Yan Shengchen, realizing that his thoughts were a bit off, felt very conflicted. However, he didn’t have much time to dwell on it because class was about to start.
The class he was about to attend was English, a subject he disliked. He usually used this class as nap time.
After all, Aunt Xiao had always told him that he was the heir of the Yan family and didn’t need to work hard. Besides, both Aunt Xiao and Brother Xinjue praised him for being smart. So Yan Shengchen firmly believed that a genius like him didn’t need to learn school knowledge and that he would have no problem managing the Yan family business in the future.
At school, Yan Shengchen was considered a troublemaker, but as a child, there were limits to how much trouble he could cause. The school environment at Shenglin Academy was very strict, so Yan Shengchen was merely a bit difficult, refusing to do homework, not paying attention in class, and often talking back to teachers.
As for fighting, he only fought outside of school. Such incidents never happened on campus. Since almost every teacher had been angry with him and the people his family sent conveyed a message not to worry too much about him, over time, the teachers no longer paid much attention to him as long as he didn’t disrupt the class.
Yan Shengchen slept during class, and the teachers ignored him, which he was perfectly content with. Over time, he got used to using class time for napping.
But today, inexplicably, he couldn’t fall asleep. Although the teacher’s voice was as sleep-inducing as ever, he felt very alert. He had stayed up late playing games last night, but now, as he lay on his desk, he didn’t feel sleepy at all. Instead, his thoughts drifted to Bai Su.
He suddenly felt a strong urge to look up at Bai Su’s direction and see if he was still attentively listening to the class as usual.
As Yan Shengchen was thinking about this, the teacher began asking questions in class. He wasn’t worried about being called on himself. He just perked up his ears, wondering if the teacher might call on Bai Su.
And just as if his thoughts had come true, Bai Su was indeed called upon and asked to read a passage. When Bai Su stood up, the sound of the chair moving was exceptionally clear, and Yan Shengchen heard a beautiful voice coming from Bai Su’s mouth, making him pause.
Bai Su’s voice was clear and smooth, with extremely standard pronunciation.
Yan Shengchen had never realized that simply listening to an English passage could be such a pleasure. He stopped pretending to sleep and sat up, his gaze uncontrollably fixed on the boy standing not far in front of him.
The boy’s figure was tall and slender. Yan Shengchen suddenly had a strong urge to walk around to the front and see if Bai Su’s face also radiated with confidence.
The passage was soon read, but Yan Shengchen felt that Bai Su’s voice was still echoing in his ears. Thus, an entire English class passed in a daze for Yan Shengchen.
During the break, he still seemed to be in a trance. For the entire afternoon, he couldn’t help but focus his attention on Bai Su.
This sudden change puzzled him. However, Yan Shengchen was not one to dwell on things. If he couldn’t figure it out, he wouldn’t think about it for now. As long as he felt comfortable, that was all that mattered.
So before school ended, he impulsively declined his buddies’ invitation to go to an internet café, and he didn’t find it strange at all. It was only when he came to his senses that he realized he had followed Bai Su out of the school gate.
Having been observed by that burning gaze from behind all day, Bai Su couldn’t possibly not notice. He was actually quite happy that his beloved was paying attention to him. However, he couldn’t just go up and chat with the school bully for no reason, as that would be against common sense.
When he saw Yan Shengchen following him after school, Bai Su’s heart leapt with joy. He thought he might have a chance to chat with Yan Shengchen, get to know him better, and perhaps become friends. But just as he walked out of the school gate, he ran into Yan Xinjue, who had been waiting there.
Yan Xinjue wasn’t there by coincidence; he was specifically waiting for Bai Su.
With the day of university recommendations approaching, Yan Xinjue’s research report and the competition project he wanted to submit relied on Bai Su to help him complete. This was something he had already discussed with the original protagonist.
Yan Xinjue knew that Bai Su seemed very busy usually and that helping him would be quite tiring, but he didn’t care. After all, Bai Su was willing, so why shouldn’t he take advantage of it?
So under Yan Xinjue’s exploitation, the original owner not only had to study and work part-time but also had to find time to do many things for him. Constantly running back and forth, the original owner was very exhausted. It was quite impressive that he could maintain his grades despite this.
Seeing Yan Xinjue, Bai Su immediately understood why he was there. He pretended not to see him and quickened his pace to leave. But how could Yan Xinjue let him go? He immediately chased after him and smiled gently at Bai Su.
“Bai Su, why are you in such a hurry? Now that school’s out, didn’t you say we could go to the library and chat when you had time?”
Chat about what? It was nothing more than helping him with his research report. Most of the students at Shenglin Academy came from well-off families. Cases like the original protagonist’s, who was poor and had a special situation, were rare. So the original owner was also embarrassed to let others know he was working part-time.
However, Yan Xinjue often interacted with the original protagonist, and Bai Su didn’t believe he hadn’t noticed the original protagonist’s predicament. But he pretended to be oblivious, never thinking to help the original owner or to ask for his help less often to lighten his burden. Instead, once he discovered the original protagonist’s value, he exploited his time and energy even more. This was not how a true friend would behave.
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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Yan Xinjue, who always appeared to be a good person at school, looking warm and considerate to everyone, naturally pretended to be concerned upon hearing this. He said in surprise, “What? Bai Su, you have to work outside! Is there something wrong at home? If there is, you can tell me!”
Bai Su nodded at his words, “Yes, there are some issues. If I don’t work, I won’t have anything to eat. But I don’t want to talk about it in detail. I probably won’t have time to help you in the future. It’s getting late now, and if I don’t go, I’ll be late. If there’s nothing else, I’ll leave first.”
After saying that, Bai Su quickly left.
Hearing Bai Su say he wouldn’t have time to help him in the future and then leaving without looking back, Yan Xinjue’s face twisted in anger.
A flash of malice crossed his eyes. He couldn’t understand why someone who used to obey his every command would suddenly change their attitude. Usually, whenever he made a request, Bai Su would push back whatever he was doing or at least find an excuse to set a time to help him.
But this time, he was directly refused, and Bai Su acted as if he was causing him trouble.
Yan Xinjue always knew that Bai Su’s family had some issues and guessed that he probably did some part-time work. Hence, he often had a tired look between his brows when helping him.
But none of that mattered to him; it wasn’t his concern since Bai Su never brought it up. It was none of his business. After all, Bai Su was just a poor kid without money or background. The only thing he had was a bit of intelligence. Bai Su should be grateful that he was willing to pretend to be his friend.
Bai Su’s departure made Yan Xinjue, who had long been accustomed to the original protagonist’s unconditional dedication, very uncomfortable. It was only after Bai Su’s figure disappeared that he angrily turned his head. The hatred in his eyes startled Yan Shengchen, who had just walked up behind him.
Yan Xinjue didn’t expect Yan Shengchen to suddenly appear behind him and quickly adjusted his demeanor, smiling as he asked, “Shengchen, what are you doing here?”
Yan Shengchen awkwardly smiled and didn’t want to make eye contact with Yan Xinjue. It was the first time he had seen such an expression on Yan Xinjue’s face, with malice and hatred in his eyes, completely unlike the gentle and humble brother he remembered.
At first, he had indeed followed Bai Su, not knowing why he wanted to follow him since they didn’t take the same route. Later, after seeing Bai Su and Yan Xinjue meet, Yan Shengchen almost instinctively stopped.
He didn’t understand why his big brother knew Bai Su, as they weren’t in the same class. Seeing the two equally handsome boys talking harmoniously made him feel a bit uneasy.
Yan Shengchen thought the two would leave together, but after exchanging a few words, Bai Su hurriedly left. Not knowing what he was thinking, Yan Shengchen walked over, wanting to ask Yan Xinjue about Bai Su.
But seeing Yan Xinjue’s expression, he felt some concern for Bai Su. Nevertheless, he asked, “Brother Xinjue, do you also know Bai Su from our class?”
Yan Xinjue was taken aback by the question, then nodded and said, “We met by chance, just happened to run into him.”
After a few more words and listening to Yan Xinjue’s explanation, Yan Shengchen lost the desire to continue the conversation and turned to leave alone.
Bai Su, unaware that he had angered Yan Xinjue and unintentionally exposed another side of him to Yan Shengchen, took a long time to walk back to his home.
Shenglin High School was located in a prime area of the city center, while the original owner lived in the suburbs, making the commute to and from school quite time-consuming.
To save a small amount of bus fare, the original owner mostly relied on walking. Fortunately, the city wasn’t too big, so it took about an hour on foot.
However, Bai Su didn’t feel too tired when he arrived at his doorstep, marveling at the original protagonist’s good physical condition.
Upon opening the door with his key, Bai Su experienced what it meant to be utterly impoverished. Even if the home wasn’t completely bare, it was close to it. The only appliance seemed to be an old broken radio left by his grandmother.
There was only one iron bed in the house, originally his grandmother’s. The original owner used to lay a quilt on the wooden floor and sleep there. After his grandmother passed away, he moved to the bed.
The home had a wooden stool with a broken leg, an old table used for many years, and a worn wardrobe. The household belongings were pitifully few. The kitchen equipment was also outdated, with no money for replacements.
It was said that the original protagonist’s father had worked on a construction site and died due to an accident caused by his own mishandling. Although the accident was his father’s fault, the site owner was decent enough to give them a substantial compensation.
The original owner didn’t know the exact amount, but Bai Su learned from 555 that it was over 700,000 yuan.
However, the original owner and his grandmother never saw that compensation. His mother took the money and immediately left them.
The original protagonist’s grandmother was uneducated, had a poor memory, and had trouble taking care of herself, let alone fighting for the compensation.
Thinking about this, Bai Su felt that his meal ticket for the short term was secure. Since getting into Shenglin High School, his mother had even cut off his living expenses. Since that was the case, he wouldn’t hold back—half of that compensation should be rightfully his.
With that money, living comfortably through high school and college wouldn’t be a problem. It seemed necessary to visit the original protagonist’s mother over the weekend. But for tonight, he still had to go to his part-time job.
The original owner usually either collected scrap or worked at a hardware store not far from home. The store was a bit run-down, but it was an important source of income for him.
Since the original owner was only seventeen, not yet an adult, and although he was legally allowed to work at sixteen, most employers gave low wages for hard work to kids his age.
However, the store owner, Uncle Wang, was kind-hearted. Seeing the protagonist’s plight, he let him work there. In reality, he didn’t have to do much, just help watch the store for an hour and a half in the evenings. During this time, Uncle Wang told him he could do homework or make small crafts if there were no customers.
Uncle Wang paid him 20 yuan each time, and he could work about fifteen days a month, earning over 300 yuan. Uncle Wang also often gave him food and clothing, making the past two years not too miserable for the original protagonist.
Bai Su understood the importance of gratitude, so he planned to continue this job for the next few days. After securing the money, he would properly thank Uncle Wang.
After rummaging through the kitchen, he found limited usable ingredients but decided to have a good meal. He took a large bundle of noodles, some greens, and the only piece of meat at home, slicing it and throwing it into the pot.
A bowl of vegetable and meat noodle soup was ready.
The seasoning was simple, and the taste wasn’t great, but for Bai Su, who had only eaten buns and pickles for lunch, it was a decent dinner.
After eating, Bai Su went to the hardware store. Uncle Wang greeted him warmly and gave him an apple before leaving. Bai Su sat in the store, munching on the apple while reading a book.
He hadn’t expected to be the top student in this life, but he didn’t feel much pressure either.
In his previous life, Bai Su was a poor student, but his grades weren’t actually bad.
Bai Su had exceptional mental strength, and even though it was suppressed in the small world, his intelligence was still unmatched. However, everyone has their areas of expertise, and finance was not something he was interested in.
While he could force himself to learn it, he felt it was unnecessary and didn’t want to waste the effort.
In many other areas, he was outstanding. In his previous life in the interstellar world, his grades at the Imperial Academy were always at the top, making him a well-deserved honor student there.
In this life, the original owner liked doing mechanical research, which happened to be Bai Su’s strong suit.
As a mecha warrior, he was naturally very familiar with the principles of mechas. Any excellent mecha warrior could become a basic mecha repair technician. This was to ensure they could handle situations themselves when specialized maintenance personnel were unavailable on the battlefield.
Bai Su had double majored in combat and mecha manufacturing, mastering future technology far beyond what this small world knew.
So, to get his work awarded and earn a recommendation, Bai Su probably just needed to hold back a bit during the production process.
The shop was still without customers today, making the time watching the shop particularly leisurely. An hour and a half passed quickly, and as Bai Su finished tidying up, Uncle Wang returned.
The man took out a 50-pound bag of rice from a corner and said to Bai Su, “Wait, kid, take this rice.”
Seeing Bai Su about to speak, he quickly added, “Don’t refuse just yet. I had a relative bring over a lot of rice before, and we can’t finish it all even if we try. This rice is from our previous stock, a bit aged now. If it sits any longer, it won’t be good. It would be a shame to waste it, so I’m giving it to you. It’s not anything special, don’t mind it.”
How could he possibly mind when someone was kindly giving him food?
Looking at Uncle Wang’s honest face, warmth flowed through Bai Su’s heart. He smiled gratefully at Uncle Wang and said, “Thank you so much, Uncle Wang. I just ran out of rice at home.”
While Bai Su and Uncle Wang chatted, Yan Shengchen was wandering outside. He had refused an invitation to play games at the internet cafe with his buddies, but after taking a bus home, he felt bored. The villa area where the Yan family now lived was a newly developed estate of their own, not more than two years old. The location was somewhat remote, and the nearby commercial area hadn’t fully formed yet.
Yan Shengchen, feeling aimless, wandered farther than he realized. Finding himself nearly in the suburbs, far from home, he didn’t mind and thought he might as well find an internet cafe to play games for a while.
Unexpectedly, as he wandered around, he happened to see Bai Su chatting and laughing with a middle-aged man in front of a rundown shop.
Yan Shengchen found it strange that this good student wasn’t at home this late but was instead hanging out here. Though curious, he didn’t bother to ask and simply glanced a few more times before heading toward the nearby internet cafe.
Bai Su hadn’t initially noticed Yan Shengchen, but when he turned around and hefted the bag of rice, he happened to see that familiar figure entering the internet cafe.
Bai Su wondered why Yan Shengchen was out at this hour instead of going home and was instead heading to an internet cafe.
Seeing Bai Su frown, Uncle Wang thought it was because the rice was too heavy and quickly said, “Is it too heavy? Let me help you, we can carry it together to your home.”
Bai Su came back to his senses, smiled, and shook his head, explaining, “It’s not heavy. I just saw a familiar classmate.”
After saying that, Bai Su purposely jostled the bag of rice on his shoulder to show he could handle it alone.
Uncle Wang watched Bai Su carrying the heavy bag without any signs of strain and thought with envy that young people indeed had great physical strength. He happily returned to the shop after seeing Bai Su walk away.
Fifty pounds of rice might be heavy for the average person, but Bai Su could handle it easily. Besides, the shop wasn’t far from his place, so he quickly made it home.
Having just put down the bag of rice, Bai Su realized he was hungry again…
Was he turning into a glutton?
But Bai Su comforted himself that although he had a big bowl of noodles for dinner, noodles were easy to digest. Now, being in his growth phase, getting hungry quickly was normal.
What he told Uncle Wang about running out of rice at home wasn’t a lie. Looking at the newly carried rice, Bai Su decided to cook some and used the last two eggs at home to make fried rice. After filling his stomach, he could finally go to bed comfortably.
The next day, Bai Su got up early and went to school, arriving more than half an hour earlier than usual.
At Shenglin Academy, top students like him had to take turns assisting the dean as discipline officers, mainly catching latecomers or those not dressed according to school rules.
Today was Bai Su’s turn, so he prepared everything early and arrived at school. However, apart from waking up early, no one really enforced the rules. Mostly, it was just the dean doing it.
The truth was, as long as you ran fast enough and didn’t get recognized, the dean couldn’t catch you!
As for the student enforcers, even if it was their turn, they mostly turned a blind eye. After all, they were all classmates and didn’t want to trouble each other.
Today, Bai Su was on duty with two other classmates, one of whom was the female lead he had noticed yesterday, Yu Shuxuan.
Bai Su originally thought that getting through the half-hour morning duty without incident would be no problem, but he didn’t expect that on his first shift, he would witness the dean catching someone red-handed. That person happened to be Yan Shengchen.
Watching the dean sternly criticize Yan Shengchen for his non-compliant attire, Bai Su showed no expression on his face but felt quite helpless inside.
Although it looked like Yan Shengchen was standing there quietly taking the scolding, Bai Su knew very well that this guy was actually zoning out.
And he was zoning out while staring at him…
Thank you for the chapter! ❤
xD secretly peeking now, are we?
Thank you for the chapter <3
Yan Shengchen: 👀🤤🫠
Thank you for your translation 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖