Back to School for Exams

The academic exams were held at No. 3 Middle School, for no particular reason-it was simply the school's turn this year.

When Xu Yuan and the others reappeared on campus, quite a few ordinary third-year students came running to watch, making for a lively scene.

What nobody expected was that the person drawing the most attention wasn't one of the top students like Zhang Juye, nor any of the students from the other four high schools, but Xu Yuan, the bottom-feeder.

"I heard that bastard Xu Yuan's been stirring up wind and rain at the martial arts base. He made over a hundred thousand in just a few days!"

"Over a hundred thousand? Wasn't it several hundred thousand?"

"What do you mean, several hundred thousand? I heard it was several million!"

"Anyway, he's doing really well now. He's even the owner of the main group chat for this year's martial arts students in Yang City."

"So what if he's doing well? Does that erase the fact that he used to be scum?"

The martial arts students had never been bullied by Xu Yuan, so they found it easy to accept the changed Xu Yuan.

But quite a few ordinary students who had suffered his bullying still couldn't stand him, and some even harbored hatred.

That hatred, however, was destined to stay buried in their hearts...

Xu Yuan could feel quite a few malicious gazes from the crowd, but he paid them no mind.

Even if ordinary people hated him, there was nothing they could do to him.

Of course, he wasn't going to cause them trouble either. Let them hate him. After all, he was the one occupying this body, wasn't he?

The exam rooms were in No. 3 Middle School's laboratory building, with a cordon set up around the outside.

Once they entered the cordoned-off area, the noisy chatter gradually faded.

Only then did a few martial arts students from other schools tease him with smiles:

"Xu Yuan, your reputation at No. 3 Middle School isn't exactly great."

"And you said you had good character before. You've got some thick fucking skin!"

Just like the martial arts students from No. 3 Middle School, these students from other schools didn't take it too seriously even after hearing that Xu Yuan used to bully people.

The few with a strong sense of justice merely frowned without saying anything.

When misfortune hadn't fallen on their own heads, how many people could truly feel another's pain?

Since martial artists had far better eyesight than ordinary people, the 150 martial arts students were split across ten exam rooms to prevent them from peeking at others' answers, with fifteen students per room and at least three meters between seats.

Xu Yuan's exam room was on the second floor, and the proctor was Liu Yun, the young married martial arts teacher from No. 1 Middle School.

Lin Yuan was proctoring the room next door.

As soon as Xu Yuan reached the second-floor corridor, he saw the two of them playing with Little Blackie, who had arrived at school ahead of him.

To keep anyone from discovering their connection, Xu Yuan usually avoided contact with Little Blackie.

When Little Blackie saw Xu Yuan arrive, he cooperatively pretended not to know him, but respectfully called him "Master" through his thoughts.

"Good morning, Mr. Lin, Ms. Liu!"

Xu Yuan went over to greet them.

"Good morning, Xu Yuan!"

Liu Yun smiled warmly, while Lin Yuan merely glanced at Xu Yuan before pulling a cat treat tube from his pocket to feed Little Blackie.

Xu Yuan raised an eyebrow. "Mr. Lin, why are you carrying cat treats around?"

"A few stray cats have shown up near my place lately. They seem pretty fond of me, so I bought some snacks to feed them for fun."

Lin Yuan spoke without looking up, concentrating on squeezing out the cat treat.

Xu Yuan's eyes brightened slightly. The stray cats Lin Yuan mentioned were probably the six he had sent to the River Bay Villa District.

He had originally planned to take Little Blackie to collect intelligence once a week to see what Lin Yuan was like in private. He hadn't even collected the first batch of intelligence yet, so he hadn't known that Lin Yuan had already started feeding those six strays.

That made it even less likely that Lin Yuan was a beast.

After all, why would a beast feed stray cats?

Not to mention that Lin Yuan even carried cat treats around. That kind of compassion wasn't something a beast could have.

"By the way, I remember your academic grades being pretty ridiculously bad, kid. Are you working so hard to make money because you're planning to get in through special admission?"

Just then, Lin Yuan suddenly asked him.

Although academic grades only accounted for ten percent of a martial arts student's overall martial arts entrance exam score, there was one strict requirement: they had to pass.

If they couldn't even pass, special admission was their only option.

Special admission meant paying money-one hundred thousand for each failed subject.

And neither the Four Great Universities nor the Ten Key Universities accepted special-admission students. Special admission could only get them into the most ordinary martial arts universities.

Lin Yuan had already felt that Xu Yuan's current cultivation shouldn't cost much, yet Xu Yuan kept making money as though he'd fallen into a cash hole.

Now that he thought about it, could the kid be preparing for special admission?

But Xu Yuan shook his head and said with a perfectly straight face, "I've been working especially hard lately, studying by lamplight every night. I've caught up on everything I didn't learn before. Scoring eighty or ninety will be a breeze. I don't need special admission!"

"You've been studying by lamplight?"

Lin Yuan rolled his eyes outright.

More like the kid had been staying up late figuring out how to empty his classmates' pockets.

"Forget it. I can't be bothered with you. It's not like you're short of money for special admission now anyway." Lin Yuan went back to feeding the cat.

Xu Yuan chatted with Liu Yun a little more, then turned and entered the exam room. After finding his seat and sitting down, he immediately shared Little Blackie's five senses.

At the same time, with a slight shift of thought, he gave Little Blackie an order: Stop eating. Go find a top student.

Then Little Blackie, who had been lying in front of Lin Yuan obediently licking the cat treat, stood up and headed downstairs without so much as looking at him.

Over the past few days, Xu Yuan had already identified the dozen or so academic stars among the martial arts students. As long as he found one sitting by a window, the exam would be in the bag.

Of course, Luo Yaoxi would have been the safest bet, but unfortunately, that girl didn't need to come take the exams at all.

Little Blackie arrived outside the first exam room on the ground floor and lightly leaped onto the windowsill, immediately bringing every examinee in the classroom into Xu Yuan's view.

There was one top student inside, but their seat wasn't by a window.

Go to the next exam room, Xu Yuan ordered.

Little Blackie jumped down from the windowsill and ran to the second exam room...

And so, under Xu Yuan's direction, Little Blackie searched the exam rooms one by one.

At the seventh exam room, he finally found a top student sitting by a window.

And that top student happened to be from No. 3 Middle School: Huang Yun, one of the top students in the martial arts class.

This one. Little Black, lie down right here, Xu Yuan sent through his thoughts.

Little Blackie received the order and immediately lay down on the windowsill, tucking both front paws beneath himself and looking incredibly well-behaved.

Inside the exam room, Huang Yun noticed him, and her eyes instantly lit up. "So cute! Are you going to keep me company during the exam?"

Clearly, a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old girl had absolutely no resistance to an adorable creature like a kitten.

At eight thirty, the exam began.

Xu Yuan looked over his paper, wanting to see how many questions he could answer using his predecessor's memories. It turned out he could only fucking answer five questions on the entire paper, worth exactly ten points altogether, so he decisively chose to copy Huang Yun's answers!

Apart from a few subjective questions where he needed to change the wording, Xu Yuan didn't alter a single word.

At ten thirty, the exam ended. Xu Yuan checked the name on his paper, made sure he hadn't copied Huang Yun's name too, and confidently handed it in!

This subject was in the bag!

PS: Mushroom poisoning. My stomach's been hurting all day. No idea when I'll be able to write the next chapter...