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Character ListQiao Zhiya: Half-elf, half-dwarf MC.
Chu Rong: Marshal ML.
Fan Xiangnan: ML’s second-in-command.
Zhuang Yu: A doctor in ML’s army.
Chu Yan: ML’s younger brother. Is the same age as MC, currently attending intermediate college.
Chu Huai: ML’s older brother, he’s in politics.
Xiang Kun: Chu Yan’s mortal enemy. Xiang Hui’s younger brother. Mecha manufacturing student.
Yuan Xiu: Chu Yan’s bestfriend.
Bearded Teacher (not real name): Qiao Zhiya’s Mecha teacher in VR.
Qiao Zhiya hooked his head and glanced at the basket of rabbits that Chu Rong was holding in his other hand. The little rabbits were squirming around, trying to get out of the basket. “I’m already big, I can walk by myself.”
Recently, he had always been carried around everywhere. With only eating but not exercising, he felt like he was gaining weight at an alarming pace.
“Don’t move. Didn’t you almost fall down the stairs yesterday?” Chu Rong frowned and adjusted his posture. Thinking of yesterday, the spiritual energy in his body couldn’t help but float out again, and his face was very dark.
Qiao Zhiya’s occasional confusion had no symptoms at all. Sometimes he looks normal all day, and then
 his temper becomes a little
 childish. Yesterday, he just turned his head to answer the call from Fan Xiangnan, and out of sudden, Qiao Zhiya rolled down the stairs while holding the dirty clothes he just changed. This kind of sporadic flare-ups were impossible to guard against.
Hearing him mention yesterday’s incident, Qiao Zhiya’s face instantly turned red. He honestly stopped moving, and said shyly, “I–In my previous home, I, I, didn’t have these stairs, so I forgot
 I’m sorry to trouble you.” After that, his ears drooped down again in frustration and embarrassment.
During this period of time, he didn’t know what was going on with him. He always made mistakes and caused troubles for people around him. He was obviously paying attention, but he still made mistakes frequently, which made everyone worry and anxious.
“I’m sorry
” The more he thought about it, the more frustrated he became. He sniffed and realized that he wanted to cry again. He was stunned for a moment, and felt more like a dead weight. He rubbed his eyes to force back the welled-up tears, mumbling, “I will pay attention next time.”
Chu Rong’s deep frown immediately eased. He stepped into the house and put the rabbits on the ground, then carried him to the sofa, and made him sit up. He brought a couple of rabbits to Qiao Zhiya’s lap, then petted the youth’s head while saying, “Don’t apologize
 also, don’t cry. You have to go to school later, you can’t go out with puffy eyes.”
“I’m not crying,” Qiao Zhiya’s voice was nasally. He wanted to sort out his emotions, but he found it insurmountable. “I didn’t want to cry, but my eyes were a little out of control. I’ll be fine after a while. Don’t worry, I will work hard for the exam, I
”
Chu Rong couldn’t stand listening to his rambling anymore. He reached out and pulled him back into his arms, patted his back while feeling distressed. He soothed the sniffling youth in a low whisper, “It’s okay, cry if you want, don’t bottle it up.” As he said that, he rubbed the youth’s sagging ears, and hugged his whole body in his arms. His heart felt sore.
During these days of observations, he found that Qiao Zhiya’s confusion would only occur when facing Chu Rong, even to the point of crying. This discovery made him have mixed feelings. ‘How stupid is it to rely so much on someone who makes him change? Am I that much of a bad guy in his mind?’
The other party’s embrace was too warm, and Qiao Zhiya’s unstable mood quickly settled down. He moved his ears carefully, and after realizing that his ears had been pinched again, he smiled in embarrassment. He nuzzled into Chu Rong’s hand like a spoiled child, and replied with a murmur, “Thank you.”
‘Thank you for being so patient with my weirdness.’
“Thank you so much.”
Chu Rong returned to his senses, rubbed his hair again, calmed down, and put him on the ground. “Go take a shower and change your clothes. Xiao Yan will accompany you to school later
 Qiao Zhiya, are you sure you want to take the grade-skipping exam?”
Qiao Zhiya wondered why he was asked this question again, but nodded again very patiently. “Yes! I have been preparing for this exam for a long time, don’t worry, I, I won’t embarrass you!”
This was not a question of whether he would make Chu Rong lose face or not, but whether it would be a waste of time. Although Chu Rong looked firm and confident in front of Chu Yan, he actually was secretly worried. He swallowed down his doubts, and said some encouraging words to the youth. He then led him out to the first floor, rabbits in tow.
‘Since you want to take the test, let’s take the test. You happiness is the most important thing.’
After taking a shower and changing clothes, Qiao Zhiya packed up the things needed for the exam, bid farewell to Chu Rong, and boarded Chu Yan’s hover car.
After setting off, he found that Chu Yan and Yuan Xiu looked at him strangely. He raised his hand and touched his face, ears bouncing alongside his jilted nerves. He asked in a cautious tone, “Why are you looking at me like that, is there something on my face? ?”
‘Or are my eyes really red and puffy? But when I took a shower, I clearly confirmed that there was no problem
’
“No, no,” Seeing his nervous demeanor, Chu Yan quickly waved his hands to show that everything was as usual. He pulled Yuan Xiu to help calm Qiao Zhiya down. After making sure his tone wouldn’t worry the blond youth, he carefully asked, “Well, Qiao, your online class is also interrupted. It’s been a long time, are you sure about grade-skipping the exam?”
‘Why is it a similar question?’ Qiao Zhiya blinked, suppressed his doubts, and nodded, “I’m sure. I’ve read the textbooks given to me by the bearded teacher from cover-to-cover, multiple times. I’m sure I can pass.”
Thinking that Chu Yan was worried about his exam, he smiled heartily, and said to reassure Chu Yan. “It’s okay, Xiao Yan, don’t be nervous, the exam is very easy.”
‘Easy? The grade-skipping exam of intermediate colleges can be described as easy?’
Chu Yan’s heart sank. He licked his lips, and asked more carefully:,”Then Qiao, do you still remember that the exams in the mecha manufacturing class after the third grade require spiritual power?”
‘–Shit! Why did I asked this! No, wait, why is Qiao Zhiya laughing? Is he really stupid now? Ahhhh—!’
“Spiritual power?” Qiao Zhiya couldn’t understand him at all. He stretched out his hand and reached out from his magic pool. He condensed the magic power until it came out from his palm. He waved it around and said, “Is this what you mean? Haven’t I always had it?”
A very soothing spiritual power was scattered in the car. Chu Yan and Yuan Xiu felt refreshed by being in the vicinity. And this made them stare at Qiao Zhiya wide-eyed.
‘Fuck! It’s really spiritual power! How is this possible?!’
“You, you, you
 When did you have spiritual power? I
 But
 Wait
??” Chu Yan got incoherent in record speed, feeling as if he was hallucinating.
Yuan Xiu also had an expression of “Who am I, where am I? What happened?”. He then reached out and grabbed Chu Yan’s sleeve, and stammered, “This, this strength, Qiao’s spiritual strength is
 is at least A?Th-this, this is— What’s going on? Is the standard for third-level disabilities already so high?”
“I, I don’t know
”
‘Maybe even Erge doesn’t know
 Wait, Erge!’
Chu Yan snapped back to his senses, and hurriedly lowered his head to press his communicator.
Qiao Zhiya was flustered by the reaction of the two of them, and vaguely realized that something was wrong. Thinking of the childish mistakes he had always made during this period, he withdrew his hand and said anxiously, “Why are you reacting this way? I, my spiritual power
 Is there something wrong?”
–Although it was simulated by magic power, it was gentler and purer than other people’s spiritual power. So Qiao Zhiya thought it wouldn’t be weird or unusual.
“Extremely wrong!” Chu Yan couldn’t help answering. Seeing the blond’s uneasy expression, he quickly shut up. He motioned Yuan Xiu to comfort him, and then buried himself in frantically sending messages to Chu Rong, feeling both happy and surprised.
The good news was that with spiritual strength, Qiao Zhiya’s future journey would be much easier. Surprisingly, Qiao Zhiya suddenly has spiritual power now, maybe he was healed now! However
 this might mean that there’s something wrong with the blond’s body.
When his communicator rang, Chu Rong was sitting at home. He still had a stinky face as he stared at the litter of rabbits on the floor. He was trying to cool off his murky emotions with the air-conditioning. He couldn’t even focus on his job at all. The sad and crying appearance of Qiao Zhiya after failing the practical exam kept flashing in his mind, and he was very anxious. The spiritual power on his body fluttered around uncontrollably, and all the housekeeping robots in the room retreated to the corner in fright, gathering together and shivering.
Seeing that the message was from Chu Yan, his heart sank. He quickly connected, and asked in a cold voice, “What’s wrong? Qiao Zhiya is confused again?”
“No, it’s— Qiao Zhiya who has spiritual strength!” Chu Yan roared excitedly.
Chu Rong’s expression changed, he stood up in shock, and asked quickly, “What did you say? spiritual strength?”
The hover car made an emergency stop when it was about to reach the school and turned into an alley.
In the car, Chu Yan changed the voice communication to video communication so that everyone could watch it, and then sat next to Qiao Zhiya.
“Qiao, you said you have spiritual power?” Zhuang Yu, who was hurriedly called by Chu Rong, flipped through a stack of test results and sat beside Chu Rong. Her expression suggested that she was beyond baffled at the moment.
Qiao Zhiya was disturbed and nervous by their reactions. His ears were stretched straight. As he glanced at Chu Rong who was sitting beside Zhuang Yu with a sullen face, he nodded, and replied, “Yes, yes.”
Zhuang Yu set the test results aside, then continued to ask, “When did you have it?
Seeing that Chu Rong’s frown was slightly relaxed, the youth;s heart felt more at ease. He answered according to what he knew: “Don’t you know? I, I remember that I told you
”
–”When asking to take the exam for skipping grades” was left unsaid.
Zhuang Yu was stunned for a moment, then didn’t know what to feel. Qiao Zhiya’s “remembering” was the most unreliable thing nowadays. They couldn’t expect the oft-confused youth to remember clearly what he said or didn’t say.
“It may be that his power has become stronger, or it may be affected by that strange flesh of the stone. The specific situation can only be determined after a detailed inspection, but if the spiritual power is simulated by Qiao with his own power, then there should be no problem.” She looked at Chu Rong and explained, her spirit was completely relaxed, there was even a hint of joy on her face.
So many things have happened these days, but fortunately, it all ended well, which was really great.
Chu Rong was relieved when he heard Zhuang Yu’s analysis. He looked at Qiao Zhiya, who had obviously begun to doubt and blame himself again, and comforted him, “You did say that, but I forgot to tell them. Can your power be detected by instruments if you don’t deliberately simulate it?”
“No,” Qiao Zhiya was soothed by his words, shook his head, and gave Zhuang Yu a guilty look.
During the daily checkup, he always forgot to simulate his magic power into spiritual power for Zhuang Yu-jie to check it carefully. He always thought that he would remember later, but it’s clear he forgot each time. It made everyone worry.
“I’m sorry,” He lowered his head and his ears.
Chu Rong frowned, trying to comfort him. But because they were separated by the holographic screen, he could only glare at Chu Yan, trying to communicate what he wanted telepathically.
Chu Yan: “
”
After a false alarm, after some rest and reassurance, the hover car drove into the empty campus smoothly.
Yuan Xiu glanced at Qiao Zhiya, who was blushing and happily flipping through the mecha model album. He stretched his leg and kicked Chu Yan, winking and making gestures.
“Your face twitched?” Chu Yan looked at him suspiciously. He did not understand.
‘Pooh! You just slapped your face!’
Seeing that Qiao Zhiya wasn’t paying attention, Yuan Xiu dragged him to his side and asked in a low voice, “What’s going on? Qiao had spiritual power? Is there anything else that imitates something? Why can’t I understand?”
Chu Yan’s expression froze, and then he remembered that this matter was a big hush-hush. Yuan Xiu didn’t know it before, but then he thought, ‘Since Erge was able to talk about it without any scruples in front of Yuan Xiu just now, I think I can explain it to him in more detail
’
Feeling relieved, he roughly explained Qiao Zhiya’s matter, then added in the end, “If someone asks, you can say that Qiao was affected by the spiritual power emitted by my Erge when he was berserk, and fortunately awakened as a result. You have to help Qiao cover it up at school later, he’s been a little out of his mind recently, I’m afraid he will accidentally blab to someone else.”
Yuan Xiu realized the importance of the matter and nodded his head to express his understanding. He felt that this task was quite the heavy one.