Who is it?
Bai Maomao put on an innocent face and met the gaze of the Teacher who had just come out of the classroom.
Seeing that the Teacher’s expression was a bit strange, Bai Maomao even gave a slight smile, stepped aside, and let the Teacher go first.
A model student who truly respects his elders.
The Teacher gave him a meaningful look, swept his eyes over the unmoving person on the floor, and then left with perfect composure.
The students trapped in the classroom behind them kept their mouths tightly shut, obediently following the Teacher out.
As they passed by Bai Maomao, they would sneak a quick glance at him.
The last of the four people mingled in with the crowd of students, head lowered, trying to slip away.
Bai Maomao’s sharp eyes swept over his face.
He gently pulled the person out and smiled kindly.
Old Four: …Sir, I beg you, please let me go?
“Are you coming with me on your own, or do I have to drag you?”
Bai Maomao asked in a friendly tone.
Old Four looked miserable.
Do I even have a choice?
“I…I’ll go by myself, no need to trouble you.”
Bai Maomao smiled in satisfaction and took the lead.
Old Four, looking thoroughly pitiful, woke up his brothers one by one, and the four of them formed a line, honestly following behind Bai Maomao.
Outside Wuji Yuan, Mo Qin was waiting with his arm around Yan Miao’s shoulder,
“I was wondering why you took so long to come out. Turns out you dragged four freeloaders with you.”
Bai Maomao shot him a cool glance.
Mo Qin quickly raised his hands in surrender and pretended to zip his lips shut.
Bai Maomao snorted, then pulled Yan Miao away from him and asked with concern,
“Xiao Tu Ji, are you okay?”
Yan Miao was dazed for a moment,
“What?”
Accidentally, Bai Maomao had blurted out the nickname he’d given him.
His ears flushed red as he tried to keep a straight face,
“Are you alright?”
“Oh.”
Yan Miao shook his head.
“I’m fine. Luckily, you guys came in time.”
Bai Maomao nodded and pointed at the four people behind him,
“How should we deal with them?”
The four, lined up, all turned to look at him eagerly.
Yan Miao shrank back, hiding behind Mo Qin.
“Just let it go.”
The four burly men almost wanted to rush over and hoist Yan Miao up in celebration, then looked back at Bai Maomao, full of hope: Please, let us go.
Bai Maomao’s eyes turned sharp, and the four immediately lowered their heads like quails.
“Who sent you to mess with Yan Miao?”
The burly man in black looked up in shock, meeting Bai Maomao’s cold gaze.
Hil: …
Bai Maomao raised an eyebrow.
The burly man immediately lost his nerve and spilled everything like beans from a bamboo tube.
The four of them were sworn brothers, close since childhood, and now they’d all entered Wuji Yuan together.
But the tuition fees at Xuan Huang University were a huge expense every year.
Just as the four brothers were fretting over how to scrape together the money for tuition, someone approached them and told them to bring Yan Miao to the public restroom and hand him over to someone waiting there, promising a large sum of money in return.
The four brothers knew that nothing good would come from handing someone over, but the person hadn’t asked them to kill or burn anything, so for the sake of that money, they lied to themselves.
Taking advantage of the post-holiday return to school, they found Yan Miao alone and forcibly took him from the classroom.
If it hadn’t been for Mo Qin and Bai Maomao coming to look for him, Yan Miao might have been taken away by now.
Mo Qin and Bai Maomao exchanged a glance.
Bai Maomao continued questioning, while Mo Qin turned and went to the restroom to look for the person.
It was right after class, so the restroom was crowded.
Mo Qin looked around but didn’t find the person the four brothers had mentioned.
Bai Maomao was still questioning,
“You don’t know who that person was?”
All four shook their heads.
The eldest said,
“Never seen him before. He didn’t look like a student from Wuji Yuan.”
The second brother nodded,
“If he were from Wuji Yuan, I’d definitely recognize him.”
“Yeah, Second Brother has a great memory.”
Bai Maomao folded his arms and quietly considered who would want to target Xiao Tu Ji.
Suddenly, a pair of hands reached for his waist from behind.
Bai Maomao instinctively dodged to the side, and Lang Junxian, who was trying to sneak up on him, missed.
A trace of regret flashed in Lang Junxian’s eyes.
He ruffled Bai Maomao’s hair,
“What did you do to scare the students of Wuji Yuan so badly?”
Training wasn’t even finished when he heard all kinds of rumors.
The more he listened, the more he was sure it was Bai Maomao’s doing, so he rushed over as soon as training ended.
Bai Maomao frowned, a little unhappy,
“Someone was giving Yan Miao trouble.”
Lang Junxian raised his eyebrows, looking down at him,
“Just these four?”
“No,”
Bai Maomao shook his head,
“Someone put them up to it.”
Lang Junxian fell silent.
They’d only been at school for a few days—there couldn’t be any real enemies.
Yan Miao was soft and timid, not the type to cause trouble.
If you thought about it, there was only one person who might have it out for them.
—Gong Shaotian.
Ever since they left the small cave, Gong Shaotian’s people had escorted him away, and none of them had appeared again.
Even after the October holiday, the Gong Family hadn’t made a move.
Lang Junxian had found it odd, but hadn’t given it much thought.
He didn’t expect this was where they’d strike.
“But why did they target Yan Miao?”
Lang Junxian was puzzled.
If they wanted trouble, it should have been with him or Maomao.
Bai Maomao shrugged,
“Who knows what they’re thinking. Anyway, Yan Miao should stick with us from now on.”
Just in case those people tried something again.
Mo Qin quickly returned.
Now that everything was clear, there was no need to keep the four brothers.
Bai Maomao’s gaze, which had been weighing on the four, drifted away.
The four burly men felt the mountain pressing down on them finally lift, and let out a long breath.
“You can go. Don’t do this kind of thing again,”
Bai Maomao kindly reminded them.
The four nodded vigorously.
Seeing Bai Maomao really let them go, they dashed off as fast as they could.
The slowest, Old Four, turned back hesitantly to look at Bai Maomao,
“Do you guys need bodyguards? You can consider—”
Before he could finish, the other three brothers came back and dragged him away by force.
Bai Maomao: ………………
Do I look like I eat people?
The four of them went to the cafeteria for a meal, then Bai Maomao and Mo Qin escorted Yan Miao back to his dormitory like mother hens guarding their chick.
Yan Miao’s dorm was only two doors down from Bai Maomao’s.
Mo Qin watched as Yan Miao climbed onto the top bunk, a tiny figure wrapped in a quilt, only his head poking out as he spoke to them, and felt his heart melting from the cuteness.
Unable to help himself, he nagged Yan Miao with a long string of instructions.
Yan Miao listened obediently, answering with a soft “mm” every time.
Mo Qin was utterly satisfied, but before he could say more, Bai Maomao dragged him out by the collar.
Mo Qin: …
So what if you’re strong.
“Exactly, that’s what makes me great.”
Bai Maomao lifted his chin and looked at him with disdain.
“Wocao, can you read minds?!”
Bai Maomao gave him a disdainful side-eye and led Lang Junxian back to the dorm.
Mo Qin felt deeply wounded and was in desperate need of comfort from Xiao Tu Ji.
The courses at Yaoli Yuan were pretty relaxed.
Every day after class, Bai Maomao would cultivate while waiting for Xiao Hei to finish training.
In comparison, Wuji Yuan’s schedule was much more hectic.
Lang Junxian had to get up early for morning exercises, study martial arts theory in the morning, and practice real combat in the afternoon.
Students sparred with each other, applying the martial arts they’d learned.
Bai Maomao had watched a few times but found it boring—after all,
Xiao Hei always won, so there was no suspense, and he was already tired of it.
At noon, after class, Bai Maomao went as usual to wait for Xiao Hei at Wuji Yuan.
In front of Wuji Yuan was a large grassy field dotted with a few big trees, their thick branches spreading wide and casting deep shade.
Bai Maomao loved sitting on the grass, meditating as he waited for Xiao Hei to finish class.
The Lingqi nearby gathered around Bai Maomao, forming a vortex. Wisps of Lingqi slipped into his limbs and bones.
The green Bracelet on his wrist was forced to absorb quite a bit of Lingqi as well.
The Bracelet shifted, loosened its tightly connected ends, and slipped up Bai Maomao’s sleeve to his collar.
A little green tip peeked out from his collar.
A cool sensation brushed the sensitive skin of his neck, making Bai Maomao a bit itchy.
He opened his eyes and grabbed the restless, wriggling Little Vine inside his collar.
“Awake now?”
Little Vine nodded its tip, affectionately twining its slender body around Bai Maomao’s finger.
“Hungry?”
Bai Maomao frowned.
A vine—what did it even eat when it was hungry?
He took a bottle of mineral water from his backpack, opened it, and held it out to Little Vine.
Little Vine wrapped itself around the bottle, dipped its tip inside for a taste, and then shook its head vigorously in disgust.
Bai Maomao: ………………
It’s just a bottle of mineral water, why are you acting like you drank pesticide?