Sudo's Defense

Gu Heng's words—"Sudo must be protected first"—plunged Class D into silence for over ten seconds.

After the silence, someone in the front row was the first to sit up straight. But the looks from the back row suddenly turned even sharper.

"Are you crazy?"

Ike Kanji was the first to lose his patience.

"At a time like this, instead of keeping the person most likely to cause trouble under control, you want to protect him?"

"Yeah," someone beside him chimed in. "If he causes trouble again later, won't we all have to pay for it together?"

"Isn't that just inviting trouble onto ourselves?"

One voice followed another.

The classroom, which had only just barely settled down, began to stir again.

Gu Heng did not rush to explain.

He first glanced at Sudo.

Sudo stood in the back row, his shoulders drawn tight, the veins on the backs of his hands standing out.

But unlike before, he did not immediately curse back.

The moment Gu Heng said "protect him first," Sudo's Adam's apple bobbed heavily. He forcefully swallowed the curse that had reached his lips.

"Let me ask you something."

Gu Heng spoke, his voice low.

"What does Class D lack the most right now?"

"Points," someone replied irritably.

"Obviously," another person said. "What we need is for nothing else to happen."

"You're both wrong."

Gu Heng looked at them.

"What Class D lacks most right now is a result that everyone can see with their own eyes."

The classroom paused.

Horikita frowned first.

Her fingers resting on the edge of the desk curled slightly, but she did not interrupt again.

"You want to use Sudo as an example?" Horikita asked.

"Yes." Gu Heng did not deny it. "And it can only be him."

"Why does it have to be him?" A girl in the front row frowned. "He isn't the only problem student in the class."

"Because everyone else's problems aren't as obvious as his." Gu Heng said, "If you get someone who was already quiet to fix a minor bad habit, no one will care. But if the person everyone assumes is going to explode doesn't explode for once, that's what people will remember."

Those words finally quieted the discussion somewhat.

"But what does that have to do with protecting him?" Ike Kanji was still unconvinced. "Can't we just keep an eye on him?"

"You can't keep watch over him." Gu Heng's tone was even. "Can you follow him twenty-four hours a day? Or do you think that just because the whole class glares at him, he'll suddenly learn to cooperate?"

Ike Kanji choked on his reply.

"Then how do you plan to protect him?" someone pressed.

"First, let's make one thing clear." Gu Heng swept his gaze over everyone. "From now on, anyone who treats Sudo as the class punching bag is helping Class D push away one of its easiest assets to pull back."

"An asset?" Someone sounded as though they had heard a joke. "What asset does he have besides causing trouble?"

"Athletics."

Gu Heng answered with only two words.

The classroom fell silent for a beat.

Everyone could see how good Sudo was at sports.

It was just that no one had considered it alongside "class points."

Because in most people's eyes, grades, discipline, and attitude seemed more important than running fast on a court.

But this was not an ordinary school.

Just because it was useless now did not mean it would be useless later.

"All you see right now is that he can cause trouble for the class." Gu Heng said, "But when we really need physical strength, competition, and athletic contests to earn points, people like him will be scarce."

"If you push him out now, who will you find to fill the gap when you need someone later?"

No one answered.

Some people in the front row frowned in silence, while no one in the back row joined in with any more jeering.

"I'll say it again." Horikita spoke coldly. "The question is not whether he will be useful later. The question is whether he is worth protecting now."

The legs of Sudo's chair scraped softly, then quickly went still.

Gu Heng looked at her.

"That's why we calculate the cost first."

"How do you plan to calculate it?"

"It's simple." Gu Heng said, "Protecting him means spending more effort right now, giving more explanations, and keeping a closer eye on him. Abandoning him saves us trouble for now. But later, we'll be without someone who can most easily produce results."

"And there's something even more important."

"What?" Hirata asked.

Gu Heng's gaze fell on the people in the back row.

The few who had recently been following Sudo around and were most easily riled up into making noise with him were all listening too.

"If no one is willing to take on even an openly troublesome person like Sudo right now," Gu Heng said slowly, "what will all the other people in the class who are already on the fence think?"

No one spoke.

Gu Heng answered for them.

"They'll think that Class D's rules aren't about pulling people back after all."

"They're about throwing away the hardest person to protect first whenever something goes wrong."

"Then who will genuinely try to pull themselves back after that?"

When those words landed, even Hirata's expression changed slightly.

His fingers slowly tightened at the seam of his trousers.

"So I'm not speaking up for him." Gu Heng said lightly. "I'm setting the direction for this whole system first."

"Rules aren't meant to pick out the first person to abandon."

"They're meant to pull back the people most likely to fall apart first."

The classroom was deeply silent.

The people in the back row who had been cursing the loudest earlier did not say another word.

Gu Heng looked at him.

"What do you have to say for yourself?"

At that question, every gaze fell on Sudo again.

Sudo visibly stiffened.

"Say what?" His voice was hard.

"Whether you still want to stay in this class—and not just stay." Gu Heng looked at him. "Do you want people to stop thinking of you as this class's problem the moment Class D is mentioned?"

The moment he said that, even the people who usually made noise alongside Sudo did not dare make a sound.

Only Sudo's restrained, angry breathing remained in the classroom.

Sudo clenched his teeth.

Everyone's eyes were on him.

"What do you want me to say?" Sudo stared at Gu Heng. "That I won't cause trouble anymore? You just said yourself that you wouldn't believe me even if I said it."

Gu Heng looked at him and suddenly nodded.

"That's right," he said. "I don't believe you."

The classroom went dead silent.

Even Horikita turned her head to glance at him.

Several people in the front row held their breaths.

But Gu Heng did not stop.

"I don't believe one promise from you now can make you change." He said, "But I do believe something else."

"What?" Sudo asked instinctively.

"You hate being looked down on."

Sudo froze.

Gu Heng continued.

"You can refuse to accept me, Horikita, or even the entire class." He looked at Sudo. "But what you can never stand isn't someone cursing at you once. It's everyone assuming that you're the useless bastard who'll drag the whole class down with you."

Sudo's face flushed red at once.

"Who the hell are you calling useless?"

"Then prove you're not." Gu Heng's tone was so flat it was almost cold. "Not by shouting, and not by fighting. Start by doing the simplest things right."

"Like what?"

"For the next week, don't be late, don't make trouble in class, and don't give Horikita a chance to write down your name." Gu Heng looked at him. "If you can do that, at least half the class will shut their mouths."

Sudo said nothing.

His Adam's apple bobbed heavily. His mouth opened, then closed again.

"Can't do it?" Gu Heng asked.

"Who said I can't?" Sudo shot back almost immediately.

"Good." Gu Heng nodded. "Then I'll remember that."

"Starting today, we'll watch you for one week."

Even Hirata could not help letting out a soft breath beside them.

"Now, back to the main issue." Gu Heng withdrew his gaze and looked at the class. "Do you think I want to protect Sudo because I'm afraid he'll keep causing trouble in class?"

"Isn't that why?" Ike Kanji blanked for a moment.

"That's only the surface of it." Gu Heng said. "The real trouble isn't in the classroom."

The moment those words came out, several faces changed.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean Sudo's situation is no longer a matter of 'possibly causing trouble later.'" Gu Heng lowered his voice slightly. "He has most likely already gotten into trouble."

The air in the classroom tightened.

Sudo's face darkened sharply.

"Stop talking nonsense."

"Whether I'm talking nonsense or not, you know best." Gu Heng looked at him. "The gymnasium, the basketball court, the conflict with those people from Class C—did you really think no one would pursue it afterward?"

Sudo's pupils visibly contracted.

Seeing that brief contraction in his eyes, Gu Heng did not press any further.

Hirata's expression changed.

"It's already that serious?"

"Most likely." Gu Heng said. "And if I'm not mistaken, what the other side is waiting for is for Class D to throw Sudo out first."

"Why?" someone asked, confused.

"Because that's the easiest way." Gu Heng said. "As long as our class accepts that he's the problem first, then no matter what they say afterward, it'll be easier for them to claim the moral high ground."

This time, the entire class fell silent.

Someone in the front row slowly flattened the hand they had been bracing against the edge of the desk.

"What do you plan to do?" Horikita asked.

Gu Heng looked at her, his gaze finally turning more serious.

"First, we find out exactly what happened."

"Who, when, where, what was said, whether anyone saw it, and whether there's anything that left evidence behind."

"Before they lock in their version of events, we need to get involved first."

"Otherwise, Sudo really will be left with nothing but a beating in this situation."

The mood in the classroom immediately changed after those words.

Hirata was the first to straighten slightly.

"What do you need me to do?"

Gu Heng glanced at him.

"Keep the class quiet first." Gu Heng said. "Don't let anyone spread rumors outside, and don't let Sudo get carried away by his emotions and go looking for them again."

Hirata nodded.

"I'll handle it."

"Horikita." Gu Heng turned to her. "Talk to Sudo alone. Don't persuade him—dig up every conflict he's gotten into before today."

Horikita frowned.

"Why would he listen to me?"

"Because besides me, you're the person in this class who least wants him to become everyone's punching bag." Gu Heng looked at her. "You don't need to make him like you. You only need to make him understand that you're cleaning up his mess."

Horikita's expression turned somewhat cold.

Her brows drew together, but in the end, she did not argue back.

"What about you?" she asked.

"I'll go do something you least want to do, but that someone has to do right now."

"What?"

Gu Heng's gaze passed over her and fell in the direction of the most popular person in class.

Kushida sat there, quietly listening from beginning to end.

Her smile was still as sweet as ever.

"Find someone," Gu Heng said. "Someone willing to speak up for Sudo."

Horikita followed his gaze, and her expression immediately turned colder.

"You want to find Kushida?"

"Yes."

"I disagree."

"You can disagree." Gu Heng looked at her. "But you should know better than anyone that, in this matter, if there's anyone in the class most likely to pick up a lead from other classes, the girls' circle, around the gym, or casual daily conversations, it isn't you."

Horikita had no immediate response.

Because Gu Heng was still telling the truth.

"She isn't safe," Horikita said in a low voice.

"I know," Gu Heng said. "That's why we're not trusting her. We're using her."

That made Kushida, sitting not far away, lift her eyes slightly.

She had clearly heard him, yet she only held the faint smile at the corner of her lips even more steadily.

Gu Heng said nothing more.

He closed his notebook and stood up.

"Before this afternoon, I want to know one thing."

"What is it?" Hirata asked.

Gu Heng looked at Sudo.

"Is this trouble really just a fight?"

"Or is someone already trying to push him toward expulsion?"

After he said that, no one in the classroom argued anymore.

Because everyone could hear that this was no longer as simple as trading a few words in the classroom.

And Gu Heng did not stay where he was to keep explaining.

He simply walked straight toward Kushida.

One step.

Two steps.

Three steps.

Kushida looked up and gave him that smile with almost no flaw to pick apart.

"Gu Heng," she said in the same cheerful voice, "have you finally decided to ask me for help?"

Gu Heng stopped in front of her desk and looked at her.

The transparent panel in his vision flickered lightly.

Curiosity 74

Testing 83

Desire to watch the show 59

Eliminate threat 87

Gu Heng's expression did not change.

He merely pulled out the chair at the desk in front of hers and sat down.

"Yes," he said.

"I'm here to make a second deal with you."