Don’t Pretend to be Poor with Me - Chapter 55

Song Yan was the boy most deserving of love

Shen Jiayan was lying on his bed, swiping through his phone in boredom just as he usually was every Sunday. He wouldn’t get out of bed even if he were beaten to death.

But as he was swiping through his Moments, his finger suddenly paused, and he immediately jumped up in bed, loudly scolding: “Fuck! Why did those two idiots Shang Wei and Lai Miao go to NanWu?!”

There was nothing else on his Moments, just a list of names of the allocation of dorms at the Youth Talent Cup posted by the boy in the same friend circle as Shang Wei, Lai Miao. On it was written:

Dorm 111:

Beijing HuiYing International School, Shang Wei

Beijing HuiYing International School, Lai Miao

Beijing ShiYing International Bilingual School, Cheng Cheng

NanWu No.3 Senior High School Song Yan

The caption: [What bad luck, how can some people have the nerve to come back to participate in the Youth Talent Cup, and even end up in the same dorms as us. Who knows who he wants to push down this time? Sneer.emoji]

The comments below it:

[Fuck, you can even meet here? Song Yan probably did it on purpose]

[Shang Wei should just withdraw from the competition, or else if he wins the championship this time, he might get pushed again]

[nsdd1, protect our Shang god]

[But what kind of lowbrow school is NanWu’s No.3 Middle High, Song Yan’s now at that level? Wasn’t he acting cool all the time before?]

[What do you mean cool, our Shang god crushed him every single time]

It was clear that Shang Wei’s group of friends had no misgivings with using this post on his Moments as a group chat.

They clearly knew that Shen Jiayan was good friends with Song Yan, yet didn’t block Shen Jiayan from seeing it, clearly showing that they said this on purpose so that Shen Jiayan could see it.

And Shen Jiyaan clearly knew that they did it purposefully to anger him, and the more he looked, the angrier he got, angry to the point where he felt as if his lungs would explode.

Song Yan was originally framed by this group of people and was pushed out and forced to leave. After going to NanWu, he was able to live his life peacefully with great difficulty, yet this group of repulsive rats followed the scent of a cake and ran over to follow him.

Also, when they were in Beijing at that time, fortunately, he and a few other students with normal brains were willing to help speak for Song Yan. But now, Song Yan was by himself in NanWu, isolated and without help, wouldn’t he be bullied to death by them?

The more Shen Jiayan thought, the more worried he became, but other than worry, he also didn’t know what he could do.

He definitely couldn’t take this Moments post and directly ask Song Yan.

One was that he didn’t want Song Yan to see these crass comments and suffer secondary trauma, and the second thing was that Song Yan definitely wouldn’t tell him much.

After all, this person’s habit is to deal with everything on his own, so even if he told Song Yan, it would only increase the other’s unhappiness, and it would be a pointless endeavor.

But if he didn’t care, then he would not only be angered to death, but would also feel ill at ease.

So Shen Jiayan hugged his cell phone, stood on his bed, then quickly turned the cogs of his not so smart little brain in an attempt to find a solution.

The cogs were turning and turning, and when they turned onto a mathematics exercise booklet on the floor, he slapped his forehead. That’s right, he’ll look for Xia Zhiye!

According to the messages that Song Yan gave him before, today just so happened to be the ending ceremony for Xia Zhiye’s Winter Mathematics Competition, which was also his last day. If the other hurried over, he might be able to make it back in time.

Just, with Xia Zhiye’s and Song Yan’s relationship, there’s nothing else to be said. At the very least, the other can promise that if Shang Wei tried committing another crime, then Xia Zhiye could press him down for a beating.

Thinking this, Shen Jiayan didn’t care that he was trying any idea while in a crisis. He directly took a screenshot of his Moments and sent it over to Xia Zhiye: [Brother-in-law!!! There’s an emergency!!! Your family’s Xiao Yan was bullied by others!!!]

Meanwhile Xia Zhiye, who was inexplicably called the strange title of ‘brother-in-law’, had just finished IMO’s2 closing ceremony.

The full score was 126. This time, the minimum passing score for the national training team was 66 and Xia Zhiye just narrowly missed the opportunity to join the national training team. Instead, he only received a gold medal.

Not only was he far ahead of the silver and bronze medal winners, but he was also only in his second year of high school, and this was his first time competing. Compared with the other third year seniors who had previously competed before as well as those rivals who wholeheartedly took the competition path since middle school, this score was already very impressive. He was basically guaranteed to be admitted to the foundational elite class of Tsinghua or Beijing University.

But the lead teacher still hated iron for not turning into steel, and called Xia Zhiye out alone, then quietly reprimanded him: “Xia Zhiye, you have a gift, but you’re too undisciplined in your studies! Other students spend all their extracurricular time training, but what about you? If the school didn’t organize time to train, would you train yourself? Were you diligent towards the competition this time? As long as you work a bit harder, it would be a piece of cake for you to enter the national team. But now that you’re like this, if you don’t think it’s a pity, I’ll feel it’s a pity on behalf of you!”

Xia Zhiye actually didn’t feel that this outcome was that much of a pity, after all, at the very beginning, he only came to try it out because he thought it was interesting. Later during training, he began preparing seriously, but when all is said and done, he began working harder later than everyone else. Also, the other participants in the training camp were true mathematical geniuses. He thought it was fairly reasonable that he could achieve this result.

But he couldn’t refute the lead teacher’s reprimands at all.

He’s always been like this since he was a child. There was nothing that he cherished greatly, or cared about greatly, or wanted greatly, and he usually didn’t have to work too hard but would still do things better than the overwhelming majority of people. So after a long time, he developed this kind of undisciplined and unruly behavior.

If it were in the past, he might have been too lazy to participate in the winter training camp because he found it too troublesome, but now he felt that the teacher was right.

He could not continue to be so undisciplined and indifferent.

After all, his future boyfriend was particularly fussy, particularly extravagant with money, and particularly hard to raise. If he didn’t work a bit harder and was unable to make a lot of money in the future, then his boyfriend might run away. Then it would be too late to regret things.

So he gave a rare promise: “Don’t worry, next year I’ll definitely enter the national team.”

Hearing this, the lead teacher’s complexion finally eased somewhat: “That’s good enough.”

He conveniently returned the cell phone that was confiscated before the training camp: “Fine, let your parents know the good news. In any case, you won the gold medal, and is our No.3 Middle High’s first medal in so many years. I’ll still praise you as you deserve. Rest for a while this afternoon, then we’ll eat at the celebratory banquet and then return home to NanWu tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

Xia Zhiye returned to his hotel room and charged his phone. Just as he was about to report his deep yearning and chaste behavior over the past twenty days to leader Song Yan, he first saw Shen Jiayan’s WeChat message.

The second he opened up the photo and saw those unbearable comments humiliating Song Yan, his peach blossom eyes that previously held a smile instantly held back any remnants of a smile, and a cold viciousness penetrated throughout his eyes.

He saw the name Shang Wei before on the handbook that Song Yan had brought back.

No wonder Song Yan would suddenly decide to participate in the English speech competition.

He definitely had something to do with this person.

With cold eyes, Xia Zhiye’s fingertips flew quickly across the screen: [This Shang Wei, who’s he]

Shen Jiayan replied very quickly: [An ultimate green tea idiot! Super disgusting garbage! If Hitara Erqing3 saw him she’d loudly yell to her ancestor’s about this malicious supporting role!]

He could imagine from just the words how angry the other was.

[Wild]: Tell me about it

[The Sweetest Little Milk Strawberry in the World]: Do you know why Xiao Yan suddenly transferred from our school to yours?

Xia Zhiye didn’t know at all.

From the very beginning, quite a number of people at No.3 High thought it strange that a rich second generation from Beijing transferred to a school like No.3 Middle High.

After all, the inclination of educational resources between different cities is not just a matter of words, which was why at that time, so many people thought either Song Yan’s grades were too terrible, or that he was a terrible person.

But as a result, no one would have expected that Song Yan’s grades were so good, and although he had a bit of a bad temper and wasn’t friendly enough, he was magnanimous, and wouldn’t gossip about others. After he resolved the conflict with Liu Yue, he didn’t latch onto the issue, so a majority of people in Class One was willing to wholeheartedly call him Yan ge.

It wasn’t that Xia Zhiye hadn’t thought of the real reason why Song Yan suddenly transferred. It was just that Song Yan didn’t say anything about it, so out of respect, Xia Zhiye hadn’t asked the other about it for the time being.

But now that they’ve reached this stage, he had no choice but to ask.

[Wild]: Because of Shang Wei?

[The Sweetest Little Milk Strawberry in the World]: Yes! Just because of that green tea idiot!

Probably because he felt that this issue was just too complicated and thought that writing it out would be unclear, Shen Jiayan just sent over a voice call request: “Hello, Xia Zhiye, can you hear me?”

Xia Zhiye: “Yeah, I can hear you.”

“Great, then I’ll just get straight to the point. You know that the Youth Talent Cup happens every year right? The national competition occurs at the end of every year, and if you rank high enough, then the next year in May you can participate as an exchange student in the themed speech competition hosted by the Ivy League. If you place in the top three in that competition, then you can receive a recommendation letter, and it’s considered a very powerful advantage for those who want to apply to the Ivy League, so a lot of schools here in Beijing attach great importance to this competition.”

Xia Zhiye hummed in response: “Got it, in the handbook I saw that Shang Wei was last year’s first place winner.”

Hearing this, Shen Jiayan grew irritated: “Bah! The national first place winner last year was Xiao Yan!”

Xia Zhiye raised his eyebrows slightly: “Song Yan?”

“That’s right, Xiao Yan was first place in the national competition, and Xiao Yan should have been first place in the themed speech competition. But as a result, that idiot Shang Wei suddenly said that Xiao Yan’s speech was plagiarized from his speech, so Xiao Yan’s award was confiscated. They said that they would decide after investigating everything clearly, but as a result, you couldn’t investigate that group of idiots clearly at all!” Shen Jiayan was so angry that his throat directly emitted smoke.

Xia Zhiye didn’t interrupt him, continuing to listen to the other’s righteous indignation.

“Actually, Xiao Yan didn’t want to leave the country, nor did he need this award, but with his character, how could he endure that kind of injustice? So he went to question Shang Wei, but as a result, no one knows what happened between the two of them, but Shang Wei fell from a balcony on the third floor. Fortunately, there was a lush green sloping field below that balcony, and the actual height was only about one floor above ground. There was even a buffer on the ground, so other than a single cut from being stabbed by the shrubbery, there was no other problem.”

“But!” As Shen Jiayan spoke, he grew angrier and angrier, “But Shang Wei insisted on saying that Xiao Yan purposely pushed him down out of jealousy and retaliation! Unfortunately, that balcony was also a blind spot in the security camera system, and the security camera could only see that Xiao Yan really was at the doorway of the balcony grabbing Shang Wei’s collar, but later, it was basically unclear as to what exactly happened between the two of them on that balcony!”

“At that time, the situation was really big, and even the police came, but ultimately, both of their versions of events didn’t match. Xiao Yan insisted on saying that Shang Wei jumped down himself, but Shang Wei insisted on saying that Xiao Yan pushed him.”

“You also know, Xiao Yan isn’t the kind of person who is very easy to get along with at first. He’s also arrogant, ruthless and brash, and even likes being alone. On the other hand, Shang Wei is the kind of student who’s virtuous, studious, will smile at everyone and is super charming, that kind of good person. Everyone thought that Xiao Yan was definitely lying, and chose to believe Shang Wei.”

“Ultimately they couldn’t press down the commotion, and Xiao Yan’s father and Shang Wei’s parents reached some kind of agreement. I don’t know what benefit he gave Shang Wei’s parents, but they agreed not to press charges, and they settled this matter privately.”

“But then all the students in school said that not only did Xiao Yan plagiarize and beat others up, but he also used the wealth and power of his family to oppress the victim, and they began to isolate and exclude him.”

“No matter how he explained things, no one believed him, and even his family members thought that he pushed Shang Wei down. The elders in his step-mother’s family even specially came to take his younger brother away, afraid that he would also push his brother down, as if they were protecting him against a sociopath.”

“His father also didn’t believe him, always asking him to admit his wrongs. But Xiao Yan has a stubborn temperament. He didn’t do anything, so why should he admit anything? Then guess what his father did.”

Xia Zhiye’s fingers held his phone so forcefully that they turned white, but he tried his best to maintain a steady voice: “What did he do?”

“His father locked him in the basement, turned off the lights and electricity, and didn’t allow anyone to go in. If he didn’t admit his wrongs, then he wasn’t allowed to come out.”

Hearing this, Xia Zhiye’s heart throbbed with pain and he nearly stopped breathing.

Shen Jiayan recalled Song Yan at that time, and his voice was also choked with emotion: “But that’s Xiao Yan, he’s most afraid of the dark, most afraid of being alone by himself in a dark room. I don’t even know how he could endure things there.”

“But he was unwilling to admit that he was wrong, and he stayed in that dark room for three days and three nights. He wasn’t willing to give in, and stubbornly endured it all. Finally, his step mother was afraid something would happen to him, had a huge argument with his father and forcibly pulled him out.”

“Even now I remember what Xiao Yan looked like that day when he was sent to the hospital. He just slept on the stretcher, and his face was nearly as white as the bedsheet, so thin that he looked like a bag of bones. His eyes were closed, and without eating or drinking, he slept for several days. The doctor said that it wasn’t because of physical reasons, that he didn’t wake up because he had no desire to wake up and had no willpower to survive.”

“You don’t know how miserably I cried at that time. I was really afraid that Xiao Yan believed that this world was too loathsome, so he was unwilling to wake up again. But fortunately Xiao Yan was stronger than I thought, and ultimately he woke up.”

“After he woke up, his step-mother arranged for him to quit school and sent him to a psychiatric hospital for several months. Only then did he slowly recuperate, but he was still unwilling to admit that he was wrong, so his father transferred him to NanWu, saying that the change of environment will force him to think clearly about what he did wrong, and that he would only be allowed back if he thought things through.”

“I asked Xiao Yan when he planned to come back, and he said after the gaokao. But I think that he actually doesn’t want to come back for the rest of his life.”

“I know that Xiao Yan definitely didn’t tell you these things. I also didn’t want to tell you, because I think that Xiao Yan has been pretty happy with you guys, and might have forgotten about these things. Who would have thought that those idiots would end up finding Xiao Yan.”

It wasn’t that they found Xiao Yan, but Song Yan who went to go look for them.

Song Yan saw Shang Wei himself and ultimately decided to go.

Xia Zhiye thought, perhaps this was Song Yan’s way of settling those painful experiences in his past.

But just hearing this secondary version of events made Xia Zhiye’s heart hurt miserably.

The kind of distress where he nearly couldn’t breathe, hating himself for being powerless, but also wishing that he could give the other all the good things in life.

Why was their Song Daxi so pitiful?

Why should such a good person be treated like this?

People always said Song Yan had a poor temperament. It was just that Song Yan had never been treated well since he was a child, so he had no sense of security, and now only had a bad temper that was difficult to get close to.

But he would protect others’ self-esteem, would clumsily yet patiently coax small children, would care if there were holes in the sweaters of the elderly, and even if he was clearly unwilling, would awkwardly agree to others’ requests.

He would clearly show an attempt to conceal his clumsiness with a cold facade when he felt unprepared after others treated him well, but he would remember these things, and earnestly return it all.

He was clearly such a charming person, but would stop himself from crying while drunk to ask if he was the world’s most loathsome little friend.

Thinking of Song Yan’s damp eyes that night, Xia Zhiye covered his chest with his hand, and suddenly felt that it was a bit hard to breathe.

No wonder Song Yan said it was whatever when there was no security camera after Liu Yue accused him of cheating. No wonder Song Yan would think that he was unworthy of being loved. No wonder Song Yan would take the initiative to defend him once he knew that Xia Zhiye had suffered a grievance at ShiWai.

Turns out it was because the other had gone through so many unfair situations.

When he suffered so many grievances, Song Yan was there to take the initiative to stand up for him, but in the past when Song Yan had suffered so many grievances, no one was there to stand up for him.

It turns out his Song Yan had nothing at all.

On the other end of the call, the person couldn’t help but call out after a long silence: “Xia Zhiye, are you still there?”

“Yeah.” Xia Zhiye quietly replied, “I got it, you can leave it to me.”

After speaking, he hung up, and opened up Qin Zigui’s WeChat: [Senior, is the Youth Talent Cup at ShiWai being organized by volunteers from the student union or the Students’ Association Union4]

[Senior Qin Zigui]: Students’ Association Union

[Wild]: Who’s the person in charge

[Senior Qin Zigui]: Jiang Yuanyuan

[Wild]: Okay, then can you send me her WeChat info, I need her help with something

In the past, he didn’t know Song Yan.

But in the future, he wouldn’t let anyone bully his Song Daxi.

Not only that, but he also he had to let those people know that Song Yan was the boy most deserving of love.

1. nsdd = 你说的对 = you’re right

2. IMO = International Mathematical Olympiad

3. Hitara Erqing is a famous character in the ‘Story of Yanxi Palace’ who is well-known for being a particularly vicious character that ends up being poisoned to death. SJY is just saying that SW is so evil that Hitara Erqing would lament about how evil SW is.

4. A student organization that specifically manages club work and the development of clubs. I guess the difference is that the ‘student union’ is more like a student government, whereas the Students’ Association Union is specifically geared to clubs (campus clubs, ie: sports, arts, etc.)