Fierce Beast Transfer Student

You Qi was still speechless, but Zhou Mu had already moved on as if nothing had happened. "Oh right, the animal picture on the question I got wrong was so weird—it asked what latitude and longitude this animal might live at... I've never even seen it, so strange, it looks like—"

He thought for a moment. 'A legendary Yao Race creature from ancient times, but with a slight difference—for example, this one, it really resembles some kind of Yao Race creature. What kind of animal is this, exactly?'

Zhou Mu pointed at a question with a crude black-and-white picture. The animal on it looked like a hairy pig, with what seemed to be another head behind its rear—on closer look, it was actually a pouch on its belly opening backward, with a baby inside. This reminded him strongly of a two-headed yao beast called Bingfeng that he used to enjoy eating, but with some differences.

Could it be a mixed-blood Bingfeng? How did it end up on a Human Race test paper? Of all the ones he'd eaten and seen, he'd never come across this thing.

But he didn't say it looked like Bingfeng—better not expose how much he knew about yao and scare his friendly Human Race classmates.

"You mean it looks like Bingfeng, right?" You Qi had known a Bingfeng before, but he couldn't tell Zhou Mu that. "This is called a wombat. It lives in Australia—Australia is surrounded by sea on all sides, and for tens of millions of years the animals there evolved in isolation, so they look very unusual to us, even like yao the ancients made up. Once you know it's Australia, you can pick the right answer naturally. Should be C."

This was actually free time between classes. A classmate nearby overheard and chimed in: "Hasn't someone said Shanhaijing might be written realistically? Those places and animals actually correspond to reality, they all really exist. Like Lu Shu, it really resembles an African animal, what's it called..."

Zhou Mu and You Qi both smiled calmly.

One said "Can't be," the other said "Sounds a bit like a stretch."

"Hey, just saying." That person couldn't even remember what Lu Shu resembled—he mainly just wanted to make conversation with the new classmate.

The class bell had rung by now. The last class of the morning was about to begin, and everyone returned to their seats.

The last class was English. The English teacher was a fifty-something veteran teacher who strode into the Classroom with gusto, saying: "Good morning, class."

The students below all stood up to greet her. Only Zhou Mu's mouth opened slightly, but no sound came out.

You Qi was right beside him. He could tell Zhou Mu hadn't spoken and glanced over.

Zhou Mu winked at him with his right eye, signaling him not to say anything.

You Qi quickly turned his head back.

"Sit down, please." Wang Teacher reached for the Whiteboard Pen and couldn't find it. "What's going on, where's the pen?"

The class monitor hurried up to help look. "Missing again? The Whiteboard Pen keeps disappearing these past few days—gone before you know it."

"When you're done using it, put it away properly in one place, otherwise when you need it you can't find it." The English teacher assumed someone had used it or played with it and forgotten to put it back, and nagged for a bit.

Not a single pen could be found on the podium.

Zhou Mu's gaze swept the Classroom. In a corner he saw a pen, untouched by anyone, slowly rolling on the ground by itself.

Huh?

Zhou Mu understood at once—haha, this pen seemed to have gained a bit of spirituality.

Objects used for a long time, or by some fortunate chance, can gain spirituality and become spirits—there was a saying: things grow old and become spirits. This pen looked like it had just gained spirituality, right on the edge of becoming a spirit.

The cultivation mechanism of yao creatures was complex; how long before it truly became a spirit was unknown, but right now it could already move on its own.

"Teacher, the pen's here." You Qi had also seen that pen—or rather, when he heard the pen was missing, he'd already been searching with his eyes. He also knew this pen had been able to move three days ago.

You Qi sat in the last row. He stood up and picked up the pen. The moment someone gripped it, it immediately stopped moving—it was still in the stage of fearing people.

Zhou Mu and You Qi both stared at the now-extraordinary pen. When they looked up, their eyes met. Zhou Mu smiled at You Qi: "How did it get over there?"

"Maybe it rolled over." You Qi answered naturally, then handed it up.

"Thank you." Wang Teacher took the pen, remembered what the homeroom teacher had told her, scanned the room, easily spotted Zhou Mu, and said with a smile: "I heard a new student transferred in." And his English wasn't very good—the homeroom teacher had asked her to look after him more, so she needed to pay extra attention and encourage him. She decided on a simple dialogue, then would praise the new student to give him a bit of confidence in learning.

Zhou Mu and Wang Teacher's eyes met.

Wang Teacher's smile remained. "Hi."

Zhou Mu: "...Bye!"

Wang Teacher: "..."

The whole class burst into laughter. Wang Teacher also choked a little—she was still thinking of what to ask, but Zhou Mu had already said bye. She said, half-laughing, half-crying: "Zhou Mu, right? Your homeroom teacher told me you're humorous, and you really are."

Wang Teacher didn't say more and started the class properly.

Throughout this class, Wang Teacher paid quite a bit of attention to Zhou Mu. She asked him several more questions and found his foundation was indeed weak, but his attitude was good, so she focused on encouragement.

Once this class ended, lunch break began.

You Qi had been asked by the homeroom teacher to look after Zhou Mu and was about to take him to the Canteen, plus handle errands like taking photos for the student ID. But seeing Zhou Mu looking listless, he asked: "What's wrong?"

Zhou Mu had always been first at everything since childhood, and his Fierce Beast nature made him naturally competitive. He hadn't expected to not understand in a Human Race class—this worried him. "Will there be punishment for bad English?"

Like in the Yao Clan, if Sports Meet results were bad, you might get eaten a little by your classmates...

You Qi saw him lying there like a kitten, only two pitiful eyes showing, and said amusedly: "At most some criticism. I'll help you."

At this moment, a boy in the front row turned around and raised an eyebrow at Zhou Mu: "New student, you never learned English before?"

Zhou Mu: "No, how did you know?"

He answered honestly—he really had never had English class before. The other party had asked exaggeratedly and didn't expect him to truly have never learned it.

You Qi also found it absurd. What kind of student has excellent math and Chinese but doesn't learn English at all? This wasn't a bias toward other subjects—this was giving up from the start?

That boy didn't know all that, and hadn't seen Zhou Mu's test paper. He laughed twice: "I'm Xu Tianyi, grew up abroad until I was seven. If you want to improve, you can actually come ask me."

Zhou Mu said directly: "The teacher told me to ask You Qi—his grades are better than yours."

"..." Xu Tianyi's mouth twitched. Unwillingly: "My spoken English is better than his!"

The other classmates immediately burst out laughing: "Old Xu, show us a bit!"

"Stop egging me on!" Xu Tianyi was a face-con. He figured Zhou Mu probably transferred from some remote place, where the teaching conditions might have been very poor, basically no decent English teacher, so he'd just admitted he never learned English—all of which made Xu Tianyi feel a bit of tender pity.

"Zhou Mu, the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates said, Adversity is man's highest institution of higher learning." He really did show off his spoken English—genuinely fluent. Seeing Zhou Mu's blank expression, he said: "It means adversity is the highest institution that tempers a person. If you find English hard, you should work harder—you'll definitely gain something in the future."

Zhou Mu heard the Chinese meaning, then said: "Oh, you mean 'Οιαντιξο?τητε? ε?ναιουψηλ?τερο? θεσμ?? αν?τερη? μ?θηση? τουανθρ?που'? When translated to English I didn't react for a moment."

Xu Tianyi: "...?"

Not just Xu Tianyi—everyone was stunned. Holy crap, what language is this? It didn't sound made up, he spoke it very fluently.

"W-what language is this?"

Zhou Mu said very naturally: "Greek. Socrates' original words."

Xu Tianyi & other classmates: "Holy shit!!"

No way—so he was completely wrong. Zhou Mu hadn't learned English not because he was from a mountainous area, but because he'd learned other languages?

"Damn, amazing," Xu Tianyi took a long time to come back to himself. He hadn't expected to try showing off in front of the pretty new student and get shown up instead. He said regretfully: "I don't understand it, but you spoke it really smoothly—you must have been in Greece, right?"

Zhou Mu recalled his Xuan Gui teacher, who had lived thousands of years and loved to travel. "No, I had a teacher who studied in ancient Greece and ancient Babylon. He taught us on the side."

Everyone: "...hahahahahaha!!"

Okay, too funny.

Even You Qi laughed. He figured Zhou Mu might have lived in Europe before, didn't value English much, but his family was strict about native culture and math. That explained Zhou Mu's performance—but he really loved to joke.

"Let's go, I'll take you to eat." You Qi called out. He saw Zhou Mu immediately abandon chatting with the other classmates and say eagerly: "Where? Where?"

Zhou Mu wished he could stick right onto You Qi.

You Qi was taller than him by a bit. He reached out, grabbed him from behind, and moved him to his right side. "Follow me and you'll see."

They'd chatted with Xu Tianyi in the Classroom for a while, so by the time they went downstairs there weren't many people left. When they reached the second-floor hallway, Zhou Mu's steps stopped—he saw two students in an empty Classroom corner hugging each other, nibbling cheeks and ears.

You Qi glanced at what Zhou Mu was looking at. "Go?"

Zhou Mu had just been looking casually, but at this moment a teacher walked by on the other end. The two students almost got caught, hurriedly separated like quails and hid, nearly falling over.

Zhou Mu immediately asked curiously: "What are they hiding from?"

You Qi pulled him down the stairs, bored: "Because School doesn't allow Early Romance."

"Not allow... Early Romance?" Zhou Mu caught up two steps, puzzled, parsing the meaning from the individual characters.

The Yao Clan has no word for Early Romance.

You Qi nodded.

He figured Zhou Mu would probably think this School was strange, regulating this too.

Zhou Mu thought it over—so he liked to nibble when eating too. Did that mean he couldn't eat at School in the future, or had to eat carefully, to avoid being misunderstood by a teacher?

He zoned out and almost bumped into You Qi. You Qi had to reach out and grab him again.

You Qi asked casually: "What are you thinking?"

Zhou Mu looked up, his gaze pure as he watched him: "Thinking that I can't be caught having Early Romance in the future. Luckily I run faster than they do—do you run fast?"

The two were already very close, and Zhou Mu was now looking at him with that serious, absurd expression, his round eyes misted over, each eyelash almost countable, flickering in a way that easily invited wandering thoughts—almost as if he meant something.

"..." You Qi met Zhou Mu's eyes and suddenly felt a bit unnatural, speechless again. After a long moment he said: "...Not bad."