Tang Yu studied Bai Yuenian closely. The guy in front of him always kept his school uniform spotless. He was tall, lean, and had remarkably beautiful hands.
Shockingly, he fit the description of the person who had given him the uniform to a tee.
Tang Yu froze for a second.
Bai Yuenian was actually asking if he was okay? Meanwhile, Bai Yuenian’s own forehead was visibly red and swollen.
On the floor lay the pen holder, shattered into pieces. Looking at its thick cross-section, whoever got hit by that had definitely taken a serious blow.
A surge of anger suddenly flared up in Tang Yu. He was just about to say something when Bai Yuenian cut him off with a gentle shake of his head.
“Ah! What happened here?”
A vaguely familiar voice sounded. The newcomer wore a navy-blue official uniform, the national emblem on his cap gleaming with inviolable authority.
Wait…wasn’t this the police officer from the alleyway fight the other day?
What was he doing here? Was he looking for Director Liu?
Standing outside the office, the officer took in the mess on the floor and the crowd of parents inside. “I could hear the crashing all the way downstairs. Does someone need police assistance?”
The parents exchanged glances, completely baffled as to why a cop had suddenly shown up.
It didn’t seem like any of them had called him, so it was probably Director Liu who had alerted the police!
Still, some parents refused to see it that way. “Officer, you came just in time! This Tang Yu teamed up with outside hooligans to bully his classmates. He needs to be dealt with severely.”
The young, handsome officer twitched slightly at the word “Officer.”
“Tang Yu?” he repeated. “Bullying classmates too? Is he really that terrible? Don’t worry, if that’s truly the case, I’ll make sure justice is served impartially.”
Tang Yu, standing off to the side: “…”
He seriously suspected the officer who took his statement a few days ago had also been transmigrated into a web novel! Otherwise, what on earth was this act?
“Though,” the young officer added, “I happen to have a Tang Yu here myself.”
He reached behind him and pulled out a red scroll adorned with gold tasseled fringe. “Where is Director Liu? I’m here for him.”
“Ah! Right here!” Director Liu squeezed through the crowd, smoothing down his hair. “Hello, Officer.”
The officer said, “This is a commendation banner for Tang Yu’s heroic behavior. Could you please take me to this student?”
The situation suddenly took a 180-degree turn. Director Liu smiled so wide his smile lines deepened. “No need, no need! Tang Yu is right here. Our school only has one Tang Yu.”
Director Liu yanked Tang Yu forward. “This is him!”
“You’re Tang Yu? Student Tang, this banner is for you.”
With a crisp snap, the scroll unrolled. Tang Yu stared at the eight massive, gilded Chinese characters…”Courageous and Righteous, Promoting Integrity”…completely stunned.
What was going on?
He wasn’t the only one bewildered; some of the parents were even more confused.
“Is this some kind of staged show for us?”
“Showing up right at this moment? Eight out of ten, it’s fake!”
“Looks fake to me too!”
Tang Yu: “…”
If he hadn’t met this officer before, he probably would have thought the same thing.
However, the young officer wasn’t about to let that slide. “Ma’am! Sir! I am really not an $80-a-day extra hired from a film crew outside.”
Tang Yu: “…” You even know extras make 80 bucks a day?
The officer freed a hand, pulled out his credentials, and pointed to his chest. “If you still doubt my badge, here is my badge number. You’re welcome to verify its authenticity yourself. I’m a genuine, official civil servant with a state-budgeted position.”
“Student Tang, accept the banner!”
Behind them, the parents continued to whisper frantically…
“What is happening?”
“Isn’t it obvious now? Let’s just go!”
“Maybe we were too agitated… the kid really is innocent.”
“You can’t say that for sure. We shouldn’t guess; we need to get to the bottom of this. What if this cop is his relative? What if he came along just to act in a play?”
The young officer: “…”
“Parents, if you still have doubts, feel free to drop by our station. When the incident happened a few days ago, our unit dispatched officers to the scene. The emergency call was made by a female student. The dispatch logs, the interrogation notes… we have everything. Plus, those three hooligans are still locked up at the station. It’s not like I could fake all this days in advance, right?”
With that, there was finally nothing left to doubt. The crowd exchanged glances and eventually voiced their intentions to leave.
“Hold on a second!” This time, Tang Yu was genuinely annoyed. “Whoever threw that pen holder owes an apology. That’s not too much to ask, is it? If the God of Competition’s brain gets damaged, which of you can afford to pay for it?”
A man raised his hand from the back of the crowd. “It was me. I lost my temper in the heat of the moment. I’m sorry.”
He had an explosive temper and doted heavily on his daughter at home. When he saw the forum photos earlier, he had immediately put himself in that shoes and panicked. He genuinely hadn’t expected to accidentally hit Bai Yuenian.
Many parents recognized Bai Yuenian. He was the star student whose name was permanently plastered on the Honor Roll…the kid every parent went to admire during parent-teacher conferences.
Parents naturally tended to trust high-achieving students. So when they saw Bai Yuenian rush over to protect the boy, he realized they might have genuinely wronged Tang Yu.
Tang Yu was satisfied with the apology. He turned back and asked Bai Yuenian, “How’s your head?”
Bai Yuenian shook his head.
Tang Yu lifted a corner of Bai Yuenian’s bangs to take a look. It was just a little red.
He tilted his head toward the classroom, silently communicating with cool attitude: Back to class!
And so, the parents watched in silence as the “model child”…whom they revered at every parent-teacher conference…was summoned away by a single glance from Tang Yu, the very kid they had just demanded be suspended…
When Tang Yu walked back into the classroom, everyone’s eyes bugged out at the scroll in his hand.
“Tang Yu, what’s that you’re holding?”
“A rotating honor flag?”
“Are you stupid? Is a rotating honor flag ever that big?”
“Then what on earth is it?”
“It’s nothing!” Tang Yu stuffed the scroll straight into his desk drawer.
By the time they got back, only ten minutes were left in Chinese class. Teacher Zhou Fangmin could only use the time to answer questions about yesterday’s homework.
Tang Yu checked his answers. Surprisingly, he had gotten most of them right. By his estimate, he could probably score around 110 points on this test.
Tang Yu lazily slumped onto his desk as usual, but the scroll in his drawer poked him right in the stomach, instantly reminding him of the scene where the cop presented him with the banner.
Tang Yu: “…”
He thought giving commendation banners was… extremely cheesy.
So tacky!
He really wanted to know whose brilliant idea this was.
Tang Yu turned to rest his head on the other side, just in time to catch sight of Bai Yuenian sitting up straight as a board.
He tore off a piece of paper, wrote: [Was the banner your idea?], crumpled it into a ball, and sent it flying onto Wu Jianqi’s desk.
When Wu Jianqi looked over, Tang Yu gestured for him to pass it to Bai Yuenian.
Wu Jianqi was more than happy to oblige. Suppressing a smirk, he passed it along in secret. He even tried to sneak a peak at what Tang Yu wrote, but Bai Yuenian blocked his view with his hand.
When the paper ball returned to Tang Yu’s hands, a line of elegant, flowing handwriting appeared beneath his messy scribbles.
Bai Yuenian: [I only contacted Officer Fang. The banner wasn’t my idea. I originally planned to clarify things during the morning exercise.]
During morning exercises?
Picture this: Standing on the podium in front of the entire school, having someone hand him a banner?
That scene would have been ten times cheesier than what just happened!
Tang Yu wrote back, letting a bit of his temper flare: [If it were your idea, you’d be dead meat!]
Wait, is that too aggressive?
Struck it out!
Tang Yu: [This thing is so tacky!!!]
When Bai Yuenian saw “so tacky” taking up half the page in Tang Yu’s writing, he could barely suppress a smile.
Bai Yuenian replied: [You looked pretty happy to me.]
Tang Yu: “…”
He tore off a fresh piece of paper and angrily scribbled three words.
Just as the paper ball was thrown, Director Liu walked in through the back door and intercepted it mid-air.
Director Liu: “The moment I walk in, I catch you passing notes in class. Not paying attention?”
He unrolled the paper ball. “Let me see what you wrote!”
Tang Yu looked a bit put on the spot. “Brother Liu, I advise you not to read it. It’ll hurt our relationship.”
Director Liu: “Hmph! I’ve already suffered internal injuries because of you today. You think I’m scared of a little flesh wound?”
Refusing to believe it, he smoothed the note out. Tang Yu’s handwriting was a bit hard to read, requiring careful deciphering. A second later, Director Liu read it out word by word…
“Get.”
“Lost.”
“Man!”
Director Liu: “…”
He felt like he had just been insulted, but he lacked the evidence!
At that moment, several snorts of holding back laughter erupted across Class 1.
Director Liu was fuming. “Passing notes during Chinese class! Teacher Zhou, you tell me…how should we punish him?”
Teacher Zhou Fangmin had also been hiding a chuckle with her head down. Hearing this, she forced a straight face and looked up. “Then let’s punish him by making him copy Carefree Wandering ten times!”
Director Liu was satisfied. “Hand it to me tomorrow morning! Pay attention during class, no copying allowed while lessons are going on.”
Nobody expected to get a free comedy show in the final minute of Chinese class, and the atmosphere in the room instantly livened up.
After Director Liu left, the dismissal bell rang, and the laughter in the classroom doubled.
Amidst the giggles of their classmates, Bai Yuenian nudged Wu Jianqi with his elbow.
“What’s up, God Yue?”
Bai Yuenian took off his glasses, carefully tucked them into their case, and cleared his desk. “Switching seats.”
Wu Jianqi didn’t quite hear him. “Huh?”
Bai Yuenian repeated, “I’m switching seats with you.”?
Wu Jianqi was laughing so hard his brain was lagging. By the time he processed it, he looked back and forth between his seat and the narrow aisle separating him from Tang Yu.
He thought to himself slyly: Is this cute couple finally dropping some sweet moments on us?
The back row had plenty of space, making swapping seats a breeze.
When class ended, Tang Yu had planned to nap on his desk, but someone was moving tables right beside him.
Bai Yuenian caught Tang Yu’s gaze. “Go ahead and sleep. Won’t take long, I’m fast.”
Tang Yu: “???”
What do you mean you’re fast?
As it turned out, Bai Yuenian was indeed fast! The entire seat swap took a grand total of ten seconds.
Then, Tang Yu stared at Bai Yuenian, who was now sitting a mere half-meter away from him, and asked, “Why did you swap seats with your desk mate?”
Swapping desk mates with another desk mate—was there any point to that?
Bai Yuenian put his gold-rimmed glasses back on, pulled out a notepad, and kept his usual ice-cold expression. After a two-second pause, he said, “This way you won’t have to pass notes anymore. I can see what you write.”
Tang Yu: “…”
I didn’t plan on passing notes with you again anyway!
Tang Yu felt something stuck in his chest, neither going up nor down, but it didn’t feel uncomfortable.
On the contrary, he felt his heart rate speed up.
He flipped around to face the other way, leaving Bai Yuenian with only the back of his head.
After hiding his face for a bit, he felt stiflingly warm. He slid his head down slightly, exposing half his face.
Xie Tianyi walked back from the restroom and gasped in shock. “Holy crap! Bro, why is your face so red? Are you sick?”
As he spoke, he reached out to feel Tang Yu’s forehead, only for Tang Yu to slap his hand away.
Xie Tianyi hissed in pain. “Damn, that strength? You’re bursting with energy!”
Then he watched as his bro buried his flushed half-face back into his arms, looking suspiciously shy.
Xie Tianyi: “???”
During math class, Tang Yu was forced to look up.
When Wu Jianqi sat next to him previously, he never paid much attention. But now that it was Bai Yuenian, he felt the presence of the person beside him skyrocket.
Plus, he was sitting to Bai Yuenian’s right. Whenever Bai Yuenian wrote, his head tilted slightly to the right. As a result, even his gaze felt overwhelmingly noticeable.
Tang Yu couldn’t tell if it was just his imagination, but he kept feeling like Bai Yuenian was looking at him.
It took Tang Yu half the period of self-adjustment to slowly relax.
So what if he looks? Is a dignified school bully like me afraid of being looked at? I dare to stare back!
Yet, when he finally relaxed and turned naturally, he realized Bai Yuenian wasn’t looking at him at all.
Bai Yuenian’s pen was moving continuously. Who knows what math problem he was solving…was it really that hard?
Guess even the God of Academics is human! He gets stuck on problems too!
Tang Yu suddenly felt an urge to see what practice paper Bai Yuenian was working on. He sat up straight and peeked over at the adjacent desk, but Bai Yuenian’s handwriting was too tiny to read.
Worse, he covered up whatever he wrote as he went along.
Tang Yu: “…”
What secret cheat sheet is he making? Why so mysterious?
So curious! What on earth is he writing?
According to Tang Yu’s observations, Bai Yuenian spent the entire day working on that paper without stopping once.
His curiosity reached an all-time high.
When school was finally over, Tang Yu was packing his homework into his bag.
Someone knocked twice on his desk with bent knuckles. Tang Yu looked up at the sound.
Bai Yuenian placed a stack of neatly written notepad pages on his desk.
Tang Yu glanced at them…they were packed with densely written text, messy and chaotic. The handwriting was terrible, a complete contrast to the sleek notes they passed earlier.
What is this junk? It’s illegible!
Bai Yuenian said, “This is the ten copies of Carefree Wandering you were assigned.”
Tang Yu: “…”
So you were busy writing THIS all day?
Tang Yu sped up his packing.
Bai Yuenian added, “We agreed yesterday. Next time you have lines to copy, I’ll write them for you.”
Tang Yu: “…”
You don’t need to be THIS eager!
“I did it willingly…” Before Bai Yuenian could finish, Tang Yu threw his backpack over his shoulder and ran off like the wind! Even the tips of his ears were flushed pink!
Xie Tianyi called after him, “Tang Yu! You haven’t put your chair up yet!”
“I’ll do it.”
Lifting the chair with one hand, Bai Yuenian flipped it upside down onto the desk, then followed Tang Yu out of the classroom.