The first night in the new dorm was rough for Tang Coco; at midnight, teddy bears and porcelain smiles kept raining down on her like soft meteors from a toy sky. All the plushies that had started on Beibei’s top bunk migrated with a vengeance; only a big white bear stayed in Coco’s arms, while the rest got booted off like refugees and thumped onto Coco below. She stared up at the bunk, baffled, as if some sadist had designed a siege tower.

Beep—beep—

“Mmm—slept so sweet,” someone yawned, the alarm slicing the gray dawn like a thin blade. The girls stirred; Yuanyuan sat up and stretched like a lazy cat in a sunbeam.

“Mm-hmm. So comfy. And what’s this scent… like fresh bamboo after rain. So good.”

Beibei sat up too. She was closest to Coco, and she’d been steeped in Coco’s body scent all night, like tea leaves warmed in a clay cup.

“Oh my god—Coco’s not secretly an angel, right? How can someone be this lovable?”

Yuanyuan caught the clean, distinct fragrance too, a breeze through pine needles.

“Huh? Where are my dolls?”

Beibei blinked herself back from dreamland, glanced left and right, and realized half her plush army had gone missing.

“Beibei, if your dolls are gone, try looking at the lower bunk,” Chen Ying said with a helpless look, the kind a big sister gives a storm-prone child. She’d forgotten to warn Coco about sleeping under Beibei.

“Ah!! Coco!”

Beibei peered over the edge and shrieked. Six or seven rag dolls had already blanketed that beautiful silhouette below, leaving only snow-white hair and two tiny, shell-pink feet peeking out.

“Don’t yell… lemme sleep a little longer,” Coco mumbled, voice soft as mist on a lake.

————————————

After eight, the four roommates took the little path toward the teaching building. One night had taught her body the dorm’s rhythm; the buzzing in Coco’s head had faded like a hive going quiet at dawn. She checked herself at first light, counting strength like counting breaths. Her Anomaly Power had almost halved. It didn’t change much in a fight; it just cut down her peak-output window. Her edge stayed sharp.

“Who’s that… she’s gorgeous.”

“New here? An exchange student?”

“Must be exchange. I heard several stunning ones arrived.”

People kept whispering as they passed; a head of white hair stands out like frost laid over spring grass.

“Coco, you’re super popular at Ninghai University too, right?” Beibei clasped her hand, eyes bright.

“I get by,” Coco said with a small smile, a ripple across a still pond.

“Wife!”

The word cut through the murmurs like a thrown pebble. A clear, feminine voice. Heads turned, puzzled. A girl calling someone “wife” in public? Besties joke around, sure—but this sounded deadly serious.

Coco didn’t turn. She sped up. She knew that voice, and the claim was aimed at her.

“Hey, hey! Wife, why are you running? Wait for me!”

A figure in a black dress darted up like a swallow’s shadow and hugged Coco from behind, to the chorus of gasps around them.

“Are you an idiot?” Coco looked back at Mo Zitong, exasperation flashing like steel in sunlight.

“Hee-hee, you don’t get it. This is me staking my claim—so you don’t go picking flowers again.”

“…”

“Coco… this is…?” Beibei edged closer, eyes fixed on Mo Zitong like a curious fawn.

“Oh. Introducing my upperclassman, Mo Zitong. She’s here for the same event.”

“Hi there—I’m Coco’s husband.”

“…”

“Shut it. Don’t listen to her nonsense. There’s nothing like that,” Coco said. Her new roommates were dazed, thoughts scattering like leaves.

“All right, why aren’t you with your own roommates? What’d you come here for?” Coco pressed.

“I’m on my way to meet them. I just happened to run into you.”

“Then go.”

“Wow, cold much?”

“Go.” Coco lifted a fist; a storm cloud rolled behind her eyes.

“Okay okay, bye!” With danger in the air, Mo Zitong bolted like a startled crow.

Coco sighed, a breeze over reeds, then turned back to find three girls staring at her in a trance.

“Uh… what?”

“Ah—nothing. Let’s just… get going,” Beibei said, but her mind floated elsewhere like a kite on a long string.

Coco frowned, puzzled.

——————————

In the classroom, Coco finally saw how an Abnormal campus differed from a normal school. No desks—just scattered chairs like stones in a stream. One class held five dorms’ worth of students, so twenty people. What struck her: she was the only exchange student here.

Split us up? Or am I the only one? The thought drifted by like a lone cloud.

Her arrival stirred the room. Of the five dorms, two were boys’ dorms, and soon a small crowd gathered, questions buzzing like summer cicadas.

“Ahem. Why so lively today?” A middle-aged man walked in from the door, black T-shirt and casual pants, crew cut neat as a trimmed hedge, skin sun-browned. If you went by looks alone, he had a soldier’s gravity.

“Ah, that’s why—a new little beauty. Good. Someone to spark the class’s enthusiasm.”

“…”

“I’m your homeroom teacher, Yang Kai.”

“Hello, Teacher. I’m Tang Coco.”

“Good. All right, back to your seats. Let’s start.”

They settled, and the lesson began.

Coco had never attended a school for Abnormals. At first, curiosity pricked her like pine needles. After half a class, boredom set in like humid heat. Case after case—some real, some simulated—then dissection of Abnormals’ traits and weaknesses. It was the same pattern Hong Wei had drilled into them in the Shadow Division.

At his name, her heart sank, a stone dropping into a deep well. The man who cared for them like a shield… gone, burned out like a last candle.

“The new student? Care to answer this one?” Yang Kai called from the front. He’d caught her drifting.

“Ah—uh? Oh.” Coco straightened.

“No need to stand. Answer seated. We’re laid-back here,” he said with a smile.

“Okay… what was the question?”

“Fire-type Abnormals. What are their weak points? How do we deal with them?”

“Oh.”

“Most fire types have strong burst output. They excel at AoE and ranged attacks,” Coco said, voice steady as a metronome. “Their biggest weakness is the release. They need a short window to cast.”

“Explain that release time.”

“It comes from fire’s nature. Fire isn’t like wind or lightning; it doesn’t just snap into being. It blooms from inner flame to outer flame, like a flower opening. In daily life, it’s almost instant. In high-intensity combat, high-energy fire takes more charge time.”

“Good. Knowing this, how do we counter fire types?” Yang Kai asked.

“Speed,” Coco said. “Speed beats fire. If you’re fast enough, their attacks miss. Flame moves at a pace the eye can read.”

“Not every Abnormal is great at moving fast, though. Then what?”

“I mean reaction speed, not foot speed,” Coco said. “Use the smallest, shortest motions to slip fire attacks. Call it a second weakness—fire can’t turn mid-flight.”

“Oh?”

“Everyone get that?” Yang Kai looked around.

“Kinda… a little,” came the hesitant answers, thin as a drizzle.

“A little is fine. Good. ‘A little’ means you got something—because you’re all dense as bricks.”

“…”

“Lucky us, we’ve got two fire types in class. This afternoon, Training Ground Two. We’ll have Tang Coco give us a live demo.”

“Uh…”

Clap-clap-clap—applause bubbled up like rain on tiles. Curiosity about Coco’s ability spread like fire in dry grass.

——————————

Morning class ended at ten-thirty. Only one period all morning. Coco guessed it was because this place was full of Abnormals—make the students unhappy and you’d get a riot like storm clouds breaking.

“Coco, let’s go out,” Beibei said, looping her arm through Coco’s.

“Sure.” Coco didn’t refuse. She was curious about Beibei’s “fun place,” like a fox sniffing a new trail.

The four of them walked out of the building—and trouble showed up right on cue. Four girls blocked the path. One had wine-red curls, an average face polished up by skillful makeup. Beside her stood a tiny loli about Beibei’s height, but with hair the color of fresh embers.

“Well, well—if it isn’t the famous Jin Beibei,” the curly-haired girl drawled, voice coated in syrup and vinegar. “New roommates? Xiao Ai, look. You leave for a moment, and they’ve already found someone new.”

Xiao Ai—so that’s the loli, Coco thought. Likely Beibei’s former roommate.

“Hey! Don’t twist it. Coco is an exchange student. She’s only staying half a month,” Beibei snapped, cheeks flushed like ripe peaches.

“Oh, exchange. That tracks. If she got placed in your dorm, her strength must match yours,” the curly-haired girl sneered, eyes scraping over Coco’s too-perfect face and form like a knife she couldn’t quite lift.

“You—how can you—”

“Enough, Beibei,” Coco cut in gently. “Weren’t you taking me somewhere fun? While the day’s still cool, let’s go.”

“But—”

“Beibei, Coco’s right,” Chen Ying said, stepping forward like a steady hand on a shoulder. “We’ve got plans. Don’t waste time on idlers.”

“…Fine.”

“Sister Li, we’re just letting them go?” one of the girls murmured.

“Hmph. As if,” the curly-haired one—Sister Li—snapped. “Tomorrow’s exam, I’ll make them trip over themselves in front of the whole school.”