Today's Gossip Costs Two Fifty

The corridor grew quiet as the bell rang for class.

The teacher lectured enthusiastically at the front while the students below each did their own thing. Neither bothered the other.

Pei Huaiyi leaned back in his chair, openly using his phone to attend to his own business.

Lin Jiandu stole a glance at the handsome profile beside him and worked up the courage to ask, "Um, do you have the book for this class?"

Pei Huaiyi's fingers paused on the phone screen. He lifted his eyes to look at him, and his tone sounded faintly mocking to Lin Jiandu. "Then what were you listening so intently to last class?"

Lin Jiandu's cheeks flushed, making his whole face look like a painting. He mumbled, "You don't listen in class anyway, so let me borrow your book..."

With a fearsome god of calamity sitting beside him, he really didn't know how else to face the situation except by pretending to pay attention.

This was the first time he had been exposed in front of people like this. With so many gazes fixed on him, he was deeply troubled.

"No." Pei Huaiyi turned his attention back to his phone.

Ling Xian propped his head on his right hand and grinned at Lin Jiandu, his red hair outrageously eye-catching. "Brother Pei never brings books. Why don't you ask to borrow mine?"

Lin Jiandu didn't even look at him.

"I don't want to talk to you."

This person behaved frivolously and often said things that embarrassed him, so, comparing the two, he would rather ask Pei Huaiyi. Though Pei Huaiyi looked frightening, at least he didn't say inexplicable things to him.

Ling Xian watched him with a smile. "How about I borrow one for you?"

Lin Jiandu looked at the blackboard, unwilling to pay him any attention.

Ling Xian wasn't angry at all. His eyes darted around before he looked toward the back row, where he saw only one student with a book on his desk.

He reached out and knocked on the student's desk, his tone utterly devoid of courtesy. "Classmate, lend me your book."

The unlucky classmate, Cen Xia: "..."

Cen Xia glanced at the teacher. Though the commotion in front of him was so loud, the conscientious teacher didn't spare them so much as a glance.

Cen Xia meekly handed him the book.

Once Ling Xian had the book, he didn't even say thank you before hurrying to hand it to Lin Jiandu in an attempt to win his favor.

"Lin Jiandu, hurry up and thank me."

Cen Xia, the book's actual owner, stared at the blackboard. Screw you.

Lin Jiandu puffed out his cheeks as he took the book, finally giving Ling Xian a look. "Don't bully the other students."

With that, he turned around and returned the book to Cen Xia, remembering to apologize on Ling Xian's behalf. "Sorry about that, classmate. Go ahead and pay attention to the lesson."

Cen Xia could only smile and say "It's okay" over and over.

Ling Xian stared at Lin Jiandu, smiling until his eyes curved into crescent moons.

Cen Xia grumbled silently to himself. He's really enjoying this.

The rest of the class passed without incident, and the brief part belonging to a passerby A came to an end.

On the way to the cafeteria, Cen Xia opened the forum. A new post had replaced Lin Jiandu's personal thread at the top of the pinned posts.

The post's title was concise and abstract: "Today's gossip costs two fifty."

It was a style unique to the account "Leave Me Alone." The more explosive the gossip, the higher its price, but so far no post had claimed the highest price. All the gossip was priced between one and three yuan.

The post detailed everything from Pei Huaiyi's first meeting with Lin Jiandu to the events of today's general class, including Lin Jiandu's personal information and before-and-after comparison pictures. At the end, it added a line: Read it while you can.

Cen Xia had just reached the end and hadn't had time to read the comments when the screen suddenly went white. A message popped up in the middle: "This post has been deleted."

Cen Xia summed up the post. Stripping away all the embellished, extravagantly worded nonsense, the situation went something like this.

It had started three weeks ago. The special-admission student, who had only recently arrived at school, mistakenly wandered into the scene of a fight and subsequently met Pei Huaiyi, one of the school's five people at the top. As they spent time together, Pei Huaiyi discovered what made the special-admission student different, was attracted to him, and began pursuing him. The scene in today's general class was the strongest proof of that theory.

"Pursuing?" Cen Xia was skeptical of that word. Judging by what he had seen at the scene today, it didn't accurately describe the relationship between the two.

But as for what their relationship actually was, Cen Xia couldn't make sense of it. As a straight man who had been single since birth for twenty years, he really couldn't fathom the minds of homosexuals.

Kanliter Academy had eight cafeterias, each five stories tall. The dishes offered on each floor varied in price; the higher the floor, the greater the variety and the more expensive the food.

Cen Xia's family ran a resort, and his parents had built their fortune from nothing. So, in terms of family background and wealth, he could only rank in the fourth tier at this school, a little better off than the special-admission students.

He could have eaten on the second floor, but he didn't think there was any need to spend so much on cafeteria food, so he had always eaten on the first floor.

After eating, he still had more than an hour of lunch break left. Instead of returning to his dorm, Cen Xia went to the library. He had graduated many years ago, and much of his science knowledge had been returned to his teachers, so he could only catch up in his spare time.

Cen Xia had always held to the idea that, whatever happened, he should at least hold on until graduation. He studied while playing his part as passerby A, and perhaps once the main storyline ended, he would be able to transmigrate back.

Though he didn't know where the main storyline would end.

There weren't many people in the library at this hour. Cen Xia picked out the textbooks he needed and swiped his card to enter the last study room.

But-

Cen Xia froze in place, his hand still on the door.

Five boys, and they didn't look like the kind who were easy to mess with.

The one in the lead was about 1.9 meters tall, with a buzz cut, a blue stud in his right ear, heavy brows over his eyes, and sharply defined features. Hearing him enter, he looked over with a piercing gaze.

This is bad.

Cen Xia didn't dare move, wondering whether he should close the door.

Shen Zhong looked at the boy who had barged in and pressed the tip of his tongue against his back teeth, looking a little displeased. His already fierce face, paired with his haircut, made him look like a convict sentenced to hard labor with several lives on his hands. He gave an order to the lackey beside him.

"Bring him here."

Two people shoved Cen Xia over to Shen Zhong.

Shen Zhong bent down and reached out to pat Cen Xia's cheek, a humiliating gesture. "Do you know who I am?"

Cen Xia lowered his head and put on a meek expression. "I-I do."

Shen Zhong was a major character in the second real-and-fake-young-master novel, a villain in the early stages and the third male lead whose love went unrequited later on.

If Shen Zhong was here, then...

Cen Xia shifted his gaze and saw the person surrounded in the corner.

The boy happened to be looking at him. His cool, distant eyes met Cen Xia's before turning away.

Cen Xia felt the scene was familiar. After thinking about it, he realized it was like the first time he had met Lu Mian in the sports equipment room. Back then, he had been hiding behind a cabinet and happened to meet Lu Mian's gaze across from him.

A hand seized Cen Xia's chin and turned it. Shen Zhong raised an eyebrow, somewhat displeased. "Keep looking around and I'll gouge your eyes out."

Cen Xia trembled with fright and hurriedly lowered his head, not daring to glance around again.

"Since you know who I am, you should know what happens to people who offend me, right?" The hand gripped his face, forcing him to raise his head.

"I-I do." With his chin squeezed, his words came out a little indistinct.

Someone beside them spoke up then. "Boss, why don't we have this kid do it?"

"Fine." Shen Zhong released his grip on Cen Xia, agreeing with the suggestion.

Cen Xia was a little bewildered. Do what?

"Go strip his clothes off." Someone shoved him, and the words startled Cen Xia so badly that he forgot to think.

What? Strip whose clothes off?

The person took out his phone and pointed it at Lu Mian. Only then did Cen Xia understand what they intended.

He backed away two steps in fear, shaking his head repeatedly. "No, no, no. I can't."

Cen Xia frantically searched his memory. Was this part of the plot?

Where did this melodramatic plot come from?

The person holding the camera impatiently kicked him, sending him right in front of Lu Mian. Cen Xia did his best to steady himself and barely avoided crashing into him.

"I told you to strip him, so do it. If you dare refuse again, I'll beat you up!"

"Wait a second, boss." A yellow-haired boy came up to Shen Zhong and offered a suggestion. "Lu Mian is a young master of the He Family, after all. If we really take pictures, the He Family will lose face, and that'll affect the He Family's young master too. How about..."

Shen Zhong sat on the desk behind him, a long stretch of his legs hanging down to the floor. He impatiently smacked the yellow-haired boy on the head. "Spit it out."

The yellow-haired boy chuckled, knowing his boss had taken his words to heart.

"We just need to take some intimate photos. Have that kid kiss him, then take pictures and post them on the forum. That way, the He Family will only think he's willingly debased himself, and the He Family's young master will be satisfied too."

Shen Zhong thought it over and decided the yellow-haired boy's suggestion wasn't bad. "Fine, we'll do as you say."

Cen Xia, who had listened to the whole thing: "..." I finally know why you're the third male lead whose love goes unrequited.

"Did you hear that? Get on with it!" The yellow-haired boy came over and shoved Cen Xia again, pushing him into Lu Mian.

Cen Xia's shoulder struck Lu Mian's chest, and he heard Lu Mian let out a low, muffled grunt. Frowning, he hurriedly braced a hand against the wall to support himself.

Their position was a little too intimate now. Lu Mian looked as though he were trapped in Cen Xia's embrace.

Cruel jeers arose around them.

Cen Xia straightened up and met Lu Mian's clear, cool eyes again. His mind went blank for a moment.

Lu Mian had beautiful eyes, both in their shape and the color of their irises. But there was little emotion in them. His eyelids drooped as he watched everything happening before him with indifference, including Cen Xia, the person who was about to mistreat him.

A poor sap being forced to mistreat you, Cen Xia retorted inwardly.

He turned his head and looked pleadingly toward Shen Zhong, only to see a cigarette held between his fingers, his eyes fixed on them. When their gazes met, Shen Zhong merely blew out a smoke ring, blurring his sharp features.

It seemed there was no escaping it today.

Cen Xia lowered his head, the annoyance in his heart welling up. Just then, the person in front of him spoke.