Why are you going through the test paper now? What the hell are you listening to?
The heavy rainfall had always occurred at the end of the autumnal equinox in JinCheng, and followed by the coldness and chilliness in the air increased a bit during the early morning. Even people like Ji XingLing, who hardly ever put on his school uniforms nicely, would be well-behaved by pulling the zipper to the neckline. When Lin Jing came out from 1302 with an umbrella, the young master was leaning against the elevator entrance, with a carton of milk dangling from his mouth, as he casually scrolled the news at ShanHai Yi Wen (strange news) app of the international version. After staying up late for several days doing some cramming for an English exam, he found that the result was still a foregone conclusion, as he was completely unable to read it.
Most of the names of foreign monsters were mainly unfamiliar. Either the cow’s stomach beast with fire in its eyes1, Butatsch-ah-ilgs, or Kojiki’s Yamata no Orochi, the eight-forked head and tail giant serpent2. All was so long that it nearly overflowed the screen for as far as the eye could see. After such a comparison, Brother Xing had decided to go back and recite the words for the college entrance examination, such as the kind and simple word as ‘abnormal’.
“Morning.” Lin Jing greeted.
“How is your dizziness? Are you already feeling okay?” Ji XingLing threw the milk package into the trash can and pressed the down button of the elevator casually. “My driver isn’t here today, so I’m going to take the school bus with you.”
Lin Jing sounded “Mhm,” and then asked, “Are you free after the exam? I invite you to dinner.”
“Not tonight. I have to go to Wan He.” Ji XingLing said. Last time, because Ge Hao suddenly bloomed, the matter of pick-up the goods was delayed. The boss had called three-four times to remind him.
“Is it Wanhe Building ma?” Lin Jing felt that the name was somewhat familiar to him. “Is there a trendy store that sells Air Jordan? It should be quite famous.”
“Are you talking about Brother Xu’s legend shop?” Ji XingLing was taken by surprise, “I was going to find him tonight. Did you order some stuff too?”
“No, there is a friend who has his birthday coming soon, and I want to pick a gift for him.” Lin Jing said, “Last time, I saw him post this store on WeChat Moments, and it seems there’s a pair of sneakers that he likes very much.”
Both the Lin family’s parents were doctors, and they were too busy to get out of their work, so the JinCheng’s house and the housekeeping aunt were all entrusted to friends for help. This time I just used Liu Xu to pay back some favors by celebrating his birthday.
“Then you can come with me.” Ji XingLing said, “Me and Brother Xu are old acquaintances. Actually, there is also a bullfrog shop that does a good job. Do you eat ma?”
“Either way, anything is fine.” Lin Jing stood at the lobby entrance and opened an umbrella, “Duck in.”
The drizzling rain was mild, and it only had a very tiny delicate ripple when it had dropped into the community’s pond, which was basically the same as nothing. Ji XingLing pushed the umbrella that came in his direction away as he said in a cool manner, “Block yourself, I don’t need it.”
No sooner had he finished talking, the extremely light rain had turned into a big bean, raining cats and dogs… bucketed down, as it downpoured, which was the huge one, anyway.
Lin Jing asked, “How about now then?”
Brother Xing silently moved under the umbrella and raised his middle finger towards the sky.
Wori, Flying Raindragon, are you crazy?
The school bus, which was full of people, was a bit too noisy, but it was expected for there always had to be extra excitement before and after the exam. However, since the appearance of Ji XingLing, all the chattering has automatically become silent. Don’t know whether it was too shocking for the young master who condescended to simple men, had degraded honor to take the school bus in his own accord, or it was the fear of being beaten if someone had spoken too loudly.
Ji XingLing felt perplexed, “Why does the driver keep looking at me? Do we need to buy a ticket ma?”
“No need.” Lin Jing passed him along the other side of his earpieces, “Listen to the song.”
“What song?” Ji XingLing plugged it on easily.
The female voice transmitted from the earphones was very familiar, and it was English listening comprehension.
Little Teacher Lin was still very cautious and conscientiously, when it came to the matter of “helping the bottom ranking of the grade to maintain an eight-grader public persona3 that hardly ever studies”.
As the weather turned colder, the old electric fan in the WuTong Building was finally able to stop working. The slight wispy breeze slipped in from the window, and blew into the classroom, making people very comfortable.
The invigilator teacher changes once a day, when he entered the door, and saw there were two school desks on the podium. He thought they both were disobedient troublemakers who needed special precautions, so they weren’t allowed to move back.
“Mr. Sun, why do we have one fewer examinee in our class?”
“That’s Yue Sheng ba. He’ll take a year off because of sickness. I just met Teacher Liu in the morning and talked a few words about it.”
“Really, that should be a severe illness.”
Upon hearing what was said, Ji XingLing had knitted his brow slightly. The adult monster who had been bribed to make trouble on the school ground, had indeed violated the “Monster Peace and Order Penalty Law” and was required to be educated and pay fines. Still, it seemed very unlikely that he needed to take a year of school leave. Is it recidivism, so it should be dealt with strictly?
He planned to find the grocery store owner to inquire after the exam.
The grade director had personally made up the English test. Lin Jing briefly scanned it roughly and found that the difficulty was not low. There were many consecutive readings in the first big question of listening, and you would lose and stray far from the main points if you didn’t pay good attention to it. He hadn’t done the two questions that were beyond the scope of yesterday’s mathematics test, so there was no room for losing points in English. He had to concentrate while writing shorthand on the manuscript sheet.
Next to him, Ji XingLing smartly chose “C” with one stroke of the pen, and then confidently prepared to listen to the next question.
Ji XingLing just caught a glimpse of Little Teacher Lin in this scene from the corner of his eye, “…”
Why were you going through the test paper at this time? What the hell had you been listening to?
Two hours passed by quickly. When the teacher left, Ji XingLing came knocking on Lin Jing’s desk, “Same place, Japanese cuisine restaurant?”
“Sure, I’ll treat you this time.” Lin Jing packed his schoolbag, “What do you think of the English test?”
“It’s okay.” Ji XingLing swelled, “Although I didn’t understand the composition very well, I wrote it fully, and it was also very neatly.”
“Can you pass ma?” Lin Jing asked.
“More or less, if the grading examiners can be merciful.” Ji XingLing had something good to imagine about for a moment, “At least, I have somewhat written a lot, like the way you taught me in mathematics that overwriting ‘solution’ steps can get some points, too. And also, on the listening, it seems David likes carrots. I heard about baby carrots being mentioned several times, so I chose the agriculture one as my answer ba. David came to China to learn how to grow carrots, didn’t he?”
“……Um.”
“Really, how come when I look at your expression, it doesn’t seem right.”
“Ji XingLing.”
“What?”
“Otherwise, I treat you to an expensive meal.”
“…”
Until he got into the Japanese cuisine restaurant, Brother Xing remained unreconciled about how he just bent over to pick up a correction fluid. The listening question had shifted from the second question to the third question; it was from David, a German expert who came to China to learn high-speed rail technology, which had changed into the story about a chef who instructed how to produce the yummy carrot puree.
Lin Jing consoled him anyway since English was tough this time, and everyone was definitely not doing very well.
“You better seize the time to recite the comprehensive liberal arts, and even if the total score is less than 400 points, as long as your grade ranking has improved, auntie will still be delighted.”
The young master, with a crab leg dangled from his mouth, fell into a dispirited mood, “Oh.”
David, when he heard his name, he knew he was not a good person.
Go back to Germany and continue growing carrots ba.
When they were done eating, the boss replaced the barley tea with the new one, as it was “gurgling” cooking with the small fire boiling underneath it.
After reading several pages of history, Ji XingLing looked up and saw that the person opposite was already asleep on the table, so he asked the waiter for another blanket.
At half-past two, the phone alarm clock “buzzed” on time. Lin Jing loosened up his muscles and joints to sit up, then stared hazily at the person opposite him for a long time with sleepy eyes, while asking doubtfully, “Why are you in this kind of the wandering of gypsy women’s look?”
“Hey, you really know how to offend people.” Ji XingLing, who was in short sleeves, had thrown the woolen blanket aside, then thrust out his hand, “Give me back my clothes.”
Lin Jing just realized that he was covered with another school uniform.
“Aren’t you a cleanliness OCD ma? I think many customers should have used this woolen blanket, and the side edges are dirty.” Ji XingLing picked up his schoolbag, “Let’s go.”
“…Oh.”
The rain outside the door was still pouring, pitter-pattering continuously, and unknowingly, the summer had been wrapped up.
Compared with the English test papers that just looked like gobbledegook in the morning, the comprehensive liberal arts was much more friendly. It could be called a relaxed and pleasant one hundred and fifty minutes. After the bell of handing over the test papers rang, Ji XingLing took the answer copied by Xueba to compare and check each of it, and once again reignited his confidence in the pocket money.
“How are we going to Wan He?” Lin Jing asked.
“By taking the subway, otherwise the section of Huiquan Street at this hour is too congested.” Ji XingLing said, “I will first send WeChat to ask Old Xu, which pair of AJ do you want?”
“This one, Travis Scott co-branded.” Lin Jing would send him the picture, but remembered that the two hadn’t been added as friends yet.
Ji XingLing took the initiative to hand the phone screen to him, “Here, you scan mine.”
The friendship between classmates had gone further, and it was very worth eating a spicy bullfrog to celebrate.
Metro Line 1 had to pass through the Jinrong Yuan, and it was crowded to death regardless of the time. When the two were pushed off the car by the crowd, the Yeezy 350 on Lin Jing’s feet had been trampled into black gypsophila (baby’s breath flower), which made its value doubled smoothly.
Ji XingLing defended, “I really didn’t know it was so crowded.”
“I know.” Lin Jing tidied his school uniform.
“Do you know it? Why don’t you remind me?”
“I mean, I know that you have only taken the subway a few times. I don’t mean I know that Line 1 is crowded. Why do you think I know that Line 1 is crowded? After all, who are we to be the locals one?”
“…”
“Does your expression mean that you’ve been misunderstood and fooled by me again?”
“Wokao, you better not discriminate against people, okay!”
“Then you repeat it, since you understand.”
“Shut up.”
“You just took the subway, don’t touch my head!”
There was no way I would simply stop! Young Master Ji relied on himself for being taller just a little bit, so that he wouldn’t let go once he grabbed hold of others, and the nature of the school bully was fully revealed.
The two were squabbling all the way, arousing the envy of countless office workers.
At this age ah, even silliness couldn’t cover the beauty of youth.
It takes about five minutes to walk from the subway entrance to Wanhe. The sky after the rain was very dark, so the street lights had been lit up in advance, and they were in the shape of a lovely Yulan Magnolia ‘Yellow River’ flower.
“Brother Xu said that the AJ you want is out of stock, but you can order it, and you can get it within a week.” Ji XingLing shook his phone, “Is that okay with you?”
“No problem.” Lin Jing looked ahead. “There seems to be a drugstore there. I will buy a box of anti-inflammatory drugs first. My throat is uncomfortable because of the cold.”
“You really have a cold?” Ji XingLing asked nonchalantly.
Lin Jin didn’t understand. What did you mean by I really have a cold?
“That black cat is a cat demon.”
“What?”
“Jinhua Cat, you might have heard of it, haven’t you?” Ji XingLing said while walking backward with his hands in his pockets, “I didn’t mention it before because I was afraid of scaring you. After all, that old monster can eat people, and It’s easier for it to handle small plants like you. But don’t worry, it has already used one life to help you solve the enchantment, and it is now under the temporary supervision of the monster vigilante squad. The next step should be handed over to Bi’an Tiger4.”
“Ji XingLing.”
“Hmm.” Compliment me, right now.
“What the hell are you jibber-jabbering about? Why can’t I follow the words you said?”
“…”
Lin Jing tested the temperature of his forehead. Oh, it was normal.
Perhaps you were fine, and I was the one who had a fever.
Translator's Notes
- 灼眼胃兽 (Zhuóyǎn wèi shòu) – Variations: Butatsch-cun-ilgs, It had the appearance of an enormous cow’s stomach, and was covered with thousands of eyes. The eyes had hypnotic powers, and if they focused on one point, bone-melting flames would erupt. The home of Butatsch Cun Ilgs is in Lüschersee, a small Swiss alpine lake nestled in the heather-covered hills of Graubünden, which seems tranquil enough on the surface. Yet it is said that the lake’s waters reach down to the center of the Earth, where eternal fires rage.
- 八岐大蛇 (Bā qí dàshé) – Japanese mythology, Shinto, Yamata no Orochi, a legendary eight-headed and eight-tailed Japanese dragon/serpent that Susanoo slew. The Nihongi also describes Yamata no Orochi, “It had an eight-forked head and an eight-forked tail; its eyes were red, like the winter-cherry; and on its back firs and cypresses were growing. As it crawled, it extended over a space of eight hills and eight valleys. Moreover, if one looks at its belly, it is all constantly bloody and inflamed.”
- Chūnibyō (中二病 Zhōng èr bìng) is a Japanese colloquial term typically used to describe early teens who have grandiose delusions, who desperately want to stand out, and who have convinced themselves that they have hidden knowledge or secret powers. It translates to “second-year disease” (i.e., middle-school second-year), and has been called “eighth-grader syndrome” in English-speaking countries.
- Bi’an (狴犴 Bì àn) – also called the Bi’an Tiger. It looks like a hybrid of a dragon and tiger. Known for its awe-inspiring presence and love of justice and righteousness. They are placed over prison gates (in order to keep guard).
