Caught in a Brutal Shura Field Between the Protagonist and the Villain - Chapter 7

Isn’t this the kind of scene that often happens in TV dramas? Cheng Pang couldn’t recover for a moment.

Qiu Yu pushed him. “Get up first.”

Only then did Cheng Pang remember that he was still pressing down on the other person. He braced himself on his hands and sat up, but right now, his brain felt like rusty gears grinding against each other, jammed and unable to turn.

System: Please note. The protagonist is showing signs of turning gay. Immediately stop your bending behavior!

Turning gay? Cheng Pang was stunned. Impossible. This is a romance novel; logically, the male lead should be straight.

However, when Cheng Pang lifted his head, he watched the Favorability Value above Qiu Yu’s head had stopped at 53%, while his Blackening Value had dropped to 16%.

Cheng Pang: Favorability Value at 53%? When did that happen?

System: Within the last two days. Favorability Value below 50% is not displayed.

Cheng Pang: How could that be possible?

Cheng Pang cried: I really didn’t do anything! How did he just suddenly bend like that?

System: Think about it. Are you sure you didn’t do anything?

Cheng Pang: ……

At this moment, Qiu Yu’s face flushed slightly. He coughed.

Cheng Pang didn’t understand. Qiu Yu couldn’t help but say, “Liu Bai, we’re too close…”

Cheng Pang was startled awake and abruptly got up.

His face turned completely red, like a big, round tomato.

Qiu Yu wasn’t much better. He didn’t dare look at him, moved his legs to the edge of the bed, and hung his head low.

The scene was painfully awkward.

After a while, Qiu Yu was the first to grab his backpack and lower his head to put on his shoes. “I’m leaving first.”

He left in a hurry.

Cheng Pang could never have imagined he would end up in a situation like this.

Cheng Pang: System, is Liu Bai gay?

System: Unknown. Only what is written by the author is confirmed; everything else exists in an indeterminate state.

Cheng Pang: Then Qiu Yu is definitely straight, right?

System: That’s the setting.

Cheng Pang held his breath, about to say something like, ‘Then why did he suddenly develop feelings for me?’

The system continued: But you can change the setting.

Cheng Pang: ……

Cheng Pang: Why don’t you guys set these things in stone?

System: It seems we should take that suggestion into consideration.

Cheng Pang: It’s already too late!

The male lead turns gay this easily? How am I supposed to complete this mission now?

System: Turn him straight again.

Cheng Pang: Easier said than done.

System: Believe in yourself. Think of him as a piece of wire. If you can bend it, you can straighten it.

That metaphor earned full marks from Cheng Pang.

Cheng Pang was now extremely glad his money had been stolen, and he couldn’t go on the spring outing. Otherwise, seeing Qiu Yu right now would have been unbearably awkward. When reading the novel, he had actually liked Qiu Yu quite a bit, since, as the male lead, Qiu Yu was written to be charming.

Filial, kind, upright, and considerate toward the female lead, with sound moral values, much better than those popular male leads nowadays who only care about romance and act all cool and domineering. So when Cheng Pang first entered this world, he immediately had a favorable impression of him. But he never expected that while he saw him as a friend, the other… bent himself!

Cheng Pang lay on his desk during class.

The spring outing was done in batches; only two classes went, while the other two had regular lessons. The students like Cheng Pang, who didn’t join the trip, continued to study with the remaining classes. This prevented students from skipping the trip just to stay home and rest.

This school was quite scheming.

Cheng Pang sighed as he lay there.

Changed position, sighed again.

He sighed so much that the history teacher walking by heard him and called him up. “Student, do you have something on your mind?”

Cheng Pang stood up. “I have a lot on my mind. Too much to say.”

History teacher: “Is there something a teacher can help you with?”

Cheng Pang: “Yes. Ending the class.”

The entire class burst into laughter.

The teacher tapped him on the head with a book. “I’ll grant you that wish in thirty minutes.”

Cheng Pang, expressionless: “A wish that can be postponed is no wish at all. Time that can wait is not my time. Right now, I am burning with righteous fury over the First Sino-Japanese War, and I long to go out and strengthen myself for the rise of the Chinese nation.”

Teacher: “You should study for the rise of the Chinese nation!”

Cheng Pang: “Studying won’t save the Chinese people!”

Teacher: “Shut up.”

Cheng Pang sat down and let out a long sigh.

The entire class was suppressing laughter, including Zhou Wei, who had been sleeping face down the whole time.

He had woken up at the sound of Cheng Pang’s voice. After listening to the entire exchange, he didn’t open his eyes, but the corners of his lips twitched slightly.

After class, Cheng Pang packed his schoolbag. Seeing Zhou Wei leaving, he couldn’t help but follow.

He had always wondered why Zhou Wei appeared near Liu Duo’s elementary school. The area around that school was rather desolate and not on his way home. Cheng Pang saw Zhou Wei buying a bag of cat food from a convenience store and carrying it away.

Suddenly, he remembered that there seemed to be a similar scene in the novel. Although Zhou Wei had a bad temper in the early chapters, he wasn’t a bad person. He especially liked small animals. When Cheng Pang was bullied, Zhou Wei wouldn’t step in, but if he saw someone bullying a cat, he would rush over and say that classic line from the book, “How could a person be cuter than a cat?!”

Later, feeding cats became the catalyst that deepened Zhou Wei and Xu Lin’s relationship.

After the spring outing, Xu Lin went to a friend’s house and accidentally discovered delinquents abusing a cat. She stepped forward to stop them, but was harassed and bullied. Zhou Wei, who happened to come to feed the cats, charged forward and fought them. He got injured in the process, and Xu Lin, feeling sorry for him, helped treat his wounds several times at her home. From then on, Zhou Wei’s feelings toward Xu Lin became increasingly ambiguous.

Just then, a sharp, miserable “meow” echoed from the woods.

Zhou Wei stopped in his tracks and quickly ran toward the sound. Cheng Pang followed close behind.

The same group of thugs who had robbed him before had actually stacked up broken bricks to make a crude stove. They had tied a black stray cat to an iron rod and were roasting it over the fire. The cat was still alive, its whole body writhing as it was pinned to the rod, its voice hoarse from screaming. The fur on its back was completely burned off, and as they got closer, the sickening smell of cooked meat reached them.

Too cruel!

Zhou Wei snapped instantly. He threw down the cat food and kicked the boy who was turning the rod straight to the ground, then kicked the rod off the fire. The cat fell to the ground, letting out a sharp cry. Cheng Pang hurried forward to untie it.

The cat’s four paws were tightly wound with electrical cables. The outer insulation had melted from the heat, exposing the copper wires inside. Because of the pain, the cat struggled wildly, and the hot copper cut deep into its flesh.

The cat was trembling violently. The wires were scorching hot. Cheng Pang had to use the fabric of his own shirt over his belly to protect his hands from the heat as he carefully worked to free it.

But the cables were too tight to undo quickly, and behind him, Zhou Wei had already started fighting the thugs.

The delinquents didn’t want to fight Zhou Wei. They recognized him and at first tried to avoid him. But Zhou Wei’s eyes were blazing red with anger, and his strikes were vicious. The thugs grew furious too and fought back. Cheng Pang, after patting out the sparks still burning on the cat’s back and watching it wheeze with labored breaths, gently placed it inside a concrete pipe. “Wait for me,” he said.

Zhou Wei was one against four. Cheng Pang threw down his bag and joined the fight. After all, he was a man and a cat lover. His favorite way to relax at home was to watch cat videos on Bilibili.

He could tolerate being robbed, but never animal cruelty.

Liu Bai’s body was fair and chubby, soft and squishy; when he smiled, he looked like a Fuwa doll, and when he sat up, like a little Maitreya Buddha. Looking closely, he even had two adorable dimples. But once he moved, it was a different story; he felt like an oversized punching bag.

The first thing Zhou Wei noticed was how meaty Cheng Pang’s fists were.

It even reminded him of that internet meme about the “Little Pink Vajra Fist.”

That small, clenched pink fist suddenly shot forward, landing squarely on the guy who was about to smash Zhou Wei with a rock. Then Cheng Pang raised his leg and kicked, knocking another thug down before taking two steps back into a textbook Taekwondo stance.

This kid has definitely trained… Everyone thought the same thing.

Cheng Pang’s expression was deadly serious.

The delinquents actually hesitated to move. Two against four was already tough enough with Zhou Wei alone, but now that there was a trained fighter too, they began wondering if they should just run.

Zhou Wei was astonished. Had Liu Bai been hiding this kind of skill all along?

Two seconds later, Cheng Pang’s stomach gave a loud growl. He sniffed the air, catching the lingering scent of cooked cat meat. “…This meat smells kind of good.”

Everyone: “……”

Which side are you even on, you idiot?

Zhou Wei immediately kicked him in the butt from behind. “Get out of the way!”

Cheng Pang fell flat on the ground, turning back with a deeply wronged expression. It was right after school, nearly evening, and the smell of cooked meat really had made him hungry, but he never said he wanted to eat it!

The fight started up again.

Cheng Pang stayed down where he had fallen, sneaking small rocks to throw. When the gang leader was shoved near him by accident, Cheng Pang reacted fast; he grabbed the man’s leg, grinning broadly as he called out, “Wei-ge, quick, quick, hit him!”

Zhou Wei thought: …So fucking embarrassing!