The next day, when Zhang Tie woke up in bed, he immediately realized there were two things he deeply regretted. First, he hadn't heard the alarm, so he was probably going to be late this morning. Second, he'd actually forgotten to put out the oil lamp in the cabin. It had burned all night for nothing. How much oil had that wasted? Oil was money!
As he hurriedly put out the lamp, Zhang Tie fumbled to get dressed. He had already gone down two steps after lowering the attic stairs when he turned around and went back up. He tossed the two "remains" of Fool's Gold into an inconspicuous pile of junk in a broken box in the storage shed beside the cabin, then clattered down the stairs.
His dad had already left for work, leaving only his mom at home. Breakfast, a bowl of rice porridge, was warming in a pot. Hearing Zhang Tie rush downstairs to wash up, his mom came out of the rice-wine shop and took the breakfast out of the pot for him. As she did, she nagged, "Did you stay up too late last night? You need to take better care of yourself. Oh, and I washed the underwear you left in the drawer in your room yesterday. If you don't have time, just remember to take it off and put it in the laundry basin!"
Zhang Tie was gargling when he heard his mom's last sentence. He choked on the water and coughed for ages before he could recover. Whether it was from choking or embarrassment, his face turned bright red. He couldn't help shouting, "Mom, I've told you more than three hundred times. I'll wash my own things, so please stop rummaging through my room, okay? I'm not a little kid anymore!"
There had been some stains on the underwear from a wet dream the night before last. Zhang Tie hadn't had time to wash it when he got up the previous morning, so he'd taken it off and hidden it in a drawer beneath his wardrobe. When he came home last night, he'd been so preoccupied with that mysterious thing that he'd forgotten to take it out and wash it. At the thought of his mom discovering his "secret" when she'd washed his underwear, Zhang Tie felt mortified and utterly ashamed.
"I know, our Guoguo is all grown up now. Mom raised you from the time you were little. What haven't I seen?" His mom's unconcerned tone told Zhang Tie that his words had probably fallen on deaf ears. He'd have to be more careful from now on. If people outside found out his mom still had to wash his underwear, he'd never be able to show his face again.
Zhang Tie said nothing. He gulped down his porridge, didn't even have time to wipe his mouth, and ran out the door. Even after he'd run a long way, he thought he could still hear his mom calling after him, "Don't run on a full stomach. Slow down..."
On the way, Zhang Tie spent two copper coins for the first time in his life to ride a few stops on the tram, hoping to reach school as soon as possible. But when he finally got there, he heard the bell announcing the end of the second lesson of the morning.
Teacher Daina's class was already over! This was the second week of May, so Teacher Daina had the first two lessons on Friday. On odd-numbered weeks, they had natural history instead.
The discovery immediately left Zhang Tie crestfallen. He blamed himself for sleeping in the night before.
When he reached the school's lecture hall, Teacher Daina was nowhere to be seen. Only the rowdy seniors were pouring out of the hall, rushing in a swarm toward the toilets. Usually, during Teacher Daina's classes, those beasts would rather hold their bladders for two hours than leave the classroom, just so they wouldn't have to take their eyes off her.
"Teacher Daina's getting prettier and prettier!"
"I dreamed about her again last night!"
"I watched her for two hours in class. Teacher Daina's boobs have gotten bigger!"
"That round, perky ass is so sexy. She's got such a mature woman's vibe. I wonder what it'd feel like to touch Teacher Daina's butt?"
"I held it for two hours. It was awful. The Goddess Daina sure knows how to torture people!"
As a bunch of beasts passed Zhang Tie, he heard nothing but that sort of talk. No one seemed to care what Teacher Daina had actually taught in biology class.
At last, a few of the beasts from the Airplane Brotherhood came by. Zhang Tie saw them, and they saw him. Zhang Tie caught the fat Barry winking at him, while Doug looked at him with a nervous expression. The whole thing left Zhang Tie completely baffled.
"What, late today?" Barry came over and patted Zhang Tie on the shoulder.
"Yeah, I overslept a little." Zhang Tie scratched his head, a bit embarrassed.
"Heh... heh... Don't overexert yourself at night. If you use up too much essence, it's only natural you'll oversleep!" Sista's lewdness was as conspicuous as the acne on his face, no matter the time or place. Just then, he put all the emphasis in his sentence on the word "essence," as if he wanted to make sure no one missed it.
"You do look a little pale today. Don't tell me Sista hit the mark. After seeing the Airplane Brotherhood's benefits, you must've had a hard time falling asleep last night!" Light said, waggling his eyebrows.
Ignoring those two, Zhang Tie turned to Shavin. "What did Teacher Daina teach today?" If anyone in the Airplane Brotherhood actually listened attentively to Teacher Daina's classes, it had to be Shavin. He took diligent notes in every class, which had earned him no end of teasing from the others.
"Basic treatment for Rot Vine and the habits of Man-eating Spiders. If you want to read them, I can lend you my notes!"
"Sure, lend them to me later!"
"I can't hold it in! Hurry up!" Baghdad urged from the side. So they followed the crowd toward the toilets, but Doug clearly slowed down on purpose and fell behind everyone else. Once the others had gone far enough, he quietly pulled Zhang Tie aside.
"Let's make up!" Doug's first words made every hair on Zhang Tie's body stand on end.
Seeing Zhang Tie's expression, Doug finally realized he'd said the wrong thing. "Oh, no. I mean, let's make peace!"
"Make peace?" Zhang Tie looked at Doug in confusion. What did he mean?
"Don't tell Baghdad and the others what happened to me yesterday, and I'll forgive you for throwing up all over me that first time. You know, a lot of people saw me like that, and now some of the guys have started calling me Slime Monster!" Doug's expression began with embarrassment, then turned indignant.
Zhang Tie finally understood why Doug had been cold and distant toward him all week. What a petty guy. Still, if anyone dared give him a disgusting nickname like "Slime Monster" at school and call him that in front of Teacher Daina, Zhang Tie would beat him until even his mother couldn't recognize him.
"Fine, we're even. I won't tell anyone what happened to you yesterday." Since it wouldn't cost him a single copper coin, Zhang Tie decided to be generous. "But what do you want me to say if Sista and the others ask?"
"Just say I went in, then took three hours to come out. I've already worked it out with Barry!"
"Fine. You took three hours to come out, and when you did, that woman walked you to the door herself and gave you a lingering kiss, telling you to come see her again!"
"Now that's a good brother!" Doug said, excitedly patting Zhang Tie on the shoulder as if he'd finally found someone who understood him.
Zhang Tie could only admit defeat again.
The next class that morning was carpentry. For the next two hours, every beast in Zhang Tie's class sawed wood with two-person saws in the school workshop. Their hands were all swollen by the time the bell finally rang.
The afternoon classes were physical training and testing. As usual, this meant it was Gelis's time to shine. This week, Gelis once again broke his own records from the previous week in squats and consecutive armor-piercing spear thrusts, bringing them to 320 kilograms and 139 thrusts respectively. Even the instructor praised Gelis as a born Warrior.
Compared with the dazzling Gelis, most of the Airplane Brotherhood's results were as unremarkable as the airports used for planes to take off and land before the Great Cataclysm. Only Baghdad stood out: in the afternoon's 100-meter speed test, he broke into the top twenty fastest students in the entire year for the first time, with a time of 10.8 seconds. As for everyone else, Zhang Tie included, they didn't even get a recorded time. The instructor only recorded the top three results from each group of twenty. The rest didn't count. Zhang Tie usually finished outside the top ten in his group in the 100-meter sprint. His personal best had been ninth place, so it was no wonder he had no result. Third place in Zhang Tie's group had clocked 11.2 seconds, nearly four strides ahead of him. Zhang Tie estimated his own time was around 11.6 seconds. Among all the seniors, that score brought him no honor at all. As for the fat Barry, his 13.7-second 100-meter time was probably the worst in the entire graduating class. The fat guy wasn't ashamed in the least.
After the afternoon's physical training class, Zhang Tie got his latest personal stats.
Zhang Tie—
100-meter time—11.6 seconds
Bench press—90 kilograms
Squat—170 kilograms
Explosive punching power—right fist: 240 kilograms, left fist: 190 kilograms
Maximum explosive kicking power—270 kilograms
Maximum consecutive armor-piercing spear thrusts—48
Stamina: 4
In this age when strength reigned supreme, Zhang Tie's results were as dismal as his fifteen-year-old youth. Before the first Thought Fire in the Divine Palace was lit, the physical gap between professional Warriors and ordinary people was decisive. Among people of the same age, it was almost an insurmountable gulf.
I have to light the Thought Fire in my Divine Palace as soon as possible! The thought once again burned urgently in the heart of the fifteen-year-old boy.