Chapter 6

Proofreader: Akimi

Shi Bufan had initiated the fight. The scene was a mess and Zhen Yuanbai ducked afar from shock. He was really scared of fights. Even if it were the two puppies from his old home who playfully chased one another, he dared not to be in close proximity.

Who would want to fight Shi Bufan?… It’s not even a fight. It’s a one-sided slaughter where Shi Bufan was beating someone up.

There were girls nearby who started to scream and shriek. The Discipline Department didn’t dare to intervene and stop the fight either. They hurriedly went to call for a teacher and they ran over with a loudspeaker. While running, they yelled, “Who, who is fighting?! Everyone stop what you’re doing!!”

Lin Kun didn’t even have the ability to resist Shi Bufan’s punches. He cursed in his heart. He didn’t even get a chance to fight back!

A few young and strong male teachers ran over to pull the kids apart. The moment the principal saw Shi Bufan, he started to tremble. “Shi Bufan!! Stop what you’re doing! Press him down! Press him down!”

The male teacher panted as Shi Bufan was stubborn as a mule. When he was pulled back, he didn’t forget to kick the other party one last time. The principal’s eyelids jumped and he scolded, “Look at your head. Why aren’t you staying home to rest? Why did you come over?”

The voice rang through the sports field as the principal said this through a loudspeaker. The principal expressed the whole faculty and students’ requests. Right. He had already injured his head. Why is he still here?

Whenever Shi Bufan was present, there was bound to be a fight. Everyone hoped for him to recover and stay at home during this process.

Shi Bufan wiped the corner of his lip with his thumb and said sincerely, “Going to school is a top priority for students. I need to uphold this responsibility.”

Old man principal gave him a look as if “I’d be damned to believe you.” He glared at Shi Bufan for a while before he trembled and said, “Where’s the teacher in charge? Which classes are you guys from? Take them all away!”

The two teachers in charge hurriedly ran over. The moment Ji Yanping saw Shi Bufan, her scalp felt numb. She grinded her teeth and hollered, “Come with me!”

Zhen Yuanbai silently stood in the crowd and his face was slightly pale. Shi Bufan was too frightening. He imagined the scene after Shi Bufan found out he was the cause of his injury and his legs couldn’t help but tremble in fear.

Shi Bufan didn’t rush to catch up to the teacher in charge. Instead, he suddenly turned around to look at Zhen Yuanbai, while the latter instinctively took a step back. He hid behind Song Mo.

This didn’t stop Shi Bufan from casually pointing at him. “I got into a fight for Zhen Yuanbai.”

Zhen Yuanbai: !!!

It could be said that Zhen Yuanbai had never participated in fighting, this divine activity.

But Zhen Yuanbai always attended the national flag ceremony.

Today was a day worth to be commemorated.

Lin Kun was pulled away by his teacher in charge while Zhen Yuanbai silently sat by Shi Bufan’s side. He entertained himself and thought that this was the first time in his life to have participated in a fight. Who knows if his father would applaud him once he finds out?

Ji Yanping rubbed her forehead.

Shi Bufan was a regular visitor. Even if he lost his memory, he still maintained his arrogance. He lazily leaned against the chair and looked down, playing with his phone. However, Zhen Yuanbai sat straight and remained well-behaved.

Ji Yanping’s gaze went back and forth between him and Zhen Yuanbai. She said, “Zhen Yuanbai, tell me first. What happened today?”

Zhen Yuanbai sat up straighter and explained, “Lin Kun insulted me first. And then because I had saved Shi Bufan, he decided to stand up for me.”

Ji Yanping didn’t know what to say. She glanced at Shi Bufan who didn’t even look at her and was a bit angry. “Shi Bufan, why’d you beat people up again?”

“Didn’t he explain? I was just standing up for him.” Shi Bufan finally raised his head and said, “One should repay double the favor despite being granted a small favor. Teacher, didn’t you teach us this?”

Once he finished, he turned around to look at Zhen Yuanbai, an unknown smile on his face.

Zhen Yuanbai tugged the corner of his lip rigidly. At this time, Li Kun’s teacher in charge arrived too. Ji Yanping rushed and walked out. The two teachers murmured something outside and when Ji Yanping came back, she glanced at Zhen Yuanbai, saying, “Go back to class for now. After school’s over, come back here to write a self-criticism.”

Zhen Yuanbai was confused. “I, I also need to write one?”

Ji Yanping said, in a bad mood, “You guys all have to write. Even a top student won’t be an exception.”

Zhen Yuanbai walked out in a gloomy mood while Shi Bufan followed behind. He heard him complain in a soft voice, “How come you have to call me out when you’re the one who got in a fight?”

“Didn’t you want me to teach them a lesson?” Shi Bufan said, “How come you hid so far while I was beating them up for you? You’re such a great friend.”

Zhe Yuanbai turned around to look at him. He was doubtful. “You were standing up for me?”

“What did you think then?”

“Wasn’t it because he was hinting that you don’t love our nation, and that he accused you of disobeying the school rules, and also the fact that he called you a f**ker?”

Seeing his sincere gaze on him, Shi Bufan suddenly flicked his forehead. Zhen Yuanbai shivered and stumbled a couple steps back from the force. It felt like he was trying to scam him by pretending to fall.

Shi Bufan placed his hand down and said, “My head still hurts and I don’t want to cause any trouble lately. Do you understand?”

The moment he mentioned his headache, Zhen Yuanbai felt bad and guilty. He said, “Then…let’s tentatively say you did stand up for me.”

Shi Bufan suddenly felt his heart aching. He reached over and grabbed Zhen Yuanbai’s arm, pulling him over. He said, “Tentatively? Hm?”

Whenever he knitted his eyebrows, it felt like he was going to eat someone. Zhen Yuanbai held his breath and heard him continue, “This father had done this for you. The fact that you said tentative. Try saying ‘tentative’ again, hm?”

Zhen Yuanbai ended up taking the blame for no reason and he didn’t dare to place the blame on Shi Bufan either. He nodded firmly.

So what if he had done this for himself? He was Shi Bufan’s benefactor plus a good friend right now.

He followed Shi Bufan back to class. Qiu Jing and the two others were already in their seats and making up for their loss of sleep. Shi Bufan stopped and asked him, “Where’s my seat?”

Zhen Yuanbai hurriedly pointed at the window by the last row. Shi Bufan glanced at him and walked over, sitting down.

In order to prevent puppy love in class, it would be a homogeneous arrangement. Same gender people would sit next to one another. Although the students have the choice to choose their seats based on their grades, because Zhen Yuanbai was quite tall, he would never choose a seat in the front row despite given the opportunity to pick first. As for Song Mo, because he was always second in class rankings, he would choose to sit next to Zhen Yuanbai all the times.

After Zhen Yuanbai took his seat, he felt a gaze behind his back the entire time. He fidgeted and secretly looked behind him. As expected, Shi Bufan was spinning a pen with his fingers and glancing at him. Zhen Yuanbai immediately turned around and a sense of terror bloomed in his heart.

Song Mo suddenly drew a thumbs up on the desk and wrote: it was clear that Shi Bufan knew the rules of Jianghu. He’d fought for you today. Are you touched by his actions? under the drawing.

Zhen Yuanbai didn’t dare to move.

He saw it but didn’t respond. He put his head down and rook rigorous notes.

Halfway through class, he was suddenly hit by something. He reached over to find a small paper ball stuck in his neck collar. Zhen Yuanbai looked a the teacher whose saliva had spat across the class. Being that he respected his teachers, he placed the small paper ball in his pencil case and didn’t open it.

Song Mo secretly looked at him and passed him another note. “Aren’t you going to take a look?”

Zhen Yuanbai ignored him.

After that, Song Mo threw another paper ball at him. Again, it accurately got stuck in his neck collar. Zhen Yuanbai silently took it out and placed it in his pencil case again, not opening it.

A huge bang rang from behind them —

It was the sound of Shi Bufan moving his chair.

The teacher in front knitted their eyebrows. Zhen Yuanbai also turned around, looking at Shi Bufan crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned against the wall. He stared coldly at him.

Due to pressure, when the teacher was teaching again, he unscrambled the paper ball to see: why didn’t you take a look?

While listening to the teacher, Zhen Yuanbai opened the previous one as well. What do you want for lunch?

There was something really wrong with Shi Bufan.

He could’ve asked him this after class.

Zhen Yuanbai busied himself with taking notes again. When the teacher finally stopped and had them silently memorize the poem, he then replied under Shi Bufan’s messy handwriting. We’ll see when we head to the cafeteria. Don’t pass notes to me while we’re in class. If you have something to say, say it after class, ok?

This was the first time he had passed notes in class. He was extremely terrified and crumbled the paper ball in his hands, not having the guts to throw it to Shi Bufan.

Shi Bufan stared at his hand which was crumbling the paper ball over and over. It felt like he was crushing his heart. Tsk.

He poked the student in front of him and said, “Hey.”

The other party immediately slid their chair back but kept their eyes on the teacher. “What’s the matter?”

“Give me the note in Zhen Yuanbai’s hand.”

Someone grabbed Zhen Yuanbai’s hand as well as the note. He instinctively looked back to see a student behind him gesturing. Then they delivered the note to Shi Bufan.

Shi Bufan grabbed the note and then looked at the boy’s head. He was a bit unhappy.

He looked down and unscrambled the paper ball. His gaze landed on “ok?” and he suddenly felt a tingle in his heart. He curled his lip and responded with an “ok,” then threw it back in Zhen Yuanbai’s neck collar.

During class, Zhen Yuanbai usually didn’t go anywhere else but the bathroom. He either read books, did homework, or just worked on practice exams if he had no homework. In a year, he had done at least five pages of a practice exam per day on average. Sometimes if he was under too much pressure or too excited, he could probably finish ten pages worth of practice exams or more.

There were many students who would follow his lead and go buy some practice exams, but it was usually blank even after class was over. Zhen Yuanbai was different. No matter the subject of each practice exams, he would finish it completely and didn’t miss even a single question.

Song Mo frequently sent Zhen Yuanbai a picture of a person sitting there well-behaved and maintaining a smile. On top, it would say “this is probably what a genius looks like.” That picture perfectly expressed his feelings.

He couldn’t help but admit that he might not be able to catch up to Zhen Yuanbai’s footsteps ever.

Because in his heart, he only cared about studying and his academics.

The moment class was over, Shi Bufan got out of his seat. He sat in the last row so even if people by his side didn’t move over, he could easily walk in and out.

Someone knocked on Zhen Yuanbai’s desk and everyone in the class quietly looked over. Zhen Yuanbai was in the middle of doing his homework and he looked up to see Shi Bufan. He immediately dropped his shoulders and asked, “What do you want?”

His nasal voice made him sound like a spoiled child.

Shi Bufan said, “Come to the bathroom with me.”

Zhen Yuanbai confirmed once again that there was something wrong with his brain. He scrunched his eyebrows and said, “I don’t need it.”

“But I need it.” Shi Bufan said, “Come and accompany me.”

“…” Zhen Yuanbai made eye contact with him for two seconds and he had to hold back his thoughts. He got out of his seat and followed Shi Bufan, saying, “Can you not be so close to me while we’re in school?”

He was afraid of Shi Bufan’s enemies finding him.

Shi Bufan comforted him, “Don’t be afraid. They all think that we’re good friends because you saved me. They don’t know our true relationship.”

Zhen Yuanbai was speechless.

When they were at the bathroom, Shi Bufan asked him, “Aren’t you going to use the bathroom while you’re at it?”

Zhen Yuanbai said unhappily, “I don’t need it.”

He leaned against the door and turned his phone on.

A majority of the students in class were supposed to turn in their phones, but Zhen Yuanbai was an exception. The teacher knew that he had a lot of self-control so they usually didn’t force him to turn it in.

As it turned out, good students really would receive superior treatment.

After Shi Bufan washed his hands and came out, he peeked his head over Zhen Yuanbai’s shoulder. They were extremely close and his breath was on his ears. “What are you playing?”

Zhen Yuanbai instinctively extended the distance between them. Shi Bufan softly chuckled and said, “Why are you still so frightened? We’re good friends.”

Zhen Yuanbai placed his phone away and slightly brushed his curly bang to the side. “Let’s go back.”

He didn’t dare to discuss being “good friends” with him. After all, it was meant to deceive Shi Bufan.

He hoped that Shi Bufan didn’t recover his memory before the college entrance exam. Then everything would be perfect.

On their way back, Shi Bufan suddenly placed his arm over Zhen Yuanbai’s neck and brought him to his chest. Everyone on the hallway all looked over and avoided them as if they were scorpions or snakes.

Shi Bufan said, “If you encounter any problems in the future, don’t be afraid. Whoever dares to insult you, insult them back. Whoever dares to beat you, beat them back. If something happens, I’ll take care of it. Ok?”

To speak the truth, Zhen Yuanbai still didn’t understand why some people liked to hook their arms over someone’s shoulders. It didn’t even feel comfortable to have an arm over one’s shoulders. Especially when the other party was stronger and taller than them. Under the situation where Shi Bufan was quite muscular, Zhen Yuanbai’s face gradually flushed and reached over to pry his arm off his shoulders. He said, “I know. Loosen, loosen your grip a bit.”

Shi Bufan listened to him and loosened his grip. Zhen Yuanbai looked at him and suddenly felt a sense of shame from using him. He pursed his lips and murmured, “Why are you suddenly…so nice to me?”

“Aren’t you my…” Shi Bufan paused and his gaze landed on Zhen Yuanbai’s face momentarily. He curled his lips and said, “-benefactor.”

He pressed on Zhen Yuanbai’s shoulders and brought him into his arms.

Zhen Yuanbai whose head bumped hard against Shi Bufan’s chest was speechless.

There’s really something wrong with your brain.

T/N: Happy New Year! Cheers~ To a better new year!!