Hell High School (5): I like you

Tan Xiao felt that the atmosphere in the classroom today was a bit strange. Whether it was the teacher or the classmates, they all seemed to be stealing glances at him from time to time. The reason it was called stealing glances was that whenever Tan Xiao looked back, these people would immediately turn their heads away, their gazes wandering. They would either pretend to look at their textbooks or pretend to talk to their friends, refusing to look him in the eye.

The Small Freckles sitting behind him yesterday, who couldn’t hide his jealousy, also became very obvious. He held her chin high, and his expression was easy to read: There is only one truth, and I see through everything.

What truth? What had he seen through? Tan Xiao was completely puzzled, only feeling that the students in the new school seemed like riddles. However, after observing for a while, He found that the classmates in the class did not mock Wen Yi.

They didn’t throw bugs or mice into his drawer, nor did they use verbal mockery, exclusion, or humiliating tactics like locking him in the restroom. They simply kept their distance from him, which made him finally breathe a sigh of relief.

After all, everyone in the senior year was busy studying, so they shouldn’t go that far.

Tan Xiao was unwilling to be the so-called savior, even though the identity of a savior is easier to gain trust and reliance. Because that means the person being saved might have suffered mental and physical harm, he hoped that before he arrived, Wen Yi could also live happily and be treated well by the whole world.

Not to mention, the teachers at this school had a high level of teaching, and Tan Xiao, who had been away from high school for a while, was quickly pulled back into the tense atmosphere of senior year. Moreover, some of the problems that had troubled him became clear under the teacher’s explanation.

He was fully immersed in his studies, spending a somewhat subtle but generally peaceful morning.

If Tan Xiao could receive game system notifications, he would hear: NPC Math Teacher’s favorability towards you +10, NPC Language Teacher’s favorability towards you +5, +5…

Basically, the teachers who came to class today all increased their favorability towards Tan Xiao to some extent. It wasn’t that Tan Xiao had given them any benefits; they simply liked a good student who loved learning.

The reason the teacher’s class could be so excellent was because they had taught it so many times. The other students in the class had heard it too many times, so naturally, they had no interest in learning.

After all, this was a high school that had come back from the dead. For them, learning had no meaning. Even if they learnt well, they couldn’t leave this place.

Feeling the long-lost, enthusiastic gaze of eager learners, the teachers suddenly felt a refreshing stream injected into their numb teaching careers. With enough positive and excellent audience, they finally have the motivation to teach.

The head of the senior year class was the chemistry teacher of Tan Xiao’s class. After finishing today’s teaching in Class 8, he praised Teacher Xu, who helped with the transfer procedures: “Teacher Xu, you did a great job this time. If possible, shouldn’t we find a way to recruit more transfer students like Tan Xiao?”

Teachers didn’t just teach in one class all day. If they recruited more transfer students, everyone would be more motivated in their work.

Teacher Xu shook her head: “There’s nothing I can do about it. You know how it is, Tan Xiao just fell from the sky. Don’t be fooled by how enthusiastic he seems now; after spending some time here, he might just become numb.”

She made a gesture as if praying to the heavens: “The instance starts tomorrow, so let’s hope there are more good students among the players this time.”

During the lunch break, as previously mentioned, Tan Xiao took Wen Yi to the cafeteria to eat together.

Not to mention, this school’s cafeteria was quite creative. One side was a very normal cafeteria, while the other side served some really bizarre dishes: like the “Stargazing Pie.”

It was basically a piece of pie topped with a bunch of eyeballs, but the eyeballs were made of pudding, so they were chewy and bouncy, looking very realistic.

Tan Xiao had no intention of torturing his stomach; he was having the very popular chicken cutlet rice, which cost 8 spirit coins per serving. It came with meat and three side dishes, a free soup, and unlimited rice. If he felt the meat wasn’t enough, just adding two more pieces would get him a generous portion. Even a guy with a big appetite could eat until full.

However, when Tan Xiao was in line to pay, the cafeteria lady serving the rice didn’t shake her hand at all. She piled his meat and vegetables high, almost overflowing.

Tan Xiao was the kind of guy who could eat a lot, but by the end, it felt like one serving was enough for both him and Wen Yi, because there were so many dishes and refills were free.

Chicken chop rice was considered an expensive set meal, costing 5 spirit coins, while a serving of rice is 6 spirit coins, and a portion of vegetables and noodles that two guys can finish only costs 4 spirit coins.

Breakfast was even cheaper, with a wide variety of options and all sorts of dishes. The steamed buns and dumplings were as big as his palm, and you could basically get full for just 3 spiritCoins. In other words, spending twenty spirit Coins a day could cover three meals.

With such favorable prices at the cafeteria, he was a bit worried: there were still three months left in this semester, and he had already spent a thousand spirit Coins on various daily necessities at the supermarket, leaving him with 9,000 spirit Coins. On average, he would need to spend 100 spirit Coins a day.

It was said that the school’s meal cards were non-refundable, and even if he were a pig, he couldn’t eat that much.

Tan Xiao whispered to Wen Yi, “Wen Yi, my mom charged too much on my meal card. I can’t finish it by myself. How about you and I use my card together, and then when you get your scholarship, you can give me cash in return?”

The two of them ate together, bought some fruits, yogurt, drinks, snacks, and added some notebooks and pens, and by the end of the semester, it was just about enough.

This was the main plan; he could also take the opportunity to give Wen Yi more delicious food. Wen Yi was too thin, there was hardly any meat on him, and he wanted to fatten him up a bit.

Wen Yi nodded, “Okay.”

He originally planned to go to the supermarket to buy some things, but he heard the teacher say that school officially started tomorrow, so there was no evening study session tonight.

Considering the limited lunch break, the two of them finished their meal and returned to the dormitory, where Tan Xiao gave Wen Yi a haircut. He searched for photos on his phone to show Wen Yi, choosing a clean and neat slightly layered cut, which looked like a very obedient student hairstyle.

Tan Xiao was particularly meticulous while cutting. Wen Yi, wearing the waterproof apron from cleaning yesterday, felt the boy’s slender fingers weaving through his hair, with tiny strands of hair falling around. His ears, hidden under his hair, gradually turned redder.

When the job was done, Tan Xiao proudly showed the mirror to Wen Yi, hands on his hips: “See, I cut it perfectly, right? With my exceptional skills, I could be a director-level stylist at a barbershop! From now on, I’ll take care of your bangs.”

In front of his peers, Tan Xiao easily came across as a typical immature high school boy.

But this wasn’t just boasting; the new hairstyle really did highlight Wen Yi’s features, revealing his eyes and eyebrows, making it look particularly suitable for him.

Wen Yi looked at the handsome, youthful face of Tan Xiao in the mirror and nodded seriously, “Very good-looking.”

He asked Tan Xiao, “Do you only cut my hair, or do you cut other classmates’ hair too?”

“Besides myself, you’re the only one I’ve cut.”

Tan Xiao said, “You’re the first and the only one.”

He was willing to serve Wen Yi because he liked him, not because he liked doing it.

He glanced at the weather outside; today was a brilliantly sunny day.

“Wen Yi, do you want to hang your wet quilt outside? With such strong sunlight, it should dry by tonight.”

Wen Yi looked out the window. If the quilt dried, he wouldn’t be able to sleep with Tan Xiao, but he had no reason to refuse Tan Xiao.

“Yeah, I will.”

In the afternoon, Wen Yi’s new hairstyle shocked the entire Class 8 of the third year, but no one dared to ask No. 14, no matter how curious they were.

Only Small Freckles saw through everything: how could a puppeteer be willing to let a stranger mess with their hair? A boy’s hair is as precious as a wife, a forbidden zone that cannot be touched.

Look at those matching clothes and similar hairstyles; Tan Xiao was indeed No. 14’s new puppet!

The cunning No. 14 must be planning to use the new puppet to infiltrate the players’ ranks and then give those foolish players a severe blow!

During the second period in the afternoon, the clear sky suddenly turned into a stormy one, and then it started pouring rain.

Tan Xiao suddenly remembered that Wen Yi’s quilt was still outside drying, so he quickly poked his little desk mate with his finger: “Did you put the quilt out to dry today?”

Wen Yi nodded: “I put it on the rooftop.”

His face was full of: I’ll do anything you say, looking very obedient and well-behaved.

Tan Xiao suddenly raised his hand: “Report, teacher, I put the quilt out to dry today. I request to go back now to rescue the quilt!”

He didn’t mention that it was Wen Yi who put out the quilt, taking the blame upon himself. This way, even if the teacher was unhappy, it would be directed at him.

The art teacher who taught them in the afternoon, during the second semester of their senior year, had reduced the students’ art, music, and physical education classes from two sessions a week to one session.

However, the art teacher didn’t actually teach during art class; she played movies for the senior students using her own laptop.

Art class was also the most peaceful class for the students, and everyone liked the art teacher very much.

Today’s movie was a campus romance, but set in a university. The male lead was young, tall, and handsome, while the female lead was beautiful and gentle, like a blooming gardenia.

However, the students had seen this movie at least 100 times, so they were all bored and playing games.

This game referred to drawing X’s and O’s on a piece of paper to play tic-tac-toe, or secretly playing jump rope under the cover of the desk. After all, the school had its rules, and even in art class, they couldn’t talk during class.

Seeing Tan Xiao raise his hand and behave politely, the art teacher smiled and nodded at him, “Go ahead, but be careful next time!”

Tan Xiao didn’t bring an umbrella and ran out into the rain.

Wen Yi also stood up and followed him out.

At this moment, the video on the multimedia projection screen was also filled with thunder and lightning. The female protagonist, without an umbrella, hesitated for a long time and finally used her notebook to shield her head and ventured out.

Just as she was about to get drenched, a blue-and-white checkered umbrella opened above her head. The naive male protagonist revealed a set of neat white teeth, then put his own coat over his head and rushed into the heavy rain.

This was the most classic scene in the film, and also the moment when the male and female protagonists fell in love.

The girl sitting by the window, Yu Xiaoyu, glanced at the screen, then looked out the window again, unable to help but mutter to her deskmate, “Those two look like they’re in a movie.”

Heavy rain poured down, and the handsome boy and beautiful girl in school uniforms dashed through the torrential downpour. This picturesque scene really looked like a high-quality film, the kind that was particularly artistic and beautiful, like a romantic movie.

Yu Xiaoyu thought that the boy with the new haircut and the handsome transfer student looked even better than the protagonists in the movie.

Yu Xiaoyu’s deskmate was a girl with glasses, also the study monitor of Class 8, Grade 3, named Wang Wei. She had strong calculation skills and a good memory.

Wang Wei glanced at the sky, then at her open notebook: “January 17th, sunny.”

The day before the start of the instance should be a very sunny day, with hot weather, as hot as summer, hot enough to melt them, who were like ashes in the fire.

No matter how many times it repeated, it had never rained on this day; it had always been a clear day.

She adjusted her glasses and said meaningfully, “It shouldn’t rain today.”

In the game, only Number 14 had the ability to change the weather, which meant the transfer student shouldn’t have been drenched. Number 14 did it on purpose.

In other words, the dependence shown by Number 14 was completely insincere; otherwise, how could he possibly have deliberately drenched the transfer student in the freezing winter?

The cool, powerful, and mysterious transfer student Tan Xiao, perhaps possessed the strength to rival Number 14.

She wrote a line on a blank page in her diary: “Plan to recruit the transfer student.”

They were going to unite with the transfer student to unveil Number 14’s facade. Perhaps the transfer student was also a hypocritical villain, but if he succeeded in taking over and replaced Number 14 as the core of the copy, at least it would bring a bit of change to their monotonous lives, wouldn’t it?

In some ways, Wang Wei’s deduction wasn’t wrong; the sudden downpour indeed came under Wen Yi’s influence.

But the information she received at the beginning was wrong: the thick quilt that had been dried in the sun and then drenched was not Tan Xiao’s, but Wen Yi’s.

Who would have thought that the transfer student rushed out in the rain to save Wen Yi’s quilt, and the reason Wen Yi drenched the quilt was just so they could squeeze together on that small single bed in the dormitory with Tan Xiao at night.

After all, Wen Yi had already caused a small accident last night by accidentally spilling water on the quilt, so he couldn’t keep spilling water. To avoid seeming too deliberate, he could only let the weather be uncooperative.

Later, Wang Wei recalled this scene and just wanted to tell his past self: What kind of nonsense defection plan are you writing? This is clearly just a little trick played by a scheming couple!

Tan Xiao and Wen Yi braved the rain back to the rooftop. The sudden rain soon stopped, but it came so quickly and heavily that even though they ran back to the dormitory as fast as they could, the thick quilt absorbed a lot of rainwater.

Frowning, he lifted the quilt: “Wen Yi, you lift the other side, and we’ll wring this quilt out together.”

This was the kind of thick comforter that, if stuffed into the washing machine, would jam the drum and make it impossible to operate. It could only be manually wrung out to some extent.

He wiped the rainwater dripping from his hair and frowned slightly, his handsome features showing concern. “No, it’s still early today. How about I go to the supermarket and buy you a new comforter?”

Anyway, a winter quilt didn’t cost more than 200. He still had plenty of money left, and the quilt he had been using for three years had become dirty from the rain. Even if he dried it out, it won’t be as soft and warm as a new quilt.

After all, rainwater is very dirty. The best case scenario would be to wash the entire quilt with clean water, but that would take at least several days to dry it.

This time, Wen Yi didn’t want to agree to Tan Xiao’s suggestion: “No.”

He did all this not to get a new quilt paid for by Tan Xiao.

The boy, with an innocent face and excessively dark eyes, stared intently at Tan Xiao: “Sleeping with you is very warm.”

Wen Yi could actually speak fluent long sentences, but now his voice was very unpleasant, rough like rubbing sandpaper on a plate, so he spoke as little as possible, uttering only two or three words at a time.

“I like… sleeping with you.”

Tan Xiao suddenly let go, allowing the blanket in his hand to fall onto the rope he had set up yesterday.

His back was straight, like a pine tree that remains green throughout the seasons.

The curly-haired youth’s eyes were youthful yet sharp, his gaze pinning Wen Yi firmly to the ground, making the latter feel a sense of helplessness as if being targeted by a top predator.

“Do you just like sleeping with me? Are you addicted to my warm body? No other thoughts?”

Three consecutive questions left Wen Yi momentarily at a loss for words.

“Not…”

“Not what, not like me?”

Before Wen Yi could respond, Tan Xiao said, “You felt it this morning, right? I’m a normally developed and mature boy, with normal physiological reactions.”

Tan Xiao said, “Actually, I’m very happy to be able to sleep with you, but we can’t squeeze into the bed like this every day.”

“Wen Yi.”

Tan Xiao suddenly called out the other person’s name. Despite looking quite disheveled from being drenched in the heavy rain, he inexplicably wanted to express his true feelings in this disheveled state.

Because he wouldn’t always be the glamorous transfer student; he would also have his own shortcomings, disheveled, lost, and pitiful sides. He hoped his lover would like his outstanding and exceptional side, but also accept his bad, imperfect side.

“Wen Yi, actually, the first time I saw you, I fell in love with you at first sight. Being nice to you was because I wanted to pursue you, I wanted to be your boyfriend.”

He had a slightly troubled pout: “Originally, when you asked me to stay yesterday, I should have refused you, but I lost my mind and chose to stay at school. It’s not that I don’t want us to sleep together, it’s quite the opposite. I like you too much, so I’m afraid I can’t control myself.”

Tan Xiao grabbed the other person’s hand and placed it on his chest, where his heart was pounding like a drum: “Can you hear it? It’s beating really fast because of you.”

The dangerous 14th became a bit of a stutterer: “I… I can hear it.”

It was beating much faster than when Tan Xiao was sleeping yesterday: “Thump thump thump… thump thump thump.”

“Wen Yi, I know I like you, but being close to you makes me doubt my self-control.” He continued, “We are seniors, and we have about 100 days until the college entrance exam. We can put off matters of the heart for now; we absolutely cannot delay our studies.”

Wen Yi clearly only heard the part “I like you.” He shyly replied, “Me too, I like you.”

“That’s not the point. The point is we need to study and ensure we get good grades!”

Wen Yi suddenly said, “I’m first.”

Tan Xiao: “?”

Wen Yi continued, “Always number one.”

He looked at Tan Xiao with hopeful eyes: “Dating doesn’t affect it, I’m number one.”

Tan Xiao felt his heart race faster, damn it, what should he do if he was a little moved?

No early romance, indeed, was to avoid affecting studies. After all, this was the second half of senior year, the most important stage of life. There was no rush for this moment.

Wen Yi looked at Tan Xiao and for the first time spoke a long sentence: “Don’t worry, I won’t let your grades drop. I can help you be first.”

Tan Xiao instinctively retorted: “I don’t want to be first.”

He was surprised that Wen Yi was even better than he had imagined, and he was willing to admit his own shortcomings: “And I’m not that great either. In my previous school, I usually ranked in the top ten.”

He listened to the test papers all day and tried to do them himself. His score was roughly in the top five of his class, but Class 8 was one of the best classes, so his score was currently in the top twenty of the entire grade.

For him, the first place was too difficult. Even if Wen Yi gave up the top spot, he still couldn’t make it into the top ten.

Wen Yi shook his head, indicating that Tan Xiao had misunderstood his intentions: “If I tutor you, we’ll both be tied for first place.”

With the conversation reaching this point, the timid little dear took the initiative to extend a tentacle. How could Tan Xiao bear to watch him retreat into his shell with a disappointed look?

Tan Xiao finally made up his mind: “Since I like you and you like me, let’s start dating from now on!”

Who hadn’t longed for a sweet, innocent first love during their school years? Perhaps returning to senior year was all for this kind of relationship.

Tan Xiao was young and full of vigor, and he was brave enough not to want to regret it when he got older.

He extended his pinky finger: “You said it, we absolutely can’t let it affect our grades, and we can’t let the teachers find out. If it affects our grades, we’ll temporarily break up. We can only be officially together after we get into a top university!”

Tan Xiao emphasized that it must be a top university, firmly insisting that Wen Yi shouldn’t let his grades drop because of a relationship.

Some people fall in love and their grades plummet because their minds are filled with love, but there are also some special cases where falling in love actually improves their academic performance.

The school prioritized grades; as long as the grades were excellent enough, even the teachers would turn a blind eye.

Tan Xiao felt that as a responsible adult, he absolutely would not allow such a situation to happen to the two of them.

He extended his pinky finger: “Pinky swear, a hundred years, no change.”

Wen Yi’s pinky intertwined with his, lingering and affectionate: “No change.”

He didn’t say a hundred years because a hundred years was too short for him; Wen Yi wanted his love to last forever, without a deadline.