I Don’t Want to Win Lying Down

Chapter 48: The Self-Destruction of the Students

When Xu Mang returned home, his mother had already prepared a ‘nutritional meal’ according to a recipe she had found on the WeChat public forums. Xu Mang had previously reminded her that most of those forum posts were fake, but he was the one that had been scolded instead.

Xu Mang’s response?

He didn’t care. The food seemed somewhat edible anyway, at least it wasn’t one of those weird exotic raw meats. If it came to that, Xu Mang would have no choice but to take drastic measures.

Of course, Xu Mang wasn’t going to sit there and do nothing. He immediately reported any and all posts his mother had shared from these public forums. After his many days of effort, Xu Mang had successfully taken down at least six bad influences on their generation.

“Mom… I think you forgot to put in any salt?” Xu Mang was suffering, it was as though he was eating cardboard…

“What would you know? I, as your mother, saw a post that a person’s ideal daily salt intake is around six to eight grams, and too much salt is bad for your body,” Mother Xu said

seriously. “From now on, not a single grain of salt will enter our house’s cooking!”

What the h*ll!

No salt… She was taking away the soul of all food!

Unable to handle his mother’s lectures, Xu Mang quietly ate his saltless ‘healthy’ supper. He had wanted to try and activate some self-salting food skill, but after thinking about it for a while, he decided against it… after all, it was still a gift of motherly love.

Turning on his computer, Xu Mang sent Yang Xiaoman a WeChat message.

@TheDreamOfAllFemalesInThe Universe: [I’m gonna log in soon… add me, I’m called ‘Heart Arsonists’]

@LifeInPieces: [Why are all of your names so dumb?]

@TheDreamOfAllFemalesInThe Universe: [What are you going to do about it?]

@LifeInPieces: [What’s this? Your tone of voice is a bit off, do you have a problem with me?]

Xu Mang froze up, slowly turning off his phone and setting it aside.

Not a moment later,

His phone was exploding with countless WeChat notifications.

Xu Mang knew that Yang Xiaoman was exploding on the other side of the screen as well…

Going online, Xu Mang received a friend request.

Girls be Mad: [Idiot, you dare ignore me?]

Heart Arsonists: [Shut up, invite me.]

The two quickly queued up, and not a minute later, an exciting round of League of Legends begun. During the role-calling phase, Xu Mang struck hard and fast just in case.

Heart Arsonists: [Mid or troll!]

Yang Xiaoman was about to go insane… This was the first time that she had encountered a player with such low morals, no wonder his rank was so low. Getting triggered and int-ing over small things like that, who could stand him?

After a total of zero responses from the rest of his team, Xu Mang secured his stop in the mid lane.

Xu Mang was still a bit rusty during their first match, giving away first blood early in the game. Five minutes later, the mid lane was pretty much open, and facing the relentless disses from his three teammates, Xu Mang could only shrug and smile.

For him, winning or losing wasn’t important, what was important was having fun.

Their Nexus was destroyed, and ‘Defeat’ was written across their screen in large, red font.

Then, Yang Xiaoman gave him a call.

“I’m so going to pummel you tomorrow!!” Yang Xiaoman shouted over the line. “I generously offered to play with you and you decide to feed your a*s off?!”

“Oh, come on… I’ll try harder next game!” Xu Mang laughed awkwardly.

And then… The second game started, and with it came a new nightmare.

Heart Arsonists: Jungle or troll!

Yang Xiaoman stared at her computer screen in disbelief…

Yang Xiaoman: (*￣︿￣)

***

The next day, Xu Mang carefully arrived at the school’s entrance. He surveyed the scene, and once he made sure that there was no sight of the flat-chested monster, Xu Mang let out the long sigh that he had been holding in. He had agitated her too much yesterday…

In just three games, Xu Mang had accumulated a total of 70 deaths. Just when he was about to start his fourth game, his account had been banned, the reason being that the game thought he was intentionally feeding, and so, he had received a week-long ban.

Honestly, Xu Mang was pretty sad. He was so bad at the game that the system had literally locked him out of playing…

Of course, there was another who was even sadder, and their tears could fill the Pacific Ocean. Yang Xiaoman.

She had cried yesterday…

Yang Xiaoman was different from the easy-going players like Xu Mang. She was ambitious, and the point of playing games for her was to win. She didn’t care about how happy the ‘experience’ or ‘journey’ was… What mattered was that she won, and if she didn’t, she would become aggravated.

Soon, Xu Mang and Yang Xiaoman met, and just by seeing the flat-chested beast’s dark expression, Xu Mang knew that he was going to suffer the pain of the flesh today.

“Ahem! Did you have fun yesterday?” Xu Mang asked.

“…”

“I don’t know you!” Yang Xiaoman’s blood pressure was skyrocketing, and her death glare bore into Xu Mang’s skull. “Don’t freaking talk to me!”

Girls were quick to anger, but that anger dissipated just as fast. Not even five minutes later, Yang Xiaoman suddenly turned to stare at the daydreaming Xu Mang. “Don’t ever ask to play with me again!”

“Okay…” Xu Mang nodded, chuckling as he did. “How about we play some Dou Dizhu[1] tonight? I’m really good!”

“Beat it!”

***

With the two remaining exams, Xu Mang scored a perfect Pentakill by handing in blanks answer sheets five times in a row. Just when he thought the dark times were over and the light of hope was finally here, the scene in front of him shocked him.

After the exams, the smart kids were all silent, each disregarding anything and anyone else except for the books in their hands; the normal students were huddled together, seeking comfort or someone they could complain to; and the bad students were business as usual, making the most of their carefree lives.

Except, the number of ‘bad students’ had increased after the midterms, and one of their newest members was Sun Xiaoxiao.

Xu Mang didn’t particularly like the chubby kid. In fact, he might have even said he hated him, but seeing the state of despair that he was in, Xu Mang’s opinion of him softened, actually… he was in quite a tragic state too.

Sun Xiaoxiao worked hard, even harder than some of the smart kids, and yet… under most circumstances, hard work doesn’t always bring success, it instead brings a sense of false hope that could be the death of you.

Xu Mang sighed…

Sun Xiaoxiao, this wasn’t your fault, it’s the fault of the twisted world that we live in.

Xu Mang glanced at Yang Xiaoman and shook his head. The biggest difference between Yang Xiaoman and Sun Xiaoxiao wasn’t that one was smart and the other wasn’t, it was that one was born at the finish line, while the other was born at the starting line with both his legs broken.

Please don’t think that this was unfair, because it has never been fair.

On his way to the cafeteria, Xu Mang heard some news.

During their midterms, the biggest similarity between the Science students and Art students was Math. Almost everyone had failed, including the kids in the top 10 of their grade, but of course, the flat-chested bully, Yang Xiaoman, was exempted from this fate.

“It was way too hard! The questions totally had it out for us… I don’t think even the college entrance exams are going to be this hard,” said Smart Kid A.

“Of course not!”

Smart Kid B continued, “I heard they got some gold-medalist teacher from the Su District to make the questions… and you know how hard the exams from the Su District are.”

“I wonder if we’ll still be able to get good grades…” Smart Kid X sighed. “Maybe we were too overconfident? I think we need to start putting more effort into our Math, we can’t embarrass us Science students like this.”

Then, Xu Mang inserted himself into the conversation, not because he had anything constructive to add, he merely jumped at any chance to show off.

“Hi, my three idiot friends! You know Yang Xiaoman?” Xu Mang said in a teasing tone. “She got full marks on her Math this time!”

“…”

The three smart kids obviously knew Yang Xiaoman—the transfer student that was dominating their school rankings. Just one of their monthly assessments and the whole school feared her, but… what the h*ll did this have to do with you?

“I know you! You’re Xu Mang.” Smart Kid A laughed, arrogance seeping into his voice. “I don’t think you’ll fit into our friend group, please check yourself before you talk to us again!”

“Especially about Math.”

“Hahahaha~”

After he was finished,

The other two started laughing at him as well.

Looking at the three of them walk away, Xu Mang quietly bought Yang Xiaoman’s favorite croissant. He wasn’t like the other students next to him who were talking in small groups, instead, he made his way back to class alone.

“Those three are from… Class 6, right…? And I think one of them doesn’t stay in the dorms… hmm… let’s start planning!”

[1] ‘Dou Dizhu’ is an extremely popular card game in China, lit: ‘fighting the landlord’)