Chapter 79: Cover
Zhong Chushan pushed aside the haystack at the wall, revealing an opening.
The opening wasn’t big originally, just a dog hole. Later, it was smashed bigger when no one was paying attention, making it easier for them to pass through by bending down given their current physiques.
Zhong Chushan entered first, followed by a squeaking sound. Chen Buyu went second, and finally Zhou Wangshu. When all three were inside, Zhong Chushan covered the opening again.
The three tiptoed back to the dormitory, hearing talking before they even arrived. One of the voices was Xiao Yanci, the others belonged to Xiao Yanci’s cronies. As for Jiang Yihui, he hadn’t been causing trouble for Xiao Yanci recently; it seemed he suddenly decided to get along with him.
Jiang Yihui was the most effective weapon against Xiao Yanci, but it wasn’t working well anymore, giving Xiao Yanci more opportunities to hassle them. For example, now he had come for a surprise inspection.
"Go around, climb in through the back window," Chen Buyu whispered, "Hurry up, don’t let them find us."
While sneaking out wouldn’t lead to latrine duty now, being forced to write was still quite painful, especially since Xiao Yanci’s punishment towards Zhou Wangshu would be even harsher.
"Open the door, room inspection," one of Xiao Yanci’s cronies, Wang Yunfeng, shouted while pounding on Chen Buyu and Zhou Wangshu’s door.
No response.
Wang Yunfeng turned to Xiao Yanci: "Brother Xiao, there’s no reply, should we just go in?"
A head poked out from the adjacent room, calling out to them: "They sleep early, let them rest! I can vouch for them, they are inside resting."
Another of Xiao Yanci’s lackeys, Zhang Bufan, sneered: "Your word can’t be trusted, we must see for ourselves. Brother Xiao, I’ll open the door; if they resist, let them deal with me."
Xiao Yanci replied coolly: "Since the teacher tasked me with managing the academy’s affairs, I must treat it seriously. Go ahead, if there’s a problem, I’ll handle it."
Wang Yunfeng got the nod, forcefully pushing the door. However, it was locked from inside, and pushing didn’t work initially. At this point, Wang Yunfeng was already convinced they were inside since whether someone was there or not could be told by whether the door was locked. But they got a tip-off saying that Zhou Wangshu and Chen Buyu weren’t inside, and insisted on seeing for themselves.
Just as Wang Yunfeng was about to climb through the window, the door opened from inside. He lost his balance and fell into the room.
Yawning, Chen Buyu looked drowsy: "What are you doing? I just fell asleep and now you’re making all this noise."
"Since you’re inside, why was the door opened so late?" Wang Yunfeng stood up, "Where’s Zhou Wangshu?"
"Isn’t he right there?" Chen Buyu pointed to Zhou Wangshu sitting on the bed.
Zhou Wangshu looked up innocently: "Do you not sleep at night and not let others either?"
Wang Yunfeng turned and went out, saying to Xiao Yanci: "Brother Xiao, they..."
"I heard." Xiao Yanci frowned, "Looks like we’ve been played."
"How dare they deceive us," Wang Yunfeng said, "Don’t worry, Brother Xiao, I’ll deal with that brat soon enough and see if he dares to mess with us again."
Chen Buyu shouted in the direction Xiao Yanci left: "You’re out of your mind, not sleeping at night and not letting me sleep either. You inspect as you please, come and go as you want. Does the academy belong to you? Tomorrow I’ll definitely report this to the teacher. If it continues, I’ll go to another academy. I won’t endure this injustice."
"Brother Xiao, if Chen Buyu really reports us to the teacher, he’ll surely be angry. Chen Buyu’s family pays a lot for the academy’s maintenance each year; the teacher definitely wouldn’t want him to leave."
"No problem, I’ll explain to the teacher."
"True, Brother Xiao is the teacher’s favorite. The teacher wouldn’t want to penalize you. Let’s go back to sleep."
After Xiao Yanci left, Chen Buyu quickly shut the door.
At this moment, Zhou Wangshu got out from under the blankets, still wearing the clothes from earlier. He sniffed himself with a look of disdain and immediately took off the outer clothes.
It was too hurried earlier, he didn’t get a chance to take them off before getting into bed.
Zhong Chushan got up from Chen Buyu’s bed, also wearing his earlier clothes.
He glanced out the window, making sure they were gone, and said, "Lucky he didn’t check my room right away, or I would’ve been exposed."
"If he checked, we’d say you were in the bathroom. You’d take off the outer clothes and come out of the bathroom in undergarments; what could he say?" Chen Buyu replied, "But from what they said, we were reported leaving. No matter how careful we were, we were still found out. Tomorrow whoever gets beaten must be the tattler."
"It’s late, let’s sleep."
In the middle of the night, Zhou Wangshu was startled awake. As he opened his eyes, they were filled with rage. But upon seeing the pitch-dark room and the cold moon outside the window, he calmed down.
He had another nightmare.
The dream was filled with corpses, all of them were his beloved ones.
He wandered aimlessly, passing through the bodies, calling out to them continuously. He wanted them to get up to keep him company, teach him to ride horses and shoot arrows, to play games and music.
"I will avenge all of you," Zhou Wangshu muttered, "I swear, I will avenge all of you."
The teacher was just preparing today’s teaching materials, hearing Chen Buyu and Zhong Chushan’s voices made his forehead throb. He wanted to find a place to hide, but there was only one door, nowhere to hide.
Recently, the academy had been restless, with constant conflicts among the students. These two were the biggest problems. Their wealthy backgrounds meant he couldn’t drive them away. After all, the academy still needed to operate; those rich folks wanted to send their mediocre sons to while away the time, no matter how troublesome, he couldn’t shoo away these gold mines that came to him.
They just liked causing trouble too much, making it very hard for him to handle.
Upon entering, Chen Buyu and Zhong Chushan were greeted with a kindly expression from the originally grim teacher: "You came so early, is there something you need?"
"Teacher, if you continue to allow Xiao Ci to hassle us, we’ll leave the academy; we’re done studying here." Chen Buyu angrily stated, "Is Xiao Ci stupid from all the studying, running around with nightly inspections? We hardly sleep and then he interrupts, leaving us awake all night. Look at my eyes, aren’t they dark circles? It’s his fault."
"I understand," the teacher tried to brush them off, "I’ll speak to Xiao Ci later."
"Just talking doesn’t work. Xiao Ci acts like he has authority, where mere students like us can’t endure his torment. Teacher, if you keep letting him run wild, we’ll leave."
The teacher bit his lip, shouting outside: "Someone, tell Xiao Ci to hand over the academy’s affairs from today onwards, there will be no more nightly inspections from now on."