Lin Zhou is 17, ranked ninth from the bottom in Class 7 of his senior year.
No one knows that a Void-Returning cultivator from three thousand years ago resides in the web between his thumb and forefinger.
No one knows that every day, in the last row of class, he uses ten years' worth of patience to keep his Qi Refinement at Great Perfection under control.
No one knows his father is a veteran cadre who left the national security system in 1998.
And even fewer know that he has spent ten years pretending to be a terrible student, waiting for someone to repay the lash they gave him ten years ago.
On the first day of school, the uncle he met once at his doorstep when he was seven appears again outside the school gates.
Xuan Yan (in his mind): "Kid, that old bastard's come to see you again."
Lin Zhou: "I know."
"What are you going to do?"
"Keep pretending. For another three months."
"And after three months?"
"After three months, I'll make him crawl away on his knees."
This year, he has four things to do:
Keep real cultivators from discovering that he can cultivate.
Keep fake people from seeing through his act as a terrible student.
Build his parents a house they can truly live in for the rest of their lives.
Make that uncle kneel on the sports field, in front of the whole school.
