Yi Ran walked back to the classroom with He Xiao Meng. He Xiao Meng walked through the front door, while Yi Ran entered through the rear door and looked over at Song Yu Meng’s seat out of habit.
She was sitting in her chair while Liu Luo Yang was standing beside her, bending to her level, holding a pen and writing on a notepad while talking to her.
Yi Ran stopped in her tracks and looked at them again. She could guess that Liu Luo Yang was explaining some questions to Song Yu Meng.
But what made her speechless was that it was clearly about schoolwork, but Song Yu Meng kept staring at his face with an expression of…. Ugh, how mushy[1].
Yi Ran was about to walk away when she heard Liu Luo Yang: “You see, when the ball is at the apex of the swing, that’s when gravity provides centripetal force. So if you use the formula, you can get F＝mg＝mv╱r, then put the numbers in and you’ll be able to figure out the answer….”
Why did it sound so familiar? Yi Ran suddenly recalled. Wasn’t this the question she was doing right before she went for break? She had already thought of the whole process, she just hadn’t written it down yet.
It was also the question she originally wanted to explain to Song Yu Meng before getting rejected.
Looking at it now, it wasn’t that this scaredy-cat didn’t want to hear the explanation, she just didn’t want to hear it from Yi Ran. She was clearly so eager to listen to Liu Luo Yang explaining.
Cheh, double standards.
Yi Ran felt uncomfortable and secretly rolled her eyes at Song Yu Meng before walking away.
Back at her seat, Yi Ran continued working on the physics homework, which coincidentally was the same circular motion question.
Weird, Yi Ran clearly worked it out in her head before she went for dinner, and she also just heard Liu Luo Yang explaining the method to Song Yu Meng, but at this instance, her brain was completely blank.
How did I do it earlier??? Yi Ran stared at the question as her frown got deeper and deeper, twirling the pen in her hand faster and faster.
The pen suddenly flew out of her hand and fell to the floor. Yi Ran bent over and picked it up, feeling incredibly irritated.
She continued staring a hole in the paper with a black face. To outsiders, it might seem like she was in a state of intense concentration. Mentally, her thoughts were in a jumble.
Xu Yuan was refilling her water bottle when she saw Yi Ran looking angrily at the paper. She patted Yi Ran’s shoulder lightly from behind and asked in a gentle voice: “Is it question 13? Do you want me to explain it to you?”
Yi Ran was startled, but she didn’t think too much of it and replied: “That would be appreciated.”
“No problem.” Xu Yuan smiled softly.
Yi Ran was listening to Xu Yuan’s explanation, but Song Yu Meng clearly wasn’t paying attention to what Liu Luo Yang was saying, opting instead to focus entirely on staring at him.
Out of the corner of her eye though, she suddenly saw two people at the side and her smile vanished. She stared at the pair with a vengeful expression.
Shameless, she’s even trying to seduce Crazy Yi!!! Song Yu Meng scolded Xu Yuan in her mind.
The two of them were entirely focused on the question, one on explaining and the other on listening, so they didn’t notice Song Yu Meng.
Xu Yuan spent a few minutes explaining the thought process to Yi Ran, who finally remembered how to solve the question.
She thanked Xu Yuan: “Thanks, class president.”
“You’re welcome.” She retrieved her refilled water bottle and left.
Yi Ran started scribbling down the workings, but halfway through, a shadow fell over the paper. Yi Ran looked up and saw that it was Song Yu Meng, who had made her way over without even a sound.
Song Yu Meng didn’t say anything about Yi Ran staring at her but said in a strange tone: “Tsk tsk tsk, you’ve completely changed after that white lotus explained a question to you. Even your handwriting has become so neat, you must be listening very attentively!”
Song Yu Meng said “attentively” with extra emphasis.
Looking at the girl in front of her acting so weirdly, Yi Ran laughed and joked: “Then what about you, Miss Song? Didn’t you say you rather die than listen to me explaining the physics question? Weren’t you happily listening to Liu Luo Yang explain then? You’re so hypocritical.”
“Does it even concern you? This lady is willing to listen, so?” Song Yu Meng continued breathlessly. “Anyway, who said I was listening to the explanation? I was clearly looking at Liu Luo Yang gege, okay? And when that white lotus was explaining the question to you, weren’t you also staring at her attentively?:
Yi Ran frowned, thinking things were getting more and more absurd. “What the hell are you rambling on about? I was clearly paying attention to Xu Yuan’s explanation, okay? Why would I be staring at her? You think everybody would be a lovesick fool like you?”
“You!!!” Song Yu Meng was shamed into anger, a deep red spreading across her face.
Crazy Yi saw her fangirling expression again??!
Embarrassing!
Yi Ran felt incredibly pleased, seeing Song Yu Meng angered to speechlessness. But she quickly realised something was wrong.
“Wait!” Yi Ran raised an eyebrow. “How did you know Xu Yuan was explaining the question to me? Weren’t you staring at Liu Luo Yang? Why would you pay attention to me?”
Song Yu Meng was flustered, diverting her eyes. She felt her heart thumping quickly and she opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.
Yi Ran saw how anxious she looked and finally stood up, teasing her with a smile: “Were you looking at me?”
“Who’s looking at you? Don’t deceive yourself! I saw you two out of the corner of my eye, okay?! And it was just one look!” Song Yu Meng’s face was flushed and she couldn’t make eye contact with Yi Ran.
Yi Ran’s eyes were filled with laughter: “Really just one look?”
“Nonsense! Of course! This lady hates the two of you the most, I wouldn’t bother looking twice!”
“Mm.” Yi Ran covered her moyth and smiled at Song Yu Meng meaningfully, nodding her head.
The more Yi Ran was acting like this, the more guilty Song Yu Meng felt. Eventually, she scolded half-heartedly: “What are you laughing at? You… You’re crazy.” She even stammered at the end, before hurrying away.
Why did she have a feeling Yi Ran saw right through her lie?
Yi Ran gazed at the girl fleeing the classroom, a smile still plastered on her face, and thought: Scaredy-cat is so arrogant, if she said it was just a look, it should have been more than just a few, right?
……
The English and geography exams were scheduled for the next morning, with the last period of the day being reserved for the physics exam. Once the exams were done, the students would be released for the day. Therefore, the evening self-study period was filled with people revising English and geography.
Yi Ran was different. She was copying the method for the physics questions down meticulously.
Once school was out, the students living off campus packed up and got ready to go, while the students living in the dorms had another period of self-study before they could return to their rooms.
Song Yu Meng never revised her work, nor did she do homework regularly. She might occasionally do it for the humanities subjects, but never for the sciences.
With the exams being held tomorrow, the class reps surely wouldn’t collect homework, so Song Yu Meng didn’t bring anything related to school in her bag.
She stood up and had just slung the strap over her shoulder when Yi Ran came over with the physics exercise book.
Why did she feel this scenario was so familiar? Crazy Yi can’t be making her do homework again, could she?
Indeed, Yi Ran spoke the next second: “There’s a piece of paper inside with the formulas for physics. Make sure you take a look. Also, this exam will definitely have a question on circular motion, so I spotted some questions for you and wrote detailed explanations for a few ways of solving it, you’ll definitely be able to understand.”
“Oh and, I included one question on circular motion that’s phrased in a different way, it’s the one I left a tick next to.” Yi Ran pointed to the question as she spoke. “After you finish looking at the stuff I wrote, make sure you do this question. It’s very likely this question is going to appear in tomorrow’s exam.”
After hearing that long speech from Yi Ran, Song Yu Meng was dumbfounded. After a few seconds, she finally got the main point, she needed to do homework again! And it was even for her most hated physics!
Yi Ran’s concern was met with a bunch of nasty words from Song Yu Meng.
“Crazy Yi, is there something wrong with your brain[2]? You actually expect this lady to do physics homework?” Song Yu Meng looked at her as if she was mentally challenged.
“And I’m reminding you, take your book back. This lady is definitely not going to do it, I won’t even look at it, so it’s a waste of time!” Song Yu Meng continued, with no semblance of being willing to compromise.
Yi Ran said nothing, pulling Song Yu Meng’s bag over to her, opening it and stuffing the book inside. She zipped up the bag and placed it on the table.
With a nonchalent attitude, Yi Ran said: “Then it’s up to you. If you do it, you’ll have marks tomorrow. If you don’t do it, you won’t have marks. I’m not forcing you anyway.”
Song Yu Meng couldn’t figure out why Yi Ran was so insistent and asked her in astonishment: “Crazy Yi, are you really that bored? Why must you keep forcing this lady to do homework? Did Tang Seng brainwash you or something?”
“Guess.” Yi Ran gave her a mysterious smile before leaving the classroom.
Honestly, Yi Ran herself didn’t know why she wanted to care so much about Song Yu Meng’s studies, but she wanted to, so she did.
Yi Ran was a do-er, not a thinker. As long as she wanted to do something, she would do it without thinking too much about the reason why.
……
Song Yu Meng went back to her room once she returned home, as usual. Picking up the phone from her bed, she opened □□[3] to send a goodnight text to Liu Luo Yang.
As usual, Liu Luo Yang didn’t reply. Song Yu Meng was only a little disappointed. After all, he never replied this sort of good morning or goodnight greetings, she was already used to it.
She lay on the soft bed with her arms flung to the side, the brightly-lit up phone in her right hand. Her thumb accidentally grazed the back button and the screen went back to the □□ main chat page.
The number of people Song Yu Meng added on □□ wasn’t a lot, it could be counted on two hands. The number of people she chatted with was even fewer, with only three chats on the main page.
At the top was Liu Luo Yang, followed by Su Xiao Xiao and Yi Ran was the last person.
Song Yu Meng moved her right hand to see the screen, but she didn’t look at Liu Luo Yang. Instead, she noticed the chat with Yi Ran because her profile picture was too out of the ordinary.
Completely in contrast to Liu Luo Yang’s profile picture of a anime character, Yi Ran’s profile picture was a black background with a few white words in the middle.
“You’re a dog if you scold me!”
It’s a well-known fact that Yi Ran was well-liked and that nobody would scold her except Song Yu Meng. So clearly, the profile photo was specially set for Song Yu Meng.
It had been two days since Song Yu Meng messaged Yi Ran, and the chat was still preserved in Song Yu Meng’s phone.
【Crazy Yi: Look at my profile picture, isn’t it nice? (laughing with scrunched up eyes)】
【Scaredy Cat: As if it’s nice!】
【Scaredy Cat: (Smiley emoji[4])】
【Crazy Yi: Wow, I was just asking if it’s nice, why the huge reaction? Did I touch a nerve[5]?】
【Crazy Yi: (Laughing while covering mouth emoji[6])】
【Scaredy Cat: Get lost！！！！！！！！】
The name Yi Ran set for Song Yu Meng was “Scaredy Cat” while the nickname Song Yu Meng set for Yi Ran was “Crazy Yi”.
[1] 肉麻 – can be used in a few different ways. Meaning disgustingly sweet (towards someone), mushy, corny.
[2] 你脑子是不是what了呀 – This is pretty self-explanatory, just thought it was a funny sentence LOL
[3] □□ – So in the raws, it’s actually just two boxes. I’m going to assume there’s some problem with naming WeChat in novels for copyright or whatever, so I’m leaving it as boxes.
[4] Here’s the emoji. I saw a pretty spot-on photo from Reddit when I was searching for it on Google, so this should be pretty easy to understand. My girlfriend and I actually use this smiley all the time when we’re quarrelling or upset with each other, so LOL
[5] 对号入座 – So the actual meaning of the words here doesn’t mean what the phrase is supposed to mean. This basically means someone is very defensive and quick to jump to the conclusion that someone’s talking about them. Kind of like a “If the shoe fits…”.
[6] Here’s the emoji: