Jiang Yue pulled out the remaining half-pack of cigarettes and tossed it onto the table.
A glint of eagerness flashed in San Gou's eyes.
"Want one?" Jiang Yue caught the tell and asked casually.
He flicked out a cigarette and handed it over, then casually lit it for him.
San Gou didn't think twice. He took it with practiced ease, pinched the filter between two fingers, and leaned toward the flame.
Just as he was about to light it, San Gou suddenly noticed a hint of amusement and menace flicker across his second brother's face.
With a powerful will to survive, San Gou gave an awkward laugh and tossed the cigarette onto the table as if it had thorns.
"This... this... I'm still young! I don't know how to smoke. Second Brother, honestly, what kind of older brother does that? Aren't you setting a bad example for a kid?"
"Don't be modest. Do you really need me to teach you bad habits?" Jiang Yue continued to sneer, his smile making San Gou's scalp tingle.
"Second Brother, you've got me all wrong. Look, it says right on the cigarette pack that smoking is harmful to your health. I'm so young—what if I ruin my health? I really don't know how to smoke."
"Really not smoking?"
"Not smoking!"
"Then you don't know what you're missing. These are mild and smooth, with a really nice taste. Sixty yuan a pack!"
"Haha, Second Brother, you're the one who doesn't know your stuff. You got ripped off, didn't you? These are mellow cigarettes. Strong flavor, but not harsh, and they don't scratch your throat. A pack is obviously only thirty yuan..." San Gou realized halfway through that it was too late to hit the brakes.
But the guy was quick on his feet. He put on a serious face and said, "I already told you, I don't smoke. But my uncle-in-law likes these, so I've heard him go on about them enough times to remember a little."
"Is that so? I heard your uncle-in-law is frugal and only ever smokes Black Sand, six yuan a pack."
"You don't live at my little aunt's place, so how would you know better than me? Maybe my uncle-in-law's got a little secret stash. He smokes six-yuan Black Sand in public, but thirty-yuan Arrow in private."
"Should I call him and ask?" Jiang Yue picked up his phone.
"Come on!" San Gou grabbed Jiang Yue and put on a fawning smile. "Second Brother, is this really worth all that? You don't want my little aunt and uncle fighting, do you?"
"What about Big Sis?"
San Gou put on a serious face. "There's no problem with Big Sis! We're the most well-behaved kids in the world. We don't have any bad habits. Big Sis is busy enough with work already, so let's not make her worry about us all the time."
They'd both gotten dirt on each other over the smoking incident, so they silently agreed to let it go.
San Gou glanced at the phone Jiang Yue had put back on the dining table and smiled. "Second Brother, maybe I really did accuse you unfairly? You haven't been staring at your phone waiting for a message all this time. Could it really just be a purely innocent classmate relationship?"
Before he'd even finished speaking, the phone went ding, ding, ding...
A string of messages began popping up on the screen.
Jiang Yue looked and saw that they were from the Class Group Chat.
Everyone was usually busy with schoolwork and rarely got a chance to use their phones. The school didn't allow them to turn their phones on while on campus, either, so hardly anyone chatted in the group.
And since teachers occasionally posted notices and announcements there, Jiang Yue hadn't muted notifications for the group.
Who had so much free time on their hands that they were spamming the Class Group Chat?
Never-Brake Du Yifeng:
@Everyone
Breaking news! Tianlang Mountain, the majestic peak of the western region, has split open down the middle! Shocking!
First come, first served!
Get your scoop early. Beat 808 to it. (Author: Divide that number by two.)
Short video 1
Short video 2
Short video 9.
Du Yifeng was popular in the class. He was a celebrity not just there, but throughout Yangfan Middle School, too.
When it came to grades, Du Yifeng was a hopeless case. But he came from an influential family, and everything he did made him seem more like a worldly tough guy than a student. He didn't have a trace of that awkward student vibe.
Two lines summed him up pretty well: He was never around for class, but always first to fight or flirt.
From a student's perspective, he was the bottom of the barrel when it came to grades.
But he got along pretty well with the other kids in class and wasn't disliked. At the end of the day, he was just more sophisticated and had a lot of connections. His classmates were three parts envious, six parts in awe, and one part... hard to say.
In the Class Group Chat, ordinary students rarely said much, especially with a teacher in the group. They were usually very restrained.
Du Yifeng was an exception. He didn't care whether it was a class group, a family group, or a public group.
What he posted depended entirely on his mood at the time.
He'd even gone wild in the Class Group Chat more than once.
A few times, he'd gotten carried away, leaving the teachers too embarrassed to keep pretending they hadn't seen it. They had to step in and make him hit the brakes.
That was how he got his group nickname: Never-Brake Du Yifeng.
Jiang Yue figured the guy was going wild in the Class Group Chat again, and didn't think much of it.
But the messages kept coming, dinging one after another.
27 Liu Jian: Holy crap, is this real? Some kind of movie special effect?
42 Xu Ruogu: Badass! What blockbuster is this from? Anyone got a link?
16 Zheng Weihao: Anyone got a link? +1!
35 Chen Haoran: The footage doesn't look like it was filmed for a movie. Looks like it's real.
25 Han Jingjing: I think that really is Tianlang Mountain. I went there last summer vacation and even took a photo with the mountain in the background. Let me see if I can find it.
Homeroom Teacher Sun: Looks like everyone's got lots of free time over the break. Did I not assign enough homework? I'll reflect on that!
27 Liu Jian: Trembling in fear / sticker, going quiet now, dog-head-for-protection / sticker.
42 Xu Ruogu: Trembling in fear / sticker, going quiet now, dog-head-for-protection / sticker.
16 Zheng Weihao: Trembling in fear / sticker, going quiet now, dog-head-for-protection / sticker.
35 Chen Haoran: Trembling in fear / sticker, going quiet now, dog-head-for-protection / sticker.
Jiang Yue's mouth twitched.
What a bunch of clowns.
Trying to get noticed by Old Sun—did they think they hadn't done enough practice problems?
Wasn't it more fun to lurk and play games? Wasn't it more relaxing to watch shows and movies?
The group fell quiet again.
Since Du Yifeng wasn't sharing anything inappropriate, Jiang Yue had nothing better to do, so he tapped the videos.
The nine clips added up to less than two minutes.
They'd been filmed amateurishly. The camera wobbled, and there was quite a bit of shaking. It was obvious they hadn't used a high-powered camera, either.
But that wasn't the point.
The point was that the two minutes of footage weren't clickbait. The content was unbelievably explosive and shocking.
In the video, Tianlang Mountain, which stood three or four thousand meters above sea level, slowly developed a crack down the middle, like an enormous cake splitting apart. The mountain tore open toward both sides at a speed visible to the naked eye!
"Second Brother, is this fake?" San Gou was staring, dumbfounded.
Jiang Yue didn't answer. Instead, he opened the clip again and again, watching it frame by frame.
As the mountain split, the whole earth visibly trembled. Dust billowed into the sky, and even though the footage was shot from a distance, you could faintly hear a series of thunderous booms, as if the sky and earth were collapsing.
It really didn't look like a movie, just as someone in the group had said.
From the details he could make out, Jiang Yue didn't think the video had been edited.
But—
What kind of unbelievable spectacle was a mountain splitting down the middle?
Even if it was caused by tectonic movement, surely it wouldn't happen at a speed visible to the naked eye and capturable by a camera?
Geological changes like the shifting of land and sea took at least tens of thousands of years.
Were they trying to compress millions of years of change into a single day?
Unable to hide his surprise, Jiang Yue opened the video again.
But a notification appeared: This video has been deleted.
808 really was fast. If he'd waited just a few minutes longer to check out the scoop, he would've missed it.
8 Wang Xin: Why won't the video open?
19 Fang Ziyang: Damn, I miss the red packets every time. Am I even going to catch this scoop? Self-harm / sticker.
38 Shao Yixuan: @Never-Brake Du Yifeng, please post it again. Kowtow / sticker.
25 Han Jingjing: What's going on? I found the photo, but where's the video? Confused-black-person / sticker.
Homeroom Teacher Sun Bin had enabled mute for everyone!
No matter how big the world was, the group owner was the biggest.
The moment Homeroom Teacher Sun unleashed his Great Sealing Technique, everyone disappeared—those watching the scoop online and those secretly lurking in the group alike.
Jiang Yue had never been interested in group chats, so he didn't care whether they were muted.
But the explosive footage from those nine short videos kept replaying in his mind, refusing to go away.
Real or fake? Real or fake? Real or fake?
For the first time, Jiang Yue found himself so uncertain about his own judgment.
By common sense, this was clearly impossible.
If it was real, the coffins of the physics, geography, science, and history teachers—and every other subject teacher—would probably all be rattling at once.
But if it was fake, Jiang Yue couldn't find anything wrong with the video.
Most shocking videos online were edited together to grab attention, nothing more than stunts made to chase views.
But there was no sign of that in these nine clips.
Jiang Yue trusted his own ability to spot that sort of thing.
"Second Brother, your homeroom teacher is so cruel," San Gou suddenly said from behind him in a gloomy voice.
Before you continue