Chapter 17: A man to this extent

“I also want to get into the top 20 of the year; what do you guys think?”

“Do you think that you’re the godly figure of Class 10? Don’t forget, in that godly figure’s eyes, us of Class 7 aren’t even considered anything at all.”

“I think that we may very well have misunderstood. God Xu must have been speaking of getting into the top 20 from the back.”

“Haha, then I bet that he can...”

When such statements spread, Xu Tingsheng with the ‘heart of an uncle’ wasn’t really angry at all. He was just a little confused. From his impressions of his previous life, the quality of the students in Class 7 wasn’t actually this bad.

“Could it be that I really was too ‘crowd-drawing’? Xu Tingsheng smiled bitterly as he shook his head.

Afraid that Xu Tingsheng might be feeling troubled, Yao Jing tugged on his sleeve, shooting over a sympathetic glance.

“It’s nothing,” Xu Tingsheng smiled as he shook his head.

Huang Yaming and Fu Cheng stepped before Xu Tingsheng.

“Are you lot looking to die?” Huang Yaming asked in a heavy tone.

“What, do you think that you’re the boss just having fought once with Bao Ming’s group? Why don’t you try beating me up? Let’s see how the school will deal with it. Don’t forget that you lot are still bearing punishment, with one even having to stay behind after school for detention,” Someone raised his chest high in dissatisfaction as he strode over.

“It’s nothing to do with Xu Tingsheng; it’s just me who wants to...”

Right before Huang Yaming lunged over, he was pulled back by Xu Tingsheng.

As Xu Tingsheng’s gaze swept over, one of Class 7’s boys evaded his gaze, unconsciously taking a step back to hide behind someone else. Seeing him, Xu Tingsheng understood why the people of Class 7 were acting this way. All of this must have been instigated by him.

This person was that previous scumbag boyfriend of Song Ni’s, the one who had been asked by the vice-principal in his broadcast ‘Are you still a man?”. Xu Tingsheng thought about it, but couldn’t recall his name.

“Liu Qing, aren’t you too much?”

The one who had spoken was actually Yao Jing. The one behaving the most antagonistically of those of Class 7, Liu Qing, had coincidentally been her classmate in their first year of senior high.

“Huh, relying on a girl to stand up for you,” Liu Qing did not reply Yao Jing directly, instead chortling.

Yao Jing’s masculinity still erupted as she took a step forward, “Don’t make it such that no one doesn’t know how you got into the special class...As the Year Head, your father truly is selfless and impartial.”

Fu Cheng’s father was the vice-chief of the county’s Trade and Industry Bureau. Perhaps it was that he had not secretly arranged for Fu Cheng’s entry into the special class, or perhaps it was that Fu Cheng himself had refused.

This Liu Qing similarly hadn’t attained good enough grades to enter the special class. However, his father was coincidentally the Year Head of this year’s batch of examinees. Hence, originally having been designated as 50 people, it had instead been 51 people who had entered Class 7 this year.

He indeed did not possess the qualifications to mock someone so arrogantly and domineeringly.

Seeing Liu Qing’s embarrassment show signs of turning into rage, also inwardly really being unable to accept a girl standing up for him, Xu Tingsheng took a step forward, saying civilly, “Alright, that should be enough with your laughing. We still have to hurry over for lunch.”

Having finished speaking, Xu Tingsheng turned, pulling Yao Jing with one hand and Huang Yaming with the other as he walked off in the direction of the cafeteria.

Just having walked a few steps away, a clear voice resounded from behind them, “If you want to compare grades, you can compare yours with mine. While I am a batch lower and a science student, we can still compare our grades in Language, Mathematics and English.”

Turning, Xu Tingsheng saw Wu Yuewei standing there.

She had originally been brimming with emotions, but as Xu Tingsheng looked over, her expression instantly changed as she awkwardly stuck out her tongue at him, her face red as she looked at him rather worriedly, as though afraid that he would be dissatisfied with such actions of hers.

“Wasn’t she a simple, gentle little girl? How come she is so valiant?” Xu Tingsheng felt rather like his head hurt.

Xu Tingsheng knew that when in junior high, having scored the best grades, Wu Yuewei could lead the person in second place by a full 60 marks. He also knew that she would later graduate as a postgraduate student in Jianhai University. However, he was not aware of her current grades.

“I asked around out of curiosity earlier. She can still lead the second placed student by 60 marks, as the number one trump card of the science stream of the eleventh grade and the one of Libei Senior High with the greatest hopes of making it into Qingbei University over these past ten years,” Huang Yaming leaned over, muttering to him, “If she gets into a quarrel with those people of Class 7, I suspect the school will definitely deal with them.”

“Your sister,” Having had to rely on girls standing up for him twice in quick succession, Xu Tingsheng’s pride was nearly on the brink of collapse.

“Sorry about that,” Xu Tingsheng waved in apology to those people of Class 7, still furious and at a loss, before he turned over to face Wu Yuewei, “... let’s go eat lunch together.”

Xu Tingsheng couldn’t find the words to rebuke her.

...

For the discussions regarding Xu Tingsheng, their main contents on his ‘legendary feats’ began switching over from his mathematics grades of 62 marks to having had two girls stand up for him in succession.

“A man to this extent – what more can be said,” Some guys who bore him more goodwill said.

“A man to this extent – his mother it is embarrassing,” Such was said by those who bore him ill will.

The girls rather relished such discussions. Originally possessing infinite talent for gossip, coupled with their superb powers of imagination, stories comparable to the conflicts between concubines in palaces were born.

“The study queen who is first in the entire eleventh grade and a twelfth grade senior are fighting over the same senior.”

However, the guy in question, having earlier said big words, had only scored 62 marks for Mathematics, currently being in the midst of becoming an utter joke.

“Where exactly lies the basis for this?”

The Year Head of eleventh grade and Wu Yuewei’s form teacher also very much wanted to know the answer to this question. As the news spread and they learnt of it, they just very much longed for Xu Tingsheng to quickly finish his university entrance examinations and get lost.

When the vice-principal, in charge of the student affairs office, heard this report via them, he revealed an intentionally mysterious smile, “So it’s that kid. That’s very natural. I met him once, and he is not any ordinary boy. It is no wonder that he would be more attractive to the girls.”

“Punish him? On what grounds? ...Nonsense, what wrong has he committed? It’s almost the university entrance examinations; you’d better forget about it. I say this with all seriousness here. As long as he doesn’t cause any trouble, none of you are allowed to do anything to him. Otherwise, you’d best be ready to give me a good explanation.”

In the eyes of this straightforward vice-principal, he was indebted to Xu Tingsheng. If not for him having appeared and stopped him in time that day...

Actually, their heads currently lowered as they ate their lunch, Huang Yaming and Fu Cheng also very much wanted to ask Xu Tingsheng, “What is the basis for this? It’s not fair!”

Libei Senior High’s cafeteria was split into three levels. There wasn’t much of a difference between the first two levels, just that the food within were catered by different groups of people, with competition being used to increase the quality of their dishes.

The third level was slightly more special, having sort of the feel of an external, mid-tier restaurant as it provided ‘extravagant’ expenses like fried dishes and hotpot. Most of the time, only teachers and rich kids would come here.

On a small, round table for six, five people were seated. Two girls were sitting with Xu Tingsheng in between them, and other than that were Huang Yaming and Fu Cheng.

The atmosphere of this meal was a ‘strange’ one.

Huang Yaming and Fu Cheng had originally wanted to try to ease the air, but they very quickly gave up. The two girls at the table politely addressed each other as senior and junior, even constantly conversing in an intimate manner. However, as they saw it, strong hidden undercurrents were surging beneath.

Xu Tingsheng ate composedly, at least appearing composed on the outside, even though the gazes of the other four that were looking at him were all filled with carefulness and worry.

They had all heard those discussions about him on their way here as well. From their earlier impressions, Xu Tingsheng was not a calm, tolerant person. Therefore, the calmer he currently appeared, the more worried they instead felt.

Sensing this atmosphere, Xu Tingsheng said, “The vegetables are delicious, and the rice stems too. You should eat more of them.

At Xu Tingsheng’s suggestion, the other four all very obediently wedged some vegetables and rice stems in between their chopsticks. Meanwhile, he himself grabbed hold of this opportunity, going for the meat in a mad scramble.

“The hell, how shameless.”

Huang Yaming and Fu Cheng finally reacted, beginning to compete for the meat dishes with Xu Tingsheng. With the scorning, disdainful squabbling of the three boys and the clear laughter of the two girls, the atmosphere at the table finally relaxed.

“Wait...stop,” Fu Cheng said, “What are you fighting for; if you eat all of it, what about the girls? Don’t you have any gentlemanly bearing at all?”

Fu Cheng pushed himself clean of the matter, then put a plate of newly served prawns before the two girls, “This dish is for you.”

Then, Yao Jing did something that Xu Tingsheng had never thought that she would do, because from his impression of her, she was definitely not this ‘type’. Even in that month that they had been together in his previous life, she had still retained her ‘core masculinity’, the interactions between the two far more like that between brothers than between lovers.

Now, a divergence occurred. Yao Jing wedged a prawn and placed it inside Xu Tingsheng’s bowl. She did not utter a sound, but everyone at the table watched on silently.

Then, Wu Yuewei also wedged a prawn, already peeled, and placed it inside Xu Tingsheng’s bowl, similarly not uttering a sound.

“I want to eat prawns too,” Huang Yaming said.

Yao Jing answered, “Who asked you not to bring Tan Qinglin here.”

After she had said this, Yao Jing’s face turned red, varying expressions also appearing on the faces of the others. The meaning contained within her words had really been too plentiful – Tan Qinglin was Huang Yaming’s girlfriend, and Yao Jing’s meaning had been for Huang Yaming to get his girlfriend to give him a prawn if he wanted to eat one...but she had just given one to Xu Tingsheng...also, Wu Yuewei had too.

...

Such an atmosphere was sustained for a long time, till finally Fu Cheng couldn’t bear it any longer, snorting out in laughter as he accidentally spat a whole mouthful of rice onto the dishes of the table.