Early the next morning.
Pu Yu tactfully conveyed Yuan Su’s attitude to the physics teacher in the office.
After listening, Teacher Wang remained silent for a long time.
“You can go back now, Pu Yu,” Cheng Siyi glanced at her and said softly.
“Yes, Teacher.”
Pu Yu lightened her footsteps and turned to leave.
As soon as she closed the door, she heard heated arguing inside.
“He’s wasting his talent!” Teacher Wang’s voice carried suppressed excitement. “That kind of problem-solving approach is simply not something an ordinary high school student could come up with!”
“Teacher Wang, please calm down…”
“How can I calm down? Teacher Cheng, look at this problem!”
“He used the Lagrange method from university-level physics. I dare say there aren’t many high school students in the entire county who could understand it!”
Pu Yu stopped outside the door, her heart suddenly beating a few beats faster.
“But if he doesn’t want to participate in the competition, what can we do?” Cheng Siyi sighed. “Are we supposed to tie him up and drag him there?”
The office fell silent for a long time.
Teacher Wang’s voice lowered. “Such a promising seedling, how could he…”
The rest of the words became inaudible.
Pu Yu returned to the classroom, her steps somewhat unsteady.
The registration for the physics competition closed on Thursday afternoon.
Teacher Wang deliberately waited in the office for an extra half hour.
In the end, he still didn’t see that figure.
He sighed, packed the already organized materials of the other students into a file folder, his eyes filled with unconcealable disappointment.
Late September.
Tingnan High School welcomed the first monthly exam of the senior year.
The entire senior grade was shrouded in a tense atmosphere.
According to school tradition, exam seating was assigned based on the rankings from the previous exam.
The top-performing students were placed in Classroom One, followed in descending order.
Since Pu Yu was a transfer student and had no previous exam records, she was directly assigned to the last exam room.
The so-called “cattle-herding class” exam room.
This was where the students with the worst grades and the least interest in studying in the entire grade gathered.
Coincidentally.
Yuan Su was also in this exam room.
He sat directly behind Pu Yu.
Due to frequently skipping exams and handing in blank papers, he was also a “regular guest” in this exam room.
As soon as the exam bell rang.
Right after the invigilator handed out the papers, a large number of students below slumped over their desks.
Snoring rose and fell, and some even secretly threw paper balls or whistled.
Pu Yu sat by the window, automatically tuning out the surrounding distractions.
Holding her pen, she examined the exam questions with focused concentration.
Chinese and English were her strong suits, and she wrote with ease and fluency.
However, in this classroom where even the air seemed lazy and chaotic, her serious attitude stood out starkly.
“Hey, new girl, pass a few multiple-choice answers to us, will you?”
The sloppy boy sitting diagonally behind her lowered his voice, his tone carrying undisguised teasing. “Anyway, even if you write so much, you won’t get into Tsinghua or Peking University. Why not teach us a few things? We’ll look out for you from now on.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a crumpled paper ball traced an arc through the air and accurately hit Pu Yu’s shoulder.
Pu Yu paused, frowned slightly, but didn’t turn around.
However, the other party seemed to take her forbearance as a sign that she was easy to bully.
“Tsk, ignoring us, pretty arrogant, huh.”
A few suppressed snickers came from the back row.
Immediately after, another large paper ball flew over.
Thud—
This time, it hit Pu Yu’s ear hard, stinging a little.
Pu Yu called for the proctor twice, but there was no response.
A low ripple of laughter spread through the classroom.
The proctor sat on the podium, turning a blind eye to the chaos below. As long as no fights or major disturbances broke out, they were free to do as they pleased.
Pu Yu’s fingers gripping the pen turned slightly white. Just as she was about to stand up and confront them, a harsh screech of chair legs scraping against the floor suddenly came from behind her.
Screech.
The boys who had been grinning and joking fell silent instantly.
Pu Yu seemed to sense something and turned her head.
Yuan Su was sitting upright, though she hadn’t noticed when he’d shifted. He was toying with the paper ball that had accidentally bounced back, his entire being radiating a chilling, unfathomable coldness.
“Whose is this?” Yuan Su asked, his voice slightly hoarse.
Hearing this, Zhao Qiang froze for a moment, an inexplicable sense of unease creeping into his heart.
Although Yuan Su’s family had fallen from grace and he was now the “jinx” everyone avoided, the reckless and ruthless streak in him was something even the school’s troublemakers feared.
Besides, a starved camel is still bigger than a horse.
Yuan Su had once been a prominent figure in the school, and that kind of aura didn’t just disappear overnight.
“M… mine,” Zhao Qiang forced himself to answer. “Blame your deskmate in front. She kept ignoring people, so the paper ball bounced over.”
Yuan Su didn’t speak, only lifting his eyelids coldly to glance at Zhao Qiang.
In the next second, he flicked his wrist.
Thud!
The paper ball slammed squarely into Zhao Qiang’s eye.
Zhao Qiang clutched his eye, letting out a pained “Ow!” as tears nearly welled up. His face flushed with embarrassment, and he snapped angrily, “Yuan Su! What the hell is wrong with you?”
Yuan Su remained seated, not even changing his posture. He merely tilted his head slightly, his expression cold and world-weary, a mocking curl at the corner of his lips.
“Having fun?”
Three simple words, yet laden with overwhelming pressure.
“We’re all just coasting through life here. Who are you trying to impress?” Zhao Qiang cursed under his breath but didn’t dare to actually charge over and fight him.
Ignoring the barking, Yuan Su reached out and picked up the blank test paper on Zhao Qiang’s desk.
Leaning on the desk, he stood up, his body slightly turned as he casually leaned against the edge, holding the paper up before his eyes.
He examined the blank test paper in his hand unhurriedly, then—
Tore it up and crumpled it into a ball.
“That’s pretty fun, then.”
Even in the same school uniform, Yuan Su still seemed like the favored son of heaven who once stood on the podium looking down upon everyone.
“If the test paper isn’t exciting enough, there are bricks outside.”
He released his fingers, and the paper ball flew clearly toward its owner.
“Want to try?”
Zhao Qiang’s face instantly paled.
He knew Yuan Su meant it.
Those with nothing to lose fear nothing, and Yuan Su was now a barefoot madman with nothing left.
“Alright… alright, Brother Su, I was wrong, okay?” Zhao Qiang gritted his teeth, swallowing his pride as he sat back down. “I won’t mess around anymore. I’ll just sleep.”
The examination hall fell silent instantly.
Even the whispers disappeared.
Yuan Su coldly tossed the torn test paper aside and prepared to return to his seat.
As he turned, his footsteps paused for half a second.
Pu Yu was looking up at him.
Her clear, almost transparent eyes were filled with surprise.
Yuan Su didn’t meet her gaze, his face cold as he sat back down, as if his earlier intervention was merely because the noise had disturbed his sleep.
Could he really sleep?
Unable to sleep.
For the remaining exams, Yuan Su no longer laid his head down.
The sky over Tingnan High School was gray and dull, with nothing much worth looking at.
Occasionally, he would glance at the exam paper, casually filling in a few answers.
The cheap gel pen spun between his fingers, leaving trails of afterimages.
He was rotting in this quagmire.
Yet he refused to let others splash mud on the only one struggling to break free.