Ch.13
“This idiotic Crazy Yi, what kind of nonsense is she using as a profile picture!” Song Yu Meng scolded as she looked at the chat history.
She opened Yi Ran’s space[1] and it was as clean as her, with nothing inside except for one status update.
【Song Yu Meng, are you a pig? How could you not know the double-angle identities and sum and difference of angles identities? (crying and laughing emoji)】
There was a bunch of comments under it.
【A: You actually dare to scold our arrogant miss, watch out, she might deal with you secretly (dog emoji[2])】
【B: Did you make sure Song Yu Meng can’t see your post? If she sees this…】
【Yi Ran replying B: I always blocked her on other posts, but I forgot to on this one. Who cares, if she sees it, she sees it. What are you scared for?】
【B replying Yi Ran: You’re the man[3]. I hope I can still see you alive and well tomorrow.】
【C: What a joke, Miss Arrogant scored thirty marks on the last maths exam. I could do that with my eyes closed, hahahaha.】
【Su Xiao Xiao: I took a screenshot, you better be worried about me showing it to Xiao-Yu (-ω-`)】
【Yi Ran replying Su Xiao Xiao: Friend, give me some face. (smirking emoji)】
【D: Why are all your posts about Song Yu Meng, if you’re not scolding her, you’re scolding her (observing in secret sticker[4]) 】
【Yi Ran replying D: Because I hate her (laughing while crying emoji)】
There were still a bunch more comments after that, but Song Yu Meng couldn’t be bothered to read on, she was pissed. Crazy Yi said she always blocked her, does that mean she posted a lot of stuff scolding her?! Song Yu Meng wanted to rush over with a knife and slice Crazy Yi into eight big chunks!
Breathing in deeply, Song Yu Meng repeated to herself: “I’m not angry, I’m not angry, I won’t stoop to Crazy Yi’s level……”
As if she wouldn’t, how could she take this insult?
Thus, Song Yu Meng grabbed her phone and left a comment under the post.
【Song Yu Meng: Crazy Yi, are you insane?! Delete this now, or bear the consequences!!!】
Yi Ran was busy with her homework when her phone chimed. She picked up the phone and took a look, Scaredy Cat actually left a comment.
She smiled and thought: Scaredy Cat only saw my post now?
Reading the comment, Yi Ran chuckled and typed a reply.
When Song Yu Meng saw it, she got even more crazed, throwing her phone on the bed and sitting up, getting angrier and angrier.
After a few seconds, she picked up her poor phone and wrote a reply in anger, her fingers tapping loudly on the screen.
【Yi Ran replying Song Yu Meng: I’m not bearing any consequences! Playing with your phone, have you finished the physics questions yet? (laughing while covering mouth emoji)】
【Song Yu Meng replying Yi Ran: As if I’m going to do it!!! Scram!!! (punching emoji[5])】
She didn’t want to study physics, Crazy Yi could dream on!!!
On the other hand, Yi Ran smiled to her phone widely, clearly in a good mood.
She didn’t reply Song Yu Meng again, nor did she continue studying. Instead, she pulled out a white post-it note and wrote 【Scaredy Cat finally saw my post. Great, I purposely let her see it. She must be pretty angry now, right?】
Then, she crumpled the note into a ball and placed it into a transparent, cylindrical glass jar that already contained several balled-up white post-it notes.
……
The next morning, Yi Ran was stopped by Song Yu Meng when entering the classroom. She swallowed, this scaredy-cat can’t be looking to square things up with her, can she?
“Take your book back. I told you not to give it to you but you wouldn’t listen. I said this lady wouldn’t do it, believe me now?” Song Yu Meng pointed to the blank pages and raised her chin defiantly.
Yi Ran took the book and said helplessly: “Yes yes yes, way to go, okay?” Having said that, she looked down on the paper. It was indeed all blank… except for a black dot that looked like a mark from a gel pen.
Yi Ran frowned and looked at Song Yu Meng suspiciously.
Song Yu Meng flung her arms around: “What are you looking at, you think this lady would lie to you? If I said I wouldn’t do it, I wouldn’t do it!”
Yi Ran was speechless and rolled her eyes while turning around, complaining in a low voice: “How dumb, acting as if you’ve got a leg up…”
Yi Ran turned to leave but Song Yu Meng immediately called out to her: “What are you walking away for, this lady isn’t done talking!”
Yi Ran was forced back again, “Is there something else?” No emotion could be heard from her voice.
“Of course there is!” Song Yu Meng flew into a rage again and pointed at Yi Ran: “I’m warning you, if you post anything else about this lady, I’m going to find someone to deal with you after school!”
Yi Ran found Song Yu Meng’s angered expression particularly funny, and she apologised in a humble tone: “Sorry, sorry. It’s my fault. Please be magnanimous, you won’t be calculative with me right?” She clapped her hands together and looked at Song Yu Meng with anticipation in her eyes.
Song Yu Meng looked at Yi Ran with an equal mix of disdain and surprise, this show of humbleness did throw her off and it showed on her face.
“You won’t be calculative with me right?” Yi Ran blinked innocently and repeated her question, acting as if she had just seen the emperor.
Not knowing what to say, Song Yu Meng spat out: “Cheh, this lady doesn’t want to be calculative with you!”
Yi Ran bit her lip to suppress her grin and nodded furiously, bowing to her, “yes yes yes, many thanks to this great lady’s mercy!”
“Stop being so glib, get lost, this lady doesn’t want to see you right now.”
Yi Ran walked happily to her seat and hid behind a pile of books, laughing. Her head was completely hidden by the books so Song Yu Meng couldn’t see.
Over there, she was still in disbelief over Crazy Yi’s sudden transformation into a silver-tongued person.
Finally, she came to a conclusion —— It must be that green tea who led Crazy Yi astray!
……
During the physics exam that afternoon, the question on circular motion that Yi Ran spotted indeed came up and she finished it quickly before sneaking a look at Song Yu Meng beside her.
Song Yu Meng was writing down the working for the first question, trying to recall the steps from the scrap paper.
Song Yu Meng actually hadn’t planned to read the book that Yi Ran gave her, but after tossing and turning in bed for a while with a heavy weight in her heart, she finally got up and took a few looks at the book.
Mrs Song entered the room to see her daughter was doing homework, and physics at that, and her jaw dropped.
But Song Yu Meng was actually feeling a bit regretful now. If she had known that this question would come up today, she would have looked at the solution a bit more last night.
How was that formula written again? Song Yu Meng racked her brains trying to remember.
Suddenly, a flash went off in her mind and she hastily wrote down T＝mr4πf, afraid she would forget it the next second.
After using most of the blank space to write down her workings and get the answer, she nodded in a satisfied manner.
To her, physics was worse than maths and chemistry added up together. She would guess all the multiple-choice answers during exams, finishing in one minute. All the marks she got was through pure luck, and she didn’t ever touch the harder questions at the back.
Yi Ran saw the changes in Song Yu Meng’s expression and quietly looked back to her paper, smiling slightly.
This hypocritical scaredy-cat, she still did the questions I gave to her in the end. What’s the point of denying it and being all stubborn?
It was 4pm by the time the exam ended, and all the students went back to their classroom to hear Tang Xiang Ping reiterate the importance of safety and the likes before being released.
“I’ll keep it short. Make sure you guys watch out for yourselves when going home. Alright, class is over!” Tang Xiang Ping waved her hand and everybody jumped into action, packing their bags, discussing the answers, cleaning the classroom……
Yi Ran was just like Song Yu Meng, always carrying an empty schoolbag home. She had just slung her bag over her left shoulder, the bag swinging in the air and thumping gently against her slender back.
She walked to Song Yu Meng and said: “You’re not going to go back on your promise to treat me to milk tea, are you?”
Rolling her eyes, Song Yu Meng said nastily: “Is this lady that kind of person? If I said I’ll treat you, I’ll treat you.” Carrying her bag, Song Yu Meng started walking and looked over her shoulder. “If you’re going to dilly dally, I’m not going to treat you.”
Yi Ran’s lips curved up and she followed behind Song Yu Meng obediently.
The two of them walked out, Song Yu Meng in front and Yi Ran trailing behind by two or three metres.
It was 5pm on an August day, and the sunset cast a golden hue over the surroundings. When Song Yu Meng stepped out of the building, the fading glow of the sunset bathed her in warm light, casting a long shadow.
And the shadow reached all the way to Yi Ran’s feet.
Yi Ran looked at the shadow on the ground, then raised her eyes to look at Song Yu Meng’s back. For a second, her mind was blank and she was blinded by the rays of waning sunlight bouncing off Song Yu Meng.
Walking quickly, Song Yu Meng had already reached the school gates when she realised that Yi Ran wasn’t following her. She turned around and saw Yi Ran standing amidst the crowd.
Cupping her hands to her mouth like a loudspeaker, she shouted: “Crazy Yi, what are you staring at? Get over here!”
At that shout, everybody stared at the two of them, but Song Yu Meng had never cared about the opinions of everybody else. She did what she wanted to do.
Yi Ran’s dazed look disappeared as she hurried to Song Yu Meng’s side, head lowered to avoid the gaze of the rest of the students.
Song Yu Meng watched Yi Ran’s distress with amusement.
After leaving the school, Yi Ran’s expression smoothed out with no trace of her earlier embarrassment.
As they were walking to the shop, Yi Ran said: “Eh, you’ll probably score better for this exam. I spotted two big questions for you, that’s a total of 22 marks.” Yi Ran grinned, holding her right hand up with two fingers raised.
Acting all arrogant, Song Yu Meng scoffed: “Hmph! Of course, it goes without saying? This lady will definitely score well!” She even tried to rub salt into the wound, “I’ll definitely score better than you this time! You’re going to be the last ranked person!”
Yi Ran chortled, “stop bullshitting, do you think you could have gotten these 22 marks without my help?”
“Hmph! I can! I just can!” Song Yu Meng retorted angrily.
Yi Ran held her hands up. “Alright, whatever you say.”
“Hmph, that’s the way it should be!”
How dumb can Yi Ran be… ?
[1] 空间 – Literally space, but it’s probably more like WeChat’s friends circle, where you can update your friends on your day with photos, videos etc. Think of it as WhatsApp’s status updates, except it doesn’t auto disappear after 24 hours.
[2] Here’s the emoji:[3] 我敬你是条汉子 – Basically saying they respect her, she has as much courage as a man.
[4] Here’s the emoji:
[5] Here’s how a punching sticker would look like: