Chapter 10 Pickled Cabbage

The freshmen all assembled and boarded the buses to leave the summer training camp.

Because they were heading home, everyone had changed into their own clothes.

Only Ding Ling, having taken off her hospital gown, changed back into the school-issued red-and-white striped tracksuit.

Yao Beibei’s sullen face grew even more miserable. Wearing a loose tracksuit every day had kept her oblivious, but when she changed into her own clothes, she discovered her dress would not zip up.

That gorgeous white lace-trimmed dress she had just bought for her birthday this year would not zip up.

She had gained at least five Jin!

Everyone else lost a round of weight at summer training camp, so why was she the only one who gained a round?

Thinking back, she really had lost some weight in the first two weeks. Later… later, she had hung around with Ding Ling, stuffing her face with extra meals from the school infirmary’s small kitchen. How could she not have gotten fat?

Ding Ling sat by the bus window while the coach buzzed with noisy chatter.

After keeping their nerves taut for two months, everyone could finally relax, talking about how they would unwind and where they would hang out during the two-day break.

Assigned to Class F and five Jin heavier, Yao Beibei sat beside Ding Ling with her head hanging low.

Cheng Lu sat in the row behind them, equally silent. She was just short, just that tiny bit short, of making it into A Class.

What infuriated her even more was that Ding Ling had actually called it.

Cheng Lu looked up at Ding Ling sitting in front of her. Beside Cheng Lu, her roommate Su Xiaoya had also been assigned to Class B this time.

Noticing Cheng Lu’s gaze, Su Xiaoya whispered, “Why is Ding Ling still wearing a tracksuit?”

Then, as if remembering something, she added, “Oh, that’s right. Her original clothes really weren’t suitable.” She let out a soft snicker after speaking.

When everyone had first arrived at the camp to get their dorm assignments, Ding Ling had worn homespun Nanzhou cloth clothes and a braided ponytail. Only her shoes were new, and they were branded sneakers.

The outfit was so bizarre that Su Xiaoya could not help staring. Pursing her lips, she had exchanged glances with another girl, secretly mocking Ding Ling for dressing like a bumpkin.

As if sensing it, Ding Ling had turned to look at her, prompting Su Xiaoya to quickly pretend nothing had happened.

As soon as Cheng Lu arrived, Su Xiaoya and the other girl had pulled her into their clique. Su Xiaoya had asked about Cheng Lu’s entrance exam score, adopting a flattering tone: “You’re amazing! Could you tutor us so we can study together?”

Ding Ling, having already unpacked her meager luggage, was sitting at the desk reading the textbooks Teacher Chen had given her.

Teacher Chen had gone to great lengths to persuade her uncle and aunt to let her study in Central Continent, and had even bought her new shoes and books.

“Your practical skills are already excellent, but your theoretical knowledge is still a bit lacking. Don’t worry, they’ll teach it systematically when school starts. Just read through these books first.”

Ding Ling had memorized those books forward and backward. These were all she had, so she had to master every bit of them.

Hearing Su Xiaoya talk, she could not help letting out a soft snort.

Noticing Ding Ling, Cheng Lu asked Su Xiaoya, “What’s her name?”

Su Xiaoya wrinkled her nose and whispered, “No idea. She ignored us.”

When Yao Beibei dragged her pink suitcase inside, Su Xiaoya had also been the first to step forward, sizing her up from head to toe before asking hesitatingly, “Are you Ding Ling? The top scorer?”

She doesn’t really look like it.

“My name is Yao Beibei.”

Only then did Su Xiaoya realize she had mistaken the person. The one she thought was a shabby pauper was actually the number one.

When she tried to cozy up to Ding Ling afterward, Ding Ling did not even look at her, taking the initiative to isolate the entire dorm.

Back when Ding Ling’s grades were top-tier, Su Xiaoya had not dared to be so blatant.

Now she held nothing back, speaking in a voice neither too loud nor too soft, just loud enough for Ding Ling to hear.

Yao Beibei heard it, turning her head to glare at Su Xiaoya. “What do you mean by that?”

Su Xiaoya acted bewildered. “What? I didn’t say anything.”

“You! Stop acting! Aren’t you just trying to say…” Trying to say Ding Ling’s family is poor.

Su Xiaoya kept looking at Yao Beibei with feigned confusion. “What am I trying to say?”

Yao Beibei’s face flushed red, but she could not come up with a retort. What a sneaky person!

She shot Su Xiaoya a furious glare and turned around, only to see Ding Ling staring out the window the entire time, as if she had not heard a single word Su Xiaoya said. How had Ding Ling gotten so good-tempered that she did not even snap back?

Then it dawned on her: no wonder Ding Ling’s words in the dorm had always been laced with needles. From Ding Ling’s perspective, which of Su Xiaoya’s comments had not been a low blow?

“Ignore her. She’s just looking for trouble because she has nothing better to do!”

Ding Ling turned back, dazed. “What?”

“Didn’t you hear what she said?”

Ding Ling had indeed sensed waves of malice surging from behind her.

Yet she did not care. The bus had driven out of the mountain training base and was winding along the serpentine mountain roads. Sitting by the window, she could see the city at the foot of the mountains.

She had never seen a city like this.

Hundred-foot towers were everywhere throughout the city, with several soaring into the sky, seemingly piercing the clouds when viewed from afar.

Except… these buildings were all dusty and drab. They could not be called jade towers or celestial palaces, let alone jade terraces and golden pavilions.

In short: ugly, but they probably held a lot of people.

“Oh right, you’ve never been into the city before, have you?” Yao Beibei cast her foul mood aside. “Jiangcheng is split into South City and North City. Cultivators mostly live in South City.”

Actually, things had not been divided so clearly at first, but there were always differences between people with spiritual power and ordinary folks.

The hospitals they visited were different, their diets gradually diverged, and with their distinct lifestyles, the city gradually split into south and north.

Speaking of this, Yao Beibei pouted. Ever since she awakened her spiritual root, her parents had planned to buy a house in South City, claiming they needed to integrate into the new life. She, however, still preferred living in North City.

The bus remained lively for quite a while, but as the ride dragged on, the students grew sleepy.

After finishing the last of her snack stash, Yao Beibei leaned against Ding Ling’s shoulder and fell asleep.

Only Ding Ling remained awake. Inside her body, the remnant soul of the original Ding Ling flickered like a flame, that familiar yearning rising once more, just like… just like when she had first stepped through the immortal gates.

She did not soothe the flame, letting it dance freely.

After driving for over two hours, the bus finally arrived at the school gates, where many parents were already waiting.

Chen Dahai tapped his throat, instantly magnifying his voice several times over. “Students, please exit in an orderly fashion! Students from the Four Polar Continents, wait by the school gates and don’t wander off, don’t wander off!”

Ding Ling found Nurse Xiao Xu, who said to Chen Dahai, “It’s time for her medicine. I’ll take her to the school infirmary first so she can get familiar with it.”

As she spoke, she winked at Ding Ling.

“All right. Take her to the dorms afterward.”

Although Ding Ling’s luggage consisted of only a single backpack, it was mostly filled with books and rather heavy.

Yet Nurse Xiao Xu carried it with one hand without feeling any weight at all. The physical constitution of every cultivator was far superior to that of ordinary mortals, boasting noticeably greater strength, speed, agility, and flexibility.

Nurse Xiao Xu glanced at Ding Ling. “Our nursing program has very high physical fitness requirements when recruiting. If I hadn’t studied nursing, I would have gone into physical arts.”

She set the backpack down in her office. “Let’s go! Let’s check out the spirit plants. The scale of our school’s experimental fields ranks among the very best in the entire country.”

At the back of the school lay a vast plot of land with eight glass cultivation greenhouses built upon it.

This plot was specially enclosed by a white fence, and a large bronze plaque stood before the entrance, inscribed with the signature of the “Ye Corporation.”

Nurse Xiao Xu lowered her voice and said to Ding Ling, “This place is entirely funded by the Ye family, along with two new academic buildings, the modern facilities building, and the new gymnasium…”

All of it was funded by the Ye family.

That was why Director Chen had no choice but to turn a blind eye to certain things.

Truth be told, it was only thanks to the low-income student scholarship provided by the Ye family that Ding Ling could come from Nanzhou to attend No. 1 High School in the Central Continent, and the Ye family even gave Ding Ling a monthly living stipend of thirty spirit stones.

“Thirty spirit stones are worth far more than regular money. A one-way boat ticket from the Four Polar Continents only costs a hundred spirit stones.”

Once they reached a deserted spot, Nurse Xiao Xu patted Ding Ling on the shoulder, saying nothing more about the Ye family.

She only beamed and said, “I can’t unlock the other seven for you to see, but this one is used for student classes. I’ll open it up so you can take a look!”

With that, she opened the door to Greenhouse No. 1.

Just standing at the entrance, Ding Ling felt herself enveloped in an endless stream of spiritual energy.

She had never felt anything like this in the mountains or stone caves; how could the spiritual energy within this soil be so rich?

“How is it? The soil here gets replaced every summer break, and it was just refreshed, so you’re the first person to step inside.” Nurse Xiao Xu took a deep breath. “Fresh soil always smells so nice.”

As she inhaled, Ding Ling could see a surge of green qi swelling around her.

Nurse Xiao Xu’s cultivation as a medical cultivator was truly too low; she didn’t even realize that this comfortable sensation came from every limb and bone being bathed in abundant spiritual energy.

“Where did this soil come from?”

Nurse Xiao Xu smiled. “Familiar, isn’t it? This soil was shipped in from Nanzhou.” Spirit plants grown in Nanzhou’s soil yielded the most potent medicinal effects.

“Other provinces ship in soil, sand, and stone as well. A small corner in the last greenhouse uses sand brought from the East Polar Province, and the sandfruit grown there is incredibly sweet.”

Suppressing the restless flicker of flame in her chest, Ding Ling asked, “Could I… have a pot of soil?”

She had thought this would be a difficult request to grant, and if it really didn’t work out, she planned to… steal the keys one more time.

Ding Ling had already figured out what “surveillance cameras” were. With her spiritual root half-ruined and her storage and manipulation of spiritual energy severely impaired, she might not be able to disable them.

Stealing things was still going to be difficult.

To her surprise, Nurse Xiao Xu agreed without hesitation. “What’s the big deal? There’s plenty of soil! Besides, the freshman assignment for the spirit plant class is to grow your own medicinal herb.”

She chuckled as she continued, “It’s a major graded project for every freshman at the end of the year. You’d get your share of soil once classes start anyway.”

Sure enough, a stack of terracotta pots stood in the corner alongside numerous bags of neatly sorted seeds.

“Go pick out a pot for yourself and fill it with some soil. I just wonder if you’ll draw a pretty spirit plant. Back when I was a student, a girl in my dorm drew a lily, and it was so beautiful and fragrant.”

“Why are these pots all different?”

“Oh, those are craftsmanship assignments from upperclassmen. They get graded on them too, and instead of letting the pots go to waste after collecting the homework, they give them to the freshmen to plant flowers.” Since Ding Ling had arrived first, she could choose the prettiest one.

Yet unexpectedly, Ding Ling picked a gray one that, in both shape and size, looked like a vat.

“You want this one?”

“Yes.”

“I mean, you can have it, but this vat has been sitting there for years. It’s been around since back when I was a student, and no one has ever wanted it. How about you pick a smaller one as well? It’d look so nice on a windowsill.”

And so, Ding Ling picked out a smaller one as well.

Carrying the vat in one hand, she ran into Director Chen on the way back.

Chen Dahai had just finished settling the new students recruited from the Four Polar Continents. Seeing Ding Ling walking over carrying a vat, he paused for two seconds in silence.

Was she… getting ready to pickle cabbage for the winter^[1]?