Winning the male lead

Le Tian thought he was here to experience the vibrant rhythm of youth, but unexpectedly, he was here to study. He felt like he was just one question away from immediate death.

Jiang Qu dragged him up and sat him at the desk to correct his exam paper, then returned to his bed, engrossed in his phone, furiously typing messages at lightning speed.

Le Tian kept glancing back secretly and his furrowed brows, his face full of frustration. He was typing with one hand so fast that it seemed like he was angrily cursing someone.

Taking advantage of Jiang Qu’s distraction, Le Tian quietly put down his pen and tiptoed away.

“What are you doing?”

Jiang Qu’s voice halted him mid-action.

Le Tian trembled, not daring to look up. He whispered, “B-bathroom.”

“I’ll give you one minute,” Jiang Qu said coldly, his gaze sharp as a blade. Le Tian instantly felt a chill.

He moved his chair aside, and Jiang Qu’s gaze followed his every movement until he reached the bathroom door. With his tear-stained face and flushed cheeks, he hesitated and muttered in a small voice, “I-I need to… p-poop.”

Jiang Qu: “……”

“One m-minute… isn’t enough,” Le Tian’s voice got even quieter as his head lowered further.

Jiang Qu was burning with irritation. How did he never notice before how annoying this stuttering fool was? He snapped, “Hurry up!”

Le Tian darted into the bathroom, sat on the toilet, and immediately started playing “Candy Crush.”

The system: “……Aren’t you afraid of getting beaten up?”

Le Tian calmly replied, “If I were afraid, I wouldn’t be a real man.”

The system: “……People with a little ding-ding sure talk tough.”

Meanwhile, Jiang Qu was furiously texting Zhou Duofu, ranting about how much he hated Jiang Yue.

“One day, I swear I’ll make him kneel and sing ‘Conquer’!”

“You two are cousins, why do you fight like roosters every day? Jiang Yue doesn’t seem that bad. I think he’s pretty quiet.”

“That’s because you’re an idiot.”

Jiang Qu was so angry he threw his phone onto the bed. Jiang Yue was such a two-faced, manipulative person who knew exactly how to win people over, making it seem like their feud was all his fault. It was disgusting.

He glanced at the bathroom. Why was that stuttering fool still in there? Had he been hiding inside crying this whole time?

Frustrated, he stomped over and pounded on the door. “Hey, idiot, did you fall into the toilet?”

Le Tian, startled by the sudden knocking, flinched, and his phone slipped from his hand, crashing to the floor and shattering into pieces.

Le Tian: “……Waaaahhhhhh!” I was just about to clear that level!

Hearing the crash followed by crying, Jiang Qu tensed up. He pounded on the door again, even harder this time. “Hey! Open up! What the hell are you doing?!”

Le Tian picked up his broken phone, wiped away his tears, opened the door, and held up the cracked screen to Jiang Qu, his eyes full of accusation. “It’s… broken…”

Jiang Qu felt guilty for a moment but quickly spotted the flaw in this situation. “…Why did you bring your phone to the bathroom?”

Le Tian stayed silent, slowly retracting his hands to hide the phone behind his back.

Jiang Qu took one look at the untouched toilet lid and instantly understood. He grabbed Le Tian by the collar in frustration. The boy was so small and skinny that he dangled on his tiptoes. “I-I was wrong…” Le Tian stammered.

Ignoring him, Jiang Qu dragged him out of the bathroom and tossed him onto the bed.

Le Tian landed heavily on the soft mattress and thought, Kid, calm down. We’re both still minors.

Jiang Qu was furious. “You’re beyond help. No wonder you’re the last in the class. Why are you even in school? Just go home! I don’t know how I ended up with a useless roommate like you. Tomorrow, I’m getting a room change. You can get lost!”

Le Tian: “Sob…”

He buried his small face into the mattress and remained silent for a long time. Then, slowly, he sat up, his face streaked with tears. “S-sorry…”

Jiang Qu snapped, “Why are you apologizing? You’re the one screwing yourself over! I told you to correct your mistakes, but you ran off to play on your phone. Why don’t you try to improve even a little?” He was getting impatient. “And stop crying! Are you a girl?”

Le Tian: “……” Wanna check?

Ding Le Tian was raised by his father alone after his mother passed away early. Unfortunately, his father, despite being incredibly lucky in life, was not the best at parenting. As a result, he grew up timid, quiet, and overly emotional. Plus, he had naturally sensitive tear ducts, making it impossible for him to hold back tears when upset.

He wiped his face with his sleeve. As soon as he wiped one tear away, two more fell. He sulked his way over to the desk, sat down, and started gnawing on his pen. His eyes brimmed with fresh tears that dripped onto his test paper. Worried about smudging it, he kept wiping at the wet spots with his palm.

He looked as miserable as a bullied puppy.

Jiang Qu was speechless. Why did he look like the bad guy here?

Le Tian sniffled, glancing at him out of the corner of his eye. Seeing that he was being watched, he flinched.

Jiang Qu: “…F**k.”

Jiang Qu took a deep breath, trying to stay calm. He sat beside Le Tian and said with forced patience, “Did you come to school to learn?”

Le Tian nodded. “Y-yes.”

Jiang Qu: “Then why aren’t you learning?”

Le Tian pouted, tears falling again. “I-I c-can’t learn…”

Jiang Qu: … Haven’t we had this exact conversation before?

He looked at Le Tian’s test paper and saw that it was a Chinese exam. In the poetry section, there was a prompt to complete a famous line: “Behind rich men’s gates, wine and meat go to waste…”

Le Tian had written: “The Li family’s porridge smells good.”

Jiang Qu: “……You even matched the structure perfectly.”

Le Tian sniffed. “N-no cursing in school.”

Jiang Qu: “Shut up. Listening to you talk is painful.” He picked up a pen and quickly wrote the correct answer: “While the poor freeze and starve on the street.” “If you don’t understand, just memorize it. Got it?”

Le Tian nodded, staring at Jiang Qu’s handwriting. Damn, his handwriting is beautiful.

Jiang Qu snapped, “I told you to recite it.”

Le Tian blinked innocently. “B-but… y-you said to be quiet.”

Jiang Qu nearly lost his mind. “Le Tian, I refuse to believe I can’t discipline you.”

The next morning—

Le Tian: “Waaahhh, I can’t do this anymore. Jiang Qu is too intense.”

The system: “……”

Le Tian sobbed dramatically. “He’s so scary, so cruel, like a bloodthirsty tyrant. He tortured me in ways no human should endure.”

The system: “You mean… he made you study Chinese and math?”

He nearly passed out from crying.

Who would’ve thought the school’s top heartthrob would pin him down in the dorm… just to force him to correct his test papers? Jiang Qu had been relentless last night. No matter how dumb Le Tian was, he refused to let him off the hook for Chinese and math.

By the end of the night, Le Tian had a realization—Chinese was difficult, but math? Math was pure evil.

“I don’t think I can improve,” he told the system.

The system gently replied, “That’s okay. It’s not like you had room to get any worse.”

When he finally woke up, Jiang Qu was already gone. He had been forced to study until 1 AM, and if not for Jiang Qu having a physics competition that morning, he would have been pushed even further.

For the first time ever, he felt grateful for physics.

Looking in the mirror, he saw his dark eye bags and puffy eyes. He already looked pitiful, but now he looked even worse. He touched his own cheek with sympathy. “I’m like a tragic beauty—frail and poetic.”

Those were words Jiang Qu had forced him to memorize the night before.

Le Tian had no psychological barriers like a nouveau riche, so he wasn’t nervous at all when he knocked on the door to report in. The math teacher didn’t make things difficult for him either, even showed some concern, asking if he looked unwell and if he wanted to go back to the dormitory to rest.

He really wanted to sleep in the dorm, but he was afraid that if Jiang Qu found out, he’d be skinned alive, so he quickly shook his head and refused, lowering his head as he walked step by step to his seat.

The math teacher was reviewing the test paper, and he was trembling, thinking that no matter what, he should at least copy down the answers first, just in case Jiang Qu forced him to do the questions again later. He searched for his pencil case but couldn’t find it, so he lightly poked the classmate in front of him. That person turned around and gave him a white-eyed glare and a middle finger.

Le Tian: …If you’ve got guts, come at me for real.

Having no choice, he turned around to ask the classmate behind him for a pen, but the moment he turned his head, he froze.

Jiang Yue…

Jiang Yue was bent over, writing in a workbook. His long fingers held a fountain pen, and his neatly trimmed nails had a faint pinkish hue. His writing was smooth and unhurried, producing line after line of neatly arranged formulas. His slightly long hair covered his brows and eyes, so Le Tian could only see his straight nose and thin lips—his features were incredibly delicate.

At that moment, Jiang Yue lifted his head and noticed Le Tian staring at him in a daze. He silently raised an eyebrow.

Le Tian shyly pointed at the pen in his hand.

Jiang Yue understood, reached into his pencil case, and pulled out a ballpoint pen, handing it to him. Before Le Tian could say thank you, he had already lowered his head and resumed writing.

Le Tian admired him for another two seconds, then lifted the pen Jiang Yue had given him and sniffed it. “Smells so nice.”

System: “…” You’re being creepy.

As soon as the bell rang, Le Tian couldn’t wait to turn around and talk to Jiang Yue. “Th-thank you.”

Jiang Yue shot him an indifferent glance, put the cap back on his fountain pen, and said, “No need to return it.”

Le Tian excitedly told the system, “Did you see that? He gave me a pen!”

System: “…You need help.”

Le Tian hurriedly dug into his bag. He usually carried a few milk candies because of his low blood sugar. He took out one, then hesitated and took out another, placing both on Jiang Yue’s desk. His eyes sparkled as he looked at him. “F-for you.”

This time, Jiang Yue didn’t even spare him a glance. He got up and said, “I don’t eat candy,” then strode out of the classroom with his long legs.

Le Tian hung his head in disappointment.

“Are you okay?” A deep female voice asked.

Le Tian looked up. It was his “girlfriend.”

Actually, Zhang Qingning usually avoided interacting with Ding Le Tian in class. After all, even when they didn’t talk, their classmates loved to gossip about them. If they did talk, the rumors would escalate to wedding plans.

Le Tian shook his head. “I-I’m fine.”

Zhang Qingning was silent for a moment before saying, “Don’t let other people’s opinions get to you.”

Le Tian nodded, thinking, A bunch of immature brats. I only care about handsome guys.

She added, “I heard that stuttering can be cured.”

Le Tian’s eyes lit up. “R-really?”

Zhang Qingning nodded. “Yeah, you just have to stop being scared, talk more, and practice moving your mouth muscles. You’ll get better.”

Le Tian obediently nodded, and Zhang Qingning smiled faintly. “Thanks, but you don’t have to defend me anymore.” Then, she gracefully walked back to her seat.

Le Tian watched her leave and told the system, “My daughter is so cute.”

System: “She can get into Tsinghua University. Can you?”

Le Tian snorted. “I may not get into Tsinghua, but Tsinghua can get into me.”

System: “…” Tsinghua students’ reputation just took a hit.

A while later, Jiang Yue returned. Le Tian’s gaze was drawn to him again, eyes glued to him as he sat back down. Jiang Yue lowered his head and noticed the two pieces of milk candy still lying quietly on his desk. He looked up—Le Tian’s swollen, peach-like eyes were staring at him, looking pitiful, like an abandoned stray dog.

He picked up the candies, and Le Tian’s eyes instantly brightened. He even smiled slightly, “They-they’re really sweet…”

Then, with a flick of Jiang Yue’s wrist, the two candies arced through the air and landed perfectly in the classroom’s front trash can.

Le Tian: “…”

System: “…Nice shot.”