Fake Slackers

Chapter 15: Renminbi Player

They stood till the end of class. Xu Xia finished the lesson and picked up her materials to leave the room, and He Zhao even said good-naturedly, "See you, Miss Xu."

Xu Xia's chest was tight and she found it hard to breathe. She ignored it and kept walking.

"Do you know why she's angry?" He Zhao was in quite a good mood. He put a hand on Xie Yu's shoulder and they walked to class together. "She's preparing to transfer to the Experimental High School, a municipal key school. Made all her connections and everything. Now, a good student under her tutelage—which is to say, me—is standing in her way..."

Xie Yu was uninterested in gossip. "Take your hand off me."

He Zhao felt that this deskmate of his was really cruel.

He had initially just put a hand on Xie Yu's shoulder. On hearing Xie Yu's complaint, he slung his whole arm around Xie Yu. From an outsider's point of view they might have been hugging. "Not letting go."

Xie Yu was about to kick him when He Zhao buried his head in Xie Yu's neck and laughed. "Calm down, friend."

"Calm down, your grandpa."

[Anonymous A]: Classmates, there's a situation in the three o'clock direction.

[Anonymous B]: Damn, I saw it. What are they doing?

[Anonymous C]: I'd rather believe that the two of them are fighting....

Xie Yu, who wasn't yet aware of the private group chat, thought their new class was a little strange.

Sometimes everyone in the class went quiet at the same time and the classroom would be entirely silent. When they were done with the silence, they would raise their heads and look at each other with a sense of tacit understanding. Very mysterious.

He Zhao had borrowed the portable phone charger from a boy in the next row. He went to return it but the boy didn't dare to take it, looking like he wanted to just offer up the charger and be done with things.

He Zhao put it on the desk: "Thanks."

"...No, no problem." The boy spoke in a high-pitched whine. His hands were under his desk, hiding something, and his whole body was extremely tense. He Zhao didn't hear what he was saying and was about to ask, but the moment he opened his mouth the guy gave a full-body flinch.

He Zhao: "......" Am I that terrifying.

Only after He Zhao had walked away did the guy carefully take his phone back out.

In the blink of an eye, two weeks had passed since school started.

Xie Yu watched wide-eyed as He Zhao got better and better at the dressup game. Everything he matched up got a high score.

It was unimaginable.

Had his offhand remark really let He Zhao discover the path to enlightenment?

"Nah. I tried your tactic and it didn't save me." He Zhao he took a screenshot of his highest score to date, then exited the game. Calmly, he said to his deskmate, "I paid."

He Zhao continued, "I, your deskmate, am the legendary Renminbi player."¹

Xie Yu: "......"

He Zhao: "I'm so strong now I even scare myself."

Xie Yu said mockingly, "SoftLittleCutie, you really surprise me."

"I paid fair and square. Is it so shameful to pay?" As He Zhao spoke, the shoulders of the guys in the row in front of them started shaking.