Early morning, seven o’clock.
The streets were bustling with activity, vendors setting up their stalls by the roadside, the aroma of breakfast drifting into every narrow alley.
The city, having slept through the night, was coming back to life once more— yet, unfortunately, that vitality did not reach Class 2-9.
The lively sounds of students reading outside flowed in continuously, only highlighting the dull, lifeless atmosphere inside the classroom.
The students lay face down on their desks, expressions of utter despair etched onto their faces, like flowers caught by the morning sun that had yet to bloom but were already broken in half.
At first, the students didn’t think much about the fact that high schoolers were getting little sleep.
Missing a little rest wasn’t considered a big deal.
In Parnaqi, sometimes to complete missions or train, they would go three or four days without sleep and still remain energetic.
This was certainly thanks to their powerful mana, but just as important was their unyielding willpower.
Now, although they no longer possessed the bodies honed through countless trials or the strong mana, the spirit and will that came with them during their transmigration were completely intact.
—The students were naïve to think it would be easy, but reality was always harsher than imagination.
On the first morning back on Earth, everyone who thought they could easily adapt to student life got slapped down as one.
How could they be this exhausted! It was as if they hadn’t slept for centuries, their entire bodies aching with longing for their beds and quilts.
Turns out the reason why their sleep requirements were lower in Parnaqi was because they had grown older and needed less rest!
But now, having returned suddenly to their student years, their bodies were fragile, their need for sleep increased accordingly, and their mental state deteriorated.
They were a perfect match for the stereotypical modern student.
When Rui Hang arrived at the classroom just on time, what he saw were rows of students lying on their desks like dehydrated fish, completely drained of energy.
“Wake up,” he knocked on the podium. “Show me some student energy!”
“Teacher Rui, you haven’t gotten up either!” Su Mingya lifted her head with effort, eyes sharp as she looked at the tofu pudding and tea egg in Rui Hang’s hand. “Did your alarm ring but you just didn’t get up?”
Rui Hang: “……”
He awkwardly cleared his throat, deciding not to continue this topic. Instead, he waved at Zhou Xun, “Zhou Xun, come out here.”
As if expecting the call, Zhou Xun, one of the few students in the class still somewhat alert, nodded and, somewhat hurriedly, jogged out of the classroom.
“Hey, Rong Yu, what’s up with your team leader?” Su Mingya, sitting diagonally to Rong Yu’s right, turned her head, her obsidian eyes filled with curiosity. “He seems pretty happy.”
As a somewhat (perhaps?) introverted assassin, Rong Yu usually avoided social interaction, but classmates in Class 9 were never really strangers to him.
Although he wasn’t very talkative, he took a deep breath and struggled to blurt out four words: “I don’t know.”
“Eh? I thought he always told you first if anything happened,” Su Mingya said with a smile. “Your team leader treats you like a son. I thought yesterday he might have invited you to stay at his place.”
Rong Yu pressed his lips together, feeling awkward about Su Mingya’s teasing. “The leader knows I wouldn’t want that.”
“You two brothers really have a good relationship.” Hearing this, Su Mingya’s eyes glowed with envy. “If only my guy was half as obedient as you.”
Lin Yuan, sitting in the front row before Su Mingya, turned around with a helpless expression. “Class president, you truly live up to being the Elf Saintess.”
Su Mingya: “…Thanks?”
Lin Yuan: “…You’re welcome.”
Su Mingya’s puzzled look made Lin Yuan twitch slightly at the corner of his mouth before turning back to Rong Yu. “Seriously, you should just come live at my place. I’m usually alone anyway, and we’ve lived together before, so you wouldn’t have to worry about feeling uncomfortable.”
As comrades in the same mercenary group, Rong Yu visibly relaxed more when facing Lin Yuan than when talking with Su Mingya.
He shook his head, declining, “No thanks, I… I’m fine.”
Just then, Zhou Xun returned from outside the classroom, his face bright with a relaxed smile.
Surrounded by several curious gazes, he went straight to Rong Yu’s side, looking very pleased. “From today on, we’re roommates.”
Rong Yu froze for a moment. “…You just now?”
“Yeah.” Although Zhou Xun had only said half the sentence, he understood Rong Yu’s meaning clearly. “Teacher Rui called me out to tell me the dorm application has been processed.”
Rong Yu blinked. Though he said nothing, his eyes revealed his confusion.
“I talked it over with my parents last night after I got home, and they think staying in the dorm is a good idea too,” Zhou Xun said. “Make sure you go home at noon to pack. Teacher Rui got us a vacant dorm room for just the two of us.”
He ruffled Rong Yu’s messy hair. “Did you sleep alone in the classroom last night?”
“I…”
“Don’t try to hide it from me.” Zhou Xun put on a mock stern face. “I asked your dorm mates— they said you didn’t come back at all.”
“I… didn’t sleep in the classroom.” Rong Yu lowered his head, revealing the swirl of his hair, looking meek like a tame black cat. “Teacher Rui and the nurse said… I wasn’t feeling well, so I slept in the infirmary.”
Knowing Rong Yu had a proper rest put Zhou Xun’s worried heart at ease. “From now on, you can rest easy.”
Rong Yu opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but when the words reached his lips, he didn’t know how to start. Only his heartbeat grew more fervent.
The team leader really is a good person. No wonder he’s the big brother I want to follow for life!
Rong Yu’s cheeks flushed as he silently praised Zhou Xun in his heart.
Lin Yuan observed their interaction in full and muttered lowly, “What a curse.”
One clueless class president is already enough, but why does my own best buddy also have zero social skills?
Recalling how Rong Yu, back in Parnaqi, never strayed from saying “team leader” or “big brother” in every sentence, his face full of reverence like the other was an elder, Lin Yuan couldn’t help but shed an imaginary tear for their team leader.
Thankfully, their leader took the initiative, forcibly tying the two of them together.
Being the same gender is great. Secretly dating at school isn’t strange to teachers or principals, and it’s natural to invite someone to live together.
Lin Yuan pondered the possibility of inviting Yu Zhi to share a dorm room…
He’d probably get announced across the entire school.
He sighed again and buried that idea at its very birth.
Ah, the trouble of different genders — always having to be careful!
“…Class president.” Lin Yuan turned to Su Mingya with a serious expression.
“What’s up?”
“You elves…” He made a gesture in the air. “Do you have any potion that can turn me into a woman?”
Su Mingya: “???”
“No need for potions,” Bai Luo, sitting at the back right, grinned and leaned over. “Earth’s technology is so advanced, just get surgery… Hey, I’m just joking, don’t take it seriously!”
……
Wang Shuyue sat in the art classroom, brush in her right hand, trying to add a few more strokes to the still life in front of her.
The painting should have been finished yesterday, but ever since Yu Zhi left, she couldn’t understand why she couldn’t bring herself to continue.
Would she be stuck today as well?
She stared at her hand, repeatedly raising it, only to let it fall helplessly. Her heart was a tangled mess— the more she tried to straighten it, the more it got knotted.
Wang Shuyue sighed and reluctantly put down her brush.
Since seeing Yu Zhi yesterday, she hadn’t been able to calm her mind.
She was just an ordinary student, so why did she unsettle her so much?
Their connection began during a substitute teaching session.
At the time, she didn’t think much of this thin, small, unremarkable girl, simply having the students copy the still life for a lesson and preparing to leave when the bell rang.
That was until a voice filled with unease and hesitation stopped her as she walked out.
“Teacher, I tried drawing something. Could you please help me see what’s wrong with it?”
To be honest, the painting wasn’t impressive. It showed some artistic skill, but not much, full of a self-taught style.
Compared to the art class students who had been painting since childhood, this piece was only “raw.”
Yet it was more earnest than any homework Wang Shuyue had seen.
From that day on, she started trying to teach Yu Zhi painting. Due to time constraints, it was more like looking over her work, pointing out problems, and teaching basic knowledge than actual lessons.
Yu Zhi absorbed all of it like a sponge. Her paintings improved day by day, her techniques growing more skillful, and most importantly, she worked very hard.
She was a promising talent.
Wang Shuyue thought.
Unfortunately, no matter how hard she tried to persuade Yu Zhi’s family, they remained firmly opposed to Yu Zhi joining the art class.
“Our little Zhi wants to be a civil servant in the future. Does painting get you a civil servant job?” Yu Zhi’s mother said over the phone.
From then on, Yu Zhi came to the art classroom less and less, painting less and less.
Without enough practice, talent would fade away. What Yu Zhi said to me was too much of a fantasy.
“Teacher Wang, I’m here.”
Yu Zhi’s gentle voice interrupted Wang Shuyue’s worries. She turned around and gave Yu Zhi a faint smile.
Today, Yu Zhi seemed to have changed slightly from yesterday.
Her long hair, previously tied up, now flowed down her back, adding an artistic air and softening her facial features, making her look almost sacred.
The word “sacred” was hardly fit for a middle schooler, yet Yu Zhi’s calm gaze and smiling lips always reminded Wang Shuyue of the Madonna statues in churches.
…Yu Zhi has gotten so much more beautiful lately.
Wang Shuyue thought, shifting her gaze from Yu Zhi’s face to the carefully wrapped rectangular object in her hands.
Is this the painting Yu Zhi wants me to see?
Wang Shuyue took the painting from Yu Zhi, thinking to herself: I might as well use this chance to persuade Yu Zhi to give up painting if she plans to take the regular college entrance exam.
But when her eyes fell on the painting, she was left speechless, her mind feeling as if someone had punched it hard, throwing all thoughts out and leaving only emptiness and deep shock.
She had never seen a painting like this before. At a glance, it pulled one into a flood of emotions, as if magical, impossible to look away from.
Only after a long while did she gradually come back from the trance, the astonishing details spreading before her.
Whether it was the delicate brushwork, the technique, the color usage, or the overall composition, none were within her shallow knowledge to critique.
With her own level— no, even the professors at the art academy wouldn’t be able to paint such a stunning piece!
“This… is this your painting?”
The painting still bore wet ink. Such a blunt question should not have come from a teacher. But the skill level made it impossible for her to believe this was the work of a student.
The technique was breathtaking, but what was even stronger was the emotional expression.
How could a seventeen-year-old student, who had gone through some things but was far from experienced, paint a work full of overflowing love, nostalgia, and release, like an elderly person reminiscing about the past?
“If you don’t believe me…” Yu Zhi wasn’t offended by Wang Shuyue’s doubt. Her gaze swept the classroom, landing on Wang Shuyue’s unfinished work.
She raised her hand and pointed to the painting.
“May I add something to it?”
Wang Shuyue hesitated a moment, then nodded, allowing it.
Yu Zhi smiled at her, then picked up her brush and immersed herself in painting.
In just a few strokes, the entire painting seemed infused with life, suddenly vivid.
From that moment, any doubts vanished before Yu Zhi’s displayed skill.
She put down her brush and turned to Wang Shuyue with a smile, like a silent oil painting.
“Teacher Wang.” Yu Zhi’s voice was soft and clear, her eyes seeming to see through emotions. “You once said the studio you invested in has a spot for the provincial competition. May I enter this painting for the competition— of course, under your studio’s name?”