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HOYSE CHAPTER 12
Chapter 12 – Ah, I Want To See That
“Jin-ge, the way he looks… he doesn’t seem like someone who bombed the exam,” a few classmates reminded Lü Jin.
Lu Jin’s heated brain cooled. He kept quiet.
He felt it too. Rong Jing’s expression had not changed once. The moment he thought of the streaking bet, his face probably went sour.
No way.
Rong Jing did not care what they were thinking. The group headed to the computer room, which was already packed with students waiting on their grad school scores. It was like how you could study anywhere, but people still flocked to the study hall for the vibe.
Ji Leping registered and booted up a terminal. He had not been nervous, but seeing others on the same score page made his stomach tighten. One sipped water and paced little circles, never typing a single character. Another held a Maitreya Buddha pendant to his chest and prayed.
Under all that tension, even Ji Leping got jittery.
Then he looked at Rong Jing, calm as a stone, and felt like he had swallowed a tranquilizer.
Several heads leaned over to peek at Rong Jing’s screen.
Rong Jing opened the admissions site and clicked into Initial Exam Results. Back when the original owner sat the exam, it was right when he discovered Qi Ying had multiple side flings. His state had tanked. According to those memories, he had not expected much. But Rong Jing had skimmed through the questions in the original’s mind. He had experience estimating scores for his second sister back then and had a hunch there might be a nice surprise.
Oh ho.
“Damn, bro, you’re about to ascend.”
“Let me rub your luck!”
“English 88? Are you even human?”
A few guys who had been too scared to log in heard the noise and came over. Four subjects in total. The sum was 425. This was a film academy, not a science and letters college. That total was jaw-dropping here.
Lu Jin stared at the number, looking wrecked.
Alphas had higher cellular activity to begin with. His was above average. If he had not gotten into the Film and TV school, he could have gone to Sports.
Which meant he ran hot and blew up fast.
When Rong Jing glanced over, he flailed, terrified the next words would be an order to strip and sprint the track. He remembered saying he would take off e-v-e-r-y single piece. He must have been out of his f***ing mind to make that bet.
Sweat rolled down the sides of his face.
What do I do.
He still wanted to act, to build a body of work. If he really did it, some gossip hound would film it and half his future would go up in smoke.
He had already talked himself into a corner. There was no way Rong Jing would let him off.
They all looked at Ji Leping, the usual peacemaker. Ji could only shrug. He had seen everything.
Knowing what Rong Jing had carried for years, maybe it was time for Lu Jin to be a human being for once.
Thanks to the lucky aura, a few nearby students asked Rong Jing to help them check their scores. He did not refuse, which left Lu Jin and his crew dangling.
After who knows how long, battling himself, Lü Jin gritted out, “I’ll go right now…”
Strip is strip. You fed yourself this sh**. You swallow it on your knees.
Rong Jing gave him a long look, as if arriving at an answer.
He cut Lu Jin off, walked over, and pulled out his phone. It was the video from earlier.
Lu Jin thought he was going to humiliate him. Rong Jing did not hit play. Keeping his expression quiet, he asked, “If I send this to the class group, what happens? Or if I post it on the school forum?”
Lu Jin of course knew. That was why Rong Jing had said earlier not to post in the class group. Had he already thought this far ahead?
He wanted to beg for mercy, but honestly, if their places were switched, he would never let the other guy go.
Just as despair crested, Rong Jing tapped twice and deleted the video. Under Lü Jin’s stunned stare, he went into the trash and wiped it completely.
“R-Rong Jing…” It was such a perfect handle. Lü Jin opened and closed his mouth, at a loss.
“I didn’t record it to threaten you,” Rong Jing said, still mild. “Do not do to others what you don’t want done to you. Alright?”
Watching this, Ji Leping wanted to clap.
First the stick, then the candy.
A clean one-two.
After all that, if Lu Jin still had a shred of face, he could not keep making trouble.
“Wait, the s-streaking…” Lü Jin called out as Rong Jing started to go.
“Forget it. My eyes would burn.”
Rong Jing had exactly zero interest in looking at a man’s body. Pure survival instinct. Also, why did this world have six genders and pair male A with male O like they were endgame while female O and female B barely existed in the conversation? No one thought that was weird?
For now, no one had an answer.
Without looking back, Rong Jing waved a hand.
“If you really want to do something, the library just got a shipment of new books at the entrance. Go help.”
“He… just let me go?” Lu Jin said, stunned.
“Looks like it?”
Ji Leping thought of the literal mountain of books and the long-standing grudge between the librarian and Lu Jin. Rong Jing simply did not feel like getting his hands dirty and was letting society beat the temper out of him.
Rong Jing had stayed quiet after the score came out, waiting for Lu Jin’s stance. If the guy tried to weasel out, that would be rot at the root, no cure necessary, no mercy given. But Lu Jin, jerk that he was, did keep his word.
“Fix your temper,” Ji Leping advised. “Look at the messes you’ve made. Today you met someone big-hearted and got to walk. What if next time you bash your head into iron?”
Cooled down, Lu Jin scratched his head. His whole family was like this: rage quick, then cooldown quick. He had always despised Rong Jing’s gloomy reluctance to speak up, especially after the class showcase disaster when he didn’t even apologize, like the whole world owed him. If not target him, who else?
“He wasn’t this easy to talk to before. I like him now.”
Ji Leping decided not to tell him, you are not his type.
Lu Jin was not likable, but Rong Jing had judged him right. He valued a promise. He went storming off to move books. The librarian first thought he was there to mess around, but seeing the earnestness, he pointed toward the storage bay with guarded faith.
When Lu Jin saw the truck stacked into a small mountain, his confident smile cracked.
Was it too late to choose streaking now?
Rong Jing knew the original had handed him a terrible opening. Studies, love, work, and family. All sliding toward hell difficulty. If he wanted to live well, he could only change people’s impression little by little. It would take time.
He guessed what Lu Jin and the others were doing and did not go rubbernecking. He followed some online recommendations and pulled a few history books to learn this world’s timeline.
In his world, humans evolved from apes, and there had been two sexes from the start. He opened these and, on the first diagram, saw apes divided into six.
So theirbelieved to have created humanity.
The line is a humorous or sarcastic way of saying,
“There are a lot of people like that,”
as if their creator was mass-producing them. Nüwa
He realized he had already started to check the bathroom signs every time he went in. It was part of adapting. He would get there. One day he would walk in without looking and still hit the right door.
He chose a few histories from home and abroad, then went to look for books on the performing arts in this world.
“Seriously, they give us a mountain of reference books and won’t tell us which ones matter.”
A few girls rounded a corner in a hurry and bumped into him. As he helped gather their scattered books, Rong Jing glanced at a cover. “You’re applying to New Media? Focus on these,” he said, pulling out Introduction to New Media, Making a Blockbuster, and a few more.
“Most of it is theory,” he added after a beat. “If you want a high score, tie it to real cases.”
The girls heard the substance and lit up. “Thank you, senior!”
“No problem,” he said with a small smile.
When he turned away, they huddled and squealed under their breath. One tried to muster the courage to ask him for tea, but another tugged her sleeve and whispered, “Do you not read the school forum? He’s a campus ‘name’ from the last class.”
“Like, already debuted? I don’t remember him.” In their context, a “name” usually meant a star with some real influence.
“Not debuted. How to say it… tragedy.”
“I don’t care about that. Does he have a girlfriend or boyfriend?”
“Upperclassman on the forum said he just broke up. Wow, you guys are fast.”
Rong Jing had not gone far and heard it all.
The original had kept a low profile, yet thanks to the showcase disaster, he was, in one angle, a major campus IP. People called him up in every irrelevant thread.
In his previous life, Rong Jing loved gadgets and studied Electronic Information and Components. Liking did not mean excelling. Two different things. He was decent in STEM overall but bottom of the class in his major.
His family said all his skill points had gone into acting. The lack elsewhere proved the heavens were fair. On their advice, he entered showbiz anyway, the last in the family to do so.
If he had to sum it up, acting for real was… pretty sweet.
He had not faced a camera here yet. He did not know if the original’s curse would land on him.
Should he find a crew and try?
Back in the computer room, he had skimmed the forum too. One thread was about the original. Someone had said if Rong Jing ever acted again, they would go live and eat a keyboard.
Ah, I want to see that.
Thinking of that, he went to find a restroom. Because everything here had to be multiplied by six, the school kept bathrooms to a minimum to save space.
He headed to a small staff restroom the admin had recommended. It only had two doors, men and women, very much like the old world.
Because it was tucked away, few people used it. That suited him. His feet took him there almost by themselves. He did miss this.
As soon as he entered, he heard a soft knocking from one stall. A mop had been wedged against the door from the outside. You could not open it from within. Seriously?
Maybe the original was not that bad. Lu Jin and the others were a lot, but they were not this childish.
Rong Jing removed the mop, swung the door open, and saw a damp, fair-faced chubby boy trembling like a steamed bun. The kid had not expected rescue and whispered, “Thank you.”
“Go change,” Rong Jing said. He felt no Alpha aggression and no Omega pull, so he assumed the boy was a Beta. He always had a natural soft spot for Betas.
“Are you a freshman?” He remembered new students were in military training now.
“Want me to come with you to explain to your drill instructor?”
The chubby boy refused to say more, worried the handsome Alpha would get targeted as well. Several wealthy kids had arrived with the freshman class and were wildly arrogant. Ordinary people could not provoke them.
Afraid of dragging Rong Jing into it, he thanked him again and again and hurried off.
“So wet he’ll catch a cold,” Rong Jing muttered.
Forget it, Rong Jing.
Do not meddle. Keep a leash on that soul of yours that has nowhere to rest.
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