Chapter 22 Pretending
Xu Mingyuan felt very uncomfortable that day and stood almost the entire day.

Only after his Chinese teacher used him as an example did he praise his good writing skills, and that was all.

Not only the teachers, but also the students in Class 7 were shocked after learning about Xu Mingyuan’s total score.

With just over 300 points, this is already at the bottom of the class.

Xu Mingyuan’s grades cannot be considered good, but they are certainly not bad. His scores are basically in the early 500s, and he has been able to remain in the top 20 in the class for many years, which is already an upper-middle level.

Several classmates who were in the same class with Xu Mingyuan before the class was divided vaguely remembered that when he was just in the first year of high school, his grades were among the top three in the class.

Such a poor test result inevitably aroused suspicion from classmates.

Of course, Liang Yunsong, who had a grudge against Xu Mingyuan, was naturally happy. Seeing Xu Mingyuan standing at the back of the class, he looked back from time to time with mockery in his eyes.

Xu Mingyuan sneered at this insignificant provocation and ignored him.

This gave Liang Yunsong confidence, and he felt that Xu Mingyuan had bowed to him.

Xu Mingyuan didn’t care, but Sun Hongwei noticed it and took him to the corner of the stairs after school in the afternoon, wanting to teach him a lesson.

Fortunately, he was stopped by Xu Mingyuan, otherwise he would have definitely been beaten up.

Later in the afternoon, Sun Hongwei was called out of the class, and Xu Mingyuan stood with him in the corridor for two self-study classes.

“F**k him, this bastard has no future at all, he’s just going to tell the teacher!”

Taking advantage of the time when the teacher was not around, Sun Hongwei deliberately spoke very loudly.

“Hey! Keep it down. Aren’t you afraid of attracting the head teacher? Besides, he didn’t provoke you. I haven’t said anything yet. Why do you have nothing better to do than to pick on him?”

Xu Mingyuan was as thick-skinned as a city wall. He didn’t care whether he was punished to stand or not. It was just that he had done nothing today and had wasted a day’s study time for nothing.

With the chatterbox Sun Hongwei beside him, Xu Mingyuan had no chance to learn anything, so he started bragging to him.

“I get angry when I see him looking like he deserves a beating. I won’t feel good if I don’t beat him up. He’s waiting for the holiday!”

In fact, Sun Hongwei and Liang Yunsong had no grudge against each other. They just saw that Xu Mingyuan had come to school after such a long time, and they wanted to vent their anger on him because someone was taking advantage of them.

“That’s your fault. He just looks a little annoying. What’s wrong with that? Aren’t you afraid of being expelled from school?”

Liang Yunsong is such a person, he bullies the weak and fears the strong but is very concerned about his reputation. Even if you find an opportunity to teach him a lesson, he will still scream and act like a coward afterwards.

There weren’t many people like this when I was in school, but there were always one or two in every class. We knew that we were all students, and we couldn’t do much about them.

We follow rules in school, but once we enter society, someone will teach us how to behave.

“I’m afraid of being fired? I’ve already given up on missing you.”

Sun Hongwei stiffened his neck, looking indifferent.

“That’s enough. There’s no point in talking about this. You’ll be in college in less than a year, and there are a lot more beautiful girls in college than in high school.”

High school boys only have a few topics to talk about: playing games, playing basketball, and discussing which girl is the prettiest.

When he said this, Sun Hongwei said “huh” with disdain, and then said: “Girls are too annoying, not interesting at all.”

In the past, Xu Mingyuan was really intimidated by Sun Hongwei and thought that Sun Hongwei had no interest in little girls. After all, this guy was very serious in front of girls.

Even when there were girls who were interested in him and took the initiative to show their affection, Sun Hongwei would impatiently drive them away, causing Xu Mingyuan to think for a time that this guy had some problems with his sexual orientation.

Later, Xu Mingyuan realized that this guy was purely a repressed person who dared not say a word in front of girls. He had to pretend to be tough to hide his inner panic. In fact, he was very innocent.

In middle age, the white and fat Sun Hongwei has completely shed his disguise. His favorite thing to do is to drag Xu Mingyuan to get a foot massage. Half of his WeChat accounts are technicians’ contact information. He is really not afraid of dying on women.

“It’s fine if you pretend for others, but there’s no point pretending in front of me. If you try to get a few more points, you can barely get into the electrical engineering department. Otherwise, your parents will send you to a sports school, and you’ll just have to be a monk.”

“How do you know my dad said he would send me to a sports school?” Sun Hongwei asked puzzledly.

“What else? It’s hard for you to get into a junior college. If your dad doesn’t send you to a sports school, does he mean you’ll just stay at home and run the store after you graduate?”

“Whether I go to school or not, I’m destined to be a store keeper in the future.” Sun Hongwei didn’t care. His parents had paved the way for him and were just waiting for him to live a life of idleness and wait for death.

His family runs a hotel and they have saved a lot of money over the years, so they are considered a wealthy family.

“By the way, remember what I said, don’t date a dancer in the future.”

“Why?” Sun Hongwei asked in confusion.

“Just remember it, don’t ask so many questions.”

Xu Mingyuan didn’t know how to explain it either. Should he tell Sun Hongwei that he was badly betrayed by his ex-wife?

Most of the reserved men are innocent, and Sun Hongwei is one of them. Later, he met a dancer and they got married within two years of dating.

However, they got married and divorced just as quickly. When they divorced, they also took away the three shops that Sun Hongwei’s parents had saved for him. From then on, he completely stopped believing in love.

This matter was also Xu Mingyuan’s fault. He had originally invited Sun Hongwei to go for a drink, but he stood him up because of something urgent. When the guy drove home, he saw a man on the bed and his wife was hurriedly putting on her coat.

Since then, Sun Hongwei, whose faith was broken, no longer believed in love at all. He threw his child to his parents and completely let himself go.

Sun Hongwei, who had been thinking for a long time, suddenly touched Xu Mingyuan and asked, “Brother Yuan, which girl do you think is the prettiest in school?”

“Oh, Wei Ge has made a difference. Which girl has he taken a fancy to?”

“Just asking.”

“Not sure, Tao Shuxin?”

So much time has passed, and Xu Mingyuan can’t remember anyone from No. 3 Middle School except Tao Shuxin, who is more familiar to him.

“That’s not right. Didn’t you say last time that Yu Caiwei from Class 1 is much prettier than Tao Shuxin?”

“Huh? Is there still such a thing?”

It was so many years ago that Xu Mingyuan last saw him like this.

Xu Mingyuan had a vague impression of the name Yu Caiwei, but he could no longer remember what she looked like.

“Damn, Brother Yuan, I understand now. You said that on purpose because you like Tao Shuxin, right?” Sun Hongwei said with sudden enlightenment.

“Where did you come up with this idea?” Xu Mingyuan was very puzzled.

“Otherwise, why did you say in front of Tao Shuxin that Yu Caiwei is prettier than her?”

“I said that to her face?”

Xu Mingyuan felt a little annoyed, but also a little funny. Adolescents tend to care more about face than adults, so it is not difficult to understand why they would say such things.

“That’s not it.”

Sun Hongwei looked like he was asking for a beating, as if to say, “I’ve seen through you a long time ago.”

“Hey! Hey!”

Sun Hongwei suddenly winked at Xu Mingyuan.

Then Xu Mingyuan saw Tao Shuxin, who had just returned from the office, walking towards the classroom angrily.

“Pretend! Give me back my book!”

Seeing Xu Mingyuan chatting with his textbook rolled up, Tao Shuxin snatched the textbook away in anger and kicked him in the calf.

“Hey! I haven’t finished reading it yet.”

Seeing Tao Shuxin ignoring him and going back to the classroom, Xu Mingyuan was very puzzled.

How am I pretending?
(End of this chapter)