Chapter Twelve
On the podium.
Li Sinan was sitting in her chair, keeping an eye on the students below as they worked on their test papers.
Suddenly, she noticed a hand raised from the back row by the window.
She blinked her big, beautiful eyes and walked down the aisle with curiosity.
Was this kid stuck?
Hmph, that would teach him to look down on English and dare to do math problems during her class!
She walked down with brisk steps, came to Gu Ran's side, and whispered with a sweet smile, "What's wrong, Student Gu? Are you stuck?"
"Uh... I want to turn in my paper."
Gu Ran's words immediately caught Li Sinan off guard.
"Oh, right, Ms. Li, can you give me back my math paper now?"
"No!"
Li Sinan subconsciously puffed out her cheeks, glaring somewhat angrily at the disobedient student in front of her.
She did say she would return his math paper once he finished the English test, but she didn't mean for him to just scribble nonsense!
As for the possibility that Gu Ran had actually finished it seriously, the thought never even crossed her mind.
Morning reading had just ended, and even the top student in the class wasn't halfway done, yet Gu Ran wanted to turn in his paper?!
This was absolutely intolerable!
She snatched the test paper from his desk with one hand, her big eyes flashing with a menacing glint, and her pretty face freezing over as she looked at Gu Ran's answers.
She made up her mind right then and there: she was going to punish Gu Ran by making him copy vocabulary words!
Ten times!
Only when he finished writing them would she return his math paper.
With thoughts of punishing Gu Ran flashing through her mind, she began checking the reading comprehension section.
Question one, correct.
Question two, correct.
Question three, correct.
...
Question twenty, correct.
...
As she continued to read down the page, the expression on her face gradually became a sight to behold.
Out of the entire paper, apart from a few mistakes in the cloze test, everything else was completely correct!
What kind of god-level performance was this?!
He had even written the essay. Was this kid really such a monster?
She glanced at the beautifully handwritten essay with its advanced grammar. Although the language wasn't particularly flowery and had the straightforward style typical of a science student, she could be absolutely certain that Gu Ran hadn't just gotten the answers in advance.
"You..."
For a moment, she didn't know what to say.
Seeing her rich facial expressions, Gu Ran knew she had misunderstood him earlier. A sudden rush of satisfaction hit him—the thrill of successfully playing the pig to eat the tiger and showing off.
No wonder the Crooked-Mouth Dragon King memes were so popular in his past life. The trope of showing off and slapping faces might be cliché, but damn, did it feel good!
"That's right, it's me. What about it?"
He raised an eyebrow, revealing a smug, triumphant smile.
Seeing this, Li Sinan couldn't help but burst into laughter. She lightly smacked him with the test paper and scolded him playfully, "Look at you."
In the classroom, there were quite a few students who couldn't focus on their tests and had been keeping an eye on the two of them instead. Among them, Ye Jinliang was the number one paparazzo.
Seeing the two of them laughing and teasing each other, his heart was a river of sorrow. And when he saw Li Sinan actually reach out and smack Gu Ran's arm, he wished he could rush over and take his place.
Seriously, what right did this guy have to be rewarded like this?!
Staring at Li Sinan's slightly flushed, beautiful face, he roared indignantly in his heart. Turning his grief and indignation into motivation, he began to work on his test paper as if guided by the gods.
He swore that he would definitely shock everyone with his brilliance in English!
...
"Did you... really do all of this?"
After carefully reading through the essay, Li Sinan still found it hard to believe. Could a high school student who hated studying really master such advanced grammar and obscure vocabulary?
"Who else? Did you do it for me, Ms. Li?" Gu Ran shrugged, leaning comfortably against the windowsill.
"Hmph, you're pretty impressive, Student Gu. So why did you fail all your previous exams?"
Li Sinan wrinkled her nose. Thinking of the code written on that piece of paper earlier, she somewhat accepted this reality, but she still mumbled her question in a quiet, dissatisfied tone.
"Uh..."
Gu Ran coughed dryly and started to change the subject. "Ms. Li, how about you consider giving me my math paper back first?"
"Here, take it..."
Rolling her eyes helplessly, she returned to the podium, picked up his math paper, and brought it back to his desk. She then reminded him, "There will be a mock exam before the winter break. You need to take it seriously, hear me?"
"Relax, relax. I'll definitely do my best."
Gu Ran took the paper, gave a casual promise, and went right back to studying his math problems.
Seeing this, Li Sinan ground her teeth slightly, gave a soft hmph, and turned away to continue patrolling the classroom and checking on the other students.
It wasn't until noon that Gu Ran stretched his back, sat up from his seat, and dragged Ye Jinliang, who was still struggling with his studies, out of the school to grab lunch.
"You traitorous dog!"
Gu Ran: "???"
Staring at the chubby boy in front of him, Gu Ran looked completely bewildered, having no idea how he had offended him.
I kindly invite you to lunch, and you call me a dog?
Fine, you're paying for this meal today!
"Spit it out. When did you win over Ms. Sinan's heart?"
Gu Ran: "???" x2
"Come on, I challenge you to a duel. A fair competition between men for Ms. Sinan's attention."
The metaphorical question marks popped up again. Gu Ran really wanted to kick this melodramatic idiot away.
He felt like he had developed megalophobia—he was genuinely terrified of this colossal idiot.
Rolling his eyes, he stepped forward, hooked his arm around Ye Jinliang's neck, and clamped a hand over that babbling mouth that kept demanding a fair duel, accusing him of a sneak attack, and telling him to watch his back.
So embarrassing!
How could this guy spout such cringeworthy, melodramatic nonsense in broad daylight?
After struggling all the way into a restaurant, Ye Jinliang was still muttering about taking it outside for a duel.
"Shut up. Lunch is on me today."
"Then I want sweet and sour crispy pork!"
Instantly, the cursing chubby boy shut his mouth and called for the boss to bring a large plate of sweet and sour crispy pork, perfectly demonstrating the face of a shameless opportunist.
Gu Ran: "..."
Like father, like son—does a businessman's kid just naturally know how to hustle?
A person shouldn't, or at least shouldn't be, this shameless.
While waiting for the food, Ye Jinliang returned to normal. He slumped over the table, looking as if he had nothing left to live for, and complained, "Brother Ran, do we really have to aim for the capital? I feel like I'm going to die."
"What's wrong now?" Gu Ran glanced at him and asked helplessly.
"It's not that I don't want to study, I just really can't grasp it. I didn't learn anything in my first two years of high school, and now everything I look at is just a blur." Ye Jinliang's face scrunched up into a bitter gourd.
"Let's find a tutor this weekend. We can go straight to tutoring after school in the afternoons. Since we didn't study before, our foundation is definitely too weak right now."
This suggestion was quickly accepted. With a wave of his hand, Ye Jinliang decided the tutoring sessions would be held at his house.
Because he found Gu Ran's father terrifying. Every time he saw his dad, he would shudder with fear.
With the matter happily settled, Ye Jinliang rubbed his hands together and swore to find a tutor just like Li Sinan.
Youthful, energetic, and full of life!
For no other reason than his own... physical and mental pleasure!
Gu Ran had no idea what was going through his friend's mind to produce such a perverted smile. After hastily finishing his meal, he headed back to the classroom to continue reading...
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
ng to die together with you." Lin Xuan is dead, his body thrown into the river by his scumbag lover and her accomplice. She, the president of the Su Group, is decisive, ruthless, and ice-cold. For three days and three nights, she had his body fished out of the river, and without hesitation, she kissed the bloated corpse of Lin Xuan. She laid down beside him in a cold coffin, their fingers intertwined, a smile lingering on her lips as she closed her eyes. The noble and cold-hearted woman, only bending for one man—Lin Xuan. Lin Xuan, with his golden finger, is reborn and returns to the day of his wedding to the treacherous woman. Su Qiang comes to steal the bride. Lin Xuan's eyes light up, eager to pledge his loyalty on the spot, but instead, her kiss transfers a glass of drugged wine into his mouth, causing him to pass out... 【Male Protagonist with Single Female Lead】【Yandere Tycoon】【Action-Packed】【True vs. Fake Heir】
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
