The Underdog 04

The boy quickly put on an apologetic smile. "Young Master Mo, I wasn't cursing at you, I was cursing at Fang Zhiyi... He really doesn't know what's good for him. You follow him around every day, yet he still pulls a long face. He really thinks he's somebody."

"Do I need you to tell me that? He's my buddy, you..." Mo Xuan wanted to declare his stance in front of everyone.

But before he could finish, a dark figure darted out from beside him. The cursing student instantly flew backward and planted face-first into the flowerbed.

Fang Zhiyi pulled back his fist and shook it out.

The scene fell dead silent. It was break time, so quite a few people were lingering in the corridor. They looked at the scene in bewilderment, wondering if their eyes were playing tricks on them. Did that notorious good-for-nothing really just punch someone into a flowerbed?

"You, pay his medical bills," Fang Zhiyi tossed the words at Mo Xuan.

Mo Xuan froze for a moment, then nodded. "Got it, boss."

"What the hell are you looking at? Looking for your daddy? All of you, get lost!" Fang Zhiyi strode toward the library, pointing and cursing at the crowd of onlookers blocking his path. At his gesture, the crowd immediately parted to make way.

It wasn't until Fang Zhiyi disappeared from sight that everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Barbarian!"

"There's no way someone like him will ever earn the favor of the gods."

"He scared me to death! His eyes were so fierce."

"Thank goodness I never provoked him."

Fang Zhiyi knew perfectly well how to act under different circumstances. In this world where strength reigned supreme, there was absolutely no need for him to play the humble coward.

Mo Xuan found himself astonished by him once again today. His eyes shone brightly as if he had discovered a rare treasure. If he could win Fang Zhiyi over to his side, wouldn't he be invincible?

Spotting a girl sitting not too far away, whose eyes were hidden behind thick bangs as she focused entirely on the book in front of her, Fang Zhiyi walked straight over and plopped down right across from her.

"Hey, do me a favor."

The girl looked up in surprise. She remembered Fang Zhiyi; her only impression of him was that, like her, he loved reading and used to get bullied. Lately, however, the bullies in their class seemed terrified of him.

"What is it?"

Fang Zhiyi casually tossed a book over and pointed at a specific page. "You read a lot. Help me analyze what the missing text on this moth-eaten page might be."

The girl was a bit bewildered. She looked at where Fang Zhiyi was pointing. This was an ancient history book, and much of its content had already been proven false. It was likely just some ancient person's fabricated tales, after all, how could such an old world actually exist? She flipped through the tattered book. The records inside were mostly absurd and fantastical, with claims like "people could sit in iron boxes and fly into the sky," "rice could be cooked without firewood," and descriptions of various inexplicable monsters.

However, she had a good impression of Fang Zhiyi. Unlike the classmates who goofed around all day, he shared her love for books. The girl carefully examined the moth-eaten page, then flipped through the preceding and following pages. Finally, she pointed to a fragmented, hand-drawn map in the book. "Based on the context, as well as a book I read before called the Records of the Empire's Rise, this page is probably saying that the continent we live on now used to be several different landmasses. For some unknown reason, they eventually merged together. Look at this map, the islands and continental plates drawn here look completely different from the shape of our continent today."

She paused for a moment before adding, "But books like this aren't very credible. The author didn't even leave a name. It's probably just the imagination of someone from ancient times. No era has ever lacked people with wild imaginations."

Fang Zhiyi nodded. "Understood. Thank you."

Just then, Mo Xuan, who had followed them over at some point, leaned in and glanced at the two of them. "Oh, this book? I've read it."

Fang Zhiyi looked him squarely in the eye for the first time.

"You've read it?"

Mo Xuan nodded vigorously. "My family has a library too, and there's a book similar to this one... It was full of ridiculous stuff. Like, it said there was this animal with long, slender limbs and patterns on its body, but its neck was even longer than its legs, and it survived by eating leaves off trees. I mean, listen to that, does that even sound real?"

Fang Zhiyi frowned. He had noticed a few unusual things over the past few days, which was exactly why he had been spending all his time in the library.

Hearing Mo Xuan's words, his heart began to pound, a rare occurrence for him. "What else?"

Seeing his serious expression, Mo Xuan suddenly grew a bit flustered. "Uh, well... Oh right! There was this other thing. It was a drawing of a person sitting in some weird contraption, flying in the sky. My grandpa said people in the past just made it up to scam some publishing money. It's way too bizarre."

Fang Zhiyi fell silent for a moment. "Take me to your house."

Mo Xuan was taken aback. "To my house?"

"That's right."

Mo Xuan grinned so widely that his smile nearly reached his ears. Did this mean Fang Zhiyi was finally warming up to him?

Watching the two boys hurry off, the bespectacled girl felt a bit puzzled, but she quickly buried her head back in her book.

Fang Zhiyi wasn't surprised by the sheer luxury of Mo Xuan's estate. Truth be told, compared to the mansions of the nouveau riche he had seen before, Mo Xuan's home could even be considered modest. Perhaps this was just a reflection of their backward industrial era.

He walked into the Mo family library and immediately buried himself in searching through the books. At first, Mo Xuan helped him look, but soon he grew restless, looking exactly like a student with a short attention span.

As Fang Zhiyi focused on reading those "leisure books," an utterly absurd hypothesis began to form in his mind.

"Hey, are you planning to make friends with the male protagonist? You aren't going to kill him?" Little Hei asked.

Fang Zhiyi shook his head. "There's no need to kill him. Compared to those truly disgusting scumbags, he just has dumb luck. Sure, he's a womanizing stallion who abandons his friends for pretty girls, loves to show off, and flaunts his superiority... Actually, maybe I should just kill him." Just listing it out made his teeth itch with annoyance.

But then he glanced over at Mo Xuan, who was dozing off in a chair nearby. Seeing the drool pooling at the corner of Mo Xuan's mouth, Fang Zhiyi shook his head again. Killing an idiot didn't really seem to have any point.

"I feel like the stuff you're reading is awfully familiar..." Little Hei said, hovering around Fang Zhiyi with crossed arms.

Fang Zhiyi suddenly let out a laugh. "If my theory is correct, then this world is truly insane."

"Mom... Mom..." Mo Xuan mumbled in his sleep, still drooling. Fang Zhiyi glanced back at him just in time to see Mo Xuan lean too far and fall to the floor with a loud thud. He quickly scrambled up, rubbing his eyes. It took him a long moment to fully wake up. He looked at Fang Zhiyi with a dazed, almost idiotic expression. "How did I fall asleep?"

"I'm done reading. You can clean this up," Fang Zhiyi said, standing up. But after a second thought, he added, "Thanks." He didn't have any particular plans for the protagonist anymore; this guy really was simple-minded.