28 Menggui High School (28)
Will you stay here as a teacher?
Qin Fu'an turned his head and glanced at the timetable posted on the mottled white wall next to the blackboard.
The timetable was gradually covered with dark red bloodstains, but under the smear of blood, the clear words of today's timetable gradually emerged after the school bell rang.
The name Qin Fu'an was prominently displayed in the instructor's column for the first lesson.
In addition, he has classes in several senior high school classes today because he received the class schedule arranged for him as a formal teacher from the school before going to bed last night.
After confirming from the timetable that he had officially shed his identity as a "student," Qin Fu'an placed the shopping bag full of snacks on the podium.
His tall figure stood on the platform, which was a step higher than the podium, and his light green eyes took in every eager and expectant face below the stage.
"Zhao Jiayue, Chen Qi, Ya Ke, Bai Song." Qin Fu'an calmly read out the names of the four players. After they stood up in confusion, he asked them to come forward and distribute the snacks on the podium one by one.
As soon as he finished speaking, the classroom erupted into an uncontrollable chaotic uproar.
Even with such noise, the voices were deliberately lowered in this small classroom, revealing a hint of nervous caution.
While the four players were distributing snacks, Qin Fu'an took out several jars of honey and placed them on the podium.
"I promised you last night that as long as you kill the monster and survive, all the students who pass will get to drink honey water today."
As Qin Fu'an met the children's burning, bright gazes, he noticed the clusters of tentacles outside the classroom, all crowding around the window with eager eyes. A hint of gentleness quietly crept into his otherwise intimidating features.
"So each of the 10 classes that took the exam last night received a whole jar of honey."
As soon as he finished speaking, the children below couldn't help but cheer and jump for joy in hushed tones.
The once pale and numb faces now bloomed with bright smiles that were no different from those of living people, and they were brimming with the unique vigor and vitality of youth.
That restless joy easily spread throughout the classroom, and Qin Fu'an, the creator of this joy, seemed unsurprised by the children's emotional changes.
In his eyes, whether it is a human, a ghost, or a demon, as long as it can understand human language and communicate and think, it is a normal and ordinary creature.
In his eyes, these students in school uniforms who were being oppressed were just a bunch of bullied kids who had nowhere to complain, who had been suffering in silence for too long, and who were bound to have some psychological problems.
Raising and coaxing children is simpler for Qin Fu'an than eating and drinking.
But for the students of Class 4, Senior 3 of Menggui High School, Qin Fu'an was the first ray of light they had ever touched in the long, numb darkness.
Bright, fiery, flamboyant, and highly penetrating and infectious.
"Teacher Qin, can we be your students forever?" A child, clutching the snacks he had been given, mustered up his courage and timidly asked, looking up at the child.
As soon as the question was raised, the previously noisy class fell silent instantly. All the pale, tender faces looked up at Qin Fu'an like little sunflowers just seeing the sun.
The classroom was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, but the air was no longer filled with a suffocating, eerie unease.
On the contrary, Qin Fu'an, standing high on the podium, could see through the expectation and trepidation in the eyes of these children with just a slight glance. They both looked forward to his answer and feared his answer.
Qin Fu'an glanced calmly at the child who was speaking. Before the child could instinctively look away, his brow furrowed slightly, and his clear and pleasant voice rang out clearly in the quiet classroom.
"What, you don't want to graduate? You want to stay in school and repeat your studies?" As he asked, he closed the book with his back to the front. Even though he was wearing the same blue and white school uniform as the students, his words still carried the unique authority of a teacher.
Therefore, after he finished asking the question and looked up, both the student who had just asked the question and the other student players all tacitly and hastily lowered their heads to avoid his gaze.
The large classroom was completely silent.
Qin Fu'an was very satisfied with the fear these little brats had of him at this moment.
He gently tapped the pointer on the podium twice. After the children obediently looked up, he braced himself on the edge of the podium with one hand. His previous cold demeanor disappeared, and his expression became casual and relaxed.
"Just a heads-up, if any of my students can't even pass the simple college entrance exam, then you'd better not run into my hands when you're repeating the year next year."
His warning sounded casual, and his nonchalant tone made it hard to believe it was a powerful threat.
But no one, and no one dared to ignore his words.
Seeing the students obediently following orders and even secretly sitting up straight to study, the viewers in the live stream silently spammed a bunch of question marks.
[I did sense the threat, but isn't the streamer a player? He left after the dungeon ended, so how could he threaten a group of monsters without batting an eye?!]
[Aren't those players the most outrageous? They know perfectly well that the streamer is also a player, so what are they afraid of? Failing the exam means certain death, and even if they pass, they'll never encounter the streamer as a teacher again. So why are they sitting so upright and obediently, more so than ghosts? Why are their study attitudes more serious and diligent than the real college entrance exam? Have they really gone mad from studying so much?]
[Make way, everyone! I'm the anchor's go-to translator. Let me translate what the anchor just said: "College entrance exam pass rates are linked to teachers' salaries and performance bonuses. If you dare to fail and drag me down, causing me to lose pay, you'd better be glad you're all dead. Otherwise, even if you're just a speck of ashes, I can still make a hundred different things out of it."]
[Upstairs, is this translation for real???]
[Oh no, after reading this translation, I actually think that's what the streamer meant. It seems he wasn't really trying to persuade the kids to study hard, but rather genuinely threatening these monsters to do well on their exams.]
[Wait, did I miss something? How does the translator know it's about performance and salary? It wasn't mentioned at all!]
[As mentioned earlier, last night when the school issued the official teacher qualification certificates to the broadcaster, the broadcaster's gaze lingered on the salary and performance bonus section for about two seconds longer.]
[...I'm tired of using the word "outrageous." I was originally immersed in the heartwarming atmosphere of the children respecting their teachers and being well-behaved, but the host really knows how to ruin the mood.]
[No, I still don't quite understand why those four players become so timid and obedient as mice around a cat the moment they see the streamer! They're just a little bit better than them; catching up is the only way!]
[Haha, I'm Chen Qi's viewer, but I've been in this live stream room for a whole day. Do you know why? Go see it from her perspective and you'll understand.]
[Coincidentally, I'm a viewer of Ark.]
[I just came from Baisong...]
Qin Fu'an ignored the chaotic barrage of comments on his screen. He continued to ignore them as usual, and after the bell rang, he had a few players take the remaining snacks and honey to other classes.
The tentacles that had been blocking the classroom watched helplessly as the food in front of Qin Fu'an dwindled, dwindling further and further...
After the last jar of honey was taken away, they finally huddled together and cried in distress.
Waaaaaah, so much delicious food! There wasn't a single bite left, I'm so hungry!
They discussed, looking aggrieved, whether they had angered Qin Fu'an last night. As they talked, they started arguing, and then, while arguing, they ended up hugging each other and fighting each other so violently that it was like chickens and dogs flying.
Looking out the window at the dark figures tangled together like a tangled mess, Qin Fu'an's silence was deafening.
He sat back in his seat, and amidst the cold and distant silence of his deskmate, he began to take things out of his pockets, then repeatedly stuff them into Xie Yunhuai's desk drawer.
Honey, sugar, biscuits, milk...
From the moment Qin Fu'an put the first jar of honey into the table, Xie Yunhuai found it increasingly difficult to concentrate on his studies.
He tried his best to control his gaze, but he could still see out of the corner of his eye that Qin Fu'an was still stuffing things into the desk.
Then a piece of candy fell out of his stuffed desk and hit his leg.
A single, light piece of candy, barely weighing anything when it landed on his school trousers, felt like a gentle, yet subtle, hammer blow to his heart.
His heart skipped a beat, and before he could react, his body had already caught the falling candy with his legs.
"..." He froze abruptly, and under the ambiguous gaze beside him, he stiffly turned his head to look.
Their eyes met, and Qin Fu'an raised an eyebrow with a hint of smugness. He deliberately leaned close to Xie's ear and asked slowly in an intimate tone, "Little Xie, do you know what your souls were saying just now?"
Xie Yunhuai, who had long forgotten about the concept of a soul, stared wide-eyed under Qin Fu'an's gaze, shrinking back in bewilderment as his shoulders and neck tingled from the warm breath.
Like a cat that's in a daze, being bullied and frightened, yet slow to react.
Even though Xie Yunhuai was trying his best to avoid and minimize his presence, Qin Fu'an was still unwilling to let him off easily.
Then Xie Yunhuai and his souls heard a certain tattletale repeating some strange thoughts again.
"Why do they only give snacks to others and not me? I was working really hard killing monsters last night too!"
"Is that jelly? Only little kids eat jelly."
"Qin Fu'an is so annoying. I never want to be his deskmate again."
"No, no, next time Qin Fu'an can only be a teacher... Qin Fu'an has become even more annoying!"
"Never listen to Qin Fu'an say those strange things again. He only lies to people, not others, only me..."
"I hate Qin Fu'an."
Staring at the pitiful boy who was practically curled up in a ball, Qin Fu'an mischievously reached out and touched his bright red earlobe. As the boy trembled and tried to avoid it, Qin Fu'an innocently accused him, "Little Xie, in just one class, you secretly hated me seventeen times in your heart. I feel very wronged, don't you think?"
What do you think?
What do you think...?
you……
Xie Yunhuai's eyes had already reddened without him realizing it. The extreme embarrassment made him hold back his tears, turning his originally clear eyes into a misty haze, and his eyelashes were wet with tear stains as he blinked.
The boy had clearly never encountered such a shameful and embarrassing situation before. He looked like a boiled shrimp, shrinking his body between the desk and the wall, wishing he could turn into a thin sticker and slide down the wall to escape Qin Fu'an's approach.
Unfortunately, the person who bullied him so excessively was probably a bad seed at heart. Seeing this, instead of softening, they enjoyed his current predicament and leaned even closer.
Warm breath fell on her delicate earlobe again, along with Qin Fu'an's questioning, which he suppressed with a smile.
"Xiao Xie, I suddenly can't hear your true feelings anymore, so is there anything you want to say to me, whom you dislike?"
He tilted his head, making a gesture as if he were all ears.
Xie Yunhuai: "..."
His heart was pounding erratically, his mind was blank, and he couldn't think of anything. Apart from instinctively trying to avoid the situation, he couldn't even think of words to argue.
Now, forced to speak by Qin Fu'an, Xie Yunhuai tried hard to control his abnormally numb nerves. After a long while, he lowered his head to avoid Qin Fu'an's gaze and mumbled a sentence in a low voice.
It was very soft, so soft that if Qin Fu'an hadn't had exceptionally good hearing, he wouldn't have been able to catch his little classmate's pitiful apology.
It seems I've bullied him a bit too much. Qin Fu'an smiled as he looked at Xie Yunhuai's pitiful appearance as he closed his eyes to escape reality. While reflecting on his actions, he chuckled as he held the unwrapped candy to his little classmate's tightly pursed lips.
"Look, I forgive you."
The next second, Xie Yunhuai obediently took the candy from his hand.
During the ten-minute break between classes, Qin Fu'an didn't spend all his time bullying the children. After feeding them candy, he continued to take things out of his pocket.
The desk was already crammed full by him. Xie Yunhuai tasted the sweetness that was spreading rapidly on his tongue. Just as he was about to speak to stop Qin Fu'an, he saw him magically pull a familiar toy out of his pocket.
The bubble machine I used last night.
Xie Yunhuai was stunned, his misty eyes staring blankly at Qin Fu'an.
Didn't we return it?
"You've been a thief?" He suddenly became nervous, his voice dropping considerably, his entire being radiating an anxiety that he feared being discovered.
His nervous demeanor made anyone who glanced at him suspect that he had actually gone to commit a thief.
Qin Fu'an finally couldn't hide his smile anymore, a genuine and joyful smile spreading across his face as he reached out and patted Xie Yunhuai's dazed head.
"What's there to be afraid of? I paid for it."
This time, he finally behaved himself and stopped pressuring Xie Yunhuai and deliberately making him uneasy.
Xie Yunhuai breathed a sigh of relief. After the tension subsided, he belatedly hugged the bubble machine that had been stuffed into his arms, realizing that it was something Qin Fu'an had specially bought for him.
These are snacks and cookies that other students don't have.
It's a toy that only Xie Yunhuai has.
"……Thanks."
Xie Yunhuai hugged the toy, his dark pupils staring intently at Qin Fu'an.
She's kind of well-behaved.
So Qin Fu'an patted his little classmate's head again.
-
After getting through the chaos of the first day, the players, who had initially adapted to the rhythm and rules of the dungeon, and with Qin Fu'an becoming their teacher as a powerful background, smoothly made it to night on the second day.
"I had a horrible physical exam yesterday, there shouldn't be one today, right?" On his way back to the classroom after dinner, Yak couldn't help but grit his teeth as he thought about the chaotic battle royale of the previous night.
But what haunted him most was Qin Fu'an after he killed Nan Zhu last night.
Who can understand the horror of someone who was talking to you one moment and then disappears without a trace the next, only to have the killer calmly ask you if you have any insights on the matter?
Anyway, Yak had nightmares all night. In his dream, even the wall next to him had a pair of green eyes that looked exactly like Qin Fu'an's, staring at him with a half-smile all the time.
I was woken up by fright three times during the night, and finally I just lay there with my eyes open waiting for dawn.
Bai Song shook his head. "We'll find out soon enough. I hope it's not some kind of exam where everyone fails."
Yak choked, glanced at him silently, and was glad that this person had never shown any potential to be a jinx.
Chen Qi and Zhao Jiayue walked to the side without saying a word.
Thinking about the approaching night, the group was worried, but the thought of Qin Fu'an's presence made them feel a little more at ease.
Even though the other party didn't offer them much help, strangely enough, just thinking of Qin Fu'an made them feel at ease.
Come to think of it, Qin Fu'an is actually a very nice-sounding name.
I strolled back to the classroom, which was packed yesterday, but today there were fewer than twenty students.
The classroom was quiet, unlike the deathly silence of yesterday; tonight's quiet felt more like a calm waiting.
Whatever they face next, the players and students will no longer be filled with the same fear as they were last night.
In this quiet wait, time passed little by little, and finally everyone heard the familiar school bell.
But... something unexpected happened.
The familiar, crisp footsteps of high heels on the floor approached once again.
The familiar, unbearable pain once again caused everyone to turn pale, arch their bodies, curl up, and groan.
The familiar, gentle voice also spread throughout the campus:
"Hello students, I am your proctor for tonight's exam."
"Please review your studies diligently in your seats and concentrate on preparing for the college entrance examination."
"No horseplay or noise allowed."
Tonight is Christmas Eve.
"..."
The sound disappeared quickly.
The footsteps gradually faded into the distance.
The students in the classroom, who had been prepared, looked at each other blankly, unable to believe what they had just heard.
"...Christmas Eve?" Xie Yunhuai murmured the three words repeatedly, looking bewildered, as if he had no idea what they meant.
Qin Fu'an was also somewhat surprised. According to his previous thinking, after the physical education exam, there should be three subjects: Chinese, Mathematics, and English, and then one subject from the humanities or sciences comprehensive exam. So, it would be exactly five days, with five evening self-study sessions and five tests.
Why did tonight suddenly turn into Christmas Eve?
What went wrong?
Or is it that I overlooked something?
The slender pen twirled nimbly between Qin Fu'an's long fingers. He frowned slightly, wondering if he had overlooked some detail, when he suddenly realized that many eyes were on him.
Qin Fu'an looked up in confusion, then met a pair of hesitant and uneasy eyes.
"...Why are you all looking at me?" He put down his pen, raised an eyebrow, and asked curiously, "Don't you guys like Christmas Eve? You want something more exciting?"
The children were startled and immediately shook their heads vigorously.
"Study hard, and if you can't concentrate, just play quietly by yourself."
Upon hearing this, the children all nodded obediently.
It looks like it was copied and pasted, and it's quite neat.
Qin Fu'an chuckled and simply lowered his head to work on the lesson plans for the other classes for tomorrow.
As for why tonight is Christmas Eve?
As long as everyone is safe and sound.
-
Two hours passed in the blink of an eye amidst the students' bewildered anxiety.
Christmas Eve, it seems, really is just Christmas Eve.
There are no grotesque monsters, no man-eating eerie teachers, and no classmates who devour each other...
The entire campus was quiet except for the howling wind. In the cold winter, the strange students reading books in the bright classrooms looked no different from the students in countless ordinary schools in real life.
Tonight is really just Christmas Eve.
-
Lying on the cold, hard bed at night, Qin Fu'an closed his eyes and carefully reviewed every detail of his journey from entering the dungeon to the present in his mind.
School rules, class rules, students, teachers...
When recalling a certain memory, Qin Fu'an's thoughts paused slightly.
What did the principal, who stood on the high platform, and those monsters around him look like?
Qin Fu'an suddenly realized that he couldn't remember clearly. He had seen it just yesterday, but it was as if a hand had silently erased all the images from his memory, leaving only blurry, blank facial features.
Something's not right.
He suddenly opened his eyes and, in the pitch-black darkness, raised his voice to ask the other person in the dormitory, "Little Xie, do you know the principal's name?"
Xie Yunhuai was probably asleep; Qin Fu'an's question went unanswered for quite some time.
But Qin Fu'an was in no hurry. He waited while trying to think through the details.
After what seemed like an eternity, a bewildered reply finally echoed through the darkness: "I... I don't remember?"
The surprise and doubt in his tone were obvious. The memories from each reincarnation were still so clear, so why couldn't he even remember the principal's name and appearance?
Qin Fu'an was not surprised by his answer.
After giving a soft reply, Qin Fu'an began to think again.
But soon he heard Xie Yunhuai's voice again.
Hidden in the darkness, making it impossible to discern the speaker's expression or emotions.
"Qin Fu'an".
He pronounced Qin Fu'an's name clearly, and after a moment asked softly, "Will you stay here as a teacher forever?"
Qin Fu'an raised his eyes and looked in the direction where Xie Yunhuai was in the darkness.
He had heard similar questions from other students in Senior Three (4) class that morning.
[Author's Note]
Anzai: (Writing in his diary) Second day of exam preparation, cloudy weather, my wife hated me seventeen times today.
Yunzai: ...
I'm updating early today because I need to be on the 1000-word ranking list at midnight, and I hope I do well!
.
Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution:
20 bottles of vanished memories;
Joe 10 bottles;
One bottle of "Clear Rain and Lonely Boat";
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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