Don’t Pretend to be Poor with Me - Chapter 8

Why was this person so wild

After his brief meeting with classmate Liu Yue, Xia Zhiye didn’t report anything to Song Yan, and only placed the food he bought onto the table: “See if it suits your taste.”

With a glance, Song Yan could tell this was from the restaurant he ordered delivery from yesterday, and the price couldn’t be considered cheap.

He opened the package, and he carelessly said: “Next time you can just buy it from the cafeteria, I’m not picky.”

Xia Zhiye watched as he said this while pushing aside the celery on the fish head, and couldn’t help smirking.

This is what you call not picky?

He lazily leaned against the back of the chair, and smoothly opened the notes app on his phone. Underneath the point ‘likes pig liver,’ he added another, ‘hates celery.’

Song Yan just happened to move his chopsticks, when he accidentally picked up a piece of pig liver, and his wrist stiffened for a moment.

He extremely dislikes pig liver.

To be precise, he couldn’t stand eating the internal organs of all animals.

The reason why he ordered a plate of stir fried pig liver was purely because he was concerned that Xia Zhiye’s health couldn’t catch up after selling blood. And it’s said that pig liver was great for replenishing blood.

But it seems Xia Zhiye had misunderstood his preferences.

But this wasn’t easy to explain.

After all, Song Yan didn’t plan to tell Xia Zhiye that he had discovered his secret.

First of all, he felt that the relationship between the two of them wasn’t close to the point where they could share secrets. and secondly, he felt that boys should more or else maintain a sense of self esteem.

So after a brief moment of sluggishness, Song Yan decided to expressionlessly take the piece of pig liver he absolutely hated, and placed it into the lunchbox in front of Xia Zhiye.

Xia Zhiye’s fingers of the hand holding his chopsticks paused for a moment.

He tilted his head to look at Song Yan, and Song Yan calmly continued eating.

He then turned his head back to the pig liver, and suddenly felt that this piece of pig liver looked quite attractive.

Not bad, this handsome boy with a sour face who has a cold expression on every day surprisingly knows to help serve others food.

Seems that the relationship between him and his roommate had improved by leaps and bounds.

But did a way of expressing friendship between normal boys include serving one another food? Why did he feel that it was a bit strange?

Xia Zhiye opened the group chat ‘XiaShangZhou1‘ in passing.

[Wild2]: If one day, when you and a boy are eating together alone with each other, and he suddenly serves food for you with his own hands, what would you think happened.

The remaining two responded within seconds.

[Autumn3]: He’s gay for me.

[Peerless Cutie Xiao Shangshang]: He’s gay for me.

[Autumn]: So who’s gay for you? @Wild

[Peerless Cutie Xiao Shangshang]: So who’s gay for you? @Wild

[Autumn]: Is it Song Yan?

[Peerless Cutie Xiao Shangshang]: Is it Song Yan?

Xia Zhiye: “……”

[Wild]: Fuck off.

He knew these two unlucky fools could never say anything respectable.

But he also couldn’t help turning to look at Song Yan again.

At that moment, the bright and radiant afternoon sun warmly shone down, drawing out the cold and refined profile of the youth sitting next to the window. The slender and majestic, dense eyelashes weakly drooped downwards, and the grand and pale golden halo made him so good looking that he was both alienating yet indistinct.

Xia Zhiye who had always been indifferent to girls suddenly felt that if a girl looked like Song Yan, then it wouldn’t be impossible to try chasing her.

.

In the afternoon when Liu Yue returned to class, his face was quite ugly.

He was tall, and his seat was at the back, and wasn’t too far from Song Yan. The clattering sound of movement as he sat down was very obvious.

But no one paid him any attention.

Song Yan was immersed in solving a multi-part physics mechanics question.

At his previous school, he could be considered a well-known studying god. It’s just that he hadn’t attended in the last half of the semester, and during the summer break he was receiving treatment. He studied the information from the latter half of the semester in the days prior to school starting, and there were still some difficult points that he hadn’t revised yet.

His pale and thin fingers grabbed onto a black pen and wrote quickly across the sheet of paper. His lips were slightly pursed, and he looked quite adorable.

Xia Zhiye propped his head up, he appreciated the view for a moment while spinning his pen, then casually laughed and said: “What is it? Don’t know how to do it? How about Lord Xia tell you how to do it?”

Song Yan’s other hand ruthlessly flipped through a book of error-prone questions: “Worry about yourself.”

“Aw, don’t feel embarrassed. As the ancients say, ‘don’t feel ashamed to learn from one’s subordinates’. What if I teach you and you happen to learn something?”

Xia Zhiye’s false reasoning was the same as always.

But Song Yan didn’t feel he was at the level of asking for help from a bad, society brother: “Don’t worry, there’s no need.”

“Pfft—”

A cold and disdainful laugh could be heard from the front right part of the classroom.

Its meaning was clear.

The little fatty was the first to be upset: “Liu Yue, what are you ambiguously laughing at over there.”

“Nothing.” Liu Yue sat with his legs crossed while spinning a pen in his hand, “Just feel that if someone doesn’t know how to do it, there’s no need to pretend. Act modestly and be eager to learn so as not to pull down Class 1’s average score.”

Although No.3 Middle High was considered the lowest key high school, at the very least it was still a key high school, and the Class 1 could also be considered a top class.

Also according to normal logic, Song Yan came from Beijing and was a child of a wealthy family. If he didn’t do well, either he’d be sent abroad or he would complete some extra credit. He wouldn’t go so far as to being transferred to No.3 Middle High, this kind of lousy school, nor would he have been arranged by Ruan Tian to be placed in a one on one tutoring pair.

So Liu Yue and the others all naturally believed Song Yan’s grades weren’t anything special.

Added to the fact that yesterday he was disrespected by Song Yan, and this afternoon was terrorized by Xia Zhiye for a moment, he had been bottling up all his anger. He just wanted to show off this gossip, and quickly pull up his reputation.

But after that one man monologue, Song Yan completely ignored him.

Liu Yue smirked and coldly jeered: “What are you pretending for, you really think you’re that good?”

Song Yan heard this at the same time he finished the calculations for the problem. He began summarizing the calculations, while coldly responding: “Not that good, at least I wouldn’t lower the average of someone like you.”

Liu Yue slapped his pen down on the spot: “What kind of person? Speak up.”

Song Yan looked up, his gaze looked as if he were observing an idiot in action, then indifferently looked back down to continue working through problems.

He didn’t say a word but his look told a thousand words.

Liu Yue: “……”

Fuck.

He just wanted to yell, when Xia Zhiye casually tossed out a sentence: “This person, everything was perfectly all right, how come you have such a big temper? You’re affecting my studies.”

Liu Yue: “?”

That huge fucking manhua on your desk is part of studying?

Also don’t you know why I have such a big fucking temper?

If you don’t know then ask your desk mate!

Liu Yue was about to be angered to death.

But Xia Zhiye’s words clearly showed his support for Song Yan.

He wasn’t afraid of Song Yan, but he was afraid of Xia Zhiye. He could only withhold his anger, and put on a fake smile: “Sure, he’s quite amazing. Then let’s see, whoever’s score is lower is the grandson.”

Song Yan has never made this kind of ‘birthing a child4’ kind of bet with anyone, not even in second grade.

Also betting with a person like Liu Yue, if this gossip was circulated back to Beijing, then it would make it seem like he was bullying a weak minded child, and winning would be disgraceful.

But if it really did reach Beijing, and Song Minghai heard how he found a trash great grandson for him, then he’d probably be angered to death.

When he thought of it like this, it was quite pleasurable.

Song Yan crossed out the difficult question that he solved: “That’s also fine, I don’t mind.”

It was originally not a big issue, but people all love to see drama.

Especially if it were between an extremely handsome, cold, rich second generation transfer student and a not bad looking, arrogant asshole. When looking at it from any angle, the drama was both colorful and worthy of watching.

Thus the bet between the two of them had spread throughout the entire high school within a day.

On the day of the test, due to random assignment, Xia Zhiye and Song Yan weren’t in the same classroom. After Xia Zhiye sent Song Yan to his classroom, he returned to his own test room.

Once he entered the door, Zhou Ziqiu began to joke around with him: “Lord Xia, that new desk mate of yours and Liu Yue have become arch enemies.”

“It’s a small matter, not worthy of being called arch enemies.”

Zhou Ziqiu pushed his cellphone over: “Look at it yourself.”

Xia Zhiye leaned against the back of his chair. With his legs supporting him, he stood up and took the phone, and saw it open to No.3 Middle High’s Tieba.

The title of the top post – “[Vote] Song Yan vs. Liu Yue, who will have the last laugh?”

“We’re already adults and you’re still playing around on Tieba. Childish.”

If the title didn’t have Song Yan’s name, Xia Zhiye wouldn’t even have the motivation to look over.

Zhou Ziqiu was noncommittal: “Why else do you think the graduation rate at No.3 Middle High never increases? It’s because this group of people is idle.”

True.

When you say it like that, the logic is very consistent.

Xia Zhiye conveniently opened the top post.

[OP5]: This badger will take the lead in eating melons! Everyone knows, the new rich second generation transfer with the Maybach and Director Liu’s own nephew have been entangled with each other. After the incident with fake shoes, the nephew pulled a bet from the sky, take it or leave it, and they agreed to the bet on the spot, who’ll win and who’ll lose.

[1L]: Truthfully speaking, in this wave, Liu Yue’s more reliable. His grades are barely passable, but that new transfer’s grades are definitely bad.

[2L]: Seconded. From the beginning of history, every single person transferred to No.3 Middle High because they couldn’t keep up at the other high schools. Also look at that self reflection, if you didn’t have a bad track record, you wouldn’t be able to write something like that.

[3L]: That’s not always true. I heard the school Song Yan transferred from was super hard, even a scrawny camel is bigger than a horse6. Also Liu Yue’s grades in Class 1 are amongst the worst.

[4L]: Hot topic. The gaokao given to those in the capital is on a completely different level from those we get.

[5L]: Then I still vote for Song Yan. No other reason, just that he’s handsome.

[6L]: +1

[7L]: +2

[8L]: +3

[9L]: +10086

……

[158L]: Fuck! Stop adding! It’s too amazing! Song Yan and Liu Yue are in the same test room as me! Song Yan’s in front, and Liu Yue’s next to me. I’m fucking trembling stuck in the middle!

[159L]: Fuck, so exciting!

[160L]: Is there a chance of developing real life hand to hand combat?

[161L]: That would make it fucking interesting. I’d livestream it on the spot.

[162L]: But brother, you exposed your melon eating spot. Be careful.

[163L]: Fuck, you’re right.

……

It was filled with a bunch of garbage.

Reading this, Xia Zhiye’s head hurt.

“But Song Yan’s really in the same room as Liu Yue?” Zhou Ziqiu put away his cellphone, and asked.

Xia Zhiye absentmindedly ‘mm’ed in response: “Yesterday when the seating arrangements came out he knew.”

“Then you still have this kind of carefree face.”

“Why do I need to be worried?”

“Why not?” Zhou Ziqiu rebutted, “With Liu Yue’s character, if he didn’t mess around and anger that little desk mate of yours then his last name isn’t Liu.”

That’s true.

Liu Yue was a purebred idiot.

But……

Xia Zhiye recalled Song Yan’s cold and sour little face, and unconsciously began to grin.

His little desk mate didn’t have a temper that would suffer losses.

He looked quiet and cold, but he could actually anger other people like no other.

The person who could particularly anger other people was just laying on his desk catching up on sleep.

It was called an entrance exam, but it was just a diagnostic exam that the 5 schools hurriedly created. It wasn’t even archived, and the degree of regulations were similar to the weekly exams, and couldn’t even be compared to the monthly exams.

The students kept calm, and just spoke with people they were familiar with beside them.

Song Yan had no acquaintances, so the area surrounding him was quiet.

The area around Liu Yue, who was sitting diagonally across, was rowdy, and occasionally one or two snide comments about Song Yan could be heard.

Boys this age, for the most part, valued loyalty. And this so-called loyalty was divided between those who were friends or enemies, and without a doubt, Song Yan was that enemy.

After all, as rumors spread, they changed. Liu Yue was a real brother that had played ball with them, chased girls with them, and fought with them. In comparison, Song Yan was just a rando that came out of nowhere.

So this kind of ostracism was automatic.

Song Yan also wasn’t interested in lowering himself to making friends with idiots, so he only felt mildly annoyed.

He impatiently ruffled his hair twice, then turned his head to change direction and continued to sleep. It wasn’t until the test papers were about to be handed out that he reluctantly sat up, and he looked extremely lazy, as if he hadn’t slept for several days.

As was the national convention, the first subject was Chinese literature.

For Song Yan, this subject was the least difficult. After all, as long as he read it over twice, he was able to memorize it, and the rest of the information could be learned regardless if he went to class or not. Anyways, the rest was up to fate.

His hands moved quickly, and after a short period, he flipped the page. He was faster than the rest of the classroom by at least a third of the page.

The person behind him couldn’t help but let out a ‘fuck’: “Why the fuck is he writing so fast, he can’t be some hidden top student.”

These words just happened to pass through Liu Yue’s ears.

Liu Yue’s mathematics and science grades were barely passable, but his Chinese and English grades were always going for his neck.

He was originally stuck on the part of interpreting Chinese literature and had become irritable, but after hearing this, he looked up to see Song Yan’s silhouette who was not in the least bogged down and continued to write furiously, and felt his lungs nearly burst with anger.

He grinded his teeth, pondered for a moment, then ruthlessly raised his hand: “Teacher, I have something to report.”

This time, the proctor of the exam was an older Chinese literature teacher who had always been unconcerned with outside matters. They were originally looking around while standing at the podium, and after hearing someone speak, they pushed their glasses up, and looked over: “Speak.”

Liu Yue said: “I’m reporting someone for cheating.”

The eyes behind the lens of the glasses opened wide.

Liu Yue pointed to Song Yan: “I saw him use a cheat sheet. He’s hiding it in the drawer of his desk.”

At this point, who the fuck would still be interested in taking their test.

After all, they have tests every week, but if they missed out on eating melons, they’d have missed out on a great opportunity. Everyone turned their heads to look over.

The proctor also couldn’t help but get up, and look at Song Yan: “Is he telling the truth?”

Song Yan felt this sentence was quite interesting: “If I say he’s lying, you’d believe me?”

Proctor: “……”

They wouldn’t.

But they also felt they had a responsibility towards the student, and with a serious face, walked in front of Song Yan, and knocked against the desk twice: “Let me inspect the drawer.”

Song Yan indifferently lowered his pen, and pushed his chair back. The teacher leaned over, and extended their hand into the drawer, and began to grope around.

After groping around, their expression abruptly collapsed.

With a serious face, they pulled their hand out and slapped it against the desk: “What is this!”

A crumpled cheat sheet.

The first line written was “A man seemed free from guile; in trade he wore a smile. He’d barter cloth for thread; No, to me, he’d be wed7.” It was identical to the first free-write question, and it wouldn’t be too far off the mark to say he was caught with the stolen goods.

Song Yan didn’t seem to find it unexpected, nor did he look nervous, and he calmly declared: “It’s not mine.”

In the teacher’s entire life, hated students were dishonest, and fought to hold back their anger, and with much self control, asked: “Why do you say it’s not yours.”

Song Yan was very objective: “Because my handwriting isn’t that ugly.”

Teacher: “……”

Audience: “……”

Liu Yue: “……”

They’ve met arrogant people, but never someone this arrogant.

He was still able to have this attitude after being caught cheating, what kind of fucking inner mental fortitude did they have.

The boys who didn’t have normal intelligence already began to worship Song Yan.

However this reasoning couldn’t convince the teacher.

The extremely refined and accomplished Chinese literature teacher tapped their index finger against the desk, “You, you, you,” and after saying “you” for half a day, finally swallowed his reprimands and reluctantly decided: “First finish the test. After you finish the test, go with me to the Educational Administration office. After investigating and confirming you cheated, we’ll cancel the score for this subject.”

They could be considered a teacher that was very responsible to the students.

They dealt with the situation with extreme benevolence.

But Song Yan calmly asked: “Are there cameras in the test room.”

It was only temporarily set up as a test room, where could they have installed cameras.

The proctor thought he wanted to seize the opportunity to avoid guilt, and emphasized out of a sense of righteousness: “Don’t think that because there are no cameras you can get away with it! Teacher’s eyes are sharp!”

Song Yan heard this response, then calmly said: “Then there’s no need.”

After he finished speaking, he tidied up his pencil case, stood up, supported himself with the chair, then leisurely moved towards the podium. He picked up his own bag, and prepared to leave.

The Chinese teacher had proctored exams for so many years, and caught many cheaters, but had never seen anyone with this kind of reaction.

They stared blankly, then asked: “What are you doing?”

Song Yan turned back, and his voice was apathetic: “If a student is found cheating, aren’t they kicked out of the classroom on the spot?”

“……”

They did have this rule.

“But didn’t you say the cheat sheet wasn’t yours?”

“But there are no cameras.”

“……”

“If there are no cameras, it’s bound to remain unclear. There’s no need for me to stay here and waste my time.”

Song Yan’s injured leg couldn’t completely touch the ground yet, and he could only lean against the podium.

When he looked over with his backpack hanging from one shoulder, and eyelids lowered, without any superfluous expression on his face, it was as if he hadn’t been caught cheating, but was an interrogator.

That kind of high and mighty, arrogant expression, made the proctor believe that this student couldn’t have cheated in an instant.

Not to mention that this student also had such good handwriting.

They were a bit unreconciled: “Then what about the grade for this subject?”

Hearing this sentence, the test-taking melon eaters who had eaten themselves dumb finally reacted. That’s right, there’s a fucking bet riding on this, and the loser also has to become a grandson.

So how could he lose out on a test? If he missed a test wouldn’t the outcome of the battle be completely lacking in suspense? Young master Song could bear this loss? Could he swallow this anger?

They didn’t believe it.

Song Yan also didn’t believe it.

So Song Yan nonchalantly pushed up the bag on his shoulder: “It’s fine, it’s just missing the Chinese literature test score. It won’t affect my average getting pulled down by others.”

After he finished, he walked out of the classroom without looking back.

The others left behind in the classroom: “……?”

Fuck, why is this person so wild?

1. The name of the group chat is the combined last names of XZY, SH, and ZZQ

2. The last character of XZY’s name, 野, literally translates to wild, hence the username.

3. Originally written in English. The last character of ZZQ’s name is 秋, which translates to autumn.

4. The loser ‘becoming a grandson’ is essentially a ‘birthing a child’ bet. Basically if SY wins, he gains LY as a grandson – hence, giving birth to a child.

5. Original poster. In Chinese it’s 楼主.

6. The author writes ‘瘦死的骆驼比马大’ = a starved camel is still bigger than a horse. Basically even if SY was kicked out of the best schools in Beijing, he’s still better off than the students at No.3 Middle High.

7. Translation of the poem 卫风-氓 (The Faithless Man) taken from here.