Chapter 308: A Bluetooth Earbud Tucked into a Palm

At the classroom door, someone suddenly shouted.

"The class next door moved."

The students in the class all looked toward the door, but for a moment no one could tell who had shouted.

"For real?"

"Let's go, let's go, grab the chairs. How could it be fake?"

"Exactly, what's the point of spreading fake news? Hundred percent legit, stop wasting time, let's go."

Jiang Nian saw the whole Class 3 carrying chairs out, so he retreated to the back row. Seeing Zhang Ningzhi about to carry a chair, he called out to her directly.

"I'll carry the chair for you. You go down with Yao Bei Bei first."

Zhang Ningzhi and he had been "going back and forth" for some time now, the thread of friendship having thinned into a sparse spiderweb, so there was no need to refuse.

She nodded, accepting the privilege that came with being "seatmates."

"Oh, thanks."

Hearing that, Jiang Nian paused again and actually started considering it seriously.

"If you insist, then—"

Zhang Ningzhi let out an "Ah!" and quickly stepped back.

"I'm going to find Beibei!"

Jiang Nian had already taken a look; the outfit Zhang Ningzhi was wearing was indeed a dress. But the fabric was clearly better, the style newer, and it was quite thick.

Going downstairs, they were still wearing long down jackets.

Yao Bei Bei whispered something, which made Zhang Ningzhi smack her in embarrassed indignation.

The blazing sun swept past.

Jiang Nian carried the chair out of the classroom and bumped into Li Hua in the hallway, who was also carrying two chairs.

He hesitated for a moment, then asked quietly.

"Hua, are you really that twisted? Even stealing your team member's ex-girlfriend's chair—looking for some empty corner to—"

Li Hua was dumbfounded, his face instantly flushed red, and he hopped in place, shouting.

"Eat shit! That bastard Yao Bei Bei shoved them on me!"

Jiang Nian pointed and said deliberately.

"You're so creepy and damp—Yao Bei Bei could actually bring herself to do it with you?"

"You fucking—!!" Li Hua set the two chairs down in the hallway, rolled up his sleeves, and said loudly, "Come on, men talk with their fists—" Ten seconds later, Li Hua shook out his hand, baring his teeth.

"We're scholars, we should be a bit more civilized in how we conduct ourselves."

Jiang Nian was about to mock Li Hua when he glanced at a certain spot and froze, pointing at the stairwell.

"Hua, it's blocked."

"What?" Li Hua turned his head, saw the stairwell completely jammed with people holding chairs, and was stunned too. "Holy shit, didn't they say the third floor people had left?"

"Someone shouted nonsense, fake intel." Jiang Nian didn't take it to heart either, setting his chair aside. "Too lazy to squeeze in, I'm going to take a leak first."

"Shit, don't you dare!"

Seeing Jiang Nian really leave, Li Hua had no choice but to carry the chairs by himself and join the queue.

Not long after.

Jiang Nian saw the stairwell was no longer jammed, so he hadn't wasted much time. He turned back toward the classroom, ready to carry the chair down, when he suddenly heard a familiar voice.

"Hurry, hurry, we're going to be late."

"Yunyun, I almost got hit by a chair leg at the stairwell."

"Ah? Does it hurt?"

"It doesn't, I dodged. Though Ceng You sure screamed loudly."

Outside the door, Jiang Nian couldn't help but laugh at that.

Ceng You must have stayed up late again last night; groggy going down the stairs, he didn't dodge in time.

The two girls hurried to leave the classroom, only to suddenly run into Jiang Nian.

Chen Yunyun smiled, her eyes curving into crescents, and said happily,

"Why haven't you left?"

Wang Yuhe glared at him furiously, racking her brain for an excuse to punch him again. She searched and searched but couldn't find one, so she had to give up.

"He must have overslept!"

"The hallway's jammed, too many people, too lazy to squeeze in." Jiang Nian looked at Chen Yunyun, noticed she seemed to be wearing light makeup, and deliberately took a couple of extra glances.

He naturally couldn't just ask straight out, like, "Hey, did you put on makeup?"

Or say, "Your makeup is really subtle. Not to mention, even when I looked closely I couldn't tell. It's like you put it on and didn't put it on at all, you stubborn mule—" "You look a bit prettier today, did you put on a face mask last night?" Jiang Nian asked.

"No." Chen Yunyun couldn't help but smile happily at that—it hadn't been for nothing that she'd spent so much time. "Face masks don't do this, it's makeup."

"Really? The makeup's pretty delicate." Jiang Nian smiled.

He didn't say whether it looked good or not, he just thought Chen Yunyun was pretty.

She actually looked good without makeup too, the makeup probably added about twenty percent. And within that twenty percent, a small portion came from the white dress under Chen Yunyun's jacket.

Jiang Nian didn't want to waste time; they were already running a bit late, and everyone was waiting downstairs for assembly.

He glanced at the elementary schoolers and changed the subject.

"Did Wang Yuhe put on makeup too? Looks like a bouncing tiger."

"Go to hell!" Wang Yuhe, furious, punched him.

Sunlight streamed in from the side of the building outside, casting the three of their shadows on the classroom's outer wall. The light and shadow swayed a few times, and the shadows gradually stretched longer.

"Roll call's about to start, let's go down." Chen Yunyun said.

"Let's go." Jiang Nian walked in front, carrying two chairs in his hands and also bringing a trench coat — he was too embarrassed to just wear it out.

Chen Yunyun followed behind, chatting and laughing as they went downstairs.

She saw the corridor was flooded with sunlight, and Jiang Nian was dressed thinly — probably because he found it too hot sunbathing on the field, so he'd taken off the sweatshirt under his jacket ahead of time.

"Aren't you cold, dressed so lightly?"

"I'm fine."

The shaded part of the Gao San building was cold as an ice cellar, and the wind cutting through made it even more biting.

Chen Yunyun didn't know what the boy meant by "I'm fine." She wanted to say something but couldn't find the standing to do so. Slightly lost in thought for a moment, she lowered her eyes and said half-jokingly.

"If you catch a cold it's hard to ask for leave — Old Liu's been in a bad mood lately."

"Probably because of the phone thing — last time he checked and couldn't catch anyone, lost face." Jiang Nian went down the stairs while glancing back at the two girls.

For some reason, he kept feeling that Chen Yunyun had been a little off when she spoke just now.

A woman's heart is a needle at the bottom of the sea.

Wang Yuhe cut in, "He can't catch me playing on my phone."

Jiang Nian broke into a sweat, a little bean of sweat rolling down, "Yeah, yeah, you're amazing, happy now?"

"Where's our class?" Sun Zhicheng was baffled.

He and Lin Dong had wandered around the field for ages, yet simply couldn't find the class. Just because there were too many people and it was noisy — from a distance, everyone looked pretty much the same.

"Look for Liu Yang — he's so tall, you'll definitely spot him at a glance." Lin Dong said.

"Oh, oh." Sun Zhicheng looked for the tall ones, and accidentally caught sight of Zhang Xiaofan — his heart suddenly thumped, and he felt inexplicably guilty.

"Didn't find him, Brother Dong."

"That useless?" Lin Dong actually hadn't found him either. Ye Yanqing swept a glance and said, "There are a lot of people over there — probably someone gathered around our class's big weirdo."

Hearing this, a look of contempt immediately rose on Sun Zhicheng's face.

He had a conflict with Yang Qiming, and with each clash it had become more irreconcilable. But they were still classmates after all — you couldn't avoid each other, looking up or down.

"That outfit is pretty stupid — let's go check over there."

Saying that, Sun Zhicheng turned around.

As luck would have it, out of habit he looked for the tall ones. At a glance he spotted Jiang Nian in the crowd, and beside him, wearing a white dress... Chen Yunyun.

Even though the girl had a jacket covering her, in the sunlight her smile was like a flower. She was looking up, saying something to Jiang Nian beside her, laughing unusually happily.

Chen Yunyun in her white cotton dress — the sight made Sun Zhicheng's whole person sway slightly.

He thought of the pure white dandelions in the grass, just like that — white in the sunlight until it felt unreal. He didn't know how many seconds passed before Lin Dong patted him awake.

"What are you spacing out for?"

"Oh, oh, coming."

The sports field was a mess, and in the sunlight the people were sun-struck and a little dazed.

"Zhizhi, where's your chair?"

Bao Weiwei said proudly, "I had Li Hua help me bring mine down — where's yours?"

Baby Zhizhi looked left and right, hesitating.

"He said he'd bring mine down for me."

"Here it comes!" Her eyes lit up.

Jiang Nian and Chen Yunyun, Wang Yuhe split up in the middle of the field — the girls wanted to sit with their close dormmates, so the two of them went off together to find people.

"Here, the chair." Jiang Nian didn't say anything about the fourth floor being blocked.

No need to say it — Baby Zhizhi wouldn't blame him.

"Thanks." She took the chair and, sure enough, didn't ask — just smiled and said, "Then Beiwei and I will head over first, we need to line up for seats up front."

"Mm, okay." Jiang Nian smiled too.

Before leaving, Baby Zhizhi, face slightly red, tucked something into his palm.

"This is for you, bye-bye."

Jiang Nian looked down and saw it was a Bluetooth earbud. It felt metallic to the touch, cool in the hand, its surface like jade.

He naturally wouldn't think it was a gift for him — after all, no one gives a single earbud as a present.

Then there was only one possibility left.

He glanced in the direction Baby Zhizhi had hurried off to, picked up the earbud. After examining it for a moment he found it was the left ear, so he popped it in his ear.

Sure enough, as it neared his ear he heard faint music.

Fully in-ear, music rang in his ear. In an instant, the left ear was completely enveloped by music, utterly cutting off the broadcast music outside.

On the other end of the music, it was being shared by Baby Zhizhi.

Jiang Nian saw her, before sitting down, quickly glance his way. As if wanting to confirm whether he was using it.

After confirming, Baby Zhizhi's figure immediately vanished into the crowd.

Jiang Nian listened for a while, then took the earbud out, held it in his palm, and went to meet up with Li Hua. There were too many people at the back of the line — wearing the earbud would hinder movement.

Crackle, crackle — a voice came through the broadcast.

"Class One, the whole class move back, keep moving back... still need to move back a bit, stop!"

The middle-aged man on stage was the vice grade leader — after directing several classes' seating from afar, he also had Class Three shift a bit, making fine adjustments.

Soon, the coming-of-age ceremony began.

The first item was the leaders' speech — below the stage sat students dressed in all kinds of clothes.

Class Three was lucky — the whole class's seats were in the sun. After baking for a while, some couldn't stand the heat anymore and started taking off their jackets.

Jiang Nian had been dressed thinly to begin with, and the sun felt warm and cozy. His trench coat was draped over his legs, a Bluetooth earbud pinched in his hand as he chatted with the boys around him.

Liu Yang, toward a few boys, rolled up his sleeves to show off his developed biceps.

"Not to brag, bros, one punch to kill a tiger."

"Bullshit, even Wu Song had to fight one for half a day." Li Hua couldn't stand anyone showing off and retorted, "One punch, my ass? You think you're fiercer than Wu Song?"

"Steamed buns? Not convinced?" Liu Yang said, "Take yours out, let's compare and see whose is bigger!"

Li Hua went limp.

Jiang Nian saw what was happening and picked up the thread.

"Tigers really are fierce. I once saw a tiger go head-to-head with a helicopter and a bulldozer, and in the end it still won."

Hearing this, Liu Yang, Li Hua, and a few other boys were all dumbfounded.

"What breed of tiger is that fierce?"

Jiang Nian rubbed his face. "Fierce Tiger King."

The people around instantly turned to stone.

"Was that even a helicopter? Is your helicopter called Tornado? Its best move is the Lightning Whirlwind Slash, right?" Li Hua felt it was absurdly hilarious.

"What's the bulldozer? Savage Gorilla?" Liu Yang asked curiously.

A boy explained, "Power Dominator."

Immediately, the group began chatting about other characters from *Beast Wars: Super Robot Lifeform Transformers*.

"Sonic is actually pretty cool."

Jiang Nian put on a single Bluetooth earbud and squinted against the sunlight ahead. Tuning out their chatter, he pulled out his biology exam paper.

The earbuds happened to switch to a sweet English song, matching his stereotype impression of Zhang Ningzhi.

At this moment, what was on his mind was... osmotic pressure.

After a while, the leadership speech segment he'd expected to drag on suddenly ended. The microphone was tapped, producing a crackling hiss.

"Alright, I won't take up any more of everyone's time today."

"Today belongs to everyone here—you are the main characters. The remaining time will be handed over to Squad Leader Ji to organize the coming-of-age ceremony. Let's have a round of applause." Thunderous applause, cheers, and shouts of approval.

Li Hua let out a breath of relief. "Scared the hell out of me. I thought these bastards had hired some speech-giver trying to sell courses."