Gu Yue's Exam Meltdown

The lingering warmth of last night's copper hotpot still seemed branded into her stomach, yet today's examination hall was as cold as an ice cellar.

Gu Yue stared at the stark white test paper before her, feeling as though the printed questions were a pack of restless soul beasts baring their fangs and pouncing on her fragile nerves. The words "Comprehensive Test on the Fundamentals of Soul Master Theory" at the top of the page now looked like a public execution of her intelligence.

Gu Yue's fingertips hovered over the answer sheet for a long time. Her pen touched down, then lifted again, over and over. The knowledge that should have been clear in her mind was now like ice tossed into boiling water, rapidly melting away.

In its place came the rich scent of beef tallow that had filled last night's private room; the red waves rolling in the extra-spicy broth Tang Wulin had strongly recommended; the crisp sound of Xu Xiaoyan dipping a slice of tripe up and down through the red oil; and, more than anything, Xie Xie's urging words: "Sister Gu Yue, hurry and try this. It won't taste good if you overcook it..." Her stomach convulsed reflexively, and the alarm of CPU overload shrieked sharply inside her skull—her knowledge module had completely crashed.

Complementary mechanism? Gu Yue stared at the question stem, but what appeared before her was Xie Xie dumping a plate of rolled lamb into the clear broth, splashing oil that nearly scalded the back of her hand. Tang Wulin had laughed loudly at the time, while Xu Xiaoyan had been busy handing Xie Xie tissues to wipe the oil away. No one had noticed Gu Yue quietly moving aside the folder containing her test papers and notes—the folder that held the key review materials she had planned to cram tonight. An inexplicable blaze surged up from the depths of her heart, scorching away her reason. Review materials? They had long been forgotten on her dorm desk amid the steaming heat of the hotpot!

"Hey, Gu Yue," a deliberately hushed rustle came from beside her, tinged with laughter. "Do you know this one? I'm kind of lost." It was Tang Wulin. At some point, he had leaned closer, his shoulder nearly brushing her arm, a small note flickering in and out of sight in his hand. Gu Yue stiffened all over and shifted away irritably. Her pen carved a vicious line across the scratch paper. "I'm not passing you answers. Who told you not to listen properly in class?"

"Gu Yue!" The proctor's voice suddenly rose, carrying unquestionable authority. "Keep quiet! Work independently!" The teacher's sharp gaze swept over their row. Tang Wulin immediately drew back, but he and Xie Xie soon started fidgeting again.

Tang Wulin lightly poked Gu Yue's back with his pen cap, while Xie Xie deliberately dropped his eraser onto the floor. As he bent to pick it up, his head nearly craned over Gu Yue's answer sheet. Every interruption was like a fine needle piercing her taut nerves. She took a deep breath and forced herself to ignore the irritating movements, trying to focus again.

Yet all that knowledge about soul power circuits and the possibilities of martial soul mutation had already been marinated beyond recognition by the numbing spice and fragrance of hotpot, shattered beyond any hope of piecing together a complete answer.

Time crawled through the deathly silent examination hall. Gu Yue struggled to move her pen, filling in the occasional keyword she vaguely remembered. Vast stretches of blank space lay like pale scars, mocking her incompetence. When the bell finally pierced the stifling air, she practically fled to her feet and handed in the paper filled with defeat.

"Gu Yue, how'd you do?" The moment she stepped outside the exam room, Xie Xie stuck to her like chewing gum, his trademark carefree grin plastered across his face.

Gu Yue abruptly stopped and turned her head. The corridor's harsh white lights fell across her face. Her usually cool and calm expression was now drawn tight, her lips pressed into a pale, straight line.

She looked at Xie Xie's face, full of brotherly loyalty. The humiliation of being forcibly dragged to hotpot last night, her all-night review plan completely ruined, and the helplessness of facing blank questions on the test... all the emotions she had been bottling up exploded at that moment.

"Xie Xie." Her voice was as cold as an ice pick, every word steeped in frost. "You're very pleased with yourself, aren't you?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Xie Xie blinked innocently, then slipped back into his usual flippant tone. "Don't be like that, Sister Gu Yue. It's just an exam—the important thing is participating! Look at me, didn't I stay with you and... uh, think hard together? Besides..." He patted his chest, speaking just loudly enough for several passing examinees to hear. "If we're failing, then we'll fail together! Tang Wulin, Xu Xiaoyan—none of us are getting away!"

"Fail together."

Those four words were the last straw, precisely crushing the last of Gu Yue's teetering dam of reason. Fail together? The string in her mind called "calm" snapped with a sharp twang. Her vision went black—not from dizziness, but from the hollow sensation of her consciousness being suddenly emptied.

The corridor walls, painted a soft beige, warped and spun. Xie Xie's grinning face blurred and expanded in her vision until all that remained was a suffocating field of scarlet static.

No one knew how long had passed before a sharp hunger, like a tangible hook, viciously dragged her sinking consciousness up from the depths of her stomach. It was not ordinary hunger, but a wild craving born deep in her soul for high calories and intense stimulation of flavor.

It was as if only scorching, spicy, rich food could fill the void torn open by humiliation, regret, and endless emptiness.

Gu Yue abruptly opened her eyes.

What greeted her was neither a hospital's stark white ceiling nor the familiar curtains of her dorm bed, but the wooden beams of the hotpot restaurant she knew well enough to grit her teeth at, along with the overpowering scent of beef tallow and spices saturating the air.

She was actually sitting at the window-side table from last night! On the table, the divided hotpot still bubbled away. The red broth rolled with enticing foam, while the clear broth steamed blandly.

Xie Xie was pushing a huge plate of marbled fatty beef toward her. Xu Xiaoyan was scooping something out of the clear broth with a skimmer, while Tang Wulin... Tang Wulin was pouring a dish of sesame oil and mashed garlic into her bowl, muttering, "You're awake? You scared us to death! Hurry and eat something, replenish your brain. There's practical combat this afternoon..."

Gu Yue did not pick up her chopsticks. She slowly sat upright, her gaze sweeping across the three faces before her, all filled with concern—or perhaps guilt. The scene of them forcibly dragging her here last night, every question she had gotten stuck on during the exam, the relief and utter embarrassment she had felt when handing in her paper, and the devastating blow of those words, "If we're failing, we'll fail together"... all the fragments of memory reignited amid the thunderous rumbling in her stomach, burning even more fiercely than before.

Grief and fury were like a pot of oil brought to a boil over blazing fire, instantly pouring over her entire body and sending up scorching white smoke.

And she chose to pour that pot of boiling oil straight into the sea of her boiling desires.

"Order." Gu Yue's voice was unnaturally calm—calm to the point of being terrifying. She did not even look at anyone. Her gaze rested on the bubbling red-oil broth as though it were her only salvation.

"Bring one serving of every meat available. Tripe, duck intestines, yellow throat, tender beef, luncheon meat... especially everything you strongly recommended last night that I didn't touch even once."

There was no rise or fall in her tone, but it carried an unquestionable command. "No vegetables. For staples, only noodles. The wider, the better."

Tang Wulin and Xu Xiaoyan looked at each other, somewhat stunned. Xie Xie's hand, holding a bowl of sesame oil, froze in midair, and the smile on his face stiffened as well.

"Sister Gu Yue, are... are you okay?" Xu Xiaoyan asked cautiously. "There's still practical combat this afternoon. Eating so much..."

"Order." Gu Yue repeated herself and raised her eyes toward Xu Xiaoyan. In those eyes, usually still as a lake, Tang Wulin saw a nearly ferocious undercurrent he had never witnessed before. It was not anger directed at anyone, but a self-immolating determination. "Now. Immediately. This instant."

The air froze at once. Tang Wulin scratched his head and sighed. "Fine, we'll listen to Gu Yue! Waiter! More dishes! Double every kind of meat! And two portions of fried crispy pork, plus one portion of brown sugar glutinous rice cakes!" He gestured to the server, who immediately rushed off to place the order.

The next two hours became a silent and violent ritual in Gu Yue's life.

The red oil in the copper pot continued to boil, letting out satisfied sighs. Plate after plate of fresh ingredients was set on the table, only to vanish in the shortest time. Gu Yue no longer looked at anyone, nor did she say another word.

She mechanically picked up her chopsticks, precisely lifted food, swished it through the rolling red broth, and sent it into her mouth. Scorching slices of meat, wrapped in heavy beef tallow, numbing peppercorns, and bold dried chilies, flowed down her throat like molten lava and burned all the way into her empty stomach.

At first, it was only chewing and swallowing. Gradually, her movements grew larger and faster. She no longer cared whether the food burned her mouth, nor did she savor it. She simply stuffed food into her mouth almost roughly, chewed hard, and swallowed.

Fine beads of sweat seeped from her temples, sliding down her pale cheeks and dripping into her collar. Tang Wulin had to wipe Gu Yue's sweat from time to time. Her breathing became rapid and heavy; every inhale greedily seized the rich fragrance in the air, and every exhale carried a suppressed hiss squeezed from the depths of her chest.

Xu Xiaoyan held her chopsticks and awkwardly poked at the lettuce in her bowl. Several times, she wanted to say something, only for the cold, surging aura around Gu Yue to force the words back down.

Tang Wulin and Xu Xiaoyan exchanged glances, silently refilling her drink and silently removing the empty plates piled into small mountains. Other customers in the restaurant cast curious looks their way, but the strange atmosphere discouraged them from staring for too long.

Bowl after bowl of wide noodles went into her stomach, greasy broth splashing onto her sleeves. The fifth plate of fatty beef was gone. The sixth plate of tripe disappeared.

Her stomach was like a bottomless black hole, devouring endless calories and flavors. The gloomy cloud hanging over her heart, mixed with shame, anger, and crushing frustration, truly seemed to have been temporarily scattered by the ferocious bombardment of taste. At least her senses were full—numbed.

By the eighth plate of luncheon meat, Gu Yue finally slowed down. She picked up a tissue and slowly wiped the oil from the corners of her mouth. The fullness in her stomach weighed on her like a stone, making it hard for her to breathe. She raised her eyes and looked over the three people across from her.

Tang Wulin looked at her with concern and a trace of helplessness. Xu Xiaoyan rested her cheeks in her hands and muttered softly, "My god... Sister Gu Yue's combat power really is directly proportional to her anger..." Xie Xie had completely wilted, shrinking into his chair with his eyes darting away, not daring to meet hers.

Gu Yue looked at them. At these three familiar faces. At this dining table that had witnessed her social death last night.

An overwhelming sense of absurdity and even deeper exhaustion washed over her. Failing had become inevitable, and her grief and fury had been completely vented. All that remained was a battlefield in ruins—a test paper covered in blank spaces, a stomach stuffed to its limit, and a memory forged by hotpot and stupidity that could never be taken back.

She slowly set down her chopsticks with a soft clink. The sound was not loud, yet it seemed to mark the end of this absurd feast.

"Check, please," she said. Her voice still lacked strength, but it was exceptionally clear.

When they walked out of the hotpot restaurant, the evening wind blew coolly against her face. Her stomach felt heavy, yet her heart had become strangely calm. Gu Yue touched her pocket, her fingertips brushing the cold screen of her phone. The screen showed a notification from the class group—probably an announcement that the exam results would soon be released.

She looked up at the gray-blue sky. A few streaks of sunset struggled to pierce the clouds. Fail? Fail together? She tugged at the corner of her mouth, forming an expression uglier than crying.

Forget it, she thought. If she failed, then she failed. After all... only a full stomach gave her the strength.