Don’t Pretend to be Poor with Me - Chapter 18

A flurried heartbeat that unknowingly arose with a sudden shock

Zhao Yu had nothing to say: “Fine, you have money, but buying all these flowers, do you plan on going back to visit a grave?”

“If you like them, I have no qualms.” Song Yan put away his card, his voice cold, “I’ll send them to your dorms tonight, just take it as me wishing you a happy Tomb Sweeping1 day. No need to thank me.”

Zhao Yu: “……”

What fucking Tomb Sweeping day, the Mid-Autumn festival2 hadn’t even passed yet.

He held back his temper, just wanted to nicely converse with Song Yan, when the shop owner jiejie magnificently pulled out a three-wheeled cart: “Come, I’ll help you bring the flowers back to school.”

Song Yan: “Okay.”

So the three boys, one girl, as well as the over 1,000 roses swayed back and forth until they disappeared in the haze of the setting sun.

Zhao Yu was left behind standing alone in his original spot, and felt he was like a dog.

When these people brought back so many roses, it looked as impressive as it possibly could.

Added to the fact that Song Yan expressed that he would expense it on his own and not take  the class fees, Kong Xiaoxiao hated that he wasn’t Buddha and that she couldn’t sacrifice herself.

She happily took a few pictures and posted it to her WeChat Moments, but when she refreshed her page, saw that Yang Yue had also posted something.

[Little Princess YueYue]: I’m so angry! I’m so angry! Some people in some classes only know to fight over practice rooms, fight over props, and fight over roses. Have you forgotten your glorious history of angering the principal into leaving because your show was too hard to watch! Hmph, don’t think that just because we’re good tempered we’re easy to bully! If you have anything to say, let’s meet tonight! Hands on my hips, panting with rage.

[Passerby 1 from Class 16]: Aiyah, baby, don’t be angry. If you’re angry you won’t be pretty anymore

[Passerby 2 from Class 16]: That’s right, that’s right. Don’t be angry. Our standards are way better, the people are better looking, we’ll win against them just as we have in the past

[Passerby 3 from Class 16]: They don’t even have a female lead in that class, meaning they can’t even afford to find a girl to act. On what basis can they compare to you

[Passerby 4 from Class 16]: Yueyue, don’t worry. I’ve already told our class and Class 15, even if we’re beaten to death we’d never vote for their class. First place is definitely ours.

……

Kong Xiaoxiao felt that there was something wrong with the brains of that group of people. Everyone was in the school’s art group, and had added each other’s WeChat, did they think she wouldn’t see them saying all this?

Or was it that they knew she would see it, so they purposefully posted it to anger her?

How childish.

She had no interest in engaging with this group’s childish antics as if they were royal concubines in court. She shut off her phone, then ran to Class 1’s homeground, to check on those boys putting on makeup and changing their clothes.

Song Yan and Xia Zhiye’s basic foundations were pretty good, their skin had no blemishes, their facial features were also distinct, and after wearing their wigs they were basically prepared for battle.

But the other actors were a bit of a spectacle.

Ruan Tian helped them draw their makeup on while sighing.

Her sighing made their hearts uneasy: “Don’t, Tian mei, this reaction of yours makes us feel unsure.”

Ruan Tian didn’t say anything, and merely pulled out a mirror.

The few boys who had changed into the ancient scholarly costumes and wore their wigs, stared at themselves in the mirror, and were shamed into breathing in a mouthful of cold air: “This wig and costume are too blinding.”

They just finished saying this, when Song Yan and Xia Zhiye walked by behind them wearing the same wig and costume.

“……”

They glanced at Song Yan and Xia Zhiye, then glanced at themselves.

After a brief period of silence, they rationally analyzed: “Actually, being ugly to this extent, us and our wigs are more or less responsible.”

Ruan Tian affectionately patted their heads: “It’s fine, in comedies, the uglier the actors, the funnier it is. Teacher believes in you, you can do it.”

“……”

They really didn’t feel comforted at all.

.

Fortunately, the selling point of the show wasn’t them.

Since the flag raising ceremony, Xia Zhiye and Song Yan had become famous in the entirety of No.3 Middle High.

Originally, those two were good looking, had good grades, and could deal with others. Everywhere they went they would attract others’ attention.

Additionally, there were even the pink colored rumors of Xia Zhiye’s inseparable care when Song Yan was injured, him showing off the strength of a boyfriend when bringing Song Yan along to school everyday on that bicycle, upholding justice and helping to defend Song Yan during the flag raising ceremony, directly bringing Song Yan home to sleep over and even lending the other his clothes.

The focus of the vast majority of high school girls gradually turned from ‘these two boys are too fucking handsome,’ to ‘these two boys are too fucking sweet.’

When the news came out that the two were going to act ‘The Butterfly Lovers’ on the same stage, all the female high school students immediately went crazy.

The group of Year 1 younger female students as well as the Year 3 older female students resolutely decided to give up their precious evening self study sessions, and decided to go to the auditorium to witness the birth of a romance.

The little fatty in the backstage saw the large number of female students below the stage, then nervously began to pace back and forth. But discovered that the two masters were actually leisurely and carefreely playing Fight the Landlord, and he couldn’t help but ask: “The two of you aren’t nervous at all?”

Song Yan and Xia Zhiye found the time to look up from fighting the landlord and glanced at the other, their faces filled with the expression ‘why do I have to be nervous.’

Little fatty: “……”

Fine, the big bosses who rampantly provoked the director of education under the five-starred flag were different.

The little fatty decided to ditch them, then walked to another area to find his fellow comrades to discuss normal human emotions.

While walking over, he just so happened to see students from Class 16 taking advantage of the time when the host was making introductions to place their props onto the stage. He couldn’t hold back his ‘fuck:’ “Their costumes and makeup are too good, no wonder Class 16 said they’d definitely win first place this time.”

“Who said that?” Zhao Ruiwen asked.

“It’s all over Tieba and on WeChat Moments. If you don’t believe me you can see for yourself.” The little fatty pulled out his cell phone, “They even talked about how Yang Yue and Zhao Yu used their hard-earned capital to give away milk tea. If they don’t win first place it would be too embarrassing.”

“But didn’t Yan ge buy out all the roses? They’re missing such an important prop, it’ll probably cause their stage to collapse a bit.”

“Who’s stage is collapsing? Who’s missing props? Who cares about those roses?” Zhao Ruiwen just finished speaking when Yang Yue pulled up her huge skirt and stomped over on her high heels, then walked by them without a second glance.

She merely left behind a haughty and arrogant roll of her eyes. Behind her was Zhao Yu, who was holding a large bouquet of roses: “Sorry, I’ve disappointed you. My mom told our family’s driver to bring them over to me.”

Little fatty and Zhao Ruiwen: “……”

“Our gossip seems to have been discovered.”

“Have we completely become enemies now.”

“They have roses now.”

“Their stage hasn’t collapsed.”

“Their dance is pretty, and their costumes are awesome.”

“We’re going to die.”

Silence. A long, long silence.

Finally it turned into a single sentence: “Don’t worry, we have to believe in the power of boys’ love.”

.

The two boys in love were still unaware of the heavy burden they bore on their shoulders.

Just that after losing the beans in Fight the Landlord, they were overcome with boredom and stood backstage to watch Class 16’s performance.

To be honest, Class 16 was after all an art class, and the play they arranged really was pretty good.

Although a large part of the reproduction of Shakespeare on the stage of a high school campus appeared to be tedious and tiring, but regardless of the props, costumes or the figures of the actors, they were all much better than the sparse and fragmentary shows from earlier in the night that were barely pulled together.

At the end of the play, Zhao Yu and Yang Yue, the young couple, used the reason of devoting themselves to art, to take advantage of the situation and included a forehead kiss, immediately stimulating the silly students at No.3 Middle High who had never seen the ordinary happiness of the world into a loud uproar.

Shourts, whistles, and applause continuously rang throughout.

The reaction was quite good.

When Yang Yue and Zhao Yu walked off stage, they were incredibly pleased, and they walked like a peacock with its plume outstretched, as if the first place in the festival was in the bag.

Zhao Yu had gone so far as to specifically stop in front of Song Yan.

He had on medieval European-style high-heeled shoes, and was taller than Song Yan by one or two centimeters, then lowered his chin, gazed at the other through lowered eyes, and smirked: “Sorry, I made you waste all that money.”

As if he wanted to express the contempt of occupying the high ground.

But he hadn’t yet had time to express his contempt, when Xia Zhiye lazily walked over, stood in front of Song Yan, conveniently lowered his eyes and head to overlook the other, and showed the contempt of occupying the high ground on the spot: “No problem, we bought it as a gift for the teachers and our classmates, and it can’t be considered to be a waste.”

Zhao Yu and Yang Yue turned back to look through the gaps of the curtain, and indeed found several students from Class 1 handing out roses one by one, and the girls who received them grew delighted.

They even have this kind of behavior.

He looked back and just wanted to dispute some more, when the host on stage had already loudly announced: “Next up, let’s applaud for Year 2 Class 1’s classmates Xia Zhiye and Song Yan, and their adaptation of ‘The Butterfly Lovers’!”

The applause and cheers immediately exploded ten-fold, surging up.

The students from Class 1 as well as Shang Huai and Zhou Ziqiu from Class 13 carried bells and unabashedly shouted: “Zhiye Zhiye! The wildest at No.3 Middle High! Song Yan Song Yan, Nan Wu’s greatest beauty!”

After shouting this, girls who came from nowhere immediately shouted even louder: “XiaSong XiaSong, Nan Wu’s Most Favored! YeYan YeYan, world’s sweetest!”

The noise was loud and had overwhelming momentum. How could the group of rough boys from Class 1 accept this, and they immediately increased their volume, and shouted once again.

The girls that came out of nowhere also refused to accept defeat, and followed right behind them.

The boys from Class 1 once again took the lead, but the YeYan girls counterattacked.

Going back and forth, the battle grew to a frenzy.

The racket seemed to be more intense than when Zhao Yu kissed Yang Yue’s forehead.

But clearly, those two people hadn’t even gotten on stage yet.

Zhao Yu who had been originally complacent, grew unsightly, but also couldn’t do anything in such a public place, and could only vehemently roll his eyes, then angrily left the area with Yang Yue in tow.

Xia Zhiye lazily threw his arm across Song Yan’s shoulder: “Now that we’ve raised the flag3 to this extent, what are we going to do if we lose at the end.”

Song Yan did not want to answer the question as his face wasn’t any better than Zhao Yu’s: “Is your school actually some secret experimental base for some mental hospital?”

Xia Zhiye: “?”

Song Yan: “Otherwise it would be difficult to explain such a high density aggregation of mentally abnormal people.”

Xia Zhiye: “……”

“Don’t say that, it’s just the tip of the iceberg in our inclusive and open campus culture in seeking common ground while preserving differences.” Xia Zhiye was not only ashamed, but was even intensely proud, “So wouldn’t it be better to……”

Song Yan side-eyed the other.

The other returned with a serious look: “So wouldn’t it be better if we also kiss at the end, that way we definitely won’t lose.”

“……”

Xia Zhiye was kicked onto the stage by Song Yan.

Fortunately, Xia Zhiye was already used to being beaten in the most handsome position. But not only was he not embarrassed, he took advantage of the position to tug, and pulled Song Yan out.

The earth shattering screams of the group of boys below the stage immediately followed: “Ahhhh! Yanyan is so handsome! Yeye is so handsome!”

The girls were also unwilling to fall behind: “Ahhhh! The couple’s outfit is good looking! YeYan are too compatible!”

The ups and downs of the competition led to a collective success.

The shouts caused the two male students acting as the maids to be stuck in a dilemma: “Do you think we should go up or not? If we don’t, then the show can’t go on, but if do go up, we look like we don’t match.”

Kong Xiaoxiao directly kicked each of them: “Don’t fucking waste time.”

The two broad and large boys, one wearing red and another green, acting as maids drooped forward onto the stage. Immediately, an explosion of laughter burst out below the stage.

The atmosphere rose to a high.

Following this, the next few jokes went smoothly, and the clumsy props became the perfect punchline, and didn’t appear awkward at all.

Added to the fact that the show itself was compact, the dialogue was easy to follow and littered with jokes throughout, the two main actors’ interactions were naturally hilarious, and the auditorium was much livelier than when ‘Romeo and Juliet’ was playing, angering Yang Yue and Zhao Yu so much so they nearly grinded away their teeth.

But only those two were angry, while everyone else was boisterous and excited.

Then according to the plot of the script, Song Yan inattentively tripped, and Xia Zhiye heroically embraced the other’s waist into his arms, and the auditorium directly evolved into a slaughterhouse of shrieking chickens.

“Ah ah ah! They hugged! Hugged! Hugged!”

“Song Yan’s waist is too skinny!”

“Is this something I can watch for free!”

“But the act of hugging his waist is too skilled!”

The campus atmosphere of No.3 Middle High was originally lax. In addition, there were no judges in the Arts Festival, so neither the old headmaster nor the director of education came.

There were only young teachers in the auditorium and they couldn’t keep the area under control at all.

Might as well pretend to curb the students, while laughing along with their jokes.

But with this racket, Song Yan who originally felt there was nothing wrong with this scene during the rehearsal, also felt that the hand Xia Zhiye had wrapped around his waist was too tight.

He put a hand on the other’s hand, wanting to take a step back.

But Xia Zhiye thought he wasn’t standing stably, and hugged him tighter.

Song Yan could only forcefully push the other away, but his force was too excessive, and his center of gravity grew unsteady. He stumbled, and his foot just happened to step on the train of his costume, and his entire body immediately began to fall directly backwards.

With a sudden weightlessness and amidst a frenzy, Song Yan didn’t think and relied on his instincts to grab onto the lapels of Xia Zhiye’s costume. Meanwhile, Xia Zhiye also didn’t think too much, and in that second simultaneously stepped forward to hug Song Yan’s waist.

But this step forward had also just happened to step on the train of Song Yan’s costume.

So in the full view of the public, the two pulled the other in a hug and made an unstoppable tumble towards the ground.

With a bang, Song Yan fell to the ground.

There was no sharp pain or jarring sensation that his brain had expected.

Because a lanky but broad hand had immediately protected his head, but then the figure of that tall and lofty youth uncontrollably pushed him down.

The youth’s body temperature was searing, their shoulders broad and legs long, and the body completely enveloped Song Yan. A citrus scent filled the surrounding air in an instant, making him suffocate for a moment.

Then some warm, soft tactile sensation landed on the corner of his mouth, shallowly following along the side of his cheek.

It left behind a subtle, trembling electric current on the slightly cool skin, instantly disturbing the rules of the human body’s positive and negative ions, leaving the brain circuits in complete disarray.

At that moment, those below the stage tossed their roses onto the stage, and their screams and applause sounded like thunder.

Meanwhile, the two on the stage could only hear a flurried heartbeat that unknowingly arose with a sudden shock.

As if an unruly child suddenly ignited firecrackers, a crackling sound exploded, creating a shock in their ears that left behind no traces.

1. Tomb Sweeping day, aka: 清明节, a traditional Chinese festival that usually occurs in early April. Families usually visit their ancestors’ graves to clean the gravesites, pray to their ancestors, and make ritual offerings.

2. Mid-Autumn festival, aka: 中秋节, and is one of the most important holidays in Chinese culture. It usually occurs in mid-September to early October, and coincides with harvest time in mid-autumn. Involves viewing the moon, eating moon cakes, and lighting lanterns.

3. Originally written in english. Flag as in their rivalry.