The deal

Force was the most primitive yet fastest way to establish control, but its drawbacks were also very obvious.

Lezheng and the others had only gone to the library once. Every time after that, they had gone to a café, mainly because loud conversation was prohibited in the library. Their grades were all above average even in Class A, so they simply studied in this relaxed fashion.

"They seem to be arguing over there." Sawada pointed curiously.

"We get to watch a show," Murashita said.

People at two nearby tables had stood up, and a red-haired boy had already started rolling up his sleeves.

"Defective products who haven't even figured out what's on the exam, running their mouths here."

"Don't go too far!"

The red-haired boy grabbed the collar of the boy mocking them, his other hand already raised high and ready to strike.

"All right, that's enough of this farce."

The speaker was a pink-haired girl. She walked up to the two with a smile on her face.

"If you keep this up, I'll have to report you to the school."

"Who the hell are you? Mind your own business!" The red-haired boy's face was full of anger.

"Let's go. Being anywhere near Class D makes you stupid." The boy who had clashed with the redhead led his classmates away.

"What a shame. If Ichinose hadn't interrupted, we could've watched some freestyle fighting." Lezheng was a little disappointed.

"What are you disappointed about?" Sawada asked.

Since it was Saturday, Lezheng and the others had only planned to study for two hours in the morning, leaving the rest of the day free. After the study session ended, Lezheng sought out two prominent figures from Class D.

"Sorry for asking you out on a Saturday." Lezheng looked at the two with a smile.

"It's lovely to make friends with someone from Class A." Kushida smiled sweetly.

"Then I'll get straight to the point. Your Class D isn't confident you can get through this midterm without anyone being eliminated, right?" Lezheng said.

"What do you mean?" Hirata looked a little puzzled.

"I can help you get through this Special Exam, but you'll have to pay Private Points."

"How many Private Points do you need?" Hirata immediately perked up.

"One hundred thousand."

"..." The two fell silent for a moment before asking, "How can we trust you?"

"We can have a teacher act as guarantor and sign an agreement."

After another stretch of silence, the two finally nodded in agreement. All three went to the faculty office and found Class D's homeroom teacher.

"Have you thought this through?" Chasuke stared sharply at Hirata and Kushida.

"I don't want to lose any classmates just two months into school." Hirata was firm.

"I feel the same way." Kushida still wore a smile.

"You're a student from Class 1-A. What's your name?" Chasuke turned his gaze to Lezheng.

"Lezheng Youyan."

"If neither side has any objections, start drafting the agreement."

The agreement stated that Lezheng had to help every student in Class D pass this Special Exam, provided no one deliberately gave up. Otherwise, he would pay ten times the Private Points in compensation. Class D had to pay Lezheng a total of one hundred thousand Private Points within a week and could not reveal that he was the provider. If they failed to pay within a week, they would pay ten times the Private Points in compensation.

"Can you tell us now, Lezheng?" Hirata could not help asking after signing.

"I can only tell you somewhere else." Lezheng gave Chasuke a meaningful look.

Lezheng took the two to a meeting room.

"You still remember the quiz from not long ago, right?" Lezheng took out two test papers.

"This is our last quiz, and this is a beginning-of-term quiz from a previous year."

"These last few major questions are identical, right down to every word." Kushida covered her mouth in surprise.

"This is the first midterm exam from a previous school year." Lezheng handed over the paper.

"One last reminder: it's best to bring the paper out the day before the exam and say these are the actual exam questions. Remember to have the high-scoring students keep their scores in check, and transfer the Private Points to my account within a week."

"Thank goodness. Now no one will have to drop out." Hirata stared at the paper in his hands, muttering to himself.

"I'll head back too, Hirata." Kushida returned to her dorm, struggling to suppress her anger.

"Those useless bastards. Why the hell should I spend my Private Points helping them? Bunch of scum..."

This beautiful girl, who was always calm and gentle with others, now wore a vicious expression as she spewed profanity.

As for how Lezheng had discovered that the exam questions were the same, most of the questions on the quiz had clearly fallen outside the scope of their studies and seemed more like upper-year material. So he had borrowed books from upper-year students and checked their textbook content, discovering the trick through comparison.

He had found the exam papers among all the past papers kept by the Student Council. It had to be said that the Student Council at Advanced Nurturing really did wield considerable authority. Its responsibilities included clubs, school discipline, scheduling activities, and assisting with Special Exams. It could even propose amendments to school rules.

The other members of Lezheng's group had already worked through these questions once without realizing it. Only Class D needed to buy them.

Class C's response had been:

"You don't seriously think I don't know, do you?" Ryuen Kakeru's face was full of disdain.

Ichinose from Class B had politely refused to cheat and urged Lezheng not to cross the line.

Judging from these encounters, only Class D had failed to discover this hidden clue. Whether Class B was pretending not to know or genuinely did not know was unclear, while Class C had information on it.

The midterms soon arrived. After checking his paper and confirming he had finished, Lezheng began looking around. A small number of students had already put down their pens like him. Hashimoto even gave him a wink, and Lezheng blew him a kiss in return, making Kamuro look back and forth between them with some excitement.

This midterm was even easier than the last quiz, and the Class A students had little difficulty with it.

After all the subjects were finished, the class began gathering in groups to discuss their scores again.

"How did it feel?" Satonaka asked.

"Pretty easy." Sawada smiled.

The other five agreed.

"Lezheng, would you like to compare scores on this exam?" Sakayanagi walked over to Lezheng with her cane.

"Do you think these scores are worth comparing?" Lezheng countered.

"I got full marks in every subject." Rather than answer, Sakayanagi continued on her own.

"Wow, you're amazing, Classmate Sakayanagi." Lezheng obligingly applauded.

It left Sakayanagi feeling as though she had punched cotton.

"I've realized that not only is your body immature, but your mind is too."

That one remark from Lezheng reignited Sakayanagi's anger just as it had died down, but her upbringing made it impossible for her to simply start swearing.

"Do you think you're very funny, Lezheng?"

"I thought you'd laugh. Sorry."

Lezheng was very fond of one saying: "Be quick to admit your mistakes, but never change your ways."