Chapter 69 - Time (Translated and edited by Xing)

During the holiday, the school's gate was locked but a guard was stationed there to unlock it for staff entering or exiting. Tang Xue was only considered a staff's family and might not necessarily have the same privilege.

Li Yubing felt that they could simply let the guard know they were there. However, Tang Xue did not want to reveal her presence. The guard was familiar with her father and thus naturally recognized her as well. If they entered through the gate today, it was likely that her father would know that she hung out with Li Yubing and start nagging at her again.

"Let's climb the wall," she told Li Yubing.

Li Yubing was a little puzzled. "Why climb the wall when there's the door?"

"I haven't climb a wall for a long time. Can't I suddenly feel like climbing?"

"What's with this peculiar hobby…"

Despite scoffing at her, Li Yubing ultimately followed Tang Xue in climbing the wall.

Li Yubing climbed a school wall for the first time in his life. Unfamiliar with the motion, it was inevitable that his movements were clumsy. Luckily, he was fit enough that he managed to accomplish it without much difficulty and only grazed his palms in the process. In contrast, Tang Xue's movements were smooth and practiced. With one look, anyone could tell that she was experienced at this.

"How many times have you done this…" Li Yubing could not resist scoffing at her again.

Tang Xue crossed her arms and giggled while looking at him. "Li Yubing, I realize you haven't changed much. Till now, you're still an obedient baby who hasn't even climbed a wall before!"

Is it that weird to have never climbed a wall? It's only weird to have climbed before!

Li Yubing disagreed with her silently without saying a word. The area where his skin broke was a little itchy and he rubbed it against his s.h.i.+rt.

Tang Xue noticed his movements. "You're hurt? Let me see."

Li Yubing stretched his hand out.

Tang Xue pulled his hand over to her front. His hand was much bigger than hers and her hand was filled holding his four fingers.

Li Yubing's fingers sunk into her soft and warm palm. His mind was thrown into disarray and he began to breathe lightly and carefully, seeming as if he was afraid of startling her.

Tang Xue looked at Li Yubing's hand with lowered eyes. On his palm near the web between his thumb and index finger, there was indeed a large area that had been grazed. His skin was lightly sc.r.a.ped but it did not look serious as there was no sign of blood. She bent her head and pursed her lips towards the broken patch of skin.

Li Yubing stared at her cherry-like pursed lips. His heart pounded fiercely and his Adam's apple bobbed.

Puff——

Tang Xue blew gently on his skin.

The sensation of the cool air brus.h.i.+ng against his skin was soft and light. It felt like he was being tickled with a feather. Fl.u.s.tered, Li Yubing swallowed his saliva.

Tang Xue let go of his hand. She kept her head bent and did not dare to look at him straight. She said softly, "It won't be painful after blowing."

Li Yubing thought, it won't be painful only after kissing.

However, he only dared to be a rogue in his mind. The actual word that came out was, "Thanks."

Tang Xue did not say anything else. She walked along the wall as she headed to find the cla.s.sroom they used to be at. As it was the holidays, there was no one sweeping the campus. Numerous leaves had piled up next to the wall and they crackled noisily when stepped upon. Li Yubing slotted his hands in his pockets and followed Tang Xue with slow, leisurely steps. As he walked along, he casually raised his head and saw sunlight streaming down the gaps between the tree leaves and branches. The scattered, golden rays were still and unperturbed—just like the pa.s.sage of time.

Tang Xue quickly found their old cla.s.sroom. As school had yet to start, all of the cla.s.srooms were sealed and locked. Tang Xue and Li Yubing stood in front of the window and brashly stared into the cla.s.sroom through the gla.s.s like two discipline masters.

Tang Xue asked Li Yubing, "Can you still find the seats that we sat at?"

Li Yubing answered with an "mm".

"It's a pity that we can't go in to have a look," Shortly after she lamented this, Tang Xue began tapping the edges of the windows, one after another.

"What are you doing?" Li Yubing asked.

"Let's see if we can flip in through the windows."

"You…" Li Yubing did not even know what to say anymore. Translated by Xing for only teafragrance[dot]wordpress[dot]com.

Astonished delight suddenly appeared on Tang Xue's face. "Oh? This window doesn't seem to be locked." As she spoke, she used strength to push. She pushed and pushed with all her might, to the point that her entire face was flushed.

Li Yubing could only helplessly walk over to help her.

The window in question was jammed. From this, it seemed that rather than forgetting to lock it due to carelessness, the teacher might have been unable to unjam it as well. Li Yubing was quite strong. With him there, the window was finally nudged open bit by bit.

That window needed to count its blessing for not being dismantled by him.

Tang Xue flipped nimbly into the cla.s.sroom. Behind her, Li Yubing cautioned, "Slow down."

"Hurry up!"

The two of them found their former seats, brushed off the dust and sat down.

The moment they sat down, it was as if the floodgates to their past were opened. Scenes from their childhood swirled up like a tidal wave and swept them into an ocean of memories. That very instant, Li Yubing recalled numerous memories of his time with Tang Xue.

They were in the same study group and he had helped to check her homework by correcting her wrong words and polis.h.i.+ng her paper. In return, she wrote an essay that slandered him…

They partic.i.p.ated in a community service program together as free guides at a tourist attraction. He helped Tang Xue to explain the attraction's history while Tang Xue helped him to pull in tourists…

They teamed up to set up the blackboard bulletin. Their opinions differed too much and neither of them was willing to meet the other halfway. In the end, the blackboard was split into two distinctive halves of completely different styles. When their teacher saw this, she did not know whether to laugh or cry and thoroughly scolded them for it…

They were on cla.s.sroom duty together. Tang Xue liked rummaging through the bin for gossip. She once found a love letter that a cla.s.smate had written to Li Yubing and teased him for it. He tore the letter to pieces and ignored her for the entire day…

How they ate lunch together…

How they played together…

How they…

Humans are really strange.

An experience that was once beautiful could sour with time, making one feel only indifference or even disdain when looking back.

An experience that was once intolerable could mellow with time, stirring up only feelings of warmth and nostalgia when recalling it.

Time…

"Li Yubing, look." Tang Xue suddenly spoke and interrupted Li Yubing's train of thoughts.

Li Yubing looked down and saw her point to a line on the table. The line was a stroke shallowly carved out with a penknife before being filled in with a blue fountain pen. It was as neat as a carpenter's ink line. The fountain ink had seeped into the wood and due to oxidization, the initially bright colour had turned dark and dull. One could tell that it had been some time since this line was drawn.

The tables in use were all double desks. As such, it was inevitable that some territorial disputes would happen. Establis.h.i.+ng a boundary was something that many had done before. However, it was rare for others to draw it as neatly as this.

The line was drawn by Li Yubing. At that time, Tang Xue's writing posture was like a crab. She would sprawl sideways and take up lots of s.p.a.ce. Her elbow was always thrust over in front of him. Li Yubing was forced to act like a one-armed warrior and study using only one hand. Seeing how their cla.s.smates drew territorial lines, Li Yubing drew one as well out of helplessness. Being the top student in cla.s.s, the line he drew had its own style as well. Precisely measured and not a hair out of place, this was the most outstanding line drawn in the entire cla.s.s.

Alas, this beautiful line did not seem to have the desired effect. Tang Xue persisted in her behaviour and did not turn from a crab to a crayfish as a result of it.

Li Yubing traced the line with his finger and felt somewhat poignant. "This table actually hasn't been changed."

"Mm.' Tang Xue nodded. "My dad said that the tables and chairs can't be changed too frequently in order to teach the students to be frugal."

However, this table should indeed be changed. The table surface was already quite damaged while the table leg was a little shaky. It was time to retire it. Tang Xue wondered where the replaced table would go. She felt a little forlorn and really wanted to s.h.i.+ft it home.

She sprawled on the table and examined it again. Besides the neat territorial line, there was various other nonsense on it. Some were drawn on while some were carved on. Amidst the mess of lines, she found a poker card that she had once drawn. Half of the poker card had long worn away while the other half was covered by subsequent lines that had come after it. It was impossible to tell what it originally was.

Tang Xue pointed to the remnants of the black Spade card and asked Li Yubing, "Do you still remember what this is?"

Li Yubing only needed to glance at it once before he replied. "Of course." He suddenly laughed. This chapter is a labour of love that should not be found outside of teafragrance[dot]wordpress[dot]com.

This poker card marked an embarra.s.sment in Tang Xue's history—how she once went through the excruciating experience of bankruptcy.

If one were to carefully examine the series of events, they would trace the cause of her bankruptcy to Li Yubing.

There was a period when Li Yubing was particularly oppressed by Tang Xue. In order to cope, he decided to start a side business and organize a lucky draw in cla.s.s. The prizes were all items that he had brought from home. The top prize was a small robot, which was an extremely novel item back then. The second and third prize were quite decent as well. As for the consolation prize, it was a ballpoint pen refill. Li Yubing was also very mindful of his cla.s.smates' ego. Rather than calling the consolation prize as it was, he chose to call it a 'merit prize' instead.

The lucky draw was a dollar per play. However, being broke was not an issue. One could use other items to play instead. In fact, Li Yubing highly encouraged everyone to use other items to partic.i.p.ate. This was because he might not necessarily be able to keep the money.

Everyone who partic.i.p.ated was required to keep this a secret. Otherwise, they might lose their chance at winning the robot.

The lucky draw event was extremely successful. People would crowd around Li Yubing as soon as lessons ended. When Teacher Zhao curiously asked them what they were up to, all of the children immediately replied in unison, "We're looking at Li Yubing's robot!"

Oh, that's not an issue. Teacher Zhao stopped bothering them.

Li Yubing became the biggest bookmaker in cla.s.s. Even Tang Xue partic.i.p.ated in the lucky draw. Considering her ident.i.ty, Li Yubing allowed her to have two free plays. After she drew two ballpoint pen refills, Tang Xue was. .h.i.t by a wave of envy.

She was envious of not Li Yubing's robot but the position of being the lucky draw organizer. She felt that it was a prestigious role befitting of her. Therefore, it was not long before she imitated Li Yubing in creating a similar activity.

Even though her prizes did not include a robot like Li Yubing's, the items she offered were also popular trinkets at that time. This made her lucky draw quite attractive as well.

However, Tang Xue had made a grave mistake—being too young, she had no conception of the probabilities involved in a lucky draw. Thus, she did not calculate the odds systematically and instead based it off her gut feeling. As a result, on the first day of operation, Tang Xue discovered that she had made a loss after matching the earnings with what had been paid out. She thought that her luck was not good and thus drew a black Ace of Spades on the table, hoping that its mysterious powers would help her to change her luck.

Despite so, her luck did not change. Instead, the situation got progressively worse.

Then, she started owing people prizes and her cla.s.smates all ran to their teacher to seek justice. Teacher Zhao felt that Tang Xue was indeed a talented child. Even when causing trouble, she was capable of doing so in such a creative manner. She scolded Tang Xue and reported this incident to Princ.i.p.al Tang.

Princ.i.p.al Tang almost expired from anger. "Do you know that what you're doing is illegal gambling?!"

Her eyes br.i.m.m.i.n.g with tears, Tang Xue did not dare to even nod or shake her head.

Princ.i.p.al Tang used his money to cover the prizes that were owed to Tang Xue's cla.s.smates. Then, he told her, "I'm not forking out that amount of money for nothing. You need to earn it back."

The method of earning it back was a part-time job. The nature of the part-time job? Picking up dog p.o.o.p.

Princ.i.p.al Tang toughened his stance in order to make Tang Xue understand how tragic it was to go astray.

Therefore, for that entire month's weekends, Tang Xue would wander around her residential area with a shovel and a bag to pick up dog p.o.o.p. Each dog p.o.o.p was worth a dollar. If she was lucky, she would meet aunties or uncles carrying a plastic bag while walking their dog. By going up and being adorably polite, she would be able to get a piece or two of dog p.o.o.p. The aunties' and uncles' expressions would always be deeply conflicted. What could such a pretty young girl be collecting dog p.o.o.p for…

Li Yubing had the luck to stumble upon the scene of Tang Xue picking up dog p.o.o.p once. It left a deep impression on him and somewhat traumatized, he went back and quickly stopped his own lucky draw operation.

Therefore, the cause of Li Yubing's current laughter was that he had recalled Tang Xue's sorry figure while picking up dog p.o.o.p.

Tang Xue was irked by his laughter and shoved him. "You're not allowed to laugh! It was entirely your fault!"

Li Yubing was pushed off-centre. He flopped onto the desk and using one hand to support his chin, he watched her with an amused smile. He had a mischievous look on his face but his gaze was filled with gentle warmth.

Tang Xue turned away and ignored him. She patted her hair self-consciously. Translated by Xing for only teafragrance[dot]wordpress[dot]com.

Li Yubing looked at her side profile. In the background was a bright gla.s.s window. Sunlight shone in through the gla.s.s and landed on the wooden table. A ray of sunlight separated the two of them.

The cla.s.sroom was extremely quiet. There was only the sound of them breathing.

His heart felt a little restless.

This was the first time that Li Yubing was alone with a girl he liked in an environment like this. Without seeming too abrupt or brash, he did not know what he could do in order to draw their relations.h.i.+p a little closer. He could only watch her silently and feel the vividness of his heartbeat.

Tang Xue was never a serene person. The silence soon made her fidget. After rummaging through the table's compartment, she actually managed to find a red scarf from what had appeared to be an empty table.

"Hey." Tang Xue was a little gleeful. "Come here, let me put on a dog collar for you." As she spoke, she took the red scarf and attempted to hook it around Li Yubing's neck.

Li Yubing dodged her with a laugh.

Due to how his body was much longer than hers, she could not catch him no matter how much she wanted to. Then, Li Yubing suddenly grabbed her hand. While she was startled by his action, he easily s.n.a.t.c.hed the red scarf over.

"Do you even know how to tie it?" Li Yubing said while holding the red scarf.

"Why won't I?"

"Your red scarf was always tied by me when you were young."

"Cough."

What Li Yubing said was not false. When Tang Xue was young, her red scarf was tied by her father at home. She liked to play with it in school and often untied it before draping it casually over her neck. Before primary three ended, Li Yubing was always the one who helped her to tie it. She only started tying the red scarf herself in primary four.

Even though it was the truth, she felt inexplicable embarra.s.sment when Li Yubing said it out like this. She also did not know what exactly she felt embarra.s.sed over.

Taking advantage of how she was lost in thought, Li Yubing looped the red scarf over her neck, lowered his head and focused on tying it for her.

While he was doing so, his fingers accidentally brushed across her bare neck, causing her to shudder and tense subconsciously.

After so many years, Tang Xue had long grown from a tiny doll to a charming young lady. When Li Yubing noticed her raised chest rising with every breath she took, his brain went 'uh oh' and his fingers began trembling lightly.

Tang Xue stared at Li Yubing's face. At first, she looked at that small and pretty-looking mole on the side of his nose bridge. Li Yubing's features were handsome and defined. With his resolute character, he had quite a domineering presence. The addition of the mole was a playful touch that optimally softened his entire presence and prevented him from appearing completely aloof.

As she watched his face, Tang Xue suddenly asked, "Li Yubing, why is your face red?"

"Your figure's too good."

"…" When Tang Xue realized what he meant, her face reddened as well.

Then, she landed one leg on his chair and kicked him to the side along with it. "Scram! You rogue!"

Li Yubing's stifled laughter did not stop.

Tang Xue untied the red scarf and put it back into the table. She got up and flipped out of the window.

Li Yubing followed behind hurriedly. He yanked the window back to its original spot before das.h.i.+ng after Tang Xue noisily with a grin on his face.

This is an original work of 酒小七 (Jiu Xiaoqi) translated by Tea Fragrance. If you are not reading this at teafragrance[dot]wordpress[dot]com, this translation has been reposted without the translator's consent. Head there for extra content or to leave feedback and comments on the novel translation.

Tfw you spend ages poring over a few sentences in order to translate a character's appearance without being too literal while adhering to the original meaning. Cause translating too literally means typing things like "X is the epitome of grace and beauty and his/her face is heaven's masterpiece". Ok, I exaggerate but you get my point.

And when I'm done, it takes readers less than a second to skim over the finished sentence lmao. I am going to treat myself to a nice book with the ko-fi donations I received.