Translator's rant!
Heyyy! I first translated this novel on Webnovel, which you can find on Google—it's a bit of my dark history! The translations were pretty rough since I was still learning. A month or two later, I joined Foxaholic, where I improved my work. Unfortunately, family issues hit when my dad got sick and my mum passed away, making me lose motivation. However, I discovered this blog through a friend and was invited to join as an author! You can read the novel on Webnovel up to Chapter 37 under the name Rayneee and the first 10 chapters on Foxaholic. But feel free to start fresh here, as I’m re-translating it again! I'm excited to keep going and hope to do well!
By the end of June, Xicheng was already in the height of summer. The sky was a vast expanse of blue, with not a cloud in sight, and the air was filled with a restless heat. Occasionally, a faint breeze would stir through the tree shadows.
At 1:30 PM, it was still naptime, but the classroom of Class Six was as noisy as a market. The boys in the back row were huddled together, playing games and frequently letting out a few curses.
A girl sleeping in front of them was awakened by the noise and impatiently said a few words. The boys quieted down for a moment, only to unconsciously start making noise again.
Unable to endure it any longer, the girl decided to take her water bottle outside, slamming the door as she left.
— Bang!
The sound jolted half the class awake, and someone muttered, “What a weirdo. Can’t sleep, so she has to make it hard for everyone else.”
Lin Tiao sleepily opened her eyes, feeling the heat wrapping around her from all sides. A layer of sweat had formed on her back, and the summer short-sleeve uniform clung to her skin, sticky and uncomfortable.
The ceiling fan above turned slowly, occasionally emitting a “squeak— creak” sound.
Seeing that Lin Tiao was awake, her deskmate Meng Xin leaned over, bringing with her a faint scent of oranges that was delicate and pleasant. “Do you want to go to the snack shop?”
Still groggy from sleep, Lin Tiao took a moment to rub her face and replied, “Let’s go. This classroom is too hot.”
The two of them walked out, one following the other. Once they had descended the stairs, Meng Xin placed her hand on Lin Tiao’s arm. “Thank goodness we can move to the new teaching building in our second year. If we stay in this old building any longer, I’m afraid I’ll melt.”
Number Ten High School has two campuses separated by the distance of a sports field. The old campus was the original teaching area, a five-story building that seemed shorter than most four-story buildings. The teaching building was covered in moss, with green ivy climbing up the walls. On some walls, the white paint had completely peeled off, revealing the red bricks underneath.
The new campus used to be a vocational school, which later closed down. Number Ten directly purchased the land and built the new campus, which features various modern electrical appliances, with air conditioning being the most appealing. In contrast, the old campus has only four aging fans in each classroom due to outdated electrical wiring.
As Number Ten quickly developed into a provincial demonstration high school, the number of new students increased every year. Eventually, the school decided that first-year students would remain in the old campus, while second and third-year students would move to the new campus.
“There’s just one week left; let’s take it slow.” Lin Tiao stood in front of the shelves, picking out a few bags of chips and casually asking, “Is this exam seating based on our scores from the last midterm?”
“Yeah,” Meng Xin replied, leaning against the freezer and enjoying the cool air. Suddenly remembering something, she added, “Oh right, you only took the language exam during the last midterms, so you’ll probably be in the last exam room this time.”
“Mm, it doesn’t matter.” Lin Tiao didn’t mind; to her, it was the same no matter where she took the exam.
However, not everyone felt that way.
As soon as she finished speaking, a voice behind her cut in with a tone full of mockery, “Some people don’t do well academically but have a lot of nerve…”
Lin Tiao turned around to see a girl standing behind her, and before she could respond, Meng Xin shot back, “Tang Yushi, can you not be so obnoxious? We’re all in the same class; is it really necessary?”
Tang Yushi and Lin Tiao had a well-known rivalry in Class Six, but Lin Tiao honestly didn’t know how she had offended this “princess.”
“Who wants to be in the same class as you?” Tang Yushi said, glancing at Lin Tiao with disdain before rolling her eyes, “Tch.”
Lin Tiao: “…”
Lin Tiao didn’t even spare her a glance and instead pulled Meng Xin toward the checkout counter, asking in a serious tone, “Did your mom never teach you not to talk to idiots?”
“…”
“Pfft.”
A sudden laugh broke the tension, and Lin Tiao turned her head to see a few boys standing between two shelves, their eyes focused on them.
The boy in the middle had a clear, handsome face and was wearing a short-sleeve shirt, one hand holding his school uniform while the blue-and-white pants were rolled up slightly, revealing a glimpse of his shin.
He kept his head down, his gaze landing on Lin Tiao’s face, calm and steady.
Lin Tiao exchanged a few glances with him, then casually looked at the other boys behind him before returning her gaze to the cashier. “Excuse me, I’d like to check out.”
She ignored Tang Yushi behind her and didn’t care who had laughed just now.
Whatever. It’s not like she was the one who would be embarrassed.
After Lin Tiao and Meng Xin left the snack shop, a short while later, a few boys also walked out. Xu Yichuan threw an arm around the boy who had just made eye contact with Lin Tiao. “That girl was really cool; she didn’t even need to use profanity.”
Jiang Yan pulled the tab off his soda can, shrugging off Xu Yichuan’s arm. “Get off.”
“…” Xu Yichuan couldn’t help but rub his arms, turning back to drape his arm over Song Yuan’s shoulder. “Right? I’m not wrong, am I?”
“Totally cool,” Hu Hanghang chimed in, giving a thumbs up. “I really want to know which class she’s in. Hey, have any of you seen her before?”
“Nope, but she seems pretty good-looking; I can’t believe I’ve never seen her.”
The boys continued to discuss among themselves.
Finally, Xu Yichuan concluded, “She’s really cool.”
As he waved his hand, he accidentally bumped into Jiang Yan, who was raising his soda can to drink. The brown liquid splashed all over Jiang Yan.
“…”
This awkward moment lasted less than a second.
Jiang Yan quickly came to his senses, wiped his face, and before Xu Yichuan could react, he kicked him hard in the butt. “Cool, huh? I’ll show you what’s cool!”
Xu Yichuan shouted as he ran away, “Bro, I swear it was an accident!”
Jiang Yan chased after him, and soon, their figures disappeared into the distance.
—
When Lin Tiao and Meng Xin returned to the classroom, Tang Yushi and her clique were already seated, glaring at the two of them with fierce looks.
“……” Lin Tiao felt a bit speechless, wishing she could stick tape over Tang Yushi’s eyes.
Fortunately, class was about to start in just a few minutes.
Lin Tiao dozed off through three periods, and during the last class, which was taught by their homeroom teacher, she dared not slack off and focused on listening for most of the lesson.
As the class was nearing its end, the homeroom teacher mentioned the upcoming class placement exam on Monday. “The placement list for this exam has been released. At the end of class, the class monitor will post it at the back of the classroom.”
He handed the exam schedule to the class monitor and continued, “This exam will determine your class placements for next semester. If you want to get into a key class, put in some effort. If you don’t want to get in, still give it your all—you never know, you might just get lucky and make it in.”
Laughter erupted in the classroom.
Lin Tiao took out her phone. The class monitor had already posted the exam schedule in their group chat, and she quickly scanned through it. As expected, she found her name in the last few lines, along with the exam room number and seat number.
Multimedia Classroom 03—indeed, it was the last exam room.
She clicked her tongue lightly, not thinking much of it, and put her phone back in the drawer, staring out the window in a daze. Outside, on the plastic track, a group of figures was running. The wind carried waves of heat, and the cicadas continued to sing among the lush trees.
Summer has truly arrived.
—
The day of the class placement exam arrived quickly.
As Lin Tiao was leaving in the morning, her mother, Fang Yisong, handed her an umbrella. “I saw on the weather report that there’s going to be heavy rain this afternoon. Take the umbrella.”
Lin Tiao obediently accepted the umbrella. “I’m off.”
Her father, Lin Yongcheng, reminded her, “Be safe.”
“I know!”
Lin Tiao walked outside the community and, as usual, took the bus to school. Perhaps because of the impending storm, there was a hint of damp coolness in the air.
Upon arriving at school, their homeroom teacher came over during morning self-study to explain a few things related to the exam. Once morning self-study ended, a group of students hurriedly rushed to their respective exam rooms.
The last exam room was in a multimedia classroom in a nearby building. When Lin Tiao arrived, there weren’t many people in the exam room yet. She found her seat and sat down.
After a while, a few more people came in and sat down behind and to her right.
“Brother Yan, help us out later! It’s rare for us to be in the same exam room as you; you’ve got to save your brothers!”
Hearing this, Lin Tiao paused in her reading.
In the last exam room, the students generally didn’t have the best grades.
Copying back and forth wouldn’t make a difference, right?
She didn’t pay much attention as a casual response came from behind her. “Copying what? Write it yourself. Can’t you see what’s written on the board?”
Lin Tiao looked up, and on the blackboard, she saw a few large words.
—— Maintain a serious exam environment; eliminate cheating!
“……”
The boys continued their chatter until the invigilator walked in with the exam papers. “What are you all shouting about? It’s an exam! Quiet down!”
The classroom was quiet for barely a second before murmurs of surprise erupted from the corner.
“Damn! Why is it a Black invigilator? Isn’t that the history teacher from Class 8?”
“Who knows!”
“A Black invigilator, and we’re supposed to cheat?”
The Black invigilator was the school's deputy principal, originally named Li Kun, but because he was tall and had dark skin, everyone privately referred to him as the Black man.
Having him as an invigilator meant you couldn’t even think about cheating; even turning your head would be considered misconduct.
“Anyone who speaks again, get out!” The Black man slammed the exam papers on the podium. “I can see you all are itching for trouble; if you don’t want to take the exam, then don’t!”
No one spoke again in the classroom.
Another invigilator then began, “Alright, we’ll start distributing the exam papers now. Everyone, please move any items unrelated to the exam to the podium. Remember to turn off your phones when you hand them in, and don’t bring in any notes or anything like that. This exam will determine your class placements for next semester. If anything is discovered, it will be dealt with severely.”
Lin Tiao received her exam paper and quickly glanced over the questions before beginning to answer.
The Chinese exam lasted two and a half hours.
At eleven-thirty, the bell rang.
Once the exam papers were handed in, a wave of lamentations erupted in the exam room.
Lin Tiao didn’t pay much attention. After gathering her things, she took out her phone, turned it on, and sent Meng Xin a message to arrange where to eat.
Only one door in the classroom was open, and for a moment, people were blocked at the entrance. After being stepped on a few times, Lin Tiao moved aside a few steps.
Her phone in her pocket vibrated several times.
She reached in to take it out when someone bumped into her unexpectedly. In the crowd, she lost her balance while trying to stand, and her body began to fall backward uncontrollably.
Damn.
She couldn’t help but silently curse.
Before she could think of what to do, the backward motion suddenly stopped. A warm chest pressed against her back, and a slender hand grasped her arm.
A sudden cold breath filled her nostrils.
Someone was stabilizing her from behind.
“Steady now.”
“Th—” Lin Tiao barely managed to start her thanks when she heard the boy behind her coldly drop another line.
“Don’t think about using me as a cushion.”
Lin Tiao: ?
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