chapter 2

The students just checked in yesterday; they came down for the exam after they hastily tidied their things so the things in their rooms were still in a mess. There was no one in the room when dorms whe the two entered. Xuan Mo’s bed was just beside Tian Jin Jin; her bed was… completely empty.

“Hurry! I’ll go wash the rag, you make the bed!” Tian Jin Jin opened Xuan Mo’s closet with familiarity, took out a rag and ran in the direction of the toilet. At that, Xuan Mo froze.

Make the bed… she retrieved the memory and followed… why did she need to make the bed?

She had to make the bed to sleep… ♢

What’s the use of sleeping?

You need to sleep to recharge yourself… Z L T

Then… is my body able to recover the mental power by sleeping?

That was a question even she herself could answer—no.

You have to cultivate continuously in order to do that!

And so, the conclusion was that there was no need to make the bed.

When Tian Jin Jin returned with the rag and saw Xuan Mo still standing there, she paused: “Why aren’t you making your bed?”

“I’m not sleeping.” Z L T

“Not sleeping? Are you an immortal or something… goodness, fine, go sit there… oh right, what did you put for the multiple choice questions previously? Mine’s ACBDBB, what about you?” ♢

“……three Cs。”

“…enh, and then? Why did you only say the answer to three questions?” Tian Jin Jin suddenly became ecstatic, “you mean you out the same answer as me for the remaining questions?”

“…” Stay silent you should stay silent. Xuan Mo knew something unpleasant would happen if she were to tell Tian Jin Jin that she’d only done three questions.

“Ahh that’s awesome! Then my answers should be correct. Honestly I was puzzling over the first few questions for a good part of the time, didn’t think I’d still end up getting them wrong sigh.” Tian Jin Jin wiped the railing on the bed and swiftly made the bed as she said, smiling, “I’m thinking of exercising tonight, coming with?”

“Exercising?” Xuan Mo suddenly recalled what Tian Jin Jin said in the afternoon.

“We have military training the day after tomorrow. I hear there’s gonna be field drills; I’m afraid I can’t manage.”

Military training… military… Z L T

The memory that this word elicited had Xu Mo’s entire being charged with energy; military, soldier!

It then hit her that this sphere—one where she was as though a fish in water—existed in this world as well.

She suddenly found her direction in this aimless life. Z L T

“…Xuan Mo.” Tian Jin Jin looked at her, pausing, “Your, eyes lit up.”

“Let’s go exercise.” Though there has yet for someone who can withstand a punch from her appearing in this world, she wouldn’t know till she tried; they could be the kind with incredible explosive force for all she knew.

“Alright, then let’s go after dinner! Aye, where’s our other two dormmates.” Tian Jin Jin pulled Xuan Mo out once again.”

There weren’t as many people in the canteen as there was in the afternoon. Xuan Mo followed Tian Jin Jin and ordered a plate of vegetables and a bowl of rice. After finishing, the two of them headed for the field. ♢

There were already quite a few people there exercising differently, some were playing football and basketball while others were running rounds around the field.

First High’s field was the standard type with the 400m track. The two of them didn’t bring any form of exercising equipments with them so they could only run rounds on the track.

Xuan Mo had never done such an exercise in her life before so running rounds was something were novel for her. She’d originally wanted to speed down the track happily, but when she realised that Tian Jin Jin’s turtle speed seemed to be the normal speed around here, she could only mince her mouth before slowing herself down.

After two rounds, Tian Jin Jin appeared to be completely exhausted, as though she was on the verge of death and was but a zombie. When she reached the finishing point, she immediately stopped. When she turned to look at Xuan Mo who was running leisurely after her, she got a shock. When Xuan Mo stopped as well, she stood perfectly straight, her breaths light and her expression unruffled as though she hadn’t ran at all.

“You, you, you…” Tian Jin Jin didn’t know what to say. Was this still the delicate, fragile “Xuan mei mei*” she knew that’d be panting heavily after a few rounds?

* 妹妹 = mei mei; little sister (need not be referring to one’s biological sibling)

“Mo Mo, did you run?” Tian Jin Jin didn’t hear her footsteps behind her previously.

“I did.”

“Two rounds?” Z L T

Xuan Mo looked at her in confusion: “Enh.” Z L T

“Then why do you look perfectly fine?” Tian Jin Jin walked circled her, “you can’t possibly get so fit even if you did train the entire holiday! You look like you didn’t run at all!”

“…are you still running?”

“Pant! I can’t, you go ahead if you can still run. Since you’re here already, you should at least exercise till you break into some sweat for some results.”

“Enh, then I’ll run a bit more.” After which, Xuan Mo ran off, her speed neither too fast nor slow.

Three rounds, four rounds, five rounds, six rounds… Z L T

When Xuann Mo ran past Tian Jin Jin once again, she was grabbed by her friend whose eyes had long popped out from astonishment: “Xuan Xuan! That’s almost three kilometres you’ve ran!”

Only three kilometres… to someone with a base distance travelled of light years, three kilometres was nothing. But it seems like she can’t run anymore.

Though not a lot of people would notice her through the streaming people going about, but it was hard to guarantee that there wouldn’t be someone who’d be eyeing her.

“Let’s go.” Xuan Mo touched her forehead as though to wipe her sweat; in actual fact however, she was just touching her forehead that felt like it’d been burnt.♢

Seemed like no one noticed that.

Regardless, humans’ memory system didn’t seem that good; it was easy for them to forget the trivial matters that barely had anything to do with themselves.

When the two of them returned to their dorms, the rest of their dormmates were already there.

Tian Jin Jin was 163cm in height, cute, slightly chubby, had an apple face, and had eyes that’d curve into crescents when she smiled; she was the kind of girl that was easy to get along with.

Xuan Mo seemed to be quite a pretty girl as well. But according to Tian Jin Jin’s hinted definition, her appearance matched her delicate character. Of course Xuan Mo didn’t know how she seemed like now with another soul residing in this body.

Their other two dormmates were pretty decent looking as well. Xuan Mo didn’t have the same aesthetic standard as Earthlings, but she was able to decipher how their appearance was from the others’ speech and looks.

For example, she could hear Tian Jin Jin slight envy when she flattered the girl called Qi Shan, “You’re so pretty, and your legs are so thin, and your hair’s so long an pretty.”

Qi Shan couldn’t help but laugh as she said: “Don’t talk about me, Xuan Mo’s very pretty as well, and she has such a perfect figure as well.”

The other girl wa quieter. She was short and thin as a bamboo; she appeared timid and didn’t quite command much of a presence.

“Li Fang, are you from Zhou county?” Tian Jin Jin exclaimed softly, her eyes glittering, “That’s so amazing, you’ve pretty much been guaranteed a place then!”

“Enh, h.e.l.lo.” Li Fang stole glances at Xuan Mo. When she met her deep, empty (it really was empty) gaze, she immediately lowered her head.

Their encounter knocked out the different impressions of the two. Z L T

Tian Jin Jin whispered to Xuan Mo: “I prefer Li Fang, she’s more honest and low-key.”

Xuan Mo didn’t say anything but she knew that she preferred people like Qi Shan who was more straightforward. Li Fang on the other hand was the threat-less kind of person; she preferred people with a more exciting personality.

Even if there were no enemies, she could make enemies! Z L T

Following that, they continued their studies in silence, Xuan Mo ontinued observing the the actions of the people around her so as to trigger the relevant memories; during which she learnt how to wash up, attend night study, and go to sleep.♢

Her body was made up of pseudo glue, a material she’d brought along from two hundred million years ago before the ethnic races roamed. This had been the top-notch technology of that time, and was used during trading and courting of the extraterrestrial civilisation. The material was soft, fine; the colour could be altered and the sh.e.l.l was as strong as that of a mecha—it was able to withstand even attacks from s.p.a.ce.

Of course it was also water, dust and burn-proof. Z L T

Therefore, all she had to do in the toilet was to pretend that she needed to use it, before walking back out, sitting back at her desk and returned to copying others as she opened an English textbook.

After she learnt Chinese, she had to learn English. This wasn’t at all hard to Xuan Mo who understood all the strange symbols to the languages from the various different civilisations in the Cosmic Coalitions. However when she checked her memory, she discovered that the information of this English language was incomplete. Looked like the previous owner of this body herself was still in the process of learning this language and had not yet reached complete proficiency. What was better than Chinese was that she only needed to indicate the useful sentences in an English comprehension exercises, whereas in a Chinese comprehension, she needed her own judgement to answer the questions.

After looking through the previous owner’s scripts from before, Xuan Mo felt that it wouldn’t be take easy a task to proficiently use use this language by tomorrow for the paper. And so, she set down the English textbook, picked up the Science textbook.

When Tian Jin Jin saw her doing that, she said: “Mo Mo! Let’s study English instead, First High’s Mathematics and Science papers for the examination in the beginning of the term are inhumane; this is their tradition. Only the people who’s set on entering Cla.s.s One will try to prepare for these subjects. We’ll be fine as long as we don’t screw up our Chinese and English papers.”

Qi Shan was also flipping through her English textbook. When she raised her head and saw that Xuan Mo was still looking through her Science textbook, mindless of Tian Jin Jin’s words, she smiled: “Mo Mo, do you want to enter Cla.s.s One as well? I want to enter that cla.s.s as well, but it’s probably impossible for me. How awesome would it be if we can get into the same cla.s.s.”

Tian Jin Jin rolled her eyes at Qi Shan as though in disdain, and didn’t say much after that. When she turned, Li Fang was also revising for Science.

When Li Fang noticed Tian Jin Jin’s gaze, she said softly: “I, I want to enter Cla.s.s One…”

None of them criticized her when they saw her careful expression, earnest expression instead, the ma.s.ses returned to their revision.

Perhaps one would need the foundations to do a math, but subjects such as Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geography on the other hand were instinctive to her. ♢

But this was the Blue Planet, so her knowledge in Biology and Geography wouldn’t work here, so she had to depend on the stored memories regarding those subjects. Physics and Chemistry however would not be foreign to her as long as she could translate the words and symbols into her mother tongue,

Even if the acceleration of gravity and physical properties of materials were different here, and the basics were pretty much similar—there would be no change in the valence calculation, matter constant, et cetera.

After flipping through the Science textbook for a bit, she discovered that the content from Year Three in middle school was still quite shallow; she was a Year One in high school so the content, at least compared to English, was a lot easier for her. At that, Xuan Mo closed her textbook and climbed onto her bed.

“Mo Mo, you’re sleeping now?”

“Enh. I’m tired.” After which, she closed her eyes and ignored the remaining noise.

It was too bloated for her tiny figure to contain so much mental power, hence she needed time to gradually adjust while carefully cultivating to ensure that the melding of soul and body was as close to perfection as possible.