Chapter 15: VVVVV~VIP

The words were resounding and inspiring, but Yao Beibei found them hard to believe. She was even afraid someone might overhear and mock Ding Ling.

“I… I support you in spirit, but just with us?” Yao Beibei’s expression was awkward. “Not that I’m saying you can’t do it, but I have zero confidence in myself.”

She was lying. She didn’t believe Ding Ling could do it either.

After all, Ding Ling’s spiritual root was completely ruined.

Seeing that Ding Ling had pinned on her badge, she pinned hers on as well.

Seeing that they had both put them on, Zhang Tianyu fumed, frustrated that they wouldn’t stand their ground. “You’re just accepting this?”

“What else can we do? It’s a two-point deduction each time.” Yao Beibei tugged at her hair, trying to use it to cover the F. The notice had stated that every student started with an initial score, and everyone’s initial score was the same.

Points would be deducted for violating school rules and awarded based on quiz scores.

If they couldn’t generate new points, they had to cut back on losses. Not a single extra point could be lost!

Fuming with anger, Zhang Tianyu snapped, “Wear it if you want, but us guys…” Before he could even finish, Zhou Ziyue pinned on his badge too.

Zhang Tianyu and Yi Ang, however, refused to put theirs on no matter what.

As soon as the class bell rang, Teacher Miao noticed the two students from Class F who weren’t wearing their badges, but he pretended not to see. If he “saw” it, he would have to deduct points.

Yi Ang whispered to Zhang Tianyu, “This Miao guy isn’t half bad.”

Teacher Miao overheard, gave them a smiling glance, and announced, “Each class will send two male students to the warehouse to move soil.”

Class F had only three boys in total. Zhou Ziyue was frail and skinny, barely as tall as Ding Ling. The two male students Teacher Miao spoke of couldn’t be anyone other than Zhang Tianyu and Yi Ang.

Carrying the pots and soil needed for class was fine with Zhang Tianyu and Yi Ang. But after the two of them had each hauled a bag of soil over…

Teacher Miao added, “By the way, the soil in Pit No. 1 isn’t filled to the top yet. You two go bring three more bags each.”

Zhang Tianyu and Yi Ang: …

He definitely heard them! This was pure retaliation!

Carrying the bag of soil, Yi Ang grunted, “Brother, I take back what I just said. This Miao guy is quietly wicked!”

Teacher Miao divided the students into groups by class, five per group. This resulted in exactly two groups for A Class and one group for Class F.

He took out several glass cloches of varying sizes, each covering a different kind of spiritual plant. Since it was the first lesson, Teacher Miao had deliberately chosen several spiritual plants that were visually striking.

“Does anyone recognize these spiritual plants?”

Nearly all the students from A Class raised their hands.

Zhou Ziyue raised his hand as well. Teacher Miao breathed a sigh of relief, having worried that no one in Class F would know the answer. “Then I will call on one person from each group to answer.”

Correct answers would earn points, with no deductions for wrong ones.

Yao Beibei bit her lip. If only she had previewed the material at home, she could have raised her hand too. It seemed Teacher Miao’s class was an easy place to earn points.

Ding Ling did not raise her hand. She recognized them; their shapes and medicinal effects were similar, but the names were different.

“Fire lotus. Every part of the fire lotus has medicinal value, especially the fire lotus seeds. The seed meat is light red, while the seed heart is crimson. The deeper the red, the higher the quality.”

“Very good.”

From Class F, only Zhou Ziyue earned a point during the question-and-answer session.

In A Class, everyone earned points except for Ye Yibai.

Ye Yibai hadn’t moved. He didn’t want to raise his hand just to earn these points.

Near the end of class, Teacher Miao said, “Two points each for Zhang Tianyu and Yi Ang.” They had hauled spiritual soil for him before class. He had racked his brain trying to find ways to give points to the students of Class F.

Unfortunately, Yao Beibei and Ding Ling didn’t gain a single point.

Yi Ang winked at Zhang Tianyu, signaling that he took his words back yet again. This Miao guy was genuinely solid! He’d give you points out of nowhere!

Ever since entering Greenhouse No. 1, Ye Yibai couldn’t help stealing glances at Ding Ling from the corner of his eye.

Her right arm was still like charred black coal, but she held the shovel with her left hand, digging into the soil with earnest concentration.

She didn’t spare him a single glance, even though they were in the very same greenhouse, and even though he was the reason she had ended up like this.

Now that the entire school was adopting a points reward system, what would she do? The Ye family had paid a settlement, but compensation money couldn’t be exchanged for campus spirit stones.

Chen Li had been watching Ye Yibai all along. He had managed to enter A Class only because his father had put in a word with Secretary Liu.

The young master was thin-skinned and needed someone by his side to look after him. If Chen Li had accompanied Ye Yibai during the summer camp, he never would have let the young master go cave exploring and take such risks.

Given Chen Li’s aptitude, getting into A Class wouldn’t have been impossible on his own, but his father had simply added an extra layer of insurance.

With Principal Li on sick leave, Vice Principal Gao temporarily took charge of all school affairs.

Secretary Liu had arranged the matter without even reporting it to Mr. Ye.

Seeing Ye Yibai glance toward Ding Ling from time to time, Chen Li looked over as well.

Ding Ling’s complexion had indeed gotten fairer, her eyebrows had grown back, and her hair was cut in a crew cut. She was so thin she had no curves left, making her look like a delicate boy.

Aside from that frightening arm of hers, if one looked closely, she wasn’t bad-looking.

Chen Li looked at Ye Yibai, then back at Ding Ling.

No way, right? It couldn’t be what he was thinking, could it?

Ye Yibai used to find Ding Ling utterly annoying. After failing twice to put this bumpkin from Nanzhou in her place during the summer camp, Ye Yibai had been stewing with pent-up frustration.

When he peeked again, Ye Yibai caught him. “What is it?”

Chen Li grinned. “What were you looking at just now? You looked over several times.”

Feeling embarrassed, Ye Yibai refused to admit he had been looking at Ding Ling, so he said, “I was looking at that plot.”

Chen Li craned his neck and saw a sign stuck into the grid plot in the corner, with Ding Ling’s name written on it.

“Yo, the sign is even written in Ancient Chinese?” Even reduced to this, she was still acting so proud?

Chen Li had originally wanted to cause trouble for Ding Ling, but Chen Dahai guarded her fiercely, and with the points system now in place, he hadn’t been able to figure out what to do.

Seeing the tiny sprouts that had just emerged in that plot, an idea instantly struck Chen Li.

Unwilling to say more to Chen Li, Ye Yibai went back to observing the spiritual plant Teacher Miao had handed out.

Today’s homework was to write an observation report on their group’s spiritual plant, detailing its medicinal effects, lifespan, optimal harvesting time, and so forth.

Ding Ling didn’t continue observing the spiritual plant. Instead, taking advantage of the group discussion, she went to tend to her plot.

Just a moment ago, her spiritual plant had sprouted leaf buds again, and a tiny hint of red was peeking out from the stem.

Yao Beibei followed her over to look. “What’s this red dot?” Did plants get pimples too?

“It’s budding.” Ding Ling was very satisfied. She hoped the pot back in her dorm would grow just as fast.

The bell rang to signal the end of class. Teacher Miao said, “Leave the spiritual plants in their places and do not touch them. Everyone exit Greenhouse 1 in an orderly line. Our next class will be in the classroom.”

“Yao Beibei, stay behind.”

Once most of the students had left, Teacher Miao said, “Yao Beibei, help me collect the spiritual plants.”

“Huh?” Yao Beibei had thought she was about to get points deducted, but after she finished collecting the spiritual plants, Teacher Miao awarded her a point.

“Teacher Miao is so nice! His class really is easy for earning points. I’m definitely going to prep well for his class!” In truth, the moment Yao Beibei saw Teacher Miao today, she had already decided to put effort into this course. Well, the teacher was handsome, after all.

She had originally thought the students from A Class would try to pick a fight, but they completely treated them like they were invisible. Although it was a bit frustrating, at least nobody had caused trouble.

Spiritual Plant and Herbology was a double-period class.

As soon as Zhang Tianyu walked out of the glass greenhouse, he asked, “What other class do we have this morning?”

Yao Beibei checked the schedule. “Ideology and Moral Character^[1].”

Zhang Tianyu and Yi Ang let out a collective groan. Before they had even finished groaning, they ran into a discipline teacher wearing a red armband^[2], who asked, “Are you all wearing your badges?”

The two points Zhang Tianyu and Yi Ang had just earned from Teacher Miao were immediately deducted.

Yao Beibei quickly looked down at the badge on her chest and breathed a sigh of relief. She had worked hard to get that one point, and there was no way she could lose it now!

Today was the first day of school. Everyone started with an initial fifty points, and the weekly quizzes would add to that total.

Yao Beibei took her freshly earned single point and checked the campus store, only to find that it was only enough for a bottle of the cheapest mineral water or two lollipops.

With a generous wave of her hand, she bought two lollipops and gave one to Ding Ling.

“If I think of earning points as making money, it feels a lot better.” Sucking on her lollipop, she began to daydream with hopeful anticipation. “Do you think the Ideology and Moral Character teacher will be easygoing and easy to earn points from, too?”

Not at all.

The moment the Ideology and Moral Character teacher walked through the door, he looked at the few students of Class F as if they were garbage.

For the entire period, he simply read straight from the textbook without adding a single word of his own. He didn’t ask questions, nor did he tell them to take notes.

Yao Beibei kept her ears pricked the whole time, but throughout the entire period, she couldn’t find a single opportunity to earn a point. It wasn’t until class ended and the teacher walked out of the classroom that she finally said, “What’s the point of a class like this anyway?”

“It has its use.”

Assuming Ding Ling would back her up, Yao Beibei frowned and asked, “What use could it possibly have?”

“Guards against inner demons^[3].”

Zhou Ziyue overheard this, turned around from the front row, and let out another cold snort at Ding Ling.

“What are you snorting for all day long? Are you a donkey or something?!” Yao Beibei had put up with him for a long time. When she greeted him early this morning, he had completely ignored her, never saying a decent word. She had wanted to have it out with him for a while now.

Once an argument actually started, Zhou Ziyue looked at Yao Beibei as if she were a shrew.

Yao Beibei nearly exploded. Everyone here was in Class F, so who was he to look down on anyone?

Zhang Tianyu and Yi Ang woke up and saw the two arguing. “What’s going on?”

Zhou Ziyue shot a wary glance at Zhang Tianyu, quickly packed his things, and walked out of the classroom.

Angry as she was, Yao Beibei didn’t forget the top-priority matter of food. She pulled Ding Ling along. “Quick, quick, let’s hurry to the cafeteria! There are going to be so many people!”

Back during summer camp, over a hundred people had already fought over meals. Now with more than three hundred in the whole school, wouldn’t it turn into pure madness?

“Where are you getting ‘so many people’ from?” Yi Ang stretched and yawned, singing out like a folk tune, “The entire school has just one Window F for us. We’re VVVVV-VIPs.”