Returning to the Shamate Era to Seduce the Top Student - Chapter 5

By the time Yin Xu relied on his memory to grope his way back to Luhe No. 3 High School, there was still an hour left before the end of the lunch break.

The teaching buildings, with their red walls and black tiles, appeared quiet under the cover of lush green trees. The only sound in his ears was the tireless, rhythmic drone of cicadas.

Ying Xu passed through the grey-white staircases and corridors, walking past the red school mottos and academic slogans posted on the walls, finally stopping at the door of the classroom hanging the sign “Senior Grade 2, Class 7.”

At this moment, the classroom was empty.

What met his eyes were the yellowed, old-fashioned solid wood desks and chairs, the slightly rusted white ceiling fans overhead, the light-colored curtains, the round wall clock above the blackboard…

Looking at this familiar environment and furnishings that occasionally appeared in his dreams, Yin Xu stood at the door in a daze for a moment before walking in.

His seat was easy to find: the corner spot in the very last row of the first group, right next to the back door.

The desktop was clean, without a single textbook on it. Only a conspicuous “Slam Dunk” poster was pasted there. On the wooden side of the desk, the four flared characters “Yin Xu’s Private Use” had been carved with a knife.

The desk cubby, however, was a mess. He hadn’t spared a single glance at the exam papers handed out last semester, stuffing them inside and ignoring them. Pulling a few out at random, the scores on them were disastrous.

Yin Xu rummaged around for a long while, finally finding a usable blank notebook. He sighed and began to write his self-reflection.

On the other side, Pan Zheshuai and Song Xingyun, seeing that Yin Xu hadn’t come to meet up with them for a long time, figured he had likely been caught, so they ran back to find him.

Upon entering the classroom, they saw Yin Xu sitting alone in his seat with a serious expression, lost in thought.

The two shared the three Little Monk popsicles they had bought with Yin Xu. Leaning over to take a look, they saw the three large characters “Self-Reflection Letter” written on the blank notebook in front of him.

Pan Zheshuai asked while biting his popsicle, “Old Yin, when did you get back?”

Yin Xu replied, “Twenty minutes ago.”

Pan Zheshuai was shocked: “In twenty minutes, you only wrote the title?”

Song Xingyun: “The Chinese teacher said the title is the eye of the essay. Brother Yin has already worked very hard.”

Pan Zheshuai: “Isn’t this a damn prompt-based essay?”

Yin Xu really wasn’t in the mood to listen to the two bicker. He sighed: “Sigh, it’s been too long since I wrote one of these; I simply don’t know where to start.”

Pan Zheshuai found it strange: “It hasn’t been that long, has it? Didn’t you just write ten or twenty of them last semester?”

Yin Xu blinked while biting his popsicle: “Did I?”

“Yeah, you called yourself ‘Yin, Little Prince of Self-Reflections, Xu’!”

Yin Xu choked for a moment and could only quibble: “But this is a thousand words! A thousand words! I’m afraid my life story across eight lifetimes isn’t even that long. Don’t I have to start from when Pangu created the world to make up the word count?”

Song Xingyun comforted him: “Brother Yin, self-reflections aren’t actually that hard to write.”

Pan Zheshuai also said: “Yeah, it’s nothing more than starting with a self-criticism, looking for plenty of objective reasons—forget everything else, just start by shifting the blame completely!”

Song Xingyun chimed in: “As for the middle part, you have to be especially careful because that’s where you write the process of what happened. There are tricks to this too: strive to turn big issues into small ones and small ones into nothing. Be careful—when you’re making it up, you must make sure the beginning and end match up, or it’ll be easy to get caught.”

Pan Zheshuai added: “The ending is the simplest. Make it very sentimental, write it so that you seem very helpless and innocent, and finally, elevate the values and guarantee it will never happen again! Done.”

Yin Xu was stunned by the two of them speaking in tandem: “Not bad, you two are quite experienced.”

Pan Zheshuai and Song Xingyun looked at each other: “Isn’t this what you taught us before, Little Prince of Self-Reflections?”

The Little Prince Yin Xu had nothing to say.

Since he couldn’t get someone else to ghostwrite the self-reflection—Tang Xiaotong would recognize his handwriting—Yin Xu could only miserably rely on himself.

But as he lowered his head to write, he realized that his Smart bangs were a total nuisance. They blocked his vision and constantly distracted him.

Yin Xu looked at the two beside him: “Hey, do you guys have a hair tie or a hairclip?”

“No.”

Pan Zheshuai’s hedgehog hair didn’t need hairclips. It was entirely held up by a thick layer of hair gel.

Song Xingyun, on the other hand, had a well-behaved bob, with his hair reaching his shoulders and neck—flowing and smooth.

Pan Zheshuai always said his back view looked like a delicate high school girl, so it was no wonder others always called him a sissy.

But Song Xingyun didn’t like tying his hair up. He just let it hang loosely to pursue the feeling of wind following his footsteps.

“Tch.”

Yin Xu was momentarily disappointed, but then he remembered he seemed to have one himself.

Given to him by a certain someone half an hour ago.

So, Pan Zheshuai and Song Xingyun watched with wide eyes as Yin Xu pulled a white lace bow hairclip out of his back pocket. After a slight hesitation, he used it to pin his long bangs behind his ear, revealing his full eyebrows and eyes.

Song Xingyun was so frightened by this scene that he couldn’t speak, even forgetting to chew the popsicle in his mouth.

Pan Zheshuai leaned in and examined the clip with great amazement: “Old Yin, where did you get this thing?”

At the mention of this, Yin Xu got angry: “Shen Que gave it to me. That guy intentionally did it to make a fool of me.”

“Shen Que?” Pan Zheshuai was surprised to hear that name. “When did you run into him?”

“Just now when I was being hunted by Old Tang.”

So, Yin Xu gave a rough account of his chance encounter with Shen Que in the Two-Yuan Shop.

“If it weren’t for him, I would have slipped away long ago and wouldn’t have been caught by Old Tang in public.” The more Yin Xu thought about it, the more speechless he became. “So unlucky—whenever I get involved with him, nothing good ever happens.”

Yin Xu hadn’t forgotten the scene of the birthday cake being delivered before he died—it was so awkward his toes could curl and dig a hole in the floor.

After listening, both felt upset for Yin Xu.

Song Xingyun cursed indignantly: “Shit, don’t let me see that ‘little white face’ named Shen again. I’ll beat him up every time I see him! He didn’t even help provide cover—he’s truly useless except for his face!”

“Forget it. He and we aren’t from the same world, it’s better not to provoke him.”

Pan Zheshuai said.

“Anyway, that’s just how people with good grades are—they follow the teacher’s lead. To put it bluntly, they are the teacher’s lackeys. How could he possibly help ‘slacker’ students like us?”

Song Xingyun asked, “Then what about Tao Mingzhao?”

“Him? He’s an exception.”

Hearing this name, Pan Zheshuai snorted and made a judgment without thinking.

“That kid is a hypocritical lackey who plays both sides and is double-dealing.”

Yin Xu was amused: “Is it okay for you to talk about him like that behind his back?”

“I’d dare to say it to his face just the same!”

Just as Pan Zheshuai finished speaking, a cheeky voice came from behind them: “Yo, does Comrade Little Pan miss your ‘daddy’ that much?”

The group turned to look and saw someone leaning against the classroom window, though they didn’t know since when.

Seeing it was Tao Mingzhao, Pan Zheshuai immediately greeted him unceremoniously: “Shit, how are you, you lackey, still eavesdropping on people behind their backs?”

“Get lost. Clearly, you were the one talking bad about me behind my back first.”

As Tao Mingzhao spoke, he walked straight in through the back door of the classroom, acting as familiar as if he were entering his own class.

Pan Zheshuai sat on the corner of the desk and sized him up: “Tao Mingming, oh Tao Mingming, you’re the disciplinary member of the Student Council after all—how can you take the lead in violating discipline by visiting another class? Is your Rocket Class buried in dirt?”

“How many times have I told you? My name is Tao Mingzhao, not Tao Mingming or Tao Xiaoming!”

Tao Mingzhao retorted.

“Pan Dog, even though you’re at the bottom of a regular class, you’ve somehow made it to high school. It’s not like you only have an elementary school diploma—how can you still be illiterate? Are you blind or just tongue-tied?”

Pan Zheshuai also corrected him: “How many times have I told you? Call me Pan Shuai!”

Pan Zheshuai’s idol was Will Pan. Not only did he spend all day mimicking his idol’s rapping, but taking advantage of the fact that his surname was also Pan, he shamelessly crowned himself the “Pan Shuai of No. 3 High.”

Tao Mingzhao returned a roll of his eyes and stopped paying him any mind. He took a stack of manga books out of his backpack and placed them on Yin Xu’s desk: “I’ve finished reading them. Returning them to you—thanks.”

Yin Xu thought the covers looked familiar. He picked up the top one and flipped through it, finding it was actually a whole set of A-Shuai comics.

Yin Xu was amused: “When did I lend these to you?”

“Summer break.”

“Really? I completely forgot.”

Pan Zheshuai clicked his tongue: “Tsk tsk tsk. Tao Mingzhao, I say, you have the nerve to confiscate other people’s contraband every day, yet you secretly bring manga books to school yourself.”

Tao Mingzhao pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose and flashed a fake smile at Pan Zheshuai:

“Ask your conscience—have I ever confiscated yours? If I hadn’t covered for you every time, you idiot wouldn’t even know how many times you would have been publicly criticized by now.”

Pan Zheshuai truly couldn’t refute this.

He knew very well in his heart that having one of their own like Tao Mingzhao in the Student Council acting as an insider had provided countless conveniences for their misbehaving campus life.

For example, every time the Student Council did a routine search for contraband in Class 7, Tao Mingzhao would use his position to turn a blind eye to the desk cubby full of snacks, phones, MP3s, and manga books belonging to Yin Xu and the others.

Then, he would calmly mark them as “Excellent” on the attendance sheet and wave his sleeve without taking a single cloud.

Logically, a friend like this should be held up and offered incense like a deity.

But Pan Zheshuai really couldn’t stand Tao Mingzhao’s fake appearance of being a top student in front of the teachers. He had to bicker with him every time they met, forcing him to lose his temper and swear, revealing his true nature—only then did Pan Zheshuai feel comfortable and that things were right.

Seeing that Pan Zheshuai had gone quiet, Tao Mingzhao lifted his chin with satisfaction: “Now you know the importance of your Daddy Tao, right? Don’t spend all day talking gossip about me behind my back.”

Yin Xu smoothed things over for him: “We weren’t talking about you just now. We were talking about someone else.”

“Who?”

“Shen Que.”

“Oh, him.”

At the mention of this name, Tao Mingzhao also curled his lip.

“He just has slightly better grades, what’s so great about that?”

Yin Xu couldn’t help but laugh: “Hearing those words from the mouth of a top student like you from the Rocket Class is truly quite rare.”

Starting from their grade, Luhe No. 3 High School had established a special class system called the “Rocket Class.”

The Rocket Class consisted of 50 students, formed based on the top 50 scorers in the high school entrance exam among those who applied to Luhe No. 3 High.

From Grade 1, they were defaulted into the science stream and did not participate in the stream division of Grade 2 for other classes.

In short, the Rocket Class was a place where top students clustered. Every time exam results came out, they could leave the regular classes far behind, almost monopolizing the top 50 spots in the grade.

Therefore, wherever the Rocket Class students went, they always carried an aura known as a sense of superiority.

Tao Mingzhao was a member of the Rocket Class, and his exam results had been stable in the top five of the grade since Grade 1, never dropping.

But even he, when facing Shen Que, could only begrudgingly comment: “What’s so great about having good grades?”

Because Shen Que was too unique.

He was the only person in the entire school who attended a regular class yet managed to break into the top 50—even being the outlier at first place—in every single exam.

Through dozens of exams, large and small, since Grade 1, he had never failed.

Everyone said his existence was a slap in the face to the Rocket Class; therefore, the Rocket Class students more or less didn’t take kindly to him.

“I get it, I get it. The taste of being crushed by someone is indeed hard to swallow.”

Pan Zheshuai gloatingly patted Tao Mingzhao’s shoulder.

“After all, you guys are just ‘Rockets,’ while Shen Que is a ‘Spacecraft’.”

Tao Mingzhao slapped his hand away with some disdain: “That metaphor of yours is truly tacky.”

“It’s true, though! It seems Shen Que has never even acknowledged people from your class. I bet he doesn’t even know the surname or name of the student ranked second in your grade!”

Tao Mingzhao had no way to argue against this possibility, he could only say irritably:

“That guy Shen Que really is a bit too arrogant. I think he likely has some kind of major illness—all he knows is studying all day, and he doesn’t have a single friend. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him eating, walking, or going to the bathroom with anyone in school! I really don’t understand why so many girls like him.”

“Because he’s handsome and knows how to pose.” Pan Zheshuai hit the nail on the head.

“Whether you like it or not, that kid Shen Que is truly the best poser I’ve ever seen. I’ve always suspected he stayed in a regular class like ours only to rank first in the grade or even the entire city every time just to ‘flex’ hard—otherwise, it simply makes no sense!”

Song Xingyun seconded: “The fact that he appeared in Luhe No. 3 High is already a huge irrationality in itself.”

Yin Xu understood what they meant by the irrationality regarding Shen Que.

Luhe No. 3 High School was a private high school. Whether in terms of history, educational resources, or student performance, it couldn’t compare to its big brother next door, Luhe No. 1 High. Therefore, its recruitment competitiveness was naturally lower than No. 1 High’s every year.

But as the top scorer in the entire city for their high school entrance exam, Shen Que had passed up applying for Luhe No. 1 High and instead chose the mediocre No. 3 High.

Even more magically, he came to No. 3 High but didn’t join the Rocket Class; instead, he silently came to Class 7, a regular class that couldn’t be more ordinary—which was utterly baffling.

Yin Xu remembered that this matter had caused quite a stir back when they entered Grade 1, with many different opinions.

But he couldn’t remember the specific details, so he asked: “How come I remember it seemed like Jia Zongcheng begged him to come to No. 3 High?”

Jia Zongcheng was the current principal of Luhe No. 3 High. Since taking office, he had been carrying out drastic reforms on various school rules and regulations under the banner of “catching up with and surpassing No. 1 High.”

“Exactly! I heard Jia Zongcheng personally went to his house to talk to him three times! Do you understand the concept of ‘three visits to the thatched cottage’?”

Pan Zheshuai got excited talking about such gossip. He had explained the story of “Jia Zongcheng’s three visits” to no fewer than ten people, and had even given Shen Que the nickname “Shen Three-Visits.”

Consequently, under the tireless promotion of gossip-mongers like Pan Zheshuai, many details had become more and more exaggerated. It seemed to be drifting toward an urban legend; there were even those who said Jia Zongcheng had been put under a spell by Shen Que.

Song Xingyun had naturally heard of it as well, but he expressed disdain: “Is it really necessary to go to such lengths for just one ‘city first’?”

Pan Zheshuai couldn’t answer, but Tao Mingzhao, on the side, mimicked Detective Conan by pushing up his glasses and revealing a meaningful smile:

“You don’t understand, do you? Thinking like that is a huge mistake. There are many hidden depths to this!”