/
By the time they got to school, they discovered Feng Ping Lan hadn’t arrived yet.
The Contracts began to worry, but after the events of yesterday, each of the Contracts had placed defenses and warning spells on Feng Ping Lan, and those spells hadn’t given a reaction. Clearly, nothing unexpected had happened to Feng Ping Lan.
Then, where was he?
Only after the third period did Feng Ping Lan come in late. His clothes were still disheveled, but his hair that was sticking up earlier had now collapsed, looking like it had been pressed down. As classes were now over, nobody noticed Feng Ping Lan’s abnormality.
“Where did you go?” Dongya asked uneasily.
“To settle1 a few things.” Feng Ping Lan replied casually. His mood seemed a little better compared to in the morning, but he was still far from usual, carrying a whiff of defiance.
“Are you
 feeling better?”
“So-so.” Feng Ping Lan gave a yawn, and noticed Gerard looking at him from his seat. He frowned, lowering his voice to ask Dongya, “What’s with that guy’s look? Asking for trouble?”
Dongya glanced at Gerard, “Don’t worry, we’ll protect you.”
“Thanks.” Feng Ping Lan curled the corner of his lip like a ruffian, clapping a hand on Dongya’s shoulder all Shanghai-like, “But I’m not scared. A man has to face every challenge that seeks out to him
”
Dongya stared at the hand on his shoulder, and responded a little awkwardly.
He really was not used to this Feng Ping Lan
 At least he was in a better mood now. Hopefully, he would recover soon

*
The fourth period was music, and all the students in the class moved to the music room. The teacher got the students to perform, some singing, some playing the alto recorder, the students of the woodwind choir blowing their respective instruments. After several repeats, they broke off into groups to practice.
Liu Yi Chen, Zong Yu, Ivan, and Feng Ping Lan were in the same alto recorder group, and the four of them found a spot in the corner to practice in a circle.
“Are you alright?” Liu Yi Chen asked. She had heard from Conglong that Feng Ping Lan still hadn’t completely recovered from the lifting of the curse, so there would be some slightly unusual reactions from him.
“I’m fine.” Feng Ping Lan responded, gripping the recorder, trying to whirl it with one hand, but failed as it fell down.
Zong Yu reached out, catching Feng Ping Lan’s recorder out of the air, then spinning it nimbly before handing it back to him.
“Yo! Awesome!” Feng Ping Lan took the recorder, clapping Zong Yu’s shoulder, “Pretty fucking cool!2”
Liu Yi Chen raised her eyebrows, feeling as if there was something wrong with all of this, but before she could question him, she realized Gerard was heading over to them from her peripheral vision.
“Is there something you need?” Liu Yi Chen obstructed his way to Feng Ping Lan.
Gerard ignored Liu Yi Chen, passing over her to speak directly to Feng Ping Lan. “You didn’t come last night.”
Feng Ping Lan lifted a lazy eyebrow, “That your fucking business? D‘ya live by the ocean? Poking your nose in everything.3”
Gerard was startled. Not just him, Liu Yi Chen, Zong Yu, and Ivan were all flabbergasted.
Gerard raised his eyebrows, examining Feng Ping Lan closely.
Feng Ping Lan’s attitude and response were entirely different from yesterday. Was this a defense reaction? Or his true colors?
Interesting

“Whatcha lookin’ at?” Feng Ping Lan challenged, “Get lost if you’re not from the recorder team. Got a problem? We’ll settle this after school!”
Liu Yi Chen’s cheeks twitched. His mannerisms were incredibly familiar, just like a certain local specialty that would be sold during the long holidays

Gerard didn’t give much of a reaction, he just gave Feng Ping Lan an indifferent look, then turned to leave.
Ivan, Zong Yu, and Liu Yi Chen stared at Feng Ping Lan, not knowing how to react.
“Ya guys possessed4, why’re you giving me that look?” Feng Ping Lan smiled candidly, thumping his chest to pledge, “Relax, if anybody comes to look for trouble, I’ve got your back.”
The expressions on those three became a little more complicated.
“Why are you
”
Liu Yi Chen was just about to speak, when the picture frame of a musician hung on the walls suddenly fell off, hitting right above Feng Ping Lan’s head.
“Fuck!” Feng Ping Lan cursed lowly, grunting as he held his head.
Liu Yi Chen turned to glare at Gerard. She was incredibly certain a cold smile had lifted in the corner of Gerard’s lips.
“Do you need to go to the sickbay?” Ivan asked in concern, “You might want to take this opportunity to get a closer inspection of your brain.”
“No need.” Feng Ping Lan felt his head, turning to look at Gerard. Gerard did not evade Feng Ping Lan’s gaze at all, looking at him calmly, some amount of provocation and ridicule in his eyes.
Feng Ping Lan stared viciously at Gerard’s back, enduring it silently.
Then, the group practices ended. The entire class lined up, and practiced as a whole. Feng Ping Lan quietly moved to a position behind Gerard. When the teacher turned his head, he took the chance to raise his alto recorder, ruthlessly smashing it upon his head.
Gerard slumped onto the floor. He hadn’t expected someone to actually raise a hand against him in broad daylight, and so had relaxed his guard.
“Dontcha like your petty tricks? You smelly wuss5!” Feng Ping Lan mocked in a low voice.
The surrounding students saw Feng Ping Lan’s actions, all of them extremely startled. Liu Yi Chen and the others were even more stupefied.
“Where did this rebellious brat come from
”
The teacher noticed the disturbance, turning over in concern, “Did something happen? Why is Gerard on the floor?”
“Nothing much.” Feng Ping Lan smiled, “We were just having a cultural exchange.”
Saying this, he spared a look down at Gerard, humphed, and stepped back into his position.
The Contracts and Liu Yi Chen and the others, who had seen the entire process go by, were all wearing grave expressions.
Something wasn’t right

When the bell rang, Feng Ping Lan slipped away from the back door before the teacher could announce the end of the lesson. He rushed into the classroom to grab his bag, then hurriedly ran to the desolate gymnasium’s back door, coming to the walls of the school borders. Lifting his head to gauge the height of the enclosure, he placed his hand into the concave joints, a foot on the wall, feeling out by jumping up twice, preparing to flip out of the walls.
“Classes haven’t ended yet.” Just as Feng Ping Lan was about to use his strength to leap over, a voice rang out.
Feng Ping Lan turned to see Kaido standing by the side, his arms crossed, observing his movements with a frown.
“I don’t want to go to afternoon classes.” Feng Ping Lan paid it no mind, admitting calmly.
“Where are you going?”
“The internet cafe.”
Kaido’s eyebrows furrowed even deeper, “Don’t you sense something wrong with you?”
“I don’t think anything’s wrong with me.” Feng Ping Lan spared Kaido a glance, “Wanna come with? It’s on me.”
Kaido shook his head, “You’ve made me feel like a good student, don’t you think this is a problem?”
“Whatever.” Feng Ping Lan disregarded him, “I’m leaving, bye.”
“No.” Kaido flicked his finger, “Tan Hua.”
Tan Hua emerged from where she was hidden within the wards, reaching out to grab onto Feng Ping Lan, who was about to flip over the walls.
“Hey! What are you doing! Let me off!”
“Lift him higher, don’t let him slip away,” Kaido commanded.
“Yes, Young Master.” Tan Hua raised Feng Ping Lan higher.
Feng Ping Lan was facing up, his hands and legs suspended in the air, “Damn it! Stop hiding behind a woman if you dare! I’ll remember this!”
*
Three minutes later, Feng Ping Lan was delivered into Yin Su Shuang’s office. Liu Yi Chen and the others, as well as the Contracts, were all present, including Quetzal and Seno. The group had clearly been waiting for a long time.
“Something’s not right with this guy. He’s fine on the surface, but something probably went wrong inside him.” Morris spoke, “You’ll know what I mean once you’ve spent three minutes interacting with him.”
“I know.” Yin Su Shuang sighed, “I just received a phone call from the school affairs division. The residents in the vicinity reported one of our students riding a scooter with students of another school, disturbing the neighborhood peace.”
He pushed a piece of paper over the desk towards them. It was a snapshot from a camera, and in the photo, Feng Ping Lan was wearing a skullcap helmet, riding on a modified scooter. There was even a kid with a cigarette in his mouth behind him, wearing the uniform of the neighboring junior high school.
“This is completely
” Ivan shook his head.
“An actual brat
” Liu Yi Chen gave a long sigh.
“What’s going on!” Conglong was clearly extremely astonished, turned to question Feng Ping Lan, “Where did that scooter come from? You actually didn’t tell me!”
“That’s not the point!”
Feng Ping Lan shrugged, “Borrowed it from a friend.”
“A friend?”
“Met him in the internet cafe this morning.”
A wave of headaches struck them.
Yin Su Shuang turned, saying to Seno, who was sitting in the corner off in another world, “I’ll leave it to you.”
Seno was the Shadow Academy’s doctor, treating the hard-to-treat cases caused by demons or spells. He did not treat just the humans, even the demons were his patients.
“You want him to treat me?” Feng Ping Lan widened his eyes, “He looks like a butcher who sells organs in the black market!”
“Seno’s capabilities are the finest of his profession.” Yin Su Shuang gave Morris a look.
Morris immediately moved behind Feng Ping Lan, both hands hooking his arms behind his back, fixing Feng Ping Lan into place, making sure he wouldn’t move.
“Let me go!” Feng Ping Lan struggled desperately, but it was all in vain.
Seno yawned, scratching his disheveled hair, then walked over to Feng Ping Lan, looking at him left and right.
Feng Ping Lan caught a whiff of a middle-aged uncle’s breath of beer and cigarettes. “Stay away from me! Or I’ll send my bros to get you!”
“Relax
” Seno spoke languidly, disregarding Feng Ping Lan’s threats, reaching out a forefinger to slowly hold up in the space between his eyebrows.
Feng Ping Lan stared at that finger, not daring to move.
Seno lightly uttered an incantation, and in the next moment, removed his finger from Feng Ping Lan’s forehead. When his finger moved away, a pea-sized cyan symbol was dragged out along with it, like a soft shoot that had just sprouted. The light forming the symbol spiraled around Feng Ping Lan, building into complex spheres and ellipses, intertwining and overlapping each other in the air.
“So cool!” Feng Ping Lan looked at the green light bands that circled around him in novelty, a luster shining in his eyes, “How did you do it! So strong! Just too amazing!”
Dongya and the others found themselves smiling reflexively. This reaction was Feng Ping Lan alright

Seno scratched his belly, staring at the light bands circling around Feng Ping Lan. The light bands were running and swiveling in the air in different directions and speeds, some of them having well-distributed colors, but a majority of the bands had various shades, mottled and gradient.
“What’s wrong?” Seeing Seno keep his silence, Conglong asked, “Did he get struck by some sort of curse? Is he sick? Why does he act like an entirely different person!”
“No. The sickness he has is called the rebellious stage.” Seno scratched his head, pursing his lips.
“Ah?”
“This is quite a peculiar curse. It appears to be a demon’s time-reversing transformation spell, but has the traces of a human inside. While the composition is simple, its ingredients are incredibly complex. Moreover, there’s a defense and restoration system.” Seno stared at the mottled light bands, the darker parts turning lighter little by little, turning into the same hue as the other parts, “The original spell was broken by someone other than the caster, so the broken curse is currently restoring its operational state on its own.”
“What does that mean?”
“The original spell caused his exterior appearance to shrink to its seven-year-old self, but the curse has been disrupted, which forces him back into his original appearance. Right now the curse is operating in reverse, mending different areas, so his internal wisdom and age has started degenerating first.” Seno looked at the light bands, “His mental age is currently around his second year of middle school.” The violent reformation era just in time for the rebellious stage.
Liu Yi Chen and the others revealed understanding looks.
No wonder he was acting on the level of a brat’s.
“Fortunately, his memories haven’t been affected by the mental age-reversal.”
“Will he continue to regress?” Yin Su Shuang asked.
Seno nodded.
“When the restoration reaches a certain degree, his outer appearance will shrink again, but I can’t be sure of his mental age after regressing and the alteration’s cyclic frequency. Moreover, although it is recovering, the curse’s foundation has been damaged, so its next operational state is muddled and unknown. We can’t know for certain if it’ll stop after completing its recovery, or if there’ll be any new changes.”
Seno uttered a low incantation, once again pointing at Feng Ping Lan’s forehead. A moment later, all the light bands were brought back under his finger. Morris relaxed his hold as well, releasing Feng Ping Lan.
“How could this be
” Su Li Wan murmured anxiously.
“I know why.” Feng Ping Lan stared at his own two palms, giving a long sigh of grief and indignance, “I’ve always felt I was different than any ordinary human. I bear a unique mission on my shoulders, destiny has forced me down this path. This is my predestination, I cannot flee from it, I can only accept
”

As expected, a chuunibyou. The humans present on site thought.
“Then, what should we do next?”
“We can only observe. Before the next mutation, I cannot make out the laws of his transformation.” Looking at Feng Ping Lan, Seno instructed, “Don’t do anything too intensive during this period, it’ll be much safer if you reduce the stimulation to your physiological and psychological state.”
“You got it!” Feng Ping Lan replied seriously, “I will take note of everything Big Bro Seno instructs.”
Everyone raised their eyebrows.
Big Bro
 Seno?
Ineffably generating feelings of respect towards a certain person, then calling him their big brother.

As expected, a chuunibyou.
“Mm, that’s probably it.” Seno yawned. He felt a little uneasy speaking so many serious words at once. He reached a hand into his wrinkled pocket of his pants, taking out his squashed cigarette box, raising it before him to draw out a cigarette.
A moment later, Feng Ping Lan very quickly offered up a lighter, helping Seno light up his cigarette.
“Oh, thanks.” Seno smiled.
“No, it’s my pleasure.”
Everyone’s faces darkened.
Yin Su Shuang stood up, directly plucking out the cigarette in Seno’s mouth, throwing it into the pot of tea-leaves by the side, then turned to glare at Feng Ping Lan, “Hand it over.”
Feng Ping Lan resentfully handed the lighter over to him.
Yin Su Shuang looked at the others, instructing gravely, “Right now is an extreme phase, if word of this gets out, it’ll be detrimental to you as well as Zephaniah. This matter can go either way – if it travels to the Association’s general headquarters, the consequences would be unimaginable. We cannot slack off, at least before the school festival is over. Handle this matter carefully, do not let the outsiders doubt you, do not complicate the issue.”
He glanced at the Contracts, his gaze pausing slightly on Quetzal, but did not say anything, and sent everyone away.
*
Feng Ping Lan did exercise some restraint during the afternoon classes, and with everyone taking note and covering for him, he did not show any flaws. His actions this morning were explained away as righteous indignation for this companions’ treatment last night. The Shadow Academy students in class accepted this explanation, and out of sympathy, helped Feng Ping Lan explain the situation to the others and cover up his loss of control.
The first period of Shadow Academy classes tonight was Yin Su Shuang’s class, used to discuss the school festival’s celebratory activities. Thus, Gerard did not participate in class, and went along with another class for the time being.
Liu Yi Chen distributed the printed scripts, the screenwriter being Simo. The script was pretty well-written, but if they were to use the first draft as their play, they would probably be charged with the crime of public indecency. And so she deleted every sensational section in the story, editing it to a point that it was capable of being acted out.
However, some plots could not be deleted, just barely crossing the line. But this was also the selling point. She believed, as long as the scene was dealt with appropriately, they would manage to make it through.
“Those of you acting, memorize your lines, we’ll start our rehearsals tomorrow.”
Feng Ping Lan flipped through the script, crying out as if he had made a huge discovery, “There’s a kiss scene in here!”
“Yeah, that’s just—”
“Aiyo! A kiss! They’re even doing gross things!” Feng Ping Lan let out ambiguous light laughter, “Careful of getting pregnant! Hahahahaha!”
Liu Yi Chen rolled her eyes, glancing at Byriel. “Get that brat to shut up
”
Byriel nodded, indicating his cooperation, but did not do anything after that.
Their classmates raised a few questions on the script, and after discussing somewhat, entered the discussion on the vendor stalls.
“We haven’t reached a consensus on the kind of vendor stall we’ll set up. If there are no objections, we could do something as simple as a cafe, selling light meals—”
“We could sell sausages.” Feng Ping Lan interrupted without consultation, “We just need sausages, then we can set up a pinball machine, if we don’t have a pinball machine we can use dice and empty bowls. It’s very convenient! Kids and adults will love it, they might even get addicted.”
“Sausages are too monotonous, and it’s too inexpensive, we won’t be able to profit—”
“Or we could get a few computers, set up an internet cafe.” Feng Ping Lan cut off Liu Yi Chen once again, “We could even use the classroom projector and screen to do a live relay! It’s super awesome!”
Liu Yi Chen’s expression turned malevolent, glaring at Byriel, “Get that chuuni brat to shut up!”
Byriel smiled, turning his head and moving closer to whisper into Feng Ping Lan’s ear. Feng Ping Lan was immediately content, obediently sitting in his seat, no longer saying anything, right until classes ended.
“What did you say to him?” After class, Liu Yi Chen ran over to Byriel, consumed with curiosity over Byriel’s miraculous method.
“I just appealed to his tastes.” Byriel smiled.
“What was it?”
“I told him, if he could stay silent right until classes ended, I’d give him a kinky adult video.”
“
”
For the next few classes, while spent with those from their sister schools, with everyone on their guard, both forces did not make direct contact. Adding on the fact that their instructor Yerde had most likely received word from Yin Su Shuang, he frequently went into the field to patrol during self-practice sessions, and so the people from the sister schools dared not to make any moves.
They barely managed to get through the day in peace.
TL Notes
Basically a list of slang/internet speech FPL uses in this chapter:
‘Settle this’: The word used, äč”, is a Taiwanese slang which more or less means mediating/reconciling a fight between two individuals.‘Pretty fucking cool!’: The sentence Feng Ping Lan uses is ’æŒșć±Œçš„!’ and ć±Œ literally means penis, or fuck in Cantonese. It also means cool or extraordinary.‘D’ya live by the ocean? Poking your nose in everything’ : The original sentence is ‘䜠䜏攷èŸčć—ïŒŸçźĄèż™äčˆć€šâ€™ and an internet slang which implies just like the vast and boundless sea, there are too many things the person this phrase is directed at is meddling in.‘Ya guys possessed’: ‘捡戰阮’, another Taiwanese slang phrase, which literally translates to ‘wedged between something shady’. A more common phrase would be ‘撞é‚Ș’, which means bumping into evil/a ghost.‘Smelly wuss’: The exact words were â€˜è‡­äż—èŸŁâ€™, meaning a coward, scumbag.