Chapter 4: Campus Belle Passing Notes

“Don’t worry. I have some ready-made spectacles. This is the most advanced international level spectacles which use the Carbon Nano-transistor …” The old man jabbered on for almost half a day, causing Yang Ming to have a headache listening to him. Finally, the old man said, “I was planning to give this to the fated person. After seeing you, I felt like you are also a kind child – someone who won’t do any bad things. Therefore, I will give it to you!”

After the long chatter, he only understood that the old man wanted to give him a pair of spectacles. He felt a bit dumbfounded. Do you think I’m stupid? Pitching a pair of broken spectacles as if it had special powers. You think this is a magazine advertisement?

Yang Ming took the small spectacle case handed to him by the old man. He opened it. It was actually similar to tiny contact lenses from Bausch & Lomb. Surprised, he asked, “Contact lenses?”

For a while, there was no answer. Yang Ming looked up. The old man had already vanished along with the items that were scattered on the ground.

“He disappeared so fast? Could it be that this old man was the supreme master from the legends?” Yang Ming shook his head thinking how ridiculous his sentence was. He put his contact lenses into the pocket of his shirt as if nothing had happened.

———–

During the afternoon, Yang Ming unexpectedly did not cut class. It caused Chen Mengyan to look at Yang Ming in disbelief. She thought that her words caused Yang Ming to mend his mind and turn over a new leaf so she planned to speak with Yang Ming again.

Due to the previous encounter with the old man, Yang Ming tried to listen in class. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t understand a single thing. Formulas and theorems were like reading a bible for him.

Yang Ming started to feel discouraged. The burden that he carried forward from his past was too much for him. There was no benefit in sitting through the class. It seemed that there wasn’t any hope for him. Having this thought surface in his mind, Yang Ming couldn’t help but to give up and put his head on the table. If he had known that this would happen, he would have gone to play billiards.

Chen Mengyan was delighted when she saw Yang Ming focused in class. However, after a while, he unexpectedly laid his head on the table and slept. It made Chen Mengyan feel agitated.

If Yang Ming knew there was a pretty girl observing his actions, he would have pretended to listen in class. However, he didn’t notice. His poor eyesight in addition to the broken spectacles caused him to be unable to see things clearly.

Chen Mengyan was the second girl with who Yang Ming had a crush on. The first was Su Ya even though he wasn’t so sure whether the feelings toward her was love or not. The time spent with Su Ya, however, had truly delightful moments. As he grew older, he slowly grasped an understanding of the romance between a man and a woman. He knew the feelings toward Chen Mengyan was admiration.

Besides his class, the majority of other male students in Grade 12 were all fond of Chen Mengyan. The campus belle with good grades attracted lots of attention from the boys wherever she went. There was already a private forum which labeled Chen Mengyan as the most popular girl in Grade 12.

Yang Ming was well aware of his capabilities. Based on his status right now, he was already satisfied with being able to argue with Chen Mengyan. He didn’t dare to have further hope.

While Yang Ming was daydreaming, Li Xiaoliang who sat in front of Yang Ming suddenly threw him a paper note. Yang Ming was startled for a bit before he caught the note.

Passing notes was not something that students were unfamiliar with. If the students wanted to communicate with each other during classes, they would rely on the help of their neighboring students to pass the notes to its destination.

Of course, couples frequently passed notes to each other. Those who helped to pass the notes would feel delighted. There was not a single day where one could guarantee that one would not need to bother others.

Yang Ming naturally knew about this. He used to do it frequently with Su Ya. Ever since he moved to high school, Yang Ming never got in touch with other students. There were even fewer of those who were close. Most of his time was spent to cut class and play with Li Dagang from Class 8. Thus, someone passing the note to him was a surprise.

At first, Yang Ming thought it was an error. When he saw the words “Yang Ming” on the folded note, he knew it wasn’t a mistake. Although “Yang Ming” was a very common name in the country, he was the only one in the class.

Yang Ming picked up the note. He wouldn’t be able to figure out the sender even if he stared at it for the whole day. He simply opened it up and there were small words lined up on the paper :

“Yang Ming, the fact that you returned to class simply showed that you were someone with dedication, but why not persist on your path? There isn’t much time left for Grade 12 . If you work hard, it will be over in just a blink… ”

Without further reading, Yang Ming just skimmed to the last row of the note that indicated the sender: Chen Mengyan.

Haha, Yan Ming was amused. This was the first time that Chen Mengyan passed him a note. Although its only purpose was to encourage his studies, Yang Ming was delighted.

Holding the note with a lingering sweet smell of ink, Yang Ming treated it as a treasure and put it in his pencil box.

The inactive nerve had been activated again. Yang Ming fumbled across his desk and finally reached out to the Grade 10 mathematics book. He began reading it from the first page.

Yang Ming wasn’t stupid. It was just that he never focused in class. Even now, the Grade 10 knowledge seemed distant to him, but his comprehension was still good. Nevertheless, after some time, Yang Ming started to have a headache.

Algebra 1, Algebra 2, 2-D geometry, 3-D geometry – mathematics read like bible books to him. It was not a challenge to finish reading an online novel per day. However, these were academic books. Even if he had five days, he wasn’t even sure if he could finish reading them, let alone remembering and comprehending them.

“Put away the books on the table. We will have a quiz now!” announced the mathematics teacher, Zhao Ying, as she walked into the room and faced the students.