Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Chen Mo leaned back in his seat and looked at the person in front of him with suspicion. "It's a little bit, but not serious. But you personally bringing it over and talking like this makes me a bit uneasy."

"If you actually showed some fear on your face, it would look more genuine." Xi Siyan squatted down. "What? Should I put them on for you?"

Chen Mo nearly fell backward. "I have a sore foot, not paralyzed hands."

In fact, Xi Siyan was just putting on an act.

He leaned forward and placed the knee guards on Chen Mo's legs, reminding him, "Study well."

Chen Mo was taken aback. "Do you lack confidence in your own teaching?"

"I lack confidence in you," Xi Siyan's gaze swept over his injured foot before returning to his face. "There will be a draft coming in from the door. Remember to wear these, so I don't hear any excuses about the cold causing leg pain affecting your exam performance. Study well."

Chen Mo found it amusing that even a top student could worry about teaching results. "What if I ruin your reputation?" Without waiting for Xi Siyan's response, Chen Mo continued, "Then I'll definitely disappear from the experimental class, never to tarnish your first-place name."

The bell rang just then.

Xi Siyan nodded at him as a warning, nodded at the invigilator, and left.

The exam lasted two days.

After each subject, when they returned to the classroom, discussions erupted.

Chen Mo neither participated in comparing answers nor showed any signs of anxiety or joy on his face.

Especially when someone compared answers with Yang Shule and learned he might score 147 in math, they came to ask Chen Mo how he did in math. Chen Mo simply replied: "Didn't calculate."

Some people said he was confident on the surface.

But deep down, they thought he was afraid of losing face if he calculated, since he was destined to lose.

After the two-day exam, the results started to come out, and a tense yet excited atmosphere spread through the class.

On the day after the exams ended, the cold wave blowing across the country began to warm up.

The weather cleared, and the sun emerged from behind the clouds.

After the first class in the morning, while the class was still noisy, someone suddenly rushed in shouting.

—Latest news, Bai Suxiu has resigned!

"What?"

"Really? The rankings came out so quickly?"

"How can that be? Isn't the bet with our Mo still unannounced?"

"Chen Mo, how shockingly did you perform to make Bai Suxiu resign?"

When Chen Mo was surrounded, he was also somewhat stunned.

Old Pang's medical skills were indeed remarkable. Chen Mo had only gone for three days, and if he didn't exert force, there was barely any sensation in his knee. However, Old Pang insisted he continue the treatment for the last two days and gave him a new medicine to take for a week.

When these people surrounded him, Chen Mo was just taking his medicine.

Traditional Chinese medicine.

Those small bags contained at least a hundred tiny black pills, and the strong herbal smell hit him hard.

He had been taking the medicine for almost five minutes and hadn't even finished half.

Three to five pills at a time, followed by a large gulp of warm water, and he still felt like vomiting.

Xi Siyan, who had been watching him for several minutes, coldly suggested, "Just swallow them all in two gulps. Your current method is making my stomach feel bloated too."

Chen Mo, whose stomach was already bloated, really did choke at the sound.

His eyes turned red instantly.

This scared off the people around him.

"Mo, why does this medicine taste so strong?"

Someone gave a thumbs-up. "Being able to take it is impressive. I once had a similar medicine for premature graying. From that day on, I swore I'd rather go completely gray than touch this stuff again."

"Tsk tsk, those red eyes, don't cry, Mo."

Chen Mo, holding the medicine, regained his composure. "Get lost, I'm not crying."

As soon as he said that, a hand reached out and took the medicine from him.

Xi Siyan's gaze swept over his eyes, frowning. "If you really can't swallow it, don't force yourself. When you go today, get the clinic to change it to something easier to take."

Chen Mo was touched. "Now I finally realize, Brother Yan, you have a kind heart."

At this, the surrounding area erupted with a chorus of gagging sounds.

"I've never heard anyone call Old Xi kind."

"The street racers who got beaten up by him on Nanshan Road would rather die."

"Did Xue Ping vomit blood?"

"Are the two who cried during the physics competition last year still alive?"

Chen Mo almost burst out laughing.

Xi Siyan said irritably, "What are you all here for? Get back to your seats."

With this reminder,

they finally remembered the important matter.

Without asking Chen Mo, they turned to Xi Siyan, "Old Xi, I remember yesterday Director Lai asked all the class presidents of Grade 11 to attend a meeting. Was it about the White Snake incident?"

Xi Siyan didn't hide anything, "We did an intention analysis survey."

"What did you say?"

Xi Siyan looked up, "I said what you all think."

"Tough guy."

"No wonder he volunteered to resign."

"Now that she's gone, the deal between Brother Mo and her should be nullified, right?"

"Indeed, Chen Mo, now you won't leave even if you don't do well, right? Feel free to stay; the experimental class welcomes you."

At this moment, a rather abrupt voice sounded.

"What are you so proud of?" It was Yang Shule, who was erasing the blackboard on the podium.

His gaze swept over Chen Mo and Xi Siyan's faces before settling on the group in the corner. He said, "Just because you have good grades, you can recklessly force out a teacher. Are you proud of that?"

Chen Mo had no interest in responding.

But clearly, others couldn't help themselves.

"What do you mean, Yang Shule? Just because you're the math class representative and White Snake favored you, can you ignore the fact that she wasn't suitable for the experimental class?"

"And what are we so proud of?"

Yang Shule threw down the eraser, "Isn't what I said the truth? Chen Mo set the conditions first, and Teacher Bai backed down. Now he can stay with a clear conscience. You side with him because you're close to him, ignoring the rules. But when Teacher Bai merely raised a question, she was forced out of the experimental class. Isn't that too much?"

Upon hearing this, it seemed reasonable.

But those who could get into the experimental class weren't fools; no one could fool anyone logically.

"You're quite good at sophistry. Wasn't it she who accused Chen Mo of plagiarism first?"

"Oh, almost forgot, you, Yang Shule, added fuel to the fire, didn't you? You used to be different. Could it be jealousy that you're not the real son of the Yang family?"

"That's right, you've been acting strange lately."

Yang Shule on the podium went from red-faced with anger to pale, his eyes filled with intense hatred, all within just two minutes.

Chen Mo watched coldly.

He didn't understand him.

In this life, he tried to stay away from the Yang family and had no interest in competing with him.

Yet somehow, Yang Shule kept coming to him to make his presence known.

And the result was:

Chen Mo sat below, while the person who once stood on the podium surrounded by admiration suddenly became the target of everyone's ire.

It felt like a cycle of fate.

Apart from his own choices, Chen Mo looked at the only variable beside him.

"Don't you want to intervene?" Chen Mo asked.

Xi Siyan glanced at him, "Intervene with what? Do you feel sorry for him?"

"If you think so, you misunderstand me." Chen Mo leaned back in his chair and pointed to the group in the aisle. "If this escalates again, are you going to drag them back to the head teacher's office one by one?"

Xi Siyan looked at the indignant group in the aisle.

He knocked on the table, "Enough noise. Are you proud of your monthly exam scores?"

This single sentence immediately silenced everyone, their spirits dampened. Clearly, he knew how to hit the sore spot of a group deeply involved in competition.

The warning bell rang at this moment.

A woman in a long dress walked into the classroom wearing high heels.

Fu Ling noticed the unusual atmosphere in the experimental class but pretended not to see it. She smiled and said, "Students, please quiet down. Due to a job transfer, Teacher Bai will no longer teach you math starting today. I will take over. My name is Fu Ling. Those who know me should recognize me; I also teach Grade 11 math, just not your class. You can call me Sister Ling."

She then continued directly, "Now let's start distributing the monthly exam papers."

This announcement left everyone too stunned to reflect on the quick change of teachers, instead immersing themselves in the anxiety of impending results.

Everyone exclaimed, "So direct?!"

"Sister Ling, can't you give us some mental preparation?"

"I'm done for, my heart is pounding."

...

Fu Ling's gaze scanned the class.

Then she smiled, "Forget it, I won't scare you. I won't read out the scores. Where's the math class representative? Come distribute the papers."

Yang Shule, still standing on the stage, mechanically walked over and took the test papers.

When he looked down and saw the topmost paper of the stack, it was Chen Mo's paper, with a glaring 149 in bright red ink that stung his eyes.

Coincidentally, Fu Ling said, "Who is Chen Mo? Stand up so I can meet you."

Chen Mo, whose name had been called, was momentarily stunned before he reacted, pushed back his chair, and stood up.

Fu Ling smiled and said, "You're quite handsome. I know about what happened with you and Teacher Bai. Since it’s in the past, we won’t mention it again. But I have to criticize you; you skipped the most important step in the second-to-last problem, which is why you lost one point. 149, keep it up."

The class erupted into excited table-pounding.

Fu Ling was surprised. "So excited? A score of 149 isn't uncommon in your class, right? The genius next to Chen Mo always gets full marks. Why aren't you excited about that?"

"Sister Ling, you don't understand!"

"Who would be crazy enough to compare themselves to the class president?"

"Exactly."

The person who was actually being compared gripped the edge of the stack of papers tightly and looked over at Chen Mo.

Chen Mo seemed unsurprised by his own score. At this moment, he was leaning over to talk to someone beside him. That person, who once made Yang Shule's heart race, whom he admired and struggled to catch up with, now looked down at him with little emotion in his eyes. Yet, there was an unintentional patience that Yang Shule had never seen before.

Yang Shule had never felt such a clear hatred before.

His life had undergone tremendous changes since the name Chen Mo appeared, but it seemed only he was trapped in the truth of his origins, unable to break free.

The results for all subjects were announced within a day.

Xi Siyan, as expected, secured the top spot, outscoring the second-place Xue Ping by more than forty points, which was almost inhuman in the experimental class.

When Chen Mo's name appeared on the school ranking list, it surprised many people. He ranked ninth in the school, blinding countless eyes.

He had turned an impossible feat into a reality.

Most strikingly, his and Yang Shule's rankings were one after the other.

Chen Mo was ahead, and Yang Shule was behind.

With just one point higher than Yang Shule, combined with their recent tumultuous fate, that single point felt like a provocation and a mockery.

Chen Mo looked at the quickly vacated seat in the middle of the classroom.

For the thirteenth time, he explained to Gou Yiyang and the others, "I really didn't control my score. If I had that ability, what would your Brother Yan be for? Isn't being first in the school impressive enough? I actually want to try it too."

Lao Gou, "That wasn't what you said before. You’re too arrogant."

Qi Lin, "Arrogant."

Jiang Xu, "Old Xi, can you tolerate this? Your student is trying to usurp your position!"

...

Xi Siyan held both the class and school ranking lists, watching the person surrounded and interrogated by others.

On this day, Chen Mo had put on a sweater in the morning.

It was deep blue, round-necked, and loose-fitting.

It allowed him to sit cross-legged on a chair while eating a bowl of cold noodles brought in from outside by Gou Yiyang.

Lao Gou said there was a lot of chili, so he should just taste it.

Chen Mo dodged, holding the plastic box, insisting on finishing the last two noodles on his chopsticks.

His expression was lively.

It was completely different from when Xi Siyan first met him.

If the first time they met, Chen Mo seemed like a young, scarred wolf, then later, when he transferred to the experimental class at No. 1 High School, he was in a state of latent power, ready to strike.

The moment Xi Siyan began to see him clearly was probably that night in the alley, when he saw Chen Mo, feverish and leaning against the dark wall, looking at him.

Chen Mo started to become lazy.

Still as fierce as ever.

Anyone who touched him got bitten.

But occasionally, he could be...

Like now, to avoid Lao Gou, he turned and accidentally dropped the bowl of cold noodles directly onto Xi Siyan's pair of white sneakers worth over ten thousand yuan.

Seeing Xi Siyan's veins bulge, Chen Mo acted quickly.

In front of several pairs of eyes that dared not move, he held the hand of his "kind-hearted" deskmate, speaking sincerely, "I'm sorry."

"Oh." Xi Siyan also had his limits. At this moment, he seemed extremely harsh and coldly asked, "What did you do wrong? Did you really not control your score? You've made your 'brother' so angry he doesn't want to stay in the experimental class for even a minute. Can't you hold a bowl of cold noodles steady?"

Chen Mo decided to take back his previous judgment. Where was the kindness?

He closed his eyes and accepted the storm, "I'll clean them for you in the dormitory."

Class President Xi turned and left without a word.

"Is he angry?" Chen Mo asked the others.

Qi Lin nodded and pointed at himself. "He really has OCD; he would actually grab someone and throw them out."

Clearly, there was another victim here.

Chen Mo could sense it in his daily life—the bed that always belonged to Xi Siyan was the neatest, with a clean desk and everything neatly arranged.

Thinking of this, Chen Mo suddenly stood up.

"What are you doing?" Lao Gou asked.

Chen Mo countered, "Could he have gone back to the dorm to change shoes?"

"Possible."

After two seconds, Chen Mo sat down, giving up. "Forget it."

"What do you mean by forget it? Explain clearly."

Chen Mo: "My underwear is still on his pillow."

Lao Gou: "……"

Qi Lin: "…………"

Others: "………………"

Say that again?!

Seeing their reactions, Chen Mo said angrily, "What are you thinking? I was in such a hurry this morning that when I threw my freshly laundered underwear onto the bed from the balcony, I missed and half of it landed on the iron bar, the other half on his pillow."

"And they were clean," Chen Mo emphasized.

Qi Lin: "How is that different from throwing your underwear at his head?"

Lao Gou: "You insulted him."

Others: "Brother Mo, take heart."

Chen Mo: "……"

Take heart about what? Mourn for that black pair of underwear?