Chapter 1

"Pang Qian!"

Hearing someone call my name, I turned my head to see a beautiful girl smiling and waving at me. I replied in a rather lazy manner, "It's the great class monitor Xu Liang. What do you need?"

"Can we go home together after school?"

"Sure!"

I agreed readily.

Xu Liang was absolutely a goddess-level girl in our school. She was beautiful, had a great figure, excelled in her studies, was excellent in physical education, and could sing and dance. She also had a very good relationship with everyone, and the number of boys pursuing her was as numerous as fish crossing a river.

Compared to Xu Liang, I was much less impressive. The only thing I excelled in was sports, where I was undoubtedly the best in the entire school. Whether it was basketball, soccer, long-distance running, short-distance running, or the horizontal and parallel bars, no one could match me. I was also invincible in fighting, but my academic performance was very poor. As for my relationships with others... you can imagine what kind of social life someone rumored to be the leader of underground gangs in five nearby junior high schools would have.

Although I wasn't really involved in the underworld, I just occasionally skipped class to play games.

We were from completely different worlds and had almost no chance of intersecting.

After I graduated from junior high school, I might not be able to get into a proper high school. I would either go to a vocational school, a technical school, or simply find a job. Xu Liang, on the other hand, was definitely a candidate for the city's key high school and might even enter a nationally renowned university in the future. She would either join a large company as an elite white-collar worker or continue her education to become a master's or doctoral student, a true academic star.

But... the complexity of the world lies in the fact that you can never predict how fate will change.

Speaking of my relationship with Xu Liang, it's a long story.

There was a small-time thug near our school who, upon seeing Xu Liang at the school gate, immediately had a surge of hormones and insisted that Xu Liang be his girlfriend. He repeatedly blocked her at the school gate. Of course, Xu Liang would never agree. The distance between this guy and a prince was like the distance between Earth and Namek. Xu Liang's parents approached the school several times, but the school had no good solution. Every time Xu Liang finished school, she was on edge, always changing her route home and even seeking cover from classmates.

As the saying goes, "I'm not afraid of thieves stealing, but I'm afraid of thieves thinking."

Although Xu Liang managed to avoid this thug several times, one day, due to a moment of carelessness, she was blocked at the school gate by this thug and over ten of his friends. The thug boasted, "I want to date you, and I don't care who dares to interfere."

He really scared a group of students who only knew how to study. They were many in number, armed with weapons, and much older than the junior high school students. For a moment, no one dared to rescue Xu Liang.

At that moment, I didn't think about being a hero. I was just annoyed that these bastards were blocking the way and causing trouble at our school. I ran ten meters and kicked him in the face, sending him flying five meters and fainting on the spot. It's said that he didn't wake up for three days and was hospitalized for over a month.

With someone already taking action, the boys and girls in the school became bolder and rushed forward. It wasn't difficult for hundreds of students to beat up a dozen thugs.

It's said that two of the thugs, who had accumulated a lot of resentment and often bullied our school's students, were secretly beaten to disability by someone. The police didn't want to get involved in a case where the thugs were the ones causing trouble at the school and the perpetrators couldn't be found. Even though the thugs' families took the case to court, it ultimately went nowhere.

This incident had two consequences. One was that Xu Liang and I became unexpectedly close, and the other is a story that needs to be continued.

When the thug was released from the hospital, he was furious at losing so much face and immediately gathered a group of people to block me.

Although I was good at fighting, I wasn't a hero who could take on a thousand enemies. I could handle three or five people, but ten or more was too much. However, just because I couldn't fight them all didn't mean I couldn't run away. I was blocked twice outside the school, but I quickly used bricks and my schoolbag to knock down a couple of the weakest ones and then ran away. They couldn't catch me at all.

After being blocked a few times, I got angry and gathered over ten classmates to start counter-blocking these bastards. I wouldn't act if they were in a group, but if they were alone, I would lead my group to beat them up.

These guys had done too many bad things and even collected protection fees from nearby schools, intimidating many people. No one dared to provoke them, but with our group taking them on, many students from other schools secretly provided us with information. At our most glorious moment, we blocked these bastards five times in one day and sent twelve people to the hospital.

After that, my reputation as the leader of underground gangs in five nearby junior high schools spread far and wide, and no amount of denial could clear it.

Seeing me agree, Xu Liang smiled, her eyes narrowing into crescent moons.

Although I knew that Xu Liang and I could never be together, any boy with a bit of vanity couldn't refuse such a beautiful girl's advances.

At noon, I was the first to leave the school gate, turned a corner, and waited for Xu Liang at our usual spot. A guy wearing glasses, dressed in clean sports clothes, and looking very sunny and handsome walked over.

He grinned at me, looking rather mischievous.

If I had to say who I was most afraid of in this school, it wasn't any teacher, not even the principal or the vice-principal. I was particularly afraid of my cousin, who was a year older than me.

My cousin's name is Ning Yue. This guy was a natural genius, never ranking below third in the grade, and often topping the school exams.

Don't think my cousin is a bookworm. This bastard is extremely smart, with an intelligence quotient that is almost demonic. Almost every time I met him, he would make me happy with just a few words, and it would take me over ten days to realize... damn, I've been tricked by Ning Yue again.

Although Ning Yue often tricked me, he was still my cousin. Because of his excellent academic performance and cunning personality, he had a lot of influence with the teachers. Many times, when I got into trouble that could have led to my expulsion, my parents couldn't resolve it, but Ning Yue could fix it in minutes. If it weren't for Ning Yue helping me out many times and cleaning up my messes, I might not be afraid of him just because he outsmarted me.

Despite this, I sometimes think that the reason I am particularly afraid of him, even a bit intimidated, is not only because he is extremely smart and willing to protect me, but also because of the psychological trauma from being bullied by him when I was young.