Chapter 36 — Chen Jingshen
Maybe it was the single eyelids, maybe it was those long, narrow eyes, but Chen Jingshen’s gaze always said keep your distance.
In Yu Fan’s words, it was asking for a beating. Really asking for it.
Yet whenever Chen Jingshen lowered his eyes and looked closely at something or someone, all that constant wariness and chill faded. His dark pupils lit up.
If you had looked at me like that from the start, I would not have gone picking fights with you.
The thought came out of nowhere.
Footsteps scattered across the path behind them. Yu Fan finally snapped back, yanking his arm away. A second later, as if remembering something, he started rubbing his ear like mad.
Zuo Kuan’s voice came nearer. “Why did you run so fast? Hu Pang was not chasing you. And why were you dragging the top student? We are going to teach those guys a lesson. You think the top student is coming with us?”
Chen Jingshen straightened and said evenly, “I am going with you.”
Silence all around.
Zuo Kuan put on a fake smile. “That is probably not a good idea. If you get bumped or bruised, we cannot take responsibility.”
Mostly, we think you will slow us down.
“It is fine, there are plenty of us. Top student do not worry, we will pay them back for your share too. Come on, Yu Fan, it is lunchtime now…” He frowned at the back in front of him. “Why are you rubbing your ear nonstop? It is red.”
“Mosquito bite,” Yu Fan said coldly.
“Then why are you turning your back on me?”
“Do not want to look at you.”
“…You really do not have one polite bone in you, huh.”
“Move it,” Zuo Kuan said. “We are heading to the other school to get your revenge.”
Zuo Kuan was the classic rebellious kid who grew up on Young and Dangerous movies. He insisted on this partly to vent for Yu Fan, partly because he enjoyed the swagger and “reputation” that came with a group fight. Hard to say which part weighed more.
Yu Fan had hung with him for a while in tenth grade. Once he realized the guy kept arranging brawls, he stopped running around with him.
“Not going today,” Yu Fan said. “I am heading home.”
“…Huh?”
Yu Fan had rubbed enough. He shoved his hands in his pockets and walked for the gate without looking back. Two steps later he stopped, turned, and shot Chen Jingshen a cold look. “And you. Go home.”
After he got home, Yu Fan washed his face. Staring at his damp bangs, he wondered if it was time for a cut. Let your hair get long and people grab it in a fight, and you are immediately at a disadvantage.
His phone buzzed on the sink. He wiped his hand on the towel and checked it.
【s: I got home.】
A second later, a photo of Fanfan arrived.
Chen Jingshen’s hand was hooked in the dog’s leather collar, tendons faintly raised at his wrist as he half-forced the poor, sleeping dog to wake up and pose.
Annoying. Who wants to look at your dog.
Yu Fan stared at the dog for a bit, then at the hand on the dog. Only when another message came in from someone else did he lock the screen with a blank face.
He stood in front of the mirror, silent. Then he turned the tap and splashed his face again.
Monday. The sun was already out at 7:30.
By the time Yu Fan reached school the front gate was shut, and the anthem was playing. He circled to the back, climbed the wall, skipped flag-raising, and headed straight for class.
The room was empty.
Hands in his pockets, he yawned his way down the aisle toward his seat, then caught something out of the corner of his eye and stopped at the bulletin board.
A sports day certificate had come loose. One corner of tape had given way, and the flap hung down over the winner’s name.
Yu Fan did not have to look to know whose it was.
He opened the window by his desk to let fresh air into a room that had been shut for two days, then dropped face-first onto the desk to sleep.
He lay like a dead fish for a few minutes, rolled his head toward the window, and cracked his eyes open.
The next second he was up, pulling tape from the podium drawer and dragging his chair to the back. He climbed onto the seat and smoothed the hanging corner flat, revealing five big characters: “Student Chen Jingshen.”
Top of the grade and you cannot even stick up a certificate. Useless.
Yu Fan tore off tape and layered it across the corner. After a beat, he reinforced the other three corners too.
He was working on the last corner when footsteps sounded outside.
His palm was still pressed to the wall, trying to seal the tape.
He had not reacted yet when a tall, lean figure appeared in the back doorway.
Instinctively, Yu Fan turned. He ran straight into the certificate owner’s gaze.
Chen Jingshen stood there with his hands at his sides. Maybe he had just come from the leaders’ speech, because he looked a little tired.
They stared for a beat. Then Chen’s eyes slid to where Yu Fan’s palm was pressed.
“…”
For a moment, Yu Fan wanted to swallow the roll of tape.
His expression shifted from drowsy to dazed to lost, then settled on a look that said kill the witness and be done with it.
Anyone with a shred of survival instinct would have shut up and played dumb right then.
“What are you doing?” Chen asked.
“Tearing down a certificate,” Yu Fan said.
“Why are you tearing it down?”
“I do not like being stuck next to second place.”
Chen glanced at the messy layers of tape.
Yu Fan faced down the wall for a second. What the hell am I even saying… Maybe I should just silence him. A light tug at his school pants stopped the thought.
“I will try harder next time,” Chen followed the thread calmly. “Can we make an exception this once?”
Yu Fan looked down at him, scowled, and climbed off the chair.
The flag ceremony ended earlier than usual, so there were still ten minutes before class. Students trickled in and immediately spotted the two silhouettes in the back row.
Yu Fan flopped onto his desk again.
He could not actually sleep. He just did not feel like looking at Chen Jingshen’s face.
He put on a good act, though. His shoulder blades rose and fell lightly with breath. Most people assumed he was out.
So did Wu Si when he walked over.
Which was why he came right up to Chen Jingshen’s desk, glanced at the back of Yu Fan’s head, and said in a low voice, “Top student.”
Chen lifted his eyes.
“They are adjusting seats again. I asked the homeroom teacher. She said as long as you agree, she can put us together. I know I cannot help with your other subjects, but I always score 48 and above on composition. I have gotten full marks too. I figure I can give you a teeny tiny bit of advice there.”
He really did want to sit with the top student, so he sold himself hard. “We were deskmates before. You know I never sleep or chat in class, and I will not disturb you, so—”
He broke off.
The head on the desk had moved.
Yu Fan lifted his face from his arms and looked at him blankly. The injuries from last week had not fully healed. A bandage still clung to the corner of his mouth, and the look was intimidating.
Wu Si startled and pressed his lips together. “Classmate Yu… I did not mean anything else. If you do not want to switch, then forget it…”
“Who said I do not want to?” Yu Fan blurted.
He sat back and added, stiff as ever, “Switch if you want. I do not care.”
Then why do you look so fierce about it…
Wu Si wisely kept that to himself.
The room was noisy. Yu Fan turned to the window, and out of nowhere his fingers itched. He wanted a smoke.
“Then, top student…” Wu Si tried again.
“No,” Chen said coolly. “Ask someone else.”
That sudden flare of temper in Yu Fan vanished.
The swing in his mood left him feeling weird. Someone slapped his desk, and a bun landed on it.
Wang Lu’an took a bite of his own and said, “Yu Fan, you did not have time for breakfast, right? I grabbed you one from the canteen.”
“Thanks.”
“By the way, midterms are out.” Wang Lu’an grinned. “Fang Qin just told me I did pretty well. Wait until the results are posted. I am going straight to Fang Qin to request a seat change.”
He remembered to butter up the benefactor too. “Top student, I owe you for this one. I will treat you to a meal.”
“No need,” Chen said.
“The school graded that fast?” Zhang Xianjing frowned. “But whether you did well or not, you two are switching anyway, right?”
“Not the same,” Wang Lu’an said. “We can switch, but I have to be the one to say it. Otherwise I lose face.”
“True,” Yu Fan said suddenly.
With that, he understood why he had snapped just now.
What he felt for Chen Jingshen was the same possessive streak Wang Lu’an had toward the discipline committee girl. Sitting together or not did not matter, but Chen could not go ask the teacher to move on his own, and he could not be poached.
Chen glanced at him without speaking.
Zhuang Fangqin swept into the room like a gust of wind.
“Sit up. Ten minutes to class. I am going to talk about the midterms… Wang Lu’an, hurry and eat,” she said with a frown. “And why did some people skip flag-raising again?”
“I was late,” said a certain someone lazily.
Normally Yu Fan would have been sent to stand by the bulletin board.
Today Zhuang Fangqin was oddly easygoing.
“Even if you are late, you still have to come to the field… No. Do not be late again.” She cleared her throat. “Back to the point. Our class improved a lot this time.”
By the end she could not help smiling, eye-corners folding, but it did not make her look harsh.
“Everyone’s scores went up, more or less. Our class average ranked eighth in the grade.” She turned on the projector. The grade sheet popped up. “Top of the year is still our Chen Jingshen. The other subjects are all solid. It is just Chinese… you lost quite a bit on the essay, so be ready. The Chinese teacher is already planning a private talk.”
At the sight of Chen’s scores, the whole class could not help it. They turned to look.
Just like after last term’s finals, the person in question kept his head down, pen poised, completely unmoved by his own marks.
That is a true ace, everyone thought.
She scrolled. “Time is short, so I will highlight the most improved. Wang Lu’an, Hu Yuke, Chen Xiaoxiao… Yu Fan.”
Yu Fan had been thinking up a snarky line about Chen showing off. Hearing his own name, he looked up on reflex.
“Your total is up more than eighty points, especially math. From 9 to 49.” Zhuang Fangqin smiled at him. “See, you can study.”
Between periods, teachers came by and had the reps hand out papers.
“Holy Sh***! Holy Sh***!” Wang Lu’an yelped. “Holy Sh***!”
Yu Fan kept a straight face. “If you are sick, go see a doctor.”
Wang Lu’an grabbed Yu Fan’s math paper and squinted hard. “Not even two weeks and you jump forty points? Wasn’t your make-up math paper pretty hard?”
Yu Fan pressed down the twitch at the corner of his mouth and tried to sound careless. “It is just studying.”
“Top student, you are amazing,” Zhang Xianjing said honestly. “Two weeks and you managed to plaster two piles of mud to the wall.”
“…Who is the mud?”
Leaning back, Yu Fan could not resist glancing to the side.
Strange.
Chen looked as expressionless as before, but Yu Fan could feel it. The guy was a little happy.
“It was not all me,” Chen said mildly. “They have talent.”
“No need to be modest,” Wang Lu’an said. “My dad is going to go crazy stuffing money in my hands when he sees this. This weekend, Yu Fan and I are treating. We are taking you to Baille Street for the whole day.”
“?” Yu Fan thought.
Who wants to hang out with him.
What is fun about taking a bookworm out.
Zhang Xianjing was about to say the top student did not have weekends, when Chen turned and asked his deskmate, “Really?”
“…”
Hands in his pockets, Yu Fan forced out a grudging “Mm.”
“Then it is settled,” Wang Lu’an said. “I already planned it. Lunch first, then something fun in the afternoon. Karaoke, a movie, an escape room, whatever…”
Noisy. Yu Fan was about to shoo him away.
Chen took a white plastic sleeve from his bag, a stack of papers inside, and set it on Yu Fan’s desk.
Yu Fan blinked and eyed it warily. “What is that?”
“A gift for improving.”
“What? Top student, he gets one and I do not?” Wang Lu’an felt immediately wronged. Since Yu Fan did not move, he sourly hooked the plastic with a finger and peeled it back to peek inside. “Top student, this is not right. You are playing favorites. You should at least give me—”
The plastic clung to the sheets, faint grid boxes showing through.
“Copybooks,” Chen said. “Do you want one too?”
“Thanks, no.” Wang Lu’an reconsidered instantly. “Thinking about it, you and Yu Fan are obviously closer than with me. Playing favorites is only natural. I am not upset.”
“…”
Yu Fan turned and asked, “What is that supposed to mean? My handwriting is ugly?”
Wang Lu’an was stunned he had the nerve to ask.
“You lost five points on presentation in Chinese,” Chen stated.
“So what? I had 61 points for him to deduct.”
“Presentation can only lose five at most.”
“…”
Itchy-fingered, Wang Lu’an flipped the stack. “Hey, the first copy sheet is the ‘Yu’ from your name.”
“I printed them,” Chen said. “Start from your name.”
Ke Ting, who had been listening in, could not help it. “You have been writing your name for years. You still need to practice it?”
Zhang Xianjing plucked a test from Yu Fan’s pile, held it up, and pointed to the name. “Have a look.”
“…Right,” Ke Ting said after a long beat. “It probably could use some practice.”
“…”
Yu Fan ground his teeth, ready to stuff the copybook into Chen Jingshen’s mouth.
“You can print these yourself? For real. The next page is ‘Fan.’ So the next… Huh? ‘Chen’?”
He flipped. “‘Jing.’”
Another flip. “‘…Shen’?”
Zhang Xianjing and Ke Ting: “…”
Yu Fan: “…”
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