Transmigrated as the School Hunk's Arch-Nemesis [Book Transmigration] - Chapter 5 

After math class, Shen Yixing was lost in thought, staring at the performance sign-up sheet Qiao Meng had given him. The form only allowed registration for four instruments: piano, guitar, violin, and drums. The latter three required you to bring your own instrument, and only the piano was provided by the school. Thinking of the guitar lying in his instrument cabinet, Shen Yixing’s pen, which was hovering over the paper, paused above “piano.”

“Deskmate, don’t sign up, Ruan Ming is participating too!” Zhao Ci rubbed his shoulder. After an entire class, he felt like his whole body was falling apart. He mimicked piano keys on his desk, stabbing at them randomly with his ten fingers, and added, “Unless you have superb piano skills and can suppress the ‘Piano Prince,’ it’s no use.”

Thinking of how Shen Yixing had scored an F on the last placement test, Zhao Ci felt like he was listening to a fantasy.

Shen Yixing pointed to the piano on the sign-up sheet and asked, “Zhao Ci, just how amazing is Ruan Ming?”

Zhao Ci got excited at the question. “Even our principal, who never praises anyone, calls him a musical prodigy, so that’s how amazing he is! Didn’t you hear? He just got back from an international competition a few days ago!”

“Oh, I see, that is pretty amazing.”

Shen Yixing acknowledged it with a compliment. He had never met any so-called “prodigies” in his life, and if Ruan Ming weren’t the protagonist of this world, he’d actually like to spar with him.

After finishing his spiel about Ruan Ming, Zhao Ci pursed his lips and said dismissively, “But he has a bad personality, he’s arrogant, and no one really likes him.”

No one likes him, yet he manages to get the male lead’s attention in the end—it really is the standard trope for a trashy novel.

Shen Yixing smiled inwardly, but suddenly, a boy crowded next to him.

“Yo, is the jinx really planning on signing up for the performance?” The boy’s voice was piercing and irritating.

Soon, others joined in. “For real? Don’t be so embarrassing.”

“Oh my, why are you all talking to Student Shen Yixing like that!” Qiao Meng sat in her chair, shaking her curls. “If he doesn’t enter hell, who will?”

The boy snatched the sign-up sheet from Shen Yixing’s hand and said in a snide, mocking tone, “Wow, is Star-ge planning on signing up for piano?”

“Why are you grabbing people’s stuff!” Zhao Ci stood up, wanting to grab the sign-up sheet back for his deskmate, but he wasn’t tall enough and failed to get it.

The boy rudely pushed Zhao Ci back into his seat. “Since when did a little shrimp like you become the jinx’s lackey?”

Shen Yixing sat in his chair, looking up at the boy.

This boy seemed to be called Jin Sheng, and he liked stirring up trouble even more than the original owner had. But this guy was more cowardly and never dared to bark in front of Jiang Baiyi.

“What are you staring at!”

Jin Sheng had never taken Shen Yixing seriously before, but seeing Shen Yixing’s calm, deep eyes staring straight at him now, he felt a shiver of dread.

“Give me back the form.” Shen Yixing’s tone was flat, without even blinking.

“You, you, you, what’s the use of you having it! Even if you sign up, you’ll just go and embarrass our class!”

Jin Sheng’s hand, clutching the sign-up sheet, broke into a light sweat, but he still had no intention of returning it to Shen Yixing.

“Give me back the form.” Shen Yixing repeated himself.

Jin Sheng gritted his teeth, cursed “a gentleman doesn’t argue with a villain,” and dropped the sign-up sheet in disgust.

“Hmph, even if I give it to you, you won’t necessarily sign up, and even if you do, you won’t necessarily win first place. What are you acting so tough for!”

Someone pulled at Jin Sheng and laughed, “Doesn’t Shen Yixing love acting tough? Either way, he’ll be the one losing face later, as long as he’s happy, hahaha.”

Jin Sheng laughed upon hearing this. “Hahaha, you’re right. If he could get first place, then pigs could climb trees!”

Jin Sheng’s words triggered a roar of laughter from the people around them. Not many people went out during the break, so everyone gathered around to watch Shen Yixing being mocked.

Zhao Ci couldn’t listen anymore, arguing, “We’re all classmates, why do you have to be so nasty!”

Jin Sheng waved his hand impatiently. “I don’t want to argue with you, go play somewhere else.”

The onlookers saw that Shen Yixing had no reaction, and after mocking him for a while, they felt it was boring.

“How dull, the jinx isn’t even getting angry today!”

“The jinx must have wilted, hahahaha!”

“Forget him, let’s do our homework!”

After Jin Sheng had been hovering in front of Shen Yixing for a while and found it boring, he reached out his finger and poked Shen Yixing’s shoulder. “Jinx, stop acting tough, okay? Don’t risk losing face in front of the whole school just to act tough. If you could actually beat the ‘Piano Prince’ from the next class, I could kneel and call you Grandpa.”

Seeing Jin Sheng still wanting to poke him a few more times, Shen Yixing raised his hand, twisted Jin Sheng’s arm outward, and picked up the sign-up sheet, cleanly and decisively signing his name on it.

Jin Sheng’s arm was twisted outward by Shen Yixing with great force, and he howled in pain, “F*ck! Shen Yixing, let go, damn you!”

Shen Yixing let go, put the cap on his pen, and said in a flat tone, “Then you’d better remember what you said.”

Jin Sheng was so scared he didn’t dare look into Shen Yixing’s eyes, and could only stare at the sign-up sheet on the table.

On the sign-up sheet, a checkmark was drawn in the “piano” column, and Shen Yixing’s name was signed at the end.

Rubbing his sore arm, Jin Sheng muttered “psychopath” under his breath and scurried out of the classroom.

Jiang Baiyi had been playing basketball for the entire period. As soon as he returned to the classroom, he bumped into someone who wasn’t watching where they were going. He couldn’t remember the name, only that the person was in his class. After the person terrifiedly apologized, they vanished without a trace.

“Am I that scary?” Jiang Baiyi shrugged, puzzled.

“Deskmate, you were so damn cool just now!”

As soon as Jiang Baiyi sat down, he saw Zhao Ci’s eyes filled with admiration—the kind of look one usually reserves for a celebrity idol.

“Mm.” Shen Yixing put away his things, dug out a workbook, and started doing problems.

After finishing his admiration, Zhao Ci suddenly realized something.

“Wait! Deskmate, you signed up for the piano performance, do you want to compete with Ruan Ming for first place?!”

“No.” Shen Yixing flipped a page in his workbook. “It’s about participation.”

Zhao Ci slapped his forehead. He could already imagine the look on Jin Sheng and his group’s faces when they collectively mocked Shen Yixing after the performance.

Jiang Baiyi, sitting behind them, pricked up his ears, intentionally or unintentionally listening to the conversation between Shen Yixing and Zhao Ci.

He didn’t quite understand half of what he heard, so he tapped Tang Yuan next to him and asked, “What happened in class while I was gone?”

Tang Yuan had been in the classroom the whole time, and he had seen the scene where Jin Sheng was taught a lesson by Shen Yixing for asking for trouble.

“Brother Yi,” Tang Yuan glanced at Shen Yixing, leaned toward Jiang Baiyi, and whispered, “I think the jinx is acting a bit weird today.”

Jiang Baiyi paused the hand he was using to spin his pen and asked with curiosity, “How so?”

Tang Yuan pointed at Shen Yixing’s back. “He was mocked by Jin Sheng for a long time just now. In the past, he would have been baring his fangs and claws to hit someone, but today, he was actually so composed.”

“Why was Shen Yixing…” Jiang Baiyi couldn’t recall the name, paused, and asked, “Why was he mocked by that guy?”

“Sigh, it’s because the jinx was acting tough again. It seems like he’s planning to participate in the school-wide performance.” Finally, Tang Yuan added mysteriously, “And he signed up for piano!”

“Is he looking for a beating?”

“Brother Yi, do you also think he’s acting weird!”

Jiang Baiyi was speechless. “Anything else besides that?”

“Yes! Yes!” Tang Yuan said again, “He hit Jin Sheng later. That look in his eyes, that temperament, it was so calm, so cold, you know what I mean!”

“Shen Yixing hit someone?” Jiang Baiyi asked.

Tang Yuan mimicked how Shen Yixing twisted Jin Sheng’s arm. “Yeah, just like this, twisting it outward with force, tsk tsk, it looked painful just watching it.”

Jiang Baiyi leaned back in his chair, narrowing his eyes as he stared at Shen Yixing’s back. After a while, he said, “Hasn’t Shen Yixing always been like that?”

Tang Yuan countered, “No! That’s not it! He always used to claw people with his nails when he fought! I really think he’s acting weird, he’s been talking so little today!”

Jiang Baiyi was annoyed. “The reason he’s talking less is because Wang Fusheng scolded him badly earlier. I think you’re the one talking too much today, are you possessed?”

“I…” That was because you were the one who asked me.

Tang Yuan felt a bit aggrieved, so he sensibly shut his mouth and didn’t say another word.

On the day of the school-wide performance, the rain that had lasted a week finally stopped. The sun, which had been hiding under the clouds, revealed a corner, and the humid weather soon turned sultry again.

The performance venue was set in the school’s performance hall. The number of classes participating in the performance wasn’t eight as Qiao Meng had said, but eight per grade.

Grade 10 and Grade 11 had over a dozen classes, and they had to fight and scramble for spots. By the time it reached Grade 12, there were exactly eight classes, so they even skipped the preliminary selection.

In the back area of the performance hall, each grade was assigned a preparation room.

The prep room for Grade 12 was piled high with drums, in every color imaginable; even more exaggeratedly, one drum surface had a photo of Jin Gang pasted on it.

In the corner of the prep room, several girls playing the violin were gathered together, scrolling through their phones. One of them suddenly pointed at a boy sitting on the sofa reading a music score and shouted in a low voice.

“Which class is that boy in the blue school uniform over there? He’s so handsome!”

“I don’t know, is he the new transfer student?”

“He looks exactly like my dream lover. I really want to go up and ask for his WeChat.”

“Haha, isn’t your dream lover Jiang Baiyi?”

“Everyone be a little more reserved. We’ll find out which class he’s in when it’s time to perform.”

The performance began with Grade 10, with each grade going on stage in reverse order. In other words, Grade 12 Class 1 had to perform last.

Since entering the preparation room, Shen Yixing had been reading the score to pass the time. The wait time in the back area was so long that he had almost memorized the “G-minor Etude” in his hand.

After reading the score for so long, his eyes were a little tired. Shen Yixing blinked and raised his head, ready to take a break.

“I didn’t think you’d actually come to participate.”

Ruan Ming sat down beside Shen Yixing with his music score, leaned naturally close to him, and asked in a soft voice, “Did you sign up for piano, too?”

“Mm.” Shen Yixing leaned his body to the side, not wanting to be too close to Ruan Ming.

“What are you planning to play? ‘Star Variations’?”

There was a smile on Ruan Ming’s face, and there were shallow dimples at the corners of his mouth. It was clearly a beautiful face, but Shen Yixing felt uncomfortable just looking at it.

“Star Variations” was a piece of sheet music only for beginners. Ruan Ming’s meaning in asking this was very clear, he was looking down on him between the lines.

Shen Yixing put away the music score and responded with nothing but a faint smile.

Buzz.

The phone in his pocket began to vibrate. Shen Yixing was startled and took it out.

The black screen lit up with a faint light, and the caller ID displayed “Uncle.”

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