Chapter 129: The Young Master Won't Take the Bait

"The golden image of the top student and Ivy League prodigy he built for himself has all shattered to pieces, hasn't it?"

At noon, in the cafeteria, Li Pengfei and Lu Yan He chose a time when most people had finished eating, so they could at least have lunch in peace without being watched by a crowd.

Li Pengfei's assessment of Chu Saiying was sharp and accurate.

"Now that everyone knows what he's done, that pride he faked can't hold up, of course." Li Pengfei chuckled and said, "That's why you shouldn't build a persona for yourself; once a persona is built, it's destined to collapse one day."

"Words of wisdom," Lu Yan He said with a smile.

"Yo, that short-haired girl from the next class." Li Pengfei suddenly gave Lu Yan He a wink.

Lu Yan He looked over, surprised, following Li Pengfei's gaze.

It was Xu Linlin from Class 4, who used to follow Hong Zhixing around and was even more arrogant than Hong Zhixing.

"She's actually eating alone? Didn't she always hang out with a whole group before? Is she flying solo now?" Lu Yan He wondered.

"Director Chen, since you also hope this year's top scorer comes from our school, are you still willing to watch these few star candidates be held back by her?" Liu Qin didn't give an inch.

Li Pengfei's reaction was completely beyond her expectations!

"Why are you so petty? Are you even a man?" Xu Linlin said, exasperated.

But Yin Xiangyu didn't know that almost all the students in Class 3 were sick of her and extremely dissatisfied with her.

Director Chen's face darkened as he said, "Pah! The quality of our school's liberal arts students this year is high, the whole city knows it, don't you go around being a harbinger of doom here!"

Li Cui was the first to speak: Is Yin Xiangyu crazy? What is wrong with her!

Jiang Haitian: She teaches like a total disaster herself, and she has the nerve to run in here and call us heartless?

Jiang Haitian: So disgusting.

Back then, she had been adamant that her student was the one being bullied and even brought people to cause trouble for Liu Qin. In fact, that wasn't the case at all—a total slap in the face. Although there was no hard evidence, all signs pointed to the fact that it was actually Xu Zijun who was being bullied.

"She's just relying on being a woman to force Li Pengfei to forgive her in front of everyone," Li Cui said immediately. "Luckily, our Brother Fei's skin is as thick as a city wall; he definitely won't let her get her way."

It seemed they were amused by the scene.

Li Pengfei waved his hand: "What are you still standing there for? You came to apologize, I heard it, that's enough, get out."

—Maybe they were just relaxing; they had been buried in their studies for over three hours straight without even going to the restroom.

The Hong Zhixing incident really did make her lose face.

But there were plenty of people in the world who could make his heart flutter.

This proposal received support from many people.

Originally, they wanted to do it as a class-wide petition, but one person refused to sign.

Even if he wanted to talk, Chen Siqi might not be willing.

As soon as she finished speaking, at least half the girls in the class looked up, their faces glowing with radiance.

Liu Qin was furious, yet she still had to put on a smiling face.

"Yeah, why isn't he our class's history teacher?"

"Yeah, I listened to the lecture for forty minutes, and in the end, I had no idea what I'd even heard—totally confused."

In Xu Linlin's imagination, even if Li Pengfei wasn't happy about forgiving her, with so many people watching, he would be too embarrassed to say no.

"Our class's Lin Yu, Chen Yi, Zheng Meiqi, Xu Zijun, and Chen Qin—the five students with the best grades—their average score in history is five points lower than the average of the five best students in Yin Xiangyu's class," Liu Qin said. "You know very well what those five points mean for students at their level. If she were targeting me, fine, I'd just swallow my pride, apologize, and treat her to a meal, but she's targeting the students. She's deliberately sabotaging these top students just to keep the grade-level top spot in her own class."

Xu Linlin's expression looked as if she had been dealt a blow; her eyebrows and eyes drooped, the previous ferocity gone.

Everyone burst into laughter.

Li Pengfei complained to Lu Yan He: "Look at that. At noon, we even felt a bit sorry for her, being all alone. See now? Pity for the enemy is cruelty to oneself. She never intended to turn over a new leaf or start fresh; she was still playing her own little games."

Li Pengfei snapped back to reality, said "Oh," and added, "I got it. You go back to your class. It's lunch break now, don't disturb my classmates while they're resting."

Her eyes were filled with such unwavering determination that Director Chen subconsciously avoided her gaze.

Director Chen frowned and asked, "Liu Laoshi, you're making such a serious accusation against Teacher Yin—do you have proof?"

Li Zhibai and Yan Liang were both away; they wouldn't be around for the next few nights because they had a stage performance this Sunday and needed to practice these days.

Xu Linlin looked at Li Pengfei in disbelief. She didn't understand why, even after she had specifically come to Class 3 and apologized in front of all his classmates, he could still treat it so lightly and even mock her in public.

"Compared to him, our history teacher is truly a disaster."

Someone suddenly said, "How about we write a letter to the principal and apply to change our history teacher?"

Liu Qin beamed, "I was waiting for you to say that! Thank you, Director Chen."

"Holy crap, a super handsome history teacher just arrived for the second-year students!" Mei Ping suddenly rushed in, shouting in an exaggerated tone.

"Who told her to be the homeroom teacher of Class 4."

Sigh.

"She's definitely teaching terribly in our class on purpose. People in Class 4 say she teaches just fine."

At noon, Xu Linlin suddenly ran to Class 3, and in front of everyone, with red-rimmed eyes, said, "Li Pengfei, yesterday I was in a rush and misunderstood, I slandered you, I'm sorry, I was wrong, please forgive me."

However, even so, the school never considered replacing Yin Xiangyu.

If Lu Yan He stayed by himself, he could be more focused.

"Hey, Old Lu, what's the deal with you and Chen Siqi? A lot of classmates say you two are pretty ambiguous—is there actually something going on?" Li Pengfei asked.

Although he didn't know if it would work, they had to try first.

In the livestream, many people watched Lu Yan He staring blankly at his phone for a long time; those familiar with his streams found it a bit strange.

Lu Yan He asked in surprise: She found out about our complaint letter to the principal that quickly?

Li Pengfei was just making a comment, yet his words turned out to be prophetic.

As soon as she walked in, the atmosphere in the class became a bit strange.

Lu Yan He didn't stay at school for evening self-study tonight; he went home early.

Mei Ping was usually a very lively and outgoing girl in class; she used exaggerated body language to express her infatuation.

Just like Old Chen, who is in charge of English—because of him, their class's English grades are always number one in the whole grade.

Mei Ping said: "This is to save our class's history grades."

The back area of the classroom.

"I don't have proof, but the scores are the best proof," Liu Qin said. "Lin Yu, Chen Yi, and Zheng Meiqi all have the potential to challenge for the top spot. She's held my students back. Director Chen, aren't you worried that if those students in her class fail their exams, our school's students will end up with nothing?"

It was Jiang Haitian who slapped Li Pengfei on the back of the head and said, "What are you spacing out for? She's apologizing to you."

Mei Ping: The funniest part is that she actually thinks Xu Zijun is the one behind all this. Heh, speaking so harshly—unworthy of being a teacher.

But Luo Zicheng definitely wouldn't care; he had long since stopped fitting in.

Director Chen smiled and said, "Liu Laoshi, we've talked about this several times. Actually, looking at your class's history scores, it's not like they're all bad overall. The reason the average is low is because of the students at the back dragging it down, right? Don't go around saying Teacher Yin is deliberately dragging down your class's history grades; that's impossible. She teaches history to your class, and don't you teach math to hers? How would she dare to do that?"

History was already the most difficult of the three subjects in the liberal arts comprehensive exam. In the past few years, history was the subject that created the biggest score gaps. Yet, their class's history teacher was very unhelpful.

It was just that Liu Qin had come to him several times about this, and he also felt it was time to go talk to Yin Xiangyu.

"Teaching is a total disaster."

The topic suddenly shifted back to criticizing their class's history teacher, Yin Xiangyu.

Everyone couldn't hide much on their faces, and their hostility toward Yin Xiangyu was showing.

Furthermore, Class 4, led by Yin Xiangyu, had excellent grades; it and Class 3, led by Liu Qin, were the two best-performing classes in the entire grade.

"What kind of 'sharp eyes' do I need for this? I have a brain. The idiot who slandered me for hitting her yesterday apologizes to me today—do I have to forgive her just because she's sincere? Is my brain waterlogged or am I possessed? If I beat her up and say sorry, will she forgive me?" Li Pengfei said righteously.

If they could really get a new history teacher for their class, that would be a good thing.

Lu Yan He asked: What did she say?

"How handsome? More handsome than Lu Yan He?"

Li Cui: I regret not taking a picture of Yin Xiangyu's face; she was so speechless after you roasted her.

Lu Yan He didn't know what Yin Xiangyu was thinking. If you say her teaching level is poor, then be consistent—don't make the history subject in Class 4 the best in the grade while their class is at the very bottom. The disparity is too large; it doesn't make sense.

What the hell?

If it were like that, they could go be history teachers too!

Just reading from the textbook, and for anything not in the textbook, "you guys go figure it out yourselves."

A classmate in the class immediately laughed.

With so many things happening to Xu Zijun recently, Lu Yan He felt Xu Zijun might need to find someone to talk to properly, so as not to bottle it up inside.

Because of what she did, all the girls in the class couldn't help but want to go see for themselves.

"Who?"

Why?

Lu Yan He couldn't figure it out.

"Alright, stop being an alarmist here. I'll go talk to Yin Xiangyu later," Director Chen said impatiently.

He hadn't expected that while he was away for one evening self-study, so many exciting things would happen in the class.

"I don't really believe it."

She left, satisfied.

When Yin Xiangyu walked into the classroom, the petition was almost half-signed.

Lu Yan He listened in and found that everyone had a common dissatisfaction with Yin Xiangyu: her teaching was too poor and very perfunctory.

Li Cui: Mei Ping is a total beast; she went directly at Yin Xiangyu, roasting her until she had nothing to say.

Li Cui didn't lower his volume when he spoke; everyone could hear him.

"Which class?"

It hadn't been this serious before, but it just so happened that she caught everyone talking about it at noon. After listening carefully in the afternoon, they realized, "Oh, I didn't feel it much before when I wasn't really listening, but today I listened to a whole class and realized Yin Xiangyu is truly incompetent—not only is her teaching bad, but she's also very perfunctory. Whenever it involves logical test points, it's all 'you guys just have to figure this out yourselves'."

Li Cui sighed: "This speed of changing faces is truly peak performance. Even a master of Sichuan opera face-changing would have to bow down to you and call you their ancestor."

"It's just that simple."

They were all young people; being an outcast at a time like this would, to a greater or lesser extent, make people mind and then ostracize them.

"Just that simple?"

The more it was like this, the more she looked at these students in Class 3, the more she felt they were all harboring dissatisfaction toward her in their hearts.

They couldn't be talking about Su Su, could they?

Thinking back, he was indeed quite handsome; at least among ordinary people, he was truly outstandingly handsome.

Mei Ping said sincerely: "If we're talking about handsome, Lu Yan He is still a bit more handsome, but that Teacher Su is a completely different style. You'll know when you see him. He wears a suit and leather shoes, and even wears a tie—much more mature than Lu Yan He. Ah, that ascetic temperament makes my heart flutter!"

But this laughter, in Xu Linlin's ears, was no different from mockery and ridicule.

"Holy crap, I've never seen such a shameless person. I feel like Hong Zhixing isn't even as shameless as her compared to her," Jiang Hai said. "Why should we forgive her just because she came to apologize? Where does she get the nerve?"

It was just that he didn't know if this method of writing a letter to the principal would make the school agree to it.

The proposer quickly wrote the letter, then found everyone in the class to sign it, making it a petition to be dropped into the principal's mailbox.

Lu Yan He also signed his name.

—First time seeing Lu Yan He stare blankly for so long; it looks exactly like me when I zone out while reading.

Zhou Ziyu gave them a thumbs-up and said, "Your initiative is really impressive; you got the petition out so quickly."

Chen Yi: You even know this.

Right now, he had no heart to think about these things.

"What?"

Zhou Ziyu: It seems the principal took a look at the mailbox as soon as he returned to his office after lunch, and then he saw the letter we wrote. He immediately called Liu Laoshi and Yin Xiangyu over.

Mei Ping: Don't even mention it. Anyway, it was some very harsh words, cursing Xu Zijun. Later, I stood up directly and said I was the one who planned it, and only then did she turn her fire toward me.

There was a history class in the afternoon.

Li Cui didn't seem afraid of Xu Linlin at all, sneering.

Any infatuation with Chen Siqi?

Li Pengfei: You don't know, during the second evening self-study session, Yin Xiangyu suddenly ran into our classroom and cursed us for being heartless, saying she'd worked hard to teach us for over a year, and yet we wrote a letter to complain about her. So ridiculous.

The apologetic expression she had just moments ago vanished instantly.

Li Cui immediately said: "Don't glare at me. I'm telling you, I'm not Li Pengfei. If you dare to slander me, I'll roast you to death."

Lu Yan He said: "If we can really get a new history teacher, that's a good thing for all of us. From Luo Zicheng's perspective, anyway, if it really is changed, it won't be because he didn't sign, and if it doesn't get changed in the end, and Yin Xiangyu really holds a grudge against us because of this, he's the only one who didn't sign, so he might even be treated leniently by Yin Xiangyu. He won't lose out either way."

He was studying alone in his room; the environment was better than the classroom.

The anger in Yin Xiangyu's heart grew, almost reaching the point of being so angry she was ashamed.

Finally, when the bell rang, Yin Xiangyu didn't stay for even a second; she grabbed her things and left.

Li Cui gave Li Pengfei a thumbs-up.

As a result, at 9:30 PM, the class group avatar suddenly started jumping wildly.

Li Pengfei: "Who knows? Maybe Hong Zhixing, in order to clear his own name, cut off his tail like a lizard and pushed everything she did to Xu Zijun onto Xu Linlin."

Once she left, the classroom exploded like a boiling pot.

"So calculating." Li Pengfei clicked his tongue twice, his gaze toward Luo Zicheng changing. Before Lu Yan He explained, Li Pengfei just thought Luo Zicheng was purely cowardly.

The petition was dropped into the principal's mailbox by Mei Ping after school.

Actually, he also knew what Yin Xiangyu was up to. Many students in Class 3 had previously said on the school forum that Yin Xiangyu's teaching was poor—she was very dedicated in Class 4 but perfunctory in Class 3. He had seen these comments, but Director Chen couldn't just go talk to Yin Xiangyu because of a few student comments; it would make it look like he didn't trust Yin Xiangyu.

Li Pengfei looked Lu Yan He up and down, pondered for a moment, and said, "You're not honest."

"Her teaching is really getting more and more perfunctory. What was all that she just said?"

Zhou Ziyu: Hehe, I have an inside source. I can find out about these little things in school from another group.

Li Pengfei said to Lu Yan He: "Luo Zicheng, that coward, didn't even dare to sign his name. I think he shouldn't hang out in our class circle after graduation; who would even want to associate with him?"

Going too far isn't good either.

On this side, the Class 3 petition hit a snag.

Lu Yan He, who was accidentally named again, pursed his lips silently.

Jiang Haitian looked at Li Pengfei in shock, never expecting that Li Pengfei would actually show off like that at this moment.

Xu Linlin's eyes widened, and she glared angrily at Li Cui.

Chen Yi:...

The boys: "..."

Ten minutes later, a group of girls came back, chattering with flushed cheeks.

Li Pengfei's words weren't actually just angry talk.

Lu Yan He roughly understood what was going on.

Yin Xiangyu felt embarrassed too.

"There's no 'deal'—we're just close, the same way you and I are close."

When the group chat became lively, Lu Yan He happened to be drinking water; he was surprised to see everyone's comments.

Xu Linlin looked at Li Pengfei in surprise.

Lu Yan He smiled.

Once she left, the classroom exploded.

"He doesn't want to sign, fine," Mei Ping said angrily. "He always likes to act like everyone else is drunk while he's the only one sober, as if we're all idiots and he's the only smart one. In reality, he's just a coward, afraid of being held a grudge by Yin Xiangyu. With so many people in the class, she can't possibly hold a grudge against him."

Lu Yan He opened his book and ignored Li Pengfei.

Lu Yan He: "Get lost, I want to read."

Mei Ping led the team, and a dozen people set off in a grand procession.

Director Chen: "If she doesn't change, I'll get you a new history teacher, okay?"

Comrade Li Pengfei, who was just laughing and joking with Jiang Haitian, had never seen such a scene and didn't react for a long time.

"We must find the principal and get a new history teacher!"

"That's also quite normal. How could a small setback stop the growth of a big villain?" He smiled. "You're pretty tough, too, completely indifferent to her apology. Do you have a pair of sharp eyes that saw her apology wasn't sincere?"

Director Chen rubbed his temples with a headache.

Li Pengfei gave him the middle finger.

"So envious of Class 4, Grade 2."

Xu Zijun was the one who suffered an unprovoked disaster—Lu Yan He quickly figured out what was going on. Yin Xiangyu probably thought that after the Hong Zhixing incident, Xu Zijun held a grudge against her and planned this whole thing.

This statement, this perspective, this brat!

Liu Qin frowned: "If you talk to her, will she change?"

Liu Qin was getting angry by the end.

There were always some people in the classroom who wouldn't behave and would cause a stir.

In a situation where you can barely take care of yourself, what kind of dating is that?

Her own family was a mess, with a high-level stepmother watching her every move.

"The evasion of the topic is too obvious."

Lu Yan He nodded and gave him a thumbs-up.

Yin Xiangyu, however, misinterpreted this hostility as the aftermath of the Hong Zhixing and Xu Zijun incident.

Director Chen didn't want to let Yin Xiangyu cause trouble for him over such a small matter.

Yin Xiangyu's attitude during class just now had caused public outrage.

Mei Ping: It's true, our class's top students aren't worse than those in Class 4. Why should we score worse than their top students in history? If Yin Xiangyu isn't hoarding knowledge, then she's giving her class's students special treatment.

Xu Linlin realized she definitely wouldn't get anything good today and left, looking disheveled and furious.

"Insightful."

"Director Chen, this really depends on your help," Liu Qin said, not knowing how many times she had come to him for this. "There are only so many days left until the college entrance exam. Our class's history subject has always been at the bottom. If you say our students aren't working hard, then other subjects should also be at the bottom. Actually, I know what Yin Xiangyu is up to. She has several students in her class competing for the top spot, so she wants to protect them, but my students shouldn't be held back by her."

Maybe in Luo Zicheng's eyes, they were the idiots.

The students of Class 3 were amazed to see her like this.

He asked: Yin Xiangyu?

"Really so handsome."

A good teacher is too important for a class's performance in a subject.

Lu Yan He's mind stirred.

Nonsense, such a beautiful girl, and she happened to show him that side of her that seemed proud but was actually just acting tough—how could he not be moved?

"If he doesn't want to sign, forget it. Anyway, I didn't expect everyone to sign. With so many classmates signing, it's already exceeded my expectations," another female classmate said immediately.

Does the school not care about Class 3's grades?

At this time, Liu Qin was also having tea with the grade head.

"Screw you, you're the dog with skin as thick as a city wall!"

—I'm truly convinced by him now. I thought he was just putting on a show, but I didn't expect him to really livestream studying until twelve every night.

—The number one real top student persona in the entertainment industry.

The comment section is always bustling. ===== CHAPTER 130 =====