You’re Not Even Listening to the Class

The three of them walked down the stairs side by side.

As they passed the corner on the ground floor, Hong Yuan was crouched by the windowsill eating a steamed bun, her axe leaning against the wall, with a pouch of trauma medication from the medical building set behind her.

She saw Chen Guan, gave him a once-over to confirm he hadn't lost any limbs, and then stood up.

"Morning."

Chen Guan looked at her. "Why are you still at Huaqing?"

Hong Yuan stuffed the last bite of bun into her mouth and said vaguely, "Su Yuehe told me to keep an eye on you."

Long Ao added, "She also posted it in the group chat."

Chen Guan pulled out his phone.

Sure enough, there was a pile of messages in the group.

Su Yuehe's last message from the previous night was sent at 4 a.m.

【After Chen Guan wakes up, if anyone sees him walking toward the school gate, stop him.】

Yin Chen followed up.

【If you can't stop him, please notify the Great Wall's corpse retrieval department in advance.】

Hong Yuan replied with an axe emoji.

Long Ao, as usual, replied with a period.

An Changqing didn't reply, but Chen Guan suspected he was a man of action.

Chen Guan put his phone away. "I'm just going to class."

Hong Yuan nodded. "I know."

She hoisted the axe back onto her shoulder and followed him down the stairs.

"So I'm coming too."

Chen Guan paused. "You're from Modu Academy."

Hong Yuan said, "I took the day off today."

Long Ao looked at her, bewildered. "Your school lets you take leave that easily?"

Hong Yuan thought for a moment. "I told my teacher, I'm at Huaqing, injuries haven't healed, need to observe Chen Guan."

Long Ao looked baffled. "And the teacher agreed?"

Hong Yuan said seriously, "The teacher just told me not to provoke Sima Ming."

They walked together to the cafeteria.

Huaqing Academy's mornings were far livelier than its nights. By the lake, students were practicing techniques, firelight and thunderlight flashed alternately across the training field, and the clashing of wooden swords from distant sword practitioners came one after another.

Today, however, Chen Guan was drawing noticeably more attention than usual.

The moment he stepped into the cafeteria, nearby tables of students simultaneously stopped chatting.

Their gazes swept from his face to the coffin on his back, then from the coffin back to his face.

Someone picked up a phone, only to have a companion beside them press it back down.

Not far away, two students were whispering.

"Is that really Chen Guan in the flesh?"

"No kidding, President An is sitting right there."

"Wasn't he on the memorial list yesterday?"

"That was called 'temporarily inactive.' Did you even read the post I shared with you? All you do is laugh."

Chen Guan heard it all clearly.

He set down his spoon, feeling it was necessary to cool things down on the academy forum.

But the moment he opened his phone, the academy forum homepage had a new hot post.

【Live shot of Chen Guan's breakfast this morning — eating a steamed bun, vital signs stable.】

Underneath were already dozens of replies.

【Eating porridge means his digestive system is functioning normally.】

【That one's from the medical building, isn't he?】

【I suggest the student council arrange a daily health bulletin.】

【Stop it, or President An will really draw his sword.】

【Then draw your sword. Just you and me.】

Chen Guan slammed his phone face-down on the table, a black line running down his forehead.

Baal laughed delightedly in his mind. "You're basically a rare protected animal right now. The difference is, when people protect other animals, they're afraid the animal will die. Your classmates are afraid you'll die, and also afraid you'll live in obscurity."

Chen Guan took a bite of his bun and could only sulk in silence.

The morning class was in the third teaching building.

The instructor, surnamed Zhou, was a middle-aged man with a very patient temperament but extremely sharp eyes.

When Chen Guan walked into the classroom, the normally noisy room fell into a rare brief silence.

Teacher Zhou stood by the lectern, saw him, and opened the attendance register.

"Chen Guan."

"Here."

Teacher Zhou looked at him, finally getting a look at the legendary figure in person, and nodded with satisfaction.

"Good to see you alive. Have a seat."

Muffled laughter rippled through the classroom.

Chen Guan found a seat in the back row.

An Changqing sat to his left, Long Ao to his right. Hong Yuan originally wanted to sit in the back, but since she wasn't a Huaqing student, she could only hover at the doorway outside the classroom and audit.

Teacher Zhou glanced at her and didn't chase her off.

Knowledge doesn't belong to any one school — if a student wants to learn, he teaches. He'd seen plenty of students skip class, but someone voluntarily attending extra lessons was still a rare breed.

The lesson that day was on high-risk battlefield evacuation protocols.

Teacher Zhou wrote a few large characters on the blackboard.

【Loss of contact, tracking, evacuation, rescue】

The entire class's attention naturally drifted toward Chen Guan.

Chen Guan leaned back in his chair, staring at the board, and felt that today's lesson carried a certain pointedness.

Who the hell put this class on my schedule?

Teacher Zhou tapped the lectern. "Stop looking at Chen Guan. Got words written on his face? Look at the board."

The students snapped their gazes back in unison. Teacher Zhou was, like Li Yan, one of those instructors students generally kept their distance from.

"Don't look at the board. Look at your books. How long do you need to read a few words on a blackboard?"

The students all lowered their heads in unison again.

Teacher Zhou continued, "On the battlefield, loss of contact doesn't equal death. But if contact is lost beyond the standard time, the team must prepare for the worst. Rescue isn't suicide, and retreat isn't betrayal. Only those who come back alive have the right to talk about next time."

He paused, and glanced at Chen Guan again.

"Of course, individual cases are not recommended for emulation."

Another wave of laughter went around the room.

Chen Guan picked up his pen, bored out of his mind, and started doodling in the margins of his textbook.

An Changqing saw his lack of focus, reached over, and closed his book.

Chen Guan turned his head. "What?"

An Changqing said, "Listen carefully. Watch the board."

Long Ao whispered from the other side, "This class is very useful for you."

Chen Guan looked at him.

Long Ao added, "Especially the loss of contact part."

Chen Guan looked back at the lectern. Yeah, this was definitely targeted.

But wait — he remembered the teacher said to read the books...

You guys aren't even paying attention!

He wisely didn't say it out loud.

Teacher Zhou's class wasn't boring. He covered three real cases.

The first was about a team's primary attacker going missing, and the deputy captain forcing a search-and-rescue, which in the end dragged the whole team into a contamination zone.

The second concerned a life-specialty student crossing the quarantine line to save someone — they saved the person, but got marked by a demon themselves, and only had the mark removed three months later.

The third was a Great Wall border mission, where a member was swept away by a spatial rift and crawled out seventeen hours later from an abandoned mining zone three hundred kilometers away — his first act was to contact headquarters.

When he got to the third case, Teacher Zhou paused.

"That senior is still serving in the Great Wall today. He left behind a saying that I think fits perfectly for today."

The classroom went quiet.

Teacher Zhou wrote it down.

【Don't plan miracles for your comrades. Don't leave paths of death for yourself.】

Chen Guan stared at those words. Now he was certain — this was aimed at him.

Under Teacher Zhou's explanation, the class quickly came to an end.

After the bell rang, the classroom buzzed back to life.

Chen Guan packed up to leave, but Teacher Zhou called out to him.

"Chen Guan, come here."

An Changqing stopped in his tracks.

Teacher Zhou saw his reaction and waved a hand. "No need to guard him so tightly. I don't bite."

Chen Guan walked up to the lectern, and Teacher Zhou pulled a form from his teaching notes and handed it to him.

"The medical building made a recommendation. For the next week, your classes will be adjusted. The school's terminal hasn't updated yet, so use this as the official schedule."

Chen Guan took it and looked. It was clearly written on the page.