Find an Excuse in Advance

Tang San hesitated a little.

He was somewhat worried about the friends who had left the village with him. They'd always played together, after all, and eating separately all of a sudden felt a little strange.

Of course, it was mainly because Du Hao had often brought him food in the past... Tang San still remembered that kindness.

"Teacher, I still want to eat with my friends..." Tang San had just been about to decline Grandmaster's invitation and go eat with his companions.

But Du Hao beside him patted him on the shoulder too. "Hey! Are you stupid?

"Never turn down a free meal! What's wrong with someone treating you? Why do you only ever mooch off me?"

"This..." Tang San hesitated.

"You're really getting all awkward with me now?" Du Hao laughed and patted Tang San on the shoulder.

Then he lowered his voice conspiratorially. "He's your teacher, after all. Isn't mooching off him better than mooching off me? Think of it as saving me a little money..."

Du Hao hadn't tried to stop Tang San from taking Yu Xiaogang as his teacher. After all, just to be safe, Du Hao wanted the two of them to grow closer.

Otherwise, with Tang San's Martial Soul, this little know-nothing like him really had no idea how to cultivate it.

After all, Martial Souls were something best left to the professionals.

As a clueless know-nothing, the most he could do was come up with bad ideas. It wasn't as if he could casually surpass a "theoretical" Grandmaster like the protagonists in the novels from his previous life, right?

Even if he did want to surpass him, he'd have to wait until the system gave him related knowledge. Otherwise, messing around blindly might really ruin things...

(I'm neither bashing nor praising anyone. I'll try to write as objectively as possible!)

In the end, Tang San accepted Du Hao's suggestion and followed Grandmaster upstairs to mooch a meal.

"Are you close with Tang San?" Xiao Wu asked curiously, staring at Du Hao with sparkling eyes.

"Haha, San is the idea man of our village! We played together all the time when we were little. How could we not be close?" Du Hao said with a laugh.

"Indeed." Zhu Zhuqing, who hadn't been silent, nodded and spoke up for once. "I used to see them stealing cow dung from the neighbor and throwing it onto their windows. I heard they even—"

"Stop, stop!" Hearing where she was going, Du Hao hurried forward and covered Zhu Zhuqing's mouth, flustered. "No, why would you say something like that?"

Those childhood memories.

Now that his memories had awakened, they were practically a dark stain on his past!

If his adult soul weren't strong enough to bear it, he might have wanted to move to another planet long ago.

Who didn't have a childhood? This is normal. It's all normal...

Du Hao did his best to hypnotize himself, trying not to get sucked into the whirlpool of his embarrassing past.

The two girls were still giggling quietly when Wang Sheng, Tang San's lackey who had been watching him, came over at some point.

"Boss Tang San became Grandmaster's disciple?" Wang Sheng asked curiously, looking at Tang San's back.

"Is that a problem?" Du Hao raised an eyebrow, as if he'd already guessed what Wang Sheng was about to say.

"But I heard Grandmaster's Soul Power has been stuck at Level 29. Wouldn't that waste Boss Tang San's talent?

"Could Boss Tang have been conned?" Wang Sheng frowned. Tang San was their boss now, after all. If he got tricked into going astray...

The Work-Study Students' life at the academy would be tough from then on.

"Hey, why are you worrying about all that?

"It's better to rely on yourself than on others. Just train hard. That's what matters." Du Hao waved a hand and headed toward the cafeteria.

Although Grandmaster's reputation in Du Hao's previous life wasn't very good,

the "knowledge" he'd shown in the original story proved just how extensive and diverse the knowledge in his head was.

At least before Du Hao obtained his First Soul Ring,

if he still hadn't acquired any relevant knowledge, he might ask Grandmaster for his insights.

Though he'd already expected it, Du Hao was still a little disappointed when he saw the first-floor cafeteria.

For a school cafeteria, it was pretty good for this era. But compared with what he'd imagined, it still fell a little short.

There was some meat in the serving windows, but all in all, there was pitifully little.

"Come on! I'm taking you all upstairs to eat today!" Du Hao declared, sweeping his hand grandly as he headed toward the second floor.

"Yay!" Xiao Wu waved her little hands and followed right behind Du Hao, practically beaming with excitement.

Zhu Zhuqing, who had kept her usual cold expression, followed the two of them as well.

But Wang Sheng's little group stayed rooted to the spot, watching the three about to climb the stairs with a hint of childish envy.

"Hm?" Noticing that the footsteps behind him had stopped, Du Hao immediately turned around and saw Wang Sheng and the others standing awkwardly. "What? Afraid I won't pay for your meals?"

Wang Sheng, standing at the front of the group, smiled bitterly at Du Hao's teasing. "Brother Hao, it's not that we don't want to go up and eat. It's just that, in the eyes of the people up there..."

Wang Sheng didn't finish. The meaning was already perfectly clear.

"..."

In the end, Wang Sheng and the others still didn't have the courage to come upstairs, but Du Hao couldn't be bothered to say more.

After all, the class divide between commoners and nobles had sunk deep into their bones.

There was no way to change their thinking in a short time. Still, Du Hao kept his word and paid for their meals in advance.

"Xiao Hao, come over here!" The moment they reached the second floor, Xiao Wu hurried to the serving counter, pointed at plate after plate of crisp, delicious carrots, and shouted.

The second floor's ingredients were clearly much more plentiful than the first floor's. For this meal, Xiao Wu ordered a serving of practically every dish that had anything to do with carrots.

She didn't care at all whether she could finish it.

"You've ordered so much. Aren't you afraid you'll eat enough to turn yourself into a fat rabbit?" Du Hao complained as Zhu Zhuqing fed him.

"What do you mean, that's a lot?" Xiao Wu happily shoveled food into her mouth. "Good big brother, get me another green onion~"

Without a green onion to add flavor, everything seemed to be missing something.

"You call me 'brother' when you want something, but Xiao Hao when you don't. Do you think I won't cut off your food supply?" Du Hao threatened Xiao Wu with a food embargo while Zhu Zhuqing continued to feed him.

Though he threatened her verbally, he still conjured a translucent, glistening green onion and handed it to Xiao Wu.

"Hehe, then I'll just be your maid~" Xiao Wu gave him a provocative little wink.

"Zhuqing! Look at her..." Du Hao turned his head, caught by Xiao Wu's bewitching eyes, and sighed. "If I ever do anything wrong, it'll definitely be because Xiao Wu seduced me first! You can't blame me then!"

Zhu Zhuqing, who had been silent all this time, merely rolled her eyes at him in exasperation and said disdainfully, "You've already come up with an excuse in advance? No wonder you've been a... master since you were little..."

"No, don't slander me!" Du Hao protested.