Chapter 1: This World Is One Giant Dog-Blood Drama…
Screech—
The sharp scrape of a desk leg against the floor cut through the classroom, making the teacher—who had been writing on the blackboard with chalk—jerk around in shock.
Among the crooked rows of students—some sitting, some practically sprawled over their desks—the black-haired boy who stood up was especially conspicuous.
Gu Yang’s face was dark and sullen. A few strands of hair still clung to his cheek, and he looked completely like someone who had just woken up.
“Student Gu, is something wrong?” The young math teacher, who had become a homeroom teacher just one year after graduating, nervously adjusted his glasses, unsure what was happening.
Several classmates who loved a good show turned around with grins to watch.
“Nothing.” Gu Yang tugged at the corner of his mouth, dragged his chair back into place, and sat down. Then, under everyone’s watchful eyes, he calmly rested his head back on his arms and resumed sleeping.
Math teacher: “…”
Does he really have to give me zero face, Student Gu?
That was what he thought, but he didn’t dare say a word out loud.
He had done his undergrad at Jing University and completed his master’s degree at a top overseas institution. His academic credentials and research achievements were impeccable. After graduation, he had come straight to this school to teach.
Guanli High School was a private school with terrifyingly expensive tuition—and correspondingly generous teacher salaries.
Many people thought his résumé was wasted on a high school teaching position. But only he knew the joy of seeing his monthly salary hit his account.
Compared to that, tolerating the foul tempers of spoiled young masters and young ladies was nothing.
The steady, unhurried sound of the lesson resumed.
Gu Yang heard it clearly. In fact, he wasn’t sleepy at all. He was only maintaining this posture to prevent his facial expressions from slipping and arousing unnecessary suspicion.
Just now, while dozing off, a loud bang had suddenly echoed in his mind. Then a book appeared before his eyes.
The cover was outrageously tacky: against a pink rose background, a handsome white-haired man held a sleeping beautiful boy in his arms. A wicked, unruly smile curved on his lips, matching the two large pink cursive lines below.
The Domineering Young Master’s Long Road to Chasing His Wife
What the hell is this trash?
That was what Gu Yang thought. But despite his disdain, he still opened the book.
The more he read, the more something felt wrong.
The Guanli High School in the book—wasn’t that the very school he attended? And he saw more than one familiar name.
Did that mean the world he lived in was actually just a novel?
Instead of panicking, Gu Yang laughed softly at the realization.
The muffled chuckle made the classmate sitting to his right shiver. What’s this ancestor freaking out about now? He quietly scooted his desk a little farther away.
Now genuinely intrigued, Gu Yang continued reading. He skimmed through it roughly, and as one familiar name after another jumped off the page, his suspicion grew stronger.
The book told the story of the bottom protagonist, born into poverty, who entered Guanli High School as the city’s top scorer, and the events that followed.
A gambling father, a sick mother, a younger brother still in school, and a broken self—that summed up the protagonist perfectly.
For the generous scholarship and tuition waiver promised by the admissions office, he gave up the chance to attend a key public high school and instead came to this private aristocratic academy.
But because of the class gap, he was bullied and targeted everywhere.
The top protagonist, the ringleader, took “untouchable elite” to the extreme. His atrocities included—but were not limited to:
Locking the protagonist in a bathroom stall in the dead of winter and splashing him with cold water; framing him for theft; even sending people to block him on the day of the college entrance exam, causing him to miss it and waste years of effort.
Before enrolling, the protagonist had signed an agreement with the school: he must get into Jing University in the college entrance exam and rank in the provincial top ten. Otherwise, he would have to repay all scholarships and tuition received during his years at school.
Under that pressure, when his mother learned the truth, she refused to be a burden and pulled out her own tubes, ending her life. To repay the crushing debts, the protagonist chose not to retake the exam but went straight to work to support his still-studying younger brother.
That was the first half of the novel. The second half moved into society years later, telling the story of how the top and bottom reunited and reconciled.
Mm. No crematorium arc. Just reunion and reconciliation.
What a vicious plot.
Even though his own grades were mediocre, the near-religious obsession with the college entrance exam was carved into every Chinese person’s DNA. So when he flipped to the final “Happy End,” Gu Yang silently muttered, Damn. That’s wild.
The epilogue accounted for every character’s ending. Gu Yang found his own name there.
His role was that of a minor cannon fodder—someone who opposed the top protagonist. In the end, his entire family went bankrupt and was acquired by the top’s family, ending miserably.
Normally, when someone discovers they’re cannon fodder in a novel, they’d panic at least a little—then rush to cling to the protagonist’s thigh or take measures to save their doomed life.
But Gu Yang wasn’t normal.
If you placed a button in front of him that would destroy the world with one press, he would press it without hesitation.
So what if his family went bankrupt? If that day truly came, he’d probably buy fireworks to celebrate.
With such a healthy mindset, Gu Yang flipped back through the book.
Aside from its anti-human moral compass, the novel’s other outrageous trait was its flood-like padding. Every character with even a minor appearance had a fully detailed solo storyline.
But for Gu Yang, who was already inside it, this was basically an incredibly entertaining gossip anthology.
[This is way more interesting than this damn class.]
The voice that suddenly echoed in every student’s ears made the entire class stiffen.
That arrogant, utterly done-with-life tone was far too familiar.
Had Gu Yang finally gone completely insane? How dare he say something like that out loud in class?!
Secondhand embarrassment kicked in. Whether they had been paying attention or not, everyone instinctively fixed their eyes on the math teacher’s not-so-broad back.
When the math teacher turned around and saw the entire class staring at him, he almost dropped his chalk.
What is going on today? Why is everyone listening so seriously?
Knowing this group’s true nature, he felt not touched—but terrified. He didn’t dare ask or move. He could only grit his teeth and continue teaching.
“I’ve noticed Xiaofeng’s been getting better and better at playing dumb lately.”
A temporary group chat popped up. The long-haired girl in the third row by the window rested her chin in one hand while typing rapidly under her desk with the other.
With her opening, the rest immediately grew lively.
“But Gu Yang’s way too arrogant. He’s still a teacher. He really gives him zero face.”
“Sending hugs to Teacher Liu Feng. He looks like he’s about to shatter, hehe.”
“Gu Yang’s always been crazy. Is this your first day knowing him? Probably some hereditary family disease.”
“Cheng Zishi, are you suicidal? Daring to slander the Gu family? Careful someone screenshots that and you’re done, hehe.”
“…”
That said, Class Eleven—despite managing to create twenty group chats with barely a dozen students, and despite their plastic, cheap friendships—had one basic consensus:
What was said privately stayed private.
“What was that ancestor Gu Yang doing last night? He’s been sleeping all day. Just now he suddenly sat up like a corpse zombie and scared me half to death—then went right back to sleep.”
“Who knows. Maybe he overworked himself in bed~”
“Oh?”
“Oh??”
The suggestive comment instantly ignited everyone’s inner gossip spirit. The speaker was anonymous, but that hardly dampened their enthusiasm.
“Oh ho, sounds like you know something. Spill.”
“Heh. Gu Yang and that Mr. Gu—who doesn’t know about that?”
“Wait, I thought that was just a rumor. They’re actually doing it? The Gu family is that messy?”
“Damn, I thought it was a dark joke. They’re for real…?”
“What are you guys talking about? Which Mr. Gu? What gossip about Gu Yang?”
“Sweetie, go sit at the kids’ table. This topic’s too restricted for you. @TaroCoconutPudding”
“??? What am I not allowed to hear? You’re isolating me in public! @+1”
“Hey, anonymous, watch your mouth. What, are you the bedside lamp in their house?”
Ying Jiayi kept typing. Her freshly done black-and-blue cat’s-eye nails tapped against the screen, the sound masked by chalk scratching on the board.
“If there was nothing going on, how would such scandalous rumors spread? You think it’s just baseless wind? The Gu household has so many eyes watching—people talk. Of course it’d leak. It’s not like I had to see it myself.”
Tsk.
She shook her head lightly, glancing sideways at the boy sitting to her right. His profile was cool and focused. His uniform sleeves were slightly rolled up. His thin back was straight and unyielding, as if even the sky collapsing wouldn’t bend it.
Impressive, Shen Mingjun. Playing the model student on the surface, but spreading dirty rumors behind the scenes.
She didn’t have clairvoyance, but someone had anonymously posted about this on the school forum before. Since the people involved were so eye-catching, it had exploded the moment it went up.
But for some reason, the forum suddenly switched to real-name registration during that time—and the whistleblower’s real name popped out cleanly.
Though the rumor post was quickly taken down, Shen Mingjun later claimed his account had been hacked and that he knew nothing about the previous content.
Ha.
A faint chuckle sounded—so faint it was nearly imperceptible—yet everyone instantly stopped typing.
Because that laugh was far too familiar.
Whenever Gu Yang laughed like that, something was about to suffer. Either a person or an object.
It couldn’t be that he somehow sensed they were gossiping about him… right?
[Shen Mingjun’s deadpan face—pretending to be all noble at school. Turns out he’s just an illegitimate son born from being the “other man’s” child. Forced the original wife to her death to climb into position. Impressive.]
One sentence dropped, and the entire class was stunned.
Holy shit. Is that real?
At that moment, the straight, cool-backed figure in the front row suddenly collapsed forward.
