This fever struck Su Wan with a vengeance, catching her completely off guard. The school nurse excused her from classes and put her on an IV drip. Su Wan, feverish and dazed, had no idea what was happening the whole time.

In the classroom:

“I heard someone dumped a whole bucket of water on Su Wan.”

“Wow! Su Wan! They’re in for it now!”

“Why isn’t she here? Did she go to punish those students?”

“No, I heard she’s got a fever…”

A few students at the front chattered away while Su Wan was absent. Shen Tingyan sat by the window reading, not looking up once. However, he heard every word.

“…”

If Su Wan hadn’t told him to leave at that moment, he wouldn’t have moved, and the water would’ve been dumped on him instead.

Shen Tingyan lowered his eyes, absentmindedly turning a page in his book.

Last year, he had a serious illness, and the doctors warned him not to get chilled, as it could leave lasting complications. If he had been doused with water today, it likely would’ve had consequences.

It was said that Su Wan was the one who arranged this, so why did she tell him to avoid it?

If it was just a prank, the cost was too high.

She’d really been frozen stiff. Her face was white as snow, and her shivering eyes looked truly pitiful.

On any other day, she’d have been loudly cursing the clueless students above, but instead, she just trembled, wiped the water from her face, wrapped herself tightly in the jacket he’d thrown over her, and headed to the nurse’s office.

Why did she take the hit for him?

“Shen Tingyan, did you hear Su Wan got sick from the water dump?” A few students, hoping to stir things up, approached him with smug smiles. “She’s bullied you so much; shouldn’t you be celebrating?”

Shen Tingyan put down his book slowly and glanced at them with a look of indifference.

“Boring.”

With that, he left his book behind and went to the office to get some practice sheets.

The others exchanged awkward glances and, feeling a bit foolish, muttered in frustration.

“What’s so special about being the top student?”

“Exactly…so annoying.”

“No wonder Su Wan keeps messing with him; he doesn’t fit in at all.”

The homeroom teacher had left Shen Tingyan some extra Olympiad practice sheets, and as he organized them, he overheard a few other teachers discussing the situation.

“A girl from your class is running a fever?”

“Yeah.” Teacher Huang sat down, taking a sip from her thermos with a sigh of relief. “I just got back from the nurse’s office; she’s still feverish and already asleep.”

“The students say she ordered the water dumped on herself?”

“Kids these days…”

“If you ask me, it’s…”

The teachers were chatting when they realized a student was there with them—Shen Tingyan, who had connections to the Su family. They exchanged glances and quickly fell silent.

Shen Tingyan appeared unaffected, expressionlessly sorting through his papers.

Teacher Huang rummaged through her desk, then gave a resigned sigh and patted her head in frustration. She called to Shen Tingyan, who was about to leave, and said, a bit sheepishly, “Your last class is gym, right? Could you run to the school nurse’s office and grab my lesson plan? I think I left it on the doctor’s desk.”

Shen Tingyan blinked.

“All right.”

The students involved in the water prank were reportedly terrified, hiding out since morning and staying in their classroom. Luckily for them, Su Wan hadn’t woken up, and no one had come after them.

According to the class gossip, they’d even skipped their lessons to write apology letters.