The young man’s chest was hard as a board. The wound on his forehead hadn’t fully healed, making him look particularly fierce. When he wasn’t smiling, his tone was icy cold, and his dark eyes gazing down at her were especially terrifying.

Meng Ting was afraid of him like this. She looked up at him, her eyelashes trembling slightly. “No, it’s not that.”

At that moment, Class 3 was next door, and the sound of students reciting an English text could be heard. Jiang Ren asked, “Then why won’t you let me come to your class?”

She lowered her eyes and pushed him hard. “Let go. I need to get to class.”

The teachers’ office wasn’t far away, and Meng Ting was afraid a teacher might see them. Her voice was soft, inexplicably making one want to bully her.

As spring had arrived, her clothing was thin. Jiang Ren’s arm was around her slender, soft waist. From his angle, looking down, he could see a stretch of her delicate, slender neck, so white that he could almost see the faint blue veins beneath the skin.

He couldn’t turn his gaze away and suddenly smiled. “Are you afraid I’ll pester you?”

Meng Ting’s thoughts were exposed, and she blushed, denying it softly, “No, that’s not it.” She made a final struggle. “Can’t you stop thinking about these things and focus on studying?”

He lifted her small face, making her look at him, his eyes filled with amusement. “Meng Ting.”

The spring breeze was gentle, and her rosy cheeks looked soft.

“If you don’t want me to come, I won’t.”

She blinked as if thinking she had misheard.

He smiled and said, “I’m short-sighted. I only care about immediate benefits.”

Meng Ting didn’t understand.

Jiang Ren cupped her cheeks, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Kiss me, and I won’t come anymore. How about that?”

She was stunned for several seconds, then even the tips of her ears turned red.

Her response was to pinch the back of his hand, forcing him to let go.

The little girl only managed to pinch a bit of skin, squeezing hard.

He laughed. Damn, it hurt, but he didn’t flinch.

After a while, even the reading sounds from Class 3 next door had stopped. His eyes held a hint of amusement. “Had enough? Then it’s my turn.”

He pinned her hands behind her back and lowered his head, burying it in her fair neck.

It was noon in March, and the sunlight was brilliant.

Meng Ting’s face was flushed red.

The teacher next door roared angrily, “You’re all reading like you’re half-dead! Didn’t you eat breakfast? Read it again!”

But the young man in front of her seemed to have inexhaustible strength. When she hit him, he didn’t feel pain; when she scolded him, he was shameless. Meng Ting was both embarrassed and angry and finally cried out of frustration.

She felt a hopeless despair that there was no way to get away from him. How could he be such a scoundrel? Meng Ting’s shoulders shook with sobs.

Jiang Ren looked up. Her eyelashes were wet with tears, and she looked like she wanted to bite him hard.

His heart ached. He gently wiped her tears. The young man’s fingertips were rough, and he was afraid of making her cheeks red.

Jiang Ren hadn’t done much, not even having the chance to savor the moment. He had only smelled the warm, feminine scent that made him tremble.

But this time, she was crying.

Class 3’s reading voices started again, much louder this time.

“Why are you crying? I didn’t do anything, did I?”

“I’m sorry, okay? I won’t come to study here anymore.”

“I won’t touch you again in the future,” he coaxed her. “Come on, stop crying, will you? I was just teasing you earlier.”

He pleaded with her in a low voice. Meng Ting wiped her tears and tried to walk past him. She didn’t want to say another word to him.

The disgust and avoidance in her eyes pierced Jiang Ren’s heart. Even though he knew he was in the wrong, he couldn’t help but remember that snowy night when she was kissing someone else. His heart ached with jealousy.

Back then, she had been so obedient, wearing her prettiest clothes, and tilting her face up to accommodate the other person. But with him, she always hit and kicked.

Jiang Ren just wanted to be closer to her.

He was irresistibly drawn to her, willing to give up his face, his pride, everything. But she still didn’t like him. He wasn’t that frivolous, but he was desperate to prove something.

For the first time, Jiang Ren felt that liking someone meant wanting to tear them apart violently, yet also cherishing them in his heart.

Jiang Ren grabbed her wrist.

He couldn’t care, yet he couldn’t care.

He couldn’t think about the incident with Xu Jia. He had gone crazy for an entire winter break, trying to forget. But after seeing her again, he couldn’t help but approach her.

His heart was constantly being gnawed at. The more he smiled, the more he wanted a resolution. Ironically, he was afraid to hear that resolution.

So for the first time, he didn’t refuse his father’s arrangements. Yet she didn’t want him to come to No. 7 High School.

Fine, he would obediently go back to the vocational high school.

He wouldn’t offend these top students’ eyes.

But what about Xu Jia?

Jiang Ren tried to calmly tell her, “Your little boyfriend didn’t come to find me. He’s a coward.” He wanted to pat her head, but when she looked up, he withdrew his hand. “Can you stop liking him, please?” It sounded like he was reasoning, yet also pleading.

Meng Ting and he were talking past each other.

But now, she hated Jiang Ren more than anyone else in the world.

Whatever he said, she thought it was bad.

She didn’t want the lies to snowball, so she just shook off his hand and walked toward her classroom.

Jiang Ren watched her leave. Meng Ting didn’t say a word, and he took her silence as rejection.

He wanted to laugh coldly. She was like a delicate bird in front of Xu Jia, but with him, she seemed to want to stab him twice.

One she liked, one she hated.

Oh, he didn’t even have the qualifications to study in their class.

Xu Jia was such a coward, yet she wasn’t disappointed. What was so good about Xu Jia? Good grades? Was she telling the truth when she said he lowered the class average?

Jiang Ren felt a fire burning in his chest. He followed her towards Class 1.

Meng Ting entered the classroom where a physics lesson was in progress. Teacher Deng was lecturing with varying tones, occasionally throwing in a few Cantonese phrases. The students imitated him, making the class quite interesting.

Meng Ting called out “Report,” and Teacher Deng told her to come in.

If it were anyone else coming in so late, Teacher Deng would have been angry.

But Meng Ting was different. She must have been delayed at the office for something important. She was usually obedient and well-behaved, liked by every teacher. So they were more lenient with her.

Meng Ting sat in the third row. Just as she sat down, the whole class fell silent. Everyone widened their eyes, staring outside. A moment later, their expressions turned wildly excited. Oh my god, isn’t that Jiang Ren from the vocational school? Why is Jiang Ren coming to their class?

Meng Ting turned her head and immediately saw the expressionless Jiang Ren.

Meng Ting almost stood up. What was he going to do? Had he gone mad?

Teacher Deng pushed up his glasses, frowning at the boy at the door. The young man was wearing a black shirt and black sweatpants. There was a scar on his forehead, and he wasn’t a student from their school.

Teacher Deng, who was generally good-tempered, asked, “Student, do you need something?”

Jiang Ren curved his lips. “Hello, teacher and classmates.”

Class 1 students were so excited! They had heard about this big shot from next door. His aura was wild, clearly not a good guy. Class 1 had never seen such an unrestrained person before.

Teacher Deng’s face darkened a bit.

Jiang Ren said, “I just have one question, then I’ll leave. What’s your class average score?”

At these words, everyone was stunned.

Meng Ting was dumbfounded for a long while, feeling both embarrassed and furious. She wanted to die of shame along with him!

Teacher Deng said impatiently, “Go ask the homeroom teacher. At this time, she’s in the office. Don’t disturb my class.”

The students in the class didn’t dare to speak up. The naughtiest student, Li Yilong, was sitting at the “special seat” – a single desk in the first row. He glanced at the score sheet posted beside him and then loudly answered with a grin, “Brother Ren! 538!”

The class erupted in laughter.

Brother Ren, you’re awesome!

Jiang Ren also smiled. “Thanks.”

He turned and left, keeping his word.

Teacher Deng slapped the desk. “Alright, alright, everyone look at the blackboard. What are you looking at him for? You never learn anything good!”

Several girls in the class whispered, “He’s quite good-looking.” Not the pretty boy type of handsome, but a different kind of cold, hard attractiveness. Very manly.

“Shh, Old Deng is looking over.”

Zhao Nuancheng couldn’t resist and secretly wrote a note to pass to Meng Ting—

“Ting Ting, why do you think he asked about our class average?” She was genuinely curious. After writing, she quickly tossed it onto Meng Ting’s desk while the teacher was writing on the board.

After a while, Zhao Nuancheng received Meng Ting’s reply.

She quietly unfolded it. The graceful handwriting was forceful enough to pierce through the paper, revealing the young girl’s anger as she gritted her teeth.

Meng Ting had written—

“Because he’s sick in the head.”

“…!”

A few days later, the vocational school released the results of their first exam. The classroom was in chaos as students folded their test papers into paper airplanes and flew them around.

Jiang Ren looked at the bright red 25 on his math test paper and frowned.

He Junming asked, “Brother Ren, how much did you score?” He leaned over to look and saw the 25. He praised, “Brother Ren, you did pretty well! I only got 22 points.” He spread out his test paper carelessly, indeed showing a score of 22.

“…”

Jiang Ren irritably told him to get lost.

Then he pulled out a book from inside his desk and started reading.

It was a first-year high school math book that Jiang Ren had borrowed from someone in the class who had decent grades. He opened it to the chapter on sets and began reading.

He Han was about to call them to play games together, but when he turned around and saw Jiang Ren silently reading with a blank expression, he was stunned.

He Junming had an expression like he’d eaten something bad. “Brother Ren, are you serious?”

Jiang Ren said, “Don’t disturb me while I’m studying.” As he spoke, he turned a page.

He looked quite convincing.

He Junming asked curiously, “Can you understand it, Brother Ren?”

Jiang Ren remained silent.

He Junming was about to burst out laughing, but he didn’t dare. Fang Tan also held back his laughter. “If you want to study at No. 7 High School, why don’t you just go talk to their principal? Donate? Build a library or something.”

Jiang Ren didn’t respond.

Every time he thought of her clear eyes filled with tears, anger, and disgust, his blood boiled.

He didn’t want her to look down on him. If he was no longer the bad student, the troublemaker in her eyes, would she give him a chance to break up with Xu Jia? Would she obediently look up at him, with that wet, smiling gaze?

However, having never studied properly since childhood, looking at these books was like reading gibberish to him.

Jiang Ren read until his head ached, wanting to flip the table.

But he held back.

He Junming asked him, “What did their teachers say you need to score to qualify?”

“538.”

“Holy shit!” He Junming was shocked. Even the top student in their class didn’t score 538. He said, “Brother Ren, you’d better just go donate money.”

It wasn’t that he looked down on Brother Ren, but this year none of their grades had even reached 200 points.

Asking He Junming to score 538 was harder than asking him to grow to 538 jin.

Jiang Ren gave him a cold look, and he didn’t dare say anything more.

Then He Junming opened his phone and typed in their small group chat to complain about Brother Ren.

He Junming: Brother Ren is beyond help. If he can score over 400 points, I’ll cut off my dick.

He Han laughed convulsively: Just say you want to be the last eunuch.

He Junming: …

He Han: Although I also think it’s impossible.

Jiang Ren didn’t know what they were saying.

He frowned at the symbols in the book. Damn it, he had just seen this U-shaped thing. Was it intersection or union again?