Chapter 27 - Unreachable G.o.ddesses

The canteen was huge, totaling three floors- the main canteen at the bottom, the private rooms at the middle, and the staff restaurant at the top.

The main canteen was surrounded by varying food stalls, and its tables and seats were gathered at the center of the building. It was where most students went to for lunch.

The private rooms, on the other hand, were where the richer students went, though those with a more common family background rented private rooms on occasion, for events like a birthday party, for example. It went without saying that the quality of food provided on the second floor was levels higher than the main canteen's- they were prepared by professional chefs, after all.

The staff restaurant on the third floor was reserved solely for the teachers, and students weren't allowed up there. The food wasn't too different from that of the first floor's, but its environment boasted a little more cla.s.s.

Kang Xiaobo pointed at an office to their right as they entered the canteen. "You can get a card there."

"Oh. I'll go do it now then." Lin Yi said with a nod. The chairman didn't provide Lin Yi with anything of the sort, and Lin Yi a.s.sumed that things like library and canteen cards were his own responsibility.

"Wait, come on!" Xiaobo stopped Lin Yi before he even started walking. "Dude, I'm buying! It's your first day on my turf here!"

"Okay then… I'll go after we've eaten."

"Nice. I'll go with you later." Xiaobo said as he took Lin Yi around the food stalls.

There was quite a variety of foods, with even vegetarian selections as well. The main dishes were split into more categories, along with items like dumplings, buns, and pies. Lin Yi got himself some alfalfa tomatoes with rice, whereas Xiaobo ordered some fish strips and buns. It totalled eleven kuai, the average of food expenses.

Lin Yi and Xiaobo found a seat and placed the dishes at the middle of the table, sharing it amongst themselves.

Lin Yi swept his gaze across the canteen the moment he sat down, failing to find either Yushu or Mengyao, who were most likely feasting on the second floor.

"What you looking at? Girls?" Xiaobo laughed. "Chen Yushu and Chu Mengyao are both upstairs, there's no way they're eating with us here. We might be able to meet Tang Yin though, if we're lucky!"

"I see.." Lin Yi didn't really care where Tang Yin was- Chu Mengyao was his priority here.

"Tang Yin's family is pretty normal, and she always brings lunchboxes to school." Xiaobo sighed. "But she'd have boys lining up to treat her to a meal if she were willing, with looks like that. She could even spend all her lunches in the private rooms, if she wished to."

"Heh, the best girls don't care about things like that." Lin Yi commented dully.

"You're right- and that's the type of girl Tang Yin is. They're really rare now, girls like her." Xiaobo said. "But that virtue only gets her more admirers! Girls who aren't after your riches are our favourite, you know."

Tang Yin, unfortunately, never made an appearance. Lin Yi didn't think much of it, but Xiaobo was feeling a bit down. There were many like him who came to the canteen every lunch break hoping to catch a glimpse of her- it had become something they looked forward to.

Chu Mengyao and Chen Yushu made their way down the stairs from the second floor, at that point, and most of the boys turned their heads for a look. For the vast majority of boys, however, the two were like princesses- unreachable G.o.ddesses.

"You were staring at them weren't you, Lin Yi!" Xiaobo asked after the two girls left.

"Just taking a look." Lin Yi answered, slightly embarra.s.sed from the question.

Xiaobo only sighed. "Well, you'll understand a couple of days later- they're not our princesses- Tang Yin is." Xiaobo looked at Lin Yi with pity, but it wasn't like he didn't understand. He himself was no different back when he just got in the school, crus.h.i.+ng after Chen Yushu and Chu Mengyao as well. The years matured him, however, and he recognized the harsh reality of the distance between them.

Everyone is born equal.

A beautiful ideal. Yet it took only a bit of maturity for someone to understand the impossibility of that beauty- no one was ever born equal, nor would they be.

The likes of Chu Mengyao and Chen Yushu lived their lives with color, spending their time in palaces that the commoners couldn't trample on. Kang Xiaobo was but one of the said commoners.

It pained the cla.s.s to admit it. They all knew how Chu Mengyao rejected Zhong Pinliang's advances, but the reality was clear as day- he was the only one in that cla.s.s who qualified.

The card registration went smoothly, and why wouldn't it? It boosted the school's earnings after all, despite the lies they told you, about how the canteens were not for profit.

Lin Yi produced his student card, putting in two hundred kuai into his canteen card. He turned back to leave the office, only to see Xiaobo staring at him. "Dude, what's with that amount...?"

"What..? I'm gonna be eating here for a year…" Lin Yi didn't understand where this was coming from. The guy was trying to give him hints the whole time he was registering, too.

"Don't you know how school canteens are like? They're all smiley smiley when you top up your card, but wait till you ask for your money back... They're not gonna give it back to you! We're twelfth graders already!" Lin Yi found Xiaobo to be overreacting a little.

"Well, I see, but it's just two hundred kuai isn't it? Didn't we just spend like eleven kuai today?" Lin Yi smiled, unworried. "Plus, so what if they don't give it back, we'll just have a big feast when that time comes."

"How generous." Xiaobo said. "I wouldn't even come to this canteen if the restaurants outside were cheaper."

"I mean… as long there's food, you know?" Lin Yi was never picky when it came to meals. The canteen food wasn't as good as what Li Fu delivered them yesterday, but it was a lot better than Widow w.a.n.g's back home.

They returned to the cla.s.sroom only to find most of the students still studying. Twelfth grade was the most precious of all, and the most stressful, after all. It was the decisive point where you either went to a good college, a bad college, or no college at all.

Those who got into Songshan's First School were all compet.i.tive people, and they didn't want to see themselves falling behind. The rich were exempt from this rule, however, spending their time on the basketball courts and the cybercafes outside.

Chapter 28 - Chen Yushu's Brother

Yushu and Mengyao were bundled up together as they watched 'Pleasant Sheep and the Big Big Wolf' on their MP4, a very childish looking cartoon to Lin Yi. How were the girls so engrossed in it, even giggling here and there?

Yet the giggles didn't bother the boys who were studying, not in the least- it was a melody that added color to the dry days of everyday school life.

The girls, on the other hand, didn't take it that way. There were the envious, the jealous, and even the disdainful, while some didn't care at all. One way or the other, most were envious of the cla.s.s the two girls displayed.

Yushu looked up from the MP4 to glance at Lin Yi before lowering her head again. Lin Yi simply shrugged as he made his way back to his seat.

Xiaobo started studying as well, and Lin Yi decided to flip through some of the twelfth grade textbooks out of boredom.

Zhong Pinliang made it back to cla.s.s before the first afternoon period began, freshly changed and showered, the same as Gao Xiaofu and Zhang Naipao who walked behind him.

Naturally, Pinliang shot a hateful glare toward Lin Yi's direction the moment he entered the cla.s.sroom. He didn't do anything else, surprisingly, only walking to where his seat was.

It was the most embarra.s.sing day of his entire life, by far! It was even right in front of his beloved, could it get any more humiliating than this? Pinliang swore to have his vengeance exacted.

The only thing stopping him from charging at Lin Yi right now was the fact that cla.s.s began in ten minutes, and it wasn't just anybody's cla.s.s- it was the homeroom teacher Ms. Liu's. He decided to go after Lin Yi at a more opportune time, during study hall, for example.

Yushu couldn't help but recall how Lin Yi peed all over Pinliang, barely managing to hold her laugh in as a 'pfft' squeezed out of her lips, her face reddening at the same time as he the image of Lin Yi peeing surfaced.

Zhong Pinliang heard her, and grew very displeased. He'd have slapped anyone else across the face, but Chen Yushu was simply off limits.

Unlike the others, Pinliang understood fully well how terrifying Yushu's background was. He knew the big shot delinquent Wu Xiaocan from last year's twelfth grade, who had his sights set on Chen Yushu ever since the guy was in the tenth. His mentality, however, changed after Yushu rejected him a couple of times.

There came a movie watching event for the whole school once, and Wu Xiaocan took his chance to take a seat next to Chen Yushu, hoping to cop himself some feels. All he got in return was two slaps to the face.

Enraged, he then proceeded to announce to the whole school that he'd dumped Yushu, having gotten bored of her- even going as far as to claim that she'd had an abortion for his sake.

It was too clearly exaggerated, and no one believed the claims… But Chen Yushu's honor and reputation suffered all the same.

A girl like Yushu would never have just stood there and taken it, instead opting to talk things over with Wu Xiaocan. The talk didn't go well, and it ended in a couple more slaps, pus.h.i.+ng Xiaocan over the edge. He then made a threat that he'd get some guys to rape her someday.

Word then reached Chen Yuming, Yushu's older brother. Pinliang would never forget that winter afternoon as long as he lived.

A Land Rover parked itself in front of the school, and out came a tall, burly young man. He wasted no time in making his way to the field, where Wu Xiaocan was.

Xiaocan didn't understand what was about to take place yet, not taking well to Yuming's presence. "Who gives a s.h.i.+t who you are, aren't you just some f.u.c.king soldier? Get this into your head, it doesn't matter how good you are- we have a whole group here- You're not scaring anyone!"

Chen Yuming spoke only one sentence throughout the whole ordeal- "Broadcast an apology to Yushu, and I'll let things go."

Wu Xiaocan only laughed with his lackeys at the warning, claiming that he'd never heard a more ridiculous thing in his life!

Yuming sent a foot into Xiaocan's stomach in response, flipping him through the air as he connected a fist- the sound of bone breaking filled the air.

Xiaocan's lackeys had had their share of brutal fights, but nothing came near to what this man before them did. It was as clear as day that they were not on the same level.

It was genuine anger coming from Yuming. Yushu was his treasure, his baby sister- Wu Xiaocan had molested her, disgraced her, and threatened her. He had crossed the line.

Zhong Pinliang was one of Wu Xiaocan's lackeys at the time, as well, standing in the crowd as Xiaocan writhed about, butchered and in absolute agony. The image even made its way to his nightmares, waking him up with a jolt the days that followed.

Wu Xiaocan's arrogance stemmed from the power of his house, but the opposing party was a major- it wasn't something the Wu family could handle, as it was not their place to be involving themselves with the army.

Chen Yuming, on the other hand, was given demerits, and the event reflected badly on Yuming's troop... but that was it.

And this was only Chen Yuming's own background, unrelated to the Chen house at all, much to their surprise when Xiaocan's family found out. Yushu and Yuming's father was even further beyond their reach, and then there was Elder Chen, far away at Jing Capital, as well.

The Wu family panicked indefinitely- while it could be said that their son was merely playing around, it didn't change the fact that charges could be placed against them. Threatening, slandering…. Xiaocan had done it all. There was also the physical part with him and Yushu as well, along with many others.

Wu Xiaocan's life would be absolutely ruined should the Chen house wish it.

Yet Chen Yuming was more of a generous man, stating that he wanted no further trouble with the Wu family when they paid a visit to apologize, also mentioning that Wu Xiaocan's presence held an unhealthy effect on his sister's wellbeing.

The Wu's understood the intent immediately, transferring their son to another school the second day.

Not many knew of the event that took place. Just remembering the face of Wu Xiaocan back then was enough to give Pinliang shudders- Chen Yushu was out of his league, way more than he was able to chew.

Zhong Pinliang stepped on the weak, but even he knew to back down completely in face of someone of Chen Yuming's calibre. His father had some good fighters under his command, but… It was the army they'd be up against.