At nine that evening, the parents’ group chat for the school was unusually lively. Scrolling through it revealed all kinds of bizarre videos.
Director Xu: ?
Principal Zhang: ?0.0
Director Wu: ……
After working hard for an entire week and finally finishing their entrance exams, the high school students couldn’t suppress the restlessness in their hearts and turned the self-criticism segment into a collection of elaborate photo shoots.
Teacher Xu: 7-109, 3-503, what is going on with your two dorm rooms? When I inspected the dorms that day, how did I not know you had ovens and microwaves?
“Xu Peipei from 7-109 withdrew a message.”
“Wu Xiao from 3-503 withdrew a message.”
Teacher Xu: Come to my office tomorrow and explain how you managed to bring those unauthorized appliances into the school.
Director Wu: …Whatever. Your results from the entrance exams will be released tomorrow afternoon anyway. Tonight is the only time you’ll have left to celebrate.
The moment Director Wu said that, more than half of the people stirring up trouble in the group chat disappeared. But the first-year students were fearless and continued flooding the chat.
Xiao Yan was taking a shower in the bathroom while the phone on his desk kept ringing nonstop.
“When did he become so popular?” Tang Yuan said enviously. “I wish I could be surrounded by messages too. Then I wouldn’t feel so lonely.”
Fan Yue felt a little guilty and didn’t dare say anything.
When Xiao Yan came out, he saw that hundreds of messages had piled up on his phone, most of them affectionate greetings from his classmates.
“Brother Yan, check the school group. Luo Zhiyu is finding all sorts of creative ways to insult you. I remember your pheromones smell like oranges, right?”
“Are you two actually involved or not? Why is this so confusing?”
“Brother Yan, Luo Zhiyu is currently reading his self-criticism to an orange, and the background music is the Great Compassion Mantra!”
“Luo Zhiyu, if you don’t want him, I’ll go after him.”
“How did the premarital checkup go? Is Luo Zhiyu dissatisfied with you?”
Xiao Yan: “……”
They had just agreed to get along peacefully and not cause trouble, and Luo Zhiyu had only managed to maintain that for a few minutes.
Just as Xiao Yan was thinking about it, the culprit showed absolutely no awareness that he should keep his distance and sent him another message. The nickname Xiao Yan had given Luo Zhiyu appeared before his eyes again and again.
Zhizhi: What kind of nonsense did you save my contact as? Fairy Frowning.jpg
Zhizhi: Who told you that you could call me Zhizhi, huh?
[Gunpowder Everywhere]: Who told you that you could stew an orange in a pot and use it to make fun of me, huh?
Zhizhi: You confiscated my pot and you’re still not letting me make fun of you, huh?
[Gunpowder Everywhere]: Your timing really couldn’t have been better. Smile.jpg
[Gunpowder Everywhere]: You’re finished. My reputation has been ruined. Reverse Smile.jpg
Luo Zhiyu was playing a game. The moment he opened Xiao Yan’s friend profile, he saw the nickname Xiao Yan had given him.
[Class 3 – Green-Haired Turtle? has invited you to join a 5v5 match.]
Green-Haired Turtle?
Luo Zhiyu clicked Accept and entered the match.
Class 3 – Green-Haired Turtle: Holy crap, Dad, I respect you, Dad. The forum has already built three whole threads about you, all discussing the love-hate relationship between you and Luo Zhiyu, and you can still play games?
Class 3 – Green-Haired Turtle: But we all know you’re innocent.
Class 3 – Green-Haired Turtle: It’s all Luo Zhiyu’s fault. I absolutely believe you. Luo Zhiyu is a piece of shit.
Gunpowder Everywhere: ? Are you talking about your mom?
Class 3 – Green-Haired Turtle: Holy crap? He’s really my mom?
Gunpowder Everywhere: ?? I’m cursing at you! I mean it!
Gunpowder Everywhere: You can’t understand that your dad is cursing at you, can you?
Class 3 – Green-Haired Turtle: I understand, I understand.
Gunpowder Everywhere: You understand jack shit.
The heavy rain gradually weakened, turning into a soft autumn drizzle. For an entire week, whenever Luo Zhiyu went outside, he carried an umbrella and carefully avoided the puddles along the concrete paths.
It wasn’t until Saturday that the sky finally began to clear.
The following Monday, First High would be conducting an earthquake and disaster-response drill. Over the weekend, teachers and student council members were busy preparing for it.
“A little to the left. A little more to the left.”
Luo Zhiyu was sitting on a tall ladder, drawing the blackboard poster, while Xiao Yan helped adjust the ladder’s position.
“Yeah, yeah, right there. Right there. That’s good.”
“Be careful.”
Xiao Yan stopped.
“It’s perfectly steady.”
Luo Zhiyu stomped his foot on the ladder.
The large blackboard near the school entrance was practically a landmark of First High. It had been in use ever since the school was founded decades ago. Although other schools had generally begun adopting electronic screens, First High’s giant blackboard had never been abandoned.
Luo Zhiyu sat up there drawing and singing an English song he’d recently learned in music class, while Xiao Yan leaned against the ladder and read his vocabulary book.
“Does your class have a Green-Haired Turtle?” Luo Zhiyu suddenly remembered the game he’d played a few days ago.
“Green-Haired Turtle?”
Xiao Yan frowned and thought for a moment.
“You mean Lu Minggui.”
“What a stupid nickname…”
Luo Zhiyu looked disgusted.
After a week of rain, the entire campus seemed as if someone had adjusted its contrast. The colors looked much brighter and more vivid.
“We should’ve just made a poster and hung it up from the start. Then I wouldn’t have had to draw it by hand. I’ve never drawn a poster this big before. First High’s traditions are really something.”
Luo Zhiyu dusted the chalk box in his hand with a blackboard eraser.
“I’m hungry. Shouldn’t we eat?”
Xiao Yan checked the time on his phone.
“Tang Yuan should be coming with lunch soon. Why don’t you come down first?”
“I’m done…”
Luo Zhiyu used a little too much force, and the bottom of the chalk box fell off. Chalk pieces of all different colors came clattering down, covering Xiao Yan from head to toe.
Xiao Yan: “Luo Zhiyu, are you asking for it?”
“Hahahaha, sorry…”
Luo Zhiyu climbed down the ladder and draped an arm over Xiao Yan’s shoulder, helping brush the chalk dust off his hair.
“And you’re still laughing?”
“Here.”
Xiao Yan patted the dust off his clothes and tossed Luo Zhiyu a can of peach soda.
“Don’t shake it, and don’t point it at me.”
Luo Zhiyu opened the can and licked away the tiny peach-flavored bubbles. Then he looked up at the sky with an especially innocent expression.
Because of the imbalance in credits, the arts department’s painting group this year consisted of only five people: Luo Zhiyu from Class 3, Yan Zihan from Class 6, Lu Lu from Class 1, plus Tang Yuan and Xiao Yan from the second-year student council, who had been roped in to make up the numbers.
But considering that Lu Lu was quarantined in her dorm this week, and Yan Zihan’s spicy-snack pheromones were too fragrant, causing Luo Zhiyu to constantly stick close to him, the only person ultimately assigned to draw this round’s blackboard poster was Luo Zhiyu, with Xiao Yan there to supervise the work.
“At this rate, I should be able to finish it this afternoon.”
Luo Zhiyu tilted his head back and assessed the results of his morning’s work.
There was a separate blank section on the right side of the blackboard for the creators’ names. Just as the chalk in Luo Zhiyu’s hand touched the board, he changed his mind.
“You write it. You’re the planner, I’m the creator, and your roommate is handling the miscellaneous work.”
Luo Zhiyu handed the chalk to Xiao Yan.
“My handwriting is ugly. I don’t want to embarrass the school.”
“It looks pretty good. How would that be embarrassing?”
Xiao Yan neatly wrote several names in the creator section.
“I’ve seen your copybook. You really shouldn’t have practiced Slender Gold Script.”
“Huh?”
Luo Zhiyu looked confused.
“My mom made me practice it. I’ve been doing it for three years.”
And somehow, he’d practiced it into cursive.
The two of them leaned against the giant blackboard and chatted for half an hour, but there was still no sign of Tang Yuan coming with lunch.
“Where are you?”
Xiao Yan called his roommate.
“Zhizhi and I are waiting for your lunch.”
From the other end of the phone and from the far end of the sports field came two simultaneous screams of sheer horror:
“There are cats! There are cats! Cats, ahhhhhhh…”
A figure carrying several takeout lunch boxes flew past the two of them, followed by several large orange cats.
Luo Zhiyu: “What happened to the big alpha in your dorm?”
“Nothing.”
Xiao Yan moved the phone farther away from his ear.
“His pheromones smell like catnip, but he’s afraid of cats.”