The Useless Beauty Who Went Viral Across the Stars - Chapter 2

With that, he moved his hand away.

Sure enough, on the desktop, the round star coin that appeared translucent in the sunlight had the side engraved with the Imperial Capital facing straight up.

It was the heads side.

“How is that possible?!” Director Yan widened his eyes instantly, startled into bouncing straight up from his leather chair. He pointed a short, chubby finger at Lin Qiansheng and yelled angrily, “You cheated!”

Lin Qiansheng gently reminded him, “When your mental strength far exceeds someone else’s, it is absolutely impossible to cheat. I believe Director Yan is well aware of this.”

“!” The chubby man choked. Of course he knew, but no matter what, he simply could not accept this outcome!

How could this be possible?

He had clearly seen that the star coin was showing the tails side!

Before he could even figure out a reason, his terminal already received the silver-haired youth’s resubmitted leave application.

“I won. Please approve it, Director Yan.”

“About that…” Director Yan’s eyes flickered as he tried to find an excuse to break his promise.

Lin Qiansheng lowered his gaze and brought out his terminal, casually tapping open an interface. Immediately, their voices rang out clearly.

“You—!” Realizing what was happening, Director Yan’s pupils constricted. He slammed his hand heavily onto the desk, causing the items on top to rattle and emit a loud crash. He finally understood that Lin Qiansheng had set a trap for him right from the start.

The youth showed no fear whatsoever, smiling un-movingly as he looked at Director Yan.

Director Yan clenched his teeth, his face turning dark. Yet he knew this matter was already a done deal. Under the youth’s gaze, he forced himself to open his terminal against his better judgment.

Looking at the blinking application on the light screen, Director Yan’s fat, greasy fingers trembled slightly. Especially when he thought about the consequences if that person found out he had acted on impulse and made a bet with Lin Qiansheng—only to lose and be forced to approve the leave—cold sweat broke out instantly on his forehead.

With trembling hands, he tapped confirmation. When he looked back up, the youth was already nowhere to be found.

“Damn it,” Director Yan cursed under his breath.

In the past, he hadn’t spent much time interacting with Lin Qiansheng, only hearing that their academy had an extremely gorgeous vase of a teacher. But today’s close-up contact seemed rather different from the rumors.

Especially that star coin.

What on earth was going on?

He refused to believe that someone whose mental strength and physical fitness were merely at grade F could pull off a miraculous deception, secretly swapping what he had seen right under his nose.

Could it be that he hadn’t been resting well these past few days and just saw it wrong?

Director Yan was utterly baffled. Irritated, he tossed his cigarette butt onto the ground and stomped on it fiercely a few times. Lin Qiansheng had only asked for half a day off in the afternoon, and now he just hoped that that person wouldn’t find out about this, otherwise… trouble would be huge.

On Wednesday, the weather could not be considered very good. The auditorium, which was usually not open, was packed to capacity. Amidst the lively atmosphere all around, a red-haired boy appeared exceptionally gloomy. Irritated, he yanked at his hair before finally posting a message on his account: [Something came up today, streaming is canceled for the day!]

As a moderately famous gaming streamer on the Star Network, no sooner was the message posted than he quickly received a flood of replies.

Huahuazhou: ???

StarshipLord: Canceled again and again and again?

gzjggg: Bro, how many times have you canceled your streams lately!

Zhang Zhou curled his lips and did not reply.

Of course, the real reason he stopped streaming wasn’t because something had come up.

Glancing once more at the endless stream of comments popping up on his terminal, Zhang Zhou grew even more irritable. He turned off his screen and listened as a conversation among some girls nearby drifted into his ears.

“I’ve heard for a long time that Teacher Lin from our academy’s Maintenance Department is drop-dead gorgeous. I’ve finally waited for this public lecture, I’m so excited!”

“I’m super excited too, but it’s a pity Teacher Lin has poor health. Normally you can barely catch a glimpse of him at school, and public lectures are so rare. I’m so envious of the students in the Maintenance Department.”

Zhang Zhou’s face darkened. He endured and endured, but finally couldn’t help letting out a “tch” and cutting in, “What’s so great about some useless trash?”

The chatting girls frowned. Turning around and spotting a head of bright red hair, one of them rolled her eyes immediately. “Are you done yet? I think you’re the useless one.”

“If I’m useless, then he’s probably even worse than trash,” Zhang Zhou made a face, jeering mockingly. “Who doesn’t know that Lin Qiansheng from our academy’s Maintenance Department has physical fitness and mental strength lower than an ordinary person’s? It’s hilarious. Why is such trash even allowed to enter our school as a teacher?”

“You!”

Zhang Zhou smugly raised an eyebrow and chuckled. “What, aren’t I speaking the facts? Only people like you are still looking forward to trash like this teaching a class. Once the teacher evaluations come out in a couple of days, I bet he’ll lose his job and crawl back home, huh.”

The girls glared at Zhang Zhou. They wanted to retort, but ultimately didn’t speak up, a trace of worry surfacing on their faces.

Because they knew what Zhang Zhou said might very well become reality.

Seeing the changing expressions on the girls’ faces, the pent-up frustration in Zhang Zhou’s heart over the past few days cleared up quite a bit, and his entire spirit perked up. If there was one type of person he hated the most, it was trash—and a backdoor-using piece of trash was something he hated even more!

Attending such trash’s class was practically equivalent to costing him his life. Fortunately, once the results came out tomorrow, everything was going to change.

He made a victory sign, pissing the girls off so much that they turned their heads and ignored him completely.

Zhang Zhou didn’t care about the girls’ attitude either. Thinking of something, he lifted his head, his eyes brightening, and a trace of shyness could actually be detected on his face. “I should have just skipped class instead. I heard Lord Admiral just came back from the border and is going to attend the funeral. I really want to go see…”

Before he could finish speaking, an invisible wave of mental fluctuation silently swept across the entire auditorium, pausing slightly as it passed over Zhang Zhou.

Zhang Zhou’s eyelid twitched. He forcefully swallowed his last word, and the mental strength in his mind bolted out uncontrollably.

Yet just as his mental strength poked its head out, a chilling sensation so horrifying it felt like being spied on by a demon from the abyss suddenly rose from the depths of his heart.

His proud mental strength appeared incomparably tiny and fragile in front of that person. If it weren’t for the fact that his mental strength belonged to the top tier of the entire school, coupled with the fact that the person had intentionally lingered on him for a split second, it would have been impossible for him to even detect the abnormality.

And if the owner of that mental strength wanted to, his mind would probably be destroyed in an instant, turning him into a physical vegetable.

Zhang Zhou froze in his seat, not daring to move a muscle, and secretly swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

Just now… was that A-grade mental strength? No, his own mental strength was at A-grade, but that kind of oppressive feeling was definitely more than A-grade… Could it be… S-grade mental strength?!

How was that possible?!

Zhang Zhou quickly cut off his own train of thought. One had to know that people in the entire empire whose mental strength could reach S-grade could be counted on one hand, and even in their academy, only the principal’s mental strength reached S-grade.

Furthermore… Zhang Zhou’s eyes flickered continuously. He vaguely felt that that wave of mental strength might even be more immense than S-grade mental strength…

Suddenly, as if by telepathy, Zhang Zhou raised his eyes. A young man had appeared on the previously empty podium.

The youth stood there quietly, his silver hair draping down smoothly. Even though it was the height of summer, he wore a long trench coat and a scarf. Backlit by the fluorescent blue light screen behind him, his entire body was coated with a layer of luminescence, making him look like a deity stepping out of the starry sky.

One had to admit that the youth’s face was indeed extremely beautiful, but it was a sickly kind of beauty. Probably due to being plagued by illness all year round, a trace of imperceptible deathly aura was entwined in his brows, his skin was an unnatural pale white, and faint gray shadows lingered beneath his eyes. His figure was slender, as if a gust of wind could blow him over.

It made people involuntarily hold their breath, terrified of shattering him.

Zhang Zhou had seen photos of Lin Qiansheng on the campus official website, so the moment he laid eyes on him, he recognized the person on the podium.

After a moment to recover, he snapped out of his daze of admiration. A realization hit him belatedly: with his A-grade mental strength, how on earth had he completely failed to notice when Lin Qiansheng went up there??

The bell rang, and the noisy auditorium gradually quieted down. Soon, other people noticed the youth standing on the podium, instantly setting off another wave of commotion.

The youth stood upon the podium. As the lights fell, countless gazes lingered on him.

Yet his expression remained calm. With just a faint smile, he opened the optical brain on the silver-white desk: “Hello everyone, I am today’s main lecturer. Before we begin today’s class, let’s first talk about the history of mecha development…”

The lighting inside the auditorium was very dim, with only the projection screen on the crystal podium at the very front emitting a faint blue glow.

Amidst the youth’s gentle vocal tone, the auditorium gradually grew quiet.

After passing through the initial panic, Zhang Zhou finally recovered from his tense state of mind. He stared with a complex expression at the youth on the stage who was teaching attentively. No matter how much disdain he held, he had to admit that in terms of lecturing, Lin Qiansheng was still better than most teachers in the school.

Amidst Zhang Zhou’s complicated feelings, time ticked away bit by bit. No one noticed that the smiling youth on the stage already had his forehead covered in fine sweat.

Because he was pushing himself too hard, the fingers holding the textbook tightened, tinged with a sickly pallor. He lowered his pupils slightly, his gaze a bit unfocused. Even though he couldn’t clearly see the words on the textbook, he was still able to calmly continue the class.

He didn’t know how much time passed before the end-of-class bell rang like it came from the distant horizon.

Lin Qiansheng stood on the podium, his vision completely blank, accompanied by a harsh ringing in his ears. A public lecture close to two hours long was a heavy burden for this already nearly shattered body of his, not to mention that he still had to take a battery-powered transport for over an hour afterward.

This was also why he had originally wanted to take a full day off.

When he finally snapped out of his daze, only a scattering of a few people remained in the dim hall. Vaguely, he sensed a burning and suspicious gaze landing on him, though shortly after, he heard a few voices: “Zhang Zhou, what are you doing? Why are you so slow?”

The boy called Zhang Zhou shouted back in embarrassed annoyance, “Nothing, coming right now!” Followed by the sound of footsteps, the hall quickly quieted down completely, leaving only him standing lonely in the center of the podium.

An itch suddenly surged into his throat. Lin Qiansheng covered his mouth and coughed lowly a few times.

Thinking that he still had to head to the funeral, he frowned imperceptibly.

Director Yan was right about one thing: he needed to save money.

However, to avoid having an accident on the way to the funeral and turning today into his own funeral as well, Lin Qiansheng ultimately hailed a ride directly to the suburbs.

When he rushed to the suburban church, there was barely any time to feel the pinch of the money spent. Inside the church, a young priest dressed in sacred robes and holding a crucifix had already begun prayers.

A coffin was placed upright on the podium, the black coffin surrounded by clusters of white flowers. Only the very last row still had empty seats, and Lin Qiansheng quietly sat down.

Before joining the others in prayer, he raised his eyes to look beside him.

There was still an empty seat right there.

Traffic had been jammed for a bit on the way, and he had arrived quite late already; now it seemed someone else was arriving even later than him.

However, Lin Qiansheng only glanced at it once before withdrawing his gaze. With the priest’s echoing voice filling the church, he too closed his eyes, clasping his hands together in front of his chest to pray alongside them.

The prayer ended quickly, and there was still a short period before the black coffin was buried, giving guests a moment to rest.

“Oh…” A succession of people walked past around him. Occasionally, someone would pause because of his unusual hair color, look twice more, and then their expression would change upon recognizing who it was, quickly hurrying away from his side.

In the empire, mental strength and physical fitness determined how others treated you.

People like him, whose mental strength and physical fitness didn’t even reach ordinary levels, were practically unheard of; running into them felt unlucky.

Soon, only a few people remained inside the church.

The youth sat alone in a chair, lowering his gaze, feeling extremely sorrowful.

Though not because he was being ostracized, but rather because looking at the two hundred star coins missing from his terminal was making his heart ache in spasms.

Few people knew that he was addicted to sweets, and intense sweetness could also help him suppress the physical pain.

As much as he loved them, under the strict orders and supervision of his attending physician, he was only allowed a maximum of three pieces of candy a week, and even less cake—only a single slice.

Knowing his personality all too well, the attending physician left him only a tiny bit of pocket money each month to prevent him from sneaking out to buy sweet snacks.

Two hundred star coins!! That was his sweet-treat money for the entire month!

Just then, a dark shadow loomed over, blocking the light from above.

“…Lin Qiansheng?”

The newcomer gazed down at the youth from a commanding height. From his perspective, he happened to catch a glimpse of a small patch of snow-white skin exposed beneath the gray scarf wrapped multiple times around the youth’s neck…

Wang Xin’s eyes narrowed slightly. At that moment, the youth slowly raised his eyes, the corners of his eyelids curling into an alluring curve, reflecting his figure in dual blue pupils that were completely devoid of impurities.

His breathing grew slightly heavier. Wang Xin made no effort to conceal his greedy gaze, audaciously appraising the youth’s body inch by inch. He smiled hypocritically and asked with concern, “It really is you. Are you alright?”

Wang Xin—the “excellent” teacher Director Yan had mentioned.

Or rather, it was precisely because he had rejected Wang Xin’s pursuits that, after the Vice Dean passed away, almost everyone in the academy who looked at him unfavorably began making small moves.

He was also the culprit who had forced him to spend extra pocket money on desserts this month.

Lin Qiansheng looked at the handsome man before him. The smile at the corners of his lips was gentle, yet his eyes were so cold they felt as though they could kill.

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