BDBE 15

Chapter 15 The Truth Behind the Rumors

Friday was still a gloomy, rainy day. 

Since Shen Wanchao was a transfer student and didn’t have his final exam scores from the previous semester, and Qiongya’s monthly exams always ranked students based on the previous exam results, he was assigned to the last exam room. 

Although Qiongya was a nationally renowned school, the situation at private high schools was complex, with many wealthy but unmotivated students who got in by throwing money at the school and then wasted their time. 

The last exam room was a gathering place for these young masters and ladies. 

Shen Wanchao found his seat. He carried his pencil case while ignoring the noise around him. 

The gazes of three tall, thin boys huddled together at the back of the classroom were fixed on Shen Wanchao. 

The one in the lead had a perm, and while his features were fairly regular, his sleazy, roguish demeanor dragged down his overall appearance, making him unpleasant to look at. 

A student entered the classroom through the back door, and just as he passed the three, he was kicked by the boy with the perm. 

The student who was kicked was initially indignant, but upon seeing the three students’ faces, he said nothing, and quickly returned to his seat. 

He dared not retaliate and could only accept his bad luck; after all, he had offended Chen Zhenhe. 

Chen Zhenhe turned his gaze toward Shen Wanchao’s direction, and he asked, “Is that the Omega?” 

One of the lackeys nodded, “That’s right. I saw him and Zhou Mingchen arrive in the same car when I went to school. I guess he’s Zhou Mingchen’s new boyfriend.” 

Chen Zhenhe gave a sinister smile, “Let’s teach him a lesson.”

The other lackey chimed in with ” Hehehe…” 

The announcement came over the loudspeaker: fifteen minutes until the exam started. Shen Wanchao had just filled a cup with hot water, the red unauthorized copygoji berries bobbing on the surface. 

As he walked back, whoosh, a leg suddenly shot out. Caught off guard, Shen Wanchao tripped. Fortunately, he had already tightened the lid; otherwise, the hot water would have scalded his hand, potentially affecting his exam performance. 

Shen Wanchao glared at the person, who grinned and said, “Sorry.” 

Shen Wanchao could tell the other person had done it on purpose, but the exam was about to begin, and it wasn’t a big deal, so he didn’t bother arguing and went back to sit down. 

The exam officially began. 

The first subject was Chinese. For Shen Wanchao, a former liberal arts student, the only difficulty was reciting classical Chinese poems and prose. After all, so many years had passed, and the exam content had changed; many of the passages he used to memorize had been forgotten. 

As for reading comprehension questions, with twenty years of experience, Shen Wanchao naturally found them easier than sixteen or seventeen-year-olds. 

Half an hour later, Shen Wanchao had completed two reading passages. 

Just then, Chen Zhenhe, who was across the aisle from him, suddenly raised his hand. 

The proctor frowned slightly, walked over to Chen Zhenhe, and asked him what was wrong. 

Chen Zhenhe didn’t lower his voice and said bluntly, “Teacher, the student next to me has been looking at my paper. Is he cheating?” 

Shen Wanchao was diligently working on his questions when he was suddenly called upon. He looked at Chen Zhenhe with a “Are you crazy?” expression. 

Chen Zhenhe glanced at Shen Wanchao before humming a little tune with great enthusiasm. 

The last exam room was always a prime area for catching cheaters. Once caught, it meant a scolding, a demerit, and having parents called in, a process no student could tolerate. 

The proctor didn’t recognize Shen Wanchao and had a natural prejudice against students in the last exam room, so he immediately frowned and approached Shen Wanchao. He picked up his paper and compared it with Chen Zhenhe’s. 

Then… the contrast was stark. 

One side had elegant handwriting and clear answers; the other was atrocious Read onscribbles, pure nonsense. 

Anyone with eyes could see that the one with the better handwriting couldn’t possibly copy the other’s paper. No, even with 5.0 vision, it would be difficult to decipher what Chen Zhenhe wrote on his paper. His handwriting was like a secret code; how could anyone copy that? 

The proctor was exasperated and asked Shen Wanchao, “How did you end up in this exam room?” 

Shen Wanchao replied, “I’m a transfer student, and I don’t have my previous exam scores.” 

The proctor understood; he returned both papers to the two students, and then slammed Chen Zhenhe’s desk down, warning, “If you disrupt the exam room again, you’ll be disqualified.” 

“Damn it. ” 

When the proctor was looking at the papers, Chen Zhenhe also glanced at Shen Wanchao’s paper. That guy’s handwriting was elegant and tidy, every horizontal line was filled, a level Chen Zhenhe could never reach in his entire life. 

Who knew this little Omega sitting in the last exam room wasn’t a bad student! 

Shen Wanchao wasn’t stupid; he realized Chen Zhenhe was targeting [stolen content]him, but he didn’t understand why. He didn’t even know the other person, so how could he have offended him? 

Unable to figure it out, Shen Wanchao could only let it go for the time being and focus on the exam. 

After taking two exams non-stop all morning, the students were finally able to go to lunch. 

But as soon as Shen Wanchao stepped out of the teaching building, someone grabbed his shoulder and dragged him to a corner of a small garden outside the building. 

His shoulder hurt from being grabbed, and Shen Wanchao rubbed the sore spot. He looked up and saw Chen Zhenhe and his two lackeys. 

Lackey A asked without any politeness, “Hey, what class are you in? What’s your name?”

Lackey B pointed at Chen Zhenhe: “Do you know who our boss is?”

Shen Wanchao ignored the two boys and focused only on Chen Zhenhe, the leader. 

Lackeys A and B, enraged at being ignored, shouted, “You dare glare at our boss? ​stolen content​You know you’ve got yourself into trouble! I advise you to remember our faces from now on. If you see us, get lost, or we’ll beat you up every time we see you!” 

This childish intimidation had no effect on Shen Wanchao, who was actually twenty years older than them. 

Shen Wanchao simply said, “Sorry, I’m face-blind. I can’t remember common faces.” 

Lackey A exclaimed, “Fuck!” Lackey B hurriedly told Chen Zhenhe, “Boss, he said you have a common face!” 

Chen Zhenhe: … 

Too lazy to deal with the two dim-witted lackeys, Chen Zhenhe directly said to Shen Wanchao, “Do you know why we called you here?” 

Shen Wanchao complained to himself: “I’m really not young anymore. I don’t know what sixteen or seventeen-year-old kids are thinking.”

Luckily, Chen Zhenhe didn’t really intend for Shen Wanchao to answer. He made a throat-slitting gesture: “Tell your boyfriend that what happened between us isn’t over.” 

Boyfriend? 

Zhou Hui’s face flashed through Shen Wanchao’s mind for a moment, but he quickly dismissed it. After all, how could Zhou Hui possibly have a grudge against a kid… 

His lackey suggested, “Boss, he looks like a good student. Why don’t we just prevent him from taking the next exam? Good students definitely can’t stand that.” 

Chen Zhenhe wholeheartedly agreed and stepped forward to put his arm around Shen Wanchao’s shoulder, but Shen Wanchao dodged him.

Shen Wanchao patiently said, “I don’t have time to mess around with you. I don’t have a boyfriend, and I don’t know you. You should focus on your exams, that’s all.” 

With that, Shen Wanchao turned to leave. 

Chen Zhenhe suddenly grabbed Shen Wanchao’s forearm, the grin on his face made his roguish, thuggish demeanor instantly radiate outwards: “Don’t go! We don’t want to take the exams, how about we go out and have some fun this afternoon?” 

If a real 18-year-old were facing Chen Zhenhe’s threat, they would probably panic. But to Shen Wanchao, the three of them were like raccoons baring their teeth at him. 

But even flies that don’t bite are annoying; even visit our site if Shen Wanchao didn’t take Chen Zhenhe and his friends seriously, letting them buzz around was still troublesome. 

Just as Shen Wanchao was considering how to get rid of the three, Fang Chi, sporting a dazzling bald head, suddenly appeared in the small garden. 

Fang Chi’s head, which had sprouted a few stubble hairs, was bald again. He had just finished lunch and intended to go to the small garden to smell the flowers and listen to the birdsong to relieve the tension of the exam, but he stumbled upon Chen Zhenhe bullying Shen Wanchao. 

Fang Chi shouted, “Chen Zhenhe! What are you doing, you bastard!” 

The others turned to look, and Fang Chi had already rushed over. He shoved Chen Zhenhe aside and shielded Shen Wanchao behind him. 

Chen Zhenhe raised an eyebrow at Shen Wanchao and asked, “You still say you have nothing to do with Zhou Mingchen? His buddy is here.” 

Zhou Mingchen? 

Shen Wanchao then realized the crux of the problem. 

Fang Chi raised his fist and gritted his teeth, [Read on]“I think you guys want to get beaten up.” 

Shen Wanchao was startled and quickly stopped Fang Chi, reminding him, “We are at school.” 

This was not only a reminder to Fang Chi, but also a warning to Chen Zhenhe and the others not to act recklessly. 

As expected, Chen Zhenhe and his two lackeys still had some reservations. Seeing that someone was protecting Shen Wanchao, they knew they wouldn’t be able to cause trouble for him today. They threw down a couple of trash words, gave him the middle finger, and hurriedly left. 

Fang Chi was still furious. He angrily waved his fists twice and cursed, “Idiots.” 

Shen Wanchao was more concerned about something else and asked Fang Chi, “Who are they?” 

Fang Chi turned around and said, “Them? A bunch of idiots. They didn’t learn their lesson after being beaten up by Chen’er last semester. They actually dare to come and cause trouble for you.” 

Shen Wanchao frowned. His guess was correct. Chen Zhenhe was the one who had fought with Zhou Mingchen. 

“Why did Zhou Mingchen beat them up?” Shen Wanchao asked calmly. “What [unauthorized copy]conflict did they have?” 

“Because they deserved it!” Fang Chi said indignantly. “At the end of last semester, they were bullying an Omega outside the school. Chen’er happened to be passing by and helped the Omega, but I guess they disagreed, and a fight broke out. Chen’er fought three of them by himself and beat that idiot Chen Zhenhe black and blue. He was so cool.” 

This was different from Lu Niannian’s version. Shen Wanchao, unsure of the truth, continued asking, “So what happened next?” 

“What happened next?” Fang Chi was confused. “What happened next… Chen’er’s father came to the school? I don’t know the specifics.” 

“But I heard from other classmates that things don’t seem to be like that.” Shen Wanchao hesitated, “They said Zhou Mingchen beat up an Omega…” 

Fang Chi almost jumped up in frustration when he heard this: “Damn it! I knew they were still spreading rumors! Don’t believe what others say. Aren’t you Chen’er’s little uncle? Don’t you know what kind of person he is? He wouldn’t beat others for no reason.” 

Shen Wanchao was stunned; Fang Chi’s words made him feel ashamed. 

Fang Chi said angrily: “When it first happened, someone started talking nonsense, saying that Chen’er and Chen Zhenhe fought over an Omega. They also said that Chen’er got so angry in the end that he beat the Omega up. They are so good at making up stories! I was so angry that I wanted to go find the Omega who was saved by Chen’er and ask him to clarify and testify for Chen’er, but Chen’er ended up getting angry. He’s determined not to tell me who the other party is… That person is an ingrate. He watched the person who saved him being slandered and didn’t take the initiative to come forward to explain. Chen’er really made a mistake!”

Fang Chi continued to complain for a long time. He complained about the Omega’s lack of loyalty, about the teacher’s ignorance [unauthorized copy]of her students, and finally complained that the school only knew how to make peace, and he really wanted to sing a song about Dou E¹ on the spot.

Shen Wanchao lowered his head and his expression gradually became dejected. 

After a long while, Fang Chi noticed Shen Wanchao’s silence and asked, “What’s wrong?” 

Shen Wanchao looked up, forced a smile, and said, “Nothing. Lunch break is almost over, I think I’ll go back to the exam class first. You should go back early too.” 

“Okay.” Fang Chi watched Shen Wanchao leave. 

Shen Wanchao walked alone on the way back to the exam class with a cold expression. The aura he exuded made him unapproachable. 

He’s supposed to be Zhou Mingchen’s dad! 

He had actually believed his child was a bully based on a baseless rumor. He wasn’t even as good as Fang Chi, someone who had only known Zhou Mingchen for at most two years.