The System Forces Me to Be a Scumbag Male Lead [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 5

When Shen Siyang was pulled out of bed by his mother early in the morning like a turnip being yanked from the soil, he was still completely dazed.

He forced his groggy eyes open and squinted at the bedroom clock. Seeing the hour hand pointing directly at seven, he immediately tried to dive back under the covers.

His classes didn’t start until nine! The apartment was only a five-minute walk from the company! He still had an hour and forty minutes of sleep left! Every second counted.

“Don’t make me smack you, Shen Siyang. Xiaoshi is already downstairs waiting for you,” Yuan Linfei’s voice rang out with a lethal warning.

Xiaoshi?

The name sounded vaguely familiar.

Wait, didn’t I live alone in a single apartment? Why is my mom at my place?

As reality gradually rushed back, Shen Siyang bolted upright.

Right. He was dead. And now he was in a strange world.

Unwilling to accept his fate, Shen Siyang looked back at the clock on the wall. “Mom, what time is my class?”

Yuan Linfei reached out and patted his head. “Eight o’clock. Did you sleep yourself stupid?”

Shen Siyang shook his head, his heart cold as ash as he got out of bed. It turned out primary school students had it even worse than corporate slaves.

Knowing that Sang Xiaoshi was waiting downstairs, he didn’t dawdle any longer. He quickly brushed his teeth, washed his face, and changed into his school uniform. Before heading down, he asked his mom for five yuan. Stuffing the money into his pocket, he began wrestling with his red scarf.

He kept trying to tie it on his way from the second floor to the first, but couldn’t get it right. Finally, Shen Siyang ripped off the twisted, crooked fabric. Just as he was about to try again, he looked up and saw Sang Xiaoshi bolt up from the sofa like a startled rabbit, jogging right over to him.

The uniform of Xianxi Primary School was mainly black, white, and green. Against the bright green fabric, a neatly tied red scarf stood out vividly. The moment Sang Xiaoshi bounded over, Shen Siyang noticed how perfectly and beautifully the boy’s scarf was tied around his neck.

“Perfect timing,” Shen Siyang said, ruffling the boy’s hair and handing over his own scarf. “Can you help me tie this?”

Sang Xiaoshi nodded and took the scarf. With practiced ease, he raised one leg to create a surface, spread the scarf across his thigh, folded it carefully twice, picked it up, and looked up at Shen Siyang.

Shen Siyang was only half a head taller than Sang Xiaoshi and didn’t really need to bend down. But meeting the boy’s gaze, he bent his knees to drop to his level, offering his neck. “Thanks, Xiaoshi,” he said with a smile.

Receiving the thank you, Sang Xiaoshi blinked in confusion, a flush of pink rising on his cheeks. He pursed his lips and stood on his tiptoes to tuck the scarf under Shen Siyang’s collar. As he brought the ends to the front to tie it, he answered in a soft voice, “You, you’re welcome.”

Though Sang Xiaoshi’s hands were small, they were incredibly deft. Every movement seemed meticulously measured. In just a few swift turns, he tied a perfectly neat and beautiful knot for Shen Siyang.

Once finished, his little hands patted the fabric gently to smooth out the slightest wrinkle. He looked up at Shen Siyang again, his eyes shining.

Even though it had been years since Shen Siyang had worn a red scarf, he was certain that in all his school years, he had never managed to tie one so flawlessly.

He pulled at it with satisfaction. He was about to praise Sang Xiaoshi when he noticed the boy staring at him intently without blinking.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Shen Siyang asked with a laugh.

Sang Xiaoshi looked a bit nervous. He gripped his backpack straps, his long eyelashes fluttering several times before he asked softly, “Is, is today a limited edition?”

Hearing this, Shen Siyang immediately slung an arm around Sang Xiaoshi’s shoulder. “Of course!”

He guided Sang Xiaoshi out of the house. “What do you want for breakfast? Steamed buns? Egg pancakes? Dumplings?”

“Egg pancake, is that okay?”

“More than okay! I love those too, especially with extra sauce.”

“Me, me too.”

“Then we’ll get a two-yuan saucy egg pancake for you, and a two-yuan saucy egg pancake for me. With the remaining yuan, we’ll get a cup of soy milk to share!”

“O-okay. Thank, thank you, Brother Siyang.”

The two ate their pancakes and drank their soy milk along the way, strolling into the school with twenty minutes to spare before class.

Sang Xiaoshi waved goodbye to Shen Siyang and entered his own classroom. Just as he set down his backpack, a voice called out from the front.

“Sang Xiaoshi, the math teacher wants you to collect the math homework and bring it to the office before class starts.”

It was the class monitor.

Sang Xiaoshi agreed, walked to the first row, and began gathering the workbooks one by one.

Only about half the students had arrived by this time. Holding the pile of books, Sang Xiaoshi noted down the numbers of the empty desks so he could return to them later.

He had moved to this town a year ago and had been at Xianxi Primary School for nearly as long. When he first transferred in, many classmates had been eager to talk and play with him. But after rumors spread that he was Luo Qifeng’s nephew, everyone pulled away.

Almost all the children at the school were locals from Xianxi Town, and most of their families had lent money to Luo Qifeng—money they never got back.

Sang Xiaoshi collected the homework quietly. When he reached the middle of the second row, he hesitated slightly.

Ma Sixiu and Wu Peiliu sat there. Usually, whenever he reached their desks, they would playfully mock him and call him “little stutterer.” Sang Xiaoshi expected the same today, but when he stood before Ma Sixiu, the boy merely glanced at him and handed over his math workbook without a word.

Seeing this, Sang Xiaoshi didn’t linger and moved on to Wu Peiliu.

Wu Peiliu hadn’t finished his homework yet and was currently scribbling furiously. Sensing a shadow fall over his desk, Wu Peiliu spoke out of pure habit: “Just grab one of the others for me to copy.”

Halfway through the sentence, as if remembering something, he suddenly choked on his words. He looked up at Sang Xiaoshi uncomfortably and said, “Go collect the others first. Come back for mine later.”

Sang Xiaoshi noted Wu Peiliu’s seat on his notepad and continued down the row.

He made smooth progress until he reached the very last row of the final column.

A boy wearing glasses named Lyu Hanshan was waving his workbook around, refusing to hand it over. On regular days, whenever Lyu Hanshan was in a bad mood or simply bored, he enjoyed making things difficult for Sang Xiaoshi.

“Collecting homework, little stutterer?” Lyu Hanshan taunted, swinging the book back and forth. “What are you dazing off for? If you don’t collect them all before class, the math teacher will chew you out.”

Sang Xiaoshi kept his eyes lowered, watching the moving booklet. “Put, put the book down. I will take it.”

Lyu Hanshan sneered. “What, don’t you have hands or feet? Didn’t eat breakfast? You need me to set it down before you’ll take it? Who do you think you are?”

“It, it doesn’t matter. If, if you don’t want to submit it, I will explain the situation to the teacher.”

Finishing the sentence with an effort, Sang Xiaoshi nodded to Lyu Hanshan, turned around, and walked away.

Lyu Hanshan instantly flew into a rage. Looking around, he noticed a few classmates watching them, making his face flush a deeper red. He grabbed the pencil case from his desk and hurled it straight at Sang Xiaoshi.

Before the pencil case could strike the back of Sang Xiaoshi’s head, a hand caught it mid-air.

A soft click of the tongue echoed from the quiet back of the classroom.

In the next second, the pencil case was thrown back in the exact direction it came from—except it didn’t land in Lyu Hanshan’s hands. It sailed right past him and flew out the window.

Lyu Hanshan’s eyes widened in disbelief as he roared at the intruder, “Are you crazy? Who the hell are you?”

Shen Siyang, who had doubled back, let out a light chuckle. He waved casually as he turned to leave. “Just an anonymous hero. Don’t worry about it.”

As he passed Sang Xiaoshi, he leaned in slightly, his voice dropping so low that only the two of them could hear: “Wait for me a bit when school lets out at noon. I’ll come find you for lunch.”

The ear that had brushed against Shen Siyang’s breath instantly turned bright red. Sang Xiaoshi nodded his little head and watched Shen Siyang leave before turning back to the first column to begin his second round of collection.

Shen Siyang walked out of the Class 2-3 classroom, lost in thought. Suddenly catching sight of a familiar figure ahead, he narrowed his eyes.

After studying the boy for a moment, he raised his eyebrows, let out a smile, and strode over. “Hey there, Brother Jiabao.”

Ge Jiabao was currently eating a fried dough stick and drinking soy milk. Hearing the voice of the person he had desperately wanted to strangle in his dreams last night, he nearly choked on his drink.

Gulping down the food in his mouth, he looked at the approaching Shen Siyang with a thoroughly sour expression. “What do you want?”

Shen Siyang smiled warmly, looking incredibly amiable. “Nothing much. I just suddenly felt that treating you like that yesterday was a bit too harsh.”

Having been tricked twice already, Ge Jiabao walked right into the trap a third time. “Then give me back my Bumblebee!”

“The Bumblebee well, I can’t return that just yet. But I do have a secret technique here. I wonder if you’d be interested.”

Shen Siyang flashed a perfect eight-tooth smile.

If Ge Jiabao had spent any time in the real world and encountered a profession called sales, he would have instantly recognized the hidden motive behind Shen Siyang’s current expression. Unfortunately, he was only eight years old and couldn’t see through a thing.

He looked at Shen Siyang with clear skepticism, but in the end, thinking there was no harm in listening, he snorted, “Let’s hear it then.”

“Aren’t you curious about how I managed to get all the parents to defend me and scold you guys yesterday?”

Ge Jiabao perked up his ears.

“Aren’t you curious about how I made everyone believe that you gave me that Bumblebee entirely out of the goodness of your heart?”

Ge Jiabao snorted again, but his other ear perked up too.

Yet, having teased the setup, Shen Siyang stopped talking.

After waiting a moment for an answer that never came, Ge Jiabao snapped impatiently, “Well? Spill it!”

Shen Siyang’s smile turned mysterious. “Oh, I’ll definitely tell you the secret, but not right now. After school today, right outside the Class 2-3 classroom—Teacher Shen’s crash course begins. Be there or be square.”

Ge Jiabao’s face fell. “Why do I have to wait until this afternoon?”

“Have you ever watched martial arts shows? A legendary secret technique always has to go through a bit of suspense before it’s revealed. The longer the wait, the more powerful the technique.”

With that, Shen Siyang turned on his heel and walked away, waving over his shoulder. “Don’t forget, you only get one shot at this.”

That afternoon, two minutes before the final bell, outside the back door of Class 2-3.

The last period was self-study, so Shen Siyang specifically slipped away two minutes early to head over to Sang Xiaoshi’s classroom. When he arrived, he found Ge Jiabao already waiting there.

Shen Siyang raised an eyebrow. “Punctual, Brother Jiabao. That’s a great habit.”

Ge Jiabao turned his head away. “I only came early to wait for Xiao Liu and Xiao Xiu.”

Ignoring his excuse, Shen Siyang stepped right up to his side. “Get ready, every second counts. I’m going to tell you now.”

He pulled Ge Jiabao slightly further away from the back door and pointed inside. “Last row of the column by the window. The kid wearing glasses. See him?”

“Yeah, I see him. I know him, that’s Lyu Hanshan.”

“That’s the guy. The second the bell rings, I want you to rush right in, grab your two sidekicks, and the three of you take him outside. Bring him down to the sports equipment room.”

“Wh—” Why?

Before Ge Jiabao could get the question out, Shen Siyang suddenly accelerated his speech.

“Now is not the time for questions. There’s only one minute left. Miss this chance and it’s gone forever! This is a legendary secret technique available for free at an all-time low price! You can’t lose, you can’t be conned, it’s exclusively for chosen individuals, and when time runs out, the offer is over!”

Right on cue, the dismissal bell rang.

Shen Siyang gave Ge Jiabao a gentle shove from behind. “Go, go, go! Every second counts! It’s a race against time! Don’t hesitate! Hesitation means losing out! Hesitation means a total loss! Charge!”

Before Ge Jiabao could even register what Shen Siyang had actually said, his body acted ahead of his brain. Feeling a massive rush of urgency, he bolted straight into the Class 2-3 classroom.