Chapter 2: Opening Ceremony
Ring, ring, ring...
Early in the morning, a sharp ringing sound woke Li Nuo from his deep sleep.
He rubbed his sleepy eyes and looked at the clock. The moment he saw the time, he instantly became fully awake.
"Oh no, it's already 7:30!"
After quickly washing up, he grabbed his school bag and rushed toward school.
To save money, he had rented an apartment quite far from the school, so he needed to take a bus. After buying some steamed buns and soy milk from a roadside stall, he hurried to the bus stop.
Luckily, he arrived just in time. The bus pulled up as soon as he got there.
Unfortunately, the bus was packed with people, completely ruining his plan to eat breakfast on the way.
Looking around, most of the passengers were students wearing the same school uniform as him, along with a few office workers in suits.
About halfway through the trip, Li Nuo began to feel that something was wrong.
It felt like someone kept rubbing against his back. The bus was crowded, but surely not that crowded.
Although he was unhappy about it, he did not want to make a fuss. After all, he was a guy, not a girl. Being bumped into a little should not matter.
Just as he was about to move forward, he suddenly felt someone grab his butt.
That was too much.
He quietly turned his head to look at the person behind him.
It was a middle-aged man wearing a suit and glasses.
Li Nuo immediately felt disgusted.
I'm a guy, you idiot! What kind of situation is this?
Because of his shy personality, he did not dare to loudly confront the man. Instead, he pretended not to notice and squeezed farther toward the front of the bus.
The middle-aged man followed and continued standing close behind him.
Just as Li Nuo was reaching the limit of his patience, someone suddenly pulled him.
"Hey, classmate. You can have this seat."
"Huh? Oh, thank you."
As if he had found a lifesaver, Li Nuo quickly sat down in the offered seat.
The moment he sat down, the middle-aged man wisely moved away.
The student who had given up the seat was wearing the same school uniform as him. Smiling, he asked,
"Are you from Nanqin High School too?"
"Yeah."
"Are you a new student?"
"Yeah."
Seeing that Li Nuo did not seem interested in chatting, the boy stopped asking questions.
At that moment, however, Li Nuo was completely confused.
No matter how much he thought about it, he could not understand why a middle-aged man had just harassed him.
Do I really look that feminine?
That can't be right. I'm 168 centimeters tall, after all.
While questioning his entire life on the bus, Li Nuo almost missed his stop. Fortunately, the boy who had given him the seat reminded him in time.
After getting off the bus, Li Nuo stood there quietly and looked at the school in front of him.
Nanqin High School
It was neither a particularly good nor a particularly bad school.
Since his grades were not outstanding, this was the ordinary high school he had managed to get into.
Fortunately, the tuition was not expensive.
Looking at the school, he knew that this would be the place where he would spend the next three years of his life.
After checking in at the registration desk and learning which class he had been assigned to, it was time for the freshman opening ceremony.
The ceremony was held in the school auditorium.
The principal, department heads, and teachers were already seated in their places.
Li Nuo hurried to the area assigned to his class.
"Class 3, First Year. This is the right place."
After the principal's speech came speeches from various school leaders.
Only after the ceremony ended would everyone be allowed to return to their classrooms.
Sitting in the audience, Li Nuo was already starving.
Unfortunately, students had been warned not to eat during the ceremony.
This made things especially difficult for him.
After finally enduring the ceremony, he still had to return to the classroom before he could eat his breakfast.
Since it was the first day of school, the afternoon schedule only involved receiving textbooks and getting familiar with the school.
There would be no actual classes.
The homeroom teacher of Class 3 was named Xu Yuyi.
She was a young female teacher who was not very tall, had a cute appearance, and wore her hair in a bun.
From the way she seemed rushed and flustered, she looked like a newly hired teacher.
In a way, she seemed rather interesting.
After handing out the textbooks, Teacher Xu picked up a piece of chalk and wrote on the blackboard:
"My goal for the next three years of high school is ______."
She then asked every student to write their answer on a piece of paper and pass it forward to the student sitting in the first row.
The classroom immediately became noisy as some of the more outgoing students began chatting excitedly.
Li Nuo sat by the window in the second row, staring at the sentence on the blackboard.
After thinking for a long time, he remembered what had happened on the bus that morning.
Then he firmly wrote:
"My goal for the next three years of high school is to become a real man."
Afraid that someone might see what he had written, he quickly folded the paper and handed it in.
And just like that, his high school life officially began.