CDJMM – Volume 2 – Chapter 6 The State Slaps and Teaches the Scum a Lesson (6)

In the first period Chinese class, the long-awaited male lead, Li Yian, finally made his entrance.

As the male protagonist of a wildly popular romance novel, Li Yian’s looks indeed lived up to the title. From the “hardware” perspective, he was undeniably a top-notch pretty boy.

His appearance leaned Western—deep-set features, high nose bridge, striking eyes with European-style double lids. His bright pupils carried a vivid spirit, and the slightly square, classical chin gave his overall presence a noble and regal air.

In one phrase: a flower of wealth in the human world. One glance and you knew this was a child raised with a golden spoon in his mouth. Every strand of his hair seemed steeped in the aura of privilege. His temperament faintly resembled a certain future celebrity, Yan × Kuan, though his actual looks were far inferior and without the same taste.

But no matter how divine a face was, personal aesthetics and clothing choices could still ruin it.

At this moment, the handsome hunk was sporting the most classic Leslie Cheung-style middle-parted hair, a gaudy floral shirt on top, and bright red flared pants below. At his bulging waist was a clipped-on pager. With both hands stuffed into his pockets, he looked unbearably smug.

“Hiss—” Le Jing heard a classmate behind him suck in a breath, muttering with undisguised envy,

“If I dressed that stylishly, I’d definitely be way more handsome than him.”

Someone else asked:

“Judging by his outfit, could he have transferred from Hong Kong?”

“Ai, I also wanted to grow my hair like Brother Gorong (Leslie Cheung), but my dad won’t let me.”

“Same here. Tch, old-fashioned geezers.”

Baicheng, being a closed-off inland city, was naturally conservative. Its residents dressed neatly and properly, with nothing out of the ordinary. Clothes like the new transfer student’s could only be seen in Hong Kong–Taiwan dramas.

For high schoolers of this era, Hong Kong—which hadn’t yet returned—was their dreamland, filled with the decadent glamor of capitalism. They both yearned for it and looked up to it. So it was no wonder they felt a mixture of envy, jealousy, and hate toward the newcomer.

As though he’d heard the whispers, Li Yian smugly glanced in Le Jing’s direction, chin lifted even higher.

Le Jing: … exm???

Sure enough, the livestream chat exploded at the male lead’s grand debut:

【…Ruoxi…: Hahahahahahahahahaha no matter how many times I’ve seen this in other streams, the male lead’s outfit is just too ridiculous hahahahaha (cat laughing hysterically.jpg)】

【Suwang: Li Yian better thank that face of his. If not for being that handsome, I really couldn’t swallow this “Shamate” style.】

【AliAli: What can I say, there’s just a generational gap in aesthetics. Back then, middle-part hair, floral shirts, and bright red flared pants seemed trendy ╮(╯_╰)╭】

【Little Transparent Cutie: Aaaaahhh this face—I’m ready, I can take it!!】

Le Jing outright rejected this era’s aesthetics. In his eyes, Li Yian’s look could only be described with three words: an eyesore.

And this eyesore idiot was forced by the author to be written as his sister’s grandson. Right now, this 80s “Shamate” punk even had the nerve to strut around like a cocky rooster.

Le Jing thought: I’d better just go into the consciousness space and grind some practice problems instead.

Meanwhile, in the chat:

【SuSu’s Harem: M: …Has anyone else noticed that next to the male lead’s god-tier looks, the streamer’s ordinary face looks even uglier?】

【Zebra Girl: Finally, someone brought this up! I’ve long thought the streamer’s too ugly (though his personality really attracts me) ←_←】

【Rice Thief East An: Aaaaaahhh finally some sisters realize it! As a face-obsessed person, I really can’t handle this ordinary face of the streamer!!!】

【Taoji: I propose we crowdfund to get the streamer a new face!】

【Qimu: System, how much does it cost to change a face?】

The system immediately responded with enthusiasm:

【Super cheap! Only 150,000 RMB! And today just happens to be our company’s centennial celebration, so everything in the system shop is 20% off! Opportunities like this don’t come twice!】

Instantly, the barrage was flooded with messages of “So cheap!”

【System Notification: Hefeng tipped the streamer Chang Jingchen 1000 RMB】

【System Notification: Youth Must Be Reckless tipped the streamer Chang Jingchen 2000 RMB】
…

【Jingyao0002: Wait a second… shouldn’t changing a face require the streamer’s consent?】

The moment this was said, the audience—who had been eagerly tipping—froze. Bullet screens flew everywhere: some asking Le Jing’s opinion, some apologizing for ignoring his feelings, others begging him to change faces just to spoil the fans.

Le Jing wasn’t someone who cared about looks. But having an outstanding appearance would make it easier to break free of his “background character” role, which would help him sabotage the program later on.

However… “If I suddenly switch faces, won’t people notice the difference and get suspicious?”

The system quickly reassured him:

【The streamer doesn’t need to worry! It’s just like in games—do NPCs freak out when your avatar changes faces? Of course not! Same principle here. Even if you swap to a face of peerless beauty, to everyone else you’ll just look like you were born that way. And the system will also retroactively update all past photos to match the new face, leaving no evidence behind.】

So, Le Jing happily agreed: “Then I’ll trouble you all to change my face.”

Another wave of donation bullet comments flooded the screen. A few minutes later, the cold mechanical system prompt finally rang out:

【System Prompt: The Face-Swap Card has been delivered to the streamer Chang Jingchen’s account. Please check in time. Within the next 30 days, the streamer may use this card to freely redeem a new face in the system’s Skin Mall～】

【Uncle Da: …Wait a sec, I suddenly realized something! What the system just explained is way too advanced, right? I checked—at this time period, our country hasn’t even popularized civilian computers yet. The streamer’s family doesn’t even own one. How would he know about online games and NPCs? But somehow, the streamer understood exactly what the system meant!】

【Liaolanlan: You’re only realizing something’s off now…】

【Moshou: In the story’s setting, some random nobody can just grind a few practice tests and leap straight to being a top student. If those practice tests are that effective, what’s the point of schools and teachers?】

【Ideal Nation: Also, the streamer’s personality is way too different from before. Just look at how he stood up against the school bully the other day. Doesn’t seem like someone who’d drop out from bullying and then die miserably on the streets.】

Le Jing knew he had revealed many flaws. To be precise, from the very beginning, he never planned to painstakingly act like the original background character, classmate Chang Jingchen. That’s why he never bothered to hide the differences between himself and Chang Jingchen.

So, it was perfectly normal for the live-stream viewers to notice something.

Propping his chin on his arm, he asked with great interest: “Then what do you all think, why am I so different now?”

As soon as he asked, the viewers in the live-stream gave a unanimous answer:

【Cha Liligou: The streamer must be a player who transmigrated here to experience the life of a cannon fodder character! You’re way too dedicated though, streamer—even your face perfectly simulates a cannon fodder’s. I admire you, admire you. (fist salute)】

The system was confused at first, then suddenly had an epiphany:【No wonder the host has such a strong cannon-fodder aura! And such great abilities! Turns out the host transmigrated!】

Le Jing: …

It seemed they had automatically filled in his identity for him. He didn’t need to say more.

So he simply smiled meaningfully and didn’t deny it.

Wang Lei said: “This is our new classmate, Li Yian. From now on, he’ll be joining our class to study together. Let’s give him a round of applause.”

A smattering of half-hearted applause echoed in the room.

“Please introduce yourself to everyone.”

Li Yian arrogantly raised his chin, a smug smile at the corners of his mouth: “My name is Li Yian, from the capital. I came here to experience life. I’ll be counting on you guys to look after me from now on.”

Wang Lei frowned. Remembering the principal’s instructions earlier, she barely held back her urge to scold him, forcing out a stiff smile: “Classmate Li Yian, where would you like to sit?”

Li Yian’s gaze landed on the fourth row.

While the whole class looked at him with awe and admiration, only the boy by the wall in the fourth row looked at him with open disdain—then, in the middle of his self-introduction, blatantly laid his head down on the desk and went to sleep!

Li Yian sneered inwardly. You little punk (zei), just wait, young master here will deal with you!

“Teacher,” he said maliciously, pointing at that boy, “can I sit next to that sleeping classmate?” —In other words, teacher, aren’t you going to do something about that sleeping student?

At this moment, he conveniently forgot that he himself used to sleep through every class.

Wang Lei blurted out: “No way. What if you disturb Chang Jingchen’s sleep?”

Li Yian: …???

Yet the homeroom teacher and the students all looked as if this was completely reasonable. Someone even raised their hand to suggest: “Teacher, why not let Li Yian sit with Zhao Desheng instead? They’ll probably get along better!”

Wang Lei immediately gave Li Yian an expectant look, asking politely: “Classmate Li Yian, what do you think?”

Li Yian felt that the whole class—from the teacher down—was nuts! Originally, he just wanted to give that sleeping kid a hard time, he didn’t even really want to be his deskmate. But with Wang Lei and the class acting like this, his stubborn temper flared up. Now he had to sit with that punk!

Too lazy to argue further, Li Yian walked straight over to the chubby kid’s seat, tossed his backpack heavily on the desk, tilted his head, and in a seemingly polite but forceful tone ordered: “I’m sitting here. Buddy, move to another spot.”

Wen Wenzhong stammered nervously: “I-I don’t want to change seats…”

“Come on, buddy, you won’t even give me this little bit of face?” Li Yian turned his head toward Wang Lei, dragging out his words: “Teacher, could you please help persuade him～”

Wang Lei’s face darkened, but she still forced herself to endure her anger. She told Wen Wenzhong: “You sit beside Zhao Desheng for now. I’ll arrange your seat again after the next class.”

So Wen Wenzhong unwillingly grabbed his bag and moved to the back row—right next to the notorious school tyrant, Zhao Desheng. He felt enormous pressure.

Zhao Desheng gave him a friendly smile: “Hey, that guy’s pretty annoying, right? I really want to beat him up.”

Wen Wenzhong instantly relaxed. He thought Zhao Desheng had never looked so cool before.  “When you do beat him up, let me know. I’ll come watch!”

Sure enough, having a common enemy was the fastest way to forge a new friendship.

The live-stream exploded again because of Li Yian. Only this time, the comments were the complete opposite of before:

【TinyTransparentCutie: sry, I can’t even. Actually, I want to smash his stupid dog head in.】

【SesameSweet: Smash his dog head +10086. What the hell is this guy, ugh I’m so mad!!!】

【GeniusBigBro: And this kind of idiot is supposed to be the male lead? The author’s brain must be full of crap.】

【SugarIntolerant: According to the novel setting, the male lead starts off as an arrogant playboy, then slowly reforms after meeting the heroine. I used to love that “bad boy turns good” trope… but now, emmmmmm】

【SuperSweetLittleTiger: I hereby declare! From today on, I’ve switched from being a Li Yian fan to a hater. (smile goodbye)】

Li Yian leaned back lazily, crossing one leg over the other, then rapped forcefully on the desk of his new seatmate who still had his head buried in sleep. “Yo, buddy, wake up. The sun’s up.”

Le Jing lifted his head, meeting that arrogant, punchable handsome face. Out of nowhere, he asked: “You know why your grandma lived to be ninety-six?”

Li Yian blinked, dumbfounded: “Huh?”

“Because she never stirred up trouble, and never stuck her nose into other people’s business.”

The boy finished his line, then promptly lay back down to sleep again.