“Greetings, my name is Shen Yu, of Shen Clan, 15 years old,” Shen Yu was nervous, but from years of strict etiquette lessons, his voice didn’t quiver, his face a perfect mask of estrangement and aristocracy. “Please take care of me.” he bowed in a perfunctory manner, as per tradition of his clan. He didn’t dare to glance at others, it would only make him more nervous.
He expected some sort of praise, or maybe ridicule, but his homeroom teacher interrupted before he could see his classmate’s reaction, she said kindly, a little too kindly, “You can go sit at the back, next to Marina, she will guide you on what you have missed so far.”
Shen Yu nodded, hesitating internally, but swiftly walking towards the red-haired girl who was staring at him with hidden ridicule. He didn’t know the reason for her attitude, why was she being mean to him? He decided to ignore the tightening of his chest, he may have seen wrong.
When he sat down next to her, she grabbed a book in hand and showed him the page number. “We have read till here, understand?” her voice was a rough sort, but it somewhat matched with her boyish charm.
Shen Yu nodded, taking out the book, ignoring the students who were sitting around him, glancing his way once in a while when the teacher wasn’t looking. Shen Yu clutched his space ring a little tightly, taking out another short notepad. It wasn’t bad so far, his class was well lit and well ventilated, the students looked decent enough, maybe a little curious was all.
He smiled internally, he was finally getting to know how a classroom worked, the GS feeds weren’t lying when they said the first day was always bound to make one nervous. He was happy enough to have a chance at coming here, he would have to thank his mother.
“So the micro management of any district is bound to its legislation…” the teacher read through her own notes from GS server, her eyes closing and opening to keep an eye on the student as well. Some time passed and Shen Yu finally at the confidence to look around.
The classroom was a rectangular hall, with 50 separate desks and a 2-meter-wide gap between them. 5 rows of neat arrangement and a group of elite students, it made the class look very sophisticated. The four black boards in the class were also high tech, a floating sort that could be moved at will, it made things easier for the teacher to write on one of them and the rest of the boards copied the first. For a set of 50 students, this arrangement was quite rich, even those with bad eyesight would be able to see things very clearly without craning their necks.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Shen Yu loved it, he peered down at his notebook, that had a plain white cover and blank sheets, he decided to note down what the teacher was talking about.
When the class was finally over, some of the students came to introduce themselves, they were all smiling and very gentle with him. Some even fawned at him for his beautiful face, generally the girls were super excited. Shen Clan was well known among major sanctions and elites, no wonder they all knew about Shen Yu’s identity.
Until a mid break rest, things went smoothly, Shen Yu was even getting used to making friends. But when he got hungry, he decided to take the nutrition pill, and that was when a stray classmate asked him what he is eating, they weren’t allowed to feed on pills without getting permission from the headmaster.
“This… is a nutrition pill, the one that provides sustenance.” Shen Yu was a little nervous about saying it, but his classmates would eventually know, and they were very good to him so far, he was confident they wouldn’t be like his clan members back at home.
The classmate who asked him about the pill was named Sukuchi, the class monitor, he was a gentle guy, but the moment he heard about sustenance pills, he asked skeptically, “You eat them… why? You damaged your dantian?”
Shen Yu clutched his space ring with a nervous tick, looking down at his desk, “I have a weak foundation, this helps me.”
“He doesn’t cultivate is what it is,” a nasty bite commented from behind him, it was Amit, the one who sat behind Shen Yu, the one who didn’t approach him although the rest did. Shen Yu felt angry inside, was he being targeted again? Can’t these people stop? He felt hurt, so what if his dantian was weak and he didn’t cultivate, would that make him a target of bullying?
“No cultivation?” another classmate exclaimed, a little too loud in the silent classroom. She was Naika, friends with Casse and Marina. She actually looked fascinated, but thanks to her the rest of the classmates also gathered around Shen Yu, asking him this and that.
Shen Yu realized they weren’t exactly cold to him, they were just asking, except for the skeptical class monitor, and the nasty Amit, the others were quite casual about his situation. It relieved Shen Yu and he talked to them some more.
~
When a week passed, things started to get weird, Shen Yu felt ostracized, in every group project, he was the only one who didn’t get a partner, he was also the only one to have received the most work in every group when added together. Since he didn’t do practicals, he was safe, but that gave others the reason to accuse him of cheating and getting it easy. In order to avoid their suspicion, he didn’t deliberately ignore their requests, he didn’t get angry at getting more work, he did his part very diligently.
This helpful and hardworking Shen Yu received the praise of the class, and his classmates even argued with each other when trying to add him into their group.
Marina and her group on the other hand, didn’t bother with him. Casse had even gone as far as to ignoring Shen Yu to his face, and the Naika who had been so excited to know more about him, refused to look at him anymore, as if he was beneath her.
This attitude change hurt Shen Yu, but he bore the pressure because it was easier to get through the day if he didn’t know the reason for their sudden fickleness.
~
A month passed and Shen Yu was just rounding the corner of the building, when he heard two familiar voices chatting amongst themselves, they were Victor and Jeremy, one was of Russian descent and the other was an American descent. They were from the few oldest families on Earth, just like Shen Clan.
They were talking about a certain project which was going to start next week. A collaboration with senior batches to experiment on cultivation base.
It was a matter of privacy so Shen Yu didn’t bother listening in on them, he decided to take another route, he didn’t want to talk to them when they had such familiar note to them, a high-status clan member made Shen Yu queasy. Even during classes, Shen Yu avoided them.
But maybe he should have listened some more, because the arriving week he was asked by a group of seniors to step up as their experiment module. Someone from his class had spread the rumor around that Shen Yu had no cultivation base, so some of the seniors from 8999th batch considered him a good specimen, wasn’t he like those mortals who used to live on Ancient Earth?
“I am uncomfortable, I won’t do it,” Shen Yu voiced his opinion even if they didn’t ask. Unfortunately, he was loud in his complaint and the other groups who were studying their project turned to look at him. In their midst also sat Amit, he started to snicker into his fist, apparently, enjoying the show when one senior held Shen Yu’s wrist and pulled him to sit by his side.
Kite was his name, Shen Yu recalled that he looked to be from a Thai descent, but he could be wrong… Still, Kite was also a part of the old clan, probably a demonic clan, his heavy presence making Shen Yu smothered, such was never the case with righteous clan, because being from a righteous clan himself, Shen Yu was less bothered by righteous cultivators. Kite may not be a demonic cultivator yet, but his aura was laced with some residual energy that came from living with a group of demonic cultivators, “You are a good student I heard, despite managing to enter this academy because of your family, hehe” he added subtly, “and you waste time during the practical sessions, why not do something productive with us, I am not asking you to do much, just stand there and we will test your dantian. It won’t hurt.”
Shen Yu restrained his rage, “I am not a test subject, sorry,” his face was cold as he glared at Kite. It wasn’t about the ease of being a module, it was about consent and pride.
Kite was unperturbed, his gaze sharp as he stared down at Shen Yu, “Why, you are useless anyway, at least in this way you will be put to good use… what career do you have, even the Shen Clan ruled you out, right? If not that, your girly face might give you a chance at prostitution, I heard they pay well, you can be the sugar baby.”
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Bitch who the fuck
Oh flashback time. I was curious about his school days.
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