The atmosphere in Class 2-1 had felt off since morning study period.

Gu Sheng was like a human air conditioner, his face tight and frosty as if cold air was pouring off him.

Qin Shu sat in her seat, glancing between Gu Sheng—whose sour face clearly showed he was upset—and Zhou Shiyi, calmly working through problems as if nothing was wrong. She found it odd, but couldn’t put her finger on why.

After morning study period ended, nobody in the class moved; the room sank into a strangely quiet, eerie stillness.

The homeroom teacher pushed the door open from outside and was startled by the students filling the room.

The homeroom teacher of Class 1, Grade 2 was surnamed Gao, but he himself was a short, pot-bellied middle-aged man.

“Everyone’s here, huh? We have a new classmate—give him a round of applause.” Teacher Gao had He Yanqing, who was sitting in the back, introduce himself to the class.

The arrival of the new student added a bit of interest to the monotonous high school life. And since He Yanqing was also quite good-looking, everyone compared the new student to He Gu-sheng in their minds and finally came to a conclusion.

Gu Sheng was the kind of handsome who looked very alpha; the new classmate had softer features, like a little sweet omega.

So everyone was rather warm about the arrival of the new classmate.

Amid a round of applause, He Yanqing nervously climbed onto the podium: “Hello everyone, I’m the new student in Grade 2 Class 1. My name is He Yanqing—He with the ‘single person’ radical and ‘ke’ for the second character, and Yanqing as in ‘sea calm, river clear’. I hope you’ll all look after me from now on.”

After speaking, he wrote his name on the blackboard.

After Huang Cheng dropped out, the seating was rearranged.

Zhou Shiyi’s seat didn’t move—still the back row—but Gu Sheng shifted one seat forward, becoming the second-to-last desk, with an empty seat behind him.

Sure enough, Teacher Gao followed the original story and seated Gu Sheng and He Yanqing as the front-and-back desks.

Zhou Shiyi looked up from his workbook and glanced at He Yanqing.

As the story’s receiving lead, He Yanqing was undeniably very good-looking. When He Yanqing said he was a beta, the classmates around him were a little disappointed.

But looking at his face, they also felt that if it were He Yanqing, it wouldn’t be impossible.

Unlike the stereotypical omega, He Yanqing’s height was more like a beta’s, just with a slightly smaller frame; he had more of a youthful, boyish vibe.

In the other mundane world, Zhou Shiyi had never been in a relationship. He didn’t know whether he was gay or straight, and he never found any one person to be especially aligned with his aesthetic.

So he usually didn’t pay attention to the looks of people around him, let alone someone of the same sex.

But he also knew that in their world, homosexuality existed.

Maybe those people would like that kind of appearance.

However, in this world, He Yanqing is an omega and Gu Sheng is an alpha — whether that counts as same-sex or opposite-sex, Zhou Shiyi felt his head spinning.

He didn’t want to think about it more; none of this had anything to do with him as a beta.

Last night, after finishing his homework and lying in bed, he had a dream.

The perspective in the dream was a bit strange; he saw another Zhou Shiyi.

He was now in the third person, watching the events of him being framed for stealing unfold — or rather, the original plot.

The dream took place again in the little garden next to the PE class; Huang Cheng grabbed the original owner’s backpack and demanded that Zhou Shiyi apologize to Li Shudao.

The original owner was so furious his face flushed; he refused to back down, so Huang Cheng and his cronies led the way and beat him up.

This time Gu Sheng appeared earlier than he did in reality.

When Huang Cheng didn’t get the answer he wanted from the original owner and moved to rough him up, Gu Sheng showed up.

After Huang Cheng and the others ran off, Gu Sheng reached out a hand to the original owner lying on the ground.

From the original owner’s perspective, Gu Sheng looked as if he pitied him, yet was somehow so beautiful.

In the end, whether out of hostility toward Gu Sheng or out of self-loathing, the original owner simply pressed his lips together, got up from the ground, and coldly, stiffly thanked Gu Sheng.

Zhou Shiyi guessed it was the latter.

The reaching hand came up empty; Gu Sheng didn’t take it to heart. In the original story, Gu Sheng had likewise found someone to testify for the original owner, and later Huang Cheng received a demerit.

In the original owner’s dreary high school days, Gu Sheng was like a beam of light shining into his world.

So that’s why the original owner changed his college preferences—knowing Gu Sheng would stay in the country, he did it just to attend the same university as him.

Zhou Shiyi watched the plot unfold like an outsider.

But when he saw that the original owner had secretly slipped a thank-you note to Gu Sheng and brought him breakfast, Zhou Shiyi suddenly felt a little disordered.

The original owner never told Gu Sheng he liked him, but he always paid attention to Gu Sheng’s every move. If he knew Gu Sheng was going to play ball and needed someone to bring water, he’d pretend it was on the way and help bring things for him.

Zhou Shiyi’s expression grew stranger and stranger; it seemed his actions were overlapping with the original owner’s trajectory in the original plot.

Zhou Shiyi snapped awake all at once and sat up.

Something had fallen onto him; when he looked down he found a clean blanket on top of him.

Grandmother must have come by.

He had dozed off earlier and forgotten to pull up the covers; this blanket must be the one Grandmother put on him.

Zhou Shiyi thought about that dream and then about the past week — it seemed he’d been getting too close to Gu Sheng.

He didn’t know why the plot was slightly different, but he was still following the original owner’s path.

Does that mean no matter how hard he tries to change things, the world-consciousness will correct it, and he’ll still end up following the fate set for a little cannon-fodder character?

No!

The fact that he could have this dream was a hint left by the original owner, and the world-consciousness can’t interfere with his actions — the fact that he was able to come to this world is the best proof of that.

So, right now the most important thing is to stay far away from the original plot.

While waiting for the bus that morning, he looked at the change in his hand.

Aside from those taking the bus, the rest were people bringing change with things for Gu Sheng. He hesitated for a moment, then still brought a breakfast—better to make things clear in person.

Thus this morning’s scene came about.

He Yanqing didn’t know whether the class had always been like this. At first the students had been a bit enthusiastic, but later, as soon as class ended and the teacher left the classroom, the class immediately fell silent—no one spoke.

The boy in front of him suddenly stood up from his seat; the chair scraped loudly across the floor, and everyone turned to look at that young alpha, but the boy didn’t seem to notice and strode out of the classroom.

Only after he left did the classmates slowly liven up, whispering and speculating about what was wrong with the school’s heartthrob today.

He Yanqing noticed that the boy who sat in front of him never returned for the rest of the morning.

He came back in the afternoon and continued lying face down on the desk sleeping the whole time.

The teacher in charge hesitated a bit when he saw him lying face down on the desk asleep.

It wasn’t just because of Gu Sheng’s status. Normally Gu Sheng showed a lot of respect for the school’s teachers and paid decent attention in class, so they all suspected he might be feeling unwell and didn’t want to go down and disturb him.

By the time the last class of the afternoon rolled around, the students in class were suddenly excitedly chatting about something.

Gu Sheng was woken up by the noise, his face marked with a few red impressions from the school uniform, and he glared unhappily at the commotion in front of him.

Tomorrow is the midterm exam, and the school has printed out the seating assignments and posted them on the wall.

Class 2-1 is an honors class, and with the midterms coming up, they were still eager to check their assigned rooms.

Zhou Shiyi saw which room he was assigned to; midterm seating was arranged according to last semester’s final grades, so, unusually, he was back in the first exam room.

Each exam room holds thirty students; naturally, the first room is for the top thirty in the school.

After getting the exam paper and filling in his name and student number, Zhou Shiyi skimmed through it, flipped to the last page to read the essay prompt, formed a rough idea, then went back to start answering from question one.

The first exam was Chinese. Luckily he’d spent time recently memorizing the required classical poems and verses, and Chinese relies more on years of accumulation, so picking it back up wasn’t too hard.

By the time he finished his composition, he found there were five minutes left—he wasn’t the only one in that situation.

He went back and checked whether his information had been filled out completely, reviewed the earlier multiple-choice questions, and after confirming everything was correct, the bell signaling the end of the exam rang.

Usually exam papers are collected starting from the last row moving forward; when they reached Zhou Shiyi’s desk, he realized that the person collecting their group’s papers was Gu Sheng.

Gu Sheng had only been one seat away from him, but he had never noticed.

Makes sense—Gu Sheng’s grades were always good, so it wasn’t surprising he’d be in the first examination room.

Throughout the whole process, Gu Sheng didn’t glance at Zhou Shiyi once.

Ever since he and Gu Sheng had cleared things up, Gu Sheng acted as if Zhou Shiyi didn’t exist. Sitting in the same exam hall, he might as well have been a stranger.

They spent two days taking exams. When the final subject, English, was finished, Zhou Shiyi capped his pen and strolled back to the classroom.

Some classmates were comparing answers, but most were just packing up their things.

Midterms were over and the weekend had arrived. No matter how anyone did on the exams, the word “weekend” still made everyone excited.

The homeroom teacher came into the classroom, went over some reminders, and then let the eager students go on break early.

Zhou Shiyi slung his backpack over his shoulder and, seeing it was still early, decided to get his hair cut — it had gotten too long and kept getting in his eyes.

There was a barbershop on the old street in front of the row of tenement buildings.

It’s been open for many years, the prices are fair, but the craftsmanship has never changed.

Zhou Shiyi got the quintessential student-era haircut; the whole look was propped up by his face, but at least the cut was finished.

He slung his bag over his shoulder and went to find Brother Chen to get him a job.

He’s still a minor, so he’s given simple tasks — like minding the shop and doing odd jobs.

Lately Grandma has been coughing badly at night, unable to sleep through the whole night, only dozing a little in the mornings.

She didn’t want Zhou Shiyi to find out either. It was that midnight when Zhou Shiyi came out of his room to get some water that he heard the elder coughing continuously.

She’d lived frugally her whole life and was afraid of going to the hospital, terrified she might have some serious illness and worried about the expense.

Zhou Shiyi wanted to save up some money and take Grandma to see a doctor.

All weekend, Zhou Shiyi spent his time working.

Whenever he had a spare moment, he would take out the little notebook where he’d written down the key points and review them.

By the time school started on Monday and he entered the classroom, Zhou Shiyi noticed it had become quiet.

This time, the looks they gave him lacked schadenfreude; there was more astonishment and curiosity.

Only after he went in did he learn that the midterm exam results had already been released.

Last night, they had suddenly seen the grade sheet the homeroom teacher posted in the class group, and countless people had let out a wail.

The school couldn’t even wait until the very last night; they handed down the death sentence right away.

Although the report cards hadn’t been printed yet, everyone already knew their own scores.

This exam paper was set internally by the school and was very difficult, especially the science composite.

They assumed that if it was hard for them, it was hard for everyone, so they thought the gaps wouldn’t be too large.

They were all top students; if even they found it hard, the final rankings wouldn’t change much.

And that’s how it turned out — they found familiar names clustered around their own rankings, with only small score differences.

But everyone was stunned to see the grade’s top scorer was in their class. After thinking it over, they remembered Zhou Shiyi usually worked so hard and had always done well, so maybe it wasn’t so surprising he’d taken first in the grade.

Still, when they saw his score, a lot of them felt a bit unsettled.

Some people get 99 points — they can only ever get 99. Some people get a perfect score because the test itself only offers full marks.

On that twisted science exam, Zhou Shiyi got a perfect score, and suddenly the gap between them widened.

We’re all human — so why are you, Zhou Shiyi, such a freak? The difficulty of the test doesn’t affect your perfect score at all? Do you ever let anyone else live?

They were discussing in the class group chat why Zhou Shiyi did so well on this test.

Someone commented, maybe it’s because that person left—no one bullies him anymore, so improving his grades isn’t hard to accept.

The class group fell silent for a moment.

Yeah, if Zhou Shiyi can settle down and study seriously, it’s only natural that his grades would improve.

They brought up Zhou Shiyi a few more times, not saying anything particularly nice—basically, his good scores were obviously just to get scholarships.

Later someone suddenly dropped a line: “Zhou Shiyi is also in this group.”

A few messages were retracted from the class chat, and then they went back to discussing this midterm, which pushed everything else down.

Everyone avoided Zhou Shiyi’s freakish grades and focused on talking about the new transfer student He Yanqing.

This time the second in the grade was also in their class—not the class monitor who always took first, but the new transfer student He Yanqing.

The new classmate was another dark horse bursting onto the scene.

Zhou Shiyi didn’t know any of this; he was busy working and didn’t have time to check his phone.

And He Yanqing hadn’t joined the class group chat yet, so he didn’t know his own results.

So the next day, when the two of them entered the classroom under the astonished and bewildered gazes of their classmates, they both felt a bit at a loss.

📘 The complete novel is available for download in PDF via the link below.