Transmigrated as the School Hunk's Arch-Nemesis [Book Transmigration] - Chapter 7

Ruan Ming lowered the hand he had used to block Shen Yixing. His eyes were hollow as he swept over Shen Yixing’s face, his lips pressed tightly together as he stepped back half a pace.

In the novels he had read previously, Shen Yixing was just a cannon fodder character with absolutely no musical talent, so how could he have performed those two incredibly difficult pieces so flawlessly today? He had spent months practicing the G-sharp minor Etude alone. He had been determined to take first place, but now it seemed that with Shen Yixing around, winning was impossible.

He couldn’t let someone steal his thunder twice, regardless of who this person was. The “genius” of this world had to be him.

Ruan Ming clenched his fists tightly, but after a moment, he forced a look of relief, and those shallow dimples appeared on his cheeks again.

“I’m really sorry,” Ruan Ming lowered his head to apologize, “Your performance just now reminded me of someone, you feel quite similar, so I was distracted for a moment.”

“If there’s nothing else, I’m leaving.”

“Huh?” Ruan Ming was stunned, watching the person walk away. Flames of resentment and anger ignited deep in his heart, but he hid it well.

The class performance concluded, and students were expected to wait for the judges to finalize scores and award prizes before leaving. However, when the host announced the first place for the grade level, they found that the boy from Class 1 who had performed the hellish masterpiece had already left the auditorium, leaving the trophy for his classmates to collect.

Outside the auditorium, Zhao Ci held the first-place trophy, looking around in confusion for Shen Yixing.

A hand suddenly landed on his shoulder. Zhao Ci thought it was Shen Yixing.

“Deskmate! Your trophy is with me!”

He turned around, only to find it wasn’t his deskmate, but his roommate, the chubby boy Tang Yuan.

Tang Yuan casually took the trophy to inspect it before shoving it back into Zhao Ci’s arms.

Tang Yuan and Zhao Ci were close roommates, so he didn’t mince his words, “Why have you been getting so close to Shen Yixing lately?”

Zhao Ci patted his bulging right pocket, where his pocket money from winning a ten-dollar bet was stashed.

“Just because my deskmate managed to win me next month’s food money from Jin Sheng, I’ll love him for a lifetime!”

“Give it a rest.”

Tang Yuan curled his lip, glancing cautiously at Jiang Baiyi, who was walking behind them lost in thought.

“Yi-ge, how are you getting home later?”

Jiang Baiyi didn’t seem to hear him. Tang Yuan raised his voice a little, “Yi-ge! How are you getting home later?”

“Taking the bus.” Jiang Baiyi lifted his eyelids, shot him a cold glare, and spoke with clear impatience.

Tang Yuan and Zhao Ci looked at each other, both stunned that Jiang Baiyi, who was clearly well-off, would choose to squeeze onto a public bus outside the school. It was basically masochism.

Outside the gate of the Tongnan National Conservatory, Shen Yixing stared at a map for a long time before finally locating the original owner’s home.

According to the navigation route, taking the 003 bus would get him directly to the residential complex.

The station was crowded with students from the conservatory. Other buses arrived every ten minutes, and waves of people came and went, but the 003 bus Shen Yixing was waiting for never appeared.

While he was busy familiarizing himself with the route, a flash of red in his peripheral vision caught his attention. A boy stood beside him. The bangs on his forehead were ruffled by the wind, his school uniform jacket was open, and a black necklace rested against his collarbone, with a silver tag faintly engraved with the letter “Y.”

Jiang Baiyi tilted his head to the side, and Shen Yixing didn’t have time to look away before their eyes locked.

“Shen Yixing, do you always stare at people so directly?”

“No.” Shen Yixing felt awkward at Jiang Baiyi’s remark and quickly lowered his head to focus on his route home.

Jiang Baiyi took a large step toward him, stood still, and intentionally bumped into Shen Yixing’s arm, asking, “You actually know how to play the G-sharp minor Etude?”

Remembering that Jiang Baiyi was also someone who had played piano since childhood in the book, Shen Yixing blurted out, “If you can play it, why wouldn’t I be able to?”

Jiang Baiyi paused for a moment, then grabbed Shen Yixing’s wrist, pulling him firmly toward him. “How did you know I could play?”

Shen Yixing’s mind went blank, the pain in his wrist pulling him back to reality. Up until now, Jiang Baiyi’s grades were as notoriously terrible as the original owner’s, and since he never participated in any piano exams, no one at the conservatory actually knew if Jiang Baiyi could play the piano.

“I…” Shen Yixing hesitated, unable to come up with a good excuse to brush off Jiang Baiyi.

A soft laugh sounded above him. Shen Yixing looked up and saw Jiang Baiyi’s thin lips part, his deep, magnetic voice pouring into his ears.

“You what?”

Shen Yixing pretended to be calm, “I guessed.”

The smile vanished from Jiang Baiyi’s lips. He let go of Shen Yixing’s wrist and proceeded to drape his entire arm over Shen Yixing’s shoulder.

“Classmate, who taught you that way of blending the G-sharp minor Etude and the C-sharp minor Etude?”

Shen Yixing, afraid of exposing himself, used “I learned it online” as an excuse, successfully muddling his way through.

Before long, the yellow 003 bus pulled slowly to a stop in front of them. Shen Yixing wanted to get away from Jiang Baiyi and jump on the bus, but Jiang Baiyi stuck to him like a piece of chewing gum, and even insisted on sitting next to him on the bus.

The sunset light shone into the bus, casting two overlapping shadows on the floor.

Shen Yixing sat closer to the window, trying to put as much distance between them as possible.

When the bus arrived at the entrance of his apartment complex, Shen Yixing shook off Jiang Baiyi like he was a plague.

The residential area was filled with individual villas. Shen Yixing walked around the house and realized there was absolutely nothing to eat.

Having to waste time going out to buy food, he sat on the sofa, exhausted and only wanting to think about life.

The wall clock ticked away. Suddenly, his phone in his pocket vibrated with a new friend request from the class group chat. The person’s avatar was a dog, and the nickname was just a pretentious period. Shen Yixing and Zhao Ci had already added each other, but he wasn’t familiar with anyone else in the class, so he ignored the request.

After lounging at home for a bit, he searched for the nearest supermarket, intending to buy some fruits and vegetables since he hadn’t eaten in several days.

“Discount vegetables, eight yuan a jin, apples five yuan a jin, first come, first served!”

“Young classmate, would you like to take a look?”

“Young classmate, don’t walk so fast, come take a look! Imported cucumbers and baby bok choy, all on special today!”

The saleswoman in the produce section grabbed whoever she could, and Shen Yixing, harassed by the auntie pushing vegetables for a long time, helplessly ended up buying the “imported cucumbers” she was selling.

When selecting seasonings, a clean hand reached out in front of Shen Yixing, naturally placing a few bags of snacks into his basket.

“What a coincidence, Shen Yixing.” Jiang Baiyi reached past Shen Yixing, grabbing the seasonings from the highest shelf for him.

Hearing Jiang Baiyi’s voice, Shen Yixing shuddered. He took the seasonings, speechless, and asked, “Why are you everywhere?”

“I feel like it.”

Jiang Baiyi said it lightly. He glanced at the items on the shelf and placed a jar of brightly colored jam into Shen Yixing’s basket.

“Can’t you get your own stuff, it feels like we aren’t even that close.”

Shen Yixing’s words struck a chord with Jiang Baiyi, who paused while picking out jam.

“We weren’t close before, but things are different now.”

“How so?”

“Why do you talk so much, I said it’s different, so it’s different.”

Jiang Baiyi picked up a few more jars of jam, not bothering to ask if Shen Yixing was willing, and dumped them all into the basket.

The basket grew heavy. Shen Yixing regretted not taking a shopping cart, and even more, regretted not coming out to shop earlier.

Jiang Baiyi looked and grabbed as he went. When he walked past an aisle and turned back, he saw the other person standing in front of a shelf of instant noodles.

Shen Yixing stood there straight like a little poplar tree. When picking out noodles, he leaned forward slightly, revealing his slender neck. The zipper of his school jacket was pulled down halfway, faintly showing his fair skin.

The fluorescent lights of the supermarket shone down, making Shen Yixing’s profile look even fairer.

This pristine image was pleasing to the eye just from afar.

Remembering how Shen Yixing looked while playing the piano this afternoon, Jiang Baiyi took a few extra looks at him and couldn’t help but marvel.

This guy is actually quite good-looking.

Clean and fresh. When he wasn’t talking, he had a bit of a cold, elegant vibe.

His legs were long too, but he seemed a bit thin.

An adult with a child passed by, and Jiang Baiyi snapped out of his thoughts. He saw Shen Yixing struggling to carry the shopping basket, his knuckles turning white, and beads of sweat on his forehead.

Really, the guy who looks thin truly doesn’t have much strength.

Jiang Baiyi strode to Shen Yixing’s side and, acting like a gentleman, took the shopping basket from him.

Facing the variety of instant noodles, Jiang Baiyi asked, “Do you like eating instant noodles?”

“No.” Shen Yixing lowered his eyes. He used to be pressed for time during competitions, and when he had no time to cook, he would often have instant noodles. Even if he didn’t like them, he had to eat them, as one shouldn’t let themselves starve.

Jiang Baiyi couldn’t guess what Shen Yixing was thinking, he just felt that this guy wasn’t as annoying as before.

“Alright, I’ve bought enough, let’s go pay.” Jiang Baiyi’s hand rested naturally on Shen Yixing’s shoulder. He glanced at the cucumbers in the shopping basket and asked, “Why did you buy so many cucumbers?”

“To eat.” Shen Yixing was very unsatisfied with Jiang Baiyi’s hand on his shoulder, and after pushing it away several times without success, he just gave up.

“Can you cook?” At the checkout counter, Jiang Baiyi stood behind Shen Yixing, watching the cashier scan the items one by one.

Shen Yixing responded coldly, “Yeah, a little bit.”

Jiang Baiyi put his hand in his pocket, touched a cold key, then pushed the key deeper into his pocket, took out money, and paid generously.

“Hey, Shen Yixing.”

“What?”

“Let me come over for a meal at your place.”

Shen Yixing packed the vegetables he had chosen and asked in confusion, “Why don’t you eat at home?”

Jiang Baiyi spread his hands and said, “I didn’t bring my keys, and there is no one at my place. We are roommates and classmates, is it wrong to mooch a meal?”

Shen Yixing lost his good mood. Cooking for himself was already troublesome enough, and now there was an extra burden.

He shook his head and said, “I’d rather you didn’t.”

Jiang Baiyi raised his eyebrows, looked Shen Yixing up and down, let his gaze linger on those long legs, and spoke slowly.

“I didn’t say I was going to mooch off you.”

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