Freshman Bathroom Number Four Hundred and Ninety-Nine was located at the far northern corner of the freshman dormitory quadrangle.
Unlike the gloomy, cobweb-choked dungeons of the old Protagonist Academy, the newly renovated freshman bathroom was bright, well-ventilated, and tiled in gleaming white ceramic. Twelve porcelain stalls stood in a neat row along the left wall, opposite a long brass wash-trough fed by warm solar-heated spring water.
Kneeling on the wet white tiles in front of Stall #11 was former Headmaster Hong.
Six years of non-stop janitorial labor under the mechanical supervision of the pink porcelain bunny alarm clock on his forehead. Moreover, Su Nuannuan’s Immortal Life-Preserving Honey in his stomach had left the former dictator of Sector 7 looking remarkably fit—and utterly broken in spirit.
He wore his indestructible neon-yellow Campus Sanitation Debtor #001 vest over a patched grey undershirt. His long white hair was tied up in a practical janitor’s bandana to keep it out of the mop bucket, and his mortal hands. Thickly calloused from scrubbing two million toilets over the past six years—were moving in a blur as he scrubbed the porcelain base of Stall #11 with a three-inch bamboo toothbrush!
SCRUB-SCRUB-SCRUB-SQUEAK!
“Ninety-eight point four percent porcelain shine on Stall Eleven,” Hong muttered feverishly under his breath, his eyes glued to the tile grout as he scrubbed with textbook circular strokes. “Just the left hinge bolt left...
