Qing Kuang Chapter 2

“Huo Ran swept a glance towards Kou Chen's direction: “Your Uncle Kou.””

——

This sort of awkward yet shocking situation quickly got people's attention redirected, the quiet atmosphere instantly becoming lively, starting off with some exclamations, followed by the raising of voices.

　　”The floorboard cracked?”

　　”Holy f.u.c.k Kou Chen broke the floorboard?”

　　”Was he too heavy…”

　　”But he doesn't look heavy…”

　　”Does this mean we can greet Cla.s.s 3 downstairs?”

　　……

　　”Are you stuck?” Xu Chuan asks, squatting down and using his hand to move the broken floorboard.

　　”Nah,” Kou Chen came back to himself, moving his legs around, the fall earlier only had a drop of 50 centimetres at most, and yet had managed to let him feel weightlessness for a moment.

　　Way too sudden.

　　He held up on the desk, retrieving his leg from in between the floorboards, and returned to his previous face-to-face stance opposite Huo Ran.

　　Now that explosive tension between the two of them had temporarily been lost, the surprise had come too suddenly, taking priority over it, but the amus.e.m.e.nt that Huo Ran could not conceal very well beneath his stunned expression still made him not too pleased.

　　”d.a.m.n, this building's quality's not bad huh, why's the s.p.a.ce between the floors so high?” Wei ChaoRen immediately stuck his head out, looking into the hole in the floorboard.

　　”Quick,” Kou Chen patted his trousers, “Get down on the floor and ‘say hi ‘1 he says this in english to downstairs.”

　　”This f.u.c.king…” Wei ChaoRen stared into the hole, raising his head a little dumbfounded after 2 seconds, “Already looks through to downstairs!”

　　Kou Chen was taken aback.

　　After he'd transferred over, the deepest impression he had of the school was that of these few ‘ghost tales enough to write a book' – looking like they'd collapse on the spot but didn't seem to want to and even continued to be in use – still had talks of getting demolished only next year – cla.s.sroom buildings, but he'd never have expected that he himself would break through to the lower floor with a single foot.

　　Then would the whole floor…

　　Kou Chen quickly and nervously stuck his head over wanting  to take a look, only he hadn't expected that there'd be someone else who would be as anxious as he was, maybe even more.

　　His nose abruptly slammed onto the back of Huo Ran's head that had suddenly appeared beneath his face.

　　Huo Ran did in fact see a few Cla.s.s 3 faces looking upwards from that hole, not fully, just a pa.s.sing flash, and he immediately remembered all sorts of ghost building related rumours that gave him the creeps even though he was surrounded by a whole bunch of people in the early morning. In the midst of that unsettling feeling the back of his head got smashed by something and instantly he felt his gooseb.u.mps rise.

　　Only after raising his head with a start and seeing Kou Chen who was holding his nose, did he curse: “f.u.c.k.”

　　”You f.u.c.k one more time?2 usually when people say ‘f.u.c.k' in chinese, there's an ‘i' in front so it's actually i f.u.c.k' which is weird in english but that's why kou chen asks to huo ran to do it one more time… you can think of it as more of a ‘i dare you to say that again' ” Kou Chen's brows were furrowed, his hand was still holding his nose, but his eyes shone with hostility.

　　”My pants just got pulled up…” Huo Ran hadn't finished speaking before Xu ZhiFan had pulled him up, sitting him onto the seat beside.

　　”The wall ash definitely came off downstairs,” Xu ZhiFan looked back towards the cla.s.sroom door, “Not sure if anyone's gonna come up and start trouble.”

　　”Cla.s.s 3 are a bunch of good-for-nothings, start trouble my a.s.s, ” Kou Chen says while also giving the door a glance.

　　After Huo Ran and Kou Chen's attention is successfully directed away from each other, Xu ZhiFan lets out a sigh, kneeing Huo Ran's waist：”You sit inside.”

　　Huo Ran looks at him, shifts onto the inner seat, then leans sideways on the wall and takes out his phone to look at.

　　This was the great thing about Huo Ran, although foul-mouthed, didn't quite hold grudges, forgetting soon after anything had happened, the next time he recalls uncertain.

　　”Ai,” Jiang Lei sits in a seat in front of them, turning his body back, “Who's our form teacher? Do you guys know?”

　　”Don't know, ” Huo Ran stares at his phone, his fingers flying across the keys as he types.

　　”It won't still be Old3 sounds kind of rude but is quite an affectionate address for an elder Li right?” Jiang Lei says, “He'd always had something against me, I don't wanna deal with him for another year…”

　　”Don't know,” Huo Ran repeats, still typing on his phone.

　　”But if it's Old Chen, I wouldn't like that either…” Jiang Lei thinks.

　　”Don't know,” Huo Ran says.

　　”What are you looking at?” Xu ZhiFan s.n.a.t.c.hes his phone over, eyes sweeping across the screen, he sees Huo Ran's unfinished message that he hadn't yet sent out to some group.

　　- Who says there aren't any dumba.s.ses there's already a bunch in this group, and it's not like I can stuff them back, why not

　　Xu ZhiFan looks towards the group name, and it's literally called “A Family That Loves Each Other”.

　　”You're cursing people out like this in your family chat?” he quickly deletes that unfinished message, returning the phone to Huo Ran.

　　”Just cursing those cousins of mine out,” Huo Ran's disdain was plain on his face, “3 grown men, targeting my (female) cousin going at it non-stop.”

　　”Arguing about what?” Jiang Lei asks.

　　”How would I know what they're arguing about,” Huo Ran looks at him.

　　”Don't know what they're arguing about and you just go in cursing?” Xu ZhiFan sighs.

　　”What they were saying p.i.s.sed me off, I'd already scolded a few,” Huo Ran says, “Now they're coming at me.”

　　”Your (female) cousin should send you a red packet,” Jiang Lei says.

　　”Bulls.h.i.t,” Huo Ran thinks a bit and laughs, “She's scolding me too, says I've bad manners.”

　　”Deserved,” Xu ZhiFan says.

　　Kou Chen gives the hole at his feet a look, then walks towards the back of the cla.s.sroom, there was a hole in the ground after all, and made by him too, so he was planning to first stick a broom in there as a sign.

　　Just as he'd reached the entrance, the half-closed door was suddenly busted open with a kick from someone outside.

　　Kou Chen was completely unprepared, using the neck of the broom but failing to block, the door slammed onto his shoulder.

　　This door was as ancient as the cla.s.sroom building itself, with old-fashioned open doors and an old-fashioned horizontal bolt, the rod of the bolt hit right on Kou Chen's arm, not sure which nerve got hurt, but instantly his arm up to his shoulder felt numb.

　　His mouth opened ready to start cursing, when a few people walked in, s.n.a.t.c.hing ahead of him to start shouting even before their faces were even fully revealed: “Are all you Cla.s.s 1 people crazy! Our roof's completely collapsed you know!”

　　”Roof collapsed? And completely? Isn't that too exaggerated,” someone responded.

　　”Exaggerated my a.s.s, why don't you go down and sit while I stamp a couple times from up here for you to see?” the person who'd come upstairs was very impolite, “First day of school and your cla.s.s wants to start trouble is that it?”

　　n.o.body says anything, maintaining silence in what was either an awkward or tense atmosphere.

　　Everyone was actually familiar with these guys from Cla.s.s 3, the leader's name Kou Chen didn't know, seen before though, but the one standing by the door used to be in the same cla.s.s as Kou Chen, the other few could well still be having pretty good personal relations with certain students from this current cla.s.s.

　　But at this moment it was like they'd all received a break up letter.

　　Everyone looked to be very grim.

　　Because the new cla.s.s name had produced, as baffling as it was, a new sense of belonging.

　　In the past a bunch of familiar or unfamiliar but at least mutually acquainted people, at this moment suddenly because of this very trouble-seeking “wants to start trouble” line, a collective sense of unity had been born just like that.

　　After today, those who have relations will still have those relations, but today, at this moment, we are all Cla.s.s 1 people, facing off against these Cla.s.s 3 people that have come forward to challenge us…

　　We are united and unfeeling.

　　”Do you guys have someone that can actually talk4 wasn't really sure how to translate this one exactly, but he's asking for either someone who speaks civilly or has authority ,” the Cla.s.s 3 leader spoke up, still as rude as before, “Follow us downstairs to take a look, also bring a few people along to sweep the floor clean for us.”

　　”Sure,” someone piped up, sounding extremely polite, “Then we'd also like to trouble you guys get a few people give our cla.s.sroom door a good wipe.”

　　Kou Chen's eyes swept a gaze following the sound, it was Huo Ran, he was currently leaning against the wall looking down at his phone, his eyelids not even raised.

　　”Who said that?” that person looked around, probably having failed to locate the speaker.

　　”Reporting,” Huo Ran raised his hand, eyes still staring at his phone, “Me.”

　　”Who ‘re you?” that person was obviously displeased by Huo Ran's att.i.tude.

　　”Your granddaddy5 usually elders have to be respected so referring to yourself as someone's dad/granddad/uncle is demanding respect of a sort, since you're now in a position of higher authority ,” Huo Ran puts down the phone, turning his head to smile at him, “Your Granddaddy Huo that beat you at bullfighting6 the words for boasting or bluffing (吹牛) uses the characters ‘blow' and ‘cow', and being good at something can be described as being ‘cow', so huo ran is pretty much just trying to say that he's better (more OP) than this guy 7 times.”

　　The cla.s.s immediately erupted in a supportive uproar, in complete unity.

　　Huo Ran wasn't bluffing with this statement, it wasn't that that person was of a low level, but Huo Ran had been basketball captain since the second semester of his first year, with outstanding skills, other than being rather foul-mouthed did not have any other flaws, apparently becoming the school team captain in their first year, in the last decade other than Jiang Cheng7 a cameo-sort-of-reference to the main character of wuzhe's other novel sa ye!!! that i highly recommend!!! okay carry on sdkdfs] who had transferred away 2 years ago, there'd only been Huo Ran.

　　Huo Ran's tone was too offensive however, not sure how Captain Jiang Cheng usually spoke, but in any case the way Huo Ran spoke often made Kou Chen feel like beating him into the ground.

　　”I  f.u.c.king am your granddaddy, what you just said say it one more time for granddaddy!” the person rushed over to where Huo Ran was.

　　Xu ZhiFan who had been sitting beside Huo Ran immediately stood up, Jiang Lei following suite.

　　”Lu Wei what are you doing?” Xu ZhiFan reached out to block that person, “It's not like you guys don't know how old this building is.”

　　”Everyone knows this building's old, but the only ones that could've made the floorboard f.u.c.king collapse could only be your cla.s.s!” Lu Wei pointed at Huo Ran, “I'm a person that thinks about the overall situation, our problem aside, you started this thing today didn't you? Jumping out to fan the flames!”

　　”It really wasn't,” Huo Ran was still leaning on the wall.

　　”Then who exactly did it!” Lu Wei roared.

　　Huo Ran swept a glance towards Kou Chen's direction: “Your Uncle Kou.”

　　”…What?” Lu Wei was baffled, turning back to look at Kou Chen.

　　”He accidentally stepped and made a hole,” Huo Ran said.

　　Xu ZhiFan heaved a sigh, Huo Ran was clearly trying to explain, but a single line had managed to offend both Lu Wei and Kou Chen at once.

　　Kou Chen took 2 seconds to realise what Huo Ran's “your Uncle Kou” line meant, he looked at Huo Ran, not even finding it in him to get angry, just sort of wanting to laugh.

　　But with so many people looking at him at the moment, he could only acknowledge this Daddy8 if you're confused, it's a reference to huo ran calling himself lu wei's granddad before, and by designating kou chen to be lu wei's uncle it means that according to this ‘family tree', he'd be kou chen's dad = he's above both of them , following along with this “considering the overall situation” script.

　　This sort of ridiculous respective representation of both cla.s.ses' pride situation, he could not be calculative with Huo Ran, but couldn't yield to Lu Wei.

　　In actuality in every cla.s.s there were always a few leader-wannabes that could convince people in general, but this Lu Wei he couldn't even call out his name9 not completely sure, but likely refers to the fact that he didn't know lu wei's name beforehand, which meant that lu wei had/has been too obscure … it was probably when the cla.s.ses were distributed, Cla.s.s 3 didn't get anyone outstanding, so it was a good opportunity for him to try standing out.

　　”How did you do it?” Lu Wei asked with an “I've been a boss for years” expression.

　　Kou Chen silently maintained eye contact with him for a few seconds, honestly, comparing like this, Huo Ran really was very good-looking, at least he wouldn't make him feel annoyed enough to want to shift his line of sight away within a few seconds.

　　He lifted his leg, stamping onto the ground with a dong.

　　The surrounding people could feel the obvious tremor.

　　”Just like this,” Kou Chen said.

　　Lu Wei didn't seem to follow, still staring at him.

　　”Didn't get it?” Kou Chen asked.

　　Huo Ran had stood up at some point, and at this moment also suddenly stamped his foot onto the ground: “Like this.”

　　Lu Wei turned his head with a start.

　　Xu ZhiFan also followed and gave a stamp.

　　Following this the situation sort of went out of control, this bunch of people acting like kindergarteners that'd found a new plaything, all started stamping their feet.

　　Very quickly curses could be heard from Cla.s.s 3 downstairs.

　　A large part of the ceiling ash of the first floor of old cla.s.sroom building having been collectively shaken down by the people of Cla.s.s 1 on the first day of school, was quite a big deal.

　　As a university-affiliated high school, these kinds of issues weren't seen often, compared to other regular high schools, their daily lives were more constrained by rules.

　　But it has to be said, that everyone was keen on having something happen on the inside.

　　A fight, starting some trouble, all filled one with antic.i.p.ation.

　　When the Cla.s.s 3 form teacher came upstairs, Huo Ran felt a little nervous.

　　He also heard a rather stunned Xu Chuan say to Kou Chen: “f.u.c.k, Liang Mulan is their form teacher?”

　　”Then our form's gotta be Old Yuan, probably only Old Yuan can withstand her attacks,” Wei ChaoRen says.

　　Huo Ran agrees with his observation.

　　Teacher Liang was probably the only teacher in the whole school that doesn't get affectionately called “Old X” by students, everyone obediently calls her “Teacher Liang” in her presence, “Liang Mulan” behind her back.

　　Teacher Liang was a language teacher, but every time during new students' first cla.s.s, she would always bring a stereo and play an accompaniment, singing an opera piece10 i wasn't sure how to translate the name of the piece (刘大哥讲话理太偏), but it's part of the Hua Mulan opera, which is why they nickname her ‘Mulan'] , sometimes it wouldn't be just once, if no one applauded, she would continue to sing, it's been said that the most was seven times, and in the end the person that had given in and applauded was asked to point out where the good parts were on the spot.

　　Huo Ran was a little scared of this Liang, not due to how not applauding would get one in trouble, but because she'd taken over Huo Ran's cla.s.s as a replacement once, and because Huo Ran had left a stack of geometry papers on his desk, he'd been asked to her office to be disciplined from right after cla.s.s up till 10 minutes past the start of the next cla.s.s, the main issue being that Huo Ran had not respected her.

　　After that, Huo Ran took a detour every time he saw her.

　　When Teacher Liang arrived at the Cla.s.s 1 door, every person in the cla.s.sroom looked at her, slowly quietening down.

　　”I will be talking to your Teacher Yuan, ” Teacher Liang pushed her gla.s.ses up, “Said to have the highest average score, Humanities Cla.s.s 1, aren't you all impressive.”

　　Her words were just spoken, and someone whistled.

　　It was Kou Chen.

　　”I don't see you for one vacation period, and you're still in this hopeless state, Kou Chen,” Teacher Liang says, “Getting sorted into Cla.s.s 1 with your kind of results, truly incredible.”

　　Kou Chen who was originally already seated leapt up, even picking up the chair and swinging it to the side as he stood.

　　This stance suddenly made Huo Ran rather anxious, gonna hit someone? Hit the teacher?

　　That rumour that he'd hit a teacher……

　　Not sure whether Teacher Liang also knew about that rumour, but when Kou Chen started walking over to the entrance with long strides, her expression became very serious, her eyes staring fixedly on Kou Chen.

　　Kou Chen walked out of the cla.s.sroom under the cla.s.s' complex gazes, walking right up to Teacher Liang.

　　Huo Ran swept a glance towards Xu Chuan and Wei ChaoRen, as close friends, are they not going up to stop him even in this kind of situation? This kind of friendship couldn't even be likened to plastic could it, it had to be biodegradable plastic.

　　”What's so incredible, ” Kou Chen says, “It shows that the cla.s.s distribution is very fair.”

　　Teacher Liang looks at him a little perplexed.

　　Kou Chen doesn't say anything else, turning to go downstairs.

　　”f.u.c.k, ” someone says softly, “I thought they were gonna fight.”

　　Huo Ran realises in this instant that he wasn't the only one so bothered by Kou Chen's rumours.

　　”Fight my a.s.s, is he crazy, ” Xu Chuan says.

　　”Kou Chen hitting a teacher before, was a bluff wasn't it?” someone else asks immediately, but when Xu Chuan turned his head to look, that person swiftly turned to look towards the roof, then outside the window.

　　”Does beating up once mean he'll beat up every time? It's not like he transferred here from a mental hospital, ” Wei ChaoRen says.

　　This statement sounded like an insult, Huo Ran couldn't help but lean forward on his desk and laugh half a day.

　　”Our cla.s.s' form teacher is Old Yuan!” Jiang Lei grasped the main point.

　　”Ah,” Huo Ran also only got the point here, “That's great.”

　　Not even 3 minutes after saying this, Old Yuan walked quickly into the cla.s.sroom, clapping his hands as he walked from the back all the way to the podium, tossing the book sandwiched under his arm onto the podium: “First day of school and causing this big an issue, you guys are really not ordinary.”

　　Someone's laughter sounded from within the cla.s.s.

　　”It's not like it was on purpose from the start,  they came up so aggressively then were trying to start trouble right off the bat,” someone says.

　　”Those involved, how many, and who? I know there's Huo Ran and Kou Chen, ” Old Yuan surveys the cla.s.sroom, then walks over to the entrance, “Follow me to the office to discuss the situation, Teacher Liang wants me to give her an explanation, let's also not bother with anything else, settle this issue first.”

　　Huo Ran hesitates a little before standing up, Xu ZhiFan also stands up.

　　”Don't worry,” Old Yuan says, “I'll be reasonable… Where's Kou Chen?”

　　”Toilet,” Xu Chuan says.

　　”Toilet?” Old Yuan looks at him.

　　”If he's not in the cla.s.sroom he'll be in the toilet,” Wei ChaoRen says.

　　”Oh, 2 dots 1 line,” Old Yuan nods his head, “Is his stomach weak? When he comes back later get him to go to my office.”

　　As Huo Ran follows Old Yuan outside he gets the feeling that Wei ChaoRen was probably actually a Kou Chen slanderer under the guise of a follower.

– End of Ch2 –

Author's Notes:

For now updates every other day ⊙▽⊙。
Update the day after，the usual timing，7.40pm ⊙▽⊙。

TL Notes: I forgot to translate WuZhe's authors notes for Ch1 but I'll add it in a bit! It's usually simple things like “update tomorrow” but she's really cute ;w; Also I was thinking I might try to do 2 chapters a week if I can, the Fri/Sat one is fixed but a Wed/Thurs one might be possible~ we'll see how that goes, thanks for reading as usual >w

[29/10 edit]  Fixed some grammar and tenses and updated some of the notes -u-