“Tomorrow is the opening ceremony, yet they insisted on making us come today.”
“Exactly, we wouldn’t have been late anyway. This broken rule at Yanming should have been changed a long time ago. Starships fly so fast!”
“Heh, the timid starve,” Li Heng said. “Doesn’t Yin Shiyu not even come?”
“He lives in an aerial floating island. Where do you live?”
“Who doesn’t live on an aerial floating island? It’s just the dorms…” Yi Hui dragged out his voice.
“Isn’t that it?”
Li Heng let out a cold snort, his attitude full of disdain. His grades consistently ranked in the top five at Yanming Academy, and the four rankings other than first place often fluctuated. He looked down a bit on Yin Shiyu, who was stuck at second-to-last place.
Yin Shiyu was the only ultimate bottom-ranking king at Yanming Academy. Not for any other reason, but simply because Yanming Academy had a bottom-ranking elimination system where the absolute last-place student was forced to withdraw by the administration.
Yin Shiyu always steadily stayed at second-to-last place.
At the same time, the number one spot at Yanming Academy had never changed. His name was Jiang Chuanzhi. Both of them were quite stable.
Registration day.
Everyone was notified to gather at the playground. Vehicles were not allowed onto the academy’s floating islands, and students had to walk the final stretch themselves.
Yin Shiyu arrived at the playground with just one minute to spare. He was spinning a Rubik’s cube in his hand, his gaze seemingly never landing on anyone.
The playground was already densely packed with people.
Yin Shiyu was tall. He came to a stop at the very end of the line, and unconsciously, the Rubik’s cube went through another cycle of being scrambled and solved right at his fingertips.
“Shiyu,” Yi Hui greeted him.
Yin Shiyu nodded. “Happy New Year.”
Li Heng’s sneer came from nearby: “Idiot.”
“Who are you talking to?” Yi Hui couldn’t help but shoot back. Li Heng walked toward the front of the line.
Yin Shiyu ignored him. Yi Hui lowered his voice: “Don’t lower yourself to his level, he’s just like that.”
“I didn’t pay attention,” Yin Shiyu said.
He really hadn’t paid attention.
Li Heng called them idiots, but he couldn’t be bothered to care. Li Heng looked down on him for being second-to-last, yet Yin Shiyu actually found Li Heng quite amusing—why else would someone in the top five spend every day staring at the second-to-last place, envying how easily he could just coast on the bottom?
Even though he was an Alpha, Yin Shiyu really didn’t have that strong of a competitive streak. Yi Hui muttered beside him, “Though I wonder why he’s staring at you. He should be staring at Jiang Chuanzhi; that guy is about to give a speech on stage in a moment.”
“Wow!” Yin Shiyu went along with it and chimed in.
Li Heng let out a cold snort, Yi Hui let out a cold snort too, and Yin Shiyu chuckled.
Unwilling to bother with it any further, he took a Rubik’s cube out of his pocket.
He just loved playing with this, and furthermore, he was the Rubik’s cube record holder for the entire floating island.
The principal stood on the lift platform. Adjusting the angle, his holographic projection allowed all faculty and students to see him.
“There’s really no need to use this kind of technology for some opening ceremony.”
“Exactly, who wants to watch the principal’s giant face.”
Although everyone was discussing it, their voices weren’t very loud. Yanming Academy had installed high-signal monitoring equipment a long time ago.
They said it was to protect the students, but anyone with eyes knew it wasn’t.
Talking loudly about the principal and the administration could result in receiving a notification from the department the very next day.
Being able to solve the trouble by paying a hefty sum of interstellar coins was considered a good outcome.
Therefore, everyone only dared to discuss it in whispers.
Having finally endured the principal’s speech, the next part was speeches from various outstanding students.
Yin Shiyu looked up and saw a familiar figure. Jiang Chuanzhi was standing on the lift platform, the holographic projection magnifying his figure so that everyone could see him clearly.
After that, Yin Shiyu heard loud screams.
Jiang Chuanzhi was wearing Yanming Academy’s standard uniform, which had absolutely nothing special about it, except that it was particularly ugly.
Yin Shiyu felt that this awkward bowtie looked like groomsmen attire worn by ancient earthlings, as if it had crossed several centuries just to make him look ugly all the way through.
“Is he good-looking?”
“Jiang Chuanzhi and you are the handsomest, alright?”
“When did you arrive?” Yin Shiyu asked him.
“Right when that bald idiot was bragging earlier,” Chen Yanjing told him.
Yin Shiyu wasn’t surprised. Chen Yanjing had always been like this; he came from a prominent background and was extremely smart, so no one in the entire school knew how to deal with him.
The principal wouldn’t deliberately make things difficult for him, and neither would the other teachers.
To put it bluntly, a place like Yanming Academy was never a place that spoke solely through raw strength.
As long as someone possessed special talent in any area, they could stay here securely.
Whether it was grades or family background, it was all the same.
What made Yanming special was that no one would judge a person based on their secondary gender.
In today’s highly civilized era, they were the cutting-edge holy land of education. Whether it was their ideology or their teaching methods, it was a place that made people yearn for it.
When Jiang Chuanzhi started speaking, everyone below fell silent. Even though he was just standing there and saying words no different from anyone else, he was just extremely captivating.
Core equipment is his face, Yin Shiyu could tell.
Yin Shiyu had enjoyed plenty of such privileges growing up, so he completely understood what other people’s gazes meant.
However, he didn’t care.
Yin Shiyu had never used his identity to oppress others, but anyone who had even an inkling of rumor about his background would never harbor malicious thoughts toward him.
“Is the principal coming again later?” Chen Yanjing said. “If not, let’s leave.”
“The teachers who need to take the stage should be taking turns speaking soon,” Yin Shiyu said. “Let’s go.”
“Alright,” Chen Yanjing said. “I’ll take you to see my newly acquired treasure.”
“I’ll look forward to it,” Yin Shiyu told him.
Chen Yanjing had always liked getting his hands on new things, and he indeed had the connections to do so.
Taking advantage of the gap between Jiang Chuanzhi leaving the stage and other teachers going up, the two of them slipped out directly from the back.
Yin Shiyu tucked the Rubik’s cube back into his pocket. Chen Yanjing walked in front, the two of them walking at a pace as if they were about to participate in interstellar rescue.
“What on earth did you get?” Yin Shiyu asked.
“You’ll know when we get there.” Chen Yanjing didn’t look back. He and Yin Shiyu bypassed a few teaching buildings and then headed to the experimental district.
Yanming Academy covered a massive area. Aside from the teaching and dormitory districts, large swathes of land were designated as independent areas for various departmental laboratories.
Because there were many actual combat bases within the experimental zone, very few people came around here usually aside from relevant students.
Chen Yanjing scanned his iris three times, his fingerprints twice, and punched a series of hand gestures at the access control before the heavy double doors slowly slid open to the sides.
“Just thinking about how those rigid, serious teachers have to make hand gestures too when opening this gate gives me an indescribable sense of absurdity,” Yin Shiyu remarked.
Chen Yanjing laughed: “Your perspective is always unique.”
After that sentence was spoken, the two of them laughed for a long time.
There were extremely many buildings inside the experimental building, which Yin Shiyu and Chen Yanjing rarely set foot in either. However, Yanming gave a high degree of freedom; as long as they didn’t cause destruction, students were indeed allowed to enter the experimental buildings.
Moreover, the equipment inside was extremely professional and precise, and if a brand-new research outcome was brought to light, the academy would also grant high bonuses.
Not long after, Chen Yanjing led him to a small silver and gold-flashing box.
“New toy?” Yin Shiyu asked Chen Yanjing.
Chen Yanjing said: “A restoration device, though the current methods can only repair simple things.”
“Is it reliable?” Yin Shiyu asked him.
“It’s quite useful for dead objects,” Chen Yanjing told him. “I’ve already tried it.”
“I can tell.”
Things that could be brought into Yanming’s laboratory always had some extraordinary qualities.
After thinking for a moment, Yin Shiyu took a Rubik’s cube out of his pocket and placed it inside.
The Rubik’s cube Yin Shiyu played with didn’t easily scratch on the surface to begin with. With such a material, placing it inside gave it an overall brighter feel.
“This doesn’t look like a restoration device, it’s practically a polishing machine,” Yin Shiyu gave this review.
“You can say that again,” Chen Yanjing told him. “Shiyu, your commentary is still as sharp as ever.”
Yin Shiyu didn’t even know what to say. He thought for a second, then placed his ring inside as well.
Chen Yanjing said: “The effect on this should be about the same.”
Yin Shiyu knew that was indeed the case: “But I don’t really have anything else good to put in.”
Chen Yanjing nodded: “True, and who knows when there will be a substantive breakthrough. The interstellar wars just keep on stopping and starting.”
Everyone was well aware of these things. Between star systems, they were merely maintaining a superficial peace. The extensive use of nuclear weapons would only accelerate humanity’s destiny toward destruction.
Even though they would contend for interests among themselves, they wouldn’t go as far as completely abandoning the fate of all humanity.
Yin Shiyu glanced at Chen Yanjing, then patted his shoulder: “Hard to believe you think so much about this.”
Chen Yanjing said: “Isn’t this only natural?”
“Yeah.”
Yin Shiyu was actually extremely sensitive to these things; he knew all the wars, big and small, of the past two decades like the back of his hand.
Yin Shiyu had a photographic memory.
At the same time, he loathed war deeply. Just like Chen Yanjing, because the two of them grew up together, the values they formed were the same.
“Shiyu,” Chen Yanjing called out to him. “In days to come, I hope the war can end in our hands.”
“Even if hope is slim, there is still a genuine possibility of it coming true,” Yin Shiyu said. “Be optimistic.”
“Alright.”
Chen Yanjing originally brought Yin Shiyu over just to show him his newly acquired restoration device, even though right now its utility didn’t seem particularly massive.
But who knows about the future? If it could be used for human rescue and medical treatment, it would be an extremely great invention.
Yin Shiyu had always known that the Chen family had only begun to be extremely willing to invest in these things in recent years, and no matter how you looked at it, it was because of Chen Yanjing.
However, Chen Yanjing never took credit for these things; he simply went and did what he was interested in.
“Let’s go,” Yin Shiyu said. “Let’s find a place to sleep.”
He and Chen Yanjing walked outward, and after taking some time, they finally walked back to the main entrance.
Just as they walked out, the moment they opened the doors, they ran into someone.
The handsome guy who had given the speech on the podium earlier, Jiang Chuanzhi.