The freshman teaching building was bustling.
It was still Shrek's admissions season.
Ji Siyuan prayed that he wouldn't be assigned to Zhou Yi's class.
That woman was truly bizarre. She did play favorites, but she was so bizarre she barely seemed human. Her teaching methods were even harder to understand.
What kind of education had he received? Tang San had personally taught him how to use Hidden Weapons, and Rong Nianbing had taught him to cook by feeding him meal after meal.
Although neither of those things had much to do with fighting, they still beat anything Zhou Yi could teach.
After they collected their dorm keys, freshman badges, and uniforms, it was time to find out who their teacher was.
With Huo Yuhao around, they didn't need to push through the crowd at all.
"Huo Yuhao and I are both in Freshman Class One! The homeroom teacher for Freshman Class One is Zhou Yi."
Tang Ya gasped in dismay and began telling them how abnormal Zhou Yi was.
Bei Bei still said a few good things about Zhou Yi.
Clearly, the students had nothing but complaints about her.
After making a round of the building, Bei Bei and Tang Ya went to take the advancement test, while they headed to the freshman dormitories.
"Um, Ji Siyuan? Yuan Ge?"
Ji Siyuan said, "Not sure what to call me? Just call me whatever feels natural."
Huo Yuhao looked delighted. "Then I'll call you Siyuan."
"Sure."
The two of them arrived at the entrance to the freshman dormitory.
An old man in gray sat in a wooden chair, looking as if he might be blown away by the wind at any moment.
"Careful. He's strong. He should be a level-99 Titled Douluo, but he's suffered a very serious injury." Tang San wasn't familiar with many levels, but he knew level 99 well.
"Got it."
Huo Yuhao bowed to the old man. "Hello, Grandpa."
The old man nodded and accepted the freshman badge Huo Yuhao handed him.
"Go on. Dormitory 108."
Ji Siyuan didn't understand. Wasn't the dorm number on the key?
Huo Yuhao looked at Ji Siyuan, who hadn't said a word.
"Siyuan?"
"You go on up first."
Huo Yuhao didn't understand, but he did as he was told. He trusted Ji Siyuan.
Ji Siyuan pushed Mu En's little wheelchair into a sunny spot. "Oh, come on, Senior. You wanted to feel the spirit of the young, didn't you? You should be somewhere full of sunshine. Why hide in a dark corner?"
"You're the one Bei Bei asked me to write a letter of recommendation for, aren't you? How did you recognize me?"
"Tsk. Senior, could I ask you a favor?"
"Oh? You've just arrived at the academy and already want to pull strings? That's not a good attitude."
Ji Siyuan sighed. "This is because of your reputation, isn't it? Just look at what the academy assigned me: the teacher who loves expelling students most, right in the first year. Once classes start in a couple of days, won't I get expelled for stepping into the classroom with my left foot first?"
Mu En didn't bother hiding it. "It's a test for you, too. Zhou Yi's class has the highest rate of students entering the Inner Court."
"See? You're not even listening to what I'm saying. How can you judge her by that statistic? Just look at the boy who bowed to you a moment ago. Of the students you've seen today, the bowing rate should be fifty percent."
Mu En said irritably, "That's because you turned my wheelchair around. I couldn't see the students anymore. All I could see was the sun."
"Oh, come on. This is exactly why you can't judge things by just one statistic."
"I know all that, but I'm an old man. What right do I have to order a teacher around?"
"Tsk. Fine, then I'll head up."
"You're really going to leave me here staring at the sun?"
Ji Siyuan said, "Oh, I almost forgot."
He turned Mu En's wheelchair back around. "Senior, I left you a little surprise. If you can deal with it, go ahead. If you can't, I'll take care of it when I come back down. Don't worry, it'll just get people to look at you more."
A small flame flickered beside Mu En's wheelchair.
It couldn't burn the wheelchair, but it would make more people notice him.
Watching Ji Siyuan head upstairs, Mu En reached out and picked up the flame. "Ultimate Fire? And Innate Full Soul Power? What a promising youngster."
Tang San said, "Siyuan, you've made a habit of slacking off. Nianbing and I couldn't bring ourselves to be strict with you. Having a strict teacher would be a good thing."
"Uh, Uncle Tang, you don't think Zhou Yi got assigned to this class just because she's strict, do you? She might not even be as good as Yu Xiaogang."
"It can't be that bad, can it?"
"I'd say it probably is."
He opened the door to his dormitory. "Huh? 108? Isn't this the same room as Huo Yuhao?"
Ji Siyuan wondered, What's going on?
Wasn't this supposed to be the dorm room of one-third of the ridiculously overpowered God King Tang's daughters? Why did they give it to me?
The old man downstairs playing with fire was still waiting for him to come back down.
The old man had even gone out of his way to look after him a little.
Huo Yuhao saw him and immediately lit up.
She hurried over. "Siyuan, you're my roommate! I was worried sick for ages."
Ji Siyuan said, "What was there to worry about?"
Only after he said it did he remember that Huo Yuhao was a girl. The situation grew a little awkward.
He'd thought Huo Yuhao would at least observe some propriety, but she hadn't at all.
He didn't really understand why. Did she simply trust that he was a gentleman, or was she confident she could keep her identity hidden throughout their years of living together?
Wang Dong had a secret technique from the Clear Sky Sect to conceal her identity, but Huo Yutong didn't. How was she supposed to hide that she was a girl pretending to be Huo Yuhao? And how had she passed the test?
Ji Siyuan couldn't figure it out.
Tang San, on the other hand, eagerly encouraged him. "Why are you thinking so hard? Isn't living in the same dorm as a beautiful girl exactly what you want? The one who lives closest gets the moon first. This makes it easy for you to win over the Daughter of Destiny."
"Uncle Tang, I may be lecherous, but that doesn't mean I should make a move just because someone might be useful to me. I have to actually fall for her first, right?"
How could he win her over without any feelings involved? Besides, he still hadn't seen Huo Yuhao return to her female form. (At this point, he still didn't know her female name was Huo Yutong.)
Huo Yuhao suggested, "Let's clean up the dorm first." The dusty room was uncomfortable, so she planned to give it a thorough cleaning.
Ji Siyuan said, "You clean up. I'll go downstairs and buy bedding and other daily necessities. We still have some money from selling the Flame Demon Lion's body, enough to buy things for both of us."
"Thank you." Huo Yuhao didn't know what to do. She had no money and was very poor. After paying her tuition, even food was going to be a problem.
Now Ji Siyuan was willing to buy things for her. She was truly grateful.
"What are you thanking me for? We killed it together. Bei Bei only gave us the money because he felt sorry for us. If anything, I'm the one who owes you."
To give credit where it was due, Bei Bei really was a good person. He'd handed the money from selling the corpse to Ji Siyuan.
But Ji Siyuan had only said that casually. If they were actually dividing up the credit, Huo Yuhao couldn't compare to him.
The two poor kids weren't in any position to argue over credit anyway. They could only focus on getting the necessities first.
"We need to find a way to make money."
The kid had it rough. He'd come to the wrong time period, and all of Tang San's preparations had gone to waste.
There were subsidies for joining Shrek, but only students were eligible.
When he met Mu En again, the small flame had already been extinguished.
"Senior, how many students have you seen bow to you? Wasn't it more than before?"
Mu En said, "With a larger pool, even if the rate is low, more people will still enter the Inner Court. I understand the logic. Don't worry, you won't be expelled."
"No, can't I change teachers?"
"No. Besides, this'll give Zhou Yi a chance to torment you. You did threaten me by setting a little flame beside me, after all."
"Great. All that effort for nothing."
Mu En smiled. "It wasn't for nothing. If you win the Freshman Assessment, how about I give you a generous reward?"
"Nice promise."