He laughed twice, helped Qu Mei, who was trembling like a sieve, back onto his feet and withdrew the knife. When he met Qu Mei’s terrified gaze, he scratched his head awkwardly and said in an easy, casual tone, “Hey, kid, don’t be scared. I wasn’t really going to kill you.”
He patted Qu Mei on the shoulder, then walked over and crouched beside the car. When the Unorthodox Master saw him approach, he cried out in terror, “I won’t tell anyone!”
“Sure.” Chu Tianshu extended a hand toward him. “Grab on. I’ll pull you out from under the car.”
At the same time, Zhang Mingge and the others, using their own various methods, also arrived at the school gate.
It was exactly 7:30 a.m.
When Zhang Mingge and the rest arrived, all they saw was Qu Mei, who should have been lagging behind, already standing at the entrance, looking completely stunned, like a wooden chicken frozen in place. Behind him, Chu Tianshu held a wrench in one hand, while his other hand gripped the Unorthodox Master, kindly dragging him out from beneath the car.
“How is there a car here?” Zhang Mingge exclaimed upon seeing the black vehicle, voicing the same question as before.
Under Chu Tianshu’s kind reminder (and intimidation), the Unorthodox Master did not reveal a single word about Lin Huai, while Qu Mei’s puppet stood there like a clay figurine or wooden doll, silent and still. At this moment, the contents of the narration box in the sky changed once more.
“Eight transfer students have arrived at Liangchuan High School. Today is their first day after transferring. However, they all share the same goal, to completely eradicate the terrifying legends that haunt this place.”
“They looked up at the four characters ‘Liangchuan High School.’ At the same time, the Dean of Students walked out. She led everyone into the office.”
Chu Tianshu walked at the back of the group, following the Dean of Students into Liangchuan High School. After completing the enrollment procedures, the dean turned around and looked at the eight individuals, each with their own distinct traits and said with a smile, “Speaking of which, your luck is really quite good. In half a month, it will be Liangchuan High School’s most famous school festival. Do any of you have performances you’d like to put on at the central stage of the festival, or perhaps booths you’d like to set up?”
This sudden question caught several of them off guard and they exchanged glances with one another. Seeing their hesitation, the dean smiled and said, “It’s all right. If you come up with any ideas, just let me know a week before the school festival begins. Oh and by the way, if any of you wish to run for ‘Miss Liangchuan,’ please make sure to prepare a performance for the festival. Only those who put on a performance are eligible to participate in the voting for ‘Miss Liangchuan’ on the night of the festival.”
Originally, no one had been particularly interested in the words “school festival.” But the moment they heard “Miss Liangchuan,” everyone immediately lifted their heads.
Zhang Mingge pushed up his glasses and asked, “So if someone wants to run for ‘Miss Liangchuan,’ they must perform a program?”
“Actually, the so called ‘Miss Liangchuan’ is just a name that spread through hearsay,” the dean explained. “Its original title is the ‘Most Popular Award of the School Festival,’ which is given to the most well liked performer. It’s just that in recent years, the winners have all been girls, so people jokingly started calling it ‘Miss Liangchuan.’”
After explaining the origin of the title, she continued, “I hope that during your time at the school, you’ll study hard and also…”
She frowned slightly. “Stay away from those improper students! Don’t let them influence you!”
After delivering this warning, she handed several sets of keys to everyone in turn. “These are your dormitory keys and these are your meal cards. They already include three meals a day. The dormitories also have spare school uniforms and all the necessary daily supplies. The dormitory doors lock at midnight every night, it’s very safe. Before that, you’re free to enter and leave the school as you wish but if you don’t return to the dorm before midnight, then you’ll have to spend the night outside…”
Holding the keys in his hand, Zhang Mingge thought for a moment and asked, “Do all the students at Liangchuan High School live on campus?”
“Of course not. Only a small number of students live in the dorms. Most of our students are residents of the town,” the dean replied. “But since you’ve just arrived, I assume you don’t have your own accommodations yet, right?”
Everyone then went forward one by one to collect their dormitory keys. The dean was about to continue chatting with them when a voice called for her from outside the office.
“Excuse me, I need to step out for a moment.”
With that, she left the office.
“So we all have to live at school?” Ji Fengjian asked.
“Compared to living on campus, staying outside would obviously be more convenient,” Ye Xiangxiang said. “According to the setup, Tomie should be a local student but…” She spread her hands. “For some reason, after entering this game, although I can still take items out of my inventory, I can’t withdraw a single unit of the tens of thousands of universal credits I exchanged beforehand.”
Universal credits were a form of in game currency. Before entering a game, all players could purchase and exchange them in the points mall. Once inside the game, they could be converted at a certain exchange rate into various forms of currency according to the player’s will, including but not limited to cash, yen, pounds, gold bars, or even hell money.
Given the unpredictable situations that could arise in a game, all players would exchange for this item before entering. The only difference lay in the amount. Powerful players might hold hundreds of thousands or even millions of universal credits, living like extravagant tycoons in every game.
Weaker players, on the other hand, could only scrape by, riding shared bicycles every day and living frugally…
However, in this game, it seemed that all players had entered a communist society ahead of schedule. After rummaging through all their belongings, they found nothing more than a crumpled five hundred in cash inside the black backpack provided by the game.
This amount of money was nowhere near enough to rent a place, perhaps not even enough for food. Fortunately, according to the dean, the game had already prepared everything they needed for daily life.
“What a life of hard struggle as a middle school student,” Ye Xiangxiang sighed. “And there’s a curfew… But before the curfew, we should be free to come and go, right?”
She let out a long sigh. The Unorthodox Master glanced at everyone and added, “Speaking of that school festival… do we need to sign up for it?”
“Sign up for the school festival?” Ye Xiangxiang mocked. “What do you think this is, some youth romance campus anime? We’re not here to enjoy school life or sweet, beautiful campus romances and we’re definitely not here to rehearse performances and flirt with the popular school belle…”
“There’s no need,” Zhang Mingge said calmly. “All we need to do is ruin Tomie’s reputation before the festival, interfere with her performance and ultimately prevent her from obtaining the title of ‘Miss Liangchuan.’ That will be enough.”
“…Or something even simpler.”
Gu Beichen, who had been leaning against the wall, suddenly spoke coldly. “If she dies before the school festival, wouldn’t that eliminate any chance of her winning that title?”
“…That’s right.” Ye Xiangxiang laughed as well. “When all is said and done, all we really need to do is find Tomie and kill her.”
Chu Tianshu did not participate in the conversation at all. He sat sprawled on the sofa, casually picking up a stack of newspapers and flipping through them with apparent focus.
Suddenly, his expression sharpened.
“Did you find something?”
When Chu Tianshu looked up, Zhang Mingge was already seated beside him. Zhang Mingge looked at this “cross dressed” young man with extreme vigilance.
In sharp contrast to Zhang Mingge’s guarded posture was Chu Tianshu’s relaxed demeanor. He did not bother to hide anything and naturally handed over the newspaper. “A clue.”
“What kind of clue?”
In an instant, everyone gathered around. Then, under their expectant gazes, Chu Tianshu pointed to a corner of the newspaper and said, “I found the address of the largest second hand car trading market in the area.”
Everyone: …
Chu Tianshu said, “So, I don’t plan on living on campus. After school, I’ll go sell cars, ”
Zhang Mingge’s eyelid twitched violently. He covered his face with an overwhelming sense of powerlessness. Ye Xiangxiang, meanwhile, wore an expression as if her soul had already left her body. “Sell cars? Where did you even get a car from?”
The Master of Illicit Arts silently turned his gaze toward the window. Outside the window, the narration box began to tremble once again.
Five minutes later, the Dean of Discipline returned.
“Since you’re all ready, let’s head to the school first,” she said briskly.
Under the dean’s guidance, the group of eight was led to Class 2 A. After coordinating with the homeroom teacher, the group finally made their first appearance in Class 2 A.
Everyone had already heard yesterday’s rumor that “eight transfer students were coming to Class A.” Setting aside questions like “Are these eight transfer students plus one more student going to form a LoveLive style idol group to debut and save the school from shutting down,” what the students cared about most was the appearance of these transfer students.
“I wonder what they look like…”
As they gossiped, several people secretly cast their gazes toward Lin Huai, who was sitting by the window.
The young man by the window rested his chin on one hand, his beautiful peach blossom eyes fixed on the scenery outside. His pupils were pitch black and beneath his eye lay a faintly colored tear mole that seemed to be gradually darkening with the passing days.
In the lively classroom, he alone sat in silence, one hand propping up his cheek, the other spinning a pen, detached from the world yet the unspoken focal point of everyone’s peripheral vision.
“No matter how you look at it, they probably won’t…” someone stared at Lin Huai and spoke without thinking, “…won’t be more than Lin, ”
Bang!
A loud crash startled everyone. All eyes turned toward the window, only to see that the signature pen that had been spinning endlessly between Lin Huai’s fingers,
Had been slammed straight into the desk by his hand!
The jet black pen was embedded in the desk, as if it had pierced straight through the entire surface. It looked like a tombstone planted upright. The person who had spoken earlier was completely petrified. He watched as the classmate who had been gazing out the window, mysterious and silent just moments ago, suddenly leaned back heavily in his chair.
The desk and chair scraped against the floor with a scalp prickling screech. The young man lowered his hand, turned his head and looked at him sideways.
The two legs that had been tucked beneath the desk were now casually propped up on top of it.
Under that murderous gaze, the person who had spoken earlier was so frightened he couldn’t utter a single word. A suffocating silence spread throughout the classroom. After a long while, someone beside him finally patted his shoulder and forced out a trembling laugh.
“Impossible… impossible to be like… like Lin Huai… so… so plain looking…”
“Y Yeah!” another person echoed. “Plain looking… even plainer than Louis Koo…”
Upon hearing that response, the young man by the window finally curled one corner of his lips, giving them a cold, satisfied smile.
Then he put his feet back on the floor and once again returned to his energy saving mode.
“That was… way too close…” the person who had been stared down wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Way too close…”
Logically speaking, the “Tomie” buff on Lin Huai was supposed to have an enchanting effect on people. According to its settings, it should even make him the object of everyone’s secret, romantic fantasies. Especially when he looked at other NPCs, those NPCs were supposed to blush and have their hearts race just from his gaze alone…
However, his various actions had singlehandedly turned things around. These NPCs could only miss him when he wasn’t around; the moment they saw him, their souls nearly flew out of their bodies, let alone developing any interest below the neck.
Unfortunately, the peace didn’t last long. After Lin Huai resumed his quiet, beautiful boy persona, the whispers started up again.
“Lin Huai looked at me just now…”
“He was obviously looking at me, he looked at me the longest!”
Lin Huai: …
If he couldn’t even tolerate this level of discussion, Lin Huai would have slaughtered the entire school long ago. In this school where everyone insisted on sculpting him into some idealized image, his existence was truly a bleak one.
Feeling irritated, he rubbed at the tear mole beneath his eye. When he thought of Chu Tianshu, the corners of his mouth suddenly lifted.
“Forget it,” he thought. “At least there’s still one normal person in this world.”
Just as the group was getting more and more animated in their discussion, the entire classroom suddenly fell silent. By the time they realized that a tragedy was about to unfold, Lin Huai was already standing behind them.
“L…. Lin Huai!” someone screamed. “What are you going to do, ”
…Stop making that disgusting sound mixed with fear and expectation. Lin Huai complained inwardly, though his expression remained icy. “Desk.”
“Huh?”
“Switch desks with me,” Lin Huai commanded matter of factly, pointing. “Mine can’t be used anymore.”
“L…. Lin Huai.”
A thin, delicate voice came from the seat in front. Lin Huai looked at the frail boy sitting ahead of him, the one who rarely ever spoke.
He had some impression of this person. From the very first day Lin Huai arrived at this school, this glasses wearing, introverted boy, who always seemed to be bullied, had been secretly watching him. Every time Lin Huai glanced over, the boy would shyly turn his head away, his face flushed and twist back around.
…Although this person was also an NPC bewitched by the system’s buff, Lin Huai felt no particular aversion toward him.
After all, he was always very quiet.
“It’s not like you broke my desk,” Lin Huai said without even looking at him. “What’s it got to do with you? Bring the desk over.”
✦ ✧ ✦
Cresvynia
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
No propaganda here. Only coffee.
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 111 · Although the author really didn’t want to writeChapter 112 · An explanation of the main storylineChapter 113 · Lin Huai’s QuestionChapter 114 · Hello classmateChapter 115 · Let me introduce the protagonist’s family backgroundChapter 116 · The innocent and naive Lin XiaohuaiChapter 117 · The Trisolarans ArriveChapter 118 · He Isn’t Fighting AloneChapter 119 · Why Here?Chapter 120 · A World Where Everyone Is Sculpted in ClayChapter 121 · How Could It Be YouChapter 122 · I want to sell my carChapter 123 · The Mysterious Transfer StudentsChapter 124 · Gu BeichenChapter 125 · The Male Lead of This StoryChapter 126 · A Voice Never Heard BeforeChapter 127 · You’re Tomie, aren’t you?Chapter 128 · I’ll give youChapter 129 · I just want to be with youChapter 130 · The Principal’s OfficeChapter 131 · Chu: I Disbanded Your Hate GroupsChapter 132 · Speak ProperlyChapter 133 · A Trisolaran Enters the Grand View GardenChapter 134 · Ji FengjianChapter 135 · About Me and YouChapter 136 · Kayako Likes ItChapter 137 · YouChapter 138 · I’ll Beat MyselfChapter 139 · I Want to See MyselfChapter 140 · The Trisolarans’ First Experience of Love and SexChapter 141 · The Trisolarans Try Romance Once MoreChapter 142 · The Trisolarans Try Romance for the Third TimeChapter 143 · It’s All This Buff’s FaultChapter 144 · The Way You Straight Men TalkChapter 145 · Why are you taking it so seriously?Chapter 146 · Chu Tianshu Shows Off His MusclesChapter 147 · Enter the DreamChapter 148 · Leave a little secretChapter 149 · Shadow StreamerChapter 150 · Don’t Look at MeChapter 151 · The Trisolarans betrayed StalinChapter 152 · Then I WillChapter 153 · The Trisolarans rewrite the Book of Life and DeathChapter 154 · What Career Could Be More Important Than Your Wife?Chapter 155 · Aren’t We Already Together?Chapter 156 · MVP of the Entire FieldChapter 157 · Meeting the FamilyChapter 158 · A Phone Call Across Time and SpaceChapter 159 · Lu Jin, You’re So MiserableChapter 160 · The Lands Of DaughtersChapter 161 · The So Called Pregnancy StreamChapter 162 · The Street Where Only the Two of Us ExistChapter 163 · No bare faceChapter 164 · Question 1: Do you have hair loss?Chapter 165 · LaxativesChapter 166 · Where Exactly Do You Exist?Chapter 167 · Seven ZeroChapter 168 · The issue of 0 and 1Chapter 169 · Wind ChimeChapter 170 · Visa and Wind ChimesChapter 171 · Continue to persecute Lu JinChapter 172 · Examiner: I’ve fallen in love with himChapter 173 · Lin Huai intimidates scalpersChapter 174 · Night of EvilChapter 175 · Congratulations to the Male Guests on Successfully Finding Their PartnersChapter 176 · Before ThisChapter 177 · The gong says he is terrifiedChapter 178 · The Tasker CampChapter 179 · I’m So ScaredChapter 180 · The Final Transitional ChapterChapter 181 · Four Beauties Among the FlowersChapter 182 · Plum FragranceChapter 183 · Dry Weather and Flammable ThingsChapter 184 · The Heartless Sword ManualChapter 185 · Only MeChapter 186 · The North PoleChapter 187 · Let Brother Lin Learn to Meow Like a CatChapter 188 · Good Night