“Holy crap, the monthly exam answer key?”
Fearing that his actions would be misunderstood by Yu Zhen, Duan Xiyin felt a bit nervous around him, and when people get nervous, they tend to say the wrong thing.
Take right now, for instance. Duan Xiyin desperately wanted to cover his face, not daring to look at Yu Zhen’s expression.
Though in truth, Yu Zhen didn’t have much of an expression at all, looking even calmer than just a moment ago.
He withdrew his gaze coldly, as if he had seen right through Duan Xiyin’s little trick.
“I mean I didn’t come to school yesterday, so I haven’t done the homework for any subject yet.” Not knowing what Yu Zhen might read into the word “any,” he hurried to explain.
Yu Zhen gave him a faint glance, and a moment later, pushed the homework booklets left by the edge of the desk toward Duan Xiyin.
“Thank you.” Duan Xiyin successfully obtained the notebooks, and the heavy stone in his heart finally settled.
He didn’t know whether Yu Zhen had flipped through the notebooks before he arrived, or whether the malice hidden between the pages had been discovered, but with no other options left, he could only make a desperate final struggle.
“Is there anything else?” Yu Zhen picked up his pen once more, his tone distant.
Duan Xiyin caught that subtle implication of if nothing else, hurry up and leave. Hesitating for a moment, he still asked, “Um, are you alright yesterday?”
His gaze landed on the adhesive bandage on the back of Yu Zhen’s hand.
Yu Zhen clearly wasn’t very willing to bring this matter up again. The atmospheric pressure around him dropped by another degree as he buried his head in practicing test questions and ignored him.
It’s over. Could that group of hoodlums really have been sent by the original host?
Duan Xiyan rubbed his nose and tactfully turned to walk back to his seat. The stone that had just landed in his heart instantly grew thousands of pounds heavy, weighing down his chest with a stifling oppression.
He simply couldn’t fathom why the original host was so good at stirring up trouble, and had no idea what to do about it now.
It was truly like a mute swallowing coptis, suffering bitter hardships that couldn’t be spoken of.
Still, even after being bullied like this, Yu Zhen was still willing to lend him his homework to copy. He was far too enduring; he truly possessed the raw potential of a grand supervillain.
Whatever humiliation is suffered now will be paid back manifold in the future.
Returning to his seat, Duan Xiyin slightly calmed his mood and searched back and forth through those homework booklets multiple times, yet failed to find the monthly exam answer key Wu Hu had mentioned.
Alarm bells instantly clanged in his mind. Could it be that Yu Zhen had already discovered that note and taken it out?
That would be utterly catastrophic.
Duan Xiyan felt profoundly grieved and desperately wanted to cry. He practically wanted to sprint over to Yu Zhen’s side, hug his thighs, and plead his innocence.
Yet he couldn’t show it. After all, he was supposedly a rebellious rich second-generation heir.
Thus, he could only nonchalantly glance back at Yu Zhen, only to find the other person still expressionlessly tackling a test paper.
The faint morning light shone upon the teenager’s refined profile in a picture of tranquil serenity, yet Duan Xiyan read the final calm before a storm right out of it.
[D: Which homework booklet of Yu Zhen’s did you put the monthly exam answer key in? Why can’t I find it?]
[D: Code red]
After sending these messages to Wu Hu, Duan Xiyan tucked his phone inside his desk drawer, lighting up the screen every so often to check if the other person had replied.
His seat was located near the back in the middle of the classroom. With no other classmates blocking the view in front, this little maneuver fell unreservedly into the eyes of Yu Zhen, who had happened to look up and stretch his neck.
A strange glint flashed across those amber-colored pupils.
He acutely sensed that this young master Duan was acting a bit strange.
To be precise, he had already sensed it yesterday evening at the video arcade, when this young master who usually acted so proud and haughty that he wouldn’t even drink cold water had rushed in barefoot wearing a hospital gown to help him defuse the situation.
At the time, he didn’t think too much of it, simply categorizing it as another one of the young master’s boring pranks, and pressed down the lingering doubts in his heart.
Today, however, Duan Xiyan’s actions were genuinely bizarre.
The smallest, most unintentional details are always the best reflections of a person’s changes, such as the tone he used when speaking to him just now, or the cautious posture with which he hid his phone in his desk drawer to play.
“Snap.” Every light in the classroom was switched on, banishing the gloom entirely as Yu Zhen withdrew his gaze.
The class commissar appeared at the front door, habitually scanning the classroom before showing a brief flash of surprise upon spotting Duan Xiyan, then pushing up his glasses and walking inside.
It wasn’t until morning self-study was nearly over that Duan Xiyan finally received Wu Hu’s reply.
[Wu Hu: In the math homework booklet collected in your class yesterday. I snuck into the office and put it in. The teacher had already finished grading them before I placed it, so they should be handed back this morning.]
[Wu Hu: Look how rigorous my line of thinking is. If I had put it directly on Yu Zhen’s desk, he arrives so early every day that he definitely would have discovered it, and then our cover would’ve been blown.]
[Wu Hu: Did the sun rise from the west today? I just went out and asked your driver, and he said you went to school past six o’clock.]
Duan Xiyan: “…”
Too rigorous; he almost wanted to praise him as a genius.
[D: You wake up so late every day, how did you know Yu Zhen arrives early?]
[Wu Hu: You forgot? Back in our first year of high school, we woke up early and staked out the spot every day just to drop Alpha pheromone capsules into his water cup.]
Seeing the words “Alpha pheromone capsules,” Duan Xiyan froze as scattered images flashed across his eyes, fragments of the original host’s memories seemingly awakened by this keyword.
As the name suggested, Alpha pheromone capsules contained trace amounts of artificially synthesized Alpha pheromones. This synthetic pheromone was mild and would not trigger violent reactions, but it was enough to make an Omega’s body flush with heat.
In short, it was a disreputable sexual aid.
Yet back then, after Yu Zhen drank that water dissolved with Alpha pheromone capsules, he showed zero reaction.
Because he was an Omega with underdeveloped glands who didn’t even possess pheromones.
After that incident, the actions of Duan Xiyan and Wu Hu were defined as a joke that had gone too far, and they didn’t face severe disciplinary action. However, the rumor that Yu Zhen was an Omega without pheromones spread far and wide across Renzi No. 1 High School.
Originally, Yu Zhen had been a victim, and his flaw deserved everyone’s sympathy. Yet after such an unfavorable rumor was discussed privately among everyone for so long, the atmosphere gradually grew subtle.
Duan Xiyan fell silent, suddenly losing any desire whatsoever to continue masquerading as the original host’s persona.
It was simply too malicious.
In his previous life, he was also someone with physical deficiencies, so he understood that feeling all too well.
Moreover, under such circumstances, people had still continuously engaged in malicious bullying.
Duan Xiyan abruptly recalled yesterday evening inside the empty video arcade, the teenager’s helpless and isolated figure.
Yet the teenager’s posture had remained stubbornly cold and resolute, making it hard to associate him with a vulnerable target surrounded by malice.
Duan Xiyan felt a heavy, oppressive tightness in his chest, an indescribable feeling.
[D: Don’t do this anymore in the future.]
Wu Hu didn’t quite catch his meaning, unusually replying with a short sentence: [Huh?]
[D: I mean, from now on, let’s stop bullying Yu Zhen.]
Just as he sent those words, the morning self-study bell struck its final note. Duan Xiyan put away his phone without waiting for Wu Hu’s reply.
The teacher announced the end of class and had barely stepped out the front door when the class commissar dashed onto the podium, seizing the opportunity while everyone hadn’t yet lapsed into casual break mode to pass along a message from the teacher.
“The math teacher said the problem types on the last assignment are very typical and must be mastered. Whoever got them wrong needs to copy corrections into their error notebooks, and she’ll be checking them closely next time. I’m handing out the homework notebooks now.”
Math homework notebooks!
Catching these keywords, Duan Xiyan tossed everything else to the back of his mind.
Yu Zhen’s notebook was among the first few. The class commissar walked down the aisle and handed it out in no time. Just as he was about to pass the notebook into Yu Zhen’s hands, another hand suddenly materialized from the side and grabbed it first.
The class commissar was startled by the sudden intrusion of Duan Xiyan: “What are you doing?”
“Ah, I missed my math homework yesterday too, so I wanted to reference classmate Yu Zhen’s assignment.”
It was no secret that Duan Xiyan took pleasure in bullying Yu Zhen; the students in the class were more or less aware of it. When had these two ever been on good enough terms to borrow homework to copy?
Most likely, this wasn’t a simple borrowing.
The class commissar looked inquiringly toward Yu Zhen, only to see him say nothing as he calmly withdrew his hand. Thus, the commissar had no choice but to drop the matter and hand the notebook over to Duan Xiyan.
Just as Duan Xiyan was about to let out a sigh of relief, the homework notebook in his hands was hijacked once more by a fourth hand cutting in from an angle!
Class Spectator and Commissar: Does this homework notebook possess some kind of unique charm?
“Hey, Brother Yu, do you have a moment? Your little brother is here once again to seek your guidance.”
The newcomer was an elite-class Omega student named Lu Qifei, who happened to be Yu Zhen’s only friend in school.
Lu Qifei gave Duan Xiyan a half-smile, while simultaneously shoving Duan Xiyan aside as if by accident.
Duan Xiyan: Your accident is far too deliberate.
Yu Zhen remained utterly indifferent to the undercurrents swirling around his homework notebook, asking Lu Qifei, “What problem?”
“What a coincidence, it’s the exact problems in this homework notebook!” Even though he was speaking to Yu Zhen, Lu Qifei kept his eyes fixed on Duan Xiyan, squeezing those words out almost through clenched teeth.
Duan Xiyan panicked for a fraction of a second before Lu Qifei exerted a sudden, forceful yank, ripping the notebook out of his grip.
Lu Qifei was gripping the side near the binding. The moment the notebook slipped from Duan Xiyan’s grasp, the pages flipped wildly downward, shaking a folded A4 sheet of paper loose from between them.
Duan Xiyan lunged forward at top speed to grab it, but the paper inexplicably veered off, fluttering haphazardly until it landed right under the feet of Yu Zhen’s front-row desk mate.
In that instant, time stretched out infinitely.
The previously noisy classroom fell silent as if hit by a mute button.
Under Duan Xiyan’s heart-stopping gaze and the curious stares of everyone around, the front-row classmate blankly bent down, pressing two fingers onto the corner of the paper.
The paper scraped against the floor with a crisp, sharp sound, and Duan Xiyan’s heart plummeted violently.
It’s over.
“Renzi No. 1 High School April Monthly Exam Answer Key… Top Secret.”
Like a drop of water falling into a frying pan of hot oil, the entire classroom instantly erupted.
“Holy crap, the monthly exam answer key?”
“For real? Where’d that come from?”
“Hey, let me see, let me see!”
Lu Qifei, holding the homework notebook, stood completely dumbfounded, his expression blank.
Seeing the answer key threatening to spread in all directions, the class commissar abandoned handing out the notebooks and lunged forward to intercept it.
Duan Xiyan instinctively looked toward Yu Zhen, locking eyes precisely with those calm, amber-colored pupils, choking back his breath.
He was far too calm.
In the midst of this sudden farce, the only person maintaining absolute calmness was the person involved, looking as though he were merely an outsider watching a play.
Set against such calm, the intense emotions of everyone else appeared utterly ridiculous.
Before Duan Xiyan could recover his wits, a fierce roar echoed from the back door of the classroom, instantly suppressing the chaotic scene.
“What is going on here!” It was the head of discipline.
Everyone instantly fell silent.
“What kind of commotion is this, huh?”
The head of discipline was a stern, harsh-sounding middle-aged man. He held a wooden ruler and struck it heavily against the back door panel, making everyone’s livers shudder: “How long has the warning bell been ringing? Can’t your class hear it?!”
Following that, the disciplinarian’s severe gaze swept across the classroom, locking onto the A4 sheet of paper held high in the air.
“What is that? Bring it here for me to see!”
It was truly over.
Duan Xiyan’s heart turned abruptly cold by half.