One man's meat is another man's poison!
Xiaoqiang planned to become a streamer. With the rise of the commercial internet in recent years, plenty of ordinary people had seized the opportunity to shoot to fame, and he was very drawn to the idea.
Yu Fei could only support his good friend's dream. 'People are mortal,' he thought. 'Even a Martial Saint only lives for about two hundred years—not even as long as a tortoise.'
'The meaning of life lies in self-fulfillment.' Yu Fei felt there was nothing wrong with Xiaoqiang's choice.
Li Mengyao hadn't begun her skin refinement yet, so she was unfortunately placed in the improvement class. However, she was close to a breakthrough.
Currently, only five students in their class had completed the skin refinement stage.
Yu Fei, Jiang Yifan, Du Mingxuan, Zhang Qingyu, and Liu Min.
The standard for getting into the sprint class was completing skin refinement within the first semester. From Class 6 of their year, only those five had made the cut.
After Yu Fei and Jiang Yifan shed their skin, students in other classes began to succeed in their own skin refinement. The initial excitement gradually died down. People were still curious, but not overly so.
The boys didn't care as much about their appearance; at worst, they'd just wear a baseball cap to school. Some of the more extroverted ones would even show off their bald heads, treating it as a badge of honor.
The girls, however, almost always stayed home. Few could endure the strange looks from others.
Du Mingxuan and the other two who had just finished also experienced the itchiness of new hair growing all over their bodies. Amid their awkwardness, they shot Yu Fei and Jiang Yifan inexplicable looks.
Yan Sea finally announced that the sprint class rankings would be revealed at the beginning of next semester. Students in different tiers would receive different resources. Anyone who disagreed with their rank could issue a challenge, which would be settled primarily through combat.
The days passed, and Yu Fei converted all of Mr. Du's financial support into tangible strength.
Yu Fei explained the situation to his parents. From now on, instead of coming straight home after school, he would go with Du Mingxuan to the Aurora Martial Arts Dojo. The dojo provided training meals; the food was good, and it was all-you-can-eat for the meat dishes.
Fortunately, Mr. Yu had been promoted to workshop supervisor. He'd become what you might call a "glorified workhorse on salary," which meant he no longer had to work fixed overtime hours. Thus, the heavy responsibility of looking after Yu Wei fell to him.
「9 PM」
Yu Fei finished his last set of the Ox Subduing Pile Skill. His skin was flushed red, and his muscles could be seen twitching beneath it.
Having already passed the Skin stage, he barely sweated anymore. The heat from his body tempering exercises built up inside him, raising his core temperature to what would likely be around forty degrees Celsius on a thermometer.
Of the five stages of body tempering, the Flesh stage took the longest, followed by Bone, then Blood. The Skin stage was the easiest.
Generally speaking, using someone with Jiang Yifan's aptitude as a benchmark, the Flesh stage would take roughly a year to complete.
With Mr. Du's funding, Yu Fei estimated that at his current pace, it would take him eight months to break through the Flesh stage.
He had been training in the Flesh stage for less than two months and was already a little over twenty percent complete.
Cultivating the martial path was a gradual process; there were no "early," "mid," or "late" phases within a single stage. Every small step forward brought a tangible increase in strength. This feeling of constantly growing more powerful was intoxicating.
It was ten o'clock by the time he got home. Yu Wei and his mom were already asleep, but Mr. Yu was hunched over his work laptop, scratching his head in frustration.
"You're writing a report?"
Mr. Yu stared blankly at the screen, not even looking up.
"Yeah. Being a supervisor isn't easy. This report of mine has already been sent back three times. I have to rewrite it."
Yu Fei's interest was piqued. 'The last time I wrote a report was in my previous life.'
"Let me see!"
"Here!"
Mr. Yu pushed the laptop over, then leaned back with his hands clasped behind his head, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Yu Fei skimmed through it and immediately spotted the problems.
'The report's logic is all over the place,' Yu Fei thought. 'It's just long blocks of text with no key data, and the formatting and color scheme are terrible. This needs a complete overhaul.'
After a quick read, Yu Fei knew what to do. He turned to his father. "The report is titled 'November Production Status Update.' So, what does 'production' actually entail?"
"Your content is off track. You need separate sections for things like attendance, output, inventory acceptance rate, incidents, work order completion rate, and so on. The areas where things went well—you need to highlight those. Those are your achievements."
"For the problem areas, you need to focus on how you identified the root cause, how you're solving it, what progress you've made, and your strategy for future improvements."
"And stop using so much text. You need charts and graphs."
"Also, the report shouldn't be so flashy. Just stick to a basic three-color scheme."
"This whole report needs to be redone."
Mr. Yu was dumbfounded as Yu Fei pointed at the screen and broke down the report's flaws.
"Son, how come you sound more like a department head than my actual department head? I think he mentioned some of this stuff before, but I just don't know what a 'good' report looks like. I tried asking the other supervisors for a template, but none of them would share."
"Of course they wouldn't give it to you. It's hard to make real friends at work. There's always competition. The only way to get a firm footing is to make yourself indispensable."
Yu Fei knew his father would have to practice a few times before he could write a satisfactory report on his own. Some things are easy once they finally click.
"When is this report due?"
"Next Tuesday!"
"Alright, bring all the data home this weekend. I'll teach you."
"Okay!"
Mr. Yu's spirits visibly lifted. It didn't even occur to him to wonder how his son, who had never been exposed to this kind of work, knew what to do. Mr. Yu simply had blind faith in him.
Before bed, Yu Fei observed his mental space. The Fate Reversal Pearl glittered brightly, orbited by eight motes of stardust. It was a beautiful sight.
The Fate Reversal Pearl currently held one charge of its duplication ability. In another week, it would have two.
「That weekend」
Yu Fei was fixing the report while Mr. Yu sat beside him like a student, occasionally answering questions. Yu Fei explained each step as he went.
'In his past life as a mid-level manager at a major corporation, if nothing else, Yu Fei's report-writing skills had been top-notch.'
The same facts, presented differently, could create a completely different impression.
Just as he was about to finish, the front door opened.
Yu Miao was back. Her Ladyship had graced them with her presence!
"Dad! Feifei! I'm home!"
Mr. Yu was instantly overjoyed. He shot up from his seat, took Yu Miao's luggage, and a torrent of questions poured from his mouth.
"When did your break start?"
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"I would have picked you up!"
"Have you eaten?"
"Are you cold?"
"..."
To sum up Mr. Yu's state at that moment: he was so overjoyed he'd lost his mind.
"Our break started early, so I came back to give you guys a surprise!"
Yu Miao was also thrilled to be home. It was her first time living so far away, and she missed everything about her family.
Yu Miao was attending a teacher's college in the neighboring province. Although it wasn't too far, she hadn't had a single chance to come home all semester.
Just then, Yu Wei threw open her bedroom door and rushed out. "Sis! I missed you like crazy!"
She threw her arms around her in a hug, then promptly snatched the bag from Yu Miao's hand and started rummaging through it.
"My dearest sister, did you perhaps bring some goodies for your loyal servant?"
Yu Wei asked as she searched.
"I did, I did! Just hold on a second and let me get my things organized."
Yu Fei stepped forward. He and Yu Miao looked at each other and smiled. "Welcome home!"