Returning to the Shamate Era to Seduce the Top Student - Chapter 3

The three walked side-by-side out of the old park. After taking a few turns, it didn’t take long before they rounded a corner onto a nearby old commercial street.

The ground of this street was rough cement and not at all spacious. Two small cars driving head-on could block the entire road.

Ying Xu followed Pan Zheshuai and the other as they reached the intersection. Seeing the familiar words “Fuyu Road” written on the slightly rusted blue street sign, a flood of memories instantly rushed into his mind.

This pedestrian street called Fuyu Road was a place he had frequently patronized during high school.

It was only separated from Luhe No. 3 High School by two roads. On both sides of the street, there were all kinds of grocery stores, stationery shops, boutiques, bookstores, clothing stores, spicy hot pot stalls, and so on—everything one could need. The peddling loudspeakers blared deafeningly, each trying to outdo the next.

These shops weren’t large and looked quite plain, but the variety of goods was rich and the prices were very pocket-friendly, with average spending not exceeding twenty yuan. Therefore, they were highly favored by students.

Yin Xu noticed that many of the people coming and going on the street right now were students wearing school uniforms—some from his school, and others from No. 1 High School or the vocational school next door.

Everyone walked leisurely, in groups of two or three, looking around as they went, occasionally stepping into a roadside grocery store to browse.

So he asked, “Is it lunch break now?”

Pan Zheshuai said, “Yeah. Just thinking about having to go back to school for class this afternoon gives me a headache. Why did summer vacation end so fast!”

Luhe No. 3 High School didn’t have a mandatory policy for students to stay at school for midday self-study; instead, they encouraged students to go home or back to their dorms to rest well so they could face the afternoon and evening classes with a more energized mental state.

Yet Yin Xu and the others had taken advantage of the lunch break to slip out to fight and go online.

This kind of unreliable life was the daily routine of his student days. Back then, it seemed he had vast amounts of boring time to waste and squander.

In the past, he hadn’t felt anything wrong with this at all, but now it made Yin Xu feel a strange sense of melancholy, as if it were a lifetime ago.

After all, when he usually delivered food, he would twist the electric bike’s throttle to the limit just to avoid being fined for being late. He could no longer remember how long it had been since he had stopped to look up at the sun and the clouds.

Yin Xu walked side-by-side with Pan Zheshuai and Song Xingyun down the street at a leisurely pace, looking up at the sycamore trees lining both sides.

The dense branches stretched out and intertwined with each other, covering the scorching sun overhead and casting a green shade for pedestrians.

The sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves in dappled patches, somewhat dazzling. The occasional few wisps of cool breeze blowing against them happened to dissipate much of the summer heat.

Yin Xu couldn’t help but think: why hadn’t he noticed before that the trees on this street grew so green and looked so good?

“Wait, is there still class this afternoon?” The confusion voiced by Song Xingyun pulled Yin Xu’s drifting thoughts back.

“Otherwise what?” Pan Zheshuai said.

“That’s not right. I remember when we registered this morning, Donald Duck seemed to say there’s no class this afternoon because of the opening assembly.”

“Donald Duck” was the nickname the students of Class 7 had secretly given their homeroom teacher, Ms. Tang Xiaotong.

Because Ms. Tang had a raspy voice, at first listen, one would think it was the Donald Duck from the cartoons speaking, which had a strange sense of comedy.

Reminded by Song Xingyun, Pan Zheshuai remembered too:

“Ah? Another meeting? Boring as hell. Who wants to listen to those principals and leaders take turns going on stage to talk nonsense? Oh, and what bullshit student representative. With that free time, I’d rather stare at my Little Bo for an hour in front of the computer!”

“Who is Little Bo?”

“My pet penguin!”

Song Xingyun didn’t react for a moment: “You’re that impressive? You can keep a penguin at home?”

“Are you an idiot? It’s a Q/Q Penguin!”

Pan Zheshuai spoke as his steps suddenly turned into a small alley at the corner of the street. “Hey, why don’t we just go to the internet cafe? There’s food, drink, a toilet, and air conditioning.”

Yin Xu exposed him: “I see you just want to go online.”

Pan Zheshuai gave a “hehe” laugh. “My hands are itchy, I want to play a few rounds of Speed. I’ve been holding it in all morning.”

“Pathetic.”

Neither Yin Xu nor Song Xingyun had any objections and followed him in. Looking up, they saw a familiar sign on one side of the narrow alleyway: “Friday 8th Internet Cafe.”

The sign was a deep black wooden plaque. In reality, this was indeed a black internet cafe.

Because as long as you were willing to spend money to get an internet card, the boss didn’t care if you were an elementary schooler or a high schooler, an adult or a minor—everyone was treated equally and let in.

Song Xingyun had already pulled his internet card out of his pocket in advance, not forgetting to remind the two: “Did you bring your cards?”

“Isn’t that a load of nonsense? Always prepared.”

Pan Zheshuai said as he bent down to start untying his shoelaces.

Yin Xu was puzzled: “What are you doing?”

While pulling an internet card out from under his insole, Pan Zheshuai explained:

“Isn’t this to dodge inspections? It’s a last resort. I already had three cards confiscated by Donald Duck last semester. This time, she definitely won’t find it. I don’t want to have to write a self-reflection on the first day of school.”

Yin Xu’s face showed disdain. He could already see Pan Zheshuai’s future cowardly appearance of hiding private stash money behind his wife’s back.

Seeing Yin Xu standing there without moving, Song Xingyun asked, “Boss Yin, you didn’t bring yours?”

“I forgot if I brought it or not.”

Yin Xu really didn’t remember such distant details, so he started rummaging through his pockets.

At this time, he was wearing the summer school uniform of Luhe No. 3 High School—a simple white T-shirt with no pockets.

On his lower half, however, he wasn’t obediently wearing the sports school pants. Instead, he wore the currently popular ripped jeans, with a few punk-style metallic silver chains hanging flamboyantly at his waist, clinking and clanking as he walked.

Eventually, he pulled a black wallet out of his pants pocket. Inside, it only contained cash bills and meal tickets for the school cafeteria. There was no internet card.

“Is it tucked inside your underwear?” Pan Zheshuai said.

“What kind of idiot would sew a pocket into their underwear to put an internet card?”

“Under the insole?”

“How could that be possible,” Yin Xu immediately retorted.

Even though he said that, after two seconds of silence, he still couldn’t help but bend over to check if a card was hidden inside his shoes as well.

Just as he lowered his head to untie his laces, he suddenly heard a familiar sharp scolding: “Yin Xu! Pan Zheshuai! Song Xingyun! It’s you guys again! Running off to use the internet on the first day of school!”

“Holy shit, it’s Donald Duck!” Pan Zheshuai and Song Xingyun cried out in unison as they watched Ms. Tang Xiaotong suddenly walk out of the internet cafe.

Pan Zheshuai: “Crap! Why is she still coming here to stake out the place!”

Song Xingyun was so cowardly that his words were brief: “Run!”

In the next second, like mice seeing a cat, these two turned around and fled without a hint of hesitation.

“Hey! You guys!”

Yin Xu mourned their plastic brotherhood for a second. His shoelaces were only half-untied, and he had no time to deal with them, he could only bolt.

Pan Zheshuai and Song Xingyun ran off in two opposite directions with great coordination, disappearing in an instant.

After hesitating for a second, Yin Xu ran straight toward the place on the street with the most people.

Not far behind him, Tang Xiaotong pursued him relentlessly, roaring as she chased: “Yin Xu, you stop right there!”

Yin Xu felt utterly helpless: “Why do you have to chase me!”

“Nonsense! You brat are definitely the leader. Of course I’m chasing you!”

Yin Xu was speechless; this time he really wasn’t the leader!

In his anxiety, he didn’t pay attention to the ground. He stepped on his own loose shoelace and fell unexpectedly onto the street.

Seeing that Tang Xiaotong was about to catch up to him, Yin Xu didn’t care about his aching knees. He hurriedly stood up and rushed into a Two-Yuan Shop beside him.

The shop’s radio was playing “Adoration of Happiness” by Will Pan and Angela Chang.

The cheerful music filled every corner. Many customers were picking out items while involuntarily tapping their feet to the music.

Yin Xu, however, felt that he couldn’t be happy at all right now. He brushed the dust off himself and walked quickly toward the back, pretending as if nothing were wrong.

Fortunately, there were many people in the shop wearing the same Luhe No. 3 High School uniform as him, allowing Yin Xu to quietly melt into the crowd—

Except for his hair color.

Yin Xu noticed his currently drama look in the mirror when passing the boutique area and was startled once again.

He quickly grabbed a fluffy rabbit-ear hat from the shelf and put it on to hide his damn eye-catching red hair.

While guiltily weaving through the narrow shelves in the shop, he secretly observed Tang Xiaotong’s movements.

He planned to wait for her to walk a bit further in, then slip toward the entrance when she wasn’t paying attention.

Unexpectedly, as if sensing something, Tang Xiaotong suddenly turned around and looked straight in the direction where he was.

Yin Xu was so scared that he immediately pulled his head back. Then, with great naturalness, he leaned toward a person beside him, put his arm around that person’s shoulder, handed the item in his hand toward him, and pretended to chat: “Bro, this suits you quite well.”

The other person: “…”

Only then did Yin Xu notice that what he was holding in his hand was actually a white lace-edged bow hairclip.

This was something he had picked up casually while passing the boutique area to pretend to be a normal customer. He hadn’t noticed what it was at all.

Yin Xu froze for a moment, just about to explain something, when he heard the person whose shoulder he was hugging speak coldly: “Your taste is quite unique.”

Yin Xu looked up at the face of the person in front of him. His first reaction was: “Whoa, a handsome guy.”

This person was wearing the summer school uniform of Luhe No. 3 High School. He was slightly taller than Yin Xu, with cold white skin and handsome features. The eyes and brows revealed beneath his black messy hair were like strokes of thick ink on a scroll—exquisite and elegant without losing sharpness. When his gaze fell indifferently, it carried an inadvertent sense of detachment.

Yin Xu’s second reaction was a curse blurted out: “Holy shit, Shen Que?!”