novelraw Chapter 68
Chapter 68
Chapter 68
His name was Hua Zhaofeng, the son of a snack-factory owner in Linmen. Nothing about him had ever been worth mentioning—middling grades, middling athleticism, middling looks.
Luckily the family was comfortably off; whatever he wanted, his parents tried to provide.
Yet ever since high school, one single problem had tormented Hua Zhaofeng:
He was still a virgin.
Ah, everyone around him was falling in and out of love with fiery passion, while he had never even held a girl's hand.
The feeling was agony.
In terms of family background, plenty of classmates were richer and more powerful.
In looks, he was no match for the famously handsome student-council president Yan.
To be honest, at Yuanyue Academy romantic success wasn't impossible for him.
The contradiction lay in Hua Zhaofeng himself: he adored pretty girls and was ridiculously picky.
Even average-looking girls failed to catch his eye.
But the beautiful young heiresses were impossible to court—none of them noticed him.
So Hua settled on the clumsiest strategy imaginable.
He became a simp.
He groveled before rich girls, feeding their craving to be idolized, begging for a scrap of affection.
Honestly, any pretty heiress would do; it didn't have to be Park Seo-mun.
Yet only Park Seo-mun kept him on the hook, dangling a shred of hope so he would grovel harder.
Today was no different.
Heh-heh, Seo-mun had been slapped by that Spencer girl; if he stood up for her, she would be grateful.
"Wow, Zhaofeng, thank you so much! Without you, I wouldn't know what to do!"
"Heh-heh, don't mention it, Seo-mun. I've liked you for ages—will you be my girlfriend?"
"Eh? Um..."
Seo-mun would blush, brush a lock of black hair behind her ear, and nod shyly.
"Actually... I've liked you for a long time too."
Then they would date—holding hands, hugging, of course.
Even kissing and rounding the bases...
Already, Hua Zhaofeng could picture himself crossing home plate, devouring Park Seo-mun whole.
Scenes from childhood flashed by, then the present, then a rosy future—everything unfolded before his eyes.
Joy surged, followed by a sudden doubt.
Huh?
Why does this feel like my life is flashing before my eyes?
The moment the thought struck, his vision whited out; blinding pain lanced through his skull and snapped him awake like a shattered dream.
He realized he was lying on the floor beneath a wooden desk.
"Huh? What am I—"
"AAAAHHH!"
Screams erupted. Terrified, Hua glanced at the desk pinning him.
Just now—
Had he nearly died?
Horrifying...
"Hua, are you okay?"
"I-I..."
Classmates rushed over and lifted the desk off him.
Excruciating pain made him cry like a baby.
Beside him, Park Seo-mun's legs gave way; she collapsed to her knees, staring blankly.
At the back of the room Spencer stood on a chair, one foot propped on the desk in front of her, a vicious grin carved across her face.
She jabbed a finger at Park Seo-mun and the fallen Hua, shouting,
"Think I gave you two too much face? Bullying An Le so long you figured no one could touch you, huh? Park Seo-mun! Get over here! Say it to my face—did you bully An Le or not?"
"U-uwah... I-I'm not going..."
Seo-mun had never seen anything like it. She'd assumed that with so many students around—and the student council present—Spencer wouldn't dare.
Who could have guessed—
The girl had actually hurled a desk from the last row to the front.
Luckily it landed on thick-skinned Hua; if it had hit her, she'd be black and blue.
Tears streamed down her face; she dared not move.
Worst of all, her terrified reaction made the answer to Spencer's question painfully obvious.
Even so, a girl nearby frowned, slammed her palm on a desk, and strode toward Spencer.
"Spencer! This is too far! This is a school, not a zoo—do you solve everything with violence?
Even if Seo-mun and An Le have issues, the student council, Discipline Committee, and teachers should handle it. Who gave you the right to hit people?"
Park Seo-mun's eyes lit up at the speaker.
"Rita..."
Clearly they were on good terms.
Spencer glanced at the righteous girl, then slammed her hand on a desk.
CRACK!
The sound exploded; everyone clapped hands over their ears, Rita included.
"You—"
"Call it meddling, but drop the saint act! If the council and teachers actually worked, would I be here? Keep talking and I'll slap you too!"
"U-uwah..."
Spencer raised her hand again, stepping forward. Rita paled and dropped into her chair.
Beside Rita, a burly boy stood, face dark. He shielded Rita and rolled up his sleeves.
"Spencer! Quit throwing accusations! I know what kind of people Seo-mun and Rita are. As for that outsider An Le—"
Before he finished, Spencer's palm crashed onto the wooden table.
BOOM!
Under everyone's horrified gaze, the desk split clean in two.
The boy went white, clearly shocked that a girl possessed such strength.
"Shit... you..."
"Of course you know what Seo-mun is—because you're exactly the same!"
The boy flushed, flustered.
"You—"
Yet, knowing he couldn't snap a desk with two blows—or survive Spencer's strength—he shrank back.
Others who had been about to intervene lost their nerve.
"No way... even Senior Fu from the Martial-Arts Club backed off."
"Someone call security."
"She's a total psycho."
Sakuramiya Hitomi frowned and glanced at Yan Huan.
He stood with arms folded, expressionless, watching An Le beside Spencer without a word.
She pressed her lips, then turned to the stunned Hashimoto.
"Hashimoto, get security."
"Ah? O-okay, I'm on it."
Yan Huan neither approved nor objected.
At the rear of the classroom Spencer's dark eyes swept the room; everyone flinched.
She raised a finger and sneered,
"Pretending, are we? Think I'll bow like the kids you mock? Think I'm timid? Think I fear your little cliques?"
The outcasts who'd been rejected by every club lifted their heads, staring at the swaggering Spencer.
The once-smiling students turned pale.
A gentle-seeming girl stepped forward.
"Spencer, calm down, please. This is for your own good. Even if Miss Park—or anyone—has conflicts, we can talk it out, right?"
"Yeah..."
"Why go this far?"
The earlier reasonable tone had failed, the white-face routine had failed; now they were switching to the red-face act.
But the rest of the class had no idea—Spencer's brain couldn't tell the difference.
Right now, anyone who dared stick their neck out would be launched sky-high, no questions asked.
Sure enough, the moment the gentle girl opened her mouth, Spencer turned on her with an icy stare.
She hooked a single finger under the back of her own chair, lifted it with one hand, and crooked the same finger at the girl.
"What's your name? Come out. Let's have a little chat."
"Eep—"
The sight scared the girl so badly she ducked behind the nearest classmate.
Room L502 looked as though a tornado had torn through it, and every other student froze like baby chicks.
"Enough. Stop."
Only when Yan Huan's voice came from the back did the room exhale in relief.
Every eye swung to the handsome boy still seated at his desk.
"President Yan!"
"This girl's gone too far!"
"Yeah, the student council's right here and she still dares to act like this!"
Spencer pressed her lips together. The chair stayed in her grip, but she didn't hurl an insult at the boy.
An Le hovered nervously near Spencer yet didn't step away.
"Um... X-Xiao Huan—no, President. Spencer, she—"
Yan raised a hand without expression, cutting An Le short.
He swept a glance across the room.
"Security's on the way. Anyone hurt, go to the infirmary first. Everyone else, return to class."
"Aria Spencer, you stay. Don't move."
Spencer curled her lip, ready to retort, but Yan's eyes pinned her in place.
"You chose to throw punches. Are you afraid to face the consequences?"
"Tch."
She clicked her tongue and set the chair down with a thud.
"This way—hurry!"
Panting, Hashimoto burst in with a full squad of guards. The first officer raised his riot shield and winced at the wreckage.
"Who started the fight?"
Nearly every student—those sprawled on the floor and those huddled together—pointed at Spencer, standing alone in the last row.
"Everyone else dismissed. Miss, come with us."
"Fine, fine..."
Ding-ding—
The bell rang for class, and the once-boisterous teaching block finally quieted down.
Across the courtyard, the Student Affairs building was buzzing—Discipline Office, police, Golden Lion Group lawyers all converging inside.
Ye Shiyu stepped out after giving her statement and spotted Sakuramiya Hitomi comforting a tearful girl.
Shiyu paused, then walked over.
"You'd better head back to class. The school will handle this properly." Hitomi waved the girls off and turned, catching sight of Shiyu.
She smiled. "Senior Ye."
"Was this part of your plan?"
Shiyu's face was unreadable, her question blunt.
"That Park Seo-mun isn't even on the track team. She shouldn't have been here, yet Hua Zhaofeng brought her."
Hitomi blinked, glanced around, and—satisfied no one was listening—answered with a grin.
"I didn't expect her to throw punches in front of everyone, but isn't this better? Now she can't join the track team, and odds are she'll be expelled outright."
Hitomi had wanted Shiyu to block Spencer's every club application. She'd shut the track-team door herself; Shiyu was to slam the rest. Instead, Spencer had slammed them all.
"Looks like I'm not needed."
Shiyu nodded and turned to leave, then stopped.
She looked back, expressionless.
"So Park Seo-mun really was bullying other students, wasn't she?"
Hitomi opened her mouth, said nothing.
The answer had always been clear.
Schools were miniature societies; someone always fell through the cracks, isolated and targeted.
"It's hard to define. If the Linmen Education Bureau can't fix it, what can the student council do?" Hitomi sighed.
Shiyu paused at the door and reminded her,
"But the bullied girl—An Le. She knew Xiao Huan before, right?"
Hitomi froze, speechless.
Inside the Discipline Office, Spencer sat playing Angry Piggies, flicking a green pig across the screen with a slingshot to knock down smug little birds.
Behind her, Golden Lion lawyers and parents shouted at one another in the next room.
Across the coffee table, the handsome boy scrolled through digital calculus notes.
He flipped a page, glanced at Spencer humming tunelessly, and asked,
"Aren't you worried at all?"
"About what?"
Yan locked his phone. "You threw punches knowing Golden Lion has your back. What if one day they can't protect you? You might end up sewing uniforms in prison."
"Relax, I've got experience. I pulled my punches—he'll feel like he swallowed something nasty, that's all."
"..."
Yan was quiet, then said, "So you don't care about paying damages?"
"Not a bit."
Spencer toyed with the slingshot, but the stubborn last bird refused to fall. She puffed her cheeks, swapped pigs, adjusted angles—still nothing.
She almost hurled the phone, then tossed it onto the table and folded her arms.
"What about expulsion?"
Spencer's pout froze; guilt flickered across her face.
Then it turned to gloom.
"Expelled? Good. I never wanted to be in Linmen anyway. Mom'll just shove me into another Linmen school."
Yan watched her, then quietly picked up the phone.
Spencer whipped around. "Hey! I'm not done yet!"
Yan studied the game, swapped pigs, fine-tuned the trajectory.
"Golden Lion's deep pockets will probably buy off the victims. Even so, you'll be suspended—at least a week."
"So what?"
"By tonight your reputation will be radioactive."
"Again, so what?"
Yan lifted his eyes to Spencer's clueless face, wondering how anyone could be this dense.
"Right. With your current record, you can't win the Club Wars, and you'll be expelled. Our bet becomes void—works for me."
Spencer didn't grasp much, but this she understood.
"No way! You promised! Shameless! Some president you are—ptooey!"
"What now?"
"Huh?!"
Yan Huan had answered her with her own words, and she bristled.
Spencer crossed her arms, half-rising from her chair, but Yan Huan merely watched her with a blank face and said,
"You're already set on dropping out."
"So there's no way not to drop out?"
Yan Huan narrowed his eyes. On his phone a chubby golden pig had just been angled along a perfect trajectory. Without looking up he told her,
"Come here. Hold it."
"Eh? Hold what?"
Spencer didn't understand, but she shuffled over anyway and pressed her finger where Yan Huan indicated—on the slingshot's elastic band.
Yan Huan released the phone, then looked at her.
"Let go."
"Ah!"
The moment Spencer lifted her finger, the golden pig shot out with a triumphant squeal. It hooked at a devilish angle, slipped between the polished walls of the fortress where those smug, glittering birds were lounging, and began to swell.
Boom!
The next second the pig exploded, lips curled in cartoon malice. The whole structure collapsed like dominoes, slabs of stone crushing bird after bird—right down to the one Spencer had never managed to hit.
"Stage cleared!"
Spencer's eyes lit up. She pumped her fist and laughed,
"Ooh! I finally beat it! Hahaha, that level had me stuck forever!"
Yan Huan rested his chin on his hand, studying her giddy, brainless grin. Then he said,
"You have to win Club Wars to stay enrolled, but no club wants you.
"Instead of waiting to die, why not gamble on one last chance?"
Spencer hugged her phone, her little fang just peeking out, and asked,
"What's all this 'one last chance' poetic nonsense? Speak human."
Yan Huan's fist clenched, then relaxed.
"I mean, start your own club and enter Club Wars."
"Huh? You can do that?"
Spencer looked impressed despite herself; curiosity sparked in her eyes.
Yan Huan nodded, propping his handsome cheek against his fingers.
"At Yuanyue, founding a club is both simple and impossible."
He raised two fingers.
"First, you need at least four members and the minimum budget."
"Is the budget hard to get?"
"More or less. The school allocates a fixed amount each term. Most of it goes to sports clubs that represent the school in competitions."
He shrugged.
"That's why we barely have small clubs—no funding means no room, no slots, and paying out of pocket is too expensive."
Spencer folded her arms and muttered,
"No problem, I've got money. Second requirement?"
"You need approval from the Board, the Academic Affairs Office, and Student Affairs, plus a faculty adviser."
Spencer's mouth opened. "Wh-what?"
"The paperwork isn't your worry. Principal Hermes will rubber-stamp it for the right price. An adviser is also easy if you're footing the bill."
Spencer grinned wider. "So for me it's basically no requirements? Great! I'll call it the Doujin Club—everyone brings me those comics!"
Snap!
Yan Huan shot her a look of pure disgust. After a long pause he said,
"Two things actually matter: scraping together four members, and actually winning Club Wars."
He rolled his neck and stood, expressionless.
"Handle it yourself. Get it done before your leave of absence ends, or you'll miss the registration deadline and nothing will save you."
Spencer tapped her chin, then brightened.
"Hey, aren't you club-less? Count you in and we already have two. We'd only need two more—"
Yan Huan paused at the door and glanced back, smiling faintly.
"Who says I'm joining? Right now your shell of a club has exactly one member. Clear?"
"What?! You won't help me?!"
"When did I ever say I would?"
"Then why talk so much?"
Yan Huan opened the door. A phantom black cat materialized on his shoulder and stared at Spencer.
He rubbed his temples and pointed at her.
"Don't get the wrong idea. I don't like you. I doubt your intelligence and disapprove of your methods. This isn't help."
"You calling me stupid?!"
"I'm speaking because you once helped An Le. That's the only reason I'm giving you a heads-up and a roadmap.
"Whether you succeed and stay, or fail and get expelled, is none of my concern. Our deal is wiped clean either way."
Spencer opened her mouth, but Yan Huan had already closed the door behind him.
She puffed her cheeks, turned back to her phone, and resumed Angry Pigs.
"Hmph, get off your high horse. Jerk. You reacted just fine before.
"Ugh, how do I beat this level?
"Why are these stupid birds hiding so well? How am I supposed to blow them up!
"You wait. Once I figure out the perfect shot I'll make every last one of them fly!"