Chapter 94

Chapter 94: Fortunately, It’s Not Time Yet

The wonderful first-year summer vacation passed in a blink. In the last few days, everyone was busy writing their summer homework together.

Junior high summer homework was worlds apart from elementary school homework. Even Xia Yuan, who used to stick to her principles and insisted on completing all her assignments herself, found herself struggling with the mountain of work assigned for the summer.

Under Mei Fang’s devilish persuasion, she eventually decided to compromise and invited Mei Fang and Lin You Xi to his house to divide the work.

“I’ll do Chinese, Ah Fang will do English, and You Xi will do math.”

Lin You Xi had already finished most of her homework early on, just like in elementary school. When she brought her homework over, she only had two essays and two math papers left. She didn’t mind lending her homework to Mei Fang and Xia Yuan for “reference,” and her work quality was quite high.

Mei Fang, without hesitation, started copying Lin You Xi’s homework first. As someone reborn, he hated these time-wasting tasks.

As for Xia Yuan, because she was not in the same class as Mei Fang and Lin You Xi, and the teachers from their respective classes had assigned different amounts of homework, both Mei Fang and Xia Yuan were stunned when they saw Xia Yuan’s list of assignments.

“Besides the summer exercise book, there are also two sets of math papers and another exercise book? Your math teacher must be really harsh.”

“It’s not just math… There are eight weekly diaries and eight themed essays in Chinese, plus we have to write four movie reviews and four book reports. Only English has fewer requirements.”

Mei Fang was very surprised, “So much homework, can your classmates handle it?”

Xia Yuan shook her head, “The top students, especially the boys, compete fiercely. Some even say the teacher hasn’t given enough work, I don’t know what they’re thinking. As for those who don’t study seriously, our head teacher Huang doesn’t care about their homework as long as they don’t disrupt the class.”

“Writing so many essays, would the teacher really grade them all?”

Lin You Xi shook her head, “Maybe she just doesn’t want you to have an easy summer break.”

“I think so too… Xiao Xue said she’s not planning to do any of her summer homework.”

In fact, Xia Yuan’s head teacher Huang Lian was Mei Fang’s middle school head teacher in his previous life. She was a strict and stern 40-something-year-old female teacher known by students as the “Yellow-faced Lady” due to her name’s homophonic meaning.

Of course, she was also the one who had a major conflict with Peng Xue that led to a physical altercation at school. Hearing Xia Yuan talk about Peng Xue’s actions, Mei Fang was a bit worried that history might repeat itself, so he reminded Xia Yuan:

“Best not to provoke her. Don’t encourage her either; your head teacher is fierce and holds grudges. She might keep scolding Peng Xue.”

“In fact, she never liked Xiao Xue much. She often criticizes her for dressing up, but she doesn’t care about students who don’t study anyway. However, Xiao Xue actually has decent grades, yet she’s always being criticized for no reason.”

Mei Fang thought for a moment, “Since you’re close to her, wouldn’t you get dragged into it?”

“I guess she doesn’t like me much either, since I transferred in. But she hasn’t targeted me specifically.”

Although Xia Yuan loved looking pretty, she didn’t dress as maturely as Peng Xue. Apart from her close interactions with Mei Fang, which drew attention, she generally maintained a well-behaved image at school.

“I thought since you got in through connections, this teacher would be close to your mom and pay more attention to you.”

“That’s not entirely true. My mom had to go through someone else to contact her, so it’s like a third party. I heard my parents talking before; she gave Huang many gifts.”

Xia Yuan pondered, “Maybe if my dad hadn’t given her gifts, I might have been treated the same as Xiao Xue… I feel our head teacher particularly dislikes pretty girls.”

“You’re right… She was quite unpopular among middle school girls in my previous life. Besides forbidding them from dressing up or having long hair, she frequently discussed self-respect and self-love, cracking down hard on early relationships.”

Mei Fang’s muttering piqued Xia Yuan’s curiosity, “How do you know what our head teacher is like?”

“Oh? Nothing, I heard it from your classmates.”

Mei Fang continued copying the homework, “Yuan Yuan, take care of yourself first, but remind Peng Xue about her homework. You can let her copy yours, just don’t let her confront the ‘Yellow-faced Lady.'”

“‘Yellow-faced Lady’? Haha… You actually know how we privately call her! But, it’s not hard to guess.”

Xia Yuan nodded, “I’ll leave her a message on QQ, but considering her personality, she probably won’t listen to me…”

“Keep trying. If it doesn’t work out, then it’s fine.”

Mei Fang wasn’t familiar with Peng Xue in his previous life, but after Xia Yuan introduced her, he felt that this girl was actually quite nice.

Peng Xue had a cheerful and generous personality, though sometimes she could be overly extroverted and would inadvertently bump into others, leaving an impression of being somewhat presumptuous.

Most importantly, Peng Xue was now Xia Yuan’s good friend. If she faced rejection from the teacher, Mei Fang knew Xia Yuan would likely not stand idly by.

And at that time… Mei Fang would also step in.

After several days of torment, everyone finally completed their homework and returned to class. Li Shibing started by collecting the assignments and then talked about reorganizing groups and electing class officers.

During the first year of junior high, student grades fluctuated significantly. Some class officers were no longer suitable for their roles and were replaced on the spot after being criticized. Only Lin You Xi remained steadfast.

She excelled in various tests and maintained discipline well. Whenever conflicts arose among classmates, including fights between boys, she would intervene without needing help.

The class atmosphere was such that whenever Lin You Xi arrived, even mischievous troublemakers would show her respect and submit under her authoritative presence.

When Lin You Xi was on duty during nap time and couldn’t sleep due to maintaining discipline, she would sit at the podium writing and reading. This was when Mei Fang enjoyed watching her, and she would often punch him playfully when passing by.

“Quick, go to sleep. Why are you staring at me?”

“Mm, I’ll sleep soon.” Mei Fang smiled.

It had been over half a year since Lin You Xi first snuggled into Mei Fang’s bed, and her shy appearance still lingered vividly in his memory.

It was a naive memory that made him uncontrollably smile every time he thought about it, just like the super energy of Ah Fang and Yuan Yuan.

Afterwards, Mei Fang clearly felt that Lin You Xi had become warmer towards him.

Of course, she remained close with Yuan Yuan, but there was a different, perhaps more special feeling when she interacted with him.

For teenagers of normal age, they might find it hard to describe what this feeling was, or perhaps they were too afraid to consider it.

But for Mei Fang, he knew exactly and confidently what it was.

However, it wasn’t the right time yet.

Or rather… fortunately, it wasn’t the right time yet.

Both Yuan Yuan and You Xi were adorable, and he loved them both deeply.

He wanted to protect them forever in that kind of love.

But as Yuan Yuan often said, this age should focus on studies.

Moreover, Mei Fang needed to consider his future career and guide the two innocent girls towards their futures—though ultimately, the decision was theirs. Mei Fang could only provide guidance.

He also didn’t want their feelings towards him to stem merely from adolescent infatuation, but from genuine affection, otherwise it wouldn’t last and would cause pain.

Furthermore, Yuan Yuan’s current state greatly worried him. He feared that she might suddenly lose control, so he tried to distract her with new games or music topics.

Ultimately, the most shining aspect was their mutual trust in each other’s friendship. Changing it to other emotions would invite comparisons.

Why compare who is better or more outstanding? Being better or more outstanding doesn’t necessarily mean deserving more love. After so many years together, their bond was so strong that he truly didn’t want to favor anyone…

In eighth grade, a new main subject was introduced: physics.

This subject caused many top-ranking girls from elementary school to struggle, falling to mid-to-lower rankings, becoming a nightmare for many girls.

This was also what Mei Fang was most concerned about for Xia Yuan.

So, at the start of the semester, he diligently supervised Xia Yuan’s progress in physics. Fortunately, she did well, scoring 75 out of 85 on her first physics test.

Of course, physics in later years, even in high school, would truly be a nightmare. Starting off well was always a good beginning.

Two months into eighth grade, Li Shibing announced plans for supplementary classes. He hoped that the top half of the class would participate in the remedial classes he and the main subject teachers would prepare, held on Sundays.

After the midterm exams, the school would set up additional remedial classes from after evening study until 8:30 PM, and on Saturdays based on students’ performance in previous exams.

This meant that middle school life would start getting busier.

But Lin You Xi was delighted upon hearing this. She clung to Mei Fang’s back excitedly, asking, “Doesn’t this mean we can study together with Yuan Yuan in the future?”

“Mm… but, we all have to pass first.”

(End of Chapter)