Swan Demon

"Good heavens! That kid on the third floor who keeps reciting his lessons couldn't take it anymore and jumped out the window!"

Splat.

Zhang Xuezhou flailed his arms, but he didn't soar into the air as he had imagined he would if he could fly.

He didn't even manage to glide.

He landed squarely on the ground below.

The sound of his landing was especially loud in the early morning.

The auntie, who was extremely sensitive to the sound of Zhang Xuezhou reading, threw open her window. Out of habit, she was about to shout curses at the floor above, but her gaze happened to sweep over the figure on the ground.

Seeing his body twitch slightly and a large pool of red spreading across the ground, the auntie let out a piercing scream that rang through the school district housing complex.

Student deaths were uncommon, but by no means rare at school. Exams, breakups, punishment and criticism were especially liable to expose the fragility of a student's heart.

The auntie thought Zhang Xuezhou was one of those fragile students.

Her shrieks drew a crowd of people in the building to stick their heads out.

Someone immediately rushed downstairs.

"He's not dead! He's still alive!"

"He's that kid from the third floor, the one whose parents don't look after him!"

"His floor is 12.8 meters above the ground. Based on the effects of gravity, his speed at the moment of impact was..."

"Stop calculating! He's alive, he didn't fall to his death!"

"Quick, pick him up and take him to the school infirmary!"

"You can't move someone with injuries from a fall like this! Get a stretcher!"

"We don't run a hospital! Where are we supposed to get a stretcher?"

"We can carry him on a bedsheet!"

After all