Once the fighting was done, Fang Yuan returned to his dorm room to begin nourishing his aperture again. Rank 1 Upper Stage was within reach, but it would still take time for him to get there. He could really use some aptitude boosts right now, but the system was as indifferent to that request as it always had been.
A message reached him, and he went outside to accost Fang Zheng at the gate.
"What's going on?"
"It looks like Mo Bei was indeed too badly injured and is resting so he won't be able to do his usual duties today," Fang Yuan said. "As such, you'll be covering for him."
"What! You can't be serious!" Fang Zheng was not looking forward to yet another afternoon of standing around like a guard dog.
"Fang Zheng, it is our duty to help out our fellow clansmen," Fang Yuan said. "Think about it in the future- if one of your team members falls sick, who will help them out in the future? Show some compassion for Mo Bei and agree to do this."
"Compassion? Elder brother, don't you think that you're being too shameless? Who was the one who is responsible for his state right now anyway? Where was your compassion then when you were mercilessly striking him?" Fang Zheng asked indignantly.
"Come on now," Fang Yuan said. "If I had not knocked him out he would've been greatly disappointed that I was not fighting him seriously- one with a pride like his would not want to be treated with kid gloves, after all. Quite frankly, I did him a favor by fighting him."
"But now he's out because of you... couldn't you have gone easy on him?"
Fang Yuan gave Fang Zheng a cold look. "I was going easy on him." For once, Fang Zheng felt that Fang Yuan was actually telling the truth. A chill crept down Fang Zheng's spine - if that was 'going easy' how would it have been if Fang Yuan fought at full force?
"But brother I-"
"Fang Zheng, don't make me remind you of the oath you took while becoming vice-president. Didn't you promise that you were going to work for the good of the student body? What do you think it means to be a hero? To just sit around doing nothing? Fang Zheng, the clansmen next to you is your greatest source of strength, it is only by banding together that we can thrive in this cold world," Fang Yuan said. "And that involves helping each other out when we're down, doesn't it? Tsk, I thought that I had taught you better through example but it looks like my lessons fell on deaf ears. I had hoped that you would aspire to become a respectable gentleman within society just like me, though unfortunately you seem to lack the virtue needed for such."
Fang Zheng realized that he was going to lose this fight. He hadn't gotten into an actual physical fight with Fang Yuan- knowing that he was going to be kicked and humiliated. The others didn't look favorably on this, given he was the only one of the 'big four' as they were now called who hadn't fought. But that was fine, he had just made the excuse that he didn't want to throw hands with his elder brother.
However, in this battle of wits, there was little that he could do. "Why don't you do it then? Aren't you president?"
"I have other duties," Fang Yuan said, waving a scroll before his face with the academy elder's seal on it. "Look at this- it is a task especially given to me. Now, do you want the academy elder to know that you are giving me a hard time?"
Fang Zheng sighed, resigned to his fate as he stood outside Fang Yuan's door while the latter quickly skimmed through the scroll.
'Interesting- is this a consequence of my rebirth? This did not happen during my last time,' Fang Yuan thought as he analyzed what was written before him.
Normally, the students would be given some time off around this time to help them refine their second gu worms. Fang Yuan had been the first to pick his, but there hadn't been anything good within the gu worm storage as it was, and he had ended up taking a Little Light Gu, which could be refined into something special in the future. Also, it would boost the power and range of his moonblades, being a supporting gu worm to the clan's signature Moonlight Gu. Overall though, it was slightly disappointing and there wasn't that much advantage to being the first one to choose a second gu worm, at least, not for someone like him.
It had been too much to expect a good gu worm to be there, like the Black Boar Gu, for example. Expecting something like that would only set one up for disappointment.
Fang Yuan did not need any time to refine his second gu worm given he had the Spring Autumn Cicada's aura to work with, but the time off would help him get ahead with refining to Rank 1 Upper Stage quickly. However, it appeared that they weren't going to get time off - rather than that, the academy elder wanted to conduct a 'retreat' this year in which the class would go somewhere. The usual lessons were suspended, of course, but they would be expected, or at least, this was the point of this whole thing in the first place, that they would start socializing with each other using much of the time they were allotted.
'Is this a scheme by the academy elder because of me?' Fang Yuan wondered. By going back in time, he had changed several small things already. Either it was a direct consequence of him becoming class president or some other change that he had caused.
The academy elder had left it to Fang Yuan to decide where to go. The options were- a martial arts dojo in the village, a hot spring resort, hunting cabins outside of the village, or to just have it here in the academy.
Fang Yuan did not care either way. if it had been the old him, he would've planned on just calling in sick o something to get more time to cultivate. Now though, he was burdened with his new position and had to play along.
'I don't care either way where we happen to go, I'll pawn this off to the vice-presidents and they can choose where to go,' Fang Yuan thought.
Fang Zheng later turned his head ten minutes into his 'shift' to see that Fang Yuan was already done with his 'work' and was now cultivating.
'AH!' Fang Zheng wanted to scream. The pin on his chest now felt like it was a hundred times heavier, weighing him down and chaining him to the earth. He was going to fall even further behind the longer this continued! All of Fang Yuan's talks of solidarity and helping each other were nonsense, he knew, and were just things he was saying to force him to work harder.
The next day, Fang Zheng and a mildly mollified Mo Bei were discussing on where to go for the upcoming trip. There was excited discussion from a lot of people, and as neither Fang Zheng nor Mo Bei had any particular interest in any of the four locations in particular, they decided to leave it all up to popular vote.
It finally came down to going hunting outside the village, or to the hot springs.
"Man, don't you guys think it would be cool to go on a hunting trip?' some of the boys thought. They didn't want to go ahead with the hot springs plan.
'But wait,... if we choose hot springs there's a chance...' some of the others spoke to them, changing their minds, enticing them with what they could find in the hot springs.
"Alright, hot springs it is then," Fang Yuan said, seeing the majority consensus. As class president, he delivered this news to the academy elder, who was satisfied enough with the response.