Chapter 19 Junior Sister You Nianyao: “Good Luck on Your High School Entrance Exam. May You Succeed.”

The reciting voices rising and falling in the classroom hovered around the ears like buzzing flies. Ye Xiaoyang recited Li Sao absentmindedly, but his mind was no longer on the book.

Luo Yi’s petite body was wrapped in the oversized school uniform. Both arms hung at her sides, only half a palm showing.

Liang Qin’s gaze locked onto the textbook like a hawk, doing her utmost to search for possible flaws in the content Luo Yi was reciting.

Two minutes later, Liang Qin turned a page. Luo Yi continued reciting.

“She even memorized that densely packed page?” Zhou Jiahang was very surprised. “This old woman is truly perverted. Even now she still won’t give up. Is she hoping she’ll recite the whole thing? How is that possible?”

Ye Xiaoyang “bang” closed the textbook, walked around Zhou Jiahang, and headed toward the front row.

“Her waist like flowing silk, her ears wearing bright moon pendants. Her fingers like peeled scallion roots, her mouth like holding cinnabar. Her fine steps—” Luo Yi was reciting The Peacock Flies Southeast when she was suddenly interrupted by a voice.

“Teacher Liang, I’ve finished reciting.” Ye Xiaoyang had somehow walked over.

Liang Qin pressed the book down, glanced at Ye Xiaoyang, and said suspiciously, “You finished that fast?”

She looked at the clock at the back of the classroom. It should have only been five or six minutes since she had just finished checking Ye Xiaoyang.

“Wait until I finish checking her before you recite.” Liang Qin didn’t want to let Luo Yi go.

Ye Xiaoyang: “…”

Luo Yi looked at Ye Xiaoyang like a dazed little rabbit, her heart thumping.

With him here, why had she suddenly become a bit nervous?

Liang Qin knocked on the desk to remind Luo Yi, “Her fine steps—continue.”

Luo Yi came back to herself and opened her mouth to continue reciting. “Her fine steps, exquisite beyond compare in the world. She went to the hall to pay respects to Mother, but Mother’s anger would not stop…”

Luo Yi’s voice wasn’t loud, but her enunciation was very clear. Every sound was bitten accurately. She didn’t even get stuck once.

These words and sentences were like a stream of warm mountain spring water, slowly flowing into Ye Xiaoyang’s heart, making him inexplicably at ease.

So she wasn’t so weak as to be unable to withstand a single blow like a rabbit after all… She was like the cattail and reed grass in the poem—soft, yet tough as silk.

“Pacing under the courtyard trees, she hanged herself from the southeast branch… Many thanks to later generations: take warning and never forget.” When the last syllable fell, Luo Yi let out a long breath—good. She hadn’t made a fool of herself in front of him.

Liang Qin found the new classmate in front of her very unbelievable. Originally she had only wanted to see how far Luo Yi could recite. She hadn’t expected her to recite every word without a single error, so fluently that she couldn’t even pick out a thorn.

“Can you write all the characters?” Liang Qin asked. “Presented money of three million—write ‘presented’ for me to see.”

Luo Yi’s fingers lightly traced at the corner of the desk. Even the stroke order was correct.

Finally, a trace of appreciation appeared in Liang Qin’s eyes. “Not bad. Sit down.”

The surrounding classmates saw that Luo Yi had actually passed Liang Qin’s hellish assessment and began whispering.

“Ye Xiaoyang didn’t pass, but she did?”

“And what she recited was The Peacock Flies Southeast . Way longer than these few lines of the Book of Songs I had.”

“So amazing. You really can’t tell.”

Ding Ling, who was across the aisle from Luo Yi, couldn’t help nudging her deskmate Chen Shuang with her elbow. “Hey, see that? Someone actually passed.”

Chen Shuang glanced toward Luo Yi’s side and said indifferently, “What’s so impressive? It’s just something you memorize by rote. If I spent a little effort I could recite it too. I just don’t want to waste time memorizing.”

Ding Ling was speechless. If you said Ye Xiaoyang was proud, Chen Shuang was a hundred times prouder than Ye Xiaoyang.

She had always looked down on classmates whose grades weren’t that good. In her eyes, those classmates’ efforts were probably just a joke.

Actually Ding Ling felt Chen Shuang’s brain was far worse than Ye Xiaoyang’s. She only reached her current grades by studying desperately.

This statement always had a bit of the meaning of the fifty-step laughing at the hundred-step.

Liang Qin’s attention returned to Ye Xiaoyang. “You start reciting. Still Li Sao .”

Luo Yi quietly turned half her head and exchanged a look with Ye Xiaoyang. Her gaze was clear and clean, as if she were cheering him on.

Ye Xiaoyang: “…”

A bit awkward. Just now he had only looked for a little while. He hadn’t had time to memorize the later content yet.

This time he would probably make a fool of himself.

Ye Xiaoyang started reciting from the beginning. Liang Qin’s requirements hadn’t been lowered in the slightest. If he paused even once, she would sweep over with a knife-like look.

“If only my feelings were truly beautiful and refined, what harm even in long hunger.” It was that place where he had stumbled just now again. Ye Xiaoyang’s speaking speed clearly slowed down. “I pull wooden roots to bind the fragrant angelica, and string the fallen stamens of the climbing fig.”

He paused, searching in his memory for the following lines, then said slowly, “I straighten the cassia to twine the orchids, and braid the shining cords of the hanging vines.”

Only the last three lines of the excerpt were left. Ye Xiaoyang was like someone in a difficult labor. Every extra sentence he spoke was a great advance.

“Though not in accord with the people of today…”

After the word “xi,” there was no continuation.

If he were sent back to start over, it would be too damaging to his face. Ye Xiaoyang thought.

Luo Yi flipped the book to the Li Sao page, lifted it a little, and signaled Ye Xiaoyang with her eyes to look this way.

Ye Xiaoyang saw it, but the characters on the textbook were too small. He couldn’t make them out for the moment.

Luo Yi guessed Ye Xiaoyang had probably forgotten the first character of the next line, but she couldn’t loudly recite it in front of Liang Qin.

A sudden idea struck her, and she recited, “The sage’s concern worries over a thousand acres; fine seedlings present twin ears… I wish to rely on the intertwined tree, and together become branches of ten thousand years.”

Ye Xiaoyang didn’t know what she was reciting, but when she recited the last line, she specially emphasized the pronunciation of the two characters “wish to rely.”

He understood she was giving him a hint. This method of hinting was far too brilliant. Without some ink in the belly, you really couldn’t pull off something like this.

The corner of Ye Xiaoyang’s lips lifted. He recited, “I wish to rely on Peng Xian’s leftover principles.”

The last line was a famous line from Li Sao . He recited it as a matter of course: “I sigh long and wipe away tears, grieving at how hard the people’s lives are.”

Ye Xiaoyang’s performance was barely satisfactory. Liang Qin nodded, indicating he could go back.

He sat back in his seat. Zhou Jiahang saw Ye Xiaoyang pass Liang Qin’s assessment so quickly and was extremely envious.

“The whole class is standing, and only the two of you are sitting. Do you have no shame?” Zhou Jiahang complained unhappily.

Why would he feel shame?

This meant the two of them were a match made in heaven.

Ye Xiaoyang sat with a clear conscience.

After two periods of Chinese class, everyone was dizzy and swollen from being tortured by all kinds of classical texts.

The moment the class bell rang, Qian Jiayun plopped down, exhausted to death. “The Chinese teacher’s menopause must have arrived. She’s simply sick.”

Qian Jiayun lay there for a while before recovering. She said to Luo Yi, “You’re too amazing. The Peacock Flies Southeast —when did you memorize that?”

She didn’t remember Luo Yi usually spending a lot of time reciting ancient poetry.

“I just memorized it along the way after we learned it,” Luo Yi said very frankly. “This piece rhymes well, reads smoothly, and it’s a narrative poem. It’s not that hard.”

“Not hard?” Qian Jiayun only felt it was magical. “A piece that long and you tell me it’s not hard? I couldn’t even recite Former Ode on the Red Cliffs …”

“If we’re talking about hard, Li Sao is harder,” Luo Yi analyzed. “It doesn’t rhyme much, there are many obscure characters, and the meaning is more abstract.”

“That’s why I said you and Ye Xiaoyang are both a bit perverted. That Li Sao , I can only recite the first few lines.” Qian Jiayun said.

These ancient texts were generally saved up to be concentratedly solved in Grade 11 and Grade 12, and they only required reciting the required tested pieces. The extracurricular optional pieces were like a vast ocean. You could only rely on luck to fish a needle from the sea during the college entrance exam.

Luo Yi turned her head and looked toward Ye Xiaoyang’s seat.

It was empty. She didn’t know where he had gone.

She lowered her head and looked at a piece of pink cardstock pressed under the Chinese textbook. She silently sighed in her heart. How was she supposed to talk to him about this?

These past two days Ye Xiaoyang’s mood had been very good, because he kept unintentionally running into Luo Yi frequently peeking toward the back row.

She was like a little cat poking her head out again and again, as if testing his reaction.

But whenever their eyes met, she immediately turned her head back as fast as a cat that had been shocked by electricity.

He was very sure she was peeking at him.

Ye Xiaoyang wanted to ask her if she had something to say to him, but he was afraid she was too shy, so he didn’t mention this matter and just pretended not to notice her abnormal behavior these past two days.

Anyway, that kind of thing should be initiated by the boy, right? But thinking about it, she and he weren’t familiar to that extent yet. Better to first be ordinary friends. That way speaking and doing things wouldn’t be awkward.

Finally, after evening self-study ended on Saturday night, Luo Yi couldn’t hold it in anymore and walked over to Ye Xiaoyang’s desk.

Ye Xiaoyang was packing up to go home. Zhou Jiahang was already waiting for him.

“Um…” Luo Yi opened her mouth carefully. “I have something I want to tell you.”

Ye Xiaoyang instantly stopped packing and asked, “What is it?”

Zhou Jiahang took one look at Luo Yi’s hesitant appearance and thought Ye Xiaoyang’s good thing was approaching. He immediately very tactfully waved at Ye Xiaoyang. “I’m leaving first.”

After speaking, he patted Ye Xiaoyang’s shoulder with deep meaning, cheering on his brother.

After Zhou Jiahang left, Luo Yi handed the pink cardstock she had kept for several days to Ye Xiaoyang.

Was this a prepared love letter?

Ye Xiaoyang’s mood soared. She really was too reserved.

Ye Xiaoyang had never doubted his charm value among the opposite sex, which approached infinity. Looking at Luo Yi’s behavior these past few days, she definitely had a bit of interest in him.

Perhaps his head had been muddled by love. Ye Xiaoyang actually didn’t think about why a girl as shy as Luo Yi would hand him a love letter in the classroom.

He took the cardstock and opened it to look.

He had thought a few lingering love words would appear inside. Unexpectedly, what met his eyes was a stretch of blankness.

She hadn’t written anything.

Seeing the confusion in Ye Xiaoyang’s eyes, Luo Yi immediately explained, “I have a cousin. She used to go to the same middle school as you. She especially admires you. Next month she’s taking the high school entrance exam and wants you to write a couple of sentences to encourage her.”

Whenever Chinese people reached this kind of fate-deciding moment, they became especially superstitious.

You Nianyao firmly believed that with a card written by Ye Xiaoyang, she would definitely be stained with the academic god’s radiance, then soar into the sky during the high school entrance exam and charge into No.1 High.

Ye Xiaoyang: “…”

Saying he wasn’t disappointed was impossible, but he couldn’t show it.

He set his schoolbag on the ground and sat down.

Ye Xiaoyang spread open the cardstock, took out a pen, and unreconciledly asked, “Is it you who wants me to write, or her who wants me to write?”

Active and passive—the difference was still pretty big.

If it was Luo Yi who wanted him to write, that meant she wanted to find a reason to talk to him. Writing a card and such was only an excuse.

“It’s her who wants it.” Luo Yi told the truth.

That was why she had found it hard to open her mouth to Ye Xiaoyang. She always felt this request was a little excessive.

After all, when Ye Xiaoyang was at Xiuwen before, he never even glanced at the love letters he received.

Luo Yi thought that he and she weren’t that unfamiliar, so she was just trying her luck.

If he wasn’t willing to write, then forget it. He and her cousin were neither relatives nor friends. She couldn’t force it.

When Ye Xiaoyang heard this, the hand holding the pen paused.

He had never been given this kind of strange request before. Although it was a small effort, if it had been anyone else, he definitely wouldn’t have paid attention.

But… since it was Luo Yi’s cousin, after rounding it up they were family. Then of course he couldn’t treat it sloppily.

Ye Xiaoyang’s little abacus clicked loudly. He pulled out Zhou Jiahang’s chair and said to her, “Sit.”

Luo Yi sat down lightly beside him. He smelled that unique fresh fragrance on her body again.

Were all girls this fragrant? He seemed not to have noticed before.

“How should I write it?” he asked.

“Just write a couple of sentences,” Luo Yi said. “Something like good luck on the high school entrance exam, may your name appear on the golden list, that kind of thing.”

“What’s her name?”

“You Nianyao. You as in Ulysses, nian as in longing, yao as in the Jade Pool.”

“Ulysses?” Ye Xiaoyang discovered that every time Luo Yi mentioned a surname she had to come up with some strange foreign translated name. “Are you saying Ulysses?”

“Mm.”

Ye Xiaoyang was curious. “My surname is Ye. How would you form a phrase?”

Luo Yi thought for a moment and said, “Ye as in Fourier?”

Ye Xiaoyang couldn’t help snickering. This really was making things hard for her. She actually even knew Fourier.

His pen spun several circles between his fingers before it finally landed.

“Junior You Nianyao: Good luck on the high school entrance exam. May your name appear on the golden list.”

Ye Xiaoyang’s handwriting was like the person. His characters were like a clear breeze through slender bamboo, pleasant to look at.

Luo Yi pointed to the lower right and said, “Add a signature too.”

“A signature?” Ye Xiaoyang asked. “Write what?”

Luo Yi felt this question of Ye Xiaoyang’s was a bit stupid. “A signature is of course writing your name.”

Ye Xiaoyang wrote character by character: Your cousin’s person.

After writing the character “person,” he stopped.

Luo Yi looked a bit confused. “Your cousin’s person? What does that mean?”

“I wrote the wrong character,” he said lightly.

He drew two lines across the character “person,” started a new line, and continued writing: Ye Xiaoyang.

Ye Xiaoyang crossed out the line above with an X and said, “Just now I wanted to write ‘Your cousin’s classmate Ye Xiaoyang.’ Then I thought it was too long.”

“Oh…” Luo Yi didn’t know why he wanted to add such a strange prefix to himself.

Ye Xiaoyang closed the cardstock and handed it to her. “Is this fine?”

Luo Yi nodded. That he was willing to write these precious few characters for her cousin was already very good. How would she dare ask for more?

The next day, when Luo Yi went to her aunt’s house, she gave this card to You Nianyao.

When You Nianyao saw that Luo Yi had successfully gotten Ye Xiaoyang’s handwriting for her, she was so happy she bounced three feet high on the bed.

With trembling feelings she opened the cardstock and read aloud, “Junior You Nianyao: Good luck on the high school entrance exam. May your name appear on the golden list. Your cousin’s husband Ye Xiaoyang?”

Luo Yi’s face went blank. What nonsense was You Nianyao saying?

She hurriedly took the cardstock and looked.

That big X was light in color and easy to overlook.

And the character “person,” after two horizontal lines were drawn on it, looked like the character “husband” no matter how you looked at it.

Luo Yi’s face “whoosh” flushed red. Only then did she think of a question: would Ye Xiaoyang make such a low-level slip of the pen?