Chapter 28 (1/2)
Chapter 28
Two weeks later, He Nuo told Shi Yan that he had fully recovered and could move about freely, so he didn’t need to trouble him further with all the fetching around. He Nuo’s “thank you” had not even left his mouth when Shi Yan turned around and left. As he looked at the silhouette on the bike disappear into the night, He Nuo felt conflicted. He Nuo was not the type who didn’t know how to repay others’ goodwill, contrarily, he’s the best at remembering the good others had done for him. Even though he knew clearly what kind of person Shi Yan was, his “evil tyrant” image had vanished in a puff of smoke, and He Nuo had carved into his heart how much Shi Yan had helped and taken care of him.
He Nuo didn’t have anything he could give to Shi Yan in return, so he took upon all the cleaning duties that were available and rushed to finish them before Shi Yan arrived. When he saw Shi Yan, he would offer a simple “Hi!” as a greeting.
Just like this, they ushered in the final examination of their second year of high school. After this examination, students would have to fill in their application forms for either the liberal arts or science cla.s.ses, then the school would sort them into their cla.s.ses depending on their results. Third year would have five science cla.s.ses and one liberal arts cla.s.s. Since there was only one liberal arts cla.s.s, students didn’t need to be sorted, but the five science cla.s.ses are categorised based on results. If one’s results were better, they would enter the front cla.s.ses like cla.s.s one and cla.s.s two, and the teachers a.s.signed to these cla.s.ses would be the veterans who have many years of experience under their belt in supervising students preparing for the National College Entrance Examination1. Thus, this examination is rather important.
The usual, orderly seating arrangement of the cla.s.s was disrupted and in everyone’s hands was a number they needed to use to find their new seat. When He Nuo walked to the seat with his number, there was already someone sitting there. He looked at the number that he had recorded again (Laoshi informed them during cla.s.s and students had to record their numbers by themselves), and after he confirmed that it was his number, he told the student that he had sat at the wrong seat. This student gave He Nuo a number and told him which cla.s.sroom it was in, then asked him to go to another cla.s.sroom to take the test. He Nuo didn’t think that it was too much trouble, so he agreed.
But in the end, He Nuo was called by the teacher after he handed in his paper. The student who had switched seats with him was caught colluding with the student sitting in front of him to cheat on the test, and in order to reduce the severity of their punishment, they insisted in unison that He Nuo was the one who had requested a change of seats. He Nuo’s parents – his father, was called over. We won’t mention how this matter was resolved in school, but when He Nuo returned home he couldn’t avoid the fury of the belt. The next day, Shi Yan saw that He Nuo’s left cheek had a suspicious-looking mark that couldn’t be hidden even if one tried, and before he knew what had happened he thought that it was his buddies who had done it. After some questioning, it didn’t take long for him to find out exactly what had happened.
On the third day after the last paper, the students had to return to their cla.s.ses to retrieve the forms for their third year cla.s.ses, go home and fill in the required information, get it signed, then hand it back in school. Once their results were out, the sorting of the cla.s.ses would then be done. This was beneficial for the students to properly plan out their study schedules for the upcoming holidays.
He Nuo had also returned to his cla.s.sroom and was sitting at his seat. His form teacher was no longer responsible for his cla.s.s, so the cla.s.s monitor was handing out the forms. Suddenly, the students who were sitting by the windows all stood up, and the students sitting elsewhere started to gather by the windows.
“They’re fighting! They’re fighting…..one of them looks like Shi Yan?”
After a moment of exclamations and crowded pandemonium, the students who couldn’t see opened the cla.s.sroom door and dashed down the stairs. At the same time, the students from other cla.s.ses had also realised what was happening downstairs and were all rushing over like a horde of bees. The cla.s.sroom immediately quietened down, and only a few didn’t walk over to the windows to look.
“It’s really Shi Yan!”
“He can fight?!”
He Nuo eventually lost to the beckoning in his heart, and slowly walked over to the windows. From a distance, he could see that a crowd had already gathered at the field, how could he see where Shi Yan was? His heart felt conflicted. He would definitely not think that Shi Yan was the one on the losing end, he was worried for the one Shi Yan was bullying, he didn’t know what kind of person would anger this evil tyrant and have the guts to expose themselves.