"Taoist!!!"
This scream of shock was like thunder from a clear sky, instantly shattering the lazy atmosphere of Class 3, Grade 11 during their break between classes.
Chen Yuanchu had barely stepped through the classroom doorway behind their homeroom teacher, Mr. Zhang, when he found himself surrounded by an overwhelming barrage of stares.
"Wang Xinlei! Get down on your knees and call him daddy! My intel wasn't wrong this time, was it?!"
Hao Xiaokun, their self-proclaimed "top journalist," was the loudest of the bunch, looking so triumphant he was practically a caricature of Fan Jin after he passed the imperial examinations.
Unfortunately, no one paid him any attention. Everyone's curiosity was focused on Chen Yuanchu like a spotlight.
"Is he a real Taoist!"
"Did he come to our class to perform an exorcism?!"
"Amitabha!"
"You're using the wrong line!"
"Don't ascend! Don't ascend! This isn't the immortal realm!"
"My Dao is not lonely!"
"Fellow cultivator, what brings you here?"
"I've come to collect you all!"
"Monster! Fellow cultivator, quickly lend me your strength and subdue this demon!"
Chen Yuanchu: "..."
In their own classroom, these boys and girls showed no shyness at all, clustering around Chen Yuanchu like they were examining some ninety-nine percent pure rarity. After dropping out of the mountain village elementary school years ago, this was the first time Chen Yuanchu had spent time around so many people his own age.
As a child, he'd always thought kids his age were like monkeys, naively assuming they'd improve as they grew older. Who knew they'd just evolved from foolish monkeys to abstract ones...
What on earth were all these people shouting?
Wasn't this supposedly a top science class? Aside from that honor pennant hanging beside the blackboard, where was the slightest trace of an elite classroom?
Coming from the quiet, orderly world of mountain cultivation into this loud and abstract classroom, Chen Yuanchu felt genuinely at a loss. Was this strange chaos really the fashionable way young people made friends nowadays? Poor Daoist me truly does not fit in here.
At last, stealing a sliver of attention from the crowd pressing around him, Chen Yuanchu took the opportunity to examine the classroom where he would be spending a long stretch of his life.
He had to admit that the school conditions were far better than those in the mountains.
The windows were bright, the room spacious, and the desks and chairs were of far better material than the ramshackle village primary school he had once attended for a few days as a child. Besides the standard podium and blackboard, this room was equipped with a projector, speakers, and other modern multimedia devices. Wall fans were mounted around the room, and there was even a standing air conditioner at both the front and the rear.
It was not yet class time, and the students were scattered loosely throughout the room. With one sweep of his eyes Chen Yuanchu counted fifty-nine desks in all.
Almost every desk was piled high with textbooks and study materials, which made the otherwise roomy classroom feel somewhat crowded after all.
Still, the atmosphere was not oppressive. Someone had arranged a few cute succulent plants on the windowsill. Some empty chairs held plush cushions and stuffed toys. Beside the words Today's Schedule on the rear wall newspaper, someone had drawn a cartoon bear chewing on a pencil, with the words Work hard, eat well written across its round stomach.
Class 3 of Grade 11 was just such a place, woven together from examination pressure and the unruly individuality of youth.
In all the noise, the quiet person stood out all the more.
From the corner of his eye Chen Yuanchu noticed a girl sitting by the window.
The classroom seats were arranged in pairs, yet the seat beside her alone was empty. She sat by herself.
She was bent over her test paper, and the surrounding uproar seemed to be separated from her by an invisible barrier, as though she were immersed inside a transparent glass罩.
Her hair was a very pale flaxen color, smooth and obedient where it spread across her back, making her seem even more slender. There was no ornament in it at all. It hung loose in the simplest way possible, and that alone was enough to make her look graceful.
The ordinary blue-and-white school uniform, plain and unremarkable on anyone else, somehow looked pure and impossible to ignore on her.
The classroom noise struck the walls and bounced back, yet not even her lashes trembled. Only when the sunlight crept onto her paper would she raise her head and lightly nudge the curtain aside with her long, clear-knuckled fingers.
Two girls in the front row stood up to join the excitement and accidentally bumped her desk. Their eyes lingered on her for two seconds before darting away again. There was something about her that made others hesitate to disturb her, like an autumn lake strewn with fallen leaves: clear, yet carrying a chill that seeped into the heart.
At last, disturbed enough, she lifted her head and glanced once in Chen Yuanchu's direction.
But it was only a single glance. Then she lowered her head again and quietly returned to her work.
...
The out-of-control classroom atmosphere was already giving Teacher Zhang a headache. Seeing the rumor spread wilder and wilder that there's something unclean in the classroom and the school invited a Taoist priest to perform a ritual, he could only bark in frustration,
"What nonsense are you all shouting?"
"Have you all finished your worksheets? I want them on my desk before evening study starts. I'll see exactly who hasn't done theirs!"
"Exorcisms and rituals? University students believing that sort of thing is one thing, but you lot too?"
"All right, enough. Everyone go do what you're supposed to be doing!"
As homeroom teacher, Teacher Zhang still possessed authority. The Class 3 students crowded around Chen Yuanchu finally dispersed, though the feverish atmosphere of gossip did not fade in the slightest.
"Yuanchu, come with me."
As Chen Yuanchu followed Teacher Zhang onto the platform, all eyes in the room turned toward him as one.
"Let me introduce him."
Teacher Zhang cleared his throat. "This is student Chen Yuanchu. Starting today, he will be joining our class as a transfer student. Whatever your identities may be outside school, in this classroom you are all classmates. You're already in your second year of high school, and the college entrance examination isn't far off. Settle your minds a little. Don't start shouting at every little thing!"
"Yuanchu, give everyone a simple self-introduction."
The reversal came so suddenly that the class exploded into a storm of astonished cries the instant Teacher Zhang finished speaking.
"Did I hear that right? Old Zhang just said Dao-ge is here to be our classmate?"
"Xiaokun! Your intel was wrong again!"
"Stop barking! When did I ever say the Taoist was here to exorcise anything? You were the ones who made that up yourselves!"
"Did anyone guess right? What were the betting odds just now?"
"Nobody guessed it!"
"Damn! There goes my chance at sudden riches!"
No wonder everyone reacted so violently. Who could have imagined that this Taoist had come to school not to ward off evil, but to attend class as a student?
"So then he must be a fake Taoist, right? If someone bet on fake Taoist, does that count as a win?"
The class had only just begun doubting whether Chen Yuanchu might be counterfeit when his self-introduction shattered that suspicion to pieces—
"Greetings, fellow students. My name is Chen Yuanchu, courtesy name Chen'an. I come from Qingxu Temple north of the Cangwu mountain range. Since childhood I have studied Daoist arts on the mountain under my master. Today I enter school to prepare for the college entrance examination. It is my good fortune to be classmates with all of you, and I ask for your guidance in the days ahead."
Every classmate had done self-introductions when school first began, yet no one remembered what anyone else had said. Only Chen Yuanchu's manner of introduction was unforgettable.
Not only did he have a surname and given name—he even had a courtesy name? Who in modern times still had a courtesy name?
Everyone knew Cangwu Mountain, but no one had heard of Qingxu Temple on the northern side. As for the line about studying Daoist arts on the mountain since childhood, that certainly sounded very much like a real Taoist.
Yet even with his identity confirmed, the class still found it hard to believe.
There was no helping it. The guy simply looked too young.
He appeared to be no older than the rest of them, and yet he was claiming to have studied Daoist arts on the mountain since childhood.
Did people like this not go to school nowadays? Attend classes down at the foot of the mountain by day, then return uphill for evening cultivation? Was that enough hours in a day? Was he some grandmaster of time management?
No, it wasn't enough time at all. So Chen Yuanchu had simply chosen not to attend school.
Once the introduction was over, Chen Yuanchu said nothing more, and the class did not press him further. If he was really going to be their classmate, there would be plenty of chances later.
Whether he was a real Taoist or a fake one, the class was delighted by his arrival. They would have something to brag about to students in the other classes now. A Taoist classmate! Who wouldn't want to show that off?
As soon as Chen Yuanchu finished, the room broke into enthusiastic applause.
That left only one question: where should this Taoist classmate sit?
Teacher Zhang sent someone to the academic affairs office to carry over a new desk, then placed it directly beside the desk of that quiet girl.
The girl who had been silently doing her work finally showed an expression.
She lifted her clear, lovely eyes to Teacher Zhang, and though she said nothing, a huge question mark practically floated above her head.
"Well... Wanqiu," Teacher Zhang said awkwardly, "Principal Zhou arranged for student Yuanchu to sit here. Your grades are very good, so in the future please help him along with his studies..."
"..."
Beside Teacher Zhang stood the young Taoist still waiting to take his seat.
Her gaze shifted slightly and rested on him for a moment.
Chen Yuanchu met it calmly, neither timid nor evasive. He gave her a natural smile and a small nod.
She said nothing, withdrew her eyes, and returned to her paper.
Once the desks and chairs had been set in place, Chen Yuanchu pressed down the hem of his blue robe and sat. Then he began to organize his desk.
Perhaps because it had been too long since she had shared a desk with anyone, the sudden presence of a stranger beside her clearly made the girl uncomfortable. Though Chen Yuanchu moved very lightly while arranging his things, the little sounds he made still drew a faint crease between her brows.
That slight displeasure was deeply hidden, but it did not escape Chen Yuanchu's notice.
Whether she disliked the seating arrangement or merely the noise from his tidying, Chen Yuanchu felt he ought to say something. After all, the person responsible for stirring up such a commotion in the class was him, even if it had not truly been his intention.
"Sorry," Chen Yuanchu said first, smiling apologetically. "I've disturbed your work."
"..."
The girl still said nothing, yet the faint coldness on her face had softened by half a degree.