Chapter 44: Chapter 44: Homework
THUD, THUD, THUD. Zhang Wenda watched the personified Aunt Flo pin Song Jianguo against the wall and unleash a flurry of elbow strikes. He could almost feel his own stomach starting to ache.
"Seriously, do you have to be this way?" Zhang Wenda asked, looking speechlessly at the personified Aunt Flo.
’Even though I know this thing is Song Jianguo’s Aunt Flo, I still can’t bear to watch her being so brutal.’
’After all, we’ve been through some tough times together. Besides, if this keeps up, it’ll slow down our ’Eliminate the Four pests’ mission.’
Pinned to the wall, Song Jianguo clutched painfully at Aunt Flo’s arm as he slowly slid to the floor.
"Sigh... It’s fine. The first day is always the worst. It’ll get better over the next few days."
"Have you considered bribing Aunt Flo so she won’t beat you up?" Zhang Wenda offered helpfully, trying to strategize for him.
Aunt Flo turned her head and glared at Zhang Wenda. "This is *my* job! Why don’t you mind your own business, you little brat?"
"What happens if you don’t hit him? Will you be punished? Do you have to follow some kind of mandatory rules? Is this some kind of ’Aunt Flo’s Rules of Horror’ thing?" Zhang Wenda couldn’t help but ask.
"Are you lookin’ for a beating? Nosin’ around, askin’ all these questions! Keep talking nonsense, kid, and believe me, I’ll let you experience what it feels like for a woman to bleed!"
The bearded Aunt Flo cracked her knuckles and advanced on Zhang Wenda with a menacing look in her eyes.
Zhang Wenda, however, wasn’t intimidated. He just tilted his head back and looked at her with curiosity.
"Don’t you have a name? Or is your name really just Aunt Flo? Even that doesn’t sound right. Going by cultivation story logic, you’re basically an Aunt Flo that gained sentience, so you should be called an Aunt Flo Spirit."
"You little shit!" The enraged Aunt Flo threw a punch right at him.
Just as a fight was about to break out, a deathly pale Song Jianguo clutched his stomach and cried out in pain, "Haozi, you have time to stand around and chitchat? Don’t you have to go to school?"
At these words, Zhang Wenda instantly reined in his intense curiosity, grabbed his school uniform, and headed for the exit.
"Crap, I almost forgot! What time is it? Don’t tell me I’m going to be late again."
When he got to the treehouse entrance, Zhang Wenda saw Song Jianguo grab his spear and stagger after him. "Where do you think you’re going?"
Song Jianguo bit his lip, glared at him, and said in a snide tone, "Weren’t *you* the one who said we had to ’Eliminate the Four Pests’?"
Seeing the other boy swaying on his feet, Zhang Wenda shook his head. "Forget it. You’re in no condition to work. How about this? Out of the kindness of my heart, I’ll move your Saturday day-off to today. Just take it easy."
"Well, aren’t you a saint..." Seeing Song Jianguo collapse onto the floor in defeat, Zhang Wenda grabbed his uniform and jumped down from the treehouse.
He glanced at the large, square clock in the town center and saw it was almost eight. With no time to spare, he broke into a desperate sprint toward the school.
He rushed the entire way, even using up some of his recently recovered Red Core energy. In the end, he managed to slump into his seat, drenched in sweat and gasping for air, just before the class bell rang.
’This is too intense. I can’t go on like this. I need to figure out a way to get a watch. Who can stand running like this every day?’
"Haozi, where were you last night? I came by your house to get you, but you weren’t there," Little Fatty asked, his cheeks puffed out with food, as he stared curiously at Zhang Wenda’s disheveled state.
"Sigh, don’t even ask." Feeling overheated from the run, Zhang Wenda tugged at his collar. He couldn’t be bothered to explain; Little Fatty probably wouldn’t understand anyway.
The kid with glasses next to him leaned over. "By the way," he asked curiously, "did you finish the weekend homework? Teacher Ouyang is collecting it today."
Hearing this, Zhang Wenda felt his whole body go numb. He’d just barely made it on time, only to be faced with another disaster.
"Holy crap, I completely forgot about that." Jolted by the reminder, Zhang Wenda hurriedly pulled out his homework and started scribbling away.
With an eraser carved with A, B, C, and D flying through the air, Zhang Wenda’s pen flew across the page.
When the RING-RING-RING of the bell sounded, Zhang Wenda’s hand moved even faster, becoming a blur that stunned the classmates watching nearby.
Finally, just a moment before the teacher reached the lectern, Zhang Wenda finished every last bit of his homework. Never mind whether the answers were right; you had to admit, he was fast.
But to Zhang Wenda’s exasperation, the teacher at the front of the class had no intention of checking their homework at all.
’Maybe Ouyang never cared whether I did my homework or not; she just wanted to scare me.’
’I can deal with all the bizarre crap that happens on a daily basis, but now I have to rush my homework on top of it all?’ Zhang Wenda thought, rubbing his sore wrist. ’Who am I supposed to complain to about this?’
’But no matter how tired I am, I don’t dare skip it. Until I’ve dealt with that scythe monster for good, I have to follow the rules. After all, the punishment really, really hurts.’
’Still,’ Zhang Wenda silently vowed, ’the day I finally get rid of that scythe monster will be the day I’m free from the misery of homework forever.’
’How old am I, and I’m still doing this stuff. Isn’t this just ridiculous?’
Zhang Wenda idly flipped through his math textbook, only to discover that elementary school math had somehow gotten even harder.
With all that taken care of, the sleep-deprived Zhang Wenda started to feel drowsy. He glanced at the male teacher on the podium, propped up a textbook on his desk, and ducked behind it to sneak in a nap.
He slept wonderfully—it was even more comfortable than sleeping in Song Jianguo’s "bird’s nest" of a treehouse. Perhaps it was because the teacher’s lecture served as a perfect lullaby.
Zhang Wenda was woken by a pang of hunger. He hadn’t eaten breakfast, and now that it was nearly noon, his stomach was starting to hurt.
He woke up clutching his stomach. He glanced up at the teacher on the podium—an old man he didn’t recognize—then tore off a small piece of his eraser and flicked it at Little Fatty’s head.
"Hey, Fatty, what period is this? What time is it?" Zhang Wenda whispered to Pan Dongzi, who had turned to look at him.
"Last period. We get out in ten minutes," Pan Dongzi said, showing off his digital watch.
"Has Teacher Ouyang been here?" Zhang Wenda asked again. ’I can’t forget my mission to get stronger,’ he thought. ’I still don’t understand this world well enough, so I have to ask someone else. Right now, the only adults I can trust are Rabbit and Ouyang.’
Perhaps he could learn more from her about the world of adults.
"Nope. We don’t have Ouyang’s class today, remember?"
"Huh? We don’t?! Do you know where she lives?"
ZING! Two pieces of chalk flew through the air, landing squarely on Zhang Wenda’s and Pan Dongzi’s heads.
"You dare whisper in my class? Get to the back of the room and stand for the rest of the lesson!"
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