Chapter 101.2

“Holy shit, holy shit, Huo-ge!” Zong Bei stormed out of the office and charged straight into Class 1, fuming. “I just fucking saw Long Hui in the office! Damn it—he filed a real-name report accusing you of cheating! He even demanded that everyone check the surveillance together!”

“……” Jiang Zhihuo felt a wave of helplessness and shook his head. “This guy really is… not very bright.”

Long Hui followed the Education Bureau staff, along with Ding Jianhui, to No. 1 High School’s surveillance room.

He barely hesitated at all. There was no way an omega could score this high.

How could an omega possibly do better than him?!

On what grounds could an omega?!

He stared at the surveillance screen, eyes locked tight, trying to dig out even the smallest abnormal detail from every single frame.

But there was nothing. Absolutely nothing.

In every exam, Jiang Zhihuo showed no strange behavior at all. He answered seriously from start to finish. In math, he even had forty minutes left to just sit there spacing out.

During the science comprehensive exam, his complexion was terrible, and his entire face was pale. The more he wrote, the worse his condition became, the pain so intense it looked like he might pass out at any second.

The invigilating teacher noticed something was wrong in time and allowed him to go to the restroom. There was a five-minute gap in the middle. Long Hui demanded that the writing on the test paper be zoomed in.

—He must have prepared a cheat note!

But still… There was nothing.

The zoomed-in projection displayed the answers clearly. Every question had a well-defined line of thought, and each step was laid out precisely.

After returning from the restroom, Jiang Zhihuo’s complexion looked slightly better. He went through another round of security checks before being allowed back into the exam room to continue answering. In the end, he even handed in his paper early and left.

“Impossible!” Long Hui slammed his hand hard on the table. “He cheated! He definitely cheated! Otherwise, how could he score that high?! Impossible! Impossible!”

The surveillance footage was right there in front of them. Even the staff in charge found a score like that hard to believe, but judging from what they could see, there wasn’t a single sign that Jiang Zhihuo had cheated. In every exam, his hands hadn’t even left the desk once.

“Watch it again! I want to watch it again!”

Long Hui completely lost it in the surveillance room. The staff frowned, their patience clearly wearing thin.

It was obvious this student had filed a real-name report purely out of jealousy. More than two hours of work time had already been wasted on this nonsense. What else did he think he could get out of it?

Ding Jianhui held Long Hui back. Even though he tried to remind himself of his professional duty as a teacher, that every student deserved patience, he still felt no goodwill toward Long Hui, who had strutted into the office acting arrogant from the very start.

“Student,” Ding Jianhui said, “you’ve already reviewed the surveillance. If there’s no issue, please leave the surveillance room.”

“There is an issue! How could there not be?!” Long Hui roared. “How could an omega possibly score higher than me?! You’re definitely covering for that omega! No. 1 High School is actually sucking up to an omega. Aren’t you ashamed?!”

“……”

Ding Jianhui did his best to keep his temper in check. “The second gender cannot be used as a standard to judge someone. If his score is higher than yours, then it’s higher; that’s a fact. There’s no need to keep stirring things up. It’s class time now. You’d be better off going back and paying attention in class.”

Seeing that Ding Jianhui wasn’t backing down, Long Hui turned to the person in charge instead. “There’s definitely a problem! Check it again! Call him here in person!!”

After listening to Long Hui’s stream of nonsense, the person in charge couldn’t even be bothered to respond. Ignoring his demands completely, he nodded to Ding Jianhui. “Thanks for your cooperation.”

“Of course.” Ding Jianhui gave a slight smile and saw them off at the school gate.

Later that night, someone posted screenshots of Long Hui’s provocative comments from the last couple of days on the No. 3 High School forum.

[Bark like a dog and run laps! Let’s see if this guy, surnamed Long, actually follows through! Anyone up for a meet-up? Sunday, No. 3 High School’s sports track, you in?]

No. 3 High School quickly responded with a post.

[To our friends from No. 1 High School, the Student Union has already submitted an official request to the school and got approval. On Sunday, the school gate at No. 3 High School will be open to students from No. 1 High School. Just make sure you’re wearing your No. 1 High School uniform and badge, and you’re good to go! Haha.]

[Hahahahaha, seriously? This is the official Student Union account? How can your Student Union be this bold?]

[Sigh, first, I want to apologize to the students of No. 1 High School. Having such a ‘straight-A cancer’ is really embarrassing (our president is also an omega, and Long Hui has ripped into them a few times).]

[Good grief, he really does pick fights with everyone. How can he be that confident?!]

[Sigh, this is really embarrassing, and he even went to report them? The surveillance didn’t show anything wrong, but he still caused a scene at No. 1 High School. He literally embarrassed himself all the way to the Education Bureau.]

[No. 1 High School and No. 3 High School are competitors but also friends. Let’s not blow this out of proportion to the school level. Long Hui totally asked for this, and now he’s paying the price. His downfall came so fast, no one could stop it!]

[Seat-saving service available here! If anyone needs it, just contact me! Hahaha, this is too much fun!]

On Sunday, when Jiang Zhihuo and Yan Mu arrived at No. 3 High School, the sports field was already crowded with people.

No. 3 High School had many boarding students, and senior year was pretty dull, so more than half of the people on the field were students from No. 3 High School.

“The God of Learning from No. 1 High School?! Over here!” As they were looking for seats, a few girls in the stands recognized Jiang Zhihuo and Yan Mu, waved at them, cleared two spots, and eagerly said, “You’re here to watch the show too? This spot has the best view, you can see everything!”

Jiang Zhihuo didn’t hesitate; he grabbed Yan Mu and sat down.

The girls beside them didn’t ask too many questions; everyone was just here to watch the drama, so naturally, the conversation was all about Long Hui.

One girl said, “Hope he doesn’t run off this time, or we’ll have wasted the whole afternoon.”

Another girl replied, “But he needs to be able to run for that to happen. One of his roommates is an omega, so he’ll definitely drag him out.”

Just as she finished speaking, a burst of laughter echoed across the sports field. At the entrance, Long Hui was being dragged into the field by three boys.

As soon as Long Hui saw how many people were there, his face immediately darkened.

“Run, then! You promised to run while barking like a dog!!”

“Once something is said, it cannot be undone, no matter how hard you try!”

“If you’re too scared to run, then stop provoking people. This is beyond embarrassing!”

“What are you talking about? How could he not run? Our top student Long is the most reliable when it comes to keeping his word, right?”

Long Hui clenched his fists.

He saw Jiang Zhihuo and Yan Mu sitting among the girls, with Jiang Zhihuo giving him a bright smile and waving at him.

Long Hui ground his teeth in frustration.

This was definitely the most humiliating moment of his life. With every step he took, he could hear the snickers and mockery surrounding him.

“Bark! You were barking happily on the forum! Why is your voice so weak now?!”

“When you were cursing omegas, you should’ve known this day would come!”

Later that evening, an account sent Yan Mu a friend request.

The verification message: “This is all your fault! If you hadn’t exposed my alt account, none of this would’ve happened!!”

Yan Mu was in the shower, and it was Jiang Zhihuo who saw the message.

Jiang Zhihuo: “……”

Thirty seconds later, another verification message popped up: “You’re taking full responsibility for this now! I’ve already consulted a lawyer, and I’m getting a lawyer’s letter sent your way! You’re finished!!”

Jiang Zhihuo: “……”

He hadn’t seen someone this dumb in ages.

He quickly declined the friend request, filled in the rejection reason, and offered some sincere advice: “Calm down and focus on the college entrance exams.”

“Fuck!!” Long Hui slammed his phone onto the table.

The canteen was mostly empty, but his loud outburst drew everyone’s attention. People started turning to look at him and whispering.

“Oh, he’s the one who tried to start trouble and ended up completely failing, right?”

“And he actually ran a whole lap barking like a dog.”

“Seriously? He really ran?”

“Of course he did. I even recorded it! Check it out!”

“Ugh, what do we do? Just watching the video is so cringe, he really made No. 3 High School lose all its dignity.”

Long Hui still wanted to curse someone out, but all of his forum accounts had been banned, and Yan Mu refused to accept any friend requests.

Thankfully, the lawyer he’d consulted had replied.

He opened the message, and his face immediately twisted in disbelief.

Lawyer: “Hello, the consultation fee has been refunded. Our advice is that you focus on studying more, and your parents work hard to earn money. As a student, you should be more considerate of them and not waste money.”

*

Meanwhile, at a bus stop.

“Ugh, why isn’t the bus here yet?! The livestream’s about to start!!” Girl A said anxiously, sitting on the bus-stop bench.

“Why don’t we watch it here first?” Girl B suggested.

Girl A craned her head to look into the distance again, still no sign of a bus. “Okay, hurry up and start it! Ahhh, Yun Xiaoxu is on today!”

They were watching the side-stream of Pick U 101, where five trainees participate in each episode. It’s the only time the contestants stuck in the camp can interact with fans.

Yun Xiaoxu appeared first. “Hello everyone, I’m Pick U trainee Yun Xiaoxu!”

The live comments flooded in with a wall of “ahhhhh.”

The two girls couldn’t help stamping their feet, letting out a soft squeal from their throats.

“Oh my god, Yun Xiaoxu is so handsome!”

“What is this god-tier puppy-boy?”

“Did you vote for him today?!”

“I did! Haven’t we been pushing votes these past couple of days? I even spent money!”

The two girls were having a great time chatting, completely unaware that a middle-aged man, also waiting for the bus, was slowly turning to look at them.

“Yun Xiaoxu?” A deep, hoarse voice suddenly rumbled from above their heads.

The voice was grating to listen to, sounding like someone who hadn’t spoken in years, with their throat completely dried out, so eerie it made their scalps tingle.

The two girls jumped in shock, quickly looked up, and in the process, accidentally yanked out an earbud. The livestream audio blared from the speaker.

Yun Xiaoxu: “Today’s livestream is a fan perk, Mhm—if I rank in the top fifteen, I’ll get to meet everyone. I’m really looking forward to it! I’ve even prepared some gifts for you all!”

The two girls were startled by the man’s face. His expression was dark, and there was a horrifying scar on the left side of his face. Trembling, they asked, “I-is something wrong?”

Before they could finish speaking, the man in front of them reached out and grabbed their phone, staring intently at the screen.

Yun Xiaoxu?

Wasn’t that the son he’d raised for eight years?

And now he had become a celebrity?

The man gave a smile that was hard to interpret.