Free Web NovelChapter 26: Face Death
August 29, Year 413 of the Cataclysm Era. Today was the first day of the semester at Tianmen University.
At 7:20 AM, Ji Jue slowly woke from his peaceful sleep and peered at the sky outside his window. It had rained lightly in the early morning, and after sunrise, the sky was clear, the streets fresh and bright. A cool breeze drifted in through the open window.
The weather was great today. Flowers were blooming, birds were singing... and some unlucky kid was about to fall straight into the fires of hell.
That kid was none other than Ji Jue.
Woken up from a nightmare, he felt the pillow beneath him was damp with tears. For a long while, he didn’t even have the courage to pick up his phone. After discovering that his inbox had nothing but spam and not a single reply, he felt an overwhelming urge to find a nice little box, cremate himself, and call it a day.
He was done for, completely done for! Professor Ye still hadn’t replied to him. He was probably, most likely, incredibly doomed.
Thinking back on the past month, Ji Jue felt as though he had lived through an entirely different lifetime. Too many chaotic things had happened. His summer break had been far too eventful, too turbulent, so much so that he had completely forgotten about the paper he needed to submit. But what could he do? He couldn’t submit it under those conditions.
For most of that time, he had been lying in the hospital in a state of total shutdown. His body was so weak that he slept for eighteen hours a day, and his spirit matter had been repeatedly and severely overdrawn, leaving him mentally impaired most of the time.
If you asked him what he wanted for lunch, he would take ages to respond. His hands shook like he had Parkinson’s when he did nothing but hold chopsticks. He was like a dying toad. Not only was he incapable of doing academic work, he couldn’t even do basic arithmetic anymore. After buying a bowl of rice rolls, he nearly calculated some ridiculous result, as if the shop owner owed him 6.50 Fedra in change.
By the time he finally recovered enough to think clearly and realized how close the deadline was, there were only three days left until the start of school. Three days! Even if he worked himself to death, he still couldn’t finish the paper in time.
Desperate, Ji Jue had no choice but to go out and find an internet café. Utterly clueless[1], he worked through the night, barely managing to piece together something so bloated with filler that it rivaled even the faces of Hollywood celebrities[2]. With a heart full of anxiety, he gathered his courage and sent it to the professor’s email.
And yet, there was still no reply...
On a more positive note, maybe Professor Ye was just too busy and hadn’t had the chance to read it yet... Right? Maybe she had already forgotten about it and didn’t care at all. Or maybe, after reading it, she realized that this academic garbage was beyond saving and had gone ahead and ordered a specialized incinerator for pollutants, waiting for the moment Ji Jue dared to show up so she could end him cleanly and decisively.
He was at a dead end with not a shred of hope left. But, no matter how hopeless things seemed, Ji Jue still dragged himself bit by bit, getting out of bed groggily and sluggishly. He washed up and changed his clothes as if he was sleepwalking.
When he went downstairs, he found that his mutated little scooter was lying in the living room, licking a TV that was even older than itself while its engine oil dripped everywhere.
That made him want to die even more.
It was said that in the Cataclysm Era, there was a saying that went, “Life is like a gorgeous robe crawling with lice[3].” Ji Jue felt that his life was the opposite. It was just a pile of magnificent lice, with no robe at all. Besides this thing, he didn’t have any other clothes. He couldn’t just run around naked, could he? Might as well make do and get through life however he could. Wasn’t everyone doing the same anyway?
So, swallowing his tears, he rode off slowly and reluctantly, all the way to the door of the Mainland Auto Shop. A group of people were already waiting there.
Today was the first day of college for Lu Ling. As the last remaining academic hope of the Lu family, and having gotten into the same university as Ji Jue, Mrs. Lu was so happy she probably wanted to set off firecrackers right at the door. As Lu Ling’s unofficial second brother, Ji Jue naturally had to come and give her a ride and grab some breakfast while he was at it.
Seeing Mrs. Lu packing up piles of bags, Ji Jue couldn’t help shaking his head. “Oh my, you don’t need to bring so many things. It’s just the first day, she just needs to register and meet the teachers and classmates. Besides, she’s a local and will be a day student. She’ll be home in the afternoon. There’s no need for all this luggage.”
After much persuasion, he finally managed to cut down most of the luggage, leaving only the necessary documents. Then, after putting Lu Ling in the back, the scooter set off with a vroom vroom.
On the back seat, Lu Ling excitedly fidgeted as she enjoyed the wind rushing past her. Full of youthful energy, bright and cheerful, she stood in stark contrast to Ji Jue’s gloomy, lifeless expression.
“Ji Jue, did you change your vehicle?” she asked after finally noticing something.
Ji Jue stiffened. “N-no, it’s the same one. Look, that scar on the back is from when your youngest brother scratched it with a knife.”
“Oh, right.” Lu Ling looked confused and patted the seat. After all, her older brother Lu Feng had ridden this very scooter to take her to and from high school for three years, so there was no way she wouldn’t recognize it. However...
“Why does it feel so much bigger?”
The once 110cc scooter now felt like it had grown into a mid-sized motorcycle; it had grown fatter by more than just a little bit. Anyone could tell something was off.
Ji Jue rolled his eyes. “You’re allowed to go to college, but the scooter isn’t allowed to go through puberty and grow up?” he protested.
Lu Ling was speechless. The little scooter beneath them, which had been quietly listening, seemed to sense they were talking about it and started wriggling again. Ji Jue kicked the footrest in annoyance, and it immediately behaved itself.
So what’s it like when your own scooter suddenly starts acting like a dog? It’s an experience that makes you really want to die.
Ji Jue had been worried that one day it could suddenly go berserk and bite his head off to use as a ball. But after observing it, he realized that as a mutated product born from absorbing the vast majority of the dragon blood and shaped by his abilities and the effects of the Vortex Cultivation Method, this thing had an unbelievably stable personality. Not only that, it was extremely obedient, and as sycophantic as a dog.
When communicating with it through Ji Jue’s ability, it behaved exactly like a dog. Tell it to sit, and it would sit. Tell it to roll over, and it would roll over. Its mudguard wagged so hard it looked like it could fly off.
On top of that, it was incredibly energy-efficient. After mutating, it didn’t even need fuel anymore. And its power was absurdly exaggerated, almost monstrous. No one knew which sports car engine it had devoured, but it could accelerate from zero to one hundred kilometers per hour in just two seconds, and its top speed could reach an insane four hundred seventy kilometers per hour. Because of that, rumors of a haunted presence had recently started spreading on the highways near Ji Jue’s home.
These were all its advantages. The only downside was... It was way too picky about food. On average, it consumed half a plate of white-cut chicken per hundred kilometers. Braised chicken didn’t cut it, and it would outright reject frozen chicken drumsticks from the supermarket. It only liked freshly slaughtered, freshly cooked chicken. freewёbnoνel.com
As a result, Ji Jue, who had already been in a state of extreme poverty, was now on the verge of going completely bankrupt. Of course, Ji Jue understood that this flaw wasn’t its fault, but his own. What bad intentions could a little dog possibly have? It hadn’t chosen to reincarnate into his scooter. If it had ended up with a rich owner, it probably would have already achieved white-cut chicken freedom.
There was no helping it. He had to keep it. It wasn’t like he could just abandon it. Forbidding it from entering his room and only letting it sleep in the living room was already the limit of Ji Jue’s cruelty[4]. Fortunately, when it disguised itself as an ordinary scooter, it was very quiet. Otherwise, Ji Jue wouldn’t even have the courage to take it out.
By morning, the somewhat quiet Tianmen University had grown lively again after more than a month. The entrance was overly crowded, and students from various districts and even other cities excitedly looked around and took photos with their phones.
Excited, Lu Ling dragged Ji Jue around as she took pictures to post on social media. On the other end, Lu’s mother showed off her magical quick-hand skills, instantly liking every post.
This relaxed and happy mood continued all the way until the final step of registration for new students, when it was time to pay tuition. The bank staff waiting there sat behind the counter with a smile, handing over loan contracts. To Ji Jue, they looked like vampires staring at a queue of blood bags lining up to offer themselves.
Tianmen University was not a charity. As one of the top five institutions in the Federation, it was famous for its prestige and its extremely high entry requirements, as well as its equally notorious tuition fees. Since Lu Ling had already gotten in, there was no need to worry about whether she could afford it. Naturally, there would be kind, generous, and “helpful” banks stepping forward to assist her, inviting her to become their repayment slave for the next twenty years.
Even after Ji Jue and Lu Feng had spent the first half of the summer running around various government departments with documents to apply for subsidies and exemptions, the annual interest rate still reached as high as 4.1 percent.
Within just a few minutes, the girl had taken on more than 800,000 Fedra in student loans. She hugged the bag in her arms, her eyes welling up with tears.
“Don’t worry, don’t worry. Tianmen’s economics major is great for finding a job. If that doesn’t work, you’ve still got Dagou[5] and me, right?” Ji Jue patted her head to comfort her. “Come on, let’s go check out the school buildings first. Later, I’ll treat you to braised pork rice at the cafeteria!”
Lu Ling rubbed her eyes, even more upset now. “I don’t want braised pork rice. Ji Jue, you got sent to the hospital after eating that in your second year...”
Ji Jue’s smile froze. Why did this brat still remember that? Besides, the cafeteria had paid a lot of compensation, okay! And didn’t she forget how she got that dress of hers? He’d earned it one bite of braised pork rice at a time in the emergency room!
He was about to say something when his phone buzzed. The moment the screen lit up, his stiff smile vanished completely, and his heart seemed to stop for a second.
Professor Ye: Have you finished all the procedures? Come to my office.
Ji Jue swallowed nervously and put his phone away. “Wait a sec. Go get familiar with the campus with that senior over there. I’ve got something to deal with. I’ll head off first.”
Lu Ling looked confused. “Where are you going?”
Ji Jue fell silent for a moment, then forced a standard stiff smile, as if he was taking a funeral photo. “To my death.”
***
He jogged the whole way, nearly breaking into a sprint. Soon, Ji Jue reached the fourth-floor corridor of the office building. The moment he stepped in, he saw a face that looked like it was on the verge of bursting into tears from emotion, rushing straight toward him.
It was Ye Chun.
“Waaah, Ji Jue, you kept your word!” The senior slapped him hard on the shoulder, as if she saw him in a whole new light, and even pretended to wipe the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief. “So you really didn’t grind! I’m so moved! I’ll buy you a chicken drumstick for lunch! No, two!”
“Stop talking... I really feel like dying,” Ji Jue said, utterly lifeless, almost collapsing to the ground.
Heavens knew how he was supposed to explain that pile of garbage he had turned in to the professor. He couldn’t very well say he got caught up in a terrorist incident, fought alongside a lady from the Security Bureau, and together they went toe-to-toe with Lawrence and scored a combined 93 points, right?
“Come on, come on! Please go in! Brave warrior, go meet your death!”
With a gloating expression, Ye Chun led him to the office door. She personally opened it for him, and then kicked him straight into the “execution chamber.”
Only the ticking of the clock could be heard. Under the morning sunlight, the person behind the desk seemed to have been waiting for a long time. She wasn’t pretending to work on documents. Instead, she simply held an old teacup, sipping on strong tea so dark it looked almost black.
There was no deliberate makeup on her face. Professor Ye Xian, already in her forties, had wrinkles forming on her face like carved lines, which only made her inherent strictness and coldness stand out even more.
Seeing Ji Jue shuffle in with a fawning smile, she didn’t get angry. Instead, she pointed at a stack of freshly printed papers.
“Start by giving your own evaluation of the so-called ‘academic paper’ you submitted,” she said.
1. The raw here literally translates to “Having a memory stick in your mouth,” which is a joking meme that originated from PC building content creators on Bilibili. It refers to users who know nothing about hardware configurations, using exaggeration to mock a lack of basic knowledge. A RAM stick is an electronic component, and its surface may contain chemical coatings or metal residues. It must never be put into the mouth, as doing so could lead to accidental ingestion, choking, or poisoning risks.
Translating it literally would sound VERY strange in English, hence Murasaki and I have decided to translate it as being “clueless”, which still conveys the meaning of the phrase in a natural way. ☜
2. I had to be VERY creative with the pun here, lol. The original RAW wrote, 总算是勉强凑出了一篇含水量高到龙王看了都磕头的玩意儿来 which literally means “Finally managed to barely piece together something with such an absurdly high level of “water content” that even the Dragon King would bow his head after seeing it,” with “water content” referring to fillers, which would not make any sense in English. So I adapted it to something that would make more sense in English. ☜
3. “人生像是爬满虱子的华丽长袍” is a famous line by writer Zhang Ailing in her essay “A Genius’s Dream.” It conveys the idea that life may appear bright, beautiful, and rich on the surface, but beneath it lies trivial troubles, pain, or hidden ugliness and unspeakable imperfections. This sentence expresses a tragic awareness of life as incomplete and complex, emphasizing the coexistence of splendor and sorrow. ☜
4. As an owner of a very clingy dog myself, I totally relate. TT ☜
5. This is referring to Lu Feng’s milk name, Xiaogou. Xiao means “small,” while Da means “big.” So Dagou means “Big Dog.” ☜
