"Damn? This Gu Chen? I thought the people on the honor roll and at the opening ceremony were two people with the same name."
"You guys don't recognize him? I remember he was quite famous in his first year of high school."
"Yeah, back in the first year of high school, I was in the class next to his, and our class leader used him as a positive example for us to learn from every day."
"Damn, this positive example is too real."
The discussion grew lively and noisy, and the topic gradually shifted towards Gu Chen.
"Pfft." Another follower couldn't help but laugh out loud when he heard them talking, but he immediately shut up after being glared at by Liu Hu.
Gu Chen was taken aback by this turn of events and was stunned for a moment before grinning and saying, "You even helped me wipe the list before? Thank you."
"Fuck you, you son of a bitch!" Liu Hu, a rich second-generation and a popular school bully, had never suffered such humiliation. He couldn't save face and didn't care about anything else. Anyway, the other party wasn't someone who had been around outside, so he decided to fight first.
He was about to knock Gu Chen down when his fist got stuck before it could even fly out.
"Damn it!" Liu Hu roared, furious. "Where the hell did you come from?"
"..." Xiang Yu didn't know how to reply to him, but Gu Chen put his arm around him and said, "This is my deskmate, a hero, you can't afford to offend him."
The phrase "I can't afford to mess with them" really stung Liu Hu. He wanted to tear the two men apart, but before he could make another move, a roar came from downstairs.
"Why are you upstairs not going back to work and instead gathering at the building entrance making a fuss?!"
It wasn't just that the commotion on the second floor was too loud, but also that someone had gone to the grade-level department on the first floor to tip them off. Tang Weijin, the head of the grade-level department, stood at the entrance of the first floor and shouted loudly, showing signs of going up to the second floor.
Everyone knows that Tang Weijin, the head of the grade level, has a good memory. Being targeted by him throughout high school is considered being locked in.
Liu Hu didn't want to be remembered by the head of the grade department, who found him too talkative and annoying, and wouldn't fall for any bribes.
"You two just wait." He turned and walked away after uttering those harsh words, thinking he was being cool, but in the eyes of his classmates, it was no different from running away in defeat.
He left, and the people at the entrance of the third floor began to disperse.
"Hey!" Gu Chen chuckled as he watched Liu Hu's retreating figure, then said to Xiang Yu, "That guy is really strange."
Xiang Yu rolled her eyes at him, thinking to herself, "You're the weirdest one, you're the strangest."
"You bunch of bastards—Gu Chen? Xiang Yu? What are you two doing standing here?" Tang Weijin started cursing, but stopped when he saw the two of them pause.
A student representative who was outstanding at the opening ceremony, and a young hero who had just spoken yesterday—he couldn't imagine anything bad happening between the two of them.
"Hey, a classmate just tried to help someone, but he clearly didn't grasp the essence, so I told him to give up." Gu Chen and Tang Weijin chatted as if they were very familiar with each other.
"And what about you?" Tang Weijin asked Xiang Yu without suspicion.
Before Xiang Yu could answer, Gu Chen continued, "He's my deskmate. Come and see how I help others."
"Why are you helping others one minute and then helping others the next?" Tang Weijin glanced at the time and waved his hand, saying, "It's almost time for morning self-study, you two, stop standing around and get back to class!"
“Okay.” Gu Chen grabbed Xiang Yu and left.
The two first went to the fifth floor to deliver food to Li Yifan. When Li Yifan saw the insulated packaging, his eyes welled up with tears as he looked at the corner.
He was clearly a little chilled by the wind in the morning, and with a runny nose, he went to hug his dear cousin.
"Oh, brother, you're so good to me."
Seeing him get close, Gu Chen unconsciously pulled Xiang Yu along, causing the other side to miss.
Actually, even if he didn't pull Xiangyu, he would have to dodge anyway, but dodging on your own and being pulled away by someone else are two different things.
Li Yifan's hug fell flat, and he looked at Gu Chen before turning away in embarrassment.
The two of them looked at Gu Chen with a hint of inquiry.
Gu Chen reached out and rubbed the tip of his nose, completely unaware of what he was doing and not realizing that there was anything wrong with it.
Seeing that they were both looking at her, she said, "Why are you looking at me? Colds are contagious, don't hug."
[Author's Note: Gu Chen: Helping others is truly joyful]
I found some minor bugs earlier on, and made some small changes in some places, but the plot remains the same.
Please add to your favorites and comment! Mwah!
Chapter Ten: Gu Chen, You Must Protect Me
Chapter Ten Gu Chen: Then you have to protect me
The two entered the classroom as the morning self-study bell rang. The teacher was not there, and their entrance caused a commotion.
The incident was quickly spread among the students who had been watching the spectacle. Everyone knew about the clash between the school bully from the sports class and the outstanding student representative from the arts class 2. The rumors spread, and of course, they didn't escape the ears of Zhang Boyuan, the know-it-all from the arts class 2.
"Brother Chen is awesome!" Zhang Boyuan shouted first, trying to get everyone excited.
"Awesome!"
"Our squad leader is forever a god!"
The call was met with enthusiastic response, and the noise from Class 2 gradually rose as they surged noisily into the hallway.
Gu Chen walked to the podium with a smile, skillfully pressing his palm down to signal the students to be quiet. As the class monitor, he had to maintain discipline. "Morning self-study time, shh—"
The classroom fell silent instantly; the shushing was incredibly effective and lasted until the end of morning self-study.
"Wow, Chen-ge is awesome!" As soon as the bell rang, Wang Zehao rushed to the desk in front of him and exclaimed. "I've been wanting to get rid of that bastard Liu Hu for a long time."
“It’s not for you.” Yang Shuhuan came over and looked at Gu Chen with worry. “Brother Chen, what if Liu Hu comes to cause trouble? You can’t fight. How about Haozi and I get up early these next few days and the three of us come to school together?”
Xu Youluo: "If that bastard dares to come looking for me, I'll help Brother Chen fight him back. If my sister hadn't stopped me, I could have smashed that bastard's head with my cane."
"You two can get up?" Gu Chen twirled his pen and looked at them with a smile, then said in a lecturing tone, "Don't just fight all the time. Violence can't solve problems. We should be pacifists."
Xiang Yu was writing in English when he heard this, so he paused, turned to look at him but didn't say anything.
Gu Chen continued his eloquent speech, attracting a growing crowd around the table. He used a series of nonviolent theories to reassure them, saying that as long as Liu Hu dared to come looking for him, he would definitely persuade him to repent and start anew.
These remarks drew admiration from everyone present, who exclaimed that the class monitor truly lived up to his title and had a very broad mind.
"What a load of rubbish," Xiang Yu thought to himself.
When Gu Chen came down from Class 13, he said to him, "Hey deskmate, if we walk together these days, we can help out that Tiger from the PE class. I feel like we've offended him."
It's not the two of us, it's yourself.
Xiang Yu kindly corrected him, saying calmly, "Looking out for someone is mutual; what you're doing is being protected on one side only."
Gu Chen: "Okay, then you protect me."
Gu Chen was waiting for him there, and he spoke so righteously that Xiang Yu was speechless.
After a morning of academic classes, especially the double whammy of math in the second and third periods, the spirit of Class 2 of the Arts class visibly wilted. Each student looked like a reed bent under the weight of ice and snow after thawing, listless and dispirited.
After class, few people stood up straight. The dean walked into the classroom, saw them like that, smiled, and cleared his throat.
"Everyone, cheer up! Next period is politics, and the first period this afternoon is PE, so we've swapped classes."
Upon hearing the news, everyone who had been slumped over their desks immediately perked up.
"Let's go borrow some equipment to play ball!" Zhang Zitong, the class's sports representative, usually seemed lazy and laid-back, but during PE class, he would become as excited as if he'd been injected with adrenaline, raising his arms and shouting, pointing at the few boys in the class. "Yuan'er, Huanhuan, Haozi, Luozai, Song'er, Chen Ge, new classmate, come on!"
They were playing basketball. Class monitor Jiang Wensong didn't know how, so he pulled out a vocabulary book from the huge stack of books on the table, put it in his pocket, and planned to memorize it on the playground later.
"Song'er, aren't you exaggerating?" Xu Youluo, his deskmate, advised, "You need to balance work and rest."
Jiang Wensong pushed up his black-rimmed glasses and shook his head, saying, "It's okay."
It was still chilly in the morning, but now the sun is shining brightly. Other classes are having PE on the playground, and some sports classes are training. Under the blazing sun, Xiang Yu didn't feel like sweating it out with them, so he chose a shady spot to sit.
"New student." Zhang Zitong came over with a blue notebook, and also handed him a pen and a stopwatch. "We finished the physical test last class. You just transferred here and don't have a score yet. Let Song'er time you. Can you fill in the scores you need to take and give them to me?"
The PE teacher put him in charge of this task, but he was busy playing ball and didn't plan to do it himself. He was just going to assign it to someone else, since he saw that the two people under the shade of the tree were quite idle.
Xiang Yu had no objection and Jiang Wensong obeyed the arrangement.
The two moved onto the rubber track and started with a 50-meter run.
Jiang Wensong, timing himself at the finish line, waved to signal the start. Xiang Yu, watching his movements, shot off like an arrow the instant his hand touched the ground.
"Six seconds and one second, 666, perfect score." Jiang Wensong said half-jokingly, "I'll go tell Zhang Zitong to quit his job at the Sports Committee and let you take over."
Xiang Yu thought he was serious and quickly shook her head, refusing, "No."
He doesn't like interacting with people.
The two ran to the starting line. Jiang Wensong pointed to a spot and said, "One lap is 400 meters. You run two and a half laps and stop there. I'll start the timer there." With that, he gave the order, and Xiang Yu dashed off again.
A kilometer isn't a long time, but it's not short either. I had a burst of energy and sprinted 800 meters, but then I realized there were only 200 meters left. I forced myself to finish the race, and when I reached the finish line, I took a deep breath and adjusted my breathing to relax my body.
"Wow, three points and five, a perfect score, deskmate." Gu Chen finished recording the data and saw Xiang Yu looking at him with a suspicious expression.
"Weren't you playing ball?"
"Ugh, what's the point of playing ball?" Gu Chen shook his hoodie collar and said, "It got off to a bad start. I didn't expect the sun to be so strong at noon. This hoodie made me sweat buckets. Besides, I'm too good. It's unfair to be on any team. My leaving makes it a fair competition. Besides, as the class monitor, I have a duty to help every classmate. Song'er is anxious to memorize vocabulary, so I let him go study. After all, studying is more important to him. I—"
"What's the next test?" Xiang Yu interrupted as the other person was about to go on and on.
Gu Chen immediately changed the subject after being interrupted, replying, "Sit-and-reach."
The sit-and-reach test is a major hurdle for most boys. This test requires sitting with your feet against a step and reaching out your hands; the distance your hands extend past your toes is your score. Boys tend to have stiff backs and can't seem to get down to this position. When boys and girls took the sit-and-reach test together, the girls easily scored perfect marks, while the boys, despite stretching and pulling, ended up with a negative score.
Gu Chen, who was five degrees below zero, stared into deep thought at his deskmate, who hadn't even done any stretching exercises and whose arm was only 25 centimeters long when he sat down.
Both are boys and have waists, so why is it that someone else is 25 while I'm 5? Just because they have a smaller waist?
Xiang Yu, wearing a T-shirt, revealed a section of her lower back due to her forward-leaning posture. The sunlight made her skin on her waist appear dazzlingly white, with her lumbar vertebrae connected together. Gu Chen's mind went blank for a moment, and he unconsciously swallowed.
"Are you done measuring?" Xiang Yu was having some difficulty breathing while maintaining this posture, and couldn't see her own level, so she couldn't bear to urge her.
"Alright, alright." Gu Chen snapped out of his daze, patted his face, and responded while inwardly cursing himself.
What the hell? What was he doing just now? He looked at people like they were harassing hooligans.
When Gu Chen looked over again, feeling guilty, Xiang Yu had already stood up and straightened her clothes. With a loose T-shirt covering her, she was completely covered up, as if everything just now was an illusion.
"What are we going to test next?" Xiang Yu didn't know what had just happened, and when she looked at Gu Chen, the other man's eyes were shifty.
"Pull-ups." Gu Chen fanned himself with his notebook, not daring to look him in the eye, and walked towards the horizontal bar first, looking strangely uneasy.
Xiang Yu didn't find anything strange; he felt that nothing strange was strange about Gu Chen, this idiot.
Pull-ups require a horizontal bar. Gu Chen saw the sports class doing stretching exercises in the fitness equipment area from afar, so he stopped to watch and see if Liu Hu and his gang were there.
"What's wrong?" Xiang Yu asked, noticing him observing the group of people. He looked over as well.