Chapter 103

An Shi San Zhong, here.

It's already been over a week since the competition prep class began.

Many students are going to compete; they are all elite students picked from the Locomotive Class.

Even a student from the bottom-ranked Class 12 is taking part this time—an unprecedented oddity—but nobody dares to question it; it's a joke, the two top students of the grade.

The homeroom teachers of several elite classes eyed Lao Liu with envy, their eye sockets almost red; they fixed their gaze on Shu Shu and Pei Muyin, secretly trying to poach the two into their own classes.

Lao Liu sipped the goji berry tea in his thermos and drawled, "That probably won't work: our Shu Shu classmate has already made it clear she won't transfer, and our Pei Muyin classmate deliberately took a duck-egg exam just to get into my class—so, which one of you think you can persuade?"

Ah, there's nothing we can do; the goddess of luck is smiling on our Class 12~

…

These past few days, Shu Lingchen has also obediently gone to the competition class with Shu Shu and Pei Muyin.

The class was held in the school's multimedia lecture hall, which was spacious enough; he found a back-corner seat and quietly studied.

The first half of the class is listening to the teacher explain competition problems; the second half is training to solve them; finally, twenty minutes are left for all students to freely communicate.

That day, the after-school bell rang.

The three went to the cafeteria to eat; at this time, graduating students or boarders had returned to the dorms to tidy up and wash up, so naturally there were fewer diners than at noon—a glance showed the large cafeteria quite empty.

Shu Lingchen voluntarily took on getting meals for his mother and sister, ostensibly to let them enjoy VIP service.

He was holding a bowl of soup in one hand, about to leave the serving counter, when he happened to brush past Shan Shan, who was late, and Shi Jin.

Oh, Shi Jin from Class 1 is also participating in this competition.

After all, he's second in the grade.

A couple of months ago, being young and reckless, Shu Lingchen once regarded Shi Jin as a 'love rival'.

Now he has completely transformed; he feels nothing for Shi Jin, and when they brushed past, it was like passing a stranger—he didn't even give a glance, just stared at his soup, wondering if it would spill.

…

Student, study hard, eat a bit more—you look a little thin; while studying, you also need to take care of your health.

The auntie at the serving counter, even wearing a mask, still looked kind; she deliberately gave Shi Jin an extra half spoon of stir-fried meat.

Thank you.

Shi Jin was slightly stunned for half a second, then immediately returned the auntie's warm, polite smile.

He carried his tray, found a nearby empty seat, sat down, and began eating quietly.

By all accounts, the food quality at San Zhong cafeteria is not low; Shi Jin tried a bite of the stir-fried meat, found the taste quite good, and couldn't help eating a few more mouthfuls of rice.

Halfway through eating, his phone in his pocket buzzed.

Shi Jin's contact list has pitifully few people.

The people who could call him…

Shi Jin eagerly put down his chopsticks, pulled out his phone to look, and sure enough, it was a number from Jing Shi.

A phone call after half a month.

His expression lit up; he immediately slid to answer, then carefully held the phone to his ear and softly said, "Hey, Mom."

"Little Jin," came Mom's voice from the other end; she asked, "You've called so many times—is something up?"

"No." Shi Jin pursed his lips: "I just wanted to ask how you've been lately."

"Still the same."

"...'Then why don't you ask how I've been?'"

Shi Jin unconsciously tapped the phone's edge, speaking low with hope.

After a few seconds of silence, Mom's calm voice replied: "Little Jin, you've grown up; I have confidence in you, believing you can take good care of yourself."

"..." Shi Jin: "Just... that's it?"

Mom sighed helplessly, as if compromising, then asked: "Have you eaten?"

Hearing Mom's caring words, Shi Jin's eyes lit up with excitement for a moment, and he replied: "I'm eating."

"Okay, then eat in peace; I won't disturb you—I'll hang up now."

Saying that, Mom was about to hang up; even though the call had connected less than two minutes, Shi Jin hurriedly shouted: "Wait, Mom."

"Huh? Anything else?"

"Can't we keep talking if there's nothing?" Shi Jin, instinctively not wanting to hang up so fast, asked: "What's my sister been up to lately? She hasn't replied to my messages."

"What else could my sister be doing? She's studying in class and playing the violin."

He only replied to the first half; the second half got no response.

"Oh."

"All good then? If it's all good, let's hang up."

You could tell Mom really didn't want to be on this call.

Shi Jin suddenly said: "Mom, are you still mad at me…?"

…

Shi Jin's transfer from Jing Shi to An Shi's school to study was indeed forced.

He studied at the school where his mother works; from childhood on, no matter which school, he was seen by teachers as a well-behaved student excelling in both conduct and academics, and by classmates as a warm, attentive class monitor; he never bore grudges against others, yet someone still wished him harm.

Two newly arrived rich kids at the school, dissatisfied that he had recorded their tardiness during morning duty and got them punished to stand, would provoke him verbally whenever they ran into him on campus.

Shi Jin initially followed the principle of 'step back and the sea and sky widen,' not bothering to retaliate, but when one of them insulted his mother, Shi Jin flew into a rage and threw a punch.

The result of that punch was that the boy's mother, draped in jewelry, stormed into the principal's office, shouting and pointing at Shi Jin, demanding he be charged with intentional injury and jailed.

They completely ignored that Shi Jin also had bruises from being later ganged up on.

Teachers and classmates, knowing Shi Jin's character well, didn't believe he would start a fight, so they pulled the surveillance footage to clarify what happened.

The principal demanded the two rich kids apologize to Shi Jin, and classmates also spoke up for him.

Everyone stood on Shi Jin's side, but only Shi Qing, after hearing the news and rushing over, said nothing as she took him to the neighboring office, full of incomprehension, saying: 'Shi Jin, do you know what that boy's family does? Why did you go provoke him?'

You know what he said——

"No matter what he said, I don't care; what do you care about? How can you not just bear it a little?" Shi Qing obviously also knew the specifics.

"……" Shi Jin stubbornly turned his head, gritted his teeth: "I absolutely, cannot possibly apologize to him."

Shi Qing let out a deep sigh, wearily looking at him: "Xiao Jin, Mom is really tired every day; I'm begging you, please just be considerate of Mom and go apologize, okay?"

"Please," this word is too heavy; Shi Jin was undoubtedly shocked.

After a long while, he compromised.