Chapter 8: What a Coincidence, You Got an Extra Dumpling Too?
Wen Xia was greatly amused by the two of them, unable to stop laughing. “Yes, yes, you two are the best.”
“Still, Xia Xia is the best. She even used English to insult,” Jiang Yan teased with a tilted head.
At that moment, Liu An’an couldn’t hold back and burst into laughter, completely forgetting her image. “This joke could make me laugh for a year.”
The three of them got carried away, not noticing that the street was already empty of students.
Just as they were about to head upstairs, they ran into the breathless Jiang Xu, who was panting as he said, “The morning study session has already started. Why aren’t you in a hurry?”
Since there was no bell for the morning session, students usually had to check the time themselves.
Upon hearing this, Wen Xia quickly checked her watch and saw that it was already two minutes past seven. She exclaimed, “An’an, Yan Yan, you’re late!”
The three—no, four—were caught red-handed by Cao Jun, who was standing at the entrance of the classroom.
Cao Jun’s face was stern as he pointed at them and said, “Line up for me. Now tell me, why are you late? Jiang Yan, you start.”
Jiang Yan shrank her neck, no longer having the boldness from earlier when she had been cursing. She glanced at Wen Xia and Liu An’an, hoping to synchronize their stories, and weakly said, “Teacher Cao, I…”
At that moment, Wen Xia raised her hand and interrupted, “Teacher Cao, I have something to say.”
Seeing her raise her hand, Cao Jun’s expression softened a little.
Wen Xia explained what had happened earlier. “Teacher Cao, we didn’t mean to be late. A boy was causing trouble for me, and Jiang Yan and Liu An’an stayed behind to protect me, so they ended up being late.”
There were rules in the class: if you were late for the morning session, you had to read on the balcony, which wasn’t too severe. The problem would be if Cao Jun decided to call their parents.
She couldn’t let Jiang Yan and Liu An’an get in trouble because of her.
“Who caused trouble for you? Why did he do that?” Cao Jun asked, half-believing her.
“I don’t know him. He put his arm around my shoulder and asked me to be his girlfriend.”
If any other female student had said something like that, she would have been too embarrassed, but Wen Xia had long since outgrown the age of feeling shy.
“Who was it? That guy deserves a beating…” Jiang Xu immediately said angrily. Cao Jun shot him a glare, and he immediately fell silent.
Liu An’an and Jiang Yan couldn’t help but want to laugh but forcefully held it back, their heads lowered.
“What did he look like?” Cao Jun asked.
“He had a lot of pimples on his face, about 1.7 meters tall, and his hair was slightly yellow,” Wen Xia thought for a moment.
Cao Jun knew exactly who it was. There was only one person in the whole high school with yellow hair. He cursed, “Yue Qiang, that thug, always skipping his studies, what does he think he’s doing!”
Some students inside the classroom poked their heads out to see what was going on.
Cao Jun then looked at Wen Xia and said, “If he dares to bother you again, just tell me. I’ll go pretend to be his ‘girlfriend.'”
“Now go back to class. Study hard, don’t be afraid. I’ll take care of this for you.”
“Thank you, Teacher Cao.”
The three of them entered the classroom, with Jiang Xu following behind. He got close to Wen Xia and whispered, “Wen Xia, don’t be afraid. Once self-study is over, I’ll go deal with him.”
Wen Xia wanted to say something but saw Cao Jun standing at the door, so she had no choice but to sit down properly in her seat.
Liu An’an picked up her Chinese textbook and held it up in front of her face, trying to hide her laughter, her teeth showing in the process. “Teacher Cao is too funny.”
Jiang Yan couldn’t help but chuckle quietly, thankfully the sound of students studying masked it so no one noticed.
“Come on, let’s study. The teacher is going to call on us to recite during Chinese class.” Wen Xia glanced at the two of them and started reciting ancient poetry.
Seeing her focus, Jiang Yan and Liu An’an also became serious.
Cao Jun watched the three of them for a moment, feeling quite pleased.
…
At 7:30, the morning study session ended, and the students grabbed their lunch boxes to head to the cafeteria.
Wen Xia turned to look at Jiang Xu, but he had already gone out the door. She quickly got up and ran after him, but by the time she reached the stairs, he had already gone down.
Liu An’an and Jiang Yan helped Wen Xia bring out her lunch box.
Liu An’an asked, confused, “Xia Xia, what’s wrong?”
“Jiang Xu might be going to find Yue Qiang,” Wen Xia said as she took the lunch box.
Jiang Yan nudged her shoulder and smiled, “Xia Xia, actually, Jiang Xu is pretty good. He’s tall, handsome, and treats you really well.”
“I think so too.”
Liu An’an lowered her voice a little, “He Lin from our class likes him.”
“Ah? How did I not know about this?” Jiang Yan asked, full of curiosity.
Just then, Wen Xia noticed He Lin coming out of the classroom. She quickly pulled the other two along. “Hurry, let’s go get breakfast, or there won’t be any seats.”
The conversation was quickly sidetracked.
Liu An’an tugged at them, anxious. “Hurry, I don’t want to stand and eat.”
When they reached the cafeteria, they followed the usual routine: one person saved seats while the other two got the food. Today, it was Liu An’an’s turn to hold the seats.
Liu An’an handed her meal card to Wen Xia and said, “Xia Xia, I’ll have two dumplings and a bowl of porridge.”
After waiting in line for three minutes, Jiang Yan and Wen Xia had their breakfast ready.
“Yan Yan, Xia Xia, over here!” Liu An’an waved her hand from the back row of the cafeteria.
The two walked over to her.
Wen Xia handed Liu An’an her meal card. “An’an, you need to recharge your card, there’s only ten yuan left.”
Liu An’an took a bite of her dumpling, puffing out her cheeks as she said, “I’ll have my brother recharge it for me later. It takes so long to recharge the card on Mondays. Do you two need to recharge yours? I can do it for you.”
Wen Xia and Jiang Yan both shook their heads.
And just as they were talking, someone walked by.
Liu An’an suddenly spotted two boys and excitedly waved her hand. “Brother, over here!”
Wen Xia and Jiang Yan turned their heads to look. Liu An’an’s older brother, Liu Boyi, was wearing a dark green jacket and black jeans, his slightly longer hair giving him a cool appearance. He was quite good-looking.
The other boy was Liu Boyi’s classmate, Zhou Qing, who seemed to be the class president. He wore a black hoodie and light blue sweatpants, had fair skin, double eyelids, and two small dimples, looking a bit like a Korean celebrity.
Wen Xia suddenly remembered something. She turned and glanced at Jiang Yan, only to find that she had already turned away, focused on drinking her porridge, clearly feeling shy.
Liu Boyi and Zhou Qing walked over. Liu Boyi sat next to Liu An’an, and Zhou Qing sat next to Wen Xia.
Wen Xia noticed that Jiang Yan’s face had turned bright red, and she couldn’t help but smile while biting her dumpling.
In her previous life, Jiang Yan had married Zhou Qing. She had been the first among the three of them to get married.
Liu Boyi glanced at her and said in a deep, magnetic voice, “Xia Xia, what are you laughing at?”
His voice was very pleasant to hear, as he often helped the school make announcements over the microphone.
Wen Xia obviously couldn’t tell the truth. She raised the dumpling in her hand and said, “I think the dumpling is delicious.”
“Oh, then you can have it,” Liu Boyi said casually, picking up a dumpling and handing it to her, his movements natural.
Wen Xia didn’t think much of it. Liu Boyi had always treated her and Jiang Yan like younger sisters.
“Brother, you’re biased! You gave it to Xia Xia and didn’t give me one,” Liu An’an pouted, pretending to be unhappy.
Wen Xia quickly picked up a dumpling and handed it to her. “Here, take it, you little miser.”
“Aiya, Xia Xia, I was just kidding. Here, you can have it. I’m on a diet anyway,” Liu An’an said, handing it back to Wen Xia.
At this moment, Zhou Qing glanced at Jiang Yan and spoke up, “Why is Yan Yan only drinking porridge? Here, I got an extra dumpling today.” He said this while offering her a dumpling.
Wen Xia quickly leaned back, thinking that if Jiang Yan wasn’t feeling shy, she would offer her seat.
Jiang Yan lifted her head, her face as red as a cooked duck, and Wen Xia and Liu An’an couldn’t help but laugh unkindly.
Liu An’an teased, “Zhou Qing, you got an extra dumpling too? What a coincidence.”
“It is quite a coincidence,” Zhou Qing replied, awkwardly clearing his throat.
“Eat your food. Stop talking so much,” Liu Boyi said, tapping Liu An’an’s lunch box with his chopsticks.
