Classroom 301 – 3:33 a.m.
The lights were off.
Only the emergency exit sign glowed a sickly green.
Lin Feng had not moved from his seat in the last row for six straight hours.
His eyes were open, but he was not looking at anything in the room.
He was listening.
To the sound of a heart that should have been digested twenty years ago, now beating somewhere inside that child on the podium.
Little Feng was asleep in Liu Ruyan's lap, head pillowed on her arm like any ordinary kid after a long day of mass murder.
Liu Ruyan herself was reading the textbook she had written, red pen in hand, occasionally circling a sentence and writing marginalia in blood-coloured ink.
Su Qingxue sat ramrod straight in the front row, hands on the desk, knuckles white.
She had not blinked once.
At exactly 3:33 a.m., the classroom's analog clock stopped.
The second hand froze between 3 and 4.
Liu Ruyan closed the book softly.
"Pop quiz," she announced, voice sweet enough to curdle milk.
The blackboard behind her began bleeding from the top, crimson liquid running down in perfect calligraphy:
**Question 1 (100 marks):**
**If your discarded humanity comes back wearing your face and calls you "big brother," do you:**
A) Hug it
B) Kill it
C) Realise you never actually discarded it in the first place
**Time limit: until someone screams.**
Little Feng's eyes snapped open—pure gold, no pupils.
He sat up, rubbed his eyes, and yawned.
"Teacher, can I read the answers out loud when they choose?"
Liu Ruyan kissed the top of his head.
"Of course, monitor."
The temperature in the room dropped so fast that frost bloomed across the windows.
Lin Feng finally moved.
He stood up slowly.
"Teacher," he said, voice hoarse from disuse, "I want to apply for a make-up exam."
Liu Ruyan tilted her head, interested.
"Oh? The legendary Number Zero wants extra credit already?"
Lin Feng took one step down the aisle.
"I want to fight my other half. One on one. No rules. No referee. Winner absorbs the loser completely. The way it was supposed to be twenty years ago."
Little Feng's smile widened until it split his face too far.
"Big brother wants to eat me again?" He giggled. "Teacher, he's bullying me."
Liu Ruyan looked almost proud.
"Denied," she said pleasantly. "That would be too easy. And I hate easy."
She tapped the attendance book.
"Besides, you're missing the point of the question."
She stood, still holding Little Feng like a mother carrying her toddler, and walked to the blackboard.
With one finger she drew a circle in the dripping blood.
Inside the circle appeared a live feed.
A girl—no older than nineteen—was running barefoot through the new campus dorms, tears freezing on her cheeks.
Name tag floating above her head: **Chen Xiaoxiao – Freshman, Literature Department**
She was clutching a phone that kept vibrating with the same message:
[Emergency Class Meeting – All surviving Class Zero students report to Classroom 301 immediately]
[Penalty for absence: your family forgets you ever existed]
Chen Xiaoxiao had never even heard of Class Zero until ten minutes ago.
Now something with too many teeth was chasing her through the corridors.
Liu Ruyan turned back to the classroom, smiling.
"New transfer student," she explained. "She scored 99 on the entrance exam of life. One point short of perfection. I collect almost-perfect things."
She looked at Lin Feng.
"Your answer to the pop quiz will determine whether she gets to keep breathing."
Little Feng raised his hand excitedly.
"I choose C for big brother! He's going to realise he can't kill me because I'm the part that still knows how to feel guilty!"
Lin Feng's fingers twitched.
A black sword began condensing in his right hand—pure killing intent given form.
Liu Ruyan sighed.
"Violence in class again. Minus ten points."
She snapped her fingers.
The sword shattered into black butterflies that turned into words and flew into Little Feng's mouth.
Little Feng chewed happily.
"Tastes like regret," he said with his mouth full.
On the blackboard feed, Chen Xiaoxiao reached the stairwell door that led to the old campus.
She slammed it open.
And froze.
Because on the other side stood forty-eight translucent ghosts wearing Jiangzhou University uniforms from 1994.
The ones who hanged themselves.
They smiled at her with broken necks.
Behind her, the thing with too many teeth was catching up.
Chen Xiaoxiao screamed.
The scream reached Classroom 301 at the exact same moment the emergency lights turned blood-red.
Liu Ruyan clapped once.
"Time's up. Pencils down."
She looked at Lin Feng.
"Your answer?"
Lin Feng stared at the blackboard—at the girl about to die for no reason other than existing in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Twenty years ago he would have let her die without blinking.
Twenty hours ago he would have killed her himself if it gave him an advantage.
Now…
He sat back down.
Slowly.
"I choose C," he said.
Little Feng's eyes widened in genuine shock.
Liu Ruyan's smile finally reached her eyes.
"Correct," she whispered.
She waved a hand.
On the blackboard, the forty-eight ghosts bowed politely and stepped aside.
The thing with too many teeth dissolved into black smoke and vanished.
Chen Xiaoxiao collapsed, sobbing, in the doorway of Classroom 301.
Liu Ruyan walked over, crouched, and helped the girl to her feet like a caring teacher.
"Shh. First days are always hard."
She guided Chen Xiaoxiao to an empty seat in the exact centre of the room.
Right between Lin Feng and Su Qingxue.
Then she wrote a new name in the attendance book.
**Chen Xiaoxiao – Seat 25 – Probationary Number 49**
Little Feng pouted.
"Teacher, that's not fair. She didn't even take the entrance trial!"
Liu Ruyan patted his cheek.
"Life isn't fair, monitor. That's the entire point."
She turned to the class of three official students plus one crying transfer.
"New rule starting today," she announced.
"Every time Lin Feng tries to become human, an innocent person gets dragged into our little family."
She looked at Su Qingxue.
"Every time Su Qingxue's stolen dragon blood awakens one more level, someone she secretly cares about will beg to die."
She looked at Little Feng.
"And every time our class monitor throws a tantrum because he's lonely… well."
She smiled beautifully.
"I let him eat a city block. Just a small one."
Chen Xiaoxiao hiccupped through her tears.
"W-what is this place…?"
Liu Ruyan walked back to the podium and wrote today's real lesson on the board in fresh blood:
**今日课程:因果的重量**
(Today's lesson: The Weight of Cause and Effect)
Underneath, in smaller letters:
**Homework: Make Lin Feng care enough to suffer.**
**Deadline: Before he kills me.**
**Reward for success: I'll tell you my real name.**
Little Feng jumped down from her arms and skipped over to Chen Xiaoxiao.
He took her trembling hand.
"Hi, new classmate! I'm Little Feng. Want to be friends?"
Chen Xiaoxiao tried to pull away.
Little Feng's grip became iron.
His golden eyes filled with tears—real ones.
"Don't be scared," he whispered. "I'm the nicest one here."
Then he smiled, showing teeth that were far too sharp.
"After all, I'm the only one who still remembers what it feels like to be human."
Far away, in the Heavenly Palace above the Ninth Heaven, a man wearing twelve dragon robes and an expression of eternal boredom suddenly looked down.
He frowned.
Someone had just used a drop of True Dragon Emperor blood without permission.
Someone who smelled like his ex-wife.
The Heavenly Emperor crushed the armrest of his throne.
Below, in Classroom 301, the first drop of morning rain hit the window.
Lin Feng looked at the crying girl now sitting between him and his doom.
Then he looked at the child who wore his discarded face.
Then at Su Qingxue, whose pupils had just slit vertically for a single heartbeat—dragon eyes.
Finally he looked at Liu Ruyan, who was watching him with the gentle, patient expression of a wife waiting for her husband to come home.
Lin Feng closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, they were wet.
Little Feng's smile became radiant.
Outside, thunder rolled across a perfectly clear sky.
The second bell was about to toll.
And this time,
it would not stop at thirteen.