What Bad Intentions Could a Spoiled Little Brat Possibly have? - Chapter 25

A total scene of social death.

In the afternoon, it was the elective Mechanics course for Computer Science majors.

Before class began, the rising and falling groans in the classroom were almost enough to lift the roof off. Many students wore “masks of pain,” wailing as they slumped in their seats; they had thought that surviving the college entrance exams meant saying a permanent goodbye to the demonic claws of physics, only to be dealt a heavy blow by the university curriculum.

“I’m seriously over Newton and his little curly hair!” Gu Siming sighed toward the heavens, his entire face buried against the desk. “If an apple falls, let it fall. Why did he have to go and research some ‘Newton’s Three Laws’ just to torture future generations of students…”

As he complained, he stretched out his arm and expertly fished a transparent plastic bottle shaped like an egg out of Cheng Huai’s shirt pocket, shaking out a candy and tossing it into his mouth.

As the cloying sweetness spread across his taste buds, Gu Siming frowned. “Cheng Huai, who are you trying to kill with this sugar? It’s so sweet it makes my throat ache.”

Without looking up, Cheng Huai typed two lines of code on his laptop and said nonchalantly, “I have low blood sugar.”

He paused for a moment, his tongue pressing against an identical candy in his own mouth. “Is it really that sweet? I feel like it’s okay.”

Gu Siming, as if he had anticipated this, threw him a wink and replied in a rehearsed tone: “No matter how sweet it is, it’s not even a ten-thousandth as sweet as you.”

Cheng Huai: “…”

Beside them, Meng Qi put on a face even more pained than when he looked at mechanics formulas. “I’m begging you both, if you don’t speak, no one will think you’re mute!”

As the three of them joked, the hushed discussions from the back rows gradually became clear.

“Quick, look at the forum. A certain ‘man of the hour’ is on the trending posts again.”

“Wants to join the lab? Talk about overestimating oneself… does he really think the lab is a place where just any riffraff can join?”

“Acting like some top student who doesn’t know how to write two lines of code?”

“Could he really be some fanatical pursuer of Senior Fu Zheng? It’s been so long and Senior Fu Zheng hasn’t responded at all, yet he still won’t give up.”

“I told you it was impossible for Senior Fu Zheng to have any relationship with him. That photo must be Photoshopped.”

Ten minutes had passed since the start of class, but the instructor had yet to arrive. The gossip in the classroom grew increasingly brazen; everyone was holding their phones, savoring the latest “melon” freshly harvested from the forum.

Cheng Huai kept his eyes downcast the entire time, as if the surrounding clamor had nothing to do with him. His slender fingers tapped the keys at a steady rhythm, lines of code spreading across the screen like flowing water.

Gu Siming pulled out his phone to check the forum. Before he even finished reading, his face turned red with rage. With a “bang,” he slammed his phone onto the desk and stood up abruptly, his booming voice echoing through the classroom: “Anyone who dares to talk nonsense and spread rumors again, I’ll beat them up one by one!”

Under Gu Siming’s blunt and fiery scolding, the chatter in the classroom did indeed die down for a brief moment.

However, once the crowd realized he had no intention of doing anything beyond verbal threats, those whispers were resurrected and this time, they were even more explicit and sharp.

“Some people’s sidekicks sure know how to curry favor.”

“You’re sticking your neck out for someone here, but maybe they even find you meddlesome.”

“The person himself hasn’t said a word, yet the dog is barking first. Since you love performing so much, why don’t you get on your knees and call me ‘Daddy’?”

Gu Siming trembled with rage, his chest heaving violently. His face turned beet red, and his fists clenched under the table until they creaked.

“Have you said enough?” A cool voice suddenly rang out.

Everyone looked toward the sound to see that Cheng Huai had, at some point, closed his laptop.

He was currently leaning against the edge of the desk, toyed with a silver lighter in his fingers. The crisp sound of the lid opening and closing was exceptionally clear in the sudden silence. He tilted his head slightly, his gaze landing lightly on the two boys who had been shouting the loudest.

Click— The lighter flipped between Cheng Huai’s fingertips.

The classroom was instantly filled with the sound of collective gasps. These young students, having just escaped the shackles of high school, might have been restless at heart, but they still retained a lingering respect for the rules.

Cheng Huai’s blatant playing with a lighter was undoubtedly an open challenge to the established order.

Coincidentally, the instigators were the same two boys Cheng Huai had locked in the restroom last time. It seemed the previous lesson hadn’t been deep enough.

Cheng Huai’s voice wasn’t high or low, but it was just enough for the whole class to hear. In an instant, all eyes were focused on him. Many people frowned, unable to understand why this person at the center of the controversy was looking for trouble again.

Cheng Huai ignored these stares. He lowered his eyes and chuckled softly, his tone as nonchalant as if discussing the weather: “With breath that stinks this much—”

He looked up, a cold, sharp edge flashing in his eyes. “Did you eat lunch in the toilet?”

Gu Siming hurriedly tugged at Cheng Huai’s sleeve, advising in a low voice, “Forget it, don’t stoop to their level.”

Cheng Huai had no intention of entangling himself with these people. If they were only attacking him personally, those malicious words would be like chewing gum stuck to the bottom of a shoe—unpleasant, but ignorable.

But involving those close to him was his bottom line.

Last time it was Fu Zheng; this time it was Gu Siming.

If he let others suffer criticism because of him, it was something he absolutely could not allow.

“Damn it! Stop acting so high and mighty!” The boy was thoroughly provoked. He slammed his hand down, rolled up his sleeves, and stood up, posing as if he were ready to start a fight.

“That’s enough.” Cheng Huai hopped off the desk, stood straight, and said airily, “If we’re really going to tear into each other, then…”

Before the last words could leave his mouth, Cheng Huai choked.

Through the classroom window, he caught sight of a figure he knew all too well passing through the hallway and walking toward the classroom door.

“Then what? Say it! Are you chickening out?!” Seeing Cheng Huai suddenly lose his words with an ever-changing expression, the boy became even more arrogant in his provocation.

Cheng Huai ignored the provocation. He watched helplessly as Fu Zheng walked through the classroom doors, one hand in his pocket and the other holding a textbook, stepping onto the podium with a composed stride.

Startled cries began to break out from the boys and girls in the class.

“Senior?”

“Fu Zheng!!”

“Holy crap, it really is him!!”

“Oh my god, what a day!!”

Gu Siming was also startled. He gave Cheng Huai’s sleeve a hard tug. “Crap, did you call him here?”

Cheng Huai stared blankly at the podium, his previous sharpness completely vanished. The lighter in his fingers accidentally slipped, and his thumb unconsciously pressed down.

With a soft “ting,” a flame flickered in his palm.

Standing on the podium, Fu Zheng’s gaze lingered on Cheng Huai for a moment before slowly shifting downward, fixing on the jumping flame in his hand.

He narrowed his eyes. In just a flash, he looked away. He then silently unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt collar and slowly rolled up his sleeves. Placing the textbook on the multimedia console on the podium, his gaze swept over the entire class before landing back on Cheng Huai: “Isn’t it tiring to keep standing?”

Gu Siming tugged his sleeve again, and only then did Cheng Huai snap back to his senses.

His cheeks flushed crimson as he hurriedly sat back in his seat and tossed the lighter into his drawer. The fiery momentum from before felt like a popped bubble, fizzing out; however, he couldn’t hide the ripples of joy shimmering in his eyes.

The chatter that had been rising and falling in the classroom fell into a dead silence the moment Fu Zheng stepped onto the podium.

Yet, beneath this silence, an even more turbulent undercurrent surged. Almost everyone’s eyes darted back and forth between Cheng Huai and Fu Zheng with blatant curiosity and anticipation, as if waiting for a carefully choreographed play to begin.

Fu Zheng tapped his knuckles lightly on the multimedia console. The crisp sound drew everyone’s focus even further.

“Professor Guo has taken a temporary leave of absence,” his voice was clear and resonant in the quiet room. “I will be taking over this class for now. Since this is an introductory course, I will only be responsible for helping you establish the basic framework. Subsequent teaching will still be handled by Professor Guo, so please don’t worry.”

He looked indifferent. As he spoke, his Adam’s apple bobbed slightly with the syllables. He exuded the steady aura unique to a mature man. When he occasionally reached out to operate the multimedia equipment, the faint blue veins visible under his rolled-up sleeves caused several girls in the front row to whisper excitedly to one another.

This was a legendary figure recognized by the entire School of Computer Science. Usually, he was as elusive as a dragon, yet here he was, standing right in front of them teaching.

Many people quietly raised their phones, and the sounds of shutters echoed softly throughout the classroom.

A bold girl in the front row couldn’t help but ask, “Senior, why did Professor Guo ask you to substitute for the class?”

Fu Zheng was looking down, adjusting the projection equipment. He didn’t look up as he fluently wrote today’s course topic on the new electronic whiteboard. He replied flatly, “Professor Guo was my mentor when I participated in the National Physics Competition in high school.”

“Wow—” A wave of amazement rippled through the classroom. “As expected of the Great God!”

Cheng Huai was also somewhat surprised. He vaguely remembered that when Fu Zheng came to Kyoto for a physics competition one summer in high school, he had insisted on following him. Fu Zheng couldn’t win the argument, so he had no choice but to bring him along.

During those days, Fu Zheng would be in the classroom for intensive training while Cheng Huai sat in the faculty office doing his homework.

It turned out that the Professor Guo from back then was the instructor for this very course.

The world is truly small. Cheng Huai subconsciously pursed his lips.

Gu Siming propped his textbook upright on the desk, shrinking himself behind the book to whisper in Cheng Huai’s ear: “Your brother didn’t come here specifically to back you up, did he?”

Meng Qi also crouched down to join them, glancing at the cold-faced Fu Zheng on the podium. He lowered his voice: “I don’t think so. The Senior looks so serious; could he be here to make things difficult for our Huai-bao?”

“No way!” Gu Siming whispered as loudly as he could. “The Senior would never make things hard for Huai-bao!”

He had personally witnessed Fu Zheng carrying Cheng Huai away in front of everyone. If not for that, he probably would have been swayed by those rumors too.

Cheng Huai looked up unintentionally and happened to lock eyes with Fu Zheng.

Fu Zheng’s gaze was cold and chilly, giving him a fright. Thinking he hadn’t done anything wrong, he lowered his head and pretended to open his textbook to preview the material properly.

Just then, Gu Siming finished his whispering and was about to pull his propped-up textbook back. In the process, his elbow accidentally bumped the pencil case at the corner of Cheng Huai’s desk. The pencil case hit the floor with a clatter, and Cheng Huai hurried to lean down to pick it up.

This ducking down was the catalyst for disaster. The pocket of his shirt was somewhat shallow, and as he tilted, the item inside slid out. The egg-shaped transparent plastic bottle tumbled to the floor, letting out a sharp sound in the silent classroom.

Worse yet, the impact caused the opening in the middle of the “eggshell” to pop open. Multicolored candies scrambled to pour out, pitter-pattering as they spilled all over the ground.

Those crystalline candies were like naughty little elves, happily bouncing and rolling across the polished floor, creating a continuous, crisp series of sounds.

Cheng Huai remained frozen in his hunched position under the desk. This sudden accident caught him completely off guard; he had no time to stop the “candy rain” from descending.

At this moment, Fu Zheng had just listed several mechanics formulas on the whiteboard. The dense sound, like pearls falling onto a jade plate, abruptly interrupted his train of thought. A few candies even rolled the furthest, skipping all the way until they reached his feet.

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