Surprisingly, Lang Jingfeng was cooperative, which slightly alleviated Bai Ruan's fear and brought back a little of his once-vanished heroic ambitions. He mustered up the courage to patrol the classroom for a while, watched the subject representatives collect the homework from each student, and then returned to the office.
"Teacher Bai, only Lang Jingfeng didn't hand in his homework." Zhang Tao placed a thick stack of Chinese exercise books on the office desk, paused for a moment, and then muttered in a low voice, "He didn't hand in any of his homework for any subject."
Bai Ruan had asked the class monitor, Chen Ran, to send the exercise books needed for each subject to Lang Jingfeng yesterday. However, Lang Jingfeng didn't even bother to scribble a few lines to get through the task. Bai Ruan sighed inwardly but remained calm on the surface: "I see. You can go back first."
Normally, Bai Ruan should have called Lang Jingfeng to the office to give him a lecture, make him realize his mistake, and then order him to finish all the homework for each subject during the self-study time. But...
Bai Ruan stood up and paced around anxiously, imagining the scene in his mind where he and Lang Jingfeng would be talking face to face in the small and sparsely populated office to confirm the feasibility of calling Lang Jingfeng over for a lecture.
No way, absolutely not! Half a minute later, Bai Ruan slumped back into his chair with cold sweat on his forehead, clutching his calf that had cramped from the sheer fright of his imagination. The sharp pain made him vividly recall the pain of being bitten by a wolf more than twenty years ago, intensifying his fear.
He didn't even dare to call the student to the office for a lecture, let alone talk about reforming the underachiever! Bai Ruan was on the verge of crying, feeling that his life as a rabbit was gloomy.
The third class in the morning was Chinese.
Before the class, Bai Ruan gave himself another round of psychological counseling in the office before gathering enough courage to go to Class 4 for the class.
As usual, before entering the class, Bai Ruan peeked through the small window on the back door. The Chinese book was still lying open in front of Lang Jingfeng, and it was still on the page of "Shui Long Yin" that he had opened during the morning self-study. Since there was an illustration on that page, Bai Ruan could recognize it at a glance. This indicated that from the morning self-study until now, Lang Jingfeng not only hadn't read a single page of the book but also hadn't taken out the corresponding textbooks or exercise books for the previous two classes, mathematics and English, and had just been pretending by keeping this one Chinese book open.
Bai Ruan closed his eyes wearily, mentally preparing himself for being complained about by the teachers of various subjects one after another. Then, with his legs feeling weak, he floated onto the podium and started the class.
The students were all listening attentively. Except for Lang Jingfeng, who was staring out of the window in a daze in the last row, the classroom discipline was perfect.
Halfway through the class, Bai Ruan gradually focused on teaching. Since Lang Jingfeng had been quiet all along, Bai Ruan's highly tense nerves relaxed a bit. He called on a student to answer a question, and the student answered well. Bai Ruan perked up and nodded at him, a gentle curve appearing on his lips as he praised, "Very good answer. Please sit down."
The student sat down happily, his small face beaming like a sunflower, as if it were glowing.
—The students in Class 4 all liked Bai Ruan very much.
There were many reasons why Bai Ruan was popular among the students. He was good-looking, never scolded students, taught interesting classes, was approachable, and didn't put on airs... But initially, it was mainly the girls in the class who liked him, while the boys generally didn't respect his authority. The turning point in Bai Ruan's prestige among the boys occurred three months after the start of the first semester of senior high school.
At that time, there was a troublemaker named Li Boming in Bai Ruan's class. He had done well in the high school entrance examination. After entering high school, he somehow got hold of the fallacy that "smart students don't need to study in the first and second years of high school; they can just sprint in the third year". He considered himself a genius who didn't need to study in the first two years of high school. He often played games secretly on his mobile phone during class. When Bai Ruan confiscated his phone, he became even worse and simply skipped classes to play in Internet cafes.
Bai Ruan had scolded him and punished him, but Li Boming wasn't afraid of this gentle and young teacher at all and continued to do as he pleased. When Bai Ruan talked to his parents, the parents just shrugged their shoulders, indicating that they couldn't control him either. Finally, Bai Ruan had no choice but to come up with a wild idea and proposed to compete with this Internet-addicted teenager in a game.
Li Boming was surprised: "What game are we competing in?"
Bai Ruan, looking confident of victory, said, "You decide. If you lose, I have two requirements."
Li Boming was quite good at playing games and didn't believe Bai Ruan could win at all. He asked with a laugh, "What requirements?"
Bai Ruan deliberately put on a annoying face and tapped on the office desk with a pen, saying, "First, I'll smash your phone. Second, you're not allowed to touch any games until the college entrance examination."
Li Boming snorted, thinking what a lousy teacher, unable to discipline students and resorting to scaring them with smashing phones. He then asked with disdain all over his face, "What if I win? You can't get away without any punishment, right?"
Bai Ruan spread his hands: "You can decide. I'll accept whatever punishment you come up with."
Li Boming's eyes rolled, and he grinned slyly, as if he had already figured out how to get back at Bai Ruan.
Bai Ruan, looking harmless and gentle, asked, "Dare to compete?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Li Boming mentioned a game name and asked, "Is it okay to compete in this one? Best of three games."
Bai Ruan took out his phone, searched for the game name, clicked on the game introduction and scanned it briefly, saying, "Okay."
Li Boming: "You haven't played it at all?"
Bai Ruan: "No, I'll start playing today. The competition will be the day after tomorrow."
Li Boming was highly amused and went back to the class to tell everyone about it as a joke. The boys who had always looked down on Bai Ruan were laughing like crazy, especially the naughtier ones. They were all rubbing their hands together, ready to see this soft little white teacher make a fool of himself.
Bai Ruan went home. Instead of practicing the game intensively first, he emptied out a large box of ancient books left by his Taoist master, rummaged through them here and there, and worked tirelessly throughout the night. He combined modern elements with ancient talisman-making methods and figured out an E-sports Winning Talisman on his own. The principle of this talisman is complex. Briefly speaking, during the period when the talisman paper is effective, the talisman will summon the yin spirits between heaven and earth to help the caster win in the competition by various means. In ancient times, people usually stuck talismans with the same principle on themselves to participate in cuju competitions or martial arts contests. With the change of times, the Martial Arts Winning Talisman has been transformed into the E-sports Winning Talisman.
After researching the talisman, Bai Ruan downloaded the game and familiarized himself with the gameplay and controls.
On the day of the competition with Li Boming, Bai Ruan drew a fresh talisman and stuck it on his back before going to the challenge.
The two started the game in Class 4's classroom during the noon break. Each had a mobile phone. The boys gathered behind Li Boming, while the girls surrounded Bai Ruan tightly. Once they entered the game, they began to play solo. Li Boming had one problem after another and lost all three rounds, being completely crushed by Bai Ruan with no chance to fight back.
Li Boming: "I lagged! I just lagged!"
Bai Ruan: "..."
Li Boming: "Damn it! Is it haunted? I couldn't release my ultimate move just now even though I pressed it hard! I really did!"
Bai Ruan: "..."
Li Boming: "My network is bad, really bad! I'm sure I can win if we play another round!"
Bai Ruan: "..."
The boys: "Tsk - We despise you! Just admit you can't win!"
Bai Ruan smiled beautifully and wasn't annoyed at all: "Let's play three more rounds. Don't make excuses if you lose this time."
Li Boming shamelessly said: "Okay!"
And so he lost all six rounds.
Bai Ruan slowly put away his phone and asked: "Do you still remember our bet?"
"...Yes, no games until the college entrance examination and smashing the phone." Li Boming looked as dejected as a bald chicken that had lost all its feathers. He honestly handed his phone to Bai Ruan, his face full of despair. Boys like him who have strong self-esteem and think highly of themselves might not listen to their teachers or parents, but they would never go back on their word and break their bet.
Bai Ruan took the phone, tapped Li Boming's head lightly, and then threw it back into his arms, saying gently: "It's smashed. Here it is."
He knew that Li Boming had been really annoyed with him before. And if a person has very low expectations of another person, even the slightest good deed done by that other person will seem especially good.
Li Boming didn't expect Bai Ruan to spare him. His cheeks suddenly turned bright red as he whispered: "Wow, Teacher Bai, you're so nice?"
"You can play games moderately before senior year. I play sometimes too. It's not a bad thing." Bai Ruan held Li Boming's head and rubbed it, soothing him and making a request, speaking gently and seriously word by word. "But don't delay your studies, don't play at school, and definitely don't skip classes. I know you're an honest and trustworthy person, but this time I won't make you fulfill the agreement. I'll give you another chance to control yourself. You surely won't let me down this time, right?"
Li Boming, who had been given a new lease on life, kept answering: "Right! Yes, yes, yes!"
Bai Ruan: "Okay, everyone, disperse."
Li Boming's mind quickly turned, and he wanted to take the opportunity to suck up. He shamelessly said: "Teacher Bai, Old Bai, Great God! Can you take me to rank up on Saturdays and Sundays in the future?"
Bai Ruan's face turned serious as he glared at him: "No."
Li Boming: "Oh..."
Bai Ruan then smiled again: "If you can get into the top twenty of the class in the final exam, I'll take you to rank up during the winter vacation."
Since then, Bai Ruan had become famous with this one battle. Most teenage boys couldn't resist the cool image of a "hidden E-sports master", and their好感度 (liking) for Bai Ruan increased rapidly. The impatient ones among them had also restrained themselves a lot. What they didn't know was that Bai Ruan had to pay the price of a high fever for three days for using the E-sports Winning Talisman once. The spell of "E-sports Winning Talisman" that takes shortcuts by summoning yin spirits belongs to crooked ways. Due to the balance of the Heavenly Dao, the caster has to pay a price other than spiritual or demonic power: getting sick, losing money, having everything go wrong, and facing disasters involving bloodshed. The amount of the price depends on the power of the spell. So Bai Ruan rarely used this kind of spell in normal times.
Li Boming was now an excellent student with his grades稳定 (stably) in the top five of the class. Every time Bai Ruan thought about this, he felt that the fever was worth it.
...
The Chinese class passed without any major incident, and soon it was noon. The teachers all went to have lunch, leaving Bai Ruan alone in the office.
There were nine teachers in the homeroom teacher's office, in charge of the nine classes of the sophomore year group. They had long been used to the fact that Bai Ruan didn't eat in the teachers' cafeteria and brought his own lunch box every day, so no one invited Bai Ruan to have lunch together.
And the reason Bai Ruan didn't eat in the cafeteria was that the little white rabbit's stomach was very fragile and it was difficult for it to digest the heavy-oil and heavy-salt human food. This hadn't improved even after he became a demon. After all, the essence of the cultivation of animals and plants is to become a demon, not a human. So to a large extent, demons will always retain the physical condition and living habits of their original forms.
Bai Ruan locked the office door, pretended there was no one inside, and then took out a lunch box from the locked cabinet. He lifted the lid...
In the lunch box, the crispy orchard grass and the flexible and fragrant timothy grass were cut into small pieces and placed on both sides of the lunch box as the main courses respectively. In the middle of the lunch box, Chinese cabbage, romaine lettuce, endive, and lettuce leaves were neatly placed one by one as four side dishes. On top, there were also a few bright cherry radishes and cherry tomatoes scattered as small snacks.
— The little white rabbit's self-made love lunch box!
Bai Ruan took a deep breath in satisfaction, swallowed saliva, picked up a cluster of orchard grass and munched on it with satisfaction, then took a bite of the crisp lettuce leaf with a crunch, and finally chewed on a cherry radish with a snap. His mouth was filled with the sweet and fresh juice of the plants.
I'm living like a royal rabbit... Bai Ruan was extremely satisfied with his meal, and the gloomy mood of the morning was swept away by the taste enjoyment brought by this top-notch gluttonous feast!
After eating and drinking to his heart's content, Bai Ruan sprawled on the chair and basked in the sun for a while, feeling a bit restless.
As is well known, rabbits are animals with extremely strong reproductive abilities. And strong reproductive ability means strong needs. From adolescence until now, Bai Ruan has needed to "let himself go" about 5 to 7 times a day on average. Otherwise, he would feel restless, hot and bothered, and unable to get anything important done. Probably no one would have thought that this young teacher Bai, who looks so student-like, seemingly innocent, pure and serious, is actually a... well, you know what.
At this time, half an hour of the lunch break had passed, and people could come back to the office at any time. So Bai Ruan took a small pack of facial tissues, cleverly walked into the men's restroom, slipped into a cubicle, pulled out the porn videos stored on his phone, and let the wildness of the wild little white rabbit run free!
Two minutes later, the first round was over.
Bai Ruan wiped the fine sweat on his forehead and leaned against the cubicle door to rest for a while.
Three minutes later, the second round was over.
...The little white rabbit is a quick shooter in nature. Two minutes of endurance, three minutes of being super awesome.
After the two rounds, an ambiguous smell filled the cubicle. But the restroom smelled so bad that no one could notice it. Bai Ruan straightened his clothes, pushed open the cubicle door. Just as he stepped out with one foot, his nose caught a whiff of a dangerous scent.
"Ah!" The hairs on Bai Ruan's back stood on end. Instinctively, he wanted to run away, but Lang Jingfeng had already strode in with his unruly demonic aura.
Bai Ruan had nowhere to run. Just as he was about to retreat back into the cubicle and close the door, Lang Jingfeng casually said in a laid-back tone: "Hello, Teacher Bai."
"...Uh, hello." There was nowhere to hide this time. Meeting the wolf demon head-on, Bai Ruan was so terrified that his mind went blank. He mechanically nodded at Lang Jingfeng. The cubicle door behind him was half-open, and the ambiguous smell inside wafted out.
The sense of smell of wolves is dozens of times more sensitive than that of humans. Lang Jingfeng's nose twitched slightly. His sharp gaze, like a scraper, quickly swept over Bai Ruan's flushed face that hadn't faded, his moist and bright eyes, his rapidly rising and falling chest, and his left hand hanging by his side that was giving off a strong, ambiguous smell.
—Bai Ruan was right-handed, but during the past few minutes, his right hand was mainly responsible for clicking on the porn videos, fast-forwarding, pausing, and replaying the exciting scenes. The real action work was left to his left hand. So at this moment, Bai Ruan's right hand was clean, while his left hand was... a bit dirty.
After looking at his natural enemy up close for a moment, Bai Ruan's limbs went weak, his heart was pounding. He stiffly turned around like a puppet and was about to leave when Lang Jingfeng suddenly showed a smile that didn't look too kind at all. A small cluster of eerie green, like needle tips, shone in his pupils as he slowly asked: "Teacher, are you left-handed?"
"Uh, n-no, I'm not." Bai Ruan knew that this little wolf cub must have smelled something. He was so ashamed that his brain felt like it was going to burst. He hurriedly fled the scene. Because he was too excited, the round tail at the back of his buttocks popped out again.
"... " Bai Ruan quickly reached back to press on his buttocks.
Lang Jingfeng raised one eyebrow in confusion, watching Bai Ruan dash out of the men's restroom with his butt covered.
After a moment of silence, Lang Jingfeng snorted with laughter.