Let's trust him for now

"Looks like no one's absent today for once. You all seem pretty confident about this exam."

Teacher Chabashira said this as she walked into the classroom carrying the exam papers.

Today was the official midterm exam day. Everyone in the class was present, and even Takagahara, who sat next to Mu Tianchen, was rarely seen not sleeping face-down on his desk.

"I've stressed it before—anyone who fails this exam will be expelled. Is there anything you want to say before that?"

Teacher Chabashira scanned the class and continued, her tone like she was asking for the last words of soldiers about to head to the battlefield.

"Teacher Kozaki, we've been studying really hard lately~" Ike said with a smug expression, even daring to use her first name.

"Ike, but I recall you only scored 25 points on the last quiz, didn't you?" Chabashira Sae wasn't angry; she just shot back.

"Th-That was just me not performing well at the time. This time I'm going to show my true strength and score high—no, a perfect score!"

"Perfect score? That's quite the bold claim." Teacher Chabashira clearly looked unconvinced.

"I'm confident I'll score high too," Yamauchi chimed in.

"Yeah, yeah, we're not idiots. Everyone's confident about scoring high this time."

"This time we'll show the other classes what Class D is made of!"

As more and more of the underperformers spoke up, Chabashira Sae couldn't help but feel a bit suspicious. After all, their confident expressions couldn't be faked.

Chabashira Sae didn't believe those slackers could change so drastically in such a short time. So it was that person who did something after all...

With the bet in place, it looked like she'd have to shell out this time...

Still, from her observations, Sudo—who usually hung around Ike and Yamauchi—was unusually quiet, holding his head in his hands on the desk, looking off.

"If you all do well on this exam, I'll take everyone on a vacation to a small island."

Seeing everyone so confident, Chabashira Sae dangled a carrot in front of them.

Summer was almost here—the gentle sea breeze, basking on the sandy beach, countless beautiful sights...

It was the dream life for high schoolers...

"Is that for real, Teacher Kozaki?"

"You're not tricking us, are you?"

This student looked a bit wary. After all, they'd been burned by Teacher Chabashira over points before, and reason told him to be careful.

"Of course it's real. I have no reason to lie to you."

"Th-That's great!"

"Everyone, let's give it our all!"

Suddenly, the guys' aura turned intimidating. Shinohara shot Ike a contemptuous look.

These people were way too easy to fool. This was the exact same trick as last time, wasn't it? Mu Tianchen covered his forehead with his hand and sighed.

Probably some kind of test again...

"Teacher, can I ask a question?" Beauty Bro rarely spoke up, standing to ask.

"Say what you want, Takagahara."

"Is it just our class going, or are other classes coming along?"

"That would be with the other classes, I imagine. The school likes group activities."

"Alright, I understand." Takagahara seemed to have gotten the answer he wanted, pulled out his chair, and sat down.

Most of the class didn't understand why Takagahara asked that, but they didn't bother digging into it either.

After all, Takagahara had always been a weirdo.

So it's another group exam...

As the exam bell rang, the papers were handed out to everyone.

Mu Tianchen glanced over the paper after getting it—sure enough, it was the same content as the old exam papers from before, even the question order was identical.

As long as you'd memorized it yesterday, you'd definitely score high...

Most of the classmates around him started writing furiously as soon as they got the papers, and he began answering too.

The next few exam subjects were all the same original questions from the old papers, and the students handled them pretty easily.

Before they knew it, only the English exam was left.

During the break, most students were chatting about how easy the exam questions were, all wearing happy expressions.

Only Sudo seemed off, flipping through the old exam papers that had been handed out earlier.

"Sudo, how did you do?" Kushida seemed to notice Sudo's odd behavior and went over to ask.

"Sudo?" Seeing his bad expression and lack of response, Kushida asked again.

"What's up? S-Sorry, I was looking at the questions and didn't notice you." Sudo answered while flipping through his English exam paper, looking flustered.

"Sudo, did you not look at the exam questions yesterday?"

"Exactly, Kushida even kindly reminded you yesterday."

Ike and Yamauchi, who had been chatting nearby, also noticed Sudo's unusual state and came over.

"Ugh, I was so tired from training yesterday that I accidentally fell asleep."

"What! You fell asleep? If you fail this test, you'll get expelled!" Ike said loudly, exasperated by Sudo's answer.

As his voice rang out, more and more people began to notice, including Horikita and Mu Tianchen.

"So, Sudo-kun, was it just English you didn't study? Or did you not study anything at all?" Kushida asked with some concern.

"Just English."

"Well, that's not so bad, but there's only ten minutes left."

"Ugh." Sudo grew even more flustered at this, letting out a heavy sigh.

Horikita saw this and started walking over, but Mu Tianchen reached out and stopped her.

"What do you mean by that?" Horikita asked, a hint of confusion and wariness in her eyes as she stared at Mu Tianchen blocking her way.

"Sudo-kun has good eyesight, right? Let him cheat."

"Cheat? Are you joking? That's against the rules. If he gets caught, he could be expelled on the spot."

Horikita's tone turned harsh at the mention of cheating, but fortunately, most of the class's attention was on Sudo, so no one noticed their exchange.

"Then let me ask you—does looking at past exam papers count as cheating?"

"Well... but Teacher Chazhu is proctoring, and there are cameras here."

"That's why I brought up his eyesight. Let him look at the answers around him. As long as there's no physical evidence like a note, it'll be fine."

"This..."

Seeing Horikita waver, Mu Tianchen continued, "I don't think the school takes this kind of thing very seriously. Otherwise, past exam papers wouldn't exist."

"As for Teacher Chazhu, even if she finds out, I don't believe she'd report it to the school."

"Why do you say that?"

"Don't worry about that. Just tell Sudo. I'll handle Teacher Chazhu." Mu Tianchen finished speaking and returned to his seat.

"You really are a strange person."

If it weren't for the astonishing number of points she'd seen in Teacher Chazhu's office last time, Horikita would never have gone along with this. She decided to trust him for now.