Early in the morning, Jiang Hou finished breakfast, cleaned up the kitchen, and got ready to head to school.
To him now, studying was optional. His short-term goal had shifted from getting into college to becoming stronger.
Jiang Hou knew very well that, whether in ancient times or modern society, the core of power had always been the fist.
As long as someone was powerful enough—powerful enough to disregard guns and heavy weaponry—everything they ought to have would naturally come to them.
But there was no helping it. He had to attend school.
Qin Buyi had always loved bragging to colleagues and friends that Jiang Hou got excellent grades and would definitely get into college. He had been boasting about it ever since elementary school.
So even if not for himself, Jiang Hou still had to get into college.
Otherwise, Qin Buyi would really turn out to be full of shit.
Of course, getting in was one thing. Whether Jiang Hou would actually go was another matter.
Besides, heaven's will was like a blade, and fate was unpredictable. If he died in the ruins before next year's college entrance exam, all he could do was apologize to Qin Buyi. After all, that would be force majeure...
The weather was nice today, with bright sunshine.
Jiang Hou had just entered the classroom when Zong Zheng Nanmo came in right behind him. As Jiang Hou took his lunchbox from his backpack, Zong Zheng Nanmo spoke in a low, grave voice.
"Jiang Hou, I heard someone died again last night."
Jiang Hou froze, then raised a brow. "Someone died again? How many?"
"Five."
Zong Zheng Nanmo lowered his voice. "Four of them were regulars at nightclubs. When their bodies were found in an alley in the Old City, only some mangled remains were left."
"The other one's chest had been pierced through by a huge hole. There were burn marks around the wound too. It didn't look like it was caused by a person."
"Do you think there might really be ghosts?" Gulp! At the word "ghosts," Zong Zheng Nanmo swallowed hard, clearly frightened.
"It's broad daylight. Where would ghosts come from? Stop scaring yourself."
"True. I haven't slept well these past two days, and it's made me a little paranoid." Zong Zheng Nanmo changed the subject and started talking about bits of gossip from school.
For instance, yesterday after school, the prettiest girl in Class One confessed to the basketball club president and was rejected on the spot. This morning, she had already gotten together with the basketball club vice president.
The dance club president from the second year hadn't worn underwear yesterday and was discovered by the girl sitting beside her...
What kind of nonsense is this? Jiang Hou's head hurt just listening to it.
Just then, a burst of commotion rose from a small group nearby. Five students surrounded the bright and beautiful Li Mengwu, chatting and laughing. Clearly, they had enjoyed themselves at Esports City yesterday.
Besides them, many of the boys who had arrived early were secretly glancing at that female classmate.
Jiang Hou shook his head slightly. Meeting someone too stunning when young was not a good thing, especially when one was ordinary oneself.
With that thought, Jiang Hou's gaze fell on the handsome boy named Jiang Zhong, who was smiling as he said something to Li Mengwu.
The young would ultimately be trapped for a lifetime by what they could not obtain.
Seeing that Jiang Hou had little interest in the gossip, Zong Zheng Nanmo said, "Jiang Hou, I cast a divination for myself before leaving home today. The Divination Image showed water above and fire below; extreme yang meets calamity."
Jiang Hou shot him a sideways glance. "I don't understand. Speak normally."
"It means I shouldn't go out today. The morning should be fine, but there might be a bloody disaster this afternoon."
"Oh, that? Whatever. Your divinations have never been accurate even once, so don't worry about it."
Because of his family's Taoist tradition, Zong Zheng Nanmo liked to cast a divination for himself every day before heading out, claiming it was to seek fortune and avoid disaster. But just as Jiang Hou said, this guy's readings had never been right even once.
"That's true, but I've been feeling unsettled all day. It feels like something's going to happen." Zong Zheng Nanmo looked worried.
"Don't worry. I'll help collect your body when the time comes."
Zong Zheng Nanmo immediately flipped him off. "Fuck, are we brothers or not?"
"No." Jiang Hou answered without hesitation.
Zong Zheng Nanmo put on a "heartbroken" expression. Combined with his face, which was prettier than a girl's, it gave Jiang Hou goosebumps.
Fortunately, the teacher entered the classroom just then. Zong Zheng Nanmo hurriedly returned to normal, making Jiang Hou breathe a sigh of relief.
After the first class of the morning, Zong Zheng Nanmo slipped out again to gather gossip from his classmates, while Jiang Hou took out his phone.
He opened a video app, selected the local tab, then typed the four words "deaths last night" into the search bar.
A flood of videos and information with titles related to "deaths" appeared, but all of them concerned incidents from over a week ago.
There was not a single video related to last night's deaths.
Jiang Hou murmured, "As expected, there's nothing." He had more or less anticipated this result.
So much had happened the night before last and last night, yet aside from the case of Zhang attacking the villa, there was not even a trace of related information in the news or online.
This was much the same as Jiang Hou's earlier guess. An invisible hand was covering up this information.
The reason was probably to prevent widespread panic. Those mangled corpses clearly did not look like the work of humans and could easily be exploited by people with ulterior motives.
At the same time, the consecutive deaths over the past two days gave Jiang Hou the feeling that this world was becoming increasingly dangerous.
That afternoon, just before the second class began, Zong Zheng Nanmo entered the classroom looking somewhat disheveled, one hand covering his nose.
"Jiang Hou, I really did suffer a bloody disaster today."
Jiang Hou was startled. "Did someone chop you?"
"More or less." As he spoke, Zong Zheng Nanmo removed his hand, revealing a bright red nose and a red mark on his face, which was prettier than a woman's.
Jiang Hou nearly burst out laughing.
Zong Zheng Nanmo was speechless. "Are we brothers or not? I'm already like this, and you're still laughing."
"What happened?" Jiang Hou asked, holding back his amusement.
"The painting club president hit me with a broom. It was obviously an accident—I didn't mean to touch her chest—but she still chased me up three floors with a broom."
...Well, he had deserved that beating.
For a high school girl, whether it was intentional or not, being touched there by a boy in public would definitely provoke an intense reaction.
Time flowed like water, and before long, school was over.
Just as Jiang Hou stood up and Zong Zheng Nanmo finished packing to make his escape, their bespectacled homeroom teacher entered. "Jiang Hou, Zong Zheng Nanmo, come with me."
...Jiang Hou and Zong Zheng Nanmo exchanged puzzled looks. Why was their homeroom teacher looking for them? Still, puzzled or not, the two followed behind him all the way to the Old Teaching Building.
Because its facilities were outdated, the classrooms there had been converted into places for student club activities, such as music, dance, and art.
When they reached the fifth floor, their homeroom teacher pointed toward the end of the corridor. "Go on. The person looking for you is inside."
"Teacher, weren't you the one looking for us?" Zong Zheng Nanmo asked, confused.
Jiang Hou also found it strange. Who would have the teacher call them here, and who could actually make their homeroom teacher do it?
"I don't know either. I just received a call from the principal telling me to have you come over." The homeroom teacher shook his head. He was just as baffled.
"Go on. You don't need to worry about anything happening at school. I still have things to do, so I'm leaving first."
With that, the homeroom teacher waved to them and turned to leave, abandoning the two bewildered boys behind.
I originally said I'd release three chapters in the morning, noon, and evening, but after thinking it over, I decided it would be better to update them all together in the morning so everyone could read them in one go.
Before you continue