Chapter 47: Ming Tan Apologizes

Ming Tan stammered, "I... I was only suspicious, you don't have to be so aggressive."

Many students in Class A cast sidelong glances, united against an outsider, their expressions filled with disdain and contempt:

"Special Students are just so much trouble. Who gave him the courage to speak to Ling Wu like that?"

"I think it's just that Ling Wu has too good a temper and upbringing. If a Special Student dared to speak to me like that, I would have already had someone teach him a lesson."

"It's truly hilarious. Who doesn't know Ling Wu was taking an exam in Class F? There are signal jammers in the classroom during exams. Besides... those people in Class F, the second-to-last place copying homework from the last place?"

"Ling Wu, what is there to say to such a lowly Special Student? Just send someone to beat him up and throw him out of Class A, and he'll be obedient."

"Tsk, he really thinks that sleeping in class means he's bad at studying? Idiot. Which young master or miss from a top-tier noble family isn't proficient in everything? He really is showing off that little bit of knowledge he brought from the Slums."

Shen Zhaojue sneered, "Ling Wu, since when can such unpresentable, trashy things come to bully you?"

"Do you want me to help you teach him a lesson?"

Wei Ranxu agreed as well, "It just so happens I'm bored; teaching someone a lesson will help me stretch my limbs."

The nobles of Sike Academy were particularly disdainful of the lower classes, while being compatible with their own social stratum; they appeared to be a loose pile of sand, but were actually intricately connected and united against outsiders.

Listening to these words, Ming Tan felt his face burn with the shame of being humiliated, wishing he could dig a hole and crawl into it.

It was he who had been too reckless.

Too self-righteous.

Or perhaps, Ling Wu's cultivation and the original owner's status as a protagonist had given him the illusion that he could push his luck and lose his sense of propriety.

It made him forget his own status as an ant.

Even with a heaven-defying Protagonist Halo, it could not withstand the Empire's decades of rigid class stratification and clear distinction between the noble and the lowly. Without absolute strength, this halo was not enough to support him in provoking any noble.

Poor Ming Tan only realized this clearly at this very moment.

Someone in the class suggested to Ling Wu, "Ling Wu, why don't I vent your anger for you? It will save you from dirtying your hands."

It was true; such a celestial-like figure should sit quietly in a shrine, untroubled by the mortal world.

Not every ant or lowly person was worthy of jumping around in front of him.

Ming Tan pinched his palms, cold sweat trickling down. The majesty of the nobles could not be provoked or violated; he had been perfectly clear about these methods when he read this comic.

The original owner might have been able to turn danger into safety.

But when it was his turn, that was not necessarily the case.

Ming Tan couldn't help but loathe himself. Why did he have to be so stupid today? Were those words even things he could say?

His self-perceived fresh and refined methods were nothing more than grandstanding.

Class A began to boil over, as if at Ling Wu's command, they could immediately "execute on the spot" Ming Tan, this Special Student.

He couldn't help but cast a look of help toward Qi Yu, only to see the disapproval written in the depths of the other's eyes, as if saying that he had handled this matter too imprudently.

In fact, Ming Tan also knew that Qi Yu had no way out; he was also just an ordinary Special Student.

Likewise living on the thin ice of the bottom layer in Sike Academy.

Ming Tan had no other choice but to pray that Ling Wu's good temper would come into play again, and that he could be magnanimous enough to let him off; otherwise, he would lose a layer of skin over today's affair.

He looked over.

Ling Wu sat there with a face like a painting, exquisite as a meticulously carved jade statue, perfect to the point of having no flaws. His gaze was cold and distant, his whole being exuding an innate, noble temperament. The gaze from those eyes was about to declare the judgment of a superior.

So calm and composed.

Completely disregarding Ming Tan.

Perhaps from beginning to end, he had only been viewed by Ling Wu as a clown; because he didn't care, and possessed more than enough, he was condescendingly tolerant.

Ming Tan hated being ignored, being disdained, and being looked down upon the most.

He had originally thought this transmigration could use the Protagonist Halo to change his mediocrity and aimlessness, but now, these various encounters had caused his extremely high self-esteem and pride to be suppressed.

By what right?

But Ling Wu, this person, was clearly just an insignificant Cannon Fodder male supporting character, yet he possessed a family background, appearance, and knowledge that were beyond Ming Tan's reach. He only needed to stand there, without doing anything, and he had already won over everyone, being pursued and sought after by others. His existence was the Creator's satire on the mediocre, making one feel ashamed to show their face.

Ming Tan only met Ling Wu's eyes for five seconds, but it felt as long as a century, so long that he began to feel lingering fear and emptiness, instantly feeling as if he had been stripped bare.

The jealousy, baseness, and sordid thoughts he had carefully hidden were all laid out before Ling Wu.

After a long while, Ling Wu just sat there, yet that gaze was like looking down from a high position. His voice was as usual: "Ming Tan, you say you are suspicious?"

Ming Tan was practically intimidated, not daring not to answer him: "... Yes."

"Have you heard this line from *Crime and Punishment*?" Ling Wu crossed his fingers and placed them on the desk, a posture that was quite relaxed: "A hundred rabbits can never make a horse, and a hundred suspicions can never make a piece of evidence."

"Any suspicion must bow before evidence."

"And you, have no evidence."

Ming Tan panicked completely.

That's right.

He had no evidence; why hadn't he thought twice before acting?

Ming Tan lowered his head to apologize: "I'm sorry, I wronged you."

Ling Wu watched his slightly lowered head, applying pressure with a calm expression: "If someone wronged me for eating their food, I wouldn't cut open my stomach to prove my innocence; I would only dig out their eyes and swallow them, letting them see clearly inside my stomach."

"Do you understand?"

Ming Tan looked up at him.

For a split second, he felt that Ling Wu's beautiful, cold face had become extremely terrifying, like a demon tearing off its disguise, opening a bloody maw to reveal sharp fangs, pondering how to swallow him whole.

He remembered in the comic, when Special Students offended these nobles, they were to be punished by the Student Council, with cruel methods, including but not limited to being stripped naked and paraded.

And the cigarette burn on Qi Yu's collarbone that had yet to fade all served to remind and awaken his memory that Ling Wu was a devil.

Sure enough, those around them began to say:

"Let's call the Student Council over to handle this."

"They love torturing these Special Students who don't know the immensity of heaven and earth the most."

"......."

"I'm......" Ming Tan bowed 90 degrees, almost shouting while trembling: "I'm sorry! I'm truly sorry! I...... I know I was wrong, I shouldn't have accused you without evidence!"

He maintained the bowing posture.

Because no one had permitted him to rise.

The survival rules of Sike Academy were just this cruel.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

Ten seconds.

Only then did Ling Wu stand up, grasp both of his shoulders to help him up, pat his shoulder heavily, and say: "There will not be a next time."