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Seventeenth Period
T/N: Translated by Jen on Broken Jinsei! Please do not repost my translations! All translations outside of Broken Jinsei are stolen and reposted without permission!
Go today?
Jiang Huihui clearly got startled by his words, “I need to go home early today. The repairman will be coming in the afternoon to fix the fridge, someone needs to be there.”
Zhou Jinwei indeed didn’t have any appetite. He just asked for a cup of water.
Hearing Zhou Yanli’s words, he slightly lifted his eyes, “See who?”
Zhou Yanli said, “Ye Shuting, her friend.”
Jiang Huihui hurriedly denied, “Not really friends, just acquaintances.”
Zhou Yanli made the decision for her, “You’ll be friends in the future.”
He kept putting food into Jiang Huihui’s bowl nonstop.
Zhou Jinwei silently watched this scene before him.
After Zhou Yanli finished serving her the food, he didn’t forget to turn and ask Zhou Jinwei, “The ingredients should all be fresh, right? It better not be some overnight leftovers, that kind of thing isn’t healthy.”
Zhou Jinwei furrowed his brows.
This can also be considered a rare sight. Even for someone as stoic as him, when facing Zhou Yanli, he could barely hide his disdain.
The three girls at the table next to theirs watched them with curiosity, asking Xu Lianyu, “Who are those two? How come Zhou Jinwei looks like he’s quite close with them? It can’t be that he’s dating that girl?”
If it was someone else, they wouldn’t go as far as to be this curious, but this was Zhou Jinwei.
He normally has the same attitude towards everyone, neither good nor bad. To put it bluntly, everyone was the same in his eyes, all just carbon-based lifeforms.
Xu Lianyu pushed her glasses, that pair of aloof phoenix eyes coldly swept over Zhou Yanli.
She disdainfully commented, “Idiot.”
TN: All translations outside of Broken Jinsei are stolen and reposted without permission!
There was a very long distance between the two tables, so Zhou Yanli naturally can’t hear that there was someone badmouthing him nearby.
It was rare for Zhou Jinwei to have the same view as him, “You indeed need to make some more friends.”
Every time he saw her in school, she seemingly was always alone.
She wasn’t very tall to begin with, and because of having low self-esteem, liking to walk with her head down, it was even easier for her to get lost among the crowd.
Zhou Jinwei liked to go to the rooftop to smoke. The balcony overlooked the entire field.
Seemingly every time, he could see in that rightmost classroom, a girl walk out alone and then walk back alone.
Hearing Zhou Jinwei’s words, Jiang Huihui blanked for a moment, then lowered her head again, and somewhat nervously used the chopsticks to poke the rice in her bowl.
“En…..I know.”
She had a kind of docile obedience and also a kind of nervousness that made her not dare to look at him.
Zhou Jinwei glanced at her. A moment later, he picked up the cup and took a sip of the water, turning his gaze to look out the window.
At the same time, the corner of his lips slightly curved.
–
During the afternoon break, Zhou Yanli went out, and even when class started again, he still didn’t come back.
Jiang Huihui asked Qin Yu, “Do you know where Zhou Yanli went?”
Qin Yu shook his head, “Don’t know, didn’t see boss at all during the afternoon break.”
He suddenly became interested, “Can’t be that boss went out to fight again?”
Jiang Huihui’s face instantly crumpled.
Seeing how her look was off, Qin Yu hurriedly changed his words, “It’s not certain, what if he’s simply just skipping class.”
Jiang Huihui’s complexion didn’t really improve because of this added remark of his. Instead, it became even more gloomy.
Although the student registration was taken care of, it’ll be the finals soon.
He didn’t study in school to begin with, and now, he even openly skipped class.
Jiang Huihui tightly pursed her lips, strangely feeling unhappy, causing her to also be distracted in class the whole time. It wasn’t until the classmate behind her kicked her chair a few times did she finally realize that the teacher had called out to her several times.
The english teacher originally wanted to let her translate the sentence on the blackboard, but seeing how she was distracted, out of concern for a good student, the english teacher asked her if she was also feeling unwell.
When Jiang Huihui heard the word ‘also’, she blanked for a moment.
“Huh?”
The english teacher said, “Your deskmate said that his stomach hurt, so requested a leave for two periods, saying that he was going to go see a doctor.”
Zhou Yanli has a stomache?
When they were eating earlier, she didn’t hear him say that his stomach hurt. He seemed quite normal at the time.
However, Zhou Yanli did keep his word, just being gone for two periods.
There was light rain outside. When he came in, half his shoulder was wet. He was wearing a baseball cap and a mask that covered half his face. From head to toe, only his eyes and half his nose bridge was showing.
This while just happened to be the end of class. The people in the classroom were all busy with their own matters. His arrival unified everyone’s attention.
For boys, having both height and good taste in clothes was already enough to become the focus of attention in a crowd.
Zhou Yanli’s taste in clothes was very good. He wasn’t really considered the type to blindly follow current trends. All his clothes were quite simple, with merely just those few colors. Any other changes just come from changing the shade of those few colors.
But he had a unique trait. Probably because of his own personal demeanor, regardless of the clothes, as long as it was worn on him, it will all have a kind of bold feeling.
Acutally, from Zhou Yanli’s perspective, the current popular trends were all the non-mainstream styles from twenty years ago.
As soon as he sat down, he just had a black object from his coat pocket thrown into his desk.
“I’m going to sleep for a bit, don’t wake me until school’s out.” He instructed Jiang Huihui in advance, his voice a bit hoarse. Afterwards, he just lay down on his desk and fell asleep.
Seeing how he really didn’t seem to have any energy, Jiang Huihui just nodded her head. But she still curiously glanced inside his desk, seeing what exactly did he throw inside just now.
Once she saw clearly what it was, she just froze there.
Electric hair clippers from the barbershop? Taking a closer look, there’s seemingly even some hair on it.
It was even used?
Jiang Huihui followed his instructions and only woke him when school was out. Zhou Yanli lazily crawled up from his desk and quickly packed his backpack, having the brand new textbooks that haven’t even been opened before all shoved in.
Afterwards, he went to take her backpack, “Let’s go, I’ll send you to the bus stop.”
Seeing him this withered, Jiang Huihui was a bit worried, “Did you catch a cold?”
He denied, “No, only a weakling would catch a cold.”
Jiang Huihui felt that she’d seemingly gotten unintentionally stabbed, her knees suddenly hurting a little.
–
Zhou Yanli took her to the bus stop. After watching her get on the bus, he saw her lean against the bus window, worryingly looking back.
He raised his hand and waved at her, putting on a relaxed and natural smile on his face.
Once the bus had gone far, the smile on his face finally crumbled completely.
He sat down with a frown.
F#%$, can’t believe he who was as strong as an ox would also get taken down by a flu.
His whole body felt as if it was getting punched by countless fists for over half an hour.
That damn elementary school was practically just a nest of diseases.
Thinking of that elementary schooler in Jiang Huihui’s home, don’t know if Jiang Huihui will be alright or not…..
When Jiang Huihui got home, her mom was currently pulling along her younger brother by the hand and loudly cursing along the street.
Asking which family’s rascal had the ill intentions of deliberately running all the way to the school to beat up her son.
“My family is usually quite kind to others and has never offended anyone before, right? So which heartless scoundrel beat my son up like this and even gave him a butchered haircut!”
Jiang Man who was standing by her side was crying the whole time. His face was covered in patches of blue and purple, and his hair had gotten hideously shaven.
The neighbors all gathered around to watch. There were also some that came out to mediate, “We’re all neighbors, who would do something like this?”
Her mom was so angry that her face had thoroughly turned red, “Then who else can it be?! Our family’s Little Man, aside from the classmates in school, usually only come in contact with the neighbors, who could he have possibly offended?”
Jiang Huihui could hear her mom’s cursing from the alley entrance. And when she walked in, those neighbors immediately saw her, quickly letting her go pacify her mom, “Your younger brother got dragged out and beaten up by someone at school today, even shaving his head like that. Your mom insists that it was done by someone in the neighborhood. Seriously, what all is this? Who would do something like this?”
Jiang Huihui curiously walked over, discovering that Jiang Man’s hair was like having gotten chewed up by a dog, having a patch here and there.
Her mom had even asked for a leave and rushed back for this matter.
She’d suddenly received a call from the teacher, saying that someone had randomly stopped a student outside the school, letting him help call out Jiang Man from class 3 of the fifth grade.
As soon as he went out, he just got dragged into the alleyway and ruthlessly beaten up.
Never mind beating him up, they even shaved his head like that. Jiang Man got made fun of in school, and now, he was unwilling to go school.
Jiang Huihui suddenly recalled those two periods where Zhou Yanli disappeared and also the hair clippers that appeared in his desk.
She somewhat nervously asked her mom, “Doesn’t…..doesn’t the school have cameras? Did it catch anything?”
The mention of this made her mom even angrier. That person clearly came prepared, wearing both a mask and a hat, having themself covered tightly. Despite going through all the security footage, they still couldn’t figure out what they actually looked like, only knowing that they were tall.
Hearing her mom say this, Jiang Huihui actually relaxed a breath.
She glanced at Jiang Man who was loudly bawling, but she didn’t say anything, just returning to her own room.
–
At school the next day, she wanted to look for Zhou Yanli to ask him about yesterday, but she saw him wearing a mask and switching seats with Qin Yu’s deskmate.
Staying far away from her.
“Stay away from me for now, I think I have a cold, don’t let it infect you.”
Qin Yu who was sitting by his side kept wanting to say something but hesitated, “….”
His life also counted as life, right?
Jiang Huihui had a worried look. Yesterday, she could already tell that he didn’t look quite right, yet he continued to act tough.
Fortunately, she had the habit of carrying medicine on her. She took out a box of cold medicine from her backpack and handed it to him along with her own water bottle. The water inside was warm water.
She said, “Take the medicine first, then take a nap. If you still feel uncomfortable, then we’ll go see a doctor, don’t force yourself to endure, okay?”
Her voice was gentle and soft, like coaxing a child.
On the other side, there was still Qin Yu, this lightbulb.
Even the lightbulb was emotionally moved, he refused to believe that Zhou Yanli would remain unmoved.
Sure enough, looking at the usually incomparably cocky guy, his eyes were drooping down for once which was a rare sight.
He just accepted the medicine but didn’t take her water, scared that if he were to use her water bottle, he’ll get her sick.
It’s fine if he has a cold. His body was strong, able to tough it out, but Jiang Huihui was different. She was an important target of protection.
Zhou Yanli directly swallowed the medicine dry.
The bitterness made him frown, but he didn’t forget to act like a child with her, “Sure enough, a child with a mom is a treasure.”
Qin Yu stared at him.
F#%$, bro, you’re perverted, playing this wild? Directly calling mom???
Jiang Huihui was long used to his nonsense. In fact, can even say that she has already subconsciously accepted this absurd role.
She asked him if he was hungry, “I’ll go buy you some food later. That noodle shop from last time? You seemed to quite like that place.”
He lay on his desk and nodded, “Don’t add hot peppers.”
“Alright, do you want to eat anything else?”
“The steamed buns from the bun shop next door.”
“Okay, I’ll go buy them for you.”
The two of them just talked like this for a while, ignoring Qin Yu who was between them. Suddenly, like having thought of something, Zhou Yanli put on his coat, got up, and started heading out.
Seeing him go out, Jiang Huihui panicked, “You have a cold, to not properly rest, where are you going?”
He didn’t even look back, “Look for Zhou Jinwei to pass it onto him.”
“…….”
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