Tuesday, November 3, 2009.
The school had already organized morning runs, and even junior high students had to participate.
Why, you ask?
Well, of course, the physical education middle school exams were coming up next semester.
Without maintaining basic exercise, many people would probably struggle to even pass.
“This is the final lap, it’s time to sprint! Junior high students, lead the way! Just like your middle school exams, today’s morning run, you must give it your all—”
The duty teacher on the stage spoke with an emotionless voice, saying things that only added to the excitement.
Amidst the gasps, students’ curses immediately erupted.
“Damn it, old hag, you say sprint and we sprint?!”
“Just run slowly for the last lap, that’s good enough…”
“Why do junior high students still have to do morning runs?!”
“Brothers—!”
Even though he had gained a lot of weight, Fang Qiang, still running incredibly fast, raised his right arm high.
“Charge with me! Don’t let the classes behind us catch up!”
Several other boys who usually enjoyed sports also started yelling “Ow! Ow!”
Leading the Class Five team, their speed instantly picked up significantly.
“These boys are crazy…”
“If they want to run, they can run by themselves…”
“Why run so fast—!”
But no matter how much they complained, this lap still had to be completed.
An Jing followed along with ease.
Today, he felt exceptionally good, full of energy, and even felt like he could run five more laps without a problem.
“Charge—!! Charge—!!”
That big oaf Fang Qiang, as if he had endless energy, accelerated again.
The Class Five team completely scattered, but it didn’t matter, because the situation in other classes was similar.
Before long, the athlete’s march began to play, and all the students started leaving in a messy fashion.
“Haha, awesome, exercise feels great!”
Fang Qiang, only wearing a short-sleeved school uniform, was drenched in sweat.
He laughed heartily, putting an arm around An Jing’s shoulder.
“An Jing, how about it? Want to play five more minutes of basketball?”
“Just five minutes? Forget it, that’s boring.”
An Jing rolled his eyes, swatting away his overly hairy hand.
“Let’s go back to the classroom and rest a bit before class starts.”
“True. Come on, let’s hit the restroom! Zhou Chao, A-Wei, let’s go, restroom!”
“Let’s go, let’s go!”
Actually, it wasn’t just girls; even boys liked going to the restroom in groups, because they could chat all the way there.
The topics of conversation were invariably basketball or games.
“…Ah, Zhou Chao, you also played a Blademaster?”
“Holy crap, am I the only one playing Ghostblade?”
“I played a Berserker, just too cool.”
“You guys started playing too?”
An Jing joined the conversation somewhat proudly.
“My Ranger is already level sixty.”
“We were playing CF before, got a bit tired of it, so we’re trying something new.”
“How about it, want me to carry you?”
“Sure, tonight?”
“No can do, still have homework to write!”
“Damn it, if you can’t finish it, just ‘C’ it!”
“Who do you think you’re ‘C’-ing homework from usually?”
An Jing said irritably, putting his elbow on Sun Wei’s shoulder.
“Girls aren’t willing to lend it.”
“How about you ask Dirty Qiqi to lend it, and we’ll borrow from you.”
“Ask her for it? Damn, that would cause who knows how much trouble!”
“Are we brothers? If we’re brothers, suffer for your brothers!”
“No!”
An Jing quickly replied.
“Damn it!”
His friends immediately uniformly gave him the middle finger.
A group of them chattered noisily as they entered the restroom.
Right after morning run, it was peak restroom time.
Even though the men’s restroom used a trough urinal, they still had to wait a bit to squeeze into an empty spot.
“Huh, where’s An Jing?”
“I just saw him go into a stall.”
“Why did he suddenly go into a stall today? Isn’t it usually Sun Wei who goes into the stalls?”
“Hahaha, Sun Wei is afraid his little ‘screw’ is embarrassing, that’s why he always goes into the stalls.”
“Exactly, a real man should dare to compare sizes!”
Sun Wei, from inside the stall, immediately yelled: “Damn it, I heard you talking bad about me!”
A group of them burst into laughter, and then someone subtly changed the topic: “Don’t you dare say it, but I caught a glimpse last time, An Jing’s there is really big.”
“Holy crap, really? You actually looked closely?”
“A fleeting glance, get it?!”
Meanwhile, An Jing, inside the toilet stall, was covered in sweat and looked embarrassed.
Not only because it wasn’t that big anymore, but also because… his body was bare, without a single hair.
If he were to take it out in front of other boys, he’d probably be laughed at.
***
Even though it looked really clean this way, it wasn’t manly at all, damn it!
An Jing secretly made up his mind—
Absolutely no playing around tonight!
Class Five’s homeroom teacher was a middle-aged woman as plump as a balloon.
She taught English.
Although she looked plump, she was very decisive and quick-tempered, and her tongue was quite sharp.
If any student ever annoyed her, her scolding would be completely varied and endless.
However, as long as she wasn’t angry, she was still approachable, at least not to the point of making everyone silent with fear during class.
“English class representative, go to my office and hand out yesterday’s English test papers.”
The bell hadn’t even rung yet when she walked into the classroom.
“Everyone else, clear your desks. We’re reorganizing into new groups today and changing seats.”
Even in junior high, seats were changed every two weeks, but usually, it was just swapping between large groups with some minor adjustments.
But today, the homeroom teacher seemed to be planning something big.
“Some parents have reported to me that sitting with the opposite sex makes students lose focus on studying. All they think about is chatting with female classmates. Oh, I originally put you boys and girls together to prevent chatting, but it turns out you not only chat, you even want to start dating.”
The pufferfish-like homeroom teacher stood at the podium with her arms crossed, sweeping her gaze over the students.
“I won’t name names, but you know who you are. Now, I’m going to reorganize groups: boys with boys, girls with girls. If you still want to talk and chat during class, you’ll be responsible for your own actions. You’re in junior high now, not little kids anymore, you should be sensible!”
The homeroom teacher’s suddenly raised voice made the students’ hearts skip a beat, and they all obediently bowed their heads to listen to the lecture.
An Jing had his school uniform jacket open and was leaning back in his chair, enjoying the breeze.
He didn’t react much, as he was one of the top students in the class, so the scolding wouldn’t fall on him anyway.
“Today, we’re forming study assistance groups. You can sign up yourselves first, think about who you want to improve your grades with. Don’t think ‘oh, I can play with my good friends.’ I’m telling you, if your grades don’t improve or even drop after being grouped together, not only will you be regrouped, but I’ll also call your parents.”
The homeroom teacher cleared her throat heavily: “Alright, anyone who has an idea now can raise their hand and volunteer.”
An Jing yawned.
He felt he didn’t need to volunteer; Fang Qiang or his other friends would definitely ask to sit with him.
However, to everyone’s surprise, no one in the class raised their hand.
On second thought, it seemed normal.
After all, if they volunteered themselves and their grades didn’t improve or even dropped, they’d be criticized.
It was better to let the homeroom teacher arrange it.
“Does no one have a clear plan for their future? Hmm? Does no one have the courage to make this pledge?”
The homeroom teacher looked at the students with an amused expression and quickly said,
“Alright, then I’ll make the arrangements. Our class has a total of 52 people, which perfectly divides into 13 groups. Let’s start with the boys’ side…”
Students whose names were called had to move their desks to the designated spot.
Boys sat with boys, and even if they were next to someone they weren’t familiar with, they seemed quite happy.
Their excited expressions showed that the homeroom teacher’s seating arrangement was probably going to fail—the classroom might even get louder.
“Alright, all the boys are already…”
“Huh?”
An Jing was suddenly stunned, pointing forcefully at himself.
“Teacher Tong, I haven’t been assigned yet!”
“Oh…? Oh, right, there’s one more boy. I was wondering why there wasn’t an odd one out when I was assigning today.”
“She’s not going to make me sit by the podium, is she…?”
An Jing’s face fell.
While listening was certainly clear there, it was too close to the blackboard, so he’d constantly have to crane his neck, which was not only tiring but also meant frequently inhaling chalk dust…
The homeroom teacher looked left and right, then nodded slightly: “Then, An Jing, you’ll be in a group with girls.”
“Huh?”
Just sitting next to a girl wasn’t a big deal, but with all the other boys and girls “isolated,” and only he with girls, wouldn’t that be incredibly awkward?
An Jing didn’t feel anything wonderful at all; instead, he felt insulted—as if he were being treated like a girl.
But he wasn’t a student who was good at arguing with teachers, so he just pouted, looking extremely unwilling.
—He hoped the homeroom teacher would understand his expression, but she showed no indication, perhaps she didn’t understand, or perhaps she pretended not to.
His good buddies all turned to look at him, showing mischievous, gloating smiles.
An Jing secretly extended his hand from under the table and vigorously wiggled his middle finger.
“An Jing, move to the third row of the fourth large group. Zhu Ying, move next to him. Zhang Qiqi, you sit in the fourth row. Wang Xinru, you sit next to Zhang Qiqi. Your studies have room for improvement, and you’ve been working hard, so you should spend more time with good students. The four of you will be a group from now on. An Jing has the best grades among you, so ask him if you don’t understand anything, especially Wang Xinru, don’t be shy, speak up and ask more questions. Zhang Qiqi, as class monitor, you should also help her more—Zhu Ying, you need to catch up on your math grades quickly, a semester passes very fast.”
“Okay, Teacher Tong.”
Zhang Qiqi sat up straight and smiled, nodding, looking like a bright and cheerful good student.
An Jing couldn’t help but roll his eyes dramatically from the side.
He really wanted to stay in his seat, but the homeroom teacher kept watching him, so now he wanted to move even if he didn’t want to…
He had to move from the last row to the third row…
What he didn’t notice was that the gloating looks on his best friends’ faces had now all turned into “envy, jealousy, and hatred.”
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Them boys celebrated too early. 😂