Chapter 54: Hot Pot Socializing

Chapter 54: Hot Pot Socializing

Li Peixiang expressed his doubts, looking at the bruise on Fang Yuenian's chin that hadn't completely faded: "Is it that bad? You don't seem like a person with such a good temper."

Fang Yuenian: "I am a polite and reasonable person, thank you."

Meng Xiaoyang laughed and lowered his head. Li Peixiang scoffed and said, "I understand. School heartthrob Cheng just needs to reason with me."

Fang Yuenian felt deeply humiliated and looked at Cheng Bing. Cheng Bing said, "Fang Yuenian is also very reasonable."

Fang Yuenian: "Hahahaha, did you hear that? By the way, stop talking about us, what about you two? You're only in the same class in the third year of junior high?"

The waiter came over with the soup base and vegetables, reminding them to be careful not to burn themselves. Just then, she came up from Cheng Bing's side, and Cheng Bing whispered "thank you".

Li Peixiang said, "That's right. Our year originally had eight classes, but they were merged into six, which is why we became classmates. You don't know how good Meng Xiaoyang was in junior high. He was definitely a promising student for the experimental class. If it weren't for that idiot He Linjie... ptooey!"

Meng Xiaoyang raised his face blankly.

Fang Yuenian remembered that he had said Meng Xiaoyang hadn't performed well when he took the entrance exam for the direct-admission class, otherwise he would definitely have been able to get into the experimental class, so she quickly said, "Brother Yang, I think it's good that you didn't go to the experimental class. The competition there is so fierce, they're exhausted. Now it's so much better, you're number one in the class, everyone likes you, and everyone is happy, right?"

Meng Xiaoyang smiled and looked at Cheng Bing. Fang Yuenian said, "Why are you looking at him? He's so pitiful, really. I was so happy when I found out he got into the direct admission class."

Li Peixiang said earnestly, "Niannian, this is where your awareness is lacking. Competition is what drives progress... But with such good grades, why didn't you get into the experimental class?"

Fang Yuenian looked at him with a worried expression and retorted, "Thanks, but I wasn't qualified to take the exam back then."

Cheng Bing turned her gaze over.

Fang Yuenian coughed and changed her words: "I'm not qualified to take the exam."

"You're not qualified? Do you think the competition is that fierce? How many people in your school are in the experimental class?"

"Just one, just one. A wise man doesn't dwell on the past. So-and-so said that high school is a new beginning, so let's not keep bringing up the past, okay?"

Meng Xiaoyang interjected, "Um, shouldn't we go make the sauce?"

Li Peixiang: "Oh right, you two can put the vegetables in the pot. Cheng, the school heartthrob, let's go and bring them back."

Cheng Bing nodded: "Okay."

Neither of them asked the two people who stayed behind what they wanted to eat; they simply got up and went to the sauce section.

Fang Yuenian watched Li Peixiang's retreating figure, then turned back to Meng Xiaoyang and shook her head hopelessly: "I've discovered that Li Peixiang is really... tsk."

Meng Xiaoyang smiled and said, "It's nothing. He thinks we're all good friends, so he doesn't pay attention."

“You guys care too much about that person. Now you’re in a new class and have made new friends. Aren’t you happy?” Fang Yuenian said while tidying up the bowls and plates. “Let bygones be bygones, right?”

Meng Xiaoyang put potatoes and sweet potato slices into the pot and sighed, "Yeah, I'm happy too. I would be even happier if you guys hadn't fought yesterday."

Fang Yuenian: "Hey, stop talking about it. I've already apologized to Cheng Bing repeatedly."

He was holding a plate of mushrooms and asked, "Should we cook these?"

The waiter happened to come over to deliver their meat and, seeing this, reminded them, "We suggest you put the meat in first."

"Oh well."

Looking at the layers upon layers of meat, Meng Xiaoyang said with a hint of helplessness, "Li Peixiang really ordered too much."

“He can eat a lot,” Fang Yuenian said. “You’re not his deskmate, so you can’t see it, but he can eat a lot.”

As soon as Li Peixiang returned, he heard people talking badly about him, and he immediately became furious. "How could you say that?" he said sternly. "How much you eat is a person's freedom, okay?"

Cheng Bing placed a bowl of sauce in front of Fang Yuenian, who then ignored Li Peixiang and smiled at him, saying, "Thank you."

Li Peixiang rolled his eyes.

"Here, this is for you. It doesn't have sesame paste or scallions." He handed the bowl of sauce to Meng Xiaoyang.

"Thank you," Meng Xiaoyang said.

Fang Yuenian asked in surprise, "How do you know he doesn't eat this or that?"

Li Peixiang stammered, "...Doesn't School Heartthrob Cheng know you don't eat this or that? Seriously, you two are really hard to feed. Didn't your parents teach you that being picky about food is a bad habit when you were little?" He finished lecturing and sat down. "Right, School Heartthrob Cheng?"

Cheng Bing paused for a moment, then said, "Just call me by my name."

Fang Yuenian gave Li Peixiang a cool glance but didn't say anything.

"Oh, I..." Li Peixiang realized he had said the wrong thing. He looked at Meng Xiaoyang uneasily, "I'm sorry."

“Being a picky eater is a bad habit,” Meng Xiaoyang said. “I’m trying to correct it.”

“Me too!” Fang Yuenian said hurriedly. “Come on, let’s cook the meat quickly.”

If a talkative guy is equivalent to a hundred ducks, then Li Peixiang alone is worth a thousand ducks.

He must have prepared a draft and done some research before he came, otherwise how could he have been so eloquent?

In his view, the students in the experimental class are extremely self-disciplined. Although they are only in their first year of high school, they treat it as if it were the last semester of their senior year. The banner above the podium reads "No need for whips to spur them on," and the bulletin board behind the podium reads "Diligence leads to mastery, while idleness leads to ruin." During daily breaks, the classroom is completely silent, and various math Olympiad interest classes are flourishing. This is the learning attitude of the best students in the school.

— It's boring, but also incredibly awesome.

However, Cheng Bing seemed a little surprised by this.

He explained, "It's not that exaggerated. There shouldn't be any difference between this class and other classes."

Li Peixiang then asked, "I heard that your class will be seating arrangements based on scores after this monthly exam..."

Before he could finish speaking, Fang Yuenian couldn't stand it anymore, "Why are you demonizing their class like this? If you don't understand something, just ask me. Cheng Bing always sits in the last row, is his academic performance bad?"

Li Peixiang: "I didn't finish my sentence, and Huang Xuewei told me this."

Fang Yuenian asked Cheng Bing, "Who is Huang Xuewei?"

Cheng Bing: "My deskmate."

Fang Yuenian: "..."

"Then she's just teasing you!" he concluded. He remembered Cheng Bing saying that her deskmate was pursuing He Linjie, so he immediately viewed this female classmate with prejudice. "Don't trust others easily. Your sources of information must be reliable, otherwise you'll be spreading lies."

Li Peixiang explained, "That's not what I meant. Huang Xuewei said that in their class, students are ranked according to their progress in each major exam, and those who rank higher can choose their seats first. Is that right?"

Fang Yuenian frowned: "Isn't it unfair to them to judge them based on their progress? If they were first in the grade this time and second in the next time, does that mean they've regressed and lost their right to choose?"

Li Peixiang shrugged: "It's basically like this: if you want to change seats, you should work harder and take the exam again."

He quickly put several plates of meat into the pot. "This is a kind of incentive mechanism. There used to be several classes like this in the affiliated high school."

Fang Yue Nian looked at Cheng Bing: "Really?"

"Um."

“That’s too cruel,” Fang Yuenian clicked her tongue and shook her head, looking at Meng Xiaoyang. “Am I right? It’s a good thing you didn’t go to the experimental class.”

Meng Xiaoyang smiled and said, "Yes."

"Alright, alright, the beef's cooked, hurry up and grab it," Li Peixiang shouted. "Brothers, be more enthusiastic about grabbing food today!"

Fang Yuenian and Cheng Bing both reached for the serving chopsticks at the same time. Cheng Bing paused, "You go first."

"Okay, okay, I'll go first," Fang Yuenian said with a grin, taking the serving chopsticks and reaching into the spicy pot. Li Peixiang found it strange and was about to say, "Isn't it supposed to be non-spicy?" when he saw Fang Yuenian naturally put a few slices of meat into Cheng Bing's bowl. "Here you go!"

Cheng Bing replied naturally and softly, "You eat your own."

Fang Yuenian grunted in agreement, put down the serving chopsticks, and used her own chopsticks to scoop meat from the clear broth pot.

Li Peixiang was a little confused by their interaction. His gaze wandered and he inadvertently met Meng Xiaoyang's eyes. The two looked at each other in bewilderment.

It was Meng Xiaoyang who broke the silence, saying, "The potatoes and sweet potatoes are ready too, let's scoop them out, otherwise they'll all fall apart. I put a little on both sides."

"Okay, okay, I love potatoes the most," Li Peixiang chuckled. "Brother Nian, you know what, you and School Heartthrob Cheng are kind of like brothers."

Meng Xiaoyang choked, "Sorry."

Li Peixiang: "You didn't eat anything spicy, so why did you choke? Have some beverage."

Fang Yuenian said, "I remember when I was in junior high school, I would be extremely hungry every day after evening self-study when I got back to the dormitory. The whole dormitory would make instant noodles together, and that tasted better than anything else."

Li Peixiang, still naive, asked, "Do you live on campus in junior high?"

Meng Xiaoyang: "You've never lived in a dormitory, so you wouldn't understand the joy of eating instant noodles in the dorm."

Li Peixiang stared at him: "You've only been living at school for a few months, right?" He haphazardly piled a bunch of food into his bowl. "Come on, happy boarding student, eat more. Don't eat instant noodles when you get back tonight, it's unhealthy, you know?"

Cheng Bing quietly served Fang Yuenian a lot of vegetables. When the waiter came over to deliver the last batch of vegetables, he found it quite strange to see the boys sharing food with each other and even smiled.

The group ate for quite a while. Li Peixiang was in particularly high spirits, as if he hadn't just returned from running 3,000 meters. He quickly became sworn brothers with Cheng Bing, using plum juice instead of alcohol, happily radiating his social charm. Fang Yuenian and Meng Xiaoyang whispered bad things about him, which he overheard. He then declared indignantly that he would also be living on campus next semester, joining the harmonious family of boarding students. Cheng Bing didn't say much, but he was clearly in a good mood, listening to Li Peixiang's rambling without the slightest impatience.

After finishing their meal, Li Peixiang paid the bill and insisted that they agree to eat out together again next time.

Meng Xiaoyang secretly told Fang Yuenian that Li Peixiang's family was quite well-off, and that he had once treated the whole class to ice cream cones. Fang Yuenian immediately exclaimed, "I have a rich deskmate! No, I can't call him Li Peixiang anymore, I have to call him Brother Xiang!"

Boarding students were to return to school together, but Li Peixiang went home by himself. Before parting, he reminded them, "You have to get up early tomorrow. Although our class's fun activities are only so-so, we must show our spirit."

“Yes, Your Excellency, the great Sports Commission,” Fang Yuenian said. “Please go home now, we’re leaving.”

Meng Xiaoyang said, "Take care on the road, goodbye."

"Bye-bye, goodbye, goodbye, School Heartthrob Cheng."

Cheng Bing: "Okay, goodbye."

Back at school, as everyone headed to their dorms, Qian Yue Nian stopped Cheng Bing and quietly asked, "Didn't you say your deskmate was pursuing that person?"

"Um."

"But Li Peixiang and she seem to have a very good relationship." He knew exactly how much Li Peixiang disliked He Linjie.

"It's another classmate."

Fang Yuenian: "Oh...ah? You, you're sitting next to two girls?!"

Cheng Bing chuckled lightly, "We're in rows of three, what's wrong with that?"

Fang Yuenian swallowed hard. "No, it's nothing, um, it's nothing."

"Okay, I'm going up."

"oh."