The salty life in Life of Pi

Chapter 5: The Boy's Admiration

bell---
Hearing the bell, Lin Miaomiao floated to the surface like a drowned person. Her back, which had been bent like a shrimp, straightened up immediately, and her drowsy expression disappeared. She took a deep breath and stretched. When she heard someone say "lunch in the cafeteria", Lin Miaomiao finally reacted and urged Deng Xiaoqi beside her to go to the cafeteria.
"Xiao Qi, hurry up, it's time for lunch. If you go too late you won't be able to get the chicken legs."

Deng Xiaoqi couldn't help curling her lips when she heard Lin Miaomiao's words.
"But chicken legs are high in calories and will make you fat if you eat them."

"Then I'll help you eat. I won't get fat, hehe."

Lin Miaomiao was very happy that she could eat an extra serving of chicken leg. She stood on tiptoe and hugged Deng Xiaoqi's neck. Unfortunately, because they were too short, their figures looked a little funny.

Seeing Deng Xiaoqi walk out the door, Jiang Tianhao quickened his pace, pulling Wu Xianyu to follow the two girls and making small talk.
“Chicken legs don’t have that many calories as long as you don’t eat the skin”

When Lin Miaomiao and Deng Xiaoqi looked over, Jiang Tianhao stretched out his hand towards Deng Xiaoqi with a stiff body.
"My name is Jiang Tianhao, let's get to know each other formally."

Lin Miaomiao acted as a middleman
"Xiao Qi, Haozi is quite generous. He even treated me to a Coke after dinner last time."

“But Coke is also a calorie bomb.”

Although she complained like this, Deng Xiaoqi still politely extended her hand, but her movements seemed a little slow. Just as Jiang Tianhao was nervous and expectant, their hands that were gradually approaching were pushed apart by someone, and a voice was heard.

"A good dog stays out of the way"

Jiang Tianhao hadn't reacted yet, staring blankly at his hand that had been knocked away. Instead, Deng Xiaoqi was the first to react and took back her hand. She was not angry at Qian Sanyi's rude behavior, but her cheeks flushed slightly, and she whispered to Lin Miaomiao:
"Do you think Qian Sanyi was jealous and deliberately pushed me and Jiang Tianhao's hands apart?"

Lin Miaomiao didn't pay attention to what Deng Xiaoqi said. Looking at Qian Sanyi's back, she felt that Wu Xianyu's description of this man as an elementary school student was so appropriate.

Wu Xianyu watched the whole process. Seeing that Jiang Tianhao was still in a daze, he waved his hand in front of him.
"Hey, stop being so idle, let's go eat."

"Depend on"

Seeing Jiang Tianhao preparing to rush towards Qian Sanyi's back, Wu Xianyu was quick to reach out and hold his shoulder.
"Hey, do you remember how you described him? A show-off. Since he likes to show off, he must need to attract people's attention. Now that you're chasing him, aren't you falling into his trap? Calm down."

"That's right, why bother arguing with such a childish person?"

Lin Miaomiao also reacted and felt that this high school entrance exam top scorer was so childish that he could even use such elementary school student tricks.

Deng Xiaoqi, who was dragged by Lin Miaomiao to follow the two boys, had a different opinion.

“No, I think it’s cute.”

After hearing what Deng Xiaoqi said, Wu Xianyu comforted Jiang Tianhao

"Look, Haozi, Deng Xiaoqi said this guy is cute. Just think about it, as high school students and men who are about to become adults, how would you feel if a woman called us cute?"

After hearing Wu Xianyu's explanation, Jiang Tianhao gradually calmed down. He stroked his chin and imagined himself being called cute by a girl. Under the scorching sun of the autumn tiger, he couldn't help but shiver and rubbed his arms.
"Please stop talking like that. If a girl says that to a man like me who is so upright, I would want to die. Forget it. I won't bother with an elementary school girl. Anyway, we know each other now and there will be plenty of time in the future."

Wu Xianyu looked at Jiang Tianhao's hopeful expression with eyes full of pity, and he was not prepared to dissuade Jiang Tianhao. In this kind of situation, there is no turning back unless the person involved gets hurt.

Wu Xianyu recalled a classmate from his previous life in college. He had been on and off with a girl for four years, breaking up seven or eight times during that time. Every time, the girl would take the initiative to get back together, and he would always give her a lot of gifts during festivals, and each time they were more expensive than the last. The problem was that the girl was a playful person. The number of boys who had flirted with her in school alone could not be counted on two hands, not to mention how many more there were outside of school. Even so, this bootlicker classmate still kept sending gifts and asking for a reconciliation, and then not long after, he was asked to break up again. It went on like this in an endless cycle. In the end, it was not until the call from Huabei urging the repayment reached his parents that he came to his senses.

Wu Xianyu and Jiang Tianhao finished their meal and sat down at an empty table. Just as they started to eat, Lin Miaomiao and Deng Xiaoqi also came up with their plates and prepared to sit down.

Wu Xianyu quickly spoke

"Oh no, have you forgotten what Lao Zhao said in the class meeting this morning? Men and women are not allowed to sit together in the cafeteria. There are teachers watching over there."

Lin Miaomiao was about to sit down when she stopped and looked up to find that the supervisor of the girls' dormitory not far away was staring at her closely, as if she was going to rush over in the next second. Without hesitation, Lin Miaomiao cleverly turned around and sat opposite the two girls behind her, with her back to Wu Xianyu.

Teacher Wang, the female dormitory supervisor not far away, watched for a while and made sure that boys and girls were not sitting together before he folded his arms and patrolled other places.

Seeing that Deng Xiaoqi didn't sit next to him, Jiang Tianhao sighed with regret, with a slightly complaining tone.

"Xianyu, it would be nice if you didn't mention this. Xiaoqi would be sitting next to me."

Wu Xianyu took a bite of his meal, rolled his eyes, and responded with disdain

"Oh, I'm sitting next to you, so what? Are you two together? Haozi, you're deceiving yourself and others, covering your ears and stealing the bell. It's ok for you to deceive others, but when you get ruthless, you even deceive yourself."

"You're full of rhymes. Do you want to take the postgraduate entrance exam?"

Jiang Tianhao was a little angry after being exposed. He said something to Wu Xianyu, drank a mouthful of soup, sighed, and looked at Wu Xianyu again.

"Xianyu, have you ever been in love? Do you know the feeling of being moved?"

Wu Xianyu, who was stuffing minced meat and eggplant into his mouth, stopped, thought about the nearly forty years of single time in his two lifetimes, and did not answer Jiang Tianhao's words, but continued to stuff the food into his mouth.

Seeing that the sharp-tongued Wu Xianyu didn't say anything, Jiang Tianhao continued to sigh.
"I am crazy too. How many people of our age have ever been in a relationship?"

After dinner, Jiang Tianhao bought a few bottles of water as usual, and the one for Deng Xiaoqi was zero-fat soda water. Seeing Jiang Tianhao being attentive to Deng Xiaoqi, Wu Xianyu and Lin Miaomiao, who were drinking carbonated drinks, looked at him with disdain.

After parting at the fork in the road between the male and female dormitories, Wu Xianyu took Jiang Tianhao back to the dormitory and looked him up and down in silence.

"You look like you have never seen the world, why are you still acting like a bootlicker, and it's so obvious, are you afraid that the teacher won't notice?"

"Is it that obvious?"

Jiang Tianhao's eyes flickered a little, avoiding Wu Xianyu's gaze.

Seeing this, Wu Xianyu didn't want to meddle in other people's business, so he waved his hand and lay down on his bed.
"You should have a scale in your heart. I won't remind you anymore."

After saying that, Wu Xianyu took off his glasses, lay on the bed and closed his eyes.

Wu Xianyu, who had returned to his student days, had a very good sleep quality. Soon, his breathing became long. Jiang Tianhao, who was on the upper bunk, was flipping through the novel in his hand, but he was thinking about how to take his relationship with Deng Xiaoqi to the next level. As for how much of what Wu Xianyu said he listened to, who knew.

The first class in the afternoon was Chinese. I don’t know if it was because of the high quality of the students or because it was the first class of the school year to give face to the teacher, but the atmosphere in this class was good. At least no one fell asleep.

Listening to the teacher's analysis of poetry, Wu Xianyu's long-lost memories were slowly returning. Although the teaching methods were different, the meanings expressed were roughly the same, which made it very easy for Wu Xianyu to learn. When the teacher asked a question near the end of the get out of class, he silently organized an answer in his mind and found that what he thought was similar to what the teacher said. Wu Xianyu nodded with satisfaction.

As the bell rang, the Chinese teacher closed the book and left today's homework.
"Today's homework is to memorize this poem. If you can't memorize it, copy it five times. I will check it tomorrow. OK, get out of class dismissed."

"stand up"

"Goodbye, teacher" "Goodbye, classmates"

With the sound of tables and chairs sliding, the classroom went from quiet to noisy. Lin Miaomiao lay on the table, looking at the book in her hand, and sighed.

"You have to memorize such a long word in one day."

Jiang Tianhao, who had already started copying poems, heard Lin Miaomiao's complaints and couldn't help but interrupt.

"Stupid people are still complaining, while smart people have already started copying"

Lin Miaomiao turned her head and saw Jiang Tianhao's hands moving quickly, and the corners of her mouth twitched.
“You are quite self-aware.”

Turning around, I saw Wu Xianyu leaning back in a chair, drinking hot water leisurely. He looked just like an old man enjoying the cool air downstairs in the community. It would have been even more like that if he had a palm-leaf fan.

Seeing Wu Xianyu's calm expression, Lin Miaomiao felt a little jealous and couldn't help but interrupt Wu Xianyu's leisurely atmosphere.

"Have you memorized it yet? Why are you so leisurely?"

“I can recite it now.”

"If you can't recite it, why don't you copy it by hand?"

Halfway through the sentence, Lin Miaomiao realized that Wu Xianyu meant he could recite it. Her eyes widened immediately. Even Jiang Tianhao, who was copying the book, stopped what he was doing and looked at Wu Xianyu.

Lin Miaomiao closed Wu Xianyu's book in disbelief and stared into his eyes.
"Then recite it to me now."

Putting the lid on the glass, Wu Xianyu closed his eyes and shook his head.

"Standing alone in the cold autumn, the Xiang River flows northward, at the head of Orange Island."

He recited the poem completely and fluently, even with some emotion. At least after listening to Wu Xianyu's recitation, Jiang Tianhao felt a surge of heroic feeling in his heart.

Lin Miaomiao was in a daze for a long time before she put down Wu Xianyu's textbook in a daze.

"We are all poor students, why are you so smart? You are not sociable."

Wu Xianyu shook his head and said with a smile

"This is the teacher's vocabulary. I've seen it before. Isn't it normal to memorize it? Besides, there are not many words, only about a hundred in total. If you put in some effort, you can memorize it quickly."

Hearing that Wu Xianyu had read this poem a long time ago, Lin Miaomiao immediately convinced herself and patted Wu Xianyu on the shoulder with a relieved look.
"I was wrong about you, Comrade Xianyu, you should just continue to be a Xianyu, I'm going to endorse the book"

After saying that, he turned around and started reading silently with the book.

Jiang Tianhao looked at the words in the book, and the words that he originally thought were boring became vivid. It was not until the class bell rang and the physics teacher walked in that Jiang Tianhao put away the Chinese textbook, but he found that he had already memorized most of the words.

When Wu Xianyu saw the physics textbook, he felt his eyelids twitching and some bad memories came to his mind. In his previous life, his high school physics teacher was the head of the grade. He had no scruples when it came to hitting people and he had been slapped on the palm of his hand. However, science subjects could not be learned simply because they were not learnable, unlike Chinese and English where he could guess most of the way based on his feelings.

I opened the textbook with a bitter face, and as the physics teacher explained, some memories slowly came back to me, but not as smoothly as Chinese. It was like squeezing toothpaste. I had to write down every bit I squeezed out, otherwise I would forget it as soon as I relaxed.

After the class, Wu Xianyu felt listless and slumped on the desk. Wu Xianyu was not the only one like this in the classroom. Looking through the windows from the corridor, the whole classroom was filled with people slumped over.

Jiang Tianhao, on the other hand, was full of energy. He finished the homework in the book, raised his head and looked at the depressed Wu Xianyu with a gloating look.

"Oh, salted fish is not good anymore."

“I hate science”

Without even raising his head, Wu Xianyu's muffled voice came from the book.

Lin Miaomiao, who was sitting in the front row, heard Wu Xianyu's words and suddenly turned around, grabbed Wu Xianyu's hand that was hanging by the table, and shook it excitedly a few times.
"My dear fellow, if you were a girl, we could become sworn sisters."

Feeling the delicate touch on his hand, Wu Xianyu shuddered, raised his head, retracted his hand, and looked at Lin Miaomiao with dissatisfaction.
"Don't touch me, I'm still a virgin, you'll be responsible if I touch you."

Lin Miaomiao, who was originally happy about finding her kind, immediately drooped her face when she heard Wu Xianyu's words.

"Bah, I'm a girl and I didn't bother with you about this, you are shameless"

Jiang Tianhao looked at their actions with envy in his eyes.

"You're touching me right now, and the girl took the initiative."

In the last math class, Wu Xianyu's situation was better. After all, the early stages were relatively simple. In his previous life, his math grades were good before his second year of high school, but just because he took a nap in one class, he never caught up with the progress since then. He was among the top ten in the grade in Chinese and English at the time, but he could only stay in the middle in math from then on.

After class, Wu Xianyu breathed a sigh of relief. He was not under any pressure at the moment. He took a sip of the now warm water, smacked his lips, and felt that it lacked some flavor. He would add some lemon slices to the bubbles next time.

Before he could rest for long, Zhao Rongbao came back and waved to Jiang Tianhao.

"Take our class to the gymnasium to get the school uniforms. You don't need to come to the classroom for the next self-study class. Go back to the dormitory and try them on. If there are any problems, exchange them in time."

When they heard that there was no need to attend the next class, the class cheered. Jiang Tianhao was also very excited. He led the class to line up in the corridor and walked towards the gymnasium.

As the first class to arrive, everyone quickly received school uniforms of their own sizes. Wu Xianyu couldn't help but sigh when he looked at the short-sleeved top with a tie and the bottom that looked like suit pants.
“It’s a big city, it’s classy.”

Jiang Tianhao, who was standing by, was very curious and came over.

"No, Xianyu, what's it like over there? I'm so excited to give you a school uniform."

Wu Xianyu looked up and was still thinking about how to describe it when he saw the physical education teacher in sportswear. So Wu Xianyu pointed at the physical education teacher and said

"Our school uniform is like that, but the fabric is not that good. It will unravel if you put too much force on it. The sleeves are cuffed, and the pants are so loose that they drag on the ground."

Jiang Tianhao felt fine. Before he could say anything, Wu Xianyu added:

"Oh, the color is red, bright red. The only white piece of fabric is on the back, and the name of the school is written in red letters."

So Jiang Tianhao wanted to say something but stopped, and finally gave up.

(End of this chapter)