FIMA Ch4: Fighting

Xie Qingxiao’s face instantly flushed red on one side. He didn’t even need to turn his head to know clearly that Gu Siyuan’s laughter was directed at him, and that it was full of mocking malice.

But he didn’t understand. Why was this Alpha desk-mate—who always lived in his own world and treated everyone else as if they didn’t exist—repeatedly mocking him today?

Was it because he was angry about the basketball hitting his desk today?

Or because he accidentally sat on his lap earlier and crushed him to the point of fracturing a bone?

Shame and anger completely replaced all other emotions.

Xie Qingxiao’s body was no longer stiff. He raised his chin and glared at Gu Siyuan, appearing fierce while cowardly at heart, “What are you laughing at? Is it that funny?”

“Yes, very funny.” Gu Siyuan nodded calmly, looking at him quietly, his pupils dark and profound. “Do you need me to tell you the joke so you can have a laugh too?”

“…”

Meeting his calm eyes, for some reason, Xie Qingxiao suddenly froze entirely, an indescribable emotion spreading through his heart.

This was the second time.

It had only been half a day, and it was already the second time. The person who made him so sad was clearly Shen Ting. Even if he won an argument against Gu Siyuan right now, or even beat Gu Siyuan to death, what meaning would it have?

Xie Qingxiao tugged the corners of his mouth slightly, feeling that he truly looked like a joke.

Gu Siyuan’s gaze paused. Looking at the pitiful appearance of the person in front of him who seemed on the verge of crying, he reflected on whether he really had gone a bit too far.

…

After the next class ended, the day’s classes were over.

Day students went home normally, while boarding students would return to the classroom for self-study at 7 PM after dinner.

Repeating the life of a high school senior would probably be a massive torment for the vast majority of people.

To Gu Siyuan, however, it made no difference. In his past life, when he stayed at his own research institute, his schedule had been far more structured and tightly packed than this. This was just child’s play.

Of course, the most important thing was that he remembered winning first prize in the National Mathematical Olympiad during a summer camp in his sophomore year of his past life. Consequently, he was admitted early by Q University. The list of students guaranteed admission had seemingly already been finalized shortly after the start of his senior year.

In other words, he currently had absolutely zero pressure regarding college admissions.

At 6 AM the next morning, Gu Siyuan crawled out of bed and went out for a run.

He lived in a single dorm room, which was extremely rare at Beichuan Private. This was one of the preferential conditions Beichuan had offered to poach him from a provincial key high school when he was filling out his high school entrance exam preferences.

The campus was overly quiet. Today was Saturday, and the freshmen and sophomores of Beichuan Private High School had their normal two-day weekend.

The seniors, however, had to continue attending classes, with only Sunday off.

After running about ten laps, his speed gradually slowed down; the time was about right.

A clear, soft voice reciting English drifted into his ears. Gu Siyuan narrowed his eyes. Under a large tree not far away stood a slender figure swaying back and forth.

As the saying goes, only after working hard do you realize how important talent is.

However, in reality, most people haven’t even worked hard enough to reach the point where they need to compete on talent.

Toward those who knew how to study seriously and strive for progress, Gu Siyuan actually had a pretty good impression. It seemed that even if someone was a fool for love, they actually had some redeeming qualities.

The corners of Gu Siyuan’s lips curled up slightly.

Then, a second later, he met a pair of cold, beautiful eyes.

Xie Qingxiao’s home was right in the city. It took forty minutes by public bus to get to school, and taking a taxi was even faster. He could have been a day student, but due to his discordant relationship with his father and stepmother, he simply chose to board at school.

Although this choice inevitably brought cynical remarks and mockery from his stepmother and younger siblings—who thought his wings had hardened and he no longer considered them family—on the flip side, he gained a few years of peaceful life.

It was just that, who could have known that waking up early to memorize vocabulary would actually result in bumping into Gu Siyuan.

Perhaps conditioned by Gu Siyuan’s occasional cold sneers and mockery yesterday, the moment Xie Qingxiao saw Gu Siyuan’s smile, he instantly bristled like a hedgehog.

He subconsciously checked himself all over, and finding nothing worthy of being mocked, he looked at Gu Siyuan coldly. “What are you laughing at again?”

Gu Siyuan: “…”

Is it really that hard to radiate a bit of goodwill to the mission target?

After finishing his run, Gu Siyuan returned to his dorm to take a shower, then brought his breakfast to the classroom.

“Hey, is this a handsome guy who just transferred to our class?”
“Oh my god, this Alpha is so handsome and has such a great vibe…”
“Wait? Isn’t this Gu Siyuan?!”
“Holy crap, it really is the Academic God! How did the Academic God suddenly become so handsome? Without his bangs and taking off his glasses, it’s like he’s a completely different person.”
“My god, why do I feel like he’s even handsomer than my husband!”
“Didn’t you just say yesterday that your husband, xxx (a movie star), was the most handsome man in the world?”
…

The Alphas to the side listened to the chattering of these Betas and Omegas, deeply expressing their speechlessness while simultaneously feeling sour.

It was one thing to not be able to compete with Gu Siyuan’s grades, but now they couldn’t even compete with his face?

Perhaps Shen Ting’s coldness yesterday had still caused Xie Qingxiao some harm, or perhaps Gu Siyuan’s mockery had brought him psychological pressure.

Throughout the entire day today, Xie Qingxiao never took the initiative to approach Shen Ting again.

So much so that Gu Siyuan, wanting to continue his mission, had no opportunity to mock him or watch any jokes unfold.

This day passed by peacefully and beautifully just like that.

The only uncooperative element was that during the last period, a drizzling light rain started to fall from the sky.

It was a tradition at Beichuan High School that the last period every Saturday was the homeroom teacher’s class.

After this class ended, regardless of whether they were day students or boarding students, they could directly go home.

Although it was only a pitiful one-day holiday, the minds of most students sitting in the classroom were so excited they had already flown who knows where…

After endless waiting, the end-of-class bell finally rang.

Just then, the homeroom teacher, Miss Zhang, suddenly remembered something and said: “Right, the results of your first joint examination for the senior year have been out for several days now. When you go back today, except for Gu Siyuan, every single one of you must explain the situation to your families. Please have them clear their schedules for next Monday afternoon to come to the school for a parent-teacher meeting.”

Hearing this last sentence, all the joyful holiday atmosphere in the classroom instantly dissipated, replaced only by a succession of heavy sighs.

Beichuan High School was a private school, and most of the students studying here had quite good family backgrounds. Normally, each and every one of them was arrogant beyond bounds, but the moment exam scores or inviting parents were mentioned, they all turned into cowards.

A few of the naughtier students even joked from below.

“Hey, I am my own parent. Can I just come hold the meeting for myself when the time comes?”
“I just remembered, both my mom and dad seem to be going out of town on a business trip that day. Can they not come?”
“Sigh, otherwise I’ll just spend some money and hire a mom off the street…”
…

Listening to their endless nonsense, the homeroom teacher immediately knocked lightly on the podium and sneered: “Whoever’s family can’t make it, hurry up and report it to me… At the very least, I saved all your parents’ phone numbers at the start of the semester. I will call them one by one later to ask if they are truly that busy. Not even a single afternoon free?”

After saying this, she stopped paying attention to their posturing. After writing the specific time of the meeting on the blackboard, she turned and left the classroom.

“Ah…”

For teenagers, whether sorrow or joy, it all seemed exceptionally short-lived.

Before half a minute had passed, everyone started calling their friends and buddies again, discussing what delicious food to go out and eat later, or where to go for a stroll. As for the parent-teacher meeting or whatever, there were still two days left, so they’d talk about it later…

Amidst the noise and clamor, the classroom was practically empty in no time.

“Qingxiao, it’s still best to be you, not having to worry about the parent-teacher meeting at all. Sigh, I’m going to be doomed…” Huo Yi leaned against the wall in the front row, casually complaining while waiting for Xie Qingxiao to pack his bag to go home.

Xie Qingxiao was actually in a pretty good mood.

His vain and unfeeling father usually never gave him a good look; the only time he could be considered to have a pleasant countenance was whenever he saw his exam rankings.

However, as Xie Qingxiao zipped up his backpack, he looked at the almost empty shoulder bag slung over Huo Yi’s shoulder and said in exasperation, “I have never seen a more relaxed high school senior than you. You aren’t even taking a single book or test paper home.”

Huo Yi curled his lips in defiance.

He wouldn’t know how to write them anyway, so what was the use of bringing them?

Right at that moment, he saw that the backpack on the desk next to Xie Qingxiao’s hadn’t even been taken away, and a huge pile of leisure books was even openly displayed on it. He couldn’t help but say, “Says who? This comrade right here is way more relaxed than I am.”

Hearing this, even though Xie Qingxiao had been thoroughly angered by Gu Siyuan early this morning, he couldn’t help but want to laugh.

You, who ranks dead last in the class, what are you comparing yourself to an early-admission guaranteed student for?

Meanwhile.

The subject of their conversation, Gu Siyuan, was currently sitting in the school’s small reading room, bored to death flipping through a book while leisurely waiting for the drizzling rain to pause.

He had originally planned to go to the mall after class to assemble a computer, preparing to make money.

Although the knowledge and skills he had learned in his past life were still in his brain, the money he had earned in his past life had completely disappeared.

He didn’t know how much time had passed, but the rain showed no signs of letting up. From the indoor basketball court below the reading room, the intermittent sound of basketballs hitting the floor could be heard.

Because it was raining today and there were puddles everywhere, only this indoor basketball court on the ground floor of the reading room was open.

With many people and little space, conflicts and fighting over the court naturally arose, especially since these two confronting groups already had old grievances between them.

“Fuck!”

A layup was blocked, and Huang Cheng became furious. In a few strides, he walked up to the opposing group and roared with sky-high anger, “You’re fucking looking for trouble on purpose, aren’t you?”

Shen Ting tilted his head toward the leader, letting out a disdainful scoff. “Shan Kai, if you have a problem, say it. If not, stop talking shit. If you want to throw hands, I’ll accompany you; otherwise, hurry up and get the hell out.”

“Heh, I’ve long heard that Young Master Shen has a bad temper,” Shan Kai held a basketball with one hand, tossing it up and catching it intermittently, a ferocious smile curling on his lips. “But… who do you think you’re showing off to?”

With a clang, he forcefully slammed the basketball in his hand onto the ground, making it bounce straight up.

The group of lackeys behind him had long been itching for a fight. Seeing this, they immediately surged forward in tacit understanding.

A brawl broke out just like that.

Watching everything unfold before him, Xie Qingxiao hurriedly and anxiously cried out “Shen Ting,” but his voice was quickly drowned out by the noisy crowd.

He was originally planning to go home after school.

But Shen Ting’s trio had decided to play some ball before leaving, and Lu Jiayang had enthusiastically invited him to come watch them play.

Who knew a fight would just break out directly.

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