Li Hao found it quite peculiar and said with a laugh, "Minister Zhu! What a rare guest! What brings you here today? Are you here on another diplomatic inspection of our class?"
Zhu Yaya answered with a grin, "Not at all. I'm here today to pay my respects to Big Bro."
"Big Bro?" Li Hao asked, puzzled, scratching the back of his head.
"Yep," Zhu Yaya replied shamelessly, plopping down in the empty seat next to Yan Heng. She flashed an extremely sycophantic smile at Yan Heng and even pulled out a few handfuls of snacks from her pocket. "Brother Yan, these are a humble offering from your junior. Please don't think poorly of them!" This was a suspected villain character! Gotta build a good relationship!
Yan Heng massaged his temples, looking pained. "I told you, I don't take on juniors. Take all this stuff back."
"Okay, Brother Yan. No problem, Brother Yan."
Yan Heng: "..."
Yan Heng paid no further attention to Zhu Yaya, resting his head on his arms on the desk and closing his eyes.
Seeing this, Zhu Yaya secretly stuffed the snacks she was holding into Yan Heng's desk drawer, only to be met with another icy glare from him. She immediately shrank back a little, intimidated.
Zhu Yaya sat quietly for a few seconds but ultimately couldn't stay still. Lowering her voice, she started chatting with Li Hao in the front row.
"Well, well, I wondered what you were up to. Turns out you're here to steal my big bro!" Li Hao whispered.
"Is that not allowed? Brother Yan isn't your exclusive property." He even walked me home yesterday! Zhu Yaya shot Li Hao a sidelong glance, saying with a touch of pride. However, the corner of her eye secretly kept flicking towards Xu Chun and Murong Beichen not far away.
From Yan Heng's unusual silence, Li Hao shrewdly guessed something. Having been around Yan Heng for a long time, he knew Yan Heng wasn't exactly a tolerant person. He stroked his chin and smiled, managing his attitude towards Zhu Yaya perfectly. Using the many bits of gossip he'd heard, he chatted quite amiably with her, but without becoming overly familiar.
And Zhu Yaya had her own motives as well.
She thought to herself, this Li Hao talks a lot and is also in the same class as the male and female leads. Getting on good terms with him would be a chance to gather information about them.
Thus, with both parties intentionally engaging, their relationship warmed up considerably. They even exchanged QQ numbers. Li Hao even secretly slipped her Yan Heng's QQ number, specifically creating a small group chat called "Those Years: Brother Yan and His Juniors," inviting both Zhu Yaya and Yan Heng in. Zhu Yaya vowed earnestly that she'd get her phone as soon as she got home and add both Yan Heng and Li Hao as friends.
However, when Zhu Yaya returned to her class in high spirits, her deskmate Xu Baoying looked at her with great concern. Hesitating for a moment, she still spoke up: "Yaya, wasn't your written self-criticism posted on the bulletin board on the first floor? This morning someone discovered they'd all been torn off, and... there's no surveillance camera there."
"All torn off?" Zhu Yaya didn't think much of it; instead, she looked relaxed and pleased. "It's fine! Probably someone was so captivated by my literary talent that they secretly tore it off to take home as a keepsake! I heard from Senior Li Hao from Class 27, Grade 11, that their Chinese teacher even praised my self-criticism essay in class!"
Xu Baoying shook her head and added, hitting the nail on the head: "But, the Dean of Students thinks it was you who tore them off because you're resentful of the punishment, to vent your anger."
Just as Xu Baoying finished the word "anger," the classroom door was knocked heavily. Noisy as a marketplace moments before, Class 1, Grade 10 instantly fell silent. Everyone had a book in hand, brows furrowed, looking extremely serious and focused on their reading, holding a pen, and occasionally writing notes or nodding.
The one who knocked was their homeroom teacher, Chang Wen. Her gaze swept across the room before finally locking onto Zhu Yaya. "Zhu Yaya!"
"Here," Zhu Yaya stood up and answered.
"Dean Zhou wants to see you. Go on."
In that instant, Zhu Yaya felt she received sympathetic looks from the entire class.
Zhu Yaya's face instantly fell. I'm done for!
Before leaving, Xu Baoying whispered from below, "Yaya, just go with peace of mind!"
Zhu Yaya: ...Are you cursing me to die?!
Recalling her last "cordial" exchange with the Dean of Students, Zhu Yaya could already foresee her own demise. She took a deep breath and headed to the "execution ground" with the resolve of a martyr.
Sure enough, another storm erupted, quite fierce. After emerging from the Dean's office, Zhu Yaya walked out with a wooden expression, using her sleeve to wipe her face vigorously.
Her face had just received a free, manual moisturizing treatment.
By the time she returned to class, it was already noon dismissal. Only a few people remained in the classroom, a group of boys clustered in the back.
"So, Minister, how was it? How did Dean Zhou's earnest teachings go?" one boy teased.
"Ah~, Dean Zhou's earnest teachings are like the gentle breeze and soft rain of spring. I was watered and have grown strong," Zhu Yaya said in a rapturous, sing-song tone.
"Hahahaha..." The group of boys burst into uproarious laughter.
One boy among them, holding back laughter, stepped forward and said to Zhu Yaya, "Minister, I think I might know who tore up your self-criticism."
Zhu Yaya squinted at the boy. He had thick eyebrows and big eyes, looking very sunny—it was their class's P.E. committee member, Gu Tao, reportedly very good at basketball.
"Who?" Zhu Yaya smiled, casually crumpling a piece of scratch paper on the desk into a ball. "I am so grateful to him!"
Gu Tao covered his mouth with a fist to stifle a laugh. After calming down a bit, he said, "Yesterday afternoon, when I was going downstairs to head home, I think I saw Senior Yan Heng from Class 27, Grade 11 standing in front of the bulletin board. Could it have been him?"
"Yan Heng?" Zhu Yaya frowned, then relaxed, answering with certainty, "It couldn't be him! He wouldn't be that bored!"
Just then, Xu Baoying happened to return, holding a takeout container, walking quickly into the classroom while slightly out of breath.
"Here, take it," Xu Baoying handed the container to Zhu Yaya. "I figured the Dean would lecture you for a long time, so I packed you a lunch when I went to the cafeteria."
Deeply moved, Zhu Yaya accepted the lunch. "Yingying, you truly are my one true love. Thank you, mwah!"
Xu Baoying shuddered. "Stop it, you! By the way, what did the Dean punish you with?"
At this, Zhu Yaya's face immediately fell again. "Ugh, don't even bring it up. He told me to write another self-criticism, over 1000 words, and also punished me to clean all the girls' bathrooms in this building during lunch break today."
"No way!" Xu Baoying was somewhat shocked. "That's such a heavy punishment! That's not his usual style."
"It's because more students have been talking back to Dean Zhou lately, so he's planning to make an example," Gu Tao chimed in from the side.
"So, I'm the example!" Zhu Yaya said with a look of tragic indignation.
Gu Tao grinned, revealing a row of neat, white teeth. "Hang in there, Minister Zhu! We're heading out now."
Xu Baoying also gloated on the side, eagerly advising, "Yaya, you'd better eat your lunch quickly! After all, you'll be cleaning the toilets soon!"
Zhu Yaya grasped Xu Baoying's hands with both of her own, looking at her affectionately and saying, "Yingying, I know you've always been a kind-hearted girl, so, could you possibly------"
"So, as a good-hearted person, I will definitely stay in the classroom, praying and sending you my sincerest blessings all the while. Go for it, sis! Don't sell yourself short—I believe you can do it!" Xu Baoying clasped Zhu Yaya's hands in return, her gaze filled with determination and encouragement.
Zhu Yaya felt like she was coughing up a mouthful of old blood.
How utterly savage!
