Chapter Seven: Transferring Schools
Li Cheng was startled and quickly held his breath, focusing intently to listen outside the door. Fortunately, he hadn’t woken his aunt’s family.
He exhaled in relief and carefully examined the bone knives strapped to his forearms.
Each bone knife measured about 60 centimeters long—twice the length of his ulna—and was roughly seven centimeters wide at its broadest point. The blades were as thin as cicada wings, incredibly sharp, capable of slicing through iron wire with ease. Yet they retained a remarkable resilience, unlike ordinary bones which tend to shatter.
The bone knives were not formed from a single piece; they featured a folding mechanism similar to a switchblade—confirming Li Cheng’s suspicion that they were derived from his ulna.
Moreover, inside the spine of each blade, there were structures akin to blood vessels and tendons.
When Li Cheng concentrated, the bone knives responded to his will, springing out or retracting like Wolverine’s claws.
The skin fissures on his forearms would automatically seal without bleeding, leaving no scars.
He swung his arms experimentally, the mantis bone knives slicing through the air with a sharp whistle. Combined with the muscle explosiveness granted by the grassland path ant genes, the force was sufficient to kill large beasts such as lions or tigers.
——
The ordinary world, an ordinary life, was now gone forever.
The next day at school, Li Cheng gazed pensively out the window.
“Hand in your homework, hand it in!” The girl in front turned around, urging him, “What are you thinking about? You look so gloomy.”
“I was wondering,” Li Cheng replied seriously, “the third smartest animal on Earth is the dolphin, the second smartest is the chimpanzee. So, what is the smartest animal?”
“You’re losing it again. Must be in a good mood,” said Mu Yulu, rolling her eyes as she took his homework from the desk and passed it forward.
Mu Yulu, Li Cheng, and Han Letian had known each other since childhood.
Young Li Cheng had been lively and restless, his thoughts scattered—perfectly fitting the definition of someone mentally erratic yet joyfully innocent.
He had done all manner of strange things:
Picking up relics in crematoriums, tossing around corpses in the mortuary;
Bleeding from his nose and thinking he was a tomato;
During school visits to nursing homes, he handed out English listening exercises to elderly people with hearing difficulties;
Acting out scenes from “Dead Poets Society” standing atop the teacher’s desk when bidding farewell to substitute teachers;
Almost getting taken to the police station for inhaling white allergy powder at the subway security checkpoint while repeatedly exclaiming how good it felt.
Only with age had he mellowed, becoming a normal person.
Homeroom teacher Yang Hui entered the classroom, knocking on the desks with her knuckles, producing a “dong dong dong!” that quieted the morning reading.
“Ahem,” Yang Hui cleared her throat. “Class Five, today we have a transfer student joining us. Let’s welcome her with applause!”
The students clapped, their eyes brimming with curiosity.
After a year and a half, social circles in the class had begun to solidify, with everyone preferring to stick to small groups.
A surprise transfer student was like a plot straight out of a light novel.
Under everyone’s gaze, a delicate-faced girl entered the classroom.
She wore a beige Chanel knit sweater, pale skin under a light scarf so translucent that veins seemed visible beneath, a platinum bracelet adorned her wrist, and she carried a dainty leather handbag. Her shy, fragile gaze, paired with perfectly puffed socks and bright red petite leather boots, made her look like a carefully sculpted porcelain doll.
“Wow…” many students involuntarily breathed in admiration. Han Letian, sitting to Li Cheng’s right, pressed his hand to his chest and whispered, “Are there really people this cute in the real world? Cheng, pinch me—I’m afraid I’m dreaming…”
Before he finished, Li Cheng pinched him, causing Han Letian to grimace in pain. “Ow! You actually pinched me?!”
——
“The phenomenon where the apical bud grows preferentially while lateral buds are inhibited is called apical dominance. By pruning the tip, plants can increase yield. By that logic, if you cut off a person’s head, their body would grow better,” Li Cheng explained solemnly.
“Hello everyone, my name is Shao Wangshu, from Jincheng,” the petite girl spoke, her voice as clear and gentle as expected. “Thank you all for your warm welcome. I look forward to learning and growing together with you all. Thank you!”
After bowing, she nearly bumped into the desk.
The homeroom teacher sighed softly and asked, “Well then, Shao, where would you like to sit?”
There were a total of 42 desks in the classroom—eight columns and five rows, with two extra desks beside the podium called the “Left and Right Guardian Seats.”
The left guardian seat was for the class monitor, while the right guardian seat was usually empty, though during evening study sessions, Yang Hui’s elementary-school daughter Yang Ling would come sit there.
Yang Hui’s husband had passed away years ago while rescuing a drowning child; as a single mother, she worked hard to raise her daughter.
Because elementary school finished early and she didn’t want her daughter to stay home alone, she let Yang Ling come sit in the classroom after school. Students from Class Four often teased Yang Ling, stroking her hair before heading home.
“Can you arrange a seat for me there?” Shao Wangshu raised a finger, pointing behind Li Cheng.
“Huh?” The homeroom teacher was momentarily stunned. She had only learned this morning about the transfer student’s arrival. The school leaders had repeatedly warned her to handle the situation carefully because Shao Wangshu’s family background was very special.
This was already absurd—after all, Zhuoyue Middle School was the top private school in Yin City, where they had seen all kinds of parents.
At parent meetings, a single misstep could affect a broad swath of wealthy and powerful families, yet the school leaders had never been this nervous.
Now, Shao Wangshu was insisting on sitting alone in the last row.
To outsiders unaware of the context, it might seem as if the teacher was mistreating her.
“Shao, the last row is quite far from the blackboard. Can you see clearly?” After some hesitation, Yang Hui asked softly, “Our seats change every month. How about I arrange you a seat closer to the front to get used to it, and next month you can move to the back?”
Hearing this, Shao Wangshu bit her lip, tiptoed close to the teacher’s ear, and whispered something.
Surprise flashed across Yang Hui’s eyes. Clearing her throat, she said, “Well then, Han Letian, please move your desk behind Li Cheng. Your original seat will be for Shao Wangshu.”
“Huh? Why me?” Han Letian looked baffled but obeyed, slowly moving his desk behind Li Cheng.
“Uh…” Li Cheng was equally confused but brought over a new desk and chair as per the teacher’s instructions.
Zhuoyue Middle School discouraged early romance, so boys and girls rarely shared desks.
Han Letian had been Li Cheng’s fixed desk mate on the right, while Ye Jiaying on the left was a temporary arrangement.
He never expected his desk mate to change to a girl, especially a transfer student—isn’t that a bit… unorthodox?
Still dazed, he sat down again. Shao Wangshu, already seated beside him, extended a slender hand with a bright smile, “Hello, classmate. I’m Shao Wangshu from Jincheng.”
“Hello, I’m Li Cheng from Yin City,” he replied, shaking her hand.
——
During the break, naturally charming Shao Wangshu sat among a circle of girls, chatting about the scenery and delicacies of Jincheng.
The boys, including Li Cheng, gathered by the window in a corner, casually chatting and sharing a bag of Lay’s cucumber-flavored chips.
“I’m telling you, this new transfer student’s family is definitely not ordinary,” Han Letian whispered in a deliberately mysterious tone.
“No way, how do you know?” asked a boy named Yi Wensi.
“Just can tell,” Han Letian rolled his eyes. “That scarf of hers is from COLOMBO.”
“Colombo? What’s that?” another boy named Zhan Xinyu asked, puzzled.
“An Italian cashmere brand,” Han Letian, whose mother was a fashion designer and had influenced him since childhood, scoffed. “They claim to be the world’s largest creator of cashmere and rare fabrics, making luxury textiles from animal fibers. These include but aren't limited to vicuña, kid cashmere, camel hair, and more.
If I’m not mistaken, Shao Wangshu’s scarf is made from Siberian northern mountain goat cashmere, with fibers just one-seventh the diameter of human hair, reflecting a golden sheen in the sunlight. That scarf alone costs that much.”
He made a ‘7’ gesture with his fingers.
“7,000?” someone guessed.
“70,000!” Han Letian corrected.
“Wow…” the surrounding students all expressed varying degrees of amazement.
Zhuoyue Middle School had many second- and third-generation wealthy heirs; luxury brands were commonplace.
But a 70,000-yuan jade pendant, watch, and scarf were entirely different worlds.
“Now you know. Those wanting to cozy up to a rich lady should behave well,” Han Letian patted his thigh and suddenly looked at Li Cheng suspiciously. “By the way, Cheng, why did she specifically want to sit next to you? Do you two know each other?”
“No,” Li Cheng shrugged. He spent his days cycling to work, saving money for college life. How could he know a rich lady?
Han Letian scratched his head. “Think again? Maybe you saved her when you were kids?”
Li Cheng rolled his eyes. “What do you think this is, Naruto? Me as Naruto saving Hinata?”
Han Letian let his imagination run wild. “Maybe your dads arranged a childhood engagement? Seventeen years later, she’s come to visit her fiancé? Next comes the classic broken engagement drama, but you turn out to be the hidden Dragon King of the city?”
“Yeah, I’m the Dragon King. Stop fooling around and finish my homework this month. When I ascend to the heavens, I’ll reward you with a personal attendant,” Li Cheng said with mock seriousness.
The other boys continued chatting. Yi Wensi smacked his lips and sneered sarcastically, “A 70,000-yuan scarf, tsk tsk, we really have grown wealthy, haven’t we?”
“What’s your point?” Zhan Xinyu glared. “Why do you only see this and not the deep rural poverty alleviation projects?”
Yi Wensi retorted, “You’re right. But what does that have to do with normal folks working 996 jobs, earning 3,000 a month, juggling six wallets, buying a wrecked apartment in Zhengzhou, storing hundreds of thousands in a village bank, driving a BYD that caught fire, eating barbecue in Tangshan and getting beaten up, or going to the Nanyang Music Festival and having things stolen?”
Zhan Xinyu sneered. “Sounds less tragic than last year’s 42,889 gun deaths in the US, 55 frozen to death in Texas’ cold snap, Black Lives Matter zero-dollar shopping sprees, Ohio’s toxic train, nationwide lead water pipes lowering kids’ IQs, private prisons being publicly traded, lolita islands, and Hawking’s black hole research.”
The two suddenly launched into a rapid-fire verbal duel, while nearby students were already used to such exchanges.
Zhuoyue Middle School, as a private institution drawing students from all over, truly showcased the diversity of humanity—there were all sorts of eccentrics.
There were wealthy kids with kleptomaniac tendencies who stole classmates’ stationery;
Oddballs wearing risque anime shirts to school;
Youngsters with the demeanor of officials, fawning over teachers and bossing classmates around;
And those who studied I Ching, divination, and geomancy obsessively.
Compared to these eccentrics, Zhan Xinyu, a tough "iron-blooded wolf warrior," and Yi Wensi, aspiring to immigrate to America, didn’t seem quite so exceptional after all.