Chapter 43.1: Just call me Shen Tiezhu.

Lin Yujing had no idea if her ears and head were red or not, she just wanted to let Shen Juan know why the flowers were so red [1]. 

This feeling of shame-induced anger [2] was unprecedentedly strong and accompanied by shortness of breath, stiff limbs, an empty mind, numbness and weakness on one side of the body, and a heartbeat of 170 beats per minute, etc.—a series of abnormal stress reactions.

When Lin Yujing came back to her senses, she walked back a little, trying to make herself look as if nothing had happened. “Did you just touch my ear?”

“I’m helping you,” Shen Juan said solemnly. “Let your red ears out to dry, the cold air blowing over them will wake you up much more.”

“I don’t need cold air, I’m wide awake. And my ears aren’t red.” Lin Yujing glared at him, looking a bit annoyed. “In ancient times, this kind of behavior would be called ‘smearing my innocence.’ It would also be called ‘acting like a hooligan.’ You would be soaked in a pig cage [3], do you know that?” 

Shen Juan slowly leaned back. “Soaking in a pig cage is the punishment for cheating, which requires mutual consent of both the man and woman.”

Lin Yujing’s small spark of annoyance was instantly ignited by the word “cheating,” and she stared at him in disbelief. “Bah!”

She lost control of her volume, and the English teacher turned around and gave her a look of infinite kindness. 

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When Liu Fujiang came in he was still beaming, but he was like that every day. When Li Lin and the others brought back the relay race award on the second day of the sports meet, it was said that Liu Fujiang was so excited that he almost cried with joy. He felt this group of children had developed very well in all aspects; he was even happier than when Lin Yujing and Shen Juan scored 700 points in the monthly exam.

During the last class period, Liu Fujiang walked in with the roster, stood in front of the podium, and said happily, “There are two people in our class who are in the top 50 grades for the midterm exam.”

In an instant, the gazes of the forty or so heads in class swept over in unison.

Liu Fujiang also paused, as if to give everyone time to anticipate the top students.

Lin Yujing has never felt so anxious about the gaze of others.

Liu Fujiang smiled and looked at them for a little while, and finally said slowly, “You may be very curious about who they are. These two students are Lin Yujing and Shen Juan. They are role models for all the students in our class. Everyone, let’s give them a round of applause.”

Everyone in Class 10 raised their hands cooperatively and applauded.

The momentum was like a rainbow [4], very loud, like playing castanets.

Lin Yujing: “…”

Shen Juan: “…”

Liu Fujiang seemed very satisfied, and when the applause died down, he said, “The questions in this exam were more difficult than those in the monthly exam. In addition, half a semester has passed and much more information was covered. For this year, there is no one with a score of 700. Shen Juan has a score of 694 and is still the first in the grade. Come on, applause.”

There was another burst of loud applause, which even sounded more enthusiastic than before.

Lin Yujing: “…”

Shen Juan: “…”

Shen Juan paused for a moment, then turned to look at her.

Liu Fujiang continued: “Classmate Lin Yujing, with 692 points, ranked second in the grade with a difference of two points. Very good. Applause!”

Li Lin’s palms were almost clapped to pieces, and he patted the corner of the table excitedly behind her: “Sister Lin, you are strong!”

Lin Yujing was completely expressionless.

Two f*cking points short again.

Is this some kind of evil fate?

Or some kind of curse from the Arabic numeral 2?

Did Shen Juan do it on purpose?

How could he be so accurate?

Lin Yujing didn’t want to see 2, two, double, or any other representation of two units again in this life. 

Lin Yujing didn’t want to say a word for the rest of the class period. She even felt like this scene seemed familiar, very familiar, as if she had experienced being two points short of Shen Juan before.

Shen Juan also said nothing until after class, when he raised his hand and gently poked her arm with his index finger.

Lin Yujing stood up in a daze and made room for him, standing by the table in the aisle and waiting for him to go out.

Shen Juan stood up and walked out the classroom door.

Lin Yujing sat back down, still in a daze.

A few moments later, Shen Juan reappeared at the door to the classroom and looked down at her. “Lin Yujing.”

Lin Yujing raised her head.

Shen Juan lifted his chin slightly. “Come out.”

Lin Yujing sat there motionless, looking at him indifferently.

Shen Juan sighed. “Are you stupid?”

Lin Yujing replied, “You’re the one who’s stupid.”

Shen Juan said, “Talk to me?”

“Classmate Shen, don’t you realize that I don’t want to say a word to you now?” Lin Yujing said slowly. “I never knew what it was like to hate to the bone [5], but now I know, thank you.”

Shen Juan laughed angrily, took a couple steps forward, and entered the classroom. Supporting himself on her table, he leaned down and whispered, “If you don’t want to come out by yourself, I don’t mind acting like a hooligan again, for example by carrying you out.”

He seemed to be in low spirits, with deep black eyes and a feeling of oppression. When the first half of the sentence came out, from looking at his posture Lin Yujing almost thought he wanted to fight.

In the end, the second half of the sentence was “carrying you out.”

Lin Yujing opened her mouth and unwittingly looked around.

They’d just started evening self-study after the midterm exam in the previous cycle, so school didn’t end after the last period of class was over. There was a half-hour break in the middle, and then they would come back for self-study.

Half of the class had gone to dinner, and Li Lin and the others had run to the last row of the classroom to discuss the basketball game. The class leaders next to them were gnawing on pies while doing practice test papers, and didn’t look over.

Lin Yujing cleared her throat, got up, and walked out with Shen Juan.

—

[1] “let someone know why the flowers are so red” – means to demonstrate to someone that the person isn’t being underestimated but has ability.

[2] “恼羞成怒” – means “to be ashamed into anger” or “to fly into a rage from humiliation.”

[3] “soaked in a pig cage” – This means to put someone into a cage used for holding pigs, which is then hung over a river for immersion. Historically used as punishment in China. 

[4] “like a rainbow” –  means to have a grand, imposing demeanor or presence, and conveys a sense of strength, vigor, and majesty, much like a rainbow’s impressive and colorful appearance in the sky.

[5] “恨之入骨” – “hate to the bone” – means to feel hate deep in one’s bones, rather than hating someone else to the bone.