Transmigrated as the School Hunk's Arch-Nemesis [Book Transmigration] - Chapter 1

“You really are a piece of useless trash!”

 

Shen Yixing opened his eyes suddenly. He shifted his head slightly to the side, and a fist grazed his ear, slamming into the door panel. The impact created a massive boom, and every stall door in the bathroom rattled.

 

“Hiss.”

 

Shen Yixing looked up. Six or seven boys in school uniforms were blocking him in. The boy who had thrown the punch frowned, pulling his hand back.

 

These were all unfamiliar faces. Shen Yixing’s last memory was of being tripped and falling down the stairs. He had no recollection of coming to this bathroom. The uniforms these people were wearing were like nothing he had ever seen, a clash of reds and blues, in wide, baggy cuts that couldn’t compare to the uniforms at his own school.

 

Seeing the boy winding up another punch, Shen Yixing grabbed his wrist, twisted it in the opposite direction, and drove his knee hard into the boy’s abdomen.

 

“Fuck, you, Shen Yixing!” The boy couldn’t even speak properly from the pain, clutching his lower abdomen and cursing as he crouched to the side.

 

The bathroom air was thick with the smell of cleaning chemicals mixed with cigarette smoke. A tall, thin boy who wasn’t wearing a uniform walked over, cigarette hanging from his mouth. He spat on the floor and said, “Shen Yixing, I told you to smash that violin, but you didn’t even dare. What use are you?”

 

“Smash a violin?” Shen Yixing leaned against the bathroom door, squinting. “Who are you?”

 

The tall, thin boy froze for a moment, then rolled up his sleeves, shouting, “Quit playing dumb, or do you want me to crack your skull open today?”

 

Someone quickly whispered, “Brother Monkey, that’s Jiang Baiyi’s violin. It’s normal that he’s scared.”

 

“Jiang Baiyi isn’t shit!” Sha Xiaohou slapped the back of that person’s head.

 

Sha Xiaohou hated these cowards. They were the most enthusiastic when it came to bullying or shaking down younger students, but the moment they heard the name Jiang Baiyi, they turned into sniveling dogs. He had finally found someone in Shen Yixing who dared to talk back to Jiang Baiyi, yet when he told him to smash a violin, he kept making excuses about being afraid of getting into trouble.

 

“What’s so scary about Jiang Baiyi?” Sha Xiaohou roared at Shen Yixing, “Even if he saw me, he’d have to cry and call me ‘daddy’!”

 

Bang.

 

The door to the innermost stall was suddenly kicked open. Sha Xiaohou and Shen Yixing both looked toward the sound.

 

A tall, thin boy was standing in front of the warped door. Underneath his black, messy hair, his eyebrows were sharp and heroic, and his long, narrow eyes held a mocking smile. As he looked up at the crowd, that smile slowly turned into an endless coldness, like an icicle in the middle of winter, making people feel a strange, sharp pain just looking at him.

 

“It’s Jiang Baiyi.”

 

Someone stuttered that name, and everyone present went pale.

 

Shen Yixing was all too familiar with the name Jiang Baiyi. He was the main character, the ‘top,’ in a trashy BL novel Shen Yixing had once read. He remembered dropping that novel before he’d even finished three chapters because the plot moved at a glacial pace. The main character’s ‘school bully’ aura was way too strong, and the main character, the ‘bottom,’ was basically just background scenery. Watching it felt like a total waste of time.

 

If he remembered correctly, the book also featured a minor cannon fodder character with the exact same name as him, who liked to act recklessly and court death.

 

The second chapter mentioned that this minor character had run into Jiang Baiyi while trying to smash his violin. Not only did he get beaten up, but later, because he bullied the main character, he was beaten by Jiang Baiyi until he was forced to drop out of school. After that, he seemingly never appeared in the story again.

 

Shen Yixing pinched his own palm. After confirming this wasn’t a dream, he gasped.

 

He had… transmigrated? He was inside the book?

 

Did that mean he was now that brainless cannon fodder who was about to be beaten until he dropped out of school?

 

Shen Yixing was speechless. The people in the room were too busy staring at Jiang Baiyi to notice him. Jiang Baiyi leaned lazily against the bathroom door, his school uniform jacket slung casually over his shoulder, calmly flicking a lighter in his hand.

 

The bathroom was dead silent. Because there were so many of them, Sha Xiaohou’s lackeys glared at Jiang Baiyi, but not a single one of them dared to underestimate him.

 

Everyone knew Jiang Baiyi fought hard. These guys had been suppressed by him since their freshman year, and they all hoped for a chance to beat him up and vent their anger.

 

“I just came here to use the bathroom, and I ran into someone who wants to be a daddy.” Jiang Baiyi raised his chin, a look of contempt on his face. “What, did you forget the painful lesson from last month?”

 

Sha Xiaohou clenched his fists. When he fought Jiang Baiyi last month, he had been pinned to the ground for a long time, and during the struggle, he’d had half a tooth knocked out. He hadn’t even gone to get it fixed yet, waiting for a chance to take revenge on Jiang Baiyi.

 

Someone behind him leaned in and asked, “Brother Monkey, what do we do?”

 

Sha Xiaohou gritted his teeth. He’d already talked the talk, and if he backed down now, he’d be the coward. He licked the spot where his tooth was missing, his desire for revenge reigniting. He roared, “Together! Beat him to death!”

 

Jiang Baiyi scoffed, stepping lightly back half a step, perfectly dodging Sha Xiaohou’s punch. Before Sha Xiaohou could stabilize his center of gravity, Jiang Baiyi grabbed his fist, yanked him down, and drove an elbow hard into his back.

 

Sha Xiaohou was slammed into the bathroom door. The others didn’t stay idle and rushed toward Jiang Baiyi all at once.

 

Shen Yixing frowned and backed away. He never liked watching others fight, let alone participating. The book didn’t mention this specific scene, but if they kept fighting and happened to run into a teacher, everyone involved would definitely be punished.

 

“Fuck, there are so many of you and you can’t even beat him, you bunch of useless trash!”

 

Someone who had been kicked away slid across the floor near Shen Yixing’s feet. That person rolled over, grabbed Shen Yixing’s ankle tightly, and slurred, “Shen Yixing, you fuck, do something!”

 

A sharp pain shot up from his ankle. Shen Yixing frowned. It was his most sensitive spot. Looking at the red scratch marks on his ankle, Shen Yixing didn’t even think before kicking the guy aside.

 

On the other side, there was another loud thud. Sha Xiaohou groaned, cursing, “Your mother, this brat really has some moves.”

 

Shen Yixing looked over. Three or five people were sprawled on the ground. Jiang Baiyi was half-crouched in front of Sha Xiaohou, his knee pressed firmly against his stomach. Jiang Baiyi reached out and tapped the guy’s head, speaking casually, “Next time you go out, bring a brain. Don’t go out with a head full of water and think you can fly to heaven, understand?”

 

Sha Xiaohou’s body twitched violently. Jiang Baiyi’s eyes were smiling, but Sha Xiaohou felt an endless coldness and terror behind that smile. The last time he saw that look, his face had been punched hard. By the time he came to, his mouth was full of blood and he’d lost half a tooth.

 

Sha Xiaohou’s pupils shrank. He gathered his courage and screamed, “Jiang Baiyi, you’re not human, you’re an animal! Did your mother never teach you to respect your elders?”

 

“Say that again?” Jiang Baiyi said coldly, completely unaffected by the insult. He added a little force to his hand, forcing the other guy to look up.

 

Sha Xiaohou tilted his head with great effort, his mouth curling in resentment, trying to hit Jiang Baiyi’s sore spot. “Oh, I almost forgot. You, you’re just a, kid with a mother who didn’t raise you.”

 

Shen Yixing, standing at the door, felt a tremor in his heart. The book hadn’t mentioned Jiang Baiyi’s family background, at least not in the first three chapters.

 

Having a mother but not being raised by her, did that mean Jiang Baiyi lived in a single-parent household?

 

However, Shen Yixing lost that sympathy for Jiang Baiyi’s background in less than half a second. He had grown up in other people’s homes his whole life, so why should he pity someone else? At least Jiang Baiyi had a family; Shen Yixing didn’t even have that.

 

“I think you’re just asking for a beating.”

 

Jiang Baiyi tightened his grip. Sha Xiaohou’s neck turned pale, his face flushed red, and he looked like he couldn’t breathe. The bravado he’d had just a moment ago vanished. Sha Xiaohou caught sight of Shen Yixing at the bathroom door, pointed a finger at him with great difficulty, and gasped, “If you want to fight, then, have the guts to, hit him too.”

 

Jiang Baiyi tilted his head slightly, tossed Sha Xiaohou aside with disgust, and Sha Xiaohou collapsed to the ground, gasping for air, not even caring about the dirty bathroom floor.

 

“Pathetic.” Jiang Baiyi brushed off his school uniform and stood up, kicking one of Sha Xiaohou’s lackeys in the calf, causing him to howl in pain. “Fighting relies on skill, not luck.” He put his jacket back on, glanced nonchalantly at Shen Yixing, and said with an arrogant flair, “Based on your movements, you guys should just join a square dancing competition.”

 

Shen Yixing looked away cautiously. He saw Sha Xiaohou slam a fist against the ground, glare with hatred, and, while Jiang Baiyi’s back was turned, quietly pull out a small knife he had hidden.

 

“Jiang Baiyi, I’ll f*ck you!”

 

Someone next to him suddenly shoved Shen Yixing. The sound of the blade slicing through the school uniform was clear in his ears. Shen Yixing bumped into Jiang Baiyi, pinning him against the bathroom door. A large tear appeared on his sleeve, and he felt a stinging pain in his arm.

 

Someone grabbed him by the collar and pulled him aside. Jiang Baiyi stepped over Shen Yixing and landed a heavy kick on Sha Xiaohou’s chest.

 

The knife and the person holding it were instantly separated. The blade flew through the air, creating an arc before falling to the ground with a clang.

 

The people lying on the floor, seeing their boss kicked flying by Jiang Baiyi, stared in shock. Terrified of getting beaten again, they rolled their eyes and started playing dead on the floor.

 

“What are you all doing!”

 

The dean, known as “King Kong,” stood at the door with a dark expression. He had just taken a detour to use the bathroom and coincidentally ran into these problem students on the school’s blacklist.

 

“Fighting again?” He saw the knife and the people lying on the ground and immediately became alert. “Who brought that knife?”

 

No one answered him. The dean’s anger flared up, and he roared, “All of you, get out here!”

 

In the office, everyone involved in the bathroom fight stood in a line from left to right. Except for Shen Yixing and Jiang Baiyi, who looked calm, everyone else had swollen faces, wincing and moaning.

 

“You two are from Class 1 of the third year,” the dean pointed his finger from Shen Yixing to Sha Xiaohou, “And you all are from Class 8 of the third year. The two classes are separated by an entire teaching building, and you can still find a way to fight?”

 

“What kind of school is Tongnan National Music School? It’s a music school! People who study music should be cultured and refined. Look at what you’ve done, it’s an insult to music! An insult to culture!”

 

Jiang Baiyi leaned against the desk, acting like a bystander, and clicked his tongue in agreement. “Mm, it really is too much.”

 

The dean’s gaze swept toward Jiang Baiyi. That handsome face was filled with indifference; he couldn’t find a single trace of remorse. In the past, the dean had caught Jiang Baiyi breaking the rules more often than anyone else. For a student who relied on family background to get into school and had such a rebellious nature, he had simply given up on discipline, usually turning a blind eye to his behavior. But it was different now. They were fighting and using knives. This was a serious violation of school rules and had ruined the school’s atmosphere. He had to give this group a stern lecture today to set an example.

 

The dean slammed the table. “Did I tell you to speak?”

 

Jiang Baiyi smiled. “I was conducting a self-reflection.”

 

“Shut your mouth!”

 

Jiang Baiyi shrugged, palms up, and wisely shut his mouth.

 

The dean sat in his chair, spitting as he lectured. He knew Jiang Baiyi was smooth-talking and could confuse him with just a few words, so he rolled his eyes at him and decided to target Shen Yixing, who was standing beside him.

 

“Shen Yixing!”

 

Shen Yixing looked up, staring at the dean with an expressionless face, waiting for whatever he was going to say next.

 

The dean looked at Shen Yixing and suddenly choked on his words. Based on his current understanding, Shen Yixing was the victim in this fight, and after thinking about it, he couldn’t find anything to scold him for.

 

At this moment, a burly boy covering half his face said, “Teacher, teacher, teacher, Shen Yixing, he, he kicked my face.”

 

Shen Yixing turned his head to look. The boy speaking had half his face swollen, looking like the guy who had grabbed his ankle in the bathroom. It had been so chaotic back there, and the guy was ugly, so Shen Yixing hadn’t even realized he’d kicked him.

 

“Fine, you shut your mouth too.” The dean felt his head throbbing. School was almost over. He wanted to scold whoever he could, and the rest could wait until evening study hall.

 

“Oh, Dean Jin, Shen Yixing’s scores in the mock exams this semester aren’t ideal. He got an F in music theory, his piano performance was out of tune, and he couldn’t even sing a children’s song on key.”

 

A teacher in the office made this comment, giving the dean an idea. As the dean and also the math teacher for Class 1, he hadn’t settled the score with Shen Yixing for that 4-point math test yet.

 

Taking this opportunity, he stared with his small eyes, dug out an exam paper, and slapped it on the desk.

 

“Four points in math. You got one multiple-choice question right on the whole paper. Tell me, how did you even manage that?”

 

Hearing the score, Sha Xiaohou and his lackeys tried to suppress their laughter. No matter how poorly they did, they had never scored in the single digits.

 

Shen Yixing looked at the score on the paper. Among the sea of red crosses, there was only one checkmark, and a big “4” sat next to his crooked name.

 

That was a truly suffocating grade. Even a normal person guessing blindly wouldn’t do this badly. Shen Yixing had lived for eighteen years and had never been this embarrassed. His eyelids twitched, and he was very surprised by the original owner’s academic performance.

 

“Dean Jin, you should talk about the fighting first.” Jiang Baiyi intervened, mostly because he suddenly remembered that he had only gotten two multiple-choice questions right himself.

 

Shen Yixing looked at Jiang Baiyi and met his deep eyes. From that gaze, Shen Yixing felt as if Jiang Baiyi was saying, You don’t have to thank your daddy.

 

After finishing with the grades, the dean returned to the main topic and pursed his lips to find a new target for his scolding.

 

“Laugh, laugh, what are you laughing at? Is using a knife to fight something to be proud of? Is it fun to be beaten into a pig’s head?”

 

At the same time, the bell for the end of class rang in the hallway, and the cheers of students from other classes squeezed through the gaps in the door.

 

The dean glanced at the time on his computer and said to Shen Yixing and Jiang Baiyi, annoyed, “You two go first. Go back and write a five-thousand-word self-reflection, and hand it to your homeroom teacher tomorrow morning!”

 

Jiang Baiyi raised an eyebrow and strolled out the door.

 

Shen Yixing followed him at a leisurely pace. As he closed the office door behind him, Jiang Baiyi suddenly stopped.

 

Jiang Baiyi lifted the torn sleeve of Shen Yixing’s uniform. Shen Yixing usually challenged him and tried to pick fights in class, but today he had actually willingly blocked a knife for him. Had the sun risen from the west today?

 

“You don’t hate me, do you? You were willing to block a knife for me today, not bad, classmate.”

 

“You’re overthinking it.” Shen Yixing shook his hand off and walked toward the other end of the hallway.

 

“Hey, you’re going the wrong way.” Jiang Baiyi gestured with his chin to the opposite direction. “That way.”

 

Shen Yixing froze in place. A few seconds later, he calmly turned around and walked the other way.

 

Jiang Baiyi narrowed his eyes, sized up Shen Yixing’s back for a moment, and then quickly caught up.

 

“Tell me, why did you want to smash my violin?” Jiang Baiyi never played the violin, and he didn’t know how to play. The one he bought was just for decoration.

 

The book didn’t write why the original owner wanted to smash the violin. Perhaps it was just a brainless plot point that existed solely to showcase Jiang Baiyi’s aura as a school bully.

 

Shen Yixing glanced faintly at Jiang Baiyi and said, “I don’t know.”

 

“Just be honest. I’m not going to beat you up today.”

 

The setting sun stretched their shadows long. The lights in the hallway turned on automatically when it hit the scheduled time. As they passed the bathroom, Shen Yixing stopped abruptly.

 

There was a large, clear glass mirror mounted by the sinks outside the bathroom. He walked over slowly and stared straight at the face in the mirror.

 

His hair was ink-black, soft, and straight. Under the fluorescent lights, it shone brightly. His face was clean and clear, like a piece of finely polished white jade. Beneath long eyelashes were tea-colored eyes, still reflecting a bit of bright light.

 

He rubbed his eyes and looked a few more times. Without a doubt, the face of the original owner in the mirror was exactly the same as his own.

 

In the mirror, Jiang Baiyi stood behind Shen Yixing, the corner of his mouth twitching, and he said ruthlessly, “Stop looking. You won’t see flowers bloom in the mirror no matter how long you look.”

 

Shen Yixing came to his senses, glanced at Jiang Baiyi through the reflection, and turned on the faucet to wash his hands.

 

“Jiang Baiyi.”

 

A soft voice came from behind them. Shen Yixing and Jiang Baiyi turned around at the same time. A thin, frail-looking boy was standing behind them, clutching a few sheets of music.

 

When the boy saw Shen Yixing, his flushed face instantly turned deathly pale. He couldn’t help but take half a step back, a flash of horror appearing in his eyes.

 

“Shen, Shen Yixing?”