The first lesson ended with Lin Fei's endless chattering. Though everyone's names were written on the seating arrangement on the black board, she still insisted that everyone stand to introduce themselves, talk about their interests, birthday and the likes.
It was the first time everyone met so it can't be helped they'd feel a little ill at ease. Given the fact this class was the cream of the crop, none of the students were nervous about introduction. Each of them stood up to introduce themselves, with occasional surprising and hilarious words that had the class bursting with laughter.
Xuan Mo sat on the furthermost seat, the second from the last, so the last one after her was Yi Hai Lan.
When it was her turn, the entire class turned their attention to her while they discussed in low voices. She introduced: "Xuan Mo, human female, biological age: fifteen, date of birth: CE XXXX 30th October, height 1.657cm, weight: 92.26 catty*, hobby… currently none existing. Report, over."
* catty is one of the often-used unit of measurement in China; 1 catty = ~0.5kg, so 92.26 catty is 46.13kg
After which, she sat down with a swoosh, as sharply as if she's still in military training.
The classroom was silent. Everyone was in a dazed admiration.
Her very murderous and swift demeanor to her self-introduction… seemed for some reason extremely normal.
But when they recalled what she'd said, why did it seem not so normal now?
What's with the human female, biological age, weight and height that's specific to two decimal points… was she honestly trying to be funny?
And so, the rest of the people continued puzzling over this. Even Yi Hai Lan wanted to push aside his self-introduction to communicate with this peculiar creature named Xuan Mo.
"Heh, hehe, looks like student Xuan Mo has read a lot of sci-fi, military fiction to the extent you're using it in real life, not bad not bad. Military training did well to train you guys." Lin Fei paused for a minute before smoothing things over.
Yi Hai Lan stood blankly. He'd initially prepared a splendid self-introduction, but he forgot what he had planned to say after being interrupted by Xuan Mo. You can't really blame him for being confused, his childhood friend's change was too abrupt to the point things felt as though it was another era to him…
"Yi Hai Lan, male, cough cough…" He almost couldn't help but do a self-introduction in a report-style manner like Xuan Mo, to the extent he even mentioned his gender, "I won't make much mention about my birthday height BWH and stuff, I have quite a few hobbies, but the key word is–play, ok~ that's it." After which, he quickly sat and continued staring at Xuan Mo.
After feeling the intense stare originating from behind her, Xuan Mo slowly turned. She exchanged a stare with Yi Hai Lan for half a second. Her imposing aura was so strong it was enough for him to turn away to look at the blackboard to relieve himself from the pressure. When his gaze flickered back once again, Xuan Mo had already turned her head back, as though she hadn't shot him any of that alarming gaze.
Did him rejecting her confession affect her so badly she'd changed from a Lin Dai Yu* to Black Butler? Maybe it was too much for her to handle…
* 林黛玉 = Lin Dai Yu (fictional character from "红楼梦"'Dreams of the Red Chamber') is a beautiful young woman of physical frailness who is somewhat prone to occasional melancholy
Yi Hai Lan felt extremely helpless and a little guilty at the same time. He'd always seen this childhood friend of his as a little sister. It was seriously too difficult to treat her as a bro or a sis given her previous demeanour–she appeared so fragile to the extent he didn't even dare pat her shoulder.
After which was flag raising, then selecting of the class rep.
Everyone had thought that Xuan Mo who was extremely impressive during military training would be the sports rep, but she caught everyone off guard when she rejected this prestigious position. First High followed how the universities handled it–being involved in the class committee could add to your end-of-term examinations, and it would greatly affect the chances of getting a good appraisal for scholarship.
Of course, the masses were glad such a competitor was no longer in the competition.
Yi Hai Lan managed to clinch the position of the class rep with his good grades and popularity. With that, he proceeded to "impolitely" tell Xuan Mo off, reprimanding her for being as shy as she'd been, and how she's still so tactless and the likes, and how she was still so timid like a little sister blah blah blah.
Xuan Mo flipped her English textbook, treating his words as a discharge of waste gas. Who would've known that the reason she didn't take up that role was because she found it too disdainful. If you'd been the commander to thousands of millions of warriors and hundreds of millions of warships on an intergalactic expedition, would you be willing to downgrade to being a class rep to a bunch of kids in this ancient civilisation?
Xuan Mo wasn't willing.
Yi Hai Lan was a pretentious person, and if you were familiar with him, you'd be clearly presented a display of his ruffianess and indolence. He was evidently the type that was naturally gifted in studies. Though he didn't rank first in the level, he still managed to clinch a forth playing while video-gaming away when the others studied their ass off… he was resentfully gifted.
The day passed quickly. During which, Tian Jin Jin and Qi Shan called Xuan Mo over to lunch together. After resting for a bit in the dorms, they returned to their work. And so, the daily lunch date between the trio became their mini custom.
In the afternoon when Lin Fei dismissed the class from lessons and while everyone was packing their bags, Yi Hai Lan suddenly shouted: "Xiao Xuan Xuan, your mom's outside!"
Xuan Mo raised her head. She sensed that her mother came, but she didn't expect that she'd head straight for the entrance; she was obviously looking for her.
Don't tell her she missed her daughter already, it was only the first day of school, goodness… Xuan Mo thought to herself as she carried her bag and headed out.
Xuan Mo's expression was poor. She pulled Xuan Mo over to one side, forcing a smile: "Mo Mo, how's the first day of school?"
Xuan Mo looked at her and asked straightforwardly: "What's wrong?"
Xuan Mo's mother wasn't here to express sympathies about Xuan Mo's return to school, so she didn't bother hiding anything. She frowned: "Your brother didn't attend school altogether. He's not at Jing Teng High either. The friends he hang out with usually aren't in school too. I'm worried. You are around your brother's age, do you have any idea where he could have went?"
Xuan Mo couldn't help but laugh. In her memories, she found out that Xuan Mo had once slightly yearned to become closer to Lu Yu Chen but her positive impression of him was scared away by his terrible attitude. So, how was it possible that she'd actively learn about him and what's happening in his life? She shook her head crisply: "I don't know."
Xuan Mo's mother actually knew Xuan Mo and Lu Yu Chen weren't really close. It's just that they didn't manage to get into contact with him for so long so she should at least try her luck with Xuan Mo. When she heard Xuan Mo's answer, she wasn't very disappointed since her reply was somewhat expected, but she became a little more worried.
Xuan Mo silently expanded her mental power till it encompassed the entire school, the surrounding area of the school, the neighbourhood, all the way till it covered Jing Teng, and further and further… right there!
She saw Lu Yu Chen.
Her so-called unbiological sibling was currently half-kneeling half-lying among a group of youths that were around his age. He had scars all over his body. His too-long hair hung, covering his badly-battered, swelling face. His injury did seem just a tad bit severe.
If this had been previously, Xuan Mo would report the target to HQ without a tinge of hesitation. After the lesson she learnt from her mother's call that morning, Xuan Mo was unsure what the appropriate break in time she should take before disclosing her information. And so, her usually expressionless face scrunched up into a frown from the lack of such common sense.
"What should we do, I guess the only way is to make a police report. Even though it hasn't been twenty-four hours yet, but… I'm really worried about him going off with that bunch of hooligans." Xuan Mo's mother took out her phone in hesitance, beyond worried.
"Cough." Xuan Mo coughed lowly to attract her mother's attention.
"Mo Mo, what's wrong? Are you cold?" Xuan Mo's mother asked in concern very ignorantly.
Hm was the cough not telling enough? That wasn't an attention-drawing action enough? Xuan Mo mentally blamed the often-inaccurate memories in her archive, completely oblivious to the fact that she didn't need to make any particular signpost because their parents would have their attention completely focused on their children.
"I, thought of a place." Xuan Mo faltered.
"Oh? How did you know?" Xuan Mo's mother didn't believe her. She was very clear how poor the relationship between her daughter and son was.
Go die! Xuan Mo gritted her teeth mentally. If she were to say she didn't know, this woman would be disappointed, but when she said she knew, this woman wouldn't believe her! All the beings on the Blue Planets were terrible!
"I'm not very sure, but I'll go check it out."
Respect for one's parents was deeply entrenched in Xuan Mo since millions and millions of years ago. She figured her mother would most probably wail terribly should she see such a scene.
"On your own? Will it be very dangerous?" After all all the bad guys were probably together with him.
"It won't, I'll call you if there's anything." After which, Xuan Mo left."
"Aye! Do you want me to send you, or at least tell me where you're going?"
"I'm just going to check the place out, it's not very far, you continue searching." Xuan Mo waved at her from behind.
When she reached the junction, she expanded her mental power once again. Seems like he was still being beat up. Very good.
She looked at the multiple taxis driving by on the road and decided not to run over. Her current body was not suitable for flying with mental power. It'd be bad if her soul ended up leaving this body after running. Hence, she flagged a taxi and told the driver the address.
Meanwhile, Lu Yu Chen was still being beat up. The youths that were ruthlessly hitting him cursed with malicious expressions on their faces.
When the taxi reached the location, Xuan Mo was relieved to sense that Lu Yu Chen was still alive. Hence, she very interestedly decided to figure out how the taxi priced its rate. Memories were after all memories, only when she learnt things on her own would they then truly belong to her. She looked at the label on the window, the label stated that the rate started at ten yuan* for three kilometres, and 1.2 yuan for every kilometre after that. She calculated a total of 17 yuan with the formula for the distance travelled, but the driver charged her 19.
* 元 = Yuan; chinese currency
"Where are the remaining two yuan from?" She asked earnestly.
The driver pointed at the label at the shotgun seat that stated the additional 2 yuan charged for fuel fees: "For this!"
Xuan Mo raised her brows, took out two coins, handed it over and alighted the taxi.
She was very calm. In fact, she found the fact that she sat, calmly, in Blue Planet's ancient and prevalent public transport of extremely novelty.
After recalling the murky smell that was completely different from that in her mother's car, she decided that it wouldn't be wise to take such a transportation too much…
She slowly walked over the the mouth of the alley where Lu Yu Chen's tragedy occurred. The deep alley was dark with only a single lamp post lighting the alley. There were lots of words broken apart and scribbled on the walls; that must be the reason as to why there weren't much other human beings interrupting. Even if some did, they wouldn't have the courage to challenge the extent to which these youths could be unreasonable.
Xuan Mo silently spectated the process in which Lu Yu Chen was being beaten up. Even though they've been hitting him for so long, Lu Yu Chen was still holding up. He panted unceasingly. Wounds dotting his entire body, he raised his head occasionally to glare fiercely at the ringleader.