Under the church-like dome of Chicago Railway Station, Lu Mingfei held a train ticket and looked blankly at the bustling crowd in front of him.

Lu Mingfei crossed the ocean and came to this foreign land at this moment, this is not a dream, but a real reality, but he now feels that he would rather be dreaming.

When he passed through Chicago Customs, he had taken dozens of pirated PS2 discs with him, and after deducting the $500 fine, only 20 remained.

As the beginning of Lu Mingfei's college life, the city of Chicago then gave him a blow in the face.

The train ticket for the CC1000 express train that Lu Mingfei had in his hand that came with Norma's mail courier could not be found on the train timetable at the railway station.

Such a question is not mentioned in the thick brochure entitled "A Fool's Guide to Admission to the Kassel Academy (Lu Mingfei Edition)" that was sent with the email, so it can only be said that it was an accident.

Lu Mingfei pushed the two suitcases, which together weighed about the same as him, and thought as he walked.

If it was an accident, judging from the great effort of the college when recruiting students, I am optimistic that maybe the omnipotent artificial intelligence secretary of the academy, Norma, has begun to arrange for someone to pick him up, and the pessimistic thought that maybe he has been forgotten, in this foreign country, Lu Mingfei, who only has twenty yuan on his body, can only sleep on the streets and become a traditional American vagabond.

Lu Mingfei thought for a while, and was not in a hurry, he went to Subway and spent six dollars to buy a sandwich and Coke package, and then took out his mobile phone and dialed a number, by the way, the Nokia N96 mobile phone given by the academy has been treasured by his uncle as a parting gift, and he now has the old mobile phone that his uncle eliminated.

"Hello, Norma the secretary of the Kassel Academy is at your service, do you need any help?" Nomana's gentle, slightly mechanical voice came from the phone.

"Norma, I'm stuck at Chicago Station right now, and there's no CC1000 express train on the train schedule." Lu Mingfei briefly explained the current situation.

"The voiceprint verification is successful, confirmed to be the number A.D.0013 student Lu Mingfei, confirm the authority: S, Lu Mingfei Hello, I am confirming your situation, I have contacted the nearest staff for you, please wait in place."

Noma's gentle voice gave Lu Mingfei a strong sense of security, and his hanging heart finally let go.

"Hello, are you Lu Mingfei?" It didn't take long for a person to sit next to Lu Mingfei.

Being able to hear such a fluent Chinese in a foreign country made Lu Mingfei feel very cordial, and he turned his head to look at the person next to him, and couldn't help but be stunned for a moment.

He was a tall, burly young man, with a distinctly Germanic appearance, a face buried in his beard that was handsome on closer inspection, and eyes shining like candles, except for the dark green checkered shirt and the draggy trousers that had not been washed for a long time. Most of the homeless people who meet such clothes in the United States are homeless people with local characteristics, and even ordinary homeless people are probably dressed more decently than him.

"Fingal von Flins." The young man pulled out a crumpled student ID to prove that he was not an idler, "I was waiting for the college train around here, and Norma was transferred to pick you up." ”

In addition to his student ID, the young man, who identified himself as Fingal von Frings, pulled out a magnetic card ticket from his pocket, identical to Lu Mingfei's CC1000 express ticket, with a black face painted with a leafy giant tree pattern in silver.

Before Lu Mingfei could speak, Fingal continued: "Brother, do you have a spare dollar to lend me a Coke?" ”

Lu Mingfei thought to himself that maybe the homeless man might not be the other identity of Fingal in front of him, and fulfilled his request.

"Brother, I admire you, you seem to be righteous!" Fingal sat on a bench with no image or image of what he was wearing, munching on a sandwich and drinking the Coke that Lu Mingfei had contributed.

Lu Mingfei had time to talk to this senior brother about business: "Senior brother, what grade are you?" ”

"Eighth grade."

"Eighth grade?" Lu Mingfei choked on Coke.

"Oh, it's actually a senior, but I'm deferring my graduation, which means repeating a grade." Fingal said.

"What do you mean eighth grade?"

"Because I stayed for four years."

Lu Mingfei felt that this was very terrifying, the Fingal in front of him looked like the earthbound spirit of the Kassel Academy, is it really so difficult to graduate from the academy?

This made Lu Mingfei worry about his future, so he decided to change the subject: "So, you should have been on that train before?" ”

"At the beginning of each semester, I sit there, otherwise I have to take a helicopter. The college is in the mountains, and only this train goes there, and no one knows the timetable, anyway, no one knows about the Chicago train station, and the last conductor who knew the timetable for that train died the year before, and he said that the train has been in operation since before World War II. "But don't worry, the cars will always come, and the lower class will have to wait for the cars." ”

"Class?" Lu Mingfei was aware of a word that Norma had said before.

"A kind of thing similar to aristocratic status, you can understand it as the authority to act in the academy, students of high rank will have some privileges, and the resources of the academy will be provided to him first, such as priority to send cars or something." Fingal explained.

"Then you've been reading for eight years and you're not high enough?" Lu Ming was puzzled.

"How high do you think a student who hasn't graduated in eight years should be in the academy? Truth be told, I was struggling with dropping out and catching up credits. Fingal said.

"Is it easy to find a job after graduating from this Kassel Academy? You have been in the fourth grade for four years and are still reluctant to drop out? ”

"No, they graduate with a package assignment job!" Fingal hiccuped, very loudly.

Without any more words, Lu Mingfei followed Fingal back to the Chicago train station to wait for the train.

Lu Mingfei asked how long the train would have to wait, and Fingal said that the train usually departs late at night, and if you are unlucky, you even have to wait for two or three days, which is the case with low class.

Lu Mingfei asked Fingal's class by the way what is the status, Fingal said very frankly that it is about the same level as the serf class in the Middle Ages, Lu Mingfei feels that his class may be higher than Fingal's serf, but it doesn't seem to be much higher, after all, he still has to wait for the train here, according to Fingal, high-class students will be picked up at the station, and they will not attract anyone's attention when they take the VIP channel.

This made Lu Mingfei's mood a little low, and Fingal also comforted him by saying that in fact, there were people with lower class than serfs, and some people's class was like cattle and horses. Lu Mingfei didn't know if he would become a cow and horse, and so far he was basically ignorant of the Kassel Academy, so he couldn't completely rule out this possibility.

Lu Mingfei leaned on the wooden bench in the waiting room, squinting his eyes, what had happened today made him feel a little tired.

When his consciousness came to the sword steps, Lu Ming did not rush to practice the sword, but squatted down and stroked the sword in front of him, which calmed his mood and slowly recovered his spirit.

This is a beautifully shaped eight-sided Han sword, among the three thousand swords on this sword level, it is not outstanding, and it is not particularly famous, but Lu Mingfei has a soft spot for it.

The sword that Lu Mingfei saw for the first time when he was three years old, the sword he swung for the first time when he was eight years old, including the sword that was summoned to reality for the first time from the sword steps a few days ago, Lu Mingfei felt that it was very fate with himself, this sword had no name, and Lu Mingfei gave it a name - Three Feet of Snow.

Gently pulling out the three feet of snow, Lu Mingfei saw his face reflected from Xue Liang's sword, and at this moment, a small shadow shrouded his head.

"Who?!" Lu Mingfei's eyes froze, and he drew his sword and jumped back, pointing directly at the source of that small shadow.

It was a boy, about thirteen or fourteen years old, dressed in a pure black night gown, and his immature face reflected the glow, the most striking of which were his golden pupils, in which a flame-like light flowed, like a mirror reflecting fire.

Lu Mingfei didn't know how this kid had entered this sword staircase, there had always been only him and the three thousand swords here, which made him feel like he had been invaded.

The boy was pointed at by Lu Mingfei with a sword, but he still didn't move, just looked at Lu Mingfei quietly. Lu Mingfei felt that his face seemed to contain the sadness and silence that seemed to "I have lived for thousands of years", but he just stared at Lu Mingfei directly, his eyes did not blink.

"Swap?" The boy spoke.

"What?" Lu Mingfei didn't understand what he was saying.

"Swap?" The boy asked again.

"For what? I'm out of money - no, who the hell are you? How did you get here? Lu Mingfei was confused for a moment, but quickly reacted and asked.

"Then you still refused?" The boy's golden pupils shone brightly.

At this moment, in this sword staircase, three thousand swords were unsheathed at the same time, emitting different sword sounds, and the tips of the swords pointed at the boy at the same time.

"Humph!" The boy's figure suddenly shattered and vanished, leaving only a cold snort of dissatisfaction.

"Wake up." Fingal shook Lu Mingfei awake.

"Put your luggage away, the person from the academy has picked you up." Fingal said, pointing to a person next to him.

It was a man in a dark green conductor's uniform, with a gold conductor's badge pinned to his hat and a credit card machine in his hand.

"Please give me the ticket, and after swiping it, we will go through the VIP channel to get on the bus." The conductor had a pair of beautiful green eyes, and he smiled and said to Lu Mingfei gently and politely.

Lu Mingfei gave him the ticket, and the conductor swiped on the card machine, the green light turned on, and a burst of cheerful music sounded at the same time.

"I'm really sorry, classmate Lu Mingfei, there is something wrong with our scheduling, your class is 'S', but there are very few people of that high class, so the system is wrong, originally someone will pick you up when you get off the plane." The conductor said, "Now come with us." ”

“‘S’？” Fingal's eyes widened, "Isn't it just the headmaster who is 'S'?" ”

"Not only, but no more than ten." The conductor said, then looked at Lu Mingfei, "Let's get ready to go." ”

Lu Mingfei nodded, and was about to follow, when he saw that Fingal was still in place, he asked suspiciously, "Aren't you coming along?" ”

"What? Can I be together? Fingal had a flattered look on his face.

Lu Mingfei was confused by his startled reaction, but the conductor patiently explained: "This is a special train for you, Fingal's class has been lowered to 'F', according to the convention, you can't take the special train, of course, if you want to take him, there is no problem." ”

"It's down again, it's really a cow and a horse now." Fingal muttered.

Lu Mingfei understood what privilege was, thought about it and said, "Then let's take Fingal, I don't know when I will go." ”

"I knew you were a good brother of righteousness!" Fingal patted Lu Mingfei's shoulder enthusiastically, looking excited.

They followed the conductor through the VIP passage to the platform. The CC1000 Express was black, with a streamlined body full of beauty, with dazzling silver-white arabesques unfolding on the black lacquer surface, gorgeous as a work of art. Outside the only sliding open door stood a familiar figure—Professor Guderian.

Lu Mingfei changed into the school uniform of Kassel Academy, a white shirt, a dark green suit with silver thin edges, a dark rose red scarf, and the World Tree school emblem of Kassel Academy embroidered on the chest pocket. M·Lu”。

Upper-class, too upper-class. In addition to the school uniforms, which are worth a lot of money at first glance, the carriages of this train are more elegant European style, the four walls are decorated with Victorian-style patterned wallpaper, the portholes are wrapped in solid wood, and the dark green leather sofa is embroidered with gold thread. In such an environment, wearing such a school uniform, Lu Mingfei felt as if he had become inclass.

Lumingfei, Fingal, and Professor Guderian sat across an oak table.

"Coffee or hot chocolate?" Professor Guderian asked. He leaned his back against the wall, and Lu Mingfei noticed that behind it was a huge painting obscured by canvas.

"Hot chocolate." Fingal raised his hand.

"I didn't ask you, put my legs down from the sofa, it's time for freshman admissions next, you give me a serious face." Professor Guderian reprimanded Fingal, and then looked at Lu Mingfei, "Mingfei, I am the freshman tutor temporarily assigned to you by the school, you can also ask for a glass of strong wine or something." ”

"Drinking...... Forget it, I'm not old enough to drink. Lu Mingfei shrunk his neck.

"In that case, here's a non-disclosure agreement for you to sign." Professor Guderian handed over a document.