Nana, You Wouldn't Want... Right?

Xiao Hongchen glanced at the group being led away, then at Jing Hongchen's back as he stepped down from the raised platform. Turning to Meng Hongchen and Ye Guyi, he said:

"Go back first."

Meng Hongchen blinked. "What about you, Big Brother?"

"I've got something to take care of. I'll be back later."

"Oh?"

Meng Hongchen eyed Xiao Hongchen suspiciously, then nudged Ye Guyi beside her with her elbow.

Xiao Hongchen offered no further explanation. He turned and headed in the direction Jing Hongchen had gone.

Ye Guyi turned her head and watched Xiao Hongchen's retreating figure. She said nothing.

Meng Hongchen rose onto her tiptoes and peered in that direction. Lowering her voice, she leaned closer.

"Guyi, what do you think he's going to do?"

Ye Guyi looked away and replied flatly:

"I don't know."

"Do you even have a heart?"

"Let's go."

Meng Hongchen pouted and followed her, disgruntled. After only two steps, she couldn't help looking back again.

Jing Hongchen was in his office at the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy.

When Xiao Hongchen pushed the door open, Jing Hongchen was sitting behind his desk, holding a cup of tea, his expression as composed as ever.

Xiao Hongchen sat down without beating around the bush.

"Give Nana to me."

Jing Hongchen took a sip of tea and set down his cup. His voice was even.

"Why?"

"She's different," Xiao Hongchen said. "Her mother was manipulated by Evil Soul Masters, killed her father, then took her own life. The Holy Spirit Cult enslaved both her parents' souls. They forced her into the cult by holding her weakness over her. She didn't join of her own will."

He paused.

"Putting her in the same category as those Evil Soul Masters doesn't make sense."

Jing Hongchen fell silent for a moment.

"You know her background very well."

"I found out before coming to see you."

Xiao Hongchen's expression didn't change.

"Fine. She can stay."

"From now on, you'll personally oversee everything she does." Jing Hongchen's voice was mild.

"No problem."

If anything, he couldn't have asked for more.

Xiao Hongchen stood, turned, and left without hesitation.

Suddenly remembering something, he turned back.

"What about the Evil Soul Masters in Mingde Hall?"

"I caught them all during your first-stage assessment. Otherwise, why do you think I waited until the practical assessment to show up?"

Xiao Hongchen pursed his lips. You really are a master of time management, Grandpa.

He left the office, this time without looking back.

The detention room.

Nana sat in the chair in the middle of the room, her back rigidly straight, her cuffed hands resting on her knees. Her deep blue eyes were fixed on the door.

The door opened.

Xiao Hongchen walked in, looking carefree, his hands tucked into his sleeves. He sat down casually across from her, as though he'd just dropped by for a visit.

Nana watched him warily. She knew who he was: the top student in the fifth grade and the dean's grandson. So she considered him a bad person, too.

"Relax," Xiao Hongchen said breezily. "I'm not here to interrogate you."

"Then what are you here for?"

Xiao Hongchen didn't answer at once. He looked at her, then said:

"Take a guess why you were arrested. Get it right and there's a prize."

Nana stared at him without a word, quickly running through everything in her mind.

She hadn't hurt anyone or gathered intelligence. She hadn't seriously carried out a single task the Holy Spirit Cult had given her. There was almost nothing they could hold against her.

She'd even followed the rules more scrupulously than an ordinary student. The words "model student" suited her perfectly.

That left only one answer.

Her identity.

But...

She didn't understand.

She had seen it with her own eyes.

An elder from the branch hall had entered Mingde Hall in the middle of the night. Didn't that prove Mingde Hall and the Holy Spirit Cult had been in cahoots for a long time?

If they were in league with each other, why would the dean arrest a lowly Holy Servant like her, someone who didn't even count as scraps?

It made no sense.

Nana fell silent, confusion and wariness mingling in her deep blue eyes.

"Is it because of the Holy Spirit Cult?"

Nana finally said slowly.

"Correct, correct."

Xiao Hongchen clapped with a grin, as if he were genuinely praising a student for getting the answer right.

Nana frowned slightly at his expression, then continued:

"But weren't you cooperating with the Holy Spirit Cult? Why..."

"That was then. This is now."

Xiao Hongchen picked up where she left off.

"Under the wise leadership of Mingde Hall's young master, Mingde Hall has made a clean break with the Holy Spirit Cult."

Xiao Hongchen said it with a straight face, as solemn as could be.

Nana didn't bother to challenge that. She watched him quietly, waiting for him to continue.

Xiao Hongchen's playful grin faded. Leaning back in his chair, he looked at her, his voice turning calm.

"Do you know what will happen to people like you?"

Nana said nothing.

"The academy will hand you over to the royal family."

"And you probably know that the royal family has a good relationship with the Holy Spirit Cult. But under pressure from public opinion, they'll still execute some of you. The lucky ones who are left will probably be sent back to the Holy Spirit Cult."

He paused, his gaze settling on Nana's face, his tone neither harsh nor gentle.

"Which group do you want to be in?"

The room fell silent.

Nana sat motionless in her chair, something slowly stirring in her deep blue eyes.

But her hands tightened quietly.

"I don't have a choice." She finally spoke, her voice calm, as if she'd already come to terms with it. "Being executed or sent back makes no difference to me."

There was no fear in her expression as she said it, only the faint exhaustion of someone who had seen through it all.

A child her age shouldn't have eyes like that.

Xiao Hongchen fell silent for a moment, then said:

"I told you about two possible fates," he said evenly. "But I never said those were your only two options."

Nana raised her eyes.

"Miss Nana, you wouldn't want your parents' souls to remain shackled by the Holy Spirit Cult forever, would you?"

In the end, Xiao Hongchen said what he'd wanted to say all along.

Even if the timing was a little inappropriate.

The room sank into a long silence.

Nana lowered her head. Xiao Hongchen couldn't see her eyes, only her pale pink hair and her hands on her knees, slowly clenching and unclenching as if caught in some silent struggle.

"You know about that." Her voice was so soft that it was almost impossible to make out what she felt. "So you're using this to..."

"Wait, wait, wait."

Xiao Hongchen cut off the indecent thing Nana was about to say. He'd only wanted to see what it felt like to say something like that. He hadn't meant to actually go through with it.

But Nana still said it.

"I hate the Holy Spirit Cult. Xiao Hongchen, I don't have anything precious to offer you as a bargaining chip. But if you can help free my parents' souls, I'll gladly be your slave or servant, whatever you want."

Xiao Hongchen sat across from her and rubbed his brow, feeling a headache coming on.

"Miss Nana, how old are you?"

Nana froze. "Thirteen."

"Thirteen," he repeated, his tone flat. "And you're offering to be my slave or servant."

He lifted his eyes to look at her.

"Do I look like that kind of person to you?"

"You do," Nana replied without the slightest hesitation.

Xiao Hongchen's mouth twitched.

Well, you can't say he didn't want a pretty maid by his side, taking care of all sorts of things and calling him "Master." It wasn't as if he could help her for nothing.

Ugh, the fantasies of a shut-in are a bad idea.

Xiao Hongchen cleared his throat and sat up straight, regaining his composure.

"Misunderstanding. I'm not that kind of person."

Nana kept looking at him the same way, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

Xiao Hongchen wasn't sure whether she believed him, but at least she didn't press the matter.

"Anyway, we'll talk about that later."

He cleared his throat, his tone suddenly turning serious.

"Miss Nana, thanks to the young master of Mingde Hall's sharp eyes, we discovered that you're just an ordinary person who was victimized by the Holy Spirit Cult. You're free now. On behalf of the hall master, I apologize for keeping you here."

As he spoke, Xiao Hongchen bowed to Nana at a precise forty-five-degree angle.

Perfectly executed, utterly earnest, and nothing like his usual self.

Nana froze.

She truly hadn't expected Xiao Hongchen to bend down and apologize to her in earnest.

Sitting in her chair, she didn't know what to do. She could only stare blankly at the boy bowing before her.

Xiao Hongchen straightened up, his expression as composed as ever.

Nana opened her mouth, but in the end, all she managed to say was:

"...You didn't have to do that."

"I did." Xiao Hongchen waved a hand, his tone breezy. "We kept you locked up for so long without even giving you a proper apology. That wouldn't be right."

Nana was silent for a while, then lowered her head. Her voice was so soft it seemed she was afraid someone might hear.

"No one...has ever bowed to me before."

Nana's voice was so soft it seemed she was afraid someone might hear. She kept her head lowered, and he couldn't see her expression.

Xiao Hongchen was silent for a second.

Then he raised his hand and patted her head.

Nana wasn't much shorter than him, so he could reach without stretching.

"Huh?"

Nana flinched as though she'd been shocked. She jumped back, her deep blue eyes widening as she felt like her hair was about to stand on end.

She absolutely hadn't said that to earn his sympathy.

Absolutely not.

They both froze for a moment.

Xiao Hongchen was the first to clear his throat twice. He withdrew his hand and calmly looked away, as if he hadn't just done that.

"Ahem... You can go now."

Nana: "..."

"Oh, right," he continued, his tone once again light and casual, as if he'd regained the upper hand. "I'll go with you when you visit the Holy Spirit Branch Hall. They think you've been captured, so investigating alone would be too dangerous. When their guard is down, I'll bring my companions and help you free your parents' souls."

As he spoke, he tossed Nana a slip of paper with his contact number on it.

Nana froze.

She hadn't expected Xiao Hongchen to say it so casually, so confidently, as though he were promising to take care of some small, routine matter.

She pressed her lips together and lowered her head.

"Thank you."

The words were soft, but heartfelt.

She turned and walked toward the door.

At the doorway, she paused. She didn't look back, only stood there and spoke more quietly than before, as though she'd had to summon her courage to say it.

"You're a good person."

After saying that, she opened the door and walked out.

The door closed with a soft click.

Xiao Hongchen stood where he was, gazing at the door. He fell silent for two seconds.

Then he lowered his head, gave a quiet laugh, and shook it.

He'd been given the "you're a good person" card.

Hongchen Mansion.

Meng Hongchen and Ye Guyi sat in the living room, talking about something.

They had probably guessed he'd gone to deal with something, so neither of them had left first.

Xiao Hongchen sat down across from them and got straight to the point:

"One of the people taken away today was a girl with pale pink hair named Nana. Meng, do you know her?"

Meng Hongchen blinked. "I've seen her. She's probably a fourth-year student. I heard she studies very hard. What about her?"

Xiao Hongchen explained Nana's background to the two of them.

Ye Guyi didn't say anything.

But Xiao Hongchen noticed the hand resting on her knee tighten ever so slightly.

He didn't call attention to it and continued, "Her parents' souls are still in the Holy Spirit Cult's hands. I promised her I'd find the right opportunity to help her rescue them."

He paused and looked at the two of them.

"I'll need you both to help when the time comes."

Meng Hongchen dropped her usual playful grin and answered seriously, "When?"

"Wait for word. You'll get an answer within ten business days."

Xiao Hongchen made up a number. He had no idea when the Holy Spirit Branch would be at its weakest.

Meng Hongchen stared at him for two seconds.

"Ten business days," she repeated, her tone peculiar. "Can't you talk normally, big brother?"

"That's perfectly normal."

"How is that normal?"

"I mean soon," Xiao Hongchen cut her off. "Can't you understand?"

Meng Hongchen: "...I understand."

She pursed her lips and dropped the matter of his wording, then asked with a grin, "So where is Nana now?"

Xiao Hongchen tapped her on the head.

"She's where she was before. Even though it's vacation now, she can still stay in the dorms!"

The next evening, Xiao Hongchen came out of Mingde Hall and leaned by the academy's entrance, waiting for Nana, who had contacted him beforehand.

Nana soon appeared in his sight.

The two walked out of the academy side by side, heading toward their destination.

Xiao Hongchen didn't take out his Soul Tool Motorcycle. It wasn't completely dark yet, and they'd be fine if they walked at an easy pace.

They walked in silence for over half an hour.

"That courtyard up ahead, with the black main building."

Nana pointed ahead.

"Let's go."

His calm voice put Nana at ease.

"Follow me. We'll climb over the wall."

"Will that be all right? Won't we get caught?"

"Don't worry."

Xiao Hongchen reached the wall and leaped lightly onto its five-meter-high top. The Three-Legged Golden Toad was still a toad, after all, so the boost it gave him to his jumping ability was naturally impressive.

Nana nimbly bounded up the high wall after him, making not the slightest sound.

The courtyard was a world of its own. Various plants covered the tall trellises, blocking Xiao Hongchen's view.

The black building within gave off a faintly dangerous aura.

Xiao Hongchen had always trusted his instincts. He decided on the spot to investigate alone. Nana's Martial Soul was good at concealing her, but she was still only a Soul Elder. Bringing along a deadweight would get in his way.

"I'm going into the courtyard to investigate. Stay right here and don't move. If anything happens inside, don't get into a fight. Go straight back, understand?"

Nana answered quietly. She knew her own limits.