In General Qin's view, whatever the root cause may be, the direct reason for these three people's absence from the exam was fighting.
Qin Chu couldn't handle Zhou Sisi and Wang Peng right now, but Zhao Yuan was living in the same dorm as Cheng Cheng. Qin Chu wanted to resolve the issue once and for all tonight, making Zhao Yuan truly understand the harm of fighting.
Once upstairs, Qin Chu found the dormitory door open, so he didn't have to bother looking for his key.
The style of the dormitory building of No. 1 Middle School is the same as that of the surrounding residential buildings. They are all old and dilapidated. The plaster on the walls in the corners is even bulging due to dampness and is about to collapse.
The dormitory is a six-person room, but judging from the placement of belongings, it seems that only five people live there.
When Qin Chu entered the dormitory, there was only one boy in the room. The boy was sitting at his desk, looking like he was working hard, but there was another notebook on top of it, which was obviously another kind of intense writing.
This dormitory had more than one class of students, so Qin Chu did not receive any cold treatment in the classroom this time.
Hearing someone come in, the boy at the table looked up. He was embarrassed for a second when he saw Qin Chu, but he quickly greeted him warmly: "Why didn't you go back to the dorm yesterday? The dorm supervisor came to check the dorms three times, and every time I told him you went to the toilet. But the supervisor asked me if there was something wrong with you."
Qin Chu: "..."
He returned the car yesterday and went straight home to confirm that Cheng Cheng's parents were not usually home.
Qin Chu glanced around but didn't see Zhao Yuan and didn't pay any attention.
When he returned to his dormitory, he noticed that some students did not rush back but went to the school's convenience store instead.
Following the numbers on the beds, Qin Chu found his own bed, the upper bunk. However, the bed was rather rudimentary; even in Qin Chu's era, the conditions in interstellar prisons were far better.
While Qin Chu was still getting used to his surroundings, the guy next to the desk scratched his head and couldn't help but ask Qin Chu for help.
He waved the notebook in his hand and said, "Brother Cheng, do me a favor. This kid's homework is too messy for me to read. Yours is high quality, let me copy it!"
The boy howled for a while, but Qin Chu didn't move. When he looked up again, he was met with Qin Chu's cold face, which was frozen in place.
Qin Chu: "...What homework?" He never expected that more than a decade after graduation, he would face the predicament of having to do homework again.
Fortunately, General Qin was still sharp; he asked Noah that question.
Unfortunately, Noah's stupid system malfunctioned again at this moment, knowing nothing about homework. But it still didn't forget to cry out in Qin Chu's mind, "Sir, top students can't skip their homework!"
Qin Chu was furious and was about to turn to ask the boy next to the table when Noah added, "You can't be ignorant of what the homework is!"
From the notebook, Qin Chu saw that the boy's name was Tian Li.
"...Which assignment do you want?" Qin Chu asked, swearing he had never been so careful with his words in his entire life.
"It's that physics test paper! It was handed out before the exam!" Tian Li looked at Qin Chu with hopeful eyes.
Qin Chu really wanted to say, "Whose homework did you borrow? Let me copy it too."
But saying that would probably ruin his image, so Qin Shang continued indifferently: "Oh, do your own thing."
Tian Li turned back with a long face.
General Qin's ambition to restore order was thwarted by an assignment. This distraction caused his attention, which had been focused on Zhao Yuan, to shift entirely to physics.
Unfortunately, tomorrow's first class is physics. If Qin Chu makes up the homework now, his roommate will find out, "You, the top student, didn't do your homework!" If he makes it up during tomorrow's morning reading session, the whole class will find out.
After weighing the two options, Qin Chu took his homework, got out of bed, and walked to his desk.
Seeing Qin Chu's empty notebook and the exercises in his hand, Tian Li, who was writing furiously, cast a suspicious glance at him.
Faced with the doubts, Qin Chu's expression was very serious and indifferent, making him seem very credible. He said, "Boring, do it again."
Tian Li looked shocked, clearly not expecting the world of top students to be so incomprehensible.
Qin Chu rushed to finish her homework before all her roommates returned, packed her things on her bed, and glanced down at them.
It was a coincidence that, perhaps because he and Zhao Yuan were the only two students from Class 1 in the dormitory, Zhao Yuan's bed was the one below Qin Chu's.
Now almost everyone in the dormitory has arrived, and the small space is a bit noisy, but the lower bunk remains empty.
Qin Chu frowned. He turned his head and saw a tall, thin boy with bangs covering his eyes coming out of the restroom. Qin Chu called out to him, "Hey, do you know where Zhao Yuan went?"
As soon as he asked the question, the noisy dormitory fell silent.
Chapter 7, First Story (5)
The sound of running water was unusually loud in the private bathroom.
The brothers who had just returned from the convenience store had already opened their potato chips, but Qin Chu's words stunned them, leaving them speechless for a long time. Tian Li was even more at a loss for words, turning to look at the only two people in the group, falling into deep silence.
Is this a new trick for academic high-achievers to ostracize each other?
Finally, it was his roommate in the bathroom who shouted, breaking the awkward silence: "Zhao Yuan! You forgot your things in there, take them with you!"
Qin Chu saw the somewhat dazed boy in front of him respond with a sound, then turn around and hurriedly go to the restroom to get something.
Faced with such an awkward situation, General Qin showed no embarrassment whatsoever. Instead, he raised his voice slightly and asked Noah, "Is he Zhao Yuan?"
Noah was speechless for a long time: "Should I know? I didn't steal anyone's electric scooter."
Qin Chu: "..."
It's no wonder he didn't recognize him; the impression of Zhao Yuan in front of him was so different from that of Qin Chu.
Although he was in a hurry when he "grabbed the car" yesterday and didn't look at it carefully, based on that fleeting glance and the information Noah gave him today, Qin Chu's mind was filled with the image of a very arrogant and troublesome student.
But now... this boy who just came out of the restroom had his bangs covering most of his face, his head slightly lowered, and he looked shy and even a little timid. If he wore thick-rimmed glasses, he would definitely look like a bookworm.
How can Qin and Chu "restore public order" under such circumstances?
No wonder Qin Chu had no impression of Zhao Yuan even though they were in the same class. This guy huddled in a corner and had no presence at all.
Before Qin Chu could question Noah's information again, Zhao Yuan, who had just been called into the restroom, hurriedly came out again.
He was holding a wallet, and his clothes, which he had just changed into, were splashed with water, suggesting that his roommate inside wasn't very friendly to him.
After Zhao Yuan came out, he wasn't angry at Qin Chu's arrogant words. He didn't seem like the type to get angry.
He didn't even give Qin Chu a cold look, but instead took the wallet and stepped forward: "Cheng Cheng, here's your money back. Business at the store wasn't affected yesterday, so you don't need it..."
His voice was fairly pleasant, but the tone was too low and the volume too small. It also sounded a bit shaky, as if he was afraid Qin Chu would cause him trouble.
Qin Chu looked at the wad of money in the man's hand but didn't take it.
He gave the shop owner extra money when he returned the car yesterday as compensation.
Looking down at Zhao Yuan's seemingly trembling fingers, General Qin felt as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over his head; he had absolutely no interest in doing this mission.
"You can have it." Qin Chu said coldly, then climbed onto the bed in two steps.
“I say one word, and he flinchs.” General Qin began to harass Noah. “Someone like him would skip an exam to fight? What is he doing in there, as a hostage?”
Noah argued forcefully: "The data is definitely correct! People change, so preventing Zhao Yuan from falling into depravity is your task."
"Oh." Qin Chu said coldly, "The information is correct, but what's the deal with Cheng Cheng's character?"
"..." Noah started fiddling with his fingers. "Is this really all the data they've read in this world? This means the mainframe's overall control over Cheng Cheng's persona is top-notch. As long as you maintain your grades, your persona won't collapse. Isn't that great!"
Qin Chu: "..." He couldn't understand why an artificial intelligence could be more eloquent than him.
As lights out approached, the dorm room became lively again, with several boys starting another discussion. The topics ranged from girls from other classes to the brawl that had broken out in the alley outside.
Qin Chu had no interest in chatting and was feeling down because of the slow progress of the task.
Although Cheng Cheng was ostracized by his classmates in Class 1, he seemed to get along fairly well with students from other classes in the dormitory. These students knew that Cheng Cheng had encountered some problems with the exam, so they didn't mention Qin Chu.
However, halfway through, a boy called out to Zhao Yuan in a somewhat arrogant voice: "Zhao Yuan, I heard that the class beauty in your class broke up with her boyfriend. Send me her phone number."
Qin Chu lay on the bed and heard Zhao Yuan's muffled voice from the lower bunk: "I don't know..."
The boy was very dissatisfied with the answer, but he didn't ask any more questions. He just scoffed loudly enough for everyone to hear, "No wonder he's a bookworm."
With a "snap".
Qin Chu stretched out his arm and slammed it on the light switch, forcibly turning off the lights. Darkness descended, silencing the boy's unfinished complaints.
The next morning, when Qin Chu finished washing up and packing her things, Zhao Yuan had already gone to the classroom, leaving only a stack of money on Qin Chu's desk.
Qin Chu didn't sleep a wink last night, spending half the night thinking about the mission and the other half observing Zhao Yuan.
He had thought Zhao Yuan would be something special, but he found that the guy was really a coward, even sleeping with his head covered by a blanket.
Qin Chu was forced to accept the fact that he could not complete the mission ahead of schedule and could only wait for the college entrance examination with these children.
He checked his homework in his dorm, ate a quick breakfast, and went to the classroom for morning reading. As soon as he stepped into the classroom, he heard someone yell, "Holy crap, the grades are out!"
Suddenly, the entire classroom was filled with howls and screams.
Amidst the dense wails, Qin Chu walked to his seat.
He first glanced at Zhou Sisi to confirm that the girl was normal except for worrying about her grades, and showed no signs of early romance. Then he glanced at Wang Peng, whose eyes were still glued to Zhou Sisi.
Qin Chu quickly found Zhao Yuan, only to discover that Zhao Yuan was actually Wang Peng's deskmate.
Yesterday, Qin Chu confronted Zhao Yuan, asking him who Zhao Yuan was. This behavior was so bizarre that rumors of Qin Chu bullying Zhao Yuan in the dormitory surfaced again this morning.
Noah was very worried and emphasized to Qin Chu, "Sir, you can't repeat the mistake you made last night."
Qin Chu thought he was making a mountain out of a molehill: "I already remembered that."
"Alright, let's test it. Please try to recall the appearance of the three task subjects in your mind."
"First of all, it's Zhou Sisi."
Noah saw a ponytail swinging back and forth.
"...Wang Peng."
What appeared in Qin Chu's mind was a large megaphone.
The most bizarre thing is that when Zhao Yuan was mentioned, after such an embarrassing scene last night, Qin Chu's memory of Zhao Yuan still kept switching back and forth between the electric scooter and a tuft of bangs.
Noah: "...Although I am not human, I know that this is not how you humans remember things."
Qin Chu ignored him, staring thoughtfully at the back of Zhao Yuan's head. He asked Noah, "Zhou Sisi lost her college entrance exam qualification because of Meng Bo, Wang Peng lost it because he couldn't let go of Zhou Sisi, so what's the reason Zhao Yuan became a hoodlum?"
Noah investigated for a while and then told Qin Chu, "The reason is unknown."
Just as Qin Chu was about to say something sarcastic, a commotion arose from the front row of the classroom.
The student in the first row near the door leaned halfway out of the classroom, then abruptly pulled his head back in, shouting in a tone as if he'd seen a mudslide: "Holy crap, the English teacher's here, holding a test paper!"
This one sentence turned everyone in the class into chickens waiting to be slaughtered on the execution ground. They couldn't concentrate on their studies anymore; some were burying their heads in their hands and wailing, while others were drenched in cold sweat from fear.
"Why are they so scared?" Anyone who didn't know better would think a star beast had broken into the classroom.