Chapter 92

When Ji Qing stepped through the school gates again, a wave of dazed unreality washed over him.

Even though winter break had only lasted a month and a half, it had still been enough to draw a line between him and ordinary students. While people all across the Federation were silently counting down the bells of the New Year, Ji Qing had still been rushing about for the sake of a troublesome mission target.

Brilliant fireworks had burst across the night sky above the wasteland town. Festive red decorations could be seen all along the streets as far as the eye could reach, and yet he had stood there alone, his figure thin and solitary. At the time, Ji Qing had absentmindedly thought: It wasn’t really painful. He was just a little lonely.

He dealt with targets during the day, chatted with White Night at dusk, and played Landlord Poker with the system at night.

That was how Ji Qing had spent his New Year.

Ji Qing suddenly shook his head helplessly and strode into the school grounds. His New Year had not exactly been pleasant, but he still had important things to do right now. He could not afford to sink into pointless negativity.

Once he finished registration, he still had to meet Emerald, Ji Qing thought.

New semester, new changes.

Small groups of students had gathered outside the gates of the Third Ability Academy. Most of them were carrying luggage back to school, laughing and chatting with their companions as they headed toward their dormitory buildings.

Ji Qing’s lonely figure moved among them, making him especially conspicuous.

Someone empty-handed would already stand out, and Ji Qing’s delicate features, combined with his shoulder-length white hair, gave him an androgynous kind of beauty. Quite a few students could not help glancing at him as they passed—until they caught sight of the Nameplate on his chest, at which point they hurriedly looked away.

Class S. White hair. Absolutely not someone to provoke.

That equation flashed through the students’ minds, and soon the people around him subtly quickened their pace.

Ji Qing shot them a somewhat puzzled glance. He did not think there was anything frightening about him. Could they have mistaken him for Shao Huayu? But then again, was Shao Huayu really that terrifying?

Ji Qing tilted his head, thoroughly baffled.

Still, the sight of his classmates dragging their luggage away reminded him of something. Since he was already back at school, why not have lunch on campus later and sort out the things in his dorm as well? Because of the school’s sudden lockdown last semester, Ji Qing had never gotten the chance to come back and pack up his belongings.

It was not as if he thought he had left anything especially valuable at school, but since he had the time, he might as well tidy things up after registration, Ji Qing thought.

Once he made up his mind, Ji Qing strode toward the Administrative Building.

Class S students had to report to their homeroom teacher for registration, and Li Xuehua’s office was on the third floor of the Administrative Building. When Ji Qing reached the open office door, Li Xuehua was bent over her desk, writing seriously beside stacks of files piled as high as a small hill.

Ji Qing swept his gaze around the office and found that Li Xuehua was the only one there. He guessed to himself: Maybe the others were busy with matters related to their own classes?

After all, in the Third Ability Academy, only Class S had the qualification for separate training. Students in the other classes would spend their high school years on campus like normal high schoolers, right up until their final year of practical training.

In a certain sense, high school in the wasteland world was more like university in the normal world.

“Knock, knock, knock...”

Ji Qing rapped lightly on the door.

Hearing the sound from the doorway, Li Xuehua immediately put down the pen in her hand. “Come in.”

“Ji Qing, you’re here pretty early.” Once she recognized who it was, Li Xuehua showed a gentle smile and greeted him casually. “How was your winter break? You can sit here for a moment first. I still have a few things to take care of.”

As she spoke, Li Xuehua pointed at the cushioned chair beside her desk.

Ji Qing quietly nodded.

He did not ask what Li Xuehua was busy with. He simply sat down as instructed. The clatter of a mechanical keyboard rang out without pause as Li Xuehua adjusted her glasses and carefully checked the figures in the report.

The air conditioner hanging nearby dutifully blew out warm air.

Birds chirped outside the window. Warm air brushed the fine hairs on his cheeks, and Ji Qing’s hands and feet, stiff from the cold outside, gradually warmed up. At that moment, Ji Qing could not help recalling his own high school days.

Back then, he had once been caught encouraging his classmates to skip class, and afterward a teacher had dragged him into the office in disgrace.

That counted as a different sort of youth too, Ji Qing thought with a faint smile.

But now that he looked back on it, what rose in Ji Qing’s heart was not just the embarrassment of having been caught, but also a trace of sorrow. The more aware he became of how long he had stayed in the wasteland, the more distant the idea of “going home” felt.

What kind of mood had he been in back then when he chose to seal away his memories?

The rapid clatter of the keyboard abruptly came to a stop.

“All right, I’m done here.” Li Xuehua took off her glasses and turned toward Ji Qing with a smiling expression. But the moment she turned around, she suddenly caught a fleeting trace of loneliness on his face.

Li Xuehua’s eyes widened unnaturally.

To cover up that reaction, she quickly changed the subject. “Ji Qing, how was your winter break?”

“It was all right, I guess,” Ji Qing said with inexplicable coldness.

“I remember that you’re an or... ah, no, I mean, did your winter break not go too smoothly?” Li Xuehua had instinctively recalled Ji Qing’s family records, but she quickly changed the subject midway through. Embarrassed, she thought: I almost poked right at his sore spot.

“More or less,” Ji Qing said with a long sigh.

Just as Li Xuehua was about to ask why, Ji Qing suddenly said coolly, “Teacher, please handle my registration first.”

“Oh, right, right.” Li Xuehua scratched her head awkwardly.

The sudden turn in the conversation had nearly made her forget what she was supposed to be doing. So she cleared her throat and, keeping her usual gentle tone, said, “Then please give me your student ID and identity card.”

“Here.” Ji Qing efficiently pulled out the documents for registration from his bag.

He had prepared the necessary materials before coming over, since none of them were really the sort of things that required advance preparation. If anything truly counted, it was this semester’s tuition.

Fortunately, winter break had given him enough time to earn more than enough money for himself.

Li Xuehua quickly switched pages on the computer and tapped rapidly on the keyboard. She flipped to the last page of his student ID, aimed the scanner at the magnetic barcode, and then waited for the tuition payment to go through.

Ji Qing lowered his eyes and tapped at his Terminal a few times. Very soon, a payment deduction notice came through on the device around his wrist.

At that point, his registration was complete.

Ji Qing’s gaze dimmed slightly.

He had noticed the registration form on Li Xuehua’s desk earlier. So far, only Ji Qing’s name had been checked off. That meant that aside from him, none of the other Class S students had come to school yet to register.

Had he come too early? Was he not going to run into a single classmate? Ji Qing worried inwardly.

Registration for Class S students was handled separately, and the window lasted three days.

Since Ji Qing had shown up on the morning of the very first registration day, there was a very real chance he would not meet anyone at all. Lowering his eyes, Ji Qing thought: It wasn’t that he especially wanted to see his classmates... he was just a little curious about how their winter breaks had gone...

“...Sigh...” A nearly inaudible sigh slipped out through Ji Qing’s teeth.

All right. He admitted it—he did miss his classmates a little.

Ji Qing’s winter break had been painfully plain. He felt that if this kept up, next summer he might just grab some random classmate and drag them home to stay with him. Full of grievance, Ji Qing thought: Why had even Xie Chang’an’s winter break been warmer than his?

Xie Chang’an could make dumplings with the children at the Orphanage, while he himself could only watch him making dumplings in the manga.

...He really was too miserable.

Just as Ji Qing’s thoughts were in chaos, Li Xuehua suddenly asked, “Ji Qing, I see that your Hunter account hasn’t been activated yet. Do you want me to help you activate it here?”

“Hm?” Ji Qing tilted his head reflexively.

So Li Xuehua explained patiently, “The Hunter accounts distributed by the school need to be activated in person at a Hunter’s Guild office before they can be used. I already notified all of you about that at the end of last month, but...”

Li Xuehua suddenly sighed with emotion. “Looks like you were really busy this winter break, Ji Qing.”

Ji Qing fell silent after hearing that.

Because he really had been busy—busy enough that he had not even checked the class group chat.

The work from the Dawn Society was not especially difficult, but it often took up an entire day... On top of that, Ji Qing had needed to make money, pry information out of Red Heart, deal with White Night, investigate traces of himself, keep up with manga updates, and have the system watch over his classmates’ situations, among other things.

That was how Ji Qing’s winter break, New Year included, had flown past in a blur.

So Ji Qing put on a helpless smile and said, “I really was pretty busy, I guess. Then I’ll have to trouble you to activate it for me, Teacher. But the school can do that too?”

“Of course.” Li Xuehua answered confidently while operating the computer to activate it. “Our school has close ties with the Hunter’s Guild, after all. Most students choose to become hunters after graduation, and being a hunter can also be taken on as a part-time job. The pay is fairly generous too.”

Ji Qing could not help teasing, “Just not very safe, right?”

“Hahaha, that’s true.” Li Xuehua readily agreed with a smiling face. “That’s exactly why teachers like me end up becoming your teachers. If, in the future, you decide you don’t want to become a hunter and you don’t know what kind of work to do, you can always choose to become a teacher like me.”

“The school will always stand firmly behind you.”

With those words, Li Xuehua solemnly returned Ji Qing’s student ID and identity card to his hands.

Ji Qing quietly looked at the documents in his hand, then shook his head. “Forget it. I’m not so down-and-out yet that I need to stay at school. But thank you for the suggestion, Teacher. If I ever can’t survive outside, I’ll consider it.”

Though by then, he would probably be just about dead anyway, Ji Qing added silently in his heart.

Still, Li Xuehua’s words had genuinely improved his mood. He had not reached a dead end. He could still build up his own network of relationships... No matter when, comparison was always the thief that stole happiness.

Now that the conversation had reached this point, Ji Qing knew it was time to say goodbye to Li Xuehua.

But just as he was about to speak, a burst of chaotic footsteps suddenly rang out from the third-floor corridor of the Administrative Building.

Tap, tap, tap...

The footsteps grew closer and louder.

The two people in the office instinctively turned their eyes toward the doorway. At present, Li Xuehua’s office was the only one on the third floor of the Administrative Building that was open, which meant only one thing: whoever was coming was undoubtedly here for Li Xuehua.

What happened? Ji Qing wondered inwardly.

But before he could even see who had arrived, Gu Lingxue’s dissatisfied voice carried over first.

“Dad, I already told you this is my own business! You can’t make decisions for me! I’m not just your daughter—I’m also an independent person with a sound mind, perfectly capable of expressing what I want!”

“What do you mean, an independent person? You have no idea how serious this is!” an unfamiliar man snapped.

“We sent you here to study, not to get yourself killed!” The woman traveling with him sounded disappointed, then shouted to the man, “No, honey, we really can’t keep indulging her willfulness this time. We have to transfer her back to a regular high school...”

“I told you, stop making decisions for me!” Gu Lingxue shouted angrily.

Before the visitors had even reached the door, the two people in the office instantly understood the situation.

Looks like Gu Lingxue’s parents want to transfer her out, Ji Qing thought.

And honestly, it was the sort of thing that really would happen.

From the moment Ji Qing had first learned about Gu Lingxue’s family background through the manga, he had already expected that her parents would never agree to her advancing to Class S, much less allow her to keep going in and out of Danger Zones. Gu Lingxue herself came from the wealthy class. She lacked neither money nor status.

Parents who cherished their daughter so dearly would never allow their child to become a wasteland hunter whose life and death were constantly uncertain.

It was just that...

Ji Qing turned his head to look at Li Xuehua.

The more Li Xuehua listened, the duller her eyes became. More than anyone else present, she understood perfectly well what kind of position she was in as Class S’s homeroom teacher. She truly had not expected that on the very first day of the new semester, she would be forced to face a difficult student’s parents.

Damn it. This was absolutely aimed at her.