Orange Storm chapter 34
Phone Call
The dream was strange, to the extent that during the following day of the holiday, Fang Xing was cautious about making eye contact or any physical contact with Jiang Zhijin. He claimed he needed to work on assignments and spent almost the entire day locked in his room.
Although having romantic dreams is a prerogative of adolescence, dreaming about someone of the same gender, especially Jiang Zhijin, left Fang Xing inexplicably panicked.
He didn’t know where this sense of panic came from but it made him feel a bit uneasy around Jiang Zhijin.
Fortunately, it seemed that Jiang Zhijin hadn’t noticed.
The three-day holiday passed quickly, as Xu Hang would say, like a flash. On the morning of the first day back to school, Fang Xing found many of his classmates catching up on their homework.
Upon seeing him, Xu Hang exclaimed loudly, “Desk mate, save me!”
Fang Xing handed him his school bag and happened to meet the gaze of Jiang Xinxin. Seeing him looking, Jiang Xinxin smiled, “Morning.”
“Morning,” Fang Xing nodded.
The morning self-study was for Chinese class, and Tang Yi entered the classroom with a casual stride. After surveying the students below from the podium, Tang Yi sighed lightly, “Alright, that’s enough. Did you really expect to finish the holiday assignments this morning? Do you think it’s possible?”
A silent understanding spread among the students, and Tang Yi knocked the podium twice, “Alright, start reviewing your textbooks. If I catch anyone doing homework, it will be confiscated.”
This kind of threat had some deterrent effect, and most people began to take out their textbooks for early reading. Some even placed the test paper under the textbooks, seizing the opportunity to write a couple of words when Tang Yi wasn’t paying attention.
Xu Hang was one of them. So, when he had just finished copying the multiple-choice questions and found that Tang Yi had appeared by his desk unnoticed, Xu Hang nearly jumped out of his skin.
Luckily, Tang Yi seemed not to have noticed anything and just knocked on Fang Xing’s desk, saying, “Come out with me.”
In the corridor, Tang Yi asked, “Aren’t you cold wearing so little?”
“It’s okay,” Fang Xing thought Tang Yi might be used to starting conversations by asking something unrelated before getting to the point. So, he directly asked, “Is there something you need?”
“Yes, good news,” Tang Yi smiled. “The province is organizing a physics competition for teenagers, with five spots for each high school. The first prize will be included in your file, and you’ll get an extra 10 points on the college entrance examination. Initially, the school wanted the top five in each grade to participate, but later they felt it was inappropriate since it’s a single-subject competition. So, they decided to conduct a comprehensive test to determine who will go.”
Tang Yi added, “I’m telling you guys, the top students in the grade, to avoid any misunderstandings.”
Fang Xing nodded, “Understood.”
“Good,” Tang Yi patted his shoulder. “Go back in, and by the way, call Tan Zhuo out for me.”
Fang Xing responded and went back to the classroom. He went straight to Tan Zhuo’s desk and knocked on it.
Tan Zhuo, who was burying his head in his books, looked up abruptly, looking displeased. When he saw Fang Xing, his displeasure turned into uncertainty and anger. His face started to redden, and he stared at Fang Xing, speaking rapidly and quietly, “What?”
Fang Xing took a few seconds to react. Tan Zhuo thought he had reported something and got him summoned by Tang Yi. This misunderstanding made Fang Xing want to laugh. He didn’t bother to explain and just said briefly, “The homeroom teacher wants to see you.”
Hearing this, Tan Zhuo was initially stunned, and then his face visibly relaxed. Fang Xing’s brief words had apparently convinced him that he wasn’t being reported, and he immediately stood up, heading towards the door.
When Tang Yi and Tan Zhuo came in just before the end of the class, Tang Yi stood on the podium and knocked on the desk, gesturing for everyone to quiet down. After the classroom was silent, he explained the upcoming physics quiz and the related physics competition, emphasizing the possibility of gaining 10 extra points in the college entrance exam for winning first place.
Xu Hang commented casually, “A provincial competition, you’ll need to be extremely lucky.”
“A person should have dreams,” Tang Yi’s ears worked well. He immediately turned his head towards Xu Hang, smiling slyly, “Some students are still working on their physics papers during Chinese class, right?”
The whole class burst into laughter, and Xu Hang’s face turned red. He buried his head, pretending he wasn’t there. Tang Yi smiled as he redirected his gaze, “Alright, let’s end the class.”
Gaining 10 points on the college entrance exam was a far cry from the usual 10 points for regular quizzes. Fang Xing, like most students, spent the entire evening reviewing physics. After the self-study session, nearly everyone in the class was reviewing physics.
When self-study was over, Jiang Zhijin called to say he didn’t want to go out and asked Fang Xing to come back on his own.
In his own words, “Boys should learn to go home by themselves sometimes, to build up courage.” But Fang Xing knew that Jiang Zhijin was just feeling increasingly lazy with the colder weather. When he entered the house, he saw Jiang Zhijin lying on the sofa, covered with a small blanket, playing with his phone.
Upon hearing the door opening, Jiang Zhijin glanced over, “Back?”
“Yeah.” Fang Xing placed the keys on the shoe rack, bent down to change shoes.
“Okay, I’m going to sleep.” Jiang Zhijin got up, yawned, took a few steps towards the bedroom, then turned back as if remembering something and looked at Fang Xing.
“I bought a box of milk for you at the supermarket today. Remember to drink it.”
“…Sure.”
After taking a shower, Fang Xing went to the kitchen.
Opening the refrigerator, although it was quite full, it was still neatly arranged. The top two shelves held vegetables and fruits, while the bottom shelf contained the milk Jiang Zhijin gave him and his own beer.
The small space seemed to be divided into two areas by an imaginary line. On the left were the tall cans of dark-packaged beer belonging to Jiang Zhijin, and on the right were the low-fat milk recently bought by Jiang Zhijin, packaged in a white paper box.
Fang Xing stared at the refrigerator door for a moment before grabbing a box of milk and closing the door.
Back in his room with some time to spare, he planned to spend two hours working on physics problems. Since he was good at physics, it wasn’t much of a burden, and he chose two sets of challenging problems to solve.
While halfway through the problems, his phone, placed on the side, rang. His concentration was interrupted, and he frowned with impatience, glancing at his phone.
An unfamiliar number.
He glanced at it and returned his attention to the exercise book, lifting his hand to dismiss the call.
But this call seemed to be cursed; right after hanging up, it rang again after a few seconds. Fang Xing dismissed it twice in a row, and on the third time, he finally gave up.
This disturbance broke his thought process.
He sighed and picked up the phone to answer, “Hello?”
The voice on the other end was somewhat chaotic, and nobody spoke. Fang Xing patiently waited for a while until a soft female voice finally came through.
“Is this Fang Xing?”
Fang Xing felt like he had heard this voice somewhere, but the interference made his intuition less sensitive.
Unable to connect the dots, he decided to end the call. With his left hand holding the phone, his right hand swiftly twirled a pen as he asked, “Who is this?”
“Hello… I’m Zhai Wan.”
Fang Xing’s hand with the pen immediately stopped, and due to inertia, the pen slipped out of his hand, making a clattering sound as it fell to the ground.
Zhai Wan, Fang Chenglin’s… mistress, the mother of the child with leukemia.
The pen rolled on the ground and came to a stop. The surroundings fell completely silent, andFang Xing distinctly heard the gentle voice from the other end.
“I’d like to talk to you… I heard you’re now studying at Shaojiang, is that correct?”