In the school cafeteria, Tang Yu smiled and thanked the lady at the noodle counter as he took his bowl.
Xie Tianyi stared into Tang Yu’s bowl, his expression a mix of bewilderment and jealousy. “Why do you get so many slices of beef?”
“If you ordered a bowl of beef noodles and asked for only beef and noodles, the auntie would bless you with extra slices too,” Tang Yu replied smoothly.
Tang Yu was a notoriously picky eater. He couldn’t stand green onions, ginger, or garlic, and he absolutely detested cilantro. Cucumbers and carrots were out of the question, and when it came to spinach, he would only eat the leaves, never the stems. To save himself the hassle, he just told them to leave the veggies out entirely.
He didn’t eat egg yolks either, so he skipped the egg too. His bowl was so starkly, cleanly barren that the cafeteria lady probably couldn’t bear to look at it, tossing in extra beef out of sheer pity.
Seeing this, Xie Tianyi walked up to the counter and tried to copy him. “Auntie, I’ll have a beef noodle soup too. Just beef and noodles.”
A moment later, Xie Tianyi found himself staring down at exactly two lonely slices of beef, falling into deep thought. I ordered it the exact same way, didn’t I?
From behind the counter, the cafeteria lady’s voice boomed, “Child, you need to lose some weight!”
Xie Tianyi, who was undeniably on the chubbier side: “…”
Standing a few steps ahead, Tang Yu laughed so hard his abs ached.
Once they sat down to eat, Tang Yu overheard two guys in the booth behind them chatting.
Boy 1: “Man, my girlfriend’s parents found out about us dating.”
Boy 2: “No way! Her family is so strict, you’re doomed. What did they say?”
Boy 1: “What else could they say? Her parents said I’m not good enough for their daughter and told us to break up.”
Boy 2: “Are you going to call it off?”
Boy 1: “No way! If I’m not good enough, I’ll work until I am. I love her, and she told me I’m the only one for her in this lifetime… Plus… honestly, I’m a little scared.”
Boy 2: “Scared of what?”
Boy 1 leaned in, dropping his voice to a whisper. “I’m scared she’ll do something drastic. You know how good her grades are. Top students like her are treated like royalty at home and at school. She’s never faced a real setback in her life, so her mental resilience is practically zero. Last time she dropped out of the top ten in our grade, she cried for ages. Now that her parents know about us, she straight up told me that if we can’t be together, she’d rather just…”
The boy’s voice faded as they walked away.
On the way back to the classroom, Tang Yu couldn’t help but wonder: Bai Yuenian fits that ‘royalty’ description perfectly, doesn’t he? He’s probably never faced a single hardship.
If Tang Yu were to spell it out directly and tell Bai Yuenian that he didn’t like guys, wouldn’t that hit him like an absolute critical strike?
Would Bai Yuenian do something reckless?
Are top students really that fragile?
As a permanent resident of the bottom tier of the class rankings, Tang Yu really didn’t understand the psychological makeup of straight-A students.
However, since he had a decent student right next to him, he decided to ask. He turned to Xie Tianyi, “Do you cry when you fail an exam?”
“Cry? Why would I cry?” Xie Tianyi had finished his noodles and was now working on a cup of porridge. He tossed the empty cup into a trash can. “You mean get crying from a beating? If I rank near the bottom, my dad gives me a good thrashing. He even says he finally found an excuse to chase me around the yard so I can get some cardio in.”
Well, that was an unexpected answer.
“…” Tang Yu sighed. “Forget it. It was pointless asking you. After all, it’s not like you can break into the top ten.”
Xie Tianyi: “…”
He didn’t understand what crying had to do with being in the top ten.
More importantly, why was he a guy ranked in the top thirty suddenly being roasted by someone permanently ranked at the bottom of the grade?
Just now! Was Tang Yu mocking him?
Completely out of his depth when it came to matters of the heart, Tang Yu was tangled in knots.
He reasoned that someone like Bai Yuenian, who consistently ranked rank number one, might have an even more fragile ego. If a sudden romantic rejection messed with the head of the school’s most prized prodigy, their homeroom teacher, Liu Ziyue, would hunt Tang Yu down to the ends of the earth.
The resolve Tang Yu had fiercely built up just half an hour ago began to waver.
He thought, Maybe I should just wait and see. Ideally, I can just slowly drift out of Bai Yuenian’s life. That would be perfect.
When the final bell rang that afternoon, Tang Yu rapidly finished his cleaning duties and bolted. There was absolutely no way he was walking home with Bai Yuenian.
Fortunately, he had transmigrated right during a “cold war” period following a massive argument between the novel’s original main couple. This played right into Tang Yu’s hands, giving him the perfect excuse to keep his distance.
Sigh… But thinking about it, didn’t that make him look even more like a total jerk? It felt like he was bullying a pure, innocent, defenseless flower.
Head aching, Tang Yu perched himself on the parallel bars at the edge of the sports field, resting his elbows on his knees with one long leg dangling casually.
He was playing a mobile game while waiting for a delivery.
He had ordered some art supplies online.
In his original world, he had used a pseudonym combining the last characters of his adoptive parents’ names to enter various prestigious art competitions, walking away with several heavy-hitting awards.
His painting was a secret shared only with his adoptive parents.
Perhaps it was a lingering streak of teenage rebellion, a manifestation of his “let it all rot” attitude back then, but he simply didn’t want Mrs. Qin to know that her biological son wasn’t completely useless. He hadn’t told a soul here, not even Xie Tianyi.
If he didn’t say anything, no one would ever suspect that the notorious school tyrant could sit perfectly still, holding a paintbrush and bringing a canvas to life.
After transmigrating, his three days of careful observation revealed that the original “Tang Yu” in this book differed from him in many ways.
Take painting, for instance. There wasn’t a single drop of paint or a finished piece anywhere in the massive villa, proving the original host didn’t sketch a thing.
In his current game match, Tang Yu was playing the support role as the fifth pick, protecting his team’s marksman so flawlessly that they were absolutely tearing through the enemy team.
As they pushed into the enemy’s high-ground turret, Tang Yu’s character took the brunt of the damage at the frontline. He shielded his teammates, enabling the marksman to score a pentakill just as his own character collapsed.
Marksman: [Hey support bro, want to add me? A guy and a girl working together makes the dream work~ heart emoji]
Tang Yu was about to reply when a female student ran over, completely out of breath. She leaned against the parallel bars, panting hard. “Are you… Senior Tang Yu?”
Tang Yu looked down at her. “I am.”
The girl gasped for air. “Senior Bai… Yuenian… got cornered by a bunch of thugs in the alley!”
Thud.
Tang Yu’s hand twitched. In his rush, he missed a letter while typing “No thanks,” accidentally autocorrecting the message to “No rush” before hitting send.
The chat box in the game was tiny, and he didn’t bother to double-check it. Seeing that his teammates were already destroying the enemy crystal, he shoved the phone into his pocket, letting the game idle, and leaped lightly off the parallel bars. “What does him getting cornered have to do with me?”
Besides, he had just promised Teacher Ziyue this morning that he wouldn’t get into any more fights.
The girl cried out, “They said they want payback for what happened yesterday! They said if you don’t show up, they’re going to make him pay dearly.”
Tang Yu brushed off his hands, though there was no dust on them. “Then let them make him pay.”
The guy was already ridiculously good-looking anyway! It wouldn’t hurt to rough him up a bit. Maybe if he looked less perfect, Tang Yu wouldn’t get those annoying heart palpitations every time he glanced at him.
The girl glanced back toward the school gates. The tattooed thug who had forced her to deliver the message was still lingering there, looking terrifyingly hostile. She didn’t even dare to step outside the campus.
She muttered anxiously, “Then… what should we do?”
She pulled out her phone to dial the police. At the exact same moment, Tang Yu started walking in the complete opposite direction of the school gates.
Why is he heading over there? Is he really just going to abandon Bai Yuenian?
Just as her call began to ring, the girl’s mouth dropped into a perfect ‘O’ shape.
She watched as Tang Yu, who had seemingly walked away, grabbed a stray mop handle, dashed toward the perimeter wall, and scaled it with a fluid, incredibly cool leap.
Right! School tyrants never take the front door!
And honestly, their school tyrant seemed to be the textbook definition of a guy who was tough on the outside but soft on the inside.
She had heard rumors that these two seniors from the junior year were an incredibly popular ship among the students. Oh my god! She was starting to see the vision herself.
Ahhh… Nian-Nian-You-Yu is definitely real!
Rewinding ten minutes.
After completing his cleaning duties, Bai Yuenian scanned the empty classroom.
Predictably, Tang Yu had already left. Bai Yuenian knew him well; given their current strained dynamic, Tang Yu would go out of his way to avoid walking home together.
Bai Yuenian methodically packed his homework into his bag, threw it over his shoulder, and headed out.
But as he rounded a corner just outside the school, someone suddenly gripped his shoulder, forcibly dragging him into a side alley.
Waiting for him was a group of seven or eight guys. The leader seemed to be a guy with a buzzcut standing at the front. The buzzcut scanned him up and down before turning to a blonde lackey next to him. “Is this Bai Yuenian?”
“Yeah!” the blonde confirmed eagerly. “He’s incredibly easy to track down. His face is plastered all over the school’s official website.”
He showed his phone screen to the buzzcut, his smirk practically reaching his ears as if begging for praise. “Boss, with a face like that, it’d be practically impossible to mistake him for anyone else!”
The buzzcut looked at Bai Yuenian and grudgingly admitted the logic.
He tried to smirk, but the movement aggravated his injuries, causing him to hiss in pain.
Yesterday, Tang Yu had slammed his face against a wall, leaving him with several nasty scrapes.
To make matters worse, the girl from yesterday had called the police, and their hideout at the motel had been raided. The three of them had spent the entire night crammed in a holding cell. Fortunately, the offense wasn’t severe enough to keep them, and they were bailed out around noon today.
Thinking of Tang Yu made the buzzcut’s blood boil. He ordered one of his underlings to grab a random student from the school to deliver a message, determined to lure Tang Yu out.
The buzzcut stepped right up to Bai Yuenian, trying to look intimidating despite the fact that his jaw was twitching like he had a massive toothache. “You’re just unlucky to have crossed paths with me today, kid. It’s a shame about that pretty face of yours.”
He pointed to the scrapes on the side of his own face. “See this? Tang Yu did this yesterday. Today, I’m starting with you. Who told you to be his little boyfriend?”
To everyone’s absolute shock, the model student standing before them didn’t show even a flicker of fear.
Hearing the buzzcut’s words, Bai Yuenian’s lips twitched upward in a barely perceptible smile. Then, he candy corrected him, “We… aren’t in that kind of relationship yet.”
The buzzcut was thrown completely off script. “Are you deaf? I said I’m going to break you.”
“I’m not deaf. I’m just saying he and I aren’t…” Bai Yuenian trailed off.
The usually stoic, aloof top student found himself unable to voice the words “in a relationship.” But just thinking about the implication brought a faint, noticeable flush to his cheeks.
The two of them were operating on entirely different wavelengths.
“Are you intentionally messing with me…”
Furious, the buzzcut threw a heavy punch straight toward Bai Yuenian’s face. But just as it was about to connect, Bai Yuenian executed a swift, precise deflection, completely neutralizing the force of the blow.
With a fluid twist of his wrist, he spun the buzzcut around like a top and delivered a sharp shove to his back.
The buzzcut stumbled backward, crashing right into his lackeys.
“Boss, are you okay?”
“Boss, what happened?”
“Boss…”
Getting utterly humiliated by a couple of high school kids two days in a row was unacceptable. He had come for revenge, and now he was losing face all over again.
The buzzcut tried to flex his wrist, but a sharp pain shot through it.
This pale, pristine, nerdy-looking high schooler was actually a much more vicious and far more unorthodox fighter than Tang Yu!
The move just now had been so fast and precise it was a blur.
The actions were minimal, but they targeted highly vulnerable pressure points. The buzzcut felt a strange numbness spreading across half his body, leaving him completely drained of strength.
Coupled with Bai Yuenian’s impressive height, the way the boy looked down at him with those sharp, intense eyes felt incredibly condescending and infuriating.
Sensing that a one-on-one fight was a losing battle, the buzzcut took a step back and raised his hand. “Screw it, everyone get him! Beat him down!”