Heartthrob?

There was only one general education class the next morning, starting at eight and ending at eleven. After a two-and-a-half-hour lunch break, there was a science lab.

Cen Xia got up at seven and grabbed a quick bowl of congee in the cafeteria. By the time he reached the classroom, it was already seven fifty. Class was due to start in ten minutes, but fewer than twenty people had arrived.

It was a blow-off class that didn't count toward the final grade. Even at the best of times, only twenty-odd people showed up. The school was well aware of that, so it had assigned only two classrooms for the entire year.

Even two classrooms are too many, Cen Xia thought silently. The students attending class in both rooms combined wouldn't fill this one.

Since it was a tiered lecture hall, Cen Xia didn't like sitting in the back. The height always made him feel unsafe, so whenever he came to class, he chose the corner by the wall in the second row.

Cen Xia took out the course materials he needed and began reading from where the previous lesson had left off.

In a new and different world, even the driest knowledge held considerable appeal for Cen Xia.

There were few people in the classroom, and those who came to class barely spoke to one another, so it was unusually quiet.

Five minutes before class, a clamor suddenly rose around him, as if a crowd had flooded into the room all at once, chattering like a marketplace.

Cen Xia pulled his attention away from his book and looked up. The classroom that had been so empty was now a sea of heads. Apart from the first two rows, nearly every seat was taken.

What happened?

Perhaps there really was no room left in the back, because two boys sat down arm in arm beside Cen Xia. As they sat, they even complained that the seats were no good and that they hadn't managed to grab any in the back.

Cen Xia: "..."

Cen Xia took out his phone and opened the forum. The first thing he saw was a post with its title highlighted in red.

"Just got word that he's going to general education class!"

[Who?]

[12345, who?]

[At least give us a number!!]

[33333]

[Are the people in the comments stupid? Only first-years have general education today. Who do you think?]

Cen Xia thought for a second. Of the five, the only first-year was Pei Huaiyi, who was represented by the number "3" on the forum.

[Is the information reliable?]

[There are two classrooms. Which one?]

[Forget it, I'm going to grab a seat. Fifty-fifty odds, I'm taking the gamble.]

The comments kept refreshing in real time. Cen Xia even saw someone selling seats in the comments for thirty thousand yuan each. The farther back the seat, the higher the price.

[Is the person selling seats sick in the head? I've got money, but I'm not stupid (smile.jpg).]

Cen Xia turned off his phone screen, amused. It was just like chasing celebrities.

Class had already started, but the usually punctual teacher was late for the first time. Cen Xia didn't know if it was because the teacher knew what was happening here.

The morning sun wasn't strong. Light fell into the classroom, forming patches of different shapes. Someone sitting by the window found the sunlight dazzling and drew the curtains. The room instantly darkened by several degrees, leaving only the open door to let the sunlight in.

The noisy classroom began to quiet down at that moment. Like the volume on a phone being turned down, the noise gradually faded until it was muted.

From where Cen Xia sat, he had a clear view of the front door, so he saw a boy who looked as though he had wandered in here by mistake.

He had a delicate face, as if it had been carefully carved by the creator: fair skin, clear, bright amber eyes, long, curled lashes, and luscious lips. His hair was thick and fluffy, naturally wavy, with glints of light shining through it in the sun.

He simply stood there, as exquisite as a BJD doll.

The people around him were silent, seemingly absorbed in his beauty.

Even Cen Xia was dazed for a few seconds.

Then he realized that this was a protagonist holding the heartthrob script.

Has the third novel appeared?

But why haven't I seen him before?

The crowd came back to their senses and began whispering.

"Who is he?"

"I don't know. Has anyone seen him before?"

"If anyone had seen that face, they wouldn't forget it, would they?"

The crowd quickly fell silent again, because two more people had appeared at the front door.

The two surrounded the boy from before, one on either side. The one on the left had dyed red hair and a lip piercing, and his face looked very young. Cen Xia had seen him once before, during a fight on campus.

His name was Ling Xian, and he belonged to the second tier of the school's pyramid. Apart from the few at the very top, there was almost no one at school who could stand in his way, especially with Pei Huaiyi above him.

Rumor had it that he was Pei Huaiyi's younger cousin.

The boy on the right looked completely out of place beside him. If Ling Xian looked like a delinquent, then he was the image of a traditional, stereotypical bookworm. He wore his uniform neatly, with every button fastened all the way to the top, and narrow black-framed glasses. His features were gentle and harmless.

But Cen Xia always felt that a cold silver gleam would flash across his lenses, just like in a manga.

Those two were known to everyone as members of Pei Huaiyi's faction.

Their presence meant that Pei Huaiyi really had come.

The scene was so terrifyingly quiet that Cen Xia even imagined he could hear footsteps, unhurried and a little nonchalant.

Cen Xia had never met Pei Huaiyi. Even though they were in the same year, he had only occasionally heard about his exploits from other people.

In Cen Xia's impression, the name Pei Huaiyi represented violence and brawling.

More than half the boys at this school admired him.

Pei Huaiyi came from a military family and possessed absolute strength, and people generally liked the strong.

Unlike the image Cen Xia had imagined, the boy walking toward them with the sunlight at his back didn't have bulky muscles. Clothed in a dark uniform, he was tall and lean, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. His sleeves were casually rolled up, revealing smooth, tightly muscled forearms.

His bangs looked as though he had casually raked them back, with only a few strands hanging loose. He had excellent bone structure, strikingly three-dimensional for an East Asian, and deep-set eyes. Although he came from a military family, his skin was as pale as if it rarely saw the sun.

He didn't look much like the school tyrant people talked about.

His expression was somewhat cold. After entering, he didn't spare anyone a glance, only tossing the black bag he carried to Ling Xian. "Find a seat."

Ling Xian patted the boy with the heartthrob aura on the shoulder and grinned. "You pick."

The boy's eyes were moist. He hesitantly pointed his white-jade hand at an empty seat at random.

"Th-there's nobody over there."

Cen Xia followed his finger to the seat in front of him.

You people who grabbed seats look stupid now. You worked so hard to snatch up all the spots in the back that you can only let them sit in front.

But in the end, it wasn't the boy with the heartthrob aura who sat in front of Cen Xia, but Pei Huaiyi. Ling Xian sat on the outside and called across the empty seat, "Lin Jiandu, come sit here."

Lin Jiandu?

Cen Xia had seen that name on the forum. In a post by one of Pei Huaiyi's die-hard fans, Lin Jiandu was a poor victim who had been caught up in one of Pei Huaiyi's fights after accidentally wandering into the scene.

The post had even included a photo of Lin Jiandu's student ID.

But the boy in the photo looked nothing like the present Lin Jiandu.

Sure enough, when the people in the back heard the name from Ling Xian, they erupted like a boiling pot.

"Who's Lin Jiandu? Did he just transfer here?"

"Lin Jiandu? How can he be Lin Jiandu? I remember he didn't look like that."

"Is Lin Jiandu really that good-looking? Is he just not photogenic?"

Then someone hit the nail on the head. "So that's what he looks like without his glasses..."

Cen Xia: "..." The setting where someone turns out to be beautiful once they take off their glasses? That's very heartthrob.

It wasn't until more than twenty minutes into class that the teacher finally arrived.

He wasn't at all surprised that the classroom was full today. He simply took out his teaching materials and began the lesson.

Clearly, the students below were no longer in the mood to listen.

The two boys sitting beside Cen Xia kept taking pictures with their phones, saying something completely different from what they had said at first. "I knew it, today's my lucky day! Good thing I came late and sat here. Oh my god, Lady Luck is smiling on me!"

Cen Xia listened to the lesson expressionlessly, trying not to let them distract him.

Most of the forty-five-minute lesson had already been taken up, so it was practically over as soon as it began.

During the break, it was no longer so quiet. Many people passed the first two rows under the pretext of going out, some sneaking looks at Pei Huaiyi and others at Lin Jiandu.

Cen Xia also took the opportunity to go out for some air. He walked to the empty pantry, took out his phone, and logged onto the forum with practiced ease.

The latest post chronicled what had just happened.

But the most popular one was Lin Jiandu's personal thread.

Cen Xia opened it and was greeted by a candid photo of Lin Jiandu. Judging by the angle, it had actually been taken by the two boys sitting beside him.

Cen Xia had thought they were Pei Huaiyi's little fanboys. He hadn't expected the heartthrob aura to have such a powerful effect.

The photo showed Lin Jiandu in profile, listening intently to the lesson. His long lashes cast a shadow, and because of the reflected light, his eyes were clear and transparent, as though a colored glass bead had been set in each socket.

Scrolling down to the comments, Cen Xia found candid photos from every angle, each one beautiful. Lin Jiandu was not only photogenic but had no bad angles through all 360 degrees.

Cen Xia marveled. He really is a heartthrob.

Leaving Lin Jiandu's personal thread, Cen Xia opened the latest post. Its style was completely different from the personal thread, but for once, there was no hostility.

[What's the relationship between L and that first-year? It was obvious today that he came along with L. Are the two of them dating? Does anyone know L? Come out and tell us TT.]

[I'm in L's class, but he hasn't come to class for a week. Our classmates are wondering about it too.]

[But he really is so pretty. He's completely my ideal type...]

[He used to look kind of dull with glasses on. I didn't expect him to look like that without them.]

[This is really strange. The forum's been full of specially admitted students lately. This year's specially admitted students are something else, one S and one L. Could both of them really manage to climb a high branch?]

[The person above, don't talk nonsense. Our L isn't like S.]

[Haven't we gotten off topic, everyone? Can any expert 818 what happened between them?]

Under that comment was a reply with the most likes-

Leave Me Alone: [Wait until lunch break.]

[The expert is here!!!]