Chapter 58

Chapter 58: Preparation Four

Fengling Academy is located in the misty and picturesque Jiangnan province, with short springs and autumns, and long summers and winters. This time, however, with nearly a whole train of Fengling Academy students traveling, the destination is the rugged and treacherous southwestern part of the country.

The district under the mountain city of Yuzhou, Fengdu, is the destination for today.

Every three years, around the middle of the lunar calendar’s sixth month, students from various academies head south and north to Fengdu for the entrance exam interviews.

Outside the window, the red mountains and green trees rapidly approach, and with a rumbling sound, a pitch-black tunnel rushes toward them. The entire high-speed train is engulfed in darkness. Mingyue rests her chin in her hand, gazing at her dazed face reflected in the glass, listening to a group of third-year students behind her discussing students from Xiang University’s Spirit Academy in car 7.

“How lucky, we’re right by the dining car, but we have to run over there,” a senior sighed, his perspective being a bit strange.

“Such a coincidence.”

B-seat, Bai Linlang was reading notes for the multi-school joint exam, her ears not idle, “Our academy actually bumped into Xiang University.”

“Meeting is fate,” a voice from C-seat, An Xueru, replied indifferently. “Does the dorm manager want to see the corpse-driving technique from western Hunan?”

Bai Linlang shot her a glance. “I’m not dead.”

“What corpse-driving technique? Are you sick?”

At this, the dorm manager tugged at Mingyue's arm, “Ming-ge, stop staring out the window. It’s so dark outside, there’s nothing to look at.”

“Here, here, I’ve copied the exercise booklet for you two. Hurry up and study!”

Mingyue looked at the exercise booklet Bai Linlang passed over, with handwritten words on the cover: "1992-2019 Thirty Years of Ghost Slayer License Exam Past Papers."

This name really has a lot to be said about it.

“Thanks, dorm manager,” Mingyue smiled, then immediately exposed her true thoughts, “But why does the thirty-year past paper collection start from 1992?”

She counted on her fingers, “Is my math bad?”

Bai Linlang glared at her, “Are you really that dumb, or are you just pretending?”

“There was a one-year hiatus in 2008/2009, you know, it was covered in the general history,” the dorm manager added.

“Mingyue, are you a goldfish? Seven-second memory?”

Mingyue’s heart skipped a beat, but she only gave a fake smile, ignoring the dorm manager’s jab.She had a deep memory of the year 1992.

Ming Ye was born in this year.

It must have been an auspicious year, with all things blessed and fortunate.

Because her older brother was born.

Almost all of Mingyue's memories of this world were after 1992, whether it was her parents or her values.

But Mingyue didn’t expect that the previous Ghost Slayer License exam in 1992 was actually canceled.

The three of them read for a while, the view outside the window alternated between black and white, not very friendly to reading. An Xueru furrowed her brows and impatiently said, “The southwestern terrain conditions are really harsh.”

“It’s only been a few minutes, we’ve passed through two tunnels.”

“Isn’t there any plain land?”

Mingyue chewed on the pen, showing An Xueru the introduction to Fengdu in the first few pages of the past paper booklet. “Look, the entire C province and Yuzhou have very rugged terrain, lots of mountains, and few plains, but the greenery is really nice.”

“The people who live here must be as passionate as fire.”

Bai Linlang: “Like shouting messages across mountains?”

Mingyue giggled. “I guess so. How could anyone with an introverted personality survive in such a high-density yin energy environment since ancient times?”

“Situations are stronger than people.”

Lunchtime.

The dining car on the high-speed train was very cozy, with checkered tablecloths covering long tables. Each table had artificial flower arrangements to set the atmosphere. The 405 dorm and the class monitor's dorm sat at one table, five people surrounding it eating pasta.

Upon hearing that Jun Weiran didn’t come to the dining car, Mingyue silently slurped her noodles without saying much.

Bai Linlang, concerned about her roommate, saw that Mingyue was fine and secretly poked An Xueru.

The two exchanged glances.

Strange, Ming-ge isn’t reacting.

Soon, another batch of students poured into the dining car, a large crowd. After sitting in half of the dining car, they unavoidably occupied the other half of the car.The upperclassmen of Fengling Academy, who were discussing the license exam in small fragments, suddenly quieted down.

“……” Suddenly, silence fell. Mingyue, chewing on her pasta, looked up and just happened to see President Chen Xiu and one of the new students exchanging smiles and nodding at each other.

“This is the first time I’ve seen Senior Chen Xiu smile like that, looking so fierce,” Mingyue muttered to her tablemates.

Yan Jun, the most well-informed first-year student, immediately stepped in to explain:

“That person is the president of Xiang University’s Spirit Academy.”

“Senior Chen Xiu was an external intern in his first year, and he had a competitive relationship with this person in Fengdu.”

“Later, when they were both upperclassmen, I think they competed over an A-tier second author paper or something,” Yan Jun said, not too sure about the last part.

The others nodded and silently continued eating.

The Xiang University students sat down and began ordering food.

Mingyue and the others sat near the door of the dining car, and the next table was occupied by Xiang University students.

A few casual comments drifted over.

“This year, Fengling’s external interns seem to be a bit too many.”

“Yeah, just look at this table, their faces are so young.”

“What’s the use of bringing a bunch of kids? It just increases the denominator. When the statistics for the passing rate come out, those chatty big shots in the industry will be posting articles saying we’re all getting worse each year.”

“Who says they’re wrong? These big shots always find something to complain about. Instead of criticizing the underworld for its immoral actions, they’re just obsessed with making life hard for us.”

A few kids eating pasta: “……”

“Slurp slurp.”

An Xueru, with her bad temper, immediately sneered: “Heh, increasing the denominator.”

“We’re not from Imperial University, where do they get the nerve to say we’re increasing the denominator?”

An Xueru’s voice wasn’t too loud, unsure if the people at the next table could hear, but it immediately lowered as soon as she realized they could.

“Shh.” Mingyue bit off a piece of noodle and pulled on An Xueru’s sleeve. An Xueru impatiently shook off her hand.

“What’s wrong? The dining car isn’t from any particular school.”“I can say whatever I want,” An Xueru said coldly, intentionally speaking loudly enough for the people at the next table to hear.

The table next to them fell silent.

Chen Xiu's table also glanced over toward them.

‘Don’t cause trouble.’ Mingyue signaled An Xueru with her eyes.

‘We’re being led here by our seniors. If this year, we were the main force in the exam, you could provoke them all you want.’

‘But the key is, right now, we’re not the main characters, Fat An.’ After glaring at her, Mingyue turned and gave a slightly apologetic smile to the second table.

From the second table came a faint sound of “tch,” full of contempt.

Mingyue: “……”

Mingyue straightened up, picked up her water cup, took a sip, rinsed her mouth, and suddenly her expression changed.

As soon as Bai Linlang saw the gleam in Mingyue’s eyes, she began to get nervous and grabbed Mingyue’s sleeve. “What are you going to do?”

“We haven’t finished eating yet.”

Mingyue: “Don’t worry, I’m not causing trouble.”

“I’ll just be fairly and impartially discussing a few things.”

Chen Xiu was sitting at the table behind them, Zhao Yibai eating so uncomfortably it was hard to watch.

Xiang University Spirit Academy and Jin University Fengling Academy are both in the top ten of spiritual medium disciplines, but Jin University is ahead of Xiang University.

Chen Xiu, as the head of Jin University’s Spirit Academy, has a reputation in all major academies—yes, these things are like intelligence work, layer by layer. The heads of the fourth-year students in the top ten academies all know each other well.

It’s just like how the top few students in the third and fourth years of each academy can easily name the best students from other academies in the same grade.

Everyone is caught up in fierce peer competition.

For neighboring provinces, “brother schools” often form teams for project development, such as the project collaboration between Jiang University and Jin University at Shui Ximen. Naturally, the second-year students from both universities are very familiar with each other.

For schools that aren’t neighboring, they still create opportunities to collaborate, like this year’s joint project between Jin University’s Fengling Academy and Chang'an Normal University on ancient site exploration in the old city of Chang’an.

And here, Zhao Yibai and Chen Xiu meet in the dining car, and what happens? They exchange smiles, and sparks fly.Zhao Yibai: Hmph, Jin University has been falling these past two years. Let me show you how I’ll deal with you.

Chen Xiu: Tch, first clear up that second-author paper you lost to me.

The words from the two tables by the door, both openly and subtly filled with anger, were loud enough for Zhao Yibai to hear. He teased Chen Xiu:

“Senior Xiu, this year Jin University’s external interns are quite enthusiastic.”

“They really like our Xiang University students,” he said, and kindly poured Chen Xiu a cup of tea.

Son of a dog, this is leftover tea, cold as ice shards.

Chen Xiu thought to himself, but smiled on the surface and pushed away the tea that Zhao Yibai had poured for him.

“Just joking, just joking.”

“Clearly, it was your Xiang University that liked our younger sister first, wasn’t it?”

After speaking, Chen Xiu slid the plate with only green peppers left—“Stir-fried pork with green peppers”—over to Zhao Yibai.

Zhao Yibai: ……

Zhao Yibai hadn’t expected Chen Xiu to be so shameless. Just as he was thinking of how to politely retort, his ears caught the disturbance from the two tables by the door—

This time, the troublemakers were Jin University’s interns—

And it was a young girl with a messy, unkempt hairstyle—she spoke in a light, casual tone, as though she were talking about a bird perched on a treetop outside the window—

“Class monitor, I’m about to take the Fengdu exam, and I’m still kind of nervous.”

“How strong is our Jin University, really?”

“For the four-round subject evaluation, what rank did our academy get again?”

Her tone was neither too high nor too low. At this moment, everyone in the quiet dining car, chewing their lunch, had their ears perked up to listen.

The moment the topic was raised, Zhao Yibai knew it was trouble!

It was a good thing to step on Jin University, after all, striking first was a common military tactic.

It’s better to be a chicken than a fallen phoenix.But he couldn’t step too hard!

Because even a fool knows that Xiang University’s Spirit Academy can’t compare to Jin University’s Spirit Academy!

As expected, one of the Jin University interns at the table, a good-looking guy, couldn’t hold back his laughter and answered:

“Don’t be nervous, it’s all about the experience. Achieving good results would be even better.”

“There’s still a lot of room for improvement for us at Jin University.”

“For the four-round evaluation, Fengling Academy is ranked second in the country.”

Zhao Yibai: ……

The students in the dining car: ……

Son of a—!

You’re already second, and you’re still saying there’s ‘a lot of room for improvement’?

Why don’t you just fly to the sky!

As expected, once the second-place ranking was mentioned, the other students at the table who had been stirring up trouble quietly deflated.

However, there are always people with a malicious streak, who love to kick a dog while it’s down.

That messy-haired girl—strange, she looked so good, how did she end up with such a messy hairstyle—she wasn’t done yet, and continued fanning the flames politely:

“Well, that’s true. Sigh, we’ve been too lax.”

“We really have to work harder.”

“I just saw several seniors from Xiang University in the dining car, they were really handsome.”

“How’s Xiang University’s ranking, class monitor?”

The guy who answered looked like he was about to laugh:

“Xiang University is excellent.”

“Ranked eighth in the country.”“Indeed, every one of them is a talent.”

“Oh.”

The girl responded loudly, continuously nodding: “I really should learn well from the seniors of Xiang University.”

The other interns at the same table were frantically shoving noodles into their mouths.

No other reason, they were afraid they'd laugh out loud.

Zhao Yibai: ……

The Xiang University Spirit Academy students at the other table: ……

The dining car was silent.

The Xiang University students ate their food expressionlessly.

The Jin University students ate their food with smiles on their faces.

Chen Xiu looked out the window and suddenly coughed loudly, dramatically like a rooster crowing.

“What nonsense are you saying!”

“Eat your food properly!”

“Can’t you choke if you don’t talk?!”

Chen Xiu appropriately turned his head and kindly scolded Mingyue's table.

Mingyue clasped her hands together in apology and winked at Chen Xiu.

Chen Xiu returned a wink.

Turning back to continue eating his noodles, Mingyue secretly whispered to An Xueru:

“See, this is the proper way to step on others.”

“Don’t attack random things, if you’re going to step on someone, do it decisively.”

“If they want to argue with me, let them go tell the Ministry of Education.”

An Xueru looked at her with amusement and whispered back:“You pulled me just now.”

“I thought you were afraid of trouble.”

Mingyue immediately retorted:

“Afraid of trouble?”

“As a roommate, I’m really hurt by how little I know you.”

Yan Jun finished eating first, ordered a plate of fruit, and pushed Mingyue’s head down:

“Alright.”

“Forgive others when you can.”

“Going head-to-head with senior students from other schools is not a good thing.”

“Know when to stop.”

After saying that, he handed a piece of watermelon to Mingyue. Mingyue hummed, then began eating.

Zhao Yibai secretly observed, looking at Chen Xiu, who seemed pleased with himself, and tested the waters:

“Fengling’s external internship this year looks good.”

Chen Xiu smiled and said, “I’m not being polite, Yibai.”

“Don’t underestimate our interns this year, and don’t think just because they signed up they’re only there to assist.”

“Two of the students at that table are little geniuses with perfect practical scores.”

“You’ll see for yourselves.”

Zhao Yibai found it hard to believe: “First-year or second-year?”

Chen Xiu didn’t lie: “They’re about to be second-years.”

“That girl who spoke just now has rich practical experience.”

“I’m not exaggerating, she can compete with our seniors in terms of practical skills.”Zhao Yibai looked at him coldly: “Keep boasting.”

Chen Xiu smiled: “Alright, consider it bragging then.”