Through The Strait Gates Chapter 12

After that, Dou Xun waited for Xu Xilin before school every morning.

Cla.s.s One's people were shocked twice. One first, and then another.

The first one was that ever since the midterm, their first place, which the 'little emperors' in the cla.s.s originally took turns being, became a certain pig's personal territory. No matter big tests or small ones, said animal always was in the lead, so ahead that no one could see him. Not just his back--even his hooves.

After that, Dou Xun gained another nickname, "*Dou Xian Er". Of course, as time pa.s.sed, the honorific t.i.tle was gradually warped into "Read Bean Paste". But this is a story for another day.

*Dou Xian Er: Can be either "Deity Dou" or red bean paste. yep.

The second surprise was that Deity Dou was revealed to be living under the same roof as Xu Xilin.

Everyone expressed their high opinion of Xu Xilin's powerful existence--even such a cold, high up Dou Xian Er could be lured in by his charm!

The best part was that even he couldn't explain exactly how that happened.

Even Wu Tao, when he heard it, expressed his admiration bitterly.

At first it was a very honorable thing for Xu Xilin, but he quickly found out afterwards that this 'honor' was a bit heavy.

The first was that sleeping in was not possible anymore.

One day, the unusually late for work Ms. Jin Xu found out that Dou Xun would copy down English international news while he listened to it every morning. After he finished an article, he would dutifully help Ms. Du water the flowers. When he was done with a long one, and finished watering the flowers, Xu Xilin would finally stumble down the stairs.

Xu Jin was instantly outraged. She dragged Xu Xilin aside and lectured him, "You're full of laziness--I'm too tired to yell at you about that, but is it right for you to make somebody wait for more than half an hour? Even a popular girl can't be this late on a date with her B-plan!"

Xu Xilin was wronged, but he couldn't say it. He actually had told Dou Xun a long time ago that if he was up early, he didn't have to wait for him. He could just go on his own. But Dou Xun was abnormally clingy on this aspect, and insisted on waiting, why was this his fault?

Ms. Jin Xu put a house rule in place the next day: The dining room's latest admission for breakfast is at 6:40 am. The ones who sleep in do not deserve a meal.

Also, Xu Xilin somehow became Deity Dou's manager at school.

Responsible for receiving all requests from everywhere, at any time.

"Can you borrow Dou Xun's physics notes for me?"

This was Tsai Jing, so Xu Xilin had to do it, as unwilling as he was.

"Can you ask Dou Xian Er to help me copy a small extract on this round's blackboard?"

This was Yu Yiran, and to avoid p.i.s.sing her off, Xu Xilin had to do as she asked.

"Xiao Lin Zi, Xiao Lin Zi," Lao Cheng ran over creepily, "Help me borrow Dou Xian Er's expensive palm, I want to read if immortals' palms are different from us mortals'!"

Xu Xilin: "Get lost!"

"Xu Tuanzuo, help me ask Dou Xian Er for his weekly journal."

"Why is Dou Xian Er's answer different than everyone's on the fourth section's last question? The math yellow leaflet's? Xiao Lin Zi, please go ask him."

"The sports meet's square formation needs someone to carry the flag. A tall guy, better one that doesn't have an event before that, is there someone in cla.s.s that fits that? Lao Xu, you go tell Dou Xun."

All sorts like these, numerous types...oh, and a small girl from the cla.s.s next to theirs asked him to help pa.s.s him her love letter.

Dou Xun didn't even open the letter before he crinkled it up and tossed it into the bin in the corner. He straightforwardly told Xu Xilin his opinion, "Some people were already born with a lack of brain capacity, but they still spend that tiny bit on useless things. No wonder their scores aren't even worth a pot of vinegar."

...Even though this was most likely directed towards the girl that wrote the letter, Xu Xilin still kind of felt that this was actually an indirect accusation at him.

After spending some more time together, Dou Xun's mysterious cover gradually peeled off. And Xu Xilin found out that 'Dou Xian Er' really 'knew' how to chat.

Their daily routine after getting home was: after dinner Xu Xilin would take his biology quiz and slip into Dou Xun's room--he bombed it extra terribly today. The cla.s.s average was eighty three out of a hundred, and he got a seventy nine. He was even called out by the teacher and lectured a full session in cla.s.s because of it. Said teacher also tipped off Qilixiang about it.

Xu Xilin easily found the folder Dou Xun organised his quizzes in, and pulled out the one he was looking for. He started to correct his quiz based on Dou Xun's.

Dou Xun peeked at what he was doing. "Your quiz...did you do this when you were previewing?"

Even though Xu Xilin was slightly crabby, he was beginning to get used to how Dou Xun spoke. He generously ignored his jab.

Since he didn't make a sound, Dou Xun followed up, "I've seen this question on your wrong answer notebook before..."

Xu Xilin didn't look up. "What's wrong with that?"

"...twice." Dou Xun leisurely finished the last half of his sentence. "If you count this time in, it's thrice. Your wrong answer notebook seems to be pretty good for practicing your handwriting."

Xu Xilin: "......"

He found a pack of gum in Dou Xun's pocket, took two, and chewed them like they were Dou Xun, thinking, "If you shut up now I won't punch you."

But unfortunately his wishes were not answered.

Dou Xun lazily mocked, "You can't even get a question like this right with three chances. If you were a canine, you probably wouldn't even be able to get into a circus."

Xu Xilin thought, "f.u.c.k you."

He threw down his pen, and turned around and left, slamming two doors in his path. Letting out a pair of booms.

Only when the air lifted up by the door smacked Dou Xun in the face did he realize in hindsight that Xu Xilin might be angry with him.

He sat a while in the same place, not knowing what to do. Then he stood by quietly, and circled twice around Xu Xilin's tightly shut door. Dou-dou rampaged up to the second floor, and then smelled around his feet once. So Dou Xun fished a piece of beef jerky out of his pockets and fed it.

Watching Dou-dou wagging its tail into a fan, Dou Xun got a bit of inspiration. He went back into his room, took a full bag of unopened pork floss, and simply hung it on Xu Xilin's room's doork.n.o.b.

Twenty minutes later, when Xu Xilin opened the door, a 1.5 plus kilogram bag of pork floss solidly hit his exposed toes.

Xu Xilin forced back a yelp, clutching the door frame in pain, thinking, "I'll never forgive this son of a b.i.t.c.h!"

Hearing this, Dou Xun, the said son of a b.i.t.c.h, tiptoed out, Xu Xilin's quiz in hand. He said awkwardly, "I corrected them for you."

Xu Xilin, teeth clenched, looked up just to see Dou Xun pa.s.s the quiz under his nose. The paper was covered in tiny, neat handwriting. Dou Xun himself was less than his handwriting--he himself was disdained by everyone, but his handwriting was a pleasure to look at. The s.p.a.ce in between was even filled in by the supporting text from the textbook, even marked with the corresponding page number.

Xu Xilin somehow felt like a tentative, fluffy tail behind Dou Xun's back had lifted up. So his mood instantly brightened, and he decided to forgive him.

After the two made peace, they could keep the peace for about twenty minutes before someone started slamming doors again.

The early spring was painfully short. In the blink of an eye, the May 1st holiday was already approaching.

Today was the date of the collective medical examination the school organized. Lao Cheng's bust was a formidable eighty centimeters, looking down upon half the girls in the cla.s.s. After he showed it off around, he was chased around barefoot by the thinner girls in the examination hall.

Xu Xilin had already finished the blood test. He strolled around, looking at everything. He realized that except for a few individual doctors that used stamps, the rest simply signed by hand. He then quickly got through the ones that needed stamps. Sneakily finding a corner, he made up the other numbers, sketched a few signatures using other people's health forms as reference. When other people were still in line, he had already finished his health form at lightning speed.

"What are you doing?" Dou Xun asked.

Before Xu Xilin could answer him, they heard a whistle from a distance. They looked over to see that Wu Tao was even faster and had already turned his health form in.

"What's the point of the examination? Let's just save time and get out of here." Xu Xilin waved at Wu Tao, quickly saying to Dou Xun, " Learned this from my mom, she always slips out of her company's physical examinations to do her hair at a salon--are you going?"

"A salon?" Dou Xun shook his head seriously, "I'm not going."

Xu Xilin almost fell over laughing. "Who's going to a salon! We're going to play CS at the internet cafe."

Dou Xun raised a brow, hesitant. From his point of view, going to an internet cafe to play computer games wasn't much better than going to a salon--they sounded as ridiculous as each other.

"Wait, have you never gone to an internet cafe before?" Xu Xilin said.

Dou Xun, confunded, asked back, "Don't you have a computer of your own?"

"How can that be the same?" Seeing as Lao Cheng had wrenched himself free from a bunch of girls' pursuing, and turned in his health form, Xu Xilin jumped up to his feet, "I'm going, you going with us?"

Dou Xun thought this for a second. He looked down, quickly filled in his form, and followed him.

He reflected on what he was doing as he walked, feeling that he was close to being completely carried off course by these people. But this scarce chance to be 'bad' was quite new to him, since to Dou Xun, even if he wanted to be rebellious before, no one would bring him along. Even smoking was something he learned on his own.

But on this day, he still didn't get his chance to be a rebel. Just as the two was going to pa.s.s their forms in, a commotion suddenly erupted in the crowd.

"What's happening?" Xu Xilin asked.

A boy ran past them to where the commotion was, "I think someone just pa.s.sed out?"

"What? From which cla.s.s?"

"Cla.s.s One!"

"What?" Xu Xilin immediately abandoned all thoughts about CS. He followed as soon as he stuffed the forms into Dou Xun's hands.

Someone had already called the teacher and a doctor. Xu Xilin pushed past the crowd, "Who is it?"

Someone in front turned around to answer him. "Tsai Jing. He might have low blood sugar since he didn't have breakfast because of the examination--someone come help him up."

Xu Xilin quickly slipped through the crowd to the center. He helped Tsai Jing up along with a teacher. Lao Cheng and the guys that were originally leaving also came back.

Dou Xun, holding two faked forms, had nothing to do. So he quietly followed.

"What's with the students nowadays?" The infirmary teacher asked, "Why are boys going on diets too?"

Lao Cheng and Xu Xilin shared a look--since the last year of high school required students to come to extra free study periods both in the morning and at night, students' time outside of school would basically be reduced to only time for eating and sleeping. Even Sat.u.r.days had half a day of free study periods. Tsai Jing wanted to earn the senior year's living expenses earlier on, so right now, he had to work every night except for Thursdays. He had to study until the later half of the night everyday after work. His economic and academic pressure was so heavy it could kill.

Yu Yiran asked for a piece of chocolate from the girls, and fed it to Tsai Jing along with warm water. The infirmary teacher tended to him at the side, and let him lie down for a bit.

The original plan to play computer games was botched, so Lao Cheng started to put out terrible ideas. "How about we also organize a donation?"

"He's going to kill you if you do that."

"Then what do we do?"

Xu Xilin thought for a while, and then said, "Then we...then I'll take his shift for a night every week."

"Being a waiter?" Lao Cheng was stumped for a second, but quickly came back to his senses, saying, "Count me in."

"I have training on weekdays," Wu Tao said, "But I think I can manage on the weekends."

"My mom has a shift on Friday night," Yu Yiran said, "I can go on Fridays."

After she spoke, her gaze fell on Dou Xun. She wanted to say something, but swallowed it back--even though Dou Xun would occasionally hang out with them because of Xu Xilin, but he was still as antisocial s before. Except for Xu Xilin, he rarely acknowledged anyone else. Especially Wu Tao, whom he was hostile towards.

"Leave Dou Xun out of this," Xu Xilin said, "He's going to take the exam this semester."

Everyone who had just heard this for the first time sighed a collective "wow", and looked at Dou Xian Er like they were trying to pray to him.

Dou Xun suddenly felt uneasy in his heart. He once wanted nothing more than to finish the entrance exam as soon as possible and get out of here, wishing he could *tesser through the semester. He stayed in his internal conflict for a while. Then he spoke, "If I don't do well I'll be back for the last year of high school, it's nothing."

*tesser: If you haven't read A Wrinkle In Time...go google it (P.S. the original text was NOT a AWIT reference, this was the only thing I could think of, sorry)

"Pffft," Xu Xilin said, "Who curses themselves to not do well? You might want to go spitting to get rid of the bad luck."

Dou Xun: "......"

For some reason, he now understood how Xu Xilin felt when he slammed the door as he left.

T/N: Oh G.o.d I am so sorry. I feel awful. It's been...a turbulent period, cla.s.ses appeared out of literally nowhere. I apologize for the slow update(s).