The school nurse said, “You need to take care of yourself lately, remember to take your medicine on time. If anything comes up, be sure to take leave.”
Shang Wandong took the medicine bottle and nodded. “I know. Thank you.”
Just as she finished speaking, the door to the infirmary was pushed open in a hurry.
The two turned their heads to see a crowd of people bursting through the door. At the front was a girl carrying someone on her shoulders, followed by a tall boy with his head lowered.
The girl called out anxiously, “Teacher, please help—a classmate from our class has fainted!”
Shang Wandong saw at a glance that the unconscious person slumped on the girl’s shoulders was Yan Xia, and her expression changed.
She stood up and hurried over to the girl. “What happened?”
The girl was the class monitor of Class F. Seeing Shang Wandong, she looked a little surprised, but answered quickly, “There was some conflict just now, and then Zhu Yuxing released some pheromones, and Yan Xia fainted.”
Zhu Yuxing, trailing behind, kept a stern face and said stiffly, “I think she’s faking it.”
The class monitor snapped, “This is all your fault! Just shut up!”
The school nurse hurried over and settled Yan Xia onto a nearby hospital bed. After the class monitor explained what had happened, she frowned in displeasure. “School rules prohibit using pheromones to provoke classmates. Have you forgotten?”
On the bed, Yan Xia’s face was pale, her eyes tightly shut—she looked frail and pitiful. Shang Wandong gently removed the glasses from Yan Xia’s face and set them on the table, her breathing heavy.
Zhu Yuxing looked away and sneered, “Then it’s her own fault for provoking me first. I was so angry I forgot for a moment.”
The class monitor said, “If you hadn’t scribbled all over Yan Xia’s English textbook, she wouldn’t have gone after you.”
“I’ve scribbled on her stuff before and she never did anything about it! Who knew she’d suddenly go crazy today,” Zhu Yuxing said, showing no remorse whatsoever, with “serves her right” practically written across her face. “Tch.”
The school nurse was taking Yan Xia’s temperature, and her face turned cold at once. “Young lady, how can you bully others? That is completely unacceptable behavior!”
Zhu Yuxing gave a careless snort and said nothing.
Yan Xia had often been bullied before, but she never dared to report it, because once she did, life in class would only get harder.
She had once told Zhao Daiman that she was being bullied, but Zhao Daiman said, “Kids roughhousing—how is that bullying? Besides, you’re perfectly fine, so why would anyone bully you? It takes two to tango. You should look for the reason in yourself.”
Over time, Yan Xia stopped talking about it. No one believed her anyway.
Though the Yan family was rich and powerful, no one seemed to have any affection for this second daughter. Zhao Daiman was a wealthy lady who never lifted a finger around the house; in her free time she liked to go shopping with her lady friends and rarely managed the household. Her father, Yan Chengjin, was stern and taciturn, busy with his career all day and rarely home.
Even when the two of them were home, their favor went to the accomplished Yan Yonggui and Yan Siqiu. The unremarkable Yan Xia received little care or attention. She was never shorted on food or lodging, and her monthly allowance far exceeded that of ordinary families, yet she felt like a passerby lodging in a mansion she didn’t belong in.
Because of this, rumors spread that the reason Yan Xia was so unloved might be that she was an illegitimate daughter, born of some secret affair—which was why her father didn’t cherish her and her mother didn’t love her.
After this incident, many people began bullying Yan Xia openly, even extorting quite a bit of pocket money from her—and Zhu Yuxing often did exactly that.
Shang Wandong paid no attention to her surroundings, gazing at Yan Xia intently as she asked, “Teacher Ye, how is she?”
School Doctor Ye nodded. “Her temperature is normal, and there are no injuries on her. She was probably just affected by the pheromones. I’ll go mix up some medicine for her—you keep an eye on her for a bit.” With that, she got up and went into the inner room.
Shang Wandong’s breathing steadied, and she nodded.
The class monitor let out a sigh of relief. “Whew, that’s good.”
Zhu Yuxing sneered. “Ha, what are you playing the good guy for? Why didn’t you help her earlier?”
The class monitor’s face flushed red. Zhu Yuxing’s family was richer than hers, someone she couldn’t afford to offend, so every time she saw Yan Xia being bullied, she could only turn a blind eye. She had only stepped in just now because things were about to get out of hand—otherwise, if the teachers asked questions, she wouldn’t be able to wash her hands of it either.
The class monitor lowered her head. “S-still, no matter what, you should apologize to Yan Xia.”
Several classmates behind her chimed in as well, talking over one another. “Yeah, no matter how you look at it, you’re in the wrong!”
“Exactly, you scared someone into fainting. That was going too far.”
Zhu Yuxing’s eyes went wide. His features were harsh, making him look absolutely ferocious. “Bullshit! Her acting just now was so over the top—she was obviously faking it! Why should I apologize? I didn’t even do anything!”
On the sickbed, Yan Xia seemed affected by the argument, her lashes trembling uneasily.
Shang Wandong suddenly said coldly, “All of you, shut up.”
The classmates looked at her and instantly fell silent.
Zhu Yuxing glanced at her. He knew Shang Wandong—the top student of Class A, ranked first in the whole grade on the last exam. The Shang family conglomerate was also famous in high society, a power he couldn’t afford to offend right now.
So he said nothing more, though his expression remained disdainful.
Just as the atmosphere grew tense, the pale-faced girl on the bed fluttered her lashes and slowly came to.
“You’re awake,” Shang Wandong said softly.
Yan Xia looked at her with a dazed gaze, appearing quite surprised, and asked weakly, “Ah… why are you here?”
Shang Wandong handed her a cup of warm water. “I came to get some medicine and happened to run into them carrying you in.”
Seeing this, the class monitor relaxed too. “Yan Xia, you’re finally awake! Are you okay?”
Yan Xia lay against the snow-white pillow, which only made her face look paler. She sat up, moved her lips slightly, and slowly sipped the warm water.
“Awake means she’s fine.” Seeing her wake up, Zhu Yuxing shrugged, unconcerned. “Can we all leave now?”
He had long since grown impatient with hanging around, and was just urging everyone to hurry up and go when a thin hand grabbed the hem of his shirt.
Looking down, he saw Yan Xia squinting up at him, her breath faint. “You still haven’t apologized.”
She wasn’t affected by pheromones at all—she hadn’t actually fainted earlier; she’d just wanted to hear what they would say.
But what surprised her most was that Shang Wandong was here too.
What a coincidence—perfect timing to harvest some favorability points.
Zhu Yuxing’s face darkened again. “Apologize my ass!”
Yan Xia coughed intermittently, her cheeks tinged with a sickly flush, her eyes brimming with tears—she looked utterly pitiable, yet her gaze remained fixed stubbornly on him.
“Apologize. And give me back my English textbook.”
The class monitor couldn’t bear it any longer either: “Can you speak a little softer? She’s been driven to fainting because of you.”
“What the hell does that have to do with me! She got what she deserved!”
Someone like Zhu Yuxing, who had bullied the female lead for so long that it had become second nature, probably genuinely didn’t believe he was in the wrong. In his agitation, a few threads of Alpha pheromones inevitably leaked out.
Yan Xia pressed her lips together and frowned. “I’m feeling a little dizzy…”
The moment her words fell, she felt the air pressure around them drop sharply.
Shang Wandong stood up expressionlessly. Though she usually wore a cold face, today it was even more so—that invisible pressure made it hard to breathe.
“Zhu Yuxing?” Shang Wandong walked up to the tall, imposing Alpha, looking him over, her tone frigid.
The air was deathly still.
Zhu Yuxing felt as though he were being scanned from head to toe by some precision instrument. The bitter sea wind forced its way into his nose and mouth without warning, and it felt as if his lungs had inhaled a mouthful of boiling flame.
The rejection response from close-range contact between Alphas made him extremely uncomfortable.
Zhu Yuxing steeled himself and forced the words out through gritted teeth, one by one: “What do you want?”
Shang Wandong never attacked anyone first, but once she made a move, she was more ruthless than anyone.
Shang Wandong said to him: “Starting now, you’re expelled.”