Jin City Fifth Middle School is about to celebrate its 60th anniversary, so the school leaders decided to shoot a short documentary introducing the school and specially invited a professional film crew.
The film crew brought their equipment into the school activity room and noticed that the campus was empty when they pushed the door open.
It was a Monday morning, and the sun was not glaring, casting a pale glow on the walls and tiles, giving the buildings a silvery sheen.
"It's been a long time since I've been on a campus..." the cameraman sighed, "Seeing these high school students makes me feel old."
The director yawned: "Where are the high school students? Aren't they all in class? Did you catch someone skipping?"
Cameraman: "I'm just feeling emotional, feeling emotional!"
Jin City Fifth Middle School has always had excellent school spirit and a good environment, winning awards in design competitions. The team didn't think shooting a documentary for the school's anniversary would be a difficult task, just capturing the overall scenery of the school, zooming in on a few important buildings, and introducing the school's history over the past sixty years... Come to think of it, didn't Jin City Fifth Middle School produce a few notable figures? It seems some graduates later joined the aerospace project.
Taking advantage of the fact that students were in class, the team immediately started shooting extensively.
After filming the artificial lake, Tranquil Thought Lake, they packed up and moved to the auditorium, while someone else prepared to shoot an aerial view of the entire school with a drone.
The bell rang for the end of class, and students seemed to come out to stretch their legs. A cat was seen passing by with a dog leash in its mouth, and the director, who had just looked up, saw students greeting the cat and dog as if it were perfectly normal:
"Good morning, Chengcheng. Being a dog is great, I want to be a dog too, then I wouldn't have to go to class."
"Good morning, Sanwuu. Is there a casserole at the cafeteria today? Oh, there isn't? Thanks."
Director: "?"
Some students curiously glanced at them, then turned away indifferently. However, when the drone landed, a few more people looked back.
The colleague controlling the drone was very calm. High school students are the most curious creatures in the world, and they can follow a dog for half a day. Although drones are not uncommon, many people haven't played with them, so it's normal to be curious—
"This drone doesn't seem to fly as steadily as Chu Tingwu's, does it?"
"Chu Tingwu's is custom-made, right? It's probably very expensive, I didn't even dare to ask."
"She said it's a friend's design, and she made it herself..."
"Wow! That's amazing, her hands-on skills are so strong, no wonder she always finishes her experiments so quickly!"
The students chatted and walked away, leaving the film crew colleagues with the remote control equipment: "..."
Who is this Chu Tingwu again?
With this question in mind, they finished filming various school venues during class time, including the natural museum with its animals, and then moved to the playground.
The bell rang, signaling the time for Monday's flag-raising ceremony speech.
The film crew planned to shoot this part, removing the sound later and adding background music. They set up the cameras and started filming. Everything was normal at first, until they heard the name "Chu Tingwu" again.
The first mention was a reprimand.
It seemed that this student had climbed over the school wall this morning, and because the teacher had received a tip-off about boys frequently climbing over the playground wall, they brought a dog to wait in advance.
And they caught Chu Tingwu.
After the reprimand, the head of discipline, who was giving the speech, paused suspiciously, then moved on to commendations.
Cameraman: "?"
He poked his colleague and whispered, "Isn't this still 'Chu Tingwu'?"
This time, the school received two letters of thanks.
One was from the city zoo, thanking Chu Tingwu for helping them catch an escaped golden monkey, and the other from an ordinary citizen, thanking Chu Tingwu for saving their entire family by retrieving their child's severed finger from a fish's mouth.
The director, who had just seen these two local news stories, was: "..."
So the news protagonist was right beside me?
The director was a bit surprised and wanted to discuss with his colleagues, but when he turned around, he saw the students' expressions were as calm as ever, applauding when they should, spacing out when they should, and some whispering to each other: "So how exactly did Chu Tingwu modify that drone? Do you think I can save up enough pocket money to commission one from her?"
Director: Why are you still thinking about drones!
With the question "Why are the students of Jin City Fifth Middle School so calm?" in mind, the director approached the school to ask if they should add a special feature on notable figures in the documentary, like outstanding students, classes... or that Chu Tingwu girl?
The principal nodded and shook his head: "Chu Tingwu? She's not here, she's on leave at the zoo."
Director: Why would a leave request to go to the zoo be approved!?
What other "why" could there be? It's not because Chu Tingwu herself asked for leave, but because the staff at the zoo specifically came to the school to ask her to come.
As Chu Tingwu left the school, she picked up Sanwuu. The zoo had specially sent a car, and even prepared a small pillow for the cat to lie on.
This time, the zoo was still dealing with the wolves in the wolf enclosure.
After getting into the car, the keeper in the front seat wanted to chat with Chu Tingwu, but found that the student in school uniform was leaning against the cat, seemingly exhausted from studying, and had started to doze off as soon as she got in.
But in fact, Chu Tingwu wasn't asleep. She was resting with her eyes closed, with a semi-transparent virtual screen floating in front of her.
【System update complete!】
【Name: Chu Tingwu】
【Age: Young (underage)】
【Species: Cat】
Chu Tingwu: This part is really stubborn, no change at all!
【Current status: Initial nurturing goal achieved, physical instincts unlocked】
【Updated skill list, physical skills merged!】
Chu Tingwu glanced down and started checking her skills—
【Perfect Control lv0: You can fully utilize your strength, but there's still a small gap to reach perfection.】
【Intuition lv1: In addition to distinguishing good from evil and judging emotions, you've also become more sensitive in some aspects】
【Genetic Inheritance lv1: The hunting knowledge hidden in your genes will help you identify prey, determine hunting techniques, discern venom, and study prey habits.】
【Other skills to be unlocked】
Chu Tingwu: "..."
So, it was intuition!
Or rather, this is actually the sixth sense!
She finally understood why she was caught this morning... In fact, when she left the house, Chu Tingwu had an elusive premonition urging her to leave early, but precisely because of this premonition, she was too curious and decided to wait, leaving at the moment when the premonition was strongest.
And that's when she was caught by the waiting head of discipline.
If intuition could talk, it probably would have felt that Chu Tingwu was too much to handle.
She originally wanted to run straight to the classroom, since the head of discipline certainly couldn't catch up... But that would probably have resulted in more than just a reprimand, a demerit would have been recorded.
After being lectured all the way to the office, Chu Tingwu had just finished the first class when she was called to the office again—
It was the family from last weekend coming to present a banner and letter of thanks!
Because the finger was successfully rescued, the child, though suffering, had their finger successfully sewn back. After thanking the kind climber who helped, the family didn't forget the major help from Chu Tingwu.
Now, thinking back, they all felt:
"I was in despair at that time, but I witnessed a miracle... for us, that was truly a miracle, I can't imagine how Chu Tingwu found that fish in such a short time..."
Recalling the weekend's events, the child's parents were still choked with sobs, both heartbroken for their child's suffering and too grateful, leading to incoherent speech.
The head of discipline had to comfort them for a long time, letting Chu Tingwu take the banner and the money in the envelope, and praised Chu Tingwu for a long time, his face almost frozen in a smile.
...But praise is praise, and criticism is still criticism.
However, after Chu Tingwu went to the zoo, the head of discipline sighed:
They didn't know what to do with this little classmate.
The school was, in essence, a small ivory tower. Students naturally had a sense of awe and fear towards teachers and elders, which might also be an instinct left over from years of school management in China. However, Chu Tingwu was completely different.
She seemed to have her own logic of conduct, polite but disobedient, independent and very autonomous. Going to school was just a part of her life experience; the school was not a formidable entity to be feared.
And because of her attitude, the school indeed couldn't do much to her.
After leaving the campus, people would realize that being criticized in school wasn't that important, being scolded by a teacher didn't mean one had turned into trash, and poor grades didn't necessarily determine one's entire life... But having such good grades and not being motivated really made people worry!
The dean of discipline pulled out a file from under a pile of papers on his desk, frowning. "Forget it, just sign her up for the exams."
As long as Chu Tingwu continued attending the competition class, she was considered a member of the class. The exam registration was handled collectively, so there was no need to notify her.
Whether she would take the exams or not was her own business.
-
But it seemed the update wasn't over yet.
【Dream Classroom has updated the "Resonance Mode." When nearby creatures fall asleep together, they can enter Dream Classroom in a synchronized resonance state—】
【The host can use "Resonance Mode" to invite teachers for in-depth teaching and enhance abilities.】
Chu Tingwu: So, I can bring Sanwuyu into the dream instead of having the system simulate a data-based tortoiseshell mom?
Previously, Chu Tingwu had seen "Sanwuyu" in Dream Classroom, but that was just a manifestation created by the system based on collected data. Although very similar, it clearly lacked self-awareness.
In addition to the update of Dream Classroom, Chu Tingwu noticed that her personal introduction interface, the pixelated character, seemed to have improved in quality, becoming much clearer.
And, some virtual tags surrounded the little person, including "High School Student," "Future's First Cat to Go to College," "Parkour Expert," "Mid-sized UP Master," "Animal Friend," "Rock Climbing Genius," "Thank-you Note Collector," "Big Baby," and so on.
Chu Tingwu: "……?"
The system was very happy: "These titles are the impressions others have of you! I removed parts from the internet that were not very authentic or too general, leaving only the impressions given by people who have truly interacted with you!"
Is "Future's First Cat to Go to College" your impression? How did you even include the future?
However, the system was indeed someone who had truly interacted with Chu Tingwu, and the one who interacted with her the most... So, it's fine.
Although the update had just finished, Chu Tingwu felt that her body had already undergone changes before—
After that one night's sleep, she felt her body became even more relaxed and comfortable.
When she woke up in the morning, she found herself hugging the blanket and rolling onto the carpet, most of her body exposed outside the blanket, but she didn't feel cold.
She was lying upside down by the window, her feet resting on the windowsill, with a slight chill on her soles.
It seemed she had slept like this for a long time, but she didn't feel any discomfort.
Not only on Sunday, but she also woke up like this this morning. Perhaps because the system was updating, there were no classes in the dream for a few days, but Chu Tingwu kept rolling her bedroom into a mess. It seemed her body was silently adapting and undergoing transformation.
All the sluggish parts of her body were opened up. After a day, she could feel that her limbs were different from before, incredibly soft but without losing the strength they originally had.
She could still easily hang herself with two fingers, but the movements became more natural... If it was like using muscles to exert force before, now it was like distributing the exertion throughout the whole body, effortlessly—
Duang!
In the morning, Chu Tingwu fell off while doing a handstand on the clothesline, but this time she didn't land on her feet.
When she reacted, she was already sitting cross-legged on the floor, with no pain in her body—her body had already completed the process of unloading force and making the landing more comfortable before her brain did.
Although the skill【Perfect Control】was now at lv0, the change was significant. Before the update, Chu Tingwu spent some time figuring out the changes in her new body—
Besides the changes in her limbs, she could also control her ears to make her hearing more three-dimensional.
She could actively leave "information" on objects through contact, and this information was undetectable to humans but seemed readable to animals.
Perhaps it was because humans didn't have the powerful sense of smell that cats do.
Her eyes no longer needed to switch between cat vision and human vision as before. Cats are farsighted, and when Chu Tingwu focused, the nearby area would become slightly blurry. But now, without her actively switching, the entire world was as clear as if it had just been washed by a heavy rain. She could maintain both visual states simultaneously without any blind spots.
Maybe there were other small changes hidden in the details, but there wasn't enough time for Chu Tingwu to discover them.
When she arrived at the zoo, she got off the car with Sanwuyu, and Li Yun came over to pick her up.
The zoo had actually scheduled an appointment for half a month later, but this time they invited her to come early because the wolf named Qingfeng was in very bad condition.
Li Yun: "Qingfeng is a Siberian wolf, three years old this year. At first, we thought he was refusing to eat and drink and attacking his companions because he was upset about losing his friend."
The zoo also breeds animals on its own. After the number of animals becomes too large, they transfer the grown animals to other zoos. Qingfeng's friend was another little wolf, currently living in a zoo in the neighboring city.
Animals do have emotions. Finding Qingfeng's emotional changes, the zookeepers tried to comfort him and remodeled the wolf enclosure to provide more play areas for the wolf pups.
But Qingfeng's condition didn't improve; it worsened.
While playing with the enrichment facilities, he would push away other wolves and conflict with them. He also started being picky with food; if there was any feed he didn't like, he would refuse to eat that day.
The zoo conducted a strict check on animal feeding, suspecting that Qingfeng had eaten something fed by tourists and then disliked the feed, but they didn't find any evidence that Qingfeng had eaten anything, instead catching another wolf. With doubts and confusion, they isolated Qingfeng and provided him with more nutritious feed, worried that something might be wrong with his health.
After listening to Li Yun's introduction, Li Yun also introduced her to Mr. White.
Schneider White was an animal behavior expert who had published many papers on animal behavior. The zoo had specially invited him from abroad.
After observing Qingfeng for some time, White concluded:
"This is a homosexual wolf. Clearly, losing his lover, he feels depressed and uneasy."
As he said this, Qingfeng in the observation room lay on the bed, staring fixedly out the window, softly "whining."
Chu Tingwu: "……?"
Of course, there are homosexuals among animals, and in some species, it's quite common. When observing animals, humans should treat them both as a group and as individual entities. Clearly, everyone now believed that Qingfeng was depressed because he had lost his love wolf. The zookeeper even thought: "I always saw them getting along well, but I didn't expect this. After all, they never did anything..."
The zookeeper started talking about topics like mating and estrus that little cats shouldn't hear.
Chu Tingwu's ears twitched, and she quietly squatted down, continuing to observe Qingfeng through the glass.
After all, the time when Qingfeng started having problems was very obvious, and this deduction clearly stood. Moreover—
Li Yun: "We showed Qingfeng videos of Huihui before. Huihui is the wolf that was sent away. Qingfeng was unusually emotional that day, playing for a long time and eating a lot."
So they thought Qingfeng was definitely in love, but they couldn't bring Huihui back... or send Qingfeng over? Qingfeng wasn't actually in his mating season, which made this "love" seem unrelated to physiology, just pure love... or it could just be an exceptionally strong friendship.
The zoo seemed to have determined what Qingfeng's issue was and invited Chu Tingwu because of her "communication" skills, hoping she could talk to Qingfeng, help him forget about Huihui, and embrace a female wolf... or any other male wolf in the park.
The zoo wanted a solution, not to understand the ins and outs of wolf romance.
Chu Tingwu: "..."
She squinted: "Can I go in and take a look?"
Wolves are after all fierce beasts, and even the caretakers have to be careful when interacting with them. Chu Tingwu couldn't go over to touch the wolf, only chatting with the young male wolf through the viewing window.
Li Yun watched her with great anticipation, hoping to see her "awoo" a couple of times, and Qingfeng immediately react, then have a conversation with her.
However, Chu Tingwu actually doesn't speak wolf.
It's just that her "Intuition lv1" skill kicked in again. When she saw the wolf, she instinctively felt:
He's actually a cunning young man!
His current state doesn't seem to be due to "love" and "separation," but for another reason.
Chu Tingwu wanted to get closer to Qingfeng, but the zoo, considering the danger, suggested she wait until Qingfeng was restrained for a check-up before touching him—they thought she could just talk or observe, but she insisted on getting hands-on, probably just a kid wanting to pet the wolf.
After all, she had petted and held the national first-class golden monkey, so if she wanted to pet the wolf, she could.
Schneider White, however, had rich experience and had lived in a protected area for a long time, observing wolf behavior, so he followed the caretakers in and out... Qingfeng didn't show any signs of aggression, even yawning lazily, squinting his eyes, and starting to doze off under human scrutiny.
Chu Tingwu said to Li Yun: "Can I take a little nap? Right here on this chair."
The zoo indeed didn't allow her to touch the wolf now—but wasn't she just another way to get close?
After getting permission, she closed her eyes, and soon her breathing steadied. At the same time, Qingfeng also fell into a deep sleep.
Chu Tingwu opened her eyes in the dream space.
This time, the classroom map was the wolf enclosure of the zoo, but only Qingfeng was there.
—She used the resonance mode in the Dream Classroom, bringing the sleeping wolf into the dream.
Qingfeng didn't seem to realize it was a dream, after all, how could a dream be so clear?
The big wolf still looked melancholy, lying by the stream in the wolf enclosure, staring at the flowing water, seemingly lost in thought.
Chu Tingwu stood outside the wolf enclosure, not entering, nor making her figure appear in Qingfeng's line of sight.
She touched her chin, looked up: "Isn't there a camera above his head?"
There were indeed cameras in the wolf enclosure, trying to ensure no blind spots, but Qingfeng just happened to lie under a surveillance camera... Thinking about it, Chu Tingwu waved her hand, asking the system to turn off the camera.
When the camera was turned off, Qingfeng's ears twitched, and he looked up bewildered.
He "awoo awoo" called a few times, as if calling for the caretaker or other companions, but there was no response.
He then ran to the door where the caretaker usually entered, tapped the door twice, then looked around the glass wall with a puzzled expression.
Chu Tingwu could tell, this wolf was quite smart.
A wolf raised since childhood in the zoo, while humans studied them, they seemed to study human behavior as well.
And after waiting a while, finding that the caretaker still didn't come, Qingfeng curiously returned to under the surveillance camera, tilting his head.
Then... he dashed to the enrichment facilities.
He started playing.
He played very happily.
He was like a child who had the entire amusement park to himself, with no parents around.
Chu Tingwu: "..." Melancholy, lost, heartbroken?
After a hearty round of playing, Qingfeng jumped to the top of the fake mountain, started howling, and after he was satisfied, shook his fur, plunged into the pool, and rolled on the rocks to dry off.
It was then that Chu Tingwu entered.
She walked through the small door for caretakers, directly approaching the grey wolf—
She clearly saw that when she pushed the door, the wolf's movements stiffened, then his raised hind leg immediately lowered, changing from "comfortably lying" to "powerless and melancholy lying." When Chu Tingwu reached him, his expression also adjusted, his gaze numb and depressed, glancing at her once and then turning away.
However, Qingfeng seemed to realize that Chu Tingwu wasn't the caretaker, and after pretending for a while in front of her, he turned his head curiously, glanced at her, and started looking for today's feed.
Chu Tingwu had the system display the previously unreplaced wolf enclosure feed, not the later additional one given to Qingfeng alone.
Upon seeing the feed, Qingfeng seemed stunned, then raised his front paw and tapped twice, lying down dejectedly on the spot, emitting a mournful sound—
Why are we eating this pig slop again today!?
This was Chu Tingwu's own judgment without system translation.
But after tapping for a while, finding that the caretaker didn't come, and the camera didn't light up, the wolf seemed to realize something, glanced at Chu Tingwu, then at her again, and started eating.
He glanced at the camera every two bites, but halfway through, he threw the feed out, making a mess on the ground.
Then he ran to the pool to clean himself.
Chu Tingwu glanced at the feed, finding that if she hadn't seen the whole process, she might really think the wolf hadn't eaten anything, just knocked the feed over.
Chu Tingwu: "He's just pretending, right?"
Chu Tingwu thought of the topic Li Yun had inadvertently mentioned, that Huihui had a small illness before being sent away, so she was isolated and had a period of isolation meals before being sent back.
Was Qingfeng really in love with Huihui, missing her because she was gone? No, he clearly liked the isolation meals!
To get the extra meals, he even started acting out, first pretending to be unhappy, finding that the caretaker really started paying attention, then pretending not to eat—sure enough, after a few times, he got the isolation meals, better toys, and more attention.
Although he didn't like the check-ups, but—
Chu Tingwu went up and touched Qingfeng's belly, finding that this wolf was indeed a bit fatter than the others.
For food, he could pretend for so long, even understanding what a camera was, quite the foodie.
This made Chu Tingwu think of the Pavlov joke, where when training dogs, the dogs also felt they were taming humans.
Although he hadn't attacked humans due to living in the zoo for a long time, Qingfeng was still unhappy when Chu Tingwu came so close to touch him. And when Chu Tingwu brought him to the feed on the ground, he seemed even more dissatisfied—
He didn't like it, shouldn't they change it for him?
Chu Tingwu smiled.
Because of her weight, she indeed couldn't beat the Siberian tiger, but with her improved physical control and strength, the Siberian wolf didn't have the combat power of the Siberian tiger or brown bear...
Can't beat them, but can I beat you?
-
Li Yun: "What dream is Qingfeng having? Rolling around, and moving his paws?"
This little wolf frowned, his mouth smacking as if having a good dream, but now he might be fighting someone in his dream?
Just as they were curious, the little wolf opened his eyes, shook his head, looked around nervously, then lay down again, whining pitifully.
Li Yun was both amused and exasperated: Although it was clear that he had had a nightmare, for some reason, his expression seemed more vivid than before, no longer as lifeless as it had been, as if the lively and clever Qingfeng had returned.
She wondered when his lovesickness would finally subside.
Just as Li Yun was thinking this, Chu Tingwu also opened her eyes. The young expert who had been invited let out a yawn and greeted the staff beside her, asking, "Can I go in now?"
Li Yun replied, "I'll accompany you."
Chu Tingwu followed Li Yun as they walked over, with Schneider White nearby, who was murmuring something to himself when he suddenly exclaimed in surprise.
Because Qingfeng, who had previously shown no interest in anything, suddenly stood upright the moment Chu Tingwu entered.
The wolf's paws pressed against the glass, his eyes fixed unblinkingly on the little girl who had just come in, his nose twitching as he seemed to be trying to discern something—
Li Yun, who was so familiar with Qingfeng, could see that he appeared full of doubt and indecision.
Despite the strange expression, he seemed more lively than before.
Could it be that Teacher Chu really had a special affinity with animals? Just as she was thinking this, Chu Tingwu raised her hand and tapped on the glass, saying, "Sit down."
Qingfeng: "……"
The grey wolf paused, then slowly sat down: "Awoo!"
Li Yun: "!?"
You even know how to speak wolf!
