Provoking

The wind on the teaching building's rooftop was strong, howling against the railings.

Chabashira Sae leaned against the railing, pulled a pack of ladies' cigarettes from her pocket, took one out, and lit it.

White smoke drifted from her red lips, quickly scattered by the wind.

Only when she was extremely agitated did she numb herself this way.

This time, she had failed again.

She had thought that with last year's past papers, these flawed products could at least all pass this simplest midterm exam.

But in the end, there were still slip-ups.

And this time, there were two.

In her mind, the scene of her own failure to graduate from Class A due to a tiny mistake resurfaced.

That resentment, that bitterness, had haunted her for years.

She had placed all her hopes on the class.

But these trash...

"Teacher, smoking isn't a good habit."

A calm voice came from behind her.

Chabashira Sae turned around and saw Ayanokoji Kiyotaka standing behind her, his face wearing that expressionless look.

"What are you doing here?"

"To make a deal with you." Ayanokoji Kiyotaka got straight to the point.

"A deal?"

Chabashira Sae let out a cold smile. "What, you want to plead for those two pieces of trash too? I told you, rules are rules—"

"I want to buy points." Ayanokoji Kiyotaka cut her off.

The hand holding her cigarette froze in midair.

"Oh..."

"Since points can buy anything, then scores—quantifiable things—naturally fall under tradable goods. That's not hard to deduce." Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's reply was watertight.

"Ten thousand points per point."

Chabashira Sae blew out a smoke ring and quoted the price she had long prepared. "Six points total, sixty thousand points. Can you afford it?"

Her tone was dripping with sarcasm.

A class that had squandered all its class points in the first month of school.

A class with barely any personal points left.

Sixty thousand was an astronomical figure to them.

She was certain they absolutely couldn't come up with that money.

That would make the expulsion of those two pieces of trash a done deal.

A pity, but at least it would cut out the weak links in the team—not necessarily a bad thing for the future.

Just as she was thinking this, she saw Ayanokoji Kiyotaka slowly shake his head.

"Teacher, that price is too high."

"High? This is a price to keep students from being expelled—it's already very generous... Besides, I don't have the authority to decide."

"Teacher, actually, you want to avoid expulsions in Class D more than we do, isn't that right?"

This sentence pierced through all of Chabashira Sae's pretenses like a sharp knife.

Her expression finally changed.

"I don't know exactly what you're trying to do, Teacher, but based on your actions, you want to climb up... So you'll do your best to keep them, even if they're just two pieces of trash."

Chabashira Sae stared at the student before her.

And behind the door to the rooftop entrance, Horikita Suzune heard everything clearly.

She had originally come to find Chabashira Sae for one last plea.

But she never expected to witness this.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka...

He actually...

"Three hundred thousand."

Chabashira Sae's voice rang out again, offering her price. "That's the final offer. Saving two students, six points total, three hundred thousand personal points."

"...Deal."

Having received his answer, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka didn't linger for a second longer. He turned to leave.

"Wait."

Chabashira Sae called out to him. "Three hundred thousand points. Can you, alone, come up with that?"

"Of course not." Ayanokoji Kiyotaka stopped in his tracks and turned back.

"This matter requires Horikita's help. After all, her standing in the class is far higher than mine. If she steps forward to collect funds from the whole class, her persuasiveness will be much stronger."

Behind the door, Horikita Suzune's body trembled violently.

He... knew I was here from the very beginning?

Horikita Suzune slowly stepped out from behind the door.

"Let's go." Ayanokoji Kiyotaka offered no further explanation, leading the way toward the stairwell.

Horikita Suzune had no choice. She could only follow.

When the two returned to the Class D classroom, it had already become a living hell.

Chi Kuanzhi sat slumped on the floor, his eyes vacant, muttering "Why did this happen" over and over again.

Xuteng Jian's desk had been kicked over at some point, no one knew when.

The other students had split into several distinct, sharply divided groups.

Led by Yukimura Teruhiko, a few top-performing students wore expressions of undisguised relief.

Meanwhile, most of the students in the middle and lower ranks showed faces of lingering fear and unease, whispering among themselves, discussing how they had narrowly scraped through this exam.

Hirata Yosuke and Kushida Kikyo were gathered around Chi Kuanzhi, futilely trying to comfort him.

But any words felt hollow and powerless in the face of the cold reality of "expulsion."

The classroom door slid open, and Horikita Suzune and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka entered one after the other.

Everyone's gaze instantly locked onto them.

Horikita Suzune ignored those complicated stares, walking straight to the podium.

"The teacher said there's a way to keep them from being expelled."

Her voice was quiet, but it instantly stirred a thousand waves.

"What is it?" Hirata Yosuke was the first to stand up and press for an answer, his tone urgent.

"Use points to buy scores." Horikita Suzune was concise.

"The two of them are short by a total of six points. After negotiation, the final price is... three hundred thousand personal points."

Three hundred thousand.

After a brief silence came a violent eruption.

"You've got to be kidding me!"

The first to jump up in opposition was Yukimura Teruhiko.

He slammed his hand on the desk, standing up, his face full of anger. "Three hundred thousand points! On what grounds? Why should all of us pay for the laziness and stupidity of those two people?"

His words instantly lit the fuse in everyone's hearts.

"Yukimura's right! I worked so hard for this exam, why should I give my points to people who sleep in class every day and run off to fool around?"

"Exactly! They didn't put in any effort themselves, and now that they're about to be expelled, they want to drag all of us down with them? How selfish!"

"I oppose! My points are my own, and I'm not giving them to anyone!"

The voices of opposition surged like a tidal wave.

"You bastards! What are you talking about? Aren't we comrades?"

Xuteng Jian roared, grabbing a nearby chair and raising it to hurl at Yukimura Teruhiko.

"Sudo, calm down!" Hirata Yosuke reacted quickly, wrapping his arms tightly around him from behind, barely preventing the situation from escalating further.

"Comrades? Don't make me laugh! Who's the reason our class ended up like this? And now you want us to spend our own money to save you? On what grounds?"

"You... you want to fight?!"

"Come on! Think I'm scared of you?!"

The classroom had completely descended into chaos.