The Wise Adapt to the Times

The shadow at the stairwell corner stirred.

Wu Changkong was not the first to step forward. Someone else darted out first—his hair puffed up like static had exploded through it, Star Sword raised over his head like a glow stick, his voice louder than a clap-activated light:

"Yun Ying! Gu Yue! Xie Xie! I'm here—!"

Yao stepped on the book Gu Yue had dropped, skidded to a stop, and swept his gaze over the wreckage: Yun Ying was coughing blood against the wall, Gu Yue clutched her ribs, Xie Xie showed half a pale face through the door crack, and Shadow stood amid shattered glass, her dagger blocking that icy sword aura.

"Well, Shadow, what a mood. Throwing a dorm party in the middle of the night without inviting me?" With a clang, Star Sword shot out a foot-long starbeam. Yao pointed its tip at Shadow's nose, his chin raised high enough to hang an oil pot from it. "Your end is here! Teacher Wu is right behind me. He patched up his duckling pajamas and changed into battle gear. Guess where he'll freeze you first?"

Shadow drew her red eyes away from the sword aura and glanced at Yao. Her tongue slowly licked across the corner of her lips, and her dagger lowered to the floor. "Little Star... if it weren't for the fact that you don't look as presentable as little brother, I'd have stewed you as drinking food too."

Yao's mouth twitched, and the hand holding his sword visibly drooped half an inch. "...Damn, she really dares to stew people." He immediately shuffled half a step toward Gu Yue, holding Star Sword across his chest, fierce only on the outside. "I-I-I'm warning you, you just took Teacher Wu's Heavenfrost Sword. Take another slash and your white hair will turn into an ice pop—"

"Yao." Gu Yue pushed herself up from the floor, black hair falling over her shoulders as her violet eyes gave him a cold glance. "Shut up and help me."

"Okay, okay, okay!" Yao hurriedly switched Star Sword to his left hand and reached for Gu Yue's arm with his right, his mouth still running as he did. "Gu Yue, don't think I'm unreliable just because I talk a lot. Tang Wulin was eating chicken legs when he suddenly had a feeling that little brother Xie Xie was done for. He said he was going to find Teacher Wu, and I said Teacher Wu might not come since his pajamas were torn. He said he'd go call him. I tried calling little brother Xie Xie, but nobody answered, so I ran to the office area. Teacher Wu was sewing up his duckling pajamas with a needle. The moment I said, 'Little brother Xie Xie has been imprisoned by Shadow,' he snapped the needle and summoned Heavenfrost Battle Armor on the spot. I led him here! Yun Ying, shouldn't you thank me?"

Yun Ying leaned against the wall, Flame-Reaver Spear lying at the stairwell entrance. Panting, she raised a hand and pointed at Yao. "You fucking... call him little brother one more time... and I'll crawl over there and beat you to death..."

"Look at that, no gratitude for a good deed!" Supporting Gu Yue with one hand, Yao winked at Yun Ying. "Who just got tossed out like a broken sack? Who got pinned to the tiles by a tail blade? Who—"

"Yao." Wu Changkong's voice descended from the stairwell, flatter than ice.

Everyone felt a chill run down their necks.

Wu Changkong stepped out. A standard-issue jacket covered his light blue duckling pajamas, and the row of pacifier ducks across his chest had been stitched twice, the seams crooked and uneven. The chill from Heavenfrost Sword's hilt had already frozen cracks across the corridor tiles. He did not even look at Yao. His gaze locked onto Shadow.

"Shadow," Wu Changkong said. "Last time, you broke through a wall. This time, you disrupted my students' dormitory and injured two of my students."

Shadow's red eyes curved as her dagger spun half a circle around her fingers. Wisps of residual mist drifted out, but they did not explode this time, only coiling around her wrist like a lazy snake. "Teacher Wu is so fierce. Little brother asked me to teach him how to make stew. Those two barged in and started fighting. I wasn't the one who moved first."

"You moved first when your tail blade wrapped around Xie Xie." Gu Yue quietly drove the blade in, leaning against the wall with a frown from the pain in her ribs.

"Big sister Gu Yue has a good memory." Shadow smiled, though the madness in her red eyes had already receded. Her fresh wound beneath her ribs had gone stiff from Wu Changkong's sword aura, and fighting Yun Ying and Gu Yue had already drained much of her blood energy. If she took another Heavenfrost Slash, her white hair really would end up hanging from a parasol tree for three days.

She tilted her head and looked at Xie Xie behind the door. Her tail blade's tip made a faint upward flick. "Little brother, next time, we'll talk on the phone."

"You don't have my number." Xie Xie trembled.

"But I have your WeChat." Shadow blinked.

Wu Changkong pressed a fingertip against his sword. A layer of frost burst outward, and the window glass on both sides of the corridor crackled as thick ice formed over it. "Shadow, surrender or leave your life behind."

"My life is mine." Shadow used the force to leap back half a step, her red eyes sliding from Wu Changkong's face to Yao's. "Little Star, next time don't bring Teacher Wu. Bring Tang Wulin instead, and I'd happily stew up a whole pot."

Yao raised Star Sword. "Who are you calling Little Star? I'm Yao, Child of the Stars! Shadow, you—"

Shadow did not listen to the rest.

She flipped her left wrist, and a ball of red smoke exploded with a bang. It was genuine blood mist mixed with glazed powder, and a cloying, bloody stench instantly flooded the corridor. Wu Changkong's Heavenfrost Sword intent could freeze the mist, but not the escape smoke mixed with vital blood. Within the red haze, her body stretched into an afterimage. Her dagger sliced through the fire-hydrant glass, and she was already sliding down the pipes to the third floor.

"Damn it. She ran again!" Yun Ying cursed. She tried to stand, but her knees gave out and she sat back down. Flame-Reaver Spear rolled to her feet, and she grabbed it in one hand. "Is that lunatic an eel or something?"

Gu Yue said nothing. Her violet eyes watched the exterior wall as the red mist dispersed, while ice chips at the ends of her black hair melted and dripped onto the tiles. That kick Shadow had given her ribs had been no light blow.

Yao poked Star Sword into the remnants of the red mist and stirred them around. "She really ran? Teacher Wu, where's your sword? Chase her!"

Wu Changkong did not pursue her. He lowered his head to look at the crookedly sewn pacifier ducks on his pajamas, then looked toward Xie Xie, who had curled into a ball behind Room 303's door. The chill slowly withdrew into the sword hilt.

"She is badly injured and will not dare return for now," Wu Changkong said evenly. "Xie Xie, come out."

Xie Xie crawled out on all fours. He could not stand steadily and had to brace himself against the doorframe. The small potted plant Shadow had brought him by the window had sprouted a tiny bud.

Yao leaned over to look. "Wow, it really sprouted? Shadow-brand fertilizer?"

Yun Ying raised her spear and hurled it at him. "Get lost."

Yao ducked low, blocking the spear with Star Sword, grinning. "Yun Ying, thank me. If I hadn't run off to get Teacher Wu, you two really would've been stewed tonight—Gu Yue's medical expenses should come out of Xie Xie's pocket."

Gu Yue shoved Yao away. "I can walk myself." She took one step, paused from the pain in her ribs, and Yao hurriedly reached to catch her again, only for Gu Yue to elbow him aside.

Standing in the cold corridor wind, Xie Xie suddenly felt a string snap in his mind with a twang.

He used to have a sharp tongue. He had teased Tang Wulin with things like, "You'll be single your whole life," and "Boss, marry a bun," while Tang Wulin only grinned foolishly. He had thought he was sitting securely on the fishing platform, at least still free.

But now.

A white-haired, red-eyed, crazy lovesick lunatic had sat in his plastic chair and stroked him, saying it was wonderful that he had sprouted.

Wu Changkong's duckling pajamas had been torn.

Yun Ying and Gu Yue had been thrown out of the stairwell one after another.

This chatterbox Yao had raised Star Sword and shouted, "Shadow's end is here."

And he himself had curled up in the corner of the sofa.

A strangled clucking sound came from Xie Xie's throat, like the prelude to that scream he had made when he first burst into Wu Changkong's office.

He remembered saying three days ago, "I won't survive this week."

Now it was late Wednesday night. He was still alive, but his soul had already gone off the rails.

"...Tang Wulin." Xie Xie muttered at the air. "Stop eating chicken legs... come see this lovesick psycho..."

Yao's ears perked up. "Xie Xie, are you insulting Brother Lin?"

Yun Ying laughed through her ragged breathing. "Let him. He's about to lose it."

Gu Yue did not turn around. Under the stairwell light, her violet eyes swept once over Xie Xie.

Wu Changkong had already turned toward the office. Cold air swirled around the hem of his pajamas as he tossed back a sentence from afar. "Xie Xie, you may rest during tomorrow morning's practical class."

Xie Xie used to tease Tang Wulin about being single for life. In the end, he was the first one blessed.

This blessing came in the lovesick-lunatic variety, complete with a Glazed Blade and fertilizing services.

Xie Xie squatted down and buried his face in his knees.

The corridor lights went out.

Only Yao held up Star Sword to provide light, his hair a mess, star points glittering along the blade as he continued shouting, "Xie Xie, are you thanking me or not?" Yun Ying's curses mingled with Gu Yue's footsteps, while the little ducks on Wu Changkong's pajamas flashed past at the distant corner.

He did not have Shadow's number, but she had his WeChat.