Are All Childhood Friends Like You?

[This novel will go premium starting from Chapter 20 on May 9. There will be a big update that day. Thanks for your support, ovo.] Ye Sui has never been very bright, but he's always had pretty good luck. When it was time to move on from elementary to middle school, the new school zoning happened to work in his favor, and his family happened to move just before the zoning took effect. He made it into the best middle school in the city. For the high school entrance exam, after a year of intense studying, he scraped in with the very last spot at Rongcheng No. 1 High School, becoming a proud student there. In contrast, Shen Yan, his childhood friend from the same housing compound, is clever and aloof, refined and courteous, the darling of all the parents in the compound. The two of them have disliked each other for years, pretending not to know each other both at and outside of school. But things change when they're in their second year of high school. - One day, the cute girl in Ye Sui's class, whom he's had a crush on since third grade, shyly comes up to him and hands him a love letter. Ye Sui's eyes light up, and he's barely able to contain his excitement. Then the girl says, "Please give this letter to Shen Yan for me." With a soft thud, Ye Sui's heart breaks. He forces a smile. "Shen Yan doesn't accept love letters..." The girl gives him a little smile. "I asked around. Shen Yan only seems cold. He actually reads all the love letters he gets very carefully, and he even writes back." Ye Sui: "?" Ye Sui is suspicious. Shen Yan, that icy-faced guy? Is that for real? He nods, but that night he tosses and turns, unable to sleep. His heart is a confusing jumble of sweet and sour feelings. The thought that Shen Yan actually reads people's love letters gets him worked up in an instant. In a fit of passion, he writes five hundred words of disgustingly sappy, over-the-top love letter. The next day, feeling refreshed, he slips it into Shen Yan's backpack. On the third day, Shen Yan corners him. After school, the sky is full of sunset clouds. Orange light slowly spreads like a curtain. The aloof, cool-headed boy stands in front of him, his uniform fluttering in the breeze, and asks, "Why did you write me a love letter?" Ye Sui is so nervous his liver nearly quivers, but he steels himself and admits it. "What are you going to do about it...?" "Nothing much." Right in front of him, Shen Yan folds the letter and puts it back in his backpack. He looks up at Ye Sui and says with quiet composure, "I accept." [Somehow became the top student's boyfriend: a high school slacker on the bottom × a proud, aloof top student with a devious streak on top] 2023.02.06 Coming Soon The protagonist transmigrates into a book, a novel he was reading before bed. It's a proper bedtime read, full of beloved-character-everywhere, *P, and love rivals competing for the same man. The story is roughly about a poor protagonist who gets into an elite academy. Unable to stand the way students are ranked according to their family backgrounds, he accidentally makes enemies of several male leads. All the male leads are peerless talents with dazzling family backgrounds. The school forum calls them the F4. Of course, by the end of the story, each male lead gets his own dramatic comeuppance. They are all deeply drawn to the optimistic, cheerful, stubborn, and unyielding protagonist, setting off a series of love-rivalry plots that leave readers cheering, "So satisfying!" The protagonist transmigrates into the book as F1's rumored boyfriend. Written as "rumored boyfriend," read as "lapdog." The character the protagonist transmigrates into is also poor. He was specially admitted to the school as an exceptional student, with excellent grades. But after only a year at the academy, he has been assimilated by its omnipresent social hierarchy. He realizes studying can't change his fate, and that following the male lead is the only way to rise to the top overnight. F1 has a terrible personality. He's from a prominent family and has overwhelming power, so no one is worthy of his attention. Besides the protagonist, F1 has one, two, three, four, five, six other lapdogs trailing after him. The competition among them is fierce. Apart from the protagonist, they all have decent family backgrounds, and they see the protagonist, who has already earned the title of "rumored boyfriend," as a thorn in their side. As mentioned, F1 has a terrible personality, and one way it shows is that he likes to "raise poisonous insects." The reason so many lapdogs gather around F1 is that he deliberately lets them. He grew up in a powerful family full of scheming and deceit, and has seen the ugly side of human nature. He keeps these lapdogs at school on a whim, raising them for amusement and to stave off boredom. After transmigrating into the book, the protagonist initially wants to make a clean getaway. But he realizes that without F1's "protection," the other lapdogs will likely crush him in their increasingly fierce competition. So he can only grit his teeth and keep acting the part. F1 is very perceptive. After watching the protagonist act for a few days, he realizes that this little bug doesn't seem sufficiently self-motivated. After considering it, he decides to give the protagonist a little more bait to spur him on. So... He gives the protagonist a key card to his detached villa, so the protagonist can buy him breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He gives the protagonist a ticket to the front row of the academy's grand festival, so the protagonist can film his beauty from every angle, without a single blind spot. He gives the protagonist a plane ticket for the annual school trip, with the two of them seated side by side, so the protagonist can fend off outside disturbances and make sure he has a quiet place to sleep. One debt after another makes the protagonist want to throw himself into a river. On yet another rainy day, F1 has the stomachache that readers know all too well and orders the protagonist to go buy him medicine. The protagonist runs to the infirmary through the wind and rain to get the medicine. As he goes, he scorns F1's princess syndrome, and deliberately takes his time. It is quite a while before he slowly makes his way back to the classroom... But the room is already empty. Beneath the gloomy, drizzling sky, the light is dim and murky, and the curtains flap noisily in the wind. F1 lazily rests his chin on his hand, sitting in the highest row at the very back of the lecture hall. He watches the protagonist thoughtfully, then suddenly smiles and says, "Hey, boyfriend." "Want to kiss me?" * Besides F1, F2, F3, and F4 are all extraordinary characters in their own right at the elite academy. The three have heard that F1 has reformed, but they've never met the badass who made him change. Until another rainy day. The three of them arrive under umbrellas at the lounge reserved for the F4. When they push open the tightly shut door, the light inside wavers, and dust motes drift through the beams. The sound of wind and rain rushes in their ears. In the unlit room, F1 wears a black tank top. His muscles are sharply defined, his skin pale and cool. He leans over the tall marble table, casting a deep, cold shadow as he holds the person on top of it and kisses them. His usually casual, composed face is now filled with a frightening hunger and madness. Hearing the door open, he raises his eyes with an irritated, icy look. One hand is clasped behind the person in his arms, both restraining and protecting them. He clicks his tongue and demands, "Couldn't you knock?" F2 spreads his hands and says with a grin, "We had no idea we were interrupting something good." F3, as taciturn as ever, coolly prepares to leave. F4 curls his lip, glances casually at the slender figure in F1's arms, and says evenly, "You're in a public place. Show some restraint." The protagonist can't listen to any more. He pushes F1 away with a cold expression, jumps off the table, and turns to leave. He doesn't look at anyone. His lips are pressed into a straight line, his eyes dark and listless, the flush at their corners not yet gone. But his expression has already returned to its usual cool calm. He walks past them without a trace of emotion, his hem fluttering slightly. The room falls silent at once. Not a sound. * What the protagonist doesn't know is that his story is only truly beginning now. Theme: Study hard, and you'll have a bright future