Returning to the Shamate Era to Seduce the Top Student - Chapter 7

When Yin Xu was banging his head against the desk, Tang Xiaotong happened to pass by the classroom window and see it.

She pushed open the window and roared: “Yin Xu! What kind of nerve are you having now? Is your self-reflection letter finished yet? Hand it to me before today’s opening assembly!”

Looking up, she saw the other person in the classroom, Shen Que, and immediately put on a smiling face, her tone becoming incredibly gentle:

“Shen Que, have you prepared your speech for this afternoon’s opening assembly? The one where you’ll be speaking as the student representative.”

Shen Que replied: “It’s ready. Do you need to take a look at it?”

“No need, no need! I trust that you’ll be fine!” Tang Xiaotong said happily. “Perform well when the time comes, don’t be nervous, and bring glory to our Class 7!”

Shen Que gave a lukewarm nod: “Mhm.”

Only then did Tang Xiaotong close the window with satisfaction. Before leaving, she didn’t forget to glare fiercely at Yin Xu through the glass as a warning.

Yin Xu: “……”

This woman is truly terrifying, she actually has two faces.

But he didn’t have time to think much more about it because the lunch break was almost over, and the time left for him to write his self-reflection letter was running out.

So he began to write furiously, burying his head in making things up.

As 2:00 PM approached, students gradually returned to school.

The originally empty classrooms and corridors were slowly filled with the sound of chirping chatter.

Everyone was moving around, fooling around, and laughing. Some were gathered together to play cat’s cradle, some were playing the Three Kingdoms Kill board game, and others were playing chess, military chess, or Gomoku. It was as busy and noisy as a vegetable market.

Such a noisy environment made Yin Xu feel increasingly irritable as he wrote. The train of thought he had managed to gather with great difficulty was constantly interrupted.

Just as he was about to do something, a clear female voice suddenly broke through the chaos:

“Quiet—!”

Everyone instantly fell silent, turning their heads in unison to look at the girl on the podium.

Yin Xu froze for a moment at the sound, looked up, and then saw an incredibly familiar figure—the Class 7 monitor, Zhou Jilin.

Standing on the podium, Zhou Jilin had her hair in a simple ponytail. Her jet-black hair was smooth and shiny, her thin back was straight, and her posture was dignified and beautiful.

“Please return to your seats first. I have two things to announce.”

So everyone reluctantly cleaned up their messes and trudged back to their respective seats.

However, in the back of the classroom, two boys were still giggling while playing a trash can basketball game, completely ignoring Zhou Jilin’s words.

Suddenly, an empty mineral water bottle bypassed the two of them and landed accurately in the trash can.

The two of them had their fun spoiled. Just as they were about to curse someone out, they turned around and saw Yin Xu staring at them with an annoyed look: “Hey, didn’t you hear the monitor? Get back to your seats.”

How would those two dare to provoke Yin Xu? They hurriedly scurried back to their seats.

Zhou Jilin cast a grateful smile toward Yin Xu from a distance. Yin Xu shrugged, indicating she shouldn’t mind.

Pan Zheshuai, sitting in front of him, turned around and said in a sour tone: “Tsk tsk, the hero saves the beauty.”

Yin Xu: “Get lost.”

It was common knowledge that Yin Xu and Zhou Jilin had a good relationship.

The two had been close since childhood because their parents were friends. By coincidence, being the same age, they had attended the same schools and even the same classes from kindergarten to high school. They could be called childhood sweethearts that made others envious.

It was common for those around them to poke fun at their relationship; Yin Xu had long since become accustomed to it, and it stirred no ripples in him.

On the podium, Zhou Jilin continued making her announcements seriously: “First of all, the first thing, I think everyone already knows, is that there are no classes scheduled for this afternoon. We will be having the opening assembly.”

“Yay!”

A small cheer immediately broke out in the classroom.

After all, no matter how boring the opening assembly was, it was better than being stuck in the classroom for lessons.

“The second thing: the opening assembly starts at 3:00 PM. Before that, the school requires us to carry out campus sanitation and cleaning activities.”

At this point, even Zhou Jilin’s tone sounded helpless.

“The task assigned to our Grade 11 is to pull weeds and pick up trash.”

“Huh? No way???”

This time, it was a chorus of wails and howls that could have lifted the roof.

After a summer of wild growth, the flowers, plants, and trees in the school were indeed somewhat messy, affecting the school’s appearance.

So, at every school opening, students were forced to participate in a grand weeding activity, fighting against the weeds under the scorching sun.

Ten minutes later, groups of Grade 11 students appeared in the flower beds and small groves in front of the teaching building.

Each one was working reluctantly while cursing and swearing, cordially greeting the genealogical records of the school leaders.

Pan Zheshuai, standing in the flower bed holding an old trash can, looked up at the sky and took the lead in cursing:

“Stupid school! They treat us like coolies every single time! I’m going to blow you up tomorrow!”

“Blow it up!” a crowd of students echoed with a laugh.

“Isn’t our school known as the Luhe parvenu? How can they not even afford the money to hire a few more cleaners? Have they become this stingy?”

Song Xingyun used one hand to block the sun above his head while the other hand feebly pulled at the weeds in the flower bed.

“Brother Yin, can’t you go back and talk to your dad? Have him suggest something to the school leaders?”

“Yeah, Old Yin. Next time Principal Jia invites your dad to dinner, you can just whisper in his ear,” Pan Zheshuai echoed.

Hearing this, Yin Xu’s movements paused.

As everyone knew, his father, Yin Changjian, was one of the important shareholders of Luhe No. 3 High School and had invested a lot of money in the school’s infrastructure.

Principal Jia Zongcheng wished he could invite him to tea and dinner every day to bring in a new wave of investment.

In his memory, his father was engaged in various social engagements every day.

And what kind of deals were being made at those dinner tables, he never knew.

Yin Xu unobtrusively covered the strange emotion in his heart and started joking around:

“My dad is busy, he doesn’t have time for this. If you two have the leisure to complain here, you’d better finish pulling these weeds quickly so we can go back to the classroom and enjoy the air conditioning. I haven’t finished my self-reflection letter yet!”

As Yin Xu spoke, he squatted on the ground like a rabbit, huffing and puffing as he buried his head in pulling weeds. Before long, he had filled nearly half of the trash can.

Seeing that even Young Master Yin, who was usually arrogant as hell, was working so proactively this time, the surrounding students didn’t dare to slack off and sped up their movements.

After being under the scorching sun for only a few minutes, everyone was covered in sweat, and their skin felt like it was burning painfully.

But this level was barely tolerable for Yin Xu.

In his previous life, he had moved bricks, unloaded cement, and carried steel bars under a sun even hotter than this on a construction site. He would never forget that taste in three lifetimes.

In a short while, he was the first to clear the flower bed he was in, and the trash can was stuffed full.

Yin Xu pulled a ballpoint pen and his half-written self-reflection letter from his pocket, found a shady spot blocked by bushes nearby to sit on the ground, and lowered his head to write, leaning against the low wall of the tiled flower bed.

Pan Zheshuai and Song Xingyun noticed him as they passed by: “Crap, Old Yin, you’re slacking off and didn’t call us?”

Yin Xu didn’t even look up, answering feebly: “Heh, I’m writing my self-reflection letter.”

“Then go back to the classroom to write it. How can you write well here?”

Pan Zheshuai was right, this place was truly not suitable for writing.

When Yin Xu was a child, he and Zhou Jilin had been sent by their parents to the Children’s Palace to learn calligraphy for a while. Although he hadn’t been very willing at the time, fishing for three days and drying the nets for two, he had at least managed to develop a hand of neat and clear handwriting.

But now, a thin sheet of paper was forced against the rough and uneven tiles, and the handwriting he produced was a mess, looking like a dog’s crawl.

But he had no choice: “It would waste more than ten minutes to walk from here back to the classroom. Old Tang told me to finish it and hand it to her before the opening assembly. How could I have enough time?”

Today’s weather was already stiflingly hot, and his long, thick bangs only worsened the sweating. The sweat from his palms rubbed onto the paper, blurring the words he had written.

This made the irritability in Yin Xu’s heart even stronger, so as he wrote, he couldn’t help but vent his anger:

“I’m dying of heat. I’m going to get this hair cut tomorrow. And this color needs to be dyed back; this red is way too chuunibyou. I feel like I’m a walking tomato right now!”

Pan Zheshuai: “Dyeing it again? Didn’t you just go and dye it red the day before yesterday?”

Yin Xu: “Huh? I just dyed it red the day before yesterday?”

Song Xingyun: “Mhm, you said you wanted to stun the whole school at the start of the term.”

Yin Xu: “……”

Damn it, I really want to beat up my self from two days ago.

He turned the conversation to Pan Zheshuai: “What about you? Are you not planning to change that Super Saiyan hairstyle of yours?”

Pan Zheshuai refused instantly: “Why change it? I think my temperament fits this hairstyle quite well. It has a kind of handsome, sky-piercing impact!”

Yin Xu didn’t understand but respected it: “I get it. If height isn’t enough, make it up with the hairstyle.”

“Who said my height isn’t enough? I’m 181!”

“Oh, I’m 183. Did I say anything?”

“Bullshit, you were only 179.5 when we did the physical test last semester!”

Yin Xu choked for a second.

183 was his height as an adult. He was only in Grade 11 now and was still growing.

He could only say: “Fine, but I’ll definitely grow to 183 in the future.”

“Hmph, if you have the time to brag here, you’d better finish writing that self-reflection letter.”

Yin Xu got distracted and happened to write a typo: “It’s all your fault for insisting on talking to me!”

“Is there any justice? It’s clearly you who has too much crap to say.”

Just as Pan Zheshuai finished retorting Yin Xu, he suddenly heard someone call him: “Pan Zheshuai!”

He looked up and saw Tao Mingzhao and a few people from the Student Union standing not far away, gloating over his misfortune: “Is pulling weeds fun? Dying of heat, right? Hahaha!”

Pan Zheshuai was so angry he threw the weeds in his hand and cursed at his receding back: “Why the hell don’t you have to come and work?!”

But Tao Mingzhao ran off right after laughing and didn’t hear his question at all.

Yin Xu noticed that Tao Mingzhao was holding a stack of things that looked like certificates and notebooks. After thinking about it, he answered Pan Zheshuai: “The opening assembly is coming up. They’re probably going to the auditorium to set up the venue. I see Zhou Jilin didn’t come either.”

“Crap!” Pan Zheshuai’s mental defenses broke. “They don’t even have to pull weeds or stay in the sun. Being an official is really something!”

Song Xingyun asked: “Then what about Shen Que? He’s not in the Student Union, so why didn’t he have to come?”

Yin Xu just happened to know the answer to this question: “He’s the top of the grade and has to speak as the student representative at the assembly. He’s probably off memorizing his speech right now.”

Pan Zheshuai and Song Xingyun were completely speechless and could only say two words with genuine emotion: “Damn it.”

“What kind of bullshit student representative? If you ask me, the students should vote and pick a real representative themselves.”

Pan Zheshuai’s ideas came one after another.

“Old Yin, I think you’re up for it. I want to see you on stage having a three-hundred-round verbal battle with Director Hu!”

“Heh, why don’t you just say you want me to go on stage and perform a set of Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms?”

As the saying goes, speak of the devil and he shall appear.

A scolding came crashing down on Yin Xu from behind: “Yin Xu! Everyone else is working, how do you have the face to be slacking off here!”

Yin Xu turned his head and saw that it was Hu Yi, and felt a bit impatient in his heart.

Hu Yi was the Deputy Dean of Students at Luhe No. 3 High School. He was rigid and dogmatic, extremely strict, and patrolled the school all day with a stern face. Students wished they could hide from him.

He also hated it when people called him “Teacher Hu,” but he hated it even more when people called him “Deputy Director Hu.” Only when you called him “Director Hu” would he nod and smile at you.

Thus, contrasted with the breezy and pleasant Dean of Students, Ji Yuxuan, Hu Yi’s image in the hearts of No. 3 High students was even more unpopular.

As soon as Pan Zheshuai and Song Xingyun saw Hu Yi, they immediately pretended to squat on the ground and pull weeds, nearly stripping the patch of ground bare, looking particularly diligent and serious.

Before Yin Xu could explain, Hu Yi had another reason to find him unpleasant: “And what’s up with this greenish hair of yours? All you know is how to be special every day. Dye it back tomorrow, or I’ll cut it all off for you!”

The surrounding students who were watching froze for two seconds before they caught the meaning.

Oh, they almost forgot that Hu Yi was red-green colorblind. He had misidentified Yin Xu’s hair color.

Everyone held back their laughter and silently buried their heads in picking up trash, pretending nothing had happened.

But Yin Xu stood up unhurriedly and said to Hu Yi with a smile: “Deputy Director Hu, thank you for your concern, but my hair is red. It’s your hat that is green.”

The sun was truly strong today, and Hu Yi had specifically worn a baseball cap to block the sun when he went out.

By a total coincidence, it was a green one.

The scene was silent for a second before a burst of laughter erupted.

“You!” Hu Yi stared at Yin Xu in exasperation, then turned to scold the crowd, “What are you laughing at! Is the work finished!”

Yin Xu said: “Deputy Director Hu, I’ve finished all the work I was supposed to do. I was just doing my own thing just now.”

Hu Yi gave a cold snort: “You? What kind of ‘thing’ could you possibly have?”

He noticed that Yin Xu seemed to have been writing something just now, so he walked over and snatched the paper from his hand. He scanned the contents briefly and realized what was going on.

So his scolding became even more justified:

“Another incident on the first day of school! Are you an adult yet, going to the internet cafe every day? I’m telling you, Yin Xu, don’t think that just because of your father’s connections you can do whatever you want here all day! This is a school, not your home. No one is going to indulge you, little master! Once you graduate from No. 3 High, I won’t care how you use your influence to bully people, but now you must be just like everyone else here. If others work, you work. If others are in the sun, you stay in the sun. If others pull weeds, you pull weeds for me obediently! Stop acting like a big shot and being special here!”

Yin Xu lowered his head without a word. His long bangs covered the expression on his face. His knuckles holding the ballpoint pen turned slightly white, and his palms were sweating uncontrollably.

Beside him, Pan Zheshuai murmured with slight defiance:

“Talk is cheap. Making us work here in the sun, yet how can the people from the Student Union go straight to the auditorium to enjoy the air conditioning? It’s too unfair.”

But Hu Yi’s sharp ears caught his complaint: “What? You’re not convinced?”

With one hand on his hip and the other pointing at all the students within his field of vision, Hu Yi said:

“I’m telling each and every one of you, once you enter society, you will know that there is no absolute fairness in this world! If you want to be like those students and not have to work here in the sun, then get good grades, perform well, and join the Student Union too! Otherwise, you are only fit to do coolie work here! It will be the same in the future. You’ll only have the fate of moving bricks on a construction site!”

This deafening scolding made the surrounding students not dare to breathe a word. The silence in the air was suffocating.

Hu Yi was very satisfied with this reaction and walked away with a stern face.

Seeing him far away, Pan Zheshuai and Song Xingyun brushed the dirt off their hands and came over to comfort Yin Xu: “Hey, Old Yin, don’t take it to heart. Hu Yi’s scolding has always been this nasty.”

Yin Xu smiled indifferently: “It’s nothing. I’ve heard even nastier words.”

After saying that, he sat back down on the ground to write his self-reflection letter, looking incredibly calm, as if nothing had happened just now.

Pan Zheshuai and Song Xingyun looked at each other, then turned their gazes back to Yin Xu in unison.

Yin Xu felt a bit strange being stared at by them: “What are you looking at me for?”

“Something’s not right with you.” The two said in unison.

Yin Xu froze: “What’s not right about me?”

“If it were normal, you would definitely have retorted loudly to what Hu Yi just said, especially the parts where he brought up your dad,” Pan Zheshuai said. “When has someone ever insulted your dad without you exploding immediately? You’d be wishing to greet their ancestors for eighteen generations.”

Song Xingyun also said: “Exactly, Brother Yin. You should have just shamelessly told Hu Yi: ‘Yeah, my dad is great, I have people backing me, what can you do about it!’ That would be more like you.”

After hearing them, Yin Xu’s mood was complicated: “……I’m not as wild as you guys make me sound.”

Pan Zheshuai and Song Xingyun: “You are.”

Yin Xu opened his mouth but couldn’t find the words.

He really didn’t know how to explain to Pan Zheshuai and Song Xingyun that he had long since lost those naive and arrogant thoughts.

Over the years, many of the sharp edges and brilliance on him had been suppressed by reality until he dared not easily show them to the world.

“Ha, it’s all your fault for not reminding me just now. I forgot my lines!”

He slapped his thigh and put on that usual relaxed and unbridled look, raising his eyebrows and laughing.

“Next time. Next time I see Hu Yi, I’ll definitely tell him that.”

The two nodded with satisfaction: “That’s more like it.”

Yin Xu absentmindedly sent the two away.

He sat alone by the dilapidated flower bed, gazing at that sun above his head that made him almost unable to open his eyes, and fell into deep thought.