3 My First Day at School Part I

“Blech!” Bai Hu spewed out some blood clots, filling about half of the glass.

“B…Bai Zhe, shall we go to the hospital?” Bai Lian Hua was shaking. Seeing that much blood come out of her son chilled her to the bone in an instant.

“No, I’m all right. This might be some sort of bad blood. I feel better now. Look, all the bruises are healed.”

He lifted his once-bruised arms and showed them to Bai Lian Hua. All of the bruises were gone.

“How did that happen?” She grasped his arms and checked up and down the limbs, then undid his pyjamas to check the bruises on her son’s torso.

Creak!

“Honey, I’m home…” A thirty-something man paused after opening the door to see his wife hovering over their son. It looked like they were about to…

“Thank goodness you’re back. Bai Zhe just threw up about half a glass of blood. Should we take him to the hospital?” she asked. Worry painted her face.

Bai Hu looked at the man who walking toward him and took his pulse. This was Bai Zhe’s father, Bai Qing Yun. If it was not for him, the boy would not have grown up to be this nice.

“Don’t worry. He will get better soon. He has no fever, so just some painkillers will do,” the man said before rubbing his son’s hair.

“See, Mum? I’m really fine,” said Bai Hu.

“Well, this father and son. You must finish this bowl. I will prepare your father some dinner.”

“Yes, Mum.” Bai Hu finished his congee and took medicine. Then, he pretended to be asleep and continued to practice his qi.

“Honey, stop! You will wake him.” Bai Lian Hua’s voice echoed from the kitchen.

“I’m stressed from work. Could you help me, honey?” said her husband.

Then, the sound of their lovemaking began. Bai Hu thought that if they were not this poor, Bai Zhe would have had dozens of siblings.

After the parents went to sleep, Bai Hu got up and sat cross-legged in order to use his qi to clean out all the dirtiness in his body.

Black liquid came out of the pores all over his body. Then, his skin started to peel off, revealing much brighter skin. All the blemishes, freckles, pimples, acne scars, and wounds magically disappeared.

“Finally, all done,” said Bai Hu. He used his qi to clean the filth all along his body, his clothes, and his bed, until everything was clean.

‘I might as well continue practicing. I need to do something about these pathetic looks,’ he thought.

Normally, people gained weight by eating and gained muscles by exercising and consuming all the needed nutrients. But in Da Xian, qi could be used for all of this.

Bai Hu hurriedly sent his qi to heal Bai Zhe's body, because he had to go to school the next day. If the body was still weak, he would not be able to fully use his martial arts potential to fight back.

The Next Day

Bai Hu quit his qi practice at 5 a.m. then he organized his books for school in accordance with Bai Zhe’s memories. While he was taking a shower, he heard someone open the door; he guessed it was Bai Lian Hua, coming out to prepare breakfast.

“Mum, I’m done. Do you want me to wake Dad up?” he asked after he finished showering and setting up the table for breakfast, Bai Zhe’s normal routine. Bai Hu was wearing an undershirt and navy pants, so he could prevent his shirt from getting dirty. He only had 2 sets of school uniforms.

“Don’t bother. He used a lot of his energy yesterday and does not have to work until the afternoon. Let’s eat,” she answered, then placed boiled rice and stir-fried morning glory on the table.

“All right.” Bai Hu looked at the food in front of him. He was still lucky that today he had boiled rice and stir-fried vegetable. Sometimes, when money was tight, Bai Zhe had to eat boiled rice and boiled rocks with salt.

The breakfast took him just 10 minutes. As he was going to put his shirt on, he noticed a lot of stains on the fabric.

‘Is this a white shirt? Its colour is practically the same as a mop that has been stuffed in the corner of a room for ages,’ he said derisively in his mind.

“Should I buy you a new one? You have been wearing this since the first year of high school.” Bai Lian Hua noticed that her son had been looking at the shirt for a long time. She thought he must have been teased because of it. The shirt that he had worn yesterday was ruined. If it was to be used again, it must be fixed this evening.

“No, it's fine. I know how to make it white again. You keep your money, Mum,” answered Bai Hu, taking his old, heavily mended schoolbag and leaving the Bai family’s apartment.

As it was very early in the morning and there were not many people, Bai Hu controlled his qi and directed it down to his feet. Then, he jumped up to the roofs and rooftops and headed toward the school. Bai Zhe’s body was much recovered and had enough muscle to protect itself.

‘I got caught up with the qi practicing. I haven’t done my homework and there are a lot of things that I did not understand. I might need to do them all at school,’ he thought to himself. When he spotted the school, Bai Hu jumped down into a dark alley not far from it.

He used his qi to clean all dirt all over his clothes, bag, and shoes before using the qi character ‘restore’ to make the fabric of his bag and clothes look new again. He even used a pair of scissors to cut Bai Zhe’s hair to make it look more fashionable.

‘Done. He’s already handsome. It was just hidden by the messy hair and dirty old clothes.’ Bai Hu checked everything for the last time before exiting the alley.

He arrived at Bai Zhe’s school. There were not many students at this time, so he swiftly found a place to sit and started to read.

He focused on the Rune language; it was a universal language for this world. Bai Hu studied it by reading a dictionary. He was an experienced martial artist, so he remembered anything and everything that passed his eyes and never forgot it. People in this world called this technique of memorizing having an ‘eidetic memory’.

He then did his homework. Even though he was struggling with the new knowledge, he finished it all at 7 a.m.

“Who’s that? He’s gorgeous,” a girl asked her friend.

“Wow. Does our school have someone this handsome? Why have I never seen him in our school website’s cute boy poll?” said the other girl while a group of boys walked toward Bai Hu.

“Oh, what’s this? Isn’t this the Pauper Bai? New clothes. New bag, too. Who donated these things to you? Does your skin look brighter?” A familiar voice rang. It was the voice that was much too familiar to Bai Zhe because its owner was the person who had caused his death.

“Say whatever you want. But if you dare lay your hands on me again, I promise I will not let it slide like yesterday, Yi Han,” said Bai Hu. He did not want to cause a scene with Yi Han, because there were not many people at school at this time. He wanted Yi Han to be embarrassed because he had been defeated by Bai Zhe.

“What are you going to do?” Yi Han went straight to Bai Zhe. But...

“Good morning, teacher. You came to school early.” Bai Hu bowed, pretending that there was a teacher behind Yi Han. All of his crew turned around.

‘I better go.’ Bai Hu ran from that spot. It was witnessed by all the students who were around.

“There’s no one there. Damn, he played us. Bastard.” After turning around to see that no one was behind him, Yi Han realized that Bai Hu had fooled him. He also saw large letters written on the floor where Bai Zhe had been standing, ‘Yi Han is an idiot’.

After he fled, Bai Hu climbed a wall that was hidden from sight to the rooftop of the building. He then started practicing easy martial arts so he could get used to this body.

‘From now on, I am Bai Zhe. I am a student who dreams of being a superstar to take care of my parents.’ Bai Hu decided to abandon his old name and adopt the name ‘Bai Zhe’.

When it was near the time that classes started, he walked down the stairs to his classroom. Female students looked at him and tried to figure out who he was.

Creak.

The sound of the door opening preceded Bai Zhe walking into the classroom. All the chatting and talking stopped, and things went quiet. Every eye was on the boy who had just entered. They tried to find out who he was because they had never seen the good-looking boy. He looked familiar yet, they could not seem to recognize him.

“Bai Zhe, you old dog. You finally came?”