Chapter 80: You Doing This Means I'm Not Sleepy Anymore

Wei Suo was taken aback, unsure how to respond. He quickly changed the subject to something else that piqued his interest. "By the way, what color stockings was Principal Jiang wearing today?"

Zu'an pictured Jiang Luofu's perfectly round, straight legs, glistening with a pearly sheen. He instinctively replied, "Nude."

Wei Suo swallowed hard. "Ah, she truly is the goddess of my heart. I really envy you; you've had two close encounters with her in just a few days, and I haven't had a single chance."

Zu'an chuckled wryly, "You haven't even met her, and you're so infatuated?"

"You wouldn't understand," Wei Suo said with a lovesick expression. "Distance creates beauty. I caught a fleeting glimpse of Principal Jiang once by chance and was captivated by her mature charm. My heart and soul have been lost ever since."

Zu'an scoffed inwardly. *Lost heart and soul, my foot. I know your heart might be lost, but your body? You're dreaming.*

"By the way, who is that teacher? He's so arrogant," Zu'an took the opportunity to ask.

Wei Suo, true to his reputation as an information whiz, immediately replied, "His name is Yang Wei. He's the Household Registrar of Brightmoon City, responsible for agricultural and tax matters. He also serves as the academy's arithmetic teacher."

"Oh, an arithmetic teacher then," Zu'an mused.

"Zu'an, get to the back and stand!" Just then, Yang Wei's roar echoed from the podium.

The shout was like a clap of thunder out of nowhere. Many students who had just been startled awake and drifted back to sleep were jolted, almost losing bladder control.

*What in the world is going on? Can't a person get some peaceful sleep?*

Everyone looked at Zu'an with curiosity, wondering what he had done to provoke such anger from the teacher. At this point, many even felt a strange admiration for him. Since his enrollment, the school hadn't had a peaceful day, and in a short time, he had already managed to incense teachers twice.

Zu'an frowned. He had long sensed this man's deep animosity towards him but hadn't expected it to surface so quickly.

"Are you deaf? Didn't you hear me tell you to go to the back and stand in punishment?" Yang Wei had already stepped down from the podium and was glaring at him with a grim expression.

Zu'an secretly sneered. Not a single point of Rage was gained, indicating this furious display was clearly for show. He calmly replied, "May I ask, Teacher, why are you punishing me?"

"You weren't paying attention in class, and you were whispering with your classmates. As a teacher, shouldn't I punish you?" Yang Wei said with an air of superiority. This was the advantage of his position: a teacher could find any excuse to punish a student, and no one could easily fault them.

What's more, this student wasn't paying attention anyway, which saved him the effort of fabricating a reason.

Zu'an frowned. The Huang-class was comprised of the school's most troublesome students. How many of them actually paid attention in class? From his observation, a third were sleeping, another third were secretly chatting, and a few in the back were even more audacious, secretly playing cards.

Yet, he ignored all of them and singled me out. I had been careful not to look away while chatting with Wei Suo, precisely to avoid giving him an opening, but he still found an excuse to make a fuss.

Since he was being so brazenly targeted, Zu'an saw no reason to hold back either.

"I don't understand that at all," Zu'an said calmly. "I've been listening intently this whole time and haven't spoken to anyone. Do you have any evidence to support your claim that I was whispering and not paying attention?"

Yang Wei's breath caught in his throat. He had assumed dealing with a student would be simple: find an arbitrary reason for punishment, then use it as a pretext to expel him from school. Without the academy's protection during the day, it would be much easier for those adults to deal with him. But he never expected the student to directly contradict him. In this world, given the special status of academies, teachers were highly revered, and such direct defiance was virtually unheard of in the academy's history.

However, instead of being alarmed, he was secretly pleased. He had been racking his brain for a reason to expel Zu'an; after all, as an ordinary teacher, he could punish students but lacked the authority to expel them.

But if the student publicly and severely defied a teacher, it would be perfectly legitimate to expel him from the academy.

"I clearly saw you brazenly chatting with the person next to you just now. Are you saying that was false?" Yang Wei snorted.

"That's odd," Zu'an remarked. "Since you saw us chatting, you should have told both of us to stand up. Why did you only call me? Teacher, are you perhaps deliberately targeting me?"

Yang Wei quickly explained, "I didn't know your classmate's name at the time, which is why I only called you."

Zu'an immediately smiled. "That's truly strange. I didn't introduce myself when I walked in, and I'm a student who only started school a few days ago. This is also my first time attending your class. Yet, you clearly know my name. It's hard not to conclude that you are, in fact, deliberately targeting me."

As soon as he said this, the expressions of everyone in the class shifted. They weren't foolish; the situation was indeed peculiar.

While no one particularly liked Zu'an, they also had no special fondness for teachers as a group, especially Yang Wei, that greasy, gaunt middle-aged man who possessed no charm whatsoever.

If it were true that the teacher was deliberately targeting a student, wouldn't everyone feel insecure in the future?

Noticing the students' expressions, Yang Wei became visibly uncomfortable and hastily said, "Who in Brightmoon City doesn't know your name, Zu'an? You clashed with a fifth-grade senior at the academy, and outside, you won 7.5 million taels at the gambling house. How could I not know all that?"

He had long heard that this fellow had a sharp tongue, but he never expected him to be so formidable; he had nearly fallen into Zu'an's trap. Realizing this, he grew inwardly cautious. He had to be more careful and avoid repeating the Silver Hook Casino's mistakes.

Zu'an nodded. "Even if you do know me, I absolutely didn't speak to anyone just now. Don't falsely accuse me."

"Nonsense! I saw with my own eyes that you were talking to your deskmate. Am I, a teacher, going to falsely accuse you?" Yang Wei had initially been pleased that he didn't have to fabricate charges, but he never expected Zu'an to lie so brazenly.

"That's hard to say. There are all kinds of people in this world." Since the other party was clearly targeting him, Zu'an saw no need to be polite. "You claim I was talking to my deskmate in class. Do you have any evidence? Otherwise, I could accuse you of slander."

Rage value from Yang Wei: 666!

Yang Wei almost fainted from anger. Usually, he could easily get away with even fabricating charges, yet today, after actually catching the student in the act, he found himself unable to resolve the situation.

What evidence could there be for such a thing? There were no recordings; it was just one person's word against another's.

"You want evidence, do you?" Yang Wei, unwilling to concede, glared directly at Wei Suo beside Zu'an. "Tell me, were you talking to him just now?"

Wei Suo blinked. "Teacher, no."

Zu'an secretly gave him a thumbs-up. He had initially intended to give Wei Suo a few discreet hints, but the guy was so quick-witted. Truly, a promising talent.

"I..." Yang Wei nearly gasped for breath. *Indeed, times have changed; students nowadays are truly worse than the last generation.* However, he had come prepared and wouldn't be stumped by such a minor issue. *This fellow is merely boasting with his words; I'll soon show him that the older ginger is spicier.*

"Hmph, I have another way to prove my point," Yang Wei said, taking a deep breath to compose himself. "You just claimed you were listening intently. So, do you understand everything I just taught?"

Many students nearby felt this was unreasonable. Arithmetic was already a difficult subject; even attentive listening didn't guarantee full comprehension. Wasn't he clearly setting a trap?

Someone was about to speak up, as there was never a shortage of passionate young people among students. But to everyone's surprise, Zu'an readily agreed. "The things you taught are so simple; of course, I understand them."

While the path of cultivation in this world was indeed miraculous, other fields were clearly far behind his own era.

What a joke! As a university student who had endured the rigorous college entrance exams, the arithmetic problems of this era were a triviality.

Hearing this, Yang Wei was secretly delighted. *You avoid the path to heaven, yet you force your way into hell where there is no gate.* Afraid Zu'an would back out, he immediately said, "This is the first time I've encountered such an arrogant student. How about this: I'll give you twenty questions. If you can correctly answer any one... er, no, answer three, then I'll believe you weren't lying and were indeed paying attention. How does that sound?"

He was confident Zu'an wouldn't be able to answer even one question. However, recalling the unforeseen outcome at the Silver Hook Casino, he decided to be cautious. Zu'an might get one right by pure luck, but there was no way he could answer three correctly.

Wei Suo's face immediately clouded with worry. He knew Yang Wei's classes were notoriously difficult. Previous subjects like legal regulations could be memorized, allowing students to earn some partial credit, but arithmetic was strictly right or wrong. Once, when Yang Wei made the questions slightly harder, not a single student in the class passed. This time, given his deliberate targeting, the questions would undoubtedly be the most challenging. Forget the Huang-class; probably even few in the Tian-class would be able to solve them.

Just as he was about to warn Zu'an, the latter nonchalantly agreed. "Okay, no problem. But what if I answer all of them correctly?"

"Answer all of them correctly?" Yang Wei burst out laughing as if he'd heard the most absurd joke. "If you can answer every single one, I'll resign from the academy immediately and let you take my place as the arithmetic teacher!"

Zu'an's eyes lit up. "Then it's a deal!"

"It's a deal!" Yang Wei inwardly sneered. *Is this guy an idiot? Does he think my questions are easy? I've been immersed in arithmetic for decades and also serve as the Household Registrar, combining theory with practice. No one, not just in Brightmoon City but in the entire prefecture, could possibly surpass my expertise.*

This guy's confidence likely stemmed from seeing his previous exam papers. However, he usually made his tests very simple. This time, he would unleash his true capabilities and show Zu'an the terrifying complexity of arithmetic!

"And what if you can't answer three questions?" Yang Wei asked, giving him a provocative sidelong glance.

"Since the teacher is wagering his position at the school, I naturally must match it," Zu'an said calmly. "If I cannot answer three questions, then I will also leave the school."

Yang Wei was immediately ecstatic. He had been planning this very outcome, and Zu'an had walked right into his trap. He couldn't be blamed now.

Sensing the tense, confrontational atmosphere between the two, the entire Huang-class erupted into excitement. People everywhere love a good spectacle, and besides, few students in the Huang-class were genuinely interested in studying. What lecture could be as interesting as a wager like this?

So those who were sleeping stopped, and those playing cards put them away, all gathering around.