Hindsight

Douluo Continent

Teachers area.

The same night.

As they were talking, Ye Yingrong got a call and hee face darkened.

"What happened now?"

She whispered with the irritated anticipation of a big sibling.

"Fan Lin, that Fan Lin came with an unconscious Gu Yue! Something must have happened, I told you!"

Ye Yingrong's hysterically voiced.

"Who told you about it?"

She immediately asked her sister.

"The guards at the gate. They said that he came with an unconscious Gu Yue and they told him to take her to the infirmary. Did he do something to her?"

Ye Yingrong asked her sister.

The guards had sent him to the infirmary while informing the infirmary about it; and politely asked Ye Yingrong to visit the infirmary on accord of the nurse who asked them to inform the teachers of the students.

The moment Ye Yingrong heard the name of Fan Lin and Gu Yue with suffixes like unconscious and night, her brain immediately went haywire and she was unable to think of anything good.

The morning she was told about Fan Lin's rowdy behaviour and now this.

She had faced a situation like this for the first time in her life. She immediately looked at her sister to get some experienced advice because she knew it was a crucial event for both her as a teacher and those students (Gu Yue and Fan Lin).

She won't let her inexperienced self be the reason for not being able to handle a complex event like this.

"Explain the situation on the way." [Ye Yinglou]

They took off for the infirmary.

"So did the guard said anything about injuries? Did he inform Teacher Wu about this? Was Fan Lin alone when he came with Gu Yue?"

"No, the guard said nothing about injuries; they did say that the infirmary nurse told them to inform the teachers of the involved students so Teacher Wu might know about it and they said that Fan Lin came with Gu Yue alone."

Ye Yingrong answered and with their speed and the closeness of the infirmary, they reached the place soon.

"Then he likely isn't at fault."

Ye Yingluo remarked as she entered the infirmary and saw Wu Zhangkong waiting.

"Teacher Wu, did you check the students?"

Ye Yingluo said to Wu Zhangkong knowing full well that he came for the same matter.

"They aren't here yet."

Wu Zhangkong coolly replied. He attitude showed just how much interested he was to talk with them.

Ye Yingluo's mouth twitched as she took Ye Yingrong by her hand and waited at the side.

The teacher's area was in the deepest parts of the intermediate area of the Eastsea Academy but it was closer to the infirmary and the advanced academic section.

With the infirmary having many entries, they could do nothing but wait. Or they can go and fetch them themselves.

As the involved teachers( Teacher Ye Yingrong, Ye Yingluo and Wu Zhangkong) came from the teachers area, they actually came from the opposite direction of where Fan Lin and Tang Wulin were coming from, adding to the fact that the teachers came at full speed and Fan Lin and Wulin were fighting with themselves, the teachers had obviously arrived before them.

A few minutes later, Wu Zhangkong was asked to come to door 4. Ye Yingrong and Ye Yinglou followed.

When they got there, they saw two students, one of which was carrying Gu Yue.

Wu Zhangkong and the others (Ye Yingrong and Ye Yingluo) looked at them and the duo also looked at them.

"We have an unconscious body in here, where to take her?"

Fan Lin said. Tang Wulin nudging him to be not rude.

"Take her upstairs and who is going to explain the situation?"

Wu Zhangkong icily said with a cold gaze while gesturing at the stairs.

Fan Lin looked at the stairs and then at Tang Wulin.

"You tell them."

He gently took Gu Yue from him and went to cautiously deliver her to the room. He was a gentle person.

The nurse asked him to place Gu Yue in one of the beds and quickly pushed him out of the room.

Fan Lin then returned to hear this from Wulin.

"I am sorry we fought and she got injured."

As he came down, they looked at him. Even Tang Wulin was looking at him. Everyone was silent.

They looked at each other for some time, waiting for someone to say something, Fan Lin decided to go to the second floor, the teachers followed behind him closely.

'So the door guards informed the teachers, why didn't they just asked them to pick her up in the first place then?'

Fan Lin wondered as he slowly went towards the second floor in the eyes of the teachers who were still closely following him.

"So what happened?"

Wu Zhangkong asked as they reached the second floor.

"Teacher Wu, your student is awake."

The nurse said to Wu Zhangkong who was behind Fan Lin.

"En, let me see her."

He said to the nurse and followed the nurse to the patient's room. Ye Yingrong and Ye Yingluo followed him as well.

They needed to ensure Gu Yue's condition first and foremost to get her side of the story aka statement, the situation didn't seem that dire from the words of the guard and Tang Wulin did explain but that was where it got confusing.

As things persist, they would be interrogated later on the basis of Gu Yue's statement and condition.

'That's fast, she should be still sleeping for at least five more minutes. Looks like the nurse had some rejuvenation type soul skill that ended the sleepiness faster. Well, can't say anything.'

'I have erased her memories of the past half an hour before she met me so I just need to stay adamant on my alibi that I found her unconscious in the Eastsea park and all I would get, would be a small punishment for using her as a shield, maybe cleaning the toilets or something like that.'

"Why are you spacing out?"

Tang Wulin said while coming near Fan Lin, breaking his chain of thought.

'I also have to take care of this kid.'

"Just thinking about my punishment. How did things came to 'we fought and injured her'?"

Fan Lin said while sitting down on one of the empty chairs near the wall of the patients room. His clothes still wet and soggy.

Tang Wulin followed him and sat on the public chair beside Fan Lin.

"I said I saw you carry her and got near but then we had a fight due to previous issues and she got injured in the process." [Tang Wulin]

Tang Wulin answered.

"Good. I will say the same." [Fan Lin]

"Teacher Ye came to me and asked quite a lot of stuff about you. Did you do anything to her, or around her?" [Tang Wulin]

"I don't know. Things are going as usual. What did you say to her?" [Fan Lin]

Fan Lin put the contemplation of his past aside and thought about the topic of Ye Yingrong. He didn't care before thinking that she was a cannon fodder side character but considering the situation, she might be onto something related to him due to the sudden rise in his cultivation.

"I told her about your days in the Glorybound town." [Tang Wulin]

"So not the good stuff then." [Fan Lin]

"I said the truth." [Tang Wulin]

"I did not say, you didn't." [Fan Lin]

"She didn't seem angry. Teacher Wu said she wanted to train you." [Tang Wulin]

"Train me? With my martial soul?" [Fan Lin]

"Nah. She can't be interested in me as there is nothing interesting in me, if she did then that's a problem as well. A normal person would not be so interested in a average looking silent outcast kid, she even went to the others to ask questions using her authority as a teacher. A predator (pedophile or shota rap-er, basically a criminal) targeting the quiet kids who can't fight back or have any class presence, but why me, ahh (nearly forgot I am an orphan in this world) interesting (even side characters have their hidden sides) Do you know if the school has any child protection agency, I may need__?

"What are you suggesting? I am not a criminal!"

Ye Yingrong couldn't help but exclaim loudly. She heard Fan Lin and could guess exactly where he was going with his thinking.

Fan Lin heard her voice and looked at her. Tang Wulin did the same.

Ye Yingrong wanted to say a lot but couldn't say anything to refute as Fan Lin's eyes made her hesitate in her words. A foreboding sense of doom. She chose her words before speaking.

"I was just interested in his cultivation speed increament.'

"So it was that. Sorry for my rash words."

Fan Lin looked at her silently and apologized. The foreboding feeling disappearing.

"It's okay, you don't need to apologise but you shouldn't just assume things like this in the future okay. That's bad manners."

Ye Yingluo said while exiting the patients room.

Fan Lin looked at her and then nodded.

"Now let's put those things aside and tell us what happened and I meant the both of you."

"I found her unconscious in the Eastsea Park." [Fan Lin]

Fan Lin began his story.

"What were you doing there?" [Ye Yinglou]

"I was meditating there." [Fan Lin]

"Fair. Why did Gu Yue had drag marks on her?" [Ye Yinglou]

"She got that during our fight." [Fan Lin]

"She was unconscious, how did she get between your fight and what about her swollen cheek?" [Ye Yinglou]

"As we were fighting, Wulin threw a punch and in a matter of heat, I used a near object to block it. It was her." [Fan Lin]

"And since I failed to stop my punch before it could connect, she was flung to the air..." [Tang Wulin]

"...and skid on the ground and got those marks." [Fan Lin]

Ye Yingluo looked at Tang Wulin.

"How did you meet them and why did you do that?"

"I was late from my forging tasks and when I was going to my new dorm, I saw him coming with her. Thinking that he might have done something to her, I rushed and confronted him. He explained his reasoning and I volunteered to drop Gu Yue to the infirmary but we got into a fight and Gu Yue was further injured. We immediately came here afterwards." [Tang Wulin]

"Why is he drenched then? Did you do that?"

She asked again but Fan Lin interjected.

"No. It was me. I jumped into the fountain to cool my head." [Fan Lin]

Ye Yinglou looked at them while her mouth twitched at their statements.

"What do you think about the situation Teacher Wu?"

Wu Zhangkong looked at both of them and then at Gu Yue who was listening to their conversation from the patient's room.

"I am fine so don't punish Tang Wulin."

Gu Yue said while silently staring at Fan Lin through the room.

'What about me?' [Fan Lin]

"Well, I will leave that to the school to decide."

Wu Zhangkong coolly stated. The situation wasn't anything that could be related injustice or mistreatment and hence he had no need to intervene.

"I had called the director, he will come in a few minutes."

Fan Lin looked at all of them.

'Can't you guys even decide a simple thing like that by yourself? Why was the director coming?'

Fan Lin thought.

Gu Yue was fine and Tang Wulin was standing beside him, they had given their statements so everything should be over.

....

Douluo Continent

Eastsea Academy

Director Hong came and gave the rights to punishment to the nurse.

After a few minutes of lecture from the nurse on how to treat an unconscious patient, Tang Wulin and Fan Lin were allowed to go to their dorms.

Their punishment being that Tang Wulin had to do extra training and Fan Lin had to report and get permission of the teacher of Class 3, Ye Yingrong before leaving the school grounds at night with the added punishment of helping the library staff for a whole month.

Fan Lin calmly accepted it. So did Tang Wulin. They could do nothing but accept it and thank the nurse for leaving them with just this.

After a last round of checkup on Gu Yue by the nurse using her soul skill. She allowed her to leave as well since Gu Yue was perfectly fine except for the bruise on her face.

So Gu Yue, Wu Zhangkong, the Ye sisters and Tang Wulin left for the teachers area as the Class zero was also situated there and the matter was finished.

Fan Lin on the other hand went towards his dorm in silence.

Throughout his way, he was thinking about his behaviour and he realised that he was slowly acting more and more like what ge wanted to avoid.

"Need to change my mind first. I am not a Gloomy Forest but Fan Lin. Can't behave like the Gloomy Forest or what would the difference between my previous past and new present, just a new name and body."

*Sigh*

Fan Lin took a big sigh.

"Does it matter though? My plans still won't change. I still need to gain myself a place in this world and when I am going to stop talking to myself."

Fan Lin internally declared and went towards his dorm with a calming anger towards himself.

And just like this, days passed.

Fan Lin's punishment didn't add anything new to his life, no one was interested enough to know exactly why he stayed late in the classes or why he went to the library everyday.

Unlike what he had thought, none of the teachers said anything about the incident of the night nor did they bring it up to him.

Ye Yingrong was still teaching cheerfully to Fan Lin like nothing happened and everything was the same as before.

He did his meditation in the night, attended his classes in the morning, the evening was spent in the library and then the night was spent in meditation.

As for body training, Fan Lin did not do any after checking the condition of his body. His body in a few words, was like a mold of wax right now.

The more wax someone burns, the less they have.

In a similar way, the more he used his body, the more damage he would do to his body and by damage, he meant cellular level damage that reduced his lifespan by one to two years every.

The implosions weren't a joke.

'If only my body was metaphorically like clay that could be beaten and shaped thousands of times, I would be content but a person can't just have everything.'

'Higher cultivation speed, better physique, lucky encounters and a stable income, not everyone can have it. I don't even have parents to exchange for the protagonist buff and I don't want to be the protagonist.'

'But I am not that bad, considering that I just reached rank 16 Spirit Master yesterday, my speed is still a lot faster than the others.'

'The greatest of all being that I have a new blueprint for the new energy serum.'

Fan Lin was thinking about his current situation. It was morning outside and he had just stabilized his rank 16 cultivation.

"In a month or so, I might reach Rank 20 and then I can move to the Earthrock Alliance since the process will be done by then."