Chapter 42: Plans

Su Chunfeng frowned, feeling very puzzled and somewhat displeased as he stared at Wang Qimin. He said, “Teacher Wang… I really don’t think you need to know everything. I’m just a student. You want to take me as your disciple, but I don’t want to. It’s that simple! Matters like this should be mutually agreeable. Why must you keep making things difficult for me? If you continue like this, I’ll report you to our homeroom teacher, and maybe even the principal.”

Su Chunfeng knew that Wang Qimin should be most afraid of such matters becoming public.

But this time, he miscalculated. After hearing these words, Wang Qimin showed not a trace of surprise or apprehension. Instead, he smiled gently and continued in a kindly tone, “Alright, don’t be angry. I was just asking casually. Chunfeng, have you perhaps already taken a master? Is that why you’ve repeatedly refused me?”

“Taken a master?” Su Chunfeng shook his head. “I’m not interested in the tricks of those charlatans you mentioned. Truly.”

“But you must know,” Wang Qimin no longer questioned him but looked at Su Chunfeng with a serious expression. “With your innate talent and aptitude, even if you refuse to become my disciple, there will be others in the future who will want to take you as their disciple.”

“Can’t I just not learn?”

“It’s quite possible… you might not have a choice,” Wang Qimin said with a smile. “In this world, there are actually many extraordinary people and strange things you don’t know about and can’t even imagine. It’s like those martial arts novels you youngsters enjoy reading, where the Jianghu is filled with numerous sects and countless experts. People with a temperament as good as mine are not common. So, when you encounter some less agreeable individuals, they might use forceful and overbearing methods to compel you to become their disciple and cultivate the profound and boundless Esoteric Techniques.”

A look of fear and worry immediately appeared in Su Chunfeng’s eyes.

He realized that since his rebirth, he had indeed overlooked this extremely important reality.

Although most practitioners of the Jianghu of Esoteric Arts hid among ordinary folk, they were spread all over the country. If foreign mages were also included in the Jianghu, it could be said to span the globe. By the end of this century, especially in the early next century, the Jianghu of Esoteric Arts would rapidly revive and prosper, even involving various sectors of society… Human society is diverse, and practitioners of the Jianghu of Esoteric Arts wielded mysterious powers through secretive arts. Every time they cast an art, it was an act defying the natural order. Therefore, among mages, there were many with strong-willed and arrogant mindsets. Unless one’s cultivation realm reached “Qi Refining,” it was difficult to maintain a calm and peaceful heart.

Wang Qimin was right; people with a temperament as good as his…

were truly rare in the Jianghu of Esoteric Arts.

And for a genius like Su Chunfeng, whose talent in cultivating Esoteric Techniques was exceptionally outstanding, how could he not attract the attention of people from the Jianghu when he eventually stepped into society?

Thinking of this, Su Chunfeng shook his head with a bitter smile and said, “Teacher Wang, what you’re saying is too mystical.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“No.”

“Chunfeng…” Wang Qimin smiled. “Right now, in my office, I’ll demonstrate a small Esoteric Technique for you to see. Then you’ll believe.” Having said that, Wang Qimin reached out and brought a bowl of water that had been prepared on his desk in front of him. He formed a seal with his left hand, slightly focusing his mind in preparation to cast the art.

“No need,” Su Chunfeng said. “Teacher, thank you for thinking highly of me. I just want to study hard… Goodbye.”

With that, Su Chunfeng turned and left.

Wang Qimin sat silently at his desk, gazing blankly through the window at Su Chunfeng’s departing figure.

By now, he could certainly tell that Su Chunfeng was absolutely different from an ordinary middle school student of that age group. Just from the expression on Su Chunfeng’s face as he pondered to himself after hearing those words earlier, it gave the impression that he was extremely familiar with the Jianghu of Esoteric Arts. He even seemed to have experienced many past events, carrying a sense of desolation and helplessness that came from long years of hardship. This inexplicably gave Wang Qimin a strange feeling inside, as if he had encountered a greatly revered master.

Could it be…

Su Chunfeng knew Esoteric Techniques?

Wang Qimin suddenly thought of this possibility, which was almost zero.

If it were true, then the incidents involving harmful Esoteric Techniques in Hetang Village, the sudden recovery of the madwoman in Dongwangzhuang Village who was possessed by an evil entity, and her son Zhao Shangang’s inexplicable help for Su Chunfeng would not be hard to explain.

However, Wang Qimin immediately shook his head with a bitter smile. Even if he were a descendant of a well-established Esoteric Arts family, having cultivated and mastered Esoteric Techniques since childhood, before his age and mentality matured sufficiently, he would not dare to casually cast arts. Because a child’s physical constitution and mental state were not yet mature enough; their spirit and will could not withstand the dangerous backlash from nature. Let alone incidents like those in Hetang Village and Dongwangzhuang Village that involved Esoteric Techniques. They were almost effortlessly resolved, leaving only faint traces that were difficult to completely erase after art casting, clearly resembling the work of a Great Master.

Thinking of this, Wang Qimin couldn’t help but sigh softly.

He did not want to give up on this rare genius in Esoteric Techniques.

A human life is short, barely a hundred years. Even if the Jianghu of Esoteric Arts, as predicted by Iron Divination Immortal Cheng the Blind, was destined to surge and prosper within a dozen years, as a practitioner of Esoteric Arts, his way of survival and inheritance was to live in seclusion among rural villages and towns, avoiding involvement in the Jianghu as much as possible to avoid detection. Now, Wang Qimin was already approaching sixty. Could he really travel all over the country searching for a disciple with outstanding talent?

Leaving aside whether he could find one, once drawn into the Jianghu, there would be many troubles.

But from the looks of it now, this child Su Chunfeng was mature and steady, with a mindset and judgment that were hard to influence. To put it bluntly, he was quite stubborn!

What should he do?

Meanwhile, Su Chunfeng, who had already returned to his classroom, also fell into deep thought. Wang Qimin’s words had awakened him to the fact that where there are people, there is a Jianghu.

In this lifetime, he could not hide forever in Hetang Village without ever leaving.

But after inevitably stepping into the bustling, mixed society in the future, it was highly likely he would attract the attention of people from the Jianghu of Esoteric Arts. Troubles, even major troubles, would be unavoidable. And with his current physical constitution and level of Esoteric Technique cultivation, once encountering powerful Qimen Mystics, he would have no ability to resist.

Just thinking about the terrifying power of various mysterious Esoteric Techniques in the Jianghu of Esoteric Arts, and the cruel, malicious nature of many mages, Su Chunfeng couldn’t help but tremble with fear.

It seemed that even if he didn’t want to become a mage, didn’t want to enter the Jianghu, he still had to cultivate!

Only by possessing sufficiently strong power could he protect himself. Only then could he calmly handle unexpected situations in the future, and have a greater chance of withdrawing unscathed, not getting dragged into the perilous Jianghu of Esoteric Arts.

…

On the day the Final Exam results came out, winter break began.

Su Chunfeng scored a high 663 points, ranking second in his class and third in his grade, just behind the class’s top scorer Li Jiankun, who had 669 points.

However, this time it didn’t surprise his classmates—it was expected that Su Chunfeng could achieve good grades.

Wang Haifei’s grades also improved, with 623 points, ranking tenth in the class.

And Zhang Lifei scored 608 points, ranking thirteenth.

Therefore, the homeroom teacher Li Jichun was now immensely pleased. The average score of Class 14 students far exceeded that of Class 15. And if they maintained this level of performance, during next year’s High School Entrance Examination, Class 14 could even produce three or four publicly-funded secondary school students, and over a dozen students might test into County No.1 High School.

For a homeroom teacher, that would mean both honor and bonuses.

Publicly-funded students, during this era, were a special policy in most cities and counties of Yuzhou Province—students with exceptionally excellent exam results would receive free education for three years at a secondary technical school until graduation.

In this era, for rural middle schools, secondary technical schools were of only two types:

One was teacher training schools. After graduation, qualified students would be directly assigned to elementary or even middle schools, becoming glorious educators, state-employed teachers, receiving salaries financed by the government education department. The other was police schools, where excellent grades could also lead to abundant job assignments, and all were secure, “iron rice bowl” positions. After all, the country was in a stage of rapid development, urgently needing to supplement more excellent teaching staff to meet and enhance the popularization and development of the nine-year compulsory education nationwide, raising the overall cultural level of the populace.

Similarly, the police profession urgently needed the supplement of high-quality talent.

So the current situation was that if a middle school student could test into a secondary technical school and become a publicly-funded student, it was often the highest honor for the school and the rural farming parents, and very likely would become a lifelong guarantee of a worry-free life for that student.

Of course, this situation would be phased out within a couple of years due to the rapid development of society.

After returning home, Su Chunfeng, like all kids his age, having achieved excellent grades, wanted to report to his parents immediately with a sense of wanting credit for his accomplishment.

Su Cheng and Chen Xiulan were naturally overjoyed to hear it.

During lunch, Su Cheng unusually made an exception once more, allowing his eldest son to have three small cups of alcohol as encouragement and praise, while fiercely scolding his second son—this little brat, even with his older brother’s strict supervision and tutoring help every weekend, his grades improved too slowly. In a class of over thirty kids, he still couldn’t make it into the top ten in exams. How could that be acceptable?

After the meal, Su Cheng sent his second son back to the bedroom for a nap but kept his eldest son in the living room.

Lighting a cigarette, Su Cheng smoked slowly and said, “Xiaofeng, your performance this year was good, your exam scores steadily improved… and you’re also much more sensible than before. But Dad still wants to give you a warning today. You mustn’t become arrogant or slack off. Next year, during the High School Entrance Examination, strive to get a spot as a publicly-funded student.”

“Publicly-funded student?” Su Chunfeng smiled. “Dad, I want to go to high school and test into university in the future!”

“Ah, silly child,” Su Cheng waved his hand, saying with a serious expression. “Before, when I said you should test into university, it was just to motivate you all. Being a publicly-funded student is good. Although our family’s condition is okay now, and we don’t really care about the small tuition fees saved for publicly-funded students, publicly-funded students are almost guaranteed job assignments after graduation. Then you could become a teacher or a police officer, eating the nation’s rice for life. That’s security! A worry-free life, isn’t that great?”

Just then, Chen Xiulan, who had finished washing the dishes, returned to the living room and happened to hear her husband’s words. She nodded and said, “Yes, Xiaofeng, your dad is right. You’re still young and don’t know the hardships of life. Listen to your dad, okay!”

Su Chunfeng put away his smile and said earnestly, “Dad, Mom, I think going to high school is better. Testing into university in the future, I can learn more knowledge, broaden my horizons, and have more opportunities in life later on… Don’t worry, I will definitely continue to study hard. In the future, not only will I test into university, I’ll test into the best university in the whole country!”

Su Cheng and Chen Xiulan were stunned.

After hesitating for a few seconds, Su Cheng couldn’t help but laugh heartily, “Hey, the kid has ambition! Alright! If you want to go to high school, then go to high school!”

“I told you, Xiaofeng is the most promising!” Chen Xiulan said with a face full of happy smiles.