Chapter 44

The brief weekend had passed in the blink of an eye.

Before morning reading class had even ended, the monthly exam papers from every subject last week had already been handed out to the students.

After receiving their own papers, everyone wore different expressions.

Looking at his papers for each subject and calculating his total score, Wang Shining could not suppress his smug expression.

He handed his papers to Xia Yue, who was sitting beside him. "Xia Yue, look."

Seeing Wang Shining's scores in every subject, Xia Yue could not help smiling happily. "The papers were so difficult this time, yet you still scored so well. Now you'll definitely beat Lu Yao."

Thinking of Lu Yao soon becoming his defeated opponent and of being able to thoroughly humiliate him, excitement could not help flashing through Wang Shining's eyes.

Suddenly remembering that today was the bidding meeting between his family company and the Lu family company, Wang Shining immediately came up with an idea.

At the bidding venue.

The bidding had not yet begun, and only representatives from a few companies had arrived.

Seeing the proud look on his father's face after he received a text message, Wang Chen, the eldest son of the Wang family, curiously asked, "Dad, did something good happen? You suddenly look so happy."

Father Wang said proudly, "Your brother just told me that he did exceptionally well on his monthly exams. He'll definitely beat that youngest son of the Lu family. That's a good omen. Looks like today's bid should go to our Wang family too."

Hearing that it was about Wang Shining, that illegitimate son, the smile at the corner of Wang Chen's mouth immediately turned colder.

What kind of brother was an illegitimate child of such lowly blood to him?

His eyes flickered, but he naturally smiled and changed the subject. "That does sound like good news. But Dad, why didn't Assistant Tang come today?"

Father Wang frowned irritably. "Don't mention that person in front of me again. On Saturday morning, he suddenly told me he wanted to resign. When I asked him why, he refused to say anything. He's got something wrong with his head."

Wang Chen raised his brows in surprise upon hearing that Assistant Tang had resigned. Assistant Tang had worked by his father's side for years. Why had he suddenly decided to quit?

Seeing that Father Wang did not want to say more, Wang Chen brought up another topic.

Father Wang had been watching the entrance to the bidding venue. When he saw Father Lu enter with a group of subordinates, he immediately went over impatiently.

The moment Father Lu sat down, he saw Father Wang, his beer belly sticking out as he strode over with a smug look. He was puzzled. The bidding was about to begin, so why had Father Wang come over?

After flaunting his son's grades, Father Wang said confidently, "Director Lu, I think this landmark project will go to our Wang family this time."

Dressed in a sharp suit, Father Lu leaned back in his chair with complete composure.

"Director Wang, instead of wasting time believing in superstitions, why not put more thought into your bidding proposal? If you fail again this time, that'll make four losses to us this year. As the saying goes, things never happen more than three times. It seems you don't understand that saying very well."

Thinking of all his previous failed bids against the Lu family company, Father Wang looked both angry and embarrassed. "You—"

Before he could finish speaking, the host onstage raised the microphone and said, "Please return to your seats. The bidding meeting is about to begin."

Father Wang glared hatefully at Father Lu before reluctantly returning to his seat.

At school.

As soon as morning reading class ended, Wang Shining impatiently took Xia Yue to the neighboring class to find Lu Yao.

Wang Shining's bet with Lu Yao had long been known throughout the entire school.

Seeing the two of them heading to find Lu Yao, the classmates followed along curiously to watch.

However, when they reached the entrance of Lu Yao's classroom, they discovered that Lu Yao was not there.

Wang Shining and Xia Yue simply stood at the classroom door and waited.

"Could Lu Yao have known he was going to lose and hidden somewhere because he was afraid of embarrassing himself?"

"Lu Yao doesn't seem like the kind of person who'd do that!"

"Wang Shining, what was your total score this time?"

Wang Shining proudly announced his score. It was the highest score he had received that semester.

Hearing Wang Shining and Xia Yue's total scores, the people around them began discussing in shock.

"These papers weren't easy, yet they still scored so high."

"With scores like those, what's there to bet on? No need to ask—Lu Yao definitely can't beat them."

Hearing the envious voices around him, Wang Shining could not help looking even more pleased with himself.

"They're here, they're here! Lu Yao and the others are coming over."

Seeing Lu Yao approaching with Lu Qi and Ye Muqing, everyone moved aside to make way for them.

Wang Shining blocked Lu Yao's path, his tone full of the arrogance of a petty man drunk on success. "Lu Yao, don't forget our bet!"

Lu Yao raised his eyes and coldly glanced at him. "Neither should you."

The onlooking students were already dying of curiosity.

Linking her arm through Wang Shining's, Xia Yue asked loudly, "Lu Yao, what was your total score this time?"

Lu Yao's voice was calm. "I don't know."

Wang Shining sneered disdainfully. "What do you mean, you don't know? The papers were handed out ages ago. Are you too afraid of losing face to say it?"

Hearing Wang Shining say that, some of the students who had gathered to watch agreed with him.

"Exactly. Lu Yao, isn't your score already a settled fact? What's there to hide?"

"Don't tell me you really can't afford to lose and are afraid of embarrassment?"

"No way. I used to like Lu Yao, but now I suddenly think he's kind of cowardly."

Xia Yue spoke as well. "Lu Yao, betting means there are winners and losers. There's nothing wrong with losing. Aren't you just refusing to accept defeat by acting like this?"

Lu Yao looked at her coldly, his voice icy. "I only said I didn't know. I never said I wouldn't tell you. When the teacher arrives, I'll naturally ask. Or if you can't wait, you can go ask yourselves right now."

"What are all of you crowding around here for?"

Seeing a large group of students gathered at the entrance of his classroom, the homeroom teacher squeezed his way into the crowd.

"Why are so many of you gathered here?"

When no one answered him, he did not get angry. Instead, he walked straight over to Lu Yao.

"Lu Yao, so you're here. Good, now I don't have to look for you. You did well this time."

He encouragingly patted Lu Yao on the shoulder, a proud smile appearing on his face.

"Here, these are your papers from every subject. The teachers suddenly decided to make copies of your papers and pass them around as reference materials during the review sessions, so we didn't have time to give them to you during morning reading class."

Lu Yao accepted the papers from his homeroom teacher. "Sorry for the trouble, Teacher."

The homeroom teacher waved his hand. "What trouble? I only had to walk a few steps."

As he spoke, his phone rang.

After seeing the caller ID, he said, "I have something to do, so I'll be leaving first. Class is about to start. Stop crowding around our classroom door and return to your own classrooms."

Hearing this, the students around them knew that Lu Yao had probably done quite well. Otherwise, the other teachers would not have wanted to copy his papers and circulate them.

A student watching from the corridor called out curiously to the homeroom teacher, "Teacher, what score did Lu Yao get this time?"

As the homeroom teacher hurried away, he gave Lu Yao's total score without even turning around.

The moment he finished speaking, everyone present erupted into an uproar.

"That's a full thirty-four points higher than Wang Shining!"

"Wasn't Lu Yao's academic performance supposed to be pretty average?"

"That jump is way too huge!"

"Didn't Jiang Bai skip the monthly exams this time? Doesn't that mean Lu Yao is first place this time?"

"Looks like without Jiang Bai, Wang Shining is still the eternal runner-up."

"He's ahead by thirty-four points. That's a guaranteed win, with no suspense at all."

Ye Muqing had been curious for a long time. He bluntly asked, "Lu Yao, let me admire your papers!"

Lu Qi was also extremely shocked. Seeing Ye Muqing take Lu Yao's papers, he hurriedly stepped forward to take a look too.

Seeing Lu Yao's mathematics and physics scores, Ye Muqing exclaimed in surprise, "Lu Yao, you actually got full marks in math and physics?!"

Hearing Ye Muqing's words, Wang Shining hurriedly shoved aside the people blocking him and squeezed forward as well.

After Ye Muqing finished looking over the papers and was about to return them to Lu Yao, Wang Shining snatched them away.

He carefully flipped through Lu Yao's papers, unwilling to accept it. "How is this possible?!"

Wasn't Lu Yao supposed to be an idiot?! How could he lose to trash like Lu Yao?!

Although Lu Qi was also shocked, he could not stand Wang Shining looking down on his younger brother Lu Yao.

He scoffed, his tone full of contempt. "Why isn't it possible? You're allowed to score high, but Lu Yao isn't allowed to beat you? You're nothing special to look at, but you sure dream big!"

Some of the students nearby saw how Wang Shining had been so smug just moments ago, yet now wanted to deny the result after losing. They also began to despise him.

"A loss is a loss. Can't you just admit it openly?"

"Exactly. You were so aggressive earlier, but now look at you! Lu Yao isn't the one who can't afford to lose—you are."

Xia Yue also found it hard to believe that Lu Yao could achieve such a score. Looking around and seeing the envy and admiration in everyone's eyes as they looked at Lu Yao, she began to feel uneasy.

She could not allow Lu Yao to gain these people's admiration. Otherwise, how would she destroy him and let her system devour the system inside him?

If Lu Yao did not suffer complete ruin, then she and her system might be the ones destroyed in the end.

Xia Yue's eyes shifted as she spoke softly, "Lu Yao, why did you improve so much so suddenly? Could you share with us how you got such high scores?"

Lu Yao looked completely calm. "I filled in what I knew. I got them by using my brain."

Xia Yue pressed on, "Then why were your previous scores so different from this time? Was it because you didn't know how to fill them in before?"

Lu Yao glanced at her. "Say what you want to say directly. There's no need to beat around the bush."

Xia Yue said, "I don't want to say anything. I just think it's a little suspicious."

Lu Yao raised a brow slightly and directly exposed the implication behind her words.

"You're saying I cheated?"

Xia Yue hurriedly waved her hands.

"I didn't say you cheated. After all, you got the highest score, so where could you even cheat from? I'm only saying that it's suspicious. Your previous grades were there for everyone to see, and then you suddenly scored so high. Of course people would find that hard to understand, wouldn't they?"

Hearing Xia Yue's words, one of the onlooking students muttered suspiciously, "If it wasn't cheating but it's still suspicious, then what else could it be... Could the exam questions have been leaked?"

"Are you crazy? How can you say something like that without any evidence?"

"But what Xia Yue said does make sense."

"Leaked questions? No way, that would be too despicable!"

"Thinking about it, it really is suspicious, isn't it? His grades suddenly shot up so fast. Even a rocket wouldn't be faster than him."

Hearing the suspicious whispers around her, Xia Yue secretly smiled smugly.

So what if Lu Yao had truly relied on himself? Public opinion was an invisible blade that killed.

Seeing the suspicious looks everyone was giving Lu Yao, Lu Qi's face darkened with anger. "Xia Yue, you need evidence when you speak! What right do you have to claim the questions were leaked without any proof?"

Xia Yue pretended to look aggrieved, knitting her delicate brows. "I wasn't the one who said the questions were leaked. I only said I thought it was suspicious and voiced my thoughts. I want to believe Lu Yao too, but shouldn't he give everyone an explanation?"

Hearing the discussions around him, Zhang Xinyang looked at Lu Yao's cold, stern face at the center of the crowd and pursed his lips.

"How can Lu Yao explain something he never did?"

Hearing those words suddenly ring out from the crowd, everyone turned to look.

Lu Yao also raised his eyes toward Zhang Xinyang.

Zhang Xinyang nodded at Lu Yao and smiled faintly. Compared to before, his eyes now held more determination and calmness.

The corner of Lu Yao's lips lifted slightly.

From a distance, the principal saw a crowd gathered in the corridor ahead.

He smiled awkwardly at the suited man beside him.

"I'm truly sorry, Teacher Qin. You've had to witness this. Sorry for the trouble, but could you wait here for a moment? I'll go handle the students' matter first, and then we can head to the principal's office afterward, all right?"

The suited man said unconcernedly, "It's fine. Principal, go take care of your business first. I don't mind waiting here. I can take the opportunity to enjoy your school's scenery."

The suited man casually glanced at the crowd. When he saw the figure standing in the middle, his eyes widened slightly in confusion.

Why was he here?

The principal had only taken two steps when the suited man followed him. Smiling at the principal, he said, "Principal, I think I saw a student I know. May I go over and say hello to him?"

Although the principal was puzzled, he still nodded and agreed to his request.

After all, he was hoping that Teacher Qin could help further expand Huiying High School's influence.