Chapter 6: Jiang Hui Was Just an Accident
Yue Nian finally managed to struggle out of Jiang Hui's embrace, got ready, and left. Jiang Hui still didn't seem to be waking up, and of course, Yue Nian had no intention of waking him up.
After all, it was normal for Jiang Hui to skip classes and be late. The alarm on his phone had been so loud, so Yue Nian figured he must have already woken up.
Haunted by his childhood shadows, Yue Nian didn't want to get involved with any alpha, nor did he want to be marked by an alpha. He was deeply resistant to alphas in his bones. Jiang Hui was just an accident, and it's best if they had minimal contact.
After Yue Nian's first heat ended, the two had agreed to ignore each other at school and treat each other as strangers.
Yue Nian had originally wanted to treat Jiang Hui as a stranger in private as well, but an omega who had tasted the flavor couldn't resist the heat.
After all the commotion, not only did Yue Nian fail to finish the two remaining papers from yesterday, he even skipped the early self-study session and barely made it to the classroom before the bell rang for the regular class.
The moment he walked into the classroom, the sounds of flipping books and quiet vocabulary recitations immediately ceased, and the forty-nine pairs of eyes were all fixated on Yue Nian, filled with sympathy.
According to the class monitor, one of the few brave enough to approach Yue Nian when he had that cold expression, and also Yue Nian's current seatmate, Ding Wang, the homeroom teacher Yang Hui had a remarkably expressive look on her face when she saw Yue Nian's empty seat during the morning attendance check.
If Yue Nian had been sitting in a more inconspicuous corner of the classroom, it might have been better, but the fact was that last month's midterm exam, Class 1's average score had dropped a full eight points, and homeroom teacher Yang Hui had almost fainted from the shock.
In order to motivate the students to strive harder, the school had a full campus cleanup last Friday, and Yang Hui deliberately came half an hour earlier to rearrange the students who usually huddled together, and specifically placed Yue Nian, the class "mascot", in the most prominent position in the center of the classroom, hoping that his aura could radiate to all corners of the class and cleanse the souls of the entire class.
If it weren't for the fact that Yue Nian consistently ranked first in the grade, and didn't usually cause trouble for the teachers, Yang Hui would have surely summoned Yue Nian to the office for a heart-to-heart today.
Yue Nian didn't have time to entertain Ding Wang. He glanced at the class schedule, saw that the first class was Chinese, took out the chemistry papers, and was just about to start writing when Ding Wang got up and erased the Chinese and chemistry classes on the schedule, switching the order.
Yue Nian put down his pen and looked at Ding Wang.
Ding Wang had just come down from the podium and was met with an overwhelming sense of pressure. He looked at Yue Nian in disbelief: "Yue Ge, don't tell me you didn't do those two chemistry papers?!?"
"How about you copy mine?" Ding Wang rummaged in his desk and pulled out two papers covered in chicken scratch, pushing them towards Yue Nian and persuading him, "Yue Ge, as a human being, you have to copy homework at least once in your life to feel fulfilled."
Yue Nian had to choose between copying Ding Wang's papers or getting kicked out of the classroom during this class. He decided to skip the chemistry class altogether.
Ding Wang "wailed" for a while, feeling that he had been looked down upon by his Yue Ge.
The bell rang, and Yue Nian only had time to finish the first 10 multiple choice questions, though his speed left the other students in the dust. However, it wasn't of much use.
Ding Wang comforted him, "It's fine, the teacher never checks homework, at most she might call on you to answer a question. Yue Ge, I believe with your intelligence, you can solve the answers the moment you see the questions."
"Take out the papers you left over from the vacation." The chemistry teacher - the fearsome homeroom teacher Yang Hui - stood at the podium, scanning the class. Seeing Yue Nian, she remembered his truancy and pointed at him with the piece of chalk in her hand.
"I didn't bring the paper, Yue Nian, give me your paper."
Yue Nian: ......
Ding Wang: ......Sorry, Yue Ge!
**********
Chapter 7: This Person Just Won't Leave Me Alone
Yang Hui, a veteran of the battlefield, could see what had happened at a glance. She walked down the podium in her high heels, picked up Yue Nian's paper and flipped through it, clicking her tongue twice. "Are you banking on the reform of this year's college entrance exam, where chemistry will only have 10 multiple choice questions, so you only did these few choices? What are you using the rest of the blank space for? Scratch paper?"
Yang Hui was young, had a good temper, and was on good terms with the students in the class. But this only applied outside of class. Once in class, no matter who made a mistake, she would never spare them.
Yue Nian obediently stood up, grabbed a hardcover notebook, and picked up his two clean test papers. "Teacher, I'll go make up the work."
With that, he took his things and left the classroom.
As he reached the door, Yang Hui knocked the chalk dust off her hands and added, "Handwrite those two papers twice, don't miss a single step of the solution process, and hand them in to me."
Yue Nian didn't look back, just nodded his head as he walked out and closed the classroom door behind him.
He stood in the hallway, propping the notebook under the papers, using his left hand to support the notebook and his right hand to write the answers. His handwriting was bold and graceful, unaffected by anything.
Class 1 was guarding the stairwell on the fifth floor, and the second to fifth classes were on the same floor, so inevitably there would be some late students. Occasionally, a student would dash up to the fifth floor, and when they glimpsed Yue Nian as they quickly rushed by, they would unconsciously slow down for a second, confirming that the person standing disgracefully in front of the Class 1 classroom was indeed the one who usually topped the academic rankings.
The sun had risen in the west.
By conservative estimate, within half an hour, at least three or four students had nearly fallen to their knees upon seeing Yue Nian.
Suddenly, unhurried footsteps came from the stairs, and the person was even humming a tune cheerfully.
At the sound, Yue Nian's face completely fell. He took a few more steps away from the staircase, afraid the newcomer wouldn't watch where they were going and run right into him.
Jiang Hui walked up to the fifth floor as leisurely as an assistant principal inspecting classes. When he saw Yue Nian, he was clearly taken aback.
The weather was still quite hot, but Yue Nian was wearing his school uniform jacket, collar turned up, zipper pulled all the way to the top, his entire body shrouded in the clothing, even covering half of his hands.
Jiang Hui coughed awkwardly, the extra coverage was probably to conceal the marks that a certain culprit had left behind.
Combined with Yue Nian's extremely displeased expression, the whole scene made him seem unusually ascetic.
The two, who had been entangled with each other just yesterday, now passed each other like strangers, without any eye contact.
Yue Nian finished the last question just as the class ended. Yang Hui came out of the classroom, and Yue Nian handed her the papers. She quickly glanced at the answers. "You finished two papers in one class? Couldn't you have spared 40 minutes during the vacation?"
"What's going on here?" The Chinese teacher, cup of tea in one hand and textbook in the other, looked curiously at Yue Nian, her tone tinged with an excited interest to watch the show. "Ms. Yang, what's this all about?"
With the delay of the two teachers, a crowd of onlookers had gathered in the hallway, eager to watch Yue Nian being disciplined, much more thrilling than watching him get top rankings.
Seeing the crowd growing, Yang Hui waved her hand. "Come to my office during the break." She quickly ushered Yue Nian back into the classroom.
"There's still 8 minutes of break, you all better hurry or you won't make it to the bathroom in time," the Chinese teacher glanced at her watch and shooed the onlookers away.
The other students scattered at her words, sprinting downstairs to the first floor bathroom like they were running an 800m race.
Back at his seat, Ding Wang diligently brought Yue Nian a cup of warm water.
Yue Nian rummaged in his desk and pulled out his physics notes, handing them to Ding Wang in a lazy tone, "Look over pages 7-8, there might be questions from that on the next monthly exam."
Ding Wang cherished the notes like a treasure, hugging them and calling out "Thank you, Dad!" before eagerly leaving.
Exhausted from the past two days' events, and having stood through a class this morning, Yue Nian lay down and fell into a quick, efficient nap during the brief 8 minutes.
The 20-minute break between the second and third periods, Yue Nian promptly reported to the chemistry office.
Apart from Yang Hui, there was no one else in the office. Seeing Yue Nian arrive, she pulled over a chair and gestured for him to sit down. Her tone had softened considerably, but the words that came out of her mouth almost made Yue Nian turn around and leave.
"In heat recently?"
Seeing him stay silent, Yang Hui took out two boxes of medicine from the drawer. "Don't stay up late, and if you really can't focus, just ask me for a leave."
Yue Nian started spinning an elaborate lie, "I've had a bit of a fever the past few days, but I'm fine now."
Yue Nian's complexion and today's outfit were highly deceptive. Who would have thought that just a few days ago, he had been pinned down by an alpha, who had both said it was too deep and told him to get lost.
He had almost died in that bed.
Yang Hui believed him without suspicion and only then did she feel reassured.
"I've been telling you all to wear more clothes, even though it's only September, the weather in the north..."
"Report." A lazy voice directly interrupted the homeroom teacher's heartfelt words.
Hearing that voice, Yue Nian couldn't help but furrow his brow. Why was this person still haunting him?
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