Playing Along with Your Act

Gu Yue sighed and said, "I'll tell you the truth. I'm actually a girl."

Jiang Wu raised an eyebrow. "You're coming clean just like that?"

Gu Yue was somewhat speechless. "You provoked me like that, and I reacted the way I did. What would be the point of denying it?"

Jiang Wu thought about it and agreed. He also felt he should have kept his mouth shut. If he'd known it would turn out like this, he wouldn't have said anything.

Still, he was quite curious how Gu Yue would explain dressing as a boy.

Jiang Wu asked curiously, "So why are you dressed as a boy?"

Gu Yue sighed, a trace of sadness on her face. "My real name is Gu Yuena. I belonged to a family in a city in the Sun Moon Empire. For certain reasons, my family was wiped out. I escaped and joined Shrek Academy disguised as a boy."

Hearing Gu Yue's words, Jiang Wu silently thought, Oscar owes you a little golden statuette.

Seeing Jiang Wu's "I believe you" expression, Gu Yue secretly breathed a sigh of relief, though she also felt like laughing. As expected of the Golden Dragon King's reincarnation, he was just like the Golden Dragon King: he had no filter on his mouth, but he was honest at heart and believed whatever he was told. She cleared her throat, softening her tone. "So... keep this secret for me. Don't tell Wang Dong'er and the others."

Jiang Wu patted his chest, looking solemn. "Don't worry. I, Jiang Wu, have the tightest lips around. If I say I won't tell, I won't tell."

Gu Yue's mouth twitched as she watched him pat his chest. You have tight lips? That "flat as a plain" comment just now nearly made me so angry I showed my true form, and you call that having tight lips?

But she held back and didn't call him out, merely nodding. "All right, I believe you."

Jiang Wu added, "But you changed your name a little too casually. Gu Yuena, Gu Yue—you only dropped one word. Who wouldn't think it was an alias?"

Gu Yue's expression didn't change. "It's precisely because there's only one word's difference that nobody will think it's an alias. The most dangerous place is the safest. What do you know?"

Jiang Wu mulled it over. It seemed to make some sense, though something also felt off. But he couldn't be bothered to dig deeper and waved a hand. "Fine, you're right about everything. So from now on, I'll still call you Gu Yue in front of outsiders, but Gu Yuena in private?"

"Don't call me that in private either." Gu Yue glared at him. "Walls have ears. What if someone hears?"

"All right, all right, whatever you say." Jiang Wu raised his hands in surrender. "Classmate Gu Yue, please take care of me."

Gu Yue nodded in satisfaction, rolled her sleeves back down, and sat back on the edge of her bed. She picked up her book as though nothing had happened.

Jiang Wu also returned to his bed and opened Fundamentals of Soul Tools to continue reading. After two pages, he suddenly remembered something and looked up. "Oh, right, what do you do about bathing? The communal bathhouse in the dormitory building is one big open room."

Gu Yue's page stopped in midair. She was silent for two seconds. "I have my ways. Don't worry about it."

"What ways?"

"I go in the middle of the night."

Jiang Wu: "..."

All right, she's pretty hardcore too.

The two read their books until evening, when Wang Dong'er appeared at the door on time and slapped the door panel, calling Xiao Wu to dinner.

Jiang Wu put his book away and glanced at Gu Yue. She closed her book and stood up, and the two went out one after the other. Neither mentioned what had happened that afternoon.

As they walked, Wang Dong'er was still going on about Xu Sanshi's cry of "Mom," laughing so hard she doubled over. Huo Yutong followed beside her, smiling with her lips pressed together and occasionally adding, "Senior Sanshi is actually a nice person. He's just a little goofy."

Jiang Wu listened for a while, then suddenly asked, "By the way, Yutong, are you setting up your grilled fish stall tomorrow?"

Huo Yutong nodded. "Yes."

"Then I'll come by and have two more."

Huo Yutong's eyes lit up, then she lowered her head, a little embarrassed. "You don't have to pay when you come."

"That won't do. You're running a business. How could I eat for free?"

"But you stood up for me..."

"That's a different matter." Jiang Wu waved a hand. "I have to pay what I owe."

Wang Dong'er chimed in from the side. "Then I'll come eat too. I'll pay."

Huo Yutong looked at Wang Dong'er and said quietly, "You ate three today without paying..."

Without a blush or a flicker of guilt, Wang Dong'er said, "That's because I didn't bring any money. I'll pay for them all tomorrow."

Jiang Wu glanced at Wang Dong'er. "Since when were you too poor to pay for grilled fish?"

"I spent all my money on snacks," Wang Dong'er said with perfect confidence.

Jiang Wu couldn't be bothered with her. He took a bag of money out of his Storage Soul Tool and handed it to her. "You hold on to this."

This was the money Wang Dong'er had given him. She had said she couldn't control her spending, so she had no choice but to turn to him.

This money was only one percent of everything Wang Dong'er had. One could imagine how rich she was.

What ordinary student went out carrying this much money? Only Wang Dong'er.

Wang Dong'er took the money bag, hefted it, and tucked it into her own Storage Soul Tool, her eyes crinkling as she muttered, "Just keep it with you, then. I'll come to you for it when I need to spend it anyway."

"When you need to spend money, don't come asking me. Ask your own hands." Jiang Wu's face was expressionless.

"My hands don't listen to me."

"Then your hands have minds of their own."

Wang Dong'er huffed and dropped the subject. Turning around, she grabbed Huo Yutong's arm. "Yutong, I'll help you set up the stall tomorrow. Teach me how to grill fish, and once I've learned, I can grill my own."

Huo Yutong swayed as Wang Dong'er tugged her and hurriedly said, "Grilling fish isn't hard. You just have to keep an eye on the heat and turn them often."

"That's easy. I'm best at keeping an eye on things."

Jiang Wu added from the side, "She can't keep an eye on anything for more than ten seconds."

Wang Dong'er turned and glared at him. "Xiao Wu, shut up."

Huo Yutong covered her mouth and laughed, while Gu Yue laughed at Wang Dong'er beside them.

The next morning.

It was the first day of school at Shrek Academy. Jiang Wu and the others got up early, and after breakfast, they went to the classroom and found seats.

Someone recognized Jiang Wu and whispered to a companion, "That person is Jiang Wu. Yesterday, he beat a senior until he called for his mom."

The student he spoke to was visibly taken aback, then lowered his voice and pressed him. "Really? He called for his mom? You saw it yourself?"

"I saw it with my own eyes! It was right there in the Soul Fighting Arena. Lots of people saw it. That senior was beaten to the ground, shouting for his mom so loudly the whole arena could hear him."

Jiang Wu sat in the front row, and his ears weren't deaf. Every word of the whispers behind him found its way into them.

Wang Dong'er sat beside him and nudged him with her elbow. "Xiao Wu, you're famous now," she whispered.

"Shut up."

"I haven't even said anything yet."

"You've got 'I'm going to laugh at you' written all over your face."

Wang Dong'er touched her face, then turned to Huo Yutong on her other side. "Is there writing on my face?"

Huo Yutong took a careful look and shook her head. "No."

"See? Yutong says there isn't."

Without looking up, Jiang Wu said, "She's just giving you face."