The System Forces Me to Be a Scumbag Male Lead [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 6

After hauling Lyu Hanshan all the way to the sports equipment room with the help of Wu Peiliu and Ma Sixiu, Ge Jiabao finally reacted to what had just happened.

Why on earth had he listened to Shen Siyang?

Pinned down by the three of them, Lyu Hanshan—who had been dazed the entire way—finally snapped out of it too and began struggling violently.

“What are you guys doing? I’m going to tell the teacher! You’re acting like gangsters, kidnapping people!”

Ge Jiabao hadn’t wanted to grab him in the first place. But now that they had already brought the guy here, letting him go right away felt like a massive blow to his pride.

Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, Lyu Hanshan struggled even harder. “Ma Sixiu, Wu Peiliu! Are we classmates or not?”

Ma Sixiu and Wu Peiliu were actually more confused than Lyu Hanshan. They exchanged bewildered glances, but without an order from Ge Jiabao, they didn’t dare let go. In the end, they both looked to Ge Jiabao for direction.

After a brief hesitation, Ge Jiabao decided it was best to just release Lyu Hanshan. He didn’t want to follow Shen Siyang’s tune.

But just as he was about to let go, Shen Siyang walked in with Sang Xiaoshi.

The moment Shen Siyang entered, he noticed Ge Jiabao’s hesitation. Understanding the situation instantly, he raised a hand to cover his mouth in exaggerated shock, looking at the three of them. “No way, no way. Don’t tell me the three of you combined can’t even hold down one skinny little four-eyes.”

“Who said we can’t hold him?”

“Who are you calling a four-eyes?”

Several voices shouted at once.

Shen Siyang dropped his hand and let out a soft laugh. “Then hold on tight. Because if you let go now, starting today, the entirety of Xianxi Primary School—heck, all of Xianxi Town—will know that the three of you put together couldn’t even handle one skinny little four-eyes.”

That familiar, mocking tone.

Ge Jiabao felt his blood pressure instantly spike, yet because of Shen Siyang’s words, his pride wouldn’t let him back down. Wu Peiliu and Ma Sixiu were clearly suffering from the exact same symptom.

With faces flushed red, the three of them gritted their teeth and gripped Lyu Hanshan even tighter.

By now, Lyu Hanshan realized who the mastermind was. Unable to break free and completely infuriated by Shen Siyang repeatedly calling him a “skinny little four-eyes,” he started shouting furiously at him, “Are you out of your mind?

Did I ever mess with you? Why did you make them kidnap me? And why do you keep calling me a four-eyes?”

“That is an excellent question,” Shen Siyang said, slung an arm around Sang Xiaoshi as he looked at Lyu Hanshan. “Did Sang Xiaoshi ever mess with you? Why did you make things difficult for him this morning and call him a little stutterer?”

It was that same infuriating tone. But this time, watching someone else get so choked up with rage by Shen Siyang, Ge Jiabao actually felt incredibly satisfied.

With his arms aching from being held down and repeatedly shut down by Shen Siyang’s retorts, Lyu Hanshan suddenly burst into tears of frustration. Tears streaming down his face, he wailed at Shen Siyang, “His uncle owes my parents money!”

Acting as if he couldn’t care less about the tears, Shen Siyang fired right back, “If his uncle owes your parents money, tell your parents to settle it with his uncle. You’re bullying a completely innocent person—do you actually think that makes you a man?”

Lyu Hanshan’s brain couldn’t process a proper comeback fast enough. He cried even harder, hiccupping out, “But you guys still can’t, hic, do this to me!”

“It’s fine when you taunt Sang Xiaoshi, but when we play around with you, it’s a problem? That’s not how the world works.”

As Shen Siyang spoke, he pulled a notebook and a pen out of his backpack.

“If I remember correctly, the very first lesson primary school teachers give everyone is to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. But since some people just listen without letting it enter their brains, I guess we have to use a different method to help him remember.”

He uncapped the pen, tapping the tip gently against the paper. “Let me think, what exactly did you say to Sang Xiaoshi this morning?”

“Four-eyes, don’t you have hands or feet? Didn’t eat breakfast? You need me to move before you’ll take it? Who do you think you are?”

Shen Siyang repeated each phrase aloud as he wrote them down. Once he finished, he handed the notebook to Sang Xiaoshi, gently ruffling his hair. “Here, take this. Read it out loud to him.”

Lyu Hanshan was crying so hard bubbles were coming out of his nose. Seeing Sang Xiaoshi actually reach out to take the notebook, he completely lost it and screamed desperately at him, “Sang Xiaoshi! Don’t you dare!”

Holding the notebook firmly, Sang Xiaoshi looked up at Lyu Hanshan with a look of quiet confusion. “You can say, say things to me, so why can’t I, cannot say, say things to you?”

Lyu Hanshan hadn’t expected Sang Xiaoshi to hit back like that. His eyes widened, his mouth hanging open as he sputtered, “Y-you, you.” Completely unable to form a coherent sentence.

“Alright, go ahead and read it. No need to waste words on him. Read it line by line, slowly. We have plenty of time.”

Sang Xiaoshi looked up at Shen Siyang, gave an obedient nod, and began reading from the notebook.

Lyu Hanshan wailed like a ghost, his screeching making Ge Jiabao and the others’ heads ring.

Ge Jiabao was the first to lose patience. With a miserable expression, he grumbled to Shen Siyang, “Shen Siyang, tell the stutt—tell him to read faster! Lyu Hanshan is making way too much noise!”

Sang Xiaoshi paused, looking up at Shen Siyang.

Shen Siyang patted his head gently. “Just read at whatever pace you like. Your pronunciation is very clear; it sounds great.”

Shen Siyang wasn’t lying. Although Sang Xiaoshi did stutter, his articulation was actually very distinct and proper—much better than most of the kids in Xianxi Town.

With slightly flushed cheeks, Sang Xiaoshi blinked his long eyelashes a few times, lowered his head, and continued reading from the notebook.

Ge Jiabao rolled his eyes. He opened his mouth to complain again, but remembering Shen Siyang’s terrifyingly sharp tongue and the fact that his Bumblebee toy was still held hostage at Shen Siyang’s house, he thought better of it and shut his mouth.

By the time Sang Xiaoshi finished reading, Lyu Hanshan had cried his throat hoarse.

Ge Jiabao’s arms were aching from holding the boy down. Seeing Sang Xiaoshi hand the notebook back to Shen Siyang, he asked, “Can we let go now?”

“Not yet. There’s one last step.”

Shen Siyang put the notebook back into his bag and pulled out a pencil case. Handing it to Sang Xiaoshi, he stepped right in front of Lyu Hanshan and smiled gently at the boy. “Let’s play a game of catch with the pencil case. Target for the throw—”

He pointed a finger directly at Lyu Hanshan’s face. “His face.”

Lyu Hanshan completely broke down. Sniffling and choking on his hoarse voice, he questioned Shen Siyang, “What do you actually want from me?”

Shen Siyang turned his head to look at him. “I can’t give you the answer to that. You’ll have to ask yourself from this morning.”

With that, he ignored Lyu Hanshan entirely and looked back down at Sang Xiaoshi. “Go ahead.”

Sang Xiaoshi didn’t move immediately. He held the pencil case, staring at Lyu Hanshan’s face, which was a complete mess of tears and snot.

Shen Siyang didn’t rush him either, choosing to wait in silence.

After staring at Lyu Hanshan for a long moment, Sang Xiaoshi spoke up, enunciating each word carefully: “Lyu Hanshan, are you, are you very scared?”

Lyu Hanshan had no energy left, his entire body trembling uncontrollably. “No crap! If it were you, wouldn’t you be scared?”

“I am, I am scared.”

Sang Xiaoshi’s voice was very soft, like a piece of cream cake about to melt in the summer heat. He lowered his eyes. “I also told, told you, it hurts. But you, you still threw it at me anyway.”

Lyu Hanshan fell completely silent, staring at Sang Xiaoshi without a word.

A few seconds later, Sang Xiaoshi looked up again and threw the pencil case forward.

Lyu Hanshan winced violently, closing his eyes in terror.

However, the expected pain never came. He anxiously opened one eye and found that Shen Siyang had caught the pencil case mid-air.

Shen Siyang tossed the pencil case back to Sang Xiaoshi. “Here, again.”

Sang Xiaoshi caught it and obediently threw it once more.

They repeated this over ten times. Every single time, just when Lyu Hanshan thought his face was about to get smashed, Shen Siyang would raise a hand and catch the pencil case. A few times, the corners of the pencil case had even grazed his skin.

Lyu Hanshan was completely speechless. His glasses had fallen off somewhere along the way, and his legs were shaking so violently that if the three boys weren’t holding him up, he probably would have collapsed onto the floor.

Shen Siyang slipped the pencil case back into his backpack and turned to look at the dazed Lyu Hanshan. “Scared?”

Lyu Hanshan gave a delayed nod.

“When someone else inflicts that fear onto you, do you think it’s a good thing?”

Tears rolled out of Lyu Hanshan’s eyes again as he shook his head furiously.

Shen Siyang softened his voice. “People are all the same. If you feel fear, Sang Xiaoshi feels it too. If it hurts when it hits you, there’s no way it doesn’t hurt when it hits Sang Xiaoshi. You acted without any restraint because you’ve never stood in his position. So let me make this absolutely clear today.”

He took a step back, his gaze sweeping over all four boys instead of just addressing Lyu Hanshan. “Whatever position you force Sang Xiaoshi into in the future, I will find a way to put you in a position that is a hundred or a thousand times more painful.”

The sports equipment room fell into a long, heavy silence.

Looking at the pale faces of the four boys, Shen Siyang slowly let out a smile again. “Brother Jiabao, you can let him go now.”

Ge Jiabao gave Shen Siyang an awkward glance and slowly released his grip on Lyu Hanshan. As soon as he let go, Ma Sixiu and Wu Peiliu followed suit.

Lyu Hanshan slumped straight down to the floor, unable to react for a long time.

Paying no more attention to them, Shen Siyang slung an arm around Sang Xiaoshi and walked out, his tone shifting back to its usual easygoing manner.

“Do you want to come over to my house for dinner tonight?” He asked Sang Xiaoshi.

Sang Xiaoshi’s eyes lit up, but he didn’t answer immediately.

Luo Qifeng occasionally came home for dinner on weeknights. If he returned and didn’t see Sang Xiaoshi, he would fly into a massive rage, and Sang Wenxuan would bear the brunt of the beating.

However, it wasn’t very likely for Luo Qifeng to return between Monday and Friday; he usually only came back during the weekends. Plus, he had just been back last night.

Sang Xiaoshi nodded. “I will, I will go home and, and tell my aunt.”

“Sounds good,” Shen Siyang agreed readily. He opened his mouth to say more, but after a quick thought, he swallowed his words.

Let’s wait a bit longer, he thought. He wanted to wait until the kid felt safer before prying into his home life.

After they had walked a short distance, Ge Jiabao’s voice called out from behind them, “Shen Siyang, you lied to me.”

Shen Siyang stopped and turned around. “How did I lie to you?”

Ge Jiabao muttered indignantly, “This morning, you said you’d teach me your secret technique. You didn’t teach me anything.”

“I did teach you. I said it right there in the equipment room, and everyone heard it.”

Ge Jiabao didn’t believe him. “What was it?”

Shen Siyang smiled lightly. “Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.”

Ge Jiabao frowned. “How is that a secret technique?”

“It’s the fundamental rule of human interaction. Only when you put yourself in another person’s position can you understand why you like or dislike someone naturally, and only then will they return the feelings you want from them.”

Ge Jiabao found Shen Siyang’s words a bit convoluted. He seemed to grasp it, yet couldn’t fully comprehend it.

Remembering what Shen Siyang had said to him the night before, he looked at Sang Xiaoshi. His mouth opened and closed several times, but in the end, he couldn’t bring himself to call the boy by his name. Giving up entirely, he called out to Ma Sixiu and Wu Peiliu, walking away with a puffed-out face.

Watching them leave, Shen Siyang turned his gaze back to Sang Xiaoshi, only to find the boy staring at him fixedly with a pair of beautiful, large, dark-grape eyes.

Shen Siyang couldn’t help but laugh. “Why are you looking at me like that again?”

Sang Xiaoshi smiled back, then softly uttered two words: “Limited edition.”

Looking at Sang Xiaoshi’s smiling face, Shen Siyang instantly felt the joy of petting a sweet kitten. He reached out and gently pinched the boy’s cheek, his smile widening. “You bet. An exclusive limited edition just for our Xiaoshi.”

Sang Xiaoshi’s eyes sparkled. “Happy.”

The word ‘happy’ from Sang Xiaoshi seemed to carry a touch of magic. It drifted into Shen Siyang’s ears and instantly lifted his own spirits.

His eyes crinkled with laughter. “Tomorrow too.”

Sang Xiaoshi’s eyes grew even brighter. “S-so happy.”

“The day after tomorrow too!”

“Very, very happy!”

“And the day after that, and every day after. From now on!”

“I, I hit the jackpot!”

Amused and delighted, Shen Siyang swung his backpack to his front, crouched down, and offered Sang Xiaoshi a piggyback ride.

Even though they were both kids, Sang Xiaoshi was small and incredibly thin, so Shen Siyang lifted him without any effort at all. Adjusting his grip, he began to sprint. “Off we go! Taking our jackpot winner to claim his prize!”

Sang Xiaoshi’s face turned bright red. He gently buried his face into the crook of Shen Siyang’s neck, his eyelashes fluttering softly.

“Yes, Xiaoshi is, is claiming his prize.” His voice drifted lightly against Shen Siyang’s skin like the brush of a feather.