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T/N: Yup, here’s the weirdly numbered part 2 of Chapter 23 lol. Hope you guys enjoyed the long part 1, it took me like 5 hours to finish translating that 6K words
 Just one chapter today, we’ll be back to normal programming tomorrow!
“Are you bloody done talking!” The gangster was out of patience, twirling the wooden baseball bat as he walked towards Yi Ran menacingly.
Song Yu Meng couldn’t see what was going on, but she heard the bat whoosh through the air and a swoosh of air that seemed quite forceful. She clasped her hands together, palms all sweaty, praying in her heart: Crazy Yi better not get injured!
Yi Ran definitely took part in a lot of fights before. She might not have been able to win if it was a group, but just one hooligan didn’t pose much of a problem to her.
Yi Ran dodged the bat and landed a punch square on the guy’s face. Yi Ran was strong and she used all her strength in that punch, resulting in the gangster immediately falling to the floor.
She didn’t do anything else, merely raising her fists and moving closer as the guy struggled to his feet. He thought Yi Ran was going to punch him again and he certainly didn’t want to receive a second punch, so he turned and fled, leaving behind his baseball bat.
Yi Ran didn’t give chase either.
“Hey!”
Hearing the familiar voice, Song Yu Meng turned around and caught the small object that was tossed her way.
“I’m treating you to a lollipop.”
Looking at the orange-flavoured lollipop in her hand, she was reminded of what happened earlier. Yi Ran had given out sweets but left out her share, and she immediately felt bitter again.
“What do you mean by giving it to me now? Why didn’t you do it then? Also, don’t you know this lady hates sweet stuff?”
“Why should I know? Are we very close?” Yi Ran slung her bag over her shoulder and interlaced her fingers behind her head, walking slowly without even glancing back to Song Yu Meng. She said half-jokingly: “If you don’t like it, you can throw it away. Besides, you don’t care for it anyway, right?”
The last sentence sent Song Yu Meng into anxiety again, she knew Yi Ran was definitely still mad at her or she wouldn’t say such things.
“Petty.” She was quietly complaining about Yi Ran, but she followed behind, clutching the lollipop tightly.
She was just speaking in anger, how could she really throw it away? She blamed Yi Ran too, couldn’t she realise she was just being a bit spoiled?
Yi Ran walked with her hands behind her head, but she secretly turned slightly to see if Song Yu Meng was following.
Seeing her following closely behind with her cheeks puffed up in anger, holding the lollipop, Yi Ran smiled and continued walking silently.
This Scaredy Cat said she didn’t want it, but she actually didn’t throw it away!
Ahead, there was a traffic light that took a minute to change colours and Yi Ran came to a stop. Song Yu Meng also stopped a distance away, her left hand holding her bag strap and her right wrapped around the lollipop. She was biting her lip and looking at Yi Ran, as if thinking about something.
With 20 seconds left and Song Yu Meng still yet to walk to her side, Yi Ran got a bit impatient and turned around: “You’re still not coming here?”
Song Yu Meng immediately jogged over, her heart pounding. She was nervous, initially thinking Yi Ran would say something else, but she just turned away and continued staring at the traffic light.
Waiting for the green man, but also waiting for something else.
“About what happened this morning, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have said that.” Song Yu Meng turned away, her hair falling around her face to cover up her blushing cheeks. After a while, she stammered: “Can you

 not be angry anymore?”
The green man came on and Yi Ran smiled before walking along with the crowd.
Song Yu Meng felt even more troubled. Was Yi Ran still upset? But she had already apologised, was it that serious?
“Petty.” Song Yu Meng scolded her again, but followed her closely.
“Why are you so unforgiving, didn’t I apologise already

” Yi Ran suddenly turned towards her and stopped in her tracks. Song Yu Meng couldn’t stop in time and bumped into Yi Ran, stepping on the edge of the ledge of the sidewalk.
The green man had turned red as cars started whizzing by. It was the peak commuting period, so cars were almost brushing by Song Yu Meng as she stood there in a daze.
Yi Ran frowned and pulled her onto the safety of the sidewalk, annoyed: “There are cars behind, don’t you know you should move?”
Song Yu Meng pulled her hand away and asked seriously: “Are you still angry?”
“Not anymore.” Yi Ran tried to keep her face as neutral as possible. The truth was, since the time Song Yu Meng held the lollipop and followed her, her anger had already dissipated.
“But what sort of apology is that? You can’t even say those two words?” Yi Ran raised an eyebrow.
Song Yu Meng lowered her head to stare at her feet, her hair falling like a curtain to hide her face. Yi Ran waited patiently.
“Thank you

”
It was so soft Yi Ran was wondering if it was a figment of her imagination.
“Thanking me?” She pressed on. “What’s there to thank?”
Song Yu Meng finally raised her head and met Yi Ran’s gaze. “Thanks for pulling me back just now, and for protecting me.” She looked away again, playing with her fingers, a blush spreading across her cheeks.
Yi Ran chuckled: “It was convenient for me, no need to thank.” She bent her waist slightly to look at Song Yu Meng’s face and asked: “It’s just thanking someone, why’s your face red? Shy?”
“Who’s shy?!” Song Yu Meng waved her fist in the air and shouted, all the passersby looking at her strangely.
Yi Ran smiled at her then continued walking with her hands behind her head, the smile never leaving her face.
Song Yu Meng didn’t follow her either, she knew Yi Ran wasn’t angry at her anymore.



In the blink of an eye, the school term was already halfway over, and it was time for the mid-term exam.
“This time, the mid-term exam is important, all of you need to take it seriously.” Tang Xiang Ping pushed her glasses up before continuing. “No more answering questions with nonsense, I still remember the person who wrote rubbish for the last geography exam

” She didn’t name and shame the person, but her eyes flashed a warning at Yi Ran.
After class, Song Yu Meng went over to mock Yi Ran.
“She’s talking about you, telling you not to write rubbish.” She snickered while teasing Yi Ran.
Ever since that incident, Song Yu Meng loved to pick on Yi Ran and she would never pass up on a chance to laugh at her. Yi Ran was the same, always trying to prank Song Yu Meng.
Yi Ran smirked and said: “You’re one to talk. Didn’t you also draw nonsense on your maths paper? You’re just lucky the teacher who marked your paper didn’t tell Tang Seng, or else you would be getting scolded too.”
Song Yu Meng said it as if it was expected: “Hmph, that just goes to show how lucky this lady is!”
Yi Ran said good-naturedly: “How about this? Let’s take the exam seriously this time and see who can score better.”
“This lady is too lazy to compete with you, what a waste of time.”
Yi Ran looked her up and down then said slyly: “Are you just scared to compete because you’re afraid of getting embarrassed when I score better than you?”
“Nonsense! Clearly, I’m the one who’s not interested in competing with you!” Song Yu Meng’s face flushed, but she still retorted in an attempt to hide the truth.
“Alright alright, forget it then.” Yi Ran folded her arms and bent over slightly to get closer to Song Yu Meng. “But there’s no way you’re escaping from the fact that you’re going to rank last for maths.”
When Yi Ran had drawn closer, Song Yu Meng had taken a step back to maintain the distance between them and her face reddened, but who knew if it was from anger or something else.
“You’ll be the last-ranked!”
Song Yu Meng stormed back to her seat. She hadn’t left for long before Xu Yuan came over and spoke to Yi Ran since she was fetching some water. “Are you prepared? Do you think you’ll do well this exam?”
“How prepared can I be? It’s all the same.” Yi Ran stopped writing on the paper and held her hands behind her head, looking as if she didn’t have a worry in the world. “I’m already prepared to rank in the bottom again. I really envy you studious kids, you can get first place just by moving your pen.”
Xu Yuan smiled gently and said: “If you’re willing to spend time studying, you could get first too. If you don’t know anything, come ask me.”
“Oh, that’s perfect. I’m actually stuck at this question right here.” Yi Ran pointed at one of the questions on the geography paper on her table.
“This question

” Xu Yuan looked at it for a few seconds while thinking of how to explain it, but the bell rang. “I’ll come and explain it to you after this period ends.”
Yi Ran nodded her head. She was only asking since it was convenient anyway, she didn’t really care if she heard the explanation or not.
Since the teacher hadn’t arrived even after the bell rang, Yi Ran took out a lollipop. While checking the rear door for spying teachers, she noticed Song Yu Meng was actually staring at her with an annoyed look.
Odd.
Yi Ran felt a chill run down her spine, wondering what she did to irritate Song Yu Meng, but aside from speaking to Xu Yuan, she couldn’t think of anything else.
It can’t be that even that was enough to annoy her?
But on second thought, Song Yu Meng hated Xu Yuan the most, and she always asked Yi Ran to ignore Xu Yuan.
But


So what if she spoke to Xu Yuan? Why did she have to be so obedient to Song Yu Meng? If she asked Song Yu Meng to ignore Liu Luo Yang, would she do it?
Yi Ran sucked on her lollipop while staring at Song Yu Meng with an equally annoyed look.
After staring at each other for a few seconds, Song Yu Meng looked away first, with a bit of an upset expression.
Yi Ran figured that if nothing went wrong, she would definitely come over to find Yi Ran after the period.
As expected, Song Yu Meng walked over after the lesson ended with an unpleasant expression.
“Hey, what did that woman say to you? Did she tell you to ask her if there are questions you’re unclear about?”
Song Yu Meng’s tone wasn’t pleasant at all, but Yi Ran wanted to laugh. The more unhappy Song Yu Meng was, the more Yi Ran wanted to laugh.
“How did you know? Do you have ears that can hear everything that the wind blows[1]?”
“Your head! You’re not allowed to ask her anything, she’s not a good person!”
Yi Ran stifled a laugh and looked at her, feeling that if she was compared to Xu Yuan, Song Yu Meng, who would explode at the slightest provocation is even less like a good person.
“Our class president is just being nice, she said she’ll even come over later to explain the question to me.” Yi Ran purposely took out the geography test and pointed to the question. “See, this one.”
Song Yu Meng snatched the paper and without even seeing the question, she said: “This question is so easy, you can’t even do it?”
Yi Ran held her hands up in resignation. “Yeah, I’m that dumb, I can’t even do a simple question. Then why don’t you explain it to me.”
She thought Song Yu Meng would refuse, but who knew she would really start explaining.
Xu Yuan came over as promised to help explain, but found Song Yu Meng standing by Yi Ran’s side, with a look of hatred in her eyes.
“This

” Xu Yuan pointed at Song Yu Meng and looked at Yi Ran, not knowing what to say.
Song Yu Meng was incredibly annoyed, she had just said two sentences and she got interrupted. When she saw it was Xu Yuan, she got even more irritated.
“What are you interrupting for? Can’t you see this lady is explaining to Crazy Yi?”
Yi Ran raised a fist to her face, trying to hide her smile. Xu Yuan walked away.
After she walked a distance, Yi Ran put her fist down and smiled: “Well, she’s gone now. You can continue.”
“It’s not difficult, you just
 just
” After stammering for a while, Song Yu Meng saw it was actually a Gaokao question.
So it was a question for Gaokao, no wonder she couldn’t figure it out at all. If she knew, she wouldn’t have been bragging.
Song Yu Meng’s face was red and Yi Ran finally laughed, pushing her head with one finger. “Just say it if you don’t know. Bragging about how it’s so easy, now you’re mocking yourself right?”
“No laughing! Or this lady will call someone to beat you up!”
Yi Ran stifled her laughter till Song Yu Meng left, then she laughed freely.
Scaredy Cat really knew how to bluff. When it came to a real fight, she still ended up hiding behind Yi Ran.
[1] éĄșéŁŽè€ł – This is the name of a deity in Chinese mythology, basically his power is to be able to hear anything that’s carried by the wind. He’s usually accompanied by ćƒé‡ŒçœŒ or Thousand Miles Eyes, another deity who can see anything in a thousand miles.