Rebirth: Slice-of-life Cultivation

Guo Kun Nan saw Cui Yu acting all secretive and felt puzzled. He stared at him for a while, but didn't notice anything else odd, so he continued to wipe the screen with a tissue.

He had lost interest in everything and couldn't muster any enthusiasm.

Soon, Miao Zhe with a sullen face, came to the back row, his sharp eyes cutting through several people like a razor.

"Who saw my phone?" he shouted. His phone had disappeared again while charging.

Ma Shicheng, who was playing games, glanced at him and continued playing without uttering a word.

The class monitor, Hu Jun, didn't even bother to look his way.

Wang Longlong peeled an orange, took a bite, and threw the peel into the black plastic bag on the table.

Seeing that no one responded, Miao Zhe directly went to rummage through several desks.

"What are you doing, what are you doing!" Wang Longlong banged on the table and yelled, "I have five hundred yuan in my desk, if one bill is missing, just you wait and see."

Miao Zhe stared intently at Wang Longlong.

Wang Longlong sang, "Your eyes shine like stars, sparkling and twinkling."

It wasn't like he hadn't fought with Miao Zhe before, and besides, that man was standing behind him.

The class teacher that all classmates feared!

In the end, Miao Zhe didn't insist on searching through the desks and left.

Wang Longlong watched Miao Zhe's figure, snorted coldly, and continued eating his orange, protecting his rightful power.

Hu Jun, seeing Wang Longlong enjoying the orange, shamelessly said,

"Brother Long, your orange looks big and round, can I try one?"

Wang Longlong, being generous, directly shared half, "Take it."

Just last time, he had played with Hu Jun's bird, a little orange was nothing.

"Brother Long is so generous!"

Hu Jun took a bite of the orange, it tasted sour and sweet, really delicious.

The two surrounded Ma Shicheng, eating oranges and watching him play games. Listening to the noises from their mouths, Ma Shicheng felt itchy to join.

He simply placed his phone on the desk:

"Brother Long, you play, I'll taste some oranges."

Wang Longlong put down his orange immediately and took over the phone.

Ma Shicheng said, "Think about it from another perspective."

So he and Wang Longlong swapped seats, now Wang Longlong was sitting between the two and Ma Shicheng sat on the side eating oranges.

While eating oranges and watching someone else play games, it was quite delightful.

He occasionally caught a glimpse of Miao Zhe at the front of the classroom, frantically searching for his phone.

Ma Shicheng chuckled inwardly, it must be Cui Yu, that guy, who hid Miao Zhe's phone. Cui Yu often did such shady things.

Wang Longlong's garbage bag wasn't big and soon filled up with orange peels.

Ma Shicheng gathered the scattered peels and stuffed them into the garbage bag.

He picked up the garbage bag, suddenly feeling the weight was off; orange peels shouldn't be this heavy.

Ma Shicheng, being carefree, didn't mind much, perhaps Wang Longlong threw some other stuff inside earlier, and Brother Ma definitely wouldn't be caught digging through the garbage, that would be beneath him.

Ma Shicheng turned and aimed for the classroom's small garbage bin, casually tossing it, the bag of orange peels flew into the trash bin.

He clapped his hands in satisfaction, turned around, and just caught sight of Yang Sheng.

"Yo, isn't this our Saint Sister? What's up, personally taking out the trash?"

Ma Shicheng teased her, and his gaze swept over Yang Sheng again, actually, she was quite attractive, but for some reason, Ma Shicheng got annoyed whenever he saw her.

Ma Shicheng attributed the reason to his dislike of assertive women.

"What's it to you?" Yang Sheng discarded her bread bag.

Ma Shicheng sarcastically retorted, "Dare I? You're Yang Sheng, who in class 8 doesn't know your capacity?"

"When Saint Sister makes a move, you know there's no joke."

Yang Sheng always felt that Ma Shicheng was implying something about her, making her uncomfortable.

So, she pointed at the garbage bin behind:

"I see you're quite free, why don't you take out the trash?"

Ma Shicheng, feeling rebellious, retorted, "It's not even full yet, why should I? Are you ordering me around?"

Yang Sheng stated, "Not the big one, dump the small one. You do it and I'll count it as one duty day for you. So, are you going or not?"

Ma Shicheng laughed, was there such a good deal?

Normally, taking out the large trash bin was a hassle.

But this small one, he could easily lift with one hand, no trouble at all.

Ma Shicheng, fearing that Yang Sheng would change her mind, hurried to take out the trash.

He even felt that he got the better end of the deal.

Just a few more times to settle the account, and then, he would fear nothing.

No Yang Sheng, Saint Sister, or Brother Ma would be able to boss him around!

Ma Shicheng, quick as the wind, returned from taking out the trash, and he even gave Yang Sheng a victor's glance.

Ma Shicheng returned to his seat; he stopped eating oranges, fearing he would finish them all before Wang Longlong. Now, he watched Wang Longlong play games.

Longlong was good to him; he decided to be kind-hearted and let Wang Longlong play with the phone a bit longer.

Cui Yu ran over from the front, his laughter sly and sleazy, but soon, his smile vanished:

"Brother Ma, where's the garbage bag on the table?"

"What garbage bag?"

"The one with the orange peels!"

"Oh, I threw it away," Ma Shicheng replied, then asked, "What's up?"

Cui Yu, anxious, asked, "Where did you throw it?"

"Into the trash bin," Ma Shicheng.

Cui Yu felt relieved for a moment, taking a breath, luckily, their class emptied the trash very late.

"Then I dumped it at the school's garbage site," Ma Shicheng added.

Cui Yu's heart sank, his anger on the brink, "That garbage bag had Miao Zhe's lifeline!"

"Miao Zhe's phone was inside!"

Ma Shicheng was shocked, "What the fuck?"

Did that mean Miao Zhe's phone was now in the garbage site?

"Come with me," Cui Yu pulled Ma Shicheng towards the school's garbage site.

Although he liked hiding Miao Zhe's phone, he had never thought of throwing Miao Zhe's phone into the garbage dump.

The garbage dump at Fourth Middle School was chaotic, and fortunately, it was winter; the smell was not as bad as in summer, but it was still pretty unpleasant.

"Brother Ma, where did you throw it?" Cui Yu looked at the garbage dump made of concrete and asked.

Ma Shicheng scratched his head; when he dumped the trash, he deliberately performed a trick like the "Celestial Maiden Scattering Blossoms," throwing it pretty showily.

"Probably, around that spot?" He pointed to the center of the garbage heap, remembering that the bag containing orange peels had flown to the middle.

Cui Yu's expression immediately became animated, which meant he had to walk to the center of the garbage pile.

He had no choice but to look!

Otherwise, Miao Zhe would definitely fight him to the death.

Facing Miao Zhe's shadowless claw, Cui Yu was a bit intimidated.

Moreover, since he hid the phone first, he was at fault.

Cui Yu walked around the garbage heap, found a few cleaner plastic bags, and put them over his shoes and legs before stepping into the heap.

Ma Shicheng wondered whether he should go up and help, since after all, he was the one who threw the trash.

But as he looked around, he couldn't find suitable plastic bags, and if he stepped in like that, he probably wouldn't want to wear those shoes and pants tomorrow.

Forget it, forget it, he decided to assist Cui Yu with his eyes.

Ma Shicheng scanned the garbage heap, unfortunately, with its myriad of colors, it was really hard to locate anything quickly.

Cui Yu, enduring the filth and fatigue, cursed while searching, "We just started school, how can there be so much trash?"

Ma Shicheng understood well, "Senior year two and three started school earlier than us."

"Damn it." Cui Yu cursed under his breath and continued searching for the phone.

The plastic bag with orange peels wasn't very large, and being black plus Ma Shicheng's random tossing, it was even harder to find.

After searching for about seven to eight minutes without a shadow of the bag, Cui Yu became desperate.

"Brother Ma, if you're going to play games, just play games, why involve the trash?" Cui Yu complained.

Normally speaking, a garbage bag should never end up at the garbage dump—he had executed his operation flawlessly.

Ma Shicheng was also empathetically pained, "Who could have thought you'd put Miao Zhe's phone in a garbage bag?"

A normal person wouldn't come up with such a tactic.

Cui Yu explained, "Miao Zhe and I have a feud. If his phone was lost, he would definitely search my desk hole, and he would definitely check the back row, no one understands him better than me."

"So, I had no choice but to put it in a garbage bag, a place no one would think of."

He sounded righteous, but Cui Yu actually felt bitter inside, thinking he had found a perfect method, yet the first time, it was Brother Ma who ended up throwing it into the trash dump.

Ma Shicheng wondered, "Why do you keep provoking him every day?"

He had seen blood marks on Cui Yu's face several times.

Cui Yu said melancholically, "When you are in Jianghu, you can't help yourself."

He and Miao Zhe had been at odds since the school began, after a term, they still hadn't determined a winner.

Now Cui Yu had no way to back out.

In the cold winter, as he was searching for the phone, Cui Yu was sweating from the effort yet dared not wipe it away, his hands covered with garbage stains in the plastic bags.

As Ma Shicheng walked along the garbage station searching with his eyes for the orange bag, he suddenly saw Jiang Ning approaching with a small garbage can.

"Brother Ning, are you coming to dump trash?" Ma Shicheng greeted.

Jiang Ning casually dumped the garbage; Spiritual Power circulated once inside the can, and the small garbage can instantly became as clean as new.

This was a garbage can he had bought separately; Xue Yuantong was addicted to snacks, and Jiang Ning also liked eating fruits, so having a small garbage can was quite convenient.

After dumping the trash, Jiang Ning asked, "What are you guys doing here?"

Ma Shicheng didn't hide it from his old desk mate and told him about Miao Zhe's phone, sighing hopelessly in the end:

"Classes are about to start, not sure if we can find it, the first period is Chinese class. Later, could you help me tell the monitor to ask for leave for a bit?"

Cui Yu also said from the side, "Help me ask for leave too, there's too much trash."

Jiang Ning looked at the garbage heap and covered it with his Divine Sense.

"Maybe you don't need to ask for leave for you guys," he said.

"What?" Ma Shicheng was puzzled.

Then he saw Jiang Ning raise his hand, flicking his finger lightly as if flicking a stone.

The garbage heap in front of Cui Yu suddenly burst with a "thud," as if it was hit by a stone.

"The orange bag is underneath, Cui Yu check it out," Jiang Ning instructed.

Ma Shicheng: "Huh?"

"How did you see it?" he was slightly incredulous, having watched for a long time and never seeing a shadow.

Cui Yu, following Jiang Ning's words, flipped the garbage and indeed found a bag.

Excitement spread across Cui Yu's face as he yanked the garbage bag forcefully, shouting joyfully,

"Found it!"

Perhaps because the movement was too vigorous, the garbage bag tore, and the orange peels along with the phone fell into a pile of garbage, mixing with all kinds of filthy trash.

Cui Yu was dumbfounded.

Ma Shicheng watched helplessly as the phone disappeared; the initial shock was almost gone, replaced by shock.

"What are you waiting for? Dig Miao Zhe's phone out fast!" he yelled.

Cui Yu hastily started searching through the garbage pile, and fortunately, everything went smoothly; he successfully fished out Miao Zhe's dirt-covered phone.

He took a deep breath of relief, finally having found it.

"Quickly clean Miao Zhe's lifeblood, make sure it's not dirty," Cui Yu brought the phone over.

He removed the garbage bags from his feet and hands and asked the two,

"Any of you have paper?"

Ma Shicheng never carried paper when going out, but Jiang Ning took out a small packet of paper.

"Thanks, Brother Ning." If it weren't for Jiang Ning's help today, he might not have been able to find the phone, who knows how long he would have been searching the garbage heap.

"It's nothing," Jiang Ning said.

Cui Yu wiped Miao Zhe's phone with the paper; the screen was stained with some mud, and he couldn't wipe it clean.

He looked around, unable to find a source of water.

Determined, he spat on it.

Ma Shicheng watched the scene, his mouth twitching, but he remained silent.

Cui Yu rubbed furiously with the paper until he finally cleaned Miao Zhe's phone, at least it looked clean on the surface.

He took a sniff, no smell of garbage.

"Let's go, find a chance to return the phone."

"Guys, keep this a secret for me, I'll treat you to milk tea tonight," Cui Yu said, holding the phone as he headed to the classroom.