Yun pulled Li Xi around the shop circle after circle, stalling for more than twenty minutes. When they finally checked out, Li Xi was only holding a box of chocolates.
They stepped into the classroom exactly as the bell rang.
The moment he sat down, Li Xi looked up and saw the two familiar male cubs. One was glaring at him resentfully, eyes erupting with fury, while the other was whispering something to persuade him.
Li Xi: “…”
“Everyone sit down, the exam is about to begin.” The proctor stood at the podium, reminding them of the examination rules.
Li Xi had no time to worry about the cub whose anger toward him was skyrocketing; there was something far more important occupying his mind.
—The exam.
Currently, he sat there in a daze. A black pen lay to his right, and his left hand pressed down on three large, blank white papers. The only sound in his ears was the rustling of pens gliding across paper.
The moment the papers were handed out, most of the male students rushed to toss their exams to the female students they had made arrangements with beforehand. The proctor acted as if he were blind to this.
Only two male worms kept their heads down, seriously writing their answers: Aian and Denier.
Li Xi didn’t recognize a single word, let alone know how to write. After flipping through the pages a few times, he gave up struggling. Bored, he propped up his head and observed the two unique male cubs.
An hour later, Aian threw his pen down impatiently, tossed his paper casually to the little female worm behind him, and then crossed his arms indignantly, turning sideways to glare at Li Xi.
Originally, it had been Li Xi quietly observing them, which wasn’t too obvious. Now, it had turned into the two of them staring each other down right under the proctor’s nose.
Li Xi had no doubt that if it weren’t for the proctor’s suppressive gaze, Aian would have pounced over at rocket speed to bite him out of spite.
Time ticked by. The warm sun slanted across Li Xi’s body, and the scent of gunpowder spread silently through the quiet examination room. Eventually, even the proctor couldn’t take it anymore.
“Certain students,” the proctor said, tapping his finger on the desk, his words clearly aimed at them, “focus on your own papers and sit up straight. Do not disrupt the examination discipline.”
Aian gritted his teeth. Under the teacher’s implied warning, he was forced to sit straight, but he settled for twisting his head to continue glaring at Li Xi.
Li Xi, however, was already sitting upright. He completely ignored the proctor’s reminder. Their gazes continued to clash across the room, sparking a silent war of attrition.
The proctor felt a headache coming on.
The students sitting in the crossfire zone trembled with fear.
Li Xi found it amusing. He took out a candy and leisurely ate it right in front of Aian. A rare curve appeared at the corner of his mouth. It was unclear if he was doing it specifically to provoke the other.
Aian: “!”
He’s taunting me!
He was about to disregard everything and stand up to start a fight.
But just as he was about to rise, the cub suddenly withdrew his gaze and looked toward the door.
Aian was stunned and instinctively followed his gaze. Catching sight of the person entering, he hurriedly snatched back his discarded exam and began writing frantically with his head down. He didn’t dare let his eyes wander, his previous arrogance vanishing completely.
The Dean had been patrolling all the way from the end of the corridor. Seeing the male students slumped over their desks without a shred of spirit made his temper flare.
As he walked, he had already lost hope for the male students, but then he suddenly saw three little male worms with their papers spread out, looking serious and attentive. He nodded in relief, a kind and grandfatherly smile blossoming on his face.
The newly enrolled little male worm was sitting tall, staring down at his exam with a look of deep, serious contemplation. The Dean’s anger vanished instantly. He quietly walked over to the window, wanting to see how the boy was solving the problems.
He would have felt better if he hadn’t looked. The exam paper was a sea of white—not even a name had been filled in. He was momentarily overcome with a mix of emotions, finally turning back in a fit of frustration.
The loudspeaker announced that there were only ten minutes left before the end of the exam.
Li Xi’s fingertips lightly traced the wooden desktop, his gaze glued to the paper, unwilling to let go. The world was very unkind to him; he’d only been in school for a few days and was already facing a major exam.
“Do you want me to help you?”
While he was feeling depressed, a faint voice reached his ear from behind. He looked up to sweep a glance at the busy proctor. He turned slightly and replied in a low voice: “Help me, do it?”
Yun arched an eyebrow: “Mm-hmm.”
Li Xi pointed at Denier, who had been writing the entire time: “Doing it, himself.”
That male worm didn’t let anyone help.
Lying on the desk to use the visual blind spot, Yun explained the cub’s confusion: “You’re comparing yourself to him? No male worm in the entire grade can compare to him.”
“Don’t think he isn’t studying just because he doesn’t come to class. He has private tutors at home, one-on-one.”
The school didn’t force male worms to study, but a few select families would customize learning content based on the male cub’s situation. Denier was an exception.
Li Xi gave an “oh” and stopped dwelling on the matter: “Name.”
He spoke concisely. Fearing the other wouldn’t understand, he added: “Mine.”
Yun chewed on his pen cap, thought for a moment, and then began to write stroke by stroke. When he handed the slip of paper over, he grabbed Li Xi’s wrist: “Are you sure you don’t want me to write it for you? I’ll be careful; I won’t get caught.”
Li Xi glanced at the densely packed exam paper, his eyes flickering.
Seeing an opening, Yun was about to speak when a sweet candy was stuffed into his mouth without warning. Then he heard the other say before turning back: “Boring. Eat candy.”
The candy rolled into his right cheek. Yun squinted, touching his bulging cheek, thinking to himself: Stubborn.
Li Xi observed his surroundings, learned the pen-holding posture on the spot, and copied the name onto the paper. It was only a few strokes, but he wrote them so crookedly that it looked as if stiff seaweed had been awkwardly arranged on the page.
Ugly. Li Xi felt a wave of self-dislike.
After looking at it for a while, he realized something was wrong. He turned around again: “One?”
There was only one character on the small slip of paper, but his name had two.
Yun sucked on the candy and waved his hand: “Look closely, it’s two characters. I wrote them compactly. Just separate them a little bit.”
Li Xi looked and looked again. It seemed to be so.
The proctor’s voice for collecting the papers rang out exactly on time. The exam was “swish” snatched away by a hand reaching from behind, and he was pulled from his seat before he could react.
He saw Yun slap the two exams down in front of Si, leave behind a “Help us hand these in,” and vanish with the male cub.
It wasn’t until they boarded the public flying vehicle that Li Xi had a chance to catch his breath. He was dizzy from running, while Yun sat beside him without even being out of breath. The physical difference between them was fully on display.
“Running?” Li Xi asked, panting.
Yun gave him a long, meaningful look: “If we didn’t run, were we supposed to wait for Aian to cause trouble? Do you know how many worms were nearly killed by the way you two were glaring at each other?”
Li Xi: “…”
What Yun didn’t expect, however, was that one had to be personally present to collect the exam results.
Three days later, in a corner of the school.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, a zero?” Aian laughed at Li Xi while holding the blank white paper. “A male worm at the bottom? We haven’t seen one of those in hundreds of years.”
Li Xi had no rebuttal.
“Something?” he asked coldly.
“What do you mean ‘something’!?” Hearing this, Aian was like an enraged young beast, his paper rustling loudly as he waved it. “You let a snake bite me, made me pass out for days, and it took nearly a month to recover! I even got scolded by my male father! And now you’re asking if there’s something?! How do you have the nerve?!”
The more he spoke, the angrier he became, glaring at Li Xi.
Li Xi silently took a step back to avoid the flying spit. He listened to the angry scolding without making a sound. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to argue, but arguing wasn’t his strength; he never wasted breath when facing conflict.
But things were different now.
“Wasn’t it you who tried to steal the stuff first?” Yun interrupted the rambling Aian.
Aian snapped back: “Does that have anything to do with him?! Why is he meddling in other people’s business?!”
Li Xi spoke up: “Mine.”
“What?” This worm hadn’t spoken at all, and then he suddenly came out with these two nonsensical words. The irrational Aian didn’t understand for a moment.
Meanwhile, hearing this, Yun quietly pulled the cub behind him, shielding him completely. He was worried Aian would suddenly attack like last time. At the same time, he explained, “I told you long ago the stuff wasn’t mine; it belongs to Li He.”
Aian ground his teeth: “So he let a snake bite me?!”
“Then you, what?” Li Xi thought for a moment and continued, “Apologize?”
Aian let out a cold laugh, his expression clearly unsatisfied: “An apology and it’s over? Did I suffer for nothing?”
The simplest way was to have a fight, so Li Xi proposed the solution in the other’s mind: “Fight?”
Aian’s eyebrows shot up, silently praising the kid for being on the right track. He looked Li Xi who had low mental strength up and down and frowned. He didn’t remember the other party having any mental strength, but right now he didn’t care about that; he only wanted to wash away his humiliation. “How about this: I won’t use mental strength. That way, no one can say I bullied you. What do you think?”
“Not great.” Yun was the first to refuse. Fighting Aian—wasn’t that just asking for a beating?!
With Li He’s thin arms and legs, could he win?
Aian didn’t bother with the overprotective Yun and said to Li Xi: “Are you scared? Then let Yun take your place?”
Yun pressed down on Li Xi: “Fine. You pick any female worm, and I’ll fight him.”
This was the unspoken rule.
The Zerg genes were warlike. Even between frail male worms, conflicts often occurred. When they were too lazy to settle a conflict themselves, they could designate a female worm to represent them.
After all, fighting inevitably led to bumps and looking disheveled.
Aian agreed without a second thought.
But he quickly realized he had no right to decide for the male. So, his agreement meant nothing; Li He had to nod for the deal to count.
Aian gave him an unreadable look. Although they had the same male father, they had very little interaction over the years. However, he had heard that Yun always kept his distance from male cubs.
He didn’t speak, appearing to wait for something.
Li Xi’s wrist was clamped; he was stuck behind Yun, unable to move. In the struggle, the spot turned red. Seeing his struggle was fruitless, he leaned out his head: “I’ll fight. If I win—”
Aian smiled as he got his wish.
“How could you possibly beat me?” He gave him a contemptuous roll of the eyes and added after a thought, “If you win, I’ll recognize you as the Boss from now on!”
If mental strength isn’t used…
Li Xi thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.
Li Xi struggled again, but the child stood as still as a statue, not letting go or saying a word, his thoughts unknown.
Li Xi called out: “Little…”
He almost blurted out the name in his heart. He stopped himself in time and changed it to: “Yun?”
Yun was stunned, his mind going blank. He instinctively let go. This was the first time the cub had formally called his name.
He actually felt a bit at a loss. There was an indescribable feeling when the cub said his name—a sense of gravity, as if he were being called out for doing something wrong.
He blinked, tossing away that sudden feeling, and said: “What if you get hurt?”
Li Xi was startled: “I won’t.”
“What do you mean ‘won’t’? Do you even know how to fight?!”
Li Xi nodded seriously: “I do.”
“You!” Yun was speechless.
At this moment, Yun really wanted to peel back the cub’s skull to see what kind of mush was inside.
He had never seen such a stupid male worm. It was fine to be a daze normally, but to be a daze at a critical moment too? When there was a female worm to take your place, why stick your neck out?
Which male worm didn’t push all their mistakes onto female worms?
Only this guy was a daze!
Li Xi pulled a candy from his pocket and gave it to the child. All the snacks on him had been prepared by the other, and after a full circle, they were back in the owner’s hands.
“Eat candy.” This time, it was Li Xi’s turn to coax.
Yun: “…”
It felt like punching a bale of cotton—useless.
In the center of the playground.
Li Xi stood there casually. At this critical juncture, he actually had the time to peel a candy for himself, showing not a shred of the urgency one should have before a fight.
Denier had been called to the office for something and arrived a bit late. Although he didn’t know exactly what had happened, he wasn’t worried at all that his friend would lose out.
Yun, on the other hand, crouched to the side, irritably scratching his hair. He was already thinking about which medical department to take the cub to.
He still didn’t want to give up and wanted to try persuading him again: “Don’t force it. Getting hurt is very painful, and you can’t beat him…”
He rambled a great deal, but it was unclear if any of it was heard. After a while, the cub finally made a move, rummaging through his pocket for a long time.
Aian was startled and instantly jumped several feet away, watching warily, fearing the cub would pull out some kind of weapon.
Instead, the cub slowly pulled out another candy.
“…………”
Aian looked eager to try. He was the first to launch an attack, rushing toward Li Xi at top speed, hoping to catch him off guard.
Li Xi stepped aside to dodge.
Aian reacted quickly, swinging his fist again based on his years of fighting experience.
Li Xi had thought the male worm would have a foundation in combat like a human child, but looking at this movement, based entirely on emotion with no technique whatsoever. He fell silent.
So why did Aian have the confidence to say he would win?
After dodging the next attack, Li Xi raised his leg and accurately kicked the back of the other’s knee.
“Ah!”
The next second, Aian’s knees gave way. With a thud, he knelt straight down on the ground.
“…”
The school dismissal bell stopped abruptly at this moment. For a time, only the sound of wind rustling through leaves remained.
Yun’s eyes widened in disbelief. He stood up excitedly to cheer, but before the sound could leave his throat, his wrist was suddenly grabbed.
The next second, he was pulled forward by the cub into a run.
Yun: “…?”
Didn’t we win?
The other two little male worms were equally bewildered, looking at each other.
What’s the situation?
“Who told you that you could fight in school!”
A powerful voice filled with anger echoed throughout the campus.
By the time the two male cubs realized what was happening, Li Xi had already dragged Yun a hundred meters away, leaving only a dark shadow fleeing for its life.
“!”
Denier was the first to snap out of it. He grabbed Aian and took off running: “Quick, quick, quick! It’s the Discipline Office!”
When the male teacher reached the playground, the four figures had split into two directions. He stood there with his hands on his hips, his face ashen, unsure of which way to give chase. He could only roar: “Don’t you know fighting is strictly prohibited on campus?! Don’t let me catch you!”
That voice was like a thunderclap in a clear sky, breaking the silence of the campus. Birds scattered in a panic, not daring to stop for a second, fearing they would be caught in the crossfire.