Chapter 34 (1/2)
Fake Slackers
Translator: Jury
Editor: NomNom
First Published on Chaleuria
034 – _
Gu Xuelan's birthday was the day after tomorrow
Xie Yu didn't ically handle it, but because he couldn't bear to leave the suitcase of study materials under the bed
When He Zhao heard, he e, ”Happy birthday”
He Zhao was clearly still about to say soo your way,” but he had only just begun when he was ht, that's enough, thank you” Xie Yu ers in He Zhao's direction ”Shut it”
”That gesture really looks like an emoticon Shen Jie sent ain ”Open it”
Xie Yu: ”…Open, your head”
He Zhao straight up didn't knohat literature honed just now
He dithered in his seat a while longer, then tapped the shoulder of the classmate in front of hin in front didn't quite understand Everyone in class knew that He Zhao didn't do his ho to do the homework?”
He Zhao said as he copied, ”Just in case Maybe? We'll see what fate decrees Maybe the ho When fate co, we can't stop it”
This was probably the first tily serious discussion of 'one's coo
He Zhao copied it out twice and returned the notebook to the guy, then put one set on Xie Yu's desk ”Take it Maybe a shi+t illegible handwriting and thought, I can't even read this If a miracle happens, there really are supernatural forces in the world
He stacked the papers together There was no immediate place to toss it, so he stuffed it into his pocket Then he heard He Zhao ask, ”When is your birthday?”
Xie Yu turned away; the sight of He Zhao vexed hi shadow A ros, and a neat row of heads sticking out and looking at them, expressions subtly stunned
Wan Da had even covered his eyes, like it was an unbecoht
He'd lived all this ti ru He Zhao he discovered that this world really was vast
”Students staying in school over the weekend, please follow the dor Sen found a chair and sat down It looked like he was about to chat with them until school let out ”We must believe in science Last weekend's incident, I alot—Wan Da, don't look down—I really couldn't tell that you had these thoughts”
Settling the bill after the fact
Their Mr Tang had a very long o He'd wait until they had let down their guard and felt that the incident had passed When the winds and water were both calrabbed by Mr Tang for a lecture ”Ah, last month you—”
”Will you die if you spit it out?” He Zhao turned to look at Xie Yu and bent down to be on the sa his hair ”When's your birthday?”
Xie Yu said, ”Yeah, I'll die”
He Zhao didn't keep pressing Not even a few minutes later, the question turned from birthdays to, ”Which year were you born? You're definitely smaller¹ than me”
Xie Yu was currently very sensitive to the word 'small,' for instance, He Zhao's use of 'little friend'
So Xie Yu sat up, face dark, and retorted, ”How a part of me is small?”
So the two compared their birth years; He Zhao was older than hi bro,” He Zhao said, s ”I said you were s the feeling that He Zhao was setting traps for his up and leaned back Under hiround His posture was languid, and his center of gravity was shi+fted backward so that he looked unsteady
He Zhao looked up and ahead, gaze passing through the backs of his class on the blackboard with several lines of neat writing Tang Sen's voice reciting the lesson suddenly grew far away
After a beat, Xie Yu heard He Zhao say lightly, ”You had to be younger than rade”
Xie Yu's first reaction was: No wonder no one said he cheated, going to high school with these grades
Last year, Xie Yu's cheating story had spread through the whole year but He Zhao hadn't encountered a peep at all
So He Zhao had repeated the year
That would explain it A slacker whose grades sucked—repeating a year plus dogshi+t luck—that's how he'd touched the tail of high school²
Xie Yu looked at He Zhao's languid posture and twisted the pen in his hands, his fingers spinning it in circles
He Zhao's 10-point math exam still lay on his desk He had done his corrections, but he had done the out for a little while, and on top of his sloppy writing, the whole picture was messy
Xie Yu was curious ”How many years did you repeat?”