Conversation

After bidding farewell to Uncle Sakayanagi and Manabu Horikita in the chairman's office, Yun Lan and Chie Hoshinomiya left the room.

Chie Hoshinomiya quickened her pace to walk alongside Yun Lan. She didn't speak immediately, merely tilting her head slightly and narrowing her eyes, her gaze brushing over the boy's calm profile like a light feather. The corridor was empty, filled only with the sound of their footsteps; her heels made dull thuds against the carpet, while his steps were almost silent.

"My, my—" she finally drew out her tone, her voice carrying its usual honeyed smile, yet tinged with more curiosity than usual. "Little Yun Lan, you really are full of surprises."

She circled half a step in front of Yun Lan, turned around, and walked backward with her hands behind her back, looking up at him. The sunlight grazed her hair, gilding her smiling brows and eyes in pale gold.

Here we go again, Chie Hoshinomiya. Is this a probe? Or are you treating me as a tool to suppress Sae Chabashira?

Yun Lan pondered silently.

"I just knew it. I always felt you had a certain aura about you, not something a normal family could cultivate." She blinked, her tone like someone sharing an interesting secret. "So, little Yun Lan has such a background. No wonder Chairman Sakayanagi wanted to see you and even introduced you to the power player of the third years, Manabu Horikita. And to think you are actually..."

She didn't finish, instead letting out a meaningful "Hmm~" with an upward inflection, waiting for his reaction.

Yun Lan's pace didn't falter; he didn't even change his stride. He met Chie Hoshinomiya's curious gaze calmly, his eyes deep and still like an ancient well without a ripple. The composure beyond his years, which he had displayed in the office before those two heavyweights, had not faded; if anything, it appeared even more distinct in the solitude of the corridor.

"Teacher Hoshinomiya," he began, his voice low but carrying a clear, boundary-defining sense of finality. "First of all, in this school, I am Yun Lan of Class 1-B."

He paused slightly, his gaze remaining steady.

"Only then am I a member of the 'Yun Family' as you know it."

He did not deny it, yet he cleverly reversed the order, emphasizing his primary identity as a "student" here and now. There was no arrogance in his words, only an unmistakable certainty, as if gently reminding her—and himself—that at least in this place, certain titles and backgrounds should remain in the background.

Chie Hoshinomiya's backward steps faltered for a moment. The smile on her face didn't fade, but a flash of realization and deeper interest crossed her eyes. She stopped walking backward and returned to his side, casting her gaze toward the bright campus scenery outside the window at the end of the corridor.

"My goodness, you're just a child, yet you speak more airtight than an adult." She chuckled, her tone returning to its usual lighthearted banter, though her probing peripheral vision remained fixed on him. "Still, this isn't bad. 'Student Yun Lan'. But you see, teacher isn't very good at keeping her mouth shut. Would you like to satisfy a request from your teacher so I can help you keep your secret?"

"Teacher, I remember you saying that in this school, points can buy anything. So, what if I were to purchase from the school the right to have the Class 1-B homeroom teacher, Chie Hoshinomiya, dismissed?"

The melody Chie Hoshinomiya had been humming came to an abrupt halt.

She stopped walking, right in front of a tall, arched window in the corridor. Outside, the sunset burned like fire, stretching her shadow and Yun Lan's together across the dark red carpet, nearly merging them, yet subtly keeping them in opposition.

She turned around slowly. The habitual smile, as if she didn't care much about anything, had not vanished, but the light flickering in her eyes had changed—it was no longer simple banter or curiosity, but a sharp, evaluative scrutiny, as if she had discovered a move on the chessboard that was entirely unexpected.

"Oh my, oh my..." she clicked her tongue softly, her voice still carrying a sweet, syrupy tail, yet it added a hint of chill. "I'm being threatened by little Yun Lan? That truly makes me sad."

She took a small step forward, close enough to see the unwavering calm in the boy's eyes. "However," she tilted her head slightly, like a high school girl discussing dessert choices, though the words she spoke were entirely different, "you don't have enough points to purchase the right to 'dismiss Chie Hoshinomiya,' do you? That wouldn't be a small sum. Even for you in Class B, your personal points are far from enough. The school's 'anything' also has a price tag, and it's often ridiculously expensive."

She was probing, testing whether this was a whim or if he had real backing.

Yun Lan did not retreat. He didn't even change his stance; he merely lifted his eyelashes slightly, letting the sunset pouring in from the window dye his calm brows and eyes in a surreal golden-red.

"My personal points are indeed not enough." He admitted it cleanly, as if stating a fact unrelated to himself.

Then, he shifted the topic, his tone as flat as if he were discussing tomorrow's weather:

"But the rules for the first years apply equally to the upper years, don't they? Points can be traded, and they can be pooled."

He paused, his gaze passing over Chie Hoshinomiya as if seeing the third-year classrooms further away.

"I believe that the students of Class 3-B, 3-C, and 3-D, once they confirm that their possibility of 'graduating from Class A' is infinitely close to zero, will be interested in a more realistic, more reliable 'promise of the future'."

He finally shifted his gaze back to the teacher, who had widened her eyes slightly, and spoke each word with absolute clarity:

"Using the personal points in their hands—which are already useless for 'rising to Class A'—to exchange for a valid promise from the 'Yun Family.' I think this will be a transaction that... many students would be willing to seriously consider."

The sunset's afterglow danced in his eyes. There was no bravado of a youth there, only a certainty based on cold calculation. He didn't say "possibly"; he said "believe." He wasn't proposing a hypothesis; he was stating a plan about to be executed.

For the first time, the smile on Chie Hoshinomiya's face faded completely. She didn't speak immediately, just looked deeply at Yun Lan, as if trying to re-evaluate this student in her class. The corridor was deathly quiet, and the faint, distant noise of club activities sounded as blurred as if heard through frosted glass.

After several seconds, she finally let out a soft breath, which turned into an invisible mist in the slanted pillars of sunlight.

"Using 'external' power to stir up 'internal' rules... even going so far as to mobilize upperclassmen for a large-scale, cross-grade point acquisition, just to obtain the right to 'dismiss a teacher'?" Her voice was very soft, stripped of its sweetness and filled with complex emotion. "Little Yun Lan, you are even more... unscrupulous than I imagined. Or is this the 'Yun Family' style of doing things?"

"This is merely an effective way to achieve a goal." Yun Lan's reply remained calm. "In this school, 'points' are the blood, and 'rules' are the skeleton. I respect the rules and utilize them. As for the mobilization..."

He paused slightly.

"I simply provided them with a new option beyond their predetermined failure. It is merely a fair trade."

Chie Hoshinomiya suddenly laughed again. This time, the laughter was short and carried a strange sense of appreciation, even though that appreciation was mixed with cold vigilance.

"Impressive, truly impressive. Not only did you see through the rules, but you even factored in human nature. Hope in the midst of despair, no matter how slim, is worth betting chips on... especially when the dealer is the 'Yun Family'."

She crossed her arms, tilted her head, and looked at Yun Lan again.

"Then, my dear Class B honor student, Yun Lan, what is your true purpose in spending such a huge price, even going so far as to use your family's reputation, to 'buy' my departure? I shouldn't be that much of an obstacle, should I? That was just a joke."

"Do not use me and Honami as tools for your revenge, Chie Hoshinomiya!"

Yun Lan finished this sentence coldly and walked away, leaving Chie Hoshinomiya stunned in place.