The Fate of Those Who Express Themselves Is to Be Misunderstood

"Teacher, these are the summer assignments I just collected."

In the office, Xia Chen placed the homework Marnie had entrusted to him on his homeroom teacher's desk.

Behind the desk, a burly teacher who looked more like a P.E. instructor looked up at it.

"Is it all there?"

"It's all there."

Xia Chen's face remained perfectly calm, even though the thickness of the stack was hardly convincing.

Mr. Yang wasn't blind, but just as Xia Chen had expected, he merely gave him an amused look.

"Oh, put it there."

Xia Chen wasn't surprised. Even in his original world, high school teachers knew perfectly well how much students actually studied on their own over summer break and generally didn't bother policing such things.

Much less in the more practice-oriented Pokémon class Xia Chen was in, in this Pokémon World.

"Teacher, I'll be going now."

Xia Chen had just said goodbye and was about to leave when his homeroom teacher called him back. "Wait a moment, Xia Chen. Do you have a starter Pokémon yet?"

Xia Chen's parents had disappeared a year ago, and it had even made the news. It wasn't exactly a secret.

Because of that incident, Xia Chen, who had turned sixteen back in spring, had yet to catch a starter Pokémon. It seemed his homeroom teacher had still been worried about it.

Warmth filled Xia Chen's heart. "Yes. At the beginning of August, I found... caught an Eevee. We've been getting along very well so far. Thank you for your concern."

Mr. Yang nodded. "An Eevee? A nice Pokémon. It doesn't eat much, either. If it were something like a Munchlax, then... ahem. As for an Evolution Stone, I'll keep an eye out for you. And if you encounter any difficulties with raising it, you should let me know right away, understand?"

Mr. Yang went over every detail with him, a stark contrast to his rather rugged appearance.

Xia Chen felt even more moved. "Don't worry, sir. I've been doing some part-time work after class, and I can afford to support both myself and Eevee. That includes Eevee's evolution—I already have a way to handle that."

He had only wanted to reveal a little about his current situation so his teacher would not worry too much. Who would have thought that Mr. Yang's expression would become even stranger after hearing that?

Part-time work that could cover Eevee's training and evolution—what kind of legitimate part-time job could that be for a sixteen-year-old high school student?

Mr. Yang looked Xia Chen up and down. Who knew what he had imagined? After pondering for a long while, he finally said hesitantly, "Xia Chen, you're still young and don't understand some things. But a lot of the time... you can't take those shortcuts in life, even if they really can save you ten years of hard work."

"But you need to understand that every gift fate gives has already had its price secretly marked. And later on, some people get really... messed up about it."

Xia Chen: "..."

Mr. Yang had definitely misunderstood something, hadn't he?

And Teacher Yang, didn't that last sentence reveal a little too much?

Xia Chen's pervy soul understood Mr. Yang's words instantly, but he also had to maintain the image of an innocent, pure-hearted sixteen-year-old male high schooler.

So he could only pretend not to understand, scratching his head as he asked, "Teacher, doesn't the school allow students to make videos online?"

Xia Chen's superb acting fooled Mr. Yang. This time, it was Mr. Yang's turn to scratch his head.

"Uh, haha, making videos? Of course the school allows that. It's a very good way to make money. You're doing well. Very well."

"Um, don't think too much about what I said just now. I only heard about that sort of thing from a friend. I really didn't mean anything else by it."

Xia Chen was starting to lose it.

Mr. Yang, please stop talking. You're only making it sound worse.

"Reporting in!"

Just as the office atmosphere was becoming unbearably awkward, a somewhat familiar voice suddenly came from outside the door.

But Xia Chen knew plenty of people at school, so he did not turn around to see which classmate it was.

"Ah, you must be Yulong Tao, the transfer student joining our class this semester. Come in."

Mr. Yang's warm greeting made Xia Chen turn around in surprise. Sure enough, the red-haired boy he had met once before stood behind him.

"We meet again." Yulong Tao greeted him with his usual politeness.

"Yeah, what a coincidence. Did you just say you're transferring to our school this semester?" Xia Chen asked in surprise.

Yulong Tao smiled and nodded. "Yes. Because of family reasons, we moved to Zhijiang this year."

"You two know each other?" Mr. Yang finally cut in after they had exchanged greetings.

Xia Chen gave a simple explanation. "Yeah, we battled once at Battle Park."

Mr. Yang understood at once, then turned to Xia Chen. "It's a good thing for young people to interact more, but don't take the results too seriously. The road of a Trainer is a long one."

"I lost."

Yulong Tao's interruption rendered Mr. Yang speechless for a moment. He then turned to Xia Chen and asked with evident surprise, "Xia Chen, your Eevee beat his Axew?"

Xia Chen smiled. "What else could it have been? It's not like I personally beat Axew. Still, Eevee only won because we got lucky."

"Alright, stop being so modest. A win is a win."

Though Mr. Yang still found the matter unbelievable, he felt it necessary to correct Xia Chen's excessive humility.

"As a Trainer, aside from hard work, the most important thing is confidence. A Trainer's mindset and personality have a huge impact on their Pokémon, so building a healthy and positive—"

Xia Chen was completely speechless. Had he and Mr. Yang somehow gotten on each other's bad side today?

How could everything he said be misunderstood?

Did he really look like a humble person?

But Eevee really had won through luck!

(Eevee: Yeah, yeah, sure.)

After satisfying his need for self-fulfillment as an educator with that long lecture, Mr. Yang finally let Xia Chen go.

"Alright, take the new student to the classroom. I'll be there shortly."

The ordeal finally over, Xia Chen let out a sigh of relief. "Goodbye, Teacher."

In the hallway, the two, who had not seen each other for more than half a month, casually chatted about what they had been up to.

Yulong Tao asked, "Why didn't I see you at Battle Park afterward?"

Xia Chen smiled bitterly. "I've been really busy. I'd only just caught Eevee, so her training schedule was heavy. Then I had other things to deal with, and later I caught a Feebas. I've also been trying to make Pokéblocks myself and stuff."

Just listing everything that had happened over the past half month made Xia Chen feel like he had really been pushing himself too hard.

But there was no helping it. He had started on hell difficulty. The destination he could only reach by giving it everything he had might be somewhere the well-born boy beside him could reach with a casual wave of his hand.

Yulong Tao had no idea what Xia Chen was thinking, but he expressed his understanding. "It's fine. We'll be classmates for another year, so there will be plenty of chances to battle. Axew still talks about your Eevee in my ear all the time."

"Sure. Once we get through this busy period at the start of the school year."

Naturally, Xia Chen would not refuse. Battling an expert was growth, even if he got crushed.

Eevee's real combat experience was indeed a little lacking. It was time to raise the difficulty for her, so she would stop spending every day watching TV and playing on her phone without a shred of urgency.

As they talked, Xia Chen and Yulong Tao returned to the classroom.