Tang Yin and Xiao Wu exchanged glances instinctively.
Xiao Wu looked bewildered and confused, but Tang Yin's reaction was the complete opposite.
Just then,
Ning Rongrong had already trotted up to them, lightly panting as she wiped away her tears.
"Ning Rongrong, what's wrong? Did someone bully you at Shrek Academy?"
Xiao Wu went over to Ning Rongrong and asked.
"I... I..."
Ning Rongrong sobbed quietly, unable to bring herself to speak. She stole a glance at Tang Yin, then lowered her head.
She had just blown up in front of so many people. Now that she was standing before Tang Yin, she suddenly felt guilty.
"Let's go back first, then talk," Tang Yin said after a moment's thought.
"Right, come back with us first," Xiao Wu echoed.
Ning Rongrong answered softly, "Okay~"
Tang Yin turned his gaze in the direction Ning Rongrong had come from, as if he had sensed something.
The Blue Silver Domain quietly unfurled.
Within a five-hundred-meter radius, the Blue Silver Grass became his eyes.
He saw three men and a woman heading his way.
Two of them were Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun, whom he knew best. The remaining man was Oscar, whom he had met but barely spoken to.
He also knew the identity of the lone woman quite well. With Xiao Wu and Ning Rongrong both here, Zhu Zhuqing was the only female student Shrek Academy could have.
"Hmm?"
Tang Yin raised his eyes to the sky, where a middle-aged man wearing glasses came into view.
Flender abruptly halted in midair, meeting Tang Yin's gaze beneath the setting sun.
Flender frowned and glanced at Ning Rongrong, a sense of foreboding welling up inside him.
"Tang Yin, what are you looking at?" Xiao Wu blinked, then lifted her head and followed his gaze, but Flender had already left.
"Someone wearing glasses was flying in the sky just now," Tang Yin explained.
Ning Rongrong furrowed her brows. "That was Flender, the dean of Shrek Academy."
Xiao Wu nodded in understanding, then asked, "Ning Rongrong, was he the one who bullied you?"
Ning Rongrong pressed her lips together and said softly, "Tang Yin, Xiao Wu, I lied to you earlier today. I didn't actually finish my lessons. I sneaked out to the city to have fun."
Xiao Wu looked surprised.
Tang Yin, however, wasn't surprised at all.
Ning Rongrong continued, "I spent the whole day out having fun. When I got back to the academy just now, Flender scolded me. That part wasn't a big deal. I was angry at first, but now that I think about it, I really was in the wrong."
"But... he kept putting me down and humiliating me. It was infuriating!"
As Ning Rongrong said this, she frowned, anger showing in her eyes.
"Oh? What did he say to you?" Xiao Wu narrowed her eyes slightly, looking eager for gossip.
Tang Yin rubbed the bridge of his nose helplessly.
"He actually said I'm the worst of the five students at Shrek! He even called me cannon fodder! And he insulted my father's name! I'm furious!" Ning Rongrong stomped her foot, seething.
"Believe in yourself. Don't let anyone mislead you. Reaching Soul Power Level 26 at your age is already very good. Of course, if you worked harder, you could probably reach Level 29 or even break through to Soul Elder. I imagine your Innate Soul Power wasn't low."
Tang Yin knew just how to comfort Ning Rongrong, and his words were all based on her actual circumstances.
Ning Rongrong froze as she listened, never expecting Tang Yin to think so highly of her.
She couldn't help recalling Ning Fengzhi's earnest teachings.
With Innate Soul Power at Level 9.5 and the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect backing her, she had never needed to worry about resources.
Thinking about it now, her Soul Power being only Level 26 really did seem a little low.
Ning Rongrong was suddenly startled.
She, the Little Demoness of the sect, had actually listened to Tang Yin and even reflected on herself...
"Ning Rongrong, what will you do now? Leave or stay?" Xiao Wu asked.
"I... I don't know..." Ning Rongrong frowned. "I don't want to see Flender right now, but I don't want to stay here either. And I don't want people to look down on me. I'm torn."
Tang Yin smiled. "You're just making things difficult for yourself, and for them too."
"Oh? Someone else is coming!" Xiao Wu looked at the group approaching along the road and narrowed her eyes slightly. "Tang Yin, it looks like Dai Mubai and the others. There's a girl with them, though she doesn't seem to be their girlfriend."
Ning Rongrong turned around. Seeing the four of them, she explained, "That girl is called Zhu Zhuqing. She's a new student who enrolled with me. She's about half a year younger than me, but she's already at Level 27."
Hearing this, Ning Rongrong felt even more certain that Tang Yin's words had made sense.
Battle Soul Masters generally cultivated faster than Support Soul Masters, but if she hadn't slacked off in her training, her Soul Power Level wouldn't be lower than Zhu Zhuqing's.
"Let's go," Tang Yin said.
He didn't want to deal with Dai Mubai and the others. With that time, he'd rather go shopping with Xiao Wu.
Xiao Wu slipped her arm through Tang Yin's and patted Ning Rongrong, who was standing there in a daze. "Ning Rongrong, let's go."
"Oh, okay~" Ning Rongrong came back to herself and stopped paying attention to the four approaching students.
At that moment,
Dai Mubai, Ma Hongjun, and Oscar had also spotted Tang Yin and Xiao Wu. They stopped in their tracks, leaving Zhu Zhuqing, who was at the back, puzzled.
"Boss, what do we do? It's Tang Yin and Xiao Wu!" Ma Hongjun swallowed, looking nervous and frightened.
Dai Mubai's expression was solemn as he said, "What are you afraid of? We haven't done anything to them!"
He said that, but his body told a different story.
"They're leaving... Strange, why is Ning Rongrong leaving with them too?" Oscar stared at Ning Rongrong's retreating figure in disbelief.
Listening to the three men's conversation, Zhu Zhuqing knitted her brows and gazed at the backs of the three ahead, silently pondering.
Suotuo City.
Tang Yin and Xiao Wu had planned to stay at the Rose Hotel again, but with Ning Rongrong there, they quickly gave up on that idea.
Tang Yin was concerned that if he took Ning Rongrong into the Rose Hotel, the people secretly protecting her might find out and report it to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. That would bring no end of trouble.
The only option was to find a more respectable hotel.
Tang Yin didn't want to draw the powerful members of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect or Ning Fengzhi here just yet.
Xiao Wu's identity was already enough to worry about.
The Suotuo Grand Hotel had five floors, a spacious building with luxurious decor.
"Three of your best rooms! And a table of your finest dishes!" Ning Rongrong said, putting on a very grand display.
Whether she was showing off, doing it on purpose, or simply acting true to her nature, Ning Rongrong looked like a nouveau riche.
"Rongrong, two rooms are enough," Xiao Wu said with a smile, still holding Tang Yin's arm.
Ning Rongrong blinked. Her cherry-red lips parted slightly as she stood there, stunned. "You two are sharing a room?"
Xiao Wu smiled. "Tang Yin and I are a couple. It's only natural for us to share a room, right?"
Tang Yin smiled too.
"Oh—" Ning Rongrong instantly seemed possessed by a vengeful spirit, all color draining from her face.
A short while later,
At the dining table,
Ning Rongrong and Xiao Wu were like old friends at first sight. The two of them could even outdrink Tang Yin.
"Cheers!!!"
Ning Rongrong and Xiao Wu raised their glasses together, their little faces flushed, looking adorable in their tipsy state.
"Cheers~"
Tang Yin covered his forehead with one hand and slowly raised his glass.
He couldn't hold his liquor.
A moment later,
Xiao Wu and Ning Rongrong helped Tang Yin upstairs and into the room. The three of them lay down.
Before long, three different but equally steady breathing sounds filled the quiet room.