My wife is a witch princess.

Song Che composed himself and walked into the office.

I'm a little flustered, but not scared. Just be polite and sincerely admit your mistakes.

In the office, seven teachers were either sitting or standing. The desk in the very center was the homeroom teacher's desk, and the surrounding desks were piled high with test papers, answer sheets, folders, and... a deck of cards that hadn't been put away yet.

The Chinese teacher sat at her desk at the back, with a bag of sweet cakes beside her.

Seeing that no one spoke for a moment, she picked up a piece and handed it to Song Che: "Try it, I made it myself."

The other teachers all looked disgusted when they saw the sugar cake. The biology teacher couldn't help but say, "Ms. Lan, next time you make something... try a bite yourself before sharing it with others."

The Chinese teacher had already handed it to Song Che. He didn't know whether to take it or not, so he took a bite.

Why is this sweet cake spicy?

Song Che's mind raced: saying it was delicious would seem hypocritical; saying it was terrible would upset his only supporter, his Chinese teacher.

After a moment's hesitation, he looked up and gave a sincere smile: "The sugar cakes the teacher made... taste just like the ones my mom makes."

Upon hearing this, the Chinese teacher nodded in satisfaction, her eyes filled with admiration for the child.

The other teachers silently turned their faces away: Your mom puts chili peppers in the sugar cakes she makes, right?

Just then, the homeroom teacher returned with a water cup, followed by the short-haired girl with her head down. The girl stood next to Song Che; he remembered her—besides Jiang Shuo, she was another close friend of his. He didn't know why she had failed the exam this time, and they were both here for questioning.

This girl has three tags floating above her head:

"Female psychopath", "Gender dysphoria", "Excessive gaming addiction"

The Chinese teacher also handed her a piece of sweet cake: "Here, have a taste."

The girl took a small bite and swallowed it with difficulty.

"How about it?"

"So...delicious."

Class teacher Ms. Li took a sip of tea, her gaze slowly sweeping between Song Che and Zhang Hanyu.

"Zhang Hanyu." She turned to the girl who was still secretly inhaling to relieve the spiciness, "I've looked at your test paper. You got the exact same multiple-choice questions wrong as Song Che. You got the first two steps of the math problem right, but started scribbling on the third step. Did you get distracted halfway through, or did you think the rest was worthless?"

Zhang Hanyu lowered his head, his voice barely audible: "I... I found the later calculations too troublesome, so... I just wrote some down..."

"Just write something casually?" the math teacher couldn't help but interject. He was a middle-aged man with black-rimmed glasses, and his tone was full of disappointment. "Do you know how many people are affected by just one point in the college entrance exam? Just write something casually? You're being careless about your future!"

Zhang Hanyu's eyes immediately reddened.

Teacher Li waved her hand, signaling Teacher Chen to calm down. She then turned to look at Song Che.

“Song Che, your situation is rather special. Teacher Lan also said that scoring 137 in Chinese means it's not a matter of ability. But in other subjects, especially the combined science and math, the multiple-choice questions were obviously guessed. Zhang Hanyu sat behind you during the exam and copied from you, you know? The essay questions were either left blank or you only wrote a few formulas. You even wrote a whole string of words in your English essay…”

She paused, then said, "Some kind of self-created symbol. Could you explain it?"

All the teachers' eyes turned to him.

Song Che knew he couldn't avoid it. His back was straight, his face showing no panic, only a moderate sense of shame.

"Teacher Li, teachers, I'm sorry for making you worry." He first bowed sincerely. "I really didn't have the right attitude for this exam. Especially the big questions in the science and math sections, it wasn't that I didn't know how, it was just... I had some resistance."

"Resistance?" The physics teacher, an elderly gentleman with gray hair, pushed up his glasses.

Song Che nodded, speaking calmly and clearly, "Some things happened at home recently, which made me a little emotionally unstable. When I saw those complicated calculations, I don't know why... I got stuck on them."

He was telling half truths.

The "family matters" naturally refer to Xia Li's appearance, and her emotional fluctuations are genuine.

As for getting bogged down in details—to some extent, after experiencing the rules of the magical world, looking at certain physical models can indeed create a subtle sense of alienation, since magic is something that defies Newton's laws!

But this reason is much more believable than "[I actually came back from another world, and my mind is full of potion recipes]", after all, the pressure of senior year of high school is immense, and the teachers are well aware of that.

"Then how do you explain it in Chinese?" The English teacher, a young woman, asked curiously. "Those thoughts about life and death, time, in your essay don't seem like something a student who gets bogged down in trivialities would write. And that string of symbols on your English test... what kind of code is that?"

She laughed as she spoke. The symbols looked messy, but upon closer inspection, a pattern could be found. She had taken cryptography as an elective in college, and these symbols had similarities to variant Morse code. She even planned to study what Song Che had written that night.

Song Che laughed, scratching the back of his head somewhat sheepishly: "I'm sorry to have made you laugh, teacher. As for Chinese... it's probably because I've always liked reading all sorts of books, so I tend to overthink things. That string of symbols..."

His smile held a hint of helplessness. "Actually, I just made it up for fun when I was under a lot of pressure. I was distracted during the exam and wrote it down without realizing it... I'm very sorry, I wasn't serious."

He admitted his mistake, but attributed the cause to fluctuations in his mindset and high pressure—common problems for senior high school students.

Sure enough, the teachers' expressions softened somewhat. Students aren't afraid of making mistakes; what they're afraid of is not admitting them. Song Che's attitude at least showed that he knew what was going on.

Teacher Lan chimed in, "See? What did I tell you? This child is just too thoughtful and overthinks things! Which teenager isn't sentimental? What's wrong with a little philosophical thinking? I think it's a good thing!"

Zhang Hanyu lowered his head even further, but kept stealing glances at Song Che out of the corner of his eye.

The homeroom teacher glanced at Song Che, but didn't pursue the matter further, simply tapping on the desk:

“I accept your reason. But your attitude must be corrected. You applied to study at home yourself. I gave you autonomy because I trust your self-discipline, not because I want you to slack off.”

“I understand, Teacher Li,” Song Che immediately replied. “I will make a detailed plan and report my progress to you every day. I will focus on improving my weaker subjects and will not make the same mistakes again.”

“Talk is cheap.” Teacher Li pulled a test paper from the drawer. “Next Monday, I want to see your improved attitude reflected in your grades. If you continue to selectively answer questions…”

She didn't finish her sentence, but her meaning was clear.

"No problem." Song Che took the test paper, but he was actually not sure.

Even if you pull out all your hair in a week, you might not be able to get it back.

"And you too." Teacher Li looked at Zhang Hanyu. "Your problem... never mind, you know it yourself. I've been there, I just advise you not to let it interfere with your work. This question wasn't difficult, Song Che just wrote whatever came to mind, but you started writing whatever came to mind after you finished half of it, just to come to the office and get a scolding?"

The homeroom teacher sighed, "Go back. If your grades drop again, call your parents. I'm a teacher; I have to live up to my responsibilities..."

Song Che nodded: "Okay, teacher."

Zhang Hanyu stammered, "I understand..."

The two left the office, the door closing behind them, and the corridor fell silent.

Zhang Hanyu let out a long sigh of relief. She whispered to Song Che, "You scared me to death... You're amazing, you weren't afraid even when the teacher was so fierce. And that sugar cake, it was so spicy, how did you manage to eat it?"

Song Che smiled, offered no explanation, and simply said, "Let's go, at least we've managed to get away with it."

“Okay.” Zhang Hanyu suddenly tugged at Song Che’s sleeve and asked, “How about it? Am I… a good friend?”

"Much more considerate than Jiang Shuo. It's just that you got scolded for nothing this time. I don't have time to play games with you lately."

As they reached the stairwell, Zhang Hanyu suddenly asked, "Song Che, are you not coming to school anymore?"

"Yes, I'm studying at home."

"Okay... wait a minute, I'll return the umbrella to you from last time."

"Umbrella?" Song Che didn't remember this. "Okay, I'll wait for you here."

Chapter 38 How to Prove You're a Respectable Person

Song Che walked home carrying his umbrella, with a note in his hand that read: "Thank you for your umbrella."

He then suddenly realized what his mother meant by "early romance".

The teacher probably noticed that one student was writing down random answers, and another girl who had been answering questions correctly suddenly started writing down random answers as well, and the two were making the same mistakes. Zhang Hanyu is a girl, so her little tricks were obvious to the teacher.

As for misunderstandings, only a teacher would think that way.

Song Che doesn't have many friends, only three at most, but each one is a good friend.

Besides Jiang Shuo, Zhang Hanyu is another of his buddies. She is introverted and meticulous, but also a complete oddball—her self-gender identity is somewhat blurred, and she always believes that men and women are structurally the same species.

This guy would even seriously send her all sorts of study materials, which made it impossible for any girls to get close to her. As a result, she only had Song Che as a friend, and Jiang Shuo could barely be considered half a friend, as that guy was purely after the study resources she had.

The last one was his childhood friend, whom he had known since they were little. They went to different high schools and could only see each other during holidays when they returned to their hometown. But that was Song Che's best friend.

As he walked, he thought to himself that he really needed to find a time to get together; he missed them terribly.

As dusk fell, a cool breeze whistled down his neck. Passing a small shop, he couldn't help but stop and stare at the scarves hanging in the window, lost in thought.

There's a light purple one that looks very soft.

Song Che was suddenly stunned.

……

Pushing open the door, Xia Li was curled up on the sofa, using Bruce as a hand warmer. Upon seeing Song Che return, she immediately released the victim.

Bruce barked and darted to Song Che's legs, rubbing against him, looking so aggrieved he was about to speak.

Song Che picked it up and found it was warm all over. It was too cold outside, so he also put his hand under Bruce's belly to warm it up.

Bruce seemed to freeze for a moment.

Putting down the melancholy-looking cat, Song Che took out the light purple scarf from the bag and handed it to Xia Li: "It's cold, wear this when you go out."

Xia Li took it, her gaze still following Bruce as he fled, until he slipped into the room, at which point she reluctantly turned her attention to Song Che.

Song Che put down his umbrella, sat down on the sofa, and said seriously, "Xia Li, there's something I need to make clear to you. Everyone in this world has an ID card. If you're found to be unregistered, the consequences won't be much better than if a kobold were caught in a human city-state."

"I am not a kobold."

"That would be like the Demon King being exposed on the spot by the Hero's party."

"I understand," Xia Li asked. "So, do you need me to forge an ID card?"

“It’s not possible right now…” Song Che paused, “But the good thing is, as long as you don’t cause trouble, no one will bother to investigate you. As long as you behave normally and do as I say, there shouldn’t be any major problems living here in the long run.”

What should I do?

“First, you need to assume a certain identity and strictly adhere to the appropriate words and actions for that identity in your daily life.” Song Che observed her expression. “For example, as mentioned before, if you are my sister or other relative, then you need to act close to her and change how you address her.”

Xia Li remained silent for a while.

"For example, now that you're my sister, you should call me 'brother.' Come on, try it..."

“Pigeon…” Xia Li’s lips parted slightly, then she immediately pursed them. “I don’t want to be the younger sister, I want to be the older sister.”

"That's impossible. If you don't want to be the younger sister, you can only be the younger older sister—I guess you wouldn't like that either. So, there's only one identity left to choose from."

"what?"

"A young maid, you should be addressed as master, and you'll be responsible for cleaning and taking care of her daily needs..." Song Che deliberately teased her.

"I choose the younger sister," Xia Li said in a muffled voice.

"Alright, enough joking around. I've already decided on our relationship, but we need a contract to bind us together. Once the contract is established, one party can make a request to the other that aligns with our relationship." Song Che stopped joking. "Our relationship is—boyfriend and girlfriend. We can just call each other by our first names, but in front of outsiders... we need to be careful about our words and phrases to avoid my parents noticing anything amiss."