When he returned to the Class 10 classroom of his freshman year, the atmosphere inside felt a bit weird.
The moment he walked through the door, a heavy, oppressive air hit him in the face.
In the back corner, Liu Xiaoyan was slumped over her desk, her shoulders trembling. He had to admit, the girl had some acting skills. She controlled her crying perfectly—not too loud, not too soft, just enough for the circle of people around her to hear without disturbing the good students studying in the front rows.
And surrounding her was a full circle of boys.
Some were handing her tissues, some were comforting her in soft whispers, and others were waving their fists with righteous indignation, as if beating up the invisible culprit who made their goddess cry.
Chen Zhi raised an eyebrow.
Were they holding a memorial service?
As the most attractive girl in Class 10, aside from Pei Ningxue, Liu Xiaoyan certainly had the capital to act like this.
That pure, innocent little white flower face, combined with her current tear-stained appearance, was more than enough to fool these naive high school boys.
No wonder that idiot Li Jiahao couldn't even get in line.
This circle of simps was enough to set up several mahjong tables. Someone of Li Jiahao's level didn't even qualify to take a number.
"Don't cry, Xiaoyan, it's not worth being sad over that kind of person."
"Exactly, that Chen Zhi just has good grades, his character is terrible."
"I'm going to see the teacher later. This kind of bullying behavior against girls must be publicly criticized!"
Chen Zhi twitched the corner of his mouth, too lazy to pay attention to this group of brain-dead Simp Sheep. He walked straight down the aisle and returned to his seat.
His deskmate, Pei Ningxue, sat quietly in her seat, her back perfectly straight.
She was holding a thick book in her hands, completely engrossed in it.
She looked as serious as could be; anyone who didn't know better would think she was studying some difficult exercises.
If he hadn't seen her earlobes, which were so red they looked like they were about to drip blood, Chen Zhi almost would have believed it.
Chen Zhi's gaze passed over Pei Ningxue's shoulder and landed on the pages of the book.
It was a bold, black headline, accompanied by a few pink heart illustrations.
My Aloof Genius Deskmate: School Idol, Please Spoil Me Gently
Chen Zhi: "..."
Good grief.
Pei Ningxue was reading with great relish, her fingers getting ready to turn the page, completely unaware of the person standing behind her.
"Ahem."
Chen Zhi cleared his throat, deliberately lowering his voice to imitate the tone of the book.
"Woman, is this book good?"
"Eep!"
Pei Ningxue jolted violently, nearly throwing the book out of her hands.
She reacted extremely fast, instantly snapping the book shut and shoving it back-handedly into her desk drawer filled with test papers. The movement was smooth and flawless, done in one breath.
Only after finishing all this did she turn her head, still in shock.
That pretty face, usually as cold as ice, was now heating up at a visible rate.
From her slender neck to the roots of her ears, and up to her fair cheeks, everything turned completely red.
"When... when did you get back?"
Pei Ningxue's voice was trembling, her usual aloof persona shattering to pieces. Those beautiful eyes darted around in panic, simply not daring to look at Chen Zhi.
"Just now, right when you were reading the part where the male lead pinned the female lead against the wall."
Chen Zhi pulled out his chair and sat down, looking at her with a teasing expression. "I didn't expect this, Classmate Pei. So you're into this kind of stuff? 'My Aloof Genius Deskmate'? Why does this title sound a bit familiar? It couldn't have been written based on the two of us, could it?"
Pei Ningxue's face grew even redder, so red it was practically smoking.
She bit her lip and glared fiercely at Chen Zhi.
This glare lacked any real lethality; instead, it carried a certain charm of someone angered out of embarrassment, making Chen Zhi's heart tickle.
"I'm ignoring you."
Pei Ningxue huffed, quickly shoved the romance novel deeper into her desk drawer, and then pulled out a proper Compulsory English One textbook, spreading it open on the desk to pretend to memorize vocabulary.
Chen Zhi knew when to stop and didn't continue teasing her.
He took his phone out of his pocket, unlocked it skillfully, and tapped the icon with a white musical note on a black background.
Douyin.
Douyin in 2018 was in a period of wild growth.
On the screen, all kinds of cheesy videos, technical camera transitions, and brainwashing viral background music rushed at him.
Looking at the somewhat unpolished internet celebrities on the interface, Chen Zhi suddenly felt an absurd and unreal sensation in his heart.
Just last year, ByteDance completed its Series E financing.
Although diluted through several rounds of financing, the 30% stake he acquired in Series C had now become 24.82%.
It sounded like it had decreased.
But at this point in time, it was still a terrifying number.
You have to know, in the recently concluded Series D and Series E rounds, those top international capital giants, like Sequoia and CCB, threw in billions of dollars and only managed to get a 9% stake.
And the shares in his hands were even slightly higher than those of the founder, Zhang Yiming.
To avoid unnecessary trouble, he had long since entrusted the voting rights of this equity entirely to Zhang Yiming.
To avoid affecting Douyin's normal development, what he needed to do right now was to not interfere with any decisions and let ByteDance advance on its original track.
And he just needed to be a quiet, unremarkable billionaire.
"Sigh..."
Chen Zhi looked at his phone screen and couldn't help but sigh.
Is this the trouble of the rich?
Clearly worth tens of billions, yet he still had to worry about monthly exams here... Oh wait, he didn't seem to need to worry about the monthly exams either, since he was a true genius student.
Just as Chen Zhi was immersed in his humblebrag mood of "I'm awesome but I can't say it," a shadow suddenly loomed over his seat.
Following that was a question suppressing anger.
"Chen Zhi, do you think you're very funny?"
Chen Zhi's finger stopped on the screen, just as he scrolled to a young woman doing a hand dance.
He slowly raised his head.
Standing in front of his desk was a boy wearing black-framed glasses.
Chen Zhi quickly searched his memory.
No impression of him.
"Can I help you?"
Chen Zhi leaned back lazily in his chair, his finger still casually swiping on the phone screen.
That attitude of completely ignoring the other party instantly ignited the anger in the boy's heart.
"Chen Zhi!"
The boy suddenly slammed his hand on the desk, letting out a loud bang.
This commotion instantly attracted the attention of the whole class.
The self-proclaimed knights in shining armor originally surrounding Liu Xiaoyan all turned their heads, and even Pei Ningxue, who had been burying her head like an ostrich, quietly put down her English book and looked over with some concern.
"I originally thought that since you were the top scorer in the high school entrance exam and had such good grades, your character should at least be passable."
The boy pointed at Chen Zhi's nose, his voice a bit agitated, full of a righteous tone.
"I didn't expect you to actually be a hypocrite whose outside doesn't match the inside!"
Chen Zhi: "???"
He slowly typed out a question mark in his head.
What was this all about?
Do high schoolers nowadays have so much drama?
"No, bro."
Chen Zhi turned off his phone screen and casually tossed it on the desk.
He leaned forward, crossed his hands on the desk, and looked with interest at the red-faced boy in front of him.
"Do I know you? Coming up and pinning such a big label on me—did I dig up your ancestors' graves or steal your family's eggs?"
"Stop playing dumb!"
Seeing Chen Zhi still looking like he couldn't care less, the boy grew even more furious.
He turned around, pointed at Liu Xiaoyan who was still sobbing in the back row, and loudly accused, Xiaoyan is such a kind girl, why did you have to humiliate her in public? Do you have any idea how much your words can hurt a girl?
Oh—
Chen Zhi dragged out the syllable, suddenly realizing what was going on.
So it was Liu Xiaoyan's simp number two.
The surrounding students began to whisper among themselves.
The onlookers, unaware of the truth, looked at Chen Zhi differently now.
After all, Liu Xiaoyan was crying so miserably, while Chen Zhi looked completely nonchalant. The contrast between the weak and the strong was too obvious.
Exactly, that's too much.
I didn't expect Chen Zhi to be this kind of person...
You can know a person's face, but not their heart.
Hearing the murmurs around him, the boy's expression grew even more smug, and he straightened his back.
His name was Zhao Lei, the class's study committee member.
He had liked Liu Xiaoyan for a long time. Even though it was just a secret crush, seeing his goddess being wronged made him feel that he had to stand up for her.
If he could step on Chen Zhi, the top scorer of the high school entrance exam, to elevate himself, he wouldn't just be venting anger for his goddess, but also establishing his own prestige in front of the whole class. It was killing two birds with one stone.
Chen Zhi looked at the overly confident and average guy spitting everywhere in front of him, only finding it amusing.
Nowadays, why did every random Tom, Dick, and Harry want to step on him to climb the social ladder?
Didn't that Simp Sheep from just now learn his lesson?
Are you done?
Chen Zhi picked his ear. That contemptuous attitude made the boy's face turn the color of pork liver.
What kind of attitude is that! Apologize! You must go apologize to Xiaoyan! Zhao Lei demanded aggressively.
Chen Zhi slowly stood up.
His height of 1.83 meters instantly made Zhao Lei, who was barely over 1.7 meters, feel a wave of pressure.
Zhao Lei subconsciously took half a step back and swallowed hard. What... what do you want? Do you want to hit me? Let me tell you, this is a classroom...
Hit you?
Chen Zhi sneered, as if he had just heard the biggest joke in the world.
He took a step forward, glaring intensely into Zhao Lei's eyes.
Zhao Lei, right? You're the study committee member, aren't you?
Since you love upholding justice so much, did you bother to understand the cause and effect of what just happened?
Did you know that Liu Xiaoyan scams people for money through online dating?
Did you know she strings guys along while being a gold digger who despises the poor?
With every question Chen Zhi asked, he took a step forward, forcing Zhao Lei to take a step back. Zhao Lei's momentum visibly wilted.
I... I didn't know... but that still doesn't give you the right to insult people... Zhao Lei was still acting tough, but his voice was noticeably weak.
You didn't know, yet you dared to bark here?
Chen Zhi's eyes turned cold.
So we're just setting facts aside and only talking about feelings, right?
Since you love playing the white knight so much, why don't you go ask around and see what your Liu Xiaoyan usually calls me on QQ?
Chen Zhi looked at Zhao Lei mockingly.
She calls me hubby.
What, do you want to be my son?
Pfft—
Someone nearby couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing.
Immediately after, the whole class erupted into roaring laughter.
Zhao Lei's face instantly went from red to white, and then from white to green. He opened his mouth and pointed at Chen Zhi, stammering You... you... for a long time, but couldn't form a single complete sentence.
This was too much information to process.
Liu Xiaoyan called Chen Zhi hubby?
Then what did that make Zhao Lei? Was he rushing to acknowledge a new dad?
Hearing this from the back row, Liu Xiaoyan's fake crying face instantly froze. She looked as if she had been struck by lightning, wishing she could find a hole to crawl into and hide.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
