AIBBFSCITMLA Chapter 15

Chapter 15

He Tang herself had no interest in checking the school forum anymore, but Sheng Yan, having nothing better to do, insisted on giving her a live update on WeChat, sending over a bunch of screenshots of comments.

[Haha, the forum is exploding! You have to see this. It's hilarious, haha!]

He scrolled through the screenshots Sheng Yan sent.

[Whoa! Another massive twist! Lu Xinyuan is the villain, and He Tang was set up?]

[Lu Xinyuan knew He Tang was going there to tutor, so why did she say she didn't know? That's kind of confusing.]

[Hmm... I'm starting to suspect Lu Xinyuan is the real fake innocent.]

[No way, hasn't Lu Xinyuan always been pretty nice? Although her actions in this case are indeed very confusing.]

[To be honest, regardless of what Lu Xinyuan's intentions were, she really screwed He Tang over. If He Tang hadn't handled it so quickly, who knows how far things would have spiraled.]

[Yeah, a girl getting falsely accused with that kind of rumor—it would be devastating.]

[I don't think Lu Xinyuan is innocent at all. She knew the truth but pretended not to. She definitely had bad intentions!]

[Agreed. Anyway, Lu Xinyuan's image is ruined for me. She's not as pretty as He Tang, and her heart is black!]

[Haha, how many boys are going to be crying today? Their pure, innocent goddess turned out to be a black-hearted lotus. Their youth was wasted on a dog, haha.]

After looking through the screenshots Sheng Yan sent, He Tang moved on to chatting about other things.

He Tang: [The person who posted the thread has already been found.]

Sheng Yan: [I'll go knock his teeth out right now!]

He Tang: [Don't get so excited. We're still at school.]

Sheng Yan: [Then what do we do? Just let him off? No way!]

He Tang: [No.]

Sheng Yan: [Huh?]

He Tang: [After school, let's go have a proper "talk" with him!]

Sheng Yan: [Agreed.jpg]

He Tang put down her phone and thought carefully about how many times she had resorted to physical action since coming to this world.

Reflecting on this, she let out a small sigh. Fortunately, a family friend from her past life had forced her to learn martial arts since childhood and had drilled many self-defense techniques into her. Otherwise, things wouldn't be so easy.

Dealt a difficult hand, she had no choice but to reshuffle the cards one by one.

That same evening, news spread that Chen Dong, the person who had posted the rumor about He Tang, had been beaten.

The school forum kept buzzing with heated discussion well past midnight.

[Holy crap, that's terrifying. Chen Dong was cornered and beaten black and blue!]

[You know what the worst part is? After getting beaten, he went to the police station with the evidence of his own rumors and turned himself in. He was crying his eyes out. The cops had to take him to the hospital.]

[Huh? Will he go to jail? It was just a post, wasn't it?]

[Jail is unlikely. At most, a few days in detention. But I don't know if he'll face disciplinary action from the school. Anyway, apparently, as soon as Chen Dong got to the police station, he sat down on the floor and started bawling. The cops were totally confused.]

[That's so scary. I'm never posting recklessly again. What a pain.]

[The person above is insane. You're not supposed to post recklessly in the first place. You think you can say whatever you want without consequences?]

[It was probably He Tang. Someone saw her and Sheng Yan leaving the school gate after class this afternoon.]

[I'm on He Tang's side with this one. Rumormongers deserve to be hit!]

[To be honest, I think He Tang was right to teach him a lesson this time. Chen Dong and Lu Xinyuan both had bad intentions. If it had been someone else, who knows how much worse it could have been.]

[Hmm... anyway, just don't mess with He Tang.]

The discussions among the students were heated, but most of them sided with He Tang.

He Tang's goal this time was to make an example of someone to warn the rest, and it seemed she had already achieved her aim.

—

Another weekend arrived, and He Tang went to tutor Sheng Fu as usual.

She outlined the scope of the upcoming monthly exam, pulled out the key question types, and had Sheng Fu work through them one by one.

For a math proof problem, He Tang explained the common approaches and standard solutions. After guiding Sheng Fu through one example, she gave him a new, similar problem to solve.

Sheng Fu did not disappoint. After her explanation, he quickly grasped the concept and applied it to other problems, solving them with perfect steps.

He Tang couldn't help but praise him. "If you keep this up, you'll definitely do well on the monthly exam!"

"Do well?" Sheng Fu's hand paused on his pencil, his dark eyes lifting to look at He Tang.

"Yes. You're very smart. Look—I only explained this problem once, and you understood it. You can even apply the method to other problems. That's really impressive. Believe in yourself!"

Sheng Fu's eyes dimmed. "I didn't actually understand this problem."

"How can that be? Didn't you solve it correctly?"

"I've done this problem before. I memorized the answer." Sheng Fu lowered his gaze, his fingers clenching slightly.

"Hmm?" He Tang was confused.

"I didn't understand the problem you just explained either. Could you go over it again?"

"Hmm?" He Tang picked up the previous problem, her brow furrowing deeply. "You really didn't understand it?"

"Really," Sheng Fu insisted.

He Tang was on the verge of losing her mind from confusion. Weren't things going fine just a moment ago? Why was he suddenly saying he didn't understand?

Though puzzled, He Tang dutifully explained the problem again. Yet Sheng Fu still claimed not to get it. Only after she explained it one more time did he say he understood.

Finally, He Tang had Sheng Fu complete a math test paper. She had carefully selected the questions, which matched the difficulty level of the monthly exam at Huacheng Affiliated High School. Based on her observations over this period, given Sheng Fu's intelligence, he should be able to score around 90.

If they identified and addressed his weak points based on the results, He Tang was confident she could raise Sheng Fu's monthly exam score to over 100.

But the results of the test paper shocked her.

Sheng Fu scored 35—right back to the level he was at before the tutoring began.

Frowning at the paper, He Tang couldn't hold back. "Are you purposely scoring this low?"

Sheng Fu pressed his lips together. Before he could respond, a commotion came from downstairs.

It sounded like Mr. and Mrs. Sheng had returned, and from the noise, Sheng Yan was down there as well.

Sheng Fu's fingers tightened slightly. "I need to use the bathroom," he said, immediately rising and pushing open the study door to leave.

Watching him go, He Tang glanced down at the test paper, pursed her lips, and followed.

Once she stepped outside, the voices from downstairs became much clearer.

Mr. Sheng was laughing heartily, a rare sound, tinged with resignation. "Sheng Yan, if you could just stop causing me trouble, I'd be grateful to heaven and earth!"

"Dad, how can you talk about your own son like that? When have I ever caused trouble? Right, Mom?" Sheng Yan hooked his arm around Mrs. Sheng's and leaned affectionately against her.

Mrs. Sheng laughed and patted his hand. "You sure know how to talk, but your actions say otherwise! I really don't know who you take after."

Even so, Mrs. Sheng's eyes were full of affection as she looked at Sheng Yan with a hint of indulgence.

He Tang had met the Sheng parents only once before and hadn't expected their dynamic with Sheng Yan to be like this.

She turned her head and spotted Sheng Fu standing in the second-floor hallway as well.

His hands gripped the railing tightly as he stared intently at the three of them downstairs, enjoying their happy time together. If you looked closely, there seemed to be a trace of envy in his eyes, and a bit of resentment.

Envy? Resentment? That didn't seem right. Why would he feel envy and resentment?

Before He Tang could study him further, Sheng Fu let go of the railing, lowered his head, and walked toward the bathroom, his figure looking utterly forlorn.

When Sheng Fu returned to the study, He Tang noticed that his face had been freshly washed—there was still a faint redness around the corners of his eyes and the tip of his nose.

Pushing aside her doubts, He Tang continued teaching him attentively.

Bang—

The familiar sound of a door being kicked open made He Tang not even need to turn around to know Sheng Yan had arrived.

But oddly enough, in the past when Sheng Yan came, He Tang would see Sheng Fu look up with obvious happiness in his eyes. Today, however, he never lifted his head.

When the lesson ended, He Tang packed up her things and called Sheng Yan outside.

Sheng Yan didn't ask why, happily trailing behind He Tang without even questioning where they were going.

He Tang led him to a quiet, secluded corner of a park and sat down on a bench.

Sheng Yan's puppy-dog eyes bright as he obediently sat beside her.

"Sheng Yan, how are your parents' relationship with Sheng Fu?"

"Pretty good," Sheng Yan said, leaning back against the bench, his long legs casually stretched apart as he tilted his head to look at He Tang.

"Okay, let me rephrase. Do your parents spend much time with Sheng Fu?"

At this, Sheng Yan paused to think. He searched his memory carefully and finally said, "I guess not a lot. But my parents are busy with work. That's normal, isn't it?"

"Then who usually keeps Sheng Fu company? Has he ever said he feels lonely or anything?"

"No. He has a nanny with him 24/7. Besides, I keep him company too. Isn't having me enough?" Sheng Yan grinned smugly.

He Tang slowly pieced together all the odd things she had noticed recently, along with Sheng Fu's alternating cold and dependent behavior toward Sheng Yan. A strange thought formed in her mind.

"Is Sheng Fu close with you all?"

"Hmm... if I have to say, not really. But that doesn't mean we have a bad relationship. My brother's just like that. He's been that way since he was little."

Since he was little... So they naturally assumed Sheng Fu was just aloof by nature, and therefore never thought to get close to him.

"Does your father discipline you often?"

"Yeah! Don't even get me started. My dad is always on my case, yelling at me every few days. It drives me crazy! I'm just not cut out for studying, but he forces me anyway!" Sheng Yan grew agitated and ran his fingers through his hair.

"What about Sheng Fu? His grades aren't good either. Does Mr. Sheng yell at him?"

"Dad doesn't yell at Ah Fu. My brother has always been well-behaved. Even though his grades aren't good, he works hard. At most, Dad gives him a few stern words. There's no way he'd yell at him like he yells at me! And if he did, I wouldn't stand for it either!"

He Tang was silent for a few seconds, then asked, "Is Sheng Fu very dependent on you?"

"Of course! With such a handsome, awesome older brother like me, who wouldn't be dependent?" Sheng Yan was so smug his eyebrows nearly shot up to his hairline.

"Has there ever been a time when he didn't want to talk to you? Like, things were fine, and then suddenly he stopped talking?"

"Hmm... if you insist, yeah, there have been times. But that's always after Dad calls me in for a lecture. My brother knows I'm upset, so he doesn't bother me. See? My brother's really considerate, isn't he?"

A rough idea had already formed in He Tang's mind.

No wonder Sheng Fu was clearly very smart but had such poor grades. No wonder he pretended not to understand problems he could solve. No wonder his grades, which had already improved, plummeted the moment she mentioned he could do well on the upcoming monthly exam.

He Tang gave Sheng Yan a long, deep look and sighed inwardly at both his narcissism and his lack of insight.

"Why are you staring at me? Are you falling for me after hearing all that?" Sheng Yan smirked smugly at He Tang.

"Hah! In your dreams!" He Tang stood up and headed back toward the Sheng villa.

"What do you mean by that, He Tang? 'In your dreams'? You actually dare to look down on me? Do you know how long the line of people chasing me is? You've got eyes but can't see a good thing right in front of you!" Sheng Yan was furious, pacing around He Tang in agitation, muttering nonstop.

Amidst the noise created by Sheng Yan, He Tang returned to the Sheng villa and headed to the second-floor study.

Sheng Fu should still be in there studying. And his problem needed to be resolved as soon as possible.

She wasn't about to let a month's worth of effort go to waste!

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