Noble Academy's Mob Character: Reborn as the Campus Heartthrob - Chapter 7

Chapter 7: The Encounter

In an instant, Qi Yuan lowered his head, adopting a cowardly posture.

Damn it.

What kind of luck is this?

Qi Yuan mentally cursed under his breath.

Perhaps because He Zhou was so dazzling, Qi Yuan hadn’t noticed that he wasn’t alone in the elevator when the doors first opened.

Standing beside He Zhou was a young man with blue-dyed hair, clutching a stack of documents. His large, round eyes, clear and distinct as a cat’s, were striking.

Qi Yuan recognized him: Liang Tingxuan, the Vice President of the Student Council. Known for his outgoing personality and remarkable social skills, Liang Tingxuan was a social butterfly; there was no one he couldn’t get along with.

Unlike He Zhou’s superficial amiability, Liang Tingxuan was genuinely kind-hearted. In Qi Yuan’s previous life, when he first joined the Student Council and was still finding his footing, Liang Tingxuan had been a tremendous help. It just so happened that Liang Tingxuan had some free time back then, allowing him to mentor Qi Yuan.

Two weeks later, Liang Tingxuan grew busy again, and by the time Qi Yuan resigned from the Student Council, he never saw him again.

In terms of family background, he was slightly below He Zhou and the others. If you were to rank them, He Zhou, You Qinghe, and the F4 would be S Rank, while Liang Tingxuan was just a step below, at A Rank.

“President, the freshman welcome party is all set. Oh, and I need your signature for the expense reimbursement.”

He rummaged through the documents in his arms, completely oblivious to Qi Yuan standing by the elevator door.

Only when he noticed He Zhou had already stepped out did he hurry forward.

The three of them brushed past each other.

To those who had always stood at the pinnacle, ants were beneath their notice—at least, that was how He Zhou and Liang Tingxuan saw Qi Yuan.

Qi Yuan couldn’t have been happier to be ignored. He rushed into the elevator and pressed his floor number.

As the elevator doors were about to close, He Zhou, who had been walking ahead, suddenly turned back and locked eyes with him.

His usual affable smile vanished, replaced by a flicker of confusion.

His heart, pounding faster than usual, warned him that something was amiss.

The dream he had almost forgotten from the night before resurfaced in his mind, and a sudden surge of resentment welled up within him.

He was a man of ironclad self-control, always striving for rationality.

He glanced at the unremarkable young man in the elevator.

Forcing down an unfamiliar surge of emotion, He Zhou turned and continued toward the exit, his footsteps unconsciously slowing.

Inside the elevator, Qi Yuan visibly exhaled in relief. He’d feared He Zhou might suddenly “lose it” like You Qinghe, but thankfully, they were different people.

You Qinghe was the epitome of recklessness. No one would be surprised by any absurd stunt she pulled.

He Zhou, however, was different. Qi Yuan had overheard Liang Tingxuan ranting about the He Family’s “insane rules,” calling them “psychotic”—”Suppressing desires? Are you kidding me?”

No wonder He Zhou eventually went mad and burned down the ancestral home.

He Zhou was a year ahead of Qi Yuan, now a sophomore. Logically, Qi Yuan should greet him as “Senior,” but he remained silent. Playing the clueless, socially awkward freshman suited him just fine. Besides, as a newly enrolled, impoverished student, he was supposed to be ignorant of the wealthy elite. Revealing his knowledge of He Zhou would inevitably raise suspicions.

He couldn’t afford the consequences of being suspected.

After all, he still needed to work in the Student Council. Leaving aside everything else, the Student Council’s salary was genuinely high, and there were plenty of opportunities to skim off the top. As long as he wasn’t too greedy, Qi Yuan could earn tens of thousands of yuan per month in the Student Council. While the wealthy students in the Student Council might scoff at such a paltry sum, he certainly didn’t!

The elevator glided smoothly upward, stopping on the seventh floor.

Weilika Noble Academy divided its courses into two types: mandatory specialized subjects, where classes were randomly assigned, and elective interest courses, which students had to fight to secure. Classmates varied by course. Qi Yuan’s decent reflexes allowed him to snag an elective that piqued his interest.

Before the current Principal took office, students from impoverished backgrounds were segregated into separate specialized subject classes from the wealthy elites.

But after the Principal’s ascension, this segregation was abolished. The old system was scrapped, and now each class contained both poor and wealthy students.

The wealthy students had already learned the futility of resistance, adopting an indifferent attitude. They merely watched with amusement, curious to see what else the new Principal would do.

When Qi Yuan arrived at the designated classroom, it was completely empty except for him. The academic advisor hadn’t arrived yet. Qi Yuan remembered from his previous life that the advisor was a middle-aged man who always arrived right on time.

After distributing meal cards to the financially disadvantaged students and going over the instructions, the meeting adjourned.

In the years that followed, Qi Yuan rarely saw the advisor except when he needed something official.

Realizing he was indeed early, Qi Yuan found a corner seat, wiped down the desk and chair with a tissue before sitting down.

His phone was several years old, and he was reluctant to spend money on a new one.

Opening the academy’s anonymous forum, he found it a chaotic circus of masked identities.

A few swipes up revealed the same posts he’d seen in his previous life. Qi Yuan had no interest in clicking on them again.

But…

After only a few more swipes, a post that made him break out in a cold sweat caught his eye. A sudden wave of anxiety washed over him, and he clicked on it.

Who pissed off Young Master You this morning?

1楼: Didn’t get a clear look.

2楼: Huh? Wha-wha?

3楼: What happened?

Fourth Floor (OP): Could someone explain? Yesterday morning, I saw Young Master You chasing someone, but I couldn’t make out who it was. So I’m asking if anyone knows who he was chasing.

Fifth Floor: I think I saw that too! Was it by the artificial lake? I couldn’t get a clear look either, but I was impressed by how fast they were running.

Sixth Floor: Young Master You chasing someone? Oh my god! I’d give anything to know who he was after!

Seventh Floor: I heard Young Master You didn’t catch them. They got away.

Eighth Floor: No wonder Young Master You looked so grim at the opening ceremony.

Qi Yuan: “………”

After refreshing the page, he confirmed that no one knew he was the one being chased.

He’d thought he was alone when he ran, not seeing a single soul around.

Are these people all invisible or something? How could they hide so well?

He wasn’t worried about You Qinghe checking the security footage; the Principal would never approve such a trivial request. Students needed the Principal’s permission to access school security footage. Qi Yuan’s only concern was that someone might have recognized him as the one being chased.

Sure enough, gossip spreads like wildfire. As soon as rumors surfaced, everyone swarmed the thread like flies to honey.

Qi Yuan scrolled through the thread, which had already ballooned to several hundred replies.

Unexpectedly, the thread was shut down shortly after.

He blinked, unsurprised. F4-related posts were notorious for being quickly censored on the forum. The fact that this thread had survived long enough to reach several hundred replies before being taken down was actually quite fortunate.

Gradually, more students began filing into the classroom.

Qi Yuan, still scrolling through his phone, felt someone sit down beside him. He turned his head to look.

It was Yang Huaiyuan, one of the F4.

Qi Yuan remembered that he was indeed in the same class as Yang Huaiyuan, but he couldn’t recall ever being desk partners with him in his previous life.

Is this the butterfly effect?

In Qi Yuan’s memory, Yang Huaiyuan was a young man who carried himself with an old-fashioned, capable air. He wasn’t much of a talker, but he was polite, patiently listening to you finish before offering a brief reply.

They had interacted a few times, being in the same class, but they weren’t particularly close. Still, it was easy enough to get a sense of his personality.

Yang Huaiyuan, who had chosen his seat impartially, was dressed impeccably, sitting with perfect posture. His face was expressionless, his thick, long lashes framing deep, dark eyes that radiated aloofness and coldness.

As if sensing the gaze from beside him, he turned his head and met Qi Yuan’s eyes.

Author’s Note:

Just wondering, would you guys want me to enable paragraph comments?