Thursday, October 27th 6:00 am:Yu Chang finished doing the dishes after eating breakfast and stored the dishes with the rest of his belongings inside Falling Star"s pendent. With that, he took one last look at the apartment he had been living in for the past year before picking up his bag and heading out the door.
Meanwhile, in Falling Star"s house, Falling Star was fretting about what to wear. Two dresses floated in the air as she paced about her bedroom. "I really like the white one, but it looks more like a wedding dress than a formal gown. That leaves only the red one." With her mind made up after several hours of pondering over the various dresses she had to choose from, the white dress floated back towards a bedroom-sized closet. The red dress remained floating in the air as she neatly placed the white one back on a rack.
City A High School 7:00 am:
The halls were eerily quiet compared to their normal level of organized chaos. Only about a third of the students who normally show up at 7 am were there. Yu Chang decided to ask a random student in the hall what was going on. "Do you know where everyone is?"
"They went to Senior Falling Star"s press conference. All the seniors and juniors were given the option to go instead of coming to morning cla.s.s. Only a small number of them were actual candidates to become her disciple; the rest just went to get out of cla.s.s. Speaking of, why are you here Senior Yu? You should be one of the top candidates of the school with your grades, right?"
"Truth is I didn"t apply. Not only that, I"ve been in the hospital all week, so I didn"t know about the press conference." Yu Chang sighed. "It"s lucky I didn"t go, I would have been pulled into the conference knowing Master. I"d rather not be the center of attention… I really hope she doesn"t grandstand when she comes for me this afternoon…" Yu Chang thought these things after considering his interactions with Falling Star the previous night. "Do you happen to know where Instructor Song is at the moment?"
"Eh? She should be in her office. You trying to get last-minute approval to go to the conference?" The young female student got an envious look in her eyes.
"No, I just need to turn in this absentee note from my master."
"Senior Yu, you already have a master? Who is it who is it? Is it someone famous?" Hearing that Yu Chang already had a master, she felt a bit relieved because she a.s.sumed it was not her idol Falling Star.
"Well the paperwork is not finalized yet, so I probably shouldn"t reveal it. Regardless, I"m sure you"ll hear about it soon enough. Anyways, I should probably get this note to Instructor Song, thank you for your a.s.sistance fellow cla.s.smate."
Yu Chang walked the somewhat empty halls of the school and arrived at Instructor Song"s office and knocked on the door.
"Come in." Came the call from the other side.
Yu Change opened the door and went in. "Instructor Song, I was instructed by my master to give you this note explaining my absence this week." Yu Chang handed the instructor the note that Falling Star had written the night before.
To Little Yu"s Instructor,
As of the time I am writing this letter, I am unofficially Little Yu"s master. I will be by later today to pick him up and register him as my disciple officially. I am writing this letter to inform you of why Little Yu has been absent this week. Earlier this week, Little Yu and I had an unexpected encounter which caused Little Yu to get hurt. He has been in the hospital the past few days recovering. If you need to confirm the contents of this letter, both his Doctor, Bái Xuě, and the princ.i.p.al of the school can acknowledge what I have stated here. I ask that you please continue to instruct Little Yu to the best of your ability, as he is a most precious treasure.
Thank You,
Falling Star
Instructor Song nearly choked on her coffee while reading the letter. "Little Yu, do you know the contents of this letter?"
"Eh? Master Star should have just explained about my being hospitalized the past few days."
"Come with me; this letter claims that Princ.i.p.al w.a.n.g can confirm its contents, so I want to do just that." Instructor Song led Yu Chang to an office a few doors down the hall; it was an office Yu Chang had never visited throughout his entire high school career. Instructor Song gently knocked on the door.
"Enter," a deep voice called from the other side.
Instructor Song entered and held the door open for Yu Chang. Yu Chang glanced around at the countless books either strung about or haphazardly arranged on the book shelves. "So disorganized," he muttered to himself. "Are all high-level cultivators so eccentric?"
Princ.i.p.al w.a.n.g chuckled after overhearing the comments made by Yu Chang. "Ah, Instructor Song and Little Yu, I"ve been expecting you."
"So, the contents of this letter are accurate Princ.i.p.al w.a.n.g?" Instructor Song asked while handing over the letter.
"This is indeed the case," Princ.i.p.al w.a.n.g replied after quickly skimming the letter. I got an interesting phone call last night from Falling Star, the daughter of one of my old colleagues. She was really excited about this matter. She explained the entire issue to me as well as requesting leave for young Little Yu here this afternoon. I am surprised she didn"t have him attend the press conference with her this morning. That being the case though, I won"t question it. I"m sure she has her reasons. I feel a bit sorry for all those hopefuls we sent to attend the conference though; it is well known that Little Star only intended to accept one disciple. Anyways, congratulations Little Yu, from everything I"ve heard about you, you"ve been the pride of our school since your first day. It"s regrettable that we don"t teach cultivation subjects, I would be greatly interested to see your capability since you"ve managed to catch Little Star"s attention.
Yu Chang blushed but didn"t dare admit that he had no capability as a cultivator at present.
"If that is all, I would like to speak to Instructor Song privately. Little Yu, you are free to go."
"Right, about that," Instructor Song cut in. "Due to the rest of the uppercla.s.smen being at the conference. Morning cla.s.ses are self-study Little Yu. Your missed a.s.signments were sent to you via email each day you were out, so please be sure to get those done during this time."
"I will do my best," Yu Chang replied. "Now I will take my leave to get started. Thank you, Princ.i.p.al w.a.n.g and Instructor Song." With that, Yu Chang quietly left Princ.i.p.al w.a.n.g"s office.