They slowly approached the desk, carefully opened the list, and meticulously added my name into it, trying to mimic Coach Yuze's handwriting.
Smooth enough operation so far, wasn't it? Yeah, well, the obvious obstruction enters the story now. Apparently, Coach Yuze, always makes sure to lock his room before he leaves without fail, but just had to forget doing it that one specific day. Of all the fucking days.
My friends finished doing their deed, turned around to leave, and lo and behold, the great Coach Yuze stood there in the doorway like a valiant statue, arms crossed.
Before they even fully realized what was happening, they were presented before our Headmaster, Lin Yuexian, in his office.
The three of them stood nervously before him, legs shaking like jelly. Jian didn't even wait a single second more before he started to snitch. "It was Qinyue's idea!" he blurted out immediately.
Qinyue shot him the angriest look you can imagine.
"What?!" Jian continued defensively. "Headmaster Lin, she said it was Operation Add Whatever the-"
"Silence!" Headmaster Lin ordered with a booming voice.
As for me, I had just changed my clothes and was chilling comfortably at my home when one of Tianlan's guards suddenly came to my house and informed my parents that I was being called into the academy for some important urgent work. Headmaster Lin didn't even wait until the next day to deal with this situation, he wanted to be completely done with it that very evening. And this is the same guy who gives us long lectures on patience and taking time with decisions.
I entered the Headmaster's chambers nervously and looked at my three friends waiting for me, all looking guilty and scared. Even Master Juechen was present since he was our class teacher and apparently needed to witness this.
I bowed respectfully to the headmaster and then he began explaining to me in detail the grand adventure my friends had gone on.
You might think they'd let us go with a warning for such a relatively petty thing, right? But nope. Absolutely not. You see, the headmaster had always hated me for some reason. He'd always find reasons to just harass me as much as possible whenever he got the chance. Why such intense hate, you ask? I honestly don't even know. It's one of those old people things, you know. They're just so hellbent on having everything under their control. And when something doesn't go "according to nature" or their expectations, they get pissed off and wanna get back in control of it. Maybe that's how they feel power and authority.
Me not having my qi activated even at the age of eleven didn't sit right with him at all. I was like the one single ugly black dot on the seemingly perfect white paper they call their precious Tianlan Academy's reputation.
"I have a question for you, Ziyang," Headmaster Lin said coldly. "Did you send your friends to add your name to the list?"
"He didn't-" Qinyue was about to defend me.
"I asked him," Headmaster Lin said sternly, cutting her off.
I looked at my three friends as each one of them heavily signaled me with just their eyes to say "no" and deny everything. But I didn't want to. They did it for me, after all. I didn't want them to be punished.
"Yes," I replied as calmly as I could manage.
"No! He's lying!" The three of them immediately began shouting in protest, but the Headmaster didn't listen to any of it. To be honest, it didn't actually matter if he believed that I was lying or not. He just wanted to punish me regardless of the truth, and I knew it deep down.
The three of them were escorted outside by Coach Yuze, and then it was just me, Headmaster Lin, and Master Juechen left in the room.
Headmaster Lin stared at me for quite a long while in complete silence and finally spoke, "You want a trial, right? Fine. I'll give you a trial."
He stood up slowly, walked towards me at a deliberately slow pace as he looked at the sun setting outside the window. Once he reached me, he looked down at me with a completely blank expression. My heart started racing uncontrollably. What punishment was he gonna give? Would he simply take hold of me and throw me out the window? Or would he hand me a knife and tell me to fucking kill myself for being a disgrace to the academy? What exactly was he planning?
"You will run around the academy," he said simply.
'Thank God!' I thought to myself with relief. Easy enough. I mean, not that easy. It would take around three hours just to walk around the entire academy perimeter, but if I could jog at a steady pace, I could probably manage to make it in about two hours.
"Until the sun rises," he finished his line.
My heart dropped! I looked at Master Juechen, who seemed genuinely shocked too.
"Headmaster Lin, perhaps the punishment is a little too-" he tried saying.
"It's final," Headmaster Lin said firmly, looking directly at Master Juechen. "Qi usually activates properly in children aged five to six years old. He's eleven years old and has no qi whatsoever." He then looked back at me. "Sometimes, qi also activates during periods of extreme pressure and stress. You will run around the academy until dawn breaks. If you can't activate your qi by then, you will be permanently expelled from this academy."
"But Headmaster-" Master Juechen tried speaking again, but Headmaster Lin simply left the room without another word.
Master Juechen looked at me with pitiful eyes for a moment and slowly approached me. He bent down to my eye level and put his arms around my shoulder comfortingly. "I'll do it with you."
"But master, you don't have to-" I tried to refuse his offer while I was deep down happy to know he was going to be by my side and was desperately hoping he'd stay firm in his decision.
"Let's go," he stood up and held out his arm.