Zhang Wuyong sat down in Qian Shu's seat and set the bread and cola on his left.
The seat beside Zhu Xiaoying was empty, so Li Qingyue sat there and began tutoring him.
Zhang asked his questions earnestly, and Li Qingyue taught him just as seriously. From time to time, however, he could feel Zhao Yutong turning her head to glance back at him.
After Li Qingyue helped him with one reading comprehension question, he checked the system and saw that her progress bar was still incomplete.
"Please teach me this one too," he said quickly, pointing to another question.
He waited until Li Qingyue, the English class representative, had fully "assisted his cultivation" and her progress bar finally reached one hundred percent.
When she left, he turned back to retrieve the bread and cola.
Two slender hands suddenly darted out from in front of him, snatched up both items, and withdrew.
"That's mine," he said, looking at Zhao Yutong.
"I bought it," she snorted, tearing open the bread and taking a large bite.
She popped open the cola and began drinking it herself.
"…," was all Zhang could manage.
During the first period in the afternoon, Qian Shu glanced at him slumped over his desk and asked, "What's wrong with you? Weren't you full of energy this morning?"
"Don't bring it up," Zhang said, rubbing his loudly protesting, empty stomach.
He was already injured, and now he was hungry and cold on top of it.
During class, he forced himself to focus and began working through the newly distributed test paper.
As he wrote, a thought suddenly surfaced. "Hey, Qian Shu, do you think the reason I didn't transmigrate is because I saved that little boy?"
"Eh?" Qian Shu did not even look up.
"Think about it," Zhang said. "In a lot of novels, getting hit by a truck leads to transmigration, right? In the early days there were tons of stories where the protagonist saved a child, got hit, and then crossed over."
"But it's always a little girl crossing the road. Since I saved a little boy, I couldn't cross?"
"What kind of logic is that?" Qian Shu said. "Besides, little boys are more useful than little girls. You can send them to bully other kids. Little girls just cry."
Zhang lowered his pen and thought for a moment. "Yeah, but when she grows up, a little girl can help me cultivate. A little boy can't. I'm not a priest."
Qian Shu slowly turned to stare at him, then took out his phone. "Hello, FBI? There's a pervert here."
Of course, he had no idea that Zhang was being perfectly serious.
The system had decided that he had transmigrated, yet he clearly had not.
There had to be a variable.
It must have been saving the little boy. If it had been a little girl crossing the street, he might really have crossed over to that other world.
Forget it. No point thinking in circles.
Zhang bent over his paper and started scribbling furiously.
Hearing the scratch of pen on paper, Qian Shu glanced over—only to see that Zhang had drawn a large rose in the answer box.
"What, you can't do the problem again? Planning to ask another girl to teach you?"
"Do you know the biggest difference between you and me, Qian Shu?" Zhang asked.
"What?"
"I ask questions with sincere humility. You, on the other hand, have a filthy mind."
With that, Zhang lifted his head and scanned the room, searching for his next "female disciple of the Immortal Sect."
Meanwhile, Qian Shu took the chemistry paper and nudged Zhu Xiaoying's arm.
She turned around.
"These are the flowers he drew for you," Qian Shu said, showing her the rose on the test paper.
Zhu Xiaoying picked up her black pen and stabbed down hard.
The flower was ruined, and the test paper torn.
The afternoon schedule was packed, and there was little free time.
By the final bell, he had managed to get only nine female "disciples" to complete their cultivation progress with him all day.
His total points, displayed in the lower right corner of the interface, had climbed to 150.
Thinking it over, he decided that was not bad.
The system had given him a three‑month time limit. He had already completed nearly half the quota on the first day. He would push harder tomorrow.
Leaning on his crutch, Zhang walked out of the classroom.
"Useless!"
The familiar voice came from the doorway of the next classroom.
He turned and saw Zhao Yutong walking toward him, a pink‑and‑white schoolbag on her back. Her shoulder‑length hair and neatly worn school uniform made her look fresh and bright.
Even as a senior, she did not sling her bag over one shoulder or carry just a few books and test papers like most students. Instead, she wore her backpack properly on both shoulders, like a model student. Somehow, that simple, proper look made her stand out even more amid the crowd.
"My mom just got off work. She's picking me up at the school gate. Why don't you come back with us?" she asked.
"Sure," he answered without hesitation.
The two of them went downstairs together and headed toward the gate.
"I heard you worked really hard today," Zhao Yutong said as they walked. "I even heard you were asking girls to help you with your homework."
"Who told you that?" Zhang asked, startled.
At that moment, a red warning flashed across the system interface.
[Warning! The host's actions have alerted Zhao Yutong, a direct disciple of the Second Peak. To ensure the host's success in infiltrating the Righteous Immortal Sect, please kill her immediately to prevent exposure.]
[Mission issued: Successfully eliminate Zhao Yutong. Reward: 50 points. Time limit: 36 hours.]
Zhang tilted his head.
Kill her to keep her quiet?
Was that really necessary?
Besides, plenty of people had seen him asking girls for help today—Qian Shu, Zhu Xiaoying, and several others. Why was Zhao Yutong the only one the system wanted silenced?
The missions all had time limits and came with rewards, but none of them mentioned what would happen if he failed.
He simply closed the mission panel and ignored it.
Kill someone over a pile of points that were still useless?
This was not some immortal realm. Killing someone here meant prison—or worse.
"I've missed class for a few days, so there's a lot I don't understand," he said with a smile. "I just asked more people to teach me. It's nothing."
"I'm right next door," Zhao Yutong said, giving him another look. "If you don't understand something, just come ask me."
"Sure, no problem," he replied, nodding.
But the system no longer counted her. She had already helped him cultivate the night before.
He did not have any other choice.
To be fair, though, she did consistently rank first in the entire grade.
At No. 2 Middle School, the elite classes' performance far outstripped that of the regular classes. After all, students had already been filtered once by their high school entrance exam scores—the best had gone to the city's key high school.
Judging by previous years, at least half the students in the regular classes at No. 2 had almost no chance of getting into a university.
In that environment, asking those other girls for help was nowhere near as effective as learning from Zhao Yutong—someone whose scores were comparable to the experimental classes at No. 1 High School.
The problem was that time really was running out.
On one hand, he no longer truly believed he could get into university by ordinary effort. On the other, he did not want a repeat of what had happened before the high school entrance exam, when Zhao tutored him every day and ended up hurting her own prospects.
In short, he needed to complete the mission, get twenty "female disciples" to assist his cultivation, and draw that Gold Card.
Cash out first.