The First Day of the New Term: Age-Blind Second Team Selection, Qing, Guyi, Xiao, Meng, Ju Zi, Keke, and Nana (4K)

Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, the first day of the new term.

Good times slipped away in the blink of an eye. The holiday had hurried past, and the Hongchen Class students returned to their familiar, pristine white classroom.

"An inch of time is an inch of gold; the holiday's over, and sorrow takes hold."

Keke lay sprawled over her cold metal desk, her pretty face declaring that she had nothing left to live for. In any world, beasts of burden hated letting their holidays slip away. On their first day back at work, they inevitably wailed in despair and composed a poem to mourn the past.

"Why did I just hear someone muttering about how much she missed the class monitor after not seeing him for so long?"

A pair of dazzlingly white hands suddenly reached out from behind Keke and pinched the soft flesh of her cheeks, kneading it over and over. Keke knew who it was. Like an obedient calico cat lying flat and accepting every stroke, she mumbled, "One year in the Hongchen Class, a lifetime of friendship. Besides, I missed you too, Sister Ju Zi."

Only then did Ju Zi withdraw her wicked hands and spare her best friend, who seemed to have forgotten her roots. Returning to her own soul-tool metal desk, she gazed straight at the classroom door with shimmering eyes. One month apart had felt like three autumns. Keke was not the only girl who missed Lin Qing.

Ten minutes before class, Lin Qing and Ye Guyi entered the classroom side by side. The Hongchen Class students had long since grown used to this sight. They knew the pair had once braved the border between two countries together, forging an inseparable bond as comrades-in-arms. They were usually joined at the hip.