Chapter 5

“Yan Zhan has always had excellent grades. In every exam he ranks within the top ten of his year. At this pace, even if he doesn’t get into Tsinghua or Peking University, he could still enter one of the country’s top universities.”

The teaching director sighed regretfully: “I don’t know what suddenly went wrong with this child. He insists on dropping out to play e-sports. As teachers, we’ve tried to persuade him many times, but he seems completely possessed, as if under a spell.”

Ruan Mingxi looked at Yan Zhan’s exam report. The results were indeed outstanding.

“Does he usually love playing games?” Ying Shi asked.

The teaching director shook his head. “I’ve never heard of that.”

“He had excellent grades. When he first entered the school, his homeroom teacher even discussed his future path with him,” the teaching director added.

“He had good talent, and his homeroom teacher suggested that if he was interested, he could pursue the path of academic competitions. For the past two years he had consistently attended training in this area, with a schedule packed so full that he should not have had time to play online games.”

Jiang Xuzhou narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. How could a child who lived each day in such a disciplined, orderly routine suddenly undergo such a drastic change?

According to the teaching director, Yan Zhan seemed as if he had suddenly become a completely different person.

Ruan Mingxi asked, “So when did he first start thinking about dropping out to play e-sports?”

The teaching director thought for a moment, looking troubled. “I really can’t quite remember.”

The affairs of the academic office were complicated. Although he knew about Yan Zhan’s situation, he could not recall the details clearly.

The principal did not know much about the situation and, after listening for a while, suggested, “Why don’t I call Yan Zhan’s homeroom teacher to ask? She should remember more clearly.”

Ying Shi glanced at Ruan Mingxi. “Alright, thank you, Principal.”

“It’s no trouble.” The principal stood up and picked up the desk phone to call Yan Zhan’s homeroom teacher, Wu Lingling.

While the principal was making the call and answering Ying Shi’s questions, Jiang Xuzhou leaned slightly toward Ruan Mingxi.

“I want to go and take a look at Yan Zhan’s class.”

“I’ll go with you,” Ruan Mingxi offered.

But Jiang Xuzhou refused. “Too many people going might make the students overthink. I’ll check the situation myself, and if I find anything, I’ll report back to you.”

Ruan Mingxi nodded. “Alright.”

Jiang Xuzhou used the excuse of going to the restroom to step outside. At the bottom of the main building, he happened to encounter a young woman who looked visibly nervous.

She appeared very young, as if she had just graduated from university.

Summoned by a senior leader, it was natural for her to feel tense, wishing she could review all her recent work along the way, hoping perhaps to guess the reason she had been called.

Jiang Xuzhou only glanced at her before withdrawing his gaze and heading toward the senior-year teaching building.

Both he and Ruan Mingxi had graduated from Jinghai No. 1 High School, so they needed no guide to find the location of the senior-year classrooms.

It was currently the long break period, and only a few students stood in small groups chatting in the corridor.

Most of the students remained in their classrooms, either working through practice problems or catching up on sleep.

The moment Jiang Xuzhou appeared, he immediately drew the students’ attention. No matter how calm and composed his demeanor was, he was still someone who had not long left campus, and standing among the senior-year students, he did not seem out of place at all.

“Jiang… is that Jiang Xuzhou?”

“I’m not dreaming, am I? How could he be here?”

“Jiang Xuzhou? Who’s that?”

Soft exclamations rippled through the crowd, and some girls, visibly excited, rushed out of their classrooms.

Whether they knew him or not, many students poured out all at once.

“You… are you Jiang Xuzhou?” one girl asked, summoning her courage, her voice trembling slightly.

Jiang Xuzhou stopped in his tracks, the corners of his lips curling into a gentle smile. “I’m Jiang Xuzhou, hello.”

His straightforward admission made the girl before him blush instantly. “I’m your fan. I’ve liked you for a long time.”

Jiang Xuzhou was a little surprised. The girl was now in her senior year of high school; calculating her age, back when he was a young celebrity, she must have been only around ten years old.

So many years had passed, yet she still remembered him — proof that her admiration was genuine.

With a smile on his face and a tender look in his eyes, Jiang Xuzhou said, “Thank you for liking me, and thank you for still remembering me.”

Something in his words seemed to touch her deeply, and the girl’s eyes suddenly grew red with emotion.

Eight years ago, just after graduating from middle school, Jiang Xuzhou shot to trending status because of a piano competition video. His superb piano skills, combined with a youthful face that was already striking enough to draw people’s gaze, instantly won him a large following of fans.

At that time, netizens described him as if he were an angel who had accidentally fallen into the mortal world*.

(*误落凡间的天使 – “an angel who accidentally fell into the mortal world,” a poetic way of saying someone looks ethereal and otherworldly.)

He gave people the feeling of snow deep in the forest in winter, or like the crescent-shaped spring water in a desert oasis*— pure and beautiful.

(*月牙泉水 – Crescent Spring, a famous oasis in the desert near Dunhuang, China, symbolizing purity and rarity.)

Just as countless netizens were preparing to dig deeper into who this handsome boy was, Jiang Xuzhou signed with an entertainment company and made a sudden debut.

In the following two months, he was like fire meeting dry grass, sweeping across the trending headlines of every social media platform with unstoppable momentum.

“Top-tier visuals,” “master of singing and dancing,” “gifted singer-songwriter,” “a dream too good for reality”…

An endless stream of glowing titles rained down on him, and just when everyone thought he would become the next top star in the industry, he withdrew from the entertainment circle.

No one can say for certain what heights Jiang Xuzhou might have reached had he stayed in the entertainment industry. But it is undeniable that the popularity and fanbase he had at the time of his departure were enough for later newcomers to chase for years.

His departure came without warning. He was like an epiphyllum blossom* — suddenly appearing before the world to reveal his beauty, and once that beauty had been shown, disappearing without the slightest trace of attachment.

(*昙花 – refers to the epiphyllum flower, famous for blooming only briefly at night. It symbolizes fleeting beauty or brilliance that disappears quickly.)

To his fans, he was an irresponsible idol. But to him, entering the industry had always been a choice for a brief and special life experience.

He had experienced it, and so it was time to return to the path he had originally set for himself.

The girl, her eyes red, seemed to recover a little, sniffled, and asked softly: “Did you catch your light?”

That single question instantly pulled Jiang Xuzhou’s thoughts back to eight years ago — to the words he had left behind when he exited the entertainment world.

**《I’m honored to have been seen as a light on many people’s paths in life. Now, I’m going to chase my own light.”》**

Jiang Xuzhou chuckled softly, as if reminiscing about his once youthful bravado and slightly naïve self.

“Still working on it,” Jiang Xuzhou replied.

From his relaxed tone and easy expression, it was clear how well he was doing now.

He no longer had the same level of adoration, and perhaps not many people remembered him anymore, but he truly enjoyed the rhythm of his current life.

The girl nodded. “As long as you’re happy, that’s what matters.”

By now, more and more students had gathered to watch. Most of them probably didn’t recognize Jiang Xuzhou, and even if they once had, so many years had passed that they had nearly forgotten.

“Why did you suddenly come to our school?” someone in the crowd asked.

Jiang Xuzhou’s eyes flickered slightly as he chose a cautious reply: “I’m about to graduate, so I came back to my alma mater to see if I might consider becoming a teacher.”

The happiest at hearing this answer was, of course, the girl Jiang Xuzhou had analyzed earlier. “Really!” she exclaimed.

But Jiang Xuzhou did not give a definite response. “I don’t have any concrete plans yet. For now, I just came back to visit the teachers.”

With just a few words, Jiang Xuzhou immediately closed the distance between himself and the students.

After some casual conversation, Jiang Xuzhou learned an important detail — the girl who was his fan turned out to be Yan Zhan’s classmate.

The class bell rang, and when the teacher entered and saw Jiang Xuzhou standing at the back row of the classroom, a brief look of surprise crossed their face before it softened into delight.

That was Jiang Xuzhou’s former homeroom teacher, who had also taught him physics.

When Jiang Xuzhou asked if he could sit in on a class, the teacher gladly agreed, and spent ten minutes telling the students how remarkable Jiang Xuzhou had been during his time at No. 1 High School, drawing admiring looks from the younger students.

Jiang Xuzhou only smiled, but once the teacher began the actual lesson, his eyes suddenly grew cold.

All the seats in the classroom were taken; the only reason he had a place to sit was because he had taken Yan Zhan’s seat.

On the desk, he noticed a line written in pencil:

'I am dust that no one cares for. For me, the best destination is to return to the soil.'