章 8: Chapter 8 - Strawberry Flavored Scholar Gong (8): Perfect in all aspects yet ruined by ugly words.
Gou Liang managed to achieve a favorability value of 0 but didn't feel happy about it. Monday went by and now it was Wednesday. Ye Hui who represented the school to participate in a tournament had now returned back to school.
Occasional laughter could be heard from the innermost corner of the class that was surrounded by people. The school flower, Li LinLing, and class flower □□ were also in the lively crowd. Ye Hui who had won honor for the school didn't receive the attention that he thought he would receive upon arriving in class. A trace of gloom flashed through his eyes. Ye Hui decided to ask his deskmate Zhan Yongzhe, "Who is that person beside Shi Yu? Is he a new student?"
Zhan Yongzhe looked at him with a strange expression and didn't answer.
Another person who heard Ye Hui's question enthusiastically answered him: "What new student ah, that's Qi Cheng. Hehe, how is it, he's completely unrecognizable right? Who knew that he was actually this good looking, even the food he makes is especially delicious!" Classmate Jia who had once contributed spirit coins for Gou Liang revealed a reminiscing expression. Right after he said this, many people from the side expressed their agreement in unison.
Ye Hui lowered his head to hide his surprised and twisted expression.
After class ended, Ye Hui walked towards Gou Liang with a smile on his face. "Classmate Qi Cheng, is it convenient for you to come outside for a moment?"
Gou Liang stood up, but didn't reveal the panicked-yet-not-daring-to-resist expression from before as Ye Hui had wanted. Instead, he looked at Ye Hui with a smile that wasn't quite a smile before walking away first.
Ye Hui had taken special care to pick out the location of their meeting, it was the exact bathroom where the original host had been humiliated.
After Ye Hui closed the door behind him, he no longer hid his true nature. He sneered coldly and said: "Qi Cheng, you think you're so great now, huh. You think just because you moved out of the house I don't have ways to deal with you anymore? Well? How does it feel to be a big celebrity, is it nice? You disgusting gay!"
Gou Liang picked his ears, "Can you come up with a more creative way to curse at me, other than 'you disgusting gay'? Don't you know how to say anything else? If it were me, I would have a great list of vocabulary to describe you with, ne. A fox that exploits the tiger's might, a jumping clown, a black-hearted coward, a useless good-for-nothing, sick in the head, looks so ugly but still comes out to lose face and parades himself like a peacock… All of them fit you perfectly. Which one do you like the most? Oh, I forgot, there's still one more: you're also a king of cheating."
Cheating on exams.
It was precisely because the original host had once accidentally saw Ye Hui cheating on a test that when they entered middle school, after Ye Hui had left the original host alone for nearly a year, his old illness relapsed and became even worse than before as he tormented and ostracized the original host for his own amusement. Perhaps Ye Hui only meant to warn the original host, in the beginning, or maybe he did it to ease his own guilty conscience, but as things developed to how it was today, those feelings had already morphed into Ye Hui's steady hatred and prejudice against the original host.
Hearing the taboo word 'cheating', Ye Hui became infuriated. He raised his hand and slammed it towards Gou Liang.
But before his hand could come in contact with Gou Liang, it was already caught firmly by the latter. There were two cracking sounds…
"Ah!!!!"
In pain, Ye Hui kneeled on the spot. He held his wrist that had been dislocated and then connected again by Gou Liang in a split second. The intense pain made his entire face turn pale.
Gou Liang leaned over and looked Ye Hui in the eye. He was about to say something when he suddenly received a prompt from the system.
[Ding, Master, the target is currently approaching near you.]
Gou Liang stopped what he was doing. He revealed two dimples as he smiled and said in a leisurely manner: "Ye Hui, I tolerated you in the past based on the account that your father had raised me for so many years, but don't ever think that you counted as something in my eye. Actually, I have to thank you for giving me the opportunity to make up my mind and leave the Ye House. Do you still remember that time when I beat you until you had to scream for my mom to come save you when we were young? Do you still remember that time when I scored two perfect marks on my report card and you threw it into the water, then instigated my mom and had her tell me that I wasn't allowed to get grades higher than yours? Do you think that I've really become a coward after all these years? You think that you're more outstanding than me but it's nothing more than me giving way to you."
"But now, I won't continue to be so stupid anymore."
"You can tell my mom that I'm bullying you. I no longer care about what she thinks nor am I afraid of her."
"You can tell your dad and say that you want to teach me a lesson and put me in my place. You can say that I didn't stand in one spot and let you hit me so I've let down your Ye family's 12 years of care."
"However, I'll remind you out of the kindness of my heart, even if you cry for dad and yell for mom, your dad won't believe a single one of your words. In his eyes you've already been labelled trash, someone who's unsuitable to bear his expectations. You could say that you're his biggest failure, a stain in his life… Heh, from now on, as long as I'm in this world for a day, I'll make Uncle Ye understand even more profoundly just what kind of useless son he has raised. You seem to be under the impression that he places great importance on you but let's not forget: other than you, he still has another biological son. You can go and try. See if he'll make things difficult for me on behalf of a useless son like you."
Ye Hui was in so much pain that he was unable to retort even one word. He could only glare viciously at Gou Liang.
Gou Liang patted Ye Hui's face with strength that was neither too light nor too heavy, there was laughter in his eyes: "Enjoy what you're feeling right now, you'll come to like it."
After saying this, he lifted his foot and left.
[Ding, the target's favorability value has been updated. Current favorability value: +5. ]
Following the system's prompt, Gou Liang pushed open the bathroom door and lifted his head to see Shi Yu who was standing outside not far away from the door. Gou Liang was in a fantastic mood as he revealed a smile. He walked forward and threw his arm around Shi Yu's shoulder as he said: "My deskmate has also come to use the bathroom? Do you want to go together?"
Shu Yu: "…"
Every time he came in contact with this person, he would be overwhelmed with a speechless feeling. This wasn't his misconception.
Shi Yu brushed aside Gou Liang's hand. He smiled faintly and said: "Class is about to start, so the literature teacher told me to find you. Let's go, it's not good to keep the teacher waiting." After saying this, he left first and headed towards the direction of the classroom. As for the other person that he was supposed to look for, Ye Hui, sorry but it was not like he saw him anywhere.
Gou Liang stretched his shoulders and glanced at Shi Yu's back that was taller and more toned than a sports student's. As he looked, his eyes curved into crescents.
[Gou Liang: Little Wanton, go ask the higher ups if there's a way to calculate the reasons behind the changes in favorability value. ]
[System: Okay, Master.]
*
This week was the monthly exam. From Thursday to Saturday, the entire school would be undertaking the exam. This afternoon, after the last class had ended, a class meeting was held.
The Homeroom Teacher had a face full of smiles as she held a medal of merit in her hands. She didn't bring up the topic of the monthly exam right away. Instead, she said: "Classmate Ye Hui had received third place in the province-level biology contest. On behalf of the school, I now present to him this medal and his award. Everyone, give a round of applause for Classmate Ye Hui!"
As the applause sounded, Ye Hui smiled and stood up. "Thank you teacher and thank you my fellow classmates—BAM!!"
Gou Liang inconspicuously twisted the watch on his wrist and all of a sudden without a warning, Ye Hui's left foot tripped over his right foot and he fell face first onto the floor.
"Ye Hui!!"
Before the Homeroom teacher and the other students near him could help him up, there was a whimpering sound which was followed by an odor of bodily gas being released. The peculiar smell dispersed through the air and everyone who had been approaching him immediately shrank back. Ye Hui's stomach was churning and making a gululu sound, the pain made him unable to spare the thoughts to care about his appearance. He clamped his legs together and clasped his hands over his stomach.
The Homeroom Teacher: "…"
The students in class: "…"
Even Shi Yu who had remained silent the entire time raised his head to take a look at Ye Hui, his brows furrowed.
Gou Liang: "Pfff… our honorable classmate Ye Hui, why don't you go and take care of your bodily needs first? Even if you're going to go in your pants, you shouldn't do it in front of everyone, ma, it's uncivilized."
Ye Hui didn't even recognize who said this. With a face flushed red, he got up from the floor. His legs were still clamped together and his back was hunched as he clutched his stomach. His appearance was wretched as he rushed out of the classroom in small but hurried steps.
"Hahahaha!"
Gou Liang burst out in laughter while slapping his table.
The students who likewise wanted to laugh didn't dare to after seeing the Homeroom Teacher's dark expression, and Shi Yu who didn't find it funny in the first place, all of them silently looked towards Gou Liang. The Homeroom teacher was angered to the point that her face turned green: "Qi Cheng! Get out if you laugh one more time!!"
"Hahahahahahaha!"
With unrestrained laughter, Gou Liang walked out of the classroom.
Everyone looked at the black-faced Homeroom teacher who glared at Gou Liang in disbelief as he left the room: …pfft.
*
Yu Le High placed great importance on the monthly exams.
In order to cultivate the students' strong mentality and good habits for the real entrance exam, the structure of the monthly exams was exactly the same as the actual college entrance exam. The exam was divided into three major subjects: literature, math, and English. The year one and year two students who had yet to choose their major had to take an extra test on Saturday afternoon because of this.
The time interval between each test subject was comparatively long. Most students would not leave the school in the afternoon. They would stay in their respective classes to either rest or perhaps study instead.
After the literature exam was over, Shi Yu looked towards Gou Liang, who would normally talk nonstop for every second of the break. However, Gou Liang was now holding a book in his hand like Shi Yu was and was reading it with a serious attitude. Shi Yu mumbled to himself, pretending to 'accidentally' say his thoughts out loud: "He didn't bring any snacks today?"
Gou Liang who heard his self-narration: "…"
[Gou Liang: He dares to covet after my food! [Stab][Stab][Stab][Stab]]
Gou Liang gave him an extremely half-hearted smile. Reluctantly, he took out a box of homemade chocolate and passed it over to Shi Yu while stressing: "There isn't anymore."
Shi Yu took notice of his faintly pursed lips and clenched teeth. His eyes curved into a smile: Really so unwilling, ne… Shi Yu suddenly laughed and good-naturedly said: "Thank you."
Gou Liang: Other than you're welcome, what else can I say? (￣ε(#￣) (￣#)з￣)
Shi Yu ate a piece of almond chocolate; the silky texture, the rich fragrance, and the flavors of the almonds and chocolate colliding on his tongue created a wonderful chemical reaction… En, this tasted better than any other chocolate that he had eaten before. This deskmate of his didn't have many strong points, but his culinary talent was indeed something hard to come by.
[The System who detected a fluctuation in the favorability value excitedly shouted: Increase! Increase, ah! Increase ah ah ah ah–]
After eating a piece of chocolate, Shi Yu put the rest away before picking up his book again and reading it attentively.
Gou Liang and the System who stared at the stubbornly unmoving +5 favorability value: …
[Gou Liang: Spit out what you just ate!!! ┴┴︵╰（‵□′）╯︵┴┴]
[System: Oh no! Master! You must remain calm, ah! ∑(っ°Д °;)っ]
After this little episode, the exam that had lasted for two and a half days was concluded without a hitch. Following after, the day that Yu Le students referred to as Black Monday arrived.
YuLe City High School was a well-known private aristocrat institution in City A. However, when compared with the number one high school that only accepted students with high marks, Yu Le was inferior in the aspect that its enrollment was primarily based on tuition fees, resulting in the school having a mix of characters where the good and bad students mingled together. Due to this, Yu Le adopted the teaching system of thirty small classes. In order to maintain its superiority against other competing institutions, not only did they use high salaries to invite qualified teachers but at the same time they were also extremely strict when it came to the students' academic performances.
Although they didn't display the student's academic ranking publicly anymore because of words from the Department of Education, when there was a policy above, there was always a way to counter it below.
YuLe City High School made it so that on the Monday after the monthly exam, the thirty minutes in the morning that was designated for self-study was instead used to hold a class meeting. The homeroom teachers would use this period to verbally announce each student's scores, class ranking, as well as their overall placement within their year.
The Homeroom Teacher of Year Two Class Three walked into the room in large strides. She looked towards the seat that was in the innermost corner of the room with complicated emotions. She took out the report and said in a cold voice:
"It's the same old rules, I will now announce the test results of this month's exam. In thirtieth place…Ye Hui, total score 250 points, overall ranking within the same year…436th place."
The students who heard this result were stunned. Flabbergasted, they looked towards Ye Hui's seat only to discover that the person himself wasn't there. The homeroom teacher motioned for them to quiet down before continuing on with a flat voice to announce the rest of the result.
"…5th place, Li LinLing, total score 901 points, placing 11th in overall rank of the year; 3rd place, Zhan Yongzhe, total score 1008 points placing third in in the year; 2nd place—" She suddenly stopped talking before repeating: "In 2nd place, Qi Cheng, total score 1049 points, overall ranked 2nd in the year; 1st place, Shi Yu, total score 1050 points placing first in the entire year!"
"These are the results of this month's exam."
"I would like to commend the newest member of our class, Student Shi Yu. He once took a year long break from school yet he was still able to achieve first place with a perfect score showing that he is extremely outstanding! Also Student Qi Cheng…Teacher is very surprised by your result but at the same time I am also very happy for you. I hope that you can continue to persevere."
She never would have thought that Gou Liang was able to achieve such outstanding grades.
For this reason she had even invited the teacher of each subject to investigate overnight to see if there was any cheating involved with his exam—after all, only Gou Liang and Shi Yu had such outstanding results in the entire grade. As long as he didn't copy off of Shi Yu, it was impossible for him to cheat in the examination room that was closely monitored by cameras. On the other hand, it was actually Ye Hui, a student that she had always looked well upon, who had performed abnormally bad and as a result, his test scores dragged down the entire average of Class Three. Despite having all the top three scorers of the year in Class Three, their class average was only among the mid-ranks.
"The representatives for each subject, come up and distribute the test papers."
All the students in the class had stupefied expressions. Even Zhan Yongzhe who was the representative of math took a few extra looks at Gou Liang as he stood up to hand out the test paper.
Li LinLing: "My god, Qi Cheng, you're so awesome!! Wowie, am I witnessing a real life counterattack? How did you manage to do it? Or is it that when you took the exams before you didn't take it seriously and now that you've decided to do well, you've become an inhuman tyrant scholar?"
In the face of her admiring gaze, Gou Liang didn't feel especially happy. With a taut expression, he glanced towards the surprised Shi Yu who was similarly also looking at him.
[Gou Liang: How is it possible! There's no way! Such an easy exam, how could I have done worse than a person from a C-ranked world? This can't be real! ]
[System: Master, don't be angry. The first time is always full of bumps but the next time will definitely be different. ⊙ω⊙]
[Gou Liang: This isn't possible, I refuse to believe this!!]
[System: …fleeing.avi ]
The test papers were handed out one by one.
The Homeroom Teacher began to explain the Autumn Sports Festival that the school would be holding this Friday.
"The majority of the students in our Class Three have received great results on this month's exam. I hope that everyone can continue to maintain this state of mind and perform well in the sports festival to show the other classes our Class Three's excellent bearings, that we are able to excel in both academics and sports. The sign up sheets can be obtained from the sports committee and Wednesday is the deadline for registration. I encourage our students to cooperate with this event and display support by participating…"
Although her words were very enthusiastic and urging, not many students actually paid attention to her.
All their attention was on Gou Liang and Shi Yu. However, at this moment where they should be thrilled and excited to receive their beautiful test papers… Shi Yu was like an unmoving thousand-year-old rock with a book of brick-like thickness in his hands while Gou Liang was busy moving his mouth, his cheeks were bulging as he sent one strawberry after another into his mouth.
Everyone: "…"
The world of a scholar is really so profound _(:зゝ∠)_.
On the surface, Gou Liang acted as if he didn't care, however, every time he received back a test paper, he would shoot a look at Shi Yu's paper only to see that they had the same full mark on their papers—Gou Liang vowed to find out just where he fell short of Shi Yu.
Li LinLing and Chen LiBai both waited while holding their breaths, until at last all that remained to be given out was the literature exams. Li LinLing gave Chen LiBai a kick, hinting at him to take over the work of the exasperatingly slow literature represenative.
When the literature exams had been handed out, only Gou Liang and Shi Yu's test papers were missing.
Everyone: Are you messing with me? A waste of my expectant heart!
Fortunately, the first two classes in the afternoon were literature. The literature teacher also didn't keep them waiting for long.
"Good afternoon class. I assume all of you have already gotten back your test paper. Today we'll use a class period to discuss this time's exam."
Li LinLing raised her hand: "Teacher, Qi Cheng and Shi Yu still haven't received their test paper, ne."
The literature teacher who was connecting to the school's multimedia equipment halted his action and smiled: "Patience, do you think that teacher would eat their exams?"
The class laughed at that. The literature teacher opened up a powerpoint and said: "Since all of you are so impatient, I also won't say anything extra. Today I want to praise two students in our class. I believe that everyone knows who they are?"
"That's right, they are Student Shi Yu and Student Qi Cheng! One of them got a full score of 150 points and the other one was originally also supposed to get a full mark. Why is it 'originally' ne, I'm sure that all of you know that there's still another story waiting for you. The students who want to know why will have to pay attention during class. Today we'll start the essay composition section."
"Let us first take a look at Student Shi Yu's essay."
Being projected onto the white board was the image of Shi Yu's essay composition. The literature teacher continued to talk: "The logical structure in his essay flows very smoothly and is full of substance. It is both coherent and comfortable to read. His writing style is very developed and he is capable of writing profound ideas. This piece of essay will be made the model work for this time's exam. As for Student Qi Cheng ma, before I invite everyone to appreciate Student Qi Cheng's masterful work, Teacher will first analyze the strong points of his essay for you. The use of language is precise and the perspectives written are unusual and refreshing, provoking one to think deeply in the process of reading it. This is a work that can easily persuade and invoke people's empathy. It even beautifully quotes lines from the classics. In terms of using rhetoric and beautiful language, Student Qi Cheng far surpasses Student Shi Yu. However… well, it's hard to explain it in a few words, so let's take a look first, ba."
The literature teacher's words immediately alerted the attention of all the students.
Two pieces of essay were displayed simultaneously in front of everyone.
Gou Liang: "…?!"
Shi Yu: "…cough, cough." He mustn't laugh!
All the students in the class: "…Haha, if there's no comparison then there won't be any damage. Teacher, you're too mean!"
One of the essays looked like it could be presented in a calligraphy competition while the other beside it… looked like it was written by a grade schooler. It was especially eye-catching. The brush and strokes of the characters didn't hinder comprehension but…why did it remind them of what their writing looked like in first grade?
Gou Liang: I feel saddened. (′･ん･｀)
The literature teacher sincerely and earnestly said: "This sorrowful story tells us that although Teacher admires your literary talent a lot, however… perfect in all aspects yet ruined by ugly words ."
"Hahahaha!"
In the midst of friendly laughters, Gou Liang received a system notification ↓↓
[Ding, the target's current favorability value: +15.]
[Gou Liang: Making a joke out of me, are you very pleased with yourself, are you very pleased with yourself, are you very pleased with yourself!
(▼皿▼#) ]
[System: Master, with favorability value in hand the world is yours to conquer. Don't mind the other details ma, hehe. ]
Gou Liang: This must be a pot from the original host T 3 T. As someone who had lived for nearly a thousand years yet had never written before, he refused to carry this pot!
Shi Yu: I couldn't help it. Accidentally laughed out loud.
Everyone: 23333, lighting a candle for Classmate Qi Cheng.
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