Qing Kuang Chapter 114

Published at 10th of May 2023 01:21:41 PM

The weather was pretty nice these days. A bunch of people in the class have been complaining about how hot it is, but he thinks it’s alright. Maybe it’s because he’s turning into a straight-a student, and he has the peace of mind…

But he woke up today feeling both annoyed and hot. When he was getting ready in the morning he couldn’t help but just close the bathroom door and take a shower, making Wei Chaoren curse at him from the outside for five minutes. When he left his room, he was still feeling agitated. 

“Kou Chen’s affected my mood, if I don’t get a good score today,” Wei Chaoren said. “I’m telling my mom it’s Kou Chen’s fault.”

“Then I’ll tell your mom my head injury was because you hit me in my sleep.” Kou Chen stretched.

At that, Wei Chaoren shut his mouth.

“How is it with Zhou Ning?” Kou Chen asked. 

“Don’t bring it up, right now she’s carefree, waiting for her acceptance letter at home,” Wei Chaoren said. “And I had to be so busy these days, just because of this whatever it’s called study group. I’ve sacrificed so much.”

“You have to think of it like this, if you don’t study, there’s no way you’ll get her. Zhou Ning has good grades, she won’t think highly of people like you,” Xu Chuan said. “But now that you’re studying, there might be a chance.”

“Even if you have no chance here, you can do better somewhere else,” Jiang Lei added.

“For love,” Hu Yi said. “Study hard. That’s the greatest motivation.”

Walking to the cafeteria, Kou Chen felt really uncomfortable with his hands empty. Usually, he would be holding textbooks or something. On exam day, Xu Zhifan said they didn’t need to study anymore, so they were all empty-handed.

To Kou Chen, this nervousness was like he was walking around without pants on.

We’re not even together,” Kou Chen looked at Huo Ran. “Was this on purpose? They put me in Humanities 3’s room!” 

“How does it feel to be under me?” Huo Ran raised an eyebrow.

“Great!” Kou Chen yelled.

Huo Ran was a little speechless.

“I’ve changed for the worse,” Kou Chen said. “It’s all your fault.” 

“Well I didn’t mean it that way,” Huo Ran said.

“But what’s done is done, so I thought of it like that,” Kou Chen smiled.

“Hurry up, I’m going upstairs.” Huo Ran pushed him from behind.

Kou Chen immediately snapped back to reality. Right now, he should be walking into Humanities 3’s classroom, preparing to take his exams with a bunch of people he doesn’t now. 

The Seven of them were divided into three separate rooms. Kou Chen didn’t remember who went where, but he and Jiang Lei were in Humanities 3, and it was a mix of Sciences and Humanities students.

But it didn’t really matter to him anyways. He never even bothered to copy someone else’s answers before, and there was no way he would cheat now. He had to prove that he passed because of his own hard work.

He could do it.

He turned around to look at Jiang Lei sitting somewhere behind him. “Leilei!” 

“Coming,” Jiang Lei leapt to his side. “What is it?”

“…I was just saying hi,” Kou Chen said.

“Fuck, I’m so nervous right now,” Jiang Lei said. “Don’t play with me.”

“Don’t worry,” Kou Chen said. “Even I can pass, what are you afraid of? I thought you were better than me?” 

“Not by much,” Jiang Lei said. “But we’re definitely gonna surprise some people this time…”

“Everyone, sit down in your seats, no more whispering to each other.” Miss Chen walked into the room. “Only a pencil and a water bottle are allowed on the desks…”

Jiang Lei went back to his own seat.

Kou Chen put his pencil in the middle of his desk. 

Let’s do this!

“That’s good,” Kou Chen’s dad nodded. “You cannot tell him I’m taking the exam here, I don’t want to pressure him… No, if he finds out he’s gonna talk about it until the new year.”

“You’ll leave as soon as you finish, don’t worry.” Old Yuan laughed.

“Should I go easy on him?” Kou Chen’s dad said. “Did me doing so much better than him on the test last time demotivate him?” 

“Just try your best,” Old Yuan said. “Kou Chen’s not that kind of person. What you need is a ‘I respect you’ attitude from him, and then everything will be easier. The kid is reasonable, as long as you prove that you can do the things you ask of him, that’s enough.”

“Okay,” Kou Chen’s dad nodded. “Are you not supervising them today?”

“I have a bit of a cold, I keep coughing, so I refused,” Old Yuan coughed. When the bell rang to signal the start of the exam, he put the papers down on the desk. “You’ll do the test here, I’ll be in the hallway so I don’t disturb you.”

“It’s fine, you find somewhere to rest, don’t worry about me,” Kou Chen’s dad said. 

Old Yuan smiled, and walked out of his office.

Language was Kou Chen’s easiest subject, since he was always willing to pay attention because of Old Yuan after all. Now after all of his studying, the questions didn’t pose any trouble.

Even the essay portion wasn’t that hard. There were a few poems about youth, and it asked to describe how you understand “youth”. 

To Kou Chen, their seven-person group was the perfect example. Everything they’ve been through, including school, teachers, and parents, could all be used in the essay.

But compared to before when he didn’t know what to write and could only wait for the exam to be over, what annoyed Kou Chen was the fact that there wasn’t enough time now that he could write it.

Each time the teacher reminded them of the remaining time, it was less than he expected.

He started sweating, even with the air conditioner going above him. 

In the end, he filled up the entire space, and it looked really satisfying.

Huo Ran probably handed his paper in a few minutes earlier. When Kou Chen walked out of the room, he saw him standing at the road up ahead. He was even holding a plastic bag filled with drinks.

“You finished early?” Jiang Lei exclaimed. “It was too much fucking time for you?” 

“I finished ten minutes early,” Huo Ran said. “I looked it over and fixed some things, but I was scared of changing the right answers into wrong ones, so I left.”

“So that means you had enough time?” Jiang Lei said. “Fuck, how come I didn’t have enough time to fix stuff? The bell rang right after I looked it over, I didn’t have time to fix anything.”

“Maybe it’s all correct,” Huo Ran laughed.

“In my dreams!” Jiang Lei grabbed a bottle of coke from the bag. 

Right as he was about to drink it, Huo Ran said: “There was only one bottle of coke left, it’s for Kou Chen.”

“What do you mean?” Jiang Lei said.

“That means this is mine,” Kou Chen took the bottle from him and took a big gulp. “Nice!”

“I’m not arguing only because I’m exhausted after the exam,” Jiang Lei looked back into the bag. “Then may I ask, out of everything left, iced tea, minute maid, and daily C, which ones can I drink?” 

“Any of them,” Huo Ran said.

Jiang Lei took the iced tea and tipped his head back to drink it before pointed at Huo ran. “I’ll be remembering this, when I get a girlfriend, every fucking kiss will be right in front of you.”

A while later, they all met up in the cafeteria, apart from Xu Zhifan who went to the bathroom. Then, for the first time in their lives, they began discussing the exam. 

“What a mystery,” Hu Yi said. “We actually compared answers?”

“Yup, it’s not like we didn’t want to before, but we didn’t even know what answer we picked,” Wei Chaoren said. “Nor did we know what the hell we even wrote.”

“It feels kinda nice,” Xu Chuan said.

“How did you do? Did everything go well?” Huo Ran asked Kou Chen quietly. 

“It was alright,” Kou Chen said. “I think I did pretty good on the essay, I almost ran out of space.”

“Good job,” Huo Ran laughed. “I wonder how your dad did the exam, how well he did.”

“He’s obviously fine,” Kou Chen sighed. “Me? I don’t even need to compete with him anymore, as long as I pass, I can hold my head up high.”

“Did you ever think your dad was this good?” Huo Ran asked. 

“Who thinks about that?” Kou Chen said. “All parents say stuff like when I was young I did this and that, and how much of that is the truth? They’re just counting on the fact we can’t prove it wrong.”

“True.” Huo Ran thought about it. “My dad was never like that, he only talked about good he was at outdoor activities, and that I’ve seen with my own eyes.”

“Now I’m seeing how good my dad is with my own eyes,” Kou Chen drank his coke. “So eye-opening.”

Xu Zhifan ran into the cafeteria, sat down, and patted the table in front of Kou Chen. He lowered his voice: “Guess who I just ran into.” 

“Who?” Everyone leaned in.

“My dad?” Kou Chen reacted fast.

“Yup,” Xu Zhifan said. “I bumped into him in the bathroom…”

“That’s a bit awkward?” Kou Chen said. 

“Very awkward,” Xu Zhifan said.

“Did he take the exam here?” Huo Ran asked. “He can’t really take the test home?”

“Probably,” Wei Chaoren said. “Holy shit, the father and son took the test together today… Why do I feel kinda… jealous?”

“Jealous my ass,” Kou Chen said. “You’ll know how I feel when your dad crushes you. But why was he using the bathroom here? Isn’t he worried about running into me?” 

“What do you mean? He obviously couldn’t hold it in any longer,” Huo Ran said.

“Fuck,” Kou Chen started laughing loudly. Then he looked at Xu Zhifan, “Did you guys say anything?”

“What are we supposed to say at the door to the bathroom?” Xu Zhifan sighed. “Uncle Kou? What are you doing here? Ah, Zhifan? I need to use the bathroom.”

They all burst out into laughter. Xu Chuan took a sip of his drink, “That’s not bad, it’s good enough he didn’t ask you if you’ve eaten or not.” 

“Then I might’ve just blurted out yes I have,” Xu Zhifan.

Everyone started laughing again.

A successful exam makes people prone to laughing at anything.

This is the first time these slackers felt happiness after an exam, even though their goals were just to pass them.

But the following exams weren’t anything to be happy about.

They were all Kou Chen’s weak points.

In other words, he didn’t even have any strong points. 

There were only his weak points, and his very weak points. Just thinking about it was depressing.

But during the exam, he would glance out the window, to the second floor of the office building. There in Old Yuan’s office was his dad, sitting at the desk, answering the same questions as him at the same time.

With that, he felt a lot better.

He even felt very warm. He was planning to go straight home after exams to make fun of his dad for at least half a year, but now, he couldn’t quite bear to do it. 

He’s known so many classmates, and he’s never seen any of their parents take an exam with them.

Even though it was a little weird at the beginning.

But in the end, he still opened up his memory box, and put this period of time inside, very earnestly. Second Kou… His second year of high school, when Second Kou… No, Kou Jingcheng, his dad, accompanied him on this final sprint for over half a semester.

Even though the result would absolutely be him getting crushed, and his dad gloating about it. 

“The last of the exams will be over this afternoon,” Old Yuan took the test away. “After the other teachers mark everything, I’ll have them take a look at yours.”

“I had Kou Chen’s sister call him to ask how he did,” Kou Chen’s dad frowned. “That kid won’t say a single thing except to wait until results are out.”

“He doesn’t know either,” Old Yuan laughed. “Those kids aren’t usually concerned about this, so they can’t guess how well they’ve done. They can only wait for the results.” 

“I’m a little worried now,” Kou Chen’s dad said. “What if he fails? The finals at Fuzhong are harder than other schools, especially math, it was a lot harder than last year.”

Old Yuan paused: “You looked for past exams to do?”

“I didn’t do them, I have friends with children in high school, I asked them,” Kou Chen’s dad smiled. “Kou Chen did some and left them at home, so I flipped through them.”

“For a parent to do that,” Old Yuan said. “I’m very glad to see it, and very surprised too.” 

“I’m free now, I won’t have this much time anymore the second half of the year,” Kou Chen’s dad said. “I just want him to know that I treat him the same as his sister. I can do anything for him as well.”

“If he really fails an exam,” Old Yuan asked. “Have you thought about what to say?”

“I was with him the whole way, I know he tried his best, and I also know that school isn’t an easy thing,” Kou Chen’s dad said. “These problems are harder than when I went to school. Pass or fail, it will always be a pass in my heart.”

“That’s good,” Old Yuan said. “So don’t bring up going abroad again.” 

Kou Chen’s dad laughed: “You’re even more worried about it than him.”

“For someone like Kou Chen, I don’t think it’ll be good to send him abroad. I couldn’t really say it before,” Old Yuan said. “Forget everything else, just the way you are sending him away will make him feel abandoned, and he’ll be even more reluctant to communicate with you in the future. The situation is good right now, very good, extremely good, very good… Now hurry up, Kou Chen must be headed here to see me.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Kou Chen’s dad waved him off. “I went to the bathroom on the first day and ran into Xu Zhifan, he’d have told Kou Chen for sure.”

“Then… you’ll wait for them here?” Old Yuan asked. 

“I’d rather not,” Kou Chen’s dad stood up. “I don’t want to run into that bunch of kids.”

With an arm around Huo Ran, Kou Chen happily headed towards Old Yuan’s office with the others. They were planning to treat Old Yuan to dinner in the cafeteria tonight.

To thank Old Yuan for all he’s done for them this year. 

At the office building, Kou Chen took his arm back. “Oh? Who is that I see?! Who the fuck is that!”

“It’s your fucking dad!” Huo Ran immediately saw Kou Chen’s dad running down the stairs, and he felt excited for some strange reason.

They were all feeling relaxed after exams were over, and they weren’t worried about getting beat or made into sausages after results came in. They were all happy, so they shouted together: “Uncle Kou! Uncle Kou!”

Kou Chen’s dad had his back to him, and he froze there for two seconds before turning around: “You guys have sharp eyes, huh” 

“How would we have hid from the teachers in the past if we can’t even see you from here?” Wei Chaoren said.

“So it’s from lots of practice, is it?” Kou Chen’s dad smiled and looked at Kou Chen.

Kou Chen smirked: “How did you do?”

“Me?” His dad pointed at himself. “Everything went well, I did alright!” 

Kou Chen clicked his tongue.

“What about you?” Kou Chen’s dad mimicked his tone. “How did you do?”

“Passable,” Kou Chen said humbly. “Nothing much.”

Chapter end