Chapter 19. School Selection
The so-called Water Skin was exactly like the Painted Skin. It was a layer of water filled with demonic energy or spiritual energy that was applied onto the body like a second skin. It could be used for defence, it could be used to impart knowledge of the Dao, and even more, it could be used to monitor and control the target.
Even if Hua Ji was extremely foolish in Lord Jellyfish's eyes, he was still a two-hundred-year-old fox spirit who had overturned the mountains and seas and caused havoc wherever he went for one hundred years. When Lord Jellyfish said he wanted to apply a Water Skin on him, his entire body quivered and his mind instantly went to the worst place.
Lord Jellyfish, what are your intentions?
However, immediately after that, Hua Ji relaxed his guard. Lord Jellyfish is so strong, if he really wanted to attempt something, he had no ability to refuse. Furthermore…… nobody ever heard of jellyfish eating foxes, right?
Even if Lord Jellyfish likes the blood of his that contains spiritual energy, wasn't Fei Ka beside him also a monster? In the same cast and crew, be it Li Shun Hua or He Bai, they were both cultivators. Their blood and energy were surely amazing. Unless Lord Jellyfish only likes to drink a fox's blood and energy?
Who would believe that?
"…… Why did Lord Jellyfish suddenly think of painting a Water Skin?"
Hua Ji beamed as he looked at Lord Jellyfish. "Although a Water Skin is good, it doesn't feel as secure as having Lord Jellyfish by my side!"
The little fox's silvery tongue instantly let Lord Jellyfish's mood improve greatly. He said, "After a few days, I need to head to B city to collect my exam results. Along the way, I'm going to fill in my application form; it's going to take roughly two to three days. Isn't this your period of weakness? That Li whatever fellow from the cast and crew, isn't he your enemy?"
Hua Ji blanked, his heart warmed slightly. As he thought, Lord Jellyfish was doing this for his safety.
He said, "Relax, Lord Jellyfish, he definitely won't try anything against me."
In any case, he had signed a contract with Chuang Xia Media. The contracts monsters signed were different from other actors; the contracts they signed had an extra clause - they were prohibited from harming all spirits and cultivators with evil intent. Only when the other acted against ordinary people with evil intent could they lift a hand against them.
If they were to violate this clause and a heart's demon erupted when they were transcending tribulation, the heavenly tribulation would treat and settle it all equally, then wouldn't that just seeking death?
Otherwise, why would Hua Ji accept this role if he obviously knew Li Shun Hua was going to come looking for trouble?
The most that Li Shun Hua could do was schedule his scenes close together, borrowing the hand of ordinary people. For example, getting the real bigshots in the entertainment circle to cause difficulties for him. He could also take the opportunity to stab him a couple times during fighting scenes, basically using a public setting to settle private grievances.
Of course, Li Shun Hua could also counterattack during fighting scenes; as long as it didn't take any demon or human life, it would be perfectly fine.
As long as it was within a reasonable degree, these sorts of actions where one dragged another person down or dug holes for them to fall in[1] were tacitly accepted by China's inhuman circle. If there were no fights, there was no progress – this sort of thinking was also different from the past. The Siberian tiger had even become one of the country's Grade One Protected Species. Otherwise, even though Tiger Meng in Macao ran a casino so happily, why didn't anyone come looking for trouble?
This was because he was a Siberian tiger! Nowadays, there were only a few hundred Siberian tigers left and those few hundred were basically all his disciples or grand-disciples. If anyone were to come looking for trouble, that fellow would immediately revert to his original form and run to the zoo to act as a rare animal. If anyone dared to lay a hand on him, they would quickly receive a slip to invite them to the police department for tea~ After Hua Ji explained it to Lord Jellyfish, no peculiarities could be seen from Lord Jellyfish. Or rather, no expressions could be gleaned from that milky-white large umbrella, alright? However, Hua Ji could still sense that Lord Jellyfish was not too happy.
Lord Jellyfish said, "The you go remove that Painted Skin from that human's body, I'll apply a Water Skin for him."
Hua Ji could not comprehend his actions. He carefully said, "The Painted Skin can only last a month. The moment the TV series was finalized, it would automatically disappear. At that time, the sect will definitely cast hypnosis on Yun Bie Shen and alter his memories. He simply wouldn't be able to remember the matter of the Painted Skin.
Lord Jellyfish was silent for a long time, before he said, "…… After talking for so long, do you disdain my Water Skin?"
"……" Even if Hua Ji was extremely intelligent and had a silvery tongue, at this moment he was stumped. He drily said, "No, I don't disdain you at all."
Lord Jellyfish slowly descended from Hua Ji's head, four long tentacles supporting his body. In the instant he stood up straight, he transformed into a puddle of water and flowed along the floor into the…… toilet= =
Hua Ji hurried to catch up, pushing open the door and immediately spotted a puddle of water accumulated in the corner of the toilet. There were even ripples undulating on the surface.
"……" Hua Ji's lips twitched faintly, "Lord Jellyfish?"
Lord Jellyfish's tone was listless, "Don't talk to me."
Hua Ji almost let slip a bit of laughter. He didn't realise that the corners of his lips were rising. He asked, "What are you doing?"
"Drawing circles."
The laughter in Hua Ji's expression was even harder to contain. "…… Why are you drawing circles?"
"…… I saw it on the internet. When humans are unhappy, they show it by squatting in a corner and drawing circles."
"We are not human, though."
Hua Ji walked to the corner and crouched down. He curiously stuck out a hand and poked this puddle of water; the texture was squishy, warm and slippery, as if it were wrapped up by something. The water flowed past his fingers, just like soft feathers brushing past his heart, a little itchy, a little shivery.
Lord Jellyfish was seemingly stumped for a moment. "Then I'll be angry using my own ways."
Hua Ji revealed a large smile. "Okay."
The words just fell when the toilet bowl beside Hua Ji suddenly erupted and sprayed yellow water into his face.
That night, the pipes in hotel which the cast and crew were staying had entirely burst, the yellow water counterattacking and flooding the toilets. A strong, inexpressible smell pervaded the air of the entire hotel. The smell of the toilets lingered on the bodies of every member of the cast and crew, and since it was a hot summer day, everybody stunk to high heavens. Director Yu couldn't endure it and couldn't help but give everyone a day's break, requesting Li Shun Hua to send people to clean up the cast and crew.
Lord Jellyfish took the chance to head up north, to collect his exam results.
Every inhuman person's results would be separated and gathered at the Mystical Protection Department, leaving it to the Mystical Protection Department to mark those papers and fix a minimum passing score.
Even if those independently proposed papers'[2] score didn't total up to 750 marks, in the end, the University Examination results would be converted to 750 marks and the exam candidates would be ranked collectively.
The monsters that attended this year's University Examinations numbered 11 in total. Of all of them, the highest scorer was, of course, Lord Jellyfish with 513 marks.
— If it was just the monsters' results that were being ranked, naturally the additional marks wouldn't be added.
The lowest scorer was a guinea pig spirit. For four papers, they only scored 98 marks in total.
At the Mystical Protection Department, Lord Jellyfish unexpectedly bumped into the Plymouth Rock chicken spirit, Ji Hong.
When Ji Hong saw Lord Jellyfish, he was especially excited. He cautiously asked, "Great One, which school do you intend to apply for?"
"Zhejiang University. I want to study Computer Skills."
Ji Hong blanked. "Then Great One, why aren't you applying for Tsinghua? Isn't that the best university for the Sciences in the country?"
Lord Jellyfish said, "The campus is not in S city."
"But Zhejiang isn't in S city either." Ji Hong still couldn't understand. "S city has many good schools. Fudan and East China Normal are both good schools."
"However, when I searched up the schools with the best Computer faculties, besides Tsinghua, it's Zhejiang."
Ji Hong puffed out a laugh. "Lord Jellyfish, you had better not just rely on this. Whether information on the internet is reliable isn't a given. Furthermore, a teacher can only lead you to the door, but the rest is up to you[3]. The quality of the teachers in the country's top schools are actually about the same, every high-grade school in the country cooperates with famous schools outside of the country. Even if you want to leave the country to study abroad, there will be ways for you to do it - if you really want to study something, it all boils down to you yourself."
Lord Jellyfish was stunned. He quietly turned the information over in his brain, before slowly nodding his head. Previously, it was he who was close-minded.
That's right, even if it were the past, to receive the teacher's recognition, one needed to study hard. Nowadays, the government had lowered the study threshold; if one wanted to have accomplishments, they needed to study with painstaking effort. If you just have discipline and work hard, ceaselessly searching for various study resources, you will eventually meet a good teacher.
He solemnly said, "What you said is not bad."
Ji Hong continued, "Furthermore, I heard that the most important part of a university is their library. In every university, they have an internal network, using the school's network ID, you can freely browse the world's academic institutes' theses and research papers. This is a university's most valuable possession. After graduation, if you want to return to make use of these resources, you would need to pay a fee.
Lord Jellyfish took note of everything he said. "Many thanks."
Ji Hong embarrassedly rubbed his head. "Actually, even though I've said so much, I still hope to be able to attend the same university as Lord Jellyfish."
He said in a mocking tone, "The residence permit the Mystical Protection Department gave me was for S city. After today, I'll be neighbours with Lord Jellyfish."
Lord Jellyfish didn't mind that at all. Knowing a few more spirits and monsters isn't bad.
"What school did you apply for?"
"It's an arts-oriented school. After all, the marks threshold was very low, furthermore us spirits and monsters live for a long time and even absorb the essence of the sun and moon all year round, coming to realise the Dao of heaven and earth. It is very easy to raise our own artistic and aesthetic senses." Ji Hong shrugged. "What I'm applying for is Tongji, however, I estimate my marks won't be enough. Shanghai Theatre Academy is also fine, Donghua is also okay."
Lord Jellyfish thought for a while, "Then I'll listen to your advice and apply for Fudan."
Therefore, when Lord Jellyfish submitted his application form, he chose Fudan. As the top scorer among the monsters, Lord Jellyfish passed his exams with ease, but the problem was…… applying for Fudan in B city, the average marks needed was actually 670 and above. Lord Jellyfish's score when adding in the extra 100 points was still not enough QAQ 613 marks……
The Mystical Protection Department seriously recommended, "With your score, you can apply for East China Normal University……"
Lord Jellyfish: "……" Suddenly, he felt like he was super subpar.
[1] Refers to setting traps/sabotaging someone else.
[2] There’s this law in China that allows provinces to set their own papers for the University Examinations as long as it’s approved, so they don’t need to use the papers the government set. This is what it’s referring to.
[3] The best explanation would probably be a teacher can only help you so far, if you want success, you need to strive for it yourself. A similar idiom in English is ‘You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.’