For a boy, having someone mention the person he secretly liked could be embarrassing, even enough to make him lash out in shame.
But if that person was Duan Chan'er, it was another matter.
After all, so many people had a crush on her that a certain peculiar understanding had formed-
Several sports students exchanged knowing chuckles. As they laughed, someone sighed, and their expressions fell again.
"What's the use of liking her? We don't stand a chance."
"Honestly, I don't even dare talk to her."
"Same here. I've racked my brains, and I still can't think of anything we'd have in common to talk about. I can't exactly talk about Lu Xun, can I? Badgers in the melon patch and all that."
"I thought about writing her a love letter before, but whenever I thought of those model essays of hers, it felt like I'd be handing her a primary school composition..."
The boys, united in their misery, muttered a few more things to one another, then quickly perked up again.
"Duan Chan'er's out of our league, but there really are a lot of beauties in our class!"
Kang Hao's eyes lit up. "Especially that girl called Xiang Qing. She looks like she stepped right out of a painting. I don't think she's any less pretty than Duan Chan'er."
"Definitely! She'd look stunning in hanfu. Too bad she's just wearing a school uniform, so you can't tell what her figure's like."
"At least she's tall enough," a slightly shorter boy said ruefully. "I don't think I could date a girl taller than me. She's already that tall in flats. If she put on heels, wouldn't she be a whole head taller than me? What would people think of me when we went out together?"
"In your dreams!" Kang Hao snapped. "She'd have to be interested in you first!"
He was tall enough himself, so he was confident. He patted his chest hard and declared, "Anyway, she's my target now. I think she looks way more approachable than Duan Chan'er. Brothers, give me an assist. I'm going to win her over within a month!"
"We can help with that. My heart belongs to Duan Chan'er anyway. Even if there's no hope, I'm not interested in anyone else. But... there's one problem." Xu Xiujie hesitated. "Xiang Qing sits next to that guy. You know what they say: the pavilion closest to the water gets the moonlight first..."
Kang Hao instantly looked as though he'd eaten shit. "That's only because we'd already agreed to sit together. Otherwise, I'd have gone and sat next to Xiang Qing."
"That guy chose before you did..."
"Can you shut up for once?" Kang Hao fumed. "Sitting next to her doesn't mean anything!"
"All right." Xu Xiujie pulled out his phone and checked the time. "Brother Hao, we've been in the restroom a while. If that guy was coming to find us, he should've been here by now. He couldn't really have gone to move the books with just the few boys who were left, could he?"
"Then he's a little too stupid." Kang Hao shrugged. "They can't move everything in one trip. Everyone will end up resenting him, and they might even leave him there to move the books on his own. Heh-heh, let's go take a look. As classmates, we can lend him a little help, as long as he says something nice."
"Brother Hao, you're so devious."
"That's what I call being smart!"
The boys emerged from the restroom smelling of it and peeked into the classroom. Sure enough, Zhang Zhaomu and the other boys were gone, along with most of the girls. They had probably gone out to have fun during their free time.
Kang Hao was just about to head downstairs toward the general-purpose building when he heard laughter coming from the stairwell. Then a group of people carrying books swept down the corridor.
The smile froze on Kang Hao's face.
The embarrassing scene he had imagined never materialized. That guy was walking at the front, leading a flock of the class's chattering beauties. The procession looked just like an emperor touring the streets with the three thousand beauties of his harem.
Most infuriating of all, Duan Chan'er was walking beside him, chatting and laughing with him, looking every bit the mistress of the harem.
"He actually made the girls do this kind of heavy lifting!"
Kang Hao could hear the grating rasp of Xu Xiujie grinding his teeth. "The homeroom teacher clearly said the boys in our class were supposed to move the books. This guy is utterly shameless!"
"Why would Duan Chan'er agree to do something like this?" another sports student said, stamping his foot, unable to hide the envy and jealousy in his voice. "He must have used his position as class monitor to force everyone to do it."
"Class monitor, my ass! What position?" Kang Hao clenched his fists. "He's digging his own grave. Doing this will only make the whole class hate him."
"Uh, but these girls don't look unwilling to me. Everyone seems pretty happy," one of the sports students said meekly.
The others all turned to stare at him.
Did we need you to point that out? Do we not have eyes?
Don't you understand self-comfort?!
Zhang Zhaomu had spotted the sports students standing at the classroom door some time ago. He could even smell the faint whiff of ammonia coming off them, and he curled his lip inwardly.
The books had all been moved, and only now were they coming out of the restroom. They really could stay in there.
All he could say was that when people were doing something bad, their willpower often multiplied.
Zhang Zhaomu felt like making a few sarcastic remarks, but he was a refined, respectable person now, after all.
So he simply walked up to them with a look of concern. "You just finished in the restroom? You were in there so long. Were you all constipated?"
"Make sure you take good care of yourselves."
Their expressions visibly grew uglier.
That kind of velvet blade hurt more than outright mockery, and there was no way to retort.
Worse still, Duan Chan'er suddenly sniffed lightly and frowned, making their faces burn.
Had the smell soaked into them?
Now look what had happened. They had wanted to embarrass Zhang Zhaomu, but they had become the clowns themselves. Kang Hao had still wanted to put up a front and say a few things, but Zhang Zhaomu had already sauntered past him. The people behind him filed into the classroom one by one, each unable to help frowning as they passed. One girl even complained:
"Having the classroom next to the restroom is awful. The whole corridor stinks!"
Their faces turned completely red.
Zhang Zhaomu soon put the little matter out of his mind. He had always been carefree, and now that his thoughts were completely clear, all he could think about was how this free time at noon should be enough for him to go to an internet café and play a few games. He immediately grew restless and hurried downstairs as soon as he had finished handing out the textbooks.
When he reached the classroom of Science Class One on the first floor, Zhang Zhaomu peered inside.
The homeroom teacher at the front was also a middle-aged man, but he looked much smarter than Chen Yongchao. Half his forehead gleamed, and he habitually waved his arms as he spoke, his voice so loud that it seemed his spit could reach the third row.
Chen Zhenzhen was sitting in the middle of the third row, looking thoroughly bored as she twirled a pen in her hand with fancy flourishes.
"Tsk."
Zhang Zhaomu sighed. "As expected of Class One. Even the class meeting has a different atmosphere. I reckon it won't be over anytime soon."
"Forget it, Chen Zhen. Looks like a shameful thick barrier has come between us after all. Keep enjoying your shower of spit, top student. I must go fight bloody battles in the Rift."