The Buggiest System

188 - Burnout

Wednesday.

Zhou Lei did not see his parents come home last night, but when he checked their bedroom, he confirmed that they were just going home really late these days. 

He got ready for school and headed there, like usual. In his mind, he wanted Lin Hanying to be present again this day. 

But she had mentioned before that her part-time job was physically tolling on her body, so she couldn't go to school every day. 

Should he see Lin Hanying in the classroom though, he wouldn't hesitate to invite her to the arcade again. 

That reminds me... Tomorrow is the last day for the quest. I'm only a quarter away from perfecting the song, so it shouldn't be hard if I try my best today.

Zhou Lei opened the door to the classroom and his eyes shined. 

Lin Hanying was here!

He went to his desk, put down his bag, and walked to Lin Hanying's desk. 

The girl had her head burrowed inside her two hands as they both lied on her desk. 

Zhou Lei raised his hand to tap on Lin Hanying's shoulder, but an unexpected prompt appeared. 

Quest: Make Lin Hanying jealous

Description: Who you consider your best friend considers you as something else. Try your popular cool guy skills to the test by trying to make her jealous!

Reward: 10 upgrade points, 1 Lottery Ticket

Zhou Lei looked at the interface weirdly. Make her jealous? What do you mean?

System didn't answer his question, which made Zhou Lei more curious. 

However, before he could tap Lin Hanying, Wen Hui arrived in the classroom, startling Zhou Lei. He returned to his seat while keeping his eyes on Lin Hanying.

And what does "Who you consider your best friend considers you as something else" mean?

Zhou Lei didn't think much of it. He started to imagine ways of how to make Lin Hanying jealous.

Meanwhile, a dark-skinned girl shot a gaze at Zhou Lei, who didn't notice her. 

But we met yesterday and had an agreement! Don't tell me he already forgot about it? Fan Xinyue panicked in her head. 

Of course, Zhou Lei didn't forget, it was just that some other things occupied his mind.

While she was discussing, Wen Hui shot glances at Zhou Lei who was clearly not listening to her. But somehow, she didn't have it in her to reprimand him. Not one of the students noticed her inconspicuous glances.

I need to stop getting distracted. Maybe he just said those things by impulse... and now he wants to let bygones be bygones.

 As she wrote on the whiteboard, the equations that came out her black marker made less and less sense to the students. 

"Huh? Teacher Wen..." One of the students couldn't understand anymore so he raised his hand in confusion.

Contrary to his expectations, Wen Hui didn't stop writing on the board. She muttered small and quiet words to herself, which escaped the ears of the students.

Since the student didn't know that his teacher couldn't hear him, the student thought that she ignored him deliberately. 

His mood decreased due to him thinking that it was his own incompetence that led him not to understand what his teacher was writing on the board. "Ah, I... am stupid."

What he didn't know was that it wasn't only him that had trouble comprehend doing the gibberish that Wen Hui was writing on the board. Apart from Lin Guiying, Ma Xiaoli, Ye Muqi, and Ling Fan, everyone else couldn't understand the equations that their teacher wrote on the whiteboard. In fact, even these three had a hard time grasping the high-level concepts. 

Wen Hui reached the end of the board, snapping her out of her daze. "O- Oh!"

She looked at what she was writing all this time, only to widen her eyes. What the hell have I unleashed upon this high school classroom...?

Spinning around, she witnessed smoke coming out of some students' ears.

Even the top three students in her class, Ma Xiaoli, Ye Muqi, and Ling Fan, all had their heads turning red from overthinking. The only two not in a similar case to the rest were Zhou Lei, who didn't pay attention, and Lin Hanying, the transfer student.

Wen Hui quickly spoke, "Sorry, students... I got distracted!"

She erased everything written on the whiteboard and started focusing on what she was writing. The occasional and unnoticeable glances towards Zhou Lei were still present, and as expected, she always caught him looking out the window. 

His facial expression told her that he was thinking about something... possibly deep.

Wen Hui tried to shrug Zhou Lei off her mind, but it proved to be hard. Ah! Why did he say that kind of thing in the first place?

The more she thought about their forgotten promise, the more she found herself craving for something. Every passing day, that craving got stronger.

That something was... unspecific. I'll have to consult Bai Peng later.