The Buggiest System 136 Lunch Rush

Zhou Lei made it just in time!

...for the second subject.

Wen Hui glanced at the sweaty student that leaned on the doorway to catch his breath. His uniform wet of sweat, with one patch particularly larger than the rest...

She creased her brows, feeling the urge to scold him. However, there was also another equal, opposing force inside of her that told her not to go through with it.

In the end, she decided to compromise. "Student Zhou, why are you late?"

Zhou Lei was startled by the sudden call-out of the teacher. "Uhmm... traffic."

After he muttered a single word, an awkward silence followed. Both parties stared at each other, either unwilling to say a word or plain confused at what to say.

"...Well, go to your seat then." Wen Hui could not take the silence anymore and ordered Zhou Lei to sit down.

A silent noise filled the cla.s.sroom as students whispered to each other about the inelegant event that just ended.

Lin Guiying gazed at Zhou Lei who held his head down in shame. While he was to pa.s.s by her seat, she reached out and patted his back.

Zhou Lei glanced at Lin Hanying. Seeing her wiggle her eyebrows and have a thumbs up made him inexplicably infuriated. In response, he flashed a middle finger when he finally sat down on his seat.

Wen Hui bit her lip for a good few seconds before resuming the cla.s.s.

.....

Lunchtime!

The familiar bells rang to indicate to the students that it was time to eat.

Zhou Lei shook his head, still in a daze about what happened at his home. Why did Zi Yun suddenly kick him out of his own house?

Lin Guiying stood up and saw that Zhou Lei had buried his head under both his hands. She poked his sides. "Hey, Lei..."

"Eh!" Zhou Lei unconsciously reacted to the tickling and slapped the hand. He raised his head and saw Lin Hanying.

"Ah... sorry, Ying. I wasn't paying attention." Zhou Lei laid his head back on his desk.

"Never mind that, what happened to you?"

To be honest, Lin Guiying wasn't really bothered by the sudden slap, as she knew that it wasn't intentional. Instead, she was more curious about his lateness, and what caused it. She took the chair of the person that sat in front Zhou Lei and sat down.

"What do you mean?" Lin Hanying's words entered one ear and exited the other. The absent-minded Zhou Lei wasn't really in the mood to listen.

"What do you mean, what do I mean?"

"What do you mean, what do I mean, what do you mean?"

"What do you mean, what do I mean, what do you mean, what do I mean... ah. Nevermind."

Lin Guiying thought that he didn't want to share the circ.u.mstances, so she didn't pry on it any further. However, she felt a little hurt that he didn't want to tell her. 'Well, everyone's private sometimes. Even I have a big secret I can't tell to him, so I shouldn't be hypocritical...'

Meanwhile, the only word that fully registered in Zhou Lei's mind was "nevermind". He didn't mean to cause a misunderstanding... Anyway, if she didn't want to talk about it anymore, better for him, as he really didn't know what the topic was in the first place.

"Ting! A reminder for your missions."

Zhou Lei was startled awake by the sudden alarm of System. 'Huh? It never did this before... Is it an update?'

Lin Guiying noticed that her friend had jolted abruptly. "What the heck?"

"It's, uh... nothing." How could he explain the matter about System? All he could do was bluff and pretend that it was trivial.

"Ermm..." At this point, Lin Guiying was feeling isolated. She was an expert at concealing her feelings, but that didn't mean that she didn't have them at all.

'Huh, now that I think about it, there's the problem about that coffee thing. What should I do about that?'

He raised his head again. He pulled on her sleeve. "Hey, Ying..."

"Hmm, what is it?" Lin Guiying's eyes lit up. 'Is he finally willing to tell me?'

After taking in a breath, Zhou Lei... prepared himself more. Eventually, he opened his mouth... to exhale.

Seeing Zhou Lei hesitating, Lin Guiying was amused. "Lei, if you don't want to tell me, you can just not tell me. It's fine."

"No, you're misunderstanding the situation." Zhou Lei waved his hand. "It's not that I don't want to tell you, it's just that I don't know how to..."

'After all, am I gonna say "you want to taste my coffee"?! I don't even know how to brew these things!'

Zhou Lei settled on what to say. "...Go to my house."

"!!!" Lin Guiying couldn't muster an appropriate reply to his offer. She didn't even have enough time to think before Zhou Lei continued talking.

"Actually, I'll just talk about this later..." He scratched his head, thinking that she definitely misunderstood something.

"Mhmm..." Without a ready response, Lin Guiying could only mutter.

Feeling awkward about their conversation, Zhou Lei wanted to distract himself by doing something else. He then remembered that he brought food from his home.

He inserted his hand inside his bag, intending to grab the sandwich that his little sister half-made for him. Then, his eyes twitched.

Fumbling around inside the bag, Zhou Lei panicked. "Where's my lunch?"

'Wait, didn't I give it to Zi Yun? d.a.m.n it...' He took his hand out and scratched his head.

Oh well! No eating today then!

Lin Guiying heard her friend's utterance. "Lunch? You forgot to bring yours today?"

"Um, yeah." Zhou lei flashed a forced smile, showing all of his teeth off.

.....

Fan Xinyue entered the cla.s.sroom after having used the restroom. Her hands were still slightly wet due to her was.h.i.+ng them.

She recalled the uncomfortable gazes that Zhou Lei exchanged with their homeroom teacher, Wen Hui, when the former came to cla.s.s late.

Opening the door, her sense of hearing heightened. This had become a habit of hers, always attentively eavesdropping to any crucial information that Zhou Lei could spill.

Right when she perked her ears up, she heard Zhou Lei's worried voice. "Where's my lunch?"

As if the actions she were about to do were instinctive, she walked towards her desk and grabbed her bag.

Unzipping the front most compartment, there was a lunch box lying there, unopened and still warm. After all, the summer heat hadn't stopped tormenting them yet.

Her hand reached into the open bag and gripped onto the lunch box like her life depended on it. She took the food out with lightning speed, like it was in her hand the whole time.

As she smiled to herself and prepared to give this lunch to Zhou Lei, who was right across her, she caught sight of something peculiar...

In that instant, a primal instinct roared from within, her legs bursting from their previous position!

Suddenly, an iron palm blocked her cannonball-like movement, preventing her from proceeding even one inch.

"Lu Xi, don't blame me for being ruthless..." Fan Xinyue heartlessly warned the girl who blocked her with a single hand.

"Try me."

Right as she finished saying that, Lu Xi extended her right leg towards her east, blocking yet another person from pa.s.sing through!

The pressure from the wind being abruptly stopped made a loud 'thud' sound as it made impact with Lu Xi's leg and spread out.

There she was, holding a lunch box not unlike Fan Xinyue's. Ma Xiaoli glared at Lu Xi, and without even issuing a warning, she raised her right hand!

Flame traced out of Ma Xiaoli's scorching hot glare, making even the most infamous delinquent in the school shudder from fright...

This... this was survival of the fittest...

As the three had their own skirmish right beside Zhou Lei, the one who they were racing towards wasn't paying them any attention.

Ye Muqi walked up to him, unnoticed by the other three girls.

However, even though Lu Xi and the other two were preoccupied with trying to get through each other, Ye Muqi was still blocked by someone.

Someone... she didn't know...

It must be a no-name background character!