After the introduction, the archery club leader led him to their equipment room and showed him what the bows and arrows were called. He even took a measurement of his arm length to custom-make arrows for him.
"You need to have the right size of arrow according to your arm size, or else the bamboo arrow will snap," the club president happily explained to him.
"Um... do I have to pay for this? I'm kind of short on cash." His grandpa's earnings could barely cover their food costs. Thankfully, he is a fully scholarship student. Plus, his grandpa insisted on sending some money to his ungrateful grandma and Bian. He couldn't stop him anyway. If this archery club wanted him to personally buy his weapons, then he might really not be able to afford it.
Jian just gazed up at him questionably. "Our equipment is sponsored by the school, don't you know that?"
Their school did place a lot of importance on sports, so I guess that explains it.
It all worked out in Jian's favor.
He let out a small sigh and smiled at Jian. "Then that's awesome. I'll meet you guys tomorrow."
It was close to the first bell, and he didn't want to be late to class, so he hurried off, followed by Rui. "Did you do your math homework? I will be collecting it during the first period," Rui said from behind.
Jian grimaced. After all that drama, he kind of forgot about the math homework. But he had finished the others. "I haven't done it. Can you collect mine last? I'll finish it in ten minutes."
"Hmm... you can copy mine."
Jian gazed back at him with narrowed eyes. "Why are you suddenly being so nice to me?"
"I'm always nice." Rui patted his back and kind of dragged him towards the class. "Come on, we're getting late."
Most of his classmates had already arrived and were loafing around.
Jian silently noted Nansich and Bian sitting together. To his surprise, it looked like Nansich was avoiding Bian, and his annoying brother seemed saddened by this.
'Whoa, what kind of development is this now? Why is Nansich avoiding him? Wasn't he blindly in love with that fellow?'
Suddenly, their eyes met.
Nansich's eyes widened a fraction. He opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something but quickly looked away, focusing on his book.
'He's being weird... it's better to stay away from him.'
The chair beside him screeched, and Bian sat down. "Jian, come back. Grandma is very sad. She misses you very much. You can't be willful like this. Running away is not the solution. I'll talk to Grandma."
"Run away?" Nansich, who had appeared behind him, exclaimed.
"Yes... Jian left home, and he's refusing to come back... I... I don't know what to do." He whispered with a whimper.
Jian rolled his eyes, completely ignoring him. He had already decided to cut off any kind of relations he had with him or that grandmother of his.
"Why?" Nansich moved a bit closer. "How did this..." he pointed to his face.
"Don't touch me!" Jian swatted his hand away. "Stay ten feet away from me."
"I was only worried about you! Why else would I..." Fuming, Nansich went back to his seat.
Jian quickly glanced at Bian. "Enough with your act. It's boring."
Bian's mouth twitched subtly.
Seeing this, he let out a laugh. 'This hypocritical bastard... he's still trying to make me out to be the bad guy. Only assholes and dumb-dumbs like Nansich would believe him.'
Bian silently bit his nails. 'Why is he acting out like this? He's supposed to docilely follow me... I made him that way! What changed?!'
From a young age, he had made sure to trample on Jian's self-confidence so that his protagonist halo could fall on him. But he didn't expect that Jian would change so quickly.
He gazed at the blank math homework book while gritting his teeth. 'The plot... is it the plot? Is it going back to the way it was supposed to?'
He could already feel the change. Nansich, who used to follow his orders like a bland puppy, refused to look him in the eye. Even his grandpa, who used to be very dumb, wouldn't contact him anymore. Only his silly grandma listened to everything he said. But that wasn't enough.
'The Wang family! They will come to find us to adopt!!'
'I can't let Jian outshine me... I need to make sure he... he is culled.'
A treacherous plan formed in his mind.