Chapter 27: Classmate

The man with the tattooed arms spread his hands. “I don’t know. We couldn’t even trace the last one. As for this one… I feel like it could be anyone. Of course, I might be overthinking it; maybe Yang Sheng just offended the wrong person.”

“But that cosplay girl shouldn’t know much… At most, Yang Sheng would have revealed me, and a few others we collaborate with.” The tattooed man hurriedly added, “Don’t worry, Boss. I’ve already made the necessary arrangements. I’m reporting to you now to let you know we should be able to catch that brat in a few days.”

The boss nodded. “Hm. You handle those small details yourself. I called you here mainly to talk about the Yan people.” He paused. “The one from last time died, you know. The Yan side sent me a message; they’ve sent more people and want us to coordinate.”

“More of them?”

“And not just one. This time, they sent six.”

“Six?!” The tattooed man’s face dropped instantly, and he nearly slammed the table as he stood up. “Last time, just one Yan soldier getting exposed nearly caused the government forces to turn Lake Mochang upside down. Now they’re sending six? Are they trying to flip the whole of Phoenix City over this time?!”

“Don’t panic.” The boss gestured for him to calm down. “We were lucky the leak didn’t reach us last time. It’s true we might not be so lucky next time. But think about it: they’re going to do this regardless. If they don’t use us, they’ll use someone else. So whether they overturn Phoenix City or not isn’t something we can control.”

“Although there are six of them this time, having more people means we can leave a lot of the work to them. I’ve asked around; they’ve made significant progress. They’re preparing to send me another sum of money. We’ll play along for a little while longer. Once the time is right, they’ll send more people to fully take over our operations. When that happens, we take the money and retire. We’ll extricate ourselves from these muddy waters.”

“So… we make one more profit.”

“The final score.”

The boss and the tattooed man exchanged a look. Both of their expressions softened considerably. The tattooed man stood up and bowed. “Boss, take care.” He turned and walked out the door.

“…Take care,” the boss murmured, staring at his retreating back.

It was truly bizarre. Despite breaking into a cold sweat last night upon learning from the news that the rich playboy Qian Yuhui hadn’t died, Shi Yue slept incredibly soundly. It was the first good night’s sleep she had managed in a week.

Beep-beep-beep-beep-loo-loo-loo, beep-beep-beep-beep-loo-loo-loo—

Shi Yue listened groggily to the alarm buzzing in her ear for several minutes before reluctantly struggling out of her warm blankets. She slapped the alarm off, then in one burst of energy, got dressed and washed up. She pulled a bag of wontons from the fridge and, as per her routine, made a serving for herself and one for her dad. Her appetite was good today, so she added a little extra pepper. After eating, Shi Yue shouldered her newly bought backpack. It contained only a water bottle, a pencil case, and a few notebooks—it was so flat and light that she wasn’t quite used to carrying it.

The school wasn’t exactly close to Shi Yue’s home, but it wasn’t too far either. It took about ten minutes by subway, though the bus was slower. This time, Shi Yue didn’t dare doze off on the train. Her large, pretty eyes darted to the display screen every minute or two to check the station name, like a neurotic examinee. When the train arrived, Shi Yue flowed out of the station with the crowd. Not far from the station exit hung the understated plaque of “Yongchang High School.”

The chirping noise peculiar to gathering students slowly filled her ears, stretching from the street stalls by the subway station all the way to the school gate. Shi Yue looked up at the gate. It really couldn’t compare to Lake Mochang High School, where Qian Yuhui attended. Although that school’s student quality was declining year by year, the money was still there, and the exterior decoration was luxurious. Her own school was just an ordinary school for commoners.

Relying on her memory, Shi Yue found the homeroom teacher’s office. Fortunately, she was there. Upon seeing Shi Yue, the teacher rushed over, grabbed her, and shoved a stack of brand-new textbooks into her arms. She asked about Shi Yue’s condition and instructed her to catch up on the missed week of coursework as soon as possible before leading Shi Yue to the classroom.

Most of the class had already gathered. After entering, the homeroom teacher immediately cleared her throat. Her shout suppressed the sound of morning reading and the chatter mixed within it. Leaning her hands on the lectern, she briefly explained Shi Yue’s situation to the class, saying Shi Yue had been absent for a week due to some reasons and asking the class to look out for her. She specifically asked them to help tutor Shi Yue when they were free. She then called on a few class committee members, telling them to check in on Shi Yue after class, as she might have trouble keeping up after missing a week.

Finally, she re-emphasized concepts like collective class honor, urging the whole class to twist together like a rope and not leave any student behind… Shi Yue then returned to her seat under the strange gazes of the entire class.

“…”

The brand-new textbooks felt alien to Shi Yue. A classmate in the front row turned around and half-jokingly asked why she hadn’t been there for a week. Shi Yue simply said she had been hospitalized after an accident and ignored him. No other classmates spoke to her, though some whispered about her, stealing glances now and then.

…It had to be said, the result of missing a week of classes was catastrophic. Chinese was manageable, but Foreign Language was a struggle, and Math had turned into completely incomprehensible gibberish. Shi Yue got a headache just looking at the pile of blank knowledge points from last week. She muddled through until noon. After lunch, the homeroom teacher called her to the office again.

Shi Yue guessed she was in for another lecture, and her mood sank further. Wearing a somber face, she walked into the office, only to see two other classmates already waiting there.

“Teacher Wang.”

Shi Yue bowed slightly. The teacher waved her hand indifferently, signaling for all three of them to sit. They sat side-by-side on the sofa against the wall, with Shi Yue on the far right. As soon as they sat down, the teacher pulled out a slip of paper. She didn’t look at Shi Yue, but at the student sitting on the far left.

“Lu Yansheng, your problem… is the most serious. Do you know that?”

Shi Yue looked at that classmate. She remembered Lu. Despite being a boy and quite tall, he was extremely timid; if anyone provoked him even slightly, he would start weeping. Especially after he exposed his weakness—a fear of bugs—classmates would occasionally sneak crickets and cicadas into his pencil case. He never learned to handle it; every time, he reacted the same way, screaming like an elementary school girl and startling the whole class. No one in the class helped him. Perhaps his occasional pathetic displays were a welcome spice to the students’ dull academic lives.

“On your first diagnostic exam, you failed both Math and Physics. You are the only one in the class to fail two subjects,” the teacher said, staring sternly at Lu Yansheng.