If You Can't Beat Him, Tell the Teacher

"Pursue who?"

Is this really the time to pick a consort? Chen Zhu thought. Can't you see I'm about to become everyone's target?

These high schoolers were pretty funny. They seemed to think adding someone on QQ meant you were definitely going to date them and then have children together.

Their logic was unbelievable!

Still, to clear both Song Shiwei's name and his own, Chen Zhu decided to explain.

"Ahem!"

Chen Zhu cleared his throat. He knew plenty of his classmates were already looking at him, but he did it anyway to get their attention.

"There's been a misunderstanding."

His voice rang out clearly. "I didn't add Song Shiwei on QQ. I only asked her to add an older schoolmate of mine."

Mou Jiawen was still fuming. Three years-three whole years! Every time they graded papers, it was the same routine. This time had simply been so outrageous that she couldn't hold back.

Hearing Chen Zhu still trying to argue his way out, she immediately snapped, "Then why doesn't Shiwei help any of the other boys? Let me ask you all: has any boy in this class ever managed to add her on QQ?"

Damn...

This girl is being completely unreasonable, Chen Zhu thought. With the mood she's in, she'd probably kick a dog just for walking past.

I'd better find a time to explain things to Song Shiwei alone.

Chen Zhu glanced at their school beauty.

Song Shiwei had probably noticed how upset Mou Jiawen was, tears pattering down her face. She gently set down her pen and silently stood up.

First, she handed Mou Jiawen a tissue.

That tissue suddenly calmed Mou Jiawen down a little.

There really doesn't seem to be anything going on between Song Shiwei and Chen Zhu. Am I spreading rumors, then?

"Shiwei..."

With glistening tears still clinging to her cheeks, Mou Jiawen took the tissue in a daze.

Song Shiwei said nothing.

She walked over to the other side, bent down, and picked up the crumpled pieces of the exam paper one by one.

Her expression was perfectly calm. Bright, gentle light fell across her cheeks, seeming to envelop her in a hazy halo. Her long lashes trembled softly, and as she lowered her head, a sliver of ivory-white neck showed, like the most dazzling streak of moonlight across the vast Milky Way.

Once she had gathered the paper, Song Shiwei returned to her seat.

Throughout it all, she hadn't said a word, let alone explained anything about QQ. Nor had she glanced at Chen Zhu.

She hadn't looked at anyone. She was simply that cool and distant, untouched by worldly concerns.

No one in the classroom spoke. The silence felt as though they were submerged in the sea.

Even Mou Jiawen forgot to wipe her nose, only remembering when a snot bubble nearly reached her mouth.

Only when their physics teacher, Wang Deshan, arrived for class and wondered aloud why the atmosphere felt so strange did everyone take out their physics papers as if nothing had happened.

"Chen Zhu, you're done for..."

Huang Bohan had initially been a little angry and bitterly jealous.

He was angry because Chen Zhu hadn't even told him about "adding Song Shiwei on QQ." Did he still consider him a brother?

He was jealous because he and Chen Zhu had both been nobodies, yet in just over a month, Chen Zhu had become one of the school's most talked-about students and even "gotten involved" with its two prettiest girls, Song Shiwei and Yu Xian.

But after seeing the presence Song Shiwei commanded while gathering up that paper, and then remembering Yu Xian's fiery personality and how boldly she loved and hated...

Big Huang couldn't help worrying about his friend again.

Chen Zhu, on the other hand, remained fairly relaxed. This was high school. If anyone asked, they were classmates; if anyone brought it up, they were friends.

Even if something really was going on, it could wait until university.

Huang Bohan's jealousy wasn't serious, but someone else's certainly was.

Their academic representative, Kang Liangsong.

He could dismiss Li Jianming as a clown. After all, Li Jianming's grades were terrible, and Song Shiwei had never shown him the slightest warmth.

But Chen Zhu was different. He was taller than Kang Liangsong, better-looking when he tidied himself up, and now apparently quite a smooth talker too. He had charmed their year director, Cao Jingjun, so thoroughly during Appointment with Prestigious Universities.

Most importantly, Chen Zhu's grades weren't bad either.

Although he didn't know the details of the "QQ incident," Mou Jiawen's words immediately filled Kang Liangsong with a powerful sense of threat.

How can I get rid of Chen Zhu?

Kang Liangsong didn't listen to a single word of physics class. In the end, he realized dejectedly that there was nothing he could do about a boy like Chen Zhu.

Then this is my only option...

As soon as the fourth period that morning ended, Kang Liangsong jogged all the way to the staffroom and finally intercepted their homeroom teacher, Yin Yanqiu, before she left.

"Kang Liangsong, what's wrong?"

Seeing her class's academic representative so out of breath, Yin Yanqiu thought something serious had happened.

"T-Teacher Yin."

Kang Liangsong rubbed his chest. "I have a problem I'd like to report to you!"

The other teachers had all gone to lunch. Wondering what this might be about, Yin Yanqiu poured him a cup of water, then folded her arms. "Go on. What is it?"

And so Kang Liangsong reported Chen Zhu and Song Shiwei's supposed "high school romance" to Yin Yanqiu.

To make his claims more convincing, Kang Liangsong included every possible hint and clue, not least the incident when Chen Zhu had stood up for Song Shiwei.

"Teacher Yin."

Finally, adopting the supposedly neutral stance of an impartial third party, Kang Liangsong said, "I think dating before the Gaokao is a huge mistake. I hope you can punish Chen Zhu severely and make him stay away from Song Shiwei!"

Yin Yanqiu listened quietly to the end without commenting on his claims.

If this is really true, isn't a relationship the result of two people liking each other? Why punish only Chen Zhu?

Besides, yes, Kang Liangsong has the potential to get into Tsinghua or Peking University, but so do Chen Zhu and Song Shiwei. With the Second Mock Exam just around the corner, you want me to punish those two?

Yin Yanqiu had spent many years as the Experimental Class's homeroom teacher. It wasn't as though she had never encountered this before. She intended to punish neither of them, nor even call them in for a talk.

First, she would verify whether it was true.

Then she would look at their Second Mock Exam results.

Even if Chen Zhu and Song Shiwei really were dating, as long as their grades remained steady in the Second Mock Exam, Yin Yanqiu would simply pretend she had forgotten about it.

Perhaps she would only bring it up jokingly at the teacher appreciation banquet after the Gaokao.

If both their grades dropped, she would intervene even if they weren't dating.

Of course, she couldn't discourage Kang Liangsong or upset his state of mind now, either. He too was a potential Tsinghua or Peking University student.

So Yin Yanqiu offered him some encouragement. "I'll find time to talk to them. Thank you, Kang Liangsong, for taking an active interest in your classmates and fulfilling your responsibilities as a class representative."

"All right. Please do it as soon as possible, Teacher Yin."

Kang Liangsong sounded deeply worried and urgent.

He was afraid that even a second's delay might let Chen Zhu steal Song Shiwei's first kiss.

"I know, I know. You need to trust your teacher. Go back and prepare properly for the Second Mock Exam..."

Yin Yanqiu spoke with a smile.

After Kang Liangsong left, Yin Yanqiu considered it for a moment, then took out a class roster and frowned at the names "Chen Zhu" and "Song Shiwei."

Those two have absolutely nothing to do with each other. Could they really be dating?

Chen Zhu had no idea someone had reported him. If he had known, he would only have said that Kang Liangsong was unbelievably stupid.

They had been nothing more than flimsy rumors, yet he had actually taken them to a teacher.

It was like the Discipline Inspection Commission arresting someone without solid evidence. Whether you were truly innocent or not, the stigma was already there.

When people discussed you afterward, they would no longer talk about your achievements as an official-or, in a student's case, your grades.

Instead, they would talk about how the Discipline Inspection Commission had once arrested you-or, for a student, how you had once dated in high school.

There was only one perfect way out-

The two of them would have to actually date and both get into top universities. Only then would it become a story people fondly retold.

Unaware that he had been "targeted," Chen Zhu continued attending classes and leaving school on schedule.

Then, in the early hours of April 5, the Qingming Festival, with the entire city silent, he arrived downstairs at Yu Xian's building to wait in the damp, chilly mist.

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(End of chapter)