Leaving the Orphanage

"Storm Aunt, help me bring over those clothes." Lu Yifang called out without looking back as he packed his things in the room.

"If you called me Sister, I'd be much happier to help." Storm curled her lips. She wasn't even married yet, and this brat was calling her Aunt. He was asking for a beating.

"Forget it. I remember you and Uncle Scott were pretending to be an adoptive couple at first."

"You really are an unlikeable little brat." Storm sighed, but she still began helping Lu Yifang pack.

Lu Yifang's final request had been too difficult to refuse, so everything had to be done properly. Whether it was processing his departure from the Orphanage or printing an academy admission notice, both took time. God knew how long it had been since the academy last sent out one of those things. In any case, those matters had taken a full two days.

Professor X could not stay here the entire time, but he was clearly unwilling to leave Lu Yifang alone at the Orphanage. Thus, the miserable Storm had been assigned by Professor X to keep watch near the Orphanage for two days.

Now, Storm only wanted to complete her mission and bring this kid back to the academy. She could not be bothered to argue about anything else.

"Yifang, have you packed up everything?" Ms. Emma entered with a glowing face, handing the paperwork and admission notice to Lu Yifang. She was genuinely happy for him.

"You must be Teacher Ororo from Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. I've read the admission notice. Thank you for valuing Yifang so highly." Ms. Emma tightly held Storm's hand, looking as though she were meeting Storm for the first time. In fact, for Ms. Emma, it truly was the first time, because Professor X had already altered her memories.

"Ms. Emma, you're too kind. We value Yifang only because Lu Yifang is truly talented. We need outstanding students like him." Storm smiled, looking every bit like an admissions teacher.

"Full tuition waiver, meals and lodging included, plus a scholarship every year. I never expected you to find such a good school." At some point, Katie had also entered the room and was staring at the admission notice.

"Well? Jealous?" Lu Yifang said smugly.

"A little," Katie admitted without denying it.

As she casually helped with the packing, she moved a little closer to Lu Yifang and said in a voice only he could hear, "That's a Mutant School, isn't it?"

"Are you kidding?" Lu Yifang's expression jolted as he stared at Katie in disbelief.

"Don't deny it. You know I don't draw conclusions for no reason," Katie continued casually before Lu Yifang could refute her.

"How did you know?" Though puzzled, Lu Yifang did not want Storm or Ms. Emma to notice, so he leaned closer and asked quietly.

"Don't forget, I'm a Hacker." Katie tucked her hanging brown hair behind her ear, turned her face toward him, and gave him a confident smile.

"So you hacked Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters' website." Lu Yifang looked at Katie in disbelief.

"I tried several times, but I didn't succeed." Katie shook her head.

"That website looked just like an ordinary one—full of loopholes and easy to break into. But if you tried to use it to infiltrate the academy's core database and find key data, you'd discover that everything was deeply encrypted. And from information I found online, I only learned that the academy's public stance was strongly sympathetic toward mutants and that it maintained close ties with several mutants whose identities were public."

"That information isn't enough to conclude that it's a Mutant School." Lu Yifang shook his head.

"Add the fact that you're a mutant. Isn't that enough?"

Lu Yifang fell silent, and his gaze toward Katie became complicated. "How did you know?"

"You've been acting all mysterious these past few days, so I accessed the Orphanage's security cameras and took a look. There happened to be a camera in that corner where you were getting familiar with your abilities," Katie explained. She did not become distant because Lu Yifang was a mutant.

"That's impossible. Of course I knew about that camera, but hadn't it been broken for ages?" Lu Yifang was not an idiot. How could he have failed to notice something like that?

"It was repaired recently, during the time you were sick."

Lu Yifang: "..."

I have an MMP I don't know whether I should say or not.

"Don't worry. I deleted that footage, so it definitely won't leak. As for the only backup, it's here." Katie took out a USB Drive and, under Lu Yifang's gaze, slipped it into his luggage.

"I think those recordings of you figuring out your abilities on your own should be helpful to you."

"Thank you!" Lu Yifang's lips moved, but in the end, those were the only dry words he managed to say.

"No need to thank me. We're friends." Katie smiled.

"Yifang, the car we called has arrived. Have you packed your luggage?" Storm's voice came at that moment.

"It's all packed." Lu Yifang began lifting his luggage after saying that, while Katie picked up a piece of luggage as well. Amid Ms. Emma's repeated reminders and instructions, the four of them walked to the entrance of the Orphanage.

"I'm leaving, dear Ms. Emma." Lu Yifang gave Ms. Emma, the Orphanage director who had taken such good care of him, a sincere hug.

"Good luck, my good child." Ms. Emma kissed Lu Yifang on the forehead and spoke reluctantly.

After a long while, Lu Yifang finally released Ms. Emma and turned his gaze toward Katie.

"Here." Katie handed the luggage to Lu Yifang.

"Will you come back to see me?" Katie asked, her bright eyes fixed on Lu Yifang.

"When I have time."

Katie's face immediately dimmed. That was obviously not the answer she wanted to hear. "Those people used to say that too."

"Those people..." Lu Yifang murmured. Of course, he knew who Katie meant.

Katie was a rather withdrawn girl, but that did not mean she had no friends. When she entered the Orphanage seven years ago, she had made several friends around her age.

But as time passed, most of those children had been adopted and left the Orphanage to begin new lives. Then, it was as though they had vanished without a trace, never sending any news again. And now, it was Lu Yifang's turn.

"Don't worry. I keep my word." Lu Yifang smiled.

"Then I'll be waiting." Watching Lu Yifang get into the car, Katie's lips curled upward. She turned around and walked back into the Orphanage with her hands behind her back.

The car started at that moment.

After more than an hour on the road, the surrounding high-rises had noticeably thinned out. Professor X's academy had clearly been built far beyond New York's Fifth Ring.

An ancient European-style building covered in ivy came into Lu Yifang's view. It looked somewhat like a church, with an obvious Gothic architectural style. The school appeared quite large, yet there were not many people inside, giving it a desolate feeling.

Storm helped Lu Yifang carry some of his luggage. After taking him to a bedroom, she left on her own. It seemed the registration process at Mutant School was fairly simple.

After looking over the room, Lu Yifang was quite satisfied. Though the floor and furniture were all wooden, unlike the school's antiquated exterior, the furnishings were brand-new, and the bed even had a spring mattress.

Just as Professor X had said, the room had air conditioning and Wi-Fi, and it was quite spacious.

The only slight flaw was that there were two identical large beds beside his. Damn it, why hadn't he thought to ask Professor X for a single room earlier? It seemed his cultivation was still lacking; he had already surrendered the moment he heard "air conditioning and Wi-Fi."

Creak!

Just as Lu Yifang was lamenting, the door suddenly opened, and two teenage boys walked in. They looked around sixteen or seventeen. One had a crew cut and gave off a steady, reserved impression, while the other was blond, his expression and movements making his flamboyant personality obvious.

"A new roommate?" The crew-cut boy was visibly taken aback when he saw Lu Yifang.

The blond reacted faster and eagerly walked up to Lu Yifang. "New guy, let's get acquainted. My name is John, codename Human Torch."

As he spoke, the blond suddenly pulled a lighter from his pocket. With a wave of his other hand, the flame was drawn onto his palm and transformed into a fireball.

After showing this off, the blond cast a provocative glance at the crew-cut boy behind him, then casually tossed the fireball at him.

The crew-cut boy frowned, but his movements did not slow in the slightest. He raised his hand, and white icy mist suddenly poured from his palm. Before the fireball could touch him, it had already frozen into an ice sphere.

Holding the ice sphere, the crew-cut boy looked at Lu Yifang. "Hello, I'm Bobby. As you can see, my ability is ice. You can also call me Iceman."