Our Entire Family Has Secrets [Transmigrated] - Chapter 25
This is probably the liveliest Friday in the history of Qiancheng No.1 Middle School.
Both the high school and international departments are holding parent-teacher meetings simultaneously, and there’s also a welcoming party in the evening.
Throughout the morning, everyone is absent-minded, passing notes during class and making noise after class.
Most students from other classes are mainly concerned about the tense process of class allocation, and even the parents, usually too busy to attend, are present today due to this significant event.
Class Seven is inevitably caught up in this uneasy atmosphere.
Except for Yuan Bozhu, everyone is on edge.
But their excitement isn’t about the class allocation—Class Seven has been lagging behind academically in the senior year, and as long as they perform steadily in next week’s exams, they can stay put, unable to drop further.
Their excitement stems from the fact that they won’t have classes in the afternoon.
“Basketball in the afternoon?”
“Let’s go surfing the internet!”
According to tradition, the parent-teacher meeting starting at 3 p.m. is mostly free except for initially setting up the classrooms and cleaning.
Around 4:30 p.m., the homeroom teacher calls them back to the classroom to listen to some grand speeches from the teachers along with the parents and take commemorative photos.
Moreover, this parent-teacher meeting is before the exams, so as long as students haven’t committed any major mistakes, they’re basically safe.
Understanding their excitement and being busy with preparing for the meeting, the teachers keep the morning classes simple.
It’s not even noon yet, and they’re already released early for lunch.
The large school sees many unfamiliar faces coming and going from noon onwards, whether they are parents or others.
Yuan Bozhu rarely had the chance to keep his phone off at school today.
He kept an eye out, wondering if Zhang Shu would send him any photos.
If possible, he hoped to intervene in time to prevent Zhang Shu from dressing too extravagantly.
After all, his mother was not like ordinary parents.
Zhang Shu’s consistent investment in beauty over the years had clearly paid off; her youthful appearance was striking, resembling that of a woman in her thirties.
Being beautiful was already a prominent feature, but if she dressed too flamboyantly, especially among the solemn and dignified parents, it would stand out even more…
Yuan Bozhu could already imagine the frenzy of posts about his mother on the school forum the next day.
He remembered in his freshman year how Qin Rui’s mother’s trendy hairstyle had caused a stir, with photos circulating wildly even now in the Tieba album.
While everyone praised Qin Rui’s mother’s beauty, Qin Rui himself took pride in it.
But for Yuan Bozhu, this was far from a good thing.
Yuan Bozhu decided to skip lunch for today.
It was too much trouble to squeeze through the crowd for a meal.
He turned around, intending to return to the classroom and take a nap.
Then he bumped into Lin Shuanghuai.
Quite literally.
Lin Shuanghuai hadn’t anticipated his turn, so when Yuan Bozhu turned around, their foreheads collided with his chin.
Both of them let out a grunt. Yuan Bozhu had a weaker sense of pain, but it seemed Lin Shuanghuai felt it more.
After the collision, his forehead almost immediately turned red, and he took a step back, holding his head, looking at Yuan Bozhu with a guilty expression.
Yuan Bozhu just sighed silently, glanced at him, and said nothing.
Yuan Bozhu seemed accustomed to Lin Shuanghuai’s senseless “following” behavior.
It had been like this since yesterday.
At noon, Lin Shuanghuai declared his rebellious statement to him, and then indeed began to perform some small actions within Yuan Bozhu’s line of sight:
Sneaking upstairs during breaks to peek at Yuan Bozhu, sending many cold jokes in private messages that Yuan Bozhu wouldn’t respond to, waiting at the school gate after school, and following him all the way to the bus stop.
Now, he followed him to the cafeteria shamelessly.
Clumsy, but purposeful.
However, Yuan Bozhu didn’t understand where the rebellion lay in these behaviors for the time being.
Although Lin Shuanghuai was making an effort to “be with him,” he didn’t disturb Yuan Bozhu’s quiet campus life in an ostentatious way.
Yuan Bozhu didn’t think it was interfering with anything.
If “rebellion” was at this level, he didn’t care. Just like the principle he had always followed, ignoring it would solve the problem.
Yuan Bozhu continued walking towards the teaching building, with Lin Shuanghuai rubbing his forehead and following behind.
They walked one after the other, about a step apart.
Occasionally, passing classmates greeted Lin Shuanghuai, who responded but kept walking.
Someone asked about his performance tonight, and Lin Shuanghuai simply said, “Sold out.”
People had expected this answer but still complained that Lin Shuanghuai wasn’t straightforward and lamented missing out on his performance.
Lin Shuanghuai exposed them, saying, “Come on, you just want to see the campus belle dance.”
Laughter filled the air, indicating a harmonious atmosphere and close relationships among everyone.
Yuan Bozhu almost brushed past them.
However, no one paid attention to him.
All the excitement had nothing to do with him.
No one greeted him, no one knew who he was or what his name was.
As everyone passed by, they didn’t pay any attention to such a presence—quiet, dull, utterly unremarkable.
But after dealing with those few people, Lin Shuanghuai hurriedly rushed over again.
Following closely behind, as if Yuan Bozhu was someone incredibly important.
When they reached the fifth floor, Yuan Bozhu stopped in his tracks.
This time Lin Shuanghuai was clever, he stepped back early, so they didn’t collide.
Yuan Bozhu said, “Still following?”
If they continued, they would reach the classroom.
Lin Shuanghuai asked eagerly, “Can I still follow?”
Yuan Bozhu replied, “What do you think?”
“But are you just going back to the classroom?
Aren’t you hungry since you haven’t eaten?”
“Not hungry.”
“You’re growing, you’ll be hungry soon.” Lin Shuanghuai said to him, “There’s no class this afternoon anyway, do you want to go out for lunch after lunchtime?”
“No need.”
Parents would come to the school about half an hour early, and Yuan Bozhu would have to go pick up Zhang Shu by two o’clock.
They could eat later.
Having received his answer, Lin Shuanghuai wasn’t disappointed; he must have been prepared for rejection long ago.
“What are you going to do this afternoon?”
It was a question about the time parents had a meeting.
For over an hour from three to four, it was completely free time, and most boys and girls would go to the playground, or some would go to the library.
Yuan Bozhu thought for a moment and said, “Library.”
He planned to do some homework.
Lin Shuanghuai nodded, “Then I’ll go too.”
Yuan Bozhu glanced at him, and Lin Shuanghuai said, “I won’t disturb you, I’ll read. There’s a monthly exam next week, and I need to review.”
Yuan Bozhu made a sound of agreement, neither confirming nor denying, and went back to the classroom.
Since parents arrived at different times, some came particularly early, and by one o’clock, they had already entered the school gate.
So students from each class had to start working from lunchtime, cleaning up, tidying their desks—this was a very important and complex task.
Imagine if their own father or mother sat at their desk, their first action would probably be to open the drawer.
If what they found was clean and tidy books, and notebooks filled with notes, then everything was fine.
But if what they found was exam papers covered in doodles, or little notes filled with gossip, then it wouldn’t be good.
To perfect the disguise, all the students in the school embarked on a drawer organizing frenzy lasting one lunch break.
It couldn’t be too empty, too clean, nor too messy, too rough.
Yuan Bozhu watched everyone bustling around.
This last-minute disguise was very clumsy for him.
Yuan Bozhu’s disguise permeated every aspect of his life; he was constantly shaping himself.
Not to mention drawers and school bags, even Yuan Bozhu’s room was meticulously organized by him.
So he remained quite calm.
With nothing to do.
Because the people around him were too noisy, Yuan Bozhu couldn’t take a nap, so he just scrolled through his phone, read some news, and checked his limited circle of friends.
Originally, he wanted to see the updates from Yuan Qifeng, but instead, he saw a photo posted by Lin Shuanghuai.
It was a view of the school gate from the rooftop, nothing special could be seen.
There was no caption, just a blank expression.
Yuan Bozhu only glanced at it before swiping it away.
“Mom? Where are you?! I’m at the school gate, why didn’t I see you?”
“Dad, come earlier, or there won’t be any parking space.”
“What’s wrong, Dad? I’m already in my senior year, why are you still going to the teaching building for second graders!”
“Mom, I didn’t eat much for lunch, could you bring me some snacks? I’ll share them with my classmates in the afternoon. Love you!”
The campus was filled with busy students rushing around and confused parents entering the gates.
Lin Shuanghuai sucked on an orange-flavored lollipop, sitting on a ping pong table, looking bored.
Han Banlan and the others didn’t come to school yesterday or today, but they said they would come with their parents later.
The specific time was unknown.
Now Lin Shuanghuai was alone, but not bored.
He played a game of Landlord for a while, lost all his happy beans, chewed on his lollipop, threw the stick in the trash, and then walked to the school gate.
Some parents couldn’t find their children’s classrooms in which building. The Student Union arranged people to guide them at the entrance, but they were short-staffed.
Lin Shuanghuai went over to help.
Lin Shuanghuai was handsome, with a friendly face and a pleasant manner of speaking, and very polite. Almost every parent liked him.
When taking them to the teaching building, some parents would keep asking him which grade and class he was in, how much he scored, and what university he wanted to attend.
Lin Shuanghuaai would answer them seriously.
“Which grade are you in, little student?”
“Uncle, I’m in Grade 12.”
“Already in Grade 12?
You must study hard! No room for carelessness.”
“I know.”
“Good kid, you look smart.
Tell Auntie, how are your grades?”
“Auntie, I ranked third in the last exam.”
“Oh! Third place? That’s great, kid!”
“Yeah, I’m about to get a scholarship.”
“Scholarship? Oh! If my child were as outstanding as you! That’s amazing!”
Similar conversations happened about five times.
A member of the Student Union came over to him and said, “Senior, thank you for your hard work! We’ve called in four more staff to guide the parents. You don’t have to rush around anymore.”
Lin Shuanghuai blinked, “It’s okay, not busy.”
“Those parents love to chat, every time you take one in, they’ll hold you up for ten minutes. It’s really time-consuming. You go and rest first!”
“Okay.” Lin Shuanghuai licked the lingering orange sweetness at the corner of his mouth, feeling like there was no taste, and said with a smile, “Then I’ll go play for a while.”
As Lin Shuanghuai wandered around the school, he saw many parents.
They had completely different faces, but Lin Shuanghuai couldn’t tell them apart. He always felt they were all similar.
A girl ran out of the teaching building and bumped into her mother. She immediately began to act cute to her mother, “Mom, look! I fell down trying to come down to meet you just now, it hurts!”
Her mother quickly bent down to look at her knees, blowing on them gently, “Why were you running? You’re really not sensible at all! Come, I have some band-aids in my bag. Let’s put them on, my good girl.”
Lin Shuanghuai rubbed his nose and turned away from them.
My good girl…
Ugh, so cheesy.
By two-thirty, there were a lot of people.
Lin Shuanghuai moved from downstairs to the rooftop.
The Publicity Department and the Literary Department of the Student Union contacted him, asking him to rehearse for the evening performance at three o’clock.
Lin Shuanghuai reluctantly replied, “I’ll come later.”
He still needed to find Yuan Bozhu at the library.
Before the parent meeting officially began, Lin Shuanghuai received a call from a homeroom teacher.
“What’s going on, aren’t your parents coming this time either?”
“Well.”
“The school is pressing on about the recommended admissions. Several homeroom teachers are eyeing it and want to snatch the quota from me. If it doesn’t work out this time, there may be others competing with you later. Tell your family the situation, be sure to take it seriously. If you’re really busy, online communication is also acceptable.”
“Okay, teacher, I’ll go back and tell them.”
“Be sure to act quickly! You know, the Alliance College isn’t easy to get into just because you want to! Miss this opportunity, even if you do well on the college entrance examination, it won’t be easy to get admitted.”
“Okay.”
After dealing with the homeroom teacher, Lin Shuanghuai glanced at his phone and found that the battery was already less than ten percent.
He had played for too long just now.
Actually, Lin Shuanghuai didn’t know whether Chen Feng was busy or not.
However, he was sure that Chen Feng wouldn’t come to the parent-teacher meeting for him, so he didn’t ask.
The matter of recommendation cannot be decided by the student alone; the guardian must go to negotiate. If recommended, there’s no need to take the college entrance examination, but registration must be done in advance at the college.Top of Form
Most importantly, the Alliance College is directly under the jurisdiction of the Alliance Government. All the family’s records must be registered in the system, and the procedures to be done are more than just filling out enrollment forms.
Lin Shuanghuai felt that this matter was probably hopeless.
However, he still listened to the teacher’s words, so he obediently composed a text message and sent it to Chen Feng.
Lin Shuanghui didn’t carry any personal emotions, just telling Chen Feng that he had the opportunity to be recommended to the Alliance College, hoping he could find time to contact the teacher.
Chen Feng did reply quickly, after all, he was his biological father, and such major life events were still valued.
However, not that much.
Chen Feng: [Just tell the school, no hurry.]
Lin Shuanghuai replied to him: [It’s urgent, many people are vying for this spot. The teacher said if it’s not decided today, it might be given to someone else next week.]
This time, Chen Feng took a long time to reply.
Only four words: [Talk about it in March.]
Lin Shuanghui just turned off his phone without replying to him.
He would be eighteen in March.
Chen Feng was waiting.
Waiting for Lin Shuanghuai to be an ordinary person. If Lin Shuanghuai was, then he would go to college.
If not, let alone the Alliance College, he wouldn’t need to attend any college.
If he had seen Chen Feng’s reply before, Lin Shuanghuai might have felt a bit resentful.
But now he didn’t even dare to feel resentful.
He knew he wasn’t an ordinary person.
Because what Chen Feng worried about was real, Lin Shuanghuai realized that he didn’t even have the qualification to feel wronged now.
The prejudice and neglect he had experienced since childhood became justifiable because he wasn’t an ordinary person.
When there were no lollipops in his pocket, his mouth turned bitter.
Very boring.
He leaned on the railing, took a photo of the school gate.
Then he enlarged it and looked at the faces of those parents and children one by one.
Lin Shuanghuai found it hard to understand their expressions.
Most students didn’t like parent-teacher meetings, so they appeared anxious or impatient.
Most parents looked serious, muttering something, probably a bunch of moral teachings.
Some people laughed, mostly those with good grades or students whom teachers liked very much. They weren’t afraid of parent-teacher meetings, even looking forward to this day. Their faces showed a relaxed and expectant expression.
Lin Shuanghuai found it hard to understand.
Because he had never experienced any emotions.
No one praised him when he did well on exams, nor criticized him when his grades dropped.
He leaned against the fence, sat on the ground, and suddenly felt uncomfortable in his heart.
He wanted to chat with someone.
He first opened the chat box with Yuan Bozhu, but there were still more than a dozen silly jokes he had sent, and Yuan Bozhu couldn’t be bothered to respond.
Lin Shuanghuai stopped.
He was afraid he had sent too many, and if he went to the library later, Yuan Bozhu would ignore him even more.
So he posted on his Moments.
Within ten minutes, dozens of people gave him likes.
[Yu Yangen: Hui’er! I’m on my way! I’ve missed you so much in these two days!!]
[Han Banlan: Wow, so many people? Impressive. My dad’s driving to get some gas first.]
[Class Five xxx: Where are you sneaking a peek at everyone! Doge]
[Class Three xx: Help, I accidentally got in the picture, so embarrassing!! Sob sob sob, I’ll give you fifty cents, photoshop me out!]
Lin Shuanghuai just picked a few replies when he received a low battery reminder.
It was only five percent.
He didn’t dare to play with his phone anymore, so he locked the screen and sat dryly on the rooftop for half an hour.
Lin Shuanghuai actually didn’t like being alone, although he was very used to it.
As soon as it was three o’clock, Lin Shuanghuai bounced up from his spot and happily went downstairs.
He was going to the library to find Yuan Bozhu.
The plan was slightly off track.