Chapter 75: Chapter 75: The Story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf

「Thursday, 10:00 PM.」

"Xue Rui! I like you!"

Chen Tingting stood beneath Xue Rui’s dormitory building, shouting through a megaphone.

Many students had gathered in the open space below the dorms. Some were jeering and laughing, joining the shouts of Xue Rui’s name from downstairs.

"Xue Rui! Get down here!"

Of course, some of the boys watched with envy. A girl this cute was actually the one actively chasing a guy.

They were all thinking, ’If it were me, I would’ve said yes ages ago.’

Someone else muttered, "But that’s Xue Rui. He only has eyes for Gu Muxue..."

Many passersby only spared a brief glance, as this wasn’t the first time. Chen Tingting had done something similar just yesterday.

Xue Rui hid in his dorm room, his face dark. He’d even locked the door from the inside.

The first time Chen Tingting had shouted for him, a group of boys, eager to stir up trouble, had tried to drag him downstairs.

Luckily, he was built pretty strong and managed to hold out for a bit. It was only when his 220-pound roommate, Yi Bing, returned that he managed to escape the other students’ "clutches" with his roommate’s help.

Xue Rui felt that Chen Tingting was seriously disrupting his life.

Normally, after evening self-study, he could go anywhere he pleased. He could even have some fun teasing the young couples.

But now, the tables had turned.

The very boys he used to tease had finally found someone that even Xue Rui was wary of.

Now that they had a chance for revenge, those boys spent all day plotting how to team up with Chen Tingting and "kidnap" Xue Rui.

This forced Xue Rui to dash straight back to his dorm after class and not dare to leave until lights-out.

"She has no shame for a student! It’s totally affecting my studies. Dammit, can’t they just expel her?"

Xue Rui couldn’t help but curse.

Qiu Mengze shot him a look and retorted irritably, "Were the things you used to do any better than what she’s doing? If they expelled students for that, would you even still be here?"

Xue Rui shook his head. He knew it wasn’t realistic.

First, Chen Tingting wasn’t officially enrolled at Hedong Second Middle School, so she wasn’t worried about getting anything on her permanent record.

Second, Xue Rui didn’t know who Chen Shen had pulled strings with to get Chen Tingting transferred here. For all he knew, even the principal’s hands were tied.

Back in his own wild days, he at least had Xue Xiaying to keep him in check through sheer bloodline authority.

But Chen Tingting was a force of pure chaos,

more audacious than Monkey Sun himself, having jumped beyond the Three Realms and escaped the Five Elements.

The good news, however, was that Xue Rui saw the dorm auntie storm out, snatching the megaphone from Chen Tingting’s hands.

"What do you think you’re all doing! Get back to your rooms, wash up, and go to bed!" the dorm auntie roared, instantly quelling the scene.

The students gathered below reluctantly shuffled back to their dorms, because the dorm auntie really would call their homeroom teachers.

"And you, young lady. A girl should have some self-respect. What kind of girl chases a boy like this?"

The dorm auntie said with a grim face. She’d only been gone long enough to use the restroom, and someone had made off with the megaphone.

In all her years on the job, this was the first time she’d ever encountered such a mischievous female student.

"Auntie! Nice one! Get her out of here!"

The world fell silent in an instant. Xue Rui leaned over his balcony and shouted, feeling an immense sense of relief.

"You stop howling too, and get to sleep!"

The auntie shouted back through the megaphone, grabbing Chen Tingting by her clothes and dragging her toward the girls’ dorm.

"Auntie, don’t drag me. I can walk myself," Chen Tingting said with a grin.

"Auntie, my mom always said that when you find a good man, you have to strike first."

"..." The dorm auntie’s silence was deafening.

Chen Tingting glanced back at Xue Rui, giving him a cheerful wave.

She knew Xue Rui didn’t like her, but her rival, Gu Muxue, was just too formidable.

If she wanted to win a place in Xue Rui’s heart, she had no choice but to resort to these rather extreme methods.

Xue Rui’s eye twitched. Chen Tingting wasn’t just love-struck; she was a simp with skin even thicker than his own.

It was only during the day, when he was sticking close to Gu Muxue, that Chen Tingting showed a little restraint and didn’t dare harass him so openly.

But Gu Muxue left school every afternoon, a pattern Chen Tingting had already figured out.

The only thing Xue Rui was grateful for was that Chen Tingting was merely audacious, not psychologically unhinged.

If she were some kind of yandere, he might have found himself stuffed in a refrigerator one day.

"I must have a death wish. Why did I even bother with her that day?" Xue Rui muttered.

In truth, Xue Rui was just complaining in hindsight.

Even if time were to rewind, he would still choose to help.

...

After a night’s sleep, the week finally dragged on to the last class on Friday.

During the last class before a break, the students’ minds had already drifted off to who-knows-where.

This was exactly what Xue Rui feared. What if Chen Tingting cornered him at the school gate?

You couldn’t hit her, and cursing her out didn’t work. She was a piece of flypaper you just couldn’t shake.

He suddenly understood how much pain Gu Muxue must have been in when he used to harass her.

He now felt an impulse to transfer schools.

’Huh? Something’s not right.’

In the past, he’d been no different from Chen Tingting.

But that girl, Gu Muxue... her reaction had been clearly different from his own.

If she really hated him, she should have transferred long ago.

Why did she cry so heartbrokenly last time when Gu Qingshan told her to transfer?

’So, after all these years... there really were feelings,’ Xue Rui muttered to himself.

The pain from his past life made him subconsciously avoid the subject.

In truth, he’d long been aware of this indescribable feeling.

He just... didn’t dare face it, terrified it wasn’t real.

"I’m heading out. See you next week," Xue Rui said, clapping Qiu Mengze on the back.

Qiu Mengze looked baffled. There was still half an hour until school let out. Xue Rui was leaving?

"Teacher, my stomach hurts. I need to go to the bathroom," Xue Rui said, clutching his stomach with a pained expression.

He’d opted for a bathroom escape.

The English teacher, in the middle of her lecture, was suddenly interrupted. She waved a dismissive, annoyed hand.

"A lazy donkey makes lots of trips to the toilet. Go on, go on. Don’t announce yourself when you come back."

"You got it! Thanks, teacher," Xue Rui replied with a grin.

’He had no intention of coming back, so why would he need to announce himself?’

Before leaving, he gave Qiu Mengze a cheeky wink.

Qiu Mengze’s heart had already flown to the internet cafe, but he couldn’t leave just yet.

Normally, he would never have sold out Xue Rui, because Xue Rui would have gone to the internet cafe to save him a seat.

But things were different now. Xue Rui didn’t go to internet cafes anymore.

Besides, Xue Rui had screwed him over several times recently.

So, he decided to get a little payback.

Qiu Mengze suddenly shot to his feet. "Teacher, I have something to report! Xue Rui isn’t going to the bathroom; he’s trying to leave early!"

The English teacher had just gotten two sentences out before being interrupted again. Her "anger meter" ticked up a few more notches.

"Qiu Mengze! Why are you minding other people’s business? Xue Rui’s bag is still on his seat. Why would he be leaving early?" the English teacher snapped.

She hated being interrupted while she was talking, and now it had happened twice in just two minutes!

Qiu Mengze froze. Students who went home for the weekend always brought their bags to class beforehand.

But that guy Xue Rui had no intention of taking any homework home, so wasn’t it perfectly normal for him not to have his bag?

He wanted to expose Xue Rui’s little trick.

But looking at the English teacher’s thunderous expression, he didn’t dare say another word and could only sit back down resentfully under the gaze of the entire class.

Xue Rui, standing outside the door, flashed a provocative finger at Qiu Mengze. He knew Qiu Mengze was up to no good.

Not to be outdone, Qiu Mengze waited until the teacher on the podium wasn’t looking, then fiercely stuck his hand out the window and flipped a standard "international sign of friendship."

In Xue Rui’s peripheral vision, a familiar short, bald man was walking up the stairs. It was the Grade 2 dean.

"Hello, Director Wang," Xue Rui said with a smile, quickly pulling his hand back.

’This is trouble,’ Xue Rui thought. The dean didn’t teach classes, so when he was free, he’d wander the halls for a good half-hour at a time.

If Xue Rui said he was going to the bathroom, he wouldn’t be able to go downstairs. He was struck by a brief moment of frantic brainstorming.

Just then, Qiu Mengze wore a look of disdain.

’Director Wang? What a coincidence?’

’Xue Rui thinks he can scare me? He’s putting on a pretty convincing act!’

He simply stuck his hand out even further and shook it fiercely a few times.

When Director Wang saw it was Xue Rui, he smiled and nodded in greeting.

He remembered the boy—Xue Xiaying’s nephew. The suggestion he’d given the teachers last time had earned the director a lot of credit.

Suddenly, he saw a student sticking a hand out of a window, making a provocative gesture with their finger?

Director Wang performed a "Sichuan Opera face-change" for Xue Rui.

The amiable smile from a moment ago instantly clouded over.

The thing is, students often pranked each other by yelling, "The teacher’s coming!" or "The dean’s here!"

It was just like the lying shepherd boy in the story of *The Boy Who Cried Wolf*;

cry wolf too many times, and nobody believes you when you’re telling the truth.

But now, the "wolf" had really come, and Qiu Mengze thought Xue Rui was lying.

SMACK! Qiu Mengze’s body shuddered.

A large hand shot out from his blind spot and seized his wrist in a tight grip.

He looked at Xue Rui and saw that he hadn’t moved from his spot. That wasn’t Xue Rui’s hand!

As he watched in horror, the dean’s shiny, bald head slowly emerged from the side of the window...

The English teacher was fluently writing vocabulary on the blackboard.

Suddenly, a thunderous roar came from the back door of the classroom: "Get out here!"

The English teacher jumped, her hand trembling.

SNAP!

A piece of chalk broke off and fell to the floor with a crisp clatter.