DCBS: Chapter 6

The crowd of onlookers was in an uproar and their eyes widened in unison.

The boy who was hit couldn’t react. He stared at Fu Chengze in front of him blankly and held out for a few seconds before stuttering, “B-Brother Fu, did you beat the wrong person? The fake is over there…”

Hearing this harsh adjective pop out again, Fu Chengze immediately frowned and hit him again.

Gasps sounded from the side. People finally realized that Fu Chengze, who previously had a good relationship with Pei Yan, was actually defending the person who snatched Pei Yan’s family.

The boy who was hit on the head finally closed his mouth tightly and didn’t dare to speak. He rubbed his head with a sad expression, not understanding why Brother Fu suddenly defected.

Fu Chengze was actually surprised by his subconscious reaction. Initially, he just felt that Pei Qingyuan was quite unlucky after hearing the inside story. This was why he casually said he would protect the other person.

Yet ever since arriving at school, he kept hearing people talking about Pei Qingyuan. Some called him a fake and there were even worse claims and speculations. Countless malice surged everywhere like a tide, even though they didn’t understand the truth behind this matter at all.

Fu Chengze was surrounded by the noise and suddenly remembered what the child said to him.

“He was very young when he was replaced, so young that he didn’t know anything. It is the fault of the adults. If my brother could choose by himself, he would definitely want to be with his mother every day.”

He couldn’t help thinking, ‘What if it was me who encountered this as a child?’

He would grow up unknowingly in this mistake, increasingly dependent on a pair of parents he wasn’t related to by blood. Then one day, the mistake was revealed and he suddenly lost everything—the family affection he was familiar with and his peaceful life. He was pushed into an unfamiliar environment. Then one day, he walked through the school gates and was surrounded by gossiping students. He was forced to lose his original name and was named one ugly nickname after another…

The world he once had completely collapsed, yet he did nothing wrong from beginning to end.

Fu Chengze felt that he might go crazy. Then he would fight with everyone who dared to gossip about him until he couldn’t move at all. In any case, such a life would lose its meaning.

So at this moment, he felt a despair and anger that he could empathize with. This incident didn’t depend on anything he actually did. It was simply due to luck that none of the adults around him did something wrong.

Fu Chengze felt disgusted in his heart when looking at the group of students around him who were still childish but could say such hurtful words without caring about others.

He was so angry that he wasn’t hungry any longer.

He grabbed the boy’s collar, glanced around and declared in a threatening manner, “Let me hear such nonsense again and see how I deal with you.”

Fu Chengze’s 1.85 meter high and his murderous aura were very intimidating. The boy who ignited the fire promised and ran away in a hurry.

The bell for morning self-study was about to ring and only he and Pei Qingyuan were left at the school gates.

Fu Chengze had previously said bad things in front of this person so he was a bit embarrassed. He hesitated before taking the initiative to say, “Your brother is quite cute.”

Pei Qingyuan had already recovered from the brief surprise and realized that Fu Chengze’s change must have something to do with his own system. In just a few minutes, Fu Chengze not only lost a savory crepe but was completely brainwashed. He didn’t know how the system did it.

He didn’t continue to stay here to waste time. He just pushed the bicycle straight past Fu Chengze and said calmly, “We are even.”

The slander and favor were offset. This returned his relationship with Fu Chengze to ordinary classmates without any grudges.

Yet the moment they passed by each other, Fu Chengze heard a whisper from the other person, who seemed to be talking to himself yet also asking Fu Chengze.

“Why does the whole school suddenly know about this?”

Fu Chengze stood frozen in a stunned state. Then he turned around and walked toward his class.

Yes, why?

Last night, Lin… No, Pei Yan suddenly called a few friends from the 2nd High School, including him, to party together. They hadn’t seen each other during the summer vacation. The group of high school students were originally chatting happily until Pei Yan mentioned the change of family and everyone was filled with righteous indignation.

Fu Chengze was the first person who said he wanted to vent his anger for his good friend. He just wanted to clean up a scheming brat and it was a one-on-one fight in his imagination. He never thought about spreading this matter to the whole school to completely destroy the other person’s reputation because he felt this was a private matter involving other people’s families. There was no need to announce it to the world.

Did someone else spread it?

Pei Yan, did he… know?

Fu Chengze couldn’t figure it out.

Pei Qingyuan entered the third class just as the bell rang. He didn’t know if it was because of the bell or because of him, but the originally noisy class suddenly became very quiet.

Pei Qingyuan had expected his situation in school today after hearing the conversation between Fu Chengze and his peers.

The encounter at the school gate wasn’t the worst thing. The more embarrassing test would be in the third class.

This was the class that Pei Yan had been in.

He and Pei Yan changed their identities, families and schools during the summer vacation. Given how much Pei Minghong and his wife cared about their biological son, they definitely wouldn’t let him transfer to the class where Pei Qingyuan used to be. Meanwhile, Pei Qingyuan was different.

It wasn’t known whether he was transferred to class three in order to fill the vacancy left by Pei Yan, if it was a coincidence or if there were any special arrangements.

The people sitting in this classroom were all Pei Yan’s friends. Pei Yan was the class monitor before. In the past few days when he first transferred in, Pei Qingyuan had heard people mention this class monitor, who suddenly disappeared in the summer vacation. He seemed to have a good relationship with everyone.

This type of good relationship would inevitably be the price that Pei Qingyuan had to bear after his identity was exposed.

He walked over to his seat and sat down. The chair hadn’t been unscrewed or glued. The silence around him quickly turned to morning reading. From time to time, someone would peek at him in what they thought was a hidden manner but it wasn’t a big deal.

No one seemed to be targeting him.

Pei Qingyuan was a bit surprised.

He didn’t think he could live so easily and peacefully with this group of easily incited adolescent students.

He took out the textbook from his bag and opened it, quietly waiting.

30 minutes later, the self-study period was over. The homeroom teacher, Zhou Fang, walked in with a stack of math lesson plans. The first period on Monday morning was her math class and she entered the classroom a few minutes early to prepare.

The atmosphere in the classroom today was a bit strange. No one left the classroom, not even to go to the toilet, even though it wasn’t officially class.

Everyone sat in their seats until she walked in. She couldn’t help noticing a faint glint of excitement in their eyes.

“Teacher Zhou.” Lin Zihai, the study committee member sitting in the front row, raised his hand and called out to her. “It has been a few days since the new semester started. Shouldn’t it be time to choose a class monitor?”

Pei Yan, the previous class monitor, had transferred to another school and the position was vacant. It was just that school was busy at the start of the semester. Zhou Fang was negligent for a while and didn’t have time to elect someone for the position.

This was a reasonable suggestion and Zhou Fang didn’t think much about it. “Class is about to start. Wait until lunch is over and choose before the lunch break.”

Lin Zihai was very insistent. “Teacher Zhou, everyone has a candidate in their hearts and the voting will be very fast.”

Lin Zihai’s academic performance was very good and Zhou Fang liked this student very much. She was surprised for a while after hearing these words. Then she suddenly remembered the gossip rumors she heard this morning.

She seemed to have a premonition of who this group of students would choose.

Zhou Fang involuntarily turned her gaze to the transfer student sitting in the back row. At this moment, everyone was looking up at her. Only Pei Qingyuan stared down at his book intently. It was as if he wasn’t involved in this matter and didn’t care.

Zhou Fang sighed inwardly and hoped that her premonition was wrong. She waved her hand and said, “Everyone, take out a blank piece of paper and write down the name of the person you think can be the class monitor. Then hand it in anonymously.”

Five minutes later, Lin Zihai handed her the stack of paper and assisted her in counting it.

Lin Zihai didn’t lie. This vote was indeed very fast and the vote count was very simple. It was a completely overwhelming result.

Out of the 55 ballots folded in half, one was blank, 12 had other names or abstentions, and 42 had the same name neatly written: Pei Qingyuan.

“The one who got the most votes was Pei Qingyuan.” Zhou Fang announced the results and couldn’t help thinking of a question. Was this considered school violence?

They generously voted for a classmate to be the class monitor. This seemed incompatible with class violence. However, the premise was that the previous class monitor was Pei Yan and Pei Qingyuan was the one who took away 17 years of Pei Yan’s life.

Now it was up to Pei Qingyuan to take the position of class monitor that Pei Yan had abandoned.

Children’s hostility was always innocent and cruel.

Zhou Fang couldn’t bear it. She looked at Pei Qingyuan and asked, “Do you want to take the position of class monitor? You have just transferred to the 2nd High School. It is normal if you feel that you need time to adapt to the environment here and don’t have extra energy to assist the teacher in managing the class. You can tell me directly if this is the case.”

She couldn’t directly reject the nomination of the students. Such a straightforward protection would only confirm the existence of this school violence and put the relationship between Pei Qingyuan and Pei Yan on opposite sides. This might lead to worse results.

Zhou Fang thought it would be fine as long as Pei Qingyuan refused now.

This type of hostility which was similar to protecting one’s weakness would gradually disappear the longer Pei Yan was gone and Pei Qingyuan got to know everyone more.

Pei Qingyuan immediately became the focus of attention and everyone paid attention to his reaction.

Some people waited for him to show embarrassed looks while others waited for him to become embarrassed.

To everyone’s surprise, Pei Qingyuan’s face didn’t show any of the expressions they expected. They instead smiled subtly.

His temperament was extremely outstanding. His figure was always tall and straight compared to his peers, who had been hunched over and sitting poorly all year round. It seemed that nothing could make him bend his back. His superior jaw was angular and his eyes were starry. There wasn’t just the handsomeness and beauty of a young man. He also showed extraordinary maturity and tenacity.

“I will live up to everyone’s expectations.”

Pei Qingyuan’s tone was extremely flat. Only the last two words were slightly emphasized. It seemed like he was smiling, but the complete opposite coldness flowed from his eyes. It was half-hidden in the early morning daylight and was shockingly beautiful.