TL: Milaryn
Edit: IlkonEbi
On the third night of Yahan’s hospitalization, it was reported that the Liu family’s young master, Wenli, had overdosed on some low quality aphrodisiac at a club. That night he had done it with an unknown amount of women until he eventually started bleeding and ended up dysfunctional. This incident became an infamous achievement in Jianghai City. Many years later, the other pampered young masters that were there that night still thought that the Liu young master was heroic and could not help but sigh in admiration. Even if they relied on medication, they could not do it as much as the Liu young master had that night. Not to mention that their investigation revealed the aphrodisiac to be only a low quality one.
When the news reached the frail Yahan, who was still confined to the hospital bed, she laughed for a full three minutes, until tears came out. The few doctors that were monitoring her situation saw her clutch her stomach while whole body shook and were worried that she would laugh herself to death. However, after this news, Yahan seemed to regain some strength and she started recovering faster. Thus, that laughter could be considered part of the treatment.
Once she recovered, no one mentioned the engagement between the Zhang and Liu families anymore, and it was shelved for an indeterminate amount of time. A few days later, Yahan returned to the aristocrat school to continue teaching and also increased the amount of times she visited the Ye family’s martial arts hall and the Liu family villa. This childish, yet pretending to be mature, older lady joined the three teenagers at the Liu family’s villa, and their lives became increasingly colorful and vibrant.
That year, on new year’s eve, the four of them secretly met up downtown at Heping Plaza. The clock counted down and fireworks filled the sky as they welcomed the new year of 1997. Yahan secretly kissed the top of Jiaming’s forehead and whispered,
Thank you.
Jiaming only grimaced and scrubbed his forehead until only a faint red lipstick mark remained. Then the two of them joined Lingjing and Shasha who were in the middle of setting off fireworks.
The first half of 1997 passed by quite peacefully for the four of them. However, the rest of society was not as peaceful — the state-owned enterprise reform had been implemented and fell under the shadow of laid-off workers. Unemployment was rampant, and there was a large number of people falling under that category. Around early June, when the exam period started, that situation had also indirectly affected Lingjing.
To get to the source of this, well, one should probably start with the aristocratic school. When this school opened in Jianghai City, it had been privately funded by various parties as the people that had opened this school had the necessary money and connections. The quality of teachers as well as the facilities were much better than in any other high school and, naturally, the fees at this school were several times more expensive as well.
However, to the Huang and Zhang families, this small fee was not an issue; if they had children of the appropriate age, they naturally were sent to study at that school. Even though the family was rich, it did not mean that the students were smart, and even the best teachers could not guarantee their child getting into university. To guarantee the graduation rate of this school, the Department of Education had issued some stern rules. Every middle school in Jianghai City could recommend several students to apply for the aristocratic school’s free slots. Of course, the requirements were for the student to excel in both their studies and behavior. If successful, they would be allowed to attend for free. If the student maintained their status, then the aristocrat school would provide some benefits for the middle school in return — thus using the carrot and stick method.
In this way, even if it was Starlight Secondary School (the middle school and the high school were part of the same school there), every year they would hold a competition amongst the top students for a chance to go to the aristocratic school. Even if some people were not willing to participate, this open slot was quite sought after. On one hand, the pressure of unemployment was strong — to allow their child to attend and study at the best high school for free was something that parents would definitely wish for. On the other hand, being able to acquire one of these open slots was an honor and recognition in itself.
As Lingjing was one of the outstanding students, one of the slots would have naturally been offered to her. However, it seemed that due to some backdoor dealings, bribery and shady things of that sort, the school actually did not end up offering a spot to Lingjing. Truth be told, not getting a slot did not matter too much to her. Due to the socio-economic depression of the past two years, the Ye family’s martial arts school business was not doing so well. However, that did not mean Lingjing’s family did not have any money. What irritated the three of them was that during the exam period, the bald headmaster suddenly called Lingjing, Shasha and Jiaming to his office at the same time. He had wanted to explain why he did not extend this offer to Lingjing before announcing the final decision on the free slots and an explanation to the school.
Hmm, today, I called the three of you here, because the school is making a decision and we would like to notify the three of you. From early on, we received reports from several students that the three of you lived together on the weekends which could severely affect the school’s moral standards and reputation. However the school did not consider it to be an issue because the three of you are childhood friends. Now that all of you are older, we understand that it’s normal for men and women to play around, afterall, we are not old-fashioned like in the movies or TV shows.
However, after the school’s investigation, we discovered that this situation was actually true. Sigh, the three of you… you’re still two girls and one boy, us teachers feel very sad about this situation as you are ruining your lives. Even though we’re reaching the final exams period, as long as you’re part of this school, the school will feel responsible for your growth. To prevent this type of situation from happening again, the school decided to give you a stern reminder today. Lingjing, your qualification for a free slot at Sacred Heart Institute is cancelled and we hope that the three of you understand the pain the teachers are going through…
When that bald man presented a set of official documents to Lingjing, she lowered her head and did not say anything; Shasha’s eyes were practically spurting fire, while Jiaming merely frowned. Lingjing had not demanded for a slot at the Institution, in fact, if another student with a difficult home situation had wanted the slot and asked her for it, she would have gladly handed it over. However, currently, this baldy was going excessively overboard.
Having been the headmaster for several years, his infamous reputation was well known across the whole school — he accepted gifts and bribes and was both vulgar and lecherous. It was an open secret that when it came to the free slots for the aristocratic school, as long as someone bribed him, they would be able get a slot, and he would use any excuse to make that happen. As Jiaming stared at that bald head, he started thinking about what he could do to overthrow this useless person. In fact, it was quite simple for him to do so. However, before he even got a chance to fully formulate a plan, Lingjing suddenly threw down the documents onto his desk, turned, and silently left the room.
Until now, Lingjing had always behaved as a proper and obedient student, but if you knew her for longer, one would know that she actually had a stubborn, rebellious streak. This was actually the first time she had shown her displeasure in front of a teacher.
Shasha also did not say anything and followed her out of the room, while Jiaming just shook his head and went out of the room with his hands in his pockets.
The three of them were not in the same classroom, so when the news was announced that the three of them were living together, Jiaming was sleeping on his desk and he could not go over to comfort Lingjing. Not long after, an alarming amount of noise could suddenly be heard outside of his classroom.
When they ran out of the classroom, several nervous looking school security guards from the school grounds had arrived. There was a crowd of students surrounding the staffroom and it looked chaotic. As Lingjing ran over, she asked,
What happened? I heard that Shasha went on a rampage…
Did she actually…
Jiaming paused doubtfully and then pushed to the front of the crowd with Lingjing. When the other students saw the two of them, they seperated and let them through. As they reached the staffroom, they saw Shasha brandishing her baseball bat and chasing after the headmaster while several teachers were hiding far away; homework and exam papers were scattered everywhere.
As Shasha had entered the school later and was also behind by a grade, she was already 16 and had the body of a mature young female. Adding in the fact that she trained her body in martial arts as well, regular men were not able to even get close to her. While the bald headmaster was screaming and shouting as he was being chased, Lingjing and Jiaming entered the room to try and restrain Shasha. The security guards that had just arrived also entered the staffroom, some of them tried to protect the headmaster by brandishing a wooden stool at Shasha and calling for her to stop.
Some of these security guards were retired police officers while some were just regular hoodlums. As they ganged up and forced Shasha to retreat, seeing that he was safe, the headmaster loudly shouted,
Restrain her, she’s gone crazy! Hold her!
Just as these words left his mouth, a human figure darted across, seized a wooden stool and threw it towards him. This person was the normally honest and introverted Jiaming.
Seeing that the conflict had escalated, the spectating students became even more animated and started pointing and gesturing excitedly.
When the security guards saw that the headmaster was in danger of being beaten again, they hurriedly rushed forward to surround Jiaming, but then another figure inserted themselves in between. She raised one of her hands in a fist while elegantly kicking out at the same time. One of the security guards was sent flying due to Lingjing releasing her anger from earlier. Quietly cooperating with Lingjing, Jiaming grabbed onto the arm of the other security guard before he even had a chance to retaliate. At the same time, just as the guard’s armpit had been punched, an acute stab of pain came from his weak point in the lower abdomen and lower leg. Then, under a flurry of beautifully executed Jeet Kun Do attacks, the remaining security guard toppled to the ground and could not get back up.
In the blink of an eye, the two security guards had fallen and Jiaming was dusting off his hands and quietly scoffed,
The security guards at this school need to be trained better.
Lingjing remained silent as she headed towards Shasha who was still surrounded. The students outside had not seen an actual fight before, so when they recalled that the three of them had martial arts background, they suddenly exclaimed in understanding.
1/3 chapters of the week (next release is Wednesday, April 11).
3 chaps this week, but next week is going to shrink again, sorry for the fluctuating amount of chapters. On a side note, at least you can except a mass release probably by the last week of April? Ahaha ha ha ha ha…
I will do my usual procedure of saying when the next chap is going to be released so you’ll at least have some idea of when the next one is coming…
There’s also another survey going around, please fill it out: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FX53WBQ
It determines what novels GT would pick up, so please do fill it out :3
