130 In Middle School

Zhou Lei woke up, his bed creaking as he squirmed on the mattress.

He rubbed his eyes, glancing at the light passing through the small window on the wall.

"Hmm, it's already too bright. I should get ready."

He stepped off the small bed, his bare feet touching the floor carpeted with paper.

"Ah, I forgot..." Zhou Lei recalled the night before. He crammed all of the homework in one hour and fell asleep as soon as he finished them. As such, all of the papers were brushed away by the fan on his bedside.

He scratched his hair. "What a bother."

Kneeling down on the floor, he started to pick up each and every piece of paper on the floor and stacking them on his arms.

While doing so, a smell drifted beneath the closed door of his room. "Breakfast!"

With the sweet smell of rice and eggs reaching his nose, he hurried to complete the current task at hand.

"Lei, wake up!" A stern voice resounded from right outside the little room.

"I'm doing something -- I'll finish it quickly!"

With his father pressuring him to hasten his current pace, he finished picking up the piles of paper on the floor. He stood up and placed them down on a wooden desk by his bed, rushing to get out of the door.

Soon enough, he was ready to head to the school he was attending.

Zhou Lei walked out of the door of his home, forgetting something crucial...

Inside the Zhou house, in Zhou Lei's bedroom, on a desk, there lay a pile of papers filled to the brim with writing. The breeze did nothing to topple the stack, standing firm on the wooden top of the desk.

Finally, Zhou Lei arrived at his middle school. He saw the huge letters embedded on the hanging roof leading to the door: District 5 District 5 Middle School.

Yes, the name of the school was officially just District 5 Middle School, but the ones who built the place made a mistake and accidentally doubled it.

The school tried to remove one of the "District 5"s off the hanging roof, but there was a massive outrage from the alumni and the current students.

In the end, they gave up on removing the double, so it had become commonplace for everyone in District 5 to call this middle school the District 5 District 5 Middle School.

Zhou Lei walked along, softly laughing at the name again. It was the umpteenth time he had seen this name, yet it never failed to make his mood brighter.

Eventually, he reached his classroom and entered it. He was placed at Section 1, along with his two fellow geniuses, Huang Fulin and Jiang Zi Yun.

As a first-year middle schooler, Zhou Lei was one of the top performers of his year. He was the best at many subjects, including Mathematics and English.

He had two main rivals at the top spot.

One was Huang Fulin, a bespectacled and arrogant man. He always gloated on Zhou Lei whenever he got a higher score. Of course, in the long run, Zhou Lei always won, but Huang Fulin got very close in a few occasions.

The other was Jiang Zi Yun, the school belle. Known for her cold personality, she treated everyone equally — in the worst way possible. She ignored you or she spoke harshly to you, it was either of the two. The former was the more favorable result...

Since the start of the school year, the former switched places from the third and second rank, and the latter the second and first rank along with Zhou Lei.

This trio always occupied the three top spots, and they were publicly acknowledged as the geniuses of their batch.

Looking for his seat, Zhou Lei glanced at Jiang Zi Yun, a little red blush appearing on his face.

Her jet black hair slid down her shoulders up to her waist. Speaking of, aside from her flawless face, she had a perfect body as well, at least according to the students of District 5 District 5 Middle School.

If you think it's weird that a bunch of first-year middle school kids whose ages are more or less 13 years old worship a so-called school belle, then you're... right. I have no excuses...

I'm sorry, okay?! I have no more ideas! I'm just a sad excuse of an author...

Okay, stop with the self-loathing, and get back to the story...

Zhou Lei had a crush on the school belle, along with many other people. However, he believed that he had an advantage over them - that is, he belonged to the same class as her, as well as the fact that he had overtaken her multiple times.

Of course, he dared not advance his feelings with just his feeble beliefs. In his mind, he needed more than just being as smart as her.

As such, before he could muster up the courage to confess, he still needed to collect foundations that he could build his courage upon.

In the end, the glance that Zhou Lei sent to Jiang Zi Yun ended just like that, a glance. There was no interaction between the two.

.....

Lunchtime.

Putting away the now empty lunch box that his mother provided for him, Zhou Lei patted his belly satisfiedly. He sat down properly on his chair and waited for the teacher to come.

While waiting, he shot numerous split-second looks towards Jiang Zi Yun. Whenever Zhou Lei looked, she always had her head turned away.

He disregarded her indifference as nothing more than unconcern towards his actions. After all, they were at most acquaintances, why would she pay attention to him?

While he relaxed on his own chair, he overheard the conversation of his other classmates.

"Did you do the assignment in History? Let me copy your work!"

"...What? There was an assignment?"

Hearing their conversation, Zhou Lei smirked. He had finished the assignment they were talking about, feeling satisfied at his own accomplishment.

As the students idled away, a bespectacled middle-aged man entered the classroom.

The instant they caught sight of the man, the students rushed back to their seats with composed expressions, seemingly used to this situation.

The bespectacled man could only shake his head and sigh at the scene in front of him. 'Hai, these kids.'

"Good morning." The man put a laptop down on the wooden desk beside him and sat on the chair.

"Good morning, teacher." The students routinely greeted the teacher in return while they sat on their seats.

"Okay, now take out your homework, we're gonna check it." With a monotone voice, the teacher wrote on the whiteboard with his marker the right answers for the assignment.

A collective gasp resounded in the classroom.

Instantly, multiple conversations between classmates took place, asking one another if they had done their homework. Majority of the responses were a shake of the head.

Zhou Lei felt a flick on his shoulder and spun around to look at his seatmate.

"Zhou Lei, did you do your assignment?" The girl asked him, obviously hoping that he would deny it.

"Of course I did." A feeling of pride washed over Zhou Lei, opening the zipper to his bag and putting his hand inside.

The girl looked visibly depressed. 'Of course the genius beside me would do his homework. Why did I expect otherwise...?'

"It's right here..." Zhou Lei groped inside his bag, looking for the stack of papers that he stuffed inside.

"...Where is it?"