Chapter 45 (2/2)

”Because the grade cutoff is lowest?”

To assuage iven up on the high school exa and placed last in every exas were ridiculous and so many 'why's loo for, either

He Zhao didn't return to the classroo self-study let out

When the dis, Wan Da and the others cheered, then went downstairs in twos and threes with their backpacks ”Coht to watch a movie? I downloaded it at home Sci-fi action movie I heard it's wicked cool and awesoe, coet the movie, he still had two , Xie Yu picked out several h school He planned to do theh there was a lot of content not yet covered in class, he had quietly read ahead in his textbook during class time and had more or less mastered the content

Questions of this difficulty shouldn't pose a problem

Xie Yu held the pen in his hand but couldn't focus while doing the questions

He Zhao had been about to turn off his phone when he received the text froe'¹ really was short Three words Where are you?

He Zhao was about to pretend he hadn't seen it, but when he touched the screen his fingers seemed to have a mind of their own He replied with tords: Internet café

Explosion Bar?

There were several internet cafés near school and Explosion Bar was the most well-known of these It protected its customers well: when teachers caes to their customers

All the employees at the café were acquainted with the teachers who ca The hest-level eh school students a safe and reliable online environround internet cafés He didn't like the stuffy, dark atarettes in theirmelancholy eyes

When Xie Yu climbed the wall to leave, he suddenly couldn't understand hiht had fully fallen and only streetlights lit the road Trees rustled in the wind

A cold breeze slipped under the hem of his shi+rt Xie Yu was about to jump down from the hen he heard a nearby voice say, ”You really don't want your legs any more, do you? You're quite resilient You even cli like that”

He Zhao walked over from the opposite side of the road It was dark and Xie Yu couldn't make out his expression He sloalked over to stand at the base of the wall and said, ”What are you co out for?”

Xie Yu said, ”MMOs”

With Xie Yu's usual performance, this reason was entirely plausible The second-to-last in the year, suffering fro out at an internet café Very normal

He Zhao didn't let him jump down directly and prepared to catch hi his ar up at Xie Yu ”Jump”

Xie Yu said, ”You're the Goddamn cripple”

Explosion Bar was located opposite the Gold List restaurant The entrance was beside a clothing store, up a flight of stairs, on the second floor

A certain delinquent surna away at the keyboard Others had cigarettes in their mouths—he had a lollipop

He still wore his school uniforht and there were many people in Explosion Bar Several looked fa that he had roup at the aht his eye and was half-heartedly playing it when a hand caer crooked, and tapped on the table in front of hilanced over and saw his little friend in a white vest, hair still daht often?”

”Not that often,” He Zhao said ”A few tiained another insight into the world of a bad student He had never thought about this aspect of it before Then he looked down and tapped a line into his notes app: Spend the night at an internet café, twice a month

The two found teaame By the end, Xie Yu was so tired he lay down at his seat and slept

He Zhao took off his headphones and didn't keep playing He turned and watched his desk in the internet café was bad, and fell on Xie Yu's face alongside the glow of the monitor

He Zhao stared at him for a while, unable to avert his eyes, and crunched the lollipop in his mouth to pieces

The next day, He Zhao and Xie Yu both wore dark circles to class

”What happened to the two of you?” Wan Da tsked in wonder ”What were you doing last night? Or did our study rep drive you so hard you have dark circles under your eyes?”

Xue Xisheng had not given up Post-it notes of all kinds with various formulas and vocabulary words written on theside some quotes that could have come out of Chicken Soup for the Soul If you don't work hard when you're young, you'll regret it when you're old… Lifelong learning Go for it! You're just a step away fro had coht supplementary study materials for them

He Zhao lay down at his desk the ht at an internet café”

Wan Da asked, ”Yu-ge, too? Why didn't you both come watch the movie with us yesterday?”

”What ht and who knehat he was thinking ”My deskmate isn't that kind of person Don't lead him astray”

Translation notes:

[1] The word for text e'