The bell for the fourth period of the morning rang.
The thin, tall math teacher quickly wrote the answer to the last problem on the blackboard, then lifted his head and loudly declared: “Today’s math homework is still one worksheet. The class representative will hand them out after class. Alright, class dismissed!”
Fang Qiang, as the sports committee member, immediately stood up from his seat, turned his head, and shouted to the few boys in the class: “Those on duty today, come with me to carry the food!”
“Coming!”
A slender boy immediately stood up.
Following him was the short Sun Wei.
“Damn it, I carry food twice a week!”
Sun Wei raised a middle finger.
“The homeroom teacher decided it. It’s no use complaining to me. Those who carry food get to eat first, isn’t that nice?”
Fang Qiang stretched, his slightly small school uniform riding up his arm, revealing his belly button surrounded by a ring of dark hair.
Although Small City No. 2 Middle School had its own cafeteria, it was essentially just a cooking area, only large enough for the school’s teachers to eat in.
So, when students wanted to eat, they had to carry the food back to their classrooms.
Usually, four people went, because there were two baskets to carry: one for rice and the other for dishes.
As for soup… that was only available if you ate in the cafeteria, usually only teachers would get it.
“An Jing!”
Fang Qiang, at the doorway, shouted to An Jing.
“Hurry up!”
“Huh? Oh, oh…”
An Jing, who had been staring blankly at Zhu Ying’s back, suddenly snapped back to reality.
He then remembered that today was Monday, so he was also one of the people carrying food.
“Coming, coming!”
He quickly ran to the doorway and, with a quick slap, hit Fang Qiang’s butt: “Let’s go, let’s go!”
“Damn it, you three, you hit my butt whenever you see me, huh?”
“Can’t help it, A-Qiang, your butt is so perky!”
When Sun Wei smiled, his eyes would narrow into a slit, looking particularly mischievous.
“Perkier than most girls in the class!”
“Hahaha, perky butt!”
The other slender boy also laughed.
“Can’t help but do it when we see it.”
“Exactly, don’t blame us!”
An Jing nodded forcefully.
“Damn it, you like slapping butts, huh, you like it!”
Fang Qiang raised his hand and, without hesitation, slapped Sun Wei’s butt.
However, when he looked at Zhou Chao and An Jing, both had already darted to the stairwell.
“Don’t run if you’ve got guts! See if I don’t beat your butts raw!”
“Only an idiot wouldn’t run!”
An Jing yelled back, looking up.
“A-Qiang, just hit Sun Wei, his butt is solid!”
Zhou Chao said, grinning mischievously.
“Holy crap, you guys are human, yet you betray your good brothers!”
Sun Wei yelled, looking back at the ill-intentioned Fang Qiang, and also started running.
It seemed they would reach the cafeteria much earlier than usual today.
***
In the cafeteria, blue and green baskets were neatly stacked on the ground.
Each had its corresponding class written on it with a marker.
They couldn’t be mistaken, or the quantities would be wrong.
The person in charge of managing lunch pick-up was the Dean of Students.
She was very tall, about one meter eighty, with a wide mouth like a catfish.
She usually taught art and always seemed cheerful and easy to talk to.
“Sister Xu! Where’s Class Five’s food?”
As soon as he reached the mountain of plastic baskets, Fang Qiang shouted to the Dean of Students, not holding back at all.
The Dean of Students, who was about thirty years old, grinned: “Class Three, Class Five’s is right in front of you. Your class is early today.”
“That’s right, we have to be early to get it,” Sun Wei said proudly.
“Time is money, and money is life. We never waste life!”
An Jing rolled his eyes.
He always felt that something in what this guy said was a bit strange, but he couldn’t pinpoint what it was.
“Okay!”
Fang Qiang waved his hand like a bandit leader about to rob, “A-Wei, you and An Jing carry the rice, and Zhou Chao and I will carry the dishes!”
“No problem, boss!”
Sun Wei immediately put on the demeanor of a subordinate, shouting cooperatively.
“What are we eating today?”
An Jing was more curious about this.
Zhou Chao slightly lifted the paper lunchbox tied with a yellow rubber band and peeked inside: “Didn’t see anything else, but there are fried chicken legs.”
“Heh heh, fried chicken legs again? The school must be rich lately,” Sun Wei chuckled mischievously.
“Last Friday was also fried chicken legs, wasn’t it?”
“Maybe it’s leftovers from last Friday?”
An Jing shot him a sidelong glance.
“Ah…”
“Holy cow, no way!”
“How could that be?”
Sister Xu interjected.
“You’re guessing wildly.”
“Exactly, exactly, An Jing, don’t stir up trouble!”
“Is ‘stirring up trouble’ appropriate here?”
Zhou Chao clicked his tongue.
“Then how about ‘shaking morale’? ‘Listening to slander’? ‘Deceiving and swindling’?”
Sun Wei showed off his Chinese language skills.
“Your Chinese is so good, why do you always hover around the pass mark in exams?”
An Jing teased, chuckling.
“Damn it, that’s the problem with modern education. It doesn’t cultivate complete individuals, but assembly line products. Someone talented like me…”
“Less bullsh*t!”
Fang Qiang cursed with a laugh, slapping the back of his head.
“Hurry up and move it!”
“Damn, for the sake of fried chicken legs, I won’t argue with you today…”
“Hurry!”
An Jing had already grabbed one side of the plastic basket, just waiting for Sun Wei to lift it with him.
“Coming, coming!”
***
During lunchtime, the classes closer to the front were quieter.
For a class like Class Five, even with someone maintaining order, it was still a noisy mess.
“Lunch is here!”
Fang Qiang had just carried the dishes into the classroom when he yelled, then naturally took his own food and went back to his seat.
An Jing chose a box with more rice.
For some reason, he felt particularly hungry today.
Maybe he hadn’t eaten enough for breakfast. After all, that ginseng fried egg pancake was really quite hard to swallow.
“An Jing—”
Zhang Qiqi’s voice made An Jing subconsciously look up, then he immediately realized she wasn’t calling him.
“Everyone be quiet! The noisiest group eats last!”
Every class had a different way of distributing food.
Some classes just let students grab whatever, some went by order, and Class Five, well, it depended on the class monitor’s mood.
Oh, no, not mood—it depended on which group was the quietest.
Even though they were in junior high, they still did this.
It wasn’t because Zhang Qiqi was too controlling, but because the boys in Class Five were too eager to get food, and the scene would become chaotic.
After several incidents of girls being pushed and falling, the homeroom teacher had put the class monitor in charge.
—At the beginning of junior high, they used to just grab freely.
“Group eight, come up and get your food.”
An Jing, who was chewing his rice, looked up and saw Zhu Ying gently pat Fang Qiang’s back, signaling him to move.
But the latter didn’t get up at all; he just scooted his chair forward, looking too lazy to move.
However, An Jing knew this guy was deliberately acting uninterested…
“Group one, why are you still so noisy?”
“Group four, go get it.”
Zhang Qiqi’s voice constantly echoed.
The classroom, which had just become quiet for a short while, slowly grew noisy again.
That was because many students had already gotten their food and were whispering to each other.
No one would bother them for talking while eating.
After all, they were in junior high; they weren’t managed like elementary schoolers.
In a short while, Zhang Qiqi, whose front and back were indistinguishable at first glance, also sat back down in her chair and tilted her head to glance at An Jing, who was almost finished with his lunch.
He had a habit of eating his least favorite dishes first and saving his favorite for last.
So he hadn’t touched the fried chicken leg at all today, just waiting to savor it after his last bite of rice.
“Oh, you don’t like fried chicken legs?”
As soon as Zhang Qiqi’s voice rang out, An Jing saw his golden-brown, crispy chicken leg, emitting an enticing aroma, slowly float into the air.
Of course, it wasn’t flying; it was gripped by a hand.
“Crunch.”
“Hey!!!”
An Jing wanted to stop her, but Zhang Qiqi had already taken a bite.
“Damn it…”
He immediately glared at her.
“Didn’t I say not to eat it?”
“Huh? I saw you finished all your food, and only this was left. I thought you didn’t want it. Can’t waste food!”
“I was planning to eat it after I finished everything else, damn it…”
“Oh~ is that so?”
Zhang Qiqi blinked innocently.
“Then want it back? I only took a small bite.”
An Jing’s mouth twitched.
He wanted to be angry, but perhaps because his temper was too good, he couldn’t get angry at all: “You motherf***er… you’re practically a female demon.”
“Heh heh~ Thanks for the compliment.”
He pouted, not bothering to argue further with this “ill-tempered” person, grabbed his lunchbox, and walked out of the classroom.
Disposable lunchboxes, of course, didn’t need washing, but the spoon used for eating still needed to be rinsed.
“Haha, An Jing.”
Sun Wei followed him out, jogging to catch up, and put an arm around his shoulder.
“You little punk got bullied by Dirty Qiqi again?”
This was the nickname Sun Wei and a few other boys, who had also been bullied by Zhang Qiqi several times, had given her.
An Jing used to think this nickname was uncivilized for a girl, but now he only thought it was still too civilized.
“Damn it, she stole my fried chicken leg.”
“Hahaha—that’s what you get for being her deskmate, but she’s never stolen mine.”
“Is it because you don’t shower every day, and she’s disgusted by you?”
“Heh heh, that’s strategy!”
Sun Wei said, not ashamed but proud.
“If it’s really bad, you can tell the teacher to change your deskmate.”
“Forget it… that’s too direct.”
“How is that direct?”
“We’re big guys, just put up with it!”
An Jing shrugged helplessly, walked to the sink, rinsed his spoon several times, and when he looked back, Sun Wei was no longer behind him.
Looking closer, that kid was sprinting down the hallway.
“A-Wei, if you’ve got guts, don’t run! I’ll beat your butt raw today!!”
“I didn’t hit him, An Jing did!”
“Do you think I’ll believe that, you bastard!!”
An Jing shook his head helplessly, and suddenly heard a somewhat soft voice beside him: “An, An Jing… that… I can’t finish my fried chicken leg for lunch today, do you want it…?”