Autistic Genius and His Childhood Friend (2): Stunned

The dean, who had initially been thrilled at the possibility of discovering a hidden gem, felt his excitement plummet when he heard the homeroom teacher’s blatantly mocking tone.

Glancing at the students in the classroom, who were sneakily peeking outside, eager to see the commotion, the dean decided to give it one last shot. “Where is this Si Qi? Call him out here. I want to ask him a few questions.”

If Si Qi really hadn’t taken the exam, the dean would have to give up on this stroke of luck and accept that it was just a false alarm.

But if Si Qi had taken the exam…

This could be a monumental discovery!!

Even if the chances were slim, he had to confirm it.

The homeroom teacher’s sneer froze, and he awkwardly said, “Ah? Well… he’s not in the classroom.”

The dean frowned. “Huh? Isn’t it class time right now? Where did he go? Did he not come today?”

The homeroom teacher chuckled awkwardly. “He did come. He’s never absent. It’s just that this kid usually sleeps during class and doesn’t pay attention. I figured his sleeping would distract the other students, so I didn’t bother looking for him when he was absent…”

Little did he know that the one time Si Qi was absent, the dean would catch wind of it.

The dean’s tone turned displeased. “You just let him sleep? What kind of homeroom teacher are you?”

The homeroom teacher looked embarrassed and couldn’t refute the dean’s words. However, deep down, he resented Si Qi, who had been forced into his class and always dragged down the class average.

Did he really want a student like this? Someone who wouldn’t listen no matter how much you scolded him, who just slept through class like a complete fool?

The dean, still unwilling to give up, scolded the homeroom teacher and then began searching the entire school for Si Qi.

Meanwhile, Si Qi had no idea that the 40-something-year-old dean was running around the school, sweating profusely, trying to find him. After spending the morning reading through the world’s academic papers, he felt as satisfied as if he had just enjoyed a delicious feast.

Well, his brain was satisfied, and now it was time to satisfy his stomach.

When Si Qi returned to the classroom, the room had been filled with laughter and chatter. But as soon as someone noticed Si Qi’s arrival, they stopped talking, their expression turning strange, and nudged the classmate next to them. That classmate turned around, saw Si Qi, and the number of silent people in the classroom grew.

As more and more people noticed Si Qi’s presence, the entire classroom eventually fell silent.

Si Qi blinked, unsure of what was going on. It was only then that Xiu Xiu remembered he had forgotten to tell Si Qi about the earlier events and quickly explained everything in their mental space.

Si Qi’s reaction was calm: [Oh.]

Xiu Xiu: […] He knew his master wouldn’t care about something like this.

It was Si Qi’s stepbrother who reacted first. He started cursing at Si Qi for taking his money and running off that morning, then stood in front of Si Qi, arrogantly demanding to know how Si Qi had cheated to get to the top of the national rankings.

He then demanded that Si Qi tell him how he did it so he could also get first place.

The classroom buzzed with chatter as the students all wondered how Si Qi had managed it. Someone, holding onto a glimmer of hope, said, “What if Si Qi actually earned it himself? Maybe he’s really that good?”

This comment sparked a wave of laughter throughout the class. Si Songyi, the original owner’s stepbrother, sneered and, right in front of Si Qi, loudly declared, “Si Qi scoring full marks? You might as well expect a pig to climb a tree!”

“Hahaha…”

“He’s right!”

“There’s no way he could score that high, let alone a perfect score. It’s definitely a system glitch.”

“Exactly, exactly.”

The entire class erupted in laughter. Si Songyi rapped his knuckles on Si Qi’s desk and ordered, “Stop wasting time here. Go buy me some water! I haven’t even had lunch yet, and I’ll need something to drink after!”

Si Qi, sitting at his desk, pulled out the steamed buns and soy milk he had brought from home and didn’t even glance at him.

“I’m not going,” he said casually.

Si Songyi was momentarily stunned, almost unable to process what he had just heard.

After snapping out of his daze, Si Songyi immediately felt humiliated and angrily slammed his hand on Si Qi’s desk, jabbing a finger at his forehead. “You think you’re something now, huh?”

The onlookers, never ones to miss a chance for drama, laughed and joked about the situation. “Wow, Si Qi’s actually standing up for himself now.”

“Yeah, right. Just because the system glitched, he thinks he’s a big shot now.”

Meanwhile, upon hearing that Si Qi had returned, the dean, who had been eating in the cafeteria, quickly put down his tray and rushed to the classroom of Class 2, Grade 12. Out of breath, he leaned against the doorframe and weakly called out, “Si Qi… which one of you is Si Qi?”

Si Qi glanced up at the sound, his expression calm as he took a sip of his iced soy milk. “That’s me,” he said, his tone even and unhurried, surprising his classmates who were used to seeing him in a completely different light.

Who would have thought that Si Qi, when awake, had such a demeanor?

The dean’s face immediately lit up with a smile as he approached Si Qi. “Are you the one who topped the national rankings?”

Si Qi looked at the dean, finished chewing the food in his mouth, and slowly replied, “Yeah.”

“It’s me.”

Seeing Si Qi’s relaxed, almost indifferent attitude, as if he didn’t realize the significance of what he’d done, the dean pressed anxiously, “Are you sure it’s you? The one who got a perfect score on the national exam?”

Si Qi opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, Si Songyi, standing nearby, couldn’t hold back anymore and interrupted, “Of course it’s not him! Everyone in class knows what he’s like. He’s just a liar!”

The dean, noticing the mocking reactions of the students around him, felt his hopes plummet. He was already starting to give up on the idea.

After all, scoring a perfect score on the national exam sounded too good to be true, especially for a student who had never been heard of before and was rumored to have always scored zero on exams. Such a stroke of luck didn’t just happen out of nowhere.

Even though the hope in his eyes had dimmed, the dean couldn’t help but ask one last time, “Are you sure it wasn’t you who took the exam?”

Si Qi glanced at his stepbrother, who was smirking smugly and looking at him with disdain, then replied leisurely, “It was me.”

“If it’s not you, then…” The dean’s resigned sigh was cut short as he suddenly froze, his head snapping up to look at Si Qi in shock. “What did you say?!”

The moment those words left Si Qi’s mouth, the entire classroom fell silent, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

After a long pause, the dean’s voice, filled with disbelief and a hint of caution, broke the silence.

“It was really you?”

Si Qi didn’t waste any words. He opened the learning system on his desk, pulled up the exam papers, and showed them to the dean. “See for yourself.”

Without hesitation, the dean rushed to Si Qi’s side, his eyes wide as he stared at the screen.

The more he looked, the wider his eyes grew, and his mouth stretched into an uncontainable grin. He looked as if he had just won the lottery, beaming with joy. “Good, good, excellent!!”

The students, seeing the dean’s reaction, indirectly guessed what was on the screen. Their faces were filled with disbelief, and the classroom erupted in an uproar.

“What?!”

“No way!”

“He really took the exam himself?!”

Si Songyi, standing next to Si Qi and the dean, turned pale, his expression a mix of shock and disbelief. He stomped his feet and shouted indignantly, “How is that possible? He must have cheated! Teacher, he definitely cheated! He never pays attention in class, never does his homework, and always scores zero on exams. There’s no way someone like him could be number one. Absolutely impossible!”

The dean, who had been smiling broadly, suddenly paused when he heard Si Songyi’s outburst. He looked down at Si Qi, who was still sitting calmly, and frowned. “Why did you always score zero on exams before? Did you not want to write, or…?”

Si Qi replied bluntly, “I didn’t know how.”

The dean’s face stiffened, and his expression turned strange, even a bit annoyed.

Si Songyi, however, was delighted. “See? I knew it!”

Si Qi, seeing how pleased his stepbrother was, smiled mockingly and said in a leisurely tone, “But after reading through the textbooks today, I figured it out.”

The dean was taken aback by Si Qi’s words and couldn’t help but ask, “What do you mean? You scored zero before because you didn’t know, but after reading the books once, you got a perfect score?”

Even though he desperately wanted to believe he had stumbled upon a genius, the dean wasn’t about to be fooled by such a far-fetched claim.

Si Qi remained calm and nodded. “That’s right. Before, I was too tired from working during the day, so I could only sleep when I got to school. I didn’t have time to study. Today, since I got enough sleep, I took a look at the textbooks and casually wrote the exam. I didn’t even know it was the so-called national exam.”

The room erupted in murmurs, everyone’s faces filled with doubt and disbelief.

What kind of nonsense was this? Because he got enough sleep today, he had time to glance at the textbooks, and just like that, he mastered everything? Then he casually took the exam and effortlessly became the national number one, and now everyone’s found out?

Are you kidding me? Who do you think you are? Some kind of reincarnated genius?

The dean, trying to remain patient, asked earnestly, even if there was only a one-in-a-million chance, “Start from the beginning and explain slowly. What do you mean by being too tired from work to study?”

Si Qi pointed at Si Songyi. “He knows exactly what’s going on. Every day when I get home, I have to work until around seven in the morning before I can rest. Since I have to go to school, I can’t sleep at home, so I have to sleep in class.”

The room erupted in an uproar, everyone murmuring in disbelief, completely unable to comprehend what Si Qi was saying.

Meanwhile, Si Songyi’s expression turned extremely ugly. He stood stiffly in place, desperately wanting to avoid the topic but unsure how to twist the truth to his advantage.

The dean, surprised, glanced at Si Songyi and asked, “Work? What kind of work keeps you up so late? You’re still a student. How can you work like that? Why don’t your parents stop you?”

Si Qi didn’t hold back, showing no regard for Si Songyi or his family. After all, he wasn’t the one who had done anything wrong. He leaned lazily in his chair and replied, “It’s my parents who made me do it. I’m an orphan, adopted by Si Songyi’s parents. Si Songyi is my younger brother. Since first grade, I’ve had to work at home, and it’s been like this every day for over a decade. What’s wrong with that?”

The dean, the more he listened, the more outrageous it sounded. He was furious. “Everything’s wrong with that!! What kind of logic is that?! Where are your parents? Call them here right now!!”

The last two sentences were shouted directly at Si Songyi. Whether Si Qi was the national number one or just an ordinary student, the dean was furious enough to lose his mind upon hearing that such a thing could happen.

The classmates were equally shocked. Listening to Si Qi recount his experiences, they couldn’t believe that the reason he slept through school wasn’t because he was lazy or a slacker who didn’t want to study, but because he had no other time to rest except during school hours. Their expressions were a mix of disbelief and disdain as they looked at Si Songyi.

What kind of family was this?!

“I just noticed they have the same last name…”

“No wonder Si Songyi always bosses Si Qi around in class…”

“I always thought Si Songyi’s family was well-off, given how he’s always dressed in brand-name clothes. How could they treat his brother like this? Just because he’s not their biological child? Tsk tsk tsk…”

“Si Songyi’s no saint either. He knows exactly what’s going on at home but never says a word, letting his brother be treated like this.”

“Si Qi’s so pitiful…”

Si Songyi’s face turned red with shame and anger, his head hanging low as he stammered, unable to form a complete sentence. Seeing this, the dean knew Si Qi’s words were true. He immediately grabbed his phone and called the homeroom teacher, ordering the irresponsible teacher to contact Si Qi and Si Songyi’s parents and have them come to the school for a meeting.

The homeroom teacher, only getting a vague idea of what was happening, didn’t dare ask too many questions given the dean’s explosive anger. After thinking carefully about what he had heard, he quickly figured out what was going on. He opened his contact list, found Si Qi’s parents, and called them. “Hello? Is this Si Qi’s parents? Your son has caused trouble at school. He somehow cheated his way to first place on the national system… Yes, it’s very serious. You need to come to the school right away. The dean wants to talk to you!”

Meanwhile, the dean, suppressing his anger, finally understood why Si Qi had been sleeping through classes and scoring zero on exams. Holding onto a sliver of hope, he asked Si Qi, “So what you said earlier is true? You really wrote that exam? You mastered everything just by reading the textbooks today?”

Si Qi nodded, completely unfazed. “Yes, I wrote it. If you don’t believe me, I can write it again right now.”

The dean was overjoyed and immediately agreed. The classmates, equally eager, crowded around to watch Si Qi take the exam.

Si Qi opened the testing system and, in front of everyone, performed a miraculous feat of “I haven’t even finished reading the question, and you’ve already chosen the answer?” With one hand flipping through the pages and the other selecting answers, his fingers moved so fast they almost blurred.

The dean was stunned. He quickly stopped Si Qi, staring at the screen where more than half the questions had already been answered. He randomly picked two questions, calculated the answers in his head, and confirmed they were correct. In disbelief, he exclaimed, “You… you wrote the exam like this?!”

Si Qi asked, “Is there a problem?”

The dean was speechless for a moment before finally saying, “N-no, there’s no problem…”

Was this… was this what a genius looked like?

Si Qi raised his hand and continued to swipe across the screen like he was playing a touchscreen game, leaving behind rows of answers. After a series of swift movements, under the dazzled gazes of everyone, Si Qi finished the last question and casually clicked the submit button. The entire process was as effortless as breathing, as if he were simply playing a relaxing brain game.

In full view of everyone, the screen lit up with celebratory fireworks and the glaring score of 150—a perfect score.

The room fell silent for a moment, then erupted in chaos.

“Oh my god!!”

“Am I seeing this right?!”

“It’s really a perfect score!!!!”

“This is insane!!”

The dean’s heart pounded like a drum. He swallowed hard, unable to resist grabbing Si Qi’s hand, his face full of eagerness. “Student! Student! What do you want? I’ll make sure you get it immediately! Listen, there’s a national competition coming up soon. You should represent our school…”

Si Qi calmly pulled his hand back and said, “If it doesn’t take up too much time, I don’t mind participating.”

Meanwhile, Si Songyi, watching the lively scene, looked utterly miserable. He couldn’t believe that his supposedly stupid, submissive older brother was actually a genius. Even worse, he couldn’t stand the disdainful looks his classmates were giving him. Pushed to his limit, he clenched his fists and shouted, “No way! He must have cheated! There’s something wrong with that exam!!”

He pointed at Si Qi’s face and shouted at the crowd, “He never has time to study! How could he possibly learn this much just by glancing at the textbooks this morning? It’s definitely fake! Use your brains and think about it—how is this possible?!”

The room fell silent for a moment, and someone muttered, “Yeah, this is way too unbelievable…”

“Even if he’s a genius, this is just too much…”

But someone else immediately countered, “What if he’s been studying on his own at home?”

“Studying on his own makes more sense.”

Si Songyi sneered at this and shook his head. “How could he study on his own? He doesn’t even have a terminal!”

The crowd was stunned, staring at Si Qi in disbelief. “You don’t have a terminal? No way!”

“How do you buy things or take the bus without a terminal?”

“Wait, now that I think about it, Si Qi always pays with cash.”

“Yeah, I’ve never seen him use a terminal before.”

“No way… in this day and age, someone doesn’t have a terminal? That’s something you don’t see every day…”

Si Qi, seeing how smug Si Songyi looked, couldn’t help but smile faintly, a mischievous glint in his eyes. He said to the crowd, “Yeah, I don’t have a terminal.”

“After all, my parents never bought me one.”

Si Songyi: “…………”

Realizing he had just shot himself in the foot, Si Songyi’s face turned bright red. Furious, he blurted out, “Don’t you work every weekend? Couldn’t you buy one yourself?”

Si Qi smiled even wider. “I don’t have a terminal, so how could I receive money? Of course, I use the QR code Mom gave me, and all the money goes straight to her account. She said she’d save it for me and give it to me when I’m an adult.”

Si Songyi suddenly remembered his mother’s extravagant lifestyle and the private conversations where she mocked Si Qi for being foolish, saying all the money he earned went to her and her son. His face turned pale, and he immediately fell silent.

Meanwhile, the dean, being a seasoned adult, quickly picked up on what was going on. It was obvious—the stepmother was exploiting her foster son’s earnings and mistreating an underage child!!

At that moment, the stepmother—Si Songyi’s mother—rushed to the school, eager to publicly scold Si Qi and vent her frustrations from the day before.

As for Si Songyi’s stepfather, he hadn’t slept all night and had to open the restaurant during the day. After the lunch rush, he finally had a chance to nap, but just as he fell asleep, his wife dragged him out of bed. Now, his face was dark and grim, and it was clear he wouldn’t be giving his “good-for-nothing” son any leniency when he saw him.

From the moment they entered the school, they were greeted by the homeroom teacher, who went on and on about how terrible Si Qi was—how he slept through class every day, dragged down the class average, and never participated in school activities. The more they listened, the angrier they became, and they were ready to unleash their fury the moment they laid eyes on Si Qi.

They followed the homeroom teacher to the classroom, where the first thing they saw was Si Qi being stared at by the entire class with strange looks, and the stern-looking dean, who appeared to be in his early forties, standing beside him.

Without a word, Father Si stormed over to Si Qi, grabbed him by the collar, and roughly yanked him out from behind his desk. Spittle flew as he unleashed a torrent of angry words: “I sent you to school to study, not to cause trouble for me!”

Meanwhile, Mother Si sneered sarcastically, “Oh, Si Qi, Mom knows you’re not good at studying and can’t focus. But you didn’t have to cheat just to save face! Cheating isn’t something to be proud of! If you’re not capable, you’re just not capable. Changing your score doesn’t mean you’ve actually improved. I’m so ashamed of you!”

The looks the classmates gave the couple grew even more peculiar. The dean, seeing Father Si grab Si Qi by the collar, rushed over to pull the man’s hand away. He carefully smoothed out Si Qi’s clothes and frowned, clearly annoyed. “What are you doing, resorting to violence?!”