For the average student, school was a place to be avoided at all costs. But for Fu Tailan, it was the closest thing he had to a vacation.
He was still lounging in his seat, the students from the previous class long gone.
He didn't know where the classroom for the next period was, because he had no idea what class was next.
This winter had been particularly long. It was nearly March, yet outside the window, the pale and blackened trees still stretched branches laden with a thin layer of snow toward the gloomy gray sky.
He could sit there quietly all morning, just watching the desolate colors of the world. Even if the next class started, no one would come to hurry him along.
The entire school knew he was just a bystander on the shore, standing outside the rules, the coursework, and the mundane. The ringing of a bell might shatter the reflection he cast upon this pool of water.
