Chapter 313 - 135: Human Shield

Chapter 313: Chapter 135: Human Shield

Zhang Shutong still remembered the year he and Du Kang left the island to borrow equipment. The two of them, laden with bags of all sizes, had hailed a taxi, then taken a long boat ride. Song was waiting for them at the port. After picking them up, he took them straight to a hot pot restaurant on the commercial street. White steam billowed from the half-and-half pot, blurring everyone’s faces. Zhang Shutong couldn’t recall the scene clearly, but he remembered the taste of the hot pot.

The student council, on the other hand, had a very low profile—so low that Zhang Shutong had few impressions of it. They just patrolled the grades to check for discipline and hygiene, checked for tardiness in the mornings, and wrote speeches for the weekly Monday flag-raising ceremony. These were usually reflections on major national events, model essays, or announcements about the results of competitions and exams.

It seemed there were other school activities, too. You shouldn’t assume a small town is boring; on the contrary, the smaller the place, the more creative things get. Zhang Shutong vaguely recalled occasional organized trips off the island to visit the city museum. There were also some unique local activities. In his second or third year of junior high, there had been a massive, class-versus-class snowball fight. Zhang Shutong’s one regret was that the school had never held a fishing tournament.

’Come to think of it, student life wasn’t so boring.’ Human memory is unreliable; it sometimes automatically erases or embellishes certain parts. Zhang Shutong had been a wild child, so he didn’t have many memories of life *inside* school, but his memories from *outside* were vivid.

Now, he sat by the classroom radiator, watching the simple class committee election draw to a close. The homeroom teacher had everyone vote on slips of paper. Wu Shengyu was put in charge of tallying, and the teacher herself stepped out of the room.

There were six minutes until the bell. Next up was Chinese class, so he took the opportunity to open his textbook.

Chinese was all about consistent study and memorization. Fortunately, Zhang Shutong had a knack for both. After a moment’s thought, he decided to start by memorizing the classical Chinese texts, since questions on them were almost guaranteed to be on the exam.

’Then again, it was still common practice to have your deskmate quiz you on what you’d memorized.’

It wasn’t worth bothering Lu Qinglian over something so trivial. He stared at his textbook, his lips moving slightly, but Wei Chenchen, who sat in front of him, jumped at the chance to talk.

"Hey, what happened to your hand? Did you really just slip and fall in the snow while riding your bike?"

Zhang Shutong found it strange. Since she was friends with Ruoping, why was she even asking?

"Something like that."

Wei Chenchen added,

"Don’t get me wrong, I’m not making fun of you. I think guys who can ride motorcycles are really cool. And some people are saying you fell while trying to be a hero. Since one of the people involved is sitting right behind me, I just had to ask."

"Both are true," Zhang Shutong said, multitasking as he silently recited the text in his head. "But I wasn’t the hero. The snow was."

"Huh?" Wei Chenchen’s eyes widened. She took a couple of seconds to process that, and whatever she made of it, she giggled. "Ruoping said you were quiet, but I think you’re pretty funny."

Feeling like she had broken the ice, she asked,

"Were you and our group leader deskmates before? I heard your old class also assigned seats based on grades."

Zhang Shutong said they weren’t. "We just sat one behind the other."

"You two are real star students," the girl said, full of admiration. "No wonder you’re always the top two in our grade."

’Zhang Shutong hadn’t been sure what she was getting at before, but now... was she fangirling or something?’

"Well, I hope you don’t mind if I ask you for help a lot from now on!"

Zhang Shutong glanced at Lu Qinglian. One of Lu Qinglian’s good qualities was that, although she preferred quiet, as long as you made it clear you were speaking to her and did so politely, she would always give some kind of response instead of ignoring you completely.

Of course, that "response" was usually just an indifferent nod.

Zhang Shutong nodded as well.

He tore a piece of paper from his scratch pad. They were now voting for the Arts Committee Member. In truth, this was the only position with any competition; for the rest, like the Sports and Student Life committee members, only one person had volunteered.

Zhang Shutong abstained. He didn’t even know everyone’s names yet, so it was better to just sit this one out.

Lu Qinglian chose to abstain as well, though she was even more direct about it. Zhang Shutong had at least written a word on his slip, but she hadn’t even bothered to tear one off.

Zhang Shutong opened his Chinese textbook to continue studying, but the class monitor at the front of the room suddenly spoke up.

"Lu Qinglian, could you help me call out the votes?"

Zhang Shutong couldn’t help but look up.

He remembered.

’What was the beef between this guy and Du Kang?’

’Oh, right. They were love rivals.’

He seemed to recall a fight over it once. The four of them were thick as thieves, so there was no way they’d stand by and watch Du Kang get into a fight. Kids on the island either didn’t fight at all or fought in groups; one-on-one brawls were rare. Of course, the other guy had also called in his crew, and in the end, he and Qingyi had both jumped into the fray.

While Zhang Shutong was still trying to recall how the fight had started and whether they’d even won, Lu Qinglian looked up and said flatly,

"I’m busy."

"It’ll only take two minutes of your time." The class monitor—Wu Shengyu—held up two fingers, a natural, perfectly calibrated smile on his face. It was all business. "You’re the Study Committee Member. I think it’s good for us to get used to working together. It will make future cooperation smoother."

’It was simple, really,’ Zhang Shutong thought. ’The guys in their old class had been with her for over three years. Whether they had a crush on Lu Qinglian or not, they’d all learned long ago that they didn’t stand a chance. She was the type you could only admire from a distance. But now, in a new class, a whole new batch of guys were getting restless.’

’Classical Chinese is important.’

’But you don’t see a scene like this every day.’

Zhang Shutong put down his textbook, his curiosity piqued.

"Zhang Shutong, have you finished memorizing your text?" she asked calmly, to his surprise.

’Come on, I’m already injured,’ Zhang Shutong thought. ’Can’t you find someone else to use as a human shield?’ He could no longer just watch the show. Keeping his expression neutral, he replied,

"I’m ready. Should we start now?"

Lu Qinglian took the textbook.