TWSITAOCP Ch. 08

“Get lost.” Yan Xiu pushed Zheng Zian’s head away.

Actually, when he looked over, he could only see two people in school uniforms on the motorcycle. But he knew that there was only one person in the school who had the habit of leaving school on a motorcycle after classes.

After the semester ended, classes would be reorganized for the next term, which meant that the deductions would still have to be redistributed at that time.

At this time, the points deducted were insignificant. The person involved might not even know about it. The only ones who would pay attention to this were the president of the student council and a group of members of the discipline inspection whose performance hadn’t met the standards for many years.

Precisely because of this, the discipline  Inspection Department actually completed its performance quota based on the number of people, and the student council president Chen Zhanni deducted the points from discipline  inspection.

The names registered earlier were fairly normal, although more than half of the violations were caught on the same day, all for the same reasons: skipping classes to order takeout.

By the last line, the date suddenly spanned several days. And the handwriting was particularly messy and long.

You can tell at a glance that it came from the head himself.

Chen Zhanni looked at everyone in the disciplinary committee suspiciously and said seriously: “The reasons we do this are only to restrict hardheaded people. We do not advocate slandering others at will…”

She stopped at the Head of the Discipline Inspection Department’s face.

The man was holding a pen. While she was talking, the pen had already turned over twice in his hand and fell on the notebook with a thud.

He seemed to be in a hurry. The light from under the table casted a bit glow on his face, flickering on and off again. His expression was rather displeased.

Chen Zhanni wanted to ask if he wrote this, but when she saw this, she silently looked away and swallowed.

Other people in the discipline  inspection also suspected that the minister had written this at random, but they had no evidence. They were trembling with fear as they waited for their fate and were even prepared to deny it to death if the president got angry.

But the president suddenly changed the subject, saying, “It’s been so long since school ended, and it’s not good to keep wasting your time. Departments that have already finished their reports can quietly leave through the back door.”

Everyone: “…”

The man who was openly playing with his phone paused and looked up.

Chen Zhanni forced a smile: “…Well, the Discipline Department is over, and now it’s the turn of the Arts Department.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Yan Xiu hooked his pen into his notebook, quietly stood up, then left through the back door.

He left without making any noise, trying to minimize his presence as much as possible. But everyone was secretly looking at him. The moment he left, they all looked at the student council president: “Tsk—”

Chen Zhanni: “…”

If you have the guts, go and stop him.

The Disciplinary Inspection Department swarmed out of the conference room, but couldn’t find Yan Xiu.

“Downstairs.” Someone pointed. “I was sitting next to him just now. It seems that his family called him.”

In the slightly cool dusk, the young man had slung his bag pack on one shoulder, one hand steadying the bicycle and holding a phone with the other hand to make a call.

Soon, he exited the school gate, swinging his leg over, then rode off on his bicycle.

 

After dinner, Yu Sui was tasked to take his little cousin for a walk. The village square was crowded with people, but Yu Sui wasn’t interested in crowded places—neither was his little cousin, who was pulling him along quickly.

“Su Su, slow down.” There was a leash between the two of them. The messy-haired child was bouncing and running ahead, while Young Master Yu, moving at the pace of an old person, couldn’t keep up with the speed.

“Hurry up.” The child laughed at him in a bright, distinct dialect. “Brother says you’re slow—slow in everything. Exams are coming up, aren’t they? Planning to bring home a few more goose eggs again? ¹ (又打算拿幾個鴨蛋回家呀) A rhetorical question used to express dismay, frustration, or teasing towards someone who is expected to perform poorly, especially in a test, competition, or game, implying they are likely to get a score of zero or achieve nothing of value. “

“I’m not you.” Yu Sui muttered to himself, suddenly realizing that they were passing by the old house in Fu Village.

After Yang Feiwen’s exaggerated tales at school, the old house was listed in the summary post of the eerie and mysterious house in the forum of No. 26 High.

That post compiled a list of places with strange rumors, posting online waiting for someone to be curious to go check it out.

Yang Feiwen was eager to try it once, but the final exams washed away his enthusiasm.

Yu Sui stopped and took out his cell phone to take a picture for Yang Feiwen.

After being abandoned at the school gate, that guy kept bothering him, saying that he deceived the weak and being a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Yu Sui had walked this road before. It wasn’t dark—but today, one of the street lights was broken, making the old house look even more eerie.

He adjusted the camera mode, when his eyelids suddenly twitched. His eyes fell on the gate of the yard.

Last time I came here, there was a big lock on it, but now that lock is gone again.

“Brother, what are you doing?” Su Su ran back to his side, looking into the old house with her big eyes, and asked, “Why is this open?”

After saying that, she actually darted inside.

“Hello!”

The house was dark, and Yu Sui’s scalp tingled. He pulled his left hand out of his pocket, following the tension of the rope. Without caring about anything else, he pulled the rope and dragged Su Su out of the old house.

“Don’t run around recklessly.” The young master was terrified and tried to scare the child without hesitation. “Your brother said there are old ghosts in there who specialize in eating children. They love to eat little kids with messy hair like you.”

Just as he finished speaking, a faint laugh seemed to come from the house behind him.

Yu Sui shuddered, turning his head in a daze, but saw nothing. Su Su hugged his arm and laughed: “My brother also said that there are no ghosts in the world, only people.”

Yu Sui: “…”

For a moment, he wondered if he might have been hallucinating because he was startled. People often have these reactions because of active brain cells. One point leads to two points, and two points lead to four points, thus resulting in scaring themselves.

Yu Sui picked up Su Su stiffly and said, “Let’s have a race. I’ll count to three, two, one. Let’s see who can run home first. Three, two, one!”

A big and a small one rushed out of the alley, chattering and laughing, and the alley returned to a quiet place. The old door of the courtyard creaked twice in the wind, gently swaying.

A hand reached out from the inside and grabbed the courtyard door.

The young man stood tall with a bicycle standing next to him. The bicycle was leaning against the gate of the yard, its frame reflecting faintly in the dim night.

“Large-scale renovations haven’t started yet, so the people in the village don’t know about it yet,” The man beside him said.

Yan Xiu gave a non-committal “hmm” and glanced in the direction where the two people had just left.

If Yu Sui had the courage to run a few more steps inside, he would probably be able to see the bike parked in the yard with four or five people squatting behind the gate.

“Scaredy-cat.” Yan Xiu made his comment.

“Who is so scaredy-cat?” On the other end of the phone, Tang Ying raised her voice slightly. “Son, why haven’t you home yet? Did your student council keep you late again?”

“On the way, almost there.” Yan Xiu gestured to the people around him and hopped on his bicycle.

The young man rode away on his bike, his voice leaving no trace in the night.

“You said you were on your way 30 minutes ago and will be here soon.” Tang Ying didn’t buy it and suddenly asked. “By the way… don’t you have to go to school after today?”

Yan Xiu acknowledged with a sound.

“Then…” Tang Ying said cautiously. “What about the child who ran away from home?”

After leaving Fu Village, Yan Xiu stopped by the roadside as Tang Ying continued to talk to herself: “Although you two have never met, you can still be considered his half brother.  Your Uncle Yu even carried you when you were still in diapers”

“We didn’t know he went to the same high school as you before. But now that we know, we can’t just stand by and watch… Son, don’t you agree?”

“No.”

The woman choked: “Son…”

Yan Xiu’s finger lingered on the red button, and he finished speaking: “I don’t even know him.”

After a pause, he added: “But he’s doing fine now. Don’t worry about him.”

Tang Ying: “…”

 

The rental apartment was located in the old city district, about five-minute away from the subway station and close to the shopping mall that has Fulai Dao inside.

The apartment was chosen by Yu Sui; the process was checked by Yu Si, and the card was also swiped by Yu Si. He probably didn’t expect that Yu Sui didn’t even return home after the exam, so he sent the password of the house to Yu Sui without any further explanation.

Yu Sui tried to coax him for a bit but then gave up.

The young master, holding his luggage, looked around the room with narrowed eyes.

The furniture was complete, even quite new. He passed by the sofa and reached out to wipe it—nothing came off on his fingers.

As for the bed and bedding sets, these all needed to be purchased new.

After Young Master Yu placed these orders online, he passed by the kitchen and paused for a moment after seeing his empty kitchen. He then ordered a lot more things according to the memory of how the kitchen used to look. And, he passed by the private bathroom and bought a few more things.

Because his cousin had reminded him to keep at least half in cash, Yu Sui restrained himself and kept half, while completely spending out the other half.

After doing all this, the young master curled up on the sofa and took a photo of the luggage that was casually thrown on the table when he came in, posting it on his moments.

[So tired.]

Almost as soon as he posted it, he started to receive comments.

Yu Kan: Ouch.

Yang Feiwen: You really ran away from home!

Tang Bohu: Oh, why are you doing it yourself?

Liang Wen: Is Yan Xiu not there?

Shu Yi: …

Apart from the frequent calls from home in the first few days, everything was peaceful for a long time afterwards.

Every day at mealtime, Yu Sui would bring his membership card to Fulai Dao to check in. Occasionally, he would go to the park to watch old men walk their birds and sometimes walked a little further to his cousin’s house for a meal, and then went back to pack up.

After nearly half a month, the kitchen finally started to take shape.

The young master initially arranged this place just for the sake of a sense of completeness. But after actually arranging it, he rarely had the idea of ​​using it.

So, he happily went to the nearby supermarket and bought a bag of vegetables.

“Smashed cucumbers…” Yan Wuyan picked up the phone from Su Su and was silent for a long time after hearing the question from the other end. “How can a rice cooker be placed on an induction cooker?”

“I didn’t put it on the induction cooker.” Yu Sui silently picked it up, then stared at it for a few seconds. “Brother, do you put water around your rice cooker?”

Yan Wuyan: “… What did you say?”

Yu Sui described: “It’s white. This pot is a two-piece set. After putting the pot in, you need to add water.”

Yan Wuyan: “That’s for making soup.”

Yu Sui: “…”

At that time, he didn’t cause much damage to the kitchen. He put down the thing that was supposedly not to a rice cooker, rummaged around a bit, and dragged out another item from the express box.

An idea suddenly struck him, and he turned around and quickly glanced around the well-equipped appliances in the kitchen.

“What’s wrong?”

Yu Sui thought for a moment and said, “I think I forgot to buy tableware?”

The other side sighed.

Yu Sui: “…I guess I’ll just order takeout.”

As he said this, he glanced at the bag of vegetables. For the first time in his life, the young master learned to save money and was very reluctant to spend it: “Or can I hire a cook?”