Chapter 18: Did You Grow Up on a Blaring Horn?

For the next two days, Zhai Da attended school as usual. He listened to the lectures as best he could, and when he couldn’t keep up, he didn't force it, opting instead to open his Chinese textbook and memorize the passages.

It was a bit of an ordeal, given that both his "time" and "space" were under such heavy constraints. However, once he re-integrated into his established social circles with his classmates, he found that school days were actually quite pleasant. Though high school students could be a bit abstract, they were also far more entertaining.

"Sunflower Pointing Hand!"

A boy named Liu Kai, passing by like a loose cannon, suddenly struck out and poked Zhai Da twice. Zhai Da, buried in his book, rolled his eyes: "Are you out of your mind?"

Liu Kai was momentarily rattled by Zhai Da’s intense reaction, only to hear: "I’m trying to study! Hurry up and undo the seal!"

The boy’s panic shifted into a mischievous smirk as he skipped away. "Beg me then~"

Zhai Da sneered, "So childish! Beg you, my foot..." He then poked himself twice to "release" the pressure points.

After studying for a while longer, he decided to switch gears and memorize some vocabulary. Before he knew it, Wu Yue had sat down beside him.

"Zhai Da, I’ve discovered a major secret."

Zhai Da didn't even look up. "Spit it out."

Stripped of moral shackles and locks, only now did he truly feel like himself. Being a foul-mouthed high schooler felt great.

Wu Yue snuck a glance toward the front of the classroom where Lin Shuyao sat—she seemed to have gone to the restroom—and spoke with bold confidence: "I discovered that Lin Shuyao likes you."

Zhai Da: "Yeah, yeah, I know... I’ve already said the love letter wasn't for..." Wait, the content seemed to be the other way around.

Wu Yue patted his own chest—which was just one bowl of rice away from developing breasts—and swore, "I heard it with my own ears that day. She confessed to you, but unfortunately, you weren't there."

Zhai Da stuttered, "She confessed to me? I wasn't there, so you heard it? Has your brain fluid run dry?"

Wu Yue held up three thick fingers. "I swear on my future restaurant, not a single lie. She thought you were the one behind her... she was so serious! It was like a soap opera! If I weren't me, I would have agreed to be her boyfriend on the spot."

"She said you were very special and wanted to be your girlfriend."

Zhai Da frowned, curled his lip, and let out a scoff—a seamless display of his disdain. He didn't care what Lin Shuyao thought of him, but he was certain it wasn't anything good. Wasting even a minute on this kind of nonsense was a waste of life.

Wu Yue grew anxious. "I told you such a big secret, aren't you going to praise me?"

Zhai Da replied perfunctorily, "Oh~ you're great, I'm very satisfied. What was the date again? I'll come to you next time..."

Wu Yue tilted his head, a question mark forming in his missing brain stem.

Zhai Da rummaged through his English book. "Let's leave it at that. Just keep it to yourself; don't spread it any further."

This time, Wu Yue didn't respond. Zhai Da turned his head. "You didn't already tell anyone, did you?"

Wu Yue’s expression stiffened.

"Forget it. These petty things aren't fresh news anyway. It doesn't matter if one or two people know."

A drop of cold sweat rolled down Wu Yue's face.

Zhai Da’s voice jumped an octave. "How many people did you tell? You didn't spread it to other classes, did you?"

Wu Yue was drenched in sweat...

Zhai Da: ... Were you raised by a trumpet player, you loudmouth?

"Seriously, this happened two days ago—why am I the last to know?"

"I just... didn't find the right opportunity..."

He’d been too busy spreading rumors to tell the person actually involved, right?

Although Wu Yue was a gossip, he lacked the talent to penetrate the inner circle of the Maofang Middle School socialites—the girls who talked about everything except studying. For now, it seemed, the news hadn't fermented to the level of his previous "legendary" act of fainting in the exam hall.

Still, Zhai Da strictly forbade Wu Yue from spreading it further, making him swear on his own "manhood." Wu Yue couldn't understand Zhai Da’s reaction. This was a face-saving matter, wasn't it? It was Lin Shuyao, after all—famous throughout the entire school. If everyone knew she liked Zhai Da, it wouldn't just clear up previous rumors; it would also... well, he couldn't quite articulate it, but he felt it would be incredibly cool. The "badass" kind of cool.

Zhai Da patted Wu Yue on the shoulder. "Just sew your mouth shut. If you ask too many questions, your brain cells won't be able to handle it."

He didn't know how long this seal would last. After all, boys at this age were never stingy with their "manly pride," always thinking a little bit of loss didn't matter...

"By the way, that thing I asked you about yesterday—is it done?"

Wu Yue nodded and pulled a Nokia 3310 from his pocket. It was the original "brick" phone, with a screen barely larger than a postage stamp, capable only of calling and texting. Oh, and it had the black-and-white pixelated Snake game. It had been eight years since its release—roughly when Zhai Da was ten.

It was Wu Yue's old phone, and before that, it had been his father's. Of course, with cheap, functional knock-off phones on the market now, nobody cared for these little bricks anymore.

"Why do you want this piece of junk? Is your phone broken?"

"Loudmouth?"

Wu Yue: ...

Zhai Da didn't explain much. He pressed a few buttons; the screen lit up, but it only had one battery and had to be kept plugged in, which wasn't very convenient. Wait... weren't modern phones like that too? Was this progress or regression? An odd thought flickered through his mind.

He was preparing this for Lu Wei. A girl without a phone was like a kite with a broken string. It had a SIM card inside, and since Wu Yue had no monthly fee or data plan, he’d kept it. Back then, SIM cards didn't require real-name registration; you just topped up as you went.

At lunch, Zhai Da sat at the same table as Fan Junwei again. It was the same heaping portion of rice with one meat and one vegetable, and it still had that strange odor.

Zhai Da asked curiously, "It seems like you were looking for me when you were eating?" There were about four or five empty seats nearby, yet Fan Junwei had chosen the one next to him.

Fan Junwei shoveled food into his mouth. "They all think I smell. You don't."

Zhai Da thought: *Are you even being polite? It’s not that I don’t mind; I’m just keeping my cool.* He felt Fan Junwei wasn't a bad person, so he offered a well-meaning suggestion: "Actually, just bathing more often would do the trick. Sweat odor isn't the same as body odor; it's easy to fix."

Fan Junwei only replied with an "Oh."

Zhai Da pursed his lips and said no more. He had never liked preaching, and as a high schooler who neither acted like a normal person nor spoke like one, lecturing didn't fit his persona.

On the way home, he didn't walk with Lin Shuyao today. He had been on duty and left twenty minutes late, so there weren't many students left on the road. Zhai Da silently recited a few words in his head, wondering when he would be able to get his hands on a television. Lu Wei’s father was getting a bit sluggish; perhaps the addiction wasn't strong enough yet.

Just as he was thinking about this, he saw a tall, thin girl standing under the streetlight at the intersection. Lu Wei was holding a copy of *Olympic Mathematics*, reading with intense focus, as if she were waiting for the person who had awakened her.

A Snickers bar appeared in her field of vision.

Lu Wei looked up.

Zhai Da smiled. "It looks like it's going to be a long night, so eat something to keep your strength up."