Chapter Thirty-One: The Bet

  If the outcome is already predetermined, then why should we strive to change it?

  "Oh, really? Is he really going to transfer schools?" On the other end of the phone, Xu Yu Jie asked about Xiao Yu Chen's situation today, as if she had already anticipated this outcome. She continued, "Heh heh, I didn't think you'd actually call me to ask about my situation."

  "Who told you to go out and play over the weekend without coming back and asking for leave from the teacher, not even telling me a word?"

  "Got it, got it. Class is about to start, you go ahead, I won't be able to get home until this afternoon." Xu Yu Jie originally went hiking with her whole family on Saturday, but due to various reasons, they only returned at noon today, so she took a day off. After hearing her say that, Ouyang felt relieved.

  On the bus, Xu Yu Jie put down her phone and gazed out of the window, a smile lingering on her face for a long time.

  "Who is it? Yuejie, is it a classmate?" The one who said this was Xu Yuejie's mother.

  "Yeah, mainly it's about telling me what happened with the classmate who switched teachers." Xǔ Yuèjié replied.

  "It's really troublesome, I didn't think this would work from the start. Can the teachers at that school be changed just because you students want to change them?" Her mother said, and Xu Yu Jie nodded in agreement.

  In the afternoon, Ouyang heard from Xiao Zhu that Xiao Yuchen and Yang Hongyu planned to transfer next semester.

  "Two classmates have already left since we came to this school." During class, Ouyang looked out the window at the gloomy sky and whispered to Xiao Zhu.

  "What's wrong, you can't bear it? If you couldn't bear to part with Chen Juan, I could understand. But don't tell me you also can't bear to part with Zhao Junyi?" Xiaozhu smiled and said.

  Ouyang didn't respond to her, he just felt that the atmosphere in this class was a bit cold, and it didn't have the same feeling as being in D district where everyone got along. Maybe this was just the atmosphere of city schools? Or maybe the one who didn't fit in was him, this "outsider"?

  This lesson is an English class, and Teacher Zhang explained to everyone the importance of listening and speaking. Ouyang thinks that listening and speaking in English are very important, but what's even more important is reaction speed. When doing English listening exercises, you need to react immediately to what the spoken English means in Chinese. As for speaking, Ouyang doesn't have to worry at all. Since last semester when Ouyang finished reading a lesson aloud, Teacher Zhang decided that from then on, most of the lessons would be read by Ouyang, because Ouyang's imitation of the tape's tone was very good and he even received public praise. It turns out that since childhood, Ouyang has had strong imitative and memory abilities, and his imitation of others' tones is also very accurate. After English class ended, it was time for the afternoon break. This week it was Ouyang's turn to be on duty, so he didn't have to go out for exercise. The other students on duty were Zhou Feng, Mu Yuhan, and Xiao Yangchen. Ouyang was too lazy to move, but Zhou Feng said that today he would just wipe the floor quickly, and Ouyang thanked him before preparing to take a nap at his desk. Mu Yuhan sat in front of him, looked at Ouyang who was napping, turned her head back around, and whispered...

  "Why buy jelly for me?"

  Ouyang Zheng wanted to close his eyes and sleep for a while, but when he heard Mu Yuhan ask this, he didn't think much of it and just said a sentence.

  "I saw you that day and watched for half a day, I thought you should also like to eat jelly, so I wanted to buy one for you."

  Mù Yǔ Hán listened to ōu Yáng finish speaking, smiled slightly. In ōu Yáng's memory, Mù Yǔ Hán rarely smiled, so every smile was a genuine delight.

  "Here you go." Ou Yang felt something being placed on the corner of his desk. He opened his eyes to see Mu Yu Han, just like Xu Yue Jie, had given him a piece of jelly. Ou Yang took it and said thank you.

  "Should be thanking me, it's you, did you give Yu Jie a call?" Mu Yu Hang tore open the packaging and said after taking a bite of jelly.

  "She said she'll be back tomorrow when I called her at noon." Ouyang also tore open the packaging of the jelly and said.

  "Is that so? You two have been getting along well lately? Haven't had any problems?" Mu Yuhan continued to ask.

  "No, what's the problem? Besides, my relationship with her and you are not the same, don't say it like I'm the same as her, okay?" Ouyang said with a hint of resentment. Mu Yuhan didn't speak again and directly walked to the podium to erase the blackboard. Ouyang shook his head, finished eating the jelly, then went to help Zhou Feng wipe the floor.

  In the afternoon's politics class, Ouyang thought that Mr. Luan would change this lesson into an educational one, talking about some irrelevant things like discipline, but Mr. Luan just finished the course normally. This made Ouyang feel very strange. Indeed, in the last class meeting, Mr. Luan gave a lecture on Xiao Yuchen's incident, which the students called a "politics education class". In this lesson, the only useful information that Ouyang felt was informed about the Labor Day holiday time and the news that there would be a mid-term exam after the holiday. However, Ouyang estimated that his classmates' scores in this mid-term exam would not be too high, at least not in math.

  "Haven't seen that boyfriend of yours around lately." Ouyang asked Xiaozhu after school while packing her bag.

  "What's wrong, you like him? You want me to introduce you?" From the tone of voice, Ouyang knew that they must have had a fight, so he didn't ask any more questions.

  "Are we still going to make a bet tomorrow?" Xiaozhu asked, possibly trying to change the subject. Ouyang smiled and nodded: "Of course, I'm still waiting for you to buy me a Coke." Xiaozhu looked unhappy, then said: "How about raising the stakes?" Ouyang thought for a moment, then said: "Okay, what do you want to bet on?" Xiaozhu blinked her eyes, then said: "I want to eat White Rabbit candy, let's bet on that."

  "Huh? You city folks still know about White Rabbit candies?" Ouyang said with feigned surprise. "Ahh," Xiao Zhu gave Ouyang a punch in the stomach, then slung her backpack over her shoulder and walked away. Ouyang rubbed his stomach, saying: "Geez, no need to get so serious over a joke."

  In the evening after returning home, Feng Hongyan bought an Elizabeth melon from the market. As soon as Ouyang Yang entered the house, he called out to Ouyang to go to the kitchen.

  "What's up? Is there something good?" Ouyang asked while eating melon.

  "Our new house, after the flavor is released, we can move in. At most by the time you're in junior high school, we can go live in District C." Feng Hongyan also looked very happy.

  "So that means we're almost city people now?" Ouyang was delighted when he heard this news.

  "But I see your brother seems unhappy about you moving to the city, why don't you go talk to him for a bit?" Feng Hongyan said as she cleaned up the dishes after Ou Yang finished eating.

  Ouyang walked into the house, and Mais asked him: "If you move to the city, isn't it very far from here? Then we can't play computer games and basketball together." Ouyang couldn't tell whether Mais's tone was sad or resentful, so he said: "Aren't you also moving to a big house, which is said to be right across from your school?" Mais sat up on the bed after hearing this, looked away, and said: "Actually, I still prefer our original home. Now it's great, you're going all the way to the city."

  "No matter where I go, you are my brother, this will not change, don't think nonsense, hurry up and sleep." After Ou Yang said this, he didn't look at Mais again, sat down at the table to start doing his homework. On the other side, Mais heard what Ou Yang said and lay down to sleep with a peace of mind. In the big room, "Mom, you're not asleep yet?" Feng Hongyan asked, seeing her mother lying on the bed with her eyes still open.

  Feng Qinglian turned her head to look at her, then asked: "In three months, you'll be moving out, right? You should start packing up things. I and Ma Si will probably move out in a few months too. What do you plan to do with this house when the time comes?" Feng Hongyan sat on the edge of the bed and said: "If he comes back, let him stay there for a while. I won't move over there temporarily either. If he leaves again, I'll move over there then." Feng Qinglian nodded and said: "So, did you tell Chen Xi about his bankruptcy?" Feng Hongyan looked out the door and said: "This can't be told to children. Chen Xi doesn't understand anything now. At that time, no matter what was said to him, he wouldn't listen. He insisted on going out to open a restaurant with others, resulting in not having a penny left now. He needs to come back and find work again. Mom, what should I do?"

  Feng Qinglian sat up from the bed, put her hand on Feng Hongyan's shoulder and said: "Don't worry, mom is here, everything will be fine." Feng Hongyan nodded, and the mother-daughter pair fell asleep one after another.

  "So it was Ou Yang who proactively bought the Crystal Love for Mu Yu Huan?" Xu Yue Jie said into the phone at her home.

  "But he also bought you a bottle of milk tea and put it on your desk." It was Xiao Yangchen's voice on the other end of the phone.

  "That's just the bet he made with his deskmate, I guess it was either because Xiao Zhu didn't want it or he came early and put it on my desk." Xǔ Yuèjié's tone was full of disdain.

  "So, what's your next move?" Xiao Yangchen asked

  "I plan to observe Ou Yang Chen Xi some more to see if he's really stupid or just pretending to be, if it's the latter then there's no point in continuing." Xue Yue Jie said calmly.

  "But I think people from D district are all very simple-minded, to put it bluntly, they're really stupid. If he's really someone who doesn't understand anything, you wouldn't actually choose to be with him, would you?" Xiang Yangchen said over the phone.

  "How could it be, if he's really stupid, that would be interesting, right? Anyway, the four years of junior high school were dull and uninteresting. Bye." Xǔ Yuèjié said with a laugh on the other end of the phone before hanging up.

  "If you think your relationship with me is the same as yours with her, then let's see you fall in love with me first." Xǔ Yuèjié thought to herself, and then picked up her phone.

  Ouyang's family, Ouyang finished his homework and was about to go to sleep when he received a text message on his phone.

  "I think our relationship should be further clarified, don't you?"

  Ouyang saw this post from Xu Yu Jie and thought of what Mu Yu Hang had said before, feeling that agreeing to Xu Yu Jie so quickly was a bit unstable, so he replied.

  "Didn't we agree on one semester? Let me think again."

  "Alright then, but I'm telling you, there are people chasing me too, so don't say you didn't have a chance later. And also, buy two boxes of Crystal Love for me tomorrow."

  Ouyang let out a sigh and then went to rest.

  The next day, due to Wang Lin getting up late in the morning, the commute took about fifteen minutes longer.

  "What's the hurry? At most, we'll be late for just ten or twenty minutes." Wang Lin asked Ouyang in a sleepy manner on the bus.

  "Ah, can't make you understand." Ouyang shook his head.

  As a result, Ouyang's commute was delayed by twenty minutes, and he hastily got off the bus.

  When they arrived at the classroom, Xiaozhu had a schadenfreude expression, stretched out her hand, and Ouyang hummed and took out a bag of White Rabbit candies from his backpack and put it in Xiaozhu's hand.

  "Next time I won't lose to you, what shall we bet on tomorrow?"

  "Hmm, let's gamble on lunch tomorrow, how about it? There's a new restaurant near school that I've been wanting to try out, but that guy has been busy lately." Xiaozhu thought for a moment and said

  "Alright then, you wait and see, tomorrow I'll definitely make you treat me to dinner." Ouyang said this as he opened the packaging himself, pulled out a piece of candy and put it in his mouth.