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Ten days ago, he had thought Chi Ning was only temporarily tired and would still join the competition after getting some rest.

He had never expected that ten days later, not only had he skipped the competition, but the top student in the grade did not even seem to want to go to school anymore.

Why?!

Teacher Wang waved a hand, his voice listless. "Go to class first."

"Okay."

The moment Chi Ning reached his seat, he saw that half the class was staring at him. His deskmate's gaze was the most blatant of all.

The bespectacled boy craned his neck and looked him over from bottom to top, his eyes full of curiosity. "God Chi, when did you get involved with people from Class Eighteen? Why did that Zhang Qiuwen come deliver you a drink?"

Deliver a drink?

Chi Ning swept his gaze around and spotted the bayberry juice sitting at the corner of his desk. Only then did he remember that he had ordered a month's worth of bayberry juice from Qin Heng some time ago.

"We happened to run into each other before and chatted a little." Chi Ning glanced at the test paper tucked beneath his deskmate's elbow. Seeing the name at the top, he awkwardly made conversation. "Li Qiuhe, what's wrong with Class Eighteen?"

Li Qiuhe's mouth fell open in flattered surprise. "Y-you actually talked to me... I-I..."

After all, when Chi Ning had been at school ten days ago, he had practically been deaf, immersed entirely in his own world.

His eyes suddenly lit up with gossip as he lowered his voice animatedly. "You know about the two notorious troublemakers in our school, right?"

Chi Ning raised a brow. "Who?"

"You don't know?" Li Qiuhe's voice cracked in shock. "The one surnamed Qin and the one surnamed Yue! Zhang Qiuwen, the one who brought you that drink today, is the Qin guy's lackey."

Chi Ning became faintly interested. He unscrewed the bayberry juice and took a small sip. "And then?"

"Just yesterday, those two got into a fight. The guy surnamed Yue got a tooth knocked out. I heard they fought over money—probably something like loan sharking."

Li Qiuhe grimaced as though he were the one who had lost a tooth. "They're unreasonable. You'd better not get mixed up with them."

Chi Ning's brow twitched.

Loan sharking?

His instincts told him Qin Heng probably would not borrow that kind of money, but what if...

What if Qin Heng was the one lending money, or helping someone collect debts? Then knocking out someone's tooth while collecting a debt would be perfectly reasonable.

When Li Qiuhe saw Chi Ning frown, he immediately felt the other students' gazes toward him turn unfriendly.

He thumped his chest. "Why aren't you saying anything? Are you scared? It's okay. You're the prized treasure of Class One. Everyone will protect you."

Chi Ning smiled but did not respond.

Li Qiuhe tactfully changed the subject. "Didn't you throw away your notes a few days ago? After I picked them up, I organized the class and made copies for everyone who wanted them. But there are some problems we don't understand. I compiled them together—could you explain them to us during study hall later?"

So Li Qiuhe was the assistant class monitor.

Chi Ning looked up and swept his gaze around. Seeing the expectant looks in his classmates' eyes, he suddenly thought of the graduate students who had interned under him.

He held out his hand. "I can explain them. Give me the problems first, and I'll take a look."

These kids were sincere. He had not had the leisure to care in his previous life, but after deciding to slack off in this life, he had far too much free time. If he could lend them a hand, he would.

Class One already had more than a dozen students recommended for admission. Many of them had stopped coming to school after securing their recommendations. Most of those still in class were dissatisfied with the schools they had been recommended to and wanted to make another push through future competitions.

Li Qiuhe was one of them. After getting Chi Ning's agreement, he happily flashed the other students a victory sign, grinning from ear to ear.

As Chi Ning looked through the problems, he finally remembered his habit of taking notes in high school.

Once he understood a knowledge point, he liked making up problems himself, then coming back to solve them after some time had passed. The questions he came up with were all exceptionally tricky—a prime example of making things difficult for himself.

Fortunately, he had always found it difficult to forget what he had learned, and he still remembered all the key concepts.

After figuring out how to explain the problems, Chi Ning immediately found class boring. He propped up his chin and began spacing out.

By noon, even the bayberry juice he had been carefully sipping was nearly gone.

Chi Ning held the bottle and sighed. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed writing on its bottom in black marker.

It was the character Ning, written neatly with vigorous, powerful strokes.

Chi Ning touched the character with his fingertips and gave a soft, mocking laugh.

The current Qin Heng only resembled the Qin Heng from his previous life in his handwriting.

And even that resemblance had only come from practicing over the past two days.

"Knock, knock."

Someone tapped on the side window.

Chi Ning turned his head and met Qin Heng's complicated gaze.

Qin Heng stared at Chi Ning's eyes, processing the scene he had accidentally witnessed just now.

The pampered young master loosely held the glass bottle in one hand while gently stroking the writing at its bottom with the other, looking utterly absorbed. He had even smiled.

Granted, Qin Heng had deliberately practiced that character twenty-seven or twenty-eight times, just so it would look better when he brought it out. He wanted to fool the young master into becoming a long-term customer and earn an extra three hundred yuan every month.

But he had only wanted to fish for money.

Not for a person.

When Mo Yuanzhou had asked Chi Ning ten days ago whether Qin Heng was his boyfriend, Chi Ning had only denied that they were dating. He had not denied liking men.

Could Chi Ning really fall for a single character?

Qin Heng swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing as thoughts churned within him, though his expression remained utterly cold. "I came to collect the glass bottle. I'll use this bottle for you from now on."

Chi Ning gave an oh and fully opened the window facing the hallway, passing the bottle over.

If the character could be written on a face, then Qin Heng's left half would be the hand radical and his right half would be the character for dragging. Together, they made the word arrogant.

The entire Class One fell silent as a grave. Everyone kept sneaking glances in their direction.

Li Qiuhe's whole body was taut, afraid Qin Heng would turn moody and start a fight at any moment.

Qin Heng gave Li Qiuhe an amused glance. "Brother Yuanzhou said he has something to discuss with you in person. See you at the billiards hall tonight?"

Chi Ning said, "Sure."

It had not even been that long. Chi Ning was still calling Mo Yuanzhou Teacher Mo, while Qin Heng had already started calling him Brother Yuanzhou.

Calling him smooth and adaptable would not be an exaggeration.

A self-made CEO really was something else.

Qin Heng carried the bottle away, considerately closing the window before he left.

"Whew..." Li Qiuhe let out a long breath, his face covered in a fine sheen of sweat. "That scared me to death. You actually dared to stay in contact with him."

"What's so scary about him? No matter how fierce he is, he doesn't eat people." Chi Ning found the bespectacled boy rather adorable. He rolled up the worksheet Li Qiuhe had compiled into a paper tube and tapped him on the head. "Enough. Stop worrying about useless things. Since lunch hasn't been delivered yet, I'll explain the problems to everyone."

He walked to the blackboard, braced both hands against the edge of the wooden podium, and began, "First, look at the first problem. This concerns mechanical dynamics and is an advanced mechanics problem. Students who want to participate in the physics competition should pay close attention."

Chi Ning picked up a piece of chalk, habitually snapped it in half, then turned and rapidly wrote out his approach on the blackboard, leaving the students below in a daze.

God Chi really was God Chi. Why did he look even more at home standing at the podium than Old Wang?

With both hands braced on the podium, snapping the chalk in half—who would believe he had never taught before?

Chi Ning spoke extremely quickly while explaining the problem. Before long, he had finished covering all three methods of solving it, with the key steps taking up less than half the blackboard.

"Is there anything else you don't understand?"

"If not, shall we move on to the next question?" Chi Ning looked around. Seeing no objections, he immediately continued.

After three problems, the only sound left in the classroom was the soft scratch of pen tips against paper.

Li Qiuhe clutched the problem he had finally understood and nearly dropped to his knees before Chi Ning. Without thinking, he blurted, "God Chi, why don't you teach us from now on? Such flexible thinking, such simple methods—I feel like my Ren and Du meridians have been opened—"

Before he could finish, Wang Quan stepped into the classroom. "What are you all doing? Lunch was delivered outside. Why haven't you gone to get it and eat? The people collecting lunch boxes will be here soon..."

His words abruptly stopped.

Wang Quan stared dumbfoundedly at the blackboard, which was already filled with writing, then looked at Chi Ning, whose fingers were dusted with chalk.

Wait, weren't you refusing to join the competition? Then why were you so damn good at competition problems?

The two stared at each other. Chi Ning was the first to guiltily look away.

Li Qiuhe was wildly excited and did not notice the slightly awkward atmosphere. He darted in front of Wang Quan and pointed to the physics problem. "Teacher, look! That physics problem we asked you about before—the one you said might be flawed—Chi Ning taught us how to solve it!"

Wang Quan: ...

I'm exhausted. I think you're the flawed one.

Why was this kid exposing his teacher's shortcomings?

Wang Quan glanced at it once, then again, and suddenly slapped his belly. "Oh! Not bad. I missed a condition, which was why I thought there was a problem. I fell into the question setter's trap. Chi Ning, you said..."

Wang Quan turned around, only to find that Chi Ning, who had been standing nearby, was gone.

Chi Ning collected his lunch and sat in the most secluded bamboo grove on campus to eat.

Thoughts kept sprouting in his mind one after another:

Morning classes were so boring. So boring that he had flipped through the textbooks as though they were extracurricular reading.

Why had Qin Heng been so arrogant as a kid? Little liar. Qin the Little Liar!

What exactly did Mo Yuanzhou want to talk to him about? Did it really have to be said in person?

Chi Ning picked up a piece of preserved-vegetable braised pork, imagined it was Qin Heng, bit down on it, and angrily finished his meal.

By evening, Chi Ning finally learned what Mo Yuanzhou wanted to discuss.

Teacher Mo, looking impeccably respectable, reclined against a sofa in the billiards hall's lounge area. His gaze shifted between Chi Ning and Qin Heng, and he nodded in satisfaction.

Chi Ning felt uneasy under his stare and asked quietly, "What exactly is this about?"

"Everyone in the group was very satisfied with the last set of photos, but we all felt they lacked a little impact. After thinking it over carefully, I realized it might be missing contrast."

Mo Yuanzhou smiled like a fox. "A couple of days ago, I spoke with Qin Heng and asked whether he would be interested in modeling to earn a little money. He agreed. I'd like the two of you to try taking a set together."