Bite Your Fingertips

10th -【Acting Skills】

The wind blowing in the corridor for half an hour failed to cool down Chu Yu’s hot blood.

After waiting for the English teacher to return to her office once class ended, Chu Yu reentered the classroom with Lu Shi and limply flopped down on the desk once again.

Zhang Yueshan had already become accustomed to Chu Yu either lying on his stomach, or preparing to lie on his stomach over the past two days. He turned around to carefully check Lu Shi’s expression first and found that Lu-Shen was the same as usual; cold and indifferent, without any abnormalities.

He pretended to cough twice before asking Chu Yu in a low voice, “Classmate Chu, you guys… didn’t fight, right?”

Chu Yu’s chin was resting on his arms, his lips naturally carried a bit of a curved smile, and his tone was lazy. “Rep, we’re all successors of socialism, we’re civilized and we don’t engage in violence.”

Furthermore, Chu Yu was very self-aware. As a complete rookie with flowery fists and fancy footworkFlowery fists and feet of embroidery; idiom meaning he was just show with no actual skills, kinda like “all bark but no bite”., he was as weak as a chicken. Why the hell would he want to court disaster and send himself before that gangster?

And something like fighting was extremely dangerous, what if he damaged his face?

Either way, Chu Yu questioned, “Rep, are you worried that Lu Shi and I will fight outside the classroom and will both suffer?”

Zhang Yueshan was indeed worried. “No, how could I worry about that. Can you even fight Lu-Shen? I’m worried that you’ll be kicked down and rubbed into the dirt by Lu-Shen.”

Chu Yu lost his smile and flew into a temper because of the humiliation. “I-I’ve decided not to talk to you for a while! You’ve wounded my pride!”

As soon as he finished speaking, Chu Yu heard a chuckle.

It came from the table behind him.

The voice was deep and low— a bit husky and magnetic.

It sounded nice.

Chu Yu turned his head and raised his chin. “Classmate Lu, do you share the same opinion as our class rep?”

He threatened him with his eyes.

But the threat fell flat.

Lu Shi sat leaning against the wall, as if the space between the chair and the desk couldn’t fit his long legs which spread naturally. His right leg was out in the aisle with clean white sneakers and black school pants tautly stretched. Its slender lines were exceptionally beautiful.

He met Chu Yu’s light-colored eyes. Seeing the other person’s round, wide eyes, the corner of Lu Shi’s lips drew tight.

Lu Shi replied, “Yeah.”

??

Chu Yu angrily returned to lying on his desk while repeatedly lamenting in his heart. The world isn’t worth it, me handing out that strawberry-flavored fruit candy wasn’t worth it!

The next period was physics.

After the bell rang, Chu Yu took out his book, opened it, and then set it up on the table so that his face would be covered.

A voice from the desk behind called, “Chu Yu.”

Hearing his name float from Lu Shi’s mouth, Chu Yu felt his ears become a little itchy.

He turned around. “Huh?”

Lu Shi held a long, thin pencil in his hand and used its tip to point in the air. “Your book, it’s upside down.”

Chu Yu followed the direction of the pencil and looked at the book he’d placed in front of him, only to realize that he hadn’t paid any attention as the book was standing upside down.

What about my face? Where did it go?

After an entire day of classes, Chu Yu didn’t attend the nightly self-study session again. Instead, he fled to the infirmary and occupied a bed.

The doctor was very responsible and performed all the routine examinations for Chu Yu.

The thermometer displayed 36.5 degrees97.7 Fahrenheit., the standard body temperature.

The school’s doctor agreed with his family doctor’s diagnosis. “Poor appetite, stomachache, abdominal dropsy and vomiting means gastro-intestinal neurosis; rapid breathing, increased heart rate, high blood pressure, and the feeling of your blood vessels throbbing as if they’re about to explode is sympathetic hyperfunction. Then an anomaly in sense of taste coupled with a feverish body, yet the taken body temperature is normal, all while there are no abnormalities in various physical data indicators and no pre-existing diseases. Thus, I also think it must be a neurological dysfunction. Just relax and rest properly, you will return to normal after a while.”

Chu Yu hugged an ice pack with worry; he worried and worried and eventually fell asleep. He slept until the infirmary closed and the doctor came in and called him.

Back in the dormitory. Chu Yu glanced at the neighboring door before opening his own. He vaguely remembered the dormitory managers seemingly mentioning that someone had moved into the empty dorm room next to his own this semester.

Chu Yu’s curiosity only sprouted for a moment before he nipped it in the bud. For now, he just wanted to take a bath and then lie down on his bed.

The next day, the first period was still English.

Chu Yu took out a brand new English textbook and pen as he covered his mouth for a yawn.

“Chu Yu, stand outside!”

Hearing Wang Lilin’s words, Chu Yu blankly looked up.

Wang Lilin, who was wearing a black pencil skirt paired with a very thick lipstick, stared at Chu Yu with a fuming face.

She repeated, “If you are going to simply doze off during morning classes, then you might as well not come to my class. Stand outside and let the cool breeze wake you up.”

Zhang Yueshan wanted to raise his hand to speak, but Chu Yu kicked his chair from behind to stop him.

He didn’t bother taking the book when he got up and left the classroom.

After less than two minutes of standing, Lu Shi also came out.

The two stood side by side, staring at the sparrows on the railing together.

Chu Yu hadn’t slept well last night nor eaten anything, so he was very lethargic. He yawned and his thick, curled eyelashes caught the water in his eyes.

He muttered, “I’m convinced. She just wants to show off her dominance and satisfy her unjustified mentality so she uses us as her foils.”

Chu Yu found that Lu Shi had turned his head to look at him, so he leaned back against the wall and explained, “It’s not hard to understand, isn’t it? Teacher Wang is very arrogant and fierce, but of course, it’s only on the surface. In fact, she actually feels inferior and is a bit stupid. In her subconscious, she senses that she doesn’t have the ability to control the rich second and third generation students in our class, so she targets me.” Chu Yu pointed to himself. “I take the bullet so she can establish her dominance.”

“And because, in her subconscious, she knows that her skills are insufficient and not up to par to teach our class’ top students – after all, IQ isn’t something everyone is born with – she targets you as well and uses this method to establish herself as someone strong, in a stable position with the right to speak. Thus, she comes to insult, intimidate, and suppress us. Her scolding words yesterday weren’t just for me and you, but also for the whole class.”

After he finished, Chu Yu let out a long-drawn sigh. “Ai, her strategy’s so botched, it’s quite pitiful.”

Lu Shi watched him press his palm against the brick wall then switch to pressing the back of his hand every few seconds, then replied, “Yeah, she’s indeed pretty easy to understand.”

Chu Yu blinked, carefully listening to what he had to say next.

“I just didn’t expect that you’d be smart enough to understand.”

??

Smart enough?

Chu Yu’s feathers were ruffled in an instant!

So annoying! How could this guy be so infuriating?! If he could turn back time to yesterday, he’d slap his face— who wanted to give him candy?!

No, wait. Chu Yu stopped his irate way of thinking— no way, no way, he couldn’t slap the face!

Lu Shi saw Chu Yu’s amber eyes flicker with emotion and looked on as his hair puffed up. He habitually slipped his hands into his pockets, stopped talking, and continued to watch the sparrows on the railings scramble for food.

He used to think that Chu Yu was clean and unsuspecting, without the least bit of haze; a young master who grew up spoiled.

But now, he found out that the person in front of him didn’t seem to be limited to this one facet.

And perhaps, had many more different sides to him.

It was like a paper figure suddenly becoming three-dimensional.

At that time, Lu Shi felt his cuff be gently pulled by an infinitesimal force.

Looking down, Lu Shi’s gaze fell on Chu Yu’s fingertips which were pulling his cuff, and he queried, “Hm?”

Chu Yu’s sight was elsewhere as he slightly leaned in to whisper to Lu Shi. “Classmate Lu, play along and I’ll show you this young master’s outstanding acting skills!”

Following his line of sight, Lu Shi saw the principal and two supervisors approaching from the end of the corridor.

He had a rough guess of what Chu Yu was about to do.

After a few seconds, Chu Yu took a deep breath, closed his eyes and relaxed, softly falling to the ground.

Lu Shi reacted extremely quickly. Almost immediately after Chu Yu fell, he caught him in his arms.

He was very light.

And, his acting was really bad.

Lu Shi was very cooperative. With an expressionless face, he acted out the lines that Chu Yu was expecting in the script, “Chu Yu, why did you faint? Quickly, wake up.”

Chu Yu opened his right eye and winked at Lu Shi. Thinking that this teammate of his wasn’t a pig at all, he assuredly and contentedly closed his eyes.

At the end of the hallway, the supervisors were puzzled. “That’s Second Year Class A over there, right? What happened, are students being punished to stand? And he fainted? Wait, that student looks like—”

The principal frowned and suddenly quickened his pace. “It’s the young master of the Chu family!”

• 1Flowery fists and feet of embroidery; idiom meaning he was just show with no actual skills, kinda like “all bark but no bite”.
• 297.7 Fahrenheit.