Returning to the Shamate Era to Seduce the Top Student - Chapter 10

As soon as these words were spoken, a noisy wave of whispers immediately erupted in the auditorium.

Yin Xu’s name instantly became the center of everyone’s discussion.

Seeing Yin Xu frozen in his seat with a look of blank bewilderment, Pan Zheshuai hurriedly patted the shoulder of Zhou Jilin, who was sitting in the front row, and asked her: “Monitor, there’s even a segment like this?”

Zhou Jilin was equally bewildered: “There was no notice, this must be a temporary arrangement?”

“Crap.”

Pan Zheshuai felt the injustice on Yin Xu’s behalf.

“This Hu Yi is clearly targeting you on purpose. Otherwise, why would he specifically pick you to go on stage at this time? It must be because you said he was wearing a green hat in front of everyone earlier and made him lose face, so he’s taking this chance to get back at you!”

Seeing that Yin Xu hadn’t moved, Hu Yi on the stage called his name again:

“Yin Xu, don’t you like being in the spotlight? Now I’m letting you have your fill! Why are you still dazed? Don’t tell me I have to go over there and invite you up?”

Yin Xu only felt an nameless flare of anger surge into his heart. In just one short second, it burned from embarrassment and resentment to a sense of absurdity, finally settling into a state of calm.

Yin Xu stood up and walked toward the rostrum with composed steps, brushing past Shen Que on the stairs as the latter was heading back.

One was going up, the other was going down.

The aisle was a bit narrow, and their shoulders bumped together with a weight that was neither heavy nor light. Yin Xu didn’t cast a single glance at him.

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Yin Xu stepped onto the rostrum bit by bit. At the same time, Hu Yi’s incessant scolding continued to ring in his ears:

“Sometimes I really wonder, how can two ‘first places’ be taught in the same class? Someone else gets first place in the grade, but you—you’re great—you get dead last in the grade! And you don’t spend your days doing anything good. You go off to dye and perm your hair, even getting into fights and going to internet cafes. Is this what you should be doing right now? Huh? You’re not just losing face for your Class 7, you’re losing face for our Luhe No. 3 High, and losing face for your parents! Do you not have a single shred of ambition or sense of shame? You—”

“Bzzzt—”

An unexpected, piercing burst of static interrupted Hu Yi’s words.

Yin Xu pressed down on the microphone in Hu Yi’s hand. His voice was soft, but his words were articulated clearly: “Have you said enough of your bullshit?”

The audience below couldn’t hear what Yin Xu said. They only saw him smiling faintly at Hu Yi, appearing exceptionally polite.

Meanwhile, Hu Yi was so angry his nose was almost crooked: “How are you talking to a teacher!”

Yin Xu ignored him, snatched the microphone directly from his hand, and walked to the edge of the rostrum. Looking at the more than two thousand audience members below, he began to speak with a smile and incredible calm:

“Hello everyone, I am Yin Xu from Class 11-7. You all just heard the speech from the outstanding student representative. Now please take three minutes to listen to the story of this ‘negative example’.”

“Here, I want to thank Deputy Director Hu for giving me this opportunity today. I thank him for his ‘painstaking efforts’ and his persistent guidance, which reminded me of what kind of person I should be and who I want to become.”

“I know he specifically arranged for me, the dead last, to speak at this assembly because he wanted me to come up here and lose face. Unfortunately, I have never been a good, obedient student, and I won’t let everyone watch a joke as he wished—because I am here to set an example for you.”

After the audience froze for a collective second, a burst of laughter immediately erupted.

The originally dull atmosphere in the auditorium instantly became lively. Clearly, they took his words just now as a joke.

Yin Xu had an air of being completely serious, making Hu Yi almost unable to believe his ears: “What nonsense are you talking about? You, setting an example for others?”

Hu Yi didn’t have a microphone, so the people below couldn’t hear what he said, but Yin Xu could. However, he directly ignored everyone’s mockery and continued:

“Of course, the example I’m talking about isn’t for the present, but for the future.”

“If the current me in your hearts is a villain who only knows how to rank last, who bullies others based on influence, and who refuses to change despite repeated warnings—then that’s great. I like this kind of opening because only when a character has growth and the ending has a reversal is the story surprising enough.”

“So please, everyone sitting here, remember the current me well. My appearance, my grades, my ranking. Two years from now, I will let you witness a miracle in the college entrance examination—the miracle of how a dead last makes a comeback.”

Yin Xu took a deep breath and declared with conviction: “From today on, I will study hard. My ultimate goal is to get into a university. I want to get into a Tier 1 university, I want to get into—”

He suddenly paused, momentarily forgetting his lines. He turned his head to look at Hu Yi: “Those two ‘number’ schools you often mention, what were they again?”

Hu Yi was stunned for a moment. He hadn’t expected to be involved in such a tense and impassioned key moment. He guessed: “211, 985?”

“Right.” Yin Xu smiled arrogantly. “I’m going to get into a 985!”

After five whole seconds of dead silence across the entire venue, someone below—who knows who—took the lead in clapping.

Like a small pebble thrown into a calm lake, it instantly stirred up a thousand ripples.

For a time, the applause, laughter, and cheering in the auditorium were unending.

When Yin Xu walked down from the rostrum, his feet felt like they were floating.

The surrounding people cast all sorts of gazes and diverse comments—some amazed, some mocking, some curious—but he ignored them all and heard nothing.

He looked terrifyingly calm, but in reality, his head was now filled with:

Holy shit, is it really okay for me to be this arrogant?

But at the same time, he felt his chest filled with a long-lost sense of relief. His heart was bright and clear.

It was like a room that had been sealed for a long time suddenly had its doors and windows thrown wide open. Sunlight, a breeze, and the scent of flowers surged in once again. Life had reappeared.

After the assembly adjourned, Pan Zheshuai and Song Xingyun rushed over and threw their arms around his shoulders, giving him a heartfelt thumbs-up: “Badass! Only you would dare to say those words!”

Yin Xu decided to take this ‘acting cool’ act to the very end.

He brushed aside his red bangs and hooked his lips in a smile: “Heh, don’t be obsessed with your brother. Your brother is just a legend.”

Pan Zheshuai laughed along: “Legendary brother, then are you still going to dye your hair back?”

“I’m not dyeing it. I’m going to keep it,” Yin Xu said. “I want Hu Yi to remember the face he lost today as soon as he sees my hair color. I’ll make him die of anger.”

Pan Zheshuai was delighted: “Exactly! What does dyeing hair have to do with him? It’s like it messed with his chromosomes or something.”

Yin Xu was surprised: “You even know about chromosomes?”

Pan Zheshuai was speechless: “I listened a bit in biology class. You really don’t learn anything at all.”

Yin Xu: “What’s the rush? Tomorrow I start studying hard. I’ll show you what a legendary talented player looks like. Watch me ‘stay silent for a long time only to amaze the world with a single cry’ and scare the hell out of you!”

Pan Zheshuai and Song Xingyun were truly a bit dumbfounded. The look in their eyes toward Yin Xu carried a thick sense of worry: “Did you go a bit too overboard with being arrogant today?”

“Did I? Haven’t I always been like this?”

After saying that, Yin Xu strode away, leaving only a chic and handsome view of his back.

In any case, the current Yin Xu was seventeen, not twenty-eight.

There’s nothing wrong with a young person being a bit arrogant.

This was like him; this was who he was.

At 9:30 PM, the bell for the end of evening self-study rang on time throughout the campus of Luhe No. 3 High School.

The originally quiet environment instantly became noisy and chaotic.

Everyone packed their schoolbags and ran toward the school gate, each heading home with a different mood.

Yin Xu’s home was a bit of a distance from the school. Originally, the family had arranged for a driver to pick him up at night, but Yin Xu refused.

Because he enjoyed the peaceful time after school of wandering around the night market near the school with a few friends for a while before slowly heading home, he usually rode a bicycle to and from school alone.

But by this time, it was already dark.

Yin Xu followed the crowd to the bike shed at the school gate. Looking at this jumbled army of bicycles in front of him, he really doubted whether he could find the one belonging to him from over ten years ago.

What color and style was it again? Was it locked? Was it parked on the east side or the west side?

Sigh, forget it, I can’t be bothered.

He was tired enough for today. He might as well take a taxi back. Anyway, he didn’t need to worry about money right now. He could continue being this profligate little master for another year or so.

After a twelve-year gap, Yin Xu once again stepped onto the road leading from the school to his home.

He sat in the back seat of the taxi, looking through the glass window at the buildings and streets retreating constantly by the light of neon and streetlamps. The scenery before him was familiar yet strange, like a fleeting, ethereal dream, making him sleepy.

When he opened his eyes again, the car had already stopped at the entrance of the villa district.

Yin Xu paid and got out of the car, walking toward the building he had lived in for many years based on muscle memory.

Standing at the front door of his house, Yin Xu gripped the key he had dug out of his schoolbag. He took a deep breath to prepare himself mentally before inserting the key into the lock and opening the door.

The house was silent and pitch black.

Sure enough, no one was home.

Yin Xu walked in and turned on the lights in the dark, surveying the furnishings in the house.

This place was exactly the same as the last look he had given it when he left with his luggage over ten years ago. It was like a long-standing nightmare appearing before his eyes.

The villa was very spacious with three floors. The decoration was exquisite and beautiful, showing off the aura of a wealthy family everywhere.

Since his mother didn’t like dogs and was allergic to cat hair, the family didn’t even have a pet.

The three of them living here felt particularly empty and cold.

Yin Xu casually picked up the family portrait sitting on the coffee table in the living room and looked at it.

The three people in the photo were closely knit, smiling brilliantly and happily at the camera.

But Yin Xu knew very well that this pale gold frame and the protective glass were just replaced after his parents broke them during a fight last month.

Which replacement was this? He could no longer remember.

Just like their home—outwardly peaceful and glamorous, yet inwardly already ruined and decayed.

Yin Xu put down the photo and went upstairs to his room.

He quite liked this bedroom. It was right next to the study, facing south, and had a large bay window. Every time the curtains were pulled back, the room would be filled with sunlight, giving a full sense of happiness.

Unfortunately, it was night now, and there was no sun.

He connected his depleted phone to a charger and long-pressed the power button. Only then did he see the text message his mother, He Yuexiang, had sent him two hours ago.

He Yuexiang: “Axu, I’m not coming back to stay today. Be safe on your way home from school.”

It was this sentence again.

Scrolling up through their chat history, nine out of ten messages were this sentence.

But this time, Yin Xu just finished reading it calmly, completely devoid of his previous misery and sadness. He didn’t ask if she was coming back tomorrow, let alone whose house she was staying at tonight or who she was with.

He calmly lowered his head to edit a text message reply to her.

Yin Xu: “Okay, goodnight.”

It had been too long since he used this kind of old-fashioned button phone; he was really a bit unaccustomed to operating it. The screen was small and crowded, and he was slow to type out this one sentence.

After the sound effect for the completed message transmission rang out, Yin Xu tossed the phone aside and lay on the bed, staring dazed at the ceiling.

He thought idly that his dad was busy with social engagements and embezzling public funds, while his mother was busy cheating and meeting her lover. Even if he knew the ending, he was already powerless to change it.

The only thing he could do now was try to change his own ending.

It’s great, we all have bright futures.