A Book Dedicated to Our Youth - Volume 1 - Chapter 6.2

2. Happy Summer Vacation.

Admiration is a very delicate thing, one step forward and it can become admiration, making you see that person as a model. One step back and it can become envy and hate, making you see that person as an enemy. 
However, not everyone is completely an angel or devil so admiration can turn into jealousy, into an evil spirit, making people struggle back and forth.

Although there were quite a few shadows, my second summer vacation during middle school was still warm in my memory.

Xiao Fei’s mom didn’t allow her to go out but she was happy for me to come and find Xiao Fei so often, in the afternoon, I went to find Xiao Fei and we would curl up on the sofa watching television and eating snacks.

We chatted about our future, about what we wanted to do later on. She turned her nose up on my thoughts on wanting to open a book store and lamb skewer stall but then said in a good temper, “It doesn’t matter, I’ll be in charge of earning money. I guarantee you won’t die of hunger in the future.”

She helped paint my toenails, examining what color of nail polish matched my sandals the best. However, she didn’t use any herself. She also helped me brush my chair, studying the magazines at home to see what hairstyles the celebrities had then did her best to brush my hair that way using the things she had at homes. She even gave me her prettiest dress, trying hard to make me pretty whereas she gave up on herself and hid under a boyish hairstyle.

In the mornings, I often accompanied Xiao Bo to revise. Xiao Bo worked very hard, he woke up at six every morning and memorized English.

We would often go to the side of the school’s lotus pond. He sat in the small pavilion and facing the breeze and sunshine, he would memorize his English. I sat on a rock by the lotus pond, admiring the lotus flowers while drawing the outlines with a brush .

When I got tired of drawing, I would watch Xiao Bo memorize his textbooks. Sometimes when I was bored, I would intentionally bother him. Xiao Bo’s concentration abilities were exceptionally strong, if he decides how much he wants to memorize in a day, he will definitely finish it. No matter what I did beside him, it wouldn’t distract him. I was unconvinced and didn’t believe he could really stay undistracted so I tried all kinds of tricks to tease him with.

No matter what I said, he still ignored me so I started to sing loudly. I started from Teresa Teng and learning from the sisters in the karaoke bar, I shimmied in front of him, winking and singing sweetly, “I sent you out of the village, there are some words I have to say, although a hundred flowers have bloomed, don’t pick the wildflowers on the side of the road. Remember my love, remember my love……”

No reaction?

I jumped to the railing in front of Xiao Bo as if standing on a podium. I rolled up a piece of drawing paper and used it as a microphone. I bit my tongue and sang vaguely to indicate the song was Cantonese. At times I lowered my head pondering deeply, other times I learned on the railing looking around to give out the feeling I was aggrieved with bitter hatred: “We gradually become drunk as we go deeper into the night, at this moment we are so close together, my reminiscence seems to be shaking causing my internal dilemma to grow deeper and deeper. With my once broken heart, I let you softly get closer today……”

Still no reaction?

I jumped off the railing and walked in circles around XIao Bo, and loudly sang, full of power and grandeur, “Arise! All those who don’t want to be slaves! With our flesh and blood, let us build our new Great Wall……”

Xiao Bo held his English textbook, his eyes staring over some blank space without the slightest reaction whereas the sound of a crash sounded outside the pavilion, a person sat on the floor laughing.

It was currently the holidays and only seven in the morning. I thought only Xiao Bo and I were at the lotus pond so I exposed my true self without a thought. I never thought Chen Jing was sitting in the bushes beside the pavilion sketching. He was probably so shocked after seeing me make a spectacle of myself that he flipped over the easel and to save his art, he fell on the floor.

I was so embarrassed I just wanted to find a hole to crawl into. However, who was I? I’ve long been trained by Treasure Bowl. So I pointed at Chen Jing and lectured, “What are you hiding here secretly watching?”

“I came at six which was before you so even if it’s secretly watching, it should be you who is secretly watching me.” Chen Jing stood up and put his easel back up, still laughing. On his easel was a picture of a dewy lotus flower. It was only a sketch but it was more vivid than my watercolor.

I stared at it for a while and couldn’t help but sigh, geniuses were geniuses, they were even superior in art.

Only when he started picking up his pencils did I realize that I was stepping on one and it was already broken. He smiled, “It’s fine, I have a lot.”

I glared at him then turned and left.

When I walked into the pavilion, I discovered Xiao Bo that old person still silently memorizing English, even his posture didn’t change, however the page had changed.

I considered myself given up and sat back on the rocks in defeat. I picked up a brush and stared at the lotus flowers in the pond in a daze.

When Xiao Bo finished the day’s work, he called me to leave.

Later, we often bumped into Chen Jing at the lotus pond. He was also learning art, only, he was learning to sketch skill life. I didn’t talk to him and he also ignored me, we both went along doing our own things.

One day, he looked at Xiao Bo for a long time then suddenly walked up to Xiao Bo and said, “English isn’t learnt like this. English is a language and speaking is it’s most important feature. No matter how much effort you put in, if you’re silently memorizing it all day, it’s all wasted. You should loudly say it out, you don’t have to force yourself to memorize it, you only need to practice reading it repeatedly. After some time, you will naturally grow a sense of the language and have a feel for it so sometimes when you do multiple choice questions, you don’t have to bother with grammar, you just read over it and your tongue will tell you which one is correct.”

Xiao Bo quickly said, “Thank you.”

Chen Jing calmly replied, “No need. When Chinese people start speaking English, they all seem rather comical, you don’t need to be embarrassed or care how other people see you. Just keep loudly reading.” After he finished talking, he left carrying his easel.

Xiao Bo immediately followed his advice and loudly started reading. It was indeed quite comical and I started laughing loudly. However, Xiao Bo’s ability to act as if no one else was present was very amazing, he read his things and didn’t care the slightest if other people laughed.

After he grew tired from reading, on our way back, Xiao Bo said, “I never thought the child prodigy had such a leisurely and carefree mood, he’s not the rumored reading machine.”

I replied, “Him learning art definitely isn’t on a whim, he definitely has some special plans for himself. He’s very crafty, don’t be fooled by his appearance. I used to be desk mates with him when we were younger and I didn’t lack from his teasing.”

Xiao Bo laughed, “He’s very interesting.”

I also laughed, “He’s someone from a different world to us.”

After our summer holidays ended, the new school term started.

As Xiao Fei didn’t participate in the end of year exam, the school decided to use her average exam mark from her two years at school. She was assigned to the top class, Class (2) and Zhang Jun entered the slow class, Class (7). With my rank as top in the class, I entered Class (4) and second in the class was Guan He.

When I went to report and saw this ranking, I had a very surreal feeling, I was actually in front of Guan He? I was actually in front of Guan He!

I walked inside the classroom like I was in a dream and sat in a corner in the last row.

When Guan He walked in, a large half of the class was already full. A lot of classmates said hello and called her over to sit and many of the guys stared at her. I lightly thought how she was still so popular.

Guan He looked around the class then she smiled, politely declined everyone and walked straight to my side and asked, “Is anyone sitting here?”

I shook my head. She sat down and said hello, “Hi, long time no see.”

I twitched the corners of my mouth, which can be counted as a smile, “Mhm.” To you, it indeed has been long time no see but to me, I have been paying attention to you.

Not long after, our homeroom teacher walked in. She was a female maths teacher who had just transferred over from an experimental middle school. After she walked in, she first introduced herself, “My surname is Wu,  we’ll spend the year together so I wish to try my best to send you all to a key high school.” Closely following this, she asked, “Who is Luo Qi Qi?”

Her eyes enthusiastically searched the front few rows whereas the students’ eyes all looked towards the back. After a while, I reluctantly raised my hand. She was somewhat surprised that I was sitting in a corner of the last row but she still enthusiastically smiled at me then asked, “Who is Guan He?”

“I am.” Guan He stood up smiling.

Teacher Wu was even more surprised, the second place was also at the back? And desk mates with first place? It wasn’t very consistent with the ways of good students that she knew. She smiled and nodded, “Sit!”

Guan He sat down. Teacher Wu looked at the two of us, “In the upcoming year, I will do my best, I also hope the two of you will try hard with me to create a good study atmosphere and help your classmates improve.”

Guan He smiled and nodded, I lowered my head and stared at the table in a daze. I had already gotten used to being a bad student so I was very unused to a teacher’s enthusiasm and attention.

Teacher Wu said, “I’ll first get to know everyone and then we’ll do a general cleaning. After general cleaning, we’ll assign seats. If there are any students with special seat requests, you can come and tell me. Luo Qi Qi, you’re in charge of leading everyone to clean up; Guan He, you’re in charge for leading everyone to clean the windows.

I frowned, did this teacher not ask around about what kind of person I am? She actually only looks at the scores.

She called out everyone’s names once using the sheet of results in her hand to recognize us then left, leaving the classroom which hasn’t been cleaned for an entire holiday to us.

Everyone looked at Guan He and I. I stood up, pulled open the backdoor then expressionlessly left the classroom. They can clean however they like, it has nothing to do with me.

Third years were all on the third floor. Class(1), Class(2), Class(3) were on another corridor. If you walk straight across the third building, you will pass the teachers’ office in the middle. I didn’t want to bump into Teacher Wu so I decided to go down the stairs and walk back up from the other side on the second floor.

I could hear Zhang Jun’s voice before I even got to Class(7). From the open window, I saw him standing on the podium with a helpless expression. The expression of the students below were completely different to those in Class(4). After the fast and slow classes have been divided, a bunch of good students sat together and a bunch of bad students sat together, the differences in atmosphere created were really big!

The most aggressive few bad students were all in Class(7). I suspect that the school did this intentionally, just like how Class(6) is the best class among good classes, Class(7) is probably the worst class among the bad classes. I  think the middle school department’s director has already decided to give up on this class and let the group of bad students hold each other up.

In Class(7), Zhang Jun is considered a good student among the bad students. Looking at his posture, he was probably appointed the class monitor by their homeroom teacher. This teacher’s luck was really good, she guessed the right person! If you let an average ‘good student’ go manage a room of bad students, you only fear that in the end, the good student will also become a bad student. Zhang Jun was quiet in school and didn’t cause trouble, relying only on rumors instead of drinking, smoking and fighting to become famous. However, as long as he wanted to, intimidating a few small fries was no problem.

When I saw Zhang Jun, he naturally also saw me. My amusement probably made him surprised as he paused mid sentence, seemingly like he had forgotten his words. The students below immediately started laughing and some even thumped their desks.

Zhang Jun was good tempered and only watched them with a smile, patiently waiting for them to grow tired before he continued to speak. However, that female teacher had enough and continuously shouted, “Be quiet! Be quiet!” Though her shouts of “quiet” were not able to cover the crowd’s laughter.

I walked back down laughing and went around to the other side of the second floor before going up again. Class(1) was holding a class meeting and Treasure Bowl was talking. The students below can’t be compared to the good class but they were still attentive. It looks like the school values Treasure Bowl and letting him lead a graduating class this time is probably an exercise.

Class(2) and (3) were both cleaning their classes. Lin Lan and Xiao Fei were standing on chairs cleaning the windows. I walked over and stood in front of them. Xiao Fei immediately asked, “How are you here? Doesn’t your class need to clean?”

Lin Lan laughed, “She definitely skipped again, right now her courage is getting bigger and bigger. Class(4)’s homeroom teacher thought they picked a treasure but what they don’t know is that it’s actually a scourge.”

I asked, “Who’s your homeroom teacher?”

“Chen Yuan Si.”

“Chen Yuan Zhe’s little sister?” I relaxed, Chen Yuan Si used to be in Class(2) with Xiao Fei and they had quite a good relationship so there shouldn’t be any turmoils in Xiao Fei’s future days.

Xiao Fei said, “It’s her. It’s quite interesting how both siblings are class monitors.”

Lin Lan said, “Both are good at studying, they have strong capabilities and they look good. In the future, no matter what they bump into, they’ll still be fine. Looking at them, I suddenly feel like us, who have no siblings, are so pitiful.”

Xiao Fei nodded in agreement. I didn’t say anything, I would rather be an only child.

I stood to the side, chatting with Xiao Fei and Lin Lan. Only when they finished cleaning the windows did I go back to class. The class had taken on a new look. The students looked at me in a special way but I completely ignored it, I was no longer able to be penetrated.

Just as I was looking for a seat, Guan He called me. She actually saved the seat next to her for me. All the other seats were taken so I could only quietly walk to her side.

Teacher Wu came in and started announcing the class captains. Our class monitor was a boy who had just transferred here from Xi’an called Li Shan. Teacher Wu introduced him, saying that he used to be a class monitor so he has the experience of managing a class. Guan He was elected as academic captain and also the representative of our Chinese class. I was appointed as the representative of our maths class. Don’t think it’s just a class representative, homeroom teachers’ class representatives get a lot of special rights.

This was the first time I have ever held an official position. When I was younger, I always endlessly wished to be one but now, I only feel helpless. I think I can understand Zhang Jun’s feelings of being a class monitor.

Teacher Wu then assigned the seats. Guan He and I were still desk mates, we were assigned to sit right in the middle of the class. Teacher Wu meaningfully said, “I hope the two of you can help and encourage each other to improve and become a good example to the class and lead everyone forward to create a good study atmosphere.”

Just like this, the curtains drew back in my third year. Beside me was the person I admired, the person I envied, the person who I liked, liked, a person who reminded me at every moment who I wasn’t.

Like in the past, Guan He’s grace and demeanor quickly conquered the hearts of the whole class. Our class monitor didn’t let down Teacher Wu’s great expectations either. He studied well and treated people generously. Quickly, he became trusted among the classmates. Together, he and Guan He kept our class under good order.

Our class was in perfect harmony, the only one in discord was me.

Every two weeks, our school will hold a blackboard newspaper contest* and the winners will get points which apparently will influence which class gets the outstanding award which then influences the homeroom teacher’s bonus so the homeroom teachers and class captains attached great importance to it.

Li Shan heard that I could draw so he invited me to put in effort for the blackboard competition. I rejected him without thought, from small to now, the thing I lacked the most was teamwork.

Guan He came again to invite me. I said, “I’ve only learnt for a year or so so I’m not at the stage where I can show people my work.”

Guan He smiled, “Li Shan is in charge research, I’m in charge of writing on the blackboard and we hope you’ll be in charge of the drawing. It’s not hard to find people who can draw. Actually, Li Shan can draw but I think you will have more creative ideas. We need designs that will make people’s eyes sparkle. You can try it first and if you really don’t like it, you can quit.

I sighed inside, it was the same matter but everything that came from her mouth always made the listener infinitely comfortable. I couldn’t say anything to reject her thus, I accepted.

Too many years have gone past. I’ve pretty much forgotten most of the details on of the many blackboard newspapers but I still remember that Guan He and I were both perfectionists. Because of the difference between blue and light blue, Guan He wiped off the words on the blackboard that she took four five hours to write and started all over again. Because of an essay, I drew four five pictures and asked everyone to give feedback before I continuously edited it until I was satisfied.

Under the co-operation of two paranoid people, the blackboard newspaper from our class never even got second place, it was always first. Li Shan teased that together, Guan He and I were invincible.

Often, after the whole class had left, Guan He, Li Shan and I were still in the classroom working. Guan He and I would work until we were so absorbed in the work we forgot to eat. Li Shan would go and buy us bread and drinks.

When he bought the food, he would call us over to eat. Guan He and I sat on the desks and ate while appreciating the fruits of our labor. During this, it was Li Shan’s turn to work. He was responsible for proofreading and adding the last touches.

Guan He was very good at singing, she also liked to sing so she often sat on the desk, rocking her legs while singing. She was able to sing pretty much all the popular songs. She was able to sing whatever Li Shan chose whereas I enjoyed the sound of her beautiful singing while drinking my juice and watching Li Shan work. Occasionally, I would also sway my head and sing along with Guan he. However, I was just humming along to her, like a bass accompaniment.

Once, while we were happily singing, I turned my head and saw Zhang Jun standing at the corridor, watching us through the window. His gaze was very focused, even when I discovered him, he still didn’t look away. I was momentarily startled, thinking that he was watching me. But straight after, I understood, I was wrong, he was watching the person beside me, Guan He.

Guan He also saw him and waved her hands at him. Zhang Jun walked in and stood leaning against the wall with his arms folded, reading our blackboard newspaper.

Guan He was still singing. I jumped off the desk and drew the last picture together with Li Shan while trying my best to ignore Zhang Jun’s presence.

I don’t know why Zhang Jun didn’t leave the entire time but Li Shan and Guan He didn’t have any objections so naturally, I also couldn’t express any objections so he continued to watch our blackboard newspaper.

Perhaps it was because of the joyous sounds of Guan He’s singing and perhaps it was because of Zhang Jun’s gaze steadily watching the blackboard but I didn’t have a trace of envy. Rather, I enjoyed the feeling of happiness from being by his side and tried my best to draw the picture better. Occasionally, when I turned my head, I locked gazes with him. I would hurriedly rush to avoid his gaze. However, there wasn’t the sharp ferocity as was in the past.

We didn’t say one word but that day, it was the longest time we’ve been together since primary. It was also the most peaceful and quiet scene I have from my middle school memories.

So much that many years later, I tried very hard to depict the scene again.  The soft and warm light from sunset shone in to the big classroom. A beautiful girl sat on the desk happily singing, and girl and a boy was in front of the blackboard, sometimes standing and sometimes bending, drawing with care. A handsome boy was leaning against the way with his arms folded, watching them with focus. Unfortunately, no matter how I tried to draw it, I wasn’t able to redraw the scene from my memory.

Our new homeroom teacher was exceptionally friendly and exceptionally good to me. It was the first time I had met a teacher who was so friendly to me.

After class, she would specially call me to her classroom to give me reference books and used a pen to circle the key examples. Every time class finished, she would walk over to my desk and ask me how well I thought she taught to the point that when it was raining or windy, she would specifically remind me to wear more clothing.

However, she didn’t know that I deliberately had mental barriers towards teachers and I was already used to keeping a distance from teachers. In this world, apart from Teacher Gao, it was not possible for me to accept any other teacher getting close to me. If she was like Ceng Hong, I could at least be a normal student. But her friendliness and her bias made me scared. The friendlier she was, the colder I became. The more she wanted to get close to me, the more I wanted to escape from her.

I could feel that she was hurt. As a teacher, she probably had never met a student who didn’t ‘appreciate favors’ so much. She wanted to raise me high up so much but I desperately wanted to mix back into the crowd, hoping she would never mention me.

In front of my cold demeanor, her friendliness was defeated again and again. I returned her reference books back to her without opening them. Every time she tried to chat with me, I became uncommunicative. When she saw that I didn’t look so well, she worriedly asked if I was sick and when she wanted to come and touch my forehead, I would avoid her and coldly reply, “I’m not a child, I know if I’m sick or not.”

Thus, for the sake of wanting her to dislike me, I intentionally didn’t do maths homework and intentionally slept in her class.

Finally, she realized that I was a stone, not a beautiful jade and started to give up on me. She turned her friendliness to Guan He who didn’t disappoint. She gratefully tried to become a better student in return and Teacher Wu enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment for her efforts.

I started to be at ease and quietly went about doing my own things.

Frankly speaking, Teacher Wu was a very responsible homeroom teacher. She put all her efforts into our class. She came to school early and left very late. She was just very evident in being biased to good students but, which teacher doesn’t like good students?

Although she was more than enthusiastic in teaching maths, it lacked logic. After listening to a few of her lessons, I realize that it was better to just save time and read. However, what I read wasn’t the textbook but detective stories. It started when Guan He lent me her copy of ‘Sherlock Holmes’. I liked this kind of intellectual battle and fell in love with the genre. I started to read all kinds of suspense stories, Guan He helped cover for me and the teachers pretended not to notice.

Without realizing, Guan He and I started to chat. She told me her favorite novel and why she liked it. I told her my favorite novel and why I liked it. We discussed our views and understanding of humans and our knowledge of the world. The more I chatted with her, the more I ‘beheld a high mountain with awe’*. Among people the same age as me, I’ve never met a girl as mature and deep as her. Appearance wise, she looks like a normal sixteen year old teenage girl but her thoughts have perhaps already surpassed a twenty six year old. I always thought I matured early but my early maturity brought along rebelliousness and wickedness whereas hers’ brought tolerance, inclusiveness and wisdom.

She made me extremely confused. Worshiping her brought along even more pain. I feel like in this lifetime, I wouldn’t be able to surpass her no matter what I did. I pretty much didn’t have any goals in life, the only goal, hidden deep inside my heart, could only put one in utter despair!

The results from the midterm exam came out, Guan He was first in the class and I was number six. Teacher Wu was very satisfied, she felt that only this result list was normal. To be honest, I also felt that only this was normal.

Xiao Fei once again because Class(2)’s number one. She laughed and warned me to stop reading in leisure and put in more effort to not let her win feeling so unsatisfied.

I didn’t say anything. To be honest, it wasn’t that I didn’t try hard, I controlled the amount I read and tried hard. This result was a true reflection of the level that I was on now. My first in the class result last time was due to luck more.

I got similar results in the sciences but Guan He’s English surpassed me by too much. After entering third year, we’ve started to summarize all our subjects. Our exams weren’t just testing one term of knowledge but all that we’ve learnt in middle school. Because of my grudge towards Treasure Bowl, I did very poorly in English in my first and second year and now, I’m tasting the consequence of my decision.

Because of my poor English foundation, I couldn’t remember or understand it and had no interest in learning thus I became even worse at English and my results were even more poor. Of course I came even less interested in learning. I fell into a vicious and bad cycle.

I completely understood but I didn’t know how to correct it. I wanted to listen attentively and improve my English grades but the teacher says words I don’t recognize and with my muddled grammar, I can’t understand what she says so without knowing, my mind wanders off. When my mind wanders back again, an entire English lesson has ended and naturally, I don’t know how to do the homework either.

Wanting to improve my English grades became an impossible task. My foundations weren’t laid out well, just like a house without foundations, it pretty much can never be built.

Seeing Guan He easily get over ninety percent made me start to regret- why did I not learn English because of my hate for Treasure Bowl? I hated him and didn’t listen to his lessons. It felt good at the time but the person who suffered in the end was myself. It didn’t affect Treasure Bowl in the slightest, he continued to be an English teacher.

Because of the pressure from our midterm exams, the atmosphere surrounding third year became more solemn. However, Class(7) brought along some amusement to the solemness of our third year.

In the first week of school, Class(7) was divided into two. They had a group fight and two of the desks in the classroom were smashed. One student was beaten until his head was bleeding and was sent to the hospital’s emergency room. The principal personally came to lecture them and gave several people a disciplinary warning. However, these people have no intent whatsoever to go to high school so why would they care about warnings? The school probably started to regret putting a group of devils together.

Zhang Jun was very weak and incompetent as a class monitor. I heard that when the group fight occurred, he escaped to the fields in fear and started running, after running ten laps, he went back just in time to send the victim to hospital and avoid a fatal accident so the school didn’t pursue it. Actually, even if the school wanted to pursue it, they couldn’t. If they dismissed Zhang Jun, there was no one else willing to be the class monitor, they wouldn’t be able to enjoy the privileges that came with the role but rather, they had to worry about getting beaten if they weren’t careful.

Class(7) was in disorder everyday and something would happen every week. The good girls on our floor tried their best to avoid going in the direction of Class(7) because the guys in that class dared to openly take advantage of the girls, especially those with good grades. Quite a few girls broke down in tears when they were taken advantage of but they didn’t dare tell the teacher or else they wouldn’t even be able to walk home in ease.

Everyone could only avoid them.

One day during recess, Guan He went to give her Chinese homework to the teacher. When she came back, she helped Class(8)’s Chinese teacher pass their homework to Class(8)’s class representative. Nothing happened when she went but when she came back, a few of Class(7)’s devils who were standing in the corridor started to speak nonsense. Guan He lowered her head, pretending not to hear but a few of the guys blocked her path.

I was standing on the side of the corridor with my back to the wall and watching everything. I was very curious, would it be hard for Guan He to maintain her elegant demeanor under this kind of situation?

Guan He tried to walk around them a few times but the guys didn’t let her pass, instead, they laughed and asked what color underwear she was wearing. Guan He’s face became bright red but she forced herself not to cry.

Originally, I wanted to just watch and even secretly had expectations of Guan He making a fool of herself. However, I started becoming unable to bear seeing Guan He like this. Just as I was pondering whether or not I should rush forward and snatch Guan He out, a few of the guys in our class who had crushes on Guan He couldn’t stand it anymore and started walking over. Even the guys in Class(5) and (6) walked over.

I smiled bitterly and shook my head, it turns out that this was the result, her demeanor won’t be broken.

The group of devils in Class(7) certainly weren’t afraid of this bunch of ‘nerds’, even today, a group fight between good students and bad students is entertaining. Too bad there aren’t any melon seeds to eat. [Too bad there isn’t any popcorn.]

I never thought that just as I was finding a good spot to watch the group fight, Zhang Jun walked down the stairs. When he saw Guan He surrounded by the guys in his class, he immediately understood. He rushed forward and brought Guan He out of the guys’ circle. Those guys probably didn’t like Zhang Jun from early on and now, they had a reason to beat him up thus they immediately prepared to fight.

But, while Zhang Jun was protecting Guan He, the class monitor of Class(6), Chen Yuan Zhe, hurriedly rushed out of the classroom and stood in the middle of Class(6) and (7), stopping the guys who wanted to go over. After he persuaded this side, he went over and stood with Zhang Jun.

The president of the student council definitely wasn’t a light weight. Behind him, many guys spontaneously stood together, clearly showing everyone that they were backing Chen Yuan Zhe up.

I quietly walked a few steps forward and silently stood in a corner, I had no intention of participating in a group fight but if someone hit Chen Yuan Zhe, I would keep his face firmly in mind then ask Wu Zei’s little bros to let him rest in hospital for a few days. As for Zhang Jun however, I wasn’t worried. He started carrying ‘weapons’ in Year 4 and Year 6 students walked the other way when they saw him. These years, he’s been mixing around with Little Six so if he can’t even deal with these fake gangsters, what right did he have to let others call him ‘Xiao Jun brother’?

The atmosphere was explosive but Chen Yuan Zhe didn’t seem to feel it, he smiled and actually went and clasped them around the shoulders, “We’re all classmates. It’s our last year, why make things so unhappy? In the future, you’ll definitely become respected gang bosses, it would be too embarrassing if people found out a group of you were bullying one girl.”

I don’t know if those guys were impressed by the group of people behind Chen Yuan Zhe that was growing larger and larger in number or if they were impressed by Chen Yuan Zhe’s words but the atmosphere eased down. An impending group fight actually turned into a good chat between Chen Yuan Zhe and a few people to make friends.

I was very surprised, not only because of Chen Yuan Zhe’s popularity but his words. I always thought Chen Yuan Zhe was only a kind and capable good student but evidently, he wasn’t a good student in the traditional sense.

Zhang Jun didn’t care at all about the things happening around him and quietly comforted Guan He. Guan He had always been reserved with her emotions and had long returned to normal. At least, she looked like she was back to normal on the outside. She smiled at Zhang Jun, “Thanks.”

Zhang Jun smiled back, “We’re old classmates now, you don’t need to be so polite right?”

I turned and left. I started hating the fact that I was in Class(4). I’d rather go to Class(1) or (3), at least I wouldn’t use the same corridor as them.

After a while, Guan He returned. Quite a few girls surrounded her, chattering around, comforting her. A girl was very nosy and winked at Guan He, “Zhang Jun never meddles in things, he’s not the same to you!”

A girl who was slouched over my desk laughed, “I feel like Zhang Jun didn’t do much. He seems to be afraid of helping others. I heard that during self study, when he tells everyone to quieten down and everyone shouts ‘none of your business’ at him, he doesn’t even dare to continue speaking. Chen Yuan Zhe is the actual person who saved Guan He.”

Guan He smiled but didn’t speak. She always upheld her principles and never discussed anyone’s rights or wrongs, including her own.

Her being like this made me feel like Zhang Jun shouldn’t have bothered. I took out my books and said to the group of girls, “I want to study now. Go and chat somewhere else.”

The girls who were discussing heatedly glared at me with discontent then went back to their own seats. Guan He let out a sigh of relief, it looks like she had been enduring for a long time.

For the next two days, I didn’t talk to Guan He because I thought she was very annoying, pretentious and fake, she only knew how to pretend to be a weak and pretty lady, gaining the compassion and love from guys.