Chapter 8 - Dormitory
The self-service canteen was large, but it was all square tables covered with table cloth. Compared to the long tables downstairs, there were much fewer seats.
Dugu An had already occupied a table by the window, and also took a lot of food.
Yu Tang brought Song Xiao to the table and let him look at the food on the table. “If there’s anything else you want to eat, you can take it yourself.”
It was unclear how Dugu An had rushed here. He was obviously the first to arrive, because he had brought over the only dish that had carvings on it. The golden shrimp was adorned with radish flowers, while the braised chicken wings had been arranged with parsley. It was very pleasing to the eyes, which was a complete difference from the other students’ plates of mixed dishes.
Seeing that the dishes on the table were complete, Song Xiao went to get some fruits.
The most satisfying thing to Song Xiao in this modern society was that he could eat all kinds of fruits. In Great Yu, he could not eat fruits very often. Even when he later became the empress, it also depended on the season and offerings, and often times there were only a few kind of fruits to eat in a season. It was unlike the modern era, where no matter the season, as long as you wanted it you could buy it.
Yu Tang held a glass of coke and sipped it leisurely. His eyes were deep and profound. At first glance, it would seem like he was drinking fine wine.
“Who is that? How handsome…” The window seat was on a slightly higher platform, which made it very conspicuous. There was a second year female student who occasionally came by to have a sumptuous meal. Within a glance, she noticed that elegant gentleman.
“Probably a first year, I’ve never seen him before,” said another girl who shared the same table. “Xinran, do you know him?”
As soon as the words came out, both the girls looked at the third girl sharing their table. Cheng Xinran took a napkin and wiped her mouth gracefully and looked at the person by the window. Her eyes brightened uncontrollably, then pretended to say casually, “He sits in that seat every day. You both don’t come very often so you don’t know. That’s the young master of the Yu family.”
“My god, that’s the Yu you were talking about?” The two girls opened their mouth in surprise.
“Shh, don’t embarrass me, eat.” Cheng Xinran said to them, letting them restrain themselves.
“This is a real first-class hottie. Compared to him, the four grasses are…” Before she could finish speaking, there was a sudden commotion in the canteen.
Four tall boys who weren’t wearing the school uniform walked in with great vigor. They all had yellow hair and a very cool appearance.
“Wow—” some girls couldn’t help screaming.
Because ‘Meteor Storm’ was popular all over the country, not only girls, but boys also watched this show, so people began to imitate it. These four boys were the popular second generation group within the first years. They also learned from the TV drama to ask their family to donate money to the school, so that the school would specially approved for them to not wear school uniforms.
Song Xiao returned with fruits, then saw these four people and couldn’t help pausing, feeling that they were somewhat familiar.
His head suddenly became dizzy, and he nearly lost his footing. The sliced dragon fruit in his plate slid down.
“Whooshk2014;” There was the sound of wind by his ear, then Dugu An appeared in front of him in a flash, holding a plate in his hand and steadily catching the fruits that fell.
Song Xiao was surprised. This level of martial arts was considered top-classed even in Great Yu, and according to what he knew, martial arts had been lost in modern times. He couldn’t help but take a profound look at Dugu An.
When he returned to his seat, Yu Tang pursed his lips, wanting to say he couldn’t even hold a plateful of fruits properly, but upon seeing his pale face, he swallowed back his reprimand. “What happened to you?”
“I’m okay. I hit my head some time ago, and I still have some side effects.” Song Xiao kneaded his temple and looked back at those four high-profiled boys.
Yu Tang hadn’t moved his chopsticks yet, only sipping his drink. He waited for Song Xiao to pick up his chopsticks, then said, “Eat ba.” and picked up his chopsticks at the same time.
Such a familiar scene threw Song Xiao into a bit of a trance, then he reflexively put a chicken wing into Yu Tang’s bowl. Yu Tang had also naturally picked it up to eat, only after taking a bite did he react, the both of them freezing.
“This chicken wing looks delicious.” Song Xiao hurriedly gave himself a piece and lowered his head to start eating.
Jingyuan emperor didn’t like eating chicken legs and liked eating the flavorful parts such as the chicken’s wing and the tips, but for an emperor to eat this was vulgar.
“Your Majesty, eat the wingtips.” During the palace banquet, as an empress, he had to diligently give the emperor the food he liked to eat.
The minister below them took a look, then shrunk his head and didn’t dare to make a single sound. The queen dared to give the emperor this kind of leftovers, he really was bold.
Emperor Jingyuan looked at the two wingtips in his bowl, looked at the empress helplessly, then picked it up with his golden chopsticks. “What zitong gave, zhen will eat it all.” And then, he happily ate up even the ones on the empress’ table.
Song Xiao was used to serving dishes to the emperor. For a moment, he had forgotten that this was a thousand years later, Yu Tang also wasn’t the Jingyuan emperor who waited for him to serve him dishes. A classmate whom he had just met suddenly serving him food, it was really abrupt. Hopefully he didn’t annoy Yu Tang.
Yu Tang slowly ate the chicken wing, but his eyes were focused on Song Xiao. He looked at the ears that were turning red because of embarrassment. “Thank you.”
Because it was still summer, the students who had finished eating could return to the dormitory to have a noon break for nearly two hours. Song Xiao thanked Yu Tang who had treated him to lunch then went to find Si Dashu.
“Xiaoxiao, I’ve finally found you, have you eaten?” Si Dashu stood in front of the dormitory entrance with a head full of sweat. His boss had left immediately after chatting with the principal, leaving him to bitterly run around completing the procedure, cleaning the dormitory, it really wasn’t easy to clean it, only then did he remember that he hadn’t given Song Xiao the meal card. By the time he had set up the meal card in his panic, the classroom was already empty.
“Yes.” Song Xiao took several cards from Si Dashu. The meal card and the water card was one card, the dormitory door card, the school access card, the library card…… There was about seven or eight cards. Song Xiao put away the cards, then followed Si Dashu to see the dormitory.
The dormitory of Sheng Meng High School had good conditions. Each dormitory had a separate bathroom and toilet, all the rooms were shared by two students. Because of his late arrival, he was assigned to the last room in the Special Class One, where a classmate was already living in. It was the student with glasses and unwashed hair who had almost become his desk mate.
Glasses was sitting on the bed, glanced at him, snorted coldly and did not speak. He came in based on his grades. Because of his strong mathematics ability and the possibility of winning the Mathematical Olympiad, he was assigned to the special class. He had always looked down on those mediocre second generations who could only waste their money on their tuition fees to attend school.
“Hello, Li Bowen.” Song Xiao had remembered the name of every student in class, and greeted the glasses boy with a smile.
Li Bowen was taken aback. Unexpectedly, this person had remembered his name. The students in class usually didn’t play with him. It had been a week since school started and a lot of students still couldn’t remember his name. The glasses boy scratched his head in embarrassment, and a bunch of dandruff floated out.
In another dormitory, Yu Tang was half lying on the bed, playing Tetris with an MP5, with Dugu An standing next to him.
“Where does he stay?” Inserting the straight, long block into the groove, four rows disappeared. Yu Tang asked this sentence unhurriedly.
“In 531, sharing with Li Bowen.” Dugu An’s voice wasn’t as gloomy as his demeanor, on the contrary, it brought a sense of low magnetism.
Yu Tang closed his game and knit his brows. Thinking of Song Xiao having to live with other boys, having other people see his body every day, he felt annoyed.
“Yo, little attendant, you’re here to see your boss again.” A boisterous voice emerged. The roommate who had just finished showering, Qian Jiahui, emerged from the bathroom, wiping his hair while speaking.
Deep black eyes aimed their gaze on Qian Jiahui, Yu Tang slightly narrowed his eyes.
There were three classes during the afternoon, physics, chemistry, and politics. Song Xiao listened very earnestly. His home tutor had explained the modern examination system to him. It seemed that the college examinations were more or less the same as that of the imperial provincial examination. They all took the exam at their own provincial capital, and if they did well in the examination, they could go to a nation-founded higher school— college.
Once you graduate from college, you will receive an ‘official’s identity’, that is to say, scholarly honor.
Without passing, there would be no scholarly honor, then one’s identity would still be that of a commoner. With scholarly honor, he could then change his household register.
After cramming everything in one month, there wasn’t much he had genuinely understood. Physics and chemistry were still regarded as heavenly scripture by Song Xiao, but he still took down notes seriously. Ballpoint pens were more laborious for him to use, each stroke written very slowly.
Just as he was writing, a long, black pen was passed to him.
Song Xiao looked at the pen with fine craftsmanship and the long and slender fingers holding it and couldn’t help but give it a couple more glances. Then he turned to look at Yu Tang, bewildered.
“Use this.” Yu Tang stuffed the pen in his hand.
Song Xiao opened the pen cap. This was a type of pen with a soft tip, when writing it had a bit of stiffness, similar to those thin writing brushes. When he used it to write down notes, it was much smoother, and it made his writing much faster.
Just as he wanted to thank Yu Tang, that person handed his book over to him. “Write a copy of your notes for me.”
Song Xiao’s mouth was drawn. He just knew that this guy was not that kindhearted.
After attending afternoon class in mystification, Qian Jiahui went to see the form teacher dejectedly when there was an interval of free time after the third period.
During individual studies in the evening, Teacher Jia called Song Xiao to the office.
“Qian Jiahui used to do well in middle school, but he hadn’t quite adapted to high school, so he wants to find a classmate whose mathematics grades are good to help him,” Teacher Jia felt a little awkward while saying to Song Xiao, “Teacher has already scolded him, if he wanted to change dormitories he should’ve said so earlier. You’ve already moved in, switching rooms would be hard on you, so this teacher will respect your opinion. If you don’t want to switch, then I’ll go ask other students.”
“It’s no problem, teacher, I can live with anyone.” Song Xiao said with good temper.
“That’s good, tonight teacher will go to the dormitory to help you move.” Teacher Jia breathed a sigh of relief. A while ago, Qian Jiahui came to her in tears, insisting on living with Li Bowen, he hadn’t even attempted to convince her.
The author has something to say
Little theatre
Fish Tang: Zhen’s wife, how could he share a bed with other people
Xiaoxiao, Your Majesty, the beds are separate.
Fish Tang: What, you still want to merge beds? You really aren’t a loyal husband!
Xiaoxiao:…..
Ah ah ah, woke up late during the weekend again~
Baobao Notes
These four grasses will be mentioned pretty often in the coming chapters, so when it isn’t necessary to call them four grasses, I’ll call them the four hotties, which is a much smoother slang than four grasses.
ALSO yeah I don’t watch shows very often and I have been told by MULTIPLE readers that it’s based on meteor garden, not boys over flowers. I’m booboo the fool…