The dimly lit private room was boisterous, a mix of various clamorous noises and the clinking of glass rims, highlighting the red-light district, hedonistic, paper-gold atmosphere characteristic of a bar.
Jiang Zhou sat slanted on the inner sofa, holding a wine glass with bluish-purple liquid sloshing inside. The dim, obscure light shone on his profile, a semblance of a smile resting on the corners of his lips, only the amusement did not reach his eyes, making him look somewhat cold and ruthless.
“Care to explain? Hmm?”
He lifted his foot and kicked hard at the person beneath him, aiming accurately right at the bleeding wound. That person immediately curled up in a ball from the pain.
Yet the person underfoot didn’t even dare to take a heavy breath, only capable of emitting whimpers like a small animal.
He wore an old shirt, washed until it was faded, looking completely out of place in this resplendent hotel.
“How dare you still try to cheat our Brother Jiang? Don’t think that just because you’re a teacher, we wouldn’t dare touch you!” A young boy beside him curled his lips in a sneer, lifting a grayish-blue jacket with some disdain. “A commoner is a commoner, what are you pretending for? This outfit must have cost you quite a bit, what a pity that no matter how you wear it, you can’t cover up that rustic stench of yours!”
Jiang Zhou hooked the corners of his lips, looking at the person loudly begging for mercy on the ground, and sneered. Casually, he smashed the wine glass in his hand against the person’s face, once and for all. Extreme pain surged to the nerve endings, and a large amount of fresh blood gushed out, dirtying that grayish-blue suit jacket he so cherished. The cries and pleas for mercy gradually grew weak, until the person finally collapsed onto the ground.
“Drag him out, he’s dirtying my eyes.” Jiang Zhou kicked the blood-soaked person on the ground.
Chu Xunsheng had just dreamed of this scene when he was completely awakened by the pattering, noisy sound of rain outside. Finding it difficult to fall back asleep, he had no choice but to tiredly pinch the bridge of his forehead and get up.
Having arrived in this world for over half a year, he still felt somewhat dizzy and sluggish.
Mostly because the place he lived in was simply too dark, too noisy, and dilapidated beyond repair.
The window was leaking, and the chilling wind blew howling through the window gaps. The small room contained only a makeshift little bed that creaked noisily the moment anyone lay down on it.
The only thing not in ruins was a grayish-blue jacket neatly hanging on the wall. It was an ordinary brand, yet it stood out as a rare valuable item in the entire room.
Chu Xunsheng turned on the faucet to splash some water on his face, then raised his head to look at the dust-covered mirror before him.
Reflected in the mirror was his own face, looking somewhat more haggard than usual, likely due to having just rinsed with cold water. The corners of his eyes were faintly reddish.
The original owner was a rote-learning student who had tested into the Central Star from a garbage star. Coming here had exhausted all his savings, and after a difficult graduation, he could only live in the slums.
Actually, the environment here was about the same as the garbage star, and the original owner could still get by. A few days ago, the original owner wore the newly bought jacket purchased with all his savings to cover up his washed-faded shirt, and finally managed to secure an opportunity to work as a teacher at the Yahong Academy.
The university the original owner attended was just an ordinary college, yet it still had rich second-generation kids and lackeys who unhesitatingly bullied commoners like them. This aristocratic academy must be even worse, forcing the original owner to use every ounce of effort to pretend to be an ordinary wealthy person.
According to the plot, later on, in order to suck up to a few wealthy second-generation students, he would help them bully the protagonist—who was also a commoner admitted on a special recruitment quota—doing all sorts of evil deeds. Eventually, his residence in the slums, his fake-brand clothing, and his obsequious nodding and bowing for money would be exposed.
Only, affected by a spatial rift, this original owner had dreamed of the scene where he was about to die. In the dream, Jiang Zhou looked over coldly, scaring the original owner into a shiver that woke him up.
Upon waking, the original owner felt that all hope was lost, but he was so cowardly that he didn’t even have the courage to resign from this job he had worked so hard to get. Thinking this through and that, the only thing he could control was his own life.
So, hardening his heart, he used a small advance on his salary to buy a whole box of sleeping pills and kicked the bucket.
However, since his plot as a malicious cannon fodder needed someone to fulfill it for the world line to continue moving forward, the Time-Space Administration sent Chu Xunsheng to take over his identity and carry the villainous acts through to the end.
The original owner taught the weapon-forging class, which he was relatively familiar with, and with the system’s help, teaching a few students naturally posed no problems.
Only… thinking of the packed classrooms for every lecture and the podium surrounded to the point of impenetrability after class, Chu Xunsheng let out a slight sigh. This hardly matched his treatment as a malicious villain.
No choice, he would take it one step at a time.
Chu Xunsheng picked up his umbrella, right as he was about to step out, a thought struck him, and he turned back. He took down the grayish-blue jacket hanging on the wall and put it on to cover his faded shirt, carefully smoothing down his hair before walking out.
Since he had to play the role of the original owner well, every single departure from home that might intersect with students for even a moment had to be treated with utmost importance.
Chu Xunsheng walked briskly out of the small cabin, feeling the decaying scent dissipate under the moonlight and fine rain. He couldn’t help closing his eyes to enjoy this rare refreshing moment.
Normally, he had to take a dilapidated bus to a place near the school and then walk the rest of the way, all to avoid being discovered living in the slums.
Fortunately, yesterday marked the start of the new semester, and he had deliberately recruited the protagonist as manual labor—a class monitor responsible for distributing homework and moving odds and ends. This could be considered completing the first step of bullying the poor little protagonist.
Next up was pretending to be wealthy to suck up to a few aristocratic youths, colluding with them to bully the protagonist, and then dying once his true identity was exposed. That would complete his mission.
Being a good person is hard, but being a villain should be easy, Chu Xunsheng thought to himself. Walking to the corner of the wall, he kicked a pebble underfoot, only to hear some noisy sounds.
Chu Xunsheng frowned slightly, intending to leave.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the wall.
It hurt. Yuan Du hugged his head to endure the ubiquitous pain all over his body. Fists and kicks struck flesh, feeling as though tens of thousands of silver needles were simultaneously piercing his body, making him tremble uncontrollably and nearly forcing him to his knees to beg for mercy.
Come to think of it, a commoner with no power, no influence, and even spiritual power testing registering as the lowest miscellaneous grade—how could he have such luck to be exceptionally admitted into the aristocratic academy boasting to be the empire’s number one?
Even though he had established himself as a first-grade controller with his miscellaneous attributes since before he came of age, a chasm still separated him from the heaven-sent chosen ones in this academy…
Yuan Du clenched his fists tightly, silently enduring the beatings and insults. The few people sneering before him were unfamiliar, but the one standing with arms crossed and a look of complete disinterest behind them—him, Yuan Du knew.
Jiang Zhou, crowned with the title of “Genius Controller” and also the young master of the empire’s top aristocratic family.
Such a person had no intersection with him whatsoever, nor should he have come to bully a nobody like him, except…
Yuan Du deeply understood that ever since yesterday’s opening ceremony, when Teacher Chu announced he would recruit a class apprentice to collect homework, and he ignored the warnings of all the heaven-sent prodigies, raising his hand without hesitation and getting selected so fortunately, his days in this academy would never be as peaceful as he anticipated.
Yuan Du curved the corners of his lips into a smile laced with irony, enduring the assault of spiritual power while casting a sideways, provocative, upward glance at Jiang Zhou standing off to the side.
This is jealousy… isn’t it?
The next second, his body trembled uncontrollably, and immense pressure made it difficult for him to breathe. Intense pain rushed to his nerve endings, and with a gag, he vomited a mouthful of fresh blood.
His throat felt like a broken bellows, every breath tasting of bloody flavor. A powerful force swept over and crushed him bit by bit. I am afraid… today I will lose my life here.
Yuan Du’s body was like a piece of broken trash, heavily thrown into the air and then violently smashed down. His eyelids could no longer support themselves and slowly drifted shut.
It’s just a pity, the days of being Teacher Chu’s apprentice—he hadn’t even enjoyed a moment of it…
Yuan Du thought, waiting for the immense pain to strike once more. To his surprise, however, a gentle yet firm beam of light steadily caught him, and the pain on his body was instantly healed. He opened his eyes in surprise, struggling to look up.
The newcomer held a black umbrella, a knobby-jointed hand gripping the umbrella handle, sleeves rolled up to reveal muscular arms crisscrossed with greenish veins that exuded a strong sense of power.
He walked over slowly, extending his other hand to pull Yuan Du up by the collar. Without looking at him, he only offered a slight smile toward Jiang Zhou.
Chu Xunsheng was breaking out in a cold sweat. Midway, his system had started beeping urgently: the protagonist’s life was in critical danger, which would cause a collapse of the plot. He had no choice but to rescue him, yet saving the protagonist did not align with his malicious cannon fodder persona of sucking up to nobles and oppressing commoners.
“What do I do, what do I do?” Chu Xunsheng asked the system quietly in his mind.
“Fawn! You must be fawning! Just say that this little toy is handed over to you to deal with, so it doesn’t bother Young Master Jiang to waste his time and effort.” The system flipped through the Encyclopedia of Malicious Villain Quotes and hurriedly instructed.
Chu Xunsheng nodded secretly and spoke up, “Classmate Jiang Zhou, leave Yuan Du to me, no need to trouble yourself.”
The subtext was: I’ll handle him for you. For a dignified teacher to collude with a bullying student like this, his villain persona points should rise now, right?
The system said solemnly, “Good! Not bad! The progress bar for fawning on the bully has gone up a bit.”
Joy bloomed in Chu Xunsheng’s heart, and he continued, “Yuan Du, from now on, go to the school flower garden after class to cultivate flowers.”
Watering, fertilizing, and weeding was hard labor. Every year, the school drew lots for teachers and students to do it, and this year the turn fell on Chu Xunsheng. He had just been worrying about which young master would be willing to take on this chore; wasn’t turning the protagonist into forced labor just right?
The system clapped vigorously, “The progress bar for bullying the protagonist has also gone up! Quick! Fawn a bit more, and this phase of ours can bow out with merit!”
Chu Xunsheng hurriedly grabbed the protagonist and smiled faintly at Jiang Zhou on the side to show ingratiation.
Huh? Why was Young Master Jiang’s gaze so icy? It looked like he wanted to kill someone…
The system muttered: Maybe Young Master Jiang just doesn’t look favorably upon you. It doesn’t matter, the original owner was supposed to play a warm face to a cold butt anyway, we did a great job!
Chu Xunsheng nodded thoughtfully, pulled Yuan Du away, and whispered to the system: Why is this kid’s hand so hot?
Looking closer, his face was also flushed red, and he didn’t even dare to look him in the eye. Don’t tell me he was bullied too badly by Jiang Zhou and came down with a fever?
How pitiful.
Chu Xunsheng sighed, pulling the protagonist away slowly.
Behind them, Jiang Zhou watched the departing backs of the two, closing his eyes. The remaining few exchanged glances, cowed by his expression and not daring to speak.
It wasn’t until Chu Xunsheng’s figure disappeared around the corner of the wall that he gave a fierce kick to the broken tiles by the wall, startling the wealthy young masters nearby into holding their breaths.
After a long while, a cold and slightly hoarse voice sounded, “Since Teacher Chu is protecting him, be a bit more careful in the future.” He paused, then added, “Skip it for these few days.”
Everyone nodded, and one wealthy youth said with a weeping face, “Teacher Chu won’t hate me, will he? I love casting and forging class the most…”
Jiang Zhou sneered, “There are plenty of people hovering around Teacher Chu; Teacher Chu won’t even remember you.”
That trash star native Yuan Du might actually have won Teacher Chu’s favor. Who didn’t know that the school flower garden was where Teacher Chu frequented, sometimes staying there for hours at a time. Truly… makes one harbor secret hatred.