Chapter 8: The Teacher's Concern

Until the end of the physical education class, Wang Hai did not pay any more attention to Zhang Yu, seemingly treating him like a puff of air, and no longer provided him with any guidance or instruction.

With Wang Hai taking the lead in isolating him, the other students also subconsciously stopped approaching Zhang Yu, as if an invisible no-man's-land had opened up around him.

"This Old Wang is really... so petty."

But since things had reached this point, there was nothing Zhang Yu could do, so he simply lay quietly on the ground to continue resting.

In the blink of an eye, class ended, and everyone headed to the cafeteria one after another.

After everyone had left, Zhou Tianyi walked to Zhang Yu's side and gave him a thumbs up: "Warrior, have you bought accident insurance yet?"

Zhang Yu slowly crawled up, patted his pants, and said, "What’s there to fear? Once my cultivation makes great progress and my grades skyrocket in a while, there will be plenty of teachers lining up to protect me."

He looked at the Feather Book in his palm with full confidence; his physical strength had already increased from 0.83 to 0.84.

And this was without any injections, medicine, or nutritional supplements, purely through exercising with the Thirty-Six Body-Strengthening Forms.

Presumably, as the level of the Thirty-Six Body-Strengthening Forms continued to rise, the rate of improvement in his physical strength would only get faster.

Just thinking about this, Zhang Yu couldn't help but marvel once again at the terrifying nature of his potential.

Beside him, Zhou Tianyi looked at Zhang Yu, who had suddenly started acting so confident, and asked curiously, "Did you find a new source for medicine? Don't forget your brother if you've got good stuff."

Zhang Yu clenched his fist and smiled: "Kid, your brother is a natural body cultivator!"

Outside the training room door, Bai Zhenzhen, who had just finished intense physical training, had flushed cheeks, sweat dripping from her forehead, and steam rising from her entire body.

Bang, bang, bang!

She knocked on the door and said indifferently, "Zhang Yu, are you done posturing? I'm starving, let's go eat."

The three of them hurried to join the cafeteria crowd. Arriving late, they could see from far away that a large group of people was already queuing in front of the cafeteria entrance.

However, as students of the Demonstration Class, the three of them had the privilege of priority entry and could use the VIP lane to dine directly.

The three of them walked into the cafeteria under the varied gazes of students from other classes.

How should one describe that feeling?

If Zhang Yu were to describe it, it would be like an inner-sect prodigy in a novel slowly walking into the Juxian Restaurant to dine, under the gazes of outer-sect servants who were either envious, jealous, or convinced they could take his place.

Once inside the cafeteria, Bai Zhenzhen said, "I'm having a nutritional supplement meal today, I'm going to the second floor."

So-called nutritional supplements were dishes cooked with ingredients full of immortal elements, supplemented by various medicines. They could effectively strengthen the body, compensate for the losses after intense exercise, and improve the efficiency of body cultivation and breathing techniques.

It could be said that nutritional supplements had countless benefits for immortal cultivation studies. The only reason Zhang Yu wasn't eating them right now was that they were too expensive—truly, prohibitively expensive.

A single meal cost at least several hundred, and it was normal for more precious ingredients to cost thousands. Even when Zhang Yu had the money from his massive loans, he couldn't bear to eat them every day, let alone now.

Watching Bai Zhenzhen head up to the second floor alone, Zhang Yu could feel that the second floor and the first floor were another boundary, just like the line between the inside of the cafeteria and the queue outside.

But a doubt arose in Zhang Yu's heart: "Isn't Ah Zhen out of money? How can she afford the second floor?"

...

Not long after lunch, Zhang Yu, who was taking a nap, was called to the teacher's office.

A middle-aged man took a sip of tea, glanced at Zhang Yu standing in front of his desk, and said, "Teacher Wang Hai told me about your situation."

The man's name was Su Haifeng; he was both the homeroom teacher of the Demonstration Class and the grade director for the first year.

He looked at Zhang Yu with a face full of disappointment and said, "Do you still remember what you told me during the interview?"

When the original Zhang Yu participated in the interview for Songyang High School, Su Haifeng was the interviewer sitting in the middle.

Hearing Su Haifeng's words, Zhang Yu was slightly stunned. Although he had merged with the original owner's memories, many details were not something he could recall instantly.

Su Haifeng sighed: "I still remember you saying at the time that you wanted to get into a prestigious university."

"In PE class, you don't buy medicine, you don't take injections, you lie on the ground being lazy, and you talk back to your teacher. Is this the attitude of someone who wants to get into a prestigious university?"

Listening to the criticism, Zhang Yu didn't know how to explain it. He couldn't exactly say that because he was poor and useless, he couldn't afford medicine or injections, and because his potential had been triggered, he could just breeze through PE class.

Sensing Zhang Yu's silence, Su Haifeng sighed again and said, "Zhang Yu, your performance over the past three months has been good. I know you're a good kid."

"Has something happened at home recently?"

Zhang Yu looked at him in surprise. Feeling the concern in the other's eyes, he found it hard to believe: "There's actually a teacher in this insane school who cares about students?"

He thought for a moment and said in a low voice, "Um, I had a bit of a conflict with my family."

"I will try my best to adjust and get back on track soon."

Although he felt the other's concern, Zhang Yu could only brush it off for now. Once his grades improved in a while, he naturally wouldn't need to explain these difficult things to the teacher.

Su Haifeng frowned in dissatisfaction and said annoyedly, "Is there anything you can't tell your teacher?"

"Is it that your family's financial situation has run into trouble?"

"The debt collection calls from the loan platforms have already reached the school."

"Ah?" Zhang Yu suddenly raised his head: "They called you?"

Su Haifeng nodded solemnly: "If they hadn't called me, I wouldn't have known you owed so much money. Why didn't you tell me?"

Zhang Yu: "I..."

He truly hadn't thought about what telling the school would accomplish, especially given the atmosphere at Songyang High School. He figured that if they knew, it would only make his situation worse.

But Su Haifeng let out a long sigh, looked at Zhang Yu with a kind expression, and said, "I know the school can be strict sometimes, and you were afraid to tell us when something happened."

"But you have to know that we are your teachers after all. How could we not help our own students?"

As he spoke, he pulled a document from his drawer and handed it to Zhang Yu.

"This is a poverty subsidy program I specifically applied for on your behalf. Sign it quickly."

Reaching out to take the document, Zhang Yu looked at Su Haifeng with some emotion: "Teacher, thank you."

He realized his perception of the teachers at this school was wrong again.

Zhang Yu thought to himself: "Although there are unreliable guys like Wang Hai, there are also earnest elders like Teacher Su."

Su Haifeng smiled and waved his hand, handing over a pen: "Sign it quickly."

Zhang Yu lowered his head, scanned the document, and then froze in place.

Su Haifeng chuckled: "What's wrong? Sign it quickly, I'll try to submit it before I get off work."

Zhang Yu's voice was low: "Teacher, this seems to be a debt restructuring contract? Did you take the wrong one?"

Su Haifeng said cheerfully: "Aren't poor students poor because they owe money? Once the debt is restructured, aren't we helping the poor student? This is the poverty subsidy program."

Zhang Yu looked at the contents of the contract. Specifically, it involved bundling all his debts together, and the school would lend him a sum of money to pay them off.

From then on, his creditor would become the school.

Zhang Yu estimated the debt after restructuring. After all sorts of messy procedures, various interest rates, principal, handling fees, and upfront deductions... it seemed to have added up to over a million.

"What kind of debt restructuring is this! This is just using one loan to pay off another."

He roared in his heart: "Even the homeroom teacher is in the loan business, huh."

"Is that how it is? Are there no normal teachers in this crappy school?"

Suppressing the anger in his heart, Zhang Yu let out a breath and said, "Teacher, I think I'll pass. I can pay this money back myself."

Su Haifeng coaxed him earnestly: "How can a kid like you pay back such a large sum of money? Sign it quickly, the school will shoulder this for you."

"Don't worry, the school's installment plan is very lenient."

Zhang Yu: "No need, teacher, really no need."

After Zhang Yu refused repeatedly, he simply threw the contract down and ran out of the office.

Watching his retreating back, Su Haifeng picked up his teacup and blew on it gently.

A moment later, he picked up his vibrating phone and said, "He refused."

"Mm, I'll try again in a while."

"Don't worry... poor people... once they can't handle the pressure from the collection agencies, they'll eventually come to borrow."

(End of chapter)