There was an internal chat group for Year 2's Class 3.

Almost every class had one, serving the purpose of guarding against teachers and achieving freedom of speech. All the subject teachers were in the big group, and some things were not convenient to say. If they encountered a teacher who was friendly with the students, it was okay, but for someone like Xu Xia, a menopausal woman who was usually stern and unsmiling, it was clear that there was a serious generation gap between them.

But this internal group in Class 3 was a bit special.

Not only did they guard against teachers, but they also had to guard against two special figures who dominated the campus.

[Anonymous a]: ...I heard that He Chao beat up Yang Wenyuan?

[Anonymous b]: I have a friend in the same class as Yang Wenyuan, and he said that he was beaten up very badly and is still lying in the hospital.

[Anonymous c]: Is it the Yang Wenyuan from Class 8? 

The internal group chat was buzzing with activity. Liu Cunhao stared at the name "Yang Wenyuan," and memories of the terrifying scene that had once made his liver tremble gradually overlapped with this name.

"Don't hit me...I was wrong..."

He heard He Chao grabbing the person's hair and whispering, "Didn't I warn you? Didn't I fucking warn you?"

Yang Wenyuan knelt on the ground, looking extremely thin with a face full of acne scars. The bathroom floor tiles were not clean, with a few puddles of water. He cried, "Please let me go."

When Liu Cunhao asked He Chao to go to the teacher's office, Shen Jie happened to come over to play. He brought his own chair and sat next to He Chao, without any sense of being from another class. "Um, the one by the window, could you please pull the curtains?" 

He Chao said, "Who are you ordering around? Go do it yourself."

Shen Jie got up and closed the curtains, then sat back down. He had a free period before his PE class and was bored. He noticed that He Chao had been holding onto his phone the whole time and couldn't put it down. Curious, he asked, "Brother Chao, what are you playing?"

He Chao ignored him and leaned over to Xie Yu, showing him his phone screen. "Expert, can you help me out?"

Xie Yu replied with two words, "Get lost."

"..." 

Shen Jie was extremely curious. "Let me see, I'll help you out."

"Get lost," He Chao said. "Go back to your own class."

Shen Jie persisted and finally managed to sneak a peek. It was a pink interface with a cartoon girl with long hair wearing white underwear standing next to a wardrobe, blinking her eyes. 

Shen Jie was shocked and stuttered, "Is this...is this the one...the one..."

"The dress-up game that countless elementary and middle school girls are obsessed with," calmly replied Xie Yu.

He Chao played the game for an entire class period, and Xie Yu was harassed by him for the entire class period as well.

Every time He Chao confidently put together an outfit, the score he received was always disappointing. After trying a level many times, he finally threw it in front of Xie Yu and asked, "Can you help me, desk mate?"

Putting together an outfit is like playing cards, it may require a bit of luck. Xie Yu was really annoyed by him and randomly selected a few items, saying, "Are you mentally challenged...to play this kind of game? Your ID is 'little soft and obedient'? You're really into it."

After Xie Yu randomly selected the items, the score unexpectedly turned out to be high.

"You're a master," He Chao sincerely praised, "This outfit looks so ugly, but you still managed to get such a high score." 

Shen Jie felt a moment of confusion, wondering if there was something wrong with his taste. "Huh? Is this game...fun? What's special about it?"

He Chao was carefully considering how to match the next outfit and didn't have time to bother with him.

Xie Yu finished his homework in just a few strokes and closed his book, saying, "What's special about it'? It's especially stupid."

Liu Cunhao entered the classroom through the back door and stood in front of He Chao. "Go to the teacher's office, Teacher Xu is looking for you."

He Chao casually responded and didn't take it seriously. After a while, he looked up and realized that Liu Cunhao was still standing in front of him. "...Do you have something else to say?" 

Liu Cunhao seemed to have been holding back a sentence for a long time, and finally he mustered up the courage to say, "Don't think you can do whatever you want. Yang Wenyuan was beaten up like this by you..."

Shen Jie interrupted, "Wait. Yang Wenyuan? What happened?"

During the ten-minute break, the class was noisy and no one noticed what they were talking about in this corner.

But He Chao understood, he stopped laughing, put away his phone, and thought to himself, "Ah, it's like this."

Shen Jie asked, "Like what?"

Xie Yuzhi remained indifferent and had no reaction.

In fact, Liu Cunhao was very scared, but his mind was working furiously. He had once felt very guilty for not stopping it when he saw his classmate being bullied. His first reaction was to turn around and run away. Now, with new and old incidents combined, he was a bit agitated. 

Furthermore, He Chao's face had turned cold, and Liu Cunhao was afraid he had really angered him.

But He Chao just tossed his phone to Xie Yu and said, "Do me a favor and help me beat two levels. I have to surpass that Sweet Milk Pudding on my friends list today."

Xie Yu took the phone, but before he could refuse, He Chao had already left.

The bell for class rang just in time.

Shen Jie dragged his chair out and muttered in confusion before leaving, "What fight? When did Brother Chao fight Yang Wenyuan? He didn't fight, did he? Did I lose my memory?"

He Chao didn't come back to class for the rest of the day.

The next day, he came back as if nothing had happened.

One teacher couldn't resist and asked Xu Xia, "Teacher Xu, what happened with He Chao in your class? Has it been resolved?" 

Xu Xia was angered into a loss: "He won't admit it, what can we do with him?"

When He Chao was called over, he remained calm throughout the entire process. He even asked Yang Wenyuan for the hospital's injury report, demanding that he explain how each injury was sustained.

Yang Wenyuan was so scared that he couldn't even speak.

Xu Xia felt that there was no need to investigate this matter at all. Anyone with a brain could see what was going on. She asked He Chao to apologize, write a self-criticism, and receive some punishment, and that would be the end of it.

But He Chao stubbornly refused. Although he smiled on the surface, his tone was cold: "Apologize for what? Yang Sanhao, you're quite skilled at setting up traps. You just had to open your mouth and say that I hit you."

Xu Xia couldn't bear to continue thinking about it and waved her hand: "Let's not talk about him anymore. It's giving me chest pains." 

"Have you beaten Sweet Milk Pudding yet?" He Chao asked, punctual as always, walking in through the back door as the bell rang for class. He stood next to Xie Yu, pinching his finger and bending over to knock on Xie Yu's desk. "Hey."

Xie Yu had always used early self-study to catch up on sleep, and He Chao's knocking gave him a headache. "Beaten my ass, go play by yourself."

He Chao sat down and asked again, "Where's my phone?"

Xie Yu reached into his desk and tossed it over.

He Chao caught it with one hand and opened it, only to find that the battery was dead.

Yesterday, He Chao and Yang Wenyuan's incident had caused quite a stir in their grade, with rumors flying around.

It was well-known that these two school bullies liked to cause trouble, but it was usually with people outside of school. When it didn't happen around them, they could still talk about it as a legend over tea and dinner, exclaiming, "How awesome."

But now He Chao has caused such a scene, targeting a student who is recognized as good in his grade.

[Anonymous a]: He came to class today...wow, he's talking to Xie Yu.

[Anonymous a]: He's still cool, but Xie Yu is even cooler, fearless. It's scary, I don't even dare to move.

[Anonymous b]: Yang Wenyuan was discharged from the hospital today, and Shen Jie grabbed his collar in class and scolded him for being shameless...was there really some hidden reason?

[Anonymous c]: What hidden reason could there be? He was just anger to hide their guilt, Shen Jie is not a good student either.

Xie Yu slept through the entire period of early self-study.

He Chao managed to borrow a power bank from someone, so he sat on the side playing with his phone.

The first class after early self-study was Xu Xia's class. As soon as Xu Xia entered the classroom, she pointed at He Chao and said, "Get out and stand outside the classroom for my class." 

As Xu Xia's attitude became more and more apparent, the students in the class became increasingly certain of their speculations about the "fighting incident."

It was almost certain that this person was the one who had fought.

He Chao didn't care either way. Without a second thought, he grabbed his phone and power bank and headed out.

Xie Yu glanced at his back. He was wearing the school uniform that everyone else wore, but He Chao managed to give off an air of being a good student. He stood tall, his clothes were clean, and he didn't act mischievously like some of the other students who would wear their zippers low. However, the long charging cable he was holding exposed his true nature.

He Chao didn't know if someone was watching him, but when he reached the door, he turned his head.

Before Xie Yu could turn his head back, Xu Xia, who was standing on the platform, said, "Xie Yu, are you so reluctant to leave your desk mate?"

Xie Yu, who was innocent, was caught off guard. "..." What the hell? 

"Since you're so reluctant to leave him, you should go out and stand with him," Xu Xia said again. "Go out."

At the entrance of Class 3, two people stood during the first class of the morning.

"What a good bro," He Chao muttered while hiding in a corner, playing the dress-up game on his phone. "You couldn't bear to part with me?"

Xie Yu stood next to him, not knowing what to say, and responded with a meaningful monosyllable, "Heh."

He Chao: "..."

Xie Yu really didn't want to see Xu Xia's expression of resentment, which was written all over her face. 

From the day they returned to school, he could tell that their homeroom teacher had a bias against them. Regardless of what happened between He Chao and whoever was right or wrong, she had already formed an opinion and even looked down on Xie Yu, who she saw as a ticking time bomb, just because they were both in the same category.

Moreover, watching Xu Xia constantly roll her eyes at them made him afraid that her eyes might roll out of their sockets.

"Expert, which do you think looks better, this plaid skirt or the pink one?" He Chao was impressively relentless in his dress-up game. "Or should I change the shirt?"

Xie Yu watched him play for a while and somewhat summarized a rule that was not really a rule: "Choose the ugly one."

He Chao asked, "Are you serious?"

Xie Yu said, "I think if you approach this game with a aesthetic sense reversed, you might achieve some unexpected results."

It was clearly a backhanded insult, but He Chao actually took it to heart. He thought for a moment and said, "Damn, I think your idea is really good."

"..."

"You're very creative ah."