Xuan Mo's name was added to the list of students going to First Class very quickly. The entry of this particular hundred-twentieth ranked student into the First Class immediately stunned the entire school. Conclusively, not many thought well as a result of such a turn of events. Xuan Mo was well-known among a small crowd of people since military training. And so, on top of such exposure, Xuan Mo's nerves were rendered terribly frayed from the looks she received during her meals even before lesson started.
It'd be difficult to be sensitive to danger if she were to garner too much attention. Though there wasn't much danger that could befall her per say, but at least she shouldn't neglect exercising her very instincts.
The attitude of being vigilant of possible danger was already engraved into her lifestyle.
The atmosphere in the dorms became very strange. Xuan Mo wasn't someone who would actively explain herself, for she knew that explaining herself would only appear as though she had something to cover-up. And so, after being chased and hounded by questions from Tian Jin Jin, she managed: "I'm better at Science subjects*."
* the extent of being "better at Science subjects" is diluted when translated into English. The word in the raws is "偏科 (pian ke)", which means to do overwhelming well in one particular course, but terribly bad in the other (usually referring to humanities vs science subjects), but I didn't manage to find an English equivalent.
"Better at Science subject!? I'm better at one course too, but why is it that you can get into First Class!" Tian Jin Jin propped her hands on her waist and reprimanded, "Mo Mo! Your father sent your older brother to that rubbish school of a Jing Teng but you to First Class? Exactly who is his biological kid?!"
Tian Jin Jin's howl had Xuan Mo who didn't know how to react. The very fact that she dared to scream her discontent told her that Tian Jin Jin was trustworthy. At least she was better than those who held in their suspicions and dissatisfaction then pull dirty tricks behind your back.
At that thought, she glanced at Li Fang and Qi Shan who had their ears wide open trying to catch what they were saying.
Qi Shan did the least well in this time; she ranked in the last hundred. Tian Jin Jin on the other hand did decently, ranking at around hundred and forty. The best out of everyone here was Li Fang, who was the number thirty-six in the entire level.
She was so very close to getting into First Class, yet Xuan Mo who ranked about ninety places behind her managed to her into First Class. Seeing how even Qi Shan was unhappy about the outcome, she wondered how badly Li Fang would hate her for this; she had every reason to even if she did.
Of course, the above undoubtedly were Tian Jin Jin's thought process rather than Xuan Mo's. During their night exercise, she frowned as she analysed: "So Xuan Mo, you need to stay vigilant and watch out for any tricks they might pull! I will definitely protect you! Enh! And I'm in the same class as Qi Shan so I'll help you watch her!"
Xuan Mo laughed. She earnestly hoped they'd try to make something out of this; it's time she should properly exercise her adaptability and face the changing tides with her unchanging stance. Of course it'd be a matter of killing or not killing should things turn out too much for her to handle.
But she really couldn't be bothered scheming against the Blue Planet's beings…
I mean do tigers need to watch out for the dirty tricks a rabbit tried to pull?
How very adorable of Blue Planet being Tian Jin Jin.
As Xuan Mo jogged, she glanced at Tian Jin Jin as though smiling. Tian Jin Jin student on the other hand was already deeply immersed in the intricacies of the palace harem storyline as she muttered on about all sorts of plans like luring the tiger out of the mountains* and besieging Wei to rescue Zhao**…
* 调虎离山 = luring the tiger out of the mountains; entice one's opponents to leave their vantage ground
** 围魏救赵 = besieging Wei to rescue Zhao; relieve the besieged by besieging the base of the besiegers
That night when all four of them were in the dorm, none of them had anything to say to each other, so they went to bed; lessons started the next day.
In the morning when Xuan Mo had just stepped into the empty First Class classroom, she heard her phone ringing in her pocket.
She was still very unaccustomed to such an ancient device. She reached for it, opened the cover, pressed the button before bringing the device to her ear… communications back in her time were all via mental powers. All she had to do was to think if she wanted to receive it or not. All these unnecessary actions could cost her countless lives on the battlefield!
"…" Xuan Mo didn't know she had to say hello when she picked up the phone; such an action was as instinctive and as situationally dependent as whether you squat or run when a bomb was thrown at you, so it was not saved into her memory archives.
"Mo Mo?! Mo Mo are you listening?" It was Xuan Mo's mother; she sounded very anxious.
"…speak."
"We agreed that I'll be sending your brother to school but he's gone. Can you help me check if he's in school? He's in Year Three, Thirteenth Class. Has your lesson started?"
"Not yet."
"Then help me check if he's there, goodness, I'm so worried!"
Xuan Mo silently hung up. Closing her eyes, her mental power immediately expanded. After some simple inspection of the area, it lurched itself in the direction of the Thirteenth Class in Third Year… the classroom was empty.
Even the First Year First Class classroom that was supposed to house the most enthusiastic students was empty, so how would it be possible that the students of the Third Year Thirteenth Class, symbolic of the most hopeless of slackers, be in so early?
Xuan Mo retracted her mental powers, opened her phone in discontent and pressed to look for her mother's number before dialling.
"Hello!? How's it going?!"
"He's not here… it's too early."
"How did you know so quickly? Isn't the Thirteenth Class for the Third Years in the third year building, Mo Mo did you even check the place?!"
Xuan Mo clenched her teeth. This lady wanted her to be quick but told her off for being too quick. All females of the Blue Planets are terrible!
"He's not here." She repeated earnestly before hanging up.
A young teacher hummed as she entered. Just as the teacher was about to pick up the chalk, she noticed Xuan Mo standing by the side dressed in white and got a scare: "Goodness! You, are you… Xuan Mo?! Oh oh, I remember seeing you on the screen during the obstacle course, goodness, you're here early."
Xuan Mo's memories were somehow once again triggered, and a new word popped up in her head: derailing.
"Didn't know such a fragile looking girl can be so amazing. Military training aside, even your science subjects are good. I didn't get the Maths paper at all haha, how did you study to do so well?! Do tell!"
"Ah so quiet, what a shy girl, that's good that's good, girls who are more reserved are better, oh and since you're here, help me see if the table I drew on the board is slanted, this is your seating arrangement. Let me see where to put you, oh oh the fourth seat in the sixth group, the one beside the window, well head over now…"
The female teacher talked for a very very long time. She was still talking even after she finished drawing her diagram and turned to do something else. After which, she raised her head and smiled: "Xuan Mo, any thoughts on starting school?"
"You… " Xuan Mo sat straight up in a military posture on her seat. She started, wanting to say something before swallowing her words. She honestly wanted to say: "I'll throttle you if you speak a word more."
But Blue Planet didn't seem to take violence very well.
She drooped her head, as though defeated, saying softly: "Who are you…"
Her simple question for some reason had the female teacher pausing for a long while. It's only a moment after did things seem to suddenly dawn on her: "Do you find me very annoying?"
"…"
"Oh sorry was I doing that again? Eh, my surname is Lin, my name is Fei. I'm your new form teacher."
"…" Xuan Mo looked out the window, underlining the fact that she was ignoring the teacher.
After a while, students finally entered. They came in in twos and threes and sat down according to their allocated seats on the board. Lin Fei who was standing in front smiling had the students uneasy.
No one knew each other, so Xuan Mo who'd come to be well known among some people became the focus of their attention. There were even some who pointed at her asking: "Isn't she the…" to enter into a conversation with each other.
Because of so, Xuan Mo was ignored.
Xuan Mo's entry into First Class had those who did better than her discontented. Those who were assigned to First Class felt dissatisfied, and some even a tad bit glum; they'd given up their holidays to study so hard to enter in First Class with their grades, yet this student ranked the number hundred something could stand on equal footing of them, hence the frustration was real.
Xuan Mo evidently sensed some enmity. What she lamented was the fact that even if these hostility merged together to come at her in a flood, it was still insufficient for the alarm for her mental net her mental powers encompassed her in to go off…
Cowards.
Since they were unhappy with her, why don't they challenge her upfront!
With that thought in find, she deliberately swept a look around the classroom in provocation. What's sad about that was the fact that when the students around her met her gaze, they either lowered their head or pretended not to see it.
Did she just get ignored?!
Xuan Mo minced her lips and continued looking at the view outside the window.
The bell signalling the start of lessons rang.
It was the first day of lesson so there wasn't a need about the general affairs such as the selection of the class committee.
The seat behind Xuan Mo was still empty.
She didn't mind that, but the other people around her evidently minded.
"Why isn't Yi Hai Lan here yet?" A girl muttered softly beside her.
It struck her ears like the roar of thunder… another idiom surfaced in head. Though the description wasn't very accurate, the mention of that name had her shook.
The first time she woke up, the first time her memories were triggered, the first time she tried to find out the reason to the original owner's suicide, the first time she saw the guy, the first time she tried her best to recall, the first time… she flipped open the diary.
All of her eyes, her heart, her head, her world, was filled with the name Yi Hai Lan.
How very lovely, Xuan Mo squinted. Though she was still unable to restore the memories that were forcibly sealed by the original owner of the body, she had finally met one of the reasons to the original owner's death.
The second bell to lessons rang. When Lin Fei was just about to start talking, the door to the classroom was knocked.
The door opened, and outside the classroom stood Xuan Mo's diary.
Or more specifically, the male lead of her diary.
"Sorry teacher, first time waking up early, still a little unaccustomed." Wild and wayward, the guy smiled as he entered, exuding an air of frivolity tinged with refinement, leisure and ease skirting his every movement.
Xuan Mo could distinctly feel the faint stirrings in herself.
It was more of the memories in her head stirring. The memories of bumping into Yi Hai Lan previously in the cafeteria once again surfaced; they used to be neighbours, they grew up together, they went to the same primary school. But after that, he was in his own world, and Xuan Mo was in her own clique.
He didn't in any way had romantic feelings for Xuan Mo, but Xuan Mo felt that if she were to lose him, her world would be robbed of oxygen and sunlight.
Exactly why were the beings on the Blue Planet so… enigmatic?
Xuan Mo frowned. She felt like using her mental powers to delete this overly unstable data from her memory archive. For some reason though she couldn't seem to get herself down to doing it… because she realised that once they were gone, her memory archive would seem very empty.
Goodness!
How did Blue Planet beings survive with just memories of a certain person?! This was too amazing!
Upon coming to that realisation, Xuan Mo cupped her forehead, aggreived, deliberately turning to look out the window instead of the Yi Lan Hai behind her.
Yi Lan Hai didn't seem to notice her deliberate avoidance. When he sat down, he patted her shoulders rather happily: "Hoh! Xiao Xuan Xuan, we're in the same class again!"
Xuan Mo froze, finally managing, with much difficulty though, to hold back the urge to block off Yi Lan Hai's hand when he reached for her. Wary of the large emotional fluctuations this guy brought, she turned around, humming in acknowledgment as coldly as she could.
Yi Lan Hai raised his brows. As though having recalled something, he dropped his hand awkwardly: "I thought we could continue being friends."
Who wanted to be friends with him?! What use were friends anyway? Were they as important than comrade-in-arms?
Xuan Mo "enh"ed and proceeded to ignore him.
Yi Lan Hai paused for a long while before stuttering: "Xuan, Xuan Mo, are you, are you… possessed?"
Even though she knew Yi Hai Lan was only joking, Xuan Mo still felt a wave of anxiety. And so, our schemeless and blunt Xuan Mo students turned around and looked at him gravely: "What did you say?"
"Why do you feel different? No, it's not a feeling, you're definitely different!"
"The previous sentence."
"What, which sentence."
"The sentence before the feel different one."
"Eh, continue being friends."
"After that!" Xuan Mo's veins throbbed. How unexpected for her to have such a function!
"Oh, uh, possessed?"
Bang! The table screeched before the squeaking.
Yi Hai Lan looked at the calm Xuan Mo who was retracting her fist with wide eyes. She shot him a look of warning, before saying softly: "There are some things you shouldn't speak carelessly of…"
He swallowed and leant forward to scrutinise the spot where Xuan Mo had slammed down on as he broke out in cold sweat.
Was it his imagination, or… did the she really leave a punch mark on the table?