Bite Your Fingertips

28th -【A person covered by me】

Chu Yu got up early the next morning.

He didn’t sleep well during the night. He kept dreaming a forgotten dream and was awakened by that dream just after five o’clock, his eyes remained open and he couldn’t sleep.

After a while of being in a daze, he really couldn’t fall asleep, so he simply took out the notebook beside his pillow and started reading it.

The review materials Lu Shi compiled for him were written in one notebook for each subject.

For more than half a month, he turned the pages of these notebooks until the rough edges rose.

Lying on the bed wrapped in a quilt, Chu Yu was inexplicably less panicked when he saw the cold, sharp handwriting of Lu Shi.

At seven o’clock, Chu Yu got out of bed.

After brushing his teeth, he picked up his phone and wanted to send Shi Yaling a message to tell her that his monthly exams were today.

But then he thought, even if he sent the message, his mother wouldn’t have the time to read it, right?

In the end, he decided to just forget it.

After getting dressed, Chu Yu opened his room’s door at the same time the door next to his opened.

The two headed towards the stairs.

There was nothing else to talk about along the way, so Chu Yu muttered the fill-in-the-blank poems and classical Chinese essays he memorized which would surely show up in the exam as Lu Shi had highlighted.

Lu Shi had his hands in his pockets and his head slightly lowered as he listened carefully, correcting him from time to time.

They hurried to the cafeteria for breakfast and walked to the school building after. Chu Yu’s examination room was on the fourth floor and Lu Shi’s was on the first.

“Then, I’ll go up.”

Lu Shi gave Chu Yu the black felt-tip pen and pencil in his hand.

Chu Yu was baffled and shook the mesh pencil case in his hand. “I brought pens.”

“During the exam, if you can’t calm down, just remember that this is a pencil shrouded in the aura of the study god.”

Chu Yu had his first laugh that morning, then lifted his chin. “Then what about me?”

“You’re a person covered by me.”

In the last test room, there were many of Chu Yu’s acquaintances, but He Zhihao was who he was most familiar with.

As soon as Chu Yu stepped into the doorway, he heard He Zhihao’s voice. “Our family’s Young Master Yu has arrived!”

Chu Yu scolded him with a smile, “Piss off, who’s your family? Is your face getting bigger?”

He Zhihao grinned and complained, “What were you busying yourself with when I invited you out during the holidays but you didn’t come?”

“Studying.”

“Holy shit!”

He Zhihao hurriedly dragged over a chair and sat next to Chu Yu. “Someone told me that you didn’t go home over the National Day holidays and were instead answering questions and memorizing texts at school every day. I thought he was fucking with me, but you really did?”

He lowered his voice. “Is this about that bet? That Guan Yiyang is too damn arrogant, isn’t he too full of himself? You don’t need to do it, just say the word because this young master knows 800 ways to make him cry and kneel down to call you father!”

Chu Yu thought for a while before remembering who Guan Yiyang was.

He shook his head. “Who cares about him saying father? If you have so much free time, it’s better to just use it to sleep more. Whether I study or not has nothing to do with Guan Yiyang. I’m studying because,” he paused, “forget it, you won’t understand either.”

“What won’t I understand?”

However, seeing that Chu Yu really didn’t care about that person at all, He Zhihao didn’t mention him again. “Alright, then after the monthly exam is over, us brothers will hang out again? It’s been a month since you started school and you haven’t been out once. That big sister Lin has been asking about you god knows how many times. Now they ask me every time we meet, ‘where’s Chu Yu, why don’t I see him?'”

Chu Yu computed in his heart and found that this was indeed the case so he nodded. “That should be fine, after the exam, I’ll make time to hang out every now and then.”

“Remember what you said, don’t go back on your words! I’ll call them right away and make a reservation!”

“Tell me once the time and place is set.”

Chu Yu looked at the time. There were still twenty minutes left before the exam so he drove the person away. “I’ll excuse myself then and seize this time to read a book.”

Ten minutes before the exam, the proctor asked them to hand over any books and miscellaneous items. After speaking, he used an envelope to open the sealed bag of test papers.

Chu Yu handed in his books and returned from the podium. Along the way, many students were wielding their pen as if it were flying to prepare cheat sheets.

Some wrote on their palms while others copied onto the table; all of them were extremely focused.

As soon as he was seated, someone poked him in the back with a pen.

Chu Yu turned around and found that it was someone he knew. They had been in the same class in his first year of high school and weren’t so familiar, but he seemed to be called Yang Zhenxiang.

Yang Zhengxiang whispered, “School Flower, I made many extra copies of my cheat sheet, would you like one?”

Very generous.

Chu Yu refused.

He thought in his heart— to be honest, I can recite everything written on the cheat sheets you’ve all made!

At that moment, Chu Yu felt that he was probably the most impressive boy in the entire examination room.

When the test papers were issued, Chu Yu was worried that he’d forget everything, so he first flipped to the back and filled in the blanks of the ancient poems.

He only reacted once he’d already finished filling them all out— damn, he’d actually memorized all of the poems on the test!

Sitting up straight and breathing slowly, Chu Yu inadvertently saw that the student sitting in front of him didn’t read the test. He’d picked up his pencil and took half a minute to fill out the scantron for the multiple-choice questions, then began staring blankly at the wall clock above the blackboard.

Meanwhile, the one on his left was writing an essay. He wrote a few words then changed to the next line, just like a prose poem. Not much time had passed, but he’d almost finished covering most of the page.

The one sitting on his right was the most formidable. He’d cut up three sheets of his drafting paper to fold a thousand paper cranes.

Not long after, a thousand paper cranes were piled upon his table.

As for the proctors, one sat behind the podium playing with their phone, and the other stood at the door of the room chatting with someone. Apparently, they weren’t the least bit afraid of students passing answers and copying— passing on answers back and forth wouldn’t just make flowers bloom on the test.

Chu Yu completed two multiple-choice questions a little impetuously.

Then he stared at the pen given to him by Lu Shi for a while before continuing to work on the problems.

As soon as the test paper needed to be handed in, Chu Yu also completed his essay.

He didn’t study the essay material very well, but Lu Shi had given him a lecture on the standard template. He’d memorized it and was able to write smoothly.

Exam time flew by quickly, and Chu Yu did his questions very slowly. He only managed to finish all of the exams at the last minute.

After finishing the final subject – English – Chu Yu felt as if he was already crippled waste.

He lay on the desk, not wanting to move his hand at all.

Not until someone bent their fingers and lightly tapped on his desk twice.

It was Lu Shi.

“Why did you come up?”

Chu Yu raised his eyes and looked at Lu Shi from below. He had no energy to speak and was completely drained.

Lu Shi’s examination room was on the first floor. The elevator would definitely be packed and he’d be unable to ride it, so he had to climb the stairs to go up.

“Let’s go.”

Seeing that Chu Yu wasn’t moving, Lu Shi stretched out his hand and put the pencil, ruler, and eraser into the mesh pencil case one by one, then stroked Chu Yu’s soft hair while he was at it. “Not going?”

Chu Yu stood up slowly.

After walking a few steps with Lu Shi, Chu Yu recalled something and said excitedly, “I actually did the English test seriously for the first time, and I even met the word count for the essay! And, and math! I actually knew a lot of the answers! Also, the integrated sciences were really, really, really moving! I followed what you said and basically did everything I could do well. If I didn’t understand something, I didn’t waste time looking at it since I wouldn’t be able to make sense of it anyway.”

“What about Chinese literature?”

“I filled all the spaces!”

Chu Yu was very elated along the way, telling that he’d forgotten a formula when he was doing physics and almost snapped his pen trying to recall it.

He also mentioned that the second question in mathematics was almost exactly the same as what Lu Shi had taught him. He’d definitely get full marks.

Then he complained about English composition. It was always about Li HuaWe always have that teacher who likes to put their students’ names in exam problems or as an example.. How was it that Li Hua had so many foreign friends coming to China to play and even had numerous summer camps and sports competitions to participate in.

Lu Shi was very patient, walking beside Chu Yu, listening quietly, and answering with a line from time to time.

Chu Yu’s mouth eventually dried up from speaking. He paused and then remembered. “Today’s Thursday. I heard Old Ye say that they’d be working overtime to mark the exams so the results should be available tomorrow.”

There was tension and anxiety in his voice.

“Chu Yu.”

“Hm?”

Lu Shi stopped and lowered his eyes to look at him. “Promise me, no matter what the results are, you’re not allowed to cry.”

Chu Yu’s fur didn’t blow up this time.

He understood what Lu Shi meant.

“Okay.”

The author has something to say:

Here’s a blotted out scantron in the shape of a heart as my love for you~this will probs be the last i will translate the author’s love. I’ll only translate it in the future if there’s important info. Though tell me if y’all want me to continue translating authors memos~

• 1We always have that teacher who likes to put their students’ names in exam problems or as an example.
• 2this will probs be the last i will translate the author’s love. I’ll only translate it in the future if there’s important info. Though tell me if y’all want me to continue translating authors memos~