The New Semester

Right now, students were coming and going around them. They didn't dare stop in case they got caught in the crossfire, but they couldn't resist wanting to see what was happening.

Some students who'd guessed their way through test questions automatically ran Yu Fan's words through their heads for a reading comprehension pass. The meaning they derived was roughly: 'Keep looking and see if I can tear your eyeballs out.'

The two girls caught in the middle exchanged a look and immediately decided to bolt.

But before they could move, the guy behind them did.

He raised his hand and hooked his thumb around his backpack strap. Under the stunned and fearful gazes of everyone, he walked toward Yu Fan with a completely calm expression.

Yu Fan stared at him expressionlessly. When the guy approached, he slowly stood up—

'School's over. Why aren't you all going home? What are you all hanging around for?!'

A powerful voice interrupted their encounter.

Yu Fan's eyelid twitched. He tilted his head to glance behind the guy, and before seeing the person, he caught sight of a shiny bald head.

'...' The tension he had built up instantly dissipated, and he lazily sat back down.

The person clearly recognized the voice and stopped walking.

A slightly short and stout middle-aged man walked toward the school gate, carrying a dark blue briefcase. He glared at the students watching the commotion, and in an instant, everyone scattered.

The person was their school's guidance counselor. When he saw who had caused the disturbance, his eyebrows shot up: 'Yu Fan? It's you again! School doesn't start until tomorrow. What are you doing here?'

Yu Fan first glanced back at the Bubble Tea Shop, then looked at him: 'Is this shop part of the school?'

'...' The guidance counselor was speechless for a couple of seconds. After seeing his face clearly, he glared again. 'And what's going on with your face? Did you get into another fight?'

'Fell down.'

'Don't try to fool me. Where exactly could you fall and get bruised like this?'

Yu Fan considered for a moment: 'Not far. Want me to take you there to see?'

The guidance counselor took a deep breath.

After such a long holiday and just having enjoyed the New Year, he had almost forgotten the feeling of Yu Fan making his chest hurt with anger.

'You wait. Tomorrow when school starts, I'll find your homeroom teacher.'

He pointed at Yu Fan and delivered his warning, then turned to look at the other student standing beside him.

For a moment, Yu Fan thought he was watching a Sichuan opera face-changing performance.

'Jing Shen, heading home?' The guidance counselor smiled warmly.

Yu Fan saw that the guy who looked so annoying finally moved his gaze away from his face, lowering his eyes and responding flatly: 'Mm.'

The guidance counselor patted his shoulder: 'Wait a bit. I have something to talk to you about. Come back to school with me first.'

After saying this, the guidance counselor looked over again, his eyebrows furrowing: 'And you! Go home if you have nothing to do. Don't wander around looking like a troublemaker!'

Yu Fan raised his hand and waved it perfunctorily, waving goodbye to the guidance counselor.

The surrounding students: '...'

Do you really think there's anything about him that doesn't look like a troublemaker?

Watching the guidance counselor leave, Yu Fan was about to turn his head back when the person who had come back to school with the director suddenly looked back.

Yu Fan raised an eyebrow. Just as he was about to lower his hand, he raised it again and gave him a big, carefree international hand gesture.

When Wang Luan'an returned, that's exactly what he saw.

Wang Luan'an panted as he put the box on the table, urgently saying: 'Why did Fat Hu come out? He wasn't coming to catch you, right? What were you talking about?'

The guidance counselor's name was Hu Pang, and Wang Luan'an privately called him Fat Hu.

'We said hi,' Yu Fan glanced at him. 'Why are you running? Didn't pay the bill?'

Wang Luan'an breathed a sigh of relief and sat down next to him: 'I was on the other side of the street and I felt like you were about to fight someone, so I had to run faster. Hey, who just provoked you? There was a tree blocking my view, I didn't see clearly...'

As he spoke, Wang Luan'an looked toward the school gate, catching only a fleeting figure.

He froze, blurting out: 'Chen Jingshen?'

Yu Fan: 'You know him?'

'He's that guy from Class One...' Wang Luan'an paused. 'You don't know him?'

Receiving Yu Fan's look that seemed to be calling him an idiot, Wang Luan'an suddenly remembered that his bro had been in the same class for three semesters but probably hadn't even memorized his classmates' names.

But—

'Do you still remember reading your self-criticism six times in front of the whole school last semester?'

Yu Fan was silent for a moment: 'No.'

'Then think harder,' Wang Luan'an said. 'Every time you finished reading your self-criticism and came down, he went up on stage to receive an award and speak.'

...

Where did so many awards come from?

'And in the grade ranking list, his name is always at the top... Oh, you wouldn't know that, you don't look at that stuff anyway.'

Oh, a top student.

Yu Fan understood. No wonder he looked so annoying.

Wang Luan'an was so hungry his chest was hitting his back. He buried his head and ate a few bites of barbecue before remembering to ask: 'What did Chen Jingshen do to provoke you?'

'Nothing.' Yu Fan lowered his head to play with his Mobile Phone. 'Can you eat quietly?'

'It's too spicy. I need to open my mouth to cool down.'

Wang Luan'an glanced at the person next to him, then was startled. He reached out and grabbed his sleeve: 'Fuck, what's wrong with your hand? How did you get cut? I didn't see this wound earlier!'

Yu Fan didn't look up: 'Accidental cut.'

Wang Luan'an looked at him like he was some kind of immortal, shocked: 'How can you cut yourself by accident? It's such a long cut... Doesn't it hurt?'

'Come here, let me blow on it for you.' Wang Luan'an said, pretending to blow two breaths on the back of his hand.

Yu Fan pushed his approaching head away: '... Don't be gross.'

He really didn't feel any pain. Although the wound was long, it was shallow. Maybe because he hadn't fully let loose during the fight earlier, when the blade cut through his flesh he even had a tiny, hidden thrill.

Pretty weird. Yu Fan stared at the back of his hand for a few seconds. When he came back to his senses and looked at his phone again, the super long Snake Game he'd been controlling had hit the edge of the phone, game over.

He lost interest and closed it, standing up: 'I'm going home.'

'So early?' Wang Luan'an said. 'There's no one at your house anyway, it'll be so boring. Want to come to my place? I just bought some new game cartridges.'

'No.' Yu Fan flatly refused. He'd just finished fighting someone, he was covered in dirt, and there was still a faint smell of blood in his nose. He lightly wiped his nose and said, 'I'm leaving.'

Nancheng City's February weather was changeable. It had been sunny in the afternoon, but now it was drizzling.

Yu Fan put on his hoodie hood, hands in his pockets, turning left and right, finally walking into an old street.

A rundown shop, low-rise buildings, a second-hand phone store playing some unlucky song's remix version.

Yu Fan turned into the Rundown Neighborhood by the street and saw a small truck parked at the building entrance. Several moving workers were carrying furniture upstairs, and two middle-aged women were standing by the truck chatting.

Yu Fan glanced at the blocked building entrance and simply stepped aside, planning to wait until those people finished moving.

The two people by the truck hadn't noticed someone had appeared behind them and were still chatting enthusiastically.

'If you need anything in the future, just come upstairs and find me. Our environment is a bit rough, but there's a strong sense of community. Neighbors live close to each other, and everyone helps with small matters.'

'Thank you, sister. I made some dumplings. After I finish cleaning the place, I'll go door to door to give them to everyone.'

'What are you so polite for... Oh right, don't go to room 201.'

'Huh? What's the story?'

'Nothing much,' the person hesitated, then lowered their voice. 'That unit has a father and son living there. Neither of them is any good! The man's wife ran away. He just drinks and gambles, comes back once every three or five days. The kid is also a troublemaker who doesn't study - a complete social menace! A few years ago, those father and son fought at home every day. The noise was so scary I didn't dare go out the whole day...'

'Mom!' a child's voice came from the old neighborhood's rusty iron gate.

A little girl wrapped up like a ball in clothes ran over hopping with a lollipop she had just bought. Maybe because her gear was too heavy, as she hopped she ended up walking with both feet going in the same direction. After a few steps, she tripped over her own feet and her small body fell straight to the ground—

Yu Fan quickly bent down, his index finger hooking onto the little hat at the back of her padded jacket.

The little girl was firmly held up. Her body suspended in mid-air, she still tightly held onto the candy in her hand, her expression blank and cute.

The woman's heart nearly jumped out. She quickly stepped forward to check the situation. She squatted down and hugged her daughter into her arms. After confirming there was nothing wrong, she looked up gratefully: 'Thank you...'

The person had already turned and gone upstairs. She only saw a tall, thin back view.

The social menace returned home, threw the bread he bought along the way aside, went into the bathroom for a shower.

When he came out, the phone on the table was buzzing nonstop. No one was home, so Yu Fan went to the table and picked up his phone while drying his hair.

【Wang Luan'an: Want to copy winter holiday homework? I'll send you a copy?】

【Wang Luan'an: You should still write a few words to get by, otherwise tomorrow you'll have to stand at the blackboard display all day. Why bother?】

【Wang Luan'an: Where are you?】

【Wang Luan'an: Fuck, I just saw a message in the school group. It says the education bureau is cracking down hard. Our school's Elite Class isn't allowed to run anymore and is going to dissolve. Those top students are going to be distributed to our regular classes.】

【Wang Luan'an: Wonder if we'll get new classmates in our class.】

【Wang Luan'an: Oh yeah, there's an opening ceremony at 8 tomorrow morning. We need to gather in the Classroom at 7:40. Don't be late.】

【Wang Luan'an: ???】

Yu Fan took a bite of bread and slowly typed.

【-: Send it to me.】

【Wang Luan'an: What?】

【Wang Luan'an: You finally replied. I thought you got stopped by someone again.】

【-: Homework.】

The other side quickly sent over a dozen documents.

【-: This many?】

【Wang Luan'an: Just copy the homework for Fangqin's subject. The other teachers don't care about you anyway.】

【Wang Luan'an: Wait, did you see what I said earlier? New classmates coming to class!】

Yu Fan rummaged through everywhere and finally found a pen that worked.

【-: Saw it. Not interested.】

-

The next day at 8 o'clock, Yu Fan stood in front of the closed school gate, listening to the athletic march playing inside.

He took out his phone and looked.

【Wang Luan'an: Bro, the whole school is standing in the School Playground, the principal is already there. Where are you?】

【-: Overslept.】

【Wang Luan'an: What do we do? The school gate is closed now. It wouldn't be good to climb the wall during the flag-raising ceremony, right?】

Going in now is basically the same as directly skipping the flag-raising.

Yu Fan thought about it without hesitating and sent back 'Call me when the flag-raising is done.'

He put his phone in his pocket, planning to find somewhere to kill time until everyone dispersed. When he looked up, he met eyes with someone on the other side of the school gate.

Hu Pang had his hands behind his back, asking kindly, 'Where are you going?'

What unlucky day is this?

Yu Fan was silent for two seconds: 'Flag-raising.'

Hu Pang nodded and opened the small door on the right side of the iron gate: 'Come in.'

...

Hu Pang seemed afraid he would run away, following him all the way from the back of the crowd to the Grade Two line.

All the teachers and students were already lined up in the School Playground. Students in the back couldn't help but take an extra look when they saw him pass.

Yu Fan ignored these gazes and walked ahead of Hu Pang in a carefree manner.

'Making a sour face early in the morning,' Hu Pang said. 'What, did I interrupt your skipping school?'

'No,' Yu Fan was too sleepy to show any expression. 'I'll smile more during the flag-raising.'

...

Hu Pang couldn't be bothered to talk more with him, pointing at the line a few steps away: 'Your class is here, go stand properly! I'll report your tardiness to your homeroom teacher later.'

'Remember to line up by height. Find your own spot. The school Photography Club will be taking pictures later!'

Hu Pang tossed out his words and left. Yu Fan walked to the end of the line he had pointed to and stood still, lowering his head to yawn.

The family that just moved into the building upstairs made furniture-moving noises that continued until 3 am.

He didn't sleep well in that house, waking up at the slightest sound, forced to stay up all night.

He was about to try sleeping standing up when he heard a sharp 'clang' from the speaker on the Presidium Platform - it was the microphone falling.

This sound made Yu Fan's ears hurt. He irritably lifted his head to see which school leader couldn't even hold a microphone—

He met a back of a head.

At this moment, Yu Fan was a bit confused.

Their school had a tradition of lining up by height. Yu Fan was the tallest in their class, so he was always at the end of the line, with Wang Luan'an in front of him.

Yu Fan examined the back of the person in front of him.

Broad shoulders, cleanly cut hair, the white of his school uniform jacket shining bright, a scent of laundry soap.

In comparison, Wang Luan'an's yellowed, old school uniform jacket with 'Nancheng No.7 Middle School I'm the craziest' written on the back looked like it was fished out of a trash can.

So, who was this?

The next moment, the person seemed to hear his question and turned around.

Because he was so sleepy, Yu Fan's reactions were slow. He stared at those emotionless eyes for a long time before realizing— he'd seen this annoying face before.

It was that guy who wanted to fight him yesterday.

What was his name... Chen something deep?

Yu Fan hadn't figured it out yet when the other person moved first.

He saw Chen something deep suddenly step aside, making room for him.

Yu Fan originally wanted to confirm if he was standing in the wrong line. Seeing this, he put one hand in his pocket and said coldly, 'Looking for trouble?'

'Short ones stand in front.'

One sentence from the other person directly left Yu Fan speechless.