Qi Yang nodded with a vague understanding. Matters of family alliances like this would probably never have anything to do with him in this lifetime. He just needed to be someone whose only job was to study, leaving such distant concerns for the future.
With a distressed expression, Qi Yang said, “Let’s not talk about that anymore. You have no idea, last night my mom actually wanted me to find a boyfriend to take care of me.”
“She wants you to date early?”
“Pretty much. She said I should find someone even more reliable than my dad.”
“Your uncle?”
“My dad is super crafty. Back in senior year, he used to hang around my mom every day. To win her over, he even used his proudest creation—his computer science skills—to challenge my mom head-to-head, wagering that whoever won got to make a demand.”
Then Chu Huaize picked up the thread. “And your uncle—I mean, your dad won?”
Qi Yang shook his head. “Not at all. My mom is amazing, she was ranked number one in our grade back then.” Qi Yang then leaned in close, lowering his voice to whisper to Chu Huaize. “I’ll let you in on a secret, but you can’t tell anyone else: the school network was actually created by my dad just to make my mom happy.”
“Man, my mom didn’t even get a chance to date properly before my dad tricked her into getting our marriage certificate. By the time they had me, they had already finished traveling around the world. After I was born, they just did some minor research projects, and only started tackling advanced stuff once I entered middle school.”
“Your dad really has high-level skills.”
“Who’s to say otherwise? I figure I have to get married a bit later than my mom did, otherwise wouldn’t I just be a joke after laughing about this story for so many years?”
During the low murmurs exchanged between Qi Yang and Chu Huaize, Li Lan had nearly finished reading through the dormitory assignments. Because most of the alphas and omegas in the class were C-grade, and the male-to-female ratios were manageable, the beta accommodations were plentiful, allowing for quite detailed room divisions.
“Qi Yang and Chu Huaize are in Room 306 on the third floor of the AO dormitory building.”
Qi Yang and Chu Huaize both wore expressions of utter shock. The two of them, being B-grade alphas and omegas respectively, had been assigned to the same dorm room.
Qi Yang raised his hand with a bold question. “Teacher, aren’t you worried we’ll cause trouble?”
Li Lan fixed her gaze on Qi Yang. “Anyone else might fall into puppy love, but you won’t. Tell me, who here is even remotely in your league?”
Taking a cue from the teacher, the rest of the class chimed in with teasing remarks. “Hello, big handsome Qi, are you forgetting how many girls you reduced to tears back in your freshman year?”
“Don’t put it all on the girls. There were junior boys running off to the bathroom to cry, too.”
“Didn’t someone try to corner you once, only for you to lecture them so hard they never dared bother you again?”
“Honestly, if it weren’t for your face, you’d make a textbook campus bully.”
Qi Yang refused to take the bait. “What are you all talking about?”
“I’ve never engaged in campus violence or bullied my classmates, so how am I a campus bully? Besides, I even left them a way out! I told them if they could beat me on an exam, I’d agree, but they never passed, did they?”
“Yeah, yeah. Exactly who has ever beaten you on an exam?”
“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?”
Watching them bicker like a bunch of elementary schoolers, Li Lan remembered she was the teacher and clapped her hands. “Alright, settle down.”
“Qi Yang, just rest easy and move in. Chu Huaize didn’t raise any objections, and besides, the school definitely took these factors into consideration. That’s why mixed-occupancy rooms like yours have anti-theft level doors. Breaking in by force is completely out of the question.”
“Besides, look at how capable you are! Ever since freshman year, you’ve been talking back to the drill instructors and flying around the track like you have wings—even though I didn’t witness it myself, teachers from other classes practically glow when they talk about you, praising your grades and your athletic skills alike.”
“So, you just need to quiet down and zip it. Respect your school, the administration has its own reasons for arranging things this way.”
Qi Yang could only vent to Chu Huaize. “Such a tragic life. What if another alpha in the dorm tries to harbor malicious intentions toward me, and I accidentally beat him half to death? Will I get expelled?”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got you.”
Qi Yang beamed from ear to ear. “I knew you were reliable, bro.”
After finishing the roster, Li Lan continued, “Dormitory move-in starts next week. Remember to bring your essential supplies, bring your phones, but you don’t need laptops. The top four students in the grade rank will have school-provided ones, and no one else is permitted to bring their own. Dormitory stays operate on a monthly cycle; you can request leave to go out over the weekend, but if you stay, you must remain on campus. You can hang out at the sports field or the game arcade, which opens up on weekends.”
She paused for a moment. “As for anything else, wait for further announcements. Aside from Qi Yang and Chu Huaize, everyone else is C-grade, so there’s no disparity in pheromone tiers to worry about. Don’t go picking unnecessary fights with your roommates.”
“Now, let’s take a quick pop quiz. The knowledge points are all from last semester. Some tricky questions require you to put on your thinking caps. If you can’t figure them out, I’ll explain them later.”
Even though Li Lan’s words were always all over the place, the students had already figured out her tricks and cleared off their desks well in advance.
The students were entirely numb to it by now. No matter what, you could never escape the homeroom teacher’s deadly pop quiz on the first day of school.
Although Li Lan looked gentle and cultured on the surface, her tongue could be remarkably sharp. Once, when Qi Yang was half-asleep and taking an early morning exam, he misread a condition in a math problem, assumed the question had an error, and guessed an answer at random.
The consequences were predictable: Student Qi Yang ended up summoned to the office for selecting the wrong option, subjected to Li Lan reciting the tight-band mantra over his head.
He had been half-asleep to begin with, but the moment Li Lan started talking, he nearly fell asleep standing up. Li Lan only let him go back to his seat once she was convinced he had truly repented and wouldn’t make mistakes on such simple questions ever again. Ever since then, whenever Qi Yang tackled a math problem, his eyes widened to cartoonish proportions, terrified he would miss a single prerequisite condition.
Kindly warning this fresh little flower of the motherland who was about to suffer his first taste of Li Lan’s devastation, Qi Yang whispered, “Be careful when solving problems, especially the simple ones. If you mess up, you’ll end up turning into Sun Wukong.”
“Sun Wukong?”
“You’ll get a headache from our Teacher Xuanzang chanting the tight-band mantra until your scalp goes numb.”
“Mhm.”
After Qi Yang briefly recounted Li Lan’s crimes, the stack of test papers was passed back to him. He handed one copy to Chu Huaize, gave the multiple-choice section a quick scan, and noted it wasn’t difficult.
Then he passed the rest of the papers back to Shi Tian behind him.
He finished writing through the test with lightning speed, checked the time, and realized he still had twenty minutes left for a nap.
Placing his test paper on the edge of the windowsill, he buried his face in his crossed arms and immediately went back to sleep.
Five minutes later, Chu Huaize finished his small quiz and noticed that Qi Yang was already fast asleep.
Finding it slightly unusual, he glanced back and forth between Qi Yang and He Chu; neither of them reacted. The surrounding students were still working intently on their tests as if this were completely routine, leaving Chu Huaize with nothing to say.
Li Lan glanced at her watch, it had been half an hour. “Chu Huaize, bring Qi Yang’s paper up here. I haven’t done today’s problems yet.”
Picking up the paper Qi Yang had left on the windowsill, Chu Huaize noticed the answers were written with extreme conciseness, yet not a single necessary step was missing. The handwriting was exceptionally neat and pleasing to the eye.
Taking the paper, Li Lan seamlessly launched into the lecture using Qi Yang’s steps. “Alright, look at the first question. Choosing C, any issues?”
“Nope.”
“Question two, choosing D, any problems?”
“Nope.”
“Chu Huaize, any questions? That’s how our class goes over problems. If you have questions, speak up and I’ll explain.”
“No questions, my answers match Qi Yang’s.”
“Got it.”
“Moving on to the third question, choose A.”
…
As Li Lan continued walking through the remaining problems, she used the key focal points in Qi Yang’s written steps to introduce several additional emphasis points to the rest of the class.
Even though Chu Huaize felt that He Chu’s lecturing voice was quite loud, Qi Yang remained soundly asleep as if listening to a lullaby.
“The final question, choose B.”
The bell rang right as she finished reading out the last question. Qi Yang woke up, having even dreamed a little nap along the way—and the ending had been quite pleasant.
“Qi Yang, your test paper.”
The student in the front row handed Qi Yang’s paper back to him and returned to his seat.
Chu Huaize looked at the sleep-fogged Qi Yang.
“Is it really okay for you to just sleep?”
“It’s fine, everyone’s used to it. There’s nothing worth checking over anyway, and staying awake just to stare blankly at him is exhausting.”
During the recess, Qi Yang felt a bit hungry, but he hadn’t brought any snacks. The cola in his backpack had to be saved for the afternoon when the sun was blazing, just to make the freshmen jealous.
He turned around in his seat. “Shi Tian, did you bring any food? I’m starving.”
Looking utterly disbelieving, Shi Tian replied, “Bro, we shouldn’t be crying out of hunger on the very first day of school.”
“I ate a light breakfast, you can’t blame me. The cafeteria is so far away, and I don’t want to move, which is why I came looking for you.”
Ignoring him entirely, Shi Tian lowered his head to continue studying. “Sorry, I didn’t bring any either.”
Shrugging off the rejected food request, Qi Yang rested his head back on his desk and resumed his nap.
The entire morning was essentially spent cycling through pop quizzes, and Qi Yang spent nearly all of it sleeping. Aside from knocking out the English and Chinese sections for a bit, he used every remaining minute to catch up on rest, finally making it through to noon.
Qi Yang prepared to find Wang Rui so they could head to the cafeteria together, when he suddenly remembered his unfamiliar deskmate.
He tapped on Chu Huaize’s desk. “Hey, deskmate. How are we handling lunch?”
Chu Huaize replied instantly, “Just grabbing a bite at the cafeteria.”
Acting like a seasoned local host, Qi Yang said, “Let’s go together then, since we’re both heading that way anyway.”
Nodding, Chu Huaize packed up his things, stood up, and followed Qi Yang out of the classroom.
Qi Yang stopped by Class 3’s doorway first to wait for Wang Rui before they all headed to the cafeteria together. Unfortunately, Class 3’s math teacher was widely recognized across the grade as the ultimate overtime champion. Even though everyone in his class scored exceptionally well, he loved to tack on a few extra minutes, and before you knew it, ten minutes had slipped by.
Qi Yang looked at Chu Huaize, and Chu Huaize looked back at Qi Yang, creating an intensely awkward silence.
Qi Yang: “Really sorry to keep you waiting this long. I honestly didn’t expect Old Man Li to ramble on for so long.”
Chu Huaize: “It’s fine. Did he always keep you waiting this long before?”
Qi Yang: “Not like this! He usually only says a couple of extra words at most. Someone definitely swapped his meds today for him to lecture this long.”
Chu Huaize: “Maybe there was more material to cover for the new semester.”
Qi Yang: “There’s nothing much to cover yet, we haven’t even learned any real math. Don’t tell me another class managed to skip the pop quiz today?”
Chu Huaize: “Is the pop quiz a traditional custom at No. 1 High School?”
Qi Yang waved a hand dismissively. “Pretty much. The teachers just want to check if we slacked off over the break. After all, the people cultivated here are supposed to be talents useful to the country—myself excluded.”
Looking at Qi Yang with mild skepticism, Chu Huaize asked, “I heard you’re the top student in your grade. How are you not a talent?”
Qi Yang couldn’t quite articulate it himself. “I guess I’m just not interested in those career paths. I don’t have any grand ambitions. When I get to university, I’ll pick an easy major, coast all the way to a PhD or postdoctoral degree, and I should be financially secure enough. Worst case, I can just stay at home and live off my parents.”
Chu Huaize: “Don’t your family members have any opinions on that?”
Thinking it over carefully, Qi Yang recalled the most common things his parents told him. “They probably just think as long as I’m happy, it’s fine. They don’t have any strict expectations of me, and besides, whatever savings our family has belong to me anyway.”
Qi Yang’s zen-like parents believed their son’s happiness was their greatest wish, second only to successful research breakthroughs.