CH 2

Such an awkward and shocking scene immediately redirected everyone’s attention, and the room quickly bustled with activity. First it was the shock, and then everyone started yelling.

“The floor split?” 

“Holy shit, Kou Chen stomped through the floor?”

“He’s that heavy…”

“He doesn’t look that heavy…”

“Looks like we can say hello to Humanities 3 now?” 

“Are you stuck?” Xu Chuan asked, bending down to tug at the broken floorboards.

“No.” Kou Chen recovered from the shock and moved his leg. At most, he only fell about 50cm, but he actually felt that momentary weightlessness.

It was too sudden.

He leaned on the desk and pulled his leg out, returning to being face to face with Huo Ran.

Now there was temporarily no tension between them, the accident came too suddenly, and their attention all went to that. But he wasn’t too happy about the smile Huo Ran couldn’t quite conceal beneath the shock.

“Holy shit, this building’s built pretty nicely, there’s so much space between the floor and ceiling?” Wei Chaoren immediately looked over the hole in the floor.”

“Come on,” Kou Chen dusted off his pants, “Lay down and say hi to the people below.”

“Damn…” Wei Chaoren stared at the hole, raising his head in surprise a few seconds later, “You can actually see through to the floor below!” 

Kou Chen was very surprised

After transferring, the most memorable thing about the school was the few buildings that looked like they were gonna collapse but wouldn’t and yet they were still in use apparently gonna be torn down next year with enough ghost stories to write a book about. But he never would’ve thought that he could stomp a hole through it.

Is this building gonna…

Kou Chen immediately stuck his head over to look, but he didn’t think that there would be someone in even more of a rush than himself. 

His nose collided with the back of Huo Ran’s head that suddenly appeared in front of him.

Huo Ran indeed saw a few people in Humanities 3 looking up at him through the hole. He couldn’t see them all, and suddenly thought about all the rumors surrounding the haunted building, making him shiver even in broad daylight surrounded by people. As he was thinking, something hit the back of his head, giving him goosebumps.

Looking up in fear to see Kou Chen with a hand over his nose, he cursed: “Fuck.”

“Fuck again?” Kou Chen frowned, hand still over his nose, but his eyes were very much taunting. 

“I just pulled up my pants…” Before he could finish, Xu Zhifan pulled him to sit on the seat beside him.

“Dust must have fallen down.” Xu Zhifan looked back to the door, “Someone might come knocking.”

“Humanities 3 are a bunch of idiots, who’s gonna come knocking.” Kou Chen said as he looked back as well.

After successfully redirecting Huo Ran and Kou Chen’s attention from each other, Xu Zhifan breathed a sigh of relief. He nudged Huo Ean with his knee: “You sit on the inside.” 

Huo Ran looked at him, moving to the seat. He leaned against the wall and looked down at his phone.

This was the only thing good about Huo Ran. He’s rude with his words but he doesn’t really hold a grudge, forgetting about the problem once it’s over. Who knows when he’ll remember it again.

“Hey,” Jiang Lei sat in front of them and turned around, “Who’s our homeroom teacher? You guys know?”

“Dunno.” Huo Ran stared at his phone, fingers flying as he typed. 

“It can’t be Old Li again?” Jiang Lei said. “He always had something against me, I don’t wanna be around him for another year…”

“Dunno.” Huo Ran repeated, still typing.

“But I wouldn’t really like Old Chen either…” Jiang Lei thought about it.

“Dunno.” Huo Ran said. 

“What’re you looking at?” Xu Zhifan grabbed his phone, glancing at the screen. Huo Ran was typing a message in a group chat.

-where aren’t there idiots, there’s a bunch in this group right here, can’t shove it back in, why don’t

Xu Zhifan looked at the group name, it was ‘Happy loving family’.

“Tbe’gf lcreialcu sbeg gfijalnfr ilxf atlr?” Lf vfifafv atf ecrfca wfrrjufr ja bcmf, gfaegclcu atf qtbcf. 

“P’w lcreialcu atbrf mberlcr bo wlcf,” Glrvjlc kjr kglaafc jii bnfg Leb Ejc’r ojmf. “Ktgff ugbkc wfc olutalcu klat ws ofwjif mberlc ab cb fcv.”

“Mlutalcu jybea ktja?” Aljcu Ofl jrxfv.

“How would I know?” Huo Ran looked at him.

“Then why would you insult them?” Xu Zhifan sighed. 

“I hate what they’re saying, I already insulted them plenty,” Huo Ran said, “Now their attention is on me.”

“Your cousin should give you money.” Jiang Lei said.

“Yeah right,” Huo Ran laughed, “She’s cursing me with them, says I’m ignorant.”

“Deserved.” Xu Zhifan said. 

Kou Chen looked at the hole and walked to the back of the classroom. Since there was a hole in the ground, one that he made at that, he wanted to find a broom to stick in it as a warning for now.

As he approached the door, the half-closed door was suddenly kicked open.

Kou Chen wasn’t expecting it at all, he tried to block it with the broom but the door still collided with his shoulder. 

The door was ancient like the building, an old-fashioned double door, with an old-fashioned metal lock across it. The metal bar hit Kou Chen’s arm, and whatever nerve it hit, it made Kou Chen’s entire arm go numb.

As he opened his mouth to curse, a few people came through the door, yelling: “What’s wrong with you Humanties 1 people! Our ceiling’s collapsed completely!”

“The ceiling collapsed? Completely? Stop exaggerating.” Someone replied.

“Exaggerating my ass, why don’t you go sit down there and I’ll stomp a few times?” The person was very impolite, “Is your class trying to cause trouble on the first day of class?” 

Nobody said anything else, staying silent in the tension caused either awkwardness or pent up frustration.

Actually, everyone knew the guys from Humanities 3, Kou Chen didn’t know the name of the one in front, but he’d seen him before. The one at the door was Kou Chen’s old classmate, and the others might actually be friends with some of the other kids.

But they’ve all received break up letters so suddenly.

Everyone looked calm and cool. 

A strange sense of belonging formed with this new reputation of the class.

Within this group of people, no matter if they were familiar with each other or not, a collective sense of honor was suddenly born, starting from the very trouble causing sentence “are you trying to cause trouble”.

After today, whatever relationships will turn into whatever relationships, but today, right now, we are all of Humanities 1, standing up against Humanities 3 here to provoke us.

We are united and calm. 

“Someone who can speak,” The leader opened his mouth, still impolite, “Come down with us, and bring some people who will clean up.”

“Sure thing,” Someone replied, speaking very politely, “Do you guys mind also getting someone to clean our classroom door?”

Kou Chen looked towards the voice, it was Huo Ran. He was leaning against the wall with his head down, looking at his phone.

“Who said that?” The guy glanced around, probably didn’t see who it was. 

“Reporting,” Huo Ran raised his hand, eyes still on his phone. “I did.”

“Who’re you?” The guy clearly wasn’t happy about Huo Ran.

“Your grandpa,” Huo Ran put down his phone, turning around and smiling. “Your grandpa Huo who beat you seven times at bullfighting.”

The class suddenly hooted uproariously. 

Huo Ran wasn’t shooting off his mouth. It wasn’t that the other guy was bad, but Huo Ran became the basketball captain the second semester of his first year, and was exceptionally skilled. Apart from being a bit rude with his words, there was no problem with him. Apparently Huo Ran was the first student in ten years—apart from Jiang Cheng who transferred away a few years ago—to become basketball captain in his first year.

But the way Huo Ran spoke was too annoying, he didn’t know how Captain Jiang Cheng usually spoke, but Huo Ran often made Kou Chen want to beat him upside down.

“I’m your fucking grandpa, repeat what you just said to your grandpa again!” The guy moved towards Huo Ran.

Beside Huo Ran, Xu Zhifan immediately stood up, Jiang Lei following. 

“Lu Wei, what are you doing?” Xu Zhifan reached out to block him, “It’s not like you don’t know how old this building is.”

“Everyone knows how old this building is, but your class is the only one to stomp through the floor!” Lu Wei pointed at Huo Ran. “I’m a considerate person, forget about our personal problems for now, was it you who did it today? In such a hurry to start something!”

“It really wasn’t me.” Huo Ran remained leaning against the wall.

“Who did it?!” Lu Wei yelled. 

Huo Ran glanced at Kou Chen: “Your Uncle Kou.”

“…What?” Lu Wei startled, turning to look at Kou Chen.

“ He accidentally stepped in the hole.” Huo Ran said.

Xu Zhifan sighed. Huo Ran was obviously trying to explain the situation, but he insulted Lu Wei and Kou Chen simultaneously with one sentence. 

After a few seconds, Kou Chen finally understood what Huo Ran meant by ‘Uncle Kou’. He looked at Huo Ran, he couldn’t even be mad, he just wanted to laugh.

But with so many people looking, he could only accept this daddy for now, and follow along with the ‘considerate’ act.

In a time of such strange honor of two classes, he could ignore Huo Ran, but he couldn’t bow to Lu Wei.

Actually, every class had a few people that like to pick fights and could lead a group, but he didn’t even know Lu Wei by name… Probably because Humanities 3 didn’t get any big shots in their class, so this was his chance to stand out. 

“How did you do it?” Lu Wei asked with an expression of ‘I’ve been at this for years’.

Kou Chen made eye contact with him silently. To be honest, comparing him to this guy, Huo Ran really was good looking. At least he wasn’t irritating to the point of wanting to look away after just a couple seconds.

He lifted his leg, stomping down on the group with a thud.

You could feel the surroundings tremble. 

“Just like this.” Kou Chen said.

Lu Wei stared at him like he didn’t know what just happened.

“Don’t get it?” Kou Chen asked.

Huo Ran had also stood up, suddenly stomping down as well: “Like this.” 

Lu Wei turned abruptly.

Xu Zhifan also stomped his foot.

It got a bit out of control after that, everyone stomping around the place like kindergarteners that found a new way to play.

Screams erupted from Humanities 3. 

On the first day of school, most of the first floor’s ceiling dust was collectively stomped off by Humanities 1. It was quite the event.

In such a key school like Fuzhong, things like this weren’t common, compared to the normal high schools. Their daily lives were a lot more eventful.

But really, everyone was secretly looking forward to something happening.

A fight, or some sort of problem, it was all very exciting. 

When the Humanities 3 teacher came up the stairs, Huo Ran felt a bit nervous.

He even heard Xu Chuan exclaim to Kou Chen: “Holy shit, Liang Mulan is their homeroom teacher?”

“Then our teacher must be Old Yuan, only he can stand up to her, right?” Wei Chaoren said.

Huo Ran agreed with him. 

Ms. Liang was probably the only teacher in the school that wasn’t affectionately called Old-XXX by the students. Everyone called her Ms. Liang obediently, but switched to calling her Liang Mulan behind her back.

Ms. Liang was the language teacher, but she would bring a speaker and sing 'Brother Liu, be reasonable' for the new students. Sometimes more than once. If nobody applauded, she would keep singing. Apparently she sang it seven times once. When someone finally realized and applauded, she asked them to share what they thought was good about it.

Huo Ran was a little afraid of this Liang, not because you’d suffer no matter if you applauded or not, but because she substituted for one of Huo Ran’s classes. Because Huo Ran still had a couple geometry worksheets on his desk, he was called to her office and lectured until ten minutes after the next class had already started. The main point of her lecture was that he showed no respect for her.

After that, Huo Ran always avoided her. 

When Ms. Liang arrived at the door, everyone looked at her and quieted down.

“I’ll be having a talk with Mr. Yuan,” Ms. Liang pushed up her glasses, “The supposed Humanities 1 with the top class average, you guys are impressive, aren’t you?”

Right as she finished, someone whistled.

It was Kou Chen. 

“Even after a whole summer, you’re still the same as ever, Kou Chen,” Ms. Liang said. “It’s a miracle you’re in Class 1 with your grades.”

Kou Chen suddenly stood up from where he was sitting, picking up the chair and tossing it to the side with a clang.

The air about him made Huo Ran a bit anxious, is he gonna start a fight? Hit the teacher?

That rumour about him hitting a teacher… 

Who knows if Ms. Liang also knew about the rumour. As Kou Chen strode towards the door, her face turned serious, staring at Kou Chen.

Kou Chen walked out the classroom under the gazes of everyone, all the way to Ms. Liang.

Huo Ran glanced at Xu Chuan and Wei Chaoren. As his best friends, they’re not gonna go stop them? What kind of friendship is that?

“Why is it such a miracle?” Kou Chen said, “It means they divide the classes fairly.” 

Ms. Liang stared at him a bit blankly.

Kou Chen didn’t say anything else, he turned and walked down the stairs.

“Damn,” someone whispered, “I thought he was gonna start a fight.”

Huo Ran suddenly realized that he wasn’t the only one so concerned about the rumours surrounding Kou Chen. 

“Fight my ass, what’s wrong with you?” Xu Chuan said.

“They said he hit a teacher before, it’s gotta be an exaggeration, right?” Someone asked. But when Xu Chuan turned around, he averted his eyes, looking at the ceiling, then out the window.

“Just because he did it once doesn’t mean he’ll do it every time. It’s not like he transferred from a mental asylum.” Wei Chaoren said.

It sounded like an insult to Huo Ran, and he couldn’t help but laugh. 

“Our teacher is Old Yuan?” Jiang Lei focused on the important point.

“Ah,” Huo Ran also just realized, “That’s great.”

Not three minutes after he spoke, Old Yuan walked briskly into the classroom, clapping the hands of everyone as he passed down the aisle. Throwing his eyes onto the podium, he spoke: “Causing such a scene on the first day of school, you guys are really something.”

Everyone laughed. 

“It wasn’t on purpose at first, they came up looking for trouble like that.” Someone said.

“Who were the ones responsible? I know it’s Huo Ran and Kou Chen,” Old Yuan surveyed the class, then he walked towards the door. “Come with me to my office, Ms. Liang wants me to give an explanation. Let’s resolve this before we move onto anything else.

Huo Ran hesitated before standing up, Xu Zhifan following him.

“Don’t worry,” Old Yuan said, “I’m a reasonable person… Where’s Kou Chen?” 

“Bathroom.” Xu Chuan said.

“Bathroom?” Old Yuan looked at him.

“If he’s not in class then he’s in the bathroom.” Wei Chaoren said.

“Ohh, only the two places,” Old Yuan nodded, “Does he have a bad stomach? Tell him to go to my office when he comes back.” 

As Huo Ran followed Old Yuan, he felt like Wei Chaoren was Kou Chen’s fake friend.