Chapter 56

Across the street from Peach Blossom Residential Area, in the Harmony Garden compound, Shi Zhirong—who had narrowly escaped drowning just that morning—was currently sprawled across his desk in sheer boredom, playing with a ballpoint pen.

He muttered complaints under his breath. "I almost drowned, and yet I still have to do homework. There's no humanity here, nobody cares about me at all."

The workbook spread out in front of him was entirely blank, not a single word written on it.

Shi Zhirong was in the sixth grade of elementary school and would be moving on to middle school the following semester. However, his grades were poor, ranking near the bottom of his class. In the eyes of his teachers and parents, he was universally recognized as the most mischievous and prickly child.

Irritated, he tugged at his hair, casually scribbled a few checkmarks in the notebook, and put the pen down.

His gaze was involuntarily drawn to the golden toad placed before him. He put down the pen and reached out to touch it. This golden toad was the very reason he had fallen into the water. He hadn't shown it to a single soul; given his usual show-off personality, even if he didn't show it to his parents, he would have bragged about it to his friends. Yet, the moment he grasped the golden toad, he only wanted to keep it exclusively to himself and share it with no one.

He looked closely at the small golden creature, half-suspecting that the toad blinking at him earlier had not been an illusion.

At this age, children were fearless—even if a ghost stood right in front of them, they would likely turn around and pee on it. At the same time, they pursued individuality, always fantasizing about having miraculous encounters, soaring through the skies, burrowing through the earth, saving the world like the heroes on television, defeating bad guys, and being worshipped by everyone.

"Are you alive?" Shi Zhirong shook the golden toad in his hand and asked with a hint of anticipation. "Can you speak? Do you know magic?"

"Are you an immortal or a monster? My name is Shi Zhirong, a student in Class 3, Grade 6 of Peach Blossom Elementary School. What's your name, and why were you in the water? Were you thrown away by someone?"

As he babbled on with his endless questions, a flash of light seemed to ripple across the body of the golden toad in his hand. In an instant, the toad transformed from a hard, cold statue into a soft, living creature. The toad's tightly closed mouth opened slightly, and a croak suddenly echoed in his ear.

Shi Zhirong rolled over and sat up abruptly. He had heard it—it hadn't been a hallucination just now!

"Was that you calling? Was it you?"

The golden toad's eyes rolled, and those cold eyes stared straight at him, though the bulging pupils were too miniature to look truly terrifying.

Shi Zhirong brought the golden toad much closer, his fingers touching a soft texture completely different from before, trembling with excitement.

The golden toad croaked, "Human, I am the Great Toad Immortal. Was it you who brought me out of the water?"

Shi Zhirong held the toad and nodded frantically. "It was me, it was me! Great Toad Immortal, you're alive, that's so cool. What else can you do? Can you fly? Can you turn me into Superman? Or Spider-Man?"

The golden toad's expression seemed to stiffen for a moment, but it still spoke. "I can. The fact that you can see me means we are destined. I can grant your wish, but to achieve it, you need to trade something in return."

"What kind of thing? I have money, I have several hundred yuan of New Year's money, is that enough?" Shi Zhirong quickly jumped off the bed and rummaged through a drawer for a pencil box, inside of which lay a scattered stack of bills totaling nearly six hundred yuan.

He held all the money out in front of the golden toad. "Can I trade with these? I'll give them all to you. I want to become a superhero, the super powerful kind!"

The golden toad glared at him and coldly spat out two words: "Not enough."

"Ah, is this not enough? Then how much do you need?" Shi Zhirong looked somewhat discouraged. He could borrow a little from his friends and probably scrape together a thousand yuan, but he couldn't get any more than that, and he certainly couldn't ask his parents.

"Money cannot be used for the trade. It needs to be something from your own body."

Shi Zhirong patted himself down. What could there possibly be on his body—his clothes? "Make it clearer. Do you want my clothes or my shoes? You can have those."

The golden toad's eyes flashed with a eerie light. "I want your blood, your limbs, or your soul in exchange."

Shi Zhirong froze, finding it hard to believe, and stammered, "Th-this, how do you trade this? You want to draw my blood? No way, I'm terrified of pain. And I can't live without my hands and feet, or I won't be able to walk or hold things."

"Then use your soul in exchange. I can directly turn you into Superman, able to fly through the skies and burrow through the earth."

Shi Zhirong began to wonder if this thing was somewhat evil. What normal immortal would use such things for a trade?

"Are you really an immortal? Why does this sound so terrifying?"

Seeing that this kid was not easy to trick, the golden toad immediately changed its tune. "Of course I am an immortal, but my cultivation is not easy either. The wish you want is too difficult, so naturally, it requires a higher price. I also have ordinary transactions here. For example, if you pay ten milliliters of blood, I can help you finish your homework."

Shi Zhirong, who had been agonizing over his homework, lit up. This was much more practical and far cheaper than turning into a superhero. Ten milliliters of blood was just a tiny bit—he bled way more than that whenever he accidentally scraped himself. He was immediately tempted. Yet, he was still very afraid of having his blood drawn.

"Drawing blood hurts a lot. You're an immortal, is there a way that doesn't hurt?"

"Of course there is." The golden toad croaked twice, opened its mouth, and its tongue swiftly brushed against Shi Zhirong's hand. He only felt a faint, slick sensation on his hand, and then the toad declared, "Transaction complete."

Shi Zhirong blinked in confusion, looked down at his hand, and saw not a single wound. How was the transaction already complete?

"You've already taken my blood?"

"Yes."

"It really didn't hurt at all! Then hurry up and help me finish my homework. I want to see, will the words all appear in a flash?" He couldn't wait to watch the Great Toad Immortal perform magic.

The toad leaped directly onto the top of his head, and before Shi Zhirong could react, he instantly lost all consciousness. Like a wandering ghost, he sat down at the desk, picked up his pen, and began to write.

His mother, Zhai Xiaoqing, pushed the door open to take a peek and was astonished to find her son obediently doing his homework. She lingered for a couple of extra moments; seemingly unable to see the toad perched on Shi Zhirong's head, and not wanting to disturb her son, she quickly closed the door and stepped back out.

Shi Zhirong's pen scratched across the paper non-stop, but after writing half a page, the tip abruptly paused.

The work in this notebook was math homework. Sixth-grade math involved calculating volumes and perimeters, factors, common multiples, prime numbers, and direct and inverse proportions. If someone had been away from school for too long, catching sight of these problems all of a sudden made it a bit hard to process them immediately.

The golden toad's eyes stared at the confusing combination of numbers on the page and croaked out loud.

"I don't know how."

Eerily, however, at that exact moment, another strange and young male voice emerged from the golden toad's mouth.

"If you don't know how, do you expect *me* to know? You've cultivated for hundreds of years, and you can't even do a few elementary school problems? What use are you then!"

"I've never been to school. You're a human, and these are elementary school problems; you should definitely know."

The toad's retort caused the strange voice to pause for a few seconds before raising its volume as if in sullen rage. "Who says humans must have gone to school? Why did you agree to help him with his homework? What good is ten milliliters of blood? It's been so long, and this is all you have to show for it? You couldn't get *her* blood, and now you can't even get an ordinary person's soul—what a piece of trash! Just hook his soul away directly!"

The golden toad sounded accustomed to the scolding. "This is the territory of those two major demons; it's very dangerous. Hooking away a soul directly will get us discovered; I have to take it step by step. If you take me away from here, I'll find a new target immediately."

"Hmph, you might as well stay there then. Don't harbor any sneaky thoughts, or I can make you vanish into dust at any second."

Yet, after issuing the threat, the voice on the other end frantically helped him look at the problems anyway. After a long pause, the pen moved again, laboriously writing downward. By the time all the homework was finally finished, a full hour had already passed.

Shi Zhirong's mother peeked through the doorway several times. Usually, her son would play for ten minutes after working for five, and he had never once managed to sit still for half an hour. How was it that an hour had passed today and he still hadn't come out? Could it be that his near-drowning had scared him straight and changed his habits?

As soon as the homework was finished, the golden toad leaped off Shi Zhirong's head and landed back in front of him. Shi Zhirong woke up as if waking from a deep sleep, his mind hazy. The moment he opened his eyes, he found that the previously blank workbook had been completely filled out.

How come he hadn't seen any of the process? Was it really this miraculous?

He held up the workbook, flipping through it with pleasant surprise, and looked at the golden toad with admiration. "Great Toad Immortal, you're amazing! Can I ask you to help me with my homework next time?"

"Of course you can."

No sooner had the golden toad spoken than an angry roar echoed in its mind: "No, you can't! Stop doing homework, switch to a different condition!"

Unmoved, the golden toad had no intention of changing its mind.

Full of enthusiasm, Shi Zhirong unzipped his schoolbag and pulled out his Chinese and English workbooks together. "Great Toad Immortal, help me do these two as well."

Losing thirty milliliters of blood at once didn't seem like much; he could make it back by eating a couple more meals. Besides, it didn't even hurt, and compared to that, homework was infinitely more agonizing.

The golden toad eyed the two books, its attention caught by the one full of letters. "...English?"

The voice in its mind instantly blew its top, issuing an icy threat: "If you dare to agree, I will kill you right now!"

After weighing things for a long time, the golden toad silently extended a paw, pressed down on the English workbook, and pushed it back. "Foreign stuff. I don't do it."

Shi Zhirong sighed regretfully. "Yeah, I keep saying, why should we Chinese people study foreign gibberish? Look, even the Great Toad Immortal doesn't study foreign gibberish. I guess I'll just go copy the homework tomorrow."

Doing the Chinese homework went much faster than the math. This time, the toad finished it in just half an hour.

Shi Zhirong had no idea that an hour and a half had already slipped by, until Zhai Xiaoqing finally couldn't help pushing the door open and walking in, carrying a plate of fruit.

"Son, don't study for too long. Eat some fruit and take a break."

Shi Zhirong was somewhat flattered—since when had his mother ever been this nice to him?

Terrified that his mother would spot the golden toad on the desk, he hurriedly jumped up, scooped the toad into his pocket, and snapped, "Why did you suddenly walk in? Don't you know how to knock?"

Zhai Xiaoqing scolded, "What knocking is there to do in my own house? Am I not allowed to care about you? I wanted to see if you were actually writing after dawdling for so long, or if you were just putting on a show!"

With that, she grabbed his workbook and flipped through it, discovering to her surprise that both the math and Chinese assignments were genuinely finished.

She stared in astonishment, glancing back and forth between the workbook and her child, refusing to believe he had really turned over a new leaf.

Fortunately, the English was still blank, preventing her from feeling that this son had become a total stranger.

"My, aren't you brilliant today! Mom is so surprised." Saying this, she stepped forward and gave him a hug.

Unaccustomed to being hugged so out of the blue, especially when he was always rebelling against his parents, Shi Zhirong felt a bit shy. He sniffed, pushed his mother away, and muttered, "Alright, don't just hug me. It's just that you guys never noticed how talented I am before. When I actually put in the effort, I can blow everyone away."