Fever Break - Chapter 5

Someone in the class started laughing, and the others couldn’t hold it back, all chuckling and giggling. Suddenly, a wave of rustling laughter erupted from below. The professor on the podium looked up, scanning the classroom through thick glasses. Actually, he could have skipped calling out this name; the seating was fixed, and it was obvious who was absent. The professor called the name to help everyone get to know each other.

“What are you all laughing at? Is this student Lu Wuke funny in your eyes?”

The laughter from everyone below became even more unstrained.

Lu Wuke glanced at the boy sitting in her seat. Shen Yixi seemed to have just woken up, his eyes still heavy with sleep. He leaned back in his chair, one arm stretched out over the desk, casually twirling a pen. Just from his back, one could imagine his nonchalant expression. The girl next to him, after hearing the professor’s words, playfully hit his arm in reproach.

He laughed heartily, as if saying, “Aren’t you the one who said to call out the person in this seat?”

Ah Shi tugged at Lu Wuke’s sleeve, looking worried for her: “Oh no, what if the professor calls his name later? He can’t just respond again, right? Then you two are done for; that strict professor is a GPA killer.”

At the front row, a male classmate of Ah Shi leaned back to join the fun: “Come on, you two probably don’t even have a GPA, you might get dropped from this semester’s classes.”

Ah Shi threw a piece of paper at him: “Don’t scare people.”

The guy laughed: “I’m just kindly reminding you.”

Ah Shi couldn’t be bothered with him anymore and was about to comfort Lu Wuke when the professor at the podium spoke again. She adjusted her glasses and looked at Shen Yixi, sitting by the window in the fourth row on the right: “But that name is really quite impressive*.”

Hearing this, Lu Wuke glanced over.

That person looked completely relaxed, clearly not taking it seriously.

He started rambling in front of the whole class: “My mom named me, you should praise her.”

Laughter erupted in the classroom and didn’t stop.

Ah Shi was almost laughing to the point of tears: “Hey, Lu Wuke, what are you going to do? Your name got taken.”

A few people from the mechanical engineering class were sitting in this area. The guy in front thought that Lu Wuke was just pretending to be calm and was laughing so hard he was shaking, not forgetting to reassure her: “Shen Yixi is just messing around, he won’t really steal your name.”

Ah Shi scoffed, “Who would be that foolish? We’re all eighteen, adults now; it’s not that easy to be fooled.”

The guy wanted to say, “That girl next to you,” and glanced over.

But he froze for a moment when he saw Lu Wuke’s appearance.

Lu Wuke had already put on her headphones and was playing a game.

The girl was delicate and harmless, like a little deer. Her skin was so white it seemed like it would shatter with just a touch.

A guy quietly exclaimed, nudging his friends: “That girl behind us looks so damn pure.”

Some guy around was instantly drawn to her; hardly anyone could resist turning to look after hearing that.

“Which department is she from?”

“Are you trying to hit on her?”

“Of course, what else would I be asking you for?”

Ah Shi bit the tip of her pen, watching them chatter away, then tilted her head to inform Lu Wuke: “Someone’s trying to pursue you.”

Lu Wuke, engrossed in an outdated puzzle game, showed no interest: “Just focus on studies.”

Ah Shi sighed: “You’re so boring, Lu Wuke.”

She propped her chin on her hand and turned her head, casually saying, “When do you think you’ll be enlightened**?”

Lu Wuke paused at her words, and the little character on the screen died without warning. Just then, the professor called out names, so she shoved her phone back into her desk and lay her head down, waiting for her name to be called.

Ah Shi asked her, “Are you nervous?”

“What?”

Ah Shi pointed at the podium: “Professor is going to call Shen Yixi’s name soon.”

Lu Wuke looked up at her. From this angle, her eyes were large, with black pupils glistening like they were wet.

She countered, “Why should I be nervous?”

Ah Shi widened her eyes: “Shen Yixi! I can guarantee that 90% of the girls in this classroom like him and would jump at the chance to answer for him.”

Lu Wuke, still sipping her milk, bit the straw: “Is that so?”

“Why would I lie to you?” she asked again, “And aren’t you afraid of getting caught by Professor?”

Just as she finished speaking, the teacher called out a name: “Xu Wanrou.” The boys in the front row laughed so hard they were shaking, mimicking the teacher’s voice as they called out Xu Wanrou’s full name.

Xu Wanrou rolled her eyes and kicked their chairs.

Lu Wuke chuckled a bit.

Shen Yixi was the last name on the list, and the professor pronounced his name with precise enunciation.

“Shen Yixi.”

A small commotion broke out in the class. Everyone unconsciously glanced at Shen Yixi, then at Lu Wuke. The classroom fell into an awkward silence.

After two seconds, no one responded, and it was completely quiet. Those few seconds seemed to stretch on forever. Strangely enough, at that moment, Lu Wuke could still pay attention to Shen Yixi in the front rows.

He showed no intention of responding, sitting high and aloof. The boy leaned back in his chair, his long limbs relaxed, as if Shen Yixi wasn’t even his name.

The teacher at the podium thought she had called the wrong person. After glancing at the seating chart, she realized she hadn’t and looked at Lu Wuke with confusion: “Shen Yixi?”

Xu Wanrou nudged her arm: “Quick, respond, or this semester will be a disaster.”

Lu Wuke met the teacher’s gaze, and after a few seconds, finally mustered the courage to raise her hand under the teacher’s watchful eyes.

“Here.”

The atmosphere instantly fell into silence, and the next second, the whole class burst into laughter.

The professor couldn’t help but join in the laughter: “Oh, she really is a girl, that name is quite spirited***!”

The other students laughed even harder.

Someone in the front chuckled, “Yige has really put that poor girl in a tough spot.”

The one who had put that poor girl in a tough spot was laughing with his shoulders slightly shaking, his fist pressed against his lips, clearing his throat a few times.

He seemed to glance over this way while laughing, then turned back.

The professor tapped the desk: “Alright, alright, have you laughed enough? If you’ve laughed enough, pay attention to the class. The final exam will cover what we teach in class, so if you slack off, just wait to cry at the end of the term.”

Ah Shi, this heartless person, gleefully called Lu Wuke, “Shen Yixi.”

“What are you going to do, Shen Yixi? You’ll have to bear this name for the whole semester.”

Lu Wuke opened the textbook and replied, “It’s pretty good; ninety percent of the girls in this class like me.”

Ah Shi laughed even more heartily.

Lu Wuke bit the milk tea straw and looked out the window.

=

The gloomy cloud above hasn’t cleared up these past few days. A heavy rainstorm swept through this land, as if the city had fallen into a deep slumber, long deprived of sunlight. That night, the heavy rain that had lasted for over ten hours finally gave people a chance to catch their breath. Everyone joked that it was like a hailstorm; just as the torrential rain left, the temperature dropped a few degrees right behind it.

The tea shop owner, asking her to come over earlier. It was said that the rain had finally stopped, and the students, having been cooped up in school all day, would definitely come out looking for something to eat.

At that time, Lu Wuke was having dinner with Ah Shi. After finishing, he said goodbye to her and left.

At half past five, the sky had darkened significantly, and the wind blew like a layer of water, cool and damp, pouring into people’s necks. The ground had dried up in a few patches.

Outside the west gate of the school is an old street, crowded with dilapidated residential buildings and not-so-clean little shops. The hustle and bustle of people and vehicles requires a few honks to navigate through. What’s abundant here is the lively, everyday atmosphere, showcasing the myriad of lives along the street.

At this moment, it’s rush hour. Lu Wuke has just stepped out of the school gate, and the sound of honking horns surrounds her, while students laugh and jostle past her. She stands by the roadside, waiting to cross.

The flow of traffic is like a flood, with wave after wave of cars passing by. A few reckless youths dash across in front of the cars, and drivers lean out of their windows, cursing loudly. That group of people, fearless and laughing, turns to give the drivers the finger. Unbeknownst to whom, someone nudges the person next to them and gestures with their chin towards Lu Wuke.

From across the street, they seem to exchange a few jokes and whistle in her direction. Lu Wuke pretends not to notice, lowering her gaze and idly kicking at a small stone on the ground. When she looks up again, that group has already disappeared, and she crosses the street.

The milk tea shop is nearby. When she arrives, another person from the shop has already there, a girl from a third-rate technical college.

The girl’s name is Li Liting, and she talks as much as a chatterbox, not stopping since Lu Wuke walked in.

At this hour, no one comes to drink milk tea, and Li Liting, having nothing to do, chats with her: “Don’t you have class tonight?”

“Yeah, I didn’t choose tonight’s.”

“Hey, Lu Wuke, isn’t your grade pretty good?”

Lu Wuke pulled out a straw from the box: “Not really.”

“Is that so?” Li Liting pondered for a moment and then said, “I always thought that if someone could get into a university like yours, their grades couldn’t be that bad.”

For some reason, Lu Wuke thought of someone. So the next second, when Li Liting mentioned that name, she looked at her.

Li Liting said, “No, the one from your school named Shen Yixi, isn’t it said that he got in through connections?”

This was one of the rumors about Shen Yixi, as if he was fundamentally a bad person. Even in terms of women. He was skilled, charming, a master in the dating scene; just a glance and people were willing to follow him. It’s precisely people like him that stir the heart.

Li Liting was so curious about something that she asked her, “Didn’t it said that this person has changed lover again in the past few days?”

Lu Wuke was putting on a mask, “I’m not sure, not from my department.”

“True,” Li Liting said, “but that face is simply a gift from heaven. There are plenty of girls in our technical school who are completely smitten; I really don’t get it.”

“What?” Lu Wuke casually asked.

“Shen Yixi,” Li Liting mumbled, “this guy is just a bit good-looking, and he treats girlfriends like playing game. What’s so great about that? I don’t like this type at all, what do you think?”

Lu Wuke hummed in agreement.

After mealtime, the milk tea shop gradually became lively. Most of the customers were students coming in groups, bringing a few cups back to the dorms. This shop opened near the school, and the flow of people was constant; sometimes, even two people couldn’t keep up. Usually, during such times, it would be busy until around ten at night when things would calm down, but today it dragged on for a full half hour longer.

Once the crowd dispersed, Li Liting let out a heavy sigh: “There were just too many people today; I didn’t even touch my phone.”

Lu Wuke sat on the chair, leaning against the windowsill to rest for a moment.

Today was indeed a bit tiring. In another half hour, they would be able to close up and head back to school.

Originally, the two of them had planned to play a game as usual since they had nothing to do, but a group of people from the barbecue shop across the street came over, laughing and chatting.

Li Liting picked up her phone and then put it down again. Just as she was about to complain, she focused her gaze and realized they were acquaintances.

She whispered to Lu Wuke, “Those few from my technical college.”

Dyeing their hair, getting tattoos.

“These people are regulars at the academic affairs office. I heard they also hang out with some troublemakers, the kind that gets invited for a talk every few days.”

After saying this, she heard Lu Wuke say, “I know them.”

This caught Li Liting off guard, and she quickly turned to Lu Wuke, “You know them?”

How could she not know them? They were the ones who whistled at her on the street.

She said, “They don’t look like good people.”

Li Liting agreed, “Indeed, you won’t find a decent one among them.”

Then she noticed a familiar face in the group across the street and squinted, “Shen Yixi? That’s Shen Yixi, right? What is he doing here?”

Lu Wuke had already seen him. The group over there split into two, with one part standing on the other side of the road. A few other girls crossed the street and walked over here.

On the opposite side stood those boys, each one a heavy smoker, joking and laughing with cigarettes in hand. The few words that came out of their mouths probably weren’t very serious, with two or three lines filled with crude jokes.

Shen Yixi leaned against the street lamp, hands in his pockets. He should have been smiling, a cigarette clenched between his lips. The smoke obscured his face.

Lu Wuke only glanced at them before looking away.

Li Liting scratched the menu page on the table and said, “But thinking about it, it’s not surprising. They seem to play racing with cars together, the four-wheeled kind.”

She had heard about this. Shen Yixi liked car racing, not just as a casual hobby, but as something he was deeply passionate about.

Across the street, a boy from the technical college nudged Qi Siming beside him and nodded towards the milk tea shop. “That’s the girl you posted a photo of in the group a few days ago.”

It was a bit far, so he couldn’t see clearly.

Qi Siming took a careful look but didn’t recognize her. “Which one?”

“The one in the classroom, the one with the pure looks.”

Only then did the other party remember. Among boys, aside from a few topics about games, girls were the main subject.

That day in the moral education class, he had casually snapped a photo of that girl and sent it to the group.

As they mentioned it, a few boys glanced over in that direction.

The boy from the technical institute laughed, clearly not serious. “I just ran into her on the way, and teased her a bit. Guess what?”

“Rolling her eyes?”

“Rolling her eyes would mean she at least acknowledged us,” the boy chuckled. “She treated us like air, pretty impressive.”

Qi Siming laughed after hearing this: “Come on, you don’t really think about pursuing her, do you?”

“Actually, I do have that plan.”

Shen Yixi, who was nearby, just listened and casually glanced over.

Qi Siming told the guy who was thinking of pursuing, “I actually inquired about it the other day. That girl is not at all in our league. Do you know what her life is like?”

He gestured a bit: “Top of the class, scholarship winner, raking in awards like it’s nothing. How could she possibly look at us, who are always slacking off and barely scraping by in exams?”

Shen Yixi had been silent until now, and then asked, “A good student?”

Qi Siming turned to look at him: “Yeah, a truly good student, the kind that teachers would wish to adopt as their daughter.”

Shen Yixi had a cigarette in his mouth but didn’t light it.

He chuckled, “Then there’s no chance.”

This was clearly directed at the guy from the technical institute. That guy had a decent-looking face and was well aware of his advantage.

He said, “I really do like this type. I’m going to find her and get a contact number, want to bet?”

The streetlight cast a glow on Shen Yixi’s high nose bridge, making his eyes appear even deeper. He lifted his eyelids slightly and stared at that person for a moment.

Then a layer of laughter spread across his eyes: “Alright.”

“I bet you can’t do it.”

1. 1. 路無坷
      路 (lù): “road,” “path,” or “way.”
      無 (wú): “without,” “no,” or “absence.”
      坷 (kē): “bump,” “obstacle,” or “difficulty.”
      So our protagonist’s name conveys the idea of a journey that is free from any bumps, obstacles, or difficulties.

1. 1. Enlightened as in love life.

1. 1. Because 沈屹西 (Shěn Yì Xī) is generally a name for male.
      沈 (Shěn): relates to sinking, submerging, or being deep. It can also signify tranquility or calmness.
      屹 (Yì): “firmly standing” or “immovable.”
      西 (Xī): This character simply means “west.” In some contexts, it can symbolize new beginnings, the future, or a distant place.

Alara: I will make two chapter free every week, but you can read it in advance with coin! I will update minimum 1 chapter everyday.