Study Monster Cultivation System-Chapter 352 - 351 Leaders, Glasses, and Ukulahlwa!

Standing in front of dorm room 305, Li Zheng took a deep breath.

Strictly speaking, this place wasn’t really a dormitory.

It was an Academy.

The internal structure resembled a guesthouse more.

From what he had gathered before arriving, the atmosphere here felt highly international, full of prestige, as if conversations were expected to be a mix of Chinese and English, rich with a sophisticated, artistic vibe.

Li Zheng was actually quite intimidated by this.

When it came to growth, environment, and prestige, he preferred a "rooted" growth.

Just like the relationship between a tree and the soil, gradually absorbing nutrients as it grew, developing its branches and leaves on the premise of a solid trunk, becoming what he wanted to be.

In contrast, he feared suddenly stepping into such an upscale environment, full of grand schemas and high perspectives, where everyone talked about Cases, day and night revolving around Offers.

It felt like being a dandelion swept up by the wind, unexpectedly clinging to a prestigious, towering tree.

High indeed, but rootless.

Then, assimilating into it, turning into an upscale label, forever unaware of his origins.

To put it simply.

Pretense was acceptable.

But not the pretense of a Western template.

Of course… if the Academic Power was above 1500, do whatever one feels like...

After all, doing well in studies empowers one to do as they please, the school’s primary rule.

Li Zheng gathered his courage before pushing open the large dorm door.

And then his eyes widened in shock.

It was a hall!

There was a hall here!

Though small, it could still fit a dining table and a sofa, probably felt like a private room for board games.

Of course, it also suited group studies.

As soon as Li Zheng entered the hall and closed the door, a man half emerged from the inner room.

He was a man with messy, slightly curly hair, extremely flamboyant.

His features were mature and profound, his gaze inherently rebellious and disdainful, with a circle of thick, wild beard that was just curled right.

With just one glance, Li Zheng felt...

The aura of a leader!

It was the aura of a leader!

The moment he locked eyes with the man, Li Zheng even had the illusion of entering a Cuban guerrilla camp.

The man, however, was just sitting on a chair with a cigarette in his mouth, legs kicked up against the edge of the table, scrutinizing Li Zheng at a dangerous angle before slightly frowning, leaning over to grab a strange cigarette box from the table, and casually throwing it over.

Li Zheng caught it in a fluster, then weakly shook his head.

Feeling a burst of disappointment, the man also shook his head, leaned over to put out his cigarette: "Fine then, I’ll smoke on the balcony in the future."

With that, he curled his legs back up and settled into a strange posture on the chair, turning towards the computer screen to resume his manipulation of the mouse and keyboard.

"Still not free." The man sighed deeply, "Why isn’t there a smoking dorm?"

Only then did Li Zheng pull his suitcase into the inner room.

There were two bedrooms in the dorm, this was just one of them.

The room was a rectangle, with two single beds placed along the longer walls, two desks, one by the door and the other by the window, the furniture in light wood tone was new and simple, giving off an IKEA-esque feel.

This setup, typically reserved for graduate students or higher, seemed to justify the more than a thousand in accommodation fee per semester.

But...

Leader, what are you doing, leader!

Li Zheng stared at the colorful screen in front of the man, barely making out that it must be some ancient turn-based game, far cruder than the games Liu Xin and the others played.

"What?" The man turned his head, glanced back and laughed, "Do the kids nowadays not even know about ’Dream Back to the West Journey’?"

"Isn’t ’Dream Back to the West Journey’ a mobile game?" Li Zheng asked naively.

"Everything’s about mobiles now, you kids only know about mobiles." The man blandly closed down the game, stood up in his slippers, and pursed his lips in a sigh, "Haven’t played for a year, finally got here, played nonstop for two days, only to realize I don’t need it anymore… That’s freedom too, I suppose."

After speaking, he habitually lit another cigarette and extended his right hand toward Li Zheng.

"Tu Yikou."

Li Zheng jolted, his whole arm trembling slightly.

"Tu Tu Tu… What?"

"Right, the two words you’re thinking of, my great-grandfather chose it, he had suffered a loss due to it," the man scratched his beard and smiled, "When I first went to college, the county told me to change it but I told them to go ask my great-grandfather."

Li Zheng then hesitantly shook hands, "Your great-grandfather isn’t still angry, is he?"

"No, he’s been gone over twenty years now." After shaking hands, Tu Yikou subconsciously reached for his lighter, but remembering the circumstance, he put it down, instead pulling out a cigarette and asking, "What’s your name?"

"Li Zheng, the Zheng from magnificent," Li Zheng politely motioned with his hand, "Go ahead, smoke, I’m seldom in the dorm, just not at night when sleeping."

"No, I’ll go outside to smoke," Tu Yikou brushed back his leader-like hair, his face breaking into a gentle smile as he asked, "You look like it’s your first time at college?"

Li Zheng blinked, looking back nervously at the dorm door.

Is this some kind of detention center? Do they even do repeat terms here?

"So..." Li Zheng swallowed and asked, "Brother Tu, this isn’t your first time?"

"Regretfully, it’s my third time," Tu Yikou replied with a deep smile before subconsciously picking up a cigarette, feeling a bit uneasy, "Shall we go to the balcony to talk?"

"After you, Brother Tu."

They reached the open balcony where he lit a cigarette and gazed across at the female dormitory building.

Visit fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm for the best novel reading experi𝒆nce.

Tu Yikou’s aura of leadership grew even stronger.

"University, no freedom."

"The first time I went to Jinghua, I was asked to leave in my sophomore year. I said I’d make up the credits in my senior second semester, but they wouldn’t allow it."

"I went back to re-sit the entrance exams, changed ’flavors,’ switched to philosophy at Ren University, thinking those folks would be freer, yet they asked me to leave in my freshman year. The counselor said Ren University was for training officials, and someone like me would corrupt the team."

"This is my third time; I did a bit of research and deliberately chose the freest department at the freest school. Absolute freedom is absurd, so I sought as much relative freedom as I could."

Li Zheng listened with amazement.

In just a few words, Brother Tu had glossed over those soul-stirring years; he truly was broad-minded.

Li Zheng cleared his throat busily and said, "Brother Tu, I have something to ask, though I’m not sure if it’s inappropriate."

"Ask whatever you want."

"How old are you, Brother Tu?"

"25."

"That’s not too bad..." Li Zheng quickly clutched at his chest, "I always felt you were close to forty, almost like I was talking to an elder."

"That’s nothing," Tu Yikou said with a cigarette at the corner of his mouth, tilting his head, "I’ve looked this way since I was 15. Even the transfer students call me ’teacher.’ Just today in the cafeteria, a young girl greeted me with ’hello, teacher.’

"That’s normal; you could indeed be a teacher now," Li Zheng went on to ask, "Then may I boldly ask, were the previous expulsions because you failed too many courses?"

"Well, let’s just say..." Tu Yikou scratched his beard, "although I’ve been in university on and off for three years, I still don’t know what a university classroom looks like."

Li Zheng, deeply impressed.

A master.

This man is a true master.

Logically, someone like Tu Yikou, embodying such an anomaly, should be a black hole of academic power, the antithesis of Li Zheng’s existence.

However...

[Tu Yikou]

[Academic Power: 1009]

Within Yingpei, that’s considered above average academic power.

And the key is, he’s never attended a class, and probably hardly ever opens a book.

In such circumstances, to have amassed such academic power purely through the aura of heaven and earth is frightening.

With such a body, he’s unplaceable within the standard academic professional hierarchy.

Probably.

This is what you call a Study Demon.

Tu Yikou, seeing Li Zheng also smiling, said, "My old classmates didn’t think much of me, but you seem pretty excited."

"How should I put this." Li Zheng stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the bedsheets drying in the female dorm, "The old me would probably think you’re wasting our nation’s educational resources and that the opportunities should be given to those who need them more."

"Right, that’s exactly what the counselor at Ren University said," Tu Yikou snorted and nodded affirmatively.

"But now, I’ve come to view things more mathematically. Think about it, since the educational system gave you three chances to enter top academies, that indicates one thing," Li Zheng said, nodding sideways, "you have investment value. Although there’s only a 1% chance of success, it could yield a 1000% return on investment."

Tu Yikou was momentarily stunned.

"It’s the first time I have been evaluated based on mathematical expectations..." he said, then leaned back over the balcony, staring into the interior of the female dormitory, his face filled with intensity, "OK, math is very free."

After speaking, he turned around again, "What was your name again?"

"Li Zheng."

"Good, I’ll remember this time," Tu Yikou then pointed to the bedroom, "you can use my computer, it’s configured for anything. It’s all top-notch. Oh, and I played as a professional for three months; even played a substitute match in the LPL..."

"Thanks, but I rarely play games."

"I can imagine how boring you are," Tu Yikou, shaking his head, stared at his cigarette and sighed, "Hey, I’m even more bored; only a truly bored person would play games and smoke."

Li Zheng laughed lightly, "Speaking of boredom, I actually have a great way to relieve it."

"Sex?" Tu Yikou said this very quickly, as if it was an autonomic nervous response.

"No..." Li Zheng, speaking with formality and mustering all his energy, said, "It’s studying."

"?" Tu Yikou was taken aback.

Though he had many classmates, he had never come across someone like this.

"Studying fulfills me," Li Zheng said, patting Tu Yikou, "If Brother Tu ever wants to study, we could collaborate. I’m really looking forward to it."

"How do you do it..." Tu Yikou swallowed hard, amazed, "I’ve never even been sincere with people I play games with…"

"Can’t help it, when you meet someone who studies well, you can’t help but be sincere."

Just then, from next door in the second bedroom popped out a buzzcut with glasses.

Buzzcuts with glasses, Li Zheng had seen plenty.

But this one was different.

It was that kind of very smooth, very pure buzzcut, like the kind you’d see on a monk, and his head shape was quite stylish, also monk-like.

The glasses, too, were the very pure kind, without any stylistic consideration, simply the purest form of glasses, so pure that you might forget the person and only see the glasses.

The buzzcut with glasses caught Li Zheng’s eye and then quickly ducked back inside.

Li Zheng had seen countless reflections in mirrors, but never had he encountered such an impressive sight.

And he almost slipped away?

"Hey? Classmate." Li Zheng hurriedly followed onto the balcony to the door of the second bedroom.

There he saw a bespectacled crew cut, pretending to study at the desk by the window, looking very nervous.

Even more astonishing was that on the other side of the room, a long-haired, muscular man in a tight white tank top was doing a one-armed handstand, resembling a levitating mop.

What the hell is all this!

The man doing the handstand, naturally, also noticed Li Zheng, maintaining his inverted state, and nodded at him without moving a muscle.

"Mo Nian."

This voice was very magnetic, so laden with masculinity that it made it impossible for people to clearly understand what he was saying.

Li Zheng was also stunned for a long time before he realized he was introducing himself—Mo Nian was his name.

"Li Zheng." Li Zheng also nodded.

"Another 73 seconds." Mo Nian still didn’t move, seemingly not even moving his lips, "We’ll talk after I finish."

"No rush…" Li Zheng then turned towards the boy with the glasses at the desk.

The boy was watching him, but immediately shrank back and started writing furiously, pretending to study.

Li Zheng had no choice but to take the initiative, "How shall I address this gentleman?"

The bespectacled boy studied intensively.

"Friend?"

The boy grew even more nervous.

"Yes, I’m talking to you, Brother Glasses."

Pressed to this point, the boy paused for a moment, awkwardly adjusting his glasses, and with a thick accent squeezed out two words, "Yang Jun..."

"It’s Yang Jun." Tu Yikou pushed Li Zheng forward, laughing as he entered the room, and casually hopped to sit on Little Glasses’s desk, patting his shoulder and laughing, "This little bro has it tough, coming from an extremely impoverished county. The counselor told me that he used to spend four to five hours crossing mountains just to get to school; now his situation is like a person from a primitive tribe in Africa finding themselves in New York, understandably feeling out of place."

As Tu Yikou spoke to Li Zheng, "Don’t mind it, he doesn’t mean to look down on you; he’s just nervous, shy, and a bit low on confidence. I had classmates like him before; they adapt after a few months, they’re truly the simplest and nicest people…"

As he continued, Tu Yikou sadly lowered his head, "Ah… I ended up getting them into gaming… In the end, they played even more fiercely than me… I don’t even know if that little bro graduated or not…"

Little Glasses just shrunk further, sweating with fear.

Li Zheng indeed stared wide-eyed.

In this era, completing the college entrance exam is highly competitive for educational resources.

Even though everyone knows there’s a problem and is trying to change, it remains the reality.

That’s why it’s so commendable that someone from an extremely poor county could make it into a top academy.

However, probably due to limited access to books and information, Yang Jun’s academic power was only 184.

It was conceivable that having such low academic power and still getting into Ji University, aside from doing well in exams, he probably knew nothing about the world, and even speaking with a university classmate could be frightening.

On the contrary, being able to emerge from such barren conditions was akin to a tender shoot breaking through rock.

Such a resilient character could possibly switch to Study Demon.

Li Zheng didn’t think any further, leaned in and directly asked, "Have you chosen your classes yet?"

Yang Jun was stunned for a moment, then numbly shook his head.

"Then come over to my place and we’ll pick together?" Li Zheng pointed to the next room, "We’re in the same dorm, we can discuss it together."

Yang Jun was stunned again, then weakly swallowed his saliva, "Brother, thank you… I’ll come over after I finish this problem? "

"Any time is fine, I’ll set up the computer on the desk shortly."

Yang Jun giggled and scratched his head, "I… I’m not very good with computers on my own…"

"Then I’ll show you after you finish the problem."

"Thank you, brother!" Yang Jun first beamed, then his eyes reddened, he wiped them, and then spoke no more, burying his head and feverishly solving the problem.

"Little bro, you… um… are quite thoughtful." Tu Yikou couldn’t help but purse his lips and nod.

He had been here so long, yet he never considered that Yang Jun lacked both a computer and a smartphone; this meek guy probably also wouldn’t dare to bother the counselor, and choosing classes, which was easy for others, seemed to be a huge burden he had been carrying for a long time.

As for Li Zheng, he himself didn’t know why he thought of this right away.

Perhaps, having a girlfriend naturally makes one gentler.

Meanwhile, silently, the long-haired man, Mo Nian, finished his gymnastic routine and landed.

He tossed his head, scattering sweat everywhere, making his hair even more mop-like.

As for Mo Nian himself, with his dark brown skin and smooth-looking complexion, if not for his benchmark Northern big guy’s simple face, he might have been mistaken for a Venezuelan exchange student.

After wiping the sweat with a towel, Mo Nian poured himself a glass of cold water, and while drinking it, walked over, looked across at the sheets hanging from the girls’ dormitory, took a deep breath with his eyes closed and solemnly said, "Take a deep whiff—it’s the scent of blood."

"Hahaha." Tu Yikou laughed heartily and hopped off the desk, patting Li Zheng, "This guy is a legend, I can’t keep up, you try talking to him."

As he spoke, he took a cigarette to the balcony.

"That will kill olfactory cells." Mo Nian raised his hand, presenting a cup of healthful cold boiled water to him, and pointing to his nose, said, "With your senses dulled, you’ll need even stronger stimuli."

"Thanks, Brother Nian, I’m just a simple man." Tu Yikou took a sip from the thermos, then returned it to Mo Nian’s arms, and casually went to the balcony to light his cigarette.

Mo Nian was neither disappointed nor angry, but turned to look at Li Zheng, suddenly frowned, seemed about to say something but then stopped, and with his glass of cold water, returned to his desk.

This was seriously uncomfortable.

"Brother Mo, if you have something to say, feel free…" Li Zheng followed him.

"It’s a problem without a solution, no point in discussing it."

"It’s too uncomfortable, just say it..."

Mo Nian immediately set down his cup, looking at Li Zheng with some concern, "You’re caught between sexual repression and release, anything I say is useless, go experience it."

"???" Li Zheng exclaimed, "Great... Great Master?"

"Just a comprehensive analysis." Mo Nian gently pinched his own cheek, "The complexion is a reflection of endocrine data, you seem close to female charms, yet haven’t entered."

"Wait a minute..." Li Zheng absentmindedly raised his hand, pondering hard as he spoke, "Master... I need to digest that statement..."

Behind him, Yang Jun also turned around nervously from his desk, "Brother... could you check me too?"

Mo Nian looked at Yang Jun and nodded, "You’re just purely sexually repressed, better get used to it early, and exercise more."

Yang Jun’s eyes reddened again, he wiped them and continued to lower his head furiously solving problems.

Mo Nian looked back at the troubled Li Zheng and calmly said, "You can try Ukulahlwa practice to adjust, the one-arm handstand meditation I just did is part of the practice."

"Uku... uku..." Li Zheng struggled to pronounce, "Ukulahlwa?"

"Yes, Ukulahlwa." Mo Nian tapped his own forehead lightly, "A kind of soul practice, I don’t want to elevate it to a religious level."

"Where is this practice from?"

"I created it the day before yesterday."

"..." Li Zheng looked at him perplexed, finding this man more puzzling than a leader.

[Mo Nian]

[Academic Power: 1133]

Has he gone too far into ’Entering Demonization’?

Mo Nian didn’t care about that though, he just took a hair tie, tied his hair up, took off his sweat-soaked white tank top, and opened the wardrobe.

Wow!

There were at least 20 tight white tank tops piled up inside!

After putting on a clean white tank top identical to the previous one, Mo Nian picked up the phone on the table, and asked Li Zheng, "Want to eat together?"

"I’ll eat later, I still have to select courses with Yang Jun."

"Brother Tu?" Mo Nian asked outside.

"Let’s go." Tu Yikou then stubbed out his cigarette butt and swayed along with Mo Nian, arguing all the way out of the dormitory.

They had left, yet their voices were still clear.

"It’s the smell of tar... you’re killing my cells again."

"Cells are cheap, there’ll be more."

"Cells are part of the human ecology, they are free individuals."

"No, not free, can’t say about others, but cells are definitely not free."

"Cells have relative freedom in the bodily environment."

"So cancer cells are absolutely free then?"

"To some extent..."

"Stop stop stop, I can’t chat biology with you, but freedom I can’t lose, no one understands freedom better than me..."

"Did you take a philosophy class?"

"No need, I am philosophy."

"Ukulahlwa is."

"Right, Ukulahlwa too is."

"Fine, argument resolved, what shall we eat?"

"Something free..."

The voices of the two gradually faded away.

And suddenly, there was a weird kind of ’ship’ vibe.

Li Zheng shook his head vigorously.

Immediately followed by the sound of pen tapping from behind.

"Brother, I’ve finished." Yang Jun stood up straight, clutching his metal pencil case that had been rubbed until no pattern was left, "Is there... a Mandarin class?"

Li Zheng shook his head with a smile and met him, embracing Yang Jun as they walked towards the balcony.

"Let’s look for it."

This dormitory... these older brothers...

Far from disappointing.

They’re simply a treasure trove of boys.

Weird, sure.

But to others, isn’t Li Zheng a monster himself?

Yet...

What exactly is the state between repression and release?

Ready but not erupting?

If I were to say, my current state is indeed filled with an anxious feeling of being neither bold enough to advance nor willing to retreat...

Maybe, I should try Ukulahlwa?