The Start of the School Year

The sweltering summer had already passed its halfway mark, and the start of the school year soon arrived.

Chen Shouyi put away his bicycle and locked it, then joined up with his two good-for-nothing friends. As they walked toward school, they bragged and shot the breeze.

"Over the summer, I enrolled in a Martial Arts Cram Class. I feel like I've improved a lot. During senior year, I'll probably have a pretty good chance of passing the Martial Apprentice test." Chen Shouyi, thin and frail, thumped his withered chest as he spoke loudly.

Beside him, the short and stout Zhao Yifeng gave a snort and said coldly, "Quit bragging. Who doesn't know what you're really like? Didn't you call last time and say your mom had signed you up for a math cram class, and it made your head feel like it was going to explode?"

Sun Xin, walking on the other side, seized the opportunity to say, "People like us shouldn't dream of passing the Martial Apprentice examination. We'd be better off honestly taking the entrance exam for a somewhat decent vocational college."

Chen Shouyi's face stiffened slightly. Somewhat embarrassed and angry, he said, "Who only signs up for one cram class these days? My schedule was packed every day this summer. Naturally, I didn't neglect martial arts."

As if to add weight to his words, he continued, "In any case, I'm definitely going to become a martial artist."

It had been nearly twenty years since the Otherworld had fused with Earth. Over those twenty years, the two worlds had erupted into several large-scale wars in their attempts to conquer each other. Yet whichever side tried to launch an expedition, it returned in utter defeat.

The root of the problem was that Earth and that world followed entirely different rules. Electronic equipment and explosives alike malfunctioned as soon as they entered that world, while the gravity there was three times as strong, making the military hesitate at the very thought of sending troops.

Likewise, the Deities and priests from that place rapidly lost all their divine power and sorcery upon entering Earth.

By now, several powerful Deities had already fallen on Earth.

Only pure martial power could pass freely between the two worlds.

From then on, martial arts on Earth began developing at breakneck speed, changing with each passing day. Becoming a martial artist and exploring and opening up that world had become a social trend, and Chen Shouyi had naturally been swept along by it.

Unfortunately, he had been born with congenital deficiencies. He had been frail and sickly since childhood, and no matter how hard he tried, he still couldn't compare with other people.

Chen Shouyi was secretly annoyed with his two good-for-nothing friends, but he didn't want to fall out with them. He was mediocre in both academics and martial arts, his looks and family background were nothing special, and he was utterly invisible in class. These two were already his only friends.

Perhaps because they were all in the same boat, several utterly unremarkable people could always find a rare understanding with one another.

After paying his tuition, Chen Shouyi quietly sat in the third row from the back, his eyes secretly searching for those pretty figures.

Summer had only just ended, and the weather was still quite hot. Most of the girls in class were dressed coolly.

They gathered in groups of three or five, rubbing shoulders and chattering away as if they had endless things to say. Every now and then, they would jump about excitedly.

"Did you do your summer homework?" Sun Xin asked as he put down his schoolbag.

"Of course I did!" Chen Shouyi replied, discreetly withdrawing his gaze.

"Take it out and let me copy it!"

"Three meals!"

"One meal, take it or leave it. Otherwise, I'll find someone else to copy." Sun Xin gave a little snort.

"Fine, one meal. I want braised beef brisket with potatoes!" Chen Shouyi took the deal and pulled his summer homework from his schoolbag.

Watching Sun Xin bury his head and copy the homework nonstop, Chen Shouyi felt a faint sense of superiority well up inside him.

Then his expression dimmed. It was only in front of this deskmate, who had always been at the bottom of the class, that he could find even the slightest sense of superiority.

His grades were merely below average. In this ordinary third-rate high school, and in this ordinary class at a third-rate high school, those grades would only get him into a vocational college.

His future was probably bleak.

Although, in countless wild dreams, he would dream of sitting in a luxury car, surrounded by bodyguards and a horde of beautiful, seductive women willing to die over him, while he looked down on them, treating them like so much discarded trash.

Or else he would become a powerful martial artist. Every time he appeared in public, he would be surrounded by reporters, with countless microphones shoved desperately toward his mouth. Yet he would remain calm, his eyes shining as he held forth with confidence.

But dreams were dreams in the end. Once he woke up, all that remained was cruel reality. He had worked hard throughout the summer, but the results had been meager.

Sometimes, the gap between a genius and an ordinary person was more distant than the gap between apes and humans.

Their homeroom teacher, Cao Lili, had given birth the previous year, and her figure had become somewhat misshapen. She had also grown increasingly long-winded.

"You're all seniors this semester, so I won't say much. Those who understand understood long ago, and those who don't should understand by now. The college entrance examination is an important crossroads in life, and to a great extent, it determines the life you'll lead afterward.

"If life is likened to a marathon, then the college entrance examination is the starting line where you truly come into contact with society. If you gain an advantage at the starting line, then at least for some time afterward, you'll hold an advantage.

"Of course, if you have a talent for martial arts, that's another matter, but that path is even harder.

"Last year, counting the students from previous grades who had completely given up on studying and taken a year or two off, only twenty-one people managed to pass the Martial Apprentice examination and successfully enter the Martial Arts Academy. That was fewer than the number who got into prestigious universities. Rather than pour enormous amounts of effort into martial arts, you'd be better off studying hard and getting into a decent school. At least then, you'd have a fair amount of hope."

The atmosphere for studying martial arts at Dongning Fifth Middle School was not particularly strong. Those with talent had already been picked away by other key schools starting in elementary school. After layer upon layer of selection, most of the students who could make it into this third-rate high school had already been weeded out.

The school not only lacked a martial arts class like Dongning First Middle School; even the martial arts classes held every other day were often taken over by other subjects.

Listening to the homeroom teacher's college entrance examination pep talk, Chen Shouyi felt a trace of bewilderment rise within him.

In truth, he was not firm in his decision about whether to attend university or the Martial Arts Academy. To him, whether passing the Martial Apprentice examination or getting into university, both hopes were dim.

All morning, he was in a daze, completely unaware of what any of the morning classes had covered.

The instant the bell rang, Chen Shouyi cast aside those spring-sorrow-and-autumn-regret thoughts. He ran wildly with Sun Xin and Zhao Yifeng, hurrying to the cafeteria's small dining hall.

Compared with the public cafeteria, this place was clearly more upscale. On the first day after summer vacation, quite a few people had some money in their pockets. Though the three of them had sprinted the whole way, by the time they reached the dining hall, a long line was already stretching ahead of them.

They waited for more than ten minutes before it was finally their turn.

"One serving of braised beef brisket with potatoes."

"Me too!"

"I'll have scrambled eggs with tomatoes."

Chen Shouyi stuffed food into his mouth and grumbled as he picked faults with it. "They definitely changed chefs this year. The brisket's way too tough, and the sauce hasn't soaked in at all. It's not even as good as my dad's!"

"I think so too!" Sun Xin agreed. "When are you going to invite us over to your house for dinner?"

"Don't act like you've never eaten there. Tell me, how many times have I treated you guys? Five times at least, right? Whenever you come over to play, you never leave without staying for dinner." Chen Shouyi spoke disdainfully.

"When I went last time, how come I didn't see your little sister?" Zhao Yifeng cut in.

The moment his little sister was mentioned, Chen Shouyi became highly alert. "She went to take part in the Ningzhou District high school martial arts exchange tournament. Don't even think about making a move on my sister."

If Chen Shouyi was merely an ordinary person, then his little sister, Chen Xingyue, was a genius. She was already the top student in the martial arts class of the city's only key middle school. To her, becoming a Martial Apprentice was no insurmountable chasm; she could clear it with one light step.

His refusal to give up on martial arts was not entirely unrelated to being spurred on by his little sister.

At that moment, a commotion came from the dining hall.

"Ding Liang's here."

"So that's Ding Liang!"

"I heard he passed the Martial Apprentice examination last semester. The school even hung up a banner for him!"

"Those muscles are so huge. I really want to give them a pinch!"

Ding Liang strode into the dining hall without looking left or right. His powerful muscles bulged so prominently that they stretched his undershirt taut. Quite a few girls' eyes lit up as they whispered excitedly.

Chen Shouyi watched with hidden envy.

What a bunch of shallow women.

One day.

I...

"Stop looking. Looking won't help! That's talent—you can't envy it into existence." Zhao Yifeng patted his bulging belly and spoke quietly.

Zhao Yifeng's words were like a basin of cold water, bringing Chen Shouyi back to reality.