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Character ListQiao Zhiya: Half-elf, half-dwarf MC.
Chu Rong: Marshal ML.
Chu Yan: ML’s younger brother. Is the same age as MC, currently attending intermediate college.
Yuan Xiu: Chu Yan’s bestfriend.
After a few more days, Qiao Zhiya had completely gotten used to life at school. During this period, he went to the multipurpose hall to watch the mecha battle between Chu Yan and his classmates. He also met Chu Yan’s good friend Yuan Xiu along the way.
On Friday, Qiao Zhiya’s most anticipated mecha manufacturing course finally appeared on his schedule.
Finishing the morning training with a more positive attitude than before, Qiao Zhiya hummed along as he took out his scooter and headed towards Campus C where the mecha manufacturing class was located. On top of that, the mecha manufacturing class was all day long, with theory in the morning and hands-on practice in the afternoon. He loved Friday!
There were a lot of people rushing from Campus B to Campus C to attend classes at this time. Some classmates who knew about his situation saw him pass by with unconcealed anticipation and excitement. All of them showed strange expressions towards Qiao Zhiya.
As as for why, well, the context was like this–
They all didn’t know much about his origin. They only knew that he had a third-degree disability, too old for a first-grader, and an Exoplanet Native. Plus, he also lived in Building N1, the fifth-year dormitory building. However, he somehow managed to have close contacts with a bunch of famous students and reserve soldiers on a daily basis, which easily aroused other’s jealousy.
Everyone was uncertain about his background, and disdained his identity as an Exoplanet Native and disabled, so they all ignored him tacitly and socially isolated him. However, Qiao Zhiya’s reactions towards this exclusionary behavior of his classmates was also baffling. Whether he really didn’t know or just didn’t care, he also turned his back towards his classmates, only treating them with perfunctory politeness. Outside of his academic life, he also didn’t join any extracurricular activities, didn’t join any study groups, didn’t take the initiative to socialize. He’s an all-out loner, and he looked like he’s proud of it.
The first-graders, who were just a bunch of pre-teens, became angry and began to isolate him more seriously than before. Some even came to him to laugh at his strange appearance and disability. However, Qiao Zhiya was still calm. He only told his “bully” in a neutral tone that his appearance was a gift his parents gave him, so he cherished it very much. He told them that it’s very wrong to belittle others using their disability, and they would be ashamed when they remember about this action as they grew older.
The little carrot heads were choked back. They huffed and puffed in anger, feeling indignant. The more they got lectured, the more rebellious they became.
‘Who are you to tell me things! Aren’t we all just teens? How dare you scold me when you’re just a couple years older than me!’
–was the consensus of these little carrot heads.
Qiao Zhiya, who felt that he was an older brother, looked at them with a loving and tolerant gaze. He was not angry at all. He opened his mouth and started to preach to them again. The carrot heads who came to laugh at him turned around and ran away when they saw this. They were obviously very angry, but they felt a little shy for no reason…
The confrontation failed again. Some radish heads were not reconciled. Some of them came up with an idea – they should deliberately approach Qiao Zhiya to find out his origin.
One day, one of the braver carrot heads went up to chat with him. It took only a few words to get Qiao Zhiya’s gentle treatment, and then it took another twenty words to find out his origin — genocide orphan, genuine Exoplanet Native, studying hard to skip grades.
Skipping grades?! This Recluse actually wants to skip a grade in a place like the Intermediate College portion of the Federal Military Academy1clarification: think of the Federal Military Academy as an elevator school, with an intermediate college section and advanced college section.!
The chosen carrot head was scared away, so he talked to his companion about the situation. Everyone who heard about this fell silent.
Ah, so QIao Zhiya didn’t ignore them on purpose at all before, but he was too busy studying and didn’t have time to pay attention to other things… Judging from the two encounters, the Exoplanet Native’s personality seems to be gentle, and not annoying…
As for Qiao Zhiya, he just wanted to straighten up these carrot heads’ behavior. After all, they’re still very young and ignorant. Their bullying methods also weren’t destructive, so Qiao Zhiya could forgive them. And it seemed that his approach succeeded, and these bunch of carrot heads did stop bullying him, and began to understand that this kind of behavior was ugly and unsightly.
In the end, the carrot heads reached a consensus – let this Exoplanet Native suffer through the studying process for skipping grades. They could just let him be and watch a good show whether he failed or succeeded.
So like that, Qiao Zhiya was no longer isolated, but there were still not many people willing to contact him. This time it was not because of hostility, but because… because of what? He didn’t know, and he decided to not care – he really didn’t want to waste time understanding pre-teens’ messy thought processes.
The truth was, the said pre-teens just really don’t like to be preached like that. It made him blush in shame.
But at this moment, the radish heads wanted to talk to him a little bit— while they wanted to see a good show… watching someone without a spiritual power attending a mecha manufacturing class was just… just too miserable! They couldn’t see this!!
–back to the present.
“Stop now! Hey, don’t laugh at me! You’re so ugly!”
A scooter suddenly sped up and passed by Qiao Zhiya. It was a familiar carrot head, one of his classmates. The pre-teen boy had handsome features, but it was softened by his baby fat and milky2milky (something) = baby/childish. Also, milk cat = kitten, milk dog = puppy, etc. voice. Thanks to that, his yelling didn’t seem authoritative. It sounded adorable in Qiao Zhiya’s ears.
Qiao Zhiya heard the voice and turned his head to look.  His eyes lit up, and he greeted the carrot head with a smile, “Xiao Chu, good morning. Why didn’t you do the morning training today? I didn’t find you in the training hall.”
Yun Xiachu’s expression froze when he heard this. After stammering, he replied angrily, “Do I have to report to you when I go to the training hall? You practice on your own, why do you want me around! I don’t want to train with you at all!”
“That’s right, your physique seems to be only A-grade. Your training regimen is different from mine.” Qiao Zhiya liked this young boy who took the initiative to chat with him.
Hearing this, Qiao Zhiya didn’t care about the boy’s sour tone and drove his scooter closer. He took out a small mechanical doll from his space ring and gave it to him while smiling, “Here, I made it myself. I heard you like these.”
In the past few days, he has taught himself theoretical knowledge of mechanical design. Then, he applied his newfound knowledge into making a few mechanical dolls. He based the design from the Cloud-Collecting Beast3Cloud-Collecting is “云罗” Yunluo, the Yun is the same as Yun Xiachu “云夏初” from the Magic Continent. The beast was relatively small and cute, with a round body shape. It looked similar to Yun Xiachu’s puffed-up4as in, when a cat goes angry, it will puff its fur out angry appearance.
Yun Xiachu’s face quickly flushed red because of the “physique is only A-grade” sentence. He stuttered again, and suddenly gave him a vicious look. He snatched the doll he was handed over, and said with visible disgust on his face, “It’s so ugly.” Then he closed the scooter’s window, and asked his companion to drive the scooter a little further, as if he wanted to get far away from Qiao Zhiya.
Qiao Zhiya watched him in amusement as the young boy drove away from him. His mood was aroused by this episode, and the smile on his face became more obvious.
Seeing Qiao Zhiya’s happy appearance from the corner of his eyes, Yun Xiachu, who was far away from him, snorted angrily. He looked down at the fat animal-shaped doll in his hand, pulled its tail forcefully, and muttered something in a low voice. He then put the mechanical doll away.
Arriving at the corresponding classroom according to the timetable, Qiao Zhiya randomly found a corner and sat down. He thought that no one else would be seated near him just like usual. He really didn’t want to avoid people, but this way was safer to his secret identity.
However, not long after, the 1.5 meters tall Yun Xiachu sat next to him, while his friends sat far away on the other side of the classroom.
“Xiao Chu?” Qiao Zhiya looked at him in surprise.
“What are you looking at! Don’t you know that it’s impolite to stare at people like this!” Yun Xiachu huffed without looking at Qiao Zhiya. He buried his head into his textbook, pretending to be studying as he waited for the class to start.
Qiao Zhiya immediately withdrew his gaze. After Yun Xiachu opened his textbook, the half-elf couldn’t help but snuck several glances at the young boy. He squinted and smiled in amusement as he whispered, “Thank you.”
The young boy obviously had no malicious intentions. He was just stuck with his childish pride and pretended to look cool and fierce. In Qiao Zhiya’s opinion, that behavior was very adorable.
Yun Xiachu’s expression froze, and he turned his face to the other side, pretending not to hear what Qiao Zhiya said to him. But his ears betrayed him, as it slowly grew redder and redder.
At exactly nine o’clock, the teacher stepped into the classroom on time. He asked the students to connect to the online classroom with their student client, then started teaching directly.
Qiao Zhiya immediately calmed down, took out the electronic notebook and began to concentrate on listening to the class. He carefully memorized the book, and no longer had the energy to pay attention to other things.
Yun Xiachu, who was sitting next to him, was bored listening to the things he had learned at home. From the corner of his eye, he looked at Qiao Zhiya’s concentration on taking notes. The young boy glanced at Qiao Zhiya’s note-taking hands, then glanced up at his pointed ears. He let out a breath from his nose—
‘This uneasy Recluse, humph!’‘
The whole morning passed quickly. Qiao Zhiya watched the teacher leave, then took out a nutritional supplement from his space ring and drank it. He started to review his notes during lunch break.
After being awkward for a long time, Yun Xiachu, who finally decided to take the initiative to invite him to have lunch, widened his eyes in disbelief. He slapped the table and stared at him, “You, you, you…”
After a long time, he couldn’t say the words he wanted to say. Instead, he angrily put away his textbooks and notes, turned around and strutted out with pronounced footsteps.
Qiao Zhiya was actually waiting for Yun Xiachu to finish speaking. Sadly, the young boy walked away before he could speak his mind. He twirled his electronic pen on his finger as he sighed deeply.
‘Is this a sign of me getting out of touch with the new generation? Kids these days are so incomprehensible…’
QZY whenever he saw a “friendly” tsundere boy: Must. Befriend.
Ultimate tsun magnet AND translator.
Tsundere body count (so far): Chu Rong, Sang Bu, Yun Xiachu
1clarification: think of the Federal Military Academy as an elevator school, with an intermediate college section and advanced college section.2milky (something) = baby/childish. Also, milk cat = kitten, milk dog = puppy, etc.3Cloud-Collecting is “云罗” Yunluo, the Yun is the same as Yun Xiachu “云夏初”4as in, when a cat goes angry, it will puff its fur out