The bell rang, signaling the end of class. Xu Xia walked out of the classroom with her textbook in hand, and as she did, He Chao bid her farewell with a cheerful "Goodbye, teacher."

Xu Xia felt a tightness in her chest and ignored him as she continued walking forward.

"Do you know why she's angry?" He Chao asked, still in a good mood. He casually draped his arm over Xie Yu's shoulder, and the two of them walked towards the classroom together. "She was planning to transfer to the Experimental High School, a prestigious school with great connections. But now, one of her outstanding students - that's me - is standing in her way..."

Xie Yu wasn't interested in gossip. "Take your hand off me," he said.

He Chao felt that his desk mate was really lacking in empathy. 

He had originally just placed his hand on Xie Yu's shoulder, but upon hearing those words, he immediately pulled him into an embrace. From another angle, it almost looked like they were hugging each other tightly. "I won't let go," he said.

Xie Yu wanted to kick him, but He Chao just buried his head in his neck and laughed. "Calm down, friend," he said.

"Calm down my ass," Xie Yu retorted.

[Anonymous a]: Classmates, there's something going on in the three o'clock direction.

[Anonymous b]: Oh my god, I see it two, what are those two doing?

[Anonymous c]: I'd rather believe that they're fighting...

Xie Yu, who was unaware of the secret chatgroup, realized that this new class was a bit strange. 

Whenever it was quiet, they were quiet together, and the whole class was silent. When the silence ended, they would lift their heads and exchange a knowing look. It was very eerie. 

He Chao borrowed a power bank from a boy in the neighboring group. When he went to return it, the boy seemed hesitant to take it, as if he wanted to offer it as a sacrifice.

He Chao placed it directly on the boy's desk and said, "Thanks."

The boy's voice was as soft as a mosquito as he replied, "N-no problem." He had his hand on his desk, hiding something, and seemed very nervous. He spoke so quietly that He Chao couldn't hear him clearly. He was about to ask what was wrong when the boy suddenly trembled.

He Chao: "..." Am I really that scary?

As He Chao walked away, the boy cautiously took out his phone.

Almost two weeks had passed since then.

Xie Yu watched in amazement as He Chao's skills in the dress-up game improved, earning high scores with his outfits.

It was simply unbelievable. 

Did he really give him the method to unblock his meridians with just a casual remark last time?

"How is that possible? I've tried your technique, but it couldn't save me." Before He Chao quit the game, he took a screenshot of his highest score ever and calmly told his desk mate, "I paid to win."

He Chao continued, "I, your desk mate, am the legendary RMB player."

Xie Yu: "..."

"I'm so strong now that even I'm scared," He Chao boasted.

Xie Yu couldn't help but mock him, "Little soft and obedient, you really surprise me."

"I paid openly. Is it shameful to pay to win?" He Chao finished, causing the two boys in front of them to shake with suppressed laughter. 

They could hear everything they said since their seats were close. 

After two weeks of listening, sometimes they couldn't stop laughing, but they were afraid of laughing too much and attracting the attention of the big shots, so they had to hold it in.

As time went on, they actually felt that the school bully was not like the rumors outside, and was quite...cute.

When the school bully slept in class, he would also ask his desk mate to help keep an eye on the teacher. Although School Bully Xie generally ignored School Bully He, every time He Chao was called out by the teacher to stand up or go to the door for punishment, He Chao always had a hundred reasons to pull Xie Yu up to join him.

After a few times of this, Xie Yu finally took He Chao's unreasonable requests seriously. When a teacher passed by, he would directly roll up his book and rudely greet He Chao's head, "Get up."

As He Chao spoke, he opened his QQ and posted a space update, showing off his achievements: [/picture][/cool]. 

After he finished typing, he suddenly had an idea and reached over to knock on Xie Yu's desk. "Let's add each other?"

Xie Yu politely declined, "I don't want the username 'Little Soft and Obedient' to appear on my friend list."

"..." 

He Chao choked, "...Who told you that 'Little Soft and Obedient' is my username?"

"That's my little sister," He Chao explained, "You have a deep misunderstanding of me. I always thought that with my tall and imposing image, I wouldn't need to explain such things."

He Chao has a little sister who just started middle school. 

This girl was obsessed with the dress-up game, but her family had set a limit of only one hour of phone time per day, and she couldn't even touch her phone on school days from Monday to Friday. She envied her best friend, Sweet Milk Pudding, for her high level and points in the game. In their class, whoever had the highest level in the dress-up game was the beloved little classmate.

Xie Yu felt a slight pain in his temple as he listened.

He Chao said, "I think this girl was lying to me."

He Chao's QQ name was his real name, it was surprisingly serious.

After Xie Yu accepted his friend request, he didn't bother changing his nickname and just threw him into a random category.

Instead it was He Chao, the lunatic, who was clearly sitting right next to him and sent him a message: "Are you a boy or a girl?"

"Are you stupid?" Xie Yu resisted the urge to block him. 

He Chao smiled and put away his phone: "When surfing the internet, we should be polite and greet each other like this."

"Quiet down-" During the break, Xu Xia entered the classroom. The hallway was too noisy, so she had to raise her voice when speaking. "I have something to attend to during the next class, so Teacher Wang will substitute for me. I won't be in school this afternoon either. If there's anything, find the class representative and he can report back to me tomorrow. Class representative, remember to maintain good order in the class, got it?"

[Anonymous a]: "Something came up again?"

[Anonymous b]: "Honestly, she always has someone substitute for her, but she doesn't even tell them our learning progress. It's so awkward every time we have class."

[Anonymous c]: "Has something happened in Teacher Xu's family recently?"

Xu Xia's family was doing well, and she had been preparing to switch jobs since the beginning of the school year. 

Their class was the worst-performing one, and the situation was special. The school entrusted this class to Xu Xia because they believed in her abilities...but Xu Xia stubbornly believed that the school was trying to trip her up.

As an "excellent teacher" who was about to teach at a prestigious school, Xu Xia naturally looked down on such a class and didn't put much effort into it. The students in the class were not blind, and their opinions of Xu Xia grew worse day by day.

Suddenly, He Chao's phone vibrated twice in his desk. He looked down at his phone.

Two messages.

-Brother Chao, Yang Wenyuan has been getting close to Xu Xia these past few days. Be careful.

-If Xu Xia doesn't solve your problem, the Experimental High School won't let her smoothly transfer in. Everyone is saying that her teaching ability is not good, and even her relative can't save her. I guess she will start with the incident where you hit Yang Sanhao.

After the last class in the morning, Shen Jie sneaked in from the back door and wanted to go to the cafeteria with He Chao. But when he came in, he saw that He Chao's seat was empty. He turned to ask Xie Yu, who was sitting next to him, "Hey, where's my Brother Chao?"

"Him?" Xie Yu said, "He skipped class."

Shen Jie looked at Xie Yu with hopeful eyes, gesturing for him to continue, "Uh-huh...?" 

Xie Yu sat in his seat, planning to wait until there were fewer people before going to the cafeteria. He was in the middle of playing a small rhythm game when the music suddenly stopped. However, this didn't seem to bother him at all as his fingers continued to tap the screen at lightning speed.

Shen Jie thought to himself, Of course I know he skipped class, but where did he go?

After finishing the game, Xie Yu noticed that Shen Jie was still standing nearby.

"You want to know where He Chao went?" Xie Yu asked, then added, "How should I know. It's none of my business."

"You're really cold."

"No heart at all."

"It's like you're a cold-blooded killer."

"..."

Shen Jie eventually found He Chao in the boys' dormitory after searching even the toilets and the rooftops. He complained to He Chao, "Your desk mate is really heartless."

After finishing his rant, Shen Jie realized that He Chao wasn't reacting at all. 

As he closed the door to the dorm room and turned around, he saw his Brother Chao sitting on a chair with one long leg bent and his foot resting on the edge of the chair. His school uniform collar was unbuttoned, giving him a wild look.

"Wild boy?" Shen Jie asked.

"Wild my ass. It's not up to you to judge whether my deskmate has any humanity," He Chao replied. He had just woken up from a two-hour nap and was still rubbing his hair. "What are you here for."

"I'm here to have lunch with you. Following you means I don't have to wait in line," Shen Jie said. "The feeling of classmates letting you cut in line is too good, isn't it?"

He Chao's mood was clearly not good. After rubbing his hair, he hung his head and then reached for the box of candy on the table. 

"Take this one," Shen Jie pushed the box full of lollipops away and pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, along with a lighter, and handed them to He Chao. "Occasionally smoking is fine. Quitting smoking should also be done slowly, right?"

He Chao held the hard paper box for a moment, then directly threw the cigarettes back. 

Shen Jie quickly caught them and said, "....Wow, you threw it pretty accurately. You really won't smoke?"

"I won't," He Chao replied.

"I never thought that Brother Chao was such a principled person," Shen Jie said.

"I've always been principled, okay?" He Chao picked a lollipop, opened it, and put it in his mouth. "Don't tempt me, it's useless."

After Shen Jie caught the cigarette box, he picked one out to smoke himself. 

He lowered his head and brought the cigarette closer, the lighter clicked and he took a drag. After a moment of silence, he spoke, "I received that news too - that little shit Yang Wenyuan, I really can't resist the urge to kill him. As soon as he heard that Liuyuan transferred this semester, he started acting all high and mighty, wanting to mess with you, he's just asking for trouble."

He Chao held a candy in his mouth and didn't say anything.

"Your homeroom teacher is also an idiot. She taught Yang Wenyuan in his first year and treated him like her own son just because he had good grades. She didn't even bother to see what kind of person this 'model student' really was. Now that her own resume isn't impressive enough and she can't get into a top school, she wants to use you to boost her own value?" 

Shen Jie shook off some cigarette ash and continued, "If you ask me, Brother Chao, just spill all of Yang Wenyuan's dirty secrets - he's got some nerve, daring to charge at a loaded gun, who knows who'll end up dead." 

"Spill what spill," said He Chao, "You can't share about what happened with Liu Yuan."

After taking his final drag of the cigarette, Shen Jie let out a sigh and muttered, "...Fuck."