"Bingbing, I'm with Shen Ye," Sun Ming said.
"Why are you doing this? You both clearly knew he was bullying me, and you're still friends with him?" There was a touch of grievance in Zhao Yibing's voice.
"I've talked to Shen Ye, and he's decided he won't bother you anymore," Sun Ming said.
He held up the phone in front of Shen Ye.
Shen Ye actually felt like cooperating—
Zhao Yibing had just said, "you both clearly knew he was bullying me," not "you clearly knew he was bullying me."
This proved she was well aware of what was happening here, knew what these guys were doing.
As for keeping his distance from this kind of girl, it was exactly what he wanted.
"Zhao Yibing, I won't bother you ever again," Shen Ye said.
"I hate you," Zhao Yibing hung up the phone directly.
Beep— Beep—
A busy tone came from the phone.
"Alright, that's settled then. You guys go ahead, I still have some problems to work on," Shen Ye said with a smile to his classmates.
Suddenly, Sun Ming threw a punch at him.
"She hates you, did you hear? Goddamn pretty boy, just looking at your face pisses me off!" he cursed.
This ignited the emotions of the others; they surrounded Shen Ye, swinging fists and kicking.
Shen Ye had absolutely no space to dodge. He put up his hands to block a few times, and then suddenly stumbled, a fiery pain spreading across his back.
"And you're the top of the year?" Sun Ming scoffed.
Sun Ming's first punch had been blocked, but while Shen Ye was turning to deal with the others, Sun Ming had seized the opportunity and landed a sneak attack from behind.
In that moment—
The smile on Shen Ye's face disappeared.
The bottom line is that you just want to fight, right?
Right before the midterm exams, with no consideration of the consequences, you beat up a student who would be absent from the exams.
And this student was once the top of the year.
So the beating must feel especially satisfying, a gratifying experience.
In the future, it will also make for an amusing story.
And it would please Zhao Yibing, taking up her cause and winning her favor.
After all, she said, "I hate you."
—She must have wanted to see him get beaten too.
Two birds with one stone, everyone's happy.
How wonderful.
"Swallow the entry," Shen Ye thought to himself.
The entry "one of us" had already been used once; Shen Ye's assessment of it was that it was of little use.
It could only be used once a day.
It was only effective on people with similar strength.
If there had been an assassin just then, it would have been useless.
Better to use something that enhanced his strength.
In an instant, rows of faintly glowing characters appeared on his retina:
"Swallow successful."
"You have swallowed this Green Entry and gained 3 Attribute Points."
"Your total number of Attribute Points is now: 4."
"In accordance with your will, the current Attribute Points have been added to Strength."
"Your Strength is 5.2 (1.2+4)."
"Strength, as a Basic Attribute, is not merely Brute Force, but refers to the hardness of an individual's limbs and body, the strength of the internal organs, the resilience of the Extraordinary Meridians, the Explosive Power of the body, and the level of cell apoptosis (Life Force baseline); all of these cumulate and are referred to as an individual's 'Strength'."
Thud.
Another punch landed on Shen Ye.
Shen Ye didn't move an inch.
He heard the sound of wind, it was another guy aiming for his face.
Shen Ye didn't block, instead, he turned his head and rammed right into them.
"Crack."
Amid the crisp sound, the guy clutched his arm and let out an earth-shattering scream.
There was a hint of despair in his cry.
The movement technique exam was tomorrow, and now his arm was broken.
It would definitely affect his performance.
—But what's the use of regret?
Shen Ye, enduring the flurry of punches, kicked out another guy, sending him flying into the wall.
He stepped forward, ramming his knee into the guy beside him with all his strength.
Knee Strike!
The guy spat out blood and immediately fell to the ground.
Shen Ye turned around, grabbed Sun Ming by the neck, and pinned him to the ground, landing punch after punch on his face.
The remaining few attacked Shen Ye like madmen.
Shen Ye, grabbing Sun Ming's hair, used him as a shield against the other attackers' blows.
"I'm really curious to see what Zhao Yibing's reaction would be when she finds out you've all been taken down," he said into Sun Ming's ear.
Sun Ming struggled desperately, but couldn't break free from his grip.
They thought that five or six people together could beat Shen Ye to the point he couldn't lift his head, teach him a good lesson.
But in practice, things suddenly spiraled out of control.
Should I apologize?
Beg for mercy?
Maybe that would save myself?
Zhao Yibing's pitiful image flashed through my mind.
"You're no longer the top of our grade!"
Sun Ming roared and elbowed back with all his strength, hitting Shen Ye in the chest and producing a slight sound like hitting thick rubber.
—Junior high students are only 14 or 15 years old, yet to have a strength of 1 is to be on par with an average adult male.
That's considered quite good, and you can rank somewhere in the grade with that.
However, Shen Ye's strength was now at 5.2.
5.2 compared to 1.
Shen Ye didn't feel any pain at all but just tightened his grip on Sun Ming's neck. While using him to fend off attacks from several others, Shen Ye spoke in a conversational tone,
"What makes you think you can order me around?"
For some reason, Sun Ming suddenly felt an indescribable fear welling up inside him.
The next moment—
Like a staff, Sun Ming was grasped in Shen Ye's hand and swept around the crowd.
A huge noise erupted from the classroom.
Several boys were swept away, knocking over seven or eight desks and chairs, falling to the ground.
One even shattered the window glass with a harsh "crash" sound and rolled out onto the corridor outside.
The noise died down.
Dragging Sun Ming, Shen Ye avoided the cellphone cameras on the windowsill next to his seat and made his way to the front by the podium.
Without waiting for the other to speak, Shen Ye slapped him hard across the face.
Sun Ming's face was bloodied, but Shen Ye grabbed his hair and yanked him back again.
"I've already missed one exam, and you still come to beat me. Is it because you think you can definitely win? Or do you want to show off how tough you all are by beating me?"
Shen Ye swung his hand, delivering four or five slaps in a row.
"You deserve to die—"
Sun Ming bellowed resentfully.
Another slap landed on his mouth from Shen Ye, who then pulled him back and forcefully slammed him against the blackboard, making a loud "thud."
Sun Ming fell to the ground right away.
Shen Ye turned around, wound up a kick, and fiercely struck another boy who had just crawled up in the stomach.
The boy was knocked over several desks and rolled into the corner.
This time he couldn't get up again.
Shen Ye walked back to where Sun Ming lay and looked down at him.
Sun Ming chuckled coldly,
"Kill me if you have the guts. If you don't kill me today, I'll come back and seek revenge sooner or later."
Shen Ye shook his head, unimpressed.
Young kids, blood rushing to their heads, always feel invincible.
"Sun Ming, I've always been curious about which key high school you wanted to get into?"
As Shen Ye spoke, he looked toward Sun Ming's leg.
Sun Ming froze.
He followed the direction of the gaze to his own leg.
In that moment, he realized something.
—The second exam was coming up soon.
His entire future was staked on the middle school exams.
Fights were just insignificant parts of junior high life, not worth sacrificing his future for.
Even enduring humiliation for that sake was acceptable.
"Pff, Shen Ye, we were wrong today, forgive us this once."
Sun Ming, his face covered in blood, said stiffly.
Shen Ye looked at him expressionlessly, then turned to turn off the camera on the cellphone at the windowsill and picked up a mop from behind the door.
"You want me to forgive you?"
He held the mop, walking back slowly and said in a languid tone:
"Had it been any other student, or... the former me, by now you would have beaten me to the ground, unable to get up."
He stopped in front of Sun Ming.
"The middle school exams are imminent, and for the mere fact of jealously competing, you band together without care to ruin someone's life."
"You insult him, beat him, and destroy his future."
The mop was lifted high.
"—And you still expect my forgiveness?"
The mop came crashing down mercilessly.
Sun Ming let out a scream, but the beating never ceased.
Until his leg broke.
"What are you doing!"
A sudden shout came from outside.
During the exam period, several teachers, hearing the commotion, didn't bother to climb the stairs and leaped up several times in succession, landing on the fourth floor from outside the building.
They burst through the door of class 3(5) and immediately saw the scene.
Desks and chairs lay broken everywhere.
Several students lay on the ground, their limbs bent at strange angles, moans of pain escaping their lips.
Shen Ye stood in the middle, having just thrown away the broken mop, wiping the blood off his hands with an exercise book.
"What happened? What's going on?"
Jiang Hantao shouted loudly.
Shen Ye threw the exercise book to the ground, his eyes red, and said:
"Teacher, they bullied me."