Because Little Thirteen was always clinging to Ye Yang, the classmates who usually played with Little Thirteen naturally became close to Ye Yang as well.
Ye Yang soon learned that the black bear who was always lazily lying around was called Lan Bao. He came from a long line of black bear spirits, and legend had it that one of his ancestors was a great power in the higher realms.
The black spider monkey with unusually long arms and delicate features was called Huan Huan. Black spider monkeys weren’t native to China; they were considered foreign demons. When Huan Huan first arrived, he was very weak, facing discrimination and bullying. It was only under Lan Bao’s righteous protection that he safely made it through that period.
As a result, he and Lan Bao were very close friends, inseparable, tangled up together all day—quite literally tangled.
The ocean sunfish was called Xiao Fan. Although you couldn’t tell just by looking, from her voice, she was apparently female. Most of the time, she quietly stayed in her own pool, speaking only very, very rarely, always seeming completely devoid of emotion.
None of the students knew her background, but they all knew she was formidable. Once, a young demon carelessly bit off a chunk of her flesh, yet she remained utterly unfazed. Those eerie fish eyes just stared silently at her bully, never moving… As a result, she had the largest, undisturbed pool all to herself.
But starting on Ye Yang’s third day, she moved into Ye Yang’s pool and never returned to her own.
Little Thirteen repeatedly lodged solemn protests against this, even resorting to his ultimate move—tattling to the teacher. Unfortunately, no rule stated that Xiao Fan, being a fellow marine creature, couldn’t share a pool with Ye Yang.
At first, Ye Yang felt a bit uncomfortable, but as they got to know each other, he grew accustomed to always having a predator by his side. Besides, although Xiao Fan rarely spoke, she was very considerate, often helping to shield him from Little Thirteen’s untimely bursts of enthusiasm.
These new friends naturally learned about Ye Yang’s situation.
Lan Bao and Huan Huan felt a bit embarrassed at first. They hadn’t expected their new classmate to be so pitiful—the only demon of his entire kind. How lonely that must be!
What’s more, he had no elders to protect or guide him. Clever Huan Huan couldn’t help but start imagining how difficult and miserable Ye Yang’s past few hundred years must have been. Sigh, and they’d even spoken ill of him to his face. How terrible of them!
Ye Yang, being somewhat oblivious, just felt that his classmates were all very kind and took good care of him, even sharing their food with him at lunch. When Lan Bao proudly pulled out a carp and offered it to him, Ye Yang shook his head so hard it looked like it might fall off, repeatedly emphasizing that he only ate algae.
Are you kidding? This little sea hare wasn’t even as big as the carp’s mouth.
Only then did Lan Bao give up. He reluctantly ate the delicious but now barely alive carp himself—the one he had secretly palmed and carefully carried all the way from the cafeteria. He usually ate a lot of meat, so carp was a rare treat.
In short, Ye Yang got along well with them.
However, a few other students in the class weren’t so friendly.
Even though they were still cubs, two distinct cliques had already formed in the class.
One was led by Little Thirteen, Lan Bao, and the others—wild animals. Some had many demon companions, while others came from dwindling families, but none of them had any desire to integrate into human society. Once preschool ended, they would return to the demon realm, or to the wilds of the human realm, far from human habitation.
Huan Huan was somewhat special. His entire clan lived in wildlife parks, with relatives scattered across the country. He would most likely return there too—a stable job with an iron rice bowl.
Lan Bao also had connections to zoos, but compared to black spider monkeys, black bears were more dangerous to humans. Their treatment in zoos would be worse, with less freedom, which Lan Bao didn’t like.
The other clique consisted of students whose families had already deeply integrated into human society. After preschool, they would likely continue studying and working in human society, mostly living as humans.
Compared to the others, these students had much more formal names.
For example, the peacock named Kong Jiamu always held his chin slightly raised when looking at people. His dream was to become a famous model, just like his father. He announced this in the classroom every single day, so everyone knew.
Oh, and by the way, his father was the famous supermodel Kong Ye, and his mother Kong Ruilan was even more impressive. Though her appearance was ordinary, her fashion sense was unparalleled, giving her an elevated status in the fashion world.
Then there was Yu Siyuan, a Shan Gao. His dream was to become a game streamer. He didn’t talk much usually, but when it came to video games, he could go on and on.
The Shan Gao is a spirit beast that resembles a small pig, its entire body red as blazing fire. According to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, in ancient times, the Shan Gao lived on Ku Mountain. Today, their habitat has long since disappeared. Because of their reputation for excessive cursing and foul language, they were ostracized from the demon realm and forced to integrate into human society to survive.
However, Yu Siyuan was nothing like his ancestors in that regard. He was actually quite polite.
Finally, there was a female classmate named Ke Ranzhou. Like Kong Jiamu, she was also of the feathered kind—a green luan bird. Apparently, her family was in logistics, running one of the country’s top courier companies. In short, they were very impressive.
Aside from Teacher Yu, Kong Jiamu only showed courtesy to Ke Ranzhou. After all, he was just an ordinary peacock. His surname “Kong” was only meant to ride on the coattails of the Peacock Great Ming King, to whom he had no real connection whatsoever. But Ke Ranzhou was a direct descendant of a messenger serving the Queen Mother of the West—a true noble among demons!
Actually, there were only eight students in the preschool class, and it had taken Ye Yang quite a while to figure this out.
The classroom always seemed crowded and lively, but aside from the eight of them, everyone else were ordinary animals that hadn’t yet awakened their spiritual intelligence. They were brought by Kong Jiamu, who claimed they were all his friends. For some reason, though, his friends changed every single week.
It was strange, but Ye Yang didn’t dare to ask.
Thanks to the existence of YCG, these two cliques weren’t completely opposed to each other, but they didn’t have much in common either.
Oh, wait—there was one thing.
Ye Yang had no clan or ethnic group, yet he had a decent name—one well-suited for human society. Both the human-friendly and the human-avoiding students were curious: after finishing his general education courses, where did he plan to go? The demon realm or the human realm?
Little Thirteen was the most persistent in asking.
Every chance he got, he’d pounce on Ye Yang and ask, “Ye Ye~ Have you decided yet? How about coming home with me? I can take care of you!” Little Thirteen had it all figured out. Even though Ye Yang ate a lot, it was just cheap algae.
Living environment wasn’t a problem either. After all, they were demons—highly adaptable. He was even willing to turn his own home into a saltwater lake for Ye Yang’s sake.
The otter cub’s unique whining voice was adorable, but hearing it every single day was too much. Ye Yang’s ears were about to grow calluses.
Kong Jiamu also asked fairly often, but his approach was different: “Ye Yang, right? Your human form is passable—barely decent. You could come work as a small-time model at my family’s company. That wouldn’t be too much of a loss for you.”
His attitude was terrible—not only did he look down his nose at people, but he also spoke as if issuing commands. No matter how good-natured Ye Yang was, he didn’t want to engage with that.
After a few attempts, Kong Jiamu stopped asking. Secretly, he grumbled to himself: the kid wasn’t bad-looking and had actually caught his eye, but his taste in friends was terrible. Hanging out with those silly creatures—they really were all equally annoying!
…
The other two students who were closer to Kong Jiamu rarely interacted with the rest of the group and had never once spoken to Ye Yang on their own initiative. Ye Yang didn’t mind. Dealing with Little Thirteen alone was already exhausting enough!
·
Besides general knowledge, the preschool curriculum also included some distinctive practical courses, such as how to disguise oneself as a human and how to handle situations where one’s abnormality was discovered by humans.
After two weeks, Ye Yang had fully mastered concealing his demonic aura. In his human form, he was virtually indistinguishable from an ordinary person.
Ye Yang demonstrated exceptional comprehension in all his courses, quickly catching up with the preschool curriculum. He no longer needed Yubei to give him extra lessons.
Yubei felt both delighted and worried about this.
As a teacher, he was naturally pleased that his student was so diligent and intelligent. But he couldn’t help worrying about Ye Yang’s future. Being a pure spiritual body with such high comprehension greatly increased the likelihood that Ye Yang’s cultivation would outpace his mental and emotional maturity.
Ye Yang had already reached the ninth rank before coming here, and in just this short time, he was on the verge of breaking through to the eighth rank…
Watching Ye Yang, in his soft, squishy true form, lying atop Little Thirteen the baby otter’s head while demonstrating the simplest disguise techniques to the two slow learners Lan Bao and Xiao Fan, Yubei sighed quietly to himself. Well, let nature take its course.
·
One morning, as soon as Ye Yang arrived at the classroom, Little Thirteen bounced over. “Ye Ye, where are you going to play during the holiday?”
In a few days, it would be the Mid-Autumn Festival. As an official institution gathering both humans and non-humans, YCG naturally observed the holiday. That included the teachers and cubs of the preschool class.
Ye Yang had never celebrated a festival before, nor had he ever gone out to have fun. Little Thirteen’s question caught him off guard. After a moment’s thought, he said, “…I haven’t decided. Probably just stay here, like usual.”
So he had no plans? Little Thirteen’s face lit up with joy. “There are lots of events in the demon realm for Mid-Autumn Festival! Ye Ye, come play with us!”
“Go to the demon realm?” Ye Yang was taken aback, a little hesitant.
Hearing their conversation, Huan Huan also bounced over and excitedly introduced the Mid-Autumn Festival activities. “Every Mid-Autumn Festival, you get to see rabbit demons that are usually nowhere to be found! The rabbit demon versus toad demon challenge match is a must-watch!”
It had been nearly a hundred years since the demon realm aligned with the human realm and began celebrating human festivals, and a unique festival culture had since developed. The ancestral hatred between rabbit demons and toad demons had been mediated by YCG and gradually evolved into a form of entertainment.
Though Lan Bao looked big and burly, he considered himself a gentle, peaceful demon who didn’t like fighting and killing. His favorite event was something else: “I’m joining the mooncake-eating contest again this year. I only got tenth place last year. This year, I’m determined to make it into the top three.”
Xiao Fan listened quietly from her pool nearby without saying a word—no one knew whether she was even paying attention.
After listening to them chatter enthusiastically for a while, Ye Yang couldn’t help but ask, “I thought the demon realm was supposed to be very dangerous?”
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