4 1.4

By the time Chen Yu walked into the faculty room, most of the teachers were already at their desks, including Liu Yao. Next to the cubicle he'd woken up in yesterday, the female lead sat anxiously looking around for him. Finally seeing the boy, she let down her heart and quickly put on a smile.

"Xiao Li, you're a bit late today, ah?" she greeted in a warm manner.

Chen Yu had already finished evaluating this woman. To put his assessment into one word, mediocre. In two words, absolutely mediocre.

Liu Yao could have been quite attractive, but every feature was slightly off, combining to form a superbly plain impression. Her pale skin appeared not creamy but waxy, her lips crudely thick instead of plump, her raised nose puglike rather than delicately upturned.

In contrast, all of Shao Li's features were perfectly exquisite to begin with. After being washed and dressed by Chen Yu, he simply glowed. Chen Yu sighed. Really don't know how these protagonists are made, ah.

Admittedly, he was biased against her, but so what?

In the original plot, Liu Yao's supporters had prevented Shao Li from finding a job by spreading rumors about his viciousness, and he had only been able to play music on the streets for a living until he was killed in a hit-and-run crash.

Chen Yu was almost certain that Shao Li's death was orchestrated by Liu Yao, but he hadn't yet searched for the cause of her resentment. Considering all that this body's original owner had suffered at this woman's hands, Chen Yu felt that silently criticizing her was nothing. He would soon make sure to reveal her ugliness to the world.

Still, having such a bland face was really too unfortunate. Shaking his head pityingly in his heart, Chen Yu showed a fearful expression and his glittering eyes formed a layer of tears. He whispered hoarsely just loud enough that everyone around them could hear, "Oh, I-I apologize Miss Liu, please forgive me. I didn't mean to, really, I'm sorry, I won't do it again."

Faced with this cringing response, Liu Yao was dumbfounded and momentarily couldn't react. Shao Li was usually quiet and obedient, but he'd never acted so frightened before.

Seeing Shao Li so sincerely and repeatedly offering apologies to no effect, the teachers around the two started commenting amongst themselves, gossiping, "What 'late,' isn't it still five minutes until 8 o'clock, why's Teacher Liu making trouble for the child?"

Another added on, "And doesn't she usually come in right on time herself? How can she be so hypocritical?"

Liu Yao seemed to be on good terms with everyone, but in reality, there was quite a bit of hidden jealousy and tension. Her relationship with the headmaster was an open secret, and, of course, the preferential treatment she received was also plain to everyone.

Chen Yu took this opportunity to exclaim reassuringly, "Oh, but don't worry, Miss Liu, I've graded all the music theory tests as you ordered."

Saying so, he unzipped his backpack and began to pull out pile after pile of paper, anxiously explaining, "I couldn't finish with them before the school closed, so I took them home to finish. I-I hope you don't mind."

When he finished, Liu Yao was holding a stack of tests high enough to reach her chin. The teachers at the academy were naturally not stupid. Who couldn't tell what was going on? It was obviously that she was neglecting her job and dumping it on the new teacher.

Hearing the condemnation of the crowd, Liu Yao's face turned ugly, and she glanced sharply at Shao Li.

Was he doing this on purpose? It was indeed wrong of her to ask him to mark all the tests, but surely he could have told her privately if it was too much?

No matter how she looked, however, Shao Li's face remained fretful and apprehensive from beginning to end. Maybe she was overthinking it.

Curving her mouth somewhat stiffly, she soothed, "Of course it's alright, I should thank you instead. But actually, I never intended to have you grade all the tests by yourself. Perhaps next time you can check with me on how much you should do."

Anyway, he had no proof that she'd made him take on all the work. The people around them turned their gazes towards Shao Li. So it turned out that it wasn't Teacher Liu slacking off but Shao Li not being careful enough.

But how could Chen Yu allow this woman to shift the blame so easily?

Liu Yao had pushed all the cumbersome tasks to Shao Li as soon as he started working at the academy. The only reason no one had found out earlier was that the naïve original owner had followed the 'helpful advice' of Liu Yao that the youngest faculty member should always be the first to arrive in the staff room. In this way, the finished work had landed on her desk long before all the other teachers turned up.

Since Chen Yu had replaced Shao Li, he certainly wouldn't perform such thankless tasks.

He rubbed his head and commented as if puzzled, "Oh so that's how it is. I'm sorry, Miss Liu, I really should have talked with you. I just couldn't find you from dinnertime onwards, so I followed the note you left without confirming it with you..."

Liu Yao startled and looked down when Chen Yu mentioned the note. Sure enough, there was a bright pink memo stuck onto the top paper in the pile.

The teachers close to them could clearly see that it read, "Grade these to be handed back tomorrow—LY." By now, everyone in the staff room was watching the play and shook their heads at this scheming woman. They scattered, shooting disgusted glances at Liu Yao and leaving her opening and closing her mouth.

Chen Yu's heart laughed contentedly, but on the surface, he earnestly promised, "Next time I'll make sure not to do anything until I've heard it from you directly, Teacher Liu."

Liu Yao's eyes were complex as she watched the slim back neatly slipping into his cubicle.

---

Back in Z country, the sound of his office door slamming open made Zhao Cui look up from the performance reports of various Zhao Jia politicians.

A bear-like man barreled in, shouting exuberantly, "Zhao Cui, you're finally back! How was everything in X country? Hey, have you seen the news today? There's this video of a cellist that's been posted all over the place, a boy but so sexy! Here, look at it."

Finally taking a breath, Zhao Cui's childhood friend and assistant Ming Wu shoved a phone in front of Zhao Cui's face.

Zhao Cui smiled coldly, prepared to blast him with his usual chillingly polite words, but he froze when he saw the delicate figure on the screen. Although the musician wore a face mask, Zhao Cui recognized the bright eyes set off by a distinctive mole as those of the shy young teacher he'd met at the academy. But unlike his normal gentle and introverted demeanor, the musician was bold and overflowing with emotions.

The last note of Chen Yu's performance rang out in the quiet space.

"Shao Shao..." Zhao Cui rolled the taste of his name on his tongue, unconsciously rubbing his hand from palm to fingertips in the same way the youth had touched him.

What a curious gap...Zhao Cui, who had never held much interest in the arts, wondered, was music typically so transformative? In fact, he hadn't had much of an impression of the seemingly weak young man, but he was somewhat intrigued now.

Staring at his perpetually indifferent friend's unusual reaction, Ming Wu needled, "He's really seductive, right? No one's found out who he is yet...but it looks like you've met? Is his name Shao? Can you introduce me?"

Zhao Cui woke up at this barrage of questions and quickly sent the video to himself while deleting it from Ming Wu's downloaded files. "En, I've briefly spoken with him before. X country should be fine for a while."

Then he lightly glanced up, as if asking why Ming Wu was still here.

At Zhao Cui's complete and nonchalant dismissal, Ming Wu could only cry in his heart. He really wondered if the fact that he voluntarily visited Zhao Cui was an indication that he had M tendencies... (ಥ﹏ಥ)

Unable to say anything more, Ming Wu pathetically shuffled out, and Zhao Cui's eyes flashed a hint of laughter before turning back to the reports he'd been reading.