MTLNOVEL Ch. 6
The evening self-study sessions in the second year of high school, especially at the beginning of the semester, were relatively comfortable.
Even though it was still self-study.
It wasn’t as intense as in the third year.
Especially at the start of the semester. Four class periods each evening, at most only one or two would have subject teachers supervising.
Like tonight, all four periods were pure free time.
Plus, having just gone through a "server merge" after the class redistribution, everyone was still riding the wave of novelty and social enthusiasm at the beginning of the second year, and the classroom quickly descended into chaos.
Not to mention people reading off-topic books or eating snacks.
Just in terms of chitchat alone, it could be broken down into various sectors like 【Campus Gossip】【History: Past and Present】【Trends & Fashion】【Internet Surfing】【Gaming & Tech】 and so on.
“…Hey hey, I heard Gu Youli used to be the class belle of Class 8. Now that she’s in Class 8, doesn’t that make her our class belle?…”
“…Which one do you guys think is better, Scarlet Heart or Palace Lock Heart Jade?…”
“…No way! You don’t even know what ‘diaosi’ means? Then do you at least know 【Li Yi Forum】?…”
“…Lend me your ears, gentlemen. According to unofficial history, Cao Cao actually had a thing going on with Lü Bu…”
Everyone, regardless of gender, including even the top students who usually cared about studying, were all happily chatting in this lively atmosphere. It could be described as full of vitality and teeming with life.
Except for Guan Ren.
If it had been someone like Gu Youli keeping quiet, no one would’ve thought much of it. She was always obedient and sensible anyway.
But Guan Ren was one of the Three Phantom Gods, and when he acted serious, it felt strangely out of character.
So much so that Zhang Chi, sitting in front of him, felt uneasy since Guan Ren hadn’t kicked his chair like usual. When he turned around to look, he found that Lord Guan was actually on his phone, and wasn’t surprised anymore.
What Zhang Chi didn’t know was—Guan Ren wasn’t playing on his phone.
“Mortal Son-in-law... Great Xia Royal Clan... Omnipotent Expert... Hiss! They’ve got everything now?”
Guan Ren, investigating the state of web novels in 2011, frowned more deeply the longer he browsed across platforms.
……
He had forgotten one thing.
Although 2011 was a year of flourishing creativity in web novels, it was no promised land for pioneers.
By this time, the various literary gods had already begun to solidify their divine status. The path to immortality in this lifetime was nearly blocked, and the next opportunity wouldn’t come until more than a decade later, when the "Five Whites of Central Plains" began to fade.
Take Qidian Chinese Webnovel Platform for example—the monthly ticket rankings were filled with titles like Immortal Accord, Swallowed Star, The Golden Eyes, Otherwordly Evil Monarch.
Battle Through the Heavens and Shrouding the Heavens were also prominently listed.
In Guan Ren’s memory, he had thought these books were published much later. Who would’ve thought they already existed this year?
Even the one he had initially pinned his hopes on, a lifetime meal ticket—Ambiguous Close-Combat Expert—had already been released five months ago! A huge loss!
“So then what the hell am I supposed to write…”
If only he’d come back a year or two earlier. Back then the web novel scene was still in its wild days. Readers would devour anything, and authors could write whatever they pleased. Guan Ren could’ve started with something like “Three-Star Dou Qi” or even opened with “My name is Long Aotian” and still made it big.
Still, it wasn’t all bad. Although the environment was now more regulated and competition fiercer, it was still before the era when short videos would crush the web novel market. If anything, the pie was still growing.
Of all the genres, xianxia and fantasy held the highest ceiling.
So Guan Ren decided. His first book would be fantasy.
Plus, he was a newcomer, so having a fresh theme was critical.
But fresh didn’t mean overly avant-garde. This wasn’t the time to gamble on Chinese-style Cthulhu horror or anything like that.
Keep in mind, the “spiritual resurgence” trope hadn’t even emerged yet. Hardly anyone even knew what Cthulhu was. Trying it now wouldn’t just flop. It’d be a slow-burn disaster even if it had potential.
After much thought, Guan Ren finally opened his QQ email and drafted an opening paragraph. Once satisfied, he sent it to the file transfer station for safekeeping, planning to continue writing once he got home.
……
There was no helping it. Typing on a phone could never compare to a computer keyboard.
Especially since Liu Xiong’s crappy phone still had physical buttons.
Its only redeeming feature? T9 predictive text that allowed for true “blind typing.”
And not just traditional blind typing where you didn’t have to stare at the characters.
Once familiar, you could literally type without even looking at the screen!
The blindest of blind typing!
Back in the day, when cheating during English tests, Guan Ren would stash one of these dumbphones in his sleeve.
From unlocking, to opening the browser, to typing the first few words of the reading comprehension passage. All could be done just by feeling the buttons in his sleeve, using memory to count how many times each key needed to be pressed.
Once done, he’d just wait for the teacher to look away, pull the phone out, and boom—answers on the screen.
Every time he succeeded using that method, he’d feel an odd sense of pride, like he was playing the hacker in some spy movie.
But for typing out a novel? Physical buttons just didn’t cut it.
……
After his fingers began to ache from all the typing, Guan Ren had to stop for a while.
“Hmm? Sister Gu, why are you peeking at me?”
“I wasn’t.”
“You weren’t?”
“You stared at your phone too long. You're seeing things.”
Gu Youli denied it and turned back to her studies.
What a weird deskmate…
What did he mean by “peeking”?
At most, she’d just glanced over.
And the only reason she did, was because Guan Ren had been on his phone for two full class periods tonight. That made her a little curious.
After all, he’d been quite diligent with math earlier this afternoon…
When she was tutoring him, she could tell that Guan Ren wasn’t dumb. He picked things up quickly and could even apply them flexibly.
Who knew he’d only study seriously for that one afternoon, and then go back to goofing off by evening…
Of course, studying was a personal matter.
Gu Youli didn’t owe this guy anything. Just because he’d told her a few lame jokes didn’t mean she had to care about his academic performance.
It was just that, since they were deskmates, she slightly hoped Guan Ren might “mend his ways” a bit. If not, well—so be it.
……
To her surprise, although Gu Youli had only thought about it in passing, by the third period, after Guan Ren returned the phone to Liu Xiong, he actually did pull out his math textbook and seriously started studying again.
At first, Gu Youli was focused on her own work and didn’t notice.
It wasn’t until her elbow was poked by the tail end of a pen refill. Her weird deskmate coming to ask another question—that she looked over, slightly surprised to find that Guan Ren wasn’t just studying again, but that he was unusually focused on Compulsory Mathematics I, first-year content.
“Sister Gu? Why is B the right answer for this one?”
“Because the positive fractional exponent of 0 equals 0, but the negative fractional exponent of 0 is undefined.”
Although Gu Youli resolved Guan Ren’s confusion, Guan Ren also left her with some doubts.
But since he seemed to be concentrating hard, Gu Youli didn’t want to interrupt. She waited until the end of the third period to finally ask.
“Why are you going over first-year material?”
“Is that weird?”
Guan Ren shrugged.
“My foundation is so weak. If I want to improve and catch up, I obviously have to start from first year, especially for math and science.”
“But… while you’re studying first-year stuff, the teacher is covering second-year material. Aren’t you afraid of falling out of sync?”
“Why bother keeping up with the teacher?”
Guan Ren grinned, revealing a row of clean white teeth.
“Studying is a personal thing. I’ve got a plan. I just need to follow my own pace.”
……
During the last period that followed, Guan Ren continued reinforcing his first-year math basics but didn’t bother Gu Youli with too many questions.
Even when he had doubts, he sometimes turned around to ask the student behind them.
At first, Gu Youli thought maybe she hadn’t explained things clearly. But soon, overhearing bits of their conversation, she discovered the real reason.
……
“Brother Ren, why do you keep asking about first-year stuff? I’ve forgotten some of it myself. Just ask Gu Youli.”
“She’s busy studying too. I don’t want to keep bothering her for my own sake.”
……
To be fair, just because someone is your deskmate doesn’t mean it’s okay to bother the person behind you.
Even though Guan Ren got along pretty well with the student behind, that guy wasn’t especially strong academically, and he was busy reading Novel Illustration, so his distracted, half-hearted replies weren’t much help to Guan Ren at the moment.
Just as Guan Ren was furrowing his brow and scratching his head, a pale finger quietly pointed at his book.
“Here, it should be a² + ab + b². Give me your scratch paper. I’ll write out the steps for you…”
Guan Ren waved her off.
“No need, Sister Gu. Someone else just explained it to me.”
“Someone else…”
When Gu Youli said this, her head was down so Guan Ren couldn’t see her expression. She seemed fully focused on the book in front of her. Only, the way she tucked her hair behind her ear looked stiffer than usual.
“They didn’t explain it well…”
“?”
“Tch… Where’s your scratch paper?”
“Oh—oh!”
---
And just like that, during the fourth and final period before dismissal, Gu Youli still ended up spending quite a bit of time helping Guan Ren.
For a while, the atmosphere between them was full of the solidarity and friendship of classmates helping one another—wholesome and positive.
However, there were still a few small incidents.
Like when they were comparing answers on a long-form problem and leaned in close together—a few times, Guan Ren’s head would get bonked by tiny balls of paper, seemingly thrown from nowhere.
Clearly, the culprit had come prepared. Every time Guan Ren looked around for the source, there wasn’t the slightest trace.
Finally, when the last paper ball came flying, Guan Ren was ready. He whipped around suddenly and caught Liu Xiong from across the room grinning at him like an idiot.
Damn it. So it was that guy.
Guan Ren flipped open his book and tore off a corner from the already battered flyleaf, rolled it up, and launched it straight at Liu Xiong.
……
But in truth, Liu Xiong was innocent.
He had just accidentally spotted the real culprit throwing things at Guan Ren and was enjoying the show. Who would’ve thought that Lord Guan would suddenly snap and glare at him, and before he could explain—bam! A paper wad hit him square on the nose.
“Tch!”
Liu Xiong bared his teeth and mouthed “It wasn’t me” at Guan Ren. Only then did Guan Ren realize he’d hit the wrong person. He followed Liu Xiong’s pointing finger and his gaze landed on a girl across the room, her two low pigtails draped behind her head, hiding a small smirk.
“Luo—Xiao—Bei…”
Guan Ren mouthed the instigator’s name, menacingly.
But she clearly didn’t take it seriously. Not the slightest sign of remorse. In fact, she even glared back at him before turning away.
“Hmph~”
Just Guan Ren. Who’s he scaring?
Besides, no matter how fierce he acted, what could he really do to her?
Luo Xiaobei didn’t buy it. How could just a measly childhood friend dare to bully someone as dignified as his childhood sweetheart?