I'm in a real religion, why are all the people who confess to me girls?

For a moment, even Kamuro looked at her with a strange gaze.

In order to get closer to Tianyin, this kind of behavior is essential!

Kiryuin's previously hesitant gaze hardened with conviction.

"Maple flowers..."

After seeing Guilongyuan's very serious and determined gaze, Tianyin nodded seriously as well.

"I understand, here you go."

Before Guilongyuan could react, Tianyin shoved the bowl in her hand into Guilongyuan's hand.

"My special sauce, while not as delicious as Arisu's, is still quite good in my opinion. Kaede, you really have good taste!"

Amane was quite pleased with herself for being asked for a special sauce.

Kiryuin, however, looked utterly aggrieved. She didn't want any seasonings or sauces, but rather…

Why did it turn out this way?

Would it be better to be more direct?

At this moment, Kiryuin was like a mute eating bitter melon, unable to express his suffering.

Upon seeing Amane, she continued her feeding-and-feeding interaction with Sakayanagi.

Kiryuin sat down somewhat dejectedly and began to eat by himself.

Even Kamuroku, who had been focused solely on eating from the beginning, now noticed Kiryuin's ulterior motives.

However, she was being too subtle. If I were in Tianyin's shoes, I would probably think that the other person had taken a liking to her seasonings.

With that in mind, Kamuro decided to show Kiryuin the correct way to get fed.

That is……

"Hey! You two are going too far feeding me like this, I want to be fed too!"

Kamuro, shameless as ever, squeezed next to Amane.

Sakayanagi frowned and spoke with some dissatisfaction.

"Masumi-kun, you're not a child anymore. Why don't you just pick up the food for yourself?"

"Huh? Sakayanagi, do you have the right to talk to me like that? Weren't you enjoying being fed?"

Kamuro's words made Sakayanagi's face flush slightly, and with a soft hum, Sakayanagi decided not to argue with Kamuro about this matter any further.

Seeing that Sakayanagi had no objections, Amane scratched her cheek and put a slice of pork on Kamuro's plate. Kamuro took it in one bite right in front of Kiryuin, acting as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Kiryuin was completely stunned.

So being fed can be this easy?

"Now it's your turn to feed me, Kamuro!"

Tenon put down her chopsticks, opened her mouth expectantly, and waited for Kamuro to feed her.

"Tianyin, you're not a little kid anymore. You need to learn to pick up your own food."

"Huh?"

Chapter 72: The Man on the Run

Almost a week has passed since the final exam results were announced. Today, all the students in the class gathered here in an orderly fashion, and many of them were waiting with happy expressions for Teacher Chazhu's arrival.

Such a harmonious atmosphere has become quite rare since the onset of winter.

The girls' forming cliques, coupled with the ever-growing rumors, has caused the relationships between most of the students in the class to become extremely cold. If this continues, it is foreseeable that the class will be on the verge of collapse. Fortunately, thanks to Horikita's plan, the class successfully obtained 100 class points from Class D. More important than returning to Class B is that this victory has temporarily overshadowed the conflicts within the class.

In just eight months, they rose from Class D with zero points to Class B with 456 points. Although they had a proud 700-800 points at their peak, Class A was far too powerful back then. The pressure from Class A, which had over 1,300 points, made the lower-ranked classes almost suffocate.

While Class A is still strong, their points have shrunk to just over 700. Given the current situation, catching up and surpassing them is not impossible. The pursuers will be even more confident, and future exams will become even more competitive.

If we were to say who was most troubled during this time of undercurrents in the class, it would undoubtedly be Hirata. He was hardly free during his vacation. From the very first day the rumors started circulating in the class, Hirata decisively took action.

The reason why Onodera didn't fall out with Sato after the first rumor was confirmed to be true was that Hirata took the initiative to approach Onodera and persuade him.

After all, no one can be liked and accepted by everyone. Even if Onodera dislikes Sato, in the end, he will simply stop associating with him. He is unlikely to do anything outrageous to Sato.

Therefore, Onodera gave up arguing with Sato after being persuaded by Hirata, which calmed the uproar in the class somewhat.

Kushida was furious after discovering Hirata's behavior. She had already broken off all ties with Sato, which meant that it was almost certain that one of them would have to drop out of school before it would come to an end. If Hirata remained neutral, Kushida did not intend to take action against him.

After all, Hirata's contributions to the class are obvious to everyone, and he has always been popular, especially among the girls. Her rumors may not have such a big effect.

But that doesn’t mean she didn’t have any methods to target Hirata.

The day after Hirata dealt with Onodera, Kushida took the initiative to find Hirata and tried to confess that she was the one behind the rumors. She emphasized that what she spread was not "rumors" but "truth". Compared with rumors, sometimes the truth is more lethal. The reason she spread rumors was to stop Sato's power grab against Horikita.

This series of seemingly reasonable arguments would be flawless if anyone else were present. Even if Amane were there and wanted to stop Kushida, she would most likely only use a gentle persuasion approach.

When Kushida explained her initial intention, she said it was to prevent Sato from disrupting the current stability. However, her methods were a bit extreme. In order to prevent Sato from disrupting the stable environment, she destroyed the environment herself in advance.

Even if most people can't accept this logic, they can at least understand it.

Just when Kushida thought Hirata would give up on hindering her, or even join forces with her, Hirata slapped her without hesitation.

She never expected that Hirata, whose temper was always mild and could even be described as sheep-like, would slap her.

Then, without saying a word, he left her side.

Hirata didn't say a word to Kushida, nor did he hysterically question her about why she did such a thing, nor did he even bother to try to persuade her.

Because he could tell that the woman in front of him, just like he had been back then, had gone mad.

Hirata went directly to Horikita's residence and asked her to step in and resolve the issue. Horikita, who had the prestige to lead the class back to Class B, would be able to mediate if Sato and Kushida wanted to fight again. No one would follow them in doing such a thing.

The reason is simple: although class leaders do not have the same power to deal with students as student council, teachers, or even school leaders.

But the invisible power they wield is far more terrifying than the punishments of the student council or the reprimands of teachers.

If they wanted to, it would be incredibly easy for them to exclude someone or deliberately sacrifice someone in an exam.

Even more terrifying things awaited the rebels.

For example... bullying.

How terrifying can bullying be in boarding schools? There's no escape except dropping out.

There was nowhere to escape.

Teachers will choose to turn a blind eye, students will need to provide evidence, and school leaders will not have time to listen to your fabricated stories. Even if you have been beaten black and blue, without "evidence," nothing will stand in this school.

But who controls the core of bullying, namely violence?

Some of the class leaders looked frail, like Ichinose or Sakayanagi. No matter how you looked at them, they didn't seem like people who could inflict violence on others. It was hard to even imagine them hitting people.

But behind them, followers like Kanzaki, Shibata, and Kito firmly control violence.

This is why students are often not afraid of student council members, but teachers are afraid of class leaders.

The violence in Class B is currently under Horikita's control, but Horikita has accepted Amane's suggestion and plans to take advantage of Sato and Kushida's mutual exhaustion to completely eliminate the hidden dangers of Class B in one fell swoop.

Therefore, when faced with Hirata's request for help, Horikita directly chose to refuse. The reason was simple: although she had prestige, she was not good at interpersonal communication and her status in the eyes of other girls was very average. Even if she stepped in, she could only make them behave for a while on the surface, and could not solve the problem at its root.

Hirata was somewhat disappointed by the answer, but he could understand Horikita's position. She didn't participate in the girls' circle in the class to begin with, and if she rashly intervened in this matter, even if it temporarily restored peace to the class, she would lose all her popularity. It was simply not worth it.

When Hirata and Horikita were discussing this matter, Amane was sitting next to them. Seeing that Amane had no intention of helping, Hirata could only leave dejectedly to find the last person who could help him.

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka.

Unfortunately, the riot was instigated by Amane through Ayanokouji, and no matter how hard Hirata tried, it was all in vain.

Chapter 73: Winter Break

Amane sometimes admired Hirata for being willing to go to great lengths for others, but while she admired him, she didn't want to become that kind of person.

Because... living like this is too tiring.

Hirata's behavior seemed a bit strange to her. Since ancient times, people who could truly be selfless and considerate of others were either saints or people atoning for their sins.

So, is Hirata a saint or simply atoning for his sins?

Tianyin was unaware of this, but she did learn of another, even more terrifying rumor.

Feeling utterly humiliated after being slapped by Hirata, Kushida unleashed her special attack, which she had specifically targeted at Hirata.

"Yosuke Hirata and Megumi Karuizawa are not a real couple."

This news was like a thunderbolt, causing an uproar among Class B and even the entire first-year girls.

Seeing the positive results made Kushida very satisfied, but her smile quickly faded. While it was true that the rumor had spread rapidly, the reactions were somewhat different from what she had imagined.

Nobody cared what was really going on in Karuizawa.

Those love-struck girls only care that if Karuizawa is Hirata's fake girlfriend, then it means that Hirata is currently single.

So the girls who admired Hirata began to subtly inquire about the truth of the matter, and some bolder girls even wrote love letters to Hirata or confessed their love to him offline.

A Hirata craze suddenly swept through the first-year students and even spread to the second-year students. Some people have even seen a second-year senior confessing her feelings to Hirata.

The love letters filled Hirata's shoe cabinet to the brim.

Upon hearing this, Kushida was so angry that he couldn't eat for several days.

Of course, Tianyin also couldn't eat, but the reason for that remains unknown.

In short, the turmoil in Class B was endless. Although Kushida did not ruin Hirata's reputation, he successfully distracted Hirata.

It has to be said that Hirata is a genuinely kind person. If he's faking it, then one has to admire him. Although he has no intention of having a real relationship and doesn't have any feelings for cute girls at the moment, Hirata responds very seriously to every love letter or confession he receives. He doesn't have such thoughts at the moment.

Hirata was so preoccupied with this matter that he had no energy left to attend to class matters, and his statement confirmed the rumors that Karuizawa was actually his fake girlfriend.

Perhaps Hirata's original intention was good.

He wanted to take this opportunity to give Karuizawa freedom.

Can……

Karuizawa, however, was caught in an even bigger vortex.

Because a second rumor about Karuizawa has also been exposed.

"Karuizawa suffered bullying for nine years from elementary to junior high school."

As soon as this news came out, Karuizawa was completely caught in a media storm and couldn't move.

To make matters worse, Manabe from Class C actually dared to come forward and testify that it was true, and even said that Karuizawa had told them this himself.

Despite the risk of being exposed for bullying Karuizawa, she still stood up to testify. It's obvious that the other party was arranged by Ryuen to disgust her. This also means that after the final exams, other classes began to assist Kushida in launching a tactic to dismantle Class B from within.

This caused widespread panic throughout Class B.

That's why it's so rare to see everyone gathered together like this, chatting and laughing.

The reason we have to wait for Teacher Chabashira is because today is the day the winter vacation was announced.

Although the holiday had already begun, the school had not officially announced it, which made many people feel uneasy. In order to avoid any unexpected special exams, they were always on edge, so they could not fully enjoy their holiday.

However, after today, the tension in my heart should be able to ease up considerably.

"During the winter break, some areas on campus will be under renovation, so entry will be prohibited. Additionally, the school will be installing surveillance cameras and other facilities in some areas, which may cause power outages in some facilities, including dormitories. Please don't panic. Specific outage times and power supply notices will be posted in advance at the bottom of the dormitory buildings; please be sure to check them. That's about it. After the graduation ceremony today, all club activities will be suspended. Please return to your dormitories as soon as possible."

Teacher Chabashira read the school's holiday notice in a completely emotionless tone without any attempt to hide it.

Presumably, the same conversation is taking place in other classes at this moment.

After going through the formalities once, Ms. Chazhu crossed her arms and looked around at everyone in the class.

Many students who were planning to rush back to their dorms as soon as Chabashira-sensei announced the disbandment order began to get anxious as Chabashira-sensei delayed giving the order.

Finally, Yukimura raised his hand.

"Tea Pillar Teacher, is there anything else you'd like to tell us?"

When everyone saw that someone finally asked Chabashira-sensei why he hadn't announced the disbandment, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

"First of all, congratulations on winning the final exams and returning to Class B."

Tea Pillar Teacher's words only elicited a few scattered "ohs" in agreement from the others.

People don't care much about class rankings anymore. Perhaps they think Class B is pretty good, since it's not much different from Class A in terms of points. They figure they can catch up quickly at the current rate of earning class points. So, naturally, they've lost the initial fighting spirit to unite for survival.

Teacher Chabashira was very disappointed to see this situation.

If she could, she would even want to loudly reprimand these useless people. They become complacent after only a few small victories. It would be a miracle if such a group of people could even make it to Class A.