It seemed that thanks to his earlier successful showing off, his mood had improved, his morning grumpiness had faded quite a bit, and a playful, lazy curve appeared at the corner of his lips. The chair beneath him rocked restlessly backward, his posture relaxed, the whole person exuding a bit of careless, roguish charm.

Combined with what he’d just said, it made him look like a total show-off.

Made you want to punch him.

But you couldn’t win in a fight.

Everyone lowered their heads and continued catching up on their homework.

Forget it, harmony brings wealth, let’s be magnanimous.

The classroom finally quieted down. Ethan Brooks put on his headphones and tapped open the voice message his mother, Ms. Harris, had sent him.

——Xiao Yi, did you go to school today?

——Your school is just too much, it’s only mid-August and they’ve already started classes, making us mother and son be apart. Don’t worry, as soon as I get back to the country I’ll go complain to the education bureau.

——But Xiao Yi, are you really not coming to Los Angeles? The new villa your dad bought here is in a great location, plenty of sunshine, comes with its own beach. Your dad and I are living the good life here every day, we just really miss you.

——How about listening to your mom and coming over to play for half a month? We can go back together in September, okay? It’s not like ten days or half a month will make a difference to your studies.

Ms. Harris clearly had no sense of responsibility as a parent of a senior high school student.

Ethan Brooks curled his lips, just about to tap on the next voice message, when the back door was suddenly flung open with a bang.

A slender figure zipped over to Ethan Brooks, bracing both hands on the desk, leaning forward, panting heavily: “Damn, Mr. Ethan, did you know your class is getting a new transfer student this semester?”

Ethan Brooks lifted his eyelids: “Is he crazy?”

If a good student at a good school just stayed put, getting a school recommendation or even a guaranteed admission would be a sure thing—no need to transfer at such a critical time.

And for students who aren’t at that level, transferring into the elite science class at Nanwai in senior year is basically asking for trouble—coming in upright, going out flat, pure masochism.

It was hard to imagine what kind of idiot would be so self-destructive.

Henry Clark also found it odd, turning around with a skeptical look: “Seriously? Is your info reliable?”

Logan Reed quickly said, “It’s true! Why would I lie to you? I just heard it in Old Bai’s office. Apparently, he’s transferring from Beicheng, and rumor has it he was the top scorer in the last city-wide exam.”

As soon as they heard “top scorer,” everyone perked up: “Then he should have a guaranteed spot at Beicheng University or Huaqing University, why come south?”

Logan Reed shrugged: “Who knows.”

Ethan Brooks had no interest in the self-destruction story of some idiot, lowered his eyes, and tapped on the next voice message.

——But it’s fine if you don’t want to come. Just so you know, your Grandpa Grant said you should go to their place for dinner in the next few days, their kid is back.

Ethan Brooks’s fingertip paused.

Next to him, Logan Reed was still chattering: “Hey, let me check who was the top scorer in the last Beicheng city exam… Damn! He’s pretty handsome! Mr. Ethan, do all you academic stars have to be this good-looking now? Even his name sounds nice, Ethan Grant, like ‘anchoring at the Qinhuai River at night’…”

Just then, Ms. Harris’s next voice message played automatically.

——It’s that Ethan Grant, the one you used to play with when you were little.

The curve at the corner of Ethan Brooks’s lips faded.

-

Ethan Brooks’s hostility toward Ethan Grant probably started in infancy.

Back then, baby Ethan Brooks, just six or seven months old, had mastered crawling and was shakily learning to walk upright. But every step ended with him landing on his butt, over and over—at least seventy or eighty times. Baby Ethan Brooks just couldn’t take it anymore, his mouth quivered, and he burst into tears.

Meanwhile, baby Ethan Grant, already over a year old, watched the pitifully crying Ethan Brooks for a full ten minutes before finally putting down his toy, standing up, and walking over. In a soft but cool little voice, he said two words: “Watch me.”

The innocent, clueless baby Ethan Brooks obediently lifted his chubby face, blinking up at his Ethan Grant gege, naively thinking he was there to comfort him.

Then his Ethan Grant gege proceeded to walk a lap around the nursery right in front of him.

Steady and sure, practically striding like a pro.

After finishing, he even looked down at him from above.

With a subtle air of disdain.

Logically, babies shouldn’t understand what disdain is, but at that moment, Ethan Brooks was convinced he saw it in Ethan Grant’s eyes—an unashamed, crushing kind of disdain.

This left a huge scar on little Ethan Brooks’s heart, which only deepened over the years as he and Ethan Grant continued to clash.

So much so that Ethan Brooks actually broke through the limits of human memory and remembered this little incident from infancy for over a decade.

This trauma was only briefly soothed when Ethan Brooks learned from his genetic test results that he was a top-tier Alpha, while Ethan Grant was just a delicate Omega.

Forget it, he’s just a little Omega, let him have it.

The tense string in Ethan Brooks’s back finally relaxed.

Then the back door was flung open with another bang.