After school, as Alex was planning to head back, a round-faced girl who wasn't particularly pretty walked up to him.
She was the class monitor, cheerful and popular, able to strike up a conversation with anyone in class, even the tough-looking bad students.
At this moment, she stood boldly in front of Alex and said directly, "Alex, it's your turn for duty today. You haven't forgotten, have you?"
Alex calculated the time and remembered that today was indeed the day he and his rear seatmate were on duty. Looking back, his rear and side seatmates were already working silently; no one had reminded him.
Alex didn't mind and picked up a broom to start working. The students in this class were very attentive to hygiene, so there wasn't actually much to do. There were four students on duty in total, each responsible for sweeping one row, and it could be finished in less than five minutes.
Because it was evening after school, the students left quickly, and the classroom emptied as soon as class ended. Seeing that the students on duty were working normally, the class monitor also felt relieved and went back to eat.
Alex started cleaning from the back, sweeping all the tiny bits of trash on the floor and the mud brought in by shoes toward the front.
He soon finished this step, but when he turned back to check, he found some candy wrappers dropped on the floor at the back row. A girl was standing by the window, chewing candy and looking down at her phone.
This girl was none other than Zhang Shikou, and she was the one who had thrown the candy wrappers.
Alex walked over with the dustpan and gently swept up the candy wrappers with the broom. Just as he turned around and took a few steps, he heard the sound of a candy wrapper being torn.
Alex turned around, and there were several more candy wrappers on the floor. Now he was certain that Zhang Shikou was doing it on purpose.
He looked around and saw that the other three boys on duty had already finished sweeping and were watching the scene with gloating expressions.
Seeing Alex look over, they didn't dare to offend him too much, so they left the classroom. The entire class was left with only Alex and Zhang Shikou.
Alex looked at Zhang Shikou again. She kept her head down, calmly playing on her phone as if everything were just an accident.
But Alex understood he was being targeted. It was precisely this action of Zhang Shikou's that let Alex know she had recognized him and hated him. Her transferring to this school and even becoming his classmate likely carried some ulterior motive.
The source of her resentment might be related to the fact that Little Alex hadn't gone back to find her, even though Little Alex hadn't been able to help it at the time.
Alex, however, had no intention of explaining to Zhang Shikou. If she had hated him for all these years, it wasn't something a simple explanation could resolve.
Zhang Shikou likely had memories of what happened in the dream, but she seemed to treat it as just a dream. Alex had even less intention of telling her about that; if this girl found out she had been intimate with the person she hated in a dream, she would probably go crazy.
Alex thought for a few seconds and decided to endure it this time. He walked over, swept the trash on the floor into the dustpan, and turned to walk toward the front row.
Zhang Shikou stared mockingly at his back. She reached into her schoolbag and pulled out another handful of candy wrappers. She had prepared these in advance after learning it was Alex's duty day. Although she knew her revenge was a bit childish, she didn't care; she desperately wanted to see this person flustered and exasperated.
Some intel told her that Alex didn't have a good temper and was a model of a bad student. By doing this, she was confident Alex would be provoked. Once provoked, he would lose his reason, giving her an opportunity to exploit.
Feeling the Pepper Spray and Stun Baton hidden in her schoolbag, Zhang Shikou smiled brightly.
She threw the candy wrappers in her hand onto the floor one by one. The candy wrappers spinning and falling were just like her cheerful mood at the moment.
This time, she deliberately slowed down her movements while throwing the trash just so she would be seen.
Suddenly, Zhang Shikou's gaze froze, and her movements stiffened. she saw that Alex, who was ahead of her, had turned around at some point and was pointing his phone at her to film, recording all her littering behavior.
Alex put away his phone and looked at her with a faint smile. "New student, let me teach you a lesson today. Don't be too arrogant when you've just arrived. Clean up the trash on the floor yourself, otherwise, this video might end up in the teacher's hands."
Zhang Shikou's brow twitched, not out of fear, but anger, as well as a sense of humiliation from being taught a lesson by someone she despised.
She regarded the memories in her dreams as just dreams, and the Alex in those dreams as fake. Therefore, she had preconceived notions about the Alex before her, thinking he was a brainless, impulsive teenager. Having been taught a lesson just now, Zhang Shikou was undoubtedly feeling frustrated.
But she had no choice but to accept this loss. Although she wasn't worried about being reprimanded by the teacher, if Alex spread the video everywhere, it would be a huge blow to her image.
With a cold face, she picked up the candy wrapper from the floor. Zhang Shikou glanced at Alex coldly and said, "Delete the video."
Alex shook his head. "I'll decide how to handle it based on how you behave in the future."
"Do you really think I'm afraid?" Zhang Shikou stared at him, her tone laced with threats. "Do you know how I got into this school? A sponsorship fee—I paid 500,000!"
She lifted her chin, looking somewhat arrogant. "Just because of that, the school won't blame me for such a small matter, and they might even pressure you instead. You'd better delete the video."
Alex sighed. "You really aren't cute at all. If you want me to delete the video, it's simple: apologize to me for throwing that trash just now."
"Impossible!" Zhang Shikou refused flatly. Her purpose in coming here was to deal with Alex, and she harbored hatred for him. Making her bow her head to Alex was more painful than killing her.
"I think apologizing is a simple thing. If you make a mistake, you should admit it. That's the set of values a normal person should have. Otherwise, what's the difference between you and an animal?" Alex said earnestly.
Zhang Shikou's face flushed with embarrassment. Being called an animal was something she couldn't just ignore. Plus, since she was in the wrong, she could only lower her head in humiliation. "I'm sorry, I was wrong. I shouldn't have littered."
The reason she felt humiliated wasn't because she was apologizing for making a mistake, but because the object of her apology was Alex. This made her feel incredibly uncomfortable. She had lost the first round right from the start; how was she supposed to complete her revenge?
"Remember this lesson. I hope you can learn to be humble in the days to come. You should take care of yourself."
Alex deleted the video right in front of her, gave her a long look, and then walked out of the classroom. He met up with Kiara, who had been waiting for him outside for a while, and the two left together.
Zhang Shikou ran to the doorway and glared hatefully at his back. When her gaze fell upon Kiara, she froze for a moment, then suddenly gritted her teeth. An inexplicable jealousy filled her heart.
"Kiara, childhood sweethearts, innocent and pure... truly very cute. After you left me, you didn't lose anything; you even attained the life you dreamed of. I only hate that the naive me once chose to trust you. Now that I've grown up, I will make you taste the feeling of loss." She muttered to herself.
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