Chapter 44 – Horrific

Elder Cai's speech ended like a crack of thunder across calm skies, its echoes still reverberating through the minds of every student in the plaza. Even with the ceremony formally concluded, no one dared speak above a whisper. The sheer weight of the expectations Shrek Academy laid upon them had settled like an invisible fog, heavy and full of promise—or doom.

Qiang Ming exhaled slowly. He liked this. No false smiles. No coddling words. Just one message: survive, or get out of the way.

As the crowd of newcomers began to break ranks and move toward the next part of their first day, Elder Cai descended from the stage and walked—straight—toward a very specific group of students.

Class 0, standing together as usual.

Tang Wulin stiffened. Gu Yue's eyes narrowed. Xie Xie's mouth twitched, and Xu Xiaoyan fidgeted, visibly uncomfortable. Each of them remembered Elder Cai all too well from their own entrance exam. She hadn't even needed to speak—just standing nearby was enough to make people feel like they'd failed her expectations by merely existing.

To their horror, she stopped in front of them.

No—not quite in front of them.

Her attention, they realized in disbelief, was directed at someone next to them.

"Qiang Ming," she said, her voice softer than any of them had heard before. "Good. You're on time."

Qiang Ming nodded with his usual calm. "Of course, Elder."

She gave a faint, approving hum, and—for just a second—her lips curved slightly, as if in recognition. "Behave."

"I'll try my best."

And that was it. No reprimands. No withering gazes. No monologues about failure. Just an amiable conversation with a woman who made grown men sweat bullets for minor errors in decorum.

Tang Wulin blinked. Xie Xie mouthed something unprintable. Gu Yue's brow furrowed with visible confusion. Xu Xiaoyan looked between the two of them, as if trying to decode a language she'd never learned.

Before anyone could whisper a question, Elder Cai turned her head slightly, gaze now like a guillotine's edge.

"First Grade students," she said briskly. "Your primary instructor will be me. Supporting you will be Wu Zhangkong and Chen Yi."

Tang Wulin nearly flinched.

He remembered Elder Cai as the final judge of their entrance trials—merciless, calculating, and brutally honest. Wu Zhangkong was terrifying in a very different way: the cold that never thawed. Chen Yi had at least pretended to be human. Sort of.

But Elder Cai leading them? This was something else entirely.

No one dared protest.

The students were quickly instructed to form up by class designation, with working students like Class 0 quietly folded to the rear of the group. Qiang Ming joined them with casual ease, walking beside them as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Xie Xie finally leaned close to Wulin and whispered, "I don't know what's scarier: the fact that she talked to him or that she smiled while doing it."

"She didn't even smile when we passed the entrance test…" Xu Xiaoyan muttered.

Gu Yue didn't speak, but her thoughts were loud enough that Qiang Ming gave her a sideways glance and smirked. She scowled at him in response.

They were led to the First Grade lecture hall—a massive, airy building with the clean lines of modern soul-engineering and the subdued grace of classical architecture. Soul circuits ran like vines along the walls, glowing faintly with power. Rows of seats awaited, each one marked with a name tag and a spirit-sensitive desk node.

Despite having been at the tail of the line, Elder Cai stopped Class 0 at the very front row and gestured.

"Sit here."

There was no room for argument. Not even a twitch of rebellion from any of them. One by one, Tang Wulin, Gu Yue, Xie Xie, and Xu Xiaoyan filed into their seats.

Qiang Ming followed behind, not prompted, not commanded—he simply chose to sit beside them, taking the empty chair at the row's end without hesitation.

"Bold of you," Xie Xie said, leaning over and whispering. "Choosing to sit up here willingly."

Qiang Ming gave him a sideways glance and said, "You're all I know in this whole place. Better the devils you know."

Gu Yue clicked her tongue. "You really do know how to flatter a girl."

"You don't count," Qiang Ming replied without missing a beat.

That earned him a faint smile, quickly hidden beneath Gu Yue's folded arms.

The classroom filled quickly after that. Whispers buzzed from behind them as more students entered, most glancing toward the front with expressions ranging from curiosity to envy to outright disbelief.

After all, seated up front and center were the students who looked least like they belonged: disheveled clothes, intense gazes, and more presence than some instructors.

Qiang Ming leaned back in his chair, folded his arms behind his head, and stared at the ceiling for a moment. Shrek Academy. The real start. No favors. No pretenses.

Just strength. And maybe a few broken bones along the way.

His lips twitched upward.

He could work with that.