Chapter 5: Pure Torture
At 7:40 in the morning, the air in the classroom was still filled with the faint smell of disinfectant from fresh cleaning and the drowsiness of morning. Students were sparsely seated, the sounds of flipping pages, yawning, and whispering intertwined.
The back door of the classroom made a soft clang and was pushed open with a bit of impatience.
A head of arrogant silver hair was the first to enter the scene. Gu Ye, with a face that said, "The whole world owes me money," his brows furrowed, his whole body radiating the depressing aura of "I'm forced to work," walked in with a detached gait. He was, for the first time ever, not late, a fact that could easily be ranked among Shenghua's ten wonders.
Gu Ye didn't even glance at the surprised and inquiring glances from his classmates. He walked straight to his seat, a corner by the window, gradually bathed in sunlight. Then, with a look of profound displeasure, he slung his empty schoolbag onto the chair. He pulled out a chair and sat down, folding his arms around the table and burying his silver head in it once more, announcing to the world: Ignore me, I'm annoyed.
Chu Yan had arrived earlier than him. He was sitting upright in his seat, elegantly flipping through an English-language book. The morning light fell on his dark brown hair and straight nose, his profile soft and beautiful, as if shimmering through a natural light filter. Hearing the noise next to him, he didn't even lift his eyelids, his movements smooth and natural as he turned the pages.
Only after Gu Ye had completely collapsed did Chu Yan slowly close his book. He turned around and, like a magic trick, pulled out a paper bag with an exquisite logo printed on it from his desk drawer.
"Good morning, classmate Gu." Chu Yan's voice was as refreshing and gentle as the morning breeze. He gently pushed the paper bag that exuded the tempting aroma of food to the corner of Gu Ye's desk. "You haven't had breakfast yet? I brought you some."
The mixed aroma of fried eggs, bacon and toast wafting from the paper bag is a fatal temptation for an empty stomach.
Gu Ye's head, buried in his arms, shifted. He jerked his head up, his eyes filled with annoyance and undisguised vigilance, like a hedgehog ready to bark its claws. He stared at the paper bag, as if it contained not breakfast but a ticking time bomb.
"Take it away! Who wants your stuff?" He said in a harsh tone, his voice hoarse from just waking up. "A weasel visiting a chicken for the New Year has no good intentions."
Chu Yan's smile remained unchanged, even deepening slightly, with a kind of understanding and tolerance that said, "I knew you would say that." He didn't take the paper bag back, but instead tapped the table lightly with his fingertips. His voice was still gentle, but it carried a tone that could not be refused:
"During the bet's validity period, maintaining good physical strength is essential for completing instructions. Skipping breakfast will affect your efficiency in attending classes this morning." He paused, looking at Gu Ye's expression that looked like he was being lied to, and then added slowly, "Besides, wasting food is shameful. Classmate Gu, you don't want to be accused of both breaking your promise and wasting food on your first day, do you?"
"You..." Gu Ye was choked by his seemingly well-reasoned, yet in reality, illogical words, leaving him speechless. He stared at Chu Yan's innocently smiling face, then at the fragrant paper bag. His stomach made an inopportune, slight protest. His face darkened further, and he felt a conflict within himself.
Finally, he grabbed the paper bag, without even looking at what was inside, grabbed a sandwich and took a big bite, as if he was gnawing on Chu Yan's flesh.
Chu Yan watched him eat with satisfaction, as if admiring the results of his feeding. He took out his textbooks and notebooks and placed them neatly. Then he turned his head and looked at Gu Ye, whose cheeks were bulging like an angry hamster. His voice became softer, as if he was talking about something very ordinary:
"This morning's math and physics classes are both crucial chapters. Student Gu, please listen carefully and take good notes."
"Cough... cough cough," Gu Ye nearly choked on the food in his mouth. He swallowed it hard and stared at Chu Yan in disbelief, as if he had heard something out of the Arabian Nights. "What did you say? Take notes?!" He suspected there was something wrong with his ears. He was asking a man who slept all year and whose textbooks were cleaner than his face to take notes? What a joke.
Chu Yan ignored the turmoil in his eyes, smiled and nodded, saying as a matter of course: "Yes. I will check after school."
"Inspection?!" Gu Ye's voice suddenly rose, causing several students in the front row to turn around and look. He realized his loss of composure and lowered his voice, but the shock and anger in his tone remained undimmed. "Chu Yan, what the hell are you trying to do?!" He leaned forward slightly, his eyes filled with deep vigilance. "Breakfast, lectures, notes... What the hell is your conspiracy? Are you trying to trick me or make me look bad?!"
He really couldn't understand the logic behind this hypocritical guy's behavior. Forcing him to go to school on time, forcing him to eat breakfast, and now forcing him to take notes was even more painful than beating him up.
Facing the spikes that stood up all over Gu Ye's body, Chu Yan's smile finally changed slightly. It was no longer that impeccable gentleness, but was tinged with a very light and slightly teasing amusement.
He leaned slightly closer to Gu Ye, lowered his voice, and spoke slowly, in a tone that was almost harshly frank, so that only the two of them could hear:
"Student Gu, you're overthinking it." He paused, looking into Gu Ye's confused eyes, his lips curled up in an extremely innocent, yet vicious, arc that made one's teeth itch.
"I simply know—" He deliberately dragged out the tone, admiring the emotions surging in Gu Ye's eyes, "You really, really, really don't like studying, and you especially hate sitting in the classroom listening to lectures and taking notes."
Chu Yan's smile looked particularly dazzling in the morning light, and seemed particularly provocative.
"So," he gently tapped the brand new, ink-smelling notebook in front of Gu Ye, his voice brisk as if he were announcing the rules of an interesting game, "making you painfully do these things you deeply detest, and watching you want to resist but have to hold it back, isn't that the best way to fulfill the bet of 'obeying me'?"
He stood up, regaining his gentle demeanor, and his voice returned to its usual gentleness, as if the harsh words just now were just Gu Ye's hallucination:
"This is pure torture. Please bear with me, classmate Gu." After saying this, he no longer looked at Gu Ye's instantly petrified expression, but elegantly opened the textbook, ready to face the morning class that was about to begin.
Gu Ye: “…”
He froze in place, a half-eaten sandwich still clutched in his hand, his mouth slightly open, his eyes wide, as if struck by an invisible bolt of lightning, leaving him burnt on the outside and tender on the inside. His head was buzzing, echoing over and over again with Chu Yan's words, tinged with a wicked smile, "It's pure torture."
What kind of psychopath is this?!
I went through so much trouble to beat him, just to watch him suffer from studying for fun?!
What's going on in this bastard's head?! Is he a pervert?!
Gu Ye's cheeks quickly turned red due to frustration and anger. The fingers that were pinching the sandwich were so tight that the knuckles turned white. He wanted to smash the things in his hands and the notebook together at Chu Yan's hateful smiling face.
However, the shackles of the bet were heavy on his neck. He couldn't break it, he couldn't even flip the table and leave.
He could only stare at Chu Yan, who had entered the "good student" mode next to him, as if nothing had happened just now. "Chu, Yan!" He squeezed out these two words from between his teeth, his voice as low as a volcano about to erupt.
Chu Yan seemed to be oblivious to what was said. He held the pen with his slender fingers and wrote a beautiful title on the open textbook, his expression focused and gentle.
Gu Ye looked at him, then at the dazzlingly new notebook spread out before him. An unprecedented feeling of frustration washed over him like a tsunami. He suddenly lowered his head and took a large bite of his sandwich, as if to vent his anger, as if he were chewing Chu Yan's bones. Then, with a pen tip filled with murderous intent and a thousandfold resentment, he heavily scribbled two words on the cover of the notebook: "Gu, Ye!"
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