You’re A Liar

Daybreak.

Ling Song just entered the class and sat down when the group leader knocked on his table, asking him to submit his assignment.

Ling Song calmly replied, “I didn’t do it, Ma laoshi said I don’t need to complete assignments given in the next few days.”

Ma Guosheng did in fact say this.

The group leader was extremely surprised, “Ma laoshi actually indulged you to the point where you don’t even have to do assignments?”

Ling Song didn’t explain further.

He couldn’t do them even if he wanted to, plus he didn’t even know how to use a pen.

Zhang Chang turned over and asked him, “The monthly examinations are in two days, can you do it? Did Hai ge say you could skip the exams?”

“I don’t think so.”

This was indeed not possible.

It seemed that Ma Guosheng didn’t fully believe his words and wanted to see his monthly examination results before saying anything else.

See them then, Ling Song thought, at least his language subject would score quite well.

The bell for morning study rang. Wen Yuanchu was the last to enter the classroom. Once he sat down, he began to passionately rush through his homework.

Ling Song glanced at him, and thought, could it be that this person had committed thievery the night before and had to make up for his homework this early morning? 

Wen Yuanchu suddenly raised his eyes.

Ling Song’s heart quivered and immediately shifted his gaze.

The person’s voice sounded beside his ear, “Morning.”

Ling Song, “……”

He stretched his neck and took out a blank notebook, flipped open his language textbook and started copying.

Not caring about the rest first, he needed to be able to write these words smoothly before.

If not, doing anything else would be useless.

After that, he spent the rest of the day practising character writing.

At present, his only request was to be able to obtain more marks for language. Other than that, he gave up imposing.

Not resting even during afternoon break, the words written got more smooth and fluent. The spelling of commonly used simplified characters were more or less memorised.

This was way easier than writing with a brush, no wonder everyone was used to using this kind of pen.

Ling Song tsk’d as he copied the book. 

“You can also gain some points through multiple-choice questions.”

In addition to the greeting this morning, the deskmate who hadn’t said anything else suddenly opened his mouth.

Ling Song’s hand holding the pen paused and instinctively looked at him.

Wen Yuanchu wrote out A, B, C and D, these four letters on his own foolscap paper and told him, “You only need to choose one option for multi-choice questions. It’s fine if you don’t understand it, you can rely on guessing. Choose the shortest option if there are 3 long options and 1 short option. Choose the longest option if there are 3 short options and 1 long option. Choose B if there are 2 long and 2 short options, choose A if the options are of equal length and choose C if the options are irregular. You would at least be able to guess a few right answers.”

Ling Song blinked, feeling a little overwhelmed. This person had the exact same face as the prince regent, but the way he treated himself in a manner filled with… friendliness and amiability, he really wasn’t used to it.

“It can be done like this?”

Wen Yuanchu nodded, “Yes.”

Ling Song laughed, “oh—“

“Thanks.”

A, B, C, D was considered easy. Ling Song learnt very fast after writing it out twice.

Hearing Ling Song humming a happy tune, the tip of Wen Yuanchu’s pen trembled as he lowered his eyes. 

In the evening, Ling Jie, who had left work early, personally came to the school to pick him up. 

Ling Song sat in the car and saw Wen Yuanchu riding his bike out of the school in a flash. In no time, his figure disappeared into the rolling traffic. 

He stared at it for a period of time before asking Ling Jie, “Ge, are you familiar with the neighbours beside us?”

Ling Jie started the car and answered, “You’re saying uncle Wen’s family? Yeah, dad and uncle Wen are business partners, old friends even. Of course we are familiar with them. Why are you suddenly asking about this?”

“……Wen Yuanchu, is my deskmate.”

“So it was because of that kid.” Ling Jie laughed slightly, “You guys fought again?”

Ling Song was expressionless, he and Wen Yuanchu fought before?

Ling Jie said, “The two of you have been at odds since childhood. You liked to pester others to play with you, but that fellow Wen Yuanchu ignored you entirely. You had a big temper, when he ignored you, you’d hit him, causing such a fuss that mom and dad had to go to the Wen’s house to apologize on your behalf almost every day. How shameless of you.” 

Ling Song,“…….”

He didn’t dare hit the prince regent.

“I don’t know, I forgot.”

“Forget the past,” Ling Jie helplessly reminded him, “Don’t provoke others again, he’s a good student who would go to a prestigious university, unlike you, stirring up trouble non-stop all day.”

Ling Song didn’t think so; whoever provoked him, he would hide before it’s too late. 

The next two days were the monthly examinations, which was also the first examination after the division of the arts and science stream for sophomore students. 

The school attached great importance to it, and divided the examination rooms according to the final examination results from the previous semester. Ling Song’s position was in the middle exam room. 

The original Ling Song didn’t like studying, but he was smart, and his exam results were fairly passable. 

Before entering the exam room, Ling Song bumped into Wen Yuanchu in the corridor. He stood there as though he was waiting for someone. 

Ling Song pretended not to see him, hurrying to the bathroom before the bell rang. 

When he returned, Wen Yuanchu was still standing there. Ling Song passed by without glancing sideways, but Wen Yuanchu stopped him. 

The corners of Ling Song’s lips lifted in a smile, “What’s up?” 

Wen Yuanchu looked at him and said a single sentence after a long while, “Don’t be nervous.”

He wasn’t nervous at all, he wouldn’t be either way. 

Ling Song laughed ‘haha’ before heading back to the exam room. 

The first exam was Chinese. Besides not knowing pinyin, the rest were not too difficult. Classical Chinese was even easier for Ling Song. In the last composition essay, he simply wrote a policy advice for an emperor with great fluency and richness. When he was finished, he was still unsatisfied and wanted to continue, inwardly proud of himself.

This kind of thing was too simple. 

But soon, this pride was gone. 

From the second exam, mathematics, he could only anxiously scratch his ears and cheeks as he followed the method Wen Yuanchu had taught him to answer the multiple-choice questions. Other than that, he couldn’t write a single word. 

On Thursday afternoon, Ling Song came out after taking the last physics exam, walking with the wind. 

As soon as he walked out of the exam room, he bumped into Wen Yuanchu again. 

In the crowded corridor, Wen Yuanchu looked at him, but before he could open his mouth, someone suddenly shouted from behind him, “Lao da!” 

Wang Zide and a couple others rushed over excitedly and called Ling Song to play basketball. 

“I want to go home.” 

Not waiting for Ling Song to refuse again, the group put their arms around his shoulders and dragged him away. 

Wen Yuanchu paused his step at the corridor on the third floor and looked in the direction of the playground in the distance. 

Ling Song caught the ball with both hands, standing in the court as he glanced left and right at a loss. 

Zhang Chang ran under the basketball hoop and shouted, “Daughter, what are you doing! Quick, pass the ball to dad!”

Ling Song frowned as he finally heard it clearly this time. This guy had repeatedly called him daughter.

How ridiculous! The audacity! 

With great strength, Ling Song hurled the ball over. Zhang Chang jumped to catch it and directly shot it into the hoop. 

Ling Song’s eyes widened, eh, this seems a little interesting. 

The group of teenagers ran back and forth on the playground, their smiling faces radiating under the sun. 

Wen Yuanchu watched silently without averting his gaze for a long time. 

After a round, the group went to the cold beverage store from opposite the school to eat ice cream. 

Ling Song ordered two scoops of strawberry and vanilla. 

He liked these things very much. He had eaten similar cold desserts in his previous life, but due to his poor digestion, he could only have a small bite each time. When his parents were still around, he was not allowed to eat more. Even after becoming the emperor, the prince regent also cared for him and refused to let him eat these things. 

So he had always hated the prince regent. 

Recalling his memories about that prince regent, the person with the same face as him appeared in front of Ling Song. 

It had suddenly rained outside. Wen Yuanchu pushed his bike under the roof of the cold beverage store to hide from the rain. 

“Why is this ge going back late as well? Didn’t he finish his exams earlier?’ Someone whispered. 

Through the windows, Ling Song could only see that person’s stiff and cold lines on his side profile. He couldn’t help but shiver. 

This person was clearly not the prince regent, but his face was too similar, especially when he wasn’t saying anything like this, Ling Song would always dazedly have a misconception. 

Zhang Chang said casually, “Maybe he’s doing it on purpose. He has been so enthusiastic about our daughter these past two days.” 

“Only ghosts would believe that.”

“Believe it or not, it’s real anyways.”

“Cough—” Ling Song immediately choked.

“You call zhen daughter again, zhen will order people to……”

Ling Song blurted out the identity of his past life, only realising after speaking halfway and stopped abruptly. 

The others, however, laughed hysterically. 

“Your Majesty, calm down.” 

“Imperial consort Zhang is extremely daring, Your Majesty, don’t bother arguing with those with low knowledge.” 

“This will exile imperial consort Zhang!” 

Ling Song silently swallowed down the sentence, “I’ll order someone to drag you out to feed the dogs.” 

Later, it rained heavier and heavier. Sensing that it might not stop anytime soon, the students who lived close by ran away in the rain. Zhang Chang and Wang Zide took a taxi together, leaving Ling Song to wait for his driver to pick him up. 

He finished a cup of double scooped ice cream before ordering another cup.

His parents gave him a lot of allowance, even though he didn’t really understand the idea of it, be it in his previous life or his present.

Wen Yuanchu entered, buying a cup of fruit juice.

He stood at the store front and drank. Ling Song bit the plastic spoon as he hesitated over and over again before asking, “Do you want to sit?”

Wen Yuanchu walked over, sitting opposite Ling Song.

……Must people invite him to sit? What illness is this?

Ling Song briefly smiled at him, “Thank you, the method that you taught was quite effective, I might be able to gain a few more marks when using it in several classes.”

Wen Yuanchu asked, “What happens next?”

Ling Song casually answered, “Ma laoshi told me to look at previous textbooks to relearn them.”

“You know how to relearn?”

It’s not like I’m stupid.

Uh, he kind of really didn’t know how to.

So much so that he completely didn’t know where to begin.

Where do I start when I want to relearn everything?

“I’ll teach you.” Wen Yuanchu said.

Ling Song was in a daze, “……Zhang Chang and the others said that you used to ignore me in the past, why did you suddenly become so good-hearted?”

Wen Yuanchu calmly answered, “I was to blame for your drowning, teaching you should be a must.”

So it was actually because he commited suicide due to his feelings, which was why he wanted to make up for what happened?

Ling Song was unable to respond.

Fine.

“Then thanks.” Ling Song took this as pleasantries and didn’t take it to heart.

Wen Yuanchu nodded, “No need.”

Wen Yuanchu’s gaze landed on the second serving of mostly finished ice cream and reminded him, “It’s too cold and it would harm your stomach, eat less.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine, nothing will happen.” Ling Song lied.

It was rare that his current health was better than before. He didn’t want to stop eating. 

Wen Yuanchu resisted, not saying anything else.

Half an hour later, Ling Song’s family driver arrived and the rain stopped as well.

Wen Yuanchu rode his bike and left, his back against the setting sun after the rain as if illuminated by a circle of soft halo, as he gradually rode away. 

Ling Song sat in the car and thought if he should tell his parents about wanting to learn to ride a bike.