Chapter 2

“Well… Sanzhong’s Flower?”

The boy in front of Su Miao Miao narrowed his eyes slightly, his thin lips parting to slowly repeat these five characters.

His tone sounded neither humble nor overbearing, but somehow tinged with a dangerous flavor.

Su Miao Miao was somewhat puzzled.

Before she could ask, a voice full of surprise mixed with grievance suddenly rang out in front of her, blocked by the boy:

“Shang Yan!”

“…”

Shang Yan remained unmoved.

He merely lowered his gaze, capturing the petite figure of the girl in front of him, a faint smile playing at the corners of his lips.

The girl paused for a second, then slowly turned around to look back along the path behind her.

Between the bamboo grove and the low wall, there was no one in sight.

A cool breeze rustled through the bamboo leaves.

So the one called “Shang Yan” could only be…

“What did you just call me?”

From behind his hood, the lazy and smiling voice sounded even huskier.

Su Miao Miao: “…”

As the two conversed, the girl who had called out to Shang Yan earlier had already run up from ahead and slowed down as she approached.

She spoke again, with a hint of coquetry in her tone.

“I was talking to you, why are you ignoring me…”

As she finished speaking, Shu Wei, who had approached, suddenly noticed the peculiarly dressed person standing in front of Shang Yan, whose figure had been completely obscured before.

Shu Wei paused.

With a glance, she deduced that the person hiding their face in the oversized hoodie was likely a girl.

A wary and hostile emotion immediately welled up in Shu Wei’s gaze— Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t even spare a glance for such a girl whose face couldn’t be seen.

But noticing the close distance between Shang Yan and the girl, Shu Wei immediately felt uncomfortable.

She maintained her composure and smiled as she took a step forward.

“Oh, is this the confessed junior high school sister who stopped you? I’m Shu Wei, a junior, what’s your name?”

“… “

Under the hood, the girl gently pressed her pale lips together, blinked, and remained silent.

Shu Wei… She seemed to be the school flower that Wen Susu didn’t like.

Was she one of the participants in the “fight” that Shang Yan mentioned earlier.

Seeing the girl in the strange hoodie still hanging her head and not speaking, a hint of satisfaction flashed in Shu Wei’s eyes. She turned her head and looked at the boy standing beside her.

“Shang Yan, I wasn’t deliberately deceiving you earlier, are you not angry? Then I…”

“Let’s talk outside.”

The curve of the boy’s lips remained unchanged, but his tone became a bit colder.

The smile on Shu Wei’s face froze for a moment. After a two-second pause, she just “Hmm”ed and walked around the girl in front of her, heading towards Su Miao Miao.

Shang Yan’s gaze returned to the ground.

After standing still for a moment, he bent slightly, putting his hands into his pockets, and leaned forward towards the hood.

The girl seemed to sense something and suddenly moved back half a step.

Even her soft breaths seemed to catch.

As if frightened.

The boy stopped, a flicker of emotion passing through his pitch-black eyes.

After a moment, he withdrew his hand from his pocket, raised his arm, and lightly tapped the soft hoodie of the girl.

Then he leaned closer, his voice lazy and husky through the thin fabric of the hood—

“Kid.”

“… “

“Do you know you’re in big trouble?”

“…………”

The soft breath beside the ear was held back this time.

Shang Yan suppressed the smile almost overflowing from his dark eyes, exerted a little force, and patted the girl’s hat lightly.

“If you don’t want to die, wait for me here – count it as ‘A Flower’ calling me, and we’ll settle the score.”

With those words, Shang Yan straightened up and turned sideways, walking past the girl.

“…”

Under the hood, the girl lightly pressed her lips together.

Ten minutes later.

At the entrance of the bamboo forest path, several boys walked out and stopped next to Shang Yan.

The leader, Li Zhe, spoke up: “Brother Yan, we’ve searched everywhere, there’s really no one in the forest.”

“…”

Emotions flickered in Shang Yan’s dark eyes.

After a moment of silence, Li Zhe chuckled, turned his face away, and walked out.Li Zhe quickly caught up.

“Brother Yan, where are you going?”

“The technology building.”

“…” Li Zhe pursed his lips, “Is it that computer competition training group again? We’ve been messing around all summer, and it’s still not over?”

“Yeah.”

Observing for a while beside him, Li Zhe, seeing that Shang Yan didn’t seem annoyed, curiously asked, “Brother Yan, who were you trying to find in the bamboo forest earlier? You even dared to skip out?”

Shang Yan’s gaze shifted slightly.

“…A kid.”

“What? A kid?” Li Zhe was puzzled for two seconds, then came to his senses, incredulous, “Brother Yan, why are you bothering with a kid?”

Shang Yan didn’t say anything.

Li Zhe joked, “Then shall we drag the person out and let Brother Yan spank him?”

“…”

The slender figure walking ahead abruptly stopped.

Li Zhe and the others stopped as well, then saw Shang Yan turn sideways to look at him, his eyes subtly meaningful.

Li Zhe felt inexplicably scrutinized. “Brother Yan?”

Brought back to reality by the suggestion of “spanking,” the boy’s gaze settled slightly, his thin lips twitched, and a hint of disdain showed in his eyes as he stared at Li Zhe.

“Are you even a human being?”

Li Zhe: “…………”

Li Zhe: “??????”

At the southwest corner of Sanzhong, the technology building, third floor.

Class teacher Li Shijie led Su Miao Miao, dressed in a David T-shirt and jeans, into the corridor on the right side of the third floor.

He stopped outside the first office door.

He raised his hand and knocked on the brass-colored wooden door, faintly receiving a response from inside, “Come in.”

“Good morning, Mr. Huang.”

Li Shijie pushed open the door and greeted the male teacher sitting in front of the computer inside.

The male teacher was about forty years old, wearing a pair of black-framed glasses with lenses as thick as the bottom of a bottle. His upper body was visible behind the computer on the desk, wearing a checkered shirt of indistinguishable color series.

After Li Shijie finished speaking, the sound of typing on the keyboard in front of the computer continued unabated. After a few seconds, the other party reluctantly raised his head to glance at the computer screen.

“Oh, it’s Old Li… Just wait a moment, I’ll finish this segment first.”

Li Shijie responded.

About five minutes later, the sound of the keyboard in front of the computer desk came to an end with a heavy keystroke. Then, Huang Qisheng stood up, stretched his stiff waist and legs, rubbed his sore neck, and asked as he spoke, “Old Li, why did you suddenly come?”

Li Shijie pointed to the girl standing beside him and smiled, “I brought the new member of your computer group.”

“New member?” Huang Qisheng was taken aback for a moment, then suddenly realized, “Oh, oh, you mean the girl from your class who came yesterday and isn’t feeling well, right?”

Huang Qisheng’s straightforward words made Li Shijie a little embarrassed. He glanced back, fortunately, the girl under the hood seemed to have no reaction.

Only then did Li Shijie smile and turn back. “Yes. Su Miao Miao’s health… is relatively weak. It’s difficult for her to adapt to the full-day classes just after entering school, so I thought I’d bring her over here to register and let her get used to the school environment.”

“Okay, the computer competition training group originally had two vacant spots and no students were recruited. Just give her one.”

After exchanging a few polite words with Huang Qisheng, Li Shijie walked back to Su Miao Miao’s side.

He lowered his voice, “Su Miao Miao, you stay in the training group for a while first, make sure your body adapts to the school environment, and then go to class formally, okay?”

The girl remained silent for a moment before softly responding.

“Then, Teacher Huang, I still have a class for the first period. I’ll leave this student to you and go first.”

“Alright, Teacher Li, take care.”

Li Shijie turned and left.

However, as soon as he stepped out of the office door, several boys approached him.

One of them saw him and greeted with a smile. Then, he turned back and shouted towards the stairs behind him:

“Brother Yan, Teacher Li is here to visit you!”

With these words, the boy on the stairs stepped onto the last step.

Upon hearing this, the corners of the man’s eyes lifted, and his gaze passed over with a smile tinged with hostility, “Visit your uncle.”

“Oh, aren’t you my uncle— as long as you help me find the bug in yesterday’s program, not only uncle, I’ll even kneel down and call you dad!”

“…”

Li Shijie furrowed his brows upon hearing this, “You guys, none of you are behaving properly in the training group.”

The one who wanted to call him dad was named Wu Hongbo, and he chuckled upon hearing Li’s words, “In this training group, it’s just us, who should we behave for, Teacher Li?”

“In the future, it won’t be just you guys.”

“…Huh? Are more people joining?”

“The new member is already in Teacher Huang’s office. You guys should make less noise from now on.”

After saying that, Li Shijie gave those playful boys an annoyed look before finally descending the stairs.

As he walked, he muttered to himself: Is it appropriate to send such a young girl to the training group? No matter how I think about it, there’s always a feeling of sending a lamb into the tiger’s den.

Several boys gradually walked to the office door.

The door was half open, and in front of the desk, the new member was sitting on a chair, facing away from them.

Loose hoodie, baggy jeans, and a hood covering the head.

Covered up completely.

“Damn,” Wu Hongbo exclaimed in amazement, “What kind of outfit is this for the new member? But don’t say, it does have a bit of a professional hacker vibe, huh?”

The other boys laughed along.

Wu Hongbo lifted his foot to enter, but before taking the first step, he noticed something unusual— he turned his head back and looked at Shang Yan, who was standing motionless beside him, and couldn’t help but ask in surprise:

“Brother Yan, aren’t you coming in?”

“…”

Shang Yan’s gaze, fixed on the petite figure inside the door, finally twitched slightly.

After a moment, he lowered his eyes, licked his upper palate, and chuckled softly.

“Come in.”

The boy strode in.

Wu Hongbo and the others also followed into the room.

“Everyone’s here.”

Huang Qisheng, behind the desk, saw the members coming in, stood up directly, and pointed to the girl sitting in the chair in front of the desk, “This is the new member of our group. Say hello and get to know each other later.”

As Huang Qisheng spoke, he packed up his bag, “I have a meeting to attend, you guys talk to the new member about the group’s affairs.”

Wu Hongbo grinned, “Teacher Huang, that script is too difficult for me, assign the new member to me.”

Huang Qisheng was reminded by this, “Oh right, this new member doesn’t have much programming background. You guys can pick someone to teach her.”

Upon hearing this, several boys smirked.

“Teacher, we’re already struggling ourselves, where do we have time to teach a newbie?”

Wu Hongbo’s eyes turned, and he immediately saw the boy beside him—

“Let Brother Yan do it, compared to Brother Yan, we’re all amateurs, we can’t teach.”

Huang Qisheng was amused by Wu Hongbo.

“Alright, then you’ll be the one to teach the new member, Shang Yan.”

“…”

As the curtain fell, the girl who had been sitting motionless in the chair suddenly stiffened.

Behind her, the pair of dark eyes that had been staring at her delicate figure showed a hint of subtle mockery.

Seeing Shang Yan remaining silent, Huang Qisheng furrowed his brow, “What’s the matter, can’t you teach too?”

“…Teach.”

The boy lazily responded. He strode forward, stopping only when he reached behind the new member.

With a lift of his hand, he placed it on the back of the girl’s chair.

Shang Yan leaned forward, stopping right beside the girl’s hood.

“I will definitely teach… by example.”

The last four words were uttered slowly, with emphasis.

Followed by a low, hoarse, and meaningful laugh.

The others standing behind shivered—

Brother Yan’s laugh was truly,

… provocative to the extreme.