Chapter 53: Feelings are Selfish

Smiling and nodding to thank his classmates for their congratulations, Wang Yan returned to his seat.

At noon, Wang Yan took his lunchbox to the cafeteria and bought a few dishes.

Fang Hui, Lin Jiamu, and that petite, delicate classmate named Zhao Zi were in front, eating while discussing how to make the bulletin board.

Some classmates who wanted to get close to him moved their desks and chairs to the back to share a table with Wang Yan.

This was something Wang Yan couldn't change. Having experienced so much, no matter how much he controlled himself or tried to blend in, he was still different, standing out from the crowd. Plus, he was the class monitor now and was so impressive; influenced by long-standing social relationships, even elementary school students knew they should get on good terms with the class monitor.

Wang Yan didn't put on airs or act superior either; he answered their questions with a smile and occasionally asked questions to guide them silently, and everyone was happy.

Accompanied by the laughter and chatter of his classmates, Wang Yan ate the cafeteria's communal dishes with great relish.

The three people in front also had their attention drawn by the laughter and noise from Wang Yan's side. Lin Jiamu was quite the busybody; she loved to join in the fun, and the fact that she wasn't part of such a joyful atmosphere made her very uncomfortable. Besides, she had already talked herself through it, and she believed her good friends would surely understand her.

"Let's go eat with Wang Yan."

"We've pretty much finished talking anyway, you two go ahead," Zhao Zi said softly.

It was very obvious that she was a shy, timid little girl. Lin Jiamu didn't mind; all the classmates knew that Zhao Zi didn't talk much, and Lin Jiamu was also a little surprised by her talent.

"Then let's go over, Fang Hui." She knew that Fang Hui's relationship with Wang Yan had improved a lot, so she picked up her lunchbox and left.

Fang Hui opened her mouth to refuse, but Lin Jiamu had already turned and walked two steps away. In the end, she didn't say it out loud and followed behind Lin Jiamu toward the back of the classroom.

Lin Jiamu came over and started shooing people away: "Hey, go on, go on, make some room for us two."

When they were in school, it wasn't that it didn't happen, but very few boys would act a certain way toward girls; even if he was annoyed in his heart, he wouldn't show it.

Two of them, who had a good relationship with Lin Jiamu, shook their heads helplessly: "Stop shouting, sit here."

Lin Jiamu quickly thanked them with a grin.

Wang Yan was busy shoveling rice into his mouth; seeing the two of them sit down, he didn't say anything.

Lin Jiamu leaned in front of Wang Yan with a grin: "Sorry about yesterday. I thought about it when I got home and felt that what you said made sense."

He was confused by what she said; he hadn't even made a move yet. Wang Yan even doubted if his charm was that strong now? She was gnashing her teeth yesterday, and she figured it out in one night?

Don't try to guess a girl's thoughts; Wang Mou was not very specialized in this area, and it was hard to grasp those whimsical ideas, so he simply stopped thinking about it: "It's nothing, as long as you've figured it out."

He nodded at Fang Hui again: "Hurry up and eat."

Fang Hui ate silently without saying a word.

Lin Jiamu was different. Seeing that the air had been cleared and Wang Yan indicated he didn't mind, she curiously asked: "What were you all talking about just now that made you laugh so happily?"

Wang Yan said: "We were talking about..."

"Haha..."

At 9:00 PM, Wang Yan slowly packed his things as usual and sauntered out.

In a small alley that was the only way home.

Wang Yan walked toward the twenty or thirty people in front without changing his expression.

Walking close, Wang Yan stopped and asked with a smile: "Did you finish writing your self-criticism?"

The leader in front was, unsurprisingly, the Chen Xun trio.

Wang Yan was prepared for their retaliation. After all, two were children from wealthy families, and one was a sports student; they were used to bossing people around all day, and none of them were the type to swallow their pride.

Perhaps Qiao Ran had a relatively better personality, but even so, when one had the ability to punish others, why swallow one's pride and let others climb all over one's head?

Wang Yan had been a troublemaker and told the teacher; they couldn't tolerate his behavior, so it would be strange if they just swallowed this insult.

Chen Xun and Qiao Ran looked fine on the outside; they must have been hit lightly.

Zhao Ye was the most miserable; his face was swollen, and one look told you it was his dad who had slapped him hard.

"Cut the crap. I'll give you a chance: kowtow three times and call us Grandpa, and we'll let you off," Chen Xun said, tilting his head and grinning sinisterly.

"That's right, kowtow. Otherwise, this matter isn't over," Zhao Ye chimed in from the side.

Qiao Ran didn't speak.

Wang Yan had no interest in talking nonsense; he did the same thing as before, slapping Chen Xun aside with one big slap.

Then he kicked Qiao Ran in the stomach, turned around, and threw a hook at Zhao Ye; in an instant, all three were knocked down.

Chen Xun shook his head, got up, and rushed toward Wang Yan: "Brothers, get him!"

Accompanied by occasional screams, there was a clattering sound in the alley, and in the end, only groans remained on the ground.

Even in an open space, they were no match for him. Not to mention the alley wasn't wide, so only three or four people could attack Wang Yan at the same time, and they were all restricted.

Wang Yan could fight, but he wasn't a god of war. Although high school students weren't fully developed yet, it wasn't much different. Moreover, Wang Yan couldn't use his full strength, so he was also a bit restricted.

Therefore, it was inevitable that Wang Yan was kicked a couple of times, and there were quite a few large footprints on his school uniform, but otherwise, he was completely fine. It was no exaggeration to say that with this group's attack power, even if he just stood there without fighting back, as long as they didn't hit sensitive areas, he could hold out for a while.

What's more, halfway through the fight, seeing that Wang Yan was too fierce, some even ran away in fear.

He patted the dirt and footprints off his school uniform.

Wang Yan frowned and shook his head. The dirt was easy to deal with, just a couple of pats and it was gone, but the footprints were hard to fix; he had just washed his clothes yesterday.

He walked to Chen Xun, who was slumped against the wall, squatted down, looked into Chen Xun's eyes, and suddenly raised his hand.

Chen Xun thought Wang Yan was going to slap him, so he subconsciously raised his hand to block.

But after waiting for a long time, he didn't wait for Wang Yan's attack. He carefully lowered his arm, and suddenly, a powerful flick hit his forehead.

"Fuck..." Once the word was out, Chen Xun wisely swallowed it back. He rubbed his head, "Hiss... hiss..." trying to ease the pain.

"Just this once, okay?" As he spoke, Wang Yan held up his index finger, his eyes like knives.

Chen Xun was scared out of his wits; he didn't dare look into Wang Yan's eyes, but he gritted his teeth and didn't speak.

Standing up and clapping his hands, Wang Yan walked to Qiao Ran and stopped for a moment.

Thinking he was also going to get flicked—he had heard that crisp sound just now and it hurt just listening to it—Qiao Ran quickly covered his head in fear.

Ignoring Qiao Ran, he walked to Zhao Ye, who was hugging his stomach and groaning on the side, and squatted down.

Zhao Ye was much more straightforward; twenty or thirty people couldn't beat one person, so what did he have to be proud of? Knowing he was no match, he adopted a "dead pig isn't afraid of boiling water" attitude—whatever happens, happens.

Wang Yan slapped him on the head, making Zhao Ye wince in pain.

"Don't you know what kind of situation those two are in?"

He slapped him again: "Don't you have any self-awareness about your own situation?"

Finally, he gave him one last slap: "Behave yourself."

Wang Yan stood up and left.

The three of them, Chen Xun and the others, didn't have it so easy.

They had to appease the people lying all over the ground; otherwise, if they gathered a group of people to fight and still couldn't beat the guy, having been beaten for nothing, the three of them would definitely be done for today.

In the end, the three of them spent ages spitting out words, saying all the nice things they could, and buying cigarettes, alcohol, and meals before it was finally over.

When the people they called for help had all left, the three of them sat side by side on the curb, sighing.

"How can that grandson be so good at fighting? It hurts Grandpa to death," Chen Xun said, rubbing his sore spot.

"He really is good at fighting. What should we do?" Qiao Ran asked.

"I think we'd better not look for trouble. Twenty or thirty people couldn't beat him; we'd better stay away from him," Zhao Ye said.

"Zhao Ye, are you scared?" Chen Xun said.

"It's not that I'm scared, but do you have any ideas?"

Chen Xun remained silent.

Seeing this, Qiao Ran said: "Alright, let's leave it at this for today and study it tomorrow. It's getting late, let's go home."

The few of them, dejected, broke up and went home.

The injuries on their faces were easy to explain; just make up an excuse and it would pass. Parents knew what their own children were like. Besides, they were all superficial injuries, nothing serious, and it wasn't the first or second time they had come home with battle scars.

Zhao Ye walked on the road, thinking about Wang Yan's two sentences.

Didn't he understand these things? He understood. But he didn't want to think about them.

Wang Yan didn't care about that; saying a couple of sharp words was enough. Following the plot, didn't the guy have plenty of family wealth? If he messed things up, it wouldn't be good if the guy ended up failing instead.

Returning home, Wang Yan washed his clothes and fell into a peaceful sleep.

In the following week, Fang Hui, Lin Jiamu, and Zhao Zi completed the bulletin board together and won third place in the grade.

It was hard for Wang Yan to feel a sense of honor from this; he had no interest in it at all. It was purely the credit of the three little girls.

During this period, Fang Hui and Lin Jiamu had also been running to the back to chat, laugh, and eat lunch with Wang Yan and a group of male classmates.

This day, during the second big break.

"Dear teachers and classmates, good morning. I'm very sorry to waste everyone's time and energy..."

Accompanied by the Chen Xun, Qiao Ran, and Zhao Ye trio, who were loudly giving their self-criticisms on the podium, they returned to campus.

Returning to the classroom, they asked Lin Jiamu, whom they hadn't seen for a long time, about recent events.

When he heard that his position as class monitor had been stripped and replaced by Wang Yan, Chen Xun's expression was extremely ugly.

He had known for a long time that he wouldn't be able to be class monitor, but he hadn't expected Wang Yan to take over. Wang Yan had only been here for a little over a month, and he was already class monitor? Chen Xun couldn't accept it for a moment.

Lin Jiamu noticed Chen Xun's expression and quickly changed the subject: "Oh my, you guys don't know, right? Our class bulletin board won third place, and I even contributed to it."

She said this with a proud face, waiting for the three of them to praise her.

The three of them turned their heads to look at the bulletin board in unison, and when they turned back, Chen Xun and Qiao Ran looked at Lin Jiamu with disbelief.

Zhao Ye was the one to play along: "Really? Hurry up and tell us, which part did you draw?"

"Just that national emblem, and the national flag."

"Oh, you drew it really well, just like the real thing," Zhao Ye fawned.

Then he asked: "Who drew that dragon?"

"That was drawn by Zhao Zi. The rest were all done by Fang Hui," Lin Jiamu explained.

Upon hearing Fang Hui's name, Zhao Ye didn't react much, but the eyes of Chen Xun and Qiao Ran clearly flickered, and they both looked toward Fang Hui's seat in the front.

Looking at that back view quietly flipping through a book, Qiao Ran didn't speak, but Chen Xun said: "I didn't expect her to know how to draw? And she drew it quite well?"

Seeing that apart from Zhao Ye, the other two good friends ignored her and only cared about Fang Hui, Lin Jiamu pouted and returned to her seat, ignoring them.

Zhao Ye sensed that Lin Jiamu was unhappy and quickly went over to coax her.

Having not seen her for a week, Zhao Ye had missed her terribly.

At this moment, the teacher entered with the class bell.

The study committee member shouted: "Stand up."

Following the clattering sound of chairs moving, the classmates shouted in unison: "Tea... cher... good..."

After sitting down, everyone read their books, found a position to nap, or did useless things; no one spoke.

Chen Xun felt that he didn't recognize the classmates in the class anymore. This wasn't right; since when were they so sensible?

He poked the classmate in front: "Hey, hey, what's going on?"

Unable to stand it anymore, the classmate in front first glanced back at Wang Yan, and seeing that he wasn't paying attention, whispered: "Wang Yan said, if you don't want to study, don't study, but don't disturb others. Whoever causes trouble, he'll deal with them."

After finishing, he quickly turned his head back and continued reading the martial arts novel he had rented from the small shop outside the school.

Chen Xun snorted coldly and looked toward Wang Yan, just in time to meet Wang Yan's gaze.

Remembering the fear of being dominated, Chen Xun shuddered and quickly turned his head back, pretending to read.

In his heart, however, he was pondering how to retaliate against Wang Yan.

He had been almost expelled because of Wang Yan, his parents had kicked him, and he had been beaten up by Wang Yan. Being a competitive young man, how could he submit? But he had been thinking about it for a week and still hadn't figured out how to retaliate.

The key was that he disgusted Wang Yan, and Wang Yan would just beat him up, and he couldn't beat the guy anyway, so what was the point of being disgusted?

As he thought, he saw the back view of the person in white sitting in front, listening to the lecture attentively. The wind blew into the classroom, gently brushing past her hair—quiet and peaceful.

This wind also stirred the pool of spring water in the young man's heart.

Chen Xun was infatuated; he just propped his chin with his hand and stared blankly with a grin.

Qiao Ran, sitting in front of him, wasn't infatuated, but his gaze would always fall on the beautiful figure in front intentionally or unintentionally.

Gradually, the two of them realized something was wrong.

Why did Fang Hui keep turning her head to look twice for no reason?

The two of them followed Fang Hui's gaze, turning their heads, turning their heads, until they saw Wang Yan.

The two of them sobered up and quickly turned back.

Zhao Ye on that side was the same.

He turned to look at Lin Jiamu for no reason, and Lin Jiamu turned to look at Wang Yan for no reason.

Comparing their own thoughts, how could the three of them not understand what the two girls meant?

What they thought in their hearts, only they themselves knew.

When it came to lunchtime, the feeling became even more uncomfortable.

Some brought food, some bought food; after everyone was ready, they returned to the classroom.

Chen Xun and Qiao Ran watched as Fang Hui hopped over to the table Wang Yan had already shared and sat down.

After sitting down, she was even greeting Lin Jiamu there.

What did this mean?

It meant they had been eating together before.

The three of them didn't speak, just stared straight at Lin Jiamu.

Lin Jiamu was in a dilemma; having no other choice, Lin Jiamu decided to confess.

"I'll be over in a moment," she shouted back to Fang Hui, and Lin Jiamu sat down beside the trio.

"Oh my, don't look at me like that," Lin Jiamu said, shy and annoyed, seeing the three of them staring at her without speaking.

Zhao Ye asked first: "What's going on with you? Don't you know that's an enemy?"

"Oh my, everyone is a classmate, what enemy or not, why say it so harshly."

These words choked the three of them.

Qiao Ran took a deep breath and said: "Jiamu, confession brings leniency, resistance brings severity."

"Oh my, the situation is like this..."

Subsequently, Lin Jiamu recounted the events of that day. Then she talked about peeking at Wang Yan dunking the next day and the fight at the school gate that night.

"You guys don't know, at that moment, he was so cool," Lin Jiamu said quietly with eyes full of longing.

After finishing, Lin Jiamu looked at the three of them innocently with her big eyes: "You know, I have no resistance. You guys will forgive me, right?"

Hearing Lin Jiamu finish, Zhao Ye felt as if he had been stabbed three thousand times, his heart aching so much he couldn't breathe.

Enduring the sadness, he blurted out without thinking: "Yes, of course we will..."

Before he could finish, Chen Xun and Qiao Ran looked at him in unison.

Zhao Ye very wisely chose to shut up.

Chen Xun said angrily: "Jiamu, this is a betrayal of our friendship. Have you thought it through?"

Once these words were out, Lin Jiamu felt a bit sad, pouting and hesitating, not knowing what to do.

Thinking and thinking, she didn't answer, just finished her meal in silence and silently returned to her seat.

Fang Hui wasn't a fool; she certainly knew what was going on, but she didn't go to comfort Lin Jiamu.

Did she not know that Lin Jiamu was interested in Wang Yan? Of course she knew.

Although they had been playing quite well during this period, feelings were selfish things.

It couldn't be said that she was gloating, but at least there were still some little thoughts in her heart. ===== CHAPTER 54 =====