“Shen Ning, you’ve reached Stage Four, huh.”
“So now you can fulfill your wish of loyalty.”
“Ah. Tch, not really.”
Sitting on the plane back to school, Xu Chuyao was talking to her girlfriend like this, and the distracted Shen Ning finally realized what was going on and shook her head.
“No need anymore.”
“Wait—why not?”
“Because… they already poured out their grievances.”
In the third year after entering the Crystal Stone World, just a few months ago, Liu Quan and the others reported to Tinghe Hall. With their spiritual state having twisted a bit recently, they’d already appeared in the dreams of their respective families.
Some families were all happy and cheering, some could only muster up the courage to swallow the truth, and some faced an even more terrifying ending—a family torn apart by some earlier event.
In short, there was no need for the girl to go back looking for people, nor was there any need for awkward attempts at comfort. Melon had taken the initiative to help—helping her colleagues solve this problem, after all, the Holmes Family was vast and powerful.
After hearing her girlfriend’s explanation, Xu Chuyao was quite confused. “Then what have you been working so hard for?”
Shen Ning was slightly stunned. “What do you mean, working so hard?”
“I mean, since your original goal has already been completed, why have you been working so diligently lately, advancing straight to Stage Four? Do you have some new goal?”
“Emmmm.”
This kind of thing was hard to put into words. The girl only quietly shot her girlfriend a glance, not expecting the subtle look to be instantly caught by the other party.
“Aha, I get it now,” Xu Chuyao suddenly had an epiphany, “You’re doing it for—”
Shen Ning’s heart leapt.
“—to keep your strength high enough to crush battles, so you won’t have to suffer as before. I didn’t expect I left such a deep shadow in you back then, Shen Ning.”
Tsk, that was the sound of the girl being annoyed enough to bite her teeth, and by the way, sent out a [Villain Value *100].
Xu Chuyao thought, wasn’t this what you said before? Because of the things I did back then, it led you to rush up to Stage Four so quickly. Who would’ve thought that the dignified heroine could hold a grudge like this.
Thinking of this, Xu Chuyao couldn’t help but touch her lips, feeling a mix of emotions. Luckily, the Crown Princess is kind to herself, otherwise who knows when those old debts would be repaid.
Forget it, my account balance has gone up by over three thousand again, might as well do a draw!
Kiss, kiss, spin spin…
“We’ve arrived.” The Head Teacher’s voice came from the airplane broadcast, “It’s still not dawn outside, go back and get some rest.”
“Okay, okay—”
Xu Chuyao replied casually, then stretched her back out lazily in her seat.
In those last twenty or so draws, aside from various summer fashion items, she was lucky enough to score a full set, pushing her strength up to Stage Three Peak.
Xu Chuyao was a little pleased, then glanced at the person next to her—this guy was already at Stage Four. Her joy instantly turned into resignation.
“Cheater…”
Shen Ning didn’t hear what her girlfriend was mumbling with her lips pursed. Just as she was about to ask, the airplane hatch had already opened, and Yu Yan was waving at them.
“Go get some good rest. You must’ve worked hard these past few days.”
Actually, luck was on her side…
Shen Ning felt that she had simply floated around in the Crystal Stone World for a few days, lived a few days like an emperor, met some old friends and past relatives, then leveled up, came back and casually used a skill or two in a fight. If she had to talk about hardships, it was actually quite relaxing.
Xu Chuyao, on the other hand, really felt like she’d suffered. She dashed off to her dorm the moment she got off the plane, and fell asleep before the other students had even finished class.
There were two Z’s, because this time Xu Chuyao didn’t sleep straight until noon. Two hours later, she woke up.
Mi Xiaolu, who came back to school with Xu Chuyao, thought he had conquered new territory.
“Hey, good morning, Xu Chuyao, did you wake up from your nap? Or was that an afternoon nap?”
Xu Chuyao rolled her eyes at him. “I went on a work trip to Hai District, busy as could be, when would I have time for a nap? What about you? Haven’t heard a peep from you these days, still not at Stage Four?”
Mi Xiaolu sheepishly scratched his head. “Did something happen?”
“It’s nothing.”
People on the outside knew nothing, and even insiders only knew about the Sea Monster Repulse Operation. For the sake of stability, this was still kept as a top secret operation; no one knew that, among the actors on the Stage, there was a lady who loved to wear three layers of staff uniforms for cosplay, and that she had died.
“Suits me fine,” Xu Chuyao buried her face in her hands, “I don’t want to know, either.”
Actually, Mi Xiaolu was quite interested in the inside story, but she really didn’t have time to snoop around now, because she had to deal with something even more pressing—the Final Exam.
“Xu Chuyao, the final exam is next week, have you looked at the key knowledge points the teacher posted in the class group?”
“Haven’t looked, don’t need to. I could write the answers in my sleep and wouldn’t be afraid of a single question.”
Sigh…
The sad fate of a top student—never even sneaks around to work extra hard in secret.
Mi Xiaolu put away her longing for the sea, and went back to staring at the headache-inducing test paper on her desk.
Ding ding ding, Xu Chuyao’s phone rang.
: 2 –
“Commander, you finally answered!” Xiao Si Nuo’s voice came through, “I saw the Head Teacher come back, figured you must be back too, so I called you as soon as I could, but—”
“Because I just took a nap, so I missed the call. Stay calm, say what you need to say.”
Even with such calm words, Xiao Si Nuo’s excited voice couldn’t settle down: “I found it! I found it with Teacher Cheng Chen! We got help from Luo Kangsheng, and finally learned that person’s name!”
Everything about the Twin Stars, Director Luo’s odd ideas, and all the evaluations from old-timers about Wen Shengqing—he spilled it all on the phone.
“Good, impressive,” Xu Chuyao said blandly, “You said you wrote everything down in your Little Notebook?”
“Yeah, I’ve always carried it with me, Commander. I’ll bring it over and hand it to you now.”
“Burn it.”
Just three words, and the boy felt as if he’d been hard-hugged for ten minutes.
“Um, Commander, you just said—”
“Burn it, yeah. Or else how long do you plan to keep it? What if someone finds it, then what? We can’t beat them yet, so let’s just keep our heads down and play dumb for now.”
Xiao Si Nuo mulled it over and realized that was exactly the case. He certainly couldn’t just take this evidence and march up to the leaders and say, ‘Look, your top boss is hiding a secret, he’s not a good person.’
You’d have to be tired of living.
“Then all the things I gathered this time…”
“Remember them in your heart. The more important it is, the more you should remember it by heart. If you write everything down all the time, what if someday someone like you finds it—won’t it become a disaster?”
“Alright…”
At this moment, Xiao Si Nuo was in the Head Teacher’s office, holding his phone in one hand and the Little Notebook in the other, glancing up at Yu Yan behind the office desk.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, just… Chief Li said, this should be burned.”
“Hand it over.”
Yu Yan snatched the Little Notebook, a blaze of fire rose from her palm, and she swiftly carbonized it.
“Okay, Chief Li, it’s burned,” Xiao Si Nuo reported on the phone, “So what should I do next?”
Xu Chuyao turned to look at her roommate who was still focused on the multiple-choice questions.
“Prepare for the Final Exam.”
Xiao Si Nuo was stunned: “Huh?”
“Next week,” this time it was Yu Yan who answered.
“Alright!”
No one could escape the final exam, but the girl had already come up with a strategy—whatever the paper was, as long as she wrote her name, she would just casually pick a blank space to write: ‘I don’t know, but I’m already Stage Four.’
This was taught by her girlfriend, who said it would definitely work.
But even now, she was still troubled, and the reason was the Milestone System that had just finished cooling down that morning.
“I think,” said the Sexually Repressed Shadow, “your main problem now is the number of people.”
The girl let out a small sigh.
[Milestone (Two-Star): All Happy Endings
Note: After completing this mission, the Milestone System will no longer cool down, and all subsequent missions will be transferred to the Flame Plan Table—]
Seeing the last five words, the girl felt a chill in her heart, and as she scrolled down, sure enough—
[Host, please hold a decently grand Wedding.
Requirements: No fewer than one thousand relatives and friends must attend, and the process must include at least one host performance segment.
Rewards: Two random quadruple-resist elemental attributes, spirit power raised to mid-Stage Four.]
The rewards were extremely generous, but the difficulty of the task was high—not because of the performance segment.
Singing in front of guests and such, she could muster the courage for that, but no fewer than a thousand friends and relatives…
“It’s a pity, classmates don’t count, or you could just hold a Guanghui at Shengling Academy,” the Sexually Repressed Shadow sighed, “It’s also your fault, you know—three years at school and you never bothered to get along with classmates or participate in clubs or anything. If you had, wouldn’t you have people now?”
But it’s too late to say anything now, all that remains is regret.
At this moment, the Defeated Shadow, who hadn’t spoken for a long time, suddenly piped up: “Say, do they… count?”
Though it sounded like the mumblings of an NPC, the girl and her own shadow instantly understood, the expressions on their faces rather complicated.
“So, to put it simply, without discussing the bad luck of mixing a wedding with a funeral,” said the Sexually Repressed Shadow, “are their relationships deep enough?”
Crunching the numbers, according to the shallow records of the Morgan Research Institute and a few rounds of Crystal Stone incidents, the figures added up to around forty thousand. But most of those people had never met her—in fact, quite a few would attack her on sight.
The girl and her shadow discussed it for a long time, and finally decided: Royal Guard-level could count, and those who had served for more than a week in the Singing Choir should also be fine.
It’s not about closeness, but about their hearts being full of loyalty.
“Emmmm.”
Xu Chuyao received a message from her girlfriend, saying to bring her over after she got up tomorrow.
“It’s late, why aren’t you sleeping? What are you running over there for? Yeah, just like you, always running off somewhere after you learn a new move.”
Back in the Crystal Stone World, Shen Ning asked Melon a question: “How many people do we have now? I mean, the Royal Guard… uh, Personal Guards, and the veteran Singing Choir members.”
Melon thought for a moment.
“Those who’ve been on duty for more than three days.”
“Right, probably a few hundred. Shen Ning, do you need something?”
This time Shen Ning did have an order. She asked Melon to use the upcoming period to recruit more high-quality people, expand the numbers, and try to get these two groups into the four digits.
“No problem, that fits perfectly with our current Recruitment Expansion Plan!”
Once arrangements were made, the girl was pulled back to reality by her girlfriend.
“Shen Ning, you went over there again, didn’t you?”
“Nothing much, just admiring the scenery.”
Preparing for a wedding where ninety percent of the guests are ghosts is really something.
A few days later, the Queen’s guest list was almost complete, even with Melon’s reliability, it still took some time.
But the final exams arrived right on schedule.
Over the past semester, hardly anything had happened at school. Compared to last semester, it was a dull time, and returning to the explosive campus life, the students roared as always on this day.
As the only one who had nothing to worry about, Xu Chuyao handed in her culture test paper, and just as she was about to show off a little during the answer-checking phase, she received a message from the Principal.
(Principal Lü: Come to the office at once.)
Administrative building, Principal’s office—by now, Xu Chuyao was more than familiar with the place.
“Take a seat.”
Principal Lü’s tone was a bit stern because the girl sat down directly as soon as she entered.
“Never mind, I’ll get straight to the point. The day after tomorrow is the end-of-term gathering, you know that, right?”
“Yes,” Xu Chuyao responded leisurely, “We had one last semester too.”
Thinking about it made Xu Chuyao a little mad—someone got drunk last time, thought it was fruit wine, but it was actually high-proof baijiu. After drinking, they were out cold, which let Shen Ning have all the fun.
Tch, sometimes you can’t blame Xu Chuyao, it’s just bad luck.
“This time will be different, it starts in the daytime, and there’s a leadership speech segment.” Principal Lü gave her a meaningful look, “But don’t worry, the speech isn’t from me or any of the teachers.”
Xu Chuyao immediately understood. “It’s from some bigshot, right?”
“That’s right, a very important bigshot.”
“Wen Kunqing? The Ministry? The Council?”
He’d just come back from Cuiparty City. Shouldn’t he take a rest? Or is there some secret mission for me, using the end-of-term party as a cover… No, whatever mission it is, Xu Chuyao wasn’t going to accept—she’d just claim she wasn’t feeling well.
But Principal Lü shook his head. “No, not him—it’s an even more distinguished guest.”
He put special emphasis on the last few words.
Xu Chuyao’s heart skipped a beat. “You don’t mean the one surnamed Wen, do you?”
“Looks like he’s really here for you.” Principal Lü smiled. “I’m not sure why.”
And just who was Wen Kunqing? In fact, the Grand Marshal of All Armies in charge of the Ministry, first in line to be Chairman of the Council of Pacifiers. Of all the schools in the world, through all these years and generations of students, he’d never once attended a school event—not an opening ceremony, nor a graduation, nothing.
This was the very first time.