CH 26

Bai Zhi’s legs immediately softened.

“Uncle, I’m going to kneel down to the villain right now. How does that sound?”

“Men shouldn’t kneel so easily. Nephew, you’d be better off jumping out the window.”

Bai Zhi bit his lip, covering his face. He already received the world’s full information: the original host was named Xie Siliu, he skipped class and fought, and he smoked and bullied the weak – the closest to a model villain in the entire campus novel. 

Too bad he lost to Ji Guichen.

The original novel didn’t give much detail on why Ji Guichen suddenly lashed out, only plainly describing the fact that he was frequently bullied. After the stabbing incident, Ji Guichen was simply expelled, and he was never mentioned in the novel again.

Bai Zhi took a deep breath and slowly headed towards Ji Guichen.

The surrounding lackeys immediately opened a path for him, and under everyone’s eyes, Bai Zhi slowly reached out a hand.

And picked up the backpack on the floor.

Everyone: “….”

Lackey A: “What’s Boss doing?”

Lackey B: “Could it be that he found a conscience?”

Lackey C: “You bunch of idiots! Does Boss have a conscience? He’s definitely going to humiliate Ji Guichen some more!”

Bai Zhi turned his head back, his patience at its limit: “Shut up!” 

Lackeys: “Wuwuwu Boss is so fierce yet so cute….”

Bai Zhi, who completely didn’t hear the lackeys’ mutterings, patted the dust off the backpack. His gaze shifted to the torn homework and paused. He stood in place and deliberated for a great deal of time before cautiously asking: “…Cla-Classmate Ji, have you finished your homework yet?”

Ji Guichen hung his head wordlessly.

Bai Zhi awkwardly bent down, carefully flipping through some of the tattered papers.

Elegant handwriting neatly filled the entire pages.

Bai Zhi flipped them back over. 

“Uncle, I think I’m really done for.”

“Me too,” the system’s words sounded in his head.

Bai Zhi wanted to cry but had no tears: “Classmate Ji, this is actually a mistake.”

“Boss is right! We were originally gonna beat you up!” the surrounding lackeys piped up in support.

For the first time, Bai Zhi truly understood the power of these trash teammates: “…Shut up! Don’t speak without my permission!”

He forced a smile and once again tried to explain himself: “I originally – actually – that – I wanted to talk to you about something.”

Ji Guichen looked up, his eyes cold.

Bai Zhi looked him in the eye for a while, only feeling more and more scared.

This won’t do, this matter must be resolved.

“All of you, get out. Quickly!” Bai Zhi gnawed on his lip, yelling at the boys around him.

“Boss, what about you?”

“I have something to do!” Bai Zhi feared they would say something astonishingly counterproductive again, so he could only wave his hand, urging them to go: “Quickly leave, leave!” 

“What boss says goes! Brothers, let’s go!”

And so, everyone scrammed in an instant.

Bai Zhi: …Why do I suddenly feel like I’m the leader of an evil cult?

But the matter at hand hadn’t yet been resolved, so Bai Zhi set all other thoughts aside. With single-hearted devotion, he began contemplating how to fix things after the fact.

The system spoke coldly: “Friendly reminder, your boyfriend hasn’t eaten all day.”

“What!” Bai Zhi was immediately worried. He suddenly stood up, wanting to reach out to Ji Guichen, but he abruptly recoiled, dodging Bai Zhi’s touch.

Bai Zhi’s hand paused in midair.

He blanked until he saw Ji Guichen move, directly bypassing him and walking away with large strides.

Bai Zhi became worried again: “Ji Guichen, your backpack!”

Ji Guichen didn’t even look back.

Seeing him act this way, Bai Zhi promptly gathered the shredded homework and packed them in the backpack, rushing to Ji Guichen’s side. Carrying the big backpack, he jogged to keep up pace.

Ji Guichen, who inexplicably gained a follower: “….”

He immediately came to a halt.

Bai Zhi was delighted, quickly handing the backpack over: “Ji Guichen, your backpack and homework.”

Ji Guichen stared at him. When he spoke, his voice was slightly hoarse: “Xie Siliu, what are you trying to do this time?” 

“Me? I’m not trying to do anything,” Bai Zhi said stupidly. “You left your stuff.”

Ji Guichen looked back, only uttering after a long silence: “I don’t want it anymore.”

Bai Zhi didn’t expect him to say that; just as he was thinking of a response, he heard another sentence: “Stop following me.” 

Then he once again walked around Bai Zhi, leaving in big steps. 

Bai Zhi clutched the backpack, not daring to bother him again.

Soon, other students flowed into the hallways. Bai Zhi gave one last look in the direction Ji Guichen left, then slowly walked away, carrying the bag.

“Uncle, what do I do….”

The system shrugged: “I don’t know. Uncle is old now, I’ve long since forgotten my school days.”

“Hah….” Bai Zhi sighed, returning home based on the original host’s memories.

Xie Siliu’s family was quite well-off, and his parents doted on their sole son exceedingly; since childhood, he had been spoiled rotten. Xie Siliu’s ending in the original novel wasn’t good either. He died after being fatally wounded in a gang fight and succumbing to his injuries. 

By the time the system found him, Xie Siliu had finally repented. He entered a special study space where he would spend his rebirth1. 

When Xie Siliu died he had no other requests, only to care for his parents in their later years. According to regulations, Bai Zhi did not need to grant the wishes of the original hosts, but since he has to spend a lifetime in this world and this task could be completed in passing, Bai Zhi figured he might as well accept it.

Bai Zhi set his backpack down after arriving home and sat obediently at the dinner table. With the excuse that he had already eaten with some friends, he only drank a bit of water before carrying his backpack to his room.

Mama Xie and Papa Xie sat dazed mid-meal until Papa Xie spoke after a moment of silence: “How come I feel that today our son has become well-behaved?”

“Isn’t that a good thing? Our son has grown up.”

Bai Zhi, oblivious to the fact that his behavior made the two elders outside feel gratified, was busy sorting Ji Guichen’s torn homework. Glue in hand, he prepared to piece the papers back together.

“Uncle, where does this piece go?”

Bai Zhi held a piece of paper in hand, looking left and right. The system quickly came out and pinched the sheet with a mechanical arm: “According to system analysis, it should be placed here. See, see….”

Following the system’s guidance, Bai Zhi flipped on the table lamp and began carefully and concentratedly gluing the papers back together. The little lamp emitted a warm yellow glow; under the light, one demon and one system worked until the middle of the night when they finally pieced the homework back together. 

“It’s done!” Bai Zhi happily looked at the notebook-like homework that had been put back together with great difficulty, his heart feeling sweet: “I think it looks pretty good. I’ll return it to Ji Guichen tomorrow, and he won’t have to worry about being unable to submit his homework.”

The system nodded his head: “It’ll definitely be fine!”

Bai Zhi couldn’t help laughing hearing the system’s encouragement: “Thank you, Uncle! Let’s go to sleep now!”

“No prob2! Goodnight, Nephew.”

“Goodnight, Uncle.” Bai Zhi climbed into bed, mentally wishing: Goodnight, the you of this world.

The next day, Bai Zhi was woken up by the system’s alarm.

The system made a ruckus as it rushed him to get dressed and wash up: “Nephew! Your morning class starts at seven – you’re going to be late! Hurry, hurry!”

Bai Zhi dazedly got dressed and washed his face with his eyes shut, grabbing his bag and running out after he finished. He just barely caught the last bus and stepped into the school right as the bell rang.

The classroom was filled with the crisp sound of pages flipping; it was morning self-study.

Bai Zhi slipped in through the back door and saw the focused Ji Guichen studying at first glance.

He was sitting in the corner of the classroom, books stacked up high, and still wearing the school uniform from the day before.

Hiding himself, Bai Zhi sat in his assigned seat. His lackey deskmate immediately gave him a thumbs-up: “Boss, you’re so early. Do you have something important to do?”

Bai Zhi looked at the source of the voice, recognizing him as the original host’s deskmate Luo Le.

“Of course I do.”

Luo Le’s expression instantly became grave: “Boss, you don’t need to hesitate to give a command!”

Bai Zhi glanced at him, baffled: “Command what? I have to study.”

“What!”

Luo Le shot up out of his seat. Before he could say anything, he was suddenly whacked fiercely in the back of the head. 

“What are you doing during morning self-study! Come with me to the front office!”

The teacher dragged Luo Le away with a ferocious face.

Bai Zhi, who witnessed the whole ordeal from beginning to end: “….” 

Sure enough, schoolmasters from any era were truly formidable. 

After the teacher left, the classroom atmosphere slowly lost its previous enthusiasm. When the dismissal bell rang, Bai Zhi took the patched-up homework from his backpack and walked up to Ji Guichen.

“Your homework. I glued it together.”

Ji Guichen looked up at him, clearly astonished.

Bai Zhi straightforwardly pulled out the empty seat beside him and sat down, handing over the papers in his hand.

“Look!”

Ji Guichen flipped some of the pages in passing before turning to look back at Bai Zhi, only to see his sparkling eyes and his little seeking-praise appearance.

Ji Guichen’s hands paused before turning his head again, voice cold as ever: “You glued it wrong.”

Bai Zhi, who was waiting for his sweetheart’s praise: “Huh?”

He promptly took the booklet and stared at it, then shook his head: “No way.”

He had an advanced-intelligence system, how could he have glued it wrong?

“59,049 to the 5th root is 9, not 6,” Ji Guichen said after sweeping over the pages.

The underachiever Bai Zhi turned stupid at his words: “….”

“Uncle, didn’t you say you were an advanced-intelligence system that would never make a mistake?”

The system sighed a few times, “That’s right, Nephew, I am an advanced-intelligence system. But do you think high school education is considered advanced intelligence for a transmigration machine?”

Bai Zhi cocked his head: “I…guess not.”

“That’s right!” the system reasoned: “As they say, it is never too late to be a student and never too early to be a master3. If you give me non-advanced-intelligence material to test me, an advanced-intelligence system, would it be fair?”

“No,” Bai Zhi immediately answered. “Sorry, Uncle. I blamed you unjustly.”

“It’s good to know your wrongs,” the system turned up his chin. “I’m magnanimous, I won’t hold this against you.”

Bai Zhi’s eyes brimmed with tears: My family’s system uncle is not only educated and versatile, he even has high moral standards. 

The author has something to say:

System: See, I even got high school material wrong. Isn’t this sufficient evidence of my quick wit?

Bai Zhi: Mn, mn, mn, mn.

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Translated by shakytofu. Edited by Oceana.

tofu notes: the chapter is a day late ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh sorry sorry i ran out of time last week w all the places i was going hhh i havent really figured out how to properly manage my time to include translation time yet…

u might have noticed that the punctuation in the chapters i’ve translated so far has been inconsistent and mish-mashed in english grammar, specifically with dialogue – i suppose chinese grammar also differs in regards to punctuation. as a result, i’ve been struggling with converting the chapter structures, since i would have to frequently add or remove words to accommodate. ive already been doing this minimally for the narration segments of the story by separating independent clauses with semicolons, periods, and the like. im still deciding what would be best for me to do. it makes me a bit uncomfortable breaking all these punctuation rules, but i figured that it wouldn’t really have much negative effect on the reading experience.

i’m sure these types of issues will get ironed out as i become more familiar with translating. this is, after all, my first novel. i’m quite inexperienced and kind of a dummy, but i do find translating fun and hope to continue with it.

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1. 他进入了特制的学习空间中，会在那里度过自己的重生 – ok im pretty sure i translated it correctly but i dont know what theyre trying to say ToT im really sorry

2. 完全OK – Lit. “completely OK.” It doesn’t really make sense in the English context of the sentence, so I just found a better-fitting equivalent.

3. 闻道有先后，术业有专攻 – This is a proverb. The first part roughly means “one can be a master at a young age simply by learning it earlier,” and the second part is “one can become a master if he persists in a specific field.” I wasn’t sure how I should translate it nicely, so I did my best.