"Hey. You… you're Qingsheng Tangxue, right?" Xuewei stood in the doorway, her voice a cold draft through paper screens.

"Yes… Teacher Xuewei." My reply flickered like a small candle in wind.

"Do you think I’m lazy?" Her gaze pressed like frost on glass.

"Mm‑hm." My nod was a pebble dropping into a still pond.

"…Could you not be so blunt? I’ve got a lot on my plate. Like today— I still have to clean an entire building." Xuewei stood with hands on hips, complaint curling like smoke.

It’s got nothing to do with me. For a demi‑god, is sweeping floors really a mountain to climb?

"So I slack off, and that’s normal! Because I’ve earned the right to slack! If you had my power, you could slack too." Her words beat like a drum, authority stamped like a seal.

"Teacher, I ranked first this exam." I lifted the fact like a bright flag in clear sky.

Xuewei’s mouth twitched, a taut string plucked once.

"Fine, first is first. Anyway, I’ve said my piece. Go back." Her dismissal waved me off like a lazy tide.

"Alright…" My voice drifted like a fallen leaf.

As Qingsheng Tangxue turned into the classroom, Ling Xuewei clenched a necklace and sent me a heavy look, pale as a winter moon.

"Hey, it’s you. What, picking on students again?" A red‑haired man swaggered to the door, his grin a fox slipping through bamboo.

"None of your business. Go teach your magic." Xuewei shot him a look like a thrown dagger, then turned away like a gust.

"Tsk tsk. Still explosive as wildfire. No wonder you don’t have a boyfriend." His teasing hopped like a sparrow on a rail.

"Fangzhe! Today I’m making Xiao Qiu sleep on the street!" Her vow rolled like thunder across tiles.

"Go ahead, then. Hahaha. She’s my wife— like she’d side with a friend over her husband." Fangzhe pointed, mockery pecking like a crow at grain.

Back then, she broke the engagement in public, cutting a silk ribbon before the crowd. Now they’re decent friends; one single, one married. And the matchmaker was Xuewei herself, a thread she tied and then snapped.

They’re less friends, more bickering sparrows in a courtyard. Fangzhe jokes daily that Ling Xuewei’s been single forty years, like a lone pine on a ridge. He only found love at thirty‑eight, yet marriage hardens a man’s voice like iron in a forge. The one who broke it off back then is still single— how could he not be smug, a cat by a warm stove?

"Just you wait!" Ling Xuewei ground her teeth, resolve blazing like a stove fire. Today she’d wheedle, nag, even roll on the floor like a stubborn child, until Xiao Qiu kicked him to the curb.

"I’m so~ scared~." Fangzhe put on a punchable face, then slipped into the classroom like a quick fish.

A thunderous boom rolled outside, a drum struck in storm rain.

Fangzhe calmly closed the door and set a serious face, a mask lowering smooth as silk.

Ahem. "I’m your magic instructor. Name’s Fangzhe. From today, I’ll handle your magic classes." His tone held steady like a plumb line.

"Don’t mind the ruckus. Focus on class, alright?" His words fell like soft rain on parched soil.

"Got it." The chorus lifted like sparrows from a hedge.

I nudged Lan’er beside me, whispering, "Does this Fangzhe know Teacher Xuewei, Lan’er?" My question drifted like incense smoke.

Just now, I felt Xuewei’s emotions surge like a swollen river after snowmelt. Something definitely happened.

"They do. Instructor Fangzhe was from the same era as Teacher Xuewei. Both hailed as the Empire’s strongest of their generation, like twin stars. And they nearly got married…" Her voice tapped like beads on a string.

"He almost became my brother‑in‑law?!" My shock popped like a firecracker, sparks leaping.

"Then Teacher Xuewei broke the engagement in public. Duke Elvis fell out with her family, a winter frost between houses. I heard they reconciled later… Anyway, those two share deep history. That’s it." Lan’er’s words floated like drifting snow.

Lan’er knew a lot, secrets fluttering like papers in a sudden breeze.

"Thanks, Lan’er. I get it." Gratitude warmed me like morning sun on stone.

Lan’er shook her head lightly. "No problem." Her smile curved like a willow leaf on water.

Today he talked about fusing elements. From what I knew, different elements cancel, tide against tide under a gray sky. What he said had weight, like a stone in the hand.

Fusion cancels, yet erupts with massive energy, two storms colliding over the sea.

With the right pairing, new elements can be born, lightning sprung from cloud and earth.

Using magic to gather the canceling force becomes a power awe‑inspiring, a dragon coil beneath the waves.

For me, this breaks old knowledge like a cracked tablet in dust.

Looks like the last decade carried several era‑making waves, banners on a windy pass.

A talent like him teaching at the academy— a hidden dragon in a shallow pond, scales catching light.

I never cared for magic class. Yet my interest rose like smoke from fresh tea. This man truly has things I should learn.

The morning ended fast, classes drifting by like slow clouds. All magic. I noted what mattered; the rest blew away like chaff.

In the afternoon, there’s Xuewei’s practical combat. I should mind my strength— can’t go all‑out and knock classmates out like felled bamboo.

For now, time for food, stoking a small furnace for the road ahead.