The Sick Villain Just Want to Live

The young man standing in front of the courtyard had a flawless smile on his face.

Zhu Tong could tell that the more troubled Shao Ming was, the wider he smiled.

Knives hidden in smiles, needles hidden in cottons. 

He could never believe Shao Ming at face value! 

The System had the gall to chirp in, ‘You should be thankful that your mother gave you such a face, otherwise you would really see the King of Hell now.’ 

Zhu Tong: “…”

He thinks that the system should be renamed to Old Iron. 

Old iron 666. Iron-tongued, no-holds-barred, old man. 

But the system makes sense.

Without the 5% favorability he got from his supposed-handsomeness, his current progress bar would already be negative.

‘Thank you mom, for your gift in my excellent face.’ 

When he was still in a daze, the landlady had already let out a “huh” in surprise. She looked at Zhu Tong and asked, “Do you know each other?”

Zhu Tong: “We…”

“–do know each other, yes.” Shao Ming spoke from not far away. He parked his bicycle by the gate of the courtyard, then raised his head and walked towards them, “Not only we are classmates, we are also deskmates.” 

“…” The statement obviously sounded normal. But it sent shiver down his spine when Zhu Tong heard it. 

The landlady continued to be surprised. “Really? Such a coincidence?”

Zhu Tong wanted to cover her mouth immediately.

‘I beg you, please shut up for a while!’

He opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly something went wrong with his throat, and he could only choke on pure air in anger. 

“Cough! Cough cough!”

This initial cough was like turning on some switch, and he couldn’t stop it.

“Cough, cough, cough…”

Zhu Tong ran out of breath. His body swayed, and he had to support his body with the door frame. 

The landlady was frightened by the sudden situation, she hurriedly approached and said, “Student, are you okay? What’s the matter?”

Shao Ming, who had just walked over, also frowned.

Thinking that Zhu Tong had a high fever in the morning, the suspicion he had just now was temporarily overshadowed by worry. 

Zhu Tong had already covered his mouth with all his strength to forcibly stop his coughing. 

He took a deep breath and waved his hand at the landlady, “It’s… it’s okay, I’ll just need a rest.”

He didn’t bother to see Shao Ming’s expression now. He continued to talk to the landlady, “Ma’am… I’m sorry, can you go out first?”

The landlady was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly said, “Okay, okay, you have a good rest.”

She walked out of the room and closed the door.

As soon as the door closed, Zhu Tong leaned against the door wearily. His head was full of complicated thoughts, ‘Is this a punishment for my sudden decrease in favorability?’

System: “…”

Probably so.

Zhu Tong looked at the palm of his hand that was covering his mouth.

Fortunately, he didn’t cough up blood this time. He was only a little annoyed. 

The onset of this sudden bout of illness was too sudden. He even didn’t have time to explain the latest matter clearly to Shao Ming.

It’s fine if the favorability is gone.

But he was still embarrassed! 

With this “coincidence” of the homestay situation, Shao Ming wouldn’t believe his explanation at all. 

Really… He finally got out of the ICU. But in a blink of an eye, his situation might get worse. 

The system said: ‘What’s the host’s plan?’

Zhu Tong thought for a while. ‘I’m going to ignore him.’

System: “??”

Zhu Tong didn’t explain anymore. He was too sleepy to bother, so he fell asleep not long after.

Outside the door, Shao Ming comforted the landlady who seemed to be frightened. After seeing that there was no movement in the room, he also returned to his room.

He was a little puzzled.

Logic dictated that too many coincidences were unreasonable.

The same school, the same class, and the same table… Now, even the place where they live is also the same. 

But, there was also the fact that Zhu Tong was weak and sickly. 

Very delicate and yet came from a rich family. 

With Zhu Tong’s health and wealth, He should stay in a place with good conditions. A warm and comfortable place would be more suited for his health recovery. 

But, Zhu Tong instead transferred to Gongshui No. 1 Middle School to suffer.

What purpose does he have to come here at such a high price? 

Seeing how he was coughing out of breath and might vomit at any time… Isn’t he betting his life on this weird decision? 

‘The unknown is troublesome…’

For now, Shao Ming decided to keep him at a respectful distance.

However, without Shao Ming purposefully avoiding him, Zhu Tong actually stayed away from him in the morning self-study the next day.

There was an obvious gap between their desks.

Class 3 originally consisted of 53 people. With Zhu Tong transferring in, now it had 54 people.

So, the desks were arranged in a group of two – there’s 4 rows and 7 columns of pairs, but there’s only 3 pairs of desks in the last row. Originally, it was a 2+2+2 arrangement. With Zhu Tong moving his desk away from Shao Ming, now it’s a 1+1+2+2 arrangement. 

Shao Ming walked into the classroom and found a volume of “Reserved Books” in the pen container he put on the corner of the desk. There, a piece of post-it note was stuck, filled in with Zhu Tong’s handwriting.

[I don’t know which homestay you live in. It was just a coincidence last night. I will move out today.]

Shao Ming intuitively felt that there should be more to say in this letter. 

Lastly, Zhu Tong completed his short letter with the words: [Do you believe me or not?]

Shao Ming: “…”

He took the post-it notes into his hands, his eyebrows slightly raised. 

Was his mood last night that obvious?

Shao Ming has always been very confident in his expression management. He thought that his thoughts should be perfectly hidden.

Was Zhu Tong just very sensitive? Or was he feeling guilty? And, why did he care so much about Shao Ming’s emotions? 

Shao Ming didn’t even show any dissatisfaction about their current arrangement, and yet Zhu Tong moved his seat away.

He was so eager to get rid of their “friendly” relationship.

‘How afraid is he now? Did I really misunderstand him?’ 

 Shao Ming folded the post-it note and stuffed it into his desk’s locker. He forced himself to stop looking at it.

His deskmate, separated by a few meters away, still looked sick and pale.

Zhu Tong didn’t look at Shao Ming back, he was still concentrating on reading his book.

In fact, this was a strategy Zhu Tong came up with by himself. 

His life couldn’t stand this push-and-pull. He didn’t dare to try anything too radical. If he came up with a plan that backfired, his body would turn cold immediately.

As the saying goes: all roads lead to Rome. So, there must be many ways to gain favorability with the white moonlight. 

And the thing he was confident to work was–

Improving himself! Make the white moonlight have a positive opinion about him! As for how to improve – he was a student, whose job was to study.

And so, he would study hard and make academic progress every day.

Shao Ming glanced at the diligent-looking Zhu Tong thoughtfully for a while, then silently looked away.

‘Good. Let’s not interfere with each other.’

‘Isn’t this what I originally wanted anyways?’

Not long after, the class started. Shi Wenshu came in from the front door of the classroom. He saw the shifting of Zhu Tong’s position, making him confused. “Zhu Tong, why are you sitting here?” 

Zhu Tong calmly replied, “It’s easier to see the blackboard here.”

Shi Wenshu: “…”

‘You’re sitting in the last row. This doesn’t seem to make much difference…’ He thought, confused.

Other classmates were also puzzled by this. They immediately talked within themselves. 

“Didn’t Lao Yang1 say that Zhu Tong himself asked to be Shao Ming’s deskmate? Why did he move so soon?” 

“Did Yuan Shaozhou do something to him?

“He didn’t give in yesterday, right…? Plus, he doesn’t look injured.” 

“Don’t tell me he doesn’t like to study anymore?”

“He’s sitting in a good seat now, with Lu Zheyu in front of him. Although he is not as good as Shao Ming, he is also ranked second in the year.” 

“Poor my study god, he only had his new deskmate for two days before he moved away…” 

“The day of the beginning of school shouldn’t count. So, it’s only one day total.”

“…”

The students’ discussion was quickly stopped by Shi Wenshu. As the homeroom teacher, it is not the first time that Shi Wenshu has faced such a situation.

Before the second year of high school, several students came to him and asked to be Shao Ming’s deskmate, but almost all of them asked to change seats after sitting for less than a week.

He also knew how Yuan Shaozhou behaved in school. That boy still has control in school, but can’t do anything outside of school.

So, Shi Wenshu only thought that Zhu Tong should be like the other ex-deskmates. He didn’t care much about his unauthorized seat change.

In the following classes, the other teachers also took a second look at the new student, Zhu Tong. Mainly, it was because Class 3’s special… seat arrangement. 

Meanwhile, Zhu Tong was obsessed with studying all day long, forgetting about tasks. After listening to the class for a day, he suddenly found that… he couldn’t understand any class except English!

What is electromagnetic field motion?

Why are there so many formulas for trigonometric functions?

Why is genetics so complicated?

He seemed out of touch with the school.

From childhood to now, because of his poor health, no one has ever cared about his grades. No one has even urged him to study.

—They all thought it wouldn’t be useful for him to learn. After all, what’s the purpose of slaving away studying if he’s going to die before utilizing any of that?

So, they didn’t care. 

Zhu Tong: “…”

…As a learning scumbag, how the hell is he going to impress the study god with his academic performance? 

He felt that dreaming was better than this reality.

The system comforted him and said, ‘You can convince him with your perseverance.’

Zhu Tong thought for a while.

‘Plausible… Anyway, I’m equivalent to a dead horse. Nothing to lose by trying to apply medicine to me. It’s not like I have another choice…’    

In the classroom, Zhu Tong was struggling with his studies, while Yuan Shaozhou heard about Zhu Tong’s changing seats all the way from Class 20.

There are several of his lackeys around him.

“It’s okay, Zhou-ge, tell us. Did you do something secretly again? That guy named Zhu Tong is willing to change seats.”

“I was scared to death.”

“I bet he was just pretending yesterday. I didn’t expect him to change his mind so quickly.” 

“By the way, Zhou-ge, do you know the identity of the transfer student? I heard that he knows Xia Yang. So will his family…”

“So what if the family is rich? This is Zhou-ge we’re talking about! Do you think he’ll be afraid that he won’t succeed?” 

The lackeys talked to each other, but Yuan Shaozhou didn’t reply. 

Because he knew very well that he hadn’t done anything at all. 

‘Why did Zhu Tong change his seat? Did he hear any rumors and regret it?’

‘Hahaha! Did he think that if he moved by his own accord, his previous fuckery can be written off?!’

‘I, Yuan Shaozhou, has never lost such a big face in front of others since I entered No. 1 Middle School!’

‘Since you dared to provoke me, you must pay the price!’

‘Hm… didn’t he move out of the school dormitory by himself yesterday? Since you’re going to deliver your head on a platter, don’t blame me.’ 

At ten o’clock in the evening, the school finished the day’s evening self-study. Zhu Tong did one more math problem before slowly leaving the teaching building.

At noon, Uncle Liu had already helped him move.

The homestay where Shao Ming lived was the most suitable place for students to stay near the school. Now that he couldn’t leave there, he could only do the next best thing — stay in a hotel. 

The highest-rated hotel in Gongshui County was only a four-star hotel. It was in the same direction as the homestay, but about 500 meters farther from the school. 

At that kind of distance, Zhu Tong didn’t ask Uncle Liu to pick him up. He planned to walk back to the hotel by himself.

When he was about to pass by the homestay, he raised his eyes and looked ahead. Suddenly, he became a little puzzled.

He remembered that it was mentioned in the original novel that Shao Ming was a native of Gongshui County. 

His family also lived here. 

Since he had a home in the county, why did he live in a separate homestay?

Was it to be closer to the school? 

As Zhu Tong’s thoughts became more complicated, he sighed again. 

He was quite satisfied with the accommodation environment of this particular homestay. So it’s a pity that he couldn’t live there. 

“Hey, why is this handsome boy sighing all by himself? What’s wrong, why don’t you tell gege about it?” 

Zhu Tong had just finished sighing, when the road ahead was blocked.

The smell of cigarettes and alcohol blowing towards his face made Zhu Tong frown before he saw the person clearly.

He looked up.

Under the dim light of the street lights ahead, the leader was wearing a vest with ripped pants and a cigarette in his mouth. He was walking towards him with hand tucked inside his pocket.

Zhu Tong smelled trouble. He didn’t want to be bothered, so he simply turned around. 

Immediately, someone surrounded him from the sides, blocking his way out with outstretched arms.

“Hey, hey. Don’t run away so quickly. It must be fate for us to meet like this, don’t you think? Why don’t you play with gege first?” 

Zhu Tong: “…”

‘Fuck.’

‘Who the fuck wants to play with you!’

The current situation was not difficult to understand. Zhu Tong has read so many novels, and almost every school novel had a plot where the protagonist was surrounded by gangsters while walking alone on the road.

But he’s not the protagonist of this world’s novel, so why was he blocked? 

This train of thoughts seemed… off. Then, after thinking about it deeper, Zhu Tong came with an epiphany. As he frowned, he locked his gaze with the supposed leader of the gangster. He stated, “Yuan Shaozhou asked you to come.”     

At the same time, a bicycle slid past on the road next to it like the wind.     

Shao Ming galloped past a luxury car, and just about to enter the street near his homestay. But then, he suddenly slammed on the brakes at the entrance of the courtyard.     

He stabilized the bike with one foot on the ground, looking back at a commotion not far away