The Onlookers Arrive

Lin Jiandu took small, controlled breaths and reached out to press "6."

Cen Xia frowned slightly at the "5" and "6" lit up side by side. Could they really be staying on adjacent floors by such a coincidence?

"Oh, it's you! I'm really sorry I bumped into you just now."

Lin Jiandu's voice sounded beside him, full of surprise and apology.

Lin Jiandu had a distinctive way of speaking, with soft, gentle enunciation and words that often flowed together. Far from sounding indistinct, it was especially captivating to the ear.

Cen Xia was certain that Lin Jiandu was the protagonist of the third book, but for some reason, he still hadn't dreamed about its contents.

The first two times, whenever he took part in an important plot event with onlookers present, he learned everything in the book that very night.

Five days had passed since he first met Lin Jiandu, yet there had still been no sign of the third book.

Could it be that what happened in the general course wasn't an important plot event?

"It's fine." Like an ordinary student hungry for gossip, Cen Xia asked quietly, "What's your relationship with that guy? Why were you running? Were you hiding from him?"

Cen Xia was clearly not very practiced at this gossip business.

At the question, Lin Jiandu panicked for a second, then forced himself to look calm and denied it. "There's nothing between us. I wasn't hiding. I was just in a hurry to get back to the dorm."

His gaze wandered, and he sounded guilty no matter how one listened. Anyone with a brain wouldn't have believed him.

Cen Xia nodded as though he believed him, and just then the elevator arrived.

As the elevator doors closed, he caught a glimpse of Lin Jiandu smiling at him, his clear, bright deer eyes curving softly into two shallow crescents.

Back in his dorm, Cen Xia opened the takeout box and ate while browsing the forum.

It was a habit he had developed since arriving here.

He could catch a glimpse or two of the plot's progress from it.

The forum had been quiet these past two days, at least compared with before: there had been Shi Su, who offended certain people as soon as he arrived at school; Lu Mian, whom Shen Zhong had openly targeted as soon as he transferred in; and Lin Jiandu, whose beauty had dominated the forum for three days just a few days ago.

By comparison, the popular threads now weren't very interesting.

"How to get a high score on the final for a certain class," "A confession to xx from class xx," "Offering big money for photos," and so on. They were boring to the extreme.

Among all the new threads, an old one had been bumped back up. Its subject was a beauty contest.

Although Cen Xia found this kind of contest incredibly childish and ridiculous, he still opened the daily thread.

The post was simple and straightforward: opening it brought up a live ranking.

Sure enough, Lin Jiandu's name was prominently listed in second place, more than two hundred votes ahead of third place and only seventy-three behind first.

Cen Xia looked at the person in first place. There was no name, only the number 5.

Number 5, Yan Wuping.

What a strange name. That had been Cen Xia's first reaction when he saw it in his dream.

Since the start of the term, Cen Xia had yet to meet him.

A week after classes began, he had gone abroad to compete and still hadn't returned.

Of those still at school, aside from the first-year Pei Huaiyi, there were only two second-years.

The school was strict with first-years, requiring every one of them to attend every class. An unexcused absence meant immediate expulsion, with no exceptions whatsoever, not even for Pei Huaiyi.

Of the two second-years, one was the Student Council president, and the other was the head of the Disciplinary Group.

Each had a reason they had to remain at school.

Strictly speaking, the Disciplinary Group should have belonged to the Student Council as a subordinate branch. But the current head of the Disciplinary Group was ill-tempered, flamboyant, and unruly, covered in prickles and difficult to provoke.

His status was also equal to that of the Student Council president, so the Disciplinary Group had become independent just like that.

A post titled "Where does the Disciplinary Group go from here?" said that when the head of the Disciplinary Group saw that the Student Council and the Silver Club both had exclusive badges, he wondered how his own faction could go without. With a wave of his hand, he had someone design a badge overnight and had the group members wear it the very next day.

Thus came the present "three kingdoms in balance," which also offered a glimpse of just how eccentric and unruly the head of the Disciplinary Group really was.

Cen Xia scrolled down to the comments beneath the rankings. The most-liked comment read: Who had the audacity to vote 5 onto the list? Won't he be angry?

One reply had even more likes than the comment: He's quite happy about it.

Cen Xia looked at the reply and thought, His name is strange, and so is he.

After finishing his meal while reading the thread, Cen Xia took a shower and went to bed.

He had no dreams that night.

The next day was Saturday, and there were no classes. After breakfast, Cen Xia went back to sleep and didn't get up until noon.

He ate at the cafeteria again for lunch.

While he was eating, the original owner's mother sent him a message asking how he was doing at school.

Cen Xia replied that he was doing pretty well, and a bank transfer notification popped up.

Five hundred thousand, his living allowance for the month.

Cen Xia stopped eating. After a moment of silence, he let out a long breath, as though in wonder.

Rich people really were different.

As he was marveling, a sudden bang rang out, drawing the attention of everyone in the cafeteria.

Everyone looked up at the second floor.

That was where the sound had come from.

"What happened?"

"That scared me! I spilled my food..."

Someone glanced at their phone and explained in a single sentence, "It's Shen Si and the others. They're teaching a special-admission student a lesson."

"A special-admission student? How did they get onto the second floor? Can they afford to eat there?"

Special-admission student? Catching those words, Cen Xia instinctively wondered if it could be Shi Su.

He glanced around. Quite a few students were itching to go upstairs and watch the commotion, while others tapped rapidly at their screens, busy sharing news of the farce. Every one of them wore a mocking air, looking forward to a good show.

Only a few people sitting in a corner by the window had pale, strained faces. They kept their heads down and silently shoveled food into their mouths, not even daring to look up.

Clearly, they were special-admission students.

At this elite school, life was difficult for special-admission students at every turn, as though they were walking on thin ice.

Those rich boys and girls loved nothing more than to amuse themselves with special-admission students, bullying and humiliating them at will.

Because this was a danmei novel, many passages early in the book were devoted to depicting the abuse suffered by male special-admission students, subtly laying the groundwork for the entanglements between the protagonist shou and the protagonist gongs. As a result, the girls at this school were much better off than the boys.

Amid the clamor, a figure rushed in and shoved aside the onlookers crowding the foot of the stairs, craning their necks to peer at the second floor. He hurried straight upstairs.

The crowd instantly erupted in hushed discussion.

"Who's that?"

"Someone's even more eager to eat melon than I am?"

"Hey, isn't he that guy, the one called something Su?"

The people who had only dared crowd at the bottom of the stairs and watch instantly stirred and headed upstairs one after another. Cen Xia followed the flow of people and set foot on the second floor as well.

There weren't many people on the second floor; it seemed to have been cleared in advance. Cen Xia found a spot with an unobstructed view and stood still. Someone behind him shoved him, trying to edge forward.

After pushing for a long time without moving him, the person behind him couldn't help muttering inwardly, What did this guy eat growing up? He's like an iron tower.

People came down from upstairs one after another. There weren't many students at school over the weekend, and with eight cafeterias to spread them out, there weren't many people actually watching the commotion.

The boy standing at the center of the storm had a beautiful face, with fine brows and upturned eyes, and carried himself with an overbearing air.

Behind him stood two boys in school uniforms. Neither was as striking in looks or bearing, but they were just as haughty.

A boy knelt on the floor, his back taut. Cen Xia couldn't see his face.

Shi Su bent down and reached out, trying several times to help the person on the floor up. But the other boy seemed to have lost all his strength. Whenever Shi Su loosened his grip even slightly, he would sag heavily and slump back to his knees.

After several futile attempts, Shi Su realized that Shen Si was the key. Unable to bear it any longer, he roared, "If you've got a problem, come at me! Why are you making things difficult for my friend?"

As though he understood what Shi Su had said, Shen Si gave a soft, bewildered "Huh?" Then a cold, scornful smile curved his lips, and he said in a contemptuous, arrogant tone, "You think far too highly of yourself."

Shi Su seemed certain that today's groundless harassment was all Shen Si's retaliation against him.

"I've already said it so many times. There's nothing between He Wangsheng and me. Can't you understand human speech?"

It wasn't clear which part of that had enraged Shen Si, but his face abruptly darkened. "Are you looking for death?"

Shi Su got angry too. He raised his head and met him head-on. "If you've really got what it takes to kill me, then come on!"

Standing in the crowd, Cen Xia stared in shock at Shi Su's upright back. Had the protagonist gone mad?

According to the original story, Shi Su was supposed to be a resilient little white flower, soft in temperament but brave and righteous. It was precisely this pure, resilient nature that drew the male leads to him as they deliberately made things difficult for him and tested him again and again, until they all ultimately fell for him.

Cen Xia had no judgment to make about the plot, but wasn't the protagonist's characterization a little off now?

Being brave and righteous was fine, but wasn't provoking him head-on a little out of character?

Cen Xia's expression was complicated. He had said that with so many novels fused together, this world was bound to collapse sooner or later.