TT Chapter 3. Pardon

Monday classes began, and sure enough, everyone’s attention had shifted to Zhou Cheng and Pei Yiyao. Even so, Chen Ting’s own classmates were far more concerned about him. The moment there was a break, they gathered around to talk.

“Ting Ting, don’t let those online comments get to you.”

“Yeah, who knows what they’re trying to stir up. As long as we know what kind of person you are, that’s enough.”

“But how did Su Luo and Zhou Cheng’s mess end up involving you? Do you even know them?”

Chen Ting listened patiently as each of them spoke, then offered a faint, bitter smile. “To be honest, I’m just as lost as you are.”

Everyone looked at him with sympathy and quickly offered a few more words of comfort.

This was one of the large shared lectures, with students from several departments packed into the main hall. So naturally, whatever happened around Chen Ting didn’t go unnoticed. He was already one of the key figures in the gossip, and Pei Yiyao, no matter how much buzz surrounded him, wasn’t even here. From the moment Chen Ting walked in, people from all sides had been sneaking glances at him.

Chen Ting held firm to his image as an innocent little bunny. Only Yang Shulin knew that if anyone cut that bunny open, it might be black inside.

And so, Chen Ting made it through the morning without a ripple, letting all the gossip swirl around him and pretending not to notice.

Chen Ting had gone to the dance once last year, and only that once. He never went again after that. In his opinion, those events were deeply unfriendly to someone like him, a short-legged creature by birth.

“I’m not going,” Chen Ting declined as usual.

“Pei Yiyao is definitely going this time! It’s tradition. Let’s just go and take a look. There’s always a huge crowd, and it’s not like you have to dance,” Yang Shulin urged sincerely. He really wanted to go with Chen Ting. In his eyes, Chen Ting’s life was way too dull. At his age, he was already drinking goji berry tea, either studying seriously or killing himself in a video game.

It was the 21st century, and there were still people who didn’t play on their phones during Marxism lectures.

“We should probably focus on what we’re going to perform for Wednesday’s audiovisual class. We haven’t even decided yet, have we?” Chen Ting changed the subject quickly. Compared to a social event like a dance, he found class performances even more anxiety-inducing.

The English Department teachers had a particular fondness for making students do role plays in class. Sometimes the groups were self-selected, sometimes drawn by lot, but most of the time they were divided by dormitory.

There were only three guys in Class 423. Whenever the teacher grouped them by dorm, the three of them would inevitably end up lumped together into a mighty bachelor army. Which meant that sometimes, one of them had no choice but to play the female role.

The girls in the class were especially fond of this grouping system. They even had a nickname for it—“three men make a show.”

Chen Ting had played Hamlet. He had also played Alice. He had even recited a sonnet to a guy from another class.

If he could go back and do it all over again, Chen Ting would have chosen Agricultural University and inherited the family farm, rather than ending up in this goddamn English department.

Unlike Chen Ting, Yang Shulin was a natural performer. He had the kind of personality that thrived on stage, and small assignments like this were no problem at all. He immediately cleared his throat, struck a noble pose, and said, “We should just do Pride and Prejudice. I’ll be Mr. Darcy.”

The last guy in their class, Wu Yingwen, quickly chimed in. “I’ll be Mr. Bingley.”

Chen Ting said, “I’ll play the heroine’s dad.”

“No, darling, those three don’t even have many scenes together. You should be Elizabeth. The Bennets have several daughters, you can pick one of them,” said class monitor Lin Juan, affectionately known as Juan-ge.

Chen Ting refused. So, after a round of heated discussion, the three stooges came to an agreement: they would play Daughter Number One, Daughter Number Two, and Daughter Number Three.

It was a shining example of the collective spirit that united their fellow brothers-in-arms, “if we go down, we go down together.”

Since the play was decided, the three of them naturally had to find time to rehearse. With classwork piling up, Chen Ting quickly shoved the rumors to the back of his mind. And the rumors, in turn, quickly forgot about him, since Pei Yiyao and Zhou Cheng’s names were far more eye-catching.

Chen Ting was perfectly content to be left alone, though the blue tracksuit continued to give him trouble.

After returning from the Pei house that day, Aunt Ruan had given him Pei Yiyao’s number and told him to return the clothes directly. But if Chen Ting went to find Pei Yiyao now, he’d only be dragging himself back into the rumor mill.

Should he sneak over?

But that made it feel like some kind of clandestine love affair.

That night, Chen Ting lay in bed, agonizing over whether to text Pei Yiyao. He typed, deleted, typed again, then deleted it once more, completely torn.

Sometime after ten, their two top-student roommates finally returned, one after the other, sighing dramatically.

“The waves of the Yangtze push each other forward, and the front wave dies on the beach…”

Chen Ting and Yang Shulin poked their heads out from their bunks on either side, leaning over the rails and asking in unison, “What happened now?”

Even academic overachievers had their struggles. Physics, that towering colossus, remained forever unconquerable. Not like English. Chen Ting could always bluff his way through with his “language intuition supremacy theory.”

“What else could it be? On the path of science, the scariest thing isn’t the mysteries of the universe or the brevity of life. It’s the blinding light of geniuses!”

The one with thick round glasses was named Bai Yu. From his wardrobe to his catchphrases, he had all the markings of a mad scientist.

The other one, Jiang Hai, was even more suited to Shakespeare than Chen Ting. He planted one foot on a chair, overcome with emotion. “From this day forth, remember this name. Pei Yiyao!”

Chen Ting and Yang Shulin exchanged glances. They hadn’t expected to hear Pei Yiyao’s name coming from the mouths of their two roommates, who usually couldn’t care less about anything beyond their textbooks.

Yang Shulin couldn’t help asking, “You guys actually know someone in the freshman class?”

“Met him in the professor’s office,” Bai Yu said, pushing up his glasses. Then, with a puzzled look, he asked, “Is Pei Yiyao famous or something?”

“You two didn’t see his face?”

“No, our eyes are used for discovering truth!”

Jiang Hai said this with such righteous conviction that even Yang Shulin couldn’t bring himself to bring up the widely accepted doctrine of “good looks are justice.” It would have been a corrupting influence on their academically pure roommates.

After a good while, Bai Yu and Jiang Hai finally ended their impassioned tirade against Pei Yiyao, washed up, and went to bed. Chen Ting sat there staring at the unsent message on his phone, and in the end, chose to delete it.

Next weekend would do.

—

The next day, the Three Stooges completed their performance without a hitch. After more than a year of this, Chen Ting had already mastered the various accents of French noblewomen and English ladies, and could now endure the sound of a classroom bursting into laughter with complete composure.

As for the weekend dance, Chen Ting hadn’t planned to attend, but the student council’s event setup team happened to be short-staffed. So they roped him in to help.

Back in his freshman year, Chen Ting had been in the student council’s publicity department. The council had a rule: once you entered sophomore year, you could decide whether to stay or leave. If you wanted to climb the ranks, you stayed. If not, you could quit and make room for the new freshmen.

Being the lazy homebody he was, Chen Ting naturally chose to bow out gracefully. He had only signed up on a whim to join the fun, but ironically, none of the friends who applied with him got in. Only he did.

The publicity department head, Cai Duo, was now a third-year. He had always looked out for Chen Ting, so of course Chen Ting couldn’t refuse when asked to help.

On the day of the dance, Chen Ting showed up early to the venue. Cai Duo was already inside, and greeted him warmly. “Finally! Aside from the welcome party at the start of the semester, I haven’t seen you at all.”

Chen Ting gave an awkward little smile, glanced around at the empty venue, and asked, “Why is it just you here?”

Cai Duo shrugged. “I came too early. The others haven’t arrived yet.”

Chen Ting didn’t mind. He and Cai Duo started setting up together. Cai Duo still looked after him the way he always had. Maybe he figured Chen Ting was too scrawny for anything else, so he just stuck him with blowing up balloons.

By midday, Chen Ting had reached the point of existential despair from inflating balloons. During a break, he scrolled through his feed and saw Yang Shulin happily heading out to get his hair done.

YSL: Today’s look [photo]

Chen Ting gave the post a like, against his better judgment, then went back to inflating balloons while watching the people around him hustle and bustle. People were watching him too. After all, it was rare to see someone who could sit in the same spot, blowing up balloons for half a day straight without so much as shifting positions. That, in itself, made him a bit of a legend.

“Is that Chen Ting?”

“Yeah, that’s him. Didn’t I tell you? He’s even cuter in real life!”

“Oh my god, look at those little curls! That chubby face!”

“Take a photo, take a photo. Come on, quick!”

Chen Ting ignored all the whispering around him. But when he saw someone heading straight in his direction, he could no longer pretend not to notice, because that person was clearly here for him.

“I need to talk to you,” the guy said bluntly.

The whispers immediately exploded:

“Wait, is that Zhou Cheng? Isn’t he in the Academic Affairs Department?”

“Obviously he’s here for Chen Ting! When love rivals meet, it’s always intense!”

“Holy shit, this is big news!”

“I thought it was just a rumor… Did Su Luo actually confess to Chen Ting?!”

“……”

“Senior, do you need something?” Chen Ting looked up at him with a confused expression, as if he had no idea what Zhou Cheng was here for. He didn’t even stop inflating the balloon in his hands.

Zhou Cheng frowned. “This isn’t the right place to talk.”

Chen Ting glanced around. “I don’t see what’s so inconvenient about it.”

Zhou Cheng couldn’t tell if Chen Ting was just playing dumb. Maybe it was those absurdly clear, innocent eyes, or maybe it was just that he looked so disarmingly sweet that made Zhou Cheng doubt whether he’d really spread the news in the first place.

But Su Luo had already denied it with firm conviction, and she didn’t seem like someone who would lie.

Zhou Cheng lowered his voice. “Was it really you who spread what happened that day? Why would you do that?”

Bang! The balloon in Chen Ting’s hand suddenly popped, startling Zhou Cheng so badly he jumped. He immediately looked over, wondering if Chen Ting had done it on purpose, but the apologetic smile on Chen Ting’s face gave him pause.

“Sorry, Senior. I zoned out for a second.”

“Please answer the question.”

“It wasn’t me.”

Chen Ting picked up another balloon and went right on inflating.

“Are you really saying it wasn’t you?” Zhou Cheng pressed.

“What exactly would I have gotten out of it?” Chen Ting could barely hold back the wild horse stampeding through his chest. He looked up at Zhou Cheng with a serious expression. The rumors had already died down. Most people now believed that whatever happened between him and Su Luo was just a misunderstanding. But then Zhou Cheng had to show up and pull this stunt, which only served to reignite the gossip.

Zhou Cheng paused. Maybe, deep down, he already had an answer. But he didn’t say it. His face darkened slightly as he gave a warning instead. “Let’s leave it at that. I’m not looking to start anything. I just wanted to make it clear that this shouldn’t be brought up again.”

Chen Ting: “Pardon?”

Zhou Cheng took a deep breath. “What I meant was—”

Chen Ting: “Fuck off with that bullshit!”