So Exhausting (3)

Qin Yuan said indifferently from the side, “Mm. The higher your scores are, the more tough it’ll be to increase eight or ten points more.”

The Class 1’s standard top students around him had green faces. “Boss, don’t think of increasing another eight to ten points to your grades!”

He was at the top of the stream, leading second place by a dozen points each time. Didn’t he feel lonely and cold standing at the top of the mountain?

As they were talking, Fu Songhua and a few boys each carried a small hotpot and cautiously ran over, with the man in front of them calling out, “Coming, be careful. It’s hot.”

Several were in a triple-fresh soup base, some in a Mala* soup base, and a few in a tomato soup base. All were freshly cooked and tiny enough for about three people to eat, and the side dishes were also brought over.

*T/N: Mala: one of the common flavors of Sichuan cuisine. It is characterized by a thick, salty, and fragrant spicy flavor.

“You guys can choose what you want. If the vegetables aren’t enough, you can go to the window and get more yourself.” Fu Songhua called out and put a small pot with a tomato soup base in front of Qin Yuan. “Boss, you want this, right?”

He had observed that the boss loved sweet and sour food.

Qin Yuan looked at Ruan Qingmu. “What do you want to eat?”

Ruan Qingmu smiled. “The same as you.”

Huang Ya sat next to him and casually reached out his chopsticks. “I will join you guys. I suffered from excessive internal heat these two days, so I can’t eat the Mala one.”

Qin Yuan didn’t say anything, nor did Ruan Qingmu. Bai Jing, next to him, suddenly turned his head. “Come and eat the three fresh mushrooms! Look at this egg dumpling. It’s beautiful and fresh~~~. Look at this mushroom. It’s round and big~~~.”

“No. I want to try the fatty tomato beef…”

Bai Jing grabbed him by the hand and forcefully inserted his chopsticks into his side. “No, you don’t want that!”

Huang Ya wanted to object, but when he turned his head and saw the appearance of Boss Qin lowering his head to help their Ruan-ge with the dishes, his mouth fell open. “… Yes. I suddenly don’t want it anymore.”

How rude and overstepping. He didn’t know how to weigh how many pounds and taels* he had!

*T/N: Weigh how many pounds and taels: a metaphor; to know your weight and status; self-awareness.

As the small pot began to boil and steam, Qin Yuan poured down a small plate of sliced fat beef. After a short while, he scooped it up again and put it into the bowl in front of Ruan Qingmu. “Eat.”

Ruan Qingmu wasn’t shy and brought the food up to his mouth with his chopsticks. “Oh, not bad.”

In the middle of winter, even if the hot sliced beef dipped in the sweet and sour tomato soup wasn’t high-quality and the ingredients weren’t the best, it still felt good in the stomach.

“Right, where’s your class’ Fang Li?” a person from Class 1 suddenly asked.

Bai Jing took a chopstick of instant-boiled mutton and answered, “He went to take the art school exam in the neighboring Z City.”

“Ohh! It’s so hard for the art candidates,” the boys from the science courses exclaimed.

“Although it’s hard for us, the admission quotas are abundant. The art candidates are the ones who are crossing a single-log bridge with thousands of horses.”

Fu Songhua sat silently on the side, not saying much. He took a chopstick of vegetables without even picking out the seasoned bay leaves inside, put it directly into his mouth, and chewed it before spitting it out after a while. “Pah! Pah!”

“Then, Fang Li won’t participate in the end-of-term exam anymore?”

Bai Jing nodded. “The school agreed to it. Art candidates are like this these two months, moving around everywhere.”

Someone searched the weather in Z City in passing and suddenly exclaimed, “Fuck. It’s moderate to heavy snow over there today! The family also has to follow the student moving around. So exhausting.”

Fu Songhua suddenly said, “He went alone.”

Everyone was slightly stunned. Didn’t their families accompany all art candidates to travel out of town? How could they do it alone in an unfamiliar place without friends or family, having to stay near different schools, prepare and wait for exams?

Not sure if it was from the heat of the small hotpot, Fu Songhua’s eyes were slightly red, and he repeated, “Nobody accompanied him.”

Other people had big and small bags, and their parents followed and served them like treasures, but his Fang Li went all alone. His mother had recently fallen ill, and it was already very good if she didn’t get into one of her spells and throw plates and bowls.

As a result, he could only anxiously wait like this, unable to do anything.

Ruan Qingmu raised his eyes to look at him and suddenly said, “Do your exam well. Don’t overthink too much. You’re not his mother.”

Qin Yuan also softly responded, “Right. It’ll be hard for everyone if your grades fall behind again.”

The boys present were all pretty close to Fang Li. Although they didn’t know why Fang Li had no one to accompany him there, they knew they should shut up and not ask. Everyone was slightly sullen at the small dining table and the Class 9 boys wore worried frowns on their faces.

Ruan Qingmu furrowed his brows and looked at Fu Songhua’s increasingly red eyes. “Everyone, don’t be like this. Fang Li will be all right.”

He stuffed a mouthful of food into his mouth. His voice sounded careless as if he didn’t care but he said it anyway, “He’s not the Fang Li of the past and doesn’t need you guys to pity him.”