Chapter 2 part 1
#If you find the person who wrote you that love letter, what will you say to him?#
It was another ten-minute break filled with idle chatter.
As usual, seven or eight students were gathered in the back row of Class 3, Grade 2. There were even students from the neighboring class dropping by, just to exchange a few words with Yuan Man.
“Xu Jingyou? That name sounds so familiar…”
“The one in Grade 1, right? Yuanyuan, why are you suddenly asking about him?”
“Of course I’ve heard of him! You really don’t pay attention to school gossip at all. Xu Jingyou is super awesome, okay?”
“Xu Jingyou was last year’s top scorer in the high school entrance exam. Several high schools went crazy trying to fight for him. I don’t know what magic potion our school fed him, but he signed up here.”
“Look at you, talking like that. Our Normal U Attached High is a prestigious school too, you know!”
“A while back, someone shouted out on the campus confession wall asking if he had a girlfriend. It turned out to be a xuejie (senior girl) from Grade 3.”
“A Grade 3 xuejie?” Hearing this, Yuan Man’s eyes went wide. His hand, which had been propping up his chin, slipped, and he quickly sat up straight. “Wait, she’s two years older than him!”
His female deskmate scoffed. “What kind of old fogey are you? Don’t you know ‘older woman, younger man’ relationships are super trendy right now?”
Another male student gathered around their desk jeered, “Ooh, ooh, ooh, looks like our Sister Shan wants to find a little puppy boyfriend too! Careful Laoban doesn’t catch you in a puppy-love romance, or you’ll be writing self-reflection essays and calling your parents!”
The girl named Wang Shanshan immediately grabbed the dictionary on her desk and hurled it. In an instant, the class erupted into chaos. The girl’s angry roar mixed with the boys’ laughing horseplay, drawing everyone’s attention away. No one bothered to ask why Yuan Man was inexplicably asking about a stranger from the junior grade.
Yeah, why?
With a heavy heart, Yuan Man pulled The Little Prince out of his desk, stroked the cover, and stuffed it back in.
Three days ago, Yuan Man had picked up a birthday wish written to himself in the library.
Yuan Man’s birthday was on the Lantern Festival (the 15th of the first lunar month). His dad had a stroke of genius and wanted to name him “Yuan Xiao” (Lantern/Rice Ball), but his mom gave him a fierce scolding and killed that idea. Since the Lantern Festival is a full moon (Yuan), his mother gave him the name “Man” (Full), which also had a good meaning.
His birthday was during the winter break, so the person who borrowed the book must have taken it during the winter break.
Yuan Man guessed that the person must have accidentally discovered that the flower center could open, so they stuffed a note inside, thinking no one would find it, and then forgot to take it out.
As a result of a strange combination of circumstances, Yuan Man himself found it.
He thought the whole thing was quite interesting, and the person who wrote to him was interesting too—it was just a “Happy Birthday,” couldn’t they just walk up to him and say it to his face?
They just had to write it on a little slip of paper.
He was dead set on finding the writer, but he got stuck on step one.
—That xuedi named Xu Jingyou refused to give him the borrower list!
He had already found out that the school library had three teachers, and Xu Jingyou was the only student volunteer. Whether borrowing or returning books, everything had to be registered through the computer at the front desk. Yuan Man didn’t want to tell the teachers about this, so naturally, he could only beg Xu Jingyou, a fellow student, for help.
But Xu Jingyou had a cold personality. No matter how much Yuan Man pestered him, he wouldn’t give him a friendly face.
Heh, I don’t believe it!
Is there a friend in this world that I, Yuan Man, cannot make?
…
The lunch bell rang, and the school cafeteria was instantly swamped by a horde of starving ghosts.
“Excuse me~ Coming through! Hot clay pot, hot, hot, hot!” Yuan Man held a metal tray, shouting as he weaved through the layers of people, squeezing toward the corner of the cafeteria.
Along the way, classmates called for him to sit and eat with them, but Yuan Man laughed and replied, “Can’t, I have a date with a beauty today!”
As for who the “beauty” was…
His gaze swept across the corner of the cafeteria and quickly locked onto a tall, slender figure.
By a long table, a thin, tall boy sat silently in the corner, quietly eating his cafeteria set meal. His fragmented black hair pressed against his brow, casting a shadow. He was tall, but the table was low, forcing him to bend down to eat. However, his eating etiquette was beautiful—slow and deliberate—forming a stark contrast with the starving ghosts around him.
Yuan Man noticed that Xu Jingyou used his left hand to eat; he was a lefty.
“What a coincidence, Xuedi, meeting again?” Yuan Man approached with familiar ease. Without waiting for Xu Jingyou to answer, he went around to his right side, pulled out a chair, and plopped down.
He rattled off a basketful of words, but Xu Jingyou didn’t even lift an eyebrow, as if he couldn’t see him.
However, the “Mushroom Head” boy sitting opposite Xu Jingyou was startled and stammered a greeting, “Xuezhang Yuan…”
Yuan Man went “Huh?” and asked, “You know me?”
Mushroom Head nodded repeatedly. “I do. Class 3 Grade 1 has PE class with your class, Class 3 Grade 2. Our two classes have even played football together in PE.”
Yuan Man: “Ah?”
He really didn’t know.
He loved all outdoor sports, so he never missed a PE class. He knew there was another class on the other side of the playground every time, but Yuan Man had never paid attention to which class it was.
He didn’t expect such a coincidence—it was actually Xu Jingyou’s class.
Ay, how come I never noticed Xu Jingyou before?
Seeing that Xu Jingyou’s tray was full of greens, Yuan Man used his chopsticks to split the untouched fried chicken leg in his own bowl in two. He stuffed the meatier half onto Xu Jingyou’s tray. “This fried chicken leg is delicious, try it! You’re eating way too plain. You’re so tall and thin, you need to eat more meat.”
Xu Jingyou stared at the half chicken leg that had flown onto his tray for a moment. His pale, thin lips parted lightly, and he finally spoke his first sentence since they met: “Xuezhang, I don’t think we are close enough to share a chicken leg.”
Yuan Man answered irrelevantly, “Oh, just call me by my name. We’re only a year apart, why call me Xuezhang?”
Xu Jingyou paused. “But, a Xuezhang is a Xuezhang.”
Yuan Man shrugged and mimicked him like a parrot, “Oh~~ Xue~zhang~ is~ a~ Xue~zhang~~~”
Just as he finished, Mushroom Head sitting opposite couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing. He still had half a mouthful of rice, so when he laughed, he instantly turned into a pea shooter, spraying grains of rice everywhere like pu-pu-pu-pu.
Xu Jingyou immediately moved his tray away in disgust.
Mushroom Head apologized while picking up rice grains. “Sorry, truly, it’s just that Xuezhang imitated you too perfectly.”
Yuan Man didn’t mind the mess. Slurping his clay pot rice noodles, he asked Mushroom Head, “Is Xu Jingyou like this in class too? Keeping a straight face and acting cool with everyone?”
He gossiped openly, not caring in the slightest that the subject of the gossip was sitting right next to him.
“He’s not acting cool, he is cool.” Mushroom Head thought for a moment and said honestly, “He doesn’t talk to anyone in class normally. The teachers all say he should communicate more with other students.”
Xu Jingyou frowned. “When did the teacher say that?”
Mushroom Head: “See, Xuezhang? Not only does he not talk to others, he doesn’t listen to them either. He doesn’t even hear the teachers!”
Xu Jingyou: “…I heard that sentence.”
Yuan Man said “Aiyaya” with great surprise. “Xu Jingyou, I told you we were suited to be friends! Teachers always say I talk too much all day long and tell me to stop disturbing other students’ studies. If you ask me, people who can be disturbed by talking don’t know how to study anyway! Since you love studying so much and you’re deaf, even if I talk to you, you won’t be disturbed by me!”
Xu Jingyou: “… =_=”
Who’s deaf?
Yuan Man had an appointment to play ball with classmates at noon, so he slurped down the rest of his rice noodles, greeted the two xuedis, and whoosh—he was gone.
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