Wen Nan sat dumbfounded on the ground, staring at pair after pair of eyes around him.
Those eyes were round and clustered together, like stars in the night sky, blinking.
From the direction of the podium, the teacher urged again:
"Stop crowding around him, everyone sit down, Ye Shenshen, are you awake? If so, stand up.
"Take your book and stand in the corridor outside, read the poem we learned today out loud ten times. Once you're no longer sleepy, you can come back to the classroom."
Before the teacher finished speaking, those big eyes all curved into smiles, emitting a "hee hee hee" sound.
Wen Nan furrowed his brows.
The beings surrounding Wen Nan were not the classmates he had anticipated, nor was the teacher standing at the podium.
Surrounding him were, indeed, numerous black, spiky, hairy-looking, round things—
Sea urchins.
Sea urchins.
The entire classroom was, astonishingly, filled with sea urchins?!
These sea urchins had two big, round, white eyeballs hanging on their faces (if they even had faces), looking quite like Hayao Miyazaki's soot sprites at first glance.
Cute, but when all their eyes focused on Wen Nan together, it looked a bit eerie.
The "female teacher" standing at the podium was not human; she was a Peony Shrimp.
The shrimp's tail curled on the ground, her head pointing up to the ceiling, her eyes turned in Wen Nan's direction, looking somewhat comical.
Seeing Wen Nan staring at her motionlessly, the Peony Shrimp teacher got a bit angry, pointing a pair of her small pincers towards the door,
"Ye Shenshen, hurry up and take your book outside, don't waste everyone's time. We have over sixty people in this class; if you waste a minute for each, you owe them an hour. Hurry outside now."
Wen Nan wanted to stand up and looked down, startled—
He had no feet!
His body, from head to tail, was composed of a brown-tan, bouncy cylinder.
He was actually... a sea cucumber?!
Wen Nan wriggled a couple of times in place and successfully stood up.
Apparently, even though he had no hands or feet now, it did not impact his mobility; he was quite agile.
Moving to the table, he noticed the open book on it, raised a spine from his outer layer, and stretched it towards the book.
The book immediately stuck to the spine.
With the book, Wen Nan, a sea cucumber, crossed the sea of urchins, heading towards the classroom door.
The classroom was surrounded by white walls without windows, and outside the classroom, the corridor was not transparent either. The oppressive white walls continued on the other side of the corridor.
Wen Nan leaned against the wall and looked up; where there should have been blue skies and white clouds, there was only a white ceiling.
They seemed to be living in a very enclosed space, like some kind of underground bunker.
Could it be like wandering Earth, where most humans live underground without daylight to resist some natural calamity?
Not right.
Something felt off.
Wen Nan lifted his face, closed his eyes, and carefully sensed his surroundings. Quickly, he realized the issue with his environment—
First, it was cold here, cold enough that even as a sea cucumber, he was almost frozen stiff.
Secondly, the ground here wasn't stable but was constantly in a state of small amplitude shaking.
Only by closing your eyes and concentrating could you feel this shaking, like...
The feeling of drifting on a calm sea.
Yes, they seemed to be aboard a massive cruise ship sailing on the sea, in some airtight cabin.
Just as he was pondering, behind him in the classroom, the sound of reading aloud resounded once more, and then, the Peony Shrimp teacher poked her large head out of the doorway, her eyes looking towards Wen Nan,
"Come, Ye Shenshen, come with me to the office."
Wen Nan put away the book, turned around, instinctively trying to put his hands in his pockets, but realized he had none, and even if he did, the spines were too short to fit in, so he awkwardly placed the spines at his sides, following Lady Peony Shrimp down the corridor.
Lady Peony Shrimp led him, turned a corner, and entered a teacher's office.
In the corner of the office sat a Crab Shrimp and a Sweet Shrimp.
Seeing Wen Nan and Lady Peony Shrimp enter, the two shrimp simultaneously glanced in their direction with their two pairs of eyes, then continued focusing on their lesson plans.
Lady Peony Shrimp crossed the office, sat down by a desk against the wall, sitting upright with her pincers on her knees, using an antenna to point to an empty chair in front of her, "Come, have a seat."
Wen Nan responded, sitting opposite Lady Peony Shrimp.
From her desk, Lady Peony Shrimp pulled out a basket, handing it to Wen Nan, "Here are some cookies and chocolates, pick what you like to eat. Do you want some water?"
Wen Nan thanked her, took the basket, and said she wasn't thirsty.
Lady Peony Shrimp cleared her throat and got to the point: "How long have you been in our class?"
Huh?
Wen Nan raised her spine and scratched her head.
Lady Peony Shrimp continued as if to herself, "I remember it was at the end of last month, the 25th, right? So now, it's been exactly three weeks?" As she spoke, she stared intently at Wen Nan's face, "How does it feel in the class these three weeks?"
Wen Nan replied ambiguously, "It's okay."
Lady Peony Shrimp continued earnestly:
"Given your situation, you should have gone to a special education class. If it were more serious, you might need hospitalization. You should be quite aware of this, right? It was your parents who insisted on sending you to our regular school for education. Since the principal and the grade director agreed, of course, I had nothing more to say.
"But given your unique situation, it's normal to have difficulties keeping up with studies; teachers completely understand that.
"However, Ye Shenshen, the teacher thinks you should at least have the right attitude, don't you agree?
"If you can't learn or don't want to, and can't keep up, teachers think that's okay. But making an effort would be better.
"But look at you now, sleeping in class all day, not listening, not doing your homework, not participating in class activities.
"Several teachers have mentioned to me that your attitude is problematic. When the teacher asks you to answer questions, you say you haven't been listening. When asked if there's something you don't understand, you complain that the teacher looks too much like a lobster, with antennae flapping on the blackboard, distracting you.
"What are you talking about? Where does the teacher look like a lobster?"
Wen Nan managed her expressions with great effort, then seriously nodded,
"Not like a lobster, more like a peony shrimp."
Upon hearing this, the voice across became shrill, "What did you say?!"
"Cough, no," Wen Nan quickly corrected, "I meant, I know I was wrong, teacher."
Lady Peony Shrimp let out a long sigh, her head swaying side to side, and the long antennae on top of her head, like the Phoenix Wing Purple Gold Crown of the Great Saint, swayed back and forth,
"I'm not bringing you in here to rehash old issues; we've talked before about you saying teachers are lobsters and classmates are sea urchins. Let's not waste time on that again.
"What I want to ask is, our current transition class might not be as intense as the Olympiad class, but it's close. If you can't keep up, it's fine. If it's really difficult, I'll help you think of a way to transfer you to a parallel class, which is much easier. What do you think?"
Wen Nan furrowed her brows, not responding, her gaze scanning the other party's desk, finally landing on a recent monthly exam score sheet, swiftly locking onto the name "Ye Shenshen."
Just as she was about to ask something, out of the corner of her eye, she saw two people walk in at the door.
Leading was a Mr. Ban Shrimp, followed by an Arctic Clam.
It was the most beautiful Arctic Clam Wen Nan had ever seen, with a shell entirely white and shimmering with iridescent luster, making it impossible for Wen Nan to look away.
But at this moment, the Arctic Clam lowered her head (although her face couldn't be seen, Wen Nan felt she should be lowering her head), silently following Mr. Ban Shrimp to a desk beside her.
Mr. Ban Shrimp pointed to the empty seat next to him, "Come, Jun Beibei, sit down and talk."
... Jun Beibei?
Wen Nan's lips curved up bit by bit, her smile deepening.
Sitting in a corner was Sweet Shrimp Lady, who couldn't help looking at Mr. Ban Shrimp upon hearing the name, interjecting, "Yo, is this the first place Jun Beibei of the grade? Such a good kid, and you brought her to the office too?"
"A good kid?" Mr. Ban Shrimp flared up at this, "She skipped class all morning for no reason today. I thought something happened, spent a whole lesson looking for her, and guess what, she was leisurely drinking milk tea at the convenience store!
"But what's more infuriating, do you know what's the worst? When I asked why she skipped class, guess how she answered?
"She said she was allergic to seafood and can't bear being in a classroom with a bunch of shells and lobsters!
"What kind of nonsense is that? What lobsters? What shells?!"
"Pfft."
As Mr. Ban Shrimp was venting, from the other corner, came a snicker, drawing his gaze over there slowly.
Wen Nan hurriedly stifled her smile, clearing her throat, raising a short spine, "Sorry, couldn't hold it in."
Jun Beibei also glanced over at Wen Nan.
Clearly just a sea cucumber, but at that moment, the dreary eyes of Jun Beibei sparkled.
As if in this absurd dark world, she saw a different hue.
But their unspoken gaze was broken by Lady Peony Shrimp at the side.
"Ye Shenshen, you're still laughing! And looking!" Lady Peony Shrimp tapped the desk, "Your situation is more serious than hers!"
Wen Nan restrained her amusement and turned to look at Lady Peony Shrimp beside her.
Lady Peony Shrimp faintly felt her words might have been too sharp and coughed twice to cover it up, pausing briefly before changing her tone:
"Think about what I said earlier—transferring classes is actually for your own good—"
"—I agree to transfer classes, teacher." In mid-sentence, Wen Nan directly interrupted.
Lady Peony Shrimp was stunned, "You're... sure?"
"Yes," Wen Nan nodded with conviction and then raised her hand, pointing at the Arctic Clam beside her, "I want to transfer to Jun Beibei's class."