Villain: Remastered

[Fiction]

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CHAPTER 1
[Coming up with titles is tough, so I will only name those who I can think of easily]

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Whatever anyone might say… money— is great.

Who didn't like to sit in a car whose seats felt more like the most comfortable of sofas rather than normal car seats, where with the press of a button, the passenger seat in front would extend forward till even the tallest of people could straighten out their legs and rest them on the footrest that gently descended from the back of the passenger seat.

Who wouldn't like that?

Fu Xin sure liked it a lot. And that's why he felt great about sitting in the back of a luxury sedan with his back resting on a reclined seat and feet resting on the footrest. He fiddled with the media system in the back of the car and changed the radio stations playing on the music system. Fu Xin sighed in contentment as a song that he liked played through the high-quality speakers placed throughout the car.

It had been three months since he found himself in this world. Yes — 'in this world' — as in another world than the one where he was born and lived. He had suddenly dropped into the body of the person named Fu Xin, and ever since, that's who he had been living as. It was tough at the start, even with Fu Xin's memories coming along with the body, assuming someone's else's identity wasn't like putting on a new shirt. He had to suffer a lot during the first days as he focused every shred of his being on adapting to his new situation.

However, the payoff was worth it. Fu Xin grinned to himself. The boy's family— his family— was loaded. He caressed the white leather on the seats and could feel the money oozing from it like the cow the leather had been taken from was one of those grass-fed, free-range ones, living the best of lives before being harvested for the sake that his car would have the best leather possible. In his previous life, he couldn't even imagine smelling the inside of this type of car, much less sitting inside, forgetting about even the thought of buying it. But now here he was, the car was for his personal and only his use and came with its own chauffeur dressed in the pristine white uniforms at all times, at his beck-and-call all times of the day.

No pleasure money could buy was away from him. If he wanted something, he had to point, and it would be in his possession as quickly as people could bring it to him. Maybe he was exaggerating, but with the gap between his previous and current lives, it sure seemed this way. For the past three months, there wasn't one thing he had been refused; all of his desires had been fulfilled without a peep of complaint, with the only restriction being he had to act in accordance with Fu Xin's original character.

"Young master Xin, we have arrived," said the uniformed chauffeur from the driver's seat.

Fu Xin pressed a button on the side-dash for the tinted window to roll down to reveal a second untinted one. He looked out at the busy entrance of the large school campus of Third High, filled with students reporting to the school in the morning. Third High was one of the key schools in the city, holding the reputation of excellent infrastructure and a core of teachers with great track records. Naturally, admission into Third High required a high score on the citywide common entrance examination, and Fu Xin had achieved said high score to qualify as a student. From the memories, the original owner had worked hard in middle school for the entrance examination.

Fu Xin took out a hand mirror from the car's side-dash and fixed his blue necktie on his gray blazer school uniform in the reflection. "Thank you, Uncle Bao. I will see you after school," Fu Xin said as he grabbed his bag and stepped out of the car.

"Have a prosperous day, young master," Uncle Bao said before driving away.

Fu Xin crossed the street and weaved between the crowd of students and parents to make his way to the main entrance. He received morning wishes from his acquaintances and peers, and returned their greetings with a smile. As he was about to cross the gate, he was stopped before he could enter.

"Yes?" asked Fu Xin to the group of parents and students who had called out to him.

One of the fathers in the front spoke, "Son, we were wondering if you could guide them into the school. It's their first day, and we can't go inside with them." The man put his arm around the shoulder of the boy standing beside him.

Fu Xin glanced at the student part of the group and noticed the green neckties on the boys and the green ribbons on the girls. The dark forest green denoted first years, crimson red for the second year, and the royal blue marked third-year students.

Usually, there wouldn't be parents outside the campus, except for the few that dropped off their children to school in the morning. But today was the first day of the year, and the parents of the new first year had come to see off their children on the first day of high school.

"Of course," Fu Xin replied with a smile, even though it wasn't needed as the first-year faculty were inside ready to receive and guide the first years to where they needed to be. But he didn't mind putting the minds of worried parents at ease. After the short word from parents to the children about being good, Fu Xin led the new admissions into the campus while making small talk, then dropped them off where they needed to be and went on his way.

It was the first day of the year for Fu Xin as well. He made his way to the notice board, checked his new class assignment, went to his new classroom, and found his seat in the center of the row beside the windows. Fu Xin cracked the window beside him just a little and let the cool September-autumn breeze graze past him— early mornings and afternoons were cool in autumn, but he liked how the temperature of the wind felt.

He looked around, and even though the classroom was large, there were only twenty-five desks— meaning the class size was twenty-five students. He knew the class size averaged around the early or mid-forties in other schools. This was one of the reasons for Third High's success— the low class size enabled the teachers to give more attention to students and allowed for better guidance. Another perk that came with studying in Third High.

"Brother Xin, it seems we are in the same class."

Fu Xin turned to see two boys. One of them was wide and short like a barrel, while the other looked like a shirt on a coat hanger wearing glasses.

"Guo Qing, Ding Tong," Fu Xin greeted his two classmates. From the memories, these two had been in the same classroom as Fu Xin since the first year, and after three years of being in the same class— especially with the low class size— it was natural for them to know each other.

Guo Qing, the short and wide, crossed his arms and flashed a broad grin. "I knew before I even woke up today that I would be in the same class as Brother Xin."

Ding Tong, the spectacled skeleton, nodded in agreement as he corrected the spectacles on his nose bridge. "This class is indeed great. Not only do we have Brother Xin with us, we even have Xue Lanfen in our class. Truly a great blessing," Fan Tong said, rubbing his hands together as he looked to the center of the class.

Xue Lanfen... Fu Xin knew her. Even though they hadn't been in the same class in their first and second year, he knew of the girl ranked as the most beautiful girl in the school by the boys.

She was indeed beautiful, Fu Xin thought as he gazed at the girl with a polite yet charming demeanor, who got along with everyone— well-liked by both genders, and even the teachers preferred her due to her academic performance. If Fu Xin had to describe Xue Lanfen, she was an existence at the top of the social ladder in Third High.

"Brother Xin, why don't you pursue Xue Lanfen, you two would be the perfect fit for each other," Guo Qing said suddenly, beaming all the while as if proud of his suggestion. Ding Tong gave Guo Qing a disgusted look from behind his spectacles but didn't say anything to him; instead, he turned to Fu Xin and said, "I agree, Brother Xin. You and Xue Lanfen are indeed a perfect match for each other— only a capable man deserves a beauty like her."

Fu Xin just laughed but didn't say anything in response. He didn't know what to say, and an ambiguous type of laughter was the initial response. "Let's not talk about this; it would be rude and embarrassing if she ends up hearing us."

Fu Xin wasn't the type to arrive super early to places and appointments, so it didn't take long for the first bell to ring, signifying the start of the school day, and on cue, the front door of the classroom slid open, and two women entered. The students stood up to greet them.

"Good morning, take your seats," said the middle-aged woman of the pair. She was dressed in a professional shirt and pant attire, with her hair wrapped in a tight bun. She set her things on the teacher's desk in the corner before facing the class. "I hope all of you're doing well. My name is Hao Fenhua; you will address me as Teacher Hao. I'm your class tutor and will teach you Politics for your third year. I hope all of you understand the importance of this year. All of you have the National Higher Education Entrance Examination at the end of this year. It's imperative that you perform well not only for yourself but also for your family, who have worked hard to get you into this school. If you perform well, you will be on a fast track to success and a great life, but if you don't, you will be left behind by your peers."

'That was harsh,' thought Fu Xin. He didn't agree with whatever was spoken.

Teacher Hao continued to talk about the importance of performing well in the national entrance examination and how this would dictate their lives moving forwards. And while a lot of them listened, there were those who had their attention grabbed by other women standing near the door. The woman was much younger than Teacher Hao, and looked to be in her early twenties; she was dressed in a white pantsuit with a white collarless top to match, completing a well-put-together appearance. The woman was simply stunning, with a charm of an adult woman that made it difficult for high school boys to keep their eyes off her.

"Now, I would like to introduce you to Zhang Xioli," Teacher Hao said, and the young woman stepped forward. "She's currently studying at Peking University," many gasps sounded in the room. Peking University was one of the best, if not the best university in the country; being a student meant that you were one of the elites. "She will be working here as a teaching assistant three days a week, and perhaps even lead a few classes. So I suggest that you listen to her clearly as she has aced the exam that all of you will be attempting, and maybe one of her insights might be why you end up performing better."

Zhang Xioli stepped forward and bowed in greeting. "Hello everyone, I hope all of you treat me well. I'm looking forward to learning from you all and will be more than happy to answer any questions you might have for me. I will be present here from Thursday to Saturday every week. When I'm not in class, you can find me in the faculty staff room."

Suddenly someone began clapping, and the next moment more followed until the entire class was clapping. Zhang Xioli looked surprised and embarrassed at the sudden clapping. Teacher Hao had to shout and glare to stop the applause.

Whispers and conversations replaced the clapping, and Fu Xin heard the boys around him talk amongst each other.

"Isn't this great! Now we have two beauties in our class."

"Hey, who do you think is better— Xue Lanfen or Zhang Xioli?"

"Teacher Xioli, of course, she is a... woman."

"You're already calling her Teacher Xioli? Pfft! Xue Lanfen is better; at least I have a chance with her. Zhang Xioli won't even look at me."

"Ha! You sure have dreams. Even Xue Lanfen won't look at your ugly mug. You have a face that even your mother doesn't love."

"You, little shit! Meet me, your father, outside!"

"You, my father? Your mother sure said something otherwise when we were in bed together last night."

Fu Xin looked between Xue Lanfen and Zhang Xioli and subconsciously began to compare them. He had to give Zhang Xioli the edge because she had the advantage of being an adult and was filled just in the right places. Xue Lanfen was still young, but who knows how she would turn out in the future— she was already beautiful, and from the looks of it, time would only bloom her beauty.

Fu Xin looked around the classroom to see if he had missed seeing any of his classmates and noticed an empty seat— it was in the last row, nearest to the back door of the classroom.

'Hmm?' Fu Xin suddenly felt discomfort in his heart as he looked at the empty seat. He didn't know what possessed him, but he looked at Xue Lanfen chatting with her neighbors, then at Zhang Xioli, who was conversing with Teacher Hao. His eyes even went to Guo Qing and Ding Tong, who were sitting beside each other in the second last row, they waved to him when they noticed him looking at them.

Fu Xin forced a smile and waved back briefly before looking forward. The smile turned to frown and his face felt tight. Something was wrong— he felt it in his deepest core. There was something instinctually wrong with the classroom; he just couldn't put a finger on it.

Teacher Hao finished the conversation with Zhang Xioli and faced the class, and was about to continue her address when she frowned. "I see one empty desk; who is not present in the class?" she asked.

The class size was small and the one empty chair would've stuck out if not for it being near the far edge of the classroom. Teacher Hao retrieved her register and pulled out the class seating plan.

"Where is... Lin—"

The front door rattled as it slid open, revealing a boy shabbily dressed in a disorganized school uniform with the tie hanging loose around the neck, one of the shirt sides untucked, and the black shoes were dirty with dust. The boy's hair made it look like he had jumped out of bed and had sprinted straight to school without stopping from the way his heaved breaths.

"Lin Tian!" Teacher Hao called in a stern voice. "How dare you be late on the first day of school!"

The now-named Lin Tian stood up straight and spoke, his breathing still labored. "Sorry, Teacher, my bicycle broke down halfway, and I couldn't fix it. I had to carry it with me as I ran as fast as possible." Lin Tian cut a very pitiful figure with his head bowed, not daring to look up, nervous hands joined in front, and hunched shoulders as if he was trying to shrink himself.

The uncomfortable feeling inside Fu Xin eased when he saw Lin Tian, though he didn't know what to think about it, as he took no pleasure seeing someone getting embarrassed in public; he was the type who caught second-hand embarrassment quite easily.

"You will come see me in the staffroom after school," Teacher Hao glared; apparently, Lin Tian's pitiful figure didn't have any effect. "Go fix yourself in the restroom, be back in three minutes."

Lin Tian muttered a sorry and turned away to go to the restroom. "Close the door!" Teacher Hao called loudly. Lin Tian hurriedly returned and closed the door.

"I will repeat once more if any of you didn't understand me," Teacher Hao said to the class. "This year isn't going to be anything like your last two years. Tardiness won't be accepted no matter what the excuse. Only those who dedicate themselves to their studies for this entire year will succeed. You have to understand if you struggle now, you will have an easy time later, but if you take it easy now, you will struggle later. It's up to you, what do you want? A year of hardship for a lifetime of prosperity— or a year spent in relaxation for a lifetime of struggle. From where I stand, the choice is obvious; I hope that all of you will make the right choice."

Fu Xin felt the class around him turned serious. The choice indeed sounded obvious, but they didn't know that there was no way that one year of hardship could guarantee an easy life.

'Adult life is tough,' he sighed. He was happy with his current situation, but if he could ask more, he would've asked to be dumped into Fu Xin's body when the body was younger, so he could spend more years in the carefree part of life before the realities of adulthood hit him.

Lin Tian returned after fixing his clothes, which still didn't look completely proper but were just passable. Teacher Hao still looked and sounded displeased as she sternly sent him to his seat. Fu Xin followed Lin Tian with his eyes and gazed at him as the latter settled in his seat.

The uncomfortable feeling was now completely gone.

The class started with Teacher Hao explaining the curriculum. Zhang Xioli had sat down behind the teacher's desk and too listened to Teacher Hao along with the class.

Squeak! Fu Xin heard the sharp noise. He knew it was from a chair being suddenly dragged against the ground, but he instinctively turned towards it and found Lin Tian sitting straight in his chair, looking around with eyes wide in shock.

'What's wrong with him?' Fu Xin thought.

[Protagonist encountered...]

The world around Fu Xin ceased to exist as every single drop of his focus and concentration was taken away by the monotone voice that rang in his ears and the vision in front of his eyes that looked like he was facing a HUD display. He read the words after the voice narrated them, and he could hear as his heart quickly began to beat faster and faster with every passing moment.

[Due to <Attribute: Villain> the opposing Fate has been constructed...]

[Initiating response...]

[Response: Stop the identified protagonist from growing and gaining hegemony. Failure to do so would naturally lead to death...]

The uncomfortable feeling that had gone away... it came back.

It came back like a punch to the throat.

——



A/N:

Well, here you guys, the first chapter. This is the first chapter of the original I was planning to write. I had a lot of fun writing and brainstorming it.

Something about the story. It's a semi-parody of every Chinese urban fantasy web fiction we have gotten bored of reading. It's going to include every trope I can think of and find, and then I will use those tropes in fun, different ways to create an enjoyable read.

I'm sure you noticed, but this novel will follow the [Transmigrated Into The Villain Trope]. I think it's a great trope; I quite like it. Alas, most of the books of this trope genre instantly turn into playing Pokémon with Heroines and the Villain system being so OP that Heroes seem more like side characters than the so-called 'Sons of Heavens.'

I wanted to write something different. A world where the Heroes truly have plot armor backing them up— who will genuinely create trouble for our MC and will make him struggle. These types of novels are usually amalgamations of novel worlds with multiple Heroes and their set of Heroines. I wanted each and every Hero that I introduced to stay for a while, stand ground, create conflict, and raise their plot-armored heads against our MC(the villain) before they actually got defeated— not the usual Heroes who exited in a couple of chapters (and that too after constantly being face-slapped the entire time.)

A world where Heroines don't fall in love like they've been forced to guzzle down love potions— they don't fall in love with either our MC or the Heroes— the Heroines are actual characters with their own goals, aspirations, and stories. I wanted to make Heroines who might even create trouble for both the Hero and our MC, Heroines who use the Hero and MC for their own gain, just as they're trying to do.

A world where Villain doesn't need to bang every Heroine to save his ass and actually needs to be innovative and resourceful to escape his fate as a Villain. Of course, there will be an overarching plot in the background.

That was the thinking behind this.

Let's see how this goes.

Do comment and tell me what you guys think about this.

 

[Fiction]

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CHAPTER 2
[Wasn't able to think of anything catchy… let's see if you guys are able to think of a title after reading]

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It truly felt like he had been punched in the throat. He couldn't breathe no matter how much he tried, and the tie around his neck felt like a tight noose digging in... squeezing.

The words glowing in a purple hue stayed in front of his eyes as if waiting for him to acknowledge them. But how could he? They worded his death in such clarity that he couldn't even fool himself even if he wanted to. The sense of the words struck him like a warhammer.

"... Xin. Fu Xin?"

The world that had disappeared reappeared. Even though no one was talking, the ambient voice seemed too loud after the vacuum silence of a moment before. Fu Xin uncurled his fist and, in doing so, felt how wet his palms were. He looked towards the voice calling him and saw Teacher Hao looking— in fact, he could feel a lot of eyes on him.

"Fu Xin, your introduction," Teacher Hao asked.

Fu Xin swallowed and found nothing, for his mouth was too dry. He stood up in his chair, but instead of introducing himself to the class, he said, "My apologies, but I have to step out for a moment... I'm not feeling well."

Without asking for permission or even looking at anyone, Fu Xin headed straight to the door and then out of the classroom, ignoring the calls of his name. He kept walking until he was in the nearest restroom on the floor. Fu Xin bolted the main door to the entire restroom and immediately yanked his tie off, and threw it on the sink counter along with his blazer. His shirt stuck to his drenched back, and his shoes felt too tight.

He leaned on the sink counter and stared at himself in the large mirrors. His face had a sheen of sweat, yet it felt too cold and pale as if he had been shown his worst fear. "This is a dream," Fu Xin croaked. He stood straight up and, after two sharp breaths, slapped his face twice without restraint.

"Shit! Shit!" Fu Xin grabbed his head. His face hurt, his teeth hurt, and even his hand burned. It wasn't a dream. This was reality— a cruel reality.

Fu Xin walked back until his back hit the wall. He kept his eyes on his reflection in the mirrors until he couldn't, and his focus shifted to the words shimmering in front of him, spelling what looked to him like his doom.

[Response: Stop the identified protagonist from growing and gaining hegemony. Failure to do so would naturally lead to death...]

Stop... protagonist... failure... death.

He reread the sentence again and again until he knew the exact meaning by heart. Fu Xin was sure that from this moment on, he wouldn't remember this sentence until the day he died.

The message on the purple HUD changed, and the monotone robotic voice spoke in his mind.

[Intent confirmed: Host has accepted the mission agenda and detail. The system wishes you the best for your endeavor, and iterates that ignoring the mission would naturally result in the host's death...]

It stayed in front of Fu Xin's eyes as he read and reread it a couple times before disappearing as if it never existed.

Fu Xin let his back slide down the wall until he was sitting on the restroom floor with his legs spread straight with his hands sitting on his thighs.

Intent confirmed. The system had scanned his intent and confirmed that he had read the writing and had accepted the mission. And it was true, Fu Xin had done precisely so. If it was before, he would've chalked it up to some sort of delusion or hallucination, but he had been living in a new world for three months. Gaining a second life with the memories of the previous life tended to change the mindset of people.

'This is like one of those novels,' Fu Xin thought about the Chinese urban fantasies in his previous lives where some guy would transmigrate into a villain character, handed a system with a mission to topple the protagonists or heroes of the world. His situation was exactly the same as the plot of those shitty stories.

Fu Xin groaned and grabbed the front of his hair. Yes, he knew about those stories, but that was it; he could only remember reading two of those until only two hundred chapters or less. He remembered reading them because he thought the premise was interesting— and because the stories were so horrendously written that he couldn't force himself to read, and both times had blindly scrolled through until he couldn't even do that. Most of his knowledge came from outside—reading forums, memes, and discussion— that's how he gained most of his 'trope-y' knowledge.

Fu Xin got up from the floor, walked to one of the toilet stalls, bent over one before hurling his stomach's content into the bowl, and then did it again the second time, completely emptying his breakfast out. He then walked over to the sink to wash out his mouth.

"Much better," he muttered as puking made him feel lighter. His head no longer felt light and hazy, and his limbs had stopped shaking in weakness.

There were knocks on the door, and he could hear Teacher Hao calling for him. He gave the locked door a glance before calmly re-tying his necktie, fixing his clothes and hair, and putting his blazer on before heading towards the door with leisure steps.

"Fu—" Teacher Hao stopped when the door opened, and Fu Xin stepped out looking normal, but there was a paleness to his skin.

"I'm sorry, Teacher," Fu Xin smiled weakly. "I had an upset stomach, and it suddenly got worse. I had to leave the classroom before I embarrassed myself." He humbly bowed his head.

Teacher Hao looked stunned. The frown on her face lifted, and she looked a little lost about how to continue. "I see; how are you feeling right now?" she asked.

"I believe I would like to return to the classroom and not waste any more time of my fellow classmates and teacher," Fu Xin said, choosing his words carefully. He studied Teacher Hao's face, and she looked satisfied with his answer.

"Are you sure? You can rest in the nurse's office if you're not feeling well," Teacher Hao asked.

"There's no need for that," Fu Xin shook his head. "As you said, teacher, we can't afford to waste even a minute of this year."

Teacher Hao looked impressed and nodded. They returned to the classroom, and upon entry, they saw Zhang Xioli talking to the class, who listened to her in silence and with attention.

As Fu Xin returned to his seat, he glanced toward Lin Tian sitting in the back and noticed the boy was staring at Xue Lanfen with unblinking eyes. 'It's him, isn't it,' thought Fu Xin. He turned back his memory which was crisp as a digital photograph, because of the startling factor of the situation— it would take ages for him to forget this hour. The system had appeared in front of him when he was looking at Lin Tian, and he recalled how it had said — [Protagonist encountered...] — which meant that the system had been targeted because Fu Xin had located a 'protagonist.'

'But is it really him?' Fu Xin was doubtful. Fu Xin didn't have any memories of Lin Tian, and his only impression of Lin Tian from today, and was that of a shy person with low self-confidence and self-worth. Lin Tian didn't like a protagonist from any known metric.

The self-introduction hadn't ended in Fu Xin's absence. They had skipped him over and continued. One by one, everyone got up and introduced themselves— most people summarized themselves with their names and middle school— but then there were ones who spoke about their hobbies, achievements, and future aspirations.

"My name is Xue Lanfen. I aspire to pursue a Bachelor's in Psychology and want to spend this year working hard to get into my first choice to fulfill my goal. I volunteer at an old age's home and like to cook in my free time. I hope to get along and learn with and from all of you. Thank you." Xue Lanfen's introduction was short but covered both academic and personal parts of her life, along with a polite statement toward her classmates. There was a round of applause from the class, much louder than any other introduction.

Then came Lin Tian's turn, who was the last one in the class to introduce himself. He stood up and spoke in a voice that easily reached everyone's ears. "I'm Lin Tian from Fourth Middle. Let's get along this year," Lin Tian sat down faster than he had stood up after his lackluster introduction that prompted the customary weak applause.

Fu Xin took the opportunity to properly observe Lin Tian as he introduced himself. From his body language, it looked like Lin Tian didn't want any attention from his classmates, and it truly made Fu Xin doubt if his assumption about Lin Tian being the so-called 'protagonist' was correct or not.

He glanced at Xue Lanfen. 'Maybe she's the protagonist,' he wondered. There were as many novels with female protagonists as there were with male ones— and from the difference in behavior, Xue Lanfen clearly seemed to be more suited to be a protagonist character. 'This is such a pain.' He was now in possession of a system and wanted to explore it more, but he was stuck in the class. 'I should've gone to the nurse's office,' Fu Xin sighed.

Because Fu Xin had been skipped, it was his turn at last to introduce himself. He stood up and spoke with a smile. "Good morning, everyone. My name is Fu Xin. My friends describe me to be a friendly person, and I like to believe that to be true. I look forward to getting along with all of you throughout the year. If any of you require any form of help, my doors are always open to you all. Let's do our best together this year."

There was a final round of applause for Fu Xin, marking the end of the introductions. Teacher Hao immediately moved on to the next agenda of the day.

"We have to decide the class representatives for the class," Teacher Hao said. "Who would like to volunteer for the position? It's a rewarding position, I assure you."

Alas, no hands were raised in response. Even though Teacher Hao said it was a rewarding position, it didn't seem that way. There had been class representatives during the first and second years, and the position meant extra work for the ones selected; they were assigned tasks by the faculty and had to run after students trying to get homework on time and maintain discipline in class, among other things. Some wouldn't have minded if they were in their first and second year, but now in the third year, which was mainly devoted to college entrance examination preparation, no one wanted the extra responsibility.

Then from the class of no-shows, a hand rose up, and Xue Lanfen stood up. "I will take up the position, teacher," she said. At that moment, Xue Lanfen's reputation shone brightly as a model student.

"Good," Teacher Hao nodded with a hint of approval in her eyes. She looked at the rest of the class. "I want one of the boys to stand up as well. Anyone?" she asked and looked around until her eyes fell upon Fu Xin. "How about you, Fu Xin? Would you like to be the class representative?"

Fu Xin stood up and smiled. "I will be honored," he said. A leadership position in high school didn't amount to much when the merit criteria for college admissions were entirely test-based without any credit for co- and extra-curricular. But Fu Xin didn't mind being the class representative; he was a high school student now— and when in Rome, do as the Romans do.

After the morning 'setup' session, lectures begin in earnest with various teachers coming in, introducing themselves before diving straight into the curriculum— no time wasted. During the classes, Fu Xin would glance at Lin Tian from time to time. Lin Tian spent his time intently paying attention to the lectures and taking notes, and if not for him sneaking glances towards Xue Lanfen, Fu Xin would've dubbed him an ideal student.

The morning clock ticked away quickly, and Fu Xin was left sighing in frustration. He had spent most of his time either thinking about Lin Tian or staring at him— from another angle, it looked like Fu Xin was madly in love with Lin Tian and couldn't get him out of his mind like a lovestruck fool.

"Ugh." Today was supposed to be the pleasant first day of school, not this supernatural mess he had been thrown inside.

"Are you not feeling well, Brother Xin?" asked Ding Tong, who sat across the canteen table, eating one of the meal sets.

"You should go to the nurse's office if you're not feeling well," Guo Qing added from Ding Tong's side as he munched on some bread. "Or return home if you're truly not feeling well."

"There's no need to do either of that," Fu Xin said. He opened his homemade lunch box and began eating. After three months, Fu Xin had started to get used to the country's cuisine.

"Brother Xin, you're the class representative along with Xue Lanfen," Guo Qing said with a knowing smile on his face. "You will get to spend time with the goddess, get closer, and then..." He sighed, "I'm so jealous!"

Ding Tong snorted, "Be happy that she will be your sister-in-law." He turned to Fu Xin and said, "How are you going to start, Brother Xin? I say you should use class representative work and comparing notes as an excuse to switch seats with Xue Lanfen's neighbor every chance you get and build a relationship from there."

"That sounds good; I approve," Guo Qing said, nodding.

Fu Xin took a bite of his food and then proceeded to chew in silence. He was confused— Did the original Fu Xin like Xue Lanfen or something? He had the original's memory, and for the most part, they felt like they were his own memories and not borrowed from someone else. For the most part, that is... Fu Xin didn't get any emotional attachments and thoughts packaged with the memories— which was a strange experience as the lack of emotional connect made everything seem gray than the vibrancy it should have. Even if he got the memories, it didn't mean he had everything at his fingertips— there had been plenty of moments in the last three months where he had found himself not able to recall facts and memories related to the situation he was in— and that had created moments of embarrassment and trouble for him.

He tried to recall if the original liked Xue Lanfen. After searching, he found some memories related to Xue Lanfen. They were your average high school boy's memories about an attractive girl— gossiping and admiring. But he couldn't tell if the original liked Xue Lanfen from those because the original never vocalized his feelings in those memories, and if there was no vocal(or written) mention, then Fu Xin wasn't going to know about the original's feelings and thoughts.

Fu Xin finished eating the bite in his mouth. Then he spoke, "Why do you guys think I want to pursue Xue Lanfen?" In this situation, where he couldn't recall any relevant memories, it was better just to ask.

"Eh? What are you talking about, Brother Xin?" Ding Tong said. "Weren't you one who said you liked Xue Lanfen?"

Fu Xin looked around the canteen and noticed eyes turning to their table. "Keep your voice down, will you," he said to Ding Tong.

Ding Tong looked around and noticed people looking at him. He shrunk his neck and looked embarrassed. He muttered a feeble sorry.

"But what he said is true," Guo Qing said. "You told us you liked Xue Lanfen. Don't you remember?"

"When?"

"I don't know... I think it was on the roof before the summer break," Guo Qing said with a hum. "I said: Xue Lanfen is beautiful—"

"And then I said I'm going to pursue her," Fu Xin said while suppressing a groan. The memory came rushing back to Fu Xin. They were on the roof, passing the time, looking down at the girls on the field during their sports period. Xue Lanfen was one of the girls on the field. They had started to talk about girls, and the conversation naturally arrived at Xue Lanfen.

Fu Xin held his back from clicking his tongue. The original's memories were still there, and if they weren't forever lost in the neurons of his mind, then a stimulus like the Guo Qing narrating the situation could possibly trigger the memory.

He nodded for Guo Qing and Ding Tong. "Yes, I remember now. But that was then; I'm no longer interested in Xue Lanfen. So let's forget about that conversation." If Lin Tian was indeed the protagonist the system had identified, then Fu Xin didn't want anything to do with Xue Lanfen. He had seen how Lin Tian looked at Xue Lanfen— even a buffoon could tell that Lin Tian liked Xue Lanfen. Stepping between the hero and his heroine was a classic villainous action, and Fu Xin couldn't think of anything good coming out of it.

"Why so suddenly?" Ding Tong asked, shocked.

Fu Xin shrugged. "Does it matter? I'm not interested in her anymore."

Guo Qing and Ding Tong looked at each other once. "It's a pity then; you would've been good together," said Ding Tong.

"Another lifetime, maybe," Fu Xin said and continued eating. Inside, he was happy. On the day of the rooftop conversation, the three of them were alone, and now that he had cleared the case with all parties involved, it wasn't going to derail into an unfavorable situation. If he was to use cultured lingo— a flag had been crushed.

After lunch, everyone headed back to their classroom. On Fu Xin's way back, he met Teacher Hao in the corridor, who stopped him.

"Fu Xin, these are the college preferences for your class; take these and copy them over to the tables on this paper." Teacher Hao handed a stack of forms to Fu Xin along with two long white sheets with a table format printed over them. She continued, "Also, this has the information for the other fields in the table."

Fu Xin looked at the table format and saw that it not only had names and top college preferences but also other fields, such as individual finals scores in the first and second year. This is going to take time, Fu Xin thought.

"Till when do I have to complete this?" Fu Xin asked while trying to figure out how to wrap the task as quickly as possible. He wasn't thrilled by the prospect of staying in school longer than he had to.

"Divide the work with Xue Lanfen and give it to me before you have to leave school," Teacher Hao said. But what she wanted to say was that they should complete the task before they had to leave for their after-school coaching class.

The words weren't outright, but Fu Xin could hear them clearly. The country had a deep culture of sending students(mostly high school) children off to after-school coaching classes to prepare them for college entrance examinations. A teacher like Teacher Hao, who taught in a school that was supposed to be enough, couldn't mention after-school coaching.

"I will see that it is done by then," said Fu Xin. He didn't have after-school coaching. He had been asked if he needed extra help after school, but he had refused.

After reaching the class, Fu Xin set the papers in the faculty cabin to which he had the key. He looked back and found Xue Lanfen, as both of them had to complete the work, and it was definitely a two-person job with how near the deadline was.

'Ah,' when Fu Xin found Xue Lanfen, he also found Lin Tian sitting with her. He had pulled the chair from the desk in front of Xue Lanfen and had flipped it so he could sit facing her. They seemed to be working on a problem together, but from where Fu Xin stood, it looked more like they were chatting and not studying.

He's the protagonist, such thought passed Fu Xin's mind as he gazed at the duo. Lin Tian said something with a smirk, and Xue Lanfen rolled her eyes, and the atmosphere between the two of them looked jolly. From where Fu Xin stood, it was clearly the hero putting his moves on the heroine. The hero and the beautiful girl— it fitted the bill in every sense.

'Should I do it on my own?' Fu Xin thought. He didn't want to mess with the protagonist and get some kind of misfortune that he didn't even know the reason behind.

But then the system's words echoed in his mind: 'Stop the identified protagonist from growing and gaining hegemony. Failure to do so would naturally lead to death...'

That sounded like if Fu Xin didn't do anything, even if he steered clear of the protagonist's way, he would still die. Fu Xin didn't like the sound of that one bit. He gave it a bit of thought before he decided to proceed with what he was initially going to do.

"Classmate Xue," Fu Xin said as he approached Xue Lanfen's desk.

Xue Lanfen and Lin Tian both looked up from their conversation. Even though Fu Xin's eyes were focused on Xue Lanfen, he saw Lin Tian in his periphery— and he saw how the look in Lin Tian's eyes changed.

'Yeah...'


——

A/N:
Something to talk about the POV of this novel. Usually, in Chinese web fiction, the POV is an omniscient narrator who knows everything; they can see the world from a bird-eyes view while also knowing everyone's thoughts. It's a POV that I used when I first started to write and got really comfortable in, as I believe it's easier to write because of the freedom it provides. It usually is used to give the reader access to character reactions. For example, if the protagonist flirted with the heroine, the narrator would tell the heroine's thoughts even though moments earlier, he was just telling the protagonist's thoughts.

But for this story, I want to do something different. I want to write in a Third-Person Limited Omniscient (a.k.a. Third-Person Limited Flexible)— Essentially, the narrator gives readers access to the mind of just one character but also provides information to which the POV-character is not privy. In other words, we view the world through the main character's eyes and through the narrator's eyes.

During any chapter, you will only get access to one character's head— it can be Fu Xin or some other character— but along with it, the narrator might also pull away and look at the surroundings in a bird-eyes view; it won't be something drastic like telling what is happening in some other country, but just what's happening a few steps behind the POV character where he can't see.

Why am I doing this? Well, I want you guys to be on a journey with Fu Xin and not feel like you're watching his story from somewhere far away. You're experiencing things at the same time as Fu Xin. Why not First-Person Narrative— because I find it to be too restrictive. I don't want to lose the option of using some other characters as POV in chapters. Also, I tried writing in First-Person, and using 'I' so many times made me feel like I was putting myself in the MC's shoes— I don't want to do that; it takes away from the character.

 

[Fiction]

——

CHAPTER 3
[Intentionally Blank. Name of a podcast where the hosts couldn't end up thinking of a name, in the hopes they would come up with a good name.
Now, it is their podcast's official title.]

——​

Fu Xin held the smile on his face, hoping— nay praying, that it was pleasant, for he was doing everything in his power to keep the edge of his lips from twitching.

'Uwa, he's totally giving me the death stare,' Fu Xin thought as he felt Lin Tian's stare in his periphery. Even though Fu Xin worded it as a 'death stare,' it was more like a hidden 'death glare,' that was breaking out on the surface. 'He's the protagonist, definitely; no two ways about it— this man's a gold-blooded protagonist.' But then Fu Xin took a moment to think about the situation— if he was talking with his crush, enjoying the moment when some other person came to interrupt what was turning out to be a great conversation— wouldn't he be pissed?

'I would be pissed,' Fu Xin thought.

Fu Xin looked at Lin Tian and politely nodded as he took a good look at the man. Nothing had changed about Lin Tian; he still seemed the same as the person he had watched earlier in the morning.

'Maybe I'm overthinking; he's just angry that I interrupted his time with Xue Lanfen,' Fu Xin thought and decided to get out of their hair as quickly as possible.

"Yes?" Xue Lanfen said to Fu Xin.

Fu Xin got straight to the point. "Teacher Hao has assigned us a task that we have to complete before we return home today. We need to get together after school so we can finish this as quickly as possible and leave for home."

"Okay," Xue Lanfen said earnestly, "what does she want us to do?"

"It's just some data entry, grunt work basically. Let's meet here after classes end," Fu Xin had relayed everything he wanted, and when he got the confirmation from Xue Lanfen, he gave Lin Tian another polite nod before walking away. Lin Tian, however, didn't return the nod, instead stared at Fu Xin's back with an indifferent expression.

The lunch break and the classes resumed with different subjects coming in, introducing themselves and the curriculum for the year, their expectations, rules, and more, then started teaching. For Fu Xin, everything seemed blurry as the scenery outside a running train; however, at the same time, time seemed to flow slower for him because every time he looked at his watch, only ten or so minutes had passed. That continued until the school day finally ended, and students headed out to their homes, the library, or coaching classes.

"Brother Xin, you're not going home?" Guo Qing asked Fu Xin as he headed out with Ding Tong.

"Not yet. I still have some work to do. You guys head out; I will see you tomorrow," Fu Xin said as he packed up his bag.

"... Is that so? We will see you tomorrow then," said Guo Qing and pulled Ding Tong along with him. Fu Xin looked at the two rushing out as if they had just robbed a bank and had to get out of the city.

Fu Xin looked towards Xue Lanfen's chair and found her sitting there. He spoke when she looked at him. "Should we change location, or is here fine? No, right? Let's just work here in the classroom." As he spoke, Xue Lanfen frowned at first, then it went away, and she looked embarrassed. Fu Xin was confused but didn't pay attention to it— he badly wanted to return home.

"Here you go, this is what Teacher Hao gave me," Fu Xin set the forms and documents on the two tables that Xue Lanfen had joined to create a larger working workstation. "We have to fill these fields with the data from here. It's simple copying work."

Xue Lanfen nodded as she read the table format. "This looks important; we have to be careful not to make any mistakes."

"Luckily, the table format is divided into two— we each can take half of the class," Fu Xin sat down and pushed one of the table formats to Xue Lanfen's side and divided the forms that had the date. He further explained how they should split the work before finally getting to work— till now, not a single moment of unnecessary conversation had taken place.

Fu Xin kept his head down and worked diligently on copying quickly but also carefully. The orignal's handwriting hadn't been transferred to him completely— the brain still remembered the handwriting, and so did the body, but the presence of a new owner created a complication. The original writing was neat, clean, and pleasant to read, but Fu Xin— the current owner— hadn't written by hand regularly for a long time, and most of his written work was done through typing digitally; as such, his handwriting had deteriorated a lot— the mixture of those two inputs caused a type of conflict. Fu Xin's current handwriting looked a lot like the original's but worse, and the current Fu Xin tended to make a lot of mistakes if he hurried where the handwriting would worsen towards illegibility.

Fu Xin had worked hard on his handwriting during the break to make sure no one would notice something wrong, but even with the practice he had put in, Fu Xin had to put in conscious effort to write to a level where no one would notice something suspicious.

"Fu Xin, when do you have your coaching classes? If you're getting late, tell me, I will finish the work on my own after you have to go," Xue Lanfen said.

"I don't take coaching," Fu Xin said, not looking up from his work or stopping.

"You don't?" Xue Lanfen sounded surprised.

Fu Xin looked up and found her staring at one of the forms. He looked at it, and it was his academic performance form for the second year. A bitter smile curled up on Fu Xin's lips. The original had worked hard to have excellent grades, much higher than anything Fu Xin had managed to score in his past life. And he had done so without going to a coaching class. Why didn't he enroll in a coaching class? It was a personal choice, something Fu Xin was quite happy to not change. He sighed internally. The original was a diligent student— he had no choice but to be so.

"What about you? Don't you have coaching? What would you've done if I had left too early and you couldn't complete the work on time," Fu Xin asked. Xue Lanfen was kind, or at least compassionate; he had seen that from her offer to complete the work— but he wanted to gauge where it came from.

"I have private coaching sessions later in the day at my home, so I'm not in a hurry to return home," Xue Lanfen said.

Fu Xin nodded in understanding. Usually, coaching classes happened right after school without only a little gap as a relaxation gap. That was done so that the student would return home from coaching and still have ample time to do their homework and self-studying at night. In the country, high schoolers only had one job— that was to study. Private coaching classes at home meant that the student could schedule the lessons whenever it suited them and had higher flexibility, unlike the large classroom batches of the standard coaching classes.

'Her family must be rich,' Fu Xin thought, judging by their ability to pay for private coaching.

The conversation ended, and the two returned to work in silence with only the occasional question about doubt or problem that they sorted out with the other's help. Fu Xin appreciated the mindless work as it took his mind away. He didn't want to think about what he had experienced today yet; he had been using the lessons during the day to keep his mind from wandering— also, he needed to at least maintain the original's academic performance, if not improve on it, to avoid unneeded complications and trouble.

"This..." Xan Lanfen held another academic performance form and yet again looked at it with surprise in her eyes.

"Is something wrong?" Fu Xin asked.

"He said that he was serious about his studies... Are these scores of someone serious about his studies?" Xue Lanfen looked disappointed.

Fu Xin peeked at the document and saw Lin Tian's name on the top. Oops! Fu Xin winced. It seemed Lin Tian had bragged to Xue Lanfen, but now it had backfired. Fu Xin didn't make any comments, snarky or supportive, and returned to his work.

It was a tiring task, but with Fu Xin and Xue Lanfen working without distraction and with great team effort, they managed to complete it.

"We are early, I think," Fu Xin said while looking at his watch. He smiled, "Good work. Let's get all of this to the faculty room and call it a day."

They went to the faculty room and handed the completed work to Teacher Hao. She gave it a cursory check and approved the work. After getting some appreciation, Fu Xin and Xue Lanfen left for the front gate.

"Have you called someone to pick you up, or are you going home alone?" he asked as they reached the front gate.

"Someone is coming to pick me up," she said.

"I see. Good work. I will see you tomorrow then," Fu Xin said. He had done his civic duty of asking if she had a way to reach home safely, and now he could finally. He gave her a final bow before crossing the road towards his car.

"How was your day, young master?" Uncle Bao asked when Fu Xin entered the car.

"It was a long... long day. Take me home, Uncle Bao," Fu Xin said as he put on his seat belt. He sunk into the comfortable leather and closed his eyes.

The Fu family residence was a gated property with walls covering the estate and trees lining the walls with guards on the wrought iron gates protecting the estate. To get to the sprawling mansion, one had to travel the large concrete paved road that cut through the lush gardens of the property that a team of hired gardeners took care of all year round to keep the flower gardens vibrant, even going as far as to use a corner of the vast grounds to home grow herbs and vegetables to be used for cooking. Upon reaching the residential area upon which stood the mansion with a mix of Western and Eastern architecture, leaning towards Eastern to highlight the country's heritage. On the back of the estate was another stretch of gardens big enough to throw a sizable party for the guests, with a tennis court on the side equipped with a top-of-the-line tennis ball machine. Beyond the back gardens stood a large inground pool accompanied by a roofed structure furnished with everything needed to have a fun day of swimming.

The property had been with the Fu family for generations, and it was only five years back that the ancestral house was demolished for the new home to be built in its place. It took three years to build, and it had been two years since it was the principal residence for the Fu family.

The car reached the manor and looped around the fountain in the front before stopping. Fu Xin stepped out of the car and walked to the large double doors that Uncle Bao pushed open for him. If the exterior was a mix of western and eastern, the mansion's interior had an entirely modern Western look to it.

"Uncle Bao, tell Auntie that I won't be needing any refreshments and inform the staff that I'm not to be disturbed until I come out of the room," Fu Xin gave his instructions. He climbed up the double staircase and went straight to his room down the corridor.

Fu Xin locked the door, threw his school bag aside, kicked his shoes off, and pulled his tie and blazer off before letting himself fall on the big double bed with his arm covering his eyes. The day had been a tough one for him. One of the top ten— no, top five toughest days since he had come to inhabit Fu Xin's body.

After laying there for a while in his thoughts, Fu Xin sat up.

"System."

He waited for the HUD to pop in front of his vision or hear the monotone fabricated voice in his head, but nothing as such happened.

"System," he said again. Again nothing supernatural happened.

"Status."

"Inventory."

"Mission."

"Villain."

"Open Sesame!"

"Reveal"

"Link on."

No matter what he said, nothing worked. He even tried to issue mental commands and thought about the system really hard, but the words and voice didn't appear in front of him.

"That's not how systems are supposed to work," Fu Xin grabbed his head and groaned. He got up, walked to his study table, and picked a stack of multi-colored square post-its and a pen. Soon every sentence he could recall from his interaction with the system was on his bedroom walls.

"Attribute... Villain," Fu Xin stared at one of the post-its. What did that mean? He took another post-it and wrote on it: I am the villain? Then stuck it above the <Attribute: Villain> post-it. He noticed how the system talked about 'fate' in the same sentence, so he wrote 'Fate' on another post-it and stuck it near the previous two post-its. "I possess the villain attribute— no, it was pushed on to me," Fu Xin spat; he didn't ask for this, "and it has caused some fate to be constructed— what is this fate?"

Fu Xin looked at the post-it a distance from the attribute-and-fate cluster and saw the 'Response' post-it that said that if he didn't stop the identified protagonist, it would lead to his death. He looked between the 'Response' and 'Fate' post-it and formed a connection. Stop the protagonist from rising or fail to do so and die as an effect... that was his fate.

He was fucked. Fu Xin felt a painful throbbing rise in his head. Even if he did nothing and stayed away from the protagonist's way, he would still end up dying. He had no other option than to face off against the protagonist and win... at least that was what the system had said.

'Wait...' Fu Xin frowned. A supernatural system suddenly appeared, forcing order upon him and warning that failure was death. But who said that had to happen? What if it was a bluff, and this so-called system was trying to trick him into doing its bidding? Maybe the reason why it didn't appear before him when he called for it was that it was feeble and couldn't appear anymore, having used all its power to issue the mission to him.

Fu Xin pulled out more post-its and pasted all of his thoughts on the wall. Some included: what if the so-called protagonist didn't exist and the system was trying to deceive him into making an unrelated person's life hell because that would help the system regain its power. What if the system knew about his transmigration status and chose him as the host for that very reason, knowing that he would be more perceptive to its words because a system appearing out of nowhere was just as supernatural as transmigrating to a foreign otherworld, and he wouldn't doubt it.

"Or maybe I'm going crazy, and everything is my delusion," said Fu Xin, sighing. He took out another post-it and wrote that thought as well. Fu Xin didn't believe he was going crazy— but which crazy person believed they were going crazy?

Fu Xin stared at the cluster themed at the system tricking him. After looking at it all written up, Fu Xin realized that everything was his speculation, without not an ounce of anything validating even a part of it. At least, the fate and mission part of the post-it wall was tied down to reality by the system's appearance.

'It looks like wishful thinking that I'm hoping to be true.' Selective attention and selective retention were human tendencies which meant that people would only pay attention to and remember things that were related to them or were interested in. Fu Xin wanted the system to be an attempt at a con that the entire chain of thought seemed more and more probable to him. He was ignoring the facts that were clearly laid in front of him.

...He had to do what the system asked of him, or he risked dying.

Fu Xin clutched the pen in his hand and threw it hard at the wall. The pen bounced off the wall but left a streak of blue ink on the wall, floor, and on his clothes.

"Fuck!" Nothing good was going his way today.

Fu Xin stared at the ink streaks and stains unmoving for a moment before walking to the wall to weakly pull all the post-its off. Even though no one would understand what they were about without the context, if someone read them, they would definitely think there was something wrong with Fu Xin's brain. He shredded every post-it, crumbled them, then dumped them into the trash can.

Not caring if the ink on his clothes would stain the bedding, Fu Xin dropped onto the bed and closed his eyes for sleep to take over him. He was woken up by a voice calling him.

"...master ...young master ...young master!"

Fu Xin groggily opened his eyes and saw a middle-aged woman with gray strands in her black hair tied up in a bun. She stood by his bed, looking down at him. The woman was Auntie Cao, the caretaker for the Fu family. From Fu Xin's memories, Auntie Cao had been serving the Fu family since before his birth and had been a mainstay as a nanny in his memories.

He sat up on his bed and rubbed his eyes with his palms. "What time is it?" he asked.

"It's already eight, young master. For you to fall asleep at this time, are you feeling alright?" Auntie Cao placed the back of her palm on Fu Xin's forehead. "Mr. Bao told me you had a tough day. Is everything okay?"

Fu Xin pushed Auntie Cao's hand away. "It's nothing. I was feeling tired after the first day and dozed off without knowing."

"And what happened here?" Auntie Cao pointed at the ink stains on his clothes and wall.

"I had my pen in my pocket and was taking it out when it fell. The ink spilled out when it hit the ground," Fu Xin said in an excuse. He got up from his bed and asked to change the subject, "Is the dinner ready?"

"...Yes, it is ready."

"Then let's go. I'm hungry," Fu Xin said. "What about mother and father?"

"They will not be returning home."

"Hmm..." That was fine with Fu Xin; he didn't mind.

Fu Xin changed out of his ink-stained clothes and was dumping them into the laundry basket when he noticed the trash can with the shredded paper. There was no use in thinking about all of this; all it did was give him anxiety. Tomorrow was going to tell him more about what situation he was in.

 

[Fiction]

——

CHAPTER 4
[I used to be ordinary, now I aim to become a Chad.]

——​

The day started as usual for Fu Xin. He got up early in the morning, went for a run like the original had been doing for years, took a bath, and went down to the dining room for breakfast.

On the large dining table, made from heavy mahogany wood with a glistening finish, that could seat sixteen people, Fu Xin sat alone near the head of the table. The original had been raised to eat at the table without any entertainment to accompany the meal, and it took Fu Xin some time to get used to it because he always had something playing in front of him on some kind of screen in his past life.

After having his fill, Fu Xin headed out to school with Uncle Bao. They rode the same route every day, watching the same buildings, the same people going about the same routine, enjoying the comfort of the monotony that rendered his mornings calm and comforting. The commute from home-to-school or school-to-home took anywhere from twenty to thirty-five minutes based on traffic, and, in that time, Fu Xin and Uncle Bao would talk— the two only got to converse with each other when they were in the car as Uncle Bao was his chauffeur.

"How are you feeling today, young master?" Uncle Bao looked at Fu Xin through the rearview mirror.

"I had a good run, the bath temperature was just correct, and Auntie Cao's food was on point as always— I'm riding the crest of a wave," and Fu Xin wasn't lying. The original's habit for the morning run meant that Fu Xin didn't start wheezing after three steps as he would've done in his past life's body— making the experience feel fun and rewarding. The bathrooms in the Fu family mansion made Fu Xin never miss his baths; he even bathed two times a day which he seldom did before. And he had come to believe that the cooking was why Auntie Cao was employed by the Fu family— her food was why his transition to the cuisine had been much smoother than he had believed it would be.

The two continued to talk about what was on the radio, the news they had heard, or any random topic that fell between them. The original didn't talk with Uncle Bao unless he needed something, but Fu Xin had decided to build a relationship so that he could have someone in his corner— it was one of the things he had changed from the original's behavior. In fact, Fu Xin had slowly taken the initiative to regularly talk with the house staff, and in three months, he had made progress he was satisfied with.

The car stopped across the street from Third High like it always did. Fu Xin, original and current, preferred to have the car stop across the street and walk to the other side— though for two completely different reasons.

"I will see you after school, Uncle Bao. Also, you can take the day off after we return home; I have no plans to go out today," Fu Xin said as he got out of the car.

"Thank you, young master," Uncle Bao said with a smile.

Fu Xin crossed the road. Near the gate, he smiled and greeted the people he knew and made small talk with his previous classmates. As he walked through the school front compound, Fu Xin felt a shove to his shoulder from the back. The shove was strong, and Fu Xin hurried forward a step to maintain balance. Fu Xin looked back and saw a man, and he had to raise his eyes to look at the face, for the person towered over him by at least a head and half. Fu Xin was by no means short in stature; blessed by good genetics, he was over six feet and one inch— but this man was a literal giant.

"You know, I have already told you this countless times, but you have to control your strength," Fu Xin said as he rubbed the back of his shoulder.

The giant grinned widely and wrapped his arm over Fu Xin's shoulder. "Oh, come on, don't be a baby; it was just a little poke; you can take it," he said.

"A poke from you, Hu Guangzhi, feels like a hit from a wrecking ball," Fu Xin said with a sigh.

If Guo Qing and Ding Tong were acquaintances and classmates, then Hu Guangzhi was a friend. The original and Hu Guangzhi had met on the first day of high school and had been friends ever since then, and before this year, they had been in the same class for two years.

"How was your game?" Fu Xin asked.

Hu Guangzhi raised three fingers. "I dropped thirty on them, got twelve rebounds, got a block each quarter, and I even got five assists. I think it was one of my best games. I completely destroyed them hard. The coach was so happy that he took the team to a barbeque."

"That's good!" Fu Xin clapped Hu Guangzhi on his back. "That would raise your stock a lot in the eyes of the senior teams."

"I sure hope it does," Hu Guangzhi said with a grin.

Hu Guangzhi was a basketball player, and he was a good one. He had a towering physique, great skills for someone his size and age, and a work ethic that respected the gifts he was blessed with. Like many talented teenage players in the country, Hu Guangzhi had signed with a junior team of the professional basketball league, but unlike his peers, Hu Guangzhi had done so at thirteen years old. He was tall and skilled enough that the team had signed him the moment he turned thirteen, the minimum age criteria.

"I hope they sign you quickly," Fu Xin said.

"Yeah, the games have been getting easier lately. I'm starting to feel that I'll smash them even if I don't practice," Hu Guangzhi had a boastful tone in his voice.

"But before that, you'll get smashed by your coach, and your father," Fu Xin.

"That's why I'm practicing." Hu Guangzhi shrugged, "Well, I'll keep practicing as long as it keeps making me win."

Fu Xin shook his head. "Jocks, win junkies, all of you."

"Winning is fun, after all. You can only enjoy the game when you're winning. Losing is no fun." Hu Guangzhi stretched his arms up as he continued, "We should go out somewhere; we haven't been out in a while. My girlfriend has been nagging me to take her out somewhere nice."

"And why do you want me to be the third wheel?"

"Not a third wheel... She wants me to set one of her friends up with you."

Again due to good genetics and proper personal care, Fu Xin struck a handsome figure. Merging that with his good nature and excellent grades, Fu Xin was a target of a few confessions in his day. The original, however, had never accepted any confession thrown his way.

"No, thank you," Fu Xin said. He was well aware of how popular he was with girls, but he wasn't interested in dating right now. "You can tell Hao Haoxue that she should stop trying to tie her friends with me?"

"Hao Haoxue, what are you talking about? I broke up with her months ago. I have already had two girlfriends since then."

"You have?" Fu Xin raised his eyebrows, but he wasn't surprised. If Fu Xin didn't participate in dating, then Hu Guangzhi dated too much. Hu Guangzhi already had five girlfriends in high school. "What's her name? No, wait, you know what, don't bother, I doubt she will stick around long enough for me to remember the name."

"That's rude... Hey, you have Xue Lanfen in your class. Do you know if she's open to dating?" asked Hu Guangzhi. Fu Xin gave him a dirty look, and he shrugged in response.

They parted ways when they reached the floor of the third-year classrooms. Fu Xin entered his classroom and made his way to the desk, and only when he set his bag down did he look around the classroom and notice the boys were gathered near the back door. He walked through to the crowd and peered through to see what they were doing and saw that they had gathered around Lin Tian's desk.

One look at Lin Tian and Fu Xin was more sure than anything in life that he had found the 'identified protagonist' that the system had prompted him about yesterday. Gone was the man with hair that looked like they had never seen a comb; he was now replaced by someone with an era-appropriate thirty-seventy split clean combed and gelled hair. The shirt that had been wrinkled and untucked was now properly ironed and tucked into the pants. Even the dusty shoes of yesterday looked like they had been polished by a military man.

Fu Xin furrowed his brows. An appearance change could be chalked up to a change in life choices. But there was one thing that couldn't be changed in a day— personality. The Lin Tian in front of him was chatting with his classmates, cracking jokes, and leading the conversation with engaging stories and anecdotes that hooked people into listening. Fu Xin stepped back; he needed one more confirmation before he could be sure about his belief.

He called Ding Tong, who was also listening to Lin Tian, to his desk. "Hasn't Lin Tian changed a lot suddenly?" Fu Xin asked.

"It was a surprise; I didn't think he would be like this," Ding Tong nodded.

"Do you know how he was before... as in last year?"

Ding Tong titled his head, "What might you mean?"

Fu Xin held back a sigh. He looked around the classroom. "Who in our class was in Lin Tian's class last year?"

"That girl, she was in Lin Tian's class," Ding Tong pointed at a bespectacled girl sitting in the front row, with her face hunched over a book. "I can't remember her name."

"You stay here; I will go talk to her." Fu Xin got up and walked to the girl. "Classmate Shi..."

The girl looked up, her eyes widening behind her thick round glasses. She sat up straight so fast that the front two legs of her chair lifted for a moment.

"Y-Yes?"

"Sorry to disturb you while you're studying, but may I ask you a question," Fu Xin asked with a smile.

The girl nodded. Her hand subconsciously went to her hair to smoothen the strands in disarray.

"I heard that you were in Lin Tian's class. He's so different from how he was yesterday— how was he last year, if I may ask," Fu Xin asked.

"Lin Tian?" She glanced back at Lin Tian briefly. "He didn't talk much, so I don't know. I think he only had one friend. I remember talking to him a few times, and he wouldn't look at me when I was speaking, so rude."

Fu Xin didn't have to listen more. He was now sure about a lot of things. He was convinced that the system wasn't his hallucination, that the mission decreed by the system wasn't false, and that Lin Tian... was a protagonist. 'And that if I don't put him down, I will die,' Fu Xin's stomach hurt as he thanked the classmate and returned to his chair.

"Brother Xin, did Lin Tian offend you in some way?" Ding Tong asked. He pulled up his sleeve showing a bone-skinny arm, "Do you want me to take care of him for you? I'll wipe the floor with him."

Fu Xin doubted that would happen, but he didn't voice his opinion. "Do you find fighting fun? Go study and try to improve your life," he sighed. If he was going to go against a protagonist, then he was going to be careful about it and not send a high school student acting like a two-bit thug to beat up the protagonist. He wasn't going to be the chef who would cook up the protagonist by throwing ingredients known as obstruction one after another, each of increasing difficulty until the protagonist was a deliciously cooked product able to get Michelin stars to the restaurant.

The school bell rang, and the class settled down for the lectures. Teacher Hao entered the classroom looking like a strict taskmaster, put down her things on the teacher's table, and then roamed her hawk-like sharp eyes over the classroom. Her gaze reached the back, narrowed, and widened in surprise.

"Lin Tian," Teacher Hao said. "I see that you have made some changes to yourself," there was a hint of approval in her voice.

"Thank you, Teacher Hao," Lin Tian stood up and spoke clearly and loudly, much different from yesterday's Lin Tian. "I have decided to get serious about my life and future. I will study and score high on the college entrance examinations and get into Peking University!"

Few students in the class broke into chortles and laughter at Lin Tian's declaration. The Third High was a school with a relatively small batch size, so generally, everyone in the same year knew each other on some level. Even if Lin Tian wasn't socially popular in Third High, it was known that he wasn't academically gifted. He could've been above average for all people knew, but as long as he wasn't scoring near the top in every exam, he wasn't worthy of being mentioned in the race for colleges like Peking University.

"Quite!" Teacher Hao silenced the class. She said to Lin Tian, "They aren't wrong in laughing. Your grades aren't good enough to even think about Peking University. If you want to make that statement true, then you'll have to work harder than everyone else because they're already ahead of you, and you need to catch up."

Lin Tian stood up straighter and smiled confidently. "I'm willing to bet with anyone in this class that I'll score higher than them in the first mock exam."

During their third year of high school, students all around the country took various mock exams in preparation for the college entrance examinations. Three official mock tests were conducted before the real examination— the first mock was conducted city-wide, and the ranks were compiled within each city; the second mock was conducted over the province-level, and the ranks were compiled within the providence; the third mock, the final test, was a nation-wide test, essentially the same as the real examination, and every student could see where they stood among the students pan-country.

The declaration sent a wave of discussion among the class. Some hooted, others scoffed, but everyone was looking at Lin Tian in a new light— wondering if this would be a story of fabulous change or a tale of boasting turning into failure.

"Good determination!" Teacher Hao said, looking impressed.

Fu Xin looked around the class. 'As expected of a hero, it took him one day to switch it all up.' He could feel that no matter what the result, today, Lin Tian had left behind his previous reputation as a man with severe social anxiety and had made people look at him in expectation.

But now, a question appeared in Fu Xin's mind. What had caused such a drastic change in Lin Tian? Fu Xin believed that something in Lin Tian had awakened, causing the system to label him as a protagonist— if not, the system should've done it before when they had passed each other in the corridor at the end of the last school year, around the time when he had just transmigrated.

'Is it a system?' Fu Xin thought. 'But would a system give him such confidence?' All his system gave him was anxiety. 'Did he get an ability that will allow him to ace the examination? Maybe, perfect recall or instant comprehension?' He silently clicked his tongue; figuring out the cheat ability was tough when there were so many abilities to choose from. 'Why didn't my system give me a cheat ability?'

Lin Tian looked at Fu Xu while the latter was looking at the former. Lin Tian raised his chin and smirked. "What about you, Fu Xin? Do you dare to take this bet, or are you scared that you will lose to me?" His voice had a boastful and provocative tone.

All eyes in the class turned to Fu Xin. The original had been a top scorer from the very first test in the first year of high school and hadn't dropped below the top five on any test, and was one of the people in the school expected to end up at Peking or Tsinghua University.

Teacher Hao didn't say anything to stop where the conversation was heading.

Fu Xin didn't reply immediately and gazed at Lin Tian in silence as he contemplated how to answer the naked challenge. He finally shrugged and smiled, "Sure, why not? I don't mind. I agree to this little bet of yours."

"Little bet?" Lin Tian frowned. "Are you saying that you don't see me as a threat, that I'm not any competition? Remember that you're making this bet in front of the class and Teacher Hao— losing after you underestimate your opponent will cost you greatly." There was a glint in Lin Tian's eyes even as he said, all with a frown on his face and displeasure and warning in his voice.

"You're correct in saying that I don't see you as competition," Fu Xin raised his index finger. "There's only one person here I consider the competition."

The immediate knee-jerk reaction from the class was to look at Xue Lanfen, another one of the top scorers of the batch, who, similar to Fu Xin, hadn't dipped below the top five in any test since the very start, showing the consistency expected from a model student. Even Lin Tian himself gazed at Xue Lanfen, who was looking at Fu Xin.

Fu Xin smiled and then pointed the raised index finger at himself. "I am the only one who I consider as competition."

What? A wave of whispers and mutters went through the class as everyone looked at Fu Xin in surprise.

"As long as I'm better than the 'me' of yesterday and aim to trump the 'me' of tomorrow, I will continue to improve. Making this bet with you won't make me change," Fu Xin said leisurely. "My goal is to achieve excellence... success and reaching the top will come naturally along with it. And when I reach the top, I will work to dethrone that version of me. It's as simple as that."

The previous feeling of surprise was replaced with looks of admiration. Guo Qing even clapped until he was stopped by a glare from Teacher Hao. Another person who was glaring was Lin Tian; he was glaring at Fu Xin.

Fu Xin shrugged at Lin Tian and gestured with his eyes to make him look. Lin Tin frowned as he looked where Fu Xin gestured— and at the same time, Xue Lanfen, who was looking at Fu Xin, saw him gesture towards her, so she looked at who he was gesturing to and turned her head. Two people— Lin Tian and Xue Lanfen— turned towards each other, and their eyes met. Lin Tian was caught by surprise, and his expression went from a glare to a startled smile of awkwardness.

Fu Xin thinned his eyes when he saw his plan to make Lin Tian feel conscious succeed. He waited for a second, yet there was no HUD in front of his eyes or voice in his eyes in his head. He had embarrassed Lin Tian in front of the class with his 'only one competition' statement but didn't get any response from the system, so he tried the little trick with Xue Lanfen, yet there wasn't any response.

'What the hell?! Isn't the system supposed to reward me every time I stop the hero from succeeding?' Fu Xin thought. 'Shitty system!'

Even with the small victories, he wasn't happy at all.

 

[Fiction]

——

CHAPTER 5
[One appreciated the simpler times, the other remained oblivious to their joys]

——​

Fu Xin smiled to himself as he wrote and solved the mathematical equation on the backboard in chalk. He relished his time as a student, enjoying the security of the school and classroom that lay separate from the realities of the adult world of responsibilities. He only had one job, one expectation as per the societal norm— that was to study diligently. He didn't have to participate in the workforce, pay rent and utilities, save and invest his money, pay taxes, build his professional career, or pursue and plan for a family.

He could do his one job without any other stress. So, he did just that. He studied his heart out during the lessons— taking down notes, answering questions, asking his doubts, and participating in full. Before, it was to emulate the original's behavior and performance, whereas now it was because of self-gratification.

What about his fate as a villain and the presence of the hero, Lin Tian, who could lead Fu Xin's second dig at life to an end, as announced to him by a supernatural system?

"That is correct," the mathematics teacher said as he looked over Fu Xin's solution. He turned over to the class and said, "Everyone, please note this down, this type of question tends to appear in the examination, and this solution will be quite useful to you." He looked at Fu Xin approvingly before sending him back to his seat.

Fu Xin was diligently studying, so he wasn't worried about losing out in a competition for marks and grades. 'Well, if he possesses some cheat, then I might need to take care of it,' he thought. Fu Xin wasn't worried about getting rid of the possible cheat right away; he needed to figure it out first, then he had until the time of the mock exam to get rid of it.

As Fu Xin sat down, Lin Tian stood up from his chair. "Teacher, Fu Xin's solution is inefficient and wastes time, which is vital in the exams. I have a better way to solve this type of equation."

The mock test bet between Fu Xin and Lin Tian was still fresh in the minds of the class. When Lin Tian spoke, the class turned to look at Fu Xin for his reaction and found a curious look on his face.

The teacher called Lin Tian to the blackboard and asked him to show his solution. Lin Tian confidently walked to the front, and under everyone's eyes, he wrote down a solution beside Fu Xin's answer. When Lin Tian stepped aside, everyone saw that his explanation was only half as long as Fu Xin's.

"...It is indeed a shorter method of solving," the mathematics teacher said after considering Lin Tian's solution. "Would you like to explain it to your classmates?"

Lin Tian smiled, turned to the class, and began explaining his solution. His delivery was clear and audible, and Fu Xin honestly thought Lin Tian's explanation was much better than the teacher's.

"...and that's how you can solve this type of equation faster," Lin Tian finished.

The teacher caressed his chin as he studied the writing on the board. "This is indeed a faster solution... Class, note this solution down. Good work, Lin Tian. I'm happy to see you turning serious about your studies."

Lin Tian smiled. "It was high time I did, teacher." He then looked at Fu Xin, and seeing that, so did the rest of the class. Lin Tian, who had challenged Fu Xin in academics, had solved the same question much faster than the latter.

At the moment, Fu Xin noted Lin Tian's solution in his notebook. It was indeed a quicker method than his. He had thought he had till the test to figure out the reason behind Lin Tian's confidence; however, after seeing this performance, his thoughts had changed a little. 'If he has something like perfect recall or instant comprehension, then aren't I screwed already?' There was a real chance he could lose the bet— and even though he couldn't see how losing an academic bet would risk his life, he never knew what the causal-effect domino would end up dumping him.

Fu Xin tapped the back of his pen on his notebook once before raising his hand.

"Yes, Fu Xin?" asked the teacher.

"Teacher, I disapprove of Lin Tian's solution," Fu Xin said.

Lin Tian sneered in response. "Why, because it's better than yours, and you can't accept it?"

Fu Xin shrugged. "It's indeed faster than mine, but that's only because it's a shortcut method. Without understanding how to solve the problem without the shortcut, the way I solved the problem, one can't utilize the shortcut method." He told the teacher, "Now that Lin Tian has introduced the shortcut method, everyone in the class will prefer it. But what happens if the examination adds a twist to the problem? Those who don't have a firm grasp on the basics won't be able to adapt the shortcut to the twisted problem and will inversely waste more time. I see the utility of Lin Tian's solution but implore everyone here to familiarize themselves with the basic method before moving on to the shortcut... That was all I had to say," after saying that, he sat down.

The attention shifted from Fu Xin to the teacher and Lin Tian. The mathematics teacher said, "Fu Xin brought up a great point here. The examinations will always hide a twist in the questions, and Lin Tian's shortcut solution will only work there when you know the basics. Having a calculator in hand doesn't do any good when you don't know how to use it. Everyone, make a note of this; solve this type of equation through Fu Xin's method until you're sure you understand the essence of it."

Fu Xin leaned back in his chair and stared at Lin Tian as he stood awkwardly in front of the class. Calling Lin Tian's method a shortcut was a choice; in truth, it was an advanced solution— but 'shortcut' had a cheaper feel to it.

"You can return to your seat, Lin Tian," said the teacher. "Good job."

Lin Tian's tight smile twitched as he walked back to his seat. He looked towards Fu Xin, and they met eyes. Fu Xin shrugged with a light smile. Lin Tian's hand curled into a fist hard enough that his fingers dug into his palm. The situation wasn't a big deal, but Lin Tian had deliberately escalated it, and Fu Xin had simply continued the trend.


After the class ended, Fu Xin was talking with his neighbor when he saw someone arrive at his desk from his periphery. He turned to find Xue Lanfen there with a notebook in her hand. "Fu Xin, can you explain the equation you solved on the board to me again. I got confused between what you and Lin Tian explained," Xue Lanfen said.

Fu Xin was tempted to look at Lin Tian but deciding it would be rude, he forwent that thought and gave his attention to Xue Lanfen. "The method isn't that difficult. Sit down. It won't take me long to explain," he said.

Xue Lanfen spoke to the person sitting in front of Fu Xin, and the boy agreed and got out of his seat quicker than the bell at the end of the school day. 'As expected of the heroine,' Fu Xin thought. He had labeled Xue Lanfen as the heroine the moment he had identified Lin Tian as the hero. The boy pined after the girl harder than someone desperately trying to get out of the friend zone for years.

Fu Xin did nothing but explain the solution when Xue Lanfen presented her notebook to him. It was a simple interaction where he taught and she listened. As he was describing the mathematics, Fu Xin heard the classroom door rattle open; knowing that it was close to the end of lunch, his eyes instinctively went to the door— there he saw Lin Tian enter the classroom. He immediately looked away before Lin Tian could notice and leaned forward a bit as he continued his explanation.

Fu Xin then counted to five.

One... two... three... four... five.

"What are you doing?"

It was just as he had thought would happen; Fu Xin smiled in his mind. He looked up and saw Lin Tian right next to his table, looking down at him and Xue Lanfen. There was a faint frown between Lin Tian's brow that he had hidden quite well, but Fu Xin, who was anticipating the reaction, could clearly see it.

"Oh, Lin Tian, what great timing," Fu Xin said. "It seems our discussion in the mathematics lesson caused confusion for Classmate Xue here, so I was explaining my portion to her. Why don't you explain your solution to her as well. Come on, take a seat."

He didn't wait for a response and turned to Xue Lanfen. "I think you know enough to learn Lin Tian's shortcut. The problem I said in the lesson won't apply to you, you're smart enough, smarter than me probably... I think you've been ahead of me in rankings more than I have been ahead of you."

Xue Lanfen looked embarrassed at Fu Xin's compliment. There were people who were good with compliments, while others were not. Fu Xin would've thought Xue Lanfen would be good at taking compliments, but apparently, he would be wrong.

"Lanfen, let's go back to your seat; I will explain it to you there," Lin Tian said.

Fu Xin noticed that Xue Lanfen frowned when she heard Lin Tian. 'She doesn't like his way of addressing her so casually. That's... great!' He was delighted that she hadn't blushed in embarrassment as one would expect from a heroine when called intimately by a hero.

Maybe there was hope for him after all, thought Fu Xin.

"Lin Tian, can you explain it here? I'm sure Fu Xin would also like to listen to your explanation," Xue Lanfen said and looked at Fu Xin.

"I would appreciate that very much actually," Fu Xin smiled at Lin Tian.

Lin Tian looked like he wanted to say something but pursed his lips to stop it from coming out. He turned back and pulled out the empty chair behind him to sit. He began the explanation, and all the time, he only looked at and talked to Xue Lanfem, as if pretending that Fu Xin didn't exist. Fu Xin didn't mind. He craned his neck to peek at the notebook and listened to Lin Tian— and just like before, the explanation was great.

"That was great," Fu Xin said. "Thank you, Lin Tian." Lin Tian didn't look happy at all when Fu Xin said that. Whereas when Xue Lanfen did the same, Lin Tian was merry and charming. However, Xue Lanfen looked uncomfortable with Lin Tian's intensity. Lin Tian, however, didn't notice Xue Lanfen's reaction.

"Classmate Xue, I have something regarding class representative work; I was wondering if we could talk alone about it," Fu Xin said.

Lin Tian immediately interjected. "Does it have to be now? The break is about to end. You can do it later. It's not like that it matters."

Fu Xin hadn't thought the conversation would take this turn. He was planning to separate Lin Tian and Xue Lanfen and then capitalize on her discomfort to gain her favor and attempt to establish a mental relationship between discomfort and Lin Tian. But he hadn't expected Lin Tian to throw in the last statement as he had done.

Xue Lanfen frowned. "What do you mean, Lin Tian? What does not matter?"

"The so-called class representative work," said Lin Tian. "It serves no purpose in college entrance examinations; instead, it wastes your time and decreases your chance to get into a good college. What it truly is unpaid labor that the teacher uses when they don't want to do the work on their own. Worthless."

'Wow, he went hard,' Fu Xin thought in surprise. Though now it was his turn to swoop in and confront Lin Tian about his words. But, he didn't get the chance as Xue Lanfen spoke up first.

She turned to Fu Xin and said, "Lin Tian is right; the break is about to end. We shouldn't talk now," so she said, but then dropped an unexpected bomb. "Let's talk after school, we will go to the library together." Xue Lanfen got up and walked back to her chair without sparing a look at the bewildered Lin Tian.

Fu Xin followed Xue Lanfen with his eyes before looking at the stunned Lin Tian, who was still sitting in the chair looking at Xue Lanfen. "Lin Tian, return to your seat. The break is about to end, and I would like to revise the material before the lesson starts. Also, my neighbor wants her chair back, so get up now."

Lin Tian looked behind and saw the owner of the chair he was borrowing, standing beside him, frowning. He glared at Lin Tian and asked, "Don't think I don't know what you're trying to do."

"Whatever do you mean?"

"I know you like Xue Lanfen. But know that you're not going to get her. She's mine."

Fu Xin raised his hands. "I have no idea where that's coming from. Also, Xue Lanfen is no one's but her own. Respect her a little bit, will you? Now, go away, shoo-shoo."

"You!" Lin Tian turned red in fury.

"Lin Tian, get the hell out of my seat!" Fu Xin's neighbor, who had been waiting for her chair to be vacated, kicked the leg of the chair. "Do it now, or don't blame me when I register a complaint with Teacher Hao!"

Lin Tian grabbed Fu Xin's desk to stop himself from falling out of the chair because of the well-placed kick. He immediately jumped up from the chair and scowled at the neighbor who was already pulling her chair back to her desk as though if she didn't hurry, Lin Tian would again sit down. When Lin Tian turned to look at Fu Xin, he had already taken out his study material and was flipping through it. In the end, Lin Tian stomped his way to the back of the classroom to his desk and laid down with his head between his arms.


Looking at Xue Lanfen sitting in front of him, Fu Xin went through his actions of the day and contemplated if she should've done something differently to not be in the library studying with Xue Lanfen. The 'heroine' sitting together with the 'villain' was an unnatural situation that wasn't supposed to happen if not strictly necessary, such as two class representatives working together on some task— but today, it was Xue Lanfen who had set up this meeting, even though it was him that prompted it in the first place.

'But I wasn't planning anything like this,' Fu Xin thought. All he wanted was to one-up Lin Tian whenever he tried to quarrel with him. 'This can't hurt, I suppose.'

The wording of the mission from the system was to stop the protagonist from growing and gaining hegemony. However, the problem that pricked Fu Xin at night was that he didn't know exactly what he needed to do to complete said mission.

The goals weren't SMART. They weren't 'Specific' enough— what did growth and hegemony mean here? How was he going to 'Measure' his progress because the system didn't provide him any status bar— in fact, it didn't give him zilch. He didn't know if the goal was 'Attainable'— was he even capable of stopping Lin Tian; even if Fu Xin thought he was capable, there was nothing tangible backing up his claim, except for maybe the system which hadn't been seen again after the first and only appearance. The goal wasn't 'Relevant'... well, it was relevant— if he didn't attain them, he was going to die, and Fu Xin didn't want to die; yet again, the specifics of his death were vague at best. And finally, they were 'Time-bound'— until when did he have to keep an eye on Lin Tian, was Fu Xin expected to interfere throughout his life?

'I'm in desperate need of more information,' Fu Xin thought.

"How do you pronounce this?" Xue Lanfen, sitting opposite him across the library table, pointed to an English word in the foreign language book.

Fu Xin leaned forward to look at the word next to her finger. "Ah, leisure... that's an interesting word. It can be pronounced two ways— Leh-szuhr and Lee-szuhr. I say it as Lee-szuhr." He guessed that hanging out with the heroine after school hours could be perceived as some sort of actionable progress.

Xue Lanfen repeated the word after Fu Xin. She made a mistake, and Fu Xin repeated the word. Both ended up speaking the word half a dozen times before Xue Lanfen reached an acceptable level.

"Your accent sounds like one of the actors in the English movies," Xue Lanfen said. "How did you get so good at English?"

"I was taught to speak it with that accent. My parents hired an English tutor for us when we were young, and I guess we ended up copying her accent," Fu Xin said; however, most of it was false. The original's parents did hire an English tutor, but she was from the country, so the mother tongue heavily influenced her accent, which was what the original had learned. But the current Fu Xin, who spoke English daily in his past life, was naturally more comfortable with his way of speech than the original's. "There are plenty of foreigners who come into the country as English teachers; you can hire one of them part-time if you want someone to practice with."

He then shrugged and spoke in English, "We both can exclusively speak in English to each other. That'll be great practice if we both make an effort." In truth, he just wanted someone to speak to him in English.

"Let's do that!" Xue Lanfen said.

Fu Xin was taken aback by the enthusiasm. He said, "Are you sure? I mean, I offered without thinking, but if you're serious about it, sure, let's do it." Fu Xin was all in for it. He genuinely thought he was getting more out of this than she was. "Let's do it. From now on, only English between us. I won't reply back to you if you don't speak to me in English; you do the same to me."

"We will get a lot of strange looks when we talk."

"Who cares. And, after a while, they will get used to it."

"Thank you for today," Xue Lanfen said.

Fu Xin was about to not reply, but when he noticed her tone, he understood she was talking about the situation in the break. "I just helped you with an answer that's not worth mentioning," Fu Xin said as he read through the prose in his textbook.

"I wasn't talking about that. I meant about Lin Tian."

Fu Xin looked up at her. "What do you mean?"

"He made me uncomfortable, and you noticed it. That's why you made up the class representative excuse," Xue Lanfen said. "Don't try to deny it."

Fu Xin shrugged with a smile. "I wasn't confrontational in the classroom because I wasn't sure how you prefer to deal with it," there were people who disliked confrontations and were comfortable using other means, "but if you think he's crossing a line, confront him strongly. Of course, I'm always there if you need some help." Any man hearing harsh words from his crush would receive great damage, and Fu Xin hoped Lin Tian would be no different. And if the villain was there along with the heroine confronting the hero, it would definitely go towards the mission.

'But, I'm surprised he isn't here....' Fu Xin surveyed the library and couldn't see Lin Tian's shadow anywhere, which was strange when Lin Tian knew they were coming to the library after school. Fu Xin couldn't imagine Lin Tian watching them from hiding. Lin Tian had barged between their conversation during the break; the library was no different.

"Fu Xin?"

Hearing Xue Lanfen, Fu Xin dumped his thoughts about Lin Tian's absence on the back burner and smiled as he opened his mouth to happily converse with the heroine in English.

 

[Fiction]

——

CHAPTER 6
[Emotion can get in the way or get you on the way]

——​

Early in the morning of the day after he had met with Xue Lanfen in the library, Fu Xin looked at the wall clock hung on the door-side wall of the classroom. The morning bell was about to ring, signaling the start of the school day, but when Fu Xin looked at the back of the classroom, he noticed that Lin Tian was missing from his desk— even his bag couldn't be seen.

Except for the first day of the new school year, Lin Tian had promptly arrived in the classroom ten minutes before the first bell. But today, it was already past that time, and Lin Tian wasn't in the classroom.

Fu Xin wondered if Lin Tian was taking a day off. 'Is it related to why he wasn't there at the library yesterday?' he thought. 'Or maybe he's just running late.'

Lin Tian wasn't a stalker who needed to follow Xue Lanfen everywhere, but from what Fu Xin had seen in the past month, he was sure that Lin Tian had a very deep crush on Xue Lanfen. If he wasn't hanging out with his one friend outside the class, Lin Tian was always around Xue Lanfen. It made Fu Xin wonder if there was a special reason behind Lin Tian's absence.

The door to the classroom slid open, and Zhang Xioli walked inside. Immediately, the students took their seats, and their morning chatter turned into whispers.

"Good morning, class. Teacher Hao is busy with another matter, so I will head the class today. Take out your books, so we can get started," said Zhang Xioli. She wore a black top with sleeves made from a see-through floral material and a pewter-gray knee-length pencil skirt. Zhang Xioli had been coming to the school and would attend Teacher Hao's classes from the back of the room. She had taught two classes till now, but both times, she was guided by Teacher Hao. This was going to be her first independent class.

Fu Xin, who had been thinking about Lin Tian, had missed Zhang Xioli and looked around to see what others were doing. He saw they were taking out their books and did the same, but then he doubled back and noticed there were two more empty seats other than Lin Tian's.

Guo Qing and Ding Ting.

Fu Xin knew instantly why Lin Tian wasn't in the class, why he wasn't there at the library yesterday, and why Teacher Hao wasn't guiding a teaching intern like Zhang Xioli.

His speculations were proven correct when the three missing boys arrived at the class after the first class. They attracted attention instantly when everyone saw their bruised and swollen faces. Ding Tong even had a visible cut on his lip. Guo Qing's already round face looked like a steamed dumpling that had been colored blue in some spots. Then there was Lin Tian, who had only one injury, a right black eye, but it was so bad that the eye had swollen so much that he couldn't even see through it.

Three of them were instantly surrounded by the entire class and were bombarded with questions. However, they were met with a closed-off response, with neither three telling them anything about how they had gotten the injuries. They kept their mouths shut. Guo Qing even shouted at one persistent classmate who kept asking questions. But their silence didn't stop the people from gossiping about what had happened. Some people even came from other classes to have a look, and it was inevitable that the entire school was talking about the irregular incident.

Fu Xin waited for the crowd to clear before heading toward Guo Qing and Ding Tong, who dodged his gaze when they noticed him approaching him.

'They picked up a fight with Lin Tian because of me,' Fu Xin didn't even need to think when the reason behind their guilty expression came to him. But before he could confirm it, the next professor arrived, and Fu Xin had to return to his seat.

During the lunch break, Fu Xin cornered Guo Qing and Ding Tong on the school roof. He told them to follow him to the roof, and like baby ducklings, they followed him, not saying a word along the way.

"So... tell me what happened?" Fu Xin asked.

"... Lin Tian, that punk picked up a fight with us," Guo Qing said, and he looked everywhere but at Fu Xin as he said that.

Ding Tong spoke when Fu Xin looked at him. "We got him good, though. Y-You saw his eye? I was the one who gave him that. You should've seen him on his ass flapping around on the ground when I hit him— it was so pathetic that it was funny," said Ding Tong so awkwardly that even a chimp would see through it.

Fu Xin fixed them with a stare, and they both covered. "Now tell me the truth. Who hit first and why?" he asked.

"We are not lying, Brother Xin," Guo Qing said. "Lin Tian hit us first." But from how he was staring, Fu Xin knew he was lying. So, Fu Xin turned to Ding Tong and stared at him silently.

The words couldn't leave Ding Tong faster, "Guo Qing hit first!"

"Ding Tong, you little shit!" Guo Qing glared at Ding Tong, which turned his bruised face uglier.

Fu Xin closed his eyes and groaned. It was the classic villain trope— the lackeys picking up a fight with the hero under the orders of the villain. But Fu Xin hadn't given any such order. He had even gone as far as to clarify the misunderstanding about him liking Xue Lanfen to make sure something like this never happened. Yet, it happened anyway.

"Why?" Fu Xin asked Ding Tong. He didn't forget to give Guo Qing a stern look.

"He was going to intrude at the library," Ding Tong said.

"So you started a fight with him for that? Are you two dead in the brain?!" Fu Xin threw his hands up exasperatedly. "Why did you two even try to stop him? It had nothing to do with you!"

"We thought—"

Fu Xin interrupted. "You thought I was spending time with Xue Lanfen and thought Lin Tian was going to disturb us, so you tried to stop him. Do you think I couldn't handle it on my own? I wouldn't have even needed to do anything; Xue Lanfen would've taken care of it out of annoyance." He sighed, "I told you there's nothing between Xue Lanfen and me, do get that in your mind."

Ding Tong and Guo Qing were no longer speaking or looking at Fu Xin. They had their eyes stuck to their feet and were fidgeting with their hands. Guo Qing's ears were so red they looked like they had been cooked raw.

Fu Xin looked at both of them, and his frustration softened. "You don't have to do any of this. I know that your parents must have forced you to act like you both do with me," Guo Qing and Ding Tong snapped their heads toward him with wide eyes, "you don't have to lick my shoes in fear that if you don't your family will suffer because of it. As long as you're civil with me and don't act like rude pricks, I don't care about the relationship between our families. You have my word as long as it is me, you will face no danger from me... I don't know about the other two, but when it comes to me, you can ignore me for all I care and it won't make a difference."

School social hierarchy was only one reason Guo Qing and Ding Tong followed around Fu Xin like lackeys. The other, more prominent reason was that the Guo family worked with the Fu's business in the city as a minor supplier and could easily be replaced, and the Fu family was the Ding family's business' largest client and basically their entire revenue source. Without the Fu family, both of their families would come down to the road.

"N-No, Brother Xin, it's not that," Ding Tong looked flustered.

Guo Qing was the same. "Yes, we just thought..."

Fu Xin sighed. It didn't look like they were going to believe him. He didn't blame them for not. One mistake from them and I could potentially derail their lives. 'Me saying something to my family might not do anything actually,' Fu Xin thought with an internal shrug.

"I will say this one last time, so listen, and listen well," Fu Xin decided to use the unnecessary incident to solidify what he had already said. "You don't interfere in my matters until I say so myself. Be it Lin Tian, Xue Lanfen, or anyone else, don't move a muscle unless I say so. So I will ask you two— do you understand?"

Guo Qing and Ding Tong nodded.

"Good, now cheer up," Fu Xin patted them on their shoulders. "Tell me what happened yesterday."

According to Guo Qing and Ding Tong, they knew Fu Xin was going to meet Xue Lanfen in the library, and it was a complete coincidence that as they were heading home, they saw Lin Tian heading toward the library. So they did what any lackey would do and stepped in his way to stop him.

"We weren't planning to fight him," said Guo Qing, his hands dug into his pockets, "but he was so annoying that I couldn't stop myself and pushed him... and things went south from there."

Ding Tong nodded in shame.

"You're telling me he insulted you into hitting him. Wow, you two... no offense, but that was supremely stupid." Fu Xin was stunned; he thought Guo Qing and Ding Tong swung fists to physically stop Lin Tian from going to the library, but it turned out that they had lost the battle of words and had switched to violence after the fact. Fu Xin couldn't help but grimace at the state of their faces. "You were two, and he was one. How did you look worse than him?" he asked.

Guo Qing and Ding Tong looked the most embarrassed they did the entire day.

"He knew martial arts or something," the usually confident and prideful Guo Qing said in what would be considered to be a mosquito-like voice for a loud man like him. "Even though he's scrawny and hits like a girl, he somehow dodged most of what we did and countered every time we missed."

"After a while, even those weak hits began to hurt," Ding Tong touched his face and hissed as he quickly removed his hand. "He definitely knew how to fight."

Fu Xin's eyes sharpened at the new information. Lin Tian had fought two people, one of whom was Guo Qing, who had a substantial weight advantage and still had won?

'He definitely has a system,' Fu Xin thought. 'His system must've given him martial arts proficiency.' Or how else Lin Tian, who was scrawny and weak, could fight against two and objectively win? It was definitely a system. Fu Xin was sure of it— and that made him feel bitter in the heart.

'His system is already giving him perks; mine acts like it doesn't even exist,' Fu Xin cried in his heart. What bothered Fu Xin even more was that if Lin Tian's protagonist status was due to the arrival of the system, then both he and Lin Tian had gotten their system at the same time, and yet Lin Tian had already gotten a gift in martial arts, and a possible gift in academics, which could be the reason behind Lin Tian's confidence in the bet he made in front of the entire class.

Guo Qing snorted with his arms crossed. "If we just had more time, we would've got him. He got lucky that the teacher interrupted us."

Fu Xin's eyes shone. "Did they make you call your parents?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Who came from Lin Tian's side?"

"It was his mother."

Fu Xin noted the fact in his memory. He didn't know anything about Lin Tian's family, so any little detail could prove helpful in the future. 'I should gather more information about Lin Tian...'

"Come, I will treat both of you to some food," Fu Xin said to his beat-up followers with a sigh. A reward after a tough talk was an excellent way to lift their spirit and reinforce his words in their mind.



While the start of the day had been rocky, the day after the lunch break was no different from any other. Teachers taught, students studied, and the time between the classes was spent chatting with friends and exchanging gossip.

Fu Xin, as always, paid attention in the classroom— to the teachers and to Lin Tian. After a month of observing Lin Tian, Fu Xin had gotten a good grasp on the hero's behavior in the classroom, so he wasn't surprised to see Lin Tian with his head bowed, resting on his desk. Lin Tian wasn't interested in the material taught in the class and would spend most of the time sleeping, passing his time by idle activities, or staring at Xue Lanfen. Despite that, no teacher bothered him as their attempts to stop his acts of laziness and wasting time through the means of public humiliation by calling him to the board to answer questions had been overcome by Lin Tian, who seemingly knew everything that was being taught, and could solve any problem thrown at him with ease. And would only call upon him once in a while to see if he could still solve the questions and recite concepts— which he did.

After a month of the same behavior, even Fu Xin had eased his observation of Lin Tian. It was boring to watch a man as he slept, doodled on his notebooks, and flipped through the books with a bored expression.

'No anomaly, that's good,' Fu Xin thought. He started packing his study material as only one lesson was remaining and his desire to leave school at the end of the school day made him ready to go when the last bell rang.

Fu Xin heard his name being called and saw Zhang Xioli standing at the classroom door. She had a stack of papers in her hand and was wearing a handbag on her shoulder.

"Yes, Teacher Zhang?" Fu Xin asked as he arrived at the door.

"Please distribute these to the class," Zhang Xioli handed the paper stack to Fu Xin. "These are homework assignments that I want to be completed when I come next week. That's Friday. I want you to collect them on Thursday and hand them to me first thing in the morning on Friday. There are a lot of questions, so tell everyone that a last-minute rush job won't work... I would tell them myself, but I'm getting late and have to leave urgently. Can I entrust you with this?" she asked.

"Yes, teacher. I will make sure everyone understands the assignment," Fu Xin said.

Zhang Xioli thanked him and then left. Fu Xin turned to the classroom and headed to Xue Lanfen's seat to tell her about the task. He spoke to her in English as promised, "Teacher Zhang has asked us to distribute this to the class. I will announce her instruction to the class, so please hand them out."

Xue Lanfen stared at him for a moment before saying, "Oh, when should we do it?"

Fu Xin frowned when he heard Xue Lanfen speak to him in Mandarin. Did she forget it? "Let's do it now. Doing it after the last class will be problematic," he said.

"Okay, let's do it now." Xue Lanfen moved her hands to take the stack of papers, but Fu Xin pulled it back out of her reach.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, frowning.

"No, it's nothing."

"Do you not want to continue the only-English conversation that we decided on yesterday?"

Xue Lanfen didn't say anything, which made Fu Xin frown even more. And as he was about to ask further, he felt a gaze on him. He looked and saw Lin Tian look at him with a smirk, which with his black eye made him look really ugly.

'He said something to her,' Fu Xin thought. He looked at Xue Lanfen and saw that she wasn't looking at him, 'But what did he say?'

"Do you want to say something to me?" Fu Xin asked Xue Lanfen.

Xue Lanfen paused for a moment before shaking her head.

"Is that so, then let's finish this quickly before the teacher comes," Fu Xin said. Lin Tian had something to her, and it was clear it was about Fu Xin; from the looks of it, she believed Lin Tian. If she didn't want to confirm something about Fu Xin from the person himself, then he didn't want to associate with her.

'A pity... I thought we were becoming friends,' Fu Xin thought, and it did sting that he had lost his English partner. Even though she was the heroine, he wasn't going to lower himself to maintain a relationship with her. Even if it meant sacrificing an asset which was a positive relationship with the heroine.

'Shit!'

After the class ended, Fu Xin got up and headed out of the classroom. Today hadn't been a good day for him, and he wanted to leave the school to get some fresh air to clear his thoughts and think about the current situation.

As he was walking, Fu Xin heard a mocking voice behind him.

"You don't look so good."

Fu Xin turned back and saw Lin Tian walking behind him.

"It looks to me like you have constipation," Lin Tian sneered.

"And you look like you're halfway to a frog with that eye— real ugly... like ugly-ugly. Why don't you croak somewhere else," Fu Xin said.

Lin Tian harrumphed, "Half-way, huh. Leave it to you, sending goons that couldn't even get a simple job done."

Fu Xin sighed. He felt something bubble up inside, and he tried to push it down, but Lin Tian's annoying face wasn't helping it. "Oh, believe me, sir! If I had sent goons, things would be much-much worse... I find physical harm shallow; it just doesn't do the trick. If you want to go about things properly, then you don't send people to beat someone up— you send some enthusiastic gentlemen to say... a person's house so they could have a good long chat with their mother." Fu Xin paused and smiled at Lin Tian, "Huh... who knows, maybe it does do the trick."

"You bastard, don't you dare!" Lin Tian grabbed Fu Xin by the collar and slammed his back into the wall. "Don't speak of my mother... don't even think about her, or I will gouge your eyes out! You hear me!"

Fu Xin slowly raised his hands and patted Lin Tian on his cheek. "See... I didn't even have to raise my voice and look at the result. Imagine what would happen if I put some effort into it."

Lin Tian swatted Fu Xin's hand. Fu Xin reciprocated by shoving him back. He fixed his clothes and said with a polite smile, "I don't know what problem you have with me, but I would appreciate it if you... you know... buzz off. Also, don't talk to me in public; I don't want people to think I'm associated with someone like you."

There were people in the hallway who were looking at Fu Xin and Lin Tian, whispering about their altercation. Lin Tian clicked his tongue and walked away but not before giving Fu Xin the stink eye.

'Crap, shouldn't have done that,' Fu Xin sighed as he walked out of the school. He had let his frustration overflow and leak out. In normal circumstances, he would've ignored Lin Tian's obvious attempts at provocation. 'That was my fault... should've kept a stronger handle on my mouth.' Implying to threaten Lin Tian's mother to get to him had left a bad taste in his mouth... but it was true he had thought of it in his own mind and had spoken to them, knowing well what they meant. 'Didn't know I was capable of such thoughts... You learn something new about yourself every day.'

He opened the car door and stepped inside.

"Welcome, young master. How was your day?" Uncle Bao asked as Fu Xin sat down.

"I learned more about the human race... it was not a pleasant experience."