Chapter 17: The Tomb Raiders and the Emerging Ruins

After taking his seat, Li Xingming, to be safe, checked the morning reading material arranged by Teacher Liu for today. Satisfied that it contained nothing inappropriate, he stacked the textbooks on his desk as a makeshift pillow and lay his head down to sleep peacefully.

Teacher Liu paid no attention to this.

As one of the top three most capable Cerisian language teachers at Maple Sugar City No. 1 High School and the deputy head of the Cerisian language department, Teacher Liu taught exclusively the senior class.

In truth, she wasn’t particularly fond of it—teaching seniors was exhausting—but it was a reluctant choice made under pressure from the parents’ group.

“They’re already in senior year, why haven’t you assigned the right teacher for my child yet?” they demanded.

Naturally, the school also aimed to boost college admission rates, which aligned with the parents’ interests.

The most competent teachers were almost always assigned to seniors, who were used as workhorses year after year.

It was now November, only two months since September when Teacher Liu began instructing Li Xingming.

At the start of her tenure with Class 6, she was quite annoyed by Li Xingming’s habit of sleeping during morning reading, daydreaming in class, and neglecting his homework. She seized an opportunity to challenge him, hoping to set an example.

But the plan backfired spectacularly.

That day, in the Cerisian language department office, Li Xingming recited from memory an ancient ballad titled “The Human Squad Leader’s Spy on the Elf Princess Bathing.”

The title sounded almost ridiculous, but the difficulty was off the charts—an astounding vocabulary, impeccable grammar, sprinkled with slang from the Sixth Era’s Eastern Continent.

Teacher Liu came to realize deeply that although Li Xingming was abstract in behavior, his Cerisian was frighteningly strong. She could only conclude he had learned it at home.

Perhaps this was the advantage of his wealthy background; even the most ordinary young masters on the street received Cerisian tutoring from infancy.

Language learning hinges on early training—according to brain development stages, the earlier one starts, the easier it is.

However, most families lacked the financial means and connections to secure reliable Cerisian tutors.

Educational resources were forever unequal. Compared to the underprivileged students at Maple Sugar City No. 1 High, Li’s family children had a clear head start. Yet, against the prodigies of the National Science Academy’s affiliated school, they still fell far behind—the latter’s weekend excursions to large-scale arcane experiments were things the Li family youths might never witness in their lifetimes.

Li Xingming slept like a baby until the sound of a chair sliding nearby roused him.

It was his deskmate, Ouyang.

“Hey Ming, I heard you ‘Yang Wei’d’,” Ouyang said.

“?”

Li Xingming woke and slowly formed a puzzled expression.

“Oh, well, someone in the gossip group leaked that this morning you drove your Shallow and Master Ye Sheng to school. They looked radiant, but you seemed exhausted, so people guessed you couldn’t handle last night… and the rumor morphed into you ‘Yang Wei’d.’”

“Great, we have chat logs; we’re saved!”

“So you…”

“Nothing of the sort. They looked radiant because they had eaten snail noodles. As for Ye Sheng, she came to see me about business.”

“Ah, got it. Your dad wanted to leverage this chance to connect with the Academy of Sciences for cooperation. His startup’s been struggling lately and urgently needs funding… Thankfully, you’re worldly-wise, caught Ye Sheng’s attention at the lecture, then solidified your friendship with snail noodles… Damn, having skills really helps. I’m a total dud, no top student wants to hang out with me.”

“…”

Ouyang hadn’t attended yesterday’s lecture or this morning’s reading session.

Not because he was privileged, but as the current student council president of Maple Sugar City No. 1 High, he was swamped with trivial affairs.

Ouyang’s father was a city councilor. Ever since Ouyang’s 100-day banquet, when he grabbed a random object while still sucking his pacifier—a copy of the “Maple Sugar City Government Work Report for 21xx”—his father had been grooming him for politics.

From Li Xingming’s perspective, Ouyang had lived up to his family’s expectations.

Not to mention, his appearance suited a politician perfectly—tall and sturdy, with thick brows and sharp eyes. Clad in a suit, he looked every bit the wedding emcee.

His friendly grin gave him an aura of approachability, like a man who could dodge a sniper’s bullet mid-speech by simply tilting his head.

But Ouyang sometimes overthought things, perhaps because his councilor father always taught him to approach matters with critical, dialectical thinking.

Li had known Ouyang since middle school.

Back then, Ouyang was in his rebellious phase, a little keyboard warrior.

Now, he had grown into a reliable, talented young man.

Yet Li knew deep down he still carried that keyboard warrior spirit—essentially, a master troll.

“I’m just saying, I had some deep academic discussions with Ye Sheng and helped her with some tough points in her paper. She’s going to make me second author.” No need to hide this from a bro; besides, once the paper was published, the school would hear the gossip sooner or later.

“Awesome! Second author, huh?” Ouyang beamed. “Now when we brag, we can round it up and say we’re deskmates who’ve published in SCI.”

“You’ve published one yourself.”

“Doesn’t count! That was my dad pulling strings to get me a fourth-tier social sciences paper as author number N—purely political. You know social science papers: just repeat two phrases—‘this is a social construct’ and ‘it depends on context.’”

A century after the Awakening, human academia had undergone seismic shifts.

Leaving aside science and engineering, the humanities had changed drastically.

Social scientists, once regarded as academic shamans, were now even less welcome than before.

Meanwhile, history had skyrocketed in prestige. After all, relics unearthed from ruins fueled arcane scientific research, making archaeology one of the top three most popular university majors for entrance exams.

Ouyang chatted about some errands he’d run with the external relations department the day before. When the first class bell rang, he lowered his voice and whispered mysteriously, “Ming, I got some really juicy insider info. It’s huge.”

“Your dad got Yang Wei’d too?”

“Not that big… No, it’s nothing to do with my family. The cop uncle at the station said there’s a dangerous fugitive on the loose, moving toward Maple Sugar City. You and Shallow should be careful.”

“How dangerous?”

“A grave robber who’s killed many people. He’s heading here because there might be a new relic site emerging in our city. He plans to hide inside the ruins. Since it’s new, no one knows it well yet, so for a ruthless criminal, it’s a desperate, risky choice.”