The next morning, at Shrek Academy.
Huo Yuhao and Chi Qiu arrived early, hoping to beat the deadline for new student registration on the last day before classes began. The teacher in charge of the final round of admissions was so sleepy that he could barely keep his eyes open. When he saw the young man and woman before him, who seemed to have been there recently, he didn't even bother greeting them. He simply waved Huo Yuhao away.
Huo Yuhao took the black envelope with gold lettering from his coat and held it up in front of the half-awake teacher.
He only wanted to help the man wake up a little. He was such a nice guy.
The teacher rubbed his eyes in disbelief, then opened the envelope and examined its contents in surprise. Only after that did he slowly put it in his desk drawer. When he looked back up at Huo Yuhao, his expression had changed.
He muttered under his breath, "Well, would you look at that—the sun's risen in the west. This year, those people haven't just sent their young sect master; they've also used a special admission slot they've never touched before... In the past, they wouldn't even let us invite their disciples down the mountain. What's gotten into them?"
"Sorry, what did you just say? I didn't quite catch that." Huo Yuhao's polite question interrupted the man's wandering thoughts.
"I said you can go to the new student registration office to pick up your uniform now." The teacher hurried to raise his voice, but all trace of impatience had vanished from his tone.
"The teacher over there will arrange your accommodations and other daily necessities. And you, young lady in the back—let me see your recommendation letter too."
Chi Qiu handed over her recommendation letter as well. The teacher glanced over it. Thankfully, it didn't contain anything else that might make his jaw drop. It was just an ordinary letter of recommendation, signed by the lord of some unknown small city in the Heaven Dou Empire.
But then he thought it over. What did it say about the Clear Sky Sect that they were doing this? Even with a history spanning ten thousand years, they still had to come pay their respects to Shrek.
That thought made him feel a lot better.
"All right, you two can go in and get your uniforms and maps."
Huo Yuhao nodded, and he and Chi Qiu walked through the academy gates. As soon as they entered, they saw a crowd of students gathered around the notice board, apparently discussing an announcement.
"No way. That old witch?"
"Are you kidding me? Third-years reported her, so now she gets to teach first-years? Is this a punishment or a reward? First-years are even easier to expel!"
"Help! I don't want to die in her PE class..."
"And she still has the nerve to say she can't qualify as a senior teacher... If she didn't have connections, would she still be teaching?"
Chi Qiu frowned. "What are they talking about?"
"Sounds like a teacher." Huo Yuhao quietly activated Spiritual Detection and scanned the most prominent notice on the board. "Her name's Zhou Yi... The students reported her, so they reassigned her to teach first-years. From the school information they just handed out, that's our grade."
He paused, then added, "Oh, right. Do you know what a teacher is?"
"Of course," Chi Qiu said. "We have teachers too. Di Tian could be considered my teacher."
Huo Yuhao immediately raised a finger to his lips, gesturing for her not to say such things. "Shh—don't let anyone know you know him!"
Even with his limited education, he'd heard of the Ten Great Beast Kings' leader. In the human world, you could eat whatever you liked, but you had to watch what you said. After all these years of enduring life at the Duke's Mansion, he'd learned to be careful with his words.
Saying she knew Di Tian might have been laughed off as an outrageous boast at another school, but at Shrek, someone with ulterior motives might actually investigate her family for three generations.
As the Auspicious Beast had only just entered the human world, her understanding of humans was still mostly a blank slate.
"I hope we don't end up in that teacher's class," Huo Yuhao sighed quietly.
Of course, he wasn't afraid of being assigned to anyone's class. No matter who taught him, he'd do his best. He just didn't want to be expelled.
After all, if he got expelled, he couldn't keep his promise to provide VIP grilled fish, which meant he'd owe Wang Dong a favor. He didn't want to owe her one.
After showing Chi Qiu how to use the map and key card, the two briefly parted ways and headed to their respective dormitories. It was the first time they'd been apart since leaving the Star Dou Great Forest.
Suddenly being alone after getting used to having someone with him made Huo Yuhao a little uneasy. He checked his key card and saw which dorm room he'd been assigned.
Feeling apprehensive, he walked up to his dorm room and hesitated for a long time before finally knocking.
"Come in."
Wait, that voice sounded familiar.
Huo Yuhao yanked the door open. Sure enough, the person sitting on the bed, reading with nothing better to do, had powder-blue hair.
What a coincidence.
When Wang Dong saw that it was Huo Yuhao, she was surprised too. "Well, look who it is. Huo."
At that moment, Huo Yuhao's mind raced so quickly he could practically hear a dramatic soundtrack playing in the background.
He already knew Wang Dong was a girl! What were they supposed to do now? Put a partition between their beds? Hang a curtain? As long as they didn't interfere with each other, that should be fine.
Before he could say anything, Wang Dong hesitated, then spoke first:
"Since we're roommates, there are a few personal habits I need you to know about. First..."
She was still laying down rules, but she was much more restrained than she'd been in the other timeline. After all, she'd already fought Huo and Chi Qiu, and she'd experienced Huo Yuhao's Spiritual Detection Sharing. She knew she couldn't get the better of Huo.
If Huo turned out to be unreasonable, she'd just have to find a way to switch dorm rooms.
But based on how things had gone yesterday, he should be all right... right?
Sure enough, Huo Yuhao didn't object to her requests. Instead, he nodded to show he understood. Then he spoke up too:
"Actually, there's something about my personal habits I need you to know as well."
"Go ahead." Wang Dong waved a hand, pretending to be magnanimous.
"I care a lot about my privacy. Could we put up a curtain between our beds?"
"What?"
Wang Dong was startled. She hadn't even gotten around to making a request like that.
"Oh, I toss and turn a lot in my sleep, and I don't want anyone to see," Huo Yuhao said, forcing an embarrassed smile.
That was an excuse Huo Yuhao had made up on the spot. While Wang Dong had been speaking, he'd been racking his brain for a polite way to suggest putting up a curtain without making her feel he'd figured out her secret.
For a moment, he was so bad at lying that he felt as if his Sea of Consciousness were about to catch fire. In the end, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had given him the excuse.
It wasn't particularly clever, but as long as she believed him, that was what mattered!
Wang Dong didn't react right away. But soon, she felt a surge of delight. This was perfect! She hadn't expected Huo Yuhao to suggest it himself.
"Sure. I don't mind going along with one of your suggestions. Let's put one up."
Huo Yuhao had given her the perfect opening. Wang Dong would have been unreasonable not to take it.
Wang Dong, you're lucky to have me as your roommate, he thought. If you'd been assigned to some other boy's room, there'd definitely have been trouble.
After all, if Wang Dong had been rooming with someone she didn't know, she'd have had to assert her authority to make him listen. If she ran into someone like Huo Yuhao, who hated being talked down to, they'd definitely end up fighting.
Fortunately, this had all worked out smoothly.
Huo Yuhao set his few belongings on the hard bed. Wang Dong watched as he took things out one by one, but he never brought out a mattress.
"Wait, you didn't buy a mattress or bedding?" Wang Dong felt her eyelid twitch. "You can get them from the school supply office. They don't cost much."
"I saw the prices in the cafeteria before I came to the dorm," Huo Yuhao said seriously. "I'm planning to save my money for food."
"Even so, you're going a bit too far..."
Shrek Academy naturally had no such thing as financial aid for poor students. Their reasoning was simple: if you had a recommendation from a city lord, why would you need help from the academy?
Huo Yuhao interrupted her. "It's fine. All right, I'm going out for a while. I haven't seen Chi Qiu in a bit, so I should check how she's settling in."
Wang Dong gave a teasing "Oh," then waved him away as if shooing him out. "Got it. Go on, go on. Go find your Miss Chi. You're just a nuisance here anyway."
Huo Yuhao said no more. He smiled at Wang Dong and hurried downstairs. The bond from their attribute connection seemed to give him an inexplicable sense of where Chi Qiu was. He felt she was in the square downstairs.
As it turned out, his sense was right. When Huo Yuhao reached the square, Chi Qiu was staring at a sculpture of Shrek's Seven Devils.
"Chi Qiu?" he called.
"I knew you were behind me," Chi Qiu said.
"Oh." Huo Yuhao went to stand beside her. "Do you like these statues? They seem to be the seniors who became gods ten thousand years ago."
"I don't like them."
Huo Yuhao turned to look at her. He could hear how coldly Chi Qiu had said it.
"Why?" he asked. "Sorry, I thought everyone admired these senior gods..."
"Soul Beasts don't admire gods." Chi Qiu turned to face Huo Yuhao too. In her golden-red eyes, he saw a fury like a raging fire.
A moment later, Chi Qiu seemed to realize she'd spoken too harshly and frightened Huo Yuhao. She put that anger away and said coolly:
"Why should a race hated by the gods love them?"
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