Rebirth: Slice-of-life Cultivation

Under Xue Yuantong's insistent demands, Jiang Ning eventually donned a coat.

Xue Yuantong tied a scarf around Jiang Ning for him, then she stepped back and looked at him,

"Are you warm?"

"Warm," Jiang Ning replied. However, a boy like him wrapped in a pink scarf looked somewhat out of place.

"Does it look nice?"

"It looks nice."

"Hahaha, I knitted this scarf!" Xue Yuantong said with a giggly laugh.

Jiang Ning rode his bike with Xue Yuantong, and as winter approached, cycling grew colder, with the icy wind cutting into their faces like knives. Jiang Ning cast a spell to block the cold wind and emitted warmth, enveloping them both.

Xue Yuantong didn't feel the cold at all. She looked ahead at Jiang Ning blocking the wind for her and secretly planned to find more ways to keep him warm.

Jiang Ning still made it to school just in the nick of time.

He walked towards Building 3, vividly remembering how the day after they'd moved classrooms, Xue Yuantong arrived at school and headed straight for their old class.

She stopped outside the classroom, stared at the empty room, stood rooted to the spot, then after a while, she remembered her Class 8 had moved.

At first, Xue Yuantong felt a bit lost and was distracted several times during class.

Jiang Ning realized she was someone who cherished memories; only after more than a week in the new class did her sense of loss finally fade.

After arriving in the new classroom, Jiang Ning took a seat by the window, and Xue Yuantong sat beside him. They were desk partners now.

Bai Yuxia, sitting in front of them, was playing with her phone while Dan Kaiquan, beside her, shamelessly tried to strike up a conversation, which Bai Yuxia ignored.

Geng Lu, sitting behind them, poked Jiang Ning, "Check your QQ."

Jiang Ning took out his phone, and there was a message on QQ: "Dan Kaiquan looks like a happy dog."

It was sent by Geng Lu.

"Everyone knows he likes Bai Yuxia, and he thinks he's being discreet, assuming others don't notice," Geng Lu said.

Jiang Ning chatted with Geng Lu for a while; then he noticed a red dot on his QQ Moments, clicked it, and saw the first post was from Class 8's Yu Wen:

"He is one of the top ten composers in the world,

He's unrivaled in the music industry,

His face is dubbed the most perfect in the world,

Brands around the globe are vying to design clothes for him,

He is Quan Zhilong!

Quan Zhilong, you are my faith."

Quan Zhilong was a star from a Korean group, extremely famous during this period, with countless female fans.

The post had garnered over seventy likes, and the comments below were mostly lavish praises, full of naive adoration, until a distinct comment blended in:

"Yu Wen, if your dad and Quan Zhilong got into a fight, who would you side with? (picking nose)" This was sent by Ma Shicheng.

Yu Wen replied, "I wouldn't help either."

Ma Shicheng: "I'm dying of laughter."

Another classmate commented: "Ma Shicheng, go die."

This was posted by their classmate Jiang Yanan, who was not short, standing at 168 centimeters, with exceptionally fair skin and fairly good looks—a die-hard Quan Zhilong fan.

Ma Shicheng didn't care what she looked like. When it came to women, except in special circumstances, he was never gentle-handed and promptly bombarded her with retorts using his phone.

Below the post, there was a thirty-something-long thread of them bickering. How could Jiang Yanan, who didn't spend years online gaming like Ma Shicheng, compete against him?

Jiang Ning refreshed the page, and the subsequent posts were mostly one-sided victories from Ma Shicheng.

Refreshing again, the post disappeared—seems like Yu Wen had deleted it.

In Jiang Ning's Divine Sense, Jiang Yanan rolled up her book, infuriated and stormed over to where Ma Shicheng was.

Ma Shicheng had just put down his phone and was still reveling in his victory when he saw Jiang Yanan approaching. Cool as an experienced dog, he retorted,

"What's up, coming to beat me in person?"

"Are you worthy of that?"

Ma Shicheng shot back, "Isn't that what you're doing?"

"You're the one farting!"

Ma Shicheng started rallying his allies—Wang Longlong, Guo Kunnan, Hu Jun—and after explaining the situation to the three, he asked, "Guys, am I wrong?"

"Brother Ma, you're absolutely right."

Hearing their agreement, Ma Shicheng gave Jiang Yanan a sidelong glance, feeling victorious again.

Jiang Yanan left in a huff, and Ma Shicheng took out his phone, ready to mock her a few more times. However, upon opening the chat with Jiang Yanan, he discovered she had removed him as a friend.

No matter, there were still several pretty girls in class.

During evening self-study, it was Chemistry teacher Guo Ran's class.

After class, Hu Jun called Jiang Ning away, and when he returned, he had a stack of test papers in hand, along with a packet of snacks.

The test papers were for his dear classmates, while the snacks were for himself.

After Jiang Ning distributed the test papers, he opened the snacks and took out a can of walnuts, which had been shelled and coated with a layer of sugar.

Xue Yuantong watched eagerly.

Jiang Ning tasted two nuts and found they weren't bad.

Xue Yuantong's eyes followed the walnut pieces as they moved.

Not wanting to tease her any longer, Jiang Ning pulled out two pieces of paper and poured her a handful.

"Jiang Ning, you're so kind. Don't worry, I won't eat your snacks for free; to show my gratitude, I'll fetch water for you." She swallowed a walnut and grabbed Jiang Ning's water cup to run to the water dispenser.

Yu Wen was a step too late and had to wait for the next batch of hot water to be ready. She chatted with Shen Qing'e, her tone envious:

"Class One is so lucky, having two water dispensers – that's pure bliss. They really deserve to be the experimental class."

"I heard that one of them was even bought by their class teacher out of his own pocket!"

"It's just odd – why does their water dispenser look exactly like the one in our class?"

Shen Qing'e was about to speak.

Yang Sheng interjected, "If you're so envious of Class One, why don't you just transfer there?"

Shen Qing'e's face turned sour instantly; she had just finished a month's turn of duty for Yang Sheng only a couple of days ago.

Seeing that Shen Qing'e wasn't responding, Yang Sheng felt a bit uncomfortable as she now had to clean up herself again.

Just as Yang Sheng was stewing in her misery, Jiang Yanan stood up for Yu Wen. As fans of the same celebrity, they were comrades-in-arms.

"Like you could transfer to Class One?" Jiang Yanan challenged.

Yang Sheng's eyes lit up as she rubbed her hands.

...

Jiang Ning scrolled through Tieba, arriving at his private messages and began to read routinely until he paused at a certain message.

"The picture of the wood you posted – I showed it to my granddad back home. He said he has seen it before when he was young; they called it 'Iron Knot Wood' locally because it's particularly hard."

"It's not available now, but my grandfather mentioned that he witnessed it being used to build a bed for a wealthy family who, upon moving away, dumped the bed into a lake since the wood sinks when it meets water."

"If you really want it, I can send you the address of the lake, and you can try to find someone to salvage it. If you do find it and think my information was helpful, I don't need the five thousand, just send me five hundred. I'm really short on cash for food."

Jiang Ning asked for the address, and the other party quickly sent over the lake's location.

It wasn't far, situated in Huai City, around three hundred li from Yuzhou. With Jiang Ning's current speed, it would take roughly an hour.

The wood was the 'Biling Wood' from the Cultivation World, which sinks upon contact with water and remains undecayed even after centuries submerged – a crucial material for crafting Spirit Boats.

Jiang Ning had been coveting a Spirit Boat for too long.

'I could go to Huai City tonight to have a look.' Jiang Ning thought, knowing a quick scan with his Divine Sense would suffice.

But then, Jiang Ning looked out at the night sky and realized he might not be able to go after all.

It was about to snow.

Jiang Ning's cultivation realm wasn't very high, and traveling for long would result in leaving tracks in the snow, which wasn't very safe.

The temperature dropped during evening self-study, and some students who were dressed lightly started to shiver, including Dan Kaiquan who was quivering at his desk.

"Can't you keep still?" Bai Yuxia said.

Dan Kaiquan responded, "I'm converting food to heat."

Bai Yuxia ignored him and breathed on her hand holding the pen, then continued writing.

Dan Kaiquan turned to see Jiang Ning, who wore even less than he did, and felt a sense of camaraderie:

"Jiang Ning, aren't you cold?"

"Not cold," Jiang Ning answered, channeling his Mana to extend a bit of warmth to Dan Kaiquan.

Dan Kaiquan shivered momentarily, then suddenly felt warm and stopped shaking:

"I'm not cold either," he blurted out and began to show off to Bai Yuxia:

"I told you, with my constitution, I can easily handle this weather."

"No need to wear more."

"Things like cotton-padded jackets, heh, unnecessary!"

Watching his performance, Jiang Ning silently withdrew the Mana, and Dan Kaiquan's teeth started to chatter again.

During the third class of the evening self-study, snowflakes began to fall through the dome, sweeping across the windows. Some sharp-eyed students spotted the snowflakes in the night sky, and cries of "It's snowing!" echoed through the classroom as the students rejoiced.

At the lectern, Huang Zhongfei smiled faintly and stretched out his five fingers, declaring:

"Five minutes, everyone go out and enjoy the snow for five minutes. Keep it down, and I'll be responsible for any consequences!"

"Class leader, you're so cool!"

"Huang Zhongfei, I love you!"

Class 8 students rushed to the corridor to watch the snow.

And thus, in 2013, Yuzhou's first snowfall had arrived.