/
The weather was getting warmer day by day, and after the conversation that wasn’t actually a conversation, Rong Si and Li Erqin’s relationship went back to normal.
*Wildly exaggerated stories about how Li Erqin had accompanied someone on the men’s 5000 metre race swirled around the school for a long time. Some people admired her, while others were envious of her. Even though she’d thought about it many times, Li Erqin just couldn’t figure it out – yes, she was the one who had accompanied someone on the race, but she was also the one who had almost thrown up.
(*TN: æ·»æČč抠醋 tianyoujiacu – lit. to add oil and vinegar, i.e. to “spice” up a story)
Why was she the one whom everyone admired?
How come no one was admiring Rong Si?
Alas, it was him who had the misfortune of having a girl run alongside him!
Of course, after the last disciplinary session, Li Erqin did not make any further attempts to broadcast music that she wasn’t supposed to.
Once, while she was walking from her dormitory to the classroom, she overheard some rather unfriendly whispers about her.
She stopped for a moment to listen. Then, eaten by curiosity, she stuck her head out to see if the whisperers were those ‘familiar’ faces.
Nope.
One of the female students looked both beautiful and genteel. At a glance, she was just like those exceedingly pure and innocent characters in television dramas or movies. However, it must be said – one cannot judge a person by appearance alone.
She was pouting disdainfully, but Li Erqin had to admit, people who are good-looking just look good. Even with her mouth in a pout, she still looked far more innocent than the girls around her who were eagerly awaiting her next pronouncement.
It was still the same old topic under discussion. She would never be able to get away from those words: “scheming b**ch”, “thick-skinned”, “shameless”.
Li Erqin shook her head and sighed.
She deliberately sighed very heavily so as to attract the attention of the group. One by one, they turned to look in her direction.
“Who’s there?” asked the ‘adorable’ girl, with a dark look on her face.
Li Erqin affected surprise as she replied, “Li Erqin.”
Immediately, the girls who had been chattering away in high spirits just moments before fell silent, and their faces turned cataclysmic.
Li Erqin stood her ground and smiled brightly at them as she asked, “Do you all like Rong Si?”
No one answered her.
“Such unless wimps!!” Li Erqin bluntly voiced the disdain which she felt.
Someone asked angrily, “What are you getting at?”
Li Erqin looked coldly at her. “If you have the ability, then go to Rong Si and get him to like you in return. Otherwise, all you can do is gossip behind people’s backs.”
Several people’s expressions changed.
Li Erqin pursed her lips and said, “However, you can say whatever you want and it will have no effect.”
She paused for a heartbeat before continuing, “Rong Si still won’t have any clue who you are.”
(Minodayz : good on you girl – just give it to them good and proper!!!! FIGHTING (àč‘˃̔᎗˂̔)و
After that day, the rumours about Li Erqin circulated even more wildly, and new adjectives to describe her were added, such as “arrogant” and “stuck-up”.
In a short space of time, Peng Zige had heard all about it from his good female friends in the other classes. In a tone which revealed his schadenfreude at her predicament, he asked Li Erqin, “What on earth did you do to make so many girls hate you to the bone?”
Li Erqin was writing in her exercise book. When she heard what Peng Zige said, she thought out loud, “Could it have all started after I ran alongside Rong si? ?”
Peng Zige used his elbow to jab Rong Si, who was sitting beside him. “Ah Si, don’t you think Erqin has been sorely wronged?”
As Rong Si was caught unaware, Peng Zige’s jab had knocked his hand aside, and there was now a long line of ink down the page of his exercise book. With great reluctance, he put down his pen and said, “What?”
“People have been poking at Erqin behind her back so much, her back is about to turn to mush from all that poking. Yet she is nothing more than a friend to you.”And in the end, the relationship between the two of you is just one of ordinary classmates.”
Neither Rong Si nor Li Erqin spoke.
Peng Zige continued, without any sensitivity, “Well at least if she was really in a relationship with you, at least it would be worth her while being blacklisted and used as a dartboard!”
(Minodayz : Oh yeah PZG, just keep prodding – atta boy!!!! Mwah!!! ლ(â•čΔâ•čლ)
Rong Si’s face suddenly darkened.
These were all things that Li Erqin was well aware of.
What Li Erqin did not know was that Ruan Mingxian had also overheard the slanderous gossip about her. Once, during his class’ evening self-study session, the girls in his class had turned their idle gossip to Li Erqin.
On hearing Li Erqin’s name, a male student had subconsciously told Ruan Mingxian about it.
Without batting an eyelid, Ruan Mingxian listened to the girls sliming Li Erqin more and more outrageously. He interrupted them, “I say, all of you.”
The girls halted their chatter and looked at him.
Ruan Mingxian leaned back in his chair with his hands clasped behind his head and smilingly asked them, “Have you had enough of your gossiping?”
The girls didn’t catch his meaning, and they asked puzzledly, “What’s up? Are you also interested in Li Erqin?”
Ruan Mingxian nodded and replied, “Yup.”
The girls were all atwitter. “Do you want us to *help you out?”
(TN the phrase they use suggests that they are offering to be ‘busybodies’)
Ruan Mingxian’s smile became more malevolent. “I want you all to shut up.”
Most of the classmates who watched this scene unfolding were startled. Only the few who knew Ruan Mingxian well chuckled softly to themselves.
Ruan Mingxian threw the pen that he was gripping onto the table, where it made a loud noise in the quiet classroom.
“Otherwise, I might hit someone.”
“Ah, no,” he corrected himself, “I will hit someone.”
(Minodayz : RMX
. my hero! (âșŁâ—ĄâșŁ)♡ 

The second half of their first year at high school had slowly dwindled away as with the ossips that plagued Li Erqin. It was at this time that the students who were working hard to get into their choice of streams be it Liberal arts or Science, who found themselves at the precipice of their hard work.
(T/N In China, students go through 6 years of primary school, 3 years of middle school and 3 years of high school. (In Shanghai, it’s 5-4-3.) They are in their first year of high school and have to decide between the liberal arts and science streams at the end of this year.)
Rong Si, Peng Zige and Su Zi all chose the science route.
So did Li Erqin.
However, as students would be assigned to classes according to their grades, Li Erqin spent the entire summer worrying. Even though she had chosen the science steam, there was no guarantee that she would be in the same class as the others.
After all, the three of them would definitely be in the elite class.
However, prior to her starting her second year, Li Erqin received her placement notice.
(Minodayz : dun dun dun
..)