Notebook of Fortune - Chapter 57

She thought that Shen Zhe would mock her or refuse her like others did. She didn’t expect that he would invite her!

“Yes!” Shen Zhe smiled and nodded. “My team has Zhao Chen, Wang Xiaofeng, Liu Pengyue and myself. While our grades are not very good, we work hard and treat everyone with kindness!”

He tried to sound sincere.

It was hard to win the sincere gratitude of those who weren’t in need of anything. But the underachieving students like Zhao Chen could provide two pencils on their own, and they could easily be moved.

He could totally take advantage of her situation, since his new classmate was even weaker than him.

She was a pencil in his eyes, not a teammate!

“You’ve been working hard?” Xiao Yurou smiled bitterly.

She had checked the ranks of the last semester and remembered all the names. The four of them, as she recalled, seemed to be the last four places of the whole school!

“Are you in or not?” Shen Zhe asked, “Rest assured. I promise you that they won’t despise you…”

Xiao Yurou: “…”

She couldn’t cultivate due to her body conditions, but in terms of theoretical knowledge, even the headmaster of the school had to respect her as a teacher… The most outstanding genius in the kingdom had been despised by the worst students!

Seeing that she didn’t reply, Shen Zhe added, “I won’t despise you, either. What’s wrong with bad grades? We’ll prove that we’re as good as any of them!”

Xiao Yurou chuckled and nodded. “Alright, I’m in…”

“It’s a deal then!”

Shen Zhe nodded.

“Okay!” Xiao Yurou nodded and looked at Shen Zhe with complex feelings. “Thank you!”

She thought that nobody would make friends with her, but Shen Zhe didn’t despise her at all.

Shen Zhe looked inside his head and frowned.

There were no new pencils!

“Shen Zhe!”

Shen Zhe was wondering if he should ask his new classmate to say he was a good guy, when Zhao Chen and his buddies arrived anxiously.

“What’s wrong?” Shen Zhe frowned.

“It’s…” Zhao Chen hesitated and said, “Let’s talk outside!”

It was too embarrassing for him to talk about that inside the classroom.

Shen Zhe nodded and introduced Xiao Yurou to the three of them, “Right, this is our new teammate that I just invited, Xiao Jiu.”

“Our new teammate?” They were all stunned.

“Yes!” Shen Zhe said in a low voice, “She’s even weaker than me. She hasn’t illuminated a single star. Nobody wants to invite her to their teams… But don’t talk about that in front of her in case she feels bad…”

Zhao Chen and the rest of them were sympathetic.

They knew how hard their lives as weak students used to be.

There were too many things that they would rather forget.

Zhao Chen approached her and batted his chest, “Jiu’er, rest assured. Whoever bullies you in the future, just tell me and I’ll teach them a good lesson!”

“We’ll be a team in the future. Bullying you would be like bullying all of us…” Liu Pengyue also nodded.

“Thank you…”

Xiao Yurou’s heart softened as she sensed their sincere concerns for her.

Maybe… This was what real school life was about!

Pure, sunny, without conflicts of interests…

She had always yearned for it but never lived it in her past seventeen years.

Just then, it had been brought forth by a young man named Shen Zhe…

…

“Shen Zhe, it seems that we can’t sign up!”

After they left the classroom, Zhao Chen finally spoke out.

“What’s wrong?” Shen Zhe was puzzled.

He had read the requirements, which said that everybody could participate. Why had it been changed?

“It’s said that His Majesty Xiao Jin will attend tomorrow. In case that some teams are too weak compared to others, a new rule has been set up. Every team must have a student who’s among the top hundred in the last semester!” said Wang Xiaofeng.

Shen Zhe was stunned. “There are more than a thousand students in total. Let’s say that there’s a student from the top hundred in each team… there could only be a hundred teams in total, which would include five hundred students at most. Where will the other five hundred students go?”

“Not the top hundred of the overall grades, but the top hundred of any subject. So, almost everyone is qualified to participate…” said Wang Xiaofeng.

“Any subject?” Shen Zhe realized that it wasn’t as difficult as he thought. He looked at them and asked, “Were you among the top hundred of any subject in the last semester?”

The three of them all looked embarrassed. “Our grades are very average… We were beyond the thousandth in every subject!”

“What about me?”

“You’re even more average… You’re were last place in every subject…” said Zhao Chen.

“…”

“How many teams have been screened out because of this new rule?”

“One…”

“…”

“Why don’t we invite a top hundred student to our team?”

“Nobody wants to. They all fled when they heard about us…”

“…” Shen Zhe was at a loss for words.

He was rather bummed.

He had been planning to distinguish himself, but the fire of his dream had been doused before it could spread.

“Is there nothing we can do?”

“There’s one way, which is to take a test right now. As long as we make it to the top hundred in any subject, we’ll pass!” said Zhao Chen.

“Why don’t we do that?” Shen Zhe was relieved.

“Mostly because…” The three of them were all embarrassed, “None of us can make it to top hundred in any subject!”

If they could do that, they wouldn’t be the tailenders of the school.

“Aren’t you at the peak of stage six in body polishing? Can you not make it to the top hundred in body polishing tests?” Shen Zhe frowned.

“Body polishing is never appreciated… There are no special tests for that…” Zhao Chen smiled bitterly.

“…” Shen Zhe was speechless.

It was indeed tricky.

“Actually, we’re here to discuss with you. We’re hoping that you can make it to the top hundred in battle technique tests…” After a brief hesitation, Zhao Chen expressed his thought.

His friend had grasped the Falling Leaves Palm and could run faster than a horse. It shouldn’t be a problem for him to make it to the top hundred.

“Battle technique tests?”

He was already adept at the Falling Leaves Palm. It wouldn’t be hard for him to reach the top ten…

However, his crisis was not over yet, so he had to keep a low profile. He had made up his mind to show his abilities as little as possible.

Must he expose himself before the contest started?

An idea popped up in his head. “I can learn battle techniques with a pot. Can they do the same?”

If they could learn battle techniques that way and succeed, they would be qualified to sign up and would certainly get a good result in the contest.

More importantly, it could divert the public’s attention and allow Shen Zhe to lay low!

“That’s a good idea! The problem is that boiling water is too hot!”

It was a good solution but he had to solve a problem first, which was to prevent the three of them from being cooked.

He was at stage eight of body polishing so he could resist the boiling water, but his friends were only at stage six!

If they soaked in boiling water, they would be cooked even before the battle technique was.

“If only the temperature of the water could be lower…” Shen Zhe suddenly patted his forehead, “How did I forget that?”

It was hard to lower the temperature under normal circumstances, but not so on a plateau!

When he climbed a mountain in his previous life, water boiled at 89 degrees at the altitude of 3,600 meters.

His friends would be cooked on the plain… But what if the pot was moved to Mount Thorn, which was more than five thousand meters high?

There, the water would boil at around eighty degrees.

That temperature would be no threat for Body Practitioners at the peak of stage six.

“Let’s do that…” Clenching his fists, Shen Zhe glowed and looked at friends. “Do you want to learn battle techniques?”

Zhao Chen and the rest of them were stunned.

“You will become adept at them today!” Shen Zhe nodded his head.

“Adept at them today?”

“Well…”

After the shock, his friends all said passionately, “Of course we’ll learn! Only an idiot would refuse!”