Huang Haoyang Returns

This minor interlude quickly passed, and the atmosphere in the class returned to harmony.

Lin Mo received the form, didn't even glance at the grades on it, flipped straight to the end, and signed his name with a flourish in the Science track column.

The whole process was smooth and flowing, as quick as signing for an unimportant package.

Beside him, Jiang Yunlu also barely hesitated and similarly chose Science.

Lin Mo glanced over. He could tell it was a decision Jiang Yunlu had made after careful consideration, and it actually had little to do with him.

After all, Jiang Yunlu's scores in science subjects were indeed more outstanding.

In contrast, Chu Miaomiao, who sat behind him, was holding her pen and frowning at the piece of paper.

Her grades were a bit uneven. Setting aside the main subjects, her physics and chemistry scores were slightly lower than her history and geography scores by a few dozen points.

Strictly speaking, her grades might be better if she went to the Humanities track.

Lin Mo turned around and lightly tapped his knuckles on her desk.

"What's wrong? It's just a piece of paper, how can it make you agonize this much?"

Chu Miaomiao was startled. She looked up, her small face scrunched up, and shook her head somewhat helplessly, "I don't know... Do you have to study Humanities to write novels?"

Lin Mo was amused the moment he heard this. This silly girl was indeed overthinking things.

"Who told you that?" he said lazily, leaning back in his chair.

"Many amazing novelists didn't come from a Humanities background. For example, Jiang Nan studied chemistry, and Da Liu studied hydroelectric engineering. So what you study doesn't necessarily dictate what you do. Besides, who knows, maybe you'll be a baker in the future?"

"What you study has no inevitable connection to what you'll do in the future."

Chu Miaomiao pursed her lips, then looked at Lin Mo's unhesitating choice, still looking very conflicted.

Looking at her little expression, she seemed like a completely different person from the usually quiet girl.

Lin Mo looked at her, his heart softening. He suddenly reached out and ruffled her fluffy hair.

"Stop overthinking it."

His voice wasn't loud, but it carried an unquestionable certainty.

"I wouldn't feel at ease if you went to another class."

That single sentence was like a small pebble tossed into a calm lake, sending ripples out in Chu Miaomiao's heart.

She snapped her head up, all the hesitation and confusion in her eyes instantly replaced by a gleam of pleasant surprise.

Lin Mo looked at her sparkling eyes and added, "So, you should just stay in the same class as me."

Chu Miaomiao's cheeks flushed slightly. All her previous inner conflict was swept away, and the corners of her mouth couldn't help but curve up into a big smile as she nodded heavily.

"Mhm!"

She picked up her pen, no longer looking at those annoying scores, and mimicking Lin Mo, quickly signed her name in the Science column.

In the moment she lowered her head, out of Lin Mo's sight, she revealed a look of deep satisfaction.

He said he wouldn't feel at ease if I went to another class.

Jiang Yunlu, who was right beside them, heard everything clearly, but there wasn't a trace of dissatisfaction in her heart. Considering Chu Miaomiao's soft, delicate, and easily bullied personality, it might actually be better for her to stay in Class Eight under Lin Mo's watchful eye.

At the very least, with Lin Mo's formidable reputation, she definitely wouldn't be bullied in Class Eight.

After two days of classes, it was the weekend again.

Only, there hadn't been many surprises these past few days. Everyone was steadily reviewing, preparing for the upcoming final exams.

The calm was merely superficial.

The class group chat, now without Huang Haoyang and Chen Xiaoya, was refreshing with messages at an unprecedented speed.

Huang Haoyang had long been kicked out on the day he went crazy.

Cai Junhuang hadn't mentioned Huang Haoyang's situation in the group, but others had dug deep into it.

After all, there were other classmates who lived in the same residential compound as Huang Haoyang.

"Firsthand news! The lockdown on Huang Haoyang's building was lifted. My mom saw him go back with her own eyes when she came back from grocery shopping!"

This message was like a depth charge, instantly detonating the entire group chat.

"Holy shit, he actually dares to go back and live there? He's got some nerve."

"You guys are missing the point," Lin Jiajun, who usually loved reading social news, popped up. "I'm more curious about this: his dad killed his mom, and then he killed his dad. So who gets the inheritance in the end?"

This question instantly derailed the conversation.

"Do you even need to ask? It definitely goes to him. Strictly speaking, they were still father and son, making him the only legal heir."

"That's not right, is it? The legal shows I watch say that intentionally killing the person you're inheriting from makes you lose your inheritance rights."

"But it was self-defense! Can that be considered intentional?"

"Ah, the legal issues here are so messy."

"I bet fifty cents the money is still his. After all, both his parents are gone, they can't just confiscate it, right?"

"The person above me, that's just your subjective opinion. It's completely different from the law."

The group chat was buzzing with heated arguments. A bunch of teenagers were acting like legal pioneers, analyzing things logically, even though none of them actually understood it.

However, amidst the chaotic discussion, a viewpoint that everyone hoped for surfaced.

"With such a massive tragedy in his family, would he even be in the mood for school? He probably just dropped out."

"Please, I beg of you, absolutely do not come back."

"Amitabha. If he doesn't come back, I'll be a vegetarian every day until finals."

For a time, the tone of the group chat drastically changed, transforming from a legal forum into a prayer meeting. Huang Haoyang's status in the class was truly one of universal disgust and dread; everyone wanted to avoid him.

Unfortunately, everyone's wishes were always hard to realize.

On Monday morning, just after the warning bell rang, a figure appeared at the front door of the classroom.

The noisy classroom instantly fell silent.

All the sounds of conversation, flipping pages, and pens scratching against paper came to an abrupt halt at that moment.

Everyone's eyes focused on him.

Huang Haoyang was back.

He was still wearing the same school uniform, but it was as if something had been drained from his entire being, and something else had been forcibly injected into him.

He walked to his seat without looking sideways, his footsteps infinitely magnified in the dead silent classroom.

No one dared to look at him, let alone provoke him.

Even the few boys who usually loved to cause a ruckus in the back row were now like chickens with their necks pinched, burying their heads lower than anyone else, pretending to be desks in the classroom.

Huang Haoyang sat down.

The boy in front of him stiffened, then quietly scooted his chair forward, even if only by a few centimeters.

This tiny movement seemed contagious.

The students around him all unconsciously leaned their bodies away, putting distance between themselves and him.

Fear was silent.

He had killed someone.

These words were like an invisible barrier, isolating Huang Haoyang from the rest of the world.

He calmly took his textbook out of his backpack and opened it.

Sunlight streamed in from the window, falling on his lowered profile, but it could not reach those eyes.

The same question hovered in the minds of everyone in the class.

A person who has killed once, if he were to kill again...

Would he still be afraid?