MTLY | Chapter 6

◎He really knows how to play the field.◎

Jiang Yu stood on the podium. Even though his school uniform zipper was zipped all the way up in proper order, there was still something lazy and unrestrained about him, with mischief flickering in the dark depths of his eyes.

Director Li’s brow furrowed deeper and deeper, but Qin Shixia, who stood beside her, was all smiles. “This kid, Jiang Yu, he’s pretty interesting.”

Director Li said, “Teacher Qin, you call a fight interesting?”

Qin Shixia rubbed his nose. “Fighting is definitely wrong, and it has to be dealt with. Otherwise, those damn brats would turn Qinde upside down. But…”

Director Li frowned.

Qin Shixia leaned closer and lowered his voice. “It’s almost time for them to enter senior year, so I absolutely support you bringing discipline back to the school, Old Qin does. But you also have to consider the kids’ mental state.”

He spoke very tactfully.

Seeming to sense Director Li wavering, Qin Shixia added casually, “Besides, you know very well why they fought.”

Director Li said nothing. Her mouth flattened, and she pressed her lips together more sternly than before.

Up on the podium, Jiang Yu didn’t do anything more outrageous. The tall, slender bones of his fingers held the apology letter, and he read it for a full three minutes. Truly, exactly as Director Li had asked before, it was very profound, extremely profound, especially profound.

But anyone who wrote apologies often knew at a glance that it had all been copied from the internet.

Take two lines from each one, and you could easily make eight hundred characters.

Song Tinghuan didn’t know that, because she had never written an apology letter. She only found it a little miraculous. How could someone read an apology letter with the aura of a speech from an exemplary student representative?

The boy onstage didn’t look very serious, but his enunciation was exceptionally clear and upright. Around him was complete silence, and only his uniquely cool, calm young voice rang through every corner of the school through the loudspeaker.

“For all the above reasons and more, I conclude my self-criticism. Thank you, everyone.”

After he finished, Jiang Yu lowered the hand holding the microphone. He just stood there lazily in the pale morning light, looking for all the world like, “Do whatever you want, I’ll accept whatever punishment comes.”

Somebody on the playground whistled, followed by whistles from all around.

Director Li slapped the microphone in exasperation. “Quiet! All of you, shut up. Regarding this time when Jiang Yu, student representative for the school, fought on behalf of the school against…”

Suddenly, the audience below burst into laughter.

“Old Li misspoke, hahaha.”

“He’s representing the school against No. 8 High School, right? Damn, Brother Yu is badass!”

“No choice, really, he just represents too many things.”

“This has got to go down in Qinde history, right?”

…

Jiang Yu lifted his eyes and glanced toward the loudest group, his dark gaze making it very clear, That’s enough.

Sure enough, the group of second- and third-years who had been making the most noise gradually quieted down. Director Li stood upright on the podium. Following the principle of “as long as I’m not embarrassed, the embarrassed one is someone else,” she reiterated school discipline and level, then calmly wrapped up her closing remarks.

Jiang Yu slowly withdrew his gaze. Song Tinghuan’s Class 1, Grade 10 was directly facing the podium, and the two of them suddenly, perfectly, just happened to lock eyes.

For some reason, Jiang Yu’s lips curled slightly.

Beside her, Guan Linlin whispered in Song Tinghuan’s ear, “That smile from the school hunk is a little slutty.”

Song Tinghuan: “…”

*

By the end of the day, with Guan Linlin’s round after round of enthusiastic explanations, Song Tinghuan had already become very familiar with Qinde Middle School, and she had even registered an anonymous account on the school forum.

The high school division had four periods every afternoon, and the last two were free activity and self-study.

During free activity time, Song Tinghuan was informed by Qin Shixia that she had to go to the administration building to collect her books and school uniform.

Guan Linlin volunteered and went with her. But when they reached the administration building and looked at the thick stack of books and notebooks, the two girls were a little dumbstruck.

Guan Linlin said, “Wait, they didn’t give me this much when school started.”

The administrative teacher smiled. “When school started, they were handed out in three batches.”

“Oh.” Guan Linlin shut her mouth, rolled up her sleeves, and said, “Tinghuan, you take the school uniform, I’ll carry the books.”

“That’s too much.” Song Tinghuan felt awkward making Guan Linlin carry all the textbooks by herself. “You take one bag of uniforms and put it under the books. We’ll split it half and half.”

“How can that work? Old Qin told me to take good care of you. Besides, with your little arms and legs…”

Before Guan Linlin could finish, Song Tinghuan had already put half the books onto the uniforms and lifted them.

“Let’s go.” She smiled, her eyes curving gently.

“Oh.”

But Song Tinghuan clearly overestimated herself. Just as she made it down to the first floor, the stack of books was already making her wrists ache. She was about to lift a knee to borrow some strength when she saw two boys coming toward them.

Guan Linlin said, “It’s Jiang Yu!”

Jiang Yu, and his classmate with the big tattooed arm.

They must’ve just come back from the court. Jiang Yu was holding a basketball. Over his white short-sleeved T-shirt he wore a black basketball jersey, his short hair a little messy, the corners of his lips hooked, that lazy air seeping out from his very bones.

The big tattooed arm clearly saw Song Tinghuan too. After a brief pause in his gaze, he called out brightly, “Brother Yu, your niece!”

Song Tinghuan: “…?”

Jiang Yu shot Li Yiliang a look like he was looking at an idiot, then drew his gaze back and landed it on Song Tinghuan.

A skinny little girl, hugging a huge stack of books, looking like a young seedling about to be bent in half.

Song Tinghuan had no intention of doing a public family reunion with Jiang Yu.

This guy was too popular at school. She had just arrived, and all she wanted was to study quietly.

But Jiang Yu was already walking over. He reached out and took the books from her arms. The weight suddenly disappeared, and Song Tinghuan even froze for a moment. Then a basketball was pressed into her arms.

Guan Linlin stared at the two of them in shock and gossip-hungry disbelief, then fixed her gaze on Song Tinghuan, as if to say, girl, what is going on?!

Li Yiliang also came over with a grin. “Niece…”

Jiang Yu said, “Got a problem?”

“…” Li Yiliang quickly corrected himself. “Classmate, hello. I’m Li Yiliang, from Class 8, Grade 11. We’re in the building across from yours.”

As he spoke, he took the stack of books from Guan Linlin’s arms. “Whoa, that’s pretty heavy.”

Jiang Yu glanced at Song Tinghuan, said nothing, and strode toward the Grade 10 teaching building with his long legs. Song Tinghuan hurriedly jogged after him, her soft voice falling behind him. “You… slow down, wait for me.”

It was extracurricular activity time, and the playground was full of students. The broadcast station was playing an English song, *Pretty Boy*, and the gentle female voice drifted into the rustling plane tree leaves.

People kept looking over from all around. Song Tinghuan realized that Jiang Yu really was too eye-catching. Wherever he went, that place became the focus. Being stared at made her a little uncomfortable, so she subconsciously slowed her steps and widened the distance between herself and Jiang Yu a little.

“What time are you leaving?”

The sudden question left Song Tinghuan a little dazed. It took her a moment to realize that Jiang Yu was asking her.

School had only just started, and Grade 10 hadn’t officially begun the unified evening self-study sessions yet. They got out at six, but Qinde also had boarding students, so day students could stay until eleven if they wanted to study at school.

“After school.”

“Mm.”

What did mm mean?

Was he really planning to follow Meng Shutang’s arrangement and go home with her after school?

Song Tinghuan couldn’t quite figure out Jiang Yu’s temper, and she was afraid of irritating him again, so she simply stopped asking. Quietly, she followed behind Jiang Yu, always keeping three meters of distance from him, trying her best to look unfamiliar with him.

But Song Tinghuan didn’t know just how eye-catching the basketball in her arms was, black and green color-blocked, the only one of its kind at all of Qinde, brought by Jiang Yu himself.

After enduring a whole walk under everyone’s stares, Song Tinghuan watched as Jiang Yu walked straight into Class 1, Grade 10 without any hesitation.

There weren’t many people in the classroom at this hour. Song Tinghuan was blocked by Jiang Yu’s tall, slender figure and heard a neat collective gasp.

Song Tinghuan: “…”

A boy in the front row had been dozing off, but the moment he saw Jiang Yu, his eyes lit up at once. “Brother Yu! You finally deigned to come see me!”

As he spoke, he was about to throw himself onto Jiang Yu.

Jiang Yu laughed and cursed, “Get lost.” Then he turned and asked Song Tinghuan, “Which seat?”

Song Tinghuan lifted a hand and pointed to her seat. Jiang Yu walked over and put the books on her desk.

The boy in the front row turned around. “Brother Yu, that’s pretty unkind of you. I thought you were here to see me, but you were just bringing books for the new student. Wait… how do you two know each other?”

Thanks to Guan Linlin’s gossip, Song Tinghuan had already memorized a few especially distinctive classmates.

For example, this one in front of her was called Li Kuo. He wasn’t tall, and he was chubby and fair. Because his grades were too terrible, his family had forcibly dumped him back into Grade 10 to be remolded from the ground up.

Jiang Yu ignored Li Kuo’s gossip, walked around the person blocking his way, and said, “I’m leaving.”

“Hey, stay a bit longer. What are you going back for?”

Jiang Yu said, “Sleep.”

*

Qinde’s last self-study period didn’t have a teacher. Whether you studied or not depended entirely on self-discipline. Even in a parallel class, the classroom was full of dark, bowed heads at this hour.

Song Tinghuan was organizing the new books she had just received today. The textbooks here were a little different from the ones in Lingcheng, and she felt she might need to find the Grade 10 first-semester textbooks from Qinde too, to get familiar with them.

Beside her, after Guan Linlin glanced at her for the fifth time, she finally tapped Song Tinghuan with the end of her pen and said, “Girl, be honest.”

Her voice was very low. “What exactly is your relationship with Jiang Yu?”

Song Tinghuan: “…”

It had finally come.

In fact, it wasn’t just Guan Linlin. Song Tinghuan could keenly sense the curiosity from the classmates around her, curiosity about her, and about her relationship with Jiang Yu.

But before Song Tinghuan could figure out how to answer, Guan Linlin had already leaned closer to her. “He’s really your uncle?”

“Holy shit…” That was from Li Kuo, seated in front of Song Tinghuan.

Guan Linlin continued gossiping, “Didn’t you check the school forum? Everyone’s discussing your relationship with Jiang Yu. You’re famous.”

Song Tinghuan said, “Huh?”

Song Tinghuan had registered on the anonymous forum at Guan Linlin’s urging, but she hadn’t had time to look carefully. Now she opened the school forum and saw all kinds of hot posts floating across the green page.

The post gossiping about her and Jiang Yu, unsurprisingly, had also been pushed to the front.

“Question: Who is that little girl who was following Jiang Yu this afternoon?”

Song Tinghuan: little girl…?

There were already hundreds of replies.

Were Qinde’s students this free all the time?

1L: [Report, a new transfer student in Class 1, Grade 10, named Song Tinghuan]

2L: [Damn, a freshman? She looks a little young, but the new student is actually pretty beautiful]

3L: [Speaking as someone from Class 1, Grade 10, she’s ridiculously cute, and her voice is soft and sweet]

4L: [jy helped her carry books, jy is really so handsome!]

5L: [Isn’t it a girl with two low pigtails? I saw her entering the school gate with Jiang Yu this morning!]

5L: [Fuck, could she be his girlfriend!]

7L: [No, reliable news says she’s Jiang Yu’s niece]

8L: [Jiang Yu actually has a niece that big…]

…

Song Tinghuan silently turned off her phone, extremely speechless.

How had her information been dug up so completely in just one evening self-study?

This “hot” reached its peak when Jiang Yu was waiting downstairs by the Grade 10 teaching building at six o’clock.

Jiang Yu was wearing a black hoodie, with his school jacket draped over the railing by the playground. He was looking down at his phone. His neck was slightly lowered, the raised line of his neckbone hidden along the edge of his collar, and a length of purple earphone wire dangled against the cool white side of his neck.

Students passing in front of him, whether boys or girls, always had to look twice.

More than twice, even.

Song Tinghuan didn’t want to be watched, so she lingered until almost the very end.

When the round white toe of a canvas shoe appeared in her line of sight, Jiang Yu, who had been under observation for nearly half an hour, finally lifted his head.

There was no impatience Song Tinghuan had worried about. Jiang Yu just looked at her, his expression weary and indifferent, and grabbed the school jacket hanging on the railing. “Let’s go.”

Those two words had no energy in them at all. He seemed to never quite wake up each day.

“Oh.”

Song Tinghuan’s backpack was stuffed full of textbooks. She held one shoulder strap with one hand and carried two bags of school uniforms with the other, following diagonally behind Jiang Yu with some difficulty.

The slanting evening sun stretched their shadows long. When the little shadow beside her hurried to catch up again, Jiang Yu turned around, and Song Tinghuan, hugging the bags of uniforms, nearly crashed into him.

She blinked.

Just now, in order to keep up with Jiang Yu, she had adjusted the way she carried the uniforms several times, fast and slow.

The bag in her arms suddenly vanished. Jiang Yu took it away, then glanced at the backpack behind her, which was already stuffed almost like a bomb package.

He seemed to let out a soft sigh, and then the cool, clean scent of the boy filled Song Tinghuan’s nose.

Jiang Yu raised a hand, reached around behind Song Tinghuan, and lifted her backpack. Song Tinghuan almost instinctively slipped her shoulder strap off.

The movement was extremely smooth and natural, as if she had long been used to other people carrying her backpack for her.

Jiang Yu raised a brow slightly.

But in that case, he was holding too many things. Just as Song Tinghuan was about to politely tell him she could carry the uniforms herself, something was thrust into her arms.

Bundled together.

It was Jiang Yu’s school jacket.

That cool, clean scent filled her again, not only in her nose, but all over her, wrapped in this unfamiliar young masculine smell.

The clean scent also carried a faint hint of mint if you paid close attention.

Song Tinghuan was slightly stunned.

“Jiang Yu!”

A sweet voice rang out behind them. Song Tinghuan turned around and saw the beautiful girl from outside the Jiang family garden last night.

Thinking of the gossip she had heard at school today, Jiang Yu had beaten up the boss of No. 8 High School for a girl named Han Jingjing.

This must be Han Jingjing, right?

The girl glanced at Song Tinghuan, her gaze pausing for a moment on the school jacket in her arms, then she curved her lips into a smile. “Hi, I’m Zhang Xinran.”

Song Tinghuan: “?”

Zhang Xinran said, “Jiang Yu is your little uncle?”

Song Tinghuan: “…”

Jiang Yu turned his head and, seeing Song Tinghuan standing there blankly, his dark eyes showed a trace of impatience.

“You’re not leaving?”

“Ah?”

Before Song Tinghuan could say anything else, Zhang Xinran had already walked up. “Jiang Yu, I have a few math problems from today’s test paper that I couldn’t solve. Can I call you tonight?”

“No.”

Zhang Xinran: “…”

Jiang Yu looked at Song Tinghuan, who still hadn’t moved, and frowned slightly. “Song ting…”

He paused.

“Song Tingting, let’s go.”

The called-out Song Tinghuan: “?”

Who was Song Tingting?

She had never been called that before. Looking at Jiang Yu again, Song Tinghuan reasonably suspected that he actually didn’t even know what her full name was.

But meeting the impatience in Jiang Yu’s eyes, Song Tinghuan tightened her hold on the school jacket in her arms and quickly followed.

As they passed Zhang Xinran, she even saw the clear disappointment in the beautiful girl’s eyes.

Song Tinghuan remembered the gossip she had heard during break today.

Jiang Yu and Han Jingjing were together.

But this girl who appeared at the Jiang family villa last night was called Zhang Xinran.

Jiang Yu… was he seeing two people at once?

Author’s Note:

Song Tinghuan: He really knows how to play the field.

Jiang Yu: ?