Chapter 68

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Finding himself with a bit of extra time, Feng Fei decided to go to the exam room in advance. The rooms were arranged according to the grade rankings, and he was assigned the second exam room — it was the first time he’d been so highly ranked.

The students sitting in the next room were surprised to see Feng Fei and couldn’t help themselves from taking a few more glances. One of them knew Feng Fei and smiled maliciously when he saw him. u8nDU6

“Turns out he managed to muddle himself all the way up to this room this year, huh.”

Feng Fei smiled, but before he could make a retort, he caught Hai Xiu from the corner of his eye, holding a transparent stationery bag and poking his head into his examination room.

“What’s the matter?” Feng Fei asked, “Did you forget to bring something?”

Hai Xiu was assigned to the first examination room. Feng Fei had already sent him off to his own exam room just now, so he shouldn’t have come back out. zDvAht

Hai Xiu finally saw Feng Fei and his eyes lit up. He saw that the proctor hadn’t arrived yet, and walked in with confidence. Feng Fei was confused. “What’s wrong?”

“I’ll give you this….” Hai Xiu exchanged his own 2B pencil with Feng Fei’s, and whispered superstitiously and confidently. “My multiple choice sections always gets full marks. You can use my pencil to answer the questions, that way you’ll definitely get all the questions right…don’t be too stressed, you definitely won’t make a mistake this time.”

Feng Fei smiled and agreed.

“Okay.” 8KdZ50

Hai Xiu thought about it, and then said,

“Make sure you bubble in your student ID correctly, otherwise you won’t get any points… When drawing a force diagram, remember to add the force of gravity, you always forget… Also, write the oxidation reactions on the top of the page so you can remember it. Pay attention to the given when choosing what equation to use, and check if the reaction has sufficient oxygen or not. There are two types, don’t forget, and there are…”

Feng Fei listened quietly with a smile in his eyes.

Hai Xiu scratched his head and quickly stated all the common mistakes that he could think of. He was clearly organized and spoke fast. The student next to Feng Fei who was eavesdropping on their conversation was taken aback for a moment. Hai Xiu finished speaking in one breath and thought hard whether he had missed anything.  DgP1qJ

Unable to think of anything else, he exhorted, 

“Do the questions in order. Don’t just go up and waste time on the last question. If you can do the last question, just do it. If you can’t do it, just list the formulas that you can think of. Try to at least solve the first couple of steps, but don’t bet time on this, there is still….”

The proctor and deputy proctors for the second examination room had already arrived with the test papers. Seeing Hai Xiu standing next to Feng Fei, they didn’t quite understand what was going on. Hai Xiu rushed to give his last remaining tips, “The biology section is okay, just pay attention to the design. During the experimental procedures, you can only have one independent variable, and the rest must be dependent variables or controls. Did you get it all? I need to go now!”

Holding his bag, Hai Xiu slinked away from the classroom under the eyes of the two proctors. The student who knew Feng Fei was amazed.  oXWZLB

“That person, he couldn’t be…”

“Ah? You guessed correctly, it’s the number one student in our grade.” Feng Fei tried to be modest. “With the top student in our grade tutoring me all day, it’d be hard for my grades not to improve.”

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The student looked at Feng Fei with hostility on his face, arranged his stationery angrily, and ignored him.

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Hai Xiu would never ask Feng Fei how he did before the exam was completely over, and this time was no exception. However, this time, Feng Fei spoke up unprompted. 4yR6X7

“I think I did okay. Although I didn’t have enough time to calculate the final answer of the last free response question—which I guess is a mistake. It shouldn’t make too much of a difference…it’s just a single point deducted for a calculation error.” Feng Fei smiled. “This time the results shouldn’t be too bad.”

Hai Xiu was even happier than Feng Fei when he heard this news, and excitedly discussed the last question with him for a while, not forgetting to ask, 

“Do your best on the English portion of the exam when you get back…make sure your handwriting is neat and legible.”

Feng Fei repeatedly nodded his head, and questioned,  hHKCTd

“On the day off after the exam, will you go back to your house?”

Hai Xiu nodded.

“My mother happens to have a day off that day.”

“Your mother is at home?” Feng Fei laughed. “That’s rare…oh, forget it then.” ephHVw

Hai Xiu blinked. 

“What’s the matter?”

Feng Fei shook his head and explained.

“It turns out that a few old friends from junior high have been asking me to go to a get-together. I’ve been studying all day and haven’t had the time, so I kept on refusing. Since there’s a chance this evening, they invited me to go out and eat with them, and I originally wanted to bring you along and meet some new people.” qyW8XV

Hai Xiu apologized. 

“I promised my mother I would go home today….”

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“It’s okay, there’ll always be more opportunities in the future.” Feng Fei had actually wanted to let Hai Xiu see more people and talk to some strangers. In the past six months, Hai Xiu’s condition had been getting better every day, which made Feng Fei feel at ease. 

Hai Xiu ate the food that Feng Fei put in his bowl, and asked,  qGic28

“Where are you going to go?”

“We haven’t decided yet…but we’ll probably just eat together and then go to a KTV for a while.” Feng Fei wasn’t very interested in the event. Seeing that Hai Xiu wouldn’t go, he was even less enthusiastic. “Don’t worry, we won’t stay overnight”.

Hai Xiu instantly became vigilant: “You guys party…overnight?”

Feng Fei laughed. “Didn’t I say that I wouldn’t?” LH82lo

Hai Xiu said uneasily, “Then…what time will you go home?”

Feng Fei thought about it. Those people specially invited him, so leaving too early wouldn’t be appropriate.

“I will try my best to get home before twelve o’clock.”

Hai Xiu was a little bit dissatisfied, but was too embarrassed to voice it out, and asked some more. “Then your friends…are all guys, right?” BXeKAu

“No.” Feng Fei was thinking about the last exam he’d be taking in the afternoon, and didn’t put too much thought into his answer, saying casually, “There were male and female students in junior high school, and some of the guys will probably bring their girlfriends.”

The red warning light in Hai Xiu’s heart started to flare. The game the two had played in the KTV last time flashed in front of his eyes. Hai Xiu frowned.

“Do you also count 7? Play poker?” (TN – count 7 is a party game)

Feng Fei was taken aback, then smiled. Rd4dJr

“What are you imagining? How could I ever play those kinds of games? What, are you jealous?”

Hai Xiu truthfully nodded his head. 

“A little bit….”

Feng Fei smiled.  Wq4eEF

“Why don’t you follow me if you’re so worried?”

“I can’t go….” Hai Xiu didn’t want to let his mother down, and begged in a low voice, “Don’t play those kinds of games with others.”

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“I know.” Feng Fei squeezed Hai Xiu’s hand. “Don’t worry about me. Except for you, I doubt I’d fall for anyone else.”

Hai Xiu thought about it and thought that this was true, but he was still a little jealous. He didn’t want Feng Fei to think that he was too nosy though, so he nodded and said,  Dtf 7q

“Okay…make sure you go home early.”

Feng Fei agreed.

English was the last portion of the exam that afternoon—a relatively easy subject. Feng Fei quickly finished the test without a hitch. After handing in the paper, he then went to Hai Xiu’s examination room to find him. After Hai Xiu packed his things, he sent the person out of the school gates and all the way to the street.

Feng Fei called a taxi for Hai Xiu and rubbed his head.  XrS4tv

“Make sure to take good care of our mother for me.”

Hai Xiu nodded repeatedly.

After sending off Hai Xiu, Feng Fei went home and put down his schoolbag, changed his clothes and went to see his friends.

In the third year of high school, there were limited opportunities to meet with friends, and now that they finally had time, the people who organized the party invited a multitude of people to come. After eating, they ordered an overnight KTV private room on the top floor. Feng Fei felt like he had a headache. He promised before that he would go back at twelve o’clock, but now it seemed a little unlikely. 6d2lKQ

After going to the room, everyone sang, danced, bragged, and chatted about the college entrance examination and their future plans. A girl who liked Feng Fei before sat next to Feng Fei and asked, 

“I heard you have a girlfriend?”

Feng Fei nodded. 

“Basically.” R6xutI

The girl curled her lips and said, “What does ‘basically’ mean? Why not bring her?”

“They’re shy, and don’t want to play with others too much.” Feng Fei said, “And he has something to do at home today, so he can’t go out.” (TN – he and she are pronounced the same in Chinese, so the girls assume Feng Fei is saying ‘she’)

A few girls came over after hearing the words and smiled. 

“Do you really have a girlfriend, or are you just pretending? Are there photos? Show us!” RMzut6

Feng Fei smiled. 

“No pictures.”

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Because of this, nobody believed that Feng Fei had a girlfriend. The girl who used to like Feng Fei already had a boyfriend, and didn’t harbor any bad thoughts about Feng Fei, but she still couldn’t help asking, “How long have you known each other?”

“One year.” Feng Fei’s lips curved upwards. n zv3R

“Only a year?” In the past, the girl had really tried her best to pursue Feng Fei, and she felt a little dissatisfied at how short they’d known each other. “Is she really beautiful? What’s so good about her?”

Feng Fei thought about it, and said sincerely, “There’s nothing bad about him.”

The girl snorted. 

“I don’t believe it.” IDbMTX

Just when Feng Fei was about to explain, his phone rang. He lowered his head and glanced at it, then answered the call. But instead of holding it to his ear, he held it in his hand, and continued to talk to the girl. 

“It’s true, there really is nothing bad. In my eyes, I think they’re beautiful. You should know that my temper is actually not very good, but I really can’t bring myself to ever get truly mad at him. There’s nothing about him that makes me feel uncomfortable, and he’s always kind to me. I’d dig out my heart and lungs for him. In fact, didn’t you just say that I changed a lot this year? It’s actually all because of him.”

The girl was stunned, and smiled. “Okay, I understand! My boyfriend and I are also like that…who are you calling anyways? Are you going to answer it or not?”

“It’s my future wife, come to check on me.” Feng Fei gestured to everyone, “Shhh….” faQXrj

Nobody knew what was going on, but quieted down regardless. The boy who was singing also hurriedly cut the song and turned the volume down to the lowest. Feng Fei said to the phone, “Baby?”

There was a roar from the crowd. On the other end of the phone, Hai Xiu thought about what Feng Fei had just said. His cheeks were bright red, and he felt so ashamed he was about to stuff himself into the quilt and never come out ever again.

Feng Fei smiled and said, “Did you hear? They’re all laughing at me…are you sleeping? Go to bed early, I’ll go home soon.” Feng Fei coaxed as he got up and walked to the door of the room, “I know I know, I won’t drink too much and I’ll go to bed early, and call you tomorrow morning….”

Feng Fei shut the door and left the box, and went to the corridor to talk to Hai Xiu on the phone. In the room, everyone laughed warmly and continued to party. Jt zfC\n