Chapter 7: Transfer Student

Li Cheng was startled and immediately held his breath, listening at the door. Fortunately, he didn't wake his aunt's family.

He exhaled in relief and carefully examined the bone blades on both arms.

Each bone blade was about sixty centimeters long—twice the length of the ulna—and at its widest point, roughly seven centimeters. The edge was as thin as a cicada's wing, razor-sharp, capable of slicing through steel wire, yet tough enough not to shatter like ordinary bone.

The bone blades were not formed as single pieces; they contained a folding mechanism similar to a pocketknife—confirming Li Cheng's suspicion that they had separated from his ulna.

Additionally, inside the spine of each blade were blood vessels, tendons, and other structures.

When Li Cheng focused his awareness, the bone blades would extend or retract at his will, like Wolverine's claws.

The skin fissures on his forearms would automatically close, with no blood loss and no visible scars.

He swung his arms experimentally; the mantis bone blades sliced through the air with a sound. Combined with the muscle burst power granted by the grass-cutting ant genes, they were strong enough to kill large wild beasts like lions and tigers.

————

The ordinary world, the ordinary life—now gone forever.

The next day at school, Li Cheng gazed out the window, his eyes deep.

"Turn in your homework! Turn it in!"

The girl in front turned around, urging Li Cheng to submit his assignment. "What are you thinking about? Your expression is so gloomy."

"I was thinking—the third most intelligent animal on Earth is the dolphin, the second is the chimpanzee,"

Li Cheng turned back, dead serious. "Then what's the most intelligent animal?"

"You're acting crazy again. You're in a good mood, huh?"

The girl named Mu Yulu rolled her eyes, took his homework from his desk, and passed it forward.

Mu Yulu, Li Cheng, and Han Letian had known each other since childhood.

As a child, Li Cheng was especially hyperactive and wildly imaginative, perfectly fitting the definition of "psychotic minds think broadly, brain-dead kids have more fun."

He once picked up sutras from a crematorium, tossed corpses around in the morgue;

He thought he was a tomato when he had a nosebleed;

When the school organized a visit to a nursing home, he gave hearing-impaired elderly people English listening exercises to "train their hearing";

He cosplayed as a character from Dead Poets Society while standing on the teacher's desk during the farewell for a substitute teacher;

He nearly got arrested after inhaling white allergy medicine powder violently at the subway security checkpoint while repeatedly exclaiming "Too! Too! Too!" in ecstasy, scaring the police officers into dragging him to the station.

Only as he grew older did he become calmer, turning into a normal person.

Their homeroom teacher, Yang Hui, entered the classroom and tapped her knuckles on the desk, making a "Dong! Dong! Dong!" sound that silenced the morning reading.

"Ahem."

Yang Hui cleared her throat. "Class Five, today we have a transfer student. Please welcome her with applause!"

The classmates clapped enthusiastically, their eyes sparkling with curiosity.

After one and a half years together, the class's social circles had nearly solidified; everyone preferred sticking with their small groups.

An unexpected transfer student was practically a light novel trope.

Under all their gazes, a girl with exquisite features walked into the classroom.

She wore a Chanel beige knit sweater, her skin beneath the light scarf so pale it revealed faint veins. A platinum bracelet adorned her wrist, and she carried a tiny, delicate handbag. Her timid, fragile gaze, paired with perfectly fluffy socks and bright red, dainty leather boots, made her look like a meticulously crafted porcelain doll.

"Whoa."

Several classmates involuntarily murmured in awe. To Li Cheng's right, Han Letian pressed his hand to his chest and whispered low, "Is there really someone this cute in the real world? Li Cheng, pinch me—I must be dreaming."

Before he finished speaking, Li Cheng pinched him. Han Letian immediately winced in pain. "Dude, you actually pinched me?!"

"The phenomenon where the terminal bud of a plant grows preferentially while lateral buds are suppressed is called apical dominance. By pinching off the plant's tip, you can promote increased yield. By this principle, if you pinch off a person's head, you can promote their bodily development."

Li Cheng explained with perfect seriousness.

"Hello everyone, my name is Shao Wangshu, from Jincheng."

The petite girl spoke, her voice as clear and soft as imagined. "Thank you for your welcome. I look forward to studying and progressing together with all of you. Thank you!"

With that, Shao Wangshu bowed—nearly bumping her head on the desk.

After the introduction, Teacher Yang sighed in relief and asked gently, "Alright, Shao, where would you like to sit?"

The classroom had forty-two desks: eight rows of five, plus two extra desks flanking the podium, jokingly called the "Left and Right Guardian Seats."

The Left Guardian Seat was the class monitor's spot; the Right Guardian Seat was usually empty, but during evening self-study, Yang Hui's daughter, Yang Ling—who was still in elementary school—would come to sit there.

Yang Hui's husband had died years ago saving a drowning child. As a single mother, she had worked hard raising her child.

Since elementary school ended early and she didn't trust her daughter to stay home alone, she let her come to the classroom after school. After-school students from Class Four often stopped by to tease Yang Ling, patting her head before leaving.

"Could you assign me a seat… right there?"

Shao Wangshu raised her finger and pointed behind Li Cheng.

"Huh?"

The homeroom teacher froze. She'd only learned that morning about the transfer student. The school leadership had repeatedly warned her: Shao Wangshu's family background was extraordinary—she must be treated with extreme caution.

This was absurd. Zhuoyue Middle School was one of Yinxing's top private schools—what kind of parents hadn't she seen?

At parent meetings, a single brick thrown could hit dozens of wealthy elites, yet the leadership had never been this tense.

Now, Shao Wangshu had specifically requested to sit alone in the very last row.

To outsiders who didn't know, it would look like the homeroom teacher was abusing her.

"Shao, the last row is far from the blackboard. Can you even read the writing?"

After hesitating, Yang Hui asked gently, "Our seating rotates monthly. How about we put you closer to the front first, so you can adjust? We'll reconsider next month?"

Hearing this, Shao Wangshu bit her lip, stood on tiptoe, and whispered something into the teacher's ear.

A flicker of shock passed through Yang Hui's eyes. She cleared her throat. "Uh, Han Letian, please move your desk behind Li Cheng. Shao Wangshu will take your original seat."

"Huh? Why me?"

Han Letian, called by name, stared blankly—but teacher's orders were absolute. He slowly dragged his desk to the back, behind Li Cheng.

"Uh"

Li Cheng also looked bewildered, but under the homeroom teacher's instructions, he brought over a new desk and chair.

Since Zhuoyue Middle School discouraged early romance, boys and girls were generally not seated together.

His long-term fixed desk partner on the right was Han Letian; the girl on his left, Ye Jiaying, was only a temporary arrangement.

He hadn't expected his desk partner to be switched to a girl—let alone a transfer student—wasn't this a bit against the rules?

Dazed, he sat back down, and Shao Wangshu, already seated beside him, extended a slender palm and smiled brightly, "Hi there, classmate. I'm Shao Wangshu from Jincheng."

"Hi, I'm Li Cheng from Yin City."

Li Cheng reached out to shake her hand.

————

During break time, Shao Wangshu, naturally likable in appearance, sat surrounded by a circle of girls, chatting with them about Jincheng's scenery and cuisine.

Li Cheng and the other boys sat in a corner by the window, chatting idly and splitting a bag of Lay's cucumber-flavored chips.

"Let me tell you all, this new girl, Shao, comes from an absolutely extraordinary family."

Han Letian lowered his voice, feigning profundity: "Her family is rich—more than just ordinary rich."

"Wait, how do you know that?" asked a boy named Yiwensi.

"I can tell," Han Letian rolled his eyes. "Her scarf is Colombo."

"Columbus? What's that?" asked another boy, Zhan Xinyu, puzzled.

"An Italian cashmere brand."

Han Letian, whose mother was a fashion designer and who had been raised with such exposure, sneered: "It calls itself the world's greatest creator of cashmere and rare fabrics, manufacturing luxury textiles from animal fibers—including but not limited to vicuña, kid cashmere, guanaco, and camel hair."

"If I'm not mistaken, Shao Wangshu's scarf is made of Siberian mountain goat cashmere—its fiber diameter is one-seventh that of human hair, and it reflects a golden sheen under sunlight. Just this one scarf costs this much."

He held up a seven.

"Seven thousand?"

"Seventy thousand!"

"Whoa." The surrounding classmates all exclaimed, each with a different tone.

Zhuoyue Middle School had many second- and third-generation rich kids; extravagant fashion was nothing unusual.

But a seventy-thousand-yuan jade pendant, a seventy-thousand-yuan watch, and a seventy-thousand-yuan scarf were entirely different concepts.

"Now you understand, right? Anyone hoping to cling to a rich woman's leg—pay attention, behave well."

Han Letian slapped his thigh, then suddenly remembered something and eyed Li Cheng suspiciously: "By the way, Li Cheng, why did she specifically ask to sit next to you? Do you two know each other?"

"No," Li Cheng shrugged. He rode his bike every day to work, saving up for college living expenses. How could he possibly know a rich woman?

Han Letian scratched his head. "Think harder. Maybe when you were a kid, you once heroically saved her from danger?"

Li Cheng rolled his eyes. "You think this is Naruto? Are you trying to act out Naruto saving Hinata?"

Han Letian kept letting his imagination run wild. "Then maybe your dad and her dad arranged a childhood marriage pact? Now, after seventeen years, she's come to visit and assess her future husband? Next up, the classic 'broken engagement' plot—except you're actually the hidden Dragon King of the city?"

"Yes, I am the Dragon King. Why don't you be a little more respectful and take over my homework this month? When I break through the void and ascend to the higher realm, I'll reward you with the position of my personal attendant."

Li Cheng said, squinting.

The other boys were still chatting, but Yiwensi clicked his tongue and said sarcastically: "Seventy thousand yuan for a scarf—tch, tch, tch. We've really become prosperous, haven't we? The people's living standards have improved."

"What's your point in saying this?"

Zhan Xinyu glared at him. "Why do you only see this? Can't you see the poverty alleviation projects reaching deep into mountain villages, addressing both symptoms and root causes?"

Yiwensi shot back: "You're right. But what does that have to do with ordinary people working 996 for a 3,000-yuan monthly salary, buying a completed-but-abandoned apartment in Zhengzhou, having tens of thousands in bank deposits at a rural bank, buying a BYD that catches fire, going to Tangshan for barbecue, getting beaten up, going to Zibo for barbecue and finding a blade in it, getting robbed at the Nanyang music festival?"

Zhan Xinyu sneered: "Feel like comparing that to last year's U. S. gun violence killing 42,889 people, 55 freezing to death in Texas during extreme cold weather, Black Lives Matter looting, Ohio's toxic train derailment, nationwide lead pipes lowering children's IQ, private prisons going public, Lolita Island, Hawking's black hole research?"

The two suddenly launched into a rapid-fire verbal duel, and the classmates beside them were already used to this.

As a private school, Zhuoyue Middle School drew students from all over the country, showcasing extraordinary human diversity—any kind of oddball could be found here.

Some were wealthy but had a compulsion to steal classmates' stationery;

Others wore risqué anime shirts to school;

Some, even as children, acted like officials—fawning over teachers and bossing classmates around;

Others spent all day studying the I Ching, Eight Trigrams, fortune-telling, and geomancy.

Compared to these eccentric individuals, Zhan Xinyu, the iron-blooded wolf warrior, and Yiwensi, who vowed to emigrate to America, didn't seem so out of place.

(End of Chapter)