Ten-Year Loyal Dog’s Road to Chasing Her Wife (GL) - Chapter 17

Chapter 17

As soon as Qiao Wan spoke, the entire class fell silent. Nearly everyone stared at her in surprise, seemingly unable to understand why the usually quiet Qiao Wan would suddenly become so agitated.

“The person they recommended was Qiao Mei, not you. Great School Beauty Qiao, can you stop being so pretentious?” Xia Hanyin said in a low voice. “Can you really make decisions on behalf of your desk-mate?”

As the person concerned, Qiao Mei was actually smiling, her face as calm as a breeze as if the entire matter had nothing to do with her. It wasn’t her who Qiu Liannan had recommended, Qiao Wan wasn’t stepping up to make a decision for her, and Xia Hanyin wasn’t jumping out because she felt Qiao Mei was being wronged. She was like a mere spectator.

“Qiao Wan, Great School Beauty Qiao!” Qiu Liannan, who sat right in front of Qiao Wan, now turned around directly and grabbed Qiao Wan’s arm, shaking it. “Just let Qiao Mei go; she’s really amazing! The people in Class 8 are nothing even those in the Elite class are no match for her. With her there, I guarantee our class has hope.”

Qiu Liannan was sitting while Qiao Wan was standing, so Qiao Wan glanced down at her from above. Her cold expression seemed sufficient to show she was angry: “In any competition, there will be winners and losers. If you win, of course you’ll be happy; even if you don’t put Qiao Mei on a pedestal, you’ll at least look at her with a bit more respect. But what if she loses? Can you guarantee you won’t kick her while she’s down?”

Hearing her say this, those people naturally laughed it off, saying: “No way, no way.” “Winning and losing is normal.” “We’re all classmates; we really don’t have that much of a calculating heart.” Qiao Wan’s face grew colder the more she heard. Finally, she plopped back into her seat and said to Qiao Mei: “Decide your own matters for yourself. Anyway, my opinion is not to go.”

“I’ll listen to you.” Qiao Mei smiled faintly and said, “Since my desk-mate told me not to go, then you can decide those five candidates yourselves.”

Qiao Wan looked at her several times in astonishment, as if her soul had been swapped. She clicked her tongue and said, “Since when did you become so obedient?”

Qiao Mei tilted her head, looking innocent: “Isn’t this the first rule of the ‘Desk-mate Code’ you told me in the stairwell that night?”

“Since when did I establish rules?” Qiao Wan’s words were always half-true and half-false; she generally specialized in serious-faced nonsense, especially in front of Qiao Mei, taking advantage of Qiao Mei’s seemingly silly and dazed appearance. In fact, every time she finished speaking, Qiao Wan would forget her own words within half an hour.

“Right there in the stairwell that night,” Qiao Mei spoke slowly. “The moon was dark and the wind was high. You said the first rule of the Desk-mate Code is.”

Qiao Wan suddenly remembered and hurriedly moved to cover her mouth: “Shut up.”

Qiao Mei’s eyes crinkled into a smile, and she indeed did not continue.

Not allowed to talk back to the boss.

Qiao Wan was the boss, and Qiao Mei wasn’t allowed to talk back. So she didn’t continue. “I think you could totally add another rule: no talking nonsense in front of the boss.”

“You believe whatever I say?” Qiao Wan was perplexed. How could this top-student desk-mate be like a well-behaved dog that knew how to bark doing exactly what she was told, even when the request seemed unnecessary to Qiao Wan herself? For example, right now, Qiao Wan told her not to go, and Qiao Mei really said she wouldn’t go. “You’re not allowed to say that sentence outside in the future.”

“Which sentence? ‘Not allowed to talk back to the boss’?”

Qiao Wan: “…” Get lost.

“The mission is guaranteed to be completed.” Qiao Mei winked at her, indicating she had received the message.

In reality, from what standpoint could she stop Qiao Mei’s actions? Because she was her desk-mate?

But did the relationship of being desk-mates really have that much power?

How did she not know before that a creature like a desk-mate could be this obedient?

Yuan Tianci didn’t know about others, but he was crystal clear about Qiao Mei. This person’s talent in certain areas was just like her ugliness, renowned and known by everyone in the junior high section of Longting First Middle School: the sciences.

Specifically the sciences. Especially Physics, Chemistry, and Biology.

He didn’t know how much of that talent remained in high school, but compared to the various “monsters and demons” from other places whose backgrounds were unknown, Yuan Tianci was more willing to trust Qiao Mei. He felt it was necessary to urge Qiao Mei to take the field, but looking at the current situation, it seemed that convincing Qiao Wan directly would be simpler than convincing Qiao Mei herself.

Yuan Tianci: “…”

What was with this ghostly feeling of a “young couple” the visual of having to report to the wife if you want to take the husband out to play? How long has school been in session, and these two are already mixed up together?

Sitting in the distance, the female class monitor, Gongxi Bitong, also cast a puzzled look, as if asking him if Qiao Mei was worth the two monitors fighting for. After receiving an affirmative reply from Yuan Tianci, Gongxi Bitong stood up with a look of realization and said with a full voice: “Our class isn’t great, as you’ve seen. Now, the people sent out to fight for your most basic rights are the heroes representing our class. If they can return in triumph, that is naturally the best and most satisfying outcome. If they can’t, I hope you can see the gap between our two classes clearly at least they dared to go, which means they can guarantee their level isn’t too far from those in Class 8. Can you?”

This question left everyone in the class speechless.

That’s right the others didn’t owe them anything. If people said it would be embarrassing to lose then, wouldn’t it be embarrassing now to be a “shrinking turtle” and fight for nothing? The ones whose teacher was taken away were Class 8; why should Class 11 willingly give up their teacher just because Class 8 didn’t have one? Did the people in Class 8 need to study while those in Class 11 didn’t?

Everyone knew Class 8’s overall level was higher than theirs; everyone understood that going out might result in a loss, and the probability of losing was far greater than winning. But what right did they have to mock this group of people who were about to lose embarrassingly? They didn’t even have the courage to go out.

“You all know that Longting First Middle School divides people into ranks. So why are they in Class 8 and you’re in Class 11 don’t you have a single clue in your hearts? It’s because they are better than you! If you want to mock those from our class who go out, sure, when they come back, we’ll print a copy of the same exam for each of you to do. Is that fair? if your score is truly higher, laugh all you want; if it’s lower, just keep your dog-mouths shut.” Yuan Tianci said with a cold laugh. “They are the heroes of our class, do you get it? Heroes!”

Upon hearing about taking an exam, the whole class went silent.

“I recommend Ao Manshan.” A voice popped up from the first desk of the first row; it was An Xiaolei, whose face was practically inscribed with the words “wild and untamable.” “We’ve been in the same class since elementary school. If she can’t beat those dregs in Class 8, I, An Xiaolei, will write my name backward.”

She spoke with such conviction, looking truly serious.

Ao Manshan, who had been buried in her books, suddenly heard her name and couldn’t quite react. Like a dazed goose, she looked around, completely confused and unaware of the situation. She looked as if she were thinking, “Who am I? Where am I? Who’s calling me?” When she saw the eyes of the whole class falling on her in unison, Ao Manshan became even more confused. In front of everyone, she tugged at An Xiaolei’s long black pants: “What did you just say?”

“I said I recommend you to represent our class and fight Class 8.” Xiaolei’s legs were almost propped up on the desk; she was a hoodlum, and the territory she required was naturally very large to show her status as the “King of the Mountain.” Thus, An Xiaolei had forced the second desk back by a full 1.5 meters, so her and Ao Manshan’s space was the largest, enough for her to put her feet on the tabletop.

“I don’t know how to fight,” Ao Manshan frowned. “Isn’t fighting your specialty?”

“It’s an academic competition! Dimwit!” An Xiaolei casually rolled up the exercise book belonging to Bao Shengrui behind her and tapped Ao Manshan on the forehead. “Doesn’t Class 8 want our Physics teacher? How can we let them get what they want so comfortably? We have to make it awkward for them, right? So we decided both classes will send five people to do the same paper, and after counting which class has the higher total score, the teacher stays with that class. I know our class isn’t much, but if you take action, there might be a tiny bit of hope.”

Bao Shengrui clicked his tongue impatiently and reached over to snatch his textbook back: “If you want to hit someone, use your own book. What’s the point of taking someone else’s?”

“My books are all brand new; it would hurt my heart to use them to hit people.”

Xiaolei arched an eyebrow. Her expression looked exceptionally punchable.

“Ao Manshan?” Gongxi Bitong asked while holding the registration form: “What is your intention? Participating, or not participating?”

Ao Manshan thought for a moment; this matter concerned whether she would have a Physics teacher for the next few weeks, so she couldn’t be careless. She said without hesitation: “I’ll participate! Write my name down, count me in.”

Now that the registration form had its first candidate, Gongxi Bitong nodded and wrote her own name down as well: “Then add me too, Gongxi Bitong. In junior high, I won the first prize in the school-wide Physics competition.”

Yuan Tianci also lazily raised his hand: “I’ll go too. Yuan Tianci, Physics class representative for Class 6 of the Longting First Middle School junior high section. I got that position through strength.”

Thus, the third name appeared on the paper: Yuan Tianci.

Only two candidates remained among the five.

At this time, Xia Hanyin raised her hand: “I recommend Qi Jun. Her grades can be proven by Ao Manshan.”

Ao Manshan in the first row slowly looked at Qi Jun, then nodded and said, “Yes, I can prove it.”

Qiao Wan was unwilling to let Xia Hanyin steal the spotlight, but she was the one who had just persuaded Qiao Mei not to go; would it be bad to suddenly recommend Qiao Mei now? While she was gritting her teeth and agonizing, Qiao Mei nudged her hand and pushed over a piece of paper. Qiao Wan glanced at it; written on it in clear regular script was: “There’s only one spot left, let me go.”

Turning her head, she bumped into Qiao Mei’s crystal-clear eyes, which held a faint, light smile. Qiao Wan only needed to look once to completely set her mind at ease. She raised her hand and said loudly: “I recommend Qiao Mei.”

But when it came to the reason for the recommendation, she hesitated slightly. Before she could be embarrassed, Qiao Mei’s calm voice came from beside her: “First prize winner of the Grade 9 Physics competition at Longting First Middle School junior high section.”