Chapter 16 – Experiment Group

Lin Jiabao continued to work on the weekends as usual. As there weren’t many people, time passed in a blink of an eye. On Monday, Lin Jiabao would usually go to the classroom to study early in the morning, but this time due to a sore waist and leg pain, he didn’t want to move. He came later than most people and even later than Ouyang Chen, which Ouyang Chen found hard to believe.

“What’s the matter, looking so glum? Were you surrounded by people?”

Lin Jiabao hissed and knocked his thigh with his hands, saying bitterly, “I went to exercise on Saturday, my legs are sore now.”

Ouyang Chen poked Lin Jiabao’s thigh, getting an ‘aiyo’ in return from Lin Jiabao who quickly moved his leg away. His bum was now twisted further away, on the other side of the bench. Lin Jiabao said softly, “Painful, don’t touch.”

Ouyang Chen smiled, still wanting to tease Lin Jiabao but his hand was beaten away by Bai Youlian using a cup of yogurt, who came out of nowhere.

“F*ck, this girl’s hands are poisonous, are you a hag?!”

“Your hand isn’t clean either, where do you want to touch little Bao!” Bai Youlian passed the yogurt and straw to Lin Jiabao, who hurriedly said his thanks. 

“You’re a hen guarding her chick.” Ouyang Chen felt that Bai Youlian was not pleasing to the eye. Upon seeing that Lin Jiabao couldn’t open the mouth of the bottle for a long time, he grabbed it and opened it for him.

“Heh.” Bai Youlian sneered. “It seems the rooster will not protect its chick.”

This woman would feel uncomfortable if she didn’t bother Ouyang Chen for one day, but looking at the little one next to her made her comfortable.

Lin Jiabao always tried to stop them from quarreling in the beginning, even asking them to be friends. Later, he didn’t do it anymore and looked the other way. If the two of them quarreled, he would usually be caught in the middle. They wouldn’t stop quarrelling and the unfortunate one was Lin Jiabao. Even though he tried to minimise his presence, it didn’t feel like it was doing much. 

“That’s right.” Bai Youlian suddenly thumped her hands together. “Little Bao, does your experimental group have no people?”

Lin Jiabao sucked on the straw and nodded his head but was suddenly pulled to Ouyang Chen’s side, who smiled victoriously at Bai Youlian. “How can that be, didn’t little Bao agree to be in my group last week?”

Lin Jiabao, who didn’t even see this big guy in the lab last week, nodded stupidly.

Bai Youlian calmly took her glasses off. “Hehe, I took attendance last week for science class and young master, your name was on the absentee’s list.”

Lin Jiabao thought that this made sense and continued to nod his head. 

Lin Jiabao’s face was squished by Ouyang Chen’s two hands and he mumbled incoherently. Ouyang Chen let out a ‘hmph’ and said to Lin Jiabao, “You keep nodding your head, do you think you’re a woodpecker?” 

Lin Jiabao started to shake his head.

Ouyang Chen said to Lin Jiabao earnestly, “Bao, you know whose name to put in the list of group members later, don’t you?

It seemed like an interrogative sentence, but was actually an affirmative sentence. Ouyang Chen also “intimidated” him by looking at Lin Jiabao’s thigh, making Lin Jiabao lean against the bench.

Bai Youlian’s tone was still calm as she said to Lin Jiabao, “I also know who little Bao is going to write down in the group member list.” She eyed the yogurt in Lin Jiabao’s hand.

Meow… choose death or death, this was a difficult choice. If he could choose, he’d choose option three. When it was time to write down the names of his group members, he simply wrote down all three of their names.

So when it was time for science class, the three of them squeezed onto one table. Not only was the air filled with silence, Bai Youlian and Ouyang Feng were also shooting death glares at each other. It was as if two people were fighting for ownership over him. Lin Jiabao shrunk into himself. He watched the two of them nervously as they were about to explode, meow. Only when they noticed Lin Jiabao’s anxiety did they finally calm down.

The experiment was not difficult. Chemicals carried a certain degree of danger, but only if they weren’t operated carefully. If one ignored Ouyang Chen, who was neither interested in East or West, there was basically no danger.

Lin Jiabao not only needed to rearrange the chemicals Ouyang Chen messed up, he also needed to prevent the two from fighting while focusing on completing the experiment, which was exhausting. His thighs and buttocks still hurt from time to time, and he was too embarrassed to rub them.

Good thing Bai Youlian was gifted in learning. She glanced at what Lin Jiabao was doing and started to prepare a match for the solvent, giving Ouyang Chen a ‘don’t be useless and just look’ stare. At this, Ouyang Chen finally decided to put down his stuff and record data. However, Ouyang Chen would complain about Bai Youlian’s work each time he took down data, causing Bai Youlian to grow the want to pour the solvent directly into Ouyang Chen’s mouth.

Not only did the experiment require them to take down data along the way, they had to do so at the end as well. There had to be an experiment summary written by the end of the day. Ouyang Chen was supposed to write the group summary, but under Bai Youlian’s “useless” gaze, he handed the summary to Lin Jiabao. Of course Bai Youlian didn’t say anything after that. Little Bao was simply more reliable and the summary was linked to the actual results so who would dare to let the young master write it.

“I can write the results, but everyone probably has to write the final summary together.” Lin Jiabao turned over a dozen pages of result tables and found that it was too much for one person.

“It’s still early for the final summary, we can write it over the weekend.” Bai Youlian stared at Ouyang Feng with an icy smile. “Although it seems that one of us doesn’t really have that much of a purpose.”

“At least it’s not as rubbish as someone else’s writing, when it’s my turn to write, don’t worry about me.” Ouyang Chen’s expression mirrored Bai Youlian’s.

Lin Jiabao heard about them and initially believed they were talking about him. He hugged the report to his chest and tried to puff out his chest, patting it. “I’ll do my best to not fall behind you guys!”

“Hmph, I wasn’t talking about you.” Ouyang Chen pressed on his temples and slapped Lin Jiabao’s thighs. “Do your thighs still hurt?”

“Pain, meow QAQ!”

Bai Youlian pulled Lin Jiabao further from Ouyang Chen and said, “Dirty hands!”

At the end of the experimental class and during lunch, Ouyang Chen went to eat outside school while Bai Youlian and Lin Jiabao continued to eat at the canteen. Bai Youlian actually liked to order food with Lin Jiabao because as long as Lin Jiabao smiled obediently at the aunty in the cafeteria, the aunty would instantly soften up and give them a few more pieces of meat. This way, Lin Jiabao will suddenly become Bai Youlian’s ordering machine.

It was okay to eat a lot as Lin Jiabao and Bai Youlian wouldn’t grow anymore. However, when Lin Jiabao was rubbing his little tummy, he felt that when he was playing badminton with Ouyang Feng, his tummy was still soft and seemed to be far from the legendary abdominal muscles.

ahh dreamy here, i have a part time job now so my replies to comments will be extremely delayed but i’ll still read every single one of them!