Fake Slackers

Chapter 46: Want to hug you

The note He Zhao had left was still on the desk. During evening self-study last night, Wan Da had passed it around the class, and all the live-in students had indicated that they couldn't decipher anything. After a round of guessing, not only could they not tell how many words there actually were on the note, some even thought they were bone script.¹

Compared to this, He Zhao's exam handwriting could be considered meticulous. At least it was only ugly, it couldn't be mistaken for bone script.

Xie Yu saw it and suddenly remembered, then tossed the wad at He Zhao. "What the hell did you write on this?"

He Zhao smoothed out the note and glanced at it. "Not coming back to evening self-study," he read out, then added, "You couldn't read it?"

"......" Xie Yu really wanted to shove the paper in his face.

He Zhao admired the note a little longer. "How come you couldn't read it? I wrote it very attentively. Look at these words..."

Xie Yu was terrified He Zhao would start up with an expansive analyses of his artistic aptitude again and said, "All right, shut up."

Aside from mustering up a little energy when talking to Xie Yu, He Zhao either slept or was on his phone all morning. Old Tang made him go up to answer a question and all he said was, "I don't know."

"What's up with Zhao-ge today?" Liu Cunhao and the others all looked forward to hearing He Zhao answer questions: he always came up with unexpected surprises. Class was boring, after all. "Something's not right."

Wan Da glanced backward and saw the back of He Zhao's head. "Probably tired from the all-nighter."

He Zhao was bent at the waist, his forehead on the edge of the desk.

He held his phone in his hand, between his legs, and tapped into the chat window. I went to look for Erlei.

Then he deleted it character by character and looked at the words Your Grandpa Jun in a daze.

Lei Jun had gotten one thing right: no matter what he did, it was no use now.

It had already happened. Because of him. Nothing he could say would change anything.

After Erlei withdrew from school, he hadn't kept in contact with anybody.

He was definitely angry, He Zhao thought. If it were him, he wouldn't be able to bear it, either.

He had asked many people, including everyone in the area Erlei used to live, and had eventually arrived at his hometown.

He still remembered every word and every sound from Erlei's mouth.

"Zhao-ge, this isn't entirely your fault. But I can't help resenting you."

"But I don't want you to do this, either. You... you'd better go back and study. Can't just skip class like this."

"Me? I'm not studying any more, and I'm not going to look for a new school... My family found a training course for me. I'll start working and earn money."

He Zhao threw his phone into his desk and shut his eyes.

During the midday break, Luo Wenqiang and Liu Cunhao carried a cardboard box through the door. It was three blocks from the faculty office to the classroom, and class rep Liu Cunhao didn't exercise much so, by the time he reached the doorway, he was almost done for. His breath came shallowly as he said, "Classmates, the prizes have arrived... the prizes from the sports meet. Make way, make way."

Erzhong was efficient. The sports meet had only just ended and the prizes had already arrived.

"What prizes?" Some people crowded around curiously to see.