Chapter 14 : Dominant Older Sister – Stranger – Edit
To be honest, no one really knew where Gu Wancheng’s nickname, “The Demon Lady Teacher,” had come from.
It wasn’t a term commonly used or mentioned in class. Only occasionally would someone recall it.
But that didn’t stop everyone from being somewhat in awe of Gu Wancheng.
Especially her aura, or perhaps her presence, which never needed the commanding tone of someone like Li Min. Just one look from her was enough to make most misbehaving students feel a guilty chill and avert their eyes.
To sum it up, how should one put it…
“A natural-born Dominant Older Sister physique…?”
Guan Ren had no idea how this phrase suddenly popped into his head. He ended up saying it aloud, which his deskmate overheard.
“What did you just say?”
“Hm? Oh, nothing.”
…
Whether or not she was a "dominant older sister" was just idle talk. But aside from being the Chinese teacher, Gu Wancheng did indeed have another identity. That of an older sister.
Gu Youli, Gu Wancheng.
The two sisters were seventeen and twenty-six years old respectively. A nine-year gap.
But that didn’t stop them from having certain facial similarities.
“Their face shape… their eyes… they do look kind of alike…”
If Gu Youli were to grow up a bit more, maybe in another year or two, Guan Ren reckoned that in dim lighting, it might be hard to tell the sisters apart.
At that thought, Guan Ren pretended to start reading his textbook for morning study, all the while glancing back and forth between his deskmate and Ms. Gu.
…
“All collected?”
Amid the buzzing voices of morning study, Gu Wancheng stood in front of the blackboard and glanced at the stack of weekly reports on the podium.
“Group One has collected everything, Ms. Gu.”
“Group Three, Liu Xiong and Li Na haven’t turned theirs in.”
“In Group Two, Xu Tao, Ye Weilong, Chen Sheng, and…”
“Uh… Ms. Gu, Group Four isn’t complete, but I forgot who hasn’t submitted.”
Group Four…
Gu Wancheng crossed her arms, her forearms gently propping up the softness beneath her tightly buttoned shirt. She cast a sharp glance toward Group Four, where her sister sat.
Tap…
Tap…
Guan Ren, who had nothing better to do, was mentally playing spot-the-difference between the sisters.
As he continued, he suddenly noticed that the pair of long legs at the podium seemed to be heading straight toward his seat.
“Guan Ren.”
The footsteps stopped. A pair of cold, stern eyes looked down at him.
“Did you hand in your weekly report?”
Guan Ren froze.
“I did.”
“Really?”
Guan Ren forced a smile.
“Ms. Gu, I really did hand it in!”
“Oh.”
At that, Gu Wancheng just gave a curt “oh” and said nothing more. She walked back to the podium.
“…”
So she came all the way down just to question him?
Guan Ren felt a little sulky inside.
Well…
It’s not like he didn’t have a record of this kind of thing anyway.
…
Meanwhile, his deskmate Gu Youli had been watching. She first looked at the sulky Guan Ren, then at her sister on the podium. Her brows lightly furrowed, her feelings inexplicably complex…
---
Later on, Gu Wancheng didn’t continue investigating who in Group Four hadn’t submitted their weekly report.
It seemed the matter had just blown over.
That was until after morning study ended, when two anxious figures rushed to the office clutching their reports. They returned shortly after with dusty faces and the reports still in hand.
“What happened? Why didn’t you just hand them in?”
“She… she wouldn’t take them anymore…”
“Tsk tsk tsk, they’re done for.”
Some students immediately looked at them with sympathetic faces.
But Guan Ren was unconcerned.
“Luo Xiaobei really was a timely rain…”
He felt a bit relieved, but couldn’t let his guard down. He still had to finish the English and math weekly reports.
“Sister Gu, do you have a pen? Lend me one, I’ll buy a new one this afternoon.”
“Mm.”
Gu Youli nodded and took a sky-blue gel pen from her pencil pouch. Just as she was about to hand it over, her hand paused involuntarily.
Because she happened to catch a glimpse of the pen Guan Ren was already holding.
It was a [Morning Light] brand pen, with a rather distinctive look. Its cap was adorned with a pink Miffy bunny.
It didn’t look like something a boy would use.
“…”
“?”
Seeing Gu Youli’s quiet gaze, Guan Ren also looked down and glanced at the pen in his hand. He twirled it and explained,
“Oh, this one? I borrowed it from someone. It ran out of ink.”
“Who did you borrow it from?”
Gu Youli looked at the pink Miffy bunny on the pen, not quite sure why she bothered to ask her deskmate that question.
“It’s from Luo Xiaobei.”
Luo Xiaobei…
Gu Youli silently repeated the name in her mind.
Although she hadn’t made a deliberate effort to socialize since the school year started, that name was still familiar to her.
Wasn’t she that cute, pretty, and sharp-eyed girl?
“Hey, Guan Ren!”
Speak of the devil and the devil arrives. No sooner had the memory of Luo Xiaobei appeared in Gu Youli’s mind than the twin-tailed girl came bouncing over. She held out her small hand toward Guan Ren.
“Are you done with it? Give it back.”
“Sorry, it’s used up.”
“If it’s used up, just give it back. What are you saying sorry for?”
“I meant it’s used up in the literal, physical sense.”
“Huh?”
Luo Xiaobei snatched it from him and scribbled a few strokes on Guan Ren’s notebook. It really wouldn’t write at all.
Tsk, damn Guan Ren.
Barely half an hour and he’d already drained the ink from her pen.
Teenage girls often harbored all sorts of odd little thoughts. Just like earlier, and now too. As she thought about it, her cheeks warmed slightly again.
But on closer inspection, it looked like there was another pen on Guan Ren’s desk.
It was a [TrueColor] brand, also with a unique design. A sky-blue “Ku-er” character on the cap.
The very same one from that childhood Ku-er Orange Juice brand.
In short…
It didn’t look like something a boy would use either.
So, quite naturally, Luo Xiaobei shifted her gaze toward Gu Youli.
What surprised her was that Gu Youli happened to be looking at her too.
Their eyes met. Though it was practically their first time facing each other, somehow, both girls saw something in the other’s eyes that felt oddly familiar, yet hard to describe.
“Achoo~!”
Suddenly, a sneeze broke their mutual gaze.
Guan Ren frowned and instinctively reached for a tissue from Gu Youli’s desk, handing it to Luo Xiaobei.
“What’s going on? Don’t tell me you caught a cold from standing out in the wind yesterday?”
“Psh~ I’m not that fragile.”
Luo Xiaobei took the tissue without much concern, wiped her slightly red nose, then tapped Guan Ren on the forehead with her pen.
“Remember to replace it this afternoon!”
“Yeah, yeah, I got it…”
“Half-hearted… Hey, Gu Youli.”
“Eh?”
Gu Youli hadn’t expected Luo Xiaobei to suddenly speak to her. She looked up and saw a sweet smile with a hint of mischief on Luo Xiaobei’s face.
“Help me keep an eye on my Guan Ren, okay. I’m worried he’ll go back on his word.”
“…”
Gu Youli’s lips parted slightly but, in the end, she simply gave a gentle nod.
After Luo Xiaobei left, a soft voice sounded next to Guan Ren.
“You and Luo Xiaobei are close, huh.”
“Oh, we’re childhood friends. Grew up running around butt-naked together.”
Butt-naked…
“Guan Ren, please mind your language.”
After speaking, Gu Youli reached across to take a small pack of tissues from Guan Ren’s desk, pulled one out, and tucked it into her own larger tissue pouch.
Then she went back to reading.
Leaving Guan Ren sitting there, feeling slightly dejected and unsettled.
Was it just his imagination?
They had just gotten a little closer these past couple of days, so why did it suddenly feel like they were back to that initial awkwardness again?
…
On the other side, Luo Xiaobei had returned to her seat and was now spacing out a little.
Plop… plop…
She absentmindedly twirled the pen stand with one hand while clutching her gel pen in the other, Gu Youli’s image drifting through her mind.
She really did look like a proper noble young lady.
“Du Zihan, where’s that book of yours about superstitions?”
“Luo Xiaobei, stop talking nonsense. Superstitions? That’s proper divination. Astrology!”
“Yeah, yeah, that one. Help me look it up. What’s a Gemini guy’s ideal type?”
…
Meanwhile, in a far-off office building in the Magic City.
At Shengda Literature, inside the editorial department of Qidian Chinese NovelFire Platform.
“Brother Maoya, coffee run?”
“Why didn’t you say so earlier? I just got up here. Forget it, not going back down…”
The deep voice belonged to Maoya, an editor at Qidian.
Despite his cutesy nickname “Maoya” (Cat Fang), he was actually a rugged, stern-faced man. Hardly what most people imagined.
“Ugh? Another ‘broken engagement’ story…”
Maoya frowned at the submission pool early that morning.
Ever since Battle Through the Heavens exploded in popularity a couple of years ago, he’d been flooded with manuscripts copying the “broken engagement” trope.
Trend-following wasn’t inherently bad. Especially for rookie authors, following popular genres was a reasonable strategy for gaining exposure.
But two real problems came with that.
First, not everyone could write things like “Third Stage of Immortal Power” or “Third Stage of Kingly Might” with the same flair and narrative power as “Third Stage of Dou Qi.”
Although the BTTH formula was nearly overused by now, its pacing and prose were not something amateurs could blindly mimic and still make work.
Maoya had even encountered stubborn authors who insisted on arguing with him, claiming that BTTH’s writing wasn’t even good, and theirs was better.
In truth, those newcomers equated flashy wordplay with good writing, completely ignoring what really mattered in NovelFires: pacing. They were chasing the shadow, not the substance.
Second, although the “broken engagement” trope BTTH had popularized was still trending, overuse was inevitable.
Innovation was the eternal lifeblood of the NovelFire industry.
Even successful BTTH-inspired works were reaching saturation. The blue ocean was quickly turning red.
With BTTH recently concluding, Maoya, as an experienced editor, knew the genre’s golden age had passed. It could soon become something new readers rolled their eyes at as cliché.
If rookie authors wanted to break through, they’d need fresh and creative themes.
Especially in the Xianxia and fantasy realm.
As a dominant category, its hot-blooded themes of monster-slaying and leveling up had always sold well.
But even in this genre, originality was the new key to success.
“Screw it, let’s check the internal submissions.”
After combing through the slush pile with no promising finds, Maoya decisively opened his email inbox.
“Hope today brings something…”
He didn’t have high expectations. Even internal drafts weren’t usually that impressive. But then he saw a submission from someone named 【Clouddweller】.
“Huh? What’s this…”
The 10,000-character manuscript began with a synopsis:
【This is a world where scholars wield the power of heaven and earth.】
【With talent coursing through them, poems can kill, lyrics can destroy armies, and essays can bring peace to a nation.】
【Scholars write of strategy. Literates fight with words. Once enraged, a state scholar can wield his tongue like a sword.】
【When a Sage descends, his verbal might can execute, judge emperors unfit to rule, and stand against an entire nation.】
【Now, the Saintly Academy controls scholarly ranks. Monarchs hold political power. Ten nations vie for dominance. Barbarians lurk. Demons sow chaos.】
【In this era, no Tang poems flourish. No Song lyrics thrive. No innovation blooms. There has been no new Sage for a hundred years.】
【A poor, unknown youth, after being struck on the head, awakens with the legacy of ancient verse, composing divine writings, and embarks on the path to Sagehood.】
“Fighting with poetry… leveling up through verse?”
Maoya’s eyes lit up. He was instantly intrigued.