A Pawn on the Front Lines

Cen Xia couldn't play Go with someone who only knew how to play Gomoku.

So he suggested, "How about we each do our own thing? Any objections?"

Lu Mian thought it over seriously for two seconds, then answered in a slow, soft voice, "No."

Cen Xia nodded in satisfaction, told Lu Mian to make himself comfortable, and prepared to clear the Gomoku game off the board.

But the second the words left his mouth, Lu Mian, sitting across from him, suddenly lay down flat on the floor. He folded his hands over his lower abdomen and closed his eyes, looking so peaceful it was as if he'd already been laid to rest on the spot.

Cen Xia: "!!"

Classmates: "!!!"

Cen Xia went pale with shock and reached down to pull him up. "What are you doing?!"

Lu Mian opened one eye, keeping the other shut, and said calmly, "I'm sleeping."

Cen Xia was baffled. Cen Xia was shocked.

"How can you sleep in class?!"

Lu Mian said, "You said we could each do our own thing."

Cen Xia was losing it. "Even if we're doing our own thing, you still can't sleep!"

Lu Mian said with perfect confidence, "The teacher isn't here anyway."

"...You still can't lie on the floor and sleep."

Seeing Cen Xia's insistent gaze, Lu Mian compromised. "All right, I'll sleep sitting up, then."

With that, he actually sat up and closed his eyes.

"..."

World will, come take a look! Your protagonist is sick. There's something wrong with him!

Going out of character is one thing, but he's changing the plot too!

For the entire afternoon of classes, Lu Mian actually sat there with his head propped on his hand and slept.

He even opened his eyes right on time when school ended.

If not for his bewildered gaze and the sleepy moisture misting his beautiful eyes, Cen Xia would have doubted whether he'd actually fallen asleep.

All the classmates around them had left, leaving just the two of them.

Cen Xia had been packing his things, which was why he was a little slow. Lu Mian, on the other hand, had only just woken up and hadn't gotten his bearings yet.

He had finished packing and had just reached the door when he heard a jumble of footsteps approaching from a distance. They finally stopped in front of him.

The door was open, so he met the group's eyes.

Three boys, their heads drenched in sweat, braced themselves against the doorframe, hands on their hips as they panted.

"Lu... Lu Mian, is Lu Mian here?" one of them asked him after catching his breath.

Unable to tell whether they were friends or foes, Cen Xia pondered for two seconds and chose the perfect answer.

"I don't know Lu Mian."

But as soon as the words left his mouth, a voice came from behind him.

"I'm Lu Mian."

Lu Mian walked over, rubbing his eyes, his voice still low and husky from sleep.

The moment the three saw him, their eyes turned red with fire.

"Lu Mian!" they said through gritted teeth.

Lu Mian lowered the hand rubbing his eyes and looked at them in confusion, the corners of his eyes flushed red.

"Do you need something from me?"

"Stop pretending, Lu Mian! I told you to wait, and you got so scared you switched classes outright! You coward!"

Cen Xia scratched his chin. Those words have no bite at all.

"I'm telling you! If you ever dare bully He Qi again, we won't let you off!"

"Today is just a warning. If there's a next time, I'll make you obediently withdraw from Kanlitel!"

Some made threats, while another "offered kind advice."

"I know you feel aggrieved and jealous of He Qi, but he's a victim too. You shouldn't take your anger out on He Qi when he's a victim just like you. He's never said a single bad word about you in front of us. He's such a sincere and kind person. I hope you two can get along from now on..."

Cen Xia actually laughed. How can the one who benefited have the nerve to call himself a victim too?

He thought he knew who these three were.

He Qi's bootlickers. After he'd casually provoked them with a few words, they'd scrambled to stand up for him, unaware that they were acting as his pawns on the front lines and serving as his shields.

The three took turns speaking, combining threats with persuasion and using both the stick and the carrot. Convinced they had made themselves clear enough, they waited eagerly, hoping Lu Mian would either burst into tears and realize his mistake or turn pale with fright and scram off to apologize to He Qi.

However-

Lu Mian merely lifted his eyelids lazily and asked in a puzzled tone, "Who are you?"

He hadn't taken in a single word of that long speech. Instead, he had sincerely asked who they were.

It did little damage, but was extremely insulting.

Cen Xia gave him a thumbs-up in his heart. Well done! That's it, treat everyone like they're beneath your notice!

The three exploded with rage. "You don't know who we are? We met at a banquet!"

"Our families have been friends for generations. How can you not know who I am?"

"I only went to the He Family's place yesterday! Lu Mian, stop pretending you don't know me!"

Lu Mian shifted his eyes, seemingly trying hard to remember. Then he shook his head.

"I don't know you, but could I ask you to stop blocking the door?"

Cen Xia, who had been watching the show, hurriedly chimed in. "Exactly! Are you going to let us out or not?"

The three boys' faces twisted. They pointed trembling fingers at Lu Mian but couldn't get a word out for a long while. Finally, they flung their sleeves and stormed off in a rage.

What a useless bunch of pawns. The three of them aren't even as good as Shen Zhong alone.

Lu Mian raised the back of his hand to cover his mouth as he yawned, moisture gathering in his beautiful eyes.

"Mm, I can sleep a little longer when I get back," he mumbled.

Because he was close by, Cen Xia heard the nearly inaudible mumble and gave him a look that was hard to put into words. Just how sleepy is he?

After that incident, Cen Xia went home that evening and drew a large question mark next to Lu Mian's name in his notebook.

Everyone had gone out of character to varying degrees, but Lu Mian had strayed the furthest.

He had even changed the plot himself.

According to the original plot, he should have been attending piano class dutifully, then discovering his talent for music and, finally, dazzling everyone at a banquet when someone gave him a hard time.

But now he had gone off to take Go lessons. Was he going to play a game of Go at a banquet and dazzle everyone instead?

The key was, he didn't even know how to play Go. All he knew was Gomoku!

The banquet hall was ablaze with light, and the guests were impeccably dressed. Lu Mian sat down onstage, lazily pulled out a board, and started playing Gomoku.

You know what? That's pretty distinctive.

Cen Xia tossed his pen aside, delighted by the picture in his head.

In any case, no matter how badly the plot fell apart, it had nothing to do with him. That was the world will's problem.

But... a chilling thought suddenly sprang into Cen Xia's mind. If the plot really fell apart, would it affect his ability to go home?

Less than a second after the thought occurred to him, he calmed down again. Ever since he had transmigrated here, no one had told him how to leave this damned world inside a book.

That he could go home once the plot ended was merely his own guess.

After all, he didn't even have the plot of the entire book yet.

The important plot points he had triggered before had only given him half of each book. He speculated that this might be a prerequisite.

He had to advance the plot through the first half of all three books before he could obtain the complete contents of their second halves.

Whether it was a coincidence or something else, all three books broke off abruptly at the end of the second semester of the first year.

In other words, there was less than a year left.

His gaze fell on the calendar in front of his desk. Today was October thirteenth.

As long as he made it through this year, he should have an answer as to whether all his guesses were correct.