Chapter 20: Physical Education Class

By the time he returned home that night, it was already ten o’clock. Chen Meng carried a roast chicken in his hand, and as expected, Mouse Beibei arrived right on time—this had become their unspoken routine.

“It’s been a week, hasn’t it?” Chen Meng watched Mouse Beibei devouring the chicken and feigned helplessness. “Beibei, with the recent outbreak of avian flu and the turmoil in the international financial markets, the price of chicken has gone up.”

Mouse Beibei, who had been eating happily, suddenly paused, looking at Chen Meng with a puzzled expression.

“I mean, what used to buy a whole roast chicken, this little gold nugget of yours, won’t get you one now. Damn inflation.” Chen Meng cursed aloud, though he was muttering to himself, Must I really spell it out so clearly?

Finally understanding, Mouse Beibei thought for a moment, jumped down from the stone table, and slipped into the ruins, only to return shortly thereafter. He opened his mouth and spat out a gold nugget several times larger than the previous ones, which delighted Chen Meng to no end.

“Beibei, is this enough for you to eat? If not, I’ll go buy more.” Seeing Mouse Beibei nod, Chen Meng immediately ran across the street and bought two more roast chickens.

Mouse Beibei accepted the chickens and resumed his feast. Watching the little creature’s somewhat lordly manner, Chen Meng couldn’t help but mutter to himself, As long as you pay, from now on you’re my old man, my real old man. How can this damned rat be so rich!

This only strengthened his resolve to keep reaping the benefits from Mouse Beibei, and with a sense of satisfaction, Chen Meng went back inside.

...

A new week dawned, and there were only eleven weeks left until the college entrance exam.

That morning, the alchemy teacher, Zhang Dali, held a test. Where Chen Meng used to hover around sixty or seventy points, this time he nearly handed in a blank paper. After all, he hadn’t cracked open a single page of high school alchemy yet and was still utterly clueless about the subject.

During the test, Zhang Dali, still unconvinced, checked on Chen Meng several times, suspecting that he was hiding his real abilities. In the end, Chen Meng couldn’t bear it any longer and said, “Mr. Zhang, please, I truly don’t know how to do it.”

Zhang Dali snorted and turned away. In his view, Chen Meng was still the same as ever—his improved runes scores notwithstanding, his weak performance in other subjects meant he’d be lucky to make it into a second-tier university, with no hope at all for a top school.

And students who couldn’t make it into a top university weren’t worth much of his attention; there were too many who could make it into the second tier, but few who would ultimately receive the advancement elixir.

...

That afternoon, Chen Meng was feeling rather uninterested, but Ma Yiqun was unusually excited.

“What’s up with you? Did you take something?” Chen Meng asked.

“You don’t remember? We have PE this afternoon,” Ma Yiqun replied. “This semester, before the entrance exam, PE’s been halved—we only have it once every two weeks.”

Only then did Chen Meng recall that, although this world placed great importance on physical education, the final semester always saw a reduction in PE classes to make way for other subjects.

With five minutes to go before class, the PE monitor stood up and shouted, “Let’s go! Off to the field!”

Instantly, the whole class raced outside. Chen Meng was caught off guard—do they really like PE that much? Isn’t self-study in the classroom more appealing?

In the end, fewer than ten students remained in the classroom.

The class monitor, Ni Hu, was among them. He addressed the ones left behind, “This afternoon, the PE teacher will take attendance and talk about the college entrance physical examination. Unless you have a really good reason, don’t skip class.”

With that, he changed into another pair of shoes and headed to the field.

Chen Meng paid close attention to the physical exam; after all, it was the first hurdle of the entrance exam. If you couldn’t even pass the physical, there was no way you’d get into a top university.

...

By the time Chen Meng reached the field, everyone was already lined up by height. He saw the PE teacher watching him and quickly slipped into the third spot in the last row.

He took a moment to observe the PE teacher—a robust middle-aged man.

“PE monitor, call the roll!” the teacher ordered, his gaze sweeping over everyone like a hawk, sending a chill down their spines.

Once attendance was done, the PE monitor reported, “All present, eighty-one students in Class 9, Grade 12.”

The teacher nodded approvingly and called the monitor back to the ranks before starting the lesson. “You all know there’s a physical examination before the entrance exam. It’s the very first item, usually done two or three weeks before the exam. Before that, you probably have only three more PE classes. Today, I’ll explain the general procedure. Some of you may already know if you’ve been paying attention.”

Chen Meng glanced around—some students looked confused, others calm and composed.

“The physical exam is a check-up that screens your bodily functions and for any hidden illnesses. There’s also a fitness assessment: if your fitness is particularly poor, you can’t pass. The first item is usually a blood draw, which everyone knows is for obvious tests, but I want to stress that DNA sequencing can even reveal if you’re a latent member of some prehistoric alien race. Next comes the fitness test—typically three items: the three-kilometer run, long jump, and shot put. This year, however, there’s a new policy—an extra test: shooting.”

A murmur of surprise rippled through the crowd, and Chen Meng was taken aback as well—he had just signed up for shooting practice.

The teacher silenced the commotion. “Quiet, let me finish. Shooting wasn’t part of the test before, but over your three years here, you’ve had at least ten shooting classes—everyone’s fired over a hundred rounds. This is a simple exam; you could pass it with your eyes closed.”

Thinking back on his own shooting practice, Chen Meng realized it was indeed straightforward.

“The shooting test isn’t really about your marksmanship—it’s about your courage. Whether you dare to pull the trigger is what matters. As long as you don’t fire wildly, you’ll be fine. But if you’re so timid you can’t even hold a gun steady and fail this section, that might actually be for the best. Otherwise, when you get to university and become a divine-body, your own cowardice will get you killed.”

The teacher’s words were blunt, but with graduation approaching, soon these students would enter university. He himself had come from there and knew how brutal it was.

University marked the start of divine-body cultivation—and perhaps the end of personal safety.

Cowardice and weakness would only hasten your death.

“All right, let’s begin the fitness tests as per the entrance exam requirements. Shooting needs special preparation, so we’ll skip it this time. I’ll try to give you all a few more practice rounds before the official exam.”

Each bullet cost money, so scheduling a session for each class was already generous.

First came the long run, then the long jump, and shot put last. By the time everyone finished, most of the period had passed.

“Free time,” the teacher announced at last. By the looks of it, only one or two in Chen Meng’s class might have trouble passing the exam.

“Chen Meng, hurry up, we’re just waiting for you!” Ma Yiqun called, dragging Chen Meng toward the basketball court, where several classmates were already shouting for them.

Watching them in their vests, for a moment Chen Meng felt as if he were back in his previous life.

Basketball! He actually knew a thing or two about that—though it had been ages since he last played.

“Let’s do this!” Chen Meng shouted excitedly, unable to contain himself.

...

“Chen Meng, catch!” Ma Yiqun roared, passing him the ball. Grabbing it, Chen Meng dribbled straight ahead, but was quickly blocked by two defenders.

Momentarily stunned, he instinctively began to move his feet, employing the Little Lotus Step he’d learned.

His body traced a graceful semicircle, then another, and after these two arcs—which together formed an S—he slipped past both defenders.

The two opponents, suddenly losing sight of him, were startled.

“Beautiful!” Ma Yiqun shouted. That footwork was simply dazzling.

The PE teacher, too, was amazed. “What kind of movement technique is that? So nimble, so elusive!”

Seeing the basket within reach, Chen Meng tipped the ball in easily.

Several girls on the sidelines cheered, but Chen Meng himself was lost in thought.

He had always practiced the Little Lotus Step in very confined spaces, as if tracing circles atop a single lotus blossom. But just now, he had drawn a semicircle one way, then another the opposite way, forming an S rather than a circle.

Yet it seemed to Chen Meng that this was exactly how the Little Lotus Step should be.

“When you imagine yourself standing on a lotus, your steps are only as large as the blossom. But in truth, the pond before you is vast.” Chen Meng murmured, experimenting further and finding his theory confirmed.

“Chen Meng, you’re amazing!” Ma Yiqun exclaimed. He had never known Chen Meng could play basketball so well, especially that dribbling—it was like there was no one in his way at all.

“Knowledge really does change fate,” Chen Meng sighed sincerely. If not for learning the Little Lotus Step, playing basketball wouldn’t have been nearly so effortless.

...

After school, still sweaty from basketball, Chen Meng draped his jacket over his shoulders and headed toward the school gate.

But just as he reached the entrance, someone stopped him.

“Hello, our Director Shen requests your presence,” a familiar man appeared.

“You’re Tang Wenjing’s driver, right?” Chen Meng asked in confusion. “Who is Director Shen, and what does she want with me?”

“Director Shen is Miss Wenjing’s mother. As for what she wants, don’t you know?” The driver’s tone was less than friendly, leaving Chen Meng dumbfounded. How would I know?

Wait a minute, could Director Shen have misunderstood something? Chen Meng wondered, concluding that this must be the only explanation.