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

After all, she was Ibuki's friend. How could she not know what kind of person Ibuki was? If Ryuen really hadn't told Ibuki about this, given Ibuki's personality, seeing Ryuen acting so crazy and unwilling to tell everyone the reason, she would have already gone up and beaten him up. Although she might not have been able to beat Ryuen, Ibuki's straightforward personality made her absolutely capable of doing such a thing.

Therefore, after seeing that Ibuki didn't react much to the matter, Shiina concluded that Ibuki understood or knew the most crucial part of the Ryuen Project, and only someone who was certain that they wouldn't be implicated and expelled would show an expression like Ibuki's.

What about Ibuki?

Since she became a mouthpiece, neither Tianyin nor Longyuan has contacted her again. It's as if they both tacitly chose to forget her, or perhaps... she has already completed her mission.

In short, ever since that day, Ibuki has been idly passing her days in the dormitory. When Ryuen announced that everyone would get zero on the test, Ibuki almost slammed her fist on the table and called him a lunatic. But then she thought, how could something that even Amane got involved in have such an obvious problem?

Even if Longyuan's plan seems particularly unreliable, it has Tianyin's support behind it. With Tianyin there, there's no way she can't handle something.

Ibuki chose to gamble on Amane, which led to her completely resigning herself to fate regarding this special exam, ultimately successfully misleading Shiina and causing a series of misunderstandings.

After the first exam, an unexpectedly large number of students from Class C went to the restroom. Some people said they needed to use the restroom, but for some reason, they deliberately chose a secluded corner where no one was around, seemingly to send emails to someone.

Long Yuan knew without a doubt what they were planning to do, but he didn't stop them. He had made it very clear before the exam that they could avoid being expelled by reporting him. Long Yuan, who came up with this idea, was naturally prepared to be reported.

As long as he could achieve his goal, Ryuen felt that even being expelled would be worthwhile, since he had at least tried his best. If the school ultimately chose to favor the first-year students, there was nothing he could do.

"Longyuan, please wait a moment."

Hearing the familiar voice behind him, Long Yuan stopped walking towards Tianyin.

"Shiina, is there something you need?"

Ryuen looked at Shiina calmly, already guessing why Shiina had chased after him after the first exam.

However, Ryuen is not someone who likes to share secrets with others. Even if Shiina presses him for more information, Ryuen may not necessarily tell Shiina the real answer.

The reason why Longyuan calls this operation a secret is because, in essence, the plan and its purpose are something that others cannot understand or empathize with.

Long Yuan didn't want recognition from others, nor did he need anyone to understand what he was doing. However, the only thing he was certain of was that if he were to be held accountable by the school and expelled, he would bear the worst outcome alone, and there was no need for anyone else to get involved.

Faced with Shiina, who likes to get to the bottom of everything, Ryuen could only hope that he could intimidate Shiina from the start and make her obediently go back and not get involved in such a high-risk matter. In Ryuen's view, if he were expelled from school, Shiina was the one with the best chance of leading Class C to catch up with Classes A and B. She was someone who absolutely, absolutely could not be sacrificed in such a place like him.

However, it's unlikely that Shiina would be fooled by Ryuen.

In the end, I'll probably have to be honest with Shiina about some things to gain her understanding.

"I was worried that Ryuen might do something irrational, so I came to check on him. If I have disturbed you, please allow me to apologize."

When faced with a gentle girl like Shiina, Ryuen no longer wore a sour expression and his attitude softened considerably.

“I’m not one of those stupid guys. Those idiots who cry their eyes out at the first sign of a setback don’t deserve to be compared to me… By the way, if I said something like, ‘Okay, you can see I’m fine now, Shiina, you can go back and prepare for your next exam,’ would you be angry?”

"Ryuen, shouldn't you have already answered this question before you even asked it?"

Shiina's answer was flawless, easily debunking Ryuen's test. Ryuen then realized that Shiina was not going to back down, so he decided to tell her some parts related to the plan to put her mind at ease for the time being, and at least not to take any action in private.

Otherwise, Ryuen was quite certain that the seemingly gentle Shiina would be like a leech, relentlessly tracking and monitoring all relevant informants and gathering the information she desired in order to obtain the information she wanted.

She continued until she had gathered enough information to deduce the answer she wanted.

"That's true. I don't think Shiina would get angry over something like that. We've been in the same class for about a year now, so I think I understand your personality pretty well."

"Wrong answer! If Ryuen-kun's understanding of me is limited to this, I'll feel really pathetic. I hate it when friends hide things from me. Even I'll get angry if I find out someone is hiding something from me!"

So, Shiina will get angry because Ryuen withheld information from her? That's really scary.

"So you came to me with a 'reason' too. What do you plan to do, Shiina, if I can't give you one?"

Longyuan chose to confront them directly.

"I didn't come here for something so boring, and besides, I've roughly guessed your 'reason.' Although I think your actions this time were too reckless, if it's for that kind of reason... it's not unacceptable. The reason I came to find you is to tell you that everyone still believes in you, and I hope you can show sincerity in communicating with them."

Shiina's words were exactly what Ryuen expected. If even Shiina couldn't guess his motivation for insisting that everyone get a zero on the test, then Class C would truly be without a future.

"It doesn't matter. Some things don't require mutual understanding from the beginning. They just need to become my pawns and complete their tasks according to my orders."

Can those self-righteous guys really accept the reason of avenging their underlings and saving face?

How can it be!

The idea of ​​them risking their own expulsion just to avenge Ibuki and Ishizaki is simply unbelievable.

Moreover, once they find out the real reason for this plan, who will they turn their anger towards if they dare not criticize Longyuan?

The answer is self-evident.

Perhaps, in the eyes of others that day, after Baoquan apologized to Tianyin, he also apologized to Ibuki and the others, and Ibuki and the others accepted the apology, so the matter should have ended there.

However, Longyuan could not accept this outcome.

After using violence against Ibuki and the others without permission, he thinks he can just kneel on the ground and say sorry and be done with it? If he can't even get revenge for his underlings being bullied, what right does he have to be the leader of Class C?

Therefore, Ryuen had already begun his revenge plan when he was assigned partners for the first-year special exams. It was precisely because of this that all the special exam partners for Class C came from Class D in the first year.

That is, the class that Baoquan is in.

Longyuan planned to teach Baoquan a lesson with a little shock, to tell him that this school is not a place where you can solve all problems by just waving your fists.

But... can the other students in Class C empathize with such thoughts? Perhaps in their eyes, Ryuen is just a brave and aggressive guy. If they can't even empathize with him, how can they expect to be understood? The so-called trust is only built on the premise that Ryuen feeds them with benefits.

Once Ryuen harms those people's interests, trust? It's probably less valuable than toilet paper! Even Shiina and Ibuki had intelligence-related exchanges with Amane before, so who can Ryuen Sho trust?

Moreover, from a purely profit-driven perspective, seeking revenge against Class D in the first year is an utterly foolish decision. Even if the plan succeeds by chance, Class D in the first year will not suffer any significant losses. At most, the entire class will have to go three months without income, which is negligible. However, the price that Class C in the second year will have to pay is the collective expulsion from school.

No matter how you look at it, it's a situation where you hurt others a hundred and yourself a thousand. Under such circumstances, if Longyuan directly explains the purpose of his plan to the Class C members, will anyone really be willing to cooperate?

The answer is absolutely not.

No matter how Longyuan explains, no one will actively cooperate if there is no benefit to them.

Instead, he chose to conceal his reasons and successfully got everyone to carry out the plan simply by issuing orders.

If concealing the reasons actually leads to the highest execution efficiency, then why does Longyuan choose to disclose its reasons for doing so?

"Chess piece? First of all, I don't think that everyone in Class C can only play the role of chess piece. Even if each person's strength seems weak to you, Ryuen, even the weakest strength can play an unimaginable role when gathered together! Simply using this strength as a chess piece will not bring out its true potential."

Shiina's confident tone caused Ryuen's attitude to soften slightly.

"Oh? So, according to Shiina, how should I use this power to avenge my humiliated comrade? Without any self-interest involved, can this power really be used by me?"

"Of course! Speaking of which... Ryuen, you're really arrogant. You haven't even tried to unite everyone's hearts, so what makes you think everyone would betray Class C for personal gain?"

……

Upon hearing Shiina's words, Ryuen's expression became somewhat amused and exasperated. He didn't know whether to say that Shiina was too idealistically naive or that her idea was utterly foolish.

Even under normal circumstances, there are plenty of people who would betray information about Class C in private. So, trying to keep them loyal when they could be expelled at any time is harder than climbing to the sky. It's more likely that he would just take matters into his own hands and beat up Hosen to vent his anger for Ibuki and the others.

However, Shiina did give him a heads-up: those pieces together did indeed have other uses, and he just hoped that Baoquan wouldn't be too surprised.

Chapter 45: Your collar is really unique.

After finishing a day of special exams, Tianyin rushed to the supermarket to buy some groceries to treat herself.

"Welcome..."

As soon as Tianyin entered the supermarket, she heard the sweet voice of the young woman in charge of the cashier.

"Hi~ It's your shift again today, Yu-chan~ I might have to trouble you again later!"

While greeting You, Tianyin began selecting discounted barbecue sauce from the counter near the door.

"Hey? Xiaotianyin, you emptied our supermarket's meat reserves yesterday, did you eat it all? Even though I know you have a good appetite, Xiaotianyin, this is still too much..."

Yu looked on in shock as she scanned Tianyin's abdomen and chest, seemingly trying to figure out where the digested food had gone.

To be a high school sophomore and already developed into a member of the D family? That's just too much!

"How could such a thing happen?! I just have a good appetite, I'm not some strange creature. I bought dozens of kilograms of meat yesterday, if I had eaten it all, you wouldn't be seeing me today, Yu-chan, right?"

Amane immediately clarified Yuna's terrifying idea.

"I knew it! No matter how much Xiao Tianyin can eat, she couldn't possibly eat a whole day's worth of meat from our supermarket in one go. So, Xiao Tianyin, what are you planning to buy today?"

Because the student body at Kao Yu High School is not very large, and more than 95% of the students are practically hopeless when it comes to cooking, the supermarket has a very limited daily stock of fresh ingredients.

There is enough food for about forty people.

It's surprising that the proportion of people at Kaohsiung Yuh University who can't cook is unusually high, which is clearly not normal. This is because there are home economics classes from elementary to junior high school, which teach students the most basic cooking methods.

For example, making rice balls, frying tempura, cooking noodles, and frying eggs are the most basic dishes. In junior high school, students will learn some simple dishes, such as boiled fish, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, chicken dishes, and fried pork cutlets.

So basically everyone should have some cooking skills. When Tianyin first learned that only about twenty people came to the supermarket to buy ingredients every day, she thought it was because no one wanted to cook, which led to so few people buying ingredients every day.

After all, if you're exhausted from studying all day or feeling drained after club activities, and you don't want to spend time cooking in order to rest as soon as possible, you'll most likely choose to eat in the cafeteria or buy convenience food from the supermarket.

Naturally, they wouldn't patronize the areas where ingredients are displayed. In addition, Tianyin believes that many people are also insecure about their cooking skills. Compared to the cafeteria's consistently above-average food, those who are not confident in their cooking skills would naturally choose the cafeteria as their first choice.

To Tianyin's utter surprise, the vast majority of people really don't know how to cook.

Once, when Amane visited Karuizawa, she was stunned to see Karuizawa learning to make rice balls by following an instructional video. After inquiring, she learned that Karuizawa had previously worked in groups during home economics classes, and her role was to taste the rice balls. Therefore, she had virtually no experience with making rice balls, such a basic dish.

Even Tianyin couldn't help but marvel at how lucky she must be to stumble upon a girl who could cook, since most of the girls around her could do it.

"I'm planning to buy some meat for making sukiyaki. Do you have any recommendations, Yu-chan?"

"Hmph, Little Tianyin, are you testing me? Sukiyaki is usually made with beef and pork... For beef, I recommend Hida beef. Today, we have a 20% discount on Hida beef! Highly recommended! For pork, regular pork is fine, but if you're looking for a better texture, I recommend pork shoulder. It tastes amazing!"

It's clear that Yu is a qualified culinary expert, and her selection of ingredients is exceptionally skillful.

Of course, the meat she recommended, even on a discount, was still the most expensive part of the restaurant.

"I didn't expect you to be so amazing, Yu-chan."

"You flatter me. I usually cook for myself too, so we got to know each other better over time. By the way, that girl who came in with you... why was she dressed like that? Was she cosplaying?"

After rambling on for so long, You finally asked the question that mattered most to her.

Amane didn't come in alone. A girl dressed in a white silk maid outfit came in with her, and if Yu wasn't mistaken, the girl seemed to be wearing a... collar around her neck?

It takes a lot of courage to walk around campus dressed like that.

"Oh, you mean Ichika? Well, that's just that she's trying to pay me back after I did her a small favor."

Do I have to dress like this to be paid?

"So that's how it is..."

Yu's smile became somewhat stiff, as if she had associated it with something unhealthy.

At this moment, Tianze was carefully examining a piece of pork shoulder in one hand and a piece of pork neck in the other.

Tianze loves food and can make simple dishes herself, but only to the point where the taste is passable. As for her knowledge of ingredients... she can barely distinguish between vegetables, green peppers, tomatoes and eggs, but whether pork neck or pork shoulder tastes better is a question beyond her comprehension.

zizi.

Tianze noticed the notification vibration on his phone and quickly took it out to check it.

As it turned out, her previously vacant gaze suddenly became lively.

"Senior Tianyin! It seems something went wrong with this special exam."

Ever since Tianyin was invited to Tianze's dormitory late at night and helped Tianze with a small favor, Tianze now calls Tianyin "Senior Tianyin".

Although Tianyin felt it didn't matter whether she called her "senior" or not, according to Tianze, Tianyin would be quite enthusiastic when he called her "senior," so Tianyin just let her call her that.

"What could possibly go wrong with a special exam? Whether it's second-year A class or first-year A class, they should be able to pass, right? Besides... shouldn't the results be announced as early as this Friday?"

Given the slack-paced pace of the grading teachers, Tianyin couldn't have any expectations.

Grading over thirty papers can take a week. In other schools, that person would probably have been fired by now.

However, this was already considered normal at Gao Yu, and Tianyin was too lazy to complain about the teachers' inefficiency.

Because Tianyin was very clear about the speed at which Gaoyu's teachers graded papers, she did not believe that the incident Tianze mentioned had anything to do with grades.

"It seems to be related to Class C of the second year."

Upon hearing that it was Amane from Class C of the second year, she immediately became interested. After all, not long ago, Ryuen had used Ibuki to convey her request that she not interfere. She didn't expect Ryuen to take action so quickly.

Since she didn't ask Nishino and Ibuki to pass on any more information to her, Amane was completely unaware of Class C's performance in the special exam today.

When she leaned over to Tianze to check the messages on his phone, even she was shocked by the messages in Tianze's class group chat.

"More than 80% of the students in Class C of Grade 2 submitted blank papers in the special exam."

This shocking news caused quite a stir in the group chat of Class A in Grade 1, because everyone knew what it meant for Grade 2 students to hand in a blank paper, and many people couldn't understand why Class C in Grade 2 did this.

In addition, although it is basically equivalent to pairing up one class with another, in reality, there will still be situations where some people team up with members from other first-year classes.

This caused panic among everyone who had partnered with Class 2C.

If one of them submits a blank paper, it will undoubtedly be counted as zero. In this case, no matter how many points the other person scores, they will be considered to have failed. Even if the other person scores a perfect score, it will be of no use. Furthermore, because their partner from Class C in the second year failed, they will also be judged to have failed. In addition to being banned from receiving points for three months, they will not be eligible to participate in either individual or team rewards.

In an instant, the reputation of Class C in the second grade plummeted to rock bottom among the first graders.