He looked at Ye Qingyang. The other boy appeared gentle and warm, his brows soft, his expression mild. Remembering how Ye Qingyang had helped stack the bedding for three dorm rooms belonging to their class, he couldn’t help thinking that Ye Qingyang really was suited to being a class monitor.
Capable, loyal to his comrades, willing to help his classmates—he was a promising kid. The company commander liked him.
The Seventh Company commander glanced at Instructor Xu, and the two exchanged a knowing look. Neither of them said anything directly.
“Your class monitor is pretty good,” the Seventh Company commander said. “Our class admits defeat. For the dormitory inspection this time, you win.”
The students of Class Ten immediately burst into cheers.
The Seventh Company students were unconvinced. They had always looked down on Class Ten, and now that their pride had been dented, they refused to accept it.
“Fine, the dormitory inspection is done,” someone said. “But what about military training? If you’ve got the guts, let’s compete in that.”
Instructor Xu felt it was unnecessary. This was basically bullying—slapping someone on the left cheek and then turning around to slap the right.
Not very decent.
So he refused. “Alright, time for training. No more competitions.”
But the Seventh Company students thought he was scared.
“Exactly because it’s training time we should see who’s better on the training field!”
The Seventh Company commander was young and competitive. Hearing that, he nodded.
“That’s true. Wasn’t the original agreement to compete in military training anyway?”
Instructor Xu was speechless. He really hadn’t wanted to embarrass them, but the other side kept shoving their faces forward, practically shouting: Hit me, hit me!
Who could resist that?
At least a soldier like Instructor Xu couldn’t.
So he nodded and agreed.
The Seventh Company students instantly cheered.
But across from them, the students of Class Ten were even happier. When they looked at the Seventh Company, their eyes seemed to say two words:
Idiots.
The sky was clear, the breeze gentle—perfect weather for drills.
For convenience, the two instructors each selected a representative to compete.
Instructor Xu didn’t even need to think. “Class monitor, step out.”
The Seventh Company commander didn’t choose their class monitor. Instead, he selected a student named Ma Tianrui.
“Ma Tianrui’s grades are pretty good, right? I remember that,” Chen Wei said quietly, resting one arm on Lu Jingcheng’s shoulder.
“Don’t know,” Lu Jingcheng replied coldly. “Never heard of him.”
Chen Wei glanced at him and chuckled. “Right. Our young master here—campus heartthrob. Unless it’s Shao Wenxuan from the rocket class, who would even qualify to be someone you’ve heard of?”
Lu Jingcheng answered with an unapologetic hum.
“But today isn’t about academics. Ma Tianrui probably can’t beat Ye Qingyang.”
Lu Jingcheng let out a light laugh. “Be more confident. Drop the ‘probably.’ He definitely can’t beat him.”
Hearing that, Bai Le said in a mocking tone, “Of course. His Majesty’s beloved consort—who could possibly compare?”
Lu Jingcheng turned to look at him. “So Minister Bai is still alive? I thought you died after offering your remonstrance. I figured you’d already gone full ‘with my blood I recommend Xuanyuan.’”
Bai Le glared at him furiously, left speechless.
There weren’t many events they could compete in during military training. Since they hadn’t learned the military boxing routine yet, the hardest event was probably the goose-step march.
Before going up, Ma Tianrui felt confident he had the victory in hand. After all, his instructor had publicly praised him several times before.
But after one round of competition after another, he grew more and more uneasy.
He hadn’t won a single event against Ye Qingyang.
The Seventh Company students stared at Ye Qingyang in disbelief.
“Who is that guy?” they whispered. “Class Ten actually has someone that strong?”
When the final event—the goose-step march—ended, Ye Qingyang won again.
Class Ten erupted in cheers.
Ye Qingyang couldn’t help smiling as well. He personally didn’t care much about this sort of competition, but winning was still a good thing.
At least their classmates and instructor seemed happy.
The Seventh Company students, on the other hand, were unwilling but helpless.
They had already compared dormitory inspections and training drills. Everything that could be compared had been compared—and they had lost every single time.
Their faces were thoroughly slapped.
Even if they wanted to reclaim their pride, there was nothing left to compete in.
“Weren’t you the ones calling us trash?” one of the girls from Class Ten said. Earlier, during the dorm inspection, Seventh Company boys had mocked her blanket as garbage. She had been holding that anger in.
“You guys think you’re so impressive, but you can’t beat us at anything. And you still have the nerve to insult us? Next time you speak, look in the mirror first.”
“What did you say?” a hot-tempered girl from Seventh Company snapped.
Ma Tianrui laughed lightly and said, “Don’t bother arguing with them. What’s the point? A bunch of underachievers with well-developed limbs and simple minds.”
He looked at Ye Qingyang with ridicule.
“You’re enjoying all this attention today, huh? If you’ve got the guts, let’s compare grades. Acting like a model student, pretending to be some outstanding trainee—does your instructor know you fail every subject and your total score doesn’t even reach 350? You—”
Before he could finish, in full view of everyone, Lu Jingcheng threw a punch straight into his face.
No one had time to react.
Someone screamed.
Only then did Ye Qingyang and Chen Wei snap out of it and rush forward to stop him.
But it was already too late.
Lu Jingcheng had already knocked Ma Tianrui to the ground.
Ye Qingyang grabbed him. “Brother Lu, calm down! Stop hitting him.”
Chen Wei and Bai Le also tried to persuade him.
“Exactly, Jingcheng. Don’t be impulsive.”
Ma Tianrui, having been hit several times without warning, lay on the ground staring at Lu Jingcheng in a daze, fear creeping into his expression.
“What are you doing?” a boy from Seventh Company shouted angrily.
Lu Jingcheng lifted his head and glared at him coldly.
“He deserved it.”
The boy shrank back under his gaze and stammered, “B-but you still can’t just hit someone.”
Lu Jingcheng smiled coldly. “Is today the first day you’ve known me? Do I look like someone who cares about reason?”
He shook off Ye Qingyang and Chen Wei’s hands and looked coldly at the Seventh Company students, then at Ma Tianrui.
“If you’re not as good as someone else, then accept defeat honestly. This is military training, not an exam. Bringing up grades right now—are you planning to live off those few scores for the rest of your life?”
“That’s still better than you losers,” Ma Tianrui muttered.
Lu Jingcheng’s hearing was sharp.
The moment he heard that, he lifted his leg to kick again.
Ye Qingyang quickly wrapped his arms around his waist, dragging him backward with all his strength.
Only then did Instructor Xu and the Seventh Company commander finally step in.
“Lu Jingcheng! What do you think you’re doing?” Instructor Xu snapped. “You know this is military training, and you’re still hitting people? Pretty impressive.”
“He deserved it,” Lu Jingcheng insisted.
Instructor Xu was at a loss with him. “Go stand by the podium and take a punishment.”
“I won’t.”
Instructor Xu: ???
Openly defying the instructor now?
Before Instructor Xu could respond, Lu Jingcheng raised his chin arrogantly.
“If I stand next to the podium and have to look at his ugly face, I might run over and keep hitting him!”
Instructor Xu: …
Ye Qingyang quickly spoke up. “Instructor, please continue the training. I’ll take him to stand by the wall. I guarantee he won’t see the Seventh Company students, and I promise he won’t hit anyone again.”
After saying that, Ye Qingyang dragged Lu Jingcheng away in a tactical retreat.
Lu Jingcheng felt uncomfortable being held around the waist. He pried Ye Qingyang’s hands away and walked toward the wall himself. Ye Qingyang hurried after him.
“Wait,” Instructor Xu said, staring at Ye Qingyang’s back. “I told Lu Jingcheng to stand there as punishment. Why is he going too?”
“Sunflowers grow toward the sun,” Chen Wei replied.
Instructor Xu: …
Well, that really was the sun and the sunflower.
With Lu Jingcheng gone to stand as punishment, Instructor Xu reorganized the formation and led Class Ten to the left side of the podium.
The Seventh Company commander led his students to the right side.
He was extremely disappointed with his students’ behavior today—first mocking others’ blankets during the dorm inspection, then refusing to accept defeat.
So he also sent several of the students who had led the mockery to stand aside as punishment.
Lu Jingcheng stood by the wall and glanced sideways at Ye Qingyang.
“Why are you standing here? Instructor Xu didn’t punish you.”
Ye Qingyang smiled. “I’m keeping you company.”
Lu Jingcheng snorted softly. “Like I need company.”
Ye Qingyang looked at the smile on his face and recalled how fierce he had been when throwing those punches earlier. He still felt a little surprised.
Since transmigrating into this novel, Ye Qingyang had always known Lu Jingcheng was the campus bully—but he had never actually seen him fight.
In his mind, Lu Jingcheng was just a proud little peacock: sharp-tongued but soft-hearted, someone who needed to be coaxed now and then, someone whose feathers needed smoothing.
He didn’t seem aggressive at all.
Yet today the peacock had exploded—and his fighting ability was impressive.
If Ye Qingyang hadn’t reacted quickly and had decent strength himself, he might not have been able to stop that last kick.
Thinking about it now, Ye Qingyang felt Lu Jingcheng’s combat ability really matched his looks.
No wonder he carried both titles—school heartthrob and campus bully.
Still…
He had never expected Lu Jingcheng would fight someone because of him.
As a fake underachiever but real academic genius, Ye Qingyang actually didn’t care much about Ma Tianrui’s insults. After all, those words were aimed at the original owner of this body, not him.
If he wanted to, once military training ended, he could immediately take first place in an exam and scare Ma Tianrui to death.
He just didn’t feel like being a good student anymore.
Ye Qingyang had never been the type of perfect model student people imagined when they thought of top scholars. By nature he was lively and free-spirited, fond of anything fun.
He believed studying could change one’s fate—but he also believed in enjoying life outside of studying.
So after returning to his second year of high school, he was perfectly content to act like an underachiever.
And he rather enjoyed it.
Being a bad student was great—free and easy, no one constantly watching you.
So he hadn’t taken Ma Tianrui’s words seriously at all.
But while he didn’t care, Lu Jingcheng clearly did.
Thinking about that, a faint warmth rose in Ye Qingyang’s heart.
All his life he had been known as a campus genius. With a younger sister at home, he had long grown used to being the older brother—the one taking care of others.
In his relationships, he was always the one helping people, protecting people. Even in fights, he was the one telling everyone else to step back while he rushed forward.
Ye Qingyang enjoyed that feeling of being the big brother, and over time everyone else had grown used to standing in his shadow.
This was the first time someone had stepped ahead of him and shielded him from the front.
It felt novel.
But unexpectedly… it also felt pretty good.
He had never thought he needed anyone to protect him.
But having someone willing to protect you was always something worth being happy about.
Ye Qingyang glanced at Lu Jingcheng and thought to himself—
What an adorable little peacock.
Not only handsome, but majestic too.
He never said “I consider you a good friend,” but his actions showed it constantly.
Clear eyes, simple thoughts, gentle yet stubborn.
Really… very cute.
“Thank you,” Ye Qingyang said. “But I didn’t take his words seriously, so you don’t have to worry about it either.”