"I'm not coaxing her," Lu Mingxuan declared stubbornly. "Who cares what she thinks?"
"Sure," Gao Jing said. "Let's forget it then."
Afterward, he noticed that the mood surrounding Lu Mingxuan body changed, resembling a woman full of grievances.
"..."
Gao Jing sighed, "Let's do this, then; how about we continuously gift her food? I believe that even if her heart was made of stone, she would still forgive you."
At this moment, Lu Mingxuan raised his eyebrows, "Forgive me? What did I do wrong that she needs to forgive me?"
Gao Jing blinked. "Uh..."
Before he could form an excuse, Lu Mingxuan shot up like a rocket and grabbed his collar. The movement was so fast, Gao Jing barely had time to react before he was being held hostage by 180 cm of unresolved angst.
"Tell me," Lu Mingxuan demanded. "Tell me what I did wrong."
"..."
Pinned by the collar and soul-crushed by regret, Gao Jing gave up the will to resist.
With the expression of a man reciting the terms of his own doom, he said, "You didn't do anything wrong. I was wrong. My ancestors were wrong. I shouldn't have said anything. I shouldn't have been born."
He internally added a tragic mental monologue:
Regret #1 in this lifetime: Befriending this unreasonable maniac.
Regret #2: Getting on this discount Titanic of a friendship.
Regret #3: Not transferring schools when I had the chance.
Lu Mingxuan eventually let go, scoffing as if he'd been gravely insulted.
Gao Jing fell back into his seat and adjusted his collar with the dead eyes of a man who'd seen too much.
"But seriously," Gao Jing muttered as he dusted himself off, "Maybe just try being a little nicer. After a while, she might realize you're the best big brother in the world."
Lu Mingxuan snorted and turned his face away, "Who wants that?"
But Gao Jing clearly felt that Lu Mingxuan mood was much better during class than normal, he even treated the fellow classmates in a more amicable manner.
Gao Jing felt that he really guessed right.
He didn't scold the guy who accidentally spilled water on his table. He didn't slam his book shut when the teacher walked in five minutes late. He even lent a pencil to a classmate. Voluntarily.
The entire class was convinced the real Lu Mingxuan had been abducted and replaced with an AI in beta testing.
Lu Mingxuan was the world's cheapest mother-in-law. The type that was full of double standards and liked to cause trouble without reason.
Haha.
However, after class, someone helped Lu Mingxuan to release some anger.
One of Lu Mingxuan's followers in the class hurriedly came over and said, "Brother Xuan, not good. The teacher wants you to go to the office."
"I heard it has to do with class duties."
**
Meanwhile, in Class 1...
Lu Qingyan was still busy staring at the bag of snacks as if it held the answer to the universe.
Should she return it? Would that be rude? But she didn't even see their faces properly. What if she returned it to the wrong person and they accepted it anyway out of confusion?
Just then, she and Wang Jingyuan were called to the office to correct papers. Normally, this was the class rep's job, but the girl was out on leave. So, Lu Qingyan was summoned as backup.
Originally, it was supposed to be done by the class representative and Wang Jingyuan, but the class representative had asked for leave this week, so the teacher casually picked Lu Qingyan.
***
In the office...
Class 12's head teacher was already halfway to having a coronary.
He pointed at Lu Mingxuan with a trembling hand. "Why didn't you fulfill your class duty yesterday?! You think you can just disappear whenever you feel like it?!"
Lu Mingxuan stood sloppily in front of him as everything went in the left ear and out the right. When he was asked the question, he simply replied without any care, "What did you just say? I didn't hear you. Say it again."
The head teacher inhaled sharply, blood pressure surging to record highs. "As a student, you should treat the school as your home!"
"Do you need me to force you to do a simple task like cleaning? Don't force me to punish you!"
Lu Mingxuan made a "tch" sound with an expression lacking remorse, "Yesterday the teacher said, 'Do you treat school as your home? Come when you want to come and leave when you want to leave?' Why is it that it wasn't my home yesterday, but now it's my home again?"
When he said this, he even imitated Class 12's head teacher's accent. The imitation was nearly perfect and caused the watching students to secretly laugh.
The head teacher was now three seconds away from flipping a table. "You—! You disrespectful brat—!"
The head teacher rolled his eyes at the argument and then heard Lu Mingxuan whisper in a low voice, "If this was really my house, I wouldn't let you all enter."
Head teacher: ??
The head teacher sneered and said repeatedly, "Okay okay okay, you refuse to change, is it because—"
At this time, Lu Mingxuan interrupted his speech, "Teacher, you should give me a punishment that's more refreshing, or maybe just call my parents over and have a good chat with them."
Head teacher: "..."
This was the first student to be so proactive nowadays, others are scared of involving their parents. But who knew, when he heard that the parents will be contacted, his eyes lit up and he was full of excitement. This is why student Lu Mingxuan was particularly troublesome to handle.
At this point, the class director, who had been peacefully filling his thermos with hot water nearby, turned his head and took in the chaos with the resigned look of a man who had long given up. He patted the head teacher's shoulder like he was comforting a dying soldier.
The class director looked at Lu Mingxuan and suddenly realized that it's no wonder that Class 12's head teacher's head was increasingly getting bald at a dangerous rate. Last year, it was still the Mediterranean Sea, but now the dry land was about to be submerged by the ocean.
The class director was familiar with Lu Mingxuan's household, so he knew that he couldn't handle him the same way he handled most students.
He needed to take appropriate steps depending on the situation.
The class director was silent for a moment and looked at Lu Mingxuan, "Look at how angry you made your head teacher, how are you like your peers? Do you believe that if any other student was put in the teacher's position, they would be angrier than him, and give you a harsher punishment?"