Let's do it again, Yukino.

“Teaching a bad kid like you a lesson is the most expensive thing in the world than something free.”

The girl, whose face was expressionless, looked at the boy with a furrowed brow and couldn't help but sneer inwardly. The unpleasantness she had with her mother that morning seemed to be slowly dissipating.

I'm not the only one trapped in this terrible world; there are others too.

But that person is more powerful than me.

They certainly won't be as submissive as I am.

I admire people like that.

……

She should hate boys, and she should hate Dongxue too.

But she didn't notice.

The boy next to him,

While engrossed in browsing an endless snowy landscape, he spoke in a voice that was almost inaudible.

I love snow————

I happened to overhear the boy's soft whisper.

Girls who misunderstood something

A small ripple rose in my heart at that moment.

Perhaps, at this moment, in her heart...

Their bond was officially formed.

……

…………

Ten years later,

"Didn't I tell you not to smoke anymore? Do you still want your lungs?"

The woman glanced at the cigarette pulled from the young man's coat pocket, and a hint of anger immediately appeared on her beautiful face.

With her other hand, she slammed the feather duster against the glass coffee table in front of her. The young man, who looked like he had done something wrong, shuddered and hurriedly waved his hands to explain before the feather duster could hit him:

“I already told you, those cigarettes weren’t mine. They were slipped into my pocket last night when I was drinking with Hachiman. I didn’t even smoke them. I feel bad about throwing them away. Xue, think about it carefully. I’ve been a non-smoker for years.”

The woman was skeptical, but knowing the guy's character, she still picked up her phone and dialed a number. As she dialed, she glared at the young man and yelled, "Stand still!!! I'm calling Hachiman right now. If you're lying to me, you're sleeping at Hachiman's house tonight—"

Suddenly, the young man, completely forgetting the danger, instinctively turned his face away shyly, chuckling to himself behind the woman's back: "That would be so embarrassing. I'm not that familiar with Komachi. If I go to her house so abruptly, not only will you, Koyuki, be jealous, but I'll also get beaten to death by Hachiman, who just graduated with a sister complex—uh, I was just kidding—"

The voice just fell,

Snapped! !

It sounded like something hitting skin.

A young man's cry of pain came from the small apartment.

Serves you right!!

(P.S.: This is the third update today. As a newbie author, I'm asking for your support with a like, comment, and share! Please also leave comments in the review section to keep it quiet. As a newbie author, this amount of updates in one day makes me feel quite proud of myself, hehe. But still, please give me some motivation and support by recommending this book. The more people read it, the more updates I can make.)

）

Chapter Twenty: Another Turmoil Begins

this day,

It was also the day the test results came out.

In the classroom, springtime had temporarily returned to its previous lazy routine. She sat in the corner on the far right by the window, watching the Japanese teacher, who usually spoke fluent English, slowly hand out the test papers.

When the test papers were handed out to Haruhi's desk, Haruhi inadvertently caught a glimpse of the indescribably complex expression in the English teacher's eyes.

However, the English teacher ultimately said nothing, simply placing the test paper gently on Chunri's desk before quietly returning to the podium.

The teacher seemed to have completely forgotten the turmoil he felt when he discovered the name on the exam paper was Spring Day.

Chunri glanced up at the numbers on the exam paper, and after confirming that they were correct, a faint smile appeared on her lips.

"real or fake?!"

Nagato, who had turned around at some point, called out softly. Although the voice was not loud, it was clearly heard throughout the classroom, and all the students turned their attention to him at that moment.

"Perfect score? Kasuga-kun..."

Today, Nagato's usually expressionless face showed an unusual blankness. At this moment, her fingers were constantly rubbing the score column on the test paper, as if she was trying to confirm the fact again and again.

But the red perfect score number remained quietly there, unchanged.

The legendary delinquent student, a boy who spent all his time dozing off and looking at the scenery in class, actually got a perfect score on his English exam. Few people would believe that.

"How many times have I told you, Nagato, please turn your face away during class. Your voice is disturbing me."

Haruhi frowned unhappily and waved impatiently at Nagato, whose hand was still resting on his test paper.

He glanced at the exam papers on the long door table; they, like his, were all perfect scores.

"You didn't get a perfect score either?"

Haruhi rolled her eyes at Nagato and said, somewhat speechlessly.

“You’re different from me… You’re really amazing, Kasuga-kun.”

He turned his whole body back around, but Nagato was still muttering something under his breath.

However, in Haruhi's view, the way those people looked at her was different from Nagato's pure surprise. Besides disdain, there seemed to be something else mixed in, just like the look of the English teacher who had just handed her the test paper.

Oh, spring has arrived. Back when I got into university with Xiaoxue's help, all the neighbors, classmates, and teachers around me had the same expression.

Distrust, yes, it should be that kind of look that completely distrusts me.

However, he didn't think much of it in the spring. He casually stuffed the perfect English test paper into his schoolbag, then took out a novel he had brought from the library and lay down on the table to read it with great interest.

And so the English class passed in this somewhat strange atmosphere.

……

noon

It was originally lunch break time,

The usually busy dean of students unusually summoned Mr. Hiratsuka and Haruhi, who was sunbathing on the school rooftop, to his office.

The dean of students in front of me was probably in his early forties. His naturally curly hair was thinning, and he always wore a pair of large black-rimmed glasses. He wasn't short, but his hunchback and sloping shoulders made him look shorter. He wore a black suit, and his long-standing prestige among the students gave him an imposing and authoritative air when he spoke.

At that moment, he laid out all of Haruhi's subject grade sheets in a row, neatly arranged in front of Hiratsuka Shizuka and Haruhi.

"Can you explain what's going on here, Kasuga-kun?"

"Didn't you do very well on the exam? What do you want me to explain?"

During the first semester of her first year of high school, Haruhi often visited this office, but as time went on, no one dared to call her over anymore. When she met the dean of students again, Haruhi imitated her delinquent self from high school, shrugging her shoulders and turning her face away.

After all, he had a foundation in humanities from his university days, and with his daily and nightly studying during this period, Chunri didn't feel that his grades were too inflated.

However, this unexpected situation made him realize that he and Xiaoxue seemed to have forgotten some other key factors.

Especially if Chunri accidentally gets a good grade, she and he never considered what other people would think from the beginning.

It's the same situation he was in when he got into university.

Seeing the distrustful look on the dean's face, he wasn't angry and explained with a faint smile.

"Doesn't this prove that our Zongwu High School's teaching methods are quite excellent? Even someone like me can succeed, doesn't that further demonstrate the abilities of you teachers?"

Should I tell this director that I'm a time traveler, that I reviewed the high school material once before, and that I can master it all again if I patiently memorize it fifty or sixty times?

"They did so well on the exam, which is why I had you come here to explain. Hiratsuka-sensei, I've told you all, as homeroom teachers and subject teachers, before that they're only in their second year of high school, so it's okay if their grades are a little behind. They can work hard and their grades will gradually improve. They need to be good people first before they can be talented. Do you really think that using these crooked methods will help them in any real way?"

His hand holding Chunri's report card trembled slightly; it was the first time he had ever seen cheating go to such an outrageous degree.

Apart from his above-average scores in physics and chemistry, he achieved almost perfect scores or close to perfect scores in all other subjects, ranking 45th in the grade. Although this was just a mock test, it was still a real exam, and such a result would be considered quite excellent even in other high schools.

Thinking of this, the head of the teaching department had a hint of anger on his face and slammed his hand on the desk.

"If I hadn't idly checked Kasuga's grades in all subjects over the past year, I might have thought that Kasuga-kun truly had a talent for learning, but—"

“You went from being at the bottom of the grade to being in the top fifty. Go find a teacher or a student and have them get a score like that for me to see.”

"Aren't there two of them standing in front of you?"

Springtime turned her face away impatiently and muttered a complaint under her breath.

"Haruhi-kun, when you talk to the headmaster, be a little more respectful. I also think that Haruhi-kun's grades are the result of his own hard work. At least I can guarantee that there are no obvious signs of plagiarism on his Japanese exam paper."

Hiratsuka Shizuka was no longer as approachable as before. Her expression was also somewhat serious. She coughed lightly and reprimanded Haruhi with a stern face. Under the cover of the desk, the small foot under the black trouser leg of the older woman gently kicked Haruhi.

Young master, at least cooperate with us a little. At worst, we'll get a couple of scoldings and have to write a self-criticism.

As Haruhi's Japanese language teacher, Ms. Hiratsuka personally graded the boy's Japanese language exam paper.

Aside from that essay which was overly otaku-style, the other answers were almost all textbook-perfectly written.

Therefore, Hiratsuka-sensei gave that exam paper a very high rating.

Although she initially had some doubts about the credibility of the grades, just like the other teachers, she quickly dismissed those doubts after considering his average performance in the English exam.

"I remember when you were taking the exam, Nagato was sitting in front of you, right, Kasuga-kun?"

At this moment, seeing that Haruhi was unmoved by either soft or hard approaches, the head teacher seemed to want to shift the topic to Nagato Yuki, who was sitting in front of him, but Haruhi stopped him immediately.

"This is so boring. Anyway, the results are already out. Director, do whatever you want with them. Even if you think I cheated, it doesn't matter. But please don't drag my classmate Changmen into this mess."

In any case, he ultimately lost his promise to Xiaoxue completely.

He didn't seem to care much about the controversy that followed the exam.

Because if things don't go well, you can always try again next time.

However, if Xiaoxue misunderstands that she has an affair with Nagato, the consequences will not be as peaceful as they are now.

That was unimaginably cruel.