5/Level
The movie never ended. Halfway through, the grade head suddenly arrived, opened the door, glanced inside, and his gaze precisely targeted those who didn't belong to the science class. He tapped his hand on the doorway as a warning, "Students from other classes, go back to where you came from. Turn off the movie too. How long is the college entrance exam? Who gave you the right to be so undisciplined?"
"Teacher, our homeroom teacher told us to show it."
"That's right, we did well on the test this time, and our homeroom teacher told us to relax a bit."
The headmaster was immediately embarrassed by the rebuttal. The room was full of people from science, art, and music classes, all of whom were people he was asked to pay special attention to at parent-teacher meetings. He had nowhere to vent his anger, so he saw Chen Mian packing her things on the podium.
"Which class are you in? Did you also get good grades like the others and get told to relax a bit?"
Seeing that the person remained silent, the class monitor searched his memory again, but couldn't recall anything about him. He was probably an average student who didn't fight or cause trouble and was practically invisible. So, he frowned and scolded, "What are you standing there for instead of going back to your own class?! Are you waiting to get a disciplinary action?"
Chen Yin sat below watching the excitement.
Cell phones, strictly prohibited by school rules, were lying on the table. Leaning on the table, her altered school uniform shirt clung to her waist. She reached out and poked Chen Yu's arm, asking him, "Do you think Chen Mian will get a disciplinary action?"
The fingers that had just touched the girl's most tender spot were now using a pen to calculate formulas on a piece of scrap paper. Upon hearing this, Shen Yu didn't look up, but his tone was firm: "No."
He just came to watch a movie in another class, and at most he would just curse a few words.
Everyone knows this principle, and Chen Yin, who was just trying to make conversation, gave a somewhat disappointed "oh".
"Is ranking third in the grade in the monthly exam considered a good result?" But the girl standing at the door, who remained expressionless like a clay figure, replied in a flat tone.
Clutching her vocabulary book, she quietly added before the class monitor could get angry, "I'm sorry, teacher, I shouldn't have come to another class during break time."
Until Chen Mianren left.
Some of the people in the classroom were still in shock.
When You Huai from the music class came back from smoking in the restroom, he heard about what had just happened. He nudged Shen Yu's arm with amusement and said, "That girl is pretty tough."
A soft rebuttal from someone else would go unnoticed, but when a usually docile and easily manipulated little rabbit suddenly snaps like that, it makes people realize that she does have teeth and can fight back.
As one of the few people who knew about the relationship between Shen Yu and Chen Mian, You Huai kindly warned, "Be careful you don't ruin yourself."
Chen Yu stopped solving the problem and asked with amusement, "Can't I afford to play?"
He has everything, so he doesn't care about anything.
Maintaining decent grades is a way to gain the freedom to stop my parents from interfering.
Not making enemies and being able to chat with anyone is simply a way to avoid unnecessary disputes.
You Huai had been hanging out with Shen Yu since childhood, and he knew better than anyone the wickedness in Shen Yu's nature.
He took out a cigarette case from his pocket, shook one out, and handed it to Shen Yu, saying meaningfully, "Too much of a good thing is bad, A Yu."
Chen Yin, who was playing on her phone, looked up and heard this sentence. She was a little curious. "What do you mean by 'too much of a good thing'?"
"It's nothing, but your friend who does odd jobs might be starting to date soon. Shouldn't you find someone else to do your odd jobs?"
Dating? Chen Yin found it somewhat amusing. "Chen Mian? She doesn't have time for dating."
You Huai clicked his tongue, "Why are you looking down on people? I just came back from outside and saw her being stopped in the corridor by a guy. They walked away quite intimately, one after the other. I've seen that guy before. Isn't he their class monitor? That amazing guy from the humanities class who participated in the competition with the science class?"
Chen Yin immediately became interested, grabbed her phone, and headed out, saying, "I'm going to take a look."
After the person left, You Huai asked Shen Yu again, "Aren't you going to go and take a look?"
What a load of crap.
Shen Yu glanced at him and gestured for him to get lost.
*
Class monitor Chen Ke came to Chen Mian with a registration form for a writing competition. "Our Chinese teacher asked me to give you a copy. It's quite valuable. Besides the prize money, it can also help with independent enrollment. Take a look."
Chen Mian took it, read through the contents, and thanked Chen Ke.
Chen Ke smiled and said no need, but the laughter and chatter coming from the classroom behind them followed closely behind.
Chen Ke recalled Chen Mian coming out of there, and even though he knew he had crossed the line, he couldn't help but offer a word of advice: "They are not from our world. Chen Yin and Shen Yu went abroad after graduation, and no one cared if they brought their cell phones to the school. The scanners didn't even scan them."
They are Chen Yin and Shen Yu.
Chen Mian had no objection to this.
But this "we" is a bit subtle. She stopped and looked at Chen Ke's somewhat evasive eyes. She took out her phone from her pocket. It was the latest Apple model, the phone Chen Yin had given her, the one she had used before, so that she could contact Chen Mian at school to run errands for her.
Holding her phone, Chen Mian said to Chen Ke, who was stunned, "Class monitor, we're not from the same world."
A typical good student is like Chen Ke, who blushes even when talking to a girl he likes, keeps his feelings hidden, and although he might occasionally pay attention to her, that's all. He wouldn't do anything out of line, and when his feelings become unbearable, he would only offer some care and advice under the guise of studying.
He couldn't do what Shen Yu did, barging into her country without permission and using money to pave a third path.
At an age when all that's supposed to be studying and playing is playing, Chen Mian only cares about money.
After the last class, she packed her things and prepared to go home.
Just as I picked up my schoolbag, I heard Zhao Lili rushing in from outside shouting, "The boys in our class are fighting with the science students!"
Lin Lin, who had just finished her homework, was a little surprised. "Our class versus the science class? What's the conflict?"
"The basketball court, they were fighting over the court, it's really strange. It's the first time I've seen the class monitor be so stubborn, he just wouldn't give way. As soon as Chen Yu threw the basketball, the two groups started fighting."
"Big news! Let's go see!"
Lin Lin pulled Zhao Lili's hand and walked out, then turned back to ask Chen Mian, "Aren't you going?"
Chen Mian shook her head.
She took another umbrella from the drawer. "You guys go ahead, I'm going home."
Poplar trees lined both sides of the school road, their leaves rustling in the wind. The rain and mist gradually descended, and the weather forecast on her phone indicated continuous rain for the next week. Chen Mian held her umbrella, wrapped her coat tightly around herself, and crunched through the rain-soaked fallen leaves as she walked towards home.
When Aunt Zhang rode her bicycle back from the direction of the vegetable market, she saw Chen Mian, greeted her with a smile, and said to her, "Your dad isn't home, and your aunt has gone out too."
Chen Mian nodded, smiled and said thank you, and then saw Aunt Zhang ride her bicycle in the opposite direction from home.
The umbrella was folded up downstairs, and the phone in my pocket buzzed.
There was a lot of discussion in the class group.
—The squad leader is awesome! A true warrior faces difficulties head-on and is not afraid of power.
— Hmm, pretty impressive. I won't say who it is that went into the infirmary.
Chen Ke put away his phone. Zhao Lili, who had just gotten disinfectant from the school doctor, found his action amusing. "Reminiscing about your fighting history, class monitor?"
Chen Ke lowered his eyes and accepted the medicine Zhao Lili handed him to wipe his wounds.
Zhao Lili asked curiously, "How exactly did the fight start? It can't just be about taking over a spot, can it?"
"almost."
Chen Ke was too lazy to say much. When he took his things and opened the door, he saw Chen Yin and You Huai from her class waiting at the door, chewing bubble gum. The girl in the pleated skirt leaned against the boy's chest like she had no bones. The tall boy had his arms open and let her lean on him while he looked down and played on his phone.
Upon recognizing him, Chen Yin exclaimed and nudged You Huai, "The great hero has arrived!"
You Huai was trying to contact Shen Yu, but he hadn't received a single reply to his messages. When he saw Chen Ke, he couldn't help but laugh. He nodded at Chen Ke and said with a smile, "You're quite the academic genius. You're good at both fighting and studying."
That's complete nonsense.
Back at the basketball court, Chen Ke was the one getting beaten up the most. He was stopped by others and saw Shen Yu sitting not far away, with his hands on his knees, unscrewing a bottle of mineral water and pouring it onto his other hand.
The message was inaccurate.
It wasn't Chen Ke and Shen Yu who got into a fight.
Shen Yu never fights; it was Chen Ke who got into a fight with Shen Yu's friends.
Shen Yu sat there watching coldly, and only when someone called for the teacher did he lazily say, "Never mind."
This shouldn't be something Shen Yu should be saying.
If Chen Yu hadn't walked past him while he was playing basketball and casually remarked, "Like Chen Mian? Money will pay off faster," Chen Ke wouldn't have made a move.
You Huai glanced at Chen Ke, and seeing that he was alright, he tugged at the end of Chen Yin's hair.
"Let's go, it's the young master's treat. We've booked a room at 'Bukai' KTV."
Zhao Lili came out a step later and saw their departing figures. She said to Chen Ke, who was biting his cheek, "Forget it, class monitor, why bother arguing with them?"
"Does Chen Mian intend to work for Chen Yin indefinitely?"
Zhao Lili was taken aback, and said somewhat awkwardly, "How would I know?"
"They are not good people."
"In the entire Suizhong region, everyone knows they're not good people."
Zhao Lili found it somewhat amusing. She thought Chen Ke was quite interesting, pretending to be ignorant even though everyone knew that Chen Mian was involved with these people because she was poor. But Chen Ke deliberately avoided this fact, as if he cared more about the fact that Chen Mian was in dire straits than Chen Mian herself.
"But what can we do? They have money."
Hearing this, Chen Ke gritted his teeth, took a step forward and then stopped. The heel of his canvas shoe fell off, and cold wind blew into his feet from all directions.
*
The voice-activated light is not on.
The staircase was dimly lit, with only the light from Chen Mian's cell phone shining through.
She had just closed her umbrella when she saw Chen Yu sitting on the steps.
He sat there with his legs wide open, not caring how dirty the ground was. His phone, which he was holding in his hand on his knee, was lit up as he checked WeChat messages one by one. When his finger touched one of them, noisy background music started playing.
Someone held a microphone and shouted at him, "Ayu, where are you? Come join the fun!"
In the background, Chen Yin laughed and called out, "Chen Yu, why are you only offering money but not personnel?"
It was noisy and lively.
It seemed to exist in a completely different world from this residential building.
Chen Mian looked at him, the two of them at a distance that was neither too close nor too far.
Three or four steps, the unattended light bulbs flickering on and off, and the distant meows of wild cats lengthening the patter of the rain.
The scent of rain-soaked grass wafted up in the wind. In Chen Mian's few beautiful imaginings about life, this was the most beautiful scene, even though behind Shen Yu was the home she had long called a prison, even though this dark and dilapidated building had trapped all the vitality and exuberance that should have been in her adolescence.
But when she looked at Shen Yu, those clear black eyes seemed to hold both the depths of hell and the stairway to heaven that she longed to reach.
Lin Lin said that there are very few people in Suizhong who don't like Shenyu.
He is the most beautiful existence in a girl's dream of youth.
But Chen Mian never dreams.
She looked away and walked past him when someone grabbed her wrist.
Then she heard Shen Yu say to her.
"Chen Mian, now that you've taken my money, you can only look at me."
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