Continuing to Act Cool...

High school schedules typically consist of four classes in the morning and three in the afternoon, followed by two periods of evening self-study. By the time the day's lessons are over, it is already nine-thirty at night. Consequently, many students break down under the grueling hours and relentless pressure of high school, choosing to give up entirely—much like Huang Ye in his past life, a textbook example.

After the English class, Huang Ye, who had fancied himself continuing his flamboyant antics in the subsequent periods, fell inexplicably silent. He kept his head bowed over his desk, writing and sketching away furiously. No one had any idea what he was up to, and even Gong Yanhao, who stole a few furtive glances, was firmly shoved aside. If any readers happened to be watching at this moment, they would undoubtedly point at Huang Ye's nose and curse him out: "Shameless wretch! How on earth have you no shame using the beaten-to-death plagiarism trope? Plagiarize if you must, but what on earth is this—author Huang Ye, protagonist Huang Ye? I've seen narcissists, but I've never seen anyone quite as narcissistic as you!"

Indeed, Huang Ye was undertaking a grand enterprise, destined to be his primary career in this lifetime—a porter of history! Since the system had handed him such an opportunity to make a name for himself across the world, he would be a fool not to seize it. Besides, he shouldn't forget the aggressive little system hovering over him like a predator; the mere thought of the possibility of undergoing a sex change in the near future made Huang Ye shudder involuntarily. Yesterday, Huang Ye had searched the internet for a long time and found that virtually none of his past life's classic works existed here, including *Journey to Immortality*, one of the three major fantasy masterpieces of his previous life!

*Journey to Immortality*, authored by Xiao Qian, was the pinnacle of xuanhuan in 2006 and the towering pillar of contemporary internet literature's "Three Great Masterpieces." Falling under the xianxia and cultivation genre, it was once regarded as the absolute crown jewel of the four major web novels.

On July 12, 2017, the 2017 Maopian-Hurun Original Literature IP Value List was published, ranking *Journey to Immortality* in the 50th position. For a work from 2006 to maintain such standing eleven years later, it was undeniably worthy of being called the foremost of the four major web novels.

Some argued that *Jade Dynasty* completely surpassed *Journey to Immortality*, but Huang Ye refused to agree. The two books had different stances and belonged to entirely different subgenres. It was simply that *Jade Dynasty* encountered the right opportunity at the right time. In terms of brand value and commercial profit, there was no denying that *Jade Dynasty* left *Journey to Immortality* in the dust, but purely from the perspective of the books themselves, Huang Ye believed *Journey to Immortality* held a slight edge.

*Journey to Immortality* was the very first web novel Huang Ye had encountered in his past life. He had been utterly captivated by it, reading it until the pages were worn to shreds. Every plot point and fine detail was practically etched into his mind. This world could not possibly go without a genre-defining divine work like *Journey to Immortality*.

In this world, who would dare claim *Journey to Immortality* was written by Xiao Qian? Clearly, it was written by none other than himself!

*Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch...* Through the last two periods of the morning and the first two of the afternoon, including every break between classes, Huang Ye did not lift his head once, entirely immersed in the sacred and magnificent profession of plagiarism.

"Volume One, Wrongly Entering the Heavenly Court, Chapter Eight—done. I'm worked to death. I'll write this much for today. Any more and my hand's going to snap off," Huang Ye muttered, putting away his notebook.

"Rooster, what's next?"

"Well, well, my great author, do you even remember this is a school? It's a complete waste of talent for you to be writing a novel right here." The Rooster hadn't seen what Huang Ye was writing, but he could vaguely guess it was a story. In recent years, with the preliminary exploration of web novel platforms, more and more people were joining the ranks. Regardless of how well they performed, just the feeling of searching the internet and finding their own creative thoughts brought a deep sense of satisfaction. This had birthed a massive wave of authors alongside a gargantuan readership. The Rooster happened to be one of them—a hardcore, veteran reader of Blue Sky Literature Network. In the Rooster's own words: "You can skip meals, you can skip school, and you can skip chasing girls, but you cannot skip reading web novels, or you'll die!"

"Spare me your snarky tone; I can't be bothered asking you. Monkey, what's next period?" Huang Ye turned around to ask Hou Jiantao, sitting behind him.

"Let me check the schedule. Music. Finally, a chance to rest the brain. Two and a half more years of this life... just thinking about it makes me want to die."

Music? Wait, where was his music textbook? Huang Ye racked his brains; it seemed that subjects like music and art, which were utterly useless for the college entrance examination, had long since been abandoned by students of his caliber. As for the textbook? Heh, it had probably been discarded out in the wilderness ages ago.

"Rooster, hand over your music textbook so I can take a look. Mine has undoubtedly been sent back to the recycling plant."

"Why look at a music textbook? What's the use? Music class is our designated nap time." The Rooster fished a book out from his desk cavity and tossed it to Huang Ye. "Take it. Tear it apart for fun when you're bored."

"Get lost, I'll tear *you* apart for fun," Huang Ye retorted playfully, flipping open the cover.

" *Youth's Prayer*, *De Smet Symphony (Second Movement)*, *Song of the Prairie*, *Sunshine Sonata (First Movement)*, *Xihe March*... What on earth are all these? A *Sunshine Sonata*?" After flipping through the entire music textbook, Huang Ye sighed inwardly. *System, you're a beast. You really did a thorough job rewriting everything—both domestic and foreign alike. Aren't you just tempting me to flex on the entire world?*

The final class of the daytime in high school was basically rotated among music, physical education, and art, granting the students' exhausted brains a chance to rest. After all, the evening self-study sessions were still waiting for them.

At 4:10 PM, the afternoon bell rang.

The music teacher was a fresh college graduate. Knowing that music was a neglected, dispensable subject in high school, he never bothered lecturing strictly from the textbook. This approach made him the second most popular teacher among classes eleven through eighteen of the freshman year. What? You ask who was first? Naturally, it was the young, wealthy, tall, and handsome physics teacher. But all of that was temporary; Huang Ye's heaven-defying life was destined to trample everything in its path!

"Students, you've studied hard and are tired after a whole day. How about we play a game this class? Whoever loses has to perform an act—sing a song, tell a joke, put on a sketch, or even bark like a dog if all else fails," Music Teacher Li Zhoumin said with a smile. "I survived high school myself, and to be honest, whether you study music in high school truly doesn't matter; it doesn't affect the exams anyway. Let's just have some fun together. Only when your mood is lightened can you have a better state of mind for studying, right?"

"Right! The teacher is right!"

"Long live Teacher Li! We love your style!"

"Teacher Li, what game are we playing? I can't wait!"

"GOGOGO, I'm going to bark like a dog, nobody steal it from me!"

"Such a lunatic (Shen Jingbing), you can actually say something like that? I don't respect anyone, but I respect you."

...

"I have a melodica here. In a moment, I'll turn my back to you and tap the blackboard with a blackboard eraser. You all will pass the melodica down the rows one by one. When the tapping stops, whoever is holding the melodica has to perform. Sound fair?"

"Playing it this hardcore?"

"What if we can't perform?"

"Didn't the teacher say we can bark like a dog? What are you afraid of?"

"You can bark if you want; I don't have the face to lose like that."

After a brief flurry of preparations, the game officially began!

"Thump, thump, thump, thump..." The sound of the eraser hitting the blackboard and the melodica itself seemed like the summons of the Grim Reaper. The students below were passing the melodica at speeds practically invisible to the naked eye.

"Thump, thump, thump—stop!"

"Are you kidding me? How is it me?" Shen Jingbing was dumbfounded.

"Hahaha, the lunatic gets his wish! Hurry up and bark like a dog!"

"Bark like a Husky! Huskys have distinctive barks, haha."

"You bunch of scumbags... Fine, if I must, *woof, woof, woof, woof, woof!*"

"Hahahahahahaha!"

Teacher Li chuckled and said, "Student Shen has given us a wonderfully joyful start. Come on, let's keep going!"

The tapping sounded once more, and one unlucky soul after another was egged on by the crowd to perform various acts. The atmosphere was exceptionally lively. For a time, everyone forgot the fatigue of a day's studying, and laughter and applause rang out continuously.

"Thump, thump, thump—stop! Whose turn is it?"

Huang Ye felt like crying without tears. Having written for the better part of the day, his hand was cramping, and before he could even toss the melodica away, he got caught.

"It's Huang Ye!"

"The legendary genius Huang Ye!"

"Come on, Ah Huang, give us a poem!"

"No barking like a dog allowed; it doesn't fit your status."

"Jokes are out too."

"Sitting back to wait for the genius to flex."

"Sitting back to wait for the genius to flex +1."

"Sitting back to wait for the genius to flex +2."

"Sitting back to wait for the genius to flex +3."

Listening to the various remarks from the students below, Teacher Li thought to himself that this student must be quite extraordinary; otherwise, why would they all be calling him a genius? But why didn't he have much impression of him from before?

"Student Huang Ye, right? What kind of performance are you going to give us? The classmates have spoken—no dog barking or cheap jokes to fill the quota."

Ah, he just wanted to be a quiet spectator eating melon seeds; why was it so hard? Huang Ye shook his head. "Since the classmates have put it that way, I'll sing a song."

"Singing? You're not going to sing *The Most Beautiful Motherland* [the national anthem of this world's China], are you?"

"How could a genius sing the national anthem? Looking forward to it!"

Huang Ye took the melodica and walked straight up to the podium. "Teacher, accompany me with the melodica, won't you?"

"Sure, no problem. Which song are you going to sing?" Teacher Li had a high level of musical proficiency and could accompany most popular songs on the market.

"Just find me a relatively mellow rhythm," Huang Ye said, looking at the students below. "I wrote a few songs back when I had some free time. Today, I'll sing one for everyone to hear. I hope the classmates like it. Thank you."

......

Songs he wrote himself?

Original compositions?

A few songs?

What the hell!

Are you trying to fly to the heavens, buddy?

In Chinese class, you composed a classical poem.

In English class, you composed an English poem.

You finally stayed quiet for a few classes.

And now, damn it, in music class you're going to sing an original song?!

Everyone in the audience was metaphorically brought to their knees.

Big Brother, Earth can no longer contain you.

You'd better go back to Mars! It's not safe here!

"A song called *Red Dragonfly*, dedicated to everyone."

Indeed, this was one of the most classic songs from the Little Tigers.

*Great Summoning Jutsu, come forth—Red Dragonfly!*