Habit

Bai Yuyou returned to Class A. As soon as she entered the classroom, she felt gazes from all directions—curiosity, anger, jealousy, hostility, admiration... But Bai Yuyou paid them no mind.

To be precise, such stares had always been a part of her life. Whether it was someone deliberately sticking out a leg to trip her, glue smeared on her chair, or being hit by a ball, these gazes would always follow afterward—like silent mockery, freely unleashing their malice.

It wasn’t so much that she didn’t care; more accurately, Bai Yuyou had simply grown accustomed to it.

Accustomed to others hurting her. Because being hurt was an everyday occurrence, she no longer took it to heart.

Perhaps it was her doll-like indifference that made some people lose interest, leading to fewer pranks over time.

But this time, Bai Yuyou sensed something different in those stares, though she couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was.

Class hadn’t started yet, so Bai Yuyou took out her phone.

Yinshan Academy allowed students to bring phones to school. Starting from the fourth grade—since every class from then on was held in large lecture halls—teachers couldn’t even stop students from using their phones during lessons.

The screen lit up, displaying a photo of a sleeping face.

Ye Shuang’s.

Bai Yuyou had secretly taken it the night before. After learning how to use her phone, she’d set it as her wallpaper.

Afraid that Ye Shuang wouldn’t allow it, she hadn’t told him—a little secret of hers.

Bai Yuyou stared at the wallpaper for a long time, then couldn’t help but wish for a photo of the two of them together. But she feared Ye Shuang might refuse, having once heard that taking such photos wasn’t something to be done lightly.

“Too greedy,” Bai Yuyou murmured, her slender fingers tracing the screen.

“Bai Yuyou, the teacher wants you in the biology lab.” A voice suddenly interrupted her thoughts.

She looked up to see a female classmate standing nearby.

“The biology lab?” Bai Yuyou asked.

“Yes, right now. The teacher needs to see you.” With that, the girl walked away.

Bai Yuyou didn’t understand why the teacher would summon her, but she knew where the biology lab was. Standing up, she left the classroom.

Finding the lab on the second floor, she pushed the door open.

A pungent smell immediately assaulted her senses. Bai Yuyou glanced around but saw no sign of the teacher—only shattered jars scattered across the floor, catching her attention.

Several large bottles lay broken, their contents resembling chunks of meat. Bai Yuyou knew from biology class that the teacher referred to these as specimens.

She stepped closer, bending down slightly to examine them.

Blinking her beautiful eyes, she wondered curiously:

Can specimens be eaten?

Crash!

At that moment, the door was violently shoved open. A group of chattering girls burst in, accompanied by a man who looked like a teacher.

“Teacher, she’s the one who smashed the school’s specimens! She even broke the lock on the cabinet!”

“Look, she’s right there!”

“Teacher, call the police and have her arrested!”

Among the girls were familiar faces—Wu Ya and her friends. Wu Ya, in particular, wore an expression of outrage as she addressed the teacher, painting Bai Yuyou as some kind of villain.

“Teacher, those specimens were meant for a joint course with the university. You can’t let her get away with this.”

The biology lab supervisor’s face turned icy. He stormed forward, shoving Bai Yuyou aside. “What the hell were you thinking?! Do you have any idea how important these specimens are?!”

Knocked off balance, Bai Yuyou fell heavily to the ground. She looked at the broken specimens, then at Wu Ya and the others, who were now smirking.

“It wasn’t… me,” she said to the teacher.

“Don’t lie to my face! With witnesses and evidence right here, how dare you deny it?! You’re an adult—take responsibility for your actions! Have you no shame?!” The teacher looked like he was about to have a stroke.

He never imagined someone would dare break into the locked lab and destroy the specimens like this.

Bai Yuyou stood up, her eyes still dazed.

“What are you spacing out for?!” The teacher’s face flushed red with rage, as if he wanted to slap her.

The commotion drew a crowd of teachers and students, all gathering to watch.

Surrounded and overwhelmed, Bai Yuyou froze.

“Come with me to the office—now!”

Soon, Bai Yuyou was dragged to the office, with Wu Ya and her friends following as key witnesses.

Back in the office, the teacher forced himself to calm down. “Explain yourself. Why would you do this?”

“I… didn’t,” Bai Yuyou repeated, shaking her head.

“Bullshit!” The teacher slammed his fist on the desk. Just then, the homeroom teacher arrived.

Li Chunhua nearly fainted when he saw Bai Yuyou at the center of yet another incident. What kind of students was he teaching in Class A?!

“Li Chunhua, is this how your students behave?! These specimens were invaluable!” the biology teacher snapped.

Li Chunhua wore a pained expression but decided to hear the full story first. After being proven wrong twice before, he wasn’t about to jump to conclusions again.

Since there were no security cameras in the lab, he needed to piece things together carefully.

After listening to the account and realizing Wu Ya and her friends were the “witnesses,” Li Chunhua sensed something off. Given their history of conflict, was this really just a coincidence?

“Bai Yuyou, tell me exactly what happened,” he said, turning to her.

Bai Yuyou recounted the events.

When she mentioned being summoned to the lab, Li Chunhua frowned. He tried to placate the other teacher. “Old Zhang, calm down. This might not be as straightforward as it seems.”

Then he turned to Wu Ya. “Wu Ya! Did you and your friends really see Bai Yuyou destroy those specimens?”

“Yes, we all saw it. Teacher… I know you might not trust me because of my issues with Bai Yuyou, but these classmates saw it too.” Wu Ya gestured to the girls beside her. “And Bai Yuyou claims someone told her to go to the lab. Who was it?”

Li Chunhua looked back at Bai Yuyou. “If a classmate told you to go to the biology lab, who was it?”

Bai Yuyou thought for a moment, then shook her head.

“I don’t know.”

“Was it someone from our class?”

“I… don’t know.”

“You just followed a stranger’s instructions to go to the lab? If someone told you to go to Myanmar, would you go there too?!” Li Chunhua’s patience snapped. “Call your parents—now!”

At that moment, Wu Ya and the others immediately snickered, "Teacher, Bai Yuyou is an orphan—she doesn’t have any parents."