Chapter 027

If it could be said that Ji Chen’s heart rate had been a hundred earlier, then now his heart was racing so fast it felt like it was about to burst.

He absolutely couldn’t believe what he had just touched.

While Ji Chen was still trapped in shock, struggling to come to his senses, Meng Li, who had been lying on the bed, suddenly fluttered her lower eyelashes and opened her eyes.

After opening her eyes, she sat up. Her expression was still a bit confused as she looked at Ji Chen and asked, “Did I faint?”

Ji Chen was still struggling to process the overwhelming reality of what he’d discovered. After a long pause, he finally responded, “Mm.”

Meng Li’s head still felt a bit dizzy, and her whole body was weak and limp.

But she noticed something seemed off about Ji Chen. So, she stared at him for a while before curiously asking, “Why is your face so red?”

At being asked that, Ji Chen, feeling guilty, quickly tried to regain his composure and deliberately relaxed his expression, saying, “The… weather is just too hot. I was running.”

This explanation seemed reasonable enough, and Meng Li nodded in acknowledgment, saying, “Oh…”

Ji Chen cleared his throat and added, “Mm…”

Meng Li: “…”

Something felt… off?

Just as the awkward tension was about to freeze the atmosphere, the young nurse who had stepped out earlier returned with Dr. Zhou, whom Meng Li had mentioned. The two of them entered the room and saw that Meng Li was awake. Just then, another person ran in.

All four turned to look. It was a boy.

Both Meng Li and Ji Chen recognized him. It was Dai Guoqing, their class’s sports committee member.

Dr. Zhou didn’t glance at anyone else for long, turning to look at Meng Li and asking, “What happened?”

Meng Li took a deep breath to steady herself and quickly gathered her thoughts. “I haven’t been eating well these past few days, probably a bit of low blood sugar. The sun was strong outside today, and I overexerted myself with exercise. I guess I fainted from heatstroke…”

Dr. Zhou’s face remained neutral, and he spoke in a routine manner, “Lie down. I’ll check you over.”

Upon hearing that she needed to be examined, Meng Li hurriedly stepped off the bed, saying, “No need to trouble yourself. It’s nothing serious.”

Dr. Zhou looked at her curiously, “Are you sure?”

Meng Li nodded. “It’s just low blood sugar, overexertion, and a bit of heatstroke.”

There’s no such thing as a doctor forcing someone to get checked. Seeing that Meng Li insisted on not having an examination, Dr. Zhou didn’t press further. Based on what she said, he prescribed her some medication to address her symptoms.

After prescribing the medication, Dr. Zhou added, “If you’re not feeling well, take some time off. We can’t joke around with our health.”

Meng Li took the medicine and explained, “I already asked for leave, but the teacher wouldn’t allow it.”

Dr. Zhou sat down at his desk and looked at her, saying, “What kind of teacher is that? A student isn’t feeling well, and they won’t let them take leave? If something really happened, would they be able to take responsibility? Luckily, you woke up on your own. If you hadn’t, we would’ve had to send you to a larger hospital.”

Hearing this, Meng Li felt a lump in her chest, about to speak up, but before she could say anything, she suddenly heard footsteps and voices. She looked up and saw Principal Cao, along with Wang Chaohai and their class’s physical education teacher, entering.

Principal Cao immediately asked as soon as she stepped into the clinic, “Which student fainted? How are they doing?”

Everyone in the clinic stood up, and Dr. Zhou approached Principal Cao. “He woke up. I just prescribed some medicine for him.”

Principal Cao’s expression showed some concern. “What happened? Is it serious?”

Dr. Zhou explained, “He’s had poor health to begin with. I heard he wasn’t allowed to take leave, and then he overexerted himself, got a bit of heatstroke, and fainted.”

Before Principal Cao could respond, Ji Chen, who had remained mostly silent up until then, suddenly spoke up, “It’s not just about being denied leave. It’s bad enough that they wouldn’t let us take time off when we’re not feeling well, but they also deliberately targeted us with corporal punishment. They made us run twenty laps around the track. Isn’t that practically putting our lives in danger? I want to ask Teacher Zhao, we’ve been obedient and haven’t done anything wrong, so what exactly did we do to offend you?”

After hearing Ji Chen’s words, Principal Cao immediately turned to look at the PE teacher. “What’s going on here?”

Had it not been for the commotion on the track, with rumors flying around that a student from Class 5 of Senior Year had fainted, Principal Cao wouldn’t have rushed over with Wang Chaohai.

Initially, the PE teacher hadn’t planned to come but had sent the sports committee member over to check the situation. After learning that Principal Cao was on her way, the PE teacher hurried over behind her.

Now, faced with Principal Cao, the PE teacher had completely lost the assertiveness he had earlier in class and quickly began to explain, “Principal Cao, I was just conducting a normal class. I didn’t intend to target the students with corporal punishment. They were deliberately disrupting the class, so of course, I had to discipline them.”

Meng Li noticed that her legs were still a bit weak, so she reached out to steady herself against the bed.

She took a moment to steady her breathing and then spoke up, correcting him, “We didn’t deliberately disrupt the class. Everyone present saw it—I raised my hand to ask for leave because I wasn’t feeling well, but you didn’t allow it. Because I wasn’t feeling well, I really couldn’t do the push-ups; I wasn’t pretending. But you responded to me with harsh words. I respected you as a teacher and didn’t argue with you. Ji Chen simply spoke up for me, and you punished him too. Fortunately, I didn’t say anything more. If I had, I’m afraid we’d still be lying out there on the track now.”

Her last words were harsh, and they caused a flicker of panic in the PE teacher’s eyes.

He turned to Meng Li, his voice rising a little, “You dare to talk nonsense in front of the principal? You and Ji Chen, everyone knows what kind of people you are, what reputation you have. Do you even know what it means to respect a teacher?”

It seemed there was an unspoken understanding between them, and Ji Chen immediately followed up, “We haven’t broken any rules or caused trouble. Everyone on the track saw what happened. You can’t just say whatever you want because you’re in charge. You’ve always had a bias against Meng Li and me. This isn’t the first time you’ve targeted us. If Meng Li hadn’t fainted and caught the principal’s attention, who knows how you would’ve continued to treat us?”

After speaking, Ji Chen looked at Principal Cao, “Principal, this is how it happened. If you don’t believe it, you can ask the students in Class 5 one by one to see if Meng Li and I are lying. Since you’re aware of the situation, and since Meng Li nearly collapsed on the track today, I ask you to address this matter properly. A teacher like Zhao doesn’t deserve to be one. To put it bluntly, his behavior is like that of a warlord!”

The words caused a wave of tension among those present, and the PE teacher’s face turned pale, flustered. Pointing at Ji Chen, he shouted, “You little brat, what nonsense are you spouting? What do you mean by calling me a warlord? Who are you to label me?”

Ji Chen looked completely unfazed. “If you don’t understand, I’ll take the trouble to explain it to you. Warlord-style behavior refers to the kind of conduct that occurs in a semi-feudal, semi-colonial society, where warlords dominate a region, with no laws or rules, doing whatever they want based on sheer power…”

“Enough.”

The situation started to spiral out of control, and it was Principal Cao who intervened, sharply cutting off Ji Chen. She glared at him, took a deep breath to calm herself, and then shifted her focus to Meng Li. “How are you feeling now? Do you need to go to the hospital?”

Meng Li, holding the medication, shook her head. “No need, I’m feeling much better.”

Principal Cao’s tone softened considerably. “In that case, skip class for now. Go back to your classroom and rest.”

After giving the instruction, she switched to a more serious tone “I understand the situation. I will handle it properly.”

With that, she turned and walked out of the infirmary, her expression unusually grim.

Once back in her office, she had a private conversation with the PE teacher.

With a look of frustration on her face, Principal Cao slammed her hand down on the desk, glaring at the PE teacher. “Do you even know what kind of time this is? Everyone is treading carefully, walking on eggshells, afraid of making any mistakes, and here you are. Tell me, what do you think you’re doing?”

The PE teacher, still unsettled, muttered, “It’s natural for a teacher to discipline students.”

Principal Cao stared at him, her eyes sharp. “But your behavior was inappropriate. If you’re really labeled as having a warlord-style approach, your career is finished!”

The PE teacher, now somewhat intimidated, still tried to defend himself. “They’re just two kids, why take them so seriously?”

“Why take them so seriously!?” Principal Cao’s eyes widened, and her voice grew more forceful. “You’ve probably forgotten that back in the day, kids wearing red armbands were the same age as them. Ji Chen and Meng Li are well-known outside, you really think they don’t have some skills?”

The PE teacher was left speechless, unable to argue further. After a brief pause, he finally asked, “How do you plan to handle this?”

He then added, “I admit I have a bias against them. I didn’t measure my words properly.”

Principal Cao took a deep breath, bent down, and sat behind her desk.

She sat silently behind her desk for a moment before turning to the PE teacher. “Since things have escalated this far, the only option left is to dismiss you. You can no longer stay at our school. Losing your job might be tough, but it’s not the end of the world. I hope you remember this lesson.”

The PE teacher was clearly dissatisfied with the punishment and quickly protested, “Principal Cao, don’t you think the punishment is a bit too harsh?”

Principal Cao fixed her gaze on him. “You need to understand that a problem with conduct is a serious matter. Whether this punishment is too harsh or not, you know better than I do. If this situation were to escalate because of them, who knows what would happen.”

The PE teacher couldn’t respond, feeling like a lump of frustration was stuck in his chest, unable to rise or fall.

…

After Principal Cao left with Wang Chaohai and the PE teacher, Meng Li, Ji Chen, and the sports committee member, Dai Guoqing, also left the infirmary.

Dai Guoqing returned to the track to keep an eye on the remaining students, while Ji Chen and Meng Li headed back to their classroom.

Meng Li sat down heavily on her chair, her legs feeling weak. After catching her breath, she turned to Ji Chen and said, “Thank you for what you did earlier.”

She hadn’t expected that, out of all the classmates, it would be Ji Chen who spoke up for her.

Ji Chen kicked his chair back and sat down, offering a smile. “No need to thank me, I wasn’t doing it for you. We’re just in the same boat.”

He realized that the PE teacher had never liked him either and had often targeted him as well.

Feeling weak, Meng Li rested her head on her desk, her voice soft and faint. “Do you think the principal will handle this?”

Ji Chen thought for a moment, then replied casually, “We’ll just wait and see. If it doesn’t get handled properly, we’ll go to the principal’s office together.”

Meng Li lay there for a moment, then nodded slightly. “Yeah, what if it’s not dealt with properly and they keep making trouble for us? This situation has to be resolved fairly. We can’t just let it go like this.”

She had already fainted from all the trouble, so she certainly wouldn’t let it slide easily.

Ji Chen sat back in his chair, hands stuffed into his pockets, watching Meng Li as she lay limp on the desk. Her soft, fragile appearance matched the gentleness in her voice. She sounded faint, like a little kitten mewing, probably because she still didn’t have much strength.

As he looked at Meng Li’s face, his eyes briefly wandered to the exposed, pale skin on her neck beneath the dark blue school uniform.

Suddenly remembering what had happened in the infirmary, Ji Chen felt his ears burn with embarrassment and quickly shifted his gaze away.

During the argument with the PE teacher, he hadn’t had the mind to focus on Meng Li’s gender. Now that things had settled for the moment, his attention shifted back to that absurd situation.

And as soon as his thoughts returned to that ridiculous matter, his mind immediately became a tangled mess.

All he could think was—

Meng Li is actually a girl?

Is this really not a dream?

Noticing Ji Chen turn his face away and fall silent, Meng Li simply buried her head back down and closed her eyes to rest.

She felt utterly exhausted, even speaking felt like a chore, and she had no energy to worry about anything else.

After lying there for a while, Meng Li suddenly sat up again.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out her watch to check the time, then grabbed her bag from under the desk, slung it over her shoulder, and stood up to leave.

Ji Chen watched as she headed for the back door and couldn’t resist asking, “Hey, where are you going?”

Meng Li, as if suddenly realizing, turned back to look at him and said, “There’s only three minutes left before class is over. I’m going to the cafeteria to grab something to eat. If I leave now, I’ll get there just in time, and I won’t have to wait in line to get food.”

Ji Chen cleared his throat and stood up. “I’ll go with you.”

Meng Li froze for a moment, not fully grasping what Ji Chen meant. She looked at him, puzzled, and asked, “Why?”

What did it even mean to eat together?

Only close friends would eat together.

Ji Chen brushed past her shoulder and headed toward the door, saying, “Why so many questions? If you make me happy, I’ll keep your little secret about bawling your eyes out back then. But if you don’t…” He paused, smirking. “I might just spill the beans.”

Meng Li: “…”

She figured it out—if she wasn’t mistaken, he wasn’t actually going with her to eat, but rather was expecting her to treat him.

Meng Li reached into her pocket and felt the few meal tickets inside, taking a long breath in and then exhaling it slowly.

Even though in this era, being poor was almost a badge of honor, it still felt like a sting.

But when she thought about it, face was more important.

Fine, she’d treat him.