Li Miao arrived at school yawning, and the class list was already posted.
A crowd had gathered around to look. With his backpack slung over one shoulder, Li Miao stood outside the crowd with a detached expression.
“Li Miao! We’re both in A class!” A purple-haired boy suddenly popped out of nowhere and hooked an arm around Li Miao’s shoulder.
Li Miao glanced at the boy in trendy brand-name clothes. He knew him: Ji Zhou, one of the original owner’s cronies, and the only one who had offered a hand after the original owner was kicked out of the house.
As soon as Ji Zhou raised his voice, everyone around turned to look.
Those who already knew the two frowned and silently stepped aside, clearly not wanting to be associated with them. The special admittees who didn’t know the situation looked over with envy.
“What score did you get?” Li Miao raised an eyebrow.
“17! What about you?”
Li Miao: …Was that really something to be proud of?
Li Miao hadn’t even started looking for his own score yet, but it was easy to find. He tipped his chin and pointed to the second-to-last line on the bulletin board. “19.”
“Getting into A class with a score in the teens… They must be the kind of upper-class people everyone talks about, right?”
The gazes of the surrounding special admittees changed sharply. There was contempt, envy, and fear, but neither Li Miao nor Ji Zhou cared at all.
To them, these special admittees were just passersby in their lives. Three years later, they would each return to their own world.
It was just like after school, when they would step onto the red carpet and turn down into the Rose Garden, where every inch of land was worth a fortune, while the special admittees could only slip into the shabby, dark slums just beyond the wall, scattering like rats and dreaming of the day they could soar above everyone else.
“You seriously guessed the multiple-choice answers? How is that possible?” Ji Zhou scratched his head, starting to question life itself. “I actually studied for this one!”
“Heh,” Li Miao laughed softly and turned around. “Then you should keep guessing next time. Looks like your effort isn’t as good as luck.”
Smiling, Li Miao looked up, only to meet a pair of calm eyes.
Black hair, a perfectly neat uniform… he just stood there and became the center of attention.
Li Miao’s smile slowly faded.
Here he was: the original male lead, Shen Xingze.
Shen Xingze stood at the bottom of the steps, and the two of them looked at each other across the height difference.
“Go, go, go! The battlefield of carnage is here!”
“What does that mean?”
“…You just got here, so you haven’t heard? The guy with the blond hair over there, Li Miao, has liked the black-haired Shen Xingze for a long time! He’s been clinging to him since junior division, driving Shen Xingze insane.”
“Li Miao doesn’t even come close to Shen, the campus idol. One’s an uneducated spoiled rich boy, while the other is the Shen family’s noble and elegant heir.”
The two gossipers weren’t exactly quiet. Li Miao saw Shen Xingze frown.
Shen Xingze quietly stared at the boy who had clung to him for three years. That infuriating smile on the boy’s lips was just as annoying as ever, making him the butt of everyone’s jokes after meals.
He took the lead, stepping forward until he reached Li Miao, but he didn’t stop… he just brushed past him.
At the exact moment they passed each other, a sentence, not loud and not soft, was just enough for the surrounding onlookers to hear.
“Stop trying to get my attention with this kind of trick. It’s boring.”
After Shen Xingze walked away, Li Miao suddenly lowered his head and hooked up one corner of his mouth. “Damn.”
Li Miao’s face was a gift from the heavens. When he smiled, the tear mole at the outer corner of his left eye glittered as well, and those peach blossom eyes were cold and affectionate at the same time.
Even people who hated Li Miao would be dazzled by his smile for a moment.
But the next second, that beautiful face went cold.
“Shen Xingze.”
Shen Xingze had only walked a few steps when he heard a voice behind him. The tone was flat, emotionless, impossible to read.
Shen Xingze frowned in annoyance. Was he going to pull that cry, scream, and threaten-suicide routine again?
He turned back, only to see Li Miao standing in place with both hands in his pockets, head slightly tilted as he looked at him. His gaze ran from top to bottom and then from bottom to top, bold and direct.
In those eyes were judgment and disgust, and for once there was none of the sadness and caution that had always been there before.
“Listen carefully,” Li Miao said, chin lifting slightly, the inherent nobility in him rising all at once. “From this moment on, I don’t like you anymore.”
The instant he said it, the crowd erupted, and even Ji Zhou looked at Li Miao in disbelief.
As Li Miao’s childhood friend, he knew better than anyone how much Li Miao had cared about Shen Xingze.
Shen Xingze laughed in fury. Was this some new trick?
Li Miao had fawned over him for a full three years. He didn’t believe Li Miao could let go so easily.
“Yes, I used to like you,” Li Miao continued. “But I don’t regret it.”
“As for you,” Li Miao said as he walked forward at a slow, unhurried pace, “you enjoyed my pursuit, enjoyed the resources I gave you, and still pretended to be above it all…”
“Compared to that, aren’t you the more disgusting one?”
The hand at Shen Xingze’s side suddenly clenched.
“It’s clearly you…”
“Clearly me what?” Li Miao raised an eyebrow, cutting him off, and kept walking. “In these three whole years, did you ever clearly reject me even once? Every time, you used vague words to keep me hooked, stringing me along, enjoying my admiration and the benefits your association with me as a member of the Li family brought you… Shen Xingze, I should be the one saying this to you. You’re really boring.”
After saying that, Li Miao raised a huge middle finger at Shen Xingze, shoved his shoulder, and walked off. “A good dog doesn’t block the way.”
Ji Zhou was already stunned. He threw out a “Holy shit, that’s awesome” and chased after him.
Only Shen Xingze was left behind, his face turning pale and then red again.
He was really angry this time. Even if Li Miao came begging him later, he would not forgive him.
In the shadows, a pair of eyes witnessed everything.
Shen Yu lowered his head and rubbed the A class campus card the principal had handed him ten minutes earlier.
The principal had spoken with great seriousness at the time.
“Classmate Li was so kind. He was willing to shoulder everything himself just to move you into A class for a better education. Don’t let his good intentions go to waste.”
Was this Li Miao? He absentmindedly rubbed the edge of the campus card, lost in thought.
Was this the same Li Miao who was arrogant, overbearing, and never thought before he acted?
This person was getting crazier and crazier.
Maybe he should think about using someone else? An idiot could be used.
But a madman was not easy to use.
One careless move, and he might cut his own hand.