Hello Old Times Chapter 72

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Chapter 72: Calamity Caused by Pushing the Wall Part 2

Not everyone in the audience were pigs.

“Not everyone in the audience are pigs. Yu Zhou Zhou, go and die…” Wen Miao’s voice was small like a mosquito, perhaps because he was clenching his teeth.

“How am I unable to see that the wall’s crooked!?” Lin Yang finally tore off Romeo’s sad expression and his voice was no longer elegant and self-controlled either – Yu Zhou Zhou suddenly felt a burst of relief in her heart.

This was the Lin Yang she knew.

“Because…” Yu Zhou Zhou tilted her head to look at the straight white wall, “Because just now, we already pushed it back into shape…”

For a moment, Yu Zhou Zhou even felt that Lin Yang was going to pounce over to bite her.

Every time she saw him, she would feel somewhat flustered and complicated inside. The words she’d say and the things she’d do would all deviate from her normal track. Or perhaps, she was doing it on purpose. She intentionally led the topic away as if by doing this, she could avoid that big mess between them.

Just like every time before, the lunchbox, menstruation pad, leaving out the sentence of blessing in the classmate record book, she used all kinds of weird coincidences to bridge together the gap of time and glue their original selves together.

Yu Zhou Zhou didn’t see Wen Miao’s contemptuous gaze or Shen Fen’s dumbfounded expression. She continued to smile indifferently but her eyes were staring a little nervously at Lin Yang who was in front of her.

Lin Yang didn’t smile. In the long period of silence, he was like a little beast, little by little retracting the hair that shot up when he was injured and his sharp protruding claws. He only narrowed his eyes a little and calmly stood facing Yu Zhou Zhou with a sliver of bitterness.

The furious Lin Yang that Yu Zhou Zhou knew only appeared for a few seconds before disappearing into the crooked wall.

“Do you think this is fun?” Lin Yang smiled, but his smile was not at all bright and warm.

Yu Zhou Zhou raised her eyebrows. Her chest felt blocked but she didn’t refute it.

“How old are you to still be using this type of excuse. Do you think that you haven’t graduated from elementary?”

“You disappeared without a trace without even a word. Now, you’ve appeared randomly from the middle of nowhere and you want to start using that little bit of cleverness of yours to bully and fool people?”

Lin Yang leaned against the wall with his arms folded. Every word was said in a gentle tone with a disdainful smile but his voice trembled lightly at the end which revealed a sliver of real emotion.

Wen Miao was stunned. He looked at Yu Zhou Zhou who had been in control of the situation like a queen just three minutes ago, with her head bowed and her face somewhat red. He couldn’t see her expression but her ponytail was still up high, like a magpie who refused to admit defeat.

Originally, when he had known that Romeo and Yu Zhou Zhou knew each other, he had knowingly kept quiet but now, he wasn’t able to hold back any longer.

“We didn’t knock down your school’s broken wall, why do you care why I’m pushing the wall? I’m f***ing happy to push it, what does it have to do with you? Just because you’re wearing a top hat, you’ve forgotten your surname*? You’re just not f***ing pleasing to the eye today…”

“Wen Miao!”

Yu Zhou Zhou grabbed Wen Miao and put her cold sweaty fingers on his arm where he had rolled up his sleeves, causing him to shudder all over and half his temper instantly collapsed back down.

“Stop talking, let’s go.” Yu Zhou Zhou shook her head at Wen Miao then lowered her eyes to pass Lin Yang and walk back the auditorium. The moment she passed by him, her wrist was tightly held.

“I haven’t finished talking, yet you want to leave?” Lin Yang’s face was red and his eyes, frighteningly bright.

Seeing that Wen Miao who was scowling and about to charge over, Lin Yang waved his hand lightly, “That student, calm down. This is a matter between us and has nothing to do with you.”

Wen Miao’s foot was hanging in mid-air but he stopped, his expression half in fierceness and half in awkwardness.

Lin Yang was already more than half a head taller than Yu Zhou Zhou.

Yu Zhou Zhou didn’t struggle, she only raised her head and quietly looked up at the teenager who had grown. He had changed a lot and what was unfamiliar was not just his height which required her to raise her head to look up at him a little.

However, Lin Yang didn’t say or ask anything for a long time.

Why didn’t you come to the Middle School Affiliated to Normal University, why didn’t you contact me, where did you run off to?

He could give a call to Yu Ting Ting since she was her cousin and could definitely be able to find her – but he didn’t. He himself didn’t know why.

Her disappearance was like a dream or to say, her existence from the start was a dream,

There was no warning or any preparation. Ling Xiang Qian was still exasperatingly removing her makeup and changing clothes and he couldn’t be bothered to wait so he went alone to the art teacher’s office to return the props and costume. Then, he saw a scene that would make one fume with anger – what were they pushing against a wall for? Were the mental patients trying to break out?

In the next second, the girl in the middle stepped back, wiping away the non-existent sweat from her forehead in an exaggerated way and said with a smile, No more, no more, I’m exhausted. You two continue to work hard!

Her voice was very familiar but it was mixed with an unfamiliar clear and melodious tone. The smile on her side profile was also so familiar, her curved eyes were the same as before but Lin Yang had never seen Yu Zhou Zhou smile so simple-mindedly, and even a little crazily.

Such a pure happiness.

For the first time, Lin Yang who was not yet fifteen, felt so many turbulent emotions in his chest. They mixed and twisted together into a ball of numbness. Time was running out and he didn’t have the time to unravel the entanglement in detail so he could only pull on the brightest strin.

It was bright red anger.

“Do you think that I can still happily listen to you speak nonsense? Let you bully me?” Lin Yang’s voice was calm but he couldn’t control the force in his hands. Yu Zhou Zhou frowned from being squeezed but she didn’t make a sound.

A while later, she raised her head.  

“I know you’ve been yielding to me.”

Lin Yang was a little surprised. He opened and closed his mouth, the force in his hands loosening as well.

“Don’t worry, I won’t bully you again.”

Yu Zhou Zhou broke his hand away. Lin Yang’s panicked expression flashed before her eyes but she strode towards the entrance of the auditorium without looking back.

—

“Say, are you really alright?”

Yu Zhou Zhou nodded, “I’m fine.”

She was very grateful that Wen Miao didn’t ask anything including who Romeo was.

After Yu Zhou Zhou returned to her seat, it took Wen Miao and Shen Fen around five minutes to return as well. Shen Fen’s expression was gloomy while Wen Miao seemed to be pondering something.

She was a little vexed and smiled embarrassedly, “Sorry, I was too self-willed and made you guys embarrassed just now. Now there doesn’t seem to be any effect and it’s all a negative result.”

Wen Miao waved his hand dismissively, “I’m not nervous anymore, really,” then his voice suddenly turned soft, “As for Shen Fen, her current expression isn’t your fault. She quarrelled with someone just now.”

“Shen Fen? Quarrelling?” These two words couldn’t be linked together in any way.

“Mhm,” Wen Miao nodded, “It was with a boy too. Just after you left, a boy and girl came to look for Romeo. However…their way of speaking was especially infuriating. I helped Shen Fen say a lot but…” Wen Miao paused and shrugged.

He didn’t want to tell Yu Zhou Zhou all the contents of the quarrel like a gossipy old lady since if he was Shen Fen with such a strong self-esteem, he definitely wouldn’t want those derogatory and vicious words be spread out either.

“In the end, it was the Romeo that you know who stopped us all. Actually…Actually he’s quite reasonable, really. Just now, after you left, it was as if he lost his soul.” After Wen Miao finished speaking, he carefully observed Yu Zhou Zhou’s expression out of the corner of his eyes but didn’t discover anything.

Yu Zhou Zhou quickly changed the subject, “There’s nothing wrong with Shen Fen’s mood right?”

Wen Miao shrugged and pouted his mouth in Shen Fen’s direction.

At this moment, Shen Fen had her lips pursed together tightly and no longer recited like before. Yu Zhou Zhou didn’t know how to comfort her, she wasn’t able to say anything hence she simply stretched out her left hand to cover Shen Fen’s right hand. Although her fingers were very cold, but at least her palms were warm. She used her warm palms to cover the back of Shen Fen’s icy cold hand, successfully brining the other person out of their confused state.

Shen Fen looked at her, as if waiting for Yu Zhou Zhou to say something but Yu Zhou Zhou didn’t say anything.

After a long time, Shen Fen suddenly opened her mouth but what she said was of no relevance whatsoever.

“Do you want to get into Zhen Hua?”

Yu Zhou Zhou paused then nodded very determinedly.

There was no hesitation at all.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t been asked this type of question before. Whenever the exam results came out, words like “a seedling of Zhen Hua” were inseparable from her classmates’ compliments but during those times, she would always smile humbly and say something along the times of I don’t want to get into Zhen Hua, not at all, being able to get into the High School Affiliated to Normal University is good enough…

After all, in the past, only one or two students would be able to get into Zhen Hua when No.13 Middle School’s ancestral tombs were on fire*.

*[Means that they are experiencing great fortune]

Only with Shen Fen did Yu Zhou Zhou believe that they were equal. People who could run side by side wouldn’t laugh that each other’s finish lines were too far away.

I want to get into Zhen Hua. Just like you.

Shen Hua grasped her hand and solemnly nodded but her gaze floated to a certain point in the distance.

“I must get into Zhen Hua,” She said.

Yu Zhou Zhou was moved. What exactly did the person she quarreled with say that would make her use such a serious word like “must”?

It was too late to speculate. The teacher instructed everyone to stand up and walk backstage in rows to prepare for the stage.

Yu Zhou Zhou could only squeeze Shen Fen’s hand firmly then stand up silently.

—

Murderous energy.

Yu Zhou Zhou and her temporary desk mate Wen Miao looked at each other, both carrying some worry in each other’s eyes. Shen Fen who was standing in front of the stage, was exuding a murderous aura that was ten times colder than usual. The others only thought it was a bit strange and mistakenly though Shen Fen was just nervous. Only the two of them could clearly detect Shen Fen’s true emotions.

There was a slight tremor in her voice and the speed she talked at was too fast.

At the end of the experiment, the arranged audience member Yu Zhou Zhou raised her hand and asked, “For this experiment, why is a laser rod used for the light source instead of a flashlight?”

“Because…” Shen Fen’s partner was a chubby boy. Before he even finished speaking, Shen Fen had already opened her mouth to cover his mosquito sound.

“The laser light emitted by the laser rod is relatively concentrated. It only shines as one red dot on the glass cylinder which is convenient for data recording. At the same time, in comparison to the light from the flashlight, the red light penetrates better. When we use liquids with low levels of transparency such as salad oil to do the experiment, we can still clearly see the location of the recording pints.”

Like a drumfire, it was so fluent and fast to the point of being scary.

“Thank…thank you. I understand.” Yu Zhou Zhou laughed out then sat down. Shen Fen had already called out the name of another student who raised their hand to ask questions.

“Did she eat dynamite?” Wen Miao asked softly.

Yu Zhou Zhou thought for a while, then smiled bitterly, “I’m afraid the fuse is sitting somewhere in the auditorium.”

Wen Miao was a little puzzled and could only smile, “Aren’t you guys tired being like this?”

Us? Yu Zhou Zhou was surprised. Was she and Shen Fen very similar?

The next experiment was Yu Zhou Zhou and Wen Miao’s. When they came up to the stage, Shen fen was packing up the test equipment. Yu Zhou Zhou heard a very soft good luck which sounded somewhat like a hallucination.

Wen Miao couldn’t smile anymore. When he really stood on the stage and looked down at the pitch black crowd of people below, it felt completely different from sitting at a desk with his back facing the podium.

“Let’s start.” He took a deep breath. He had never experienced such a scene before. He had never had the opportunity to stand in front of the stage from when he was small to date so at that moment, he was truly trembling.

“What’s the hurry,” Yu Zhou Zhou smiled, “There’s still a sentence we haven’t said yet.”

“Say what? Everyone’s waiting for us!” Wen Miao’s face had turned pale from fright.

“Pig.” Yu Zhou Zhou’s expression was calm, “Since I’m saying the opening remarks anyway, if you don’t say it then I won’t start.”

Wen Miao was extremely angry. He looked at her blankly for two seconds before he stiffly said to the sea of people under the stage softly, “Everyone in the audience…are all pigs.”

“Everyone in the audience are all pigs.”

“Everyone in the audience are all pigs.”

Suddenly, he burst into laughter without warning and his face was no longer stiff. What was most important wasn’t to really disdain the audience as a strategy but to do this kind of thing under the gaze of an audience which was both terrifying and exciting. To be precise, it was to experience the fear in advance so that in the experiment later, it would turn into a piece of cake.

Wen Miao turned his face, his partner, Yu Zhou Zhou was smiling like a flower, her eyes full of encouragement and appreciation.

Wen Miao felt a warm currently flowing through his heart but at the same time, he felt a deep sense of loss.

For example, the person next to him could easily warm up the atmosphere and speak as naturally and smoothly as usual on the stage. She was warm and sincere and would occasionally add in a little humour which would receive the laughter of those below. Wen Miao suddenly felt that Yu Zhou Zhou was so dazzling that she didn’t belong to the same nation as those in Class 6 or No.13 Middle School.

It was as if, sooner or later, she’d fly away.

“Isn’t the earth round, why are you using a square box for your horizon?”

Yu Zhou Zhou was stunned. This question wasn’t within the scope of the plan and she didn’t really understand it either. She prodded the dazed Wen Miao with her elbow but he had no reaction. She awkwardly smiled, “This question is very interesting but it’s not hard to explain. Let my assistant answer this question for you.”

Only then did Wen Miao snap out of it and ask in a daze, “Say what, when did I turn into your assistant?”

The audience burst into laughter. This type of humor definitely wasn’t in the plan and the Physics teacher and entire class all dumbly watched while the student who raised the difficult question sat back down in shame, ready to receive the teacher’s criticism.

Wen Miao’s face turned red and amid everyone’s laughter, he looked at Yu Zhou Zhou helplessly.

Yu Zhou Zhou burst out into laughter.

She then tapped the table and said loudly, “Stop laughing, be quiet!”

The laughter gradually subsided and everyone widened their eyes to see what she would do.

“As a scientific researcher, there are two points to deeply remember.”

Wen Miao wailed inside, Yu Zhou Zhou was about to sprout into nonsense again.

“Firstly, we must not have utilitarian intentions in our heart. Who is the team leader and who is the assistant shouldn’t be the point of focus. The spirit of science is what is most important. Always remember that there is only one truth! Whether it is the team leader or the assistant, we should all be responsible for it.”

After she finished, she smiled towards Wen Miao.

Bah. Wen Miao fiercely kicked Yu Zhou Zhou inside his heart.

“Secondly, not all experiments are perfect from the start. When encountering problems and deficiencies, it is necessary to stop immediately and listen to suggestions with an open mind to prevent divergences. Therefore, inclusiveness is very important. The two of us are indeed not very clear to the question this classmate raised so after this experiment is over, we will definitely think deeply and look for the answer Of course, if there is any student on site who knows and can clear everyone’s doubts now…”

“I know, it’s simple.”

As soon as her words fell, a sound of response rose from the audience. It was done perfectly in time as if it had been rehearsed in advance. Wen Miao looked towards the audience and discovered that the boy standing up near the edge of the first row was Romeo.

“Although the earth is pretty much a sphere, we aren’t standing on a satellite. Because of the large surface area of the earth, people standing on earth are much, much too small in comparison to earth. Plus, our scope of sight is only facing the front so only a small area of the earth can be seen which means that people can’t see the entire sphere so how can they feel the radian? Suppose that we regard the circle as a regular N-gon and intercept a section that is small enough. That section will appear to be a straight line section. Similarly, if it is the earth, if a small enough flat surface is intercepted, that flat surface will not have a radian at all so there is no problem to using a square cardboard box as replacement of the flat surface.”

After the boy finished speaking, he took back his smile and looked seriously at Yu Zhou Zhou,.

Yu Zhou Zhou only replied softly, “What a wonderful answer, thank you so much.

Romeo still stared at her stubbornly and finally said, “I’m sorry.”

 No one noticed this random apology but Wen Miao could feel Yu Zhou Zhou tremble slightly.

Yu Zhou Zhou turned back and with a smile, brought the topic back to the experiment. Facing everyone’s expressions of realisation, she made a very grand concluding speech. The audience gave a warm applause to express their commendation towards her crisis management and Romeo’s excellent cooperation below the stage.

When Wen Miao left the stage, he only felt empty and depressed. When Yu Zhou Zhou patted her chest and happily repeated, “We’ve managed to fool our ways through”, he was surprisingly quiet.

His own wooden performance wasn’t worth being depressed over. What he was depressed about was that he actually cared about whether his performance was wooden or not.

This feeling of gain or loss broke out of the ground and skyrocketed after that dazzling cooperation.

Perhaps many years later, when he thought back to this open class, he’d only be able to remember two moments.

One would be Yu Zhou Zhou calmly standing on the stage and saying with a smile, everyone in the audience are all pigs, pigs, pigs!

The other would be that teenager in a white shirt who stood up during at a critical moment. He spoke eloquently then at the end, in front of the audience, he looked attentively at Yu Zhou Zhou and said, I’m sorry.

Wen Miao thought sadly that no matter how warm and kindly Yu Zhu Zhou invited him, he didn’t have the qualification to say “Everyone in the audience are all pigs.”

On their stage, he was the pig.