Fake Slackers

Chapter 21: "Old Xie, get over here!"

"If you did not pass the memorization test, find a time to come to the office."

The English teacher had just finished her lesson in Class 2 next door. She had brought the test papers from all three classes with her, and after class she came over to distribute them. She stood in the doorway and gave her instructions, then said before handing out the results, "You write from memory for your test like you do questions. If you can't remember one, then you wait for the next one, and in the end you hand in a blank sheet?"

Xie Yu couldn't hold it in. He looked down and laughed.

He Zhao put his hand on his deskmate's shoulder and leaned close. "Heartless. When I asked you to let me take a peek, you didn't let me..."

Xie Yu replied: "Why go to the trouble? Just open the book and straight up copy."

He Zhao couldn't say anything.

During the class's memorization assignment, Xie Yu had hesitated for a while, then figured he really couldn't do that badly. He buckled down and copied out the vocabulary, and very carefully controlled his answer accuracy rate at 60%.

He Zhao had flipped through his books for a while, then caught sight of Xie Yu's paper out of the corner of his eye. He started to get ideas. "You know half of it?"

Xie Yu's face remained blank. "Is that so surprising?"

The English teacher continued: "...The rest, Xu Qingqing, give them out. Check what you did wrong. Tonight, your homework is a mock paper covering this chapter. Do it attentively. Next week is the monthly exam. Don't score badly and embarrass the class."

He Zhao wasn't listening to the teacher. Suddenly, he heard Xie Yu say: "Look to your right."

"Look at what?" He Zhao turned, not understanding. "There's nothing..."

He stopped mid-sentence.

It was Wan Da and Liu Cunhao.

Those two were eyeing them with a fixed and very complicated gaze.

He Zhao could read an 800-word mini-essay from their expressions, one that auto-scrolled past their faces. I thought you were the king of copying, but you secretly handed in a blank sheet.

Their gazes were so heated they seemed to want to pierce him through.

"......"

He Zhao calmly and composedly averted his gaze, pretending to have seen nothing. He turned and asked Xie Yu, "What shall we do for dinner?"

In the evening, they could take advantage of the short period of time the school gates were open to slip out and eat a good meal.

Although the students living at school weren't allowed to pass through the school gates at will, at the end of the school day, the volume of students leaving through the gate was so large that even the Mad Dog couldn't control it.

The cafeteria's selection was average and the food preparation wasn't stellar, either. The chef often added too much salt and the accompanying soup was thin. In a large pot of pork rib soup there were often only several lonely pieces of wintermelon.

He Zhao said, "I asked Shen Jie to get us a good spot at the Gold List. Shall we go after class?"

"Gold List?"

He Zhao took that as acceptance and glanced down, replying to Shen Jie: "Save another seat. My deskmate is coming."

Xie Yu hadn't even had the time to refuse.

He was rather picky with food, but he rarely left the school grounds.

Within 500 metres of Erzhong were several small restaurants in fierce competition. In order to win customers' hearts they put in a lot of effort. But they didn't have price wars: they didn't have discounts or give the second item for half price. Instead, starting with the Gold List restaurant, restaurants up and down the street suddenly started changing their names.