Ren Yexue Fell Ill

After boarding the school bus, Su Yang sat down in the corner where he usually sat.

After casually glancing at the number of people on the bus, Su Yang silently placed his schoolbag on the seat beside him.

After awakening his Sequence Ability, Su Yang's five senses had improved greatly. In his eyes, ordinary people's movements were as slow as a PowerPoint slideshow.

So with just that one glance, he had seen that there were more people on the bus than seats.

Thus, Su Yang quietly used his schoolbag to save a seat... naturally, it was for Ren Yexue.

Su Yang didn't want that young lady to lose another hundred yuan over this.

The morning sun wasn't too hot, and the breeze was lovely.

At the thought of teasing Ren Yexue again in a little while, Su Yang's lips curled up involuntarily.

But to Su Yang's disappointment,

from the first stop to the last, the girl who loved wearing red dresses never appeared.

The school bus finally arrived at Muyang No. 2 Middle School and slowly came to a stop.

The students gradually filed out of the bus, leaving only Su Yang sitting alone in his seat.

Looking at the empty bus, Su Yang felt a little dejected for a moment—Ren Yexue hadn't come to find him on the bus today.

Could Ren Yexue really be angry?

That couldn't be! I'd teased her like that before, and she hadn't gotten angry!

After getting off the bus, Su Yang instinctively glanced at the cars parked outside the school gate.

He didn't see the conspicuous luxury car belonging to Ren Yexue's family.

"She's not at the school gate either..."

Su Yang instinctively quickened his pace as he headed for the classroom.

Since Ren Yexue hadn't come to find him at the bus stop, she had to be in the classroom right now!

Ren Yexue was always the first person to arrive in the classroom, without fail.

Whenever Su Yang walked into the classroom, he would find Ren Yexue reviewing her lessons by the window.

It had been that way for the entire time Su Yang and Ren Yexue had been deskmates.

Sometimes, Su Yang would even find bread Ren Yexue had bought for him on his seat.

Even though he had already quickened his pace, the walk from the school gate to the classroom still felt much longer than usual to Su Yang.

Finally, the classroom door came into Su Yang's view.

Unable to contain himself, Su Yang jogged into the classroom.

As soon as he entered, he looked toward that corner.

But the corner was still empty.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing happened to her, did it?"

A little distracted, Su Yang slowly sat down in his seat.

After putting his schoolbag in his desk, he propped his cheek on his hand and stared fixedly at the classmates entering the classroom one after another.

None of them was the graceful figure he was looking for.

"Why isn't she here yet? Class is about to start."

Feeling inexplicably unsettled, Su Yang took out his phone and opened his messaging app.

He scrolled down and found Ren Yexue among his contacts.

Ren Yexue's screen name was her own name, and her profile picture was the default one from when she had created her account.

"Doesn't Ren Yexue usually go online?"

Their message history stopped at last month—after adding each other as friends, Su Yang and Ren Yexue hadn't sent each other a single message.

After hesitating for a while, Su Yang moved his fingers.

He sent the words, "Are you there?"

One second.

Two seconds.

Ten minutes passed, and the chat window didn't shake.

Su Yang put down his phone and turned his gaze toward the classroom door.

The empty seats in the classroom grew fewer and fewer, and the start of class slowly drew near.

The moment the class bell rang, most of the clamor around Su Yang immediately died away.

The click-clack of high heels on the floor came from outside the classroom, growing closer and closer.

The moment the footsteps stopped, a middle-aged woman appeared at the classroom door.

If Su Yang remembered correctly, she was the homeroom teacher of the class next door.

Su Yang frowned.

Why was it her? Wasn't this supposed to be homeroom teacher Zhao's class?

Likewise, the students in the classroom shared some of Su Yang's confusion.

The middle-aged woman's next few words soon cleared it up for them.

"Students, your homeroom teacher is sick today, so you can come to me about any class matters today."

"I'll also be taking over Teacher Zhao's classes today."

As soon as she said that, delight immediately burst into the students' eyes.

"Teacher Zhao is sick?!"

"Something this good can happen? No, I mean, how could something like this happen..."

"What illness does Teacher Zhao have? Is it serious? Will she be unable to come to school for a long time?"

The substitute teacher had evidently anticipated the students' reaction. She patted the desk, quieting the restless noise in the classroom.

"Quiet! Now, turn to page 58..."

Just as the teacher opened the textbook and prepared to start class, she caught sight of a student in a white shirt raising his hand at the back of the classroom.

She looked closer and saw that it was Su Yang.

Although she was the homeroom teacher of the class next door, Su Yang had held the top spot in his grade at school year after year, so most of the teachers at school knew him.

The next moment, she looked at Su Yang with concern and forced a smile onto her face.

"Su Yang, do you have a question? Why are you raising your hand?"

The students all looked toward Su Yang, dozens of gazes settling on him.

Su Yang slowly stood up from his seat.

"Teacher, my deskmate still hasn't come. Is something wrong with her?"

"Your deskmate? Who is your deskmate?"

"Ren Yexue."

"Oh! Ren is sick today too. She took the day off and didn't come in!"

"I see, I understand. Thank you, teacher!"

Su Yang bowed to the teacher and sat back down in his seat.

"All right, now turn to page 58..."

Su Yang opened his textbook, but he didn't take in a single word of the teacher's lesson.

Ren Yexue is sick? Wasn't she perfectly fine yesterday?

No wonder she didn't come find me on the bus today, and she hasn't replied to my message either...

"What a coincidence, getting sick at the same time as Teacher Zhao? Could it be a bad cold?"

"I was planning to treat her to a meal after school today to thank her properly for helping Grandma..."

"Never mind, I'll go visit her at home after school!"

Su Yang shook his head and stopped thinking about Ren Yexue, focusing his energy on the lesson.

Just as he was getting into the swing of things and paying attention in class,

another figure appeared outside the classroom and interrupted the teacher's lesson. It was none other than the principal of Muyang Middle School.

"Su Yang, hurry out here for a moment!"

"Mr. Director wants to see you again!"

Mr. Director?!

Upon hearing those words, Su Yang sprang to his feet at the back of the classroom.

After giving his classmates an apologetic smile, he jogged out of the classroom.

Naturally, this drew another round of startled exclamations from his classmates.

"Why is Mr. Director calling Su Yang over again? Didn't he just ask for him yesterday?"

"Who knows? Maybe it's because he's so outstanding! I heard Su Yang has already taught himself everything for this semester."

"That's freaking awesome!"