To Burn On Touch - CH 5

“… As the saying goes, ‘Before you beat a dog, you’ve to look at the face of its owner.‘ What happened in the cafeteria at noon today made me realize this deeply. I swear to my teacher that I won’t make the same mistake a second time, and I won’t beat the vice principal’s nephew a second time, and only if Cai Hanchuan provokes me first would I do it again, or else I’ll be struck by lightning from heaven…”

During the class meeting, Yu Ran stood on the podium, and recited his (self-criticism) review full of emotions, recited every sentence of the self-reflection with rhythmic ups and downs and finally ended it with a sonorous and powerful ‘Sincerely yours’.”

After he finished reading, he also unconsciously gave a vigorous and respectful Young Pioneer’s salute to the whole class. The moment he raised his palm above his head, the girls in the first row covered their faces in fright, thinking that they were going to be slapped by him.

The homeroom teacher Bai Yuzhu, who was standing at the back of the classroom, sighed and then frowned before asking Yu Ran, “Are you really admitting your mistake?”

With bright eyes, Yu Ran nodded firmly.

There were more important things to talk about in the class meeting. Bai Yuzhu didn’t bother to pursue the matter with him since he was a first-time offender. Furthermore, Yu Ran wasn’t the one who had started today’s cafeteria fight incident. She waved her hand, and Yu Ran immediately went back and sat down.

This was the first time Bai Yuzhu was leading an experimental class since her appointment at the school. The average grade of the new students was also the highest in the past five years, which made her secretly happy for a while. During noon, while having lunch with other teachers, she talked about how many recommended students she had in her class. Before she could finish speaking, the sound of breaking glass suddenly came from downstairs, and the head teacher and the grade leader immediately ran downstairs. Soon after, they called Bai Yuzhu over and asked her to take away the students of senior year one, class one.

Fortunately, the cafeteria was newly installed with cameras, and the two students’ fight was fully recorded. Also, a student surnamed Fang who had witnessed the whole incident said that “the person in the school uniform was the one who started the fight”, proving that Yu Ran was defending himself the entire time. After checking the surveillance records, the teachers also agreed that the responsibility lay with the small group of the second-year seniors led by Cai Hanchuan. This group of people were temporarily suspended for a few days, while Yu Ran, as a freshman, only received a lenient punishment — writing a review.

“The vice-principal’s relative didn’t even get punished. He got off so easily,” Fang Zhao felt unfair for Yu Ran, “but you were also smart enough, waiting for him to make the first move before you responded back, and making sure he was not hurt anywhere.”

Yu Ran snorted and laughed, feeling quite proud of himself: “I’ve also practiced it, okay? If he got hurt, I’d have to pay for the medical expenses. Now it was enough to make him lose face. Who told him to insist on acting like a prick toward me…”

Fang Zhao also laughed along, not because he was happy for Yu Ran’s victory but because he just recalled the image of Yu Ran just simply and crudely pressing his opponent’s head into the Kung Pao Chicken, which was really way too funny. He said, “You, the main protagonist, aren’t showy enough. In the movies, don’t the two sides fight with each other in the rain with hundreds of people?”

Yu Ran didn’t care: “It’s fine as long as I win. Do you think we are living in a movie? At best, it’s a third-rate novel.”

Fang Zhao: “But you aren’t a third-rate male protagonist.”

“Yeah, I’m definitely not,” Yu Ran said, “I’m a first class man.”

In fact, Yu Ran used to fantasize about a high school life that was full of rebellion and excitement, just like in “Crows Zero”. At that time, he had aspired to be a delinquent like Takiya Genji, so he, who had gotten an E grade in the middle school entrance examinations, decided to secretly change his application to No. 44 Middle School. When Li Guirong found out, she was so angry that she tied him to the toilet door handle and beat him for two hours.

He had entered the school with lofty aspirations and high ideals, but it didn’t take long for him to discover that his life was not as wonderful as in mangas and movies. The plot that belonged to him was of a youth who just muddled through his life, moaning and groaning without any illness.

He still remembered the first time he had watched a fighting scene in the No. 44 Middle School. The two seniors were not as powerful, handsome and charming as Oguri Shun. One was an idiot with dyed-red hair and another was a douchebag with blue-dyed hair. The red-haired had yelled “I’m your father” in the middle of the playground, and the blue-haired rushed up and pushed his shoulder. So the two of them then seemed to start a turn-based shoulder-pushing competition, swearing profanities at each other’s whole family, but in reality, their actions were still stuck in the warm-up phase of the battle of shoving each other’s shoulders.

Weaklings.

Yu Ran had watched them push each other all the way from the playground to the school gate, and then the two ran out together to surf the Internet when the security guard wasn’t looking.

“The male protagonist’s school is over for today!” Yu Ran one-handedly flung his school bag and hung it over his right shoulder. Leaning slightly, he looked out the window, “The male protagonist is watching the sunset — fuck, it’s so bright!”

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Fang Zhao hadn’t arrived yet and Yu Ran wasn’t familiar with the other people around him, so he could only speak to Chu Mian first: “Ai, you’ve come.”

“Hmm.”

Seeing that Chu Mian did not ignore him, Yu Ren was a little surprised. He sat down, twisted his body to look at the other party and asked in a small voice: “Did you eat the candies?”

“What candies?”

“The ones that I had put inside your bookcase.”

Chu Mian leaned back and looked down and saw a large packet of white rabbit candy and a bunch of Alps. He asked Yu Ran in confusion, “What are you giving me candies for?”

“Well…” Yu Ran tightly pursed his lips, his eyes gazing at Chu Mian’s desktop, “I thought you were hypoglycemic before…”

“I’m not,” Chu Mian took out the candies and handed them to Yu Ran, “You can take them back.”

“I never take back the things I’ve given as a present. You can throw it away, but don’t return it to me,” Yu Ran said, “But it’s a pity to throw them away, so just keep them to eat.”

Chu Mian did not refuse again, lowered his eyes and stopped looking at him, and said softly: “Thank you.”

This “thank you” was automatically regarded by Yu Ran as a sign that the two of them had cleared up their past disagreements, the old scores that were not worth mentioning could be written off at once, and they would be friendly classmates from now on, which made Yu Ran finally feel as if a load had been taken off his back. He turned back, and leaned against the window sill to play “Fruit Ninja”.

A gust of wind blew in through the open window, and a cup was blown to the ground by the fluttering curtains. Yu Ran bent over and picked it up, and looked back to see Chu Mian sleeping on the table, the wind blowing through his dark hair.

Yu Ran put down his phone and got up quietly, and closed the window next to Chu Mian.

Even when the class started, Chu Mian was still sleeping, and Yu Ran hesitated whether to wake him up, but soon found that the teachers had unanimously turned a blind eye towards Chu Mian’s sleeping behavior, and if they asked questions according to the roll call, they all skipped Chu Mian by default.

In addition to this, Chu Mian had the privilege of not participating in inter-class exercises, he could stay alone in the classroom to sleep or read a book.

All of this was understandable, but at lunchtime, Yu Ran saw Chu Mian walk to the first floor of the cafeteria that had a “closed” sign on the window, and the aunt inside handed out a tray, on which there were at least five or six exquisite small plates with dishes on them.

Yu Ran sat down and said to Fang Zhao in surprise, “Holy shit, did you see that? The school seems to have opened a window specifically for Chu Mian.”

Sitting next to them were a few girls from their class. The acting class president Xiang Xuehua answered smoothly: “I heard the teachers say in the office that Chu Mian’s family had paid for the renovation of our school cafeteria. They also replaced a bunch of cooks, some of whom cook for him alone.”

“His family has enough money to renovate the cafeteria and hire a cook… so it’s not a problem for them to send him to No. 1 Middle School, right?” Fang Zhao asked, “I had previously thought that Chu Mian would show his face at the freshman assembly in this school, and then study elsewhere in the future.”

Xiang Xuehua thought about it for a moment before saying, “It must be very stressful to study in No. 1 Middle School. Didn’t Teacher Bai say that Chu Mian fell asleep during the high school entrance examinations? Studying at the top three schools in the city is definitely not as easy as studying in ours.”

Yu Ran asked hesitantly, “Can’t he drink Red Bull or something to refresh himself?”

“It’s useless. I even saw him take medicine this morning,” Xiang Xuehua said, “Alas, I had suffered from insomnia when the high school entrance examinations were nearing. I also want to try the feeling of falling asleep just by putting my head down… Oh, by the way, have you memorized “Qin Yuan Chun”? We’ve Silent Writing this afternoon.”

Fortunately, a reminder from the class president reminded Yu Ran of this assignment, and he scrambled to recite it during the lunch break until language class. But when it came down to writing on paper, he forgot how to write several words in a row.

“All the students who haven’t finished writing from memory, hurry up! I’ll let you write for another half minute,” The teacher observed the whole class from the podium and waited for a moment before saying, “Okay, pass the paper from back to front.”

Just as Chu Mian was about to raise his hand, Yu Ran, who was sitting in the seat in front of him, quickly turned his head to grab the paper from his hand, and using Chu Mian’s paper, he quickly filled all the places that he had left empty.

Yu Ran did not know that Chu Mian was staring at his back at this moment, a trace of disgust in his eyes. He was relieved to finish writing and passed the two papers forward.

After school, Yu Ran held a yellow peach yogurt flavored Cornetto as he waited for the bus. Fang Zhao could have taken the subway, but he thought it would be more fun to go home with Yu Ran. The two of them were waiting for the bus while playing “Temple Run”, a game that Yu Ran had only downloaded yesterday, but today it had already exceeded one million points and would soon surpass Fang Zhao’s record.

“Did you know, someone abroad has cleared the game, they escaped this level and returned to the city,” Fang Zhao exclaimed admiringly, “Must have played exceptionally well and achieved hundreds of millions of points! So awesome!”

“What will it be like after escaping?” Yu Ran really wanted to look at that picture to open his eyes, but the two of them searched the Internet for a long time and only saw many text descriptions in the news. Finally, they found a screenshot of a blurred harbor that was said to be the end point of the space.

Yu Ran put down the phone in disappointment and looked up to see if Bus No. 861 was coming. He inadvertently glanced at the pedestrian crosswalk and found that Chu Mian was waiting for the red light to cross the road.

“Why is he standing there alone? Shouldn’t his family be picking him up and dropping him off?” Yu Ran frowned.

Fang Zhao followed his gaze and looked over, “Chu Mian? I think he didn’t seem to sleep much in the afternoon. He was quite energetic today.”

Yu Ran began to worry a little: “What if by chance he falls asleep while crossing the road?”

“How can it be so serious…”

“You don’t know, it’s actually that serious,” Yu Ran remembered the scene when he had seen Chu Mian for the first time. The other party was in a dangerous situation yet he suddenly fell asleep, “I’ll go over and look at him, you wait a moment.”

Yu Ran quickly ate the chocolate-filled cone tip of the Cornetto, then trotted to the nearby crosswalk.

Chu Mian’s headphones were playing some industrial metal music that had an intense rhythm. A few pedestrians started to cross the road in front of him and without thinking twice, he followed the crowd forward.

At this moment, he saw a rushing figure suddenly flash by in the periphery of his vision. Chu Mian felt something was wrong, and instinctively put the mobile and wallet inside his pocket, but unexpectedly the next second, his chest was hit head-on by someone.

The sudden impact made his body unconsciously stagger backward a few steps, the heel of his shoe hit the steps. Suddenly he lost control and fell back, his headphones fell off in the process, there was only the clear blue sky left in his field of vision.

Chu Mian felt himself being pressed to the ground. He subconsciously raised his elbow ready to attack the other party’s head, neck or any other vulnerable places, but fortunately Yu Ran’s timely voice made him stop his behavior: “You crossed the road without looking at the lights!”

Chu Mian was stunned. He retracted his hand, surprised to see himself lying in Yu Ran’s arms.

Yu Ran quickly got up, and by the way, he grabbed Chu Mian’s arm to make him stand up, and exactly like how a mother would scold her child for running carelessly on the road, he said to Chu Mian as if the other party was a child: “You followed others to go forward, and you didn’t even notice that you ran the red light? Fortunately, just now, the vehicles weren’t driving fast, otherwise, you would have gone to heaven!”

Chu Mian frowned. He looked down at his palm which was smudged with a good deal of filthy dirt and grit from the curbstone. Compared to accidentally running a red light, the dirt on his skin caused him more alarm in his heart, and now he just wanted to get home quickly and wash it off.

“Thanks for the reminder,” Chu Mian tried hard to maintain his demeanor on the surface and restrained himself from being impatient with Yu Ran, “But still, you popping up out of nowhere is more frightening.”

Yu Ran’s lips moved, wanting to say something but then stopped. He thought that giving Chu Mian candy would mean that the two of them would get along happily in the future, but he didn’t expect that the other party would still act aloof and unapproachable, as if he had no intention of getting acquainted with his classmates.

“You’re getting cocky with me again,” Yu Ran quietly snorted in a cold manner, shrugged his shoulders and went back to wait for the bus.

“You really acted like a protagonist just now,” Fang Zhao said sincerely, “I had once followed my cousin to watch a Taiwanese TV series. The male and female protagonists fell down on the road in the middle of the night, and guess what — the two of them bumped into each other and ended up kissing each other accidently! Coincidentally, the surrounding drivers also turned on their headlights and the couple was in a circle of lights. Truly, what a coincidence! If I were there, I would just step on the gas and run them over.”

Yu Ran bent down to pat his trousers clean, and heard Fang Zhao say: “Fortunately you’re short, otherwise, with that distance just now, I guess you’d have forced-kissed Chu Mian.”

Yu Ran suddenly raised his head: “Who is short?!”

Yu Ran was obviously more sensitive to the lack of height than the “forced-kiss” part. He straightened up suddenly and strode to Fang Zhao’s side, “I am still taller than you!”

Fang Zhao stood on tiptoe, “I mean compared with Chu Mian!”

Yu Ran jumped straight up, “I’m taller than him now!”

“You’re so childish!” Fang Zhao pressed Yu Ran’s shoulder, trying to push Yu Ran short by his own strength, “I want to try to be taller than heaven!”

The two were immersed in the fun of laughing and joking at the bus stop and managed to miss one Bus No. 861.

When Yu Ran got home, he was inevitably scolded by Li Guirong. The dishes were almost cold, while he was playing outside.

Yu Ran said that he had heroically protected his classmate who was almost hit by a car when he ran a red light after school, and the other party knelt down and kowtowed three times on the spot, saying that this kindness would never be forgotten, “You just wait for him to come to our house to send a banner.”

Li Guirong was used to her eldest son’s frequent nonsensical talks, and only rolled her eyes at him. But, Yu Jin took his brother’s words seriously, his eyes full of adoration: “Really! Will the banner say ‘Live Lei Feng!’”

Yu Ran pretended to be thoughtful and said, “I reckon ‘Miracle Worker‘ will be written.”

“Just ‘shameless’ will be written for you!” Li Guirong tapped him on the head with the handle of her chopsticks, “It’s just you. Who else will play with you at school? The students must think you’re too crazy and will lead them astray.”

“You just wait,” Yu Ran said in an imperative tone, “I’ll make a friend one day to show you! I’ll gather one hundred and seven to go to Mt. Liang!”

Li Guirong kicked him, “Hurry up and eat!”