Zhang Zhou stared at the large words on the light screen, his eyes wide with shock.
He had already said “impossible” too many times today, but right now, he wanted to say it again.
The Garbage District? Is this for real?? Is this really not a wrong notification??
Lin Qiansheng lived in the Garbage District—a notorious place on the Imperial Star where order was in chaos, murder, arson, and looting ran rampant, a place where even people with physical fitness and mental strength reaching Grade B dared not venture, and where a single moment of carelessness meant turning into a missing person?
How could this be possible??
Of course, Lin Qiansheng had no idea that two people were plotting in broad daylight to go to his house. After arriving at the teaching building, he walked straight to his office.
Along the way, amid the students’ idle chatter, he picked up quite a bit of news. For instance, Director Yan—who had deliberately delayed his application and refused to grant him leave—had his physical fitness drop from Grade C to D this year. If he weren’t an administrative staff member, this grade would have already reached the dismissal standard. Even so, he was still stripped of his director status and dispatched to the academy’s branch on a planet outside the Imperial Star.
Word was he was packing up and leaving today.
Take the few students who spread malicious rumors about him, for example. The rumors reached as far as the police, and they were detained by the police station. Although the academy suppressed the news to avoid damaging its image, it still expelled those students.
There was a saying that truly hit the mark.
It’s not that retribution won’t come; the time just hasn’t arrived yet.
Lin Qiansheng walked to his window-side seat. Before he could even sit down, a figure suddenly blocked the light from the doorway, letting out a couple of cold sneers: “Teacher Lin, you’ve arrived quite early.”
Recognizing who the visitor was, Lin Qiansheng raised his eyes. His originally gentle blue pupils shifted into a deep, ocean blue.
The youth was warm and polite. “Good morning, Teacher Wang. Is there anything else you need?”
Standing at the doorway, Wang Xin narrowed his eyes, his palms unconsciously clenching into fists.
Last night, he had specifically sought out the nun in charge of conducting mental strength evaluations for teachers at the College of Education. Yet the nun told him that the test results were completely error-free.
The day before the mental evaluation, Lin Qiansheng’s mental strength was still at Grade F. How could it possibly skyrocket to Grade A in just a single day?
Wang Xin ruled out every single possibility and eventually even birthed a bizarre illusion: all this time, Lin Qiansheng had been hiding his true mental strength grade.
Yet ever since he started working here until now, apart from this time, according to the College of Education’s evaluations, Lin Qiansheng’s mental strength had never changed and had always been at Grade F.
Precise instruments might make mistakes, but they could never make mistakes every single time.
As for hiding one’s true level under a mental evaluation instrument, even the top few individuals with the highest mental strength in the entire empire couldn’t pull that off, let alone Lin Qiansheng.
Yet none of this made sense. So what on earth was going on this time?
Wang Xin abruptly stood up, strode over, and grabbed Lin Qiansheng’s white collar from a commanding height, threatening, “Don’t think passing the evaluation means it’s over. As long as I want to, you’ll be rolling out of here today.”
Seeing the youth remain silent, Wang Xin wore a smug expression, but quickly turned fierce. “Hurry up and speak, how on earth did you pass the test? If you dare to fool me, I won’t let you off easily.”
Lin Qiansheng blinked slowly.
He sighed inwardly.
He hated trouble.
But he hated even more failing to handle small troubles, causing them to snowball into bigger ones.
Given his old temper, when would he have ever left trouble lingering until now?
He had given plenty of opportunities, but unfortunately, Wang Xin didn’t seize them.
The youth tilted his head slightly. Half of his delicate face was exposed to the light filtering through the side window, while the other half remained hidden in the gloom. His gorgeous facial features suddenly looked distorted and eerie at this moment.
Wang Xin’s pupils constricted slightly. An ice-cold chill that made one shudder suddenly sprouted behind his back, and the mental strength in his brain sent out a harsh warning. He abruptly released his grip and retreated several steps away from the youth.
Lin Qiansheng lowered his gaze, leisurely straightening his collar. When he raised his eyes again, his face still wore a polite smile, and the bone-chilling aura from just a moment ago had vanished without a trace.
He thought for a moment and replied, “Perhaps it was just good luck.”
Good luck? Who would believe such nonsense!
“You…” Believing he was being played with, Wang Xin glared angrily. The moment he opened his mouth, his entire body went weak, and he nearly dropped to his knees. Only then did he belatedly realize that his entire body was soaked in cold sweat.
He raised his eyes in a daze; the youth was already seated in his chair. Seeming to remember that there was still someone else there, the youth raised his chin, his pretty, slender fingers interlaced as he leaned back and glanced over with a smile.
All along, Wang Xin had thought of Lin Qiansheng as nothing more than a minor figure he could manipulate at will. Yet right now, that minor figure’s perfect face, still hanging with a gentle smile, inexplicably stirred a feeling of terror within him—like a poppy blooming in the dark, beautiful and charming, yet chillingly lethal.
“Oh, by the way.” Lin Qiansheng lifted his pupils. The sound emerging from his lips evoked the image of a silver-haired siren deep in the ocean, using a melodious and moving singing voice to lure people step by step toward the abyss.
He abruptly shifted the topic, yet it didn’t feel out of place: “Do you still want to be with me?”
In his field of vision, the room was bathed in a white glow; the windows and walls completely distorted. Wang Xin’s eyelids twitched slightly. Pervasive, massive mental strength was eroding his rationality, and his instinct told him to quickly flee this dangerous room, yet he couldn’t control his own body.
In this sacred white light, only the youth’s features remained clear, his gaze pure and innocent, as if eagerly awaiting an answer, making one unable to resist doting on him.
Wang Xin lost his focus. Trembling, he knelt devoutly on the ground, burying his head deep, and heard himself say with absolute certainty: “Of course!”
A sound of uncertain meaning came from the youth’s mouth: “Anything at all to make this happen?”
He hurriedly agreed: “Anything at all!”
The youth seemed to smile slightly, asking with a feigned, innocent air: “Then are you willing to die for me?”
Die for someone else? How could that be? Wang Xin had always been selfish and self-serving; he was simply not that kind of person, and right now he had merely taken a fancy to Lin Qiansheng’s face. Asking this was absolute nonsense.
Yet his gaze gradually lost focus. The thoughts that should have belonged to him were dissipating bit by bit. Looking at the curled-up, pitiful-looking youth in the chair, all resistance instantly vanished: “Of course I am will—”
Suddenly, a knock sounded outside the office, interrupting everything.
“Young master, your aunt is calling for you.”
It was the voice of the subordinate he had brought along. Wang Xin snapped back to sobriety with a start. Everything felt like an illusion; the distorted world returned to normal, and he was not kneeling on the ground at all.
Lin Qiansheng was not curled up in the chair either, but sitting upright. Because of his frail health, he pressed against his lips from time to time and coughed a few times.
Wang Xin stood stunned. It was clearly a very ordinary scene, yet for some reason, his body trembled uncontrollably, as though he had just survived some extreme, terrifying crisis.
Stumbling, he ran out like he was escaping, nearly crashing into the wall on his way out of the office.
Compared to the panicked Wang Xin, Lin Qiansheng showed no reaction at all, remaining as calm as if nothing had happened.
Voices sounded outside the house again.
“Master?!” Then came the soft friction sounds of someone being propped up.
Leaning on his subordinate’s strength to barely support his body, Wang Xin rasped out with a hoarse voice, “What does my aunt want with me?”
“It seems related to the academy anniversary.”
“Let’s… go over first.”
“Yes.” Pausing for a second, the subordinate added, “Are you alright, sir?”
Wang Xin blanked out for a moment, as if he had forgotten something. Rubbing his aching temples, he cursed, “What could possibly be wrong with me? Hurry up and move!”
The subordinate didn’t dare ask any further. A moment later, not a single sound could be heard in the hallway outside the office.
Inside the office, Lin Qiansheng curled the corners of his lips and coughed lowly a couple of times. He didn’t mind using his appearance to achieve his goals.
It was just a pity that, given his current physical condition, the amount of mental strength he could use each day was quite limited; once he exceeded the limit, it would place a severe burden on his body.
The mental imprint of death had already been planted. Next, he should have one less trouble to deal with, which wasn’t bad.
It was just that tonight when he returned home, he would probably get chewed out by his attending physician.
Seeing that class time was fast approaching, Lin Qiansheng popped a candy—purloined from the funeral yesterday—into his mouth, grabbed his books, and closed the office door before leaving.
As a heavily scrutinized teacher at the Star Sea Mecha Academy, after a single night, the news of Lin Qiansheng passing the evaluation had already fermented thoroughly among the students.
Other colleges might still have people unaware of this, but the students of the Maintenance Department could answer with absolute certainty: not a single one of them was out of the loop.
With just a few minutes left before class, the classroom of Maintenance Department Class 3 was dead silent. The moment they saw the silver-haired youth enter, warm cheers instantly erupted.
Lin Qiansheng was by far the most popular teacher in their Maintenance Department. The various departments within their school operated quite independently; other departments might not know, but they knew crystal clear.
Teacher Lin had a great personality, was exceptionally skilled at teaching, and was drop-dead gorgeous! Heaven knows how worried they were about this evaluation, terrified that this year would be the last one he spent guiding them!
Many students in class raised curious questions during the lesson, wanting to know how Lin Qiansheng had passed the test, but they were all brushed off by Lin Qiansheng under the excuse of a possible mental fluctuation.
Clearly, most students didn’t believe this answer, but they thoughtfully refrained from pressing further.
Although today was somewhat eventful, it was still well within his control. For Lin Qiansheng, as long as he could manage to maintain this kind of lifestyle, that was enough.
However, Lin Qiansheng noticed that Lu Jing—who had always picked verbal fights with him—was unusually quiet today, glancing over at his direction every now and then, wondering what he was plotting in his head.
“Bro, did you read the data I sent you? Lin Qiansheng actually lives in the Garbage District. Are we really going?” At noon, Zhang Zhou couldn’t help sending a message to Lu Jing.
And as expected, he naturally received a reply: Of course.
Zhang Zhou felt his scalp go numb.
Every planet had its own dark side. And this Garbage District was precisely the dark side of the Imperial Star.
A certain area of the Imperial Star had once been the location of the old capital. After the capital was relocated to its current spot, it was abandoned and degraded into a waste city, and this old capital was the predecessor of the Garbage District.
Although the buildings in the old city were dilapidated, they were barely livable. As a result, homeless vagrants, illegal stowaways from other planets, wanted criminals, and the like lived there—a real mixed bag of fish and dragons, naturally harboring no shortage of vicious and ruthless individuals.
In the past, people passing through here frequently went missing under mysterious circumstances.
The Imperial Capital had once sent investigators, but in the end found no clues whatsoever. It was a lawless zone where murder, arson, and looting were rampant.
Yet Lin Qiansheng, in his physical condition, actually lived in the Garbage District and had never gotten into trouble… it could practically be called a tall tale!
To visit such a dangerous place, one had to properly prepare no matter what. Zhang Zhou hadn’t expected Lu Jing to have zero plan, saying they’d go today and heading straight there today, completely immovable by any persuasion.
Time flew by to the afternoon. Class ended, and Lu Jing grabbed Zhang Zhou without explanation, hauling him straight out of the school: “Lin Qiansheng’s class isn’t over yet, let’s go wait at his house first!”
Once Lu Jing made up his mind, no one could change it; he was willful to the extreme, and there was no way Zhang Zhou could rest easy letting Lu Jing go there alone.
Fortunately, his own mental strength was quite decent, giving him at least a fighting chance to run if they truly encountered danger.
With no other choice, Zhang Zhou could only brace himself and follow Lu Jing. The two boarded the city-exit maglev train. The closer they got to the Garbage District, the darker the sky grew, losing the vibrant colors visible in the Imperial Capital.
The two got off at the final stop. Compared to the prosperous and thriving Imperial Capital, the final stop was truly rather dilapidated. Trash cans overflowed with garbage emitting a foul stench with no one cleaning them up, and small advertisements plastered the yellowed walls of the station. Looking out into the distance, one couldn’t even spot a single staff member.
It was hard to imagine that the technologically advanced Imperial Star had a place like this.
Yet this was still quite a distance away from the Garbage District itself, and the rest of the journey had to be covered on foot. The path ahead was riddled with potholes and bumps, where a single moment of carelessness could lead to a fall.
After walking for a little under half an hour, the two finally caught sight of the silhouette of the abandoned city. As they grew closer, they discovered that half of the buildings inside the Garbage District had collapsed into ruins. The streets were narrow, and low, old-fashioned houses stood densely packed row upon row, pressing tightly against one another in a suffocating manner.
“Lin Qiansheng actually lives in a place like this?” The green-cat-eyed boy let out an incredulous sound, saying angrily, “Is this a place for humans to live?”
Zhang Zhou was also somewhat surprised. The planet where his home was located was somewhat poor, yet its environment was still considerably better than this. Furthermore, he couldn’t wrap his head around why Lin Qiansheng would rather live in a place like this than stay in the Imperial Capital.
They were still technically outside the Garbage District proper. Hesitating for a moment, Zhang Zhou asked, “Should we still go inside?”
Even while still on the outside, he was already getting a bad feeling.
Lu Jing remained unfazed. “What are you scared of? Just be careful, let’s hurry up and go!”
Having no other option, Zhang Zhou had to muster up twelve-tenths of his mental alertness, skirting around hazards, and cautiously stepped into the Garbage District alongside Lu Jing.