Chapter 42 - Afraid of the dark? (1/2)

Chapter 42: Afraid of the dark?

Getting takeaway is obviously not allowed by the school but for the sake of changing their food up, students would always test their limits. Because of this, the process of ordering and getting takeaway food become a scene like those involving illegal trading. Their actions were sneaky and cautious and occasionally it was quite thrilling.

When the bell signalling the end of school rang, several of the students were chosen as representatives to go and pick it up. Because they couldn’t let the school find out, they would have to go through the back and do the secret exchange across the back wall. Unfortunately, this time they were unlucky and ran into the security guard. The moment he saw them, he shouted: “What are you doing? Stop right there!”

The students heard this but who would be silly enough to listen to his words? They immediately turned around and ran. It immediately became a scene like those from the cops and robbers’ game. During this time, they even managed to split into two groups to confuse the guard and one even successfully retrieved the takeaway food.

When they returned, the boys were gasping for air and couldn’t help but complain: “It’s not easy to eat a meal.”

The other students heard this and laughed. At the same time, the expressed deep understanding by nodding. Fortunately, they were not caught. Otherwise they not only will need to starve, they will also need to write a reflection essay.

They divided up their orders and went to their usual secret base to eat; the corner of the steps. Their classroom is located on the fifth floor and is the highest floor. The space around the corner of the stairs was a perfect place for them to hide and do things that they weren’t allowed to do.

Several boys ate the food together while discussing what was good and what wasn’t. When they were done, they tied up the bag and started playing games on their phone. The player who loses is to be responsible for disposing the garbage.

After Jiang Yang and Qin Xu’s memory loss punishment, the system stopped bothering them for two days but, despite not wanting to see that damned system anymore, they were soon reminded of its existence.

During self-study class, the classmates concentrated on completing their homework while from time to time small whispers could be heard.

Recently the weather had turned cold and the students started pulling out their jackets. Even if they were not cold, the jackets were useful when they wanted to hide something. For example, they could hide their phone in their sleeves and secretly play on it. When a teacher comes close, they could just wave their hands and the phone would naturally slide down their arms and fall in front of their stomach. Of course, there were also cases where it would fail. Once, Huang Shao tried to play on his phone like this but was caught by the class teacher. He panicked, and the phone fell out from his jacket onto the ground, shattering its screen. He was extremely upset but the class teacher wasn’t. He said that he deserved that and to concentrate on studying instead of playing on his phone.

As for the girls, their long hair worked even better. If they wanted to listen to music, the earphones would be perfectly hidden in the hair. The remaining parts of the earphones could be hidden inside her clothes after just zipping their jackets up. If you looked at them, you wouldn’t notice it unless you deliberately move her hair aside.

During self-study class, Jiang Yang used his sleeves to hide the cable and he held the earphones in his hand while he rested his head on his hand. He listened to music like this and just has he was lazily enjoying it, the familiar mechanical sound appeared in his mind.

“Random task: Please take care of your friend. Help tutor each other and raise the scores of each other’s weak subjects so that they can get a good score in their next exam.”

Jiang Yang and Qin Xu heard this and subconsciously looked at each other. Both were a little stunned, and they both swore internally.

Huang Shao who deliberately moved behind them to join them in playing the game saw them look at each other as if they had just lost their soul. He couldn’t help but laugh and wave his hands between them, “What, did you guys fall in love at first sight?”

Jiang Yang and Qin Xu returned to their senses and both turned their head to Huang Shao at the same time and said: “Shut up. Go study.”

Huang Shao: “………..” Are you two crazy? You actually want to study?!

However, Jiang Yang and Qin Xu didn’t have the effort to pay him any more attention. Instead, they both started worrying about each other’s weak subjects. How low must it have been for the system to assign them a task? At the same time, they didn’t forget to ask the system what score they need to get for it to be considered a good score.

The system responded: “The minimum score is 80 points.”

Jiang Yang grabbed Qin Xu’s chemistry paper, 62 points.

Qin Xu found Jiang Yang’s physics paper, 64 points.

Suddenly, the two men’s faces turned into a look of despair. They cursed at each other: Why are you so bad at this? Laozi can do better even with my eyes closed!

Jiang Yang had used the excuse of helping each other with their studies before to get the teacher to allow them to sit together. Naturally, what he said then wasn’t a lie. Regarding their studies, they just happened to be polar opposites. Jiang Yang’s chemistry score is 99 points and Qin Xu’s physics score is 100 points.

“Did the dog eat your brain? What is with this score?”

“You are only more than me by two points. Do you think you are qualified to say that? Something as easy as this, Laozi got full marks.”

The two glared at each other and both didn’t want to admit their weakness while also wanting to show off how good they are at the subject that they are good at. They bickered non-stop. If it they just ridiculed the other party, they could do so tirelessly and after a constant rain of insults, they finally calmed down and realised that quarrelling was pointless; it would not be able to save the other persons stupidity.

However, the midsemester exams were not far off. It starts next week so they only had five days until then.

Within five days, they would need to help raise the other persons score by 20 points for the subject they are poor at. Just from this, it sounded like an advertisement for a crash tutoring course. The two had just finished experiencing a dog-blood punishment and reacted to this newly assigned task like mad dogs. Even if they weren’t certain that they would be able to complete the task, they should still give it a try. It’s too shameful to give up without even trying. It’s just a broken system, why should they be afraid of it? With Laozi’s IQ, this is a piece of cake!

And so, the two men began a chaotic life that followed a strict and supervised study schedule. They pointed out the key points for each question. Occasionally they would explode with frustration and grab the other person’s collar while yelling at them that they are stupid to the point of no return. This kind of screaming teaching method persisted for many days.

Huang Shao sat to the side and ate snacks while watching the show. Seeing the two struggle and veer on the verge of mental breakdown, he found it very amusing. He couldn’t help but think back to this short film that he saw online; late at night a woman yelled out from upstairs —— What relationship! Ah! What relationship? You’re asking what relationship?! Thinking that something interesting was going on, he perked up his ears. That woman continued and yelled: “It’s an inverse relationship?!”

Right now, their situation is very similar.

Huang Shao chuckled and said: “You two look like old fathers who get along well~”

Jiang Yang and Qin Xu, despite being very busy, took the time to look back at him and retort at the same time:  “Shut up!”

Huang Shao could only shrug. He snickered as he continued to eat his snacks.

Because of the time constraints, Jiang Yang and Qin Xu had to make the most of their time to study. Despite being reluctant at the beginning, after seeing that they could command their enemy to do this and that and even call him stupid and having the other party unable to talk back, they felt a sense of fulfilment within. How could they let such a good opportunity go?

When there’s a sign of slight improvement, they would awkwardly praise the other party. For example, Qin Xu would pick up the question sheet in a huff and say: “Looks like you still have something left in your brain, you got half of it correct.”

The other person would sneer back, “That’s right. Even I have something left in my brain. It’s much better compared to you who can’t even solve such a simple physics equation.”

“I’m just too lazy to remember it. You can’t even calculate the basic number of electrons.”

“Are you joking around? Do you even need to remember the equation? Please use your brain or it’ll start degenerating.”