an exam in the key class was the easiest.
Although these students were relatively mischievous normally, what they cared about incomparably was their grades. Exam cheating occurring in Class 4 would have one’s backbone poked and broken.
The first subject was the Integrated Science exam. Generally speaking, in tenth and eleventh grade, the minor subjects were tested separately, but No. 2 High School combined them together for testing in tenth grade, claiming under a fine name to adapt to the college entrance examination in advance, while in reality adding volume without raising the price.
Gu Yuan flipped through the stack of test papers in his hand, feeling that the difficulty was not simple, truly worthy of a school that had Tsinghua and Peking University quota spots every year.
His answering of questions was fairly smooth, as his course progress was not behind by that much, merely the difficulty was slightly higher than his previous school. Gu Yuan barely finished answering the questions before the papers were collected.
Just after the papers were collected, Sun Kai’s wailing came from behind, “Brother Che, I exploded in the first session! I couldn’t even understand the questions!”
Lin Che, lying on the desk, answered indifferently, “I didn’t know how to do them either.”
“…”
The single sentence choked Sun Kai to the point of not knowing what to say.
Seeing that Lin Che kept him a thousand miles away, Sun Kai turned to Gu Yuan to vent his grievances, “Brother Yuan, it’s over for me.”
“Haha, let’s go down together.” Gu Yuan managed to force out two awkward laughs, feeling as though he had cracked open on the very first day of school.
The exam time indeed passed much faster than regular class time. By the time the final subject was finished, it was already nine o’clock.
The vast majority of people had already left, leaving only Lin Che still slowly packing his things. Basically, he was always the last one to leave the classroom. He disliked squeezing with those people back and forth, and anyway, going home was doing problems and reading books, which held no difference from being at school.
Lin Che looked around. That kid Sun Kai had vanished like a puff of smoke right after class, and Gu Yuan had also left at an unknown moment.
By the time Lin Che walked out of the teaching building, there were basically hardly any students left. Among these people, apart from himself, perhaps all were boarding students who were in no hurry to return to the dormitory.
With autumn approaching soon, the evening wind in the north was still relatively cool and refreshing, the gentle breeze brushing against the face, making this the most comfortable time of the day.
The road from the school to home was a ten-minute walk, a path Lin Che had already walked for a whole year, which could not be more familiar.
Under a streetlight stood a familiar figure. That person faced the greenery by the roadside with his back to the school, keeping his head down as if his right hand were playing with a phone, while his left hand pinched a lit cigarette.
Recognizing that hat at a glance, Lin Che intentionally walked up behind Gu Yuan like a cat with light steps and coughed twice softly.
Gu Yuan before him turned around, seeing Lin Che behind his back, and subconsciously tossed out both the cigarette and the phone in his hands together.
Lin Che leaned his body to catch the phone, the corners of his mouth curving upward slightly as he said, “I didn’t expect that while you look fair and clean, you actually enjoy this habit.”
Gu Yuan before him pursed his lips with embarrassment and replied, “Aren’t you the same? People cannot be judged by their looks.”