"Chu Tingwu, Chang Yixin, the instructor says he wants to see us—"
Although they had to eat lunch together during military training, after lunch the formation was dismissed and everyone could go back for a half-hour nap.
The classmates all knew that Tang Zhe and the two girls had been pre-selected as military training exemplars, so they weren't surprised when Tang Zhe called them over.
However, Chu Tingwu noticed that when Tang Zhe suddenly spoke up, several boys in the class who were close to him seemed to become a bit tense.
—This change in "state" was something Chu Tingwu detected through her Perception Skill.
Her still Level 0 Perception Skill seemed able to comprehensively receive information, including breathing sounds, heartbeats, scents, expressions, and movements. Before Chu Tingwu could consciously process these complex signals, [Perception Level 0] had already transmitted the conclusions to her mind.
So now, even when meeting strangers, she could instinctively know their attitude toward her.
Tang Zhe seemed a bit nervous too.
He's lying, Chu Tingwu determined.
But he had no ill intent; he seemed to just be making an excuse.
So when they walked to the shade of the trees and found no instructor there, Chu Tingwu wasn't surprised at all.
Chang Yixin asked: "Where did the instructor want us to go?"
Tang Zhe: "Actually... well... um... I was the one who called you out here. I wanted to ask Chu Tingwu for a favor in private."
Chang Yixin, linking arms with Chu Tingwu: "Oh?"
Five minutes later, they received an egg at the boys' dormitory building.
The egg was wrapped in two down vests with shock-absorbing padding and foam layers underneath, plus a hot water bottle, all packed into a cardboard delivery box. Tang Zhe explained: "The outer coat is Qin Lan's—his mom was worried it might get cold tomorrow when it rains. The box and foam layers were given to us by seniors on the sixth floor; they happened to have boxes left by graduating students, and they even threw in a hot water bottle."
Pieced together like this, a palm-sized peacock egg looked rather tiny in an arm-length box.
The three moved to a bench outside Tranquil Thought Lake. Chu Tingwu reached out to touch the egg, and the system displayed the egg's information to her.
It really was a peacock egg, laid not long ago. Despite being subjected to hot and cold by several high school students, it was surprisingly still viable, but it definitely wouldn't hatch this way. In a few days, it would likely become a dead egg.
Chang Yixin: "We should turn it in."
Chu Tingwu: "We should turn it in."
Tang Zhe wailed: "No... we've been incubating it for two days! This isn't just my egg anymore, it's our dorm's baby!"
It's not like your dorm laid it; you just found it.
Suddenly, three burly... three sun-tanned high school boys jumped out from the bushes—sure enough, Tang Zhe's other dormmates, whom Chu Tingwu had already noticed lurking nearby.
Qin Lan, who had contributed the down vest, slid on his knees in front of Chu Tingwu: "Big Sis Chu! Saving an egg's life is better than building a seven-story pagoda! It's just for these few days while we can't leave campus. Let your cat warm it up a bit, and we'll take it back after military training. My grandmother has an incubator—we're pros at hatching eggs!"
Does your grandmother have a peacock breeding license?
Chang Yixin: "=="
She looked at Chu Tingwu: "Chu Chu, what do you think?"
Chu Tingwu: "The reasoning isn't sufficient. If we really want what's best for the egg, turning it over to the peacock keepers would be better. Novices trying artificial incubation have very low success rates."
Tang Zhe didn't give up: "We decided to incubate it ourselves precisely because we want the egg to survive!"
He told them: The school had kept these peacocks for several years (verified through seniors on their floor), and this couldn't be the first egg in all those years, nor could they all have been laid in the grass, yet the peacock population hadn't increased!
"The mini zoo was built by the previous principal, and the new principal reportedly wants to shut it down and definitely won't increase the number of animals," Tang Zhe pressed his hands together in prayer, "If we hand it over to them, they'll definitely just let it go bad and die!"
Even selling it after it hatches would be better than that—they might as well try themselves!
Chu Tingwu: "Meow."
Everyone: What... what does that mean?
While they were puzzling over this, a white cat with just a black tail emerged from the neighboring shrubs. The cat avoided the high school students, jumped onto the bench, rubbed against Chu Tingwu's arm, and peered into the delivery box at the egg.
This was the school cat, "Spot of Black."
Spot of Black gave a "meow" and pawed at the peacock egg, then showed visible confusion on its feline face: "Meow meow meow?"
This is food, not a baby—are you a bit silly, little one?
Chu Tingwu: "==You think she'll incubate the egg?"
It would be considered a well-behaved cat if it didn't kick this ball-shaped toy to pieces!
Chu Tingwu: "Three Five Five would be even less likely."
Incubating an egg requires maintaining sufficient temperature for a long time, and Three Five Five wasn't a patient cat—it would be too much to ask her to constantly hold an egg.
The high school boys' expressions turned dejected... True, even if the cat was willing to nest, they couldn't take the cat back to their dorm, and leaving it outside wouldn't guarantee the egg's condition. If only they could go home during military training—
Qin Lan: "What if I pretend to have a stomach ache and get my mom to pick me up?"
Another dormmate said: "Don't. I heard last year a senior tried to fake a stomach ache to skip training, acted so convincingly that they took him to the hospital and removed his appendix."
Everyone: "..."
The egg or your appendix—that is the question!
Chu Tingwu: "Let's send it to my home; my family will help incubate it."
Qin Lan's eyes lit up: "Oh right, doesn't your house face the training ground, super close? Should we sneak out?"
Chang Yixin knew how she came to school, so she whispered in Chu Tingwu's ear: "Are you planning to climb the fence yourself to deliver it?"
Tang Zhe was a bit worried: "If we get caught, you'll lose your chance to be the training exemplar!"
Though it was just an honorary title, it wouldn't be worth Chu Tingwu losing it for their egg.
Chu Tingwu shook her head, meowed again, and Spot of Black jumped onto the box, lay down on top, tail swishing back and forth, completely covering the egg.
"Meow~"
Then, Chu Tingwu raised her hand: "Teacher Yuan—"
Everyone: "?"
Yuan Zhixiao, who had noticed several students gathered from afar: "?"
When Teacher Yuan saw Chu Tingwu raising her hand, the boys around her hurriedly stood up. She walked over quickly: "What's wrong? What are you all doing here?"
"Teacher Yuan, could you help take Spot of Black to my house when you go home?"
Tang Zhe: "?"
Chang Yixin: "?"
Others: "?"
Yuan Zhixiao saw the box she was holding: "Oh? Are you planning to adopt it?"
"Not exactly," Chu Tingwu rubbed her chin, "Actually, I'd like to invite Spot of Black to play at my house. Three Five Five must get lonely being the only cat at home, right?"
She looked down: "Spot of Black, if you agree, meow twice."
Spot of Black: "Meow~ Meow~"
Just lie in the box for a while, and then get lots of delicious food!
Teacher Yuan: "...Alright, Old Cao is picking up Mengmeng at noon anyway, I'll have him drop by your place."
"Mengmeng" was Cao Meng's nickname.
Chu Tingwu: "My door has automatic recognition, Teacher Cao can just push it open. Thank you, Teacher Yuan!"
These kids were probably just gathering to pet the cat, right? Well, that makes sense—if you want to pet cats, Chu Tingwu is always the right person to find.
Teacher Yuan walked away carrying the box with a white cat lying on top and a peacock egg hidden underneath.
Class 1 students silently watched her leave, collectively gulping except for Chu Tingwu.
There really was a way to send the egg home without getting demerits.
-
Teacher Cao delivered the cat box at noon, and by afternoon he noticed Three Five Five chasing Spot of Black along the school wall. Lying in bed that night, something felt off to him:
Why would you need a box just to transport a cat?
Could it be that the students were trying to smuggle contraband out of school? Were there phones or tablets hidden under the box?
With these suspicions in mind, he paid extra attention to Class 1's military training formation the next day and noticed that several boys from the dormitory seemed particularly attentive to Chu Tingwu, treating her to snacks and drinks.
Aha!
However, Teacher Cao didn't know that Tang Zhe and others were actually paying child support for the egg.
Chu Tingwu took the opportunity during Teacher Yuan's lunch break to ask about the small zoo.
"You noticed that too?" Teacher Yuan sighed helplessly. "Our small zoo's management is too chaotic. We only have two zookeepers, and we can't hire suitable ones. The peacocks are free-range, and some are even kept in the cafeteria... The principal has actually wanted to address this for a while..."
But the place was really a white elephant, and there wasn't enough funding for expansion. As for selling the animals... they were all common animals, and the city zoo wouldn't take them. They couldn't just euthanize them all - they were all little lives.
Chu Tingwu asked, "What if the animals continue to breed?"
Teacher Yuan replied, "The birds in the aviary used to breed very quickly. Most of the time, by the time we found the eggs, they were already dead. Many birds, after being artificially bred for so long, don't even know how to incubate eggs themselves... We can only let things be."
So over the years, the total number had actually increased, but whether the eggs survived was purely a matter of luck.
Teacher Yuan shared these details with Chu Tingwu only because they were familiar enough with each other, and cautioned her not to spread the information: "You'll all have chances to visit. The birds are very friendly to humans and will even perch on people, though because cleaning isn't done frequently enough, the smell inside isn't very pleasant."
Many students who entered with excitement left the small zoo with disappointed expressions.
This kind of detailed work that required patience couldn't be left to students, and the school was unwilling to spend more on labor costs. The small zoo couldn't generate income either - the reality behind free-range breeding was rather bitter.
Chu Tingwu suggested, "What about seeking sponsorship from the public or students' parents?"
Not adoption, since many people don't have the proper licenses to keep these animals, but rather like regular zoos - collecting sponsorship fees to hire zookeepers to care for the animals, a "nominal" adoption.
Teacher Yuan: "Well..."
She thought for a moment: "That would be complicated. The school might not be willing."
Moreover, animal sponsorship and collecting money from students' parents could lead to disputes... Some parents might think it's the school's intention and sponsor animals to get teachers' attention for their children, which would defeat the purpose.
Teacher Yuan patted Chu Tingwu's head: "Your idea is good. If there's a chance, I'll mention it to the director."
But the chances of success were low.
Though Teacher Yuan had asked her not to spread the word, Chu Tingwu could still discuss it with her close friends.
After training, the two dormitories met at Tranquil Thought Lake. When Chu Tingwu brought up the animal "sponsorship" idea, everyone thought it was a good suggestion.
Chang Yile said, "I really want to pet something fluffy... and if our parents sponsor them, we can go in and pet them anytime, right?"
How is that any different from adoption!
Tang Zhe added, "If sponsorship becomes possible, couldn't we send Little Blue back to the small zoo in the future?"
If the school's zoo hadn't been in such a state, they might not have wanted to smuggle this egg in the first place.
The egg hadn't even hatched yet, but they were already thinking about naming the little peacock. Currently, since all four "fathers" wanted naming rights, they were fighting over it, so they had to settle for a temporary nickname.
Chang Yixin said, "But the money is indeed an issue... The staff needs to be hired by the school, but can the funding be transparent?"
Parents would surely misunderstand.
The tallest boy in the boys' dormitory spoke up, having clearly given it some thought: "What if students were in charge? We could open a public account or New Plum Account to post records of how the funds are used, let sponsors monitor it, and also take photos of the small animals to report their status. Plus, since we're a school, we could set aside one day every week or two weeks to let sponsors come see the animals - these small animals can all be approached up close..."
"Many people want to keep pets but don't have the energy. Going to cat cafes means petting cats that aren't yours, and it's troublesome to visit sponsored animals at regular zoos. Our small zoo perfectly meets their needs, and the sponsorship fees shouldn't be too expensive, right?"
His name was Bai Muhui. After speaking such a long passage, he seemed tired, took a deep breath, and quietly stood aside to watch the others continue discussing.
An Shiyan clapped her hands: "Our school has clubs!"
She continued, "If students are in charge, manpower might be an issue, but if we create a club for this, we can recruit new members every year to supplement the workforce, specifically responsible for operations."
Their school's clubs were created by students based on their interests. They could organize activities on campus during weekends, but didn't have much presence during regular days.
Many students, due to academic pressure, only participated in clubs during their first and second years of high school, quitting in their third year.
Plus, it didn't add points for college entrance exams =_=
Chu Tingwu made a decision: "Let's write down our ideas, make it into a proposal, and submit it to Teacher Yuan to try applying first?"
Chu Tingwu and the others still had to go for additional training, as tomorrow would be the last day of military training with the presentation performance.
The others split up, with An Shiyan and Chang Yile walking hand in hand back to their dormitory. An Shiyan suddenly said, "'Let's try applying first'..."
Chang Yile: "Hmm?"
An Shiyan: "It's nothing, just that I really admire Chu Chu's drive to take action."
Doesn't she hesitate? Isn't she nervous about communicating with school leaders? With such low chances of success, she's already starting to write a proposal? It's likely just a waste of time.
In her family, "wasting time" on "things unrelated to studying" often required a family war, and independently completing self-proposed projects was mostly impossible.
Chang Yile: "It's okay to just try!"
See, this was different - a natural optimist.
An Shiyan nodded: "Mm, if we get approval, I can do the graphic design for the sponsorship nameplates."
Chang Yile: "Wow! Did you teach yourself? I've seen you drawing on paper... that, that..."
As the two chatted and walked away, a heavy rain fell over Golden City that night.
The next morning was clear, but the first-year students were still restless. In the afternoon, with a light drizzle floating over the field, the military training presentation ceremony began.
The military training exemplars had to walk at the front of the formation, in the most prominent position. The principal on the viewing stand didn't know that two of the military training exemplars had said he "couldn't tolerate eggs," and even specially praised their spirit while giving out the certificates.
Instructor Yan watched the three people he had selected with satisfaction... seeing them successfully receive recognition, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
For some reason, he felt that apart from Chu Tingwu, the other two didn't seem very well-behaved either.
Everything should have proceeded smoothly, but when it came to Class Five's turn, there was suddenly a commotion in the military formation.
Instructor Yan: "..."
He had a bad feeling.
One of Class Five's military training exemplars was reported on the spot.
It turned out that someone from the same dormitory reported him for bullying - it wasn't too complicated, just that the exemplar often took advantage of the reporter, making him fetch water, get things, eat his snacks, use his meal card and such, with the excuse that "we're dormmates." The reporter had asked for money back several times but never received it, so he kept this matter to himself, not telling anyone.
The exemplar thought everything was fine, but the other person had been holding back for something big.
Adults often have more tactful ways to achieve their goals, but high school students, some of them can be quite straightforward and extreme in their personalities.
When this happened, there was also some commotion on the stage. Chu Tingwu noticed that the reported exemplar wasn't the Class Five boy who had made them line up on the first day of extra practice - it had nothing to do with that boy, but his face was also flushed red, his eyes fixed straight ahead.
He seemed like someone who cared a lot about face.
The situation was so awkward that the principal's expression also changed. He skipped giving out Class Five's certificates, finished giving Class Six's, then hurriedly ended the presentation and asked several people from Class Five and the reporter to stay behind.
Class Five's homeroom teacher and instructor didn't leave, and the head instructor also stayed... The other exemplars on stage had just dragged their feet a bit when they were shooed back to their formations by their respective instructors like chickens.
Instructor Yan: "Stop looking, why are you still looking? We only have half an hour left together. Can't you show at least a little reluctance to part?"
But everyone just went on eating their snacks!
Chang Yile: "Well, should we pretend then?"
It was impossible to fake it - military training was ending, and everyone was beaming with joy.
Instructor Yan couldn't keep a straight face either and laughed with them: "Alright, let's leave it at that. No need to stand in the rain anymore. Let's sing our way back to the dorms and dismiss at the dormitory entrance."
The familiar song began, with everyone's voices blending together. Instructor Yan joined in, his voice standing out strong and clear. As the rain drizzled down, an inexplicable touch of melancholy crept into everyone's hearts.
The male students dispersed first, with the instructor walking behind. As they walked, the female students gradually moved him to the front, and the formation loosened up—
How quickly that week had passed.
Finally, everyone headed upstairs in turn, but Instructor Yan called out to Chu Tingwu:
"I watched your parkour video. Very impressive. I noticed during boxing practice that you have excellent physical condition."
Chu Tingwu listened quietly.
Instructor Yan scratched his head: "Ah... I probably wouldn't say this to others, but I suspect you might want to properly learn freestyle fighting. If you do, you'll need to break your habit of always relying on physical agility to win."
After teaching military boxing, students would playfully spar with each other, just practicing moves of course. During breaks, Instructor Yan would watch from the side, and he noticed that Chu Tingwu seemed to really like "dodging"?
The young girl had learned all the moves well and had considerable strength. Most of the time, others couldn't even touch her. Her movements were nimble and natural, and she would take advantage of opportunities to easily restrain others.
If her opponent was larger than her and she couldn't control them, she would just keep dodging until they lost their strength.
Was this some strange habit developed from fighting large animals?
—If she couldn't control an opponent with her hands, she would tend to wear down their stamina instead.
Instructor Yan: "If you're not interested in learning, just take this as casual advice. But if you want to learn in the future, you need to force yourself to engage in head-on combat—if you have both the ability to fight head-on and physical agility, you'll have two weapons at your disposal. But if you rely solely on your agility from the start, that's taking shortcuts in practice."
He had laid bare his training experience from the heart, and his words carried some weight. After speaking, he quickly glanced at Chu Tingwu, finding that she wasn't angry.
She understood.
So she smiled slightly: "Thank you, Instructor. I understand."
Instructor Yan: "..."
After Chu Tingwu went upstairs, Instructor Yan felt somewhat flattered: she rarely smiled, and she actually smiled!
Wait, no—Chu Tingwu was a student, and he was an instructor. Why was he getting so excited over a student's smile?
-
With military training over, while no one particularly missed the training itself, many had grown fond of their roommates and felt a bit reluctant to part when moving out.
Because she had luggage, Chu Tingwu took the main entrance this time. Chang Yile and the others, whose parents came to pick them up, helped pack Chu Tingwu's belongings while waiting. They accompanied her downstairs, and upon seeing Three Five Five already there, they finally showed expressions of "okay, we've handed you over to your guardian."
Chu Tingwu: "?"
The silhouette of person and cat created another scenic view. The day after military training ended was a weekend, and the school had given them a day off to rest. Early that morning, someone knocked on Chu Tingwu's door.
The smart doorbell at the entrance changed from red to green, then emitted a cheerful electronic sound: "Please come in, please come in."
The four boys from the male dormitory filed in one after another.
Chang Yile and the others were already in the living room, gathered around the egg incubator.
While Chu Tingwu was getting cola for them, they went to crowd around Three Five Five, lifting the cat to the top compartment of the stacked storage boxes.
After some commotion, they began working on the project proposal they had only half-finished during military training, discussing and adding details. An Shiyan brought her computer to create an electronic version and format it, finally printing out a thick stack of papers, even including a PowerPoint presentation.
Chang Yile: "It feels like we're already working in an office!"
An Shiyan: "Then you can do the PowerPoint..."
Chang Yile immediately fed her a potato chip.
Placated by the food offering, An Shiyan munched on the chip and continued working.
Tang Zhe felt a bit embarrassed: "Is there anything we can help with?"
They had only offered a few suggestions, leaving the rest of the work to the girls, which made them feel somewhat uncomfortable.
They had initially thought about helping clean Chu Tingwu's house, but discovered it was already spotlessly clean.
Chu Tingwu gathered the documents and handed them over: "Then you can help deliver these to Teacher Yuan."
Tang Zhe: "Okay."
Chu Tingwu: "She lives next door, she's home, you can just knock."
Tang Zhe: "?"
He went.
When he returned, he was followed by a chubby little boy holding a cat.
Tang Zhe: "Teacher Yuan said she and Teacher Cao need to visit relatives, and asked us to look after their son."
And the cat.
Little Cao Meng pattered over to Chu Tingwu: "Big sister, big sister, can we play that thing today too?"
The others perked up their ears: What thing?
Chu Tingwu nodded, raised her hand, and from the corner of the living room, a silver spherical ball flew over, making a sharp stop in mid-air before descending in front of Cao Meng.
Cao Meng: "UFO!"
Others: "U...UFO!?"
Chu Tingwu: "==" Why are you all copying him?
She arranged several storage boxes in the living room into rows, letting Cao Meng compete with Three Five Five and Coal Ball in jumping over boxes and crawling through middle holes for speed. The fastest would get to touch the system-controlled camera sphere—
Essentially, it was a way to entertain the child while helping him and the cats exercise.
Out of three to five attempts, Cao Meng could only touch it once, but he never tired of it.
Perhaps the racing itself brought joy. This child couldn't keep up with others when running in kindergarten, but here he could play together with the cats.
While Cao Meng was playing, the high school students were getting restless.
Chang Yile: "Big sister, big sister..."
Chang Yixin: "?"
Chang Yile: "I wasn't calling you!"
Chang Yixin: "..."
She looked at Chu Tingwu and tugged at her sleeve: "Sister Chu Chu, I want to play too!"
Chu Tingwu: Hey ==
"That's actually my drone for livestreaming, just a special model customized to prevent cats from scratching it."
An Shiyan made an "oh" sound: "Sister Chu Chu, do you livestream parkour? Can we learn?!"
Stop deliberately copying Cao Meng!
Five minutes later, all eight of them were downstairs, with the system still controlling the drone, but it was hovering and circling around Cao Meng—after all, they had agreed that playing with the drone was his prize for winning, so Chu Tingwu told him he could be in charge of "controlling" the filming.
Of course, it was just the little boy waving his hands a couple of times, saying "here and there," while the system controlled the flying ball.
The little one still had to chase after the ball, which perfectly met the exercise requirements.
The scene before them was simple, just the neighborhood's public facilities area where Three Five Five had previously roamed freely.
Flower beds, sandbox, pavilion, benches, a few steps of stairs, and handrails.
Chu Tingwu checked each one, then told them: "Parkour doesn't necessarily require difficult moves. You probably just want to learn casually, so I'll teach you some simple things."
In front of her was a stair railing about one meter high, with a flower bed diagonally opposite about a meter away, and stone benches on the other side of the flower bed. Chu Tingwu gestured: "From here to the bench below, normally you'd need to go down the stairs and circle around the flower bed, but in parkour—"
After speaking, she suddenly sprang up, her toes landing on the handrail, then leaped forward, stepping directly onto the edge of the flower bed, then lifted her leg and jumped again, lowering her body, propping herself up with her elbow, and smoothly sliding into a sitting position on the bench, transitioning seamlessly from motion to stillness.
Then, she propped herself against the back of the chair and leaped up, her feet landing precisely on the narrow top of the chair back. With another step forward, she jumped over the flower bed, landed on its edge, and easily hopped back onto the handrail, even managing to take two steady steps while balanced on it.
The young men and women who witnessed the entire process: "..."
Chang Yile: "I think we need to start learning from more basic elements QAQ"
Like practicing vault jumps with safety mats on the ground.
Chu Tingwu: "If you want to practice, start by jumping onto the flower bed and back down, then gradually increase the height... hmm... then practice jumping from the flower bed to the opposite side, increasing the distance... both height and distance should be increased gradually..."
She beckoned with her finger, and the unmanned flying ball approached, bringing little Cao Meng along with it. Chu Tingwu casually checked his neck and found he hadn't sweated too much, so there was no need to change clothes.
Tang Zhe crouched on the ground: "Isn't there any shortcut method?"
Chu Tingwu: "Yes, you can imagine there's a wild beast chasing you from behind, and you must escape quickly. Parkour is just a technique for rapid escape."
Chang Yile asked curiously: "What animal would you imagine?"
Chu Tingwu: "A bear, a Siberian brown bear with thick fur. It's omnivorous and runs like a brown mountain in motion. It smells terrible, can send me flying with one swipe, and has a broken upper left canine tooth."
Everyone was filled with reverence: To imagine it in such detail, you must really love parkour!
That evening, after seeing off her classmates, Chu Tingwu quietly climbed into bed and closed her eyes. The familiar drowsy feeling indicated she had entered deep sleep, and then she opened the door to the dream classroom—
Outside the door was the familiar residential complex.
She stood at the bottom of the building, facing a Siberian brown bear.
Chu Tingwu: "..."
Can't... can't avoid it, right! Avoiding won't help with training, but why does it have to be a brown bear! Couldn't it be an ape instead?
However, she had made progress. Her Perception Skill seemed to be on the verge of breakthrough. She could feel her limbs and reactions becoming faster. Often, with her back to the bear, she could judge where to dodge based on the wind's direction, and besides, you don't actually feel pain in the classroom—
But why must it be a brown bear?!
The system heard her cry and acknowledged her "can't avoid it" mindset, so it changed her training partner.
When she was chased to the top of the pavilion by a Siberian tiger, Chu Tingwu was about to breathe a sigh of relief when she saw the tiger below make a mighty leap—
Chu Tingwu: "Meow!!"
A Siberian tiger is also a big cat that can jump very high!
