The teachers' residential compound for Spring City No. 13 Middle School lay deep in the alley outside the school's back gate.
There were a dozen or so drab gray corridor-style apartment blocks, most of their wall paint peeling away. More than half the sound-activated stairwell lights had long since broken, leaving the buildings practically blind after dark.
Yet this shabby place had housed secondary school teachers for most of their lives.
Yan Ruanning yawned and shuffled out of her room in slippers.
She wore pink panda pajamas, the hood hanging down her back, her messy hair twisted into a bun. Her face was bare, with a tiny bit of sleep still clinging to the corners of her eyes.
"You couldn't wash your face and brush your teeth first?" Her mother, Yan Ping, came out of the kitchen carrying a pot of soy milk. Seeing her like this, she frowned deeply. "What kind of celebrity looks like that? If your fans saw you, they'd stop being fans on the spot."
Yan Ruanning plopped down at the dining table and reached for a fried dough stick. "If they actually saw me without makeup, wouldn't they like me even more? Isn't your daughter pretty?"
Yan Ping was momentarily at a loss for words. "Yes, yes, you're the prettiest," she muttered. "Pretty girls still have to wash their faces."
"I'll wash it after I eat." Yan Ruanning took a bite of the fried dough stick, her words muffled.
The lock clicked, and Old Xu came in carrying a small radio, a towel for wiping sweat still draped around his neck.
He had gone for a morning run around the school track, and his face was flushed.
"Dad, I've got to say something." Yan Ruanning turned to look at him. "Why leave that apartment downtown empty? You and Mom should move over there. This dump of a building-I'm scared there'll be rats when I come back at night."
"Even if we move, it'll have to wait until this class graduates." Old Xu changed into slippers and strolled over to sit on the sofa, picking up his reading glasses from the coffee table and wiping them. "It's so convenient here. The school's right downstairs. Coming from downtown, one traffic jam would cost half an hour. Who'd supervise the students' morning study?"
"Didn't I buy you a car?" Yan Ruanning took another bite.
"It's parked in the compound gathering dust. I can't drive it." Old Xu put on his reading glasses and pulled a stack of manuscript paper from his bag.
Yan Ruanning scoffed, not wanting to get tangled up in that subject.
She stood with her soy milk, walked behind Old Xu, and looked down. "What are you writing? You still have work to finish?"
"A speech." Old Xu didn't look up. "A student's sharing his study experience at today's flag-raising ceremony. I'm preparing a copy for him. If what he's written isn't good enough, this can stand in."
Yan Ruanning's eyes shifted, and she said sourly:
"Oh, so this is your precious darling? You even wrote him a backup. When I entered speech competitions as a kid, you never so much as edited mine."
Old Xu laughed. "You're jealous of this too? He's one of our class's good students."
Yan Ping happened to come out of the kitchen and chimed in when she heard him:
"He really has done us proud. He started outside the top four hundred, jumped to two hundred in the mock exam, then came straight in at thirtieth in the whole school in this monthly exam. Third in his grade in math alone. That child has really had his eyes opened."
Yan Ruanning froze. "From outside four hundred to thirty? That fast? Could he have..."
Old Xu whipped his head around. His reading glasses slipped down his nose, and two icy beams shot over their rims.
Yan Ruanning hurriedly swallowed the rest of her sentence and laughed sheepishly.
"I was talking nonsense, just nonsense. Dad, don't look at me like that. It's scary."
"Third in the grade in math." Old Xu snorted and returned to the manuscript. "Who could let him copy? Whose answers could he copy to come third? That mouth of yours will get you into trouble sooner or later."
Yan Ruanning obediently shut her mouth, retreated to the dining table, and sipped her soy milk.
After breakfast, Old Xu grabbed his papers and briefcase and hurried out.
Busy in the kitchen, Yan Ping suddenly noticed a few sheets left on the coffee table. She picked them up, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "That old fool. He even left the speech he prepared for someone at home."
She turned toward Yan Ruanning, who was already sprawled on the sofa.
"Xu Ruanning, take this to your dad."
Yan Ruanning was reading lyrics on her phone and didn't look up. "His student already has his own speech. Why bother?"
Yan Ping glared. "Are you going or not?"
Yan Ruanning said, "...Going."
Three minutes later, she had changed into an understated black tracksuit and put on a baseball cap, sunglasses, and a mask, looking exactly like a fugitive heading to the airport to dodge the paparazzi.
"Is all that really necessary?" Yan Ping couldn't stand the sight.
"Of course it is." Yan Ruanning straightened her sunglasses. "If this face shows up at a secondary school flag-raising ceremony, it'll be tomorrow's entertainment headline."
Yan Ping stuffed the manuscript into her bag. "Hurry up. Don't hold things up."
On the sports field of Spring City No. 13 Middle School, the entire school's teachers and students stood in a dense mass.
More than three thousand people from the junior and senior divisions formed a huge square in front of the flagpole.
Their uniforms took on a gray-blue cast in the morning light, like a quiet sea.
Cheng Che stood beside the flag-raising platform, his palms slick with sweat.
A breeze stirred the corners of his manuscript.
He glanced down at the speech he had written last night. The handwriting was neat, the structure clear.
He had memorized everything he needed to and circled all the key points.
But standing here, he still couldn't help feeling nervous.
"Don't be afraid." Old Xu stood behind him, his voice soft and steady. "Your speech is well written. Just read it out. You weren't nervous in that huge exam hall. Why be scared of a flag-raising ceremony?"
Cheng Che took a deep breath. "I'm afraid I'll forget my lines."
"Then make something up on the spot." Old Xu laughed. "You're going up there to share your experience, not recite a textbook."
Cheng Che nodded and was about to speak when the host onstage announced his name.
"Next, please welcome Cheng Che from Senior Year Three, Class Five, to share his study experience with us."
Scattered applause sounded across the field.
Cheng Che gave Old Xu one last look, then turned toward the platform.
He climbed the steps and stood at the microphone.
The gazes of three thousand people surged toward him from every direction, like an invisible sea.
The wind suddenly stopped. He heard his own heartbeat, one thump after another.
"Activate."
[Total Concentration activated.] [Passive talent "Stars Surrounding the Moon" triggered: currently in a high-attention setting. Presence greatly increased. Pressure converted into performance.] [Passive talent "Sapiosexual Boy" triggered: intellectual charisma released when the host enters a state of deep thought and expression. Current thinking intensity: moderately high. Charisma bonus: strong.]
The two panel notifications spread silently through Cheng Che's mind like two ripples.
He opened his manuscript, faced the microphone, and spoke.
"Good morning, teachers and fellow students. I'm Cheng Che from Senior Year Three, Class Five."
His voice was clear and clean, like a morning breeze slipping through a window crack, reaching everyone's ears at an unhurried pace.
The students below still wore the drowsiness that came standard with flag-raising ceremonies. Some were secretly yawning, others staring at the tips of their shoes.
But the moment that voice rang out, quite a few instinctively raised their heads.
Then they saw someone.
The boy stood on the platform, the collar of his white shirt turned slightly open by the breeze, the loose hair over his forehead swaying gently.
He looked down at his manuscript, lashes lowered, occasionally raising his clear eyes to sweep the crowd.
Sunlight streamed from behind him, edging his entire figure in soft, fuzzy gold.
One student raised their head.
Two.
Ten.
A hundred.
Like wind sweeping through a wheat field, heads lifted one after another, every gaze drawn toward the flag-raising platform as though by a magnet.
[Stars Surrounding the Moon] worked silently.
All that scattered attention now seemed gathered by an invisible hand, focused entirely on Cheng Che.
He stood before the microphone as though standing in a beam of light.
No, he was that beam of light.
Especially with [Sapiosexual Boy] pouring out its effects at full force.
His focused expression, his faintly knitted brows, the profile of his face as he paused briefly to weigh his words-all were magnified without limit.
That intellectual charisma unique to a boy, poised between youthful awkwardness and resolve, was like a net gently cradling the hearts of three thousand people.
The junior students in the front rows reacted first.
A little girl with a ponytail tugged her companion's sleeve and whispered, "Look at that senior. He's so handsome..."
"His voice sounds so nice too..."
Her companion was already staring in a daze, forgetting even to murmur agreement.
In the formation for Senior Year Three, Class Five, Guo Xin's mouth formed an O. He stared unblinkingly at Cheng Che onstage, his face saying, "Is this really the same little bastard I know?"
Lin Xiao's ears were scarlet. Her gaze darted away a few times, only to return despite herself.
Su Qingyue stood perfectly straight, the corners of her mouth curving without her noticing. Suddenly, today's breeze felt so gentle.
She suddenly remembered what she had told her best friend a couple of days ago: "I haven't really paid much attention to him."
Well, now.
She was paying very close attention.
Meanwhile, Zhao Lei stood at the back of the line with a complicated expression.
He clearly felt resentful, yet he still held his head up, unable to look away.
"This guy... just who is he?" he murmured.
The principal stood on the other side of the flag-raising platform, nearly dropping the microphone in his hand.
He had taught for over thirty years. When had a student speech at a flag-raising ceremony ever not left the crowd half-asleep? When had he ever witnessed the magnificent sight of an entire field looking up together?
He turned toward Old Xu beside him, his eyes plainly asking: Just what is the story behind this student of yours?
Old Xu folded his arms, smiling so broadly his eyes almost disappeared.
Three thousand people had all turned to look.
Cheng Che didn't know.
All he knew was that he felt very calm now.
Total Concentration let him control every word and every pause, keeping them at the most comfortable rhythm.
He felt countless gazes resting on him, but not a trace of discomfort.
[Charisma Trial · Stage One: The boy who was seen. Objective: receive the attention of 1,000 people simultaneously. Completed!]
The system notification flashed through his mind.
Cheng Che didn't let himself get distracted. He turned to the second page and continued.
At the edge of the field, a woman in a baseball cap, sunglasses, and a mask reached the entrance and stopped.
Yan Ruanning stood behind the crowd, still clutching the forgotten speech.
She stared at the boy on the flag-raising platform, her whole body seemingly nailed to the spot.
It was him.
It was actually him.
She had seen him in the photography studio and on the tennis court.
But never at those times had he been like this-standing in sunlight beneath three thousand pairs of eyes, yet seeming like the only person in the world.
"He really does shine..." she whispered.
Behind her sunglasses, her eyes followed the person onstage without blinking. A few seconds later, her face suddenly grew hot.
Yan Ruanning abruptly lowered her head and tugged her mask higher.
This was insane.
She, someone who had seen plenty of grand occasions, was actually standing here blushing at the sight of a high school student.
The speech ended.
Cheng Che gathered his manuscript, stepped back half a pace, and bowed to the audience.
The next second, applause erupted from the formations in every direction.
Three thousand people clapped at once, as though they had arranged it beforehand.
Not the scattered applause of people going through the motions, but praise welling up from the heart.
"Wow-"
"He's so handsome!"
"One more! One more!"
The principal stared at the crowd, dumbfounded, then turned toward Old Xu. His lips moved several times before he finally squeezed out, "This... this student of yours needs to be in the school's recruitment video from now on."
Old Xu's smile bloomed like a flower. "Sure, as long as you pay him."
Outside the school gates, a few passing pedestrians stopped and exchanged bewildered looks.
"What's going on in there? Are they holding a concert?"
"No idea. Sounds like some celebrity's here."