Winning the male lead

Jiang Qu’s face immediately turned as dark as the bottom of a pot. His neck suddenly felt itchy, so he pulled the towel off and sniffed it at the tip of his nose. Fortunately, it only had a faint, fresh scent—nothing strange.

With a “whoosh,” the towel was thrown back into Le Tian’s arms. Le Tian shrank his neck and explained, “I-I w-wanted t-to t-tell y-you, but y-you d-didn’t let m-me.”

Jiang Qu was fuming. His voice was sharp and impatient. “Shut up!”

Le Tian silently folded the towel in his arms and muttered in a small voice, “I-I w-washed i-it c-clean.”

“I told you to shut up. Don’t you understand?” Jiang Qu shot him a glare, pulled open the bedside drawer, and grabbed a fresh towel to dry his hair. Along with the towel, a thin piece of paper slipped out. He picked it up and sneered, “Last place? Damn stutterer, you’re really something.”

“G-give i-it b-back!” Le Tian panicked, snatching the report card back, his face as red as a tomato.

Jiang Qu let out another mocking laugh, hung the towel over his head, and said with disdain, “Not only are you a stutterer, but you’re also dumb.”

Le Tian thought to himself, Looking at you, we’re probably on the same level. No way you’re a good student either. He refused to accept the insult and shot back, “Y-you t-think y-you’re s-smart?”

Jiang Qu mimicked his stuttering, “I-I-I’m j-just a l-little bit b-better than you.” He held up two fingers in front of Le Tian’s face. “Just the difference between ranking top three in the grade and being dead last in the class.”

Le Tian thought, This little punk is even better at bragging than me.

Seeing Le Tian’s disbelief, Jiang Qu smirked coldly, pulled a report card from under his pillow, and slapped it in front of him.

Le Tian picked it up and took a look. His eyes widened in shock.

It really was just a little bit better—if you added a 1 in front of each of his own scores.

No way. This guy looks like a total slacker. How is he this good at studying? Le Tian felt utterly humiliated.

Jiang Qu yanked back his report card and mocked, “Trash.”

Le Tian’s confidence completely collapsed: Wuwuwu, I really am trash…

He owered his head. He wasn’t very tall, and now he curled into himself like a small animal, radiating pure dejection.

It was only one month into their senior year, and Jiang Qu had only lived with him for that long. His impression of Le Tian was that he was a quiet stutterer who spent all day clutching books and chewing on his pen—he already seemed kind of dumb. But now, he realized it wasn’t just “kind of dumb”—this guy was shockingly stupid.

Le Tian lay back down on his bed, tears welling up as he asked the system, “Mom, why are you doing this to me? Other people are ranked second in the whole grade, and I’m dead last. Doesn’t that make you feel embarrassed too?”

The system replied coldly, “With a son like you, I lost all my dignity a long time ago.”

Le Tian: “…Wuwuwu…”

Jiang Qu half-lay on his bed, drying his hair, while texting someone on his phone. As he typed, he suddenly heard quiet sobs beside him.

He frowned and turned his head. Ding Le Tian was lying with his back to him, wrapped in a pale yellow floral blanket, his shoulders shaking—clearly crying.

Are you serious? I just said a few words, and now you’re crying? Jiang Qu clenched his jaw. His phone vibrated again, and he glanced at it, about to reply, but in the end, he couldn’t resist and tossed his phone onto Le Tian’s blanket instead.

“Hey, are you crying?”

Le Tian was drowning in his grief over his “mom’s” lack of love and didn’t react at all. It wasn’t until Jiang Qu’s handsome face suddenly appeared in front of him that he jumped in shock, hiccupping through his tears, “M-Mom…”

Jiang Qu’s already dark face twitched. “Are you blind? Do I look like your mom?”

Le Tian shrank further under the blanket, pulling it up to cover most of his face. His wide eyes blinked at Jiang Qu. “W-what d-do y-you w-want?”

His thick eyelashes were still wet with tears, making him look as if Jiang Qu had bullied him terribly. Jiang Qu grew impatient. “Stop crying.”

Le Tian nodded. I have to pull myself together, improve my studies, and win back my mother’s love.

Jiang Qu’s expression softened slightly. He sat down on Le Tian’s bed, looking awkward. “Studying requires the right methods. Staying up all night with your nose in a book won’t help.”

Le Tian clutched his blanket and whispered that he didn’t know any study methods.

Jiang Qu rolled his eyes. “Then learn.”

Le Tian grew even more miserable. “I-I c-can’t l-learn.” This knowledge just refuses to go into my brain…

Jiang Qu was speechless. “You’re seriously dumb.” Then, he warned fiercely, “If you cry again, I’ll beat you up.”

Le Tian wiped his tears with the back of his hand, his wide eyes struggling to hold back the fresh wave of tears. I don’t dare cry anymore…

Jiang Qu had a bad temper, but he never actively caused trouble, let alone bullied classmates. In fact, he rarely interacted with people at all. After a month of living with Ding Le Tian, today alone, he had spoken more words than in the past several weeks combined. He hadn’t expected to make the guy cry after just a few sentences.

Jiang Qu said, “Let me see your test papers.”

Le Tian’s big eyes filled with little doubts.

Jiang Qu grew impatient. “I said, show me your test papers. Do you not understand human speech?”

Le Tian shrank lower and murmured even more quietly, “T-they’re i-in t-the c-classroom…”

Jiang Qu suddenly frowned. “Wait a minute. There’s class right now. Why are you in the dorm?”

Le Tian: You’re also back here. Why are you questioning me?

Ding Le Tian’s eyes were red, and fresh tears started to well up again. His eyes were big and bright, like two glass beads filled to the brim with tears, about to spill over. Jiang Qu raised both hands in surrender. “Fine, I won’t ask.”

He returned to his own bed, pulled a white T-shirt from his wardrobe, grabbed his phone, and headed out. When he left, he slammed the door with a loud bang.

Le Tian immediately stopped crying and said to the system, “He looks all scary, but he’s just a paper tiger.”

The system, hearing his confident tone, felt no surprise at all. In fact, it even found it a little funny.

It was class time on campus, but two classes were having P.E. on the basketball court. As Jiang Qu passed by, someone called out to him.

“Jiang Qu! Come play a couple of rounds?”

Without turning his head, he waved them off.

A chorus of whistles and cheers erupted. “Damn, so cool!”

Meanwhile, Senior Year Class 1 was supposed to be in a math lesson, but barely anyone was paying attention. The teacher didn’t seem to care either.

Yangde High School wasn’t known for its academics—it was known for its graduation rate. And those two things were very different.

Students like Zhang Qingning, who won scholarships for academic excellence, were always like this. However, she never cared about the ridicule from her classmates. Her goal was Tsinghua University—everything else was just an obstacle to brush aside.

But today, Ding Le Tian had stood up for her again and ended up storming off in anger. She felt a little guilty and was distracted during class.

Knock knock.

The classroom door was knocked on.

Zhang Qingning looked up at the sound.

The math teacher raised his voice. “Come in.”

The doorknob turned, and at the moment Jiang Qu appeared in the doorway, Zhang Qingning felt like the air around her had thickened. The sound of girls gasping rippled through the room. She shook her head and lowered her gaze, focusing on comparing her class notes with the teacher’s blackboard writing.

The math teacher looked puzzled. “Student, you don’t seem to be from our class.”

Jiang Qu lazily replied, “Yeah, I’m Ding Le Tian’s roommate. I came to get his test papers.”

“Oh, third empty seat over there.” The math teacher pointed to one of the two consecutive empty desks.

Under the watchful eyes of the class, Jiang Qu bent down and pulled open Ding Le Tian’s desk drawer. Sure enough, he found a neatly stacked pile of test papers. He grabbed them, nodded at the teacher, and said, “Thanks, teacher. Goodbye.”

The math teacher nodded in acknowledgment.

The girls watched him stride out with his long legs, whispering excitedly to each other. “So handsome!” “So cool!”

Zhang Qingning also took a couple more glances—not because of Jiang Qu, but because he had mentioned being Ding Le Tian’s roommate. She wanted to know how he was doing.

After Jiang Qu slammed the door behind him, Le Tian was curled up in bed playing Candy Crush, fully engrossed and occasionally letting out silly giggles.

When a knock suddenly sounded on the door, he jumped in surprise, like a kid secretly playing on his phone at night and getting caught by his parents. He quickly shoved his phone under his pillow, slipped on his slippers, and shuffled over to open the door, thinking, That brat Jiang Qu—so what if he ranked second in the grade? He still forgets his keys when he goes out.

The moment he opened the door, he froze.

Standing outside was a boy with incredibly delicate features. Tall and slender, he towered a full head above him. His lips were rosy, his teeth pearly white, and his presence was as radiant as sunlight after rain. The cold indifference in his eyes softened the overly exquisite beauty of his face, preventing it from looking too delicate—he seemed like a character who had walked straight out of a shoujo manga.

Le Tian’s inner thoughts overflowed with admiration, practically drooling as he nervously clutched the door handle. “Y-you… y-you’re looking… f-for me?”

The boy nodded. “The teacher asked me to check on you.”

His voice was like a breeze passing through a forest, like clear waves washing over a cold pond—cool, yet magnetic. Le Tian almost got pregnant just from hearing it.

Lowering his head to hide his wolf-like, gleaming eyes, he whispered to his system, “Mom, I love you! How did you know this is my favorite type? Wahhh!”

The system: “…Tell me, which type do you not like? I’ll go find one.”

“I-I’m fine.”

Jiang Yue glanced at Le Tian’s hand gripping the doorframe. His pale fingers were tightly clenched, the back of his hand red from the pressure. Clearly, Le Tian was not as fine as he claimed.

Students at Yangde were all considered elite, and even though Le Tian was the most unremarkable in class, the teachers wouldn’t neglect him. That’s why Jiang Yue, the class president, had been sent to check on him.

He said, “If you’re fine, I’ll go.”

Le Tian: !!! No, wait, I’m not fine!

“U-um…” Le Tian called out softly, “M-my test… p-papers are still in the c-classroom…”

Jiang Yue responded indifferently, “You can correct them tomorrow.” Then he turned and left.

Le Tian stretched his neck, watching Jiang Yue’s graceful silhouette disappear around the corner of the hallway. He swallowed hard and asked the system, “How old is he this year?”

System: “…18.”

Le Tian’s eyes lit up instantly.

The system coldly reminded him, “You still have seven months before you turn 18.”

Le Tian deflated.

Meanwhile, Jiang Qu flipped through Le Tian’s test papers. The more he looked, the more incredulous he felt. How could someone mess up such simple questions? Le Tian didn’t even have a grasp of basic tenses, and his Chinese test was an even bigger disaster. As a senior in high school, his essay was completely incoherent and riddled with spelling mistakes.

At first, he found it funny. This guy truly lives up to being the last-ranked student in class.

But soon, he stopped laughing—he had spotted his lifelong nemesis: Jiang Yue.

Jiang Yue saw him too. His gaze barely flickered before gliding right past him, as if he hadn’t even noticed him.

As Jiang Yue passed by, Jiang Qu made a gagging gesture and muttered, “Pretentious prick.”

Jiang Yue remained unfazed, his steps steady, neither too fast nor too slow, as he walked away from the dormitory.

The more nonchalant Jiang Yue acted, the angrier Jiang Qu became. When he got back to the dorm, he slammed the door shut, then slammed the test papers onto the bed, cursing, “Damn it, what’s with the attitude? Just looking at that androgynous bastard pisses me off!”

Le Tian, still holding his phone, looked utterly bewildered. He glanced at the test papers that had just landed on his face—his name was written on them. Suddenly, he felt deeply wronged.

After venting, Jiang Qu picked up the test papers from the floor and threw them onto Le Tian’s bed, scowling. “Get up and correct them. You’re not sleeping until you finish!”

Le Tian: …What did I do wrong?!