Five minutes passed, and Yang Kaikai was still rummaging through his bed.
Non Cheng glanced at the time. It was exactly five o'clock in the afternoon. Evening self-study began at six-thirty, so he could afford to wait, but he already regretted agreeing to go buy meal tickets together. Wouldn't it have been more convenient to just go by himself?
He sat back down and flipped through his English notes. A moment later, he heard movement from the neighboring bed. Turning his head, he saw that Cheng Yifei had arrived.
Without a second thought, Non Cheng leaned over. "Brother Cheng, I’ve finished reading all your notes, completed the exercises, and even memorized all the English vocabulary!"
Cheng Yifei had just set down his backpack. He looked at this "man of the hour" who seemed to be begging for praise and, clearly unconvinced, pushed him back. "Stop bragging. Is your injury healed?"
"Healed inside and out," Non Cheng replied, then realized he needed to prove himself. "I’m not bragging. If you don’t believe me, why don’t you test me?"
"Dictionary," Cheng Yifei challenged immediately.
Non Cheng: "..."
He was dazed for a moment. "Brother Cheng, you have to give me the Chinese meaning before I can spell the word. I don't know how to pronounce them yet."
Cheng Yifei lowered his head to organize his things. "Zidian or cidian."
Non Cheng beamed and spelled it out instantly. "D-i-c-t-i-o-n-a-r-y."
Cheng Yifei stopped what he was doing and stood up straight to scrutinize the short boy. He proceeded to fire off words: model airplane, tape recorder, football, volleyball, basketball, hamburger, tomato, ice cream. Non Cheng reacted rapidly, spelling every single one correctly. Once might be a fluke, but several times in a row was not.
Had this bottom-tier student really memorized everything?
Seeing that Cheng Yifei had stopped questioning him, Non Cheng leaned in a bit closer with a smile. "Brother Cheng, I really have memorized them all, I just can't read them aloud. I finished your English notes and took a self-test using the practice papers, but I’m not sure if I got them right. I’m not very confident."
Cheng Yifei raised an eyebrow. "Where are the papers? Let me see."
Non Cheng nimbly fished the English paper out of a pile and handed it over.
A few minutes later, Cheng Yifei set the paper down, his gaze toward Non Cheng becoming somewhat complicated.
Comparing it to the answer key, Non Cheng’s paper only had three grammatical errors in the translation section. The multiple-choice, cloze test, and reading comprehension sections were actually flawless.
Was he pulling his leg?
Non Cheng rubbed his nose and asked, "Did I get a lot wrong?"
"Only three mistakes, all in grammar." Cheng Yifei pushed his suspicions aside, spread the paper out, and pointed out the errors, explaining the common pitfalls he should watch out for.
Non Cheng followed his logic quickly, realization dawning on him. "So that’s how it is. I accidentally mixed them up."
At that moment, Yang Kaikai, who had been listening for a while, walked over and familiarly threw an arm around Non Cheng’s shoulder. However, before he could speak, Non Cheng overreacted, swinging his arm to brush the hand away and retreating two steps, his face full of wariness.
Yang Kaikai: "..."
The air seemed to freeze.
Non Cheng felt a wave of chagrin. He wasn't used to such close physical contact with other males yet. Fortunately, he had an excuse ready, and his acting skills were still up to par.
He dropped his guard and looked at Yang Kaikai with an apologetic expression. "Sorry, man. I don't know what happened. It was just an instinctive reaction I couldn't control."
Hearing this, Yang Kaikai’s expression softened. He walked over and patted Non Cheng’s shoulder with a look that said *I understand everything, brother, say no more.* "I get it, I get it!"
Non Cheng couldn't follow his train of thought: "..." *You get it? What... what do you get?*
Yang Kaikai patted his shoulder again in a show of solidarity, then turned to Cheng Yifei. "Brother Cheng, hurry up and pack. Let's go to the canteen to buy meal tickets together."
Non Cheng inconspicuously shook off the hand resting on his shoulder and sat back on the edge of his bed, waiting for Cheng Yifei’s answer. Judging by Cheng Yifei’s uninterested look, he guessed the other would refuse.
Sure enough, Cheng Yifei said, "You guys go ahead. I won't be ready that fast."
Yang Kaikai gave an "oh" and pulled Non Cheng along.
Non Cheng’s face went wooden. He utterly rejected this kind of pulling, dragging, and shoulder-hugging behavior! He really wanted to know what had happened last week to make Yang Kaikai suddenly so enthusiastic toward him. From the start of the second year until now, a portion of the class had neither bullied him nor paid him any mind.
Non Cheng kept his cool, but Yang Kaikai couldn't hold it in. On the way to the canteen, he took the initiative to speak. "Non Cheng, do you know your grandpa brought the police to school last Thursday? Holy crap, it was so cool! We were having PE on the field and saw 'Baldy' [the Dean] running down from the office to receive them. A moment later, 'Big Eyes' and the Class 4 homeroom teacher rushed over too. Liu Yulang was the first one called to the office, and several others followed. When PE ended, we even saw seven or eight parents arrive at the school gate. Impressive! If Big Eyes hadn't said anything, we wouldn't have known that old gentleman was your grandfather."
"What did Big Eyes say to you?" Non Cheng had already visualized the scene. When he told his grandfather that seven or eight people had beaten him, he had already factored in those ninth-graders.
Because on Sunday afternoon, after hearing what he said, those ninth-graders couldn't possibly have avoided looking for trouble with Liu Yulang. Even if the two groups didn't come to blows, there would certainly be friction. Since Liu Yulang couldn't produce seven or eight people on his own, when he heard the grandfather demanding names, he would definitely have ratted out the ninth-graders.
It all made sense.
Yang Kaikai glanced at the calm Non Cheng and muttered, "Why do I feel like you’ve become a different person?"
He scratched his head and continued, "Big Eyes held a class meeting for us that night. He warned us that if we're human, we should act like it. Bullying classmates is extremely vile behavior. A real man never bullies the weak; seeking a sense of superiority from those weaker than you only proves that you're a weakling yourself. Anyway, he said a whole lot with a long face. Finally, he said that fighting wouldn't just result in school discipline; it would leave a stain on our permanent records for the rest of our lives. Plus, our families would have to pay for the victim's medical bills and mental distress compensation. In serious cases, like yours, the police would get involved."
Non Cheng gave an "oh." "What he said makes a lot of sense."
Yang Kaikai glanced at him again. "Big Eyes said your body is fragile right now. Before anyone raises a hand against you, they'd better ask themselves if they can afford the medical bills. Whoever cripples you is responsible for the rest of your life."
Non Cheng: "..." *Well played, Big Eyes!*
Yang Kaikai leaned in closer and whispered, "Non Cheng, are you really that badly injured? I can't tell. Did Liu Yulang and the others pay you a lot in medical compensation?"
Non Cheng nodded and pointed to his abdomen. "Internal injuries are serious; you can only see them on an X-ray. I don't know if they paid any money; my grandpa is handling it. We're at the canteen. Let's get in line for tickets."
Yang Kaikai looked up; they really had arrived.
Non Cheng stood in line ahead of him. While taking out his money, he accidentally dropped a bill. Yang Kaikai helped him pick it up. Seeing Non Cheng holding a fifty-yuan note and looking at the twenty he had just retrieved, Yang Kaikai said in surprise, "You need this much money for one week?"
Non Cheng smiled as he took the twenty back. "I didn't say I was going to spend it all."
Yang Kaikai thought to himself: *No wonder he got extorted.*
After they bought their meal tickets, Yang Kaikai found chatting with Non Cheng a bit dull. Seeing a familiar buddy at the canteen entrance, he shouted a greeting and chased after him.
Non Cheng didn't mind being ditched halfway. He hadn't used these label-like rubberized meal tickets in a long time. He stood on the steps, staring at them intently as if trying to make flowers bloom out of the patterns.
Cheng Yifei walked up the steps and brushed past him. Acting as if he hadn't seen him, he entered the canteen. Non Cheng snapped his head around and, without thinking, turned to follow right behind Cheng Yifei.
After buying his tickets, Cheng Yifei went to the freezer and grabbed two bottles of Coke. After paying, he tossed one to Non Cheng and asked, "Where's Yang Kai?"
"Don't know. He vanished as soon as we left the canteen." Seeing the Coke, Non Cheng immediately thought of the urban legend about it "killing sperm," but he was too embarrassed to say it. He followed Cheng Yifei, took two sips, and asked, "Brother Cheng, can I borrow last week's notes tonight?"
"Sure." Cheng Yifei finished his 250ml Coke in a few gulps and warned him, "When you're with Yang Kai, don't say things you shouldn't. He’s nosy and has a loose tongue."
Recalling the questions Yang Kaikai had asked on the way, Non Cheng nodded to show he understood and thanked him profusely.
Cheng Yifei gave a huff. "The homeroom teacher just told me to look after you more, that's all."
"I was saying thank you for the Coke." Non Cheng shook the bottle.
Cheng Yifei: "..."
Non Cheng found Cheng Yifei’s temperament quite amusing, but he knew not to tease him too much. He said seriously, "Even if the homeroom teacher ordered it, you still had to be willing to help, Brother Cheng. So, I still have to thank you. If you hadn't been there last weekend, I’d probably still be stuck in a dead end."
"Can you stop being so disgusting? I only stayed because my house is far and I’m too lazy to go back every week. I wasn't 'staying with' you."
"Oh~ I meant your guidance. Your words guided me and ignited my passion for learning!" Non Cheng explained with a straight face. There was no helping it; Cheng Yifei’s "tsundere" mode was back online.
Cheng Yifei looked at him with a half-smile. "Passion for learning? You're just afraid of getting beaten up."
Non Cheng: "..." *Nonsense, no one dares to hit me now!*
The two of them traded barbs all the way back to the dorm, grabbed their textbooks, and headed to the classroom.
Non Cheng’s seat was in the back row. If the students in front of him sat up straight, his forward vision consisted almost entirely of the backs of heads.
One hundred and fifty-eight centimeters at thirteen years old—this height was actually quite normal. However, because he had started first grade at age six, he was a year younger than his classmates. The boys in the class were generally between 165cm and 170cm. In such a comparison, how could there not be psychological damage? He looked undeniably short!
Non Cheng poked his eraser with his pen. *Why are these people growing so tall now? Most of them won't even break 180cm in the future anyway!* Also, the class assignments were so unscientific. There were plenty of other boys in the grade who hadn't broken 160cm yet; why wasn't a single one of them assigned to Class 1!
Cheng Yifei walked over with the notes and found Non Cheng staring down and poking his eraser with considerable force. He raised the notebook and tapped him on the head. "You borrow something from me and expect me to deliver it to your hands?"
Non Cheng jumped, rubbing his head—which didn't actually hurt—and said blankly, "Brother Cheng, I forgot... I was just contemplating a very grim problem."
