The students of Class 9, Year One at Yangming High were in the middle of chemistry lab as usual when a strange burnt smell spread through the room. Everyone looked around and whispered. The teacher slowed his lecture, frowning as he scanned the space.

Xu Tengqian, who had been asleep at his desk, dreamed he was caught in a fire—and woke in reality to something even worse: white smoke hissing out of his drawer. The boy was so startled he nearly tipped off his chair. But he understood the situation at once. Class wasn't over yet. He lowered his voice and asked the girl beside him: "Cult Leader, what kind of fit are you having now?"

Mai Mang, without so much as glancing around, kept turning a bamboo skewer she'd found from somewhere and answered with perfect composure: "Not having a fit. I'm grilling lobster with the alcohol lamp."

"Gr-gr-grilling lobster?" The boy rubbed his eyes and was fully awake now.

"Yeah. The one you gave me before class."

"…" Xu Tengqian felt his soul drain away. "I didn't give it to you so you could grill it. What's the point of grilling it?"

"To eat it."

"…" You win.

Before Xu Tengqian could move to stop the girl's deranged behavior, the chemistry teacher on the podium was already roaring through gritted teeth: "Xu! Teng! Qian! What are you doing now! Stand up!"

No wonder the teacher had misidentified the culprit.

The white smoke really was coming from his drawer.

And besides, he was a "repeat offender who never learned."

Since he'd been seated next to Mai Mang, Xu Tengqian felt his life could already be written as an epic poem of blood and tears.

After being jointly suppressed by the chemistry teacher and homeroom teacher through the entire long break, Xu Tengqian returned to the classroom with a heavy head and a miserable face. Everyone understood perfectly and looked at him with sympathy.

As he passed the desk in front, Han Yiyi reached out and patted his arm. "My condolences."

Xu Tengqian sat down. "I'm supposed to be one of the school's heartthrobs. Why do I always live like some tragic dodder vine?" He turned to Mai Mang on his left. "Tell me—how many times is this that I've taken the fall for you? Am I wronged or what?"

By now Mai Mang knew she'd done something bad again. She beamed. "Not wronged, not wronged. You have to stay strong and optimistic! At least you're the one who caught the lobster and gave it to me."

Xu Tengqian decided to explain the matter to her once and for all. He turned to face her squarely. "Look—a normal girl who receives a lobster from someone would tie a string to it and play with it. Would a normal person grill it?"

"Play with it how?" The girl looked blank.

Here we go again!

"Like… watch it crawl around… I guess…" Even as he spoke, he felt he wasn't convincing anyone. Sure enough, her expression didn't change at all after she heard him.

Han Yiyi, dozing at her desk, finally couldn't take it anymore. She turned around and sighed at Xu Tengqian. "You shouldn't treat her like a normal girl. Would a normal girl even receive a lobster as a gift?"

Xu Tengqian froze for three seconds, turned back, and pressed his forehead in despair. "Sorry. My fault."

Whatever her brain was made of, every few days it produced some incomprehensible act of chaos. After innocent bystanders got caught in the crossfire, she would always fail to see what she'd done wrong, remain perfectly righteous, and forcibly impose "you must stay strong and optimistic" on the victims.

Mai Mang was absolutely cult-leader material. That was Han Yiyi's verdict on her best friend.