Shanhai 2

How’d this misunderstanding of yours come to be?

Ji XingLing’s job was done and- done well at that. He’d rather generously given out five large notes, footed the bill and had arranged things so the little country monster would have a proper chance at living independently. It’s such a pity that this deed of his can’t be displayed casually; he nonchalantly reclined on their couch and raised his chin to command, “Praise me.”

Ge Hao was experienced when it came to situations like these. He had no need to ask anything, he cupped his hands and with a straight face replied, “Our brother Xing is bold, uninhibited, righteous, knives piercing both side¹ and a matchless Xiaocao². He is an awesome man!”

Ge Hao’s voice was rather loud.. Lin Jing, who was just around the corner, stopped waking. With this situation in hand, he was forced to choose between “Going inside and returning the money to this member of society who seemingly wasn’t quite right in the head and risking the member’s rage out of humiliation” or “Walk out first and then think about it.” He very obviously chose the latter. Then he continued to a cafe across Haidilao, and picked an isolated corner, away from prying eyes to sit.

Lin Jing’s The magic conch shell³, or WeChat, was connected with Liu Xu for communication. Liu Xu was one grade above Lin Jing in ShanHai High School.

Ke Da: Hello, are you free now?

Xu: Little Jing?

Ke Da: Yup, my father and Uncle Liu are good friends.

Liu Xu directly called and apologized as soon as the call connected. Then he explained that he was about to take an exam when he added the WeChat of Lin Jing two days ago, so he forgot to reply back.

“It’s okay.” Lin Jing hurriedly said and politely replied, “I’m not bothering you, am I?”

“There’s no class this weekend, so I’m going home.” Liu Xu plugged in his earphones and said with a smile, “Initially, at today’s dinner time, I was planning to give you a tour around the school, but then uncle Lin said that you had other arrangements. So- how was it, everything alright with you?”

The hot pot was relatively alright, but being forced into becoming a member by a delinquent gang was relatively weird. When he was thinking about the vast sum of bribe money, which was five hundred and two inside his pants pocket, Lin Jing wiped his non-existent tears and heaved a very long deep sigh. As, he stirred the fruit tea in the cup, he asked,  “I wanted to ask about Ji XingLing, he seems to be very famous in ShanHai?”

“Not only in ShanHai, but he’s also quite famous throughout JinCheng.” Liu Xu replied, “The two laboratory buildings of our school are all donated by RenRui Corporation.”

The CEO of RenRui Corporation was Mr. Ji MingLang, and he was a well-known business elite.

“Why are you suddenly mentioning him?”

Lin Jing smoothly found an excuse, “Nah, I was only asking. Who knows, I might need to pay my respects to Big Brother.”

Lin Jing’s words amused Liu Xu, “Ji XingLing is usually quite low-key; also his results are not good ba, and there is nothing else to mention other than that, so you don’t have to be so nervous or worry about it.”

Lin Jing then asked a bit about several class matters. Liu Xu very patiently used all his two years of experience in ShanHai to answer and help him. From the examination pattern to the cafeteria meal distribution, too. All to ensure that the little newcomer manages to adjust to the new environment as soon as possible. Lin Jing also memorized the key points. Just as he was about to say his thanks and hang up, his ears carefully identified a keypoint, “All exam rooms are arranged according to the student’s results at the examination?”

“Yes ah.” Liu Xu replied, “Surely you will always take the advanced level examination room with these scores of yours..”

As for Ji XingLing, don’t even need to think about it. He can only do repeat examinations between rooms Y and Z.

There was a huge distance between their letters and therefore, rooms. So, it was pretty impossible to assist in cheating. Lin Jing pondered for a while and felt it was implausible that “the delinquent gang was recruiting simple minions to prepare for times they might need extra manpower between fights”. After all, he wasn’t as tall and big. Nor was he bold and powerful, to make the delinquent boss fall in love at first sight. If he was ever to be thrown into a gang fight scene, he reckoned that he would make a dashing escape on the spot. Afterward, he might even have to ask the delinquent boss for the dry-clean expense as reimbursement – so actually, it was not worth investing five hundred to win him over, who had no combat BUFF and was a clean freak too.

What had the other party wanted to do? Lin Jing kicked a pebble and continued to tread on the path lit by  moonlight, as he slowly walked back home from the cafe.

He was currently living in Jiang’An ShuYuan. A twenty minutes drive from the school, and with a school bus that will pick up and drop off on time every day. It was due to work that his parents were temporarily unable to come along, so they had asked a live-in aunty (nanny) to take care of him. The other party was known as the gold medal employee of the housekeeping company and had been working in this area for more than ten years. When Lin Jing entered the door, she was on the phone and answered with a strident (harsh) voice, “Yes, I’ve already signed a contract. Break the contract? I will not break the contract. After all, I aim to be a person that lives with integrity.”

Aunt Jiang was hanging up the phone when she heard the door sound, and then greeted him with a smile, “Xiao Jing, you’re back.”

“Uh-huh.” Lin Jing was changing his shoes, “Someone wants to steal you again with a high salary?”

“I’m not leaving.” Aunt Jiang washed her hands and then complained as she was cutting fruits. “Right from the start they were like- bla bla bla about how RenRui’s chairman is very wealthy. Oh yo how arrogant, have I not seen enough rich men before, la?

“RenRui?” Lin Jing stopped his movement, as the superior self-conceited face of Ji XingLing immediately floated in his mind. How should I put it ne? On the first day of his transfer, firstly- there was the resentment of failing to win against the other. Then, later on, was the hatred of trying to snatching away the aunty. This was not a new beginning of a wonderful life together.

The situation in the HuanXi Bieshu district. Mrs. Ji, who was sitting on a snow-like-white fluffy couch, had repeatedly confirmed with her younger brother, whether it was possible to find a second GuhuoNiao⁴ among the city’s housekeeping staff.

¹⁰GuhuoNiao (姑获鸟Gū huò niǎo) Guhuo bird which is also a woman ghost called night-going leisure woman 夜行游女 or TianDi young girl 天帝少女, also known as ghost bird 鬼鸟and it later got popular in Japan in Japanese it is called Ubume. According to folklore, the part-bird, the part-human ghost, embodies a woman who died giving birth. It is a bird-woman. It transforms shapes by taking off or putting on the feather coat. It appears during nighttime and hides during the day.

“Ms. Jiang FenFang is the only one that is on the register.” Hu Lie replied “She really likes her current employer, so she doesn’t have any intention to break the contract. I have tried it.”

GuhuoNiao had always been preferred to take care of well-behaved and adorable children. It was the result of a natural choice; it had nothing to do with the exorbitant price of salary. Although Mrs. Ji felt that it is a great pity, but seeing that her son really cannot be associated as well-behaved nor adorable.. She had decisively made a concession, “Okay then, we will try to find someone else.”

Ji XingLing was lying down on his bed in his room, as he was looking at WeChat with earphones plugged in his ears. Ge Hao had sent never-ending long voice messages, which expressed both his intense admiration and envy about the matter of the boss’s upcoming move out to live alone — He was currently living together with a family of five generations under one roof in an old residence in the north of the city. As the youngest generation, when meeting with family members, he’d be asked by them all, in true earnestness, “What was your rank in the examination?”, which’d make his head feel as if it was going bald.

Young master Ji, however-  gave them a deadpan look, and responded indifferently with a simple “oh” as reply instead.

He was indeed going to move out, but he wasn’t going to move alone; he also dragged both his father and mother with him, as a whole family, to move together to Jiang’An ShuYuan. The domain was currently guarded by Baize Lion⁵, who was a top-notch Xueba from all over the world. According to Mrs. Ji’s logic, the other party should be emitting a warm light no matter what the other party does. And the significant number of students within the administrative region that under indiscrimination treatment had advanced and shone gloriously, at least so that everyone’s exam scores should not look too bad. Ji XingLing had initially wanted to lodge a protest. After all, he merely considered this matter was due to his poor grades; therefore, he still eventually had to pack up his luggage honestly and prepared to live in a group rented community.

The minute hand repeatedly circled, overlapping with the hour hand on the number 12.

Lin Jing had received a lot of problem sets from Wang HongYu when he reported. So- After finishing three sets at night, he was almost able to map out the examination pattern of ShanHai. Compared with his original high school, the progress of the course here is more advanced by 20%, which is not a big deal, and it can be worked out entirely within half a month.

Aunt Jiang had brought a bowl of soup and urged him to rest early then. The freshly aired out quilt still has a trace of a soft sunshine scent. Which generally should help bring about a beautiful dream. Still, it may be because he was thinking again about the five hundred yuan inside his pants pocket before going to bed.. Which resulted in Lin Jing brandishing a cleaver and deformed rebar while he helped Ji XingLing all night in a gang fight, it was quite a grand scale action scene. Then the tattooed big brother’s iron fist and the bedside alarm clock had pierced his head and woke him up in the morning, together.  Lin Jing stood in the bathroom with a toothbrush dangling from his lips, and it took him five full minutes to properly wake up.

But fortunately, due to the flourishing period of young teenagers, who mostly had no shortage in staying-up-late privilege- he hadn’t even needed a cup of coffee. He was able to rejuvenate his vitality by simply chomping on an apple. On the first day of school, the materials that he had to bring cannot count as few, and coupled with the addition of the huge and thick book of “A Dummy’s Guide to a Life in a Trendy City” from Ji XingLing..  Lin Jing simply had to schlep his carry-on luggage directly. When the homeroom teacher Wang HongYu helped him find his classroom, it happened to be just on time as the math class representative Li MoYuan had started to distribute the final examination papers of last semester.

“Please, move your attention towards the front for a bit.” Wang HongYu cleared his throat and stood on the podium with a big smile on his face. “From today on, there is a new addition to our classroom. Everyone, let’s welcome him.”

The applause was very warm and welcoming. With the introduction of a handsome boy, the girls were a little bit more excited than the boys. After Lin Jing finished giving a simple introduction- he had officially become a high school member of class 2-1. There were several empty seats inside the classroom. After not seeing Ji XingLing’s figure in sight, Lin jing had come up with two possibilities. First,  there was a sudden large-scale internal conflict that broke out in RenRui Corporation last night. The only heir had to temporarily take some time off of school and resolutely shoulder the heavy responsibility of saving the family. From then on, he devoted himself to the business competition, and had to say goodbye to high school life for once and for all. -Therefore, he had no time to recruit a new minion. Second, the young master was just late. 

Ji XingLing, who had a school backpack hanging off his shoulders, had punctually appeared at the classroom entrance as the bell rang. As he was about to shout “here”, his eyes immediately fell on the little country monster on the podium, and he was slightly taken aback by the sight.

Lin Jing and Ji XingLing stared at each other with innocent and amiable expressions.

“…”

The seat that Wang HongYu had arranged for Lin Jing was on Li MoYuan’s right-hand side. All Shanhai seats were single-seater school desks and chairs, with no desk-mates, meaning no distraction either, which was very suitable for single-minded hard-core studying. Ji XingLing threw his lightweight and flat school backpack into the space for books on the desks, hooped his right leg up, moved sideways while inclining to the rear and glanced. Then he saw Lin Jing was digging out stack after stack of books and placing them onto the desk.. the only thing left was for him to make those stacks of books into a circle and it’d look more like a bunker than a stack of books on a student’s desk.

The last book he took out was “A Dummy’s Guide to a Life in a Trendy City”. Since, the title of the book was too country bumpkin-y.. Lin Jing had purposely used old newspapers to cover the book, he was full of a strong feeling of disgust when he did so. Of course, if one must say so, then it wasn’t impossible to say that he had cherished and used this as a means of taking care of the book.

Young Master Ji was very pleased with the sight, as the corners of his lips tilted up into an arc, and he then raised his eyebrows toward Lin Jing.    

Lin Jing, “…”

Yu YiZhou, who was starting to piece together the clues, reached out and tapped on Ji XingLing’s shoulder that was sitting in the front of his seat, “Hey, this newcomer, isn’t he the one who said something about kidnapping yesterday?”

“Yes.” Ji XingLing was much too lazy to explain more, and while he was fishing out a Chinese book, YiZhou reminded in friendly-way, “Brother, this period is mathematics, and Mr. Li is going to talk about the final exam test papers.”

Mr. Li’s full name was Li JianSheng; most of the time, he took on the aura of a taciturn famous teacher, and occasionally felt a sudden urge to share some dry humor from the internet on impulse. In the eyes of the students, they found it mildly endearing and kind of bewildering how the middle-aged man was trying so hard to keep up with the trends by some dry humor he’d share on a whim.. Mr.Li placed the thermos mug in his hand down and then his eyes darted to look over the classroom. Seeing that Yu YiZhou and Ji XingLing were still talking in low whispers, he issued instructions, “The new classmate has no test paper. Ji XingLing, move over to him so that you can share.”

Facing this kind of genius arrangement, both parties fell silent. The main culprit had already leaned back and shrunk himself. Then firmly shut up.

Five seconds later, Ji XingLing threw his test papers on Yu Yizhou’s desk, then grabbed his test papers, carried his chair, and sat down next to Lin Jing.

Yu YiZhou, “…”

Wocao⁶, What was this kind of operation?!

The red “x” sign had continuously plagued all over the test papers, eighty-six points, and failing. Thinking that this was actually the result of Ji XingLing’s selection, Lin Jing was really curious, and looked “offhandedly” to his right. It seemed that he and Yu YiZhou had a telepathic connection; with a straight face, he showed the test paper, which had the giant “27” points in there.

For the first time in his life, Lin Jing madly appreciated such a stunning score, and he was suddenly filled with profound reverence. How had he done it?

Ji XingLing gritted his teeth, “I had a fever that day!”

Lin Jing observed his temporary desk-mate. He had long hands and feet, as he was tall and robust. He could slip into the cafeteria to work without a medical certificate. The possibility of fever was basically the same as the possibility of aliens holding Gatling guns making a surprise attack to raid ShanHai High School on the day of the examinations. So, he altered his expression to cooperate and comforted him, “Then you should pay more attention to resting and taking care of oneself.”

Ji XingLing snorted while he rested his head on one hand and then completely ceased talking. Mr. Li, on the podium, had already begun to speak about the multiple-choice questions. Lin Jing took out a mechanical pencil and helped Yu YiZhou by making correction notes next to his mistakes with great ease. He was writing at breakneck speed. When Ji XingLing had stopped daydreaming and came back to earth, Lin Jing was already writing a lot of step formulas neatly on the paper. Clearly, he kept on solving problems on his own, without listening to the teacher’s lecture.

His ability in his studies was pretty good. Young Master Ji has imagined the inspirational story of the little monster in the countryside, who was poor but ambitious, and to strive to succeed, he had to pierce the wall to steal a light⁷.

“Look at the thirteenth question carefully again; this is the key point of the exam.” Li JianSheng took a sip of water and walked down from the podium at the front of the classroom with his hands behind his back. There was a rustle as the sound of pen nibs filled the classroom. Ji XingLing kicked Lin Jing from under his desk to signal the other party to turn the test paper to Question #13, lest not be nagged by Mr. Li again. 

Too bad that Lin Jing had misread the signal, thinking that the other was dissatisfied with the place being too crowded, so he voluntarily shifted to the side to make more room to accommodate Young Master Ji to stretch his big long legs that had nowhere to rest.

Seeing that Mr. Li had already come over, Ji XingLing could only reach out his hand to turn it over by himself, but it was still a step too late. Li JianSheng cast a glance at the test paper on the two people’s desks and asked, “Has NingCheng Third Grade Junior High School’s course progress already finished learning random variables?”

“Almost.” Lin Jing stood up and replied.

“Sit down ba.” Li JianSheng nodded, then dropped another sentence, “You should listen carefully to class in the future, so don’t do it again.”

Ji XingLing, “…”

That’s it?

Because Mr. Li’s overall tone was too loving and peaceful, as a result, Lin Jing simply didn’t regard it as a criticism at all. After sitting down, Ji XingLing had looked at him with a wocao⁸ face.. he was still quite astonished at how Mr.Li’s tone changed so dramatically.  Just at the exact moment, the bell rang. As Li JianSheng was leaving the classroom, he specifically called Lin Jing, to ask him and Li MoYuan to visit his office.

Lin Jing asked Ji XingLing in a low voice, “Who is Li MoYuan?”

“That’s me.” The boy on the left stood up with a smile, “Let’s go ba! Teacher Li’s office is on the east side, so we should move fast.”

The morning sunshine was golden and warm. Absolutely cozy and comfortable. The two walked out of the classroom one after the other, leaving behind a noisy discussion about whether this was to be considered a historic meeting between the two math leaders in this class. It was of epoch-making significance. When class 2-1 publishes a graduation book in the future, it’s of the significance to be written over and over to cover the whole page.

Ji XingLing was rather indifferent about this choice of discussion. He sat back to his original position and threw the test papers onto the desk in the rear row, “Thank you.”

Yu YiZhou looked at the detailed problem-solving steps on his test papers, then made a click sound, “tsk tsk” with his tongue in admiration, “The ranked first place of NingCheng Third Grade Junior High School is not only a bluff to brag but, actually-  truly awesome.”

Ji XingLing registered something wrong when he mulled over the sentence, “Is the place really that famous?”

“Do you mean Third Grade Junior High? It’s not bad, right? It ranks among the top ten within the province.” Yu YiZhou unscrewed the water bottle and asked, “Why are you asking about this?”

Ji XingLing paused a bit, “I thought the school building of Third Grade Junior High was in a remote, thick, forest-like mountain.”

Yu YiZhou, “…”

How’d this misunderstanding of yours come to be?

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1. 两肋插刀 (liǎng lèi chā dāo) – lit. Knives piercing both sides (idiom); fig. to attach a great importance to friendship, up to the point of being able to sacrifice oneself for it.
2. 校草 (Xiào cǎo) – lit. School grass; fig. the most handsome boy in the school.
3. The Magic Conch shell (神奇海螺shénqí hǎiluó) – The Magic Conch shell is a toy used by SpongeBob and Patrick to answer their questions, and that they will survive as a club and as long as they have the “Magic Conch Shell,” a Magic 8 ball-like device which SpongeBob and Patrick treat as prophetic and all-knowing. They also believe the Magic Conch should never be questioned and should always be consulted before any action is taken.

5. Baize Lion (白泽 báizé) – also called the Beast of the White Marsh. An auspicious beast which can speak human languages and is known for its great wisdom. It looks like a white lion with horns and (sometimes) multiple sets of eyes. 

   • “Baize” literally means “White Marsh”.
   • In mythology, the Baize taught the Yellow Emperor about all the supernatural creatures in the world and how to overcome them.

6. Wocao (我操wǒ cāo) – 我 means I, 操 means fuck. 我操 is originally used as a swear word, it just as the word fucking in English.
7. 凿壁偷光 (záo bì tōu guāng) – lit. to pierce the wall to steal a light (idiom); fig. to study diligently in the face of hardship. Literally meaning “bore a hole on the wall to steal light”, 凿壁偷光 tells a story about a kid who dug a hole on the wall to make use of the neighbor’s light to study. This idiom story is used to describe someone who studies or works very hard.

8. wocao (卧槽) – The Chinese word “卧槽” is an interjection that comes from “fuck” indeed. Due to the internet censorship of the Chinese government, people couldn’t type 我操&我草&我艹 such these words; it will be transferred as a series of asterisks, like**. So innovative Chinese netizens use 卧槽 instead of 我操12, these words sound the same. But there is still something different when we use 卧槽.我操 is a very straightforward swear sentence to insult someone, it’s only used when someone is furious,卧槽 is slighter in the literal sense. However, it sounds like the former; it doesn’t contain the word 操(fucking) in its word-formation. So the meaning of the word and the scope of the application both have changed, 卧槽 no longer just involve the negative sense; it more often means awesome as a sigh word. For these reasons, 卧槽 becomes a more popular word in modern China, even than the popularity of 我操 in the traditional Chinese world.

   The meaning of “卧槽” depends on the tongue. Typically 卧槽it has 6 different meanings, but you need to say that word in 6 different tones.

   • wô caò (3rd tone; 4th tone) means you are angry. It’s kinda like “damn it.”
   • wò caò (4th tone) means you are surprised. Equal to “wtf?”
   • wò caó (4th tone; 2nd tone) means you doubt about something, equal to “really?”
   • wò cao (1st tone; no tone) is the word you say when somebody or someone suddenly scares you.
   • wō cao (1st tone; no tone) means you despise somebody for something.
   • wo cao (no tones) simply means appreciation.