It's Hard Being the Bad GuyChapter 3

The chinese class was taught by a middle aged male teacher who was a tad pot-bellied. The way he spoke was a little special. As soon as he opened his mouth, his droning tone ringed out, going up and down leisurely, as if he was singing. A voice like that really made people drift into daydreams, making it impossible to concentrate. The students usually started to laze about and lose focus several minutes into the class. 

At times like these, Wen Ai usually took chances to observe Xu Chang Zhou. There was only a 70 cm walkway between them; he could see Xu Chang Zhou from the corner of his eye if he wanted to know what the male lead was doing.  IT1p7P

But Wen Ai wasn’t satisfied with just glimpses of Xu Chang Zhou.

Wen Ai would often stack books of various sizes in a messy pile on the side of his desk, and then lay his head down behind the stack of books such that Xu Chang Zhou would enter his line of sight when he peered through the gaps of the book stack. Because of this wall of books between them, Wen Ai could stare to his heart’s content without Xu Chang Zhou noticing. 

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Today Xu Chang Zhou was still as quiet as ever. There was a gray sketchbook opened on the desk in front of him. His right hand held a charcoal pencil very loosely as he switched up the angle of his hold with practiced ease, gliding the pencil tip over the page with smooth movements.

Not long after, the image of a lively puppy appeared on the paper. The adorable puppy hid itself behind a stack of books, clumsily exposing half of its body as it peered out with round eyes that were sparkling with mischief. One of its soft ears flopped downwards in a cute little triangle, while the other stood up as if overhearing an interesting secret. The little head was tilted to the side, no doubt the puppy was trying to look cute.  OYA ER

Wen Ai covered up his mouth and laughed to himself. Xu Chang Zhou looked so cool and aloof, but he was actually the type to like these kinds of adorable little pets. This sort of glasses-shattering gap moe, it really was—

HAHAHAHAHA!

He flopped down on the desk, his shoulders shaking with laughter. The system came out to stop him, but its tone was very strange, as if it was being shaken or tossed up and down. “Stop~ laugh~ing~ I’m~ a~bout~ to~ puke~!”

Wen Ai was startled. He immediately retracted his laughter. “What happened? Don’t scare me.”

Once he calmed down, the System returned to normal. “Your emotional shift was too strong just then, the brainwaves coming from you were almost enough to shake me to pieces! I’m very delicate, I need to be treated gently by this cruel world QAQ.”

Wen Ai fell silent for a while. “Okay, I’ll be careful from now on.”

Xu Chang Zhou continued to add details to his sketch while Wen Ai was communicating with the System. His focused gaze also held a rare glimpse of tenderness, but unfortunately Wen Ai completely missed it. 

Rich private schools loved to differentiate themselves from other schools in various ways. On one hand it could be considered innovative, but on the other it was also for the sake of appearing impressive. For example, the school’s gym class offered the students many options to choose from. There was everything from ball games to yoga to aerobics, all for the students to choose according to their liking. DHb0Fe

During recess, the class president handed out a course selection sheet to everyone so that they could fill out their choices and hand it in before gym class started.

Jiang Cheng looked through his messy desk, and finally borrowed a pencil from Wen Ai, lazing about at Wen Ai’s desk as he filled out the form. He scribbled his name in striking cursive before checking off the box besides ‘Soccer’.

Jiang Cheng peered at Wen Ai’s form. “What did you choose? Why don’t you play soccer with me?”

Wen Ai pulled the pencil out of Jiang Cheng’s hands. “I want to think about it a bit more.” y69WJK

Jiang Cheng left to flirt with girls from the neighboring classroom after he finished filling out the chart. Wen Ai stared at the form in front of him, his gaze scanned over Taekwondo, Kickboxing, Judo. Within moments his mind had already conjured up hundreds of ways to deal with Xu Chang Zhou, but no matter how wild his imaginations ran it was still useless; he had to see what Xu Chang Zhou wanted to choose first. 

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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There was still some time left, so Wen Ai went to pee. He casually glanced at Xu Chang Zhou as he stood up. The tidy desk had a blank form on it. There wasn’t a single check mark on the paper. 

Shocked, Wen Ai asked the System, “He didn’t even choose yet, why did you tell me that he chose tennis?”

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

The System was busy playing Snake again, so it threw a single word back at him. “Plot.”

Wen Ai replied with an ‘oh’. Of course it was in the plot, but he didn’t even know the plot. He only had a vague idea of what the story was about, he didn’t know any details about how specific scenes were supposed to play out. The System said this was to prevent the players from taking advantage of loopholes in the plot and wreck the plot’s progression.  Z4c0RH

Wen Ai thought this rule was very self-contradictory. On one hand he was required to follow the plot and lead it towards a designated end, and on the other the details of the plot were completely hidden from him, which forced him to improvise on everything. It was like walking at night with a destination in mind but no street lamps to illuminate the road. Didn’t that mean the unlucky ones would fall straight into a ditch?

The school announced the gym class schedules that same afternoon. Wen Ai looked at the tennis club’s name list, a lot of the names were of people he didn’t know. They were all students from other classes, and only three people from their class had chosen tennis. Beside him and Xu Chang Zhou, there was also a Sun Meng Zhen. 

The beginning of September was still very hot, any simple movement would come at the cost of a body full of sweat. During gym class, everyone wore the school’s specially tailored summer athletic uniforms. Both boys and girls wore short sleeved shirts and shorts. 

Wen Ai went to the tennis courts as soon as he finished changing. Almost half of the tennis class was already there when he arrived. RAiXpK

As soon as Wen Ai walked in, dozens of lines of sight shifted to him simultaneously. Having been pampered for so many years as a rich young master, Wen Ai’s soft skin was so pale and tender that it glowed under the sun, so bright that it was impossible not to look at him.

The girls discreetly hid their arms behind their backs. It was best to not compare if they could help it.

The world was still one that loved beautiful people. Wen Ai stood in the middle of the courts, the strands of his short hair framed his delicate features. There was an aura of innocence about him. Soon, a lot of students began to approach him. Wen Ai fended them off politely, and withdrew himself from conversation with the excuse of looking for a classmate.

Wen Ai found Xu Chang Zhou at the edge of the tennis courts, leaning against the metal net of the tall fence at a spot far away from the crowd. There was an air of languorous grace about him that made him look more relaxed than his usual self. zA4Ilt

Wen Ai stood in front of Xu Chang Zhou and crossed his arms with a dark expression on his face. His tone was very unhappy as he spoke, “You actually chose this class too. So annoying!”

Xu Chang Zhou reacted as he always did, looking at Wen Ai without saying anything. He was taller than Wen Ai, so from his vantage point, he had a perfect view of Wen Ai’s open collar. The large expanse of smooth, creamy skin was exposed too,  which unexpectedly had Xu Chang Zhou stiffening before he turned away. 

Wen Ai thought the male lead turned away because he was unhappy with their conversation, so he was secretly pleased for having done his job well. It seemed like all of his relentless efforts at being bad and picking fights hadn’t gone to waste after all. 

Wen Ai suppressed the smile that was making the corners of his lips curl up. He put his hands on his waist and spoke maliciously to Xu Chang Zhou, “I’m telling you right now, you won’t ever enjoy gym class with me around!” Zxo8fc

A plan was already forming in Wen Ai’s head as he spoke, but he would’ve never thought that he would be the one who wound up not enjoying gym class.

The female coach that taught them tennis was very strict. She was very focused on teaching them the basics, so after she gave them a brief lecture about the rules of the game, she immediately commanded the class to practice basic swings with the tennis racket. Twenty something students formed four lines and practiced tennis moves using both hands, switching the racket from right to left as they practiced. As long as the teacher’s whistle didn’t blow, they were not allowed to stop swinging. 

After a single class, Wen Ai couldn’t even feel his right hand anymore. The appendage attached to his right shoulder socket might as well have been made of rubber at this point. 

This boring racket-swinging practice lasted for about three weeks. When the coach finally put the watch back into her pocket and announced that they would now start partnering up for vollying, the whole class erupted in cheers.  Pt10Bz

While everyone else was busy finding their own partners, Wen Ai walked briskly to Xu Chang Zhou and stood in front of him, demanding the male lead to be his partner. The couple of girls on the side who had wanted to ask Xu Chang Zhou all froze in shock. They were probably surprised by the fact that Wen Ai would actually choose to partner up with Xu Chang Zhou. After all, during the three weeks that they had class together, everyone had more or less witnessed Wen Ai’s inexplicable hostility to Xu Chang Zhou. 

Sun Meng Zhen looked at the pair from afar, her expression showed a bit of her worry.      

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The coach dragged out two giant baskets full of tennis balls, and asked one person from each pair to come up and get a ball. Wen Ai was bending down to pick and prod at the tennis balls in one of the baskets when Sun Meng Zhen appeared out of nowhere and squatted down besides him. “You’re a good person.”

Wen Ai, who was suddenly given a ‘good person’ card: “…” jhde5X

Sun Meng Zhen: “You’re very polite to the teachers and other students. I can sense that you’re actually really soft hearted, but…”

Wen Ai picked up a tennis ball and squeezed it a bit, upon finding it not hard enough, he tossed it back to the basket. 

He glanced at Sun Meng Zhen. “But what?”

Sun Meng Zhen grinned. “But when you’re in front of Xu Chang Zhou, it’s like you become a completely different person. Arrogant, irritable, petty.” 6EoZYM

I need to do it for the mission. You don’t understand. 

Wen Ai stood up. In his hands he held a bunch of carefully selected tennis balls. All of them were brand new, fully inflated, and hard enough to hurt quite a bit if they were used to hit someone. Wen Ai looked at Xu Chang Zhou, who was standing far away saving a spot for him, and slowly curled his lips into a mischievous smile. 

Sun Meng Zhen randomly grabbed two tennis balls and chased after him. She lowered her voice and spoke to Wen Ai, “I just wanted to say. We’re all in the same class, so if there’s some sort of misunderstanding it’s best to resolve it earlier. We need to help each other and take care of each other as classmates.”

Wen Ai knew what she was worried about. She probably saw him voluntarily pairing up with Xu Chang Zhou and figured that he was up to something again. GasJvT

Well yes. He was up to something. He endured three weeks of practice for this, the soreness and the pain in his arms didn’t even go away for an instant. He had been waiting forever for this moment!

Xu Chang Zhou’s head was lowered as he fiddled with the racket. When he saw Wen Ai coming back, he didn’t ask why he was gone for so long. All he did was walk to his own spot and get into position, preparing to start vollying. 

Wen Ai cut straight to the chase. He tossed the ball straight up, his right arm came down forcefully as he hit the bell, sending out the ball with a streak of yellow in the air as it rushed to the other side. 

Who cares if it went out of bounds. As long as it can hit a person, it’ll still count as a good serve. TmpdFc

Unfortunately the ball never reached its intended target. 

Once, twice… Every single time! Wen Ai would always aim for Xu Chang Zhou’s body, but he wasn’t even able to hit the edge of Xu Chang Zhou’s shirt. Even more maddening was how all the balls he hit with all his might were returned with ease, Xu Chang Zhou even purposefully made the ball’s speed slower, so even an elementary student could hit it with ease.

He was definitely being looked down on! Xu Chang Zhou was basically saying: ‘Come and hit me, even if I gave you the chance you still wouldn’t be able to do it’.

Wen Ai was angered by his own narration. His hand clenched on the racket and zoned in to Xu Chang Zhou’s crotch. aEWU8x

Maybe it was karma, but Xu Chang Zhou had never thought he would aim for such a place, so before his mind could react, his body had already moved, and for a brief moment he forgot to control his own strength. 

Wen Ai was used to the slow volleys that were sent his way, and thus when the ball suddenly flew so fast towards him, the thought of dodging the projectile didn’t even cross his mind as he froze up and stood there dumbly, waiting for the ball to hit him. 

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

A muffled thump rang out. Wen Ai looked at his lower leg, and then looked at the tennis ball rolling innocently on the floor beside his feet, and then all of a sudden he plopped down on the ground.

“Waaahhhh!” 0rlVyU

Xu Chang Zhou’s brows wrinkled. He ran over quickly and knelt on one knee to help Wen Ai check the wound. 

Wen Ai’s leg didn’t have much muscle. His calf was adorably soft, and bounced when it was nudged, the pale and tender leg made people want to squish it. Xu Chang Zhou pressed Wen Ai’s skin at several spots, after making sure there was no injury, he quickly let go. 

Wen Ai kept on mumbling and complaining about how it hurt, so Xu Chang Zhou checked again. The tennis ball left a round, red mark on Wen Ai’s leg, but the redness didn’t have the characteristic purpling of a bruise. It would probably fade by itself in a few moments. 

Plus, the ball flew pretty low just then, so it scraped the net on its way across the court. The impact from the ball shouldn’t be too hard. yCZgdi

Xu Chang Zhou stood up wordlessly.

Wen Ai was determined to ‘fake it till he made it’. He stayed on the ground and refused to get up, which quickly drew the attention of other students, who formed a ring around them. The students chattered amongst themselves, saying how someone should take him to the nurse’s office immediately. A tall and strong male classmate came to help, but Wen Ai refused his help outright. 

He latched on to Xu Chang Zhou’s ankle. “The one who did it should take responsibility!”

Xu Chang Zhou looked down at him. “You want me to take responsibility?” tdN5yZ

Wen Ai raised his head with some difficulty. Xu Chang Zhou was standing against the light, so it was hard to see the expression on his face, but Wen Ai was determined to get his way. “Yes.”