Dragons and Snakes Follow the Writing Brush, Your Brother Xing.
There was no air conditioner in the old classroom, only the electric fan on the ceiling, which was whirling by making a “buzzing” sound, while the air movement from the fan was blowing the test paper upside down.
In the three major courses other than English and Mathematics, Chinese literature was already regarded as Ji XingLing’s better subject. When he was lucky, he could even pass for a passing score. This time, he was caught by Xueba to grasp and memorize the main points of writing composition several times, by knowingly that “While sticking closely to the topic simultaneously, it would be best to integrate it with the current events, and then demonstrate viewpoints from both personal and social aspects” was commonly used as stealing points tricks. So he was very confident that he could secure his pocket money, after all.
At the end of summer, the morning sun had remained unchanged on offending the eyes and was as dazzling as ever. Lin Jing pulled the curtain to block out some of the scorching light.
Half an hour after the exam started, one of the invigilators had gone out to answer the phone. There was a commotion in the classroom suddenly, and the other invigilator had slapped the podium displeasedly, “Don’t look around, just answer your own papers!”
Lin Jing turned the test paper over to the second page and began to read the next big reading topic. Yue Sheng opportunistically turned sideways and called him with a light “psst”, motioning the other party to shift the test paper to the right.
The invigilator teacher was walking to the other side and overlooked this side for the time being.
“Choose.” Yue Sheng urged again. He didn’t expect to copy five hundred, but more test points were always good to go back and explain with parents.
To prevent catching a cold from the blowing wind of the electric fan, Lin Jing sat very close to the left, which was almost attached to the wall. Yue Sheng, who had called out to him several times, saw that Lin Jing didn’t respond to his calling, and wondered if Lin Jing really didn’t hear it, so he simply took out half of the eraser from the pencil case and threw it over.
The tiny eraser, which had drawn a pitch arc in the air, first rolled over Lin Jing’s test paper, and then bounced forth, hitting Ji XingLing’s back accurately.
Lin Jing frowned slightly, when he just about to speak, the Young Master Ji in front had already moved his chair heavily, and turned around impatiently as he scolded Yue Sheng, “Can’t you tama do and answer it by yourself?”
“…”
Even in the relatively noisy Z examination room, Ji XingLing’s sentence could be said to be rumbling as it jolted people in the class. Even the invigilator teacher was startled and strode over quickly to reprimand, “What’s the matter!”
Lin Jing glanced to the right, “It’s nothing. Someone threw an eraser on my table and hit Ji XingLing.”
The invigilator teacher was a senior assistant in the third year of high school. She glanced at Lin Jing’s neat examination papers, and then remembered that the other party should be the top student who had transferred from Ning Third High School, so she whispered, “Move the table by yourself and change your seat next to the podium ba.”
Several people around had heard what was said, and snickered lowly. They didn’t know whether to laugh at Yue Sheng, who was making a fool of himself in trying to be clever (outsmarting himself), or to laugh at Xueba, who was moved to the Glorious Throne. Lin Jing set his desk and raised his hand, “Teacher, can you let Ji XingLing change his seat, too? I see that the right side of the podium is still empty.”
This time, the following was not a muffled laugh, but the whole room was rocking with laughter. Ji XingLing himself was also dumbstruck. No, I just helped you diss back people. What kind of plant behavior was this that would bite the hand that fed him?
“What’s all the fuss!” The invigilator teacher who answered the phone before pushed the door and entered. He had a pretty fierce appearance, and his voice could shake the whole class so silent as to be able to hear a pin drop.
“The curtain can’t be pulled, and the sun will be bigger later.” Lin Jing explained patiently, “It’s still quite sunny.”
The teacher walked over and tried it, and found that the curtain slide rail was indeed jammed halfway, and the sun, which had slipped in through the gap, had just encased itself to trap the rear two rows.
“Then this student, you change your seat too, faster, and don’t disturb other people’s examination.”
Ji XingLing: To be quite honest, I can really bask under the sunlight for a while.
Two people, one on the left and the other on the right, occupied both sides of the podium perfectly. For the first time in his life, Young Master Ji sat in such a silly position, and when he saw that the few bastards below were still schadenfreude, with their shoulders were shaking with mirth, and his heart suddenly filled with indignation even more. He darted a look to the right, but saw that Lin Jing was also looking at him coldly, inside his eyes were fully described as “What are you looking around for, have you finished writing your test papers ma, you still want your pocket money, don’t you?”
“…”
Your Brother Xing made vigorous and graceful strokes of calligraphy style1.
The Z examination room had lived up to its “prestige”. The examination room had already been emptied by two-thirds, when the exam only began for just over half an hour. Several boys wanted to wait for Ji XingLing to play together, but no one came out for a long time. They stood at the door and peeked in. What they saw was that the people on the podium were still writing hard, even pinched the rollerball pen halfway, thinking long and hard by considering all angles for a while.
Hence they were collectively petrified.
Brother Xing was possessed by Xueba, the ninth wonder of the world.
Ji XingLing handed in the paper five minutes ahead of schedule. It was not to maintain the public persona of “Xuezha would never sit until the last second”, but he really wanted to go to the restroom. When the bell rang, Lin Jing had walked out of the classroom while stretching his wrist, and he saw Ji XingLing was leaning against the railing, playing with his smartphone with his head bowed down.
“Here.” Lin Jing handed him over the manuscript answer sheet in his hand.
“What?” Ji XingLing was inexplicable.
“The answer to the Chinese literature exam.” Lin Jing looked at him, “Are you not going to check it out ma?”
Ji XingLing, “…”
It turned out that you good students still had this stage after the exam.
Lin Jing went on to ask, “You should be familiar with the surroundings of this area ba, are there any restaurants that have private rooms?”
Ji XingLing picked up his school backpack that was on the ground, “There are a lot of private rooms, don’t you want to eat at the cafeteria?”
“The exams in the afternoon didn’t start until three o’clock, and it’s still early.” Lin Jing reminded, “Find a place where no one disturbs you. You can still study secretly for another two hours.”
Ji XingLing was struck speechless.
There was some matter that you were well aware of, and that would suffice, needlessly to put into words, really.
There was no restriction for taking a lunch break out of school during the exam. Armed with an odd as well as the somewhat unfathomable heart-warming motive of “finding a quiet place to study secretly”, the two had finally chosen a Japanese cuisine restaurant, which was considered to be a relatively upscale existence in this area, and the environment was quiet. Ji XingLing was familiar with the road and doors. When he came up, he ordered the live crab and live eel, tempura, foie gras, beef, sea urchin rice, and also two bottles of ice-cold soft drinks.
Lin Jing said, “No wonder you stay up late to study to protect your pocket money.”
“I’m here to please you.” Ji XingLing protested as he took out the answer sheet, and read it carefully. “Don’t say it. I seem to have done an excellent job in the exam.”
Lin Jing twisted open the soft drink, and the bottleneck made a “pop” sound, “I know, otherwise, why do you think I asked the teacher to change seats?”
Ji XingLing incomprehensibly, “What’s about changing seats? Isn’t it because it’s too sunny ma? Speaking of this, sitting on the podium is really silly. It’s better to be sunbathing ne. As soon as you look up, you can see that bastard Qi Peng was sleeping, and there are several others, who had furtively cheated. Their expressions were exceptionally stunning. They really do think the teacher is blind, don’t they?”
Lin Jing swallowed back the words on the tip of his tongue, and finally broke off the crab leg by himself, “Forget it, just eat your meal.”
“No, looking at your desperate look at my IQ, there must be a story.” Ji XingLing pressed his hand, “Spit it out.”
“You just read that big question two days ago, and you have memorized similar model essays.” Lin Jing said, “I’m afraid you did too well in the test, that it will make others actually think that you were cheating on a small cheat note.”
Moreover, according to the noise of “cafeteria bribery of Xueba” before the exam, apparently in their view, Your Brother Xing was not an upright young man with integrity nor righteousness, so it would be better to bring over the person to the podium directly, as to isolated and cut him off from help, while being under the supervision of the teacher and the whole class in answered the question.
Ji XingLing, who was ruminating over a bit of what he said, had digressed from the essential points, “Can I still do too well in such this time?”
“As long as both your Mathematics and English are no longer so horrible, the probability of a total score of four hundred is not without it.” Lin Jing poured soy sauce, “Alright, finish the meal within half an hour, and then memorize the sample questions again one more time.”
Probably because of this morning’s Chinese literature, that had slightly triggered his arrogant self-confidence. Ji XingLing, who was giving him an inch and he would take a mile, had asked, “Then do you think that I might be able to score more than five hundred points?”
Lin Jing, “…”
“Hey, hey, I’ll just say it casually!” Before the insult was dropped, Ji XingLing had rushed to issue a warning, “I just finished one subject of examination, I still need encouragement.”
“I think you are very likely to be up to five hundred this time.” Lin Jing said.
Ji XingLing stared at him for a moment, “No, you are too apparent in your hypocritical show of friendship, right? Can you be a little more sincere?”
“What counts as sincerity? Is it possible that I have to make poems with tears filling my eyes to sing the praises of your yearning for five hundred points?”
“…”
The waitress came in just in time to serve sea urchin rice. Seeing that there were two tall and handsome boys in the private room, both dressed in ShanHai uniforms, the waitress had asked while serving the food, “You are taking an exam today ba, how did you fare in the exam?”
Lin Jing was smiling, “It’s quite okay.”
After her reminder, Ji XingLing just remembered that he didn’t seem to ask Lin Jing whether he was doing well in the exam or not, but then thought better of it. Xueba still got 600 points even if he flunked an examination. With different levels, Brother Xing, who was still accumulating experience in Novice Village, decided not to humiliate himself.
After the meal, the waitress removed the dishes, then replaced them with a pot of bitter and astringent tea, which was said to be refreshing and invigorate the brain.
Lin Jing didn’t like tea very much, so he newly ordered a bottle of soft drink. There was a smooth, round bead stuck in the bottleneck of his soft drink bottle, which was his favorite toy when he was in his childhood years. Just when Ji XingLing was about to get drowsy due to memorizing some formulas and sample questions, he heard a crisp sound of “ding” from the other side. Then he lifted his head, and saw Lin Jing had finished his drink and scrutinized how to tweak the glass bead out.
“…”
Lin Jing asked, “What are you looking at?”
“I didn’t see anything.” Ji XingLing was quick-witted, “You go on.”
“Memorize your notes well.”
“I’m memorizing it ah, but I don’t understand this one question.”
Lin Jing put his soft drink bottle aside and motioned for him to bring in the question.
“Such as this variable, you need to find x-value first, then y-value.”
“Why do we need to find the x-value first, but not the y-value?”
“Because x is daddy.”
“Got it.”
The method that Little Teacher Lin gave lessons was roughly simple and easily understood.
Outside the window, the scorching sun was obscured by the dense thicket shade of trees, leaving only the coolness and tranquillity in the afternoon.
The gentle breeze which slipped between the window gap, had carried along with a very faintly light floral fragrance.
When returning to school, Ji XingLing suddenly said, “Stretch your hand out.”
Lin Jing dubiously, “What are you going to do again?”
“Stretch your hand out. Hurry up.”
“Don’t wanna.”
“Stretch it.”
“Walk faster!”
“Ugh, why are you like this? Wait for me.” Ji XingLing, who caught up with him in two steps, was unfurling his palms in front of him.
There was a rounded glass bead that refracted light under the sunlight.
“Here, the tuition fee.”
Lin Jing, “…”
Childish.
In the sports field, some people were playing ball, and some were chatting and laughing.
Even the sunlight had a touch of a sixteen-year-old feeling.
Translator's Notes
- Dragons and snakes follow the writing brush (笔走龙蛇 bǐ zǒu lóng shé)– lit. Dragons and snakes follow one’s writing brush; fig. Vigorous and graceful strokes of calligraphy style — good penmanship. Dragon and snake at the bottom of the pen, means that the gesture of dragon and snake dancing appears as soon as the pen is swiped. Describes the calligraphy as vividly and imposingly, and the style is free and easy. It also means that the calligraphy is fast, and the gesture is vigorous and lively.