Old-Fashioned

On the way back to the academy, the streetlights stretched the three of their shadows long behind them.

Yun Ying walked half a step to Xie Xie's right, holding the yogurt she had bought from an automated vending machine at the street corner. The straw slurped as she took a huge gulp. Her whole body froze, and her eyes suddenly lit up like two little bulbs.

"What is this? It's way too good!"

The sweet-tart flavor curled over her tongue, puffing out her cheeks like a cat that had just tasted cream. As she lifted her head toward Xie Xie, the iridescent glow along the cuffs of her combat suit flashed in an orange-blue arc.

Xie Xie had been walking with one hand in his pocket, kicking pebbles by the roadside with the air of someone reluctantly condescending to accompany them. Hearing her, he turned his head and saw Yun Ying looking as though she had found treasure. The corner of his mouth twitched. "It's yogurt. Don't tell me you've never had it..."

"No." Yun Ying answered honestly, taking another sip. This time, she drank in small mouthfuls, cherishing it as if it were holy spring water. "It's my first time."

Xie Xie stumbled and nearly ground the sole of his shoe into the pavement. Pressing his fingers to his temple, he forced the words through clenched teeth. "Your first time... drinking yogurt... What deep mountain forest did you crawl out of?"

The words Where did this savage come from? nearly slipped off his tongue, only to be suppressed by Tang Wulin's light cough beside him. But his gaze could not hide it—he swept Yun Ying from head to toe. Her deconstructed combat suit, knotted-button belt, and energy ring at the end of her spear were worth half a year's scholarship savings for an ordinary student, yet she had never even seen yogurt.

Yun Ying paid no attention to the storm in his heart. She took another gulp from the cup, swallowed, and sighed in satisfaction. "You people from Federation City really know how to enjoy yourselves. We didn't have this where I came from." She shook the cup. "It's like selling frozen clouds."

Xie Xie was about to faint.

Tang Wulin, his backpack slung over one shoulder on the other side, held back a laugh and asked, "Yun Ying, where's your hometown?"

"Chang'an. Forget it, I'll lose if you've even heard of it." Yun Ying turned the yogurt cup around to read the ingredient list. "Fresh cow's milk, lactic acid bacteria, white sugar... Cow's milk means milk, right? What kind of bacteria is that? Can you eat it?"

Xie Xie took a deep breath. The evening breeze swept his bangs back as he stared at Yun Ying's face, so earnest in her thirst for knowledge. He finally confirmed it: she was not pretending. She really had never had yogurt.

Then he noticed something else—there was something wrong with the way Yun Ying looked at him.

At the dinner table, she had still been saying, "Xie Xie, you're such a nice person. Agile attack types really are meticulous." But now, holding her yogurt, she looked up at him with sparkling eyes. Mixed into that light was the complicated reverence of This guy actually knows about something this good, along with He didn't even blink when he swiped that Federation card earlier. She did not say it aloud, but Xie Xie was sharp enough to understand: Yun Ying still looked down on him as the guy who had flown over her head in the arena while yelling for Tang Wulin to fill the gap, but toward his wallet, she had developed a simple, almost religious admiration.

"...That outfit of yours could buy three hundred cups of yogurt," Xie Xie reminded her coolly.

"My clothes were given to me by my family. They don't cost me anything." Yun Ying sounded entirely justified. "But when you pulled out that card just now, swish—the proprietress looked at you twice more. Agile attack type, rich." She paused, then drove in the knife. "Even if I still scraped your scalp in the arena."

Xie Xie: "..."

Tang Wulin hurriedly smoothed things over. "All right. Let's get going. There's still one more match. Whether we qualify for admission depends on this one."

Xie Xie put away his look of disgust, pulled his hand from his pocket, and straightened the collar of his combat suit, returning to the posture of an incomparably elegant young master. Yun Ying rolled her eyes at his back, flicked her long ponytail, and quickened her pace to pass him. The Phantom Crystal patterns along her spear shaft flowed faintly beneath the streetlights, and she still looked like a walking neon sign.

"Keep up. Don't be late." Without looking back, her voice drifted through the night wind. "Xie Xie, if you dawdle any more, tomorrow I won't just scrape your scalp. I'll spear you right through the collar."

The three of them headed toward the academy's main gate beneath the shadows of the plane trees lining the outer street. The streetlights slipped past one by one. Yun Ying never let go of her yogurt cup, occasionally taking a sip and smacking her lips as though engraving the conveniences of Federation City into her mind.

"Xie Xie." She suddenly called.

"What?" he asked warily.

"Does your academy's entrance examination provide meals?"

"...Yes. The cafeteria is ten times cleaner than that restaurant just now."

"Do they have yogurt?"

"They do. But you need Federation Credits for it."

Yun Ying said, "Oh," and nodded seriously. "Then after I finish fighting tomorrow, I'll go drink my fill at the cafeteria. Can I borrow your card to swipe?"

Xie Xie stumbled again. "No."

"Stingy." Yun Ying pouted, then turned to Tang Wulin. "What about you, Tang Wulin?"

Tang Wulin smiled gently. "I can afford to treat you to one cup."

Xie Xie sneered. "You'd dare drink if he treated you? He usually eats steamed buns and pickles so he can save money to buy metal."

Yun Ying blinked. "Tang Wulin is the good kind—reliable." She shot Xie Xie a sideways look. "Unlike certain people, whose money stat is maxed out while their strength is still below mine."

Xie Xie did not answer. He looked toward the academy in the distance. At night, Eastsea Academy resembled a city floating in midair, its teaching building domes glowing with pale blue soul-guided lights, completely different from the dim yellow bead-curtain glow of the outer streets.

Yun Ying looked up as well, turning the yogurt cup in her hand. "Once I'm inside, I can't just wear this outfit whenever I want, can I?"

"There's a standard uniform," Tang Wulin said. "But you... you're too recognizable. The teachers will remember you on the first day."

"Let them remember me." Yun Ying crushed the empty cup and tossed it neatly into a recycling slot by the road. "Then Xie Xie won't say he can't find me and charge in blindly to give away a kill."

Xie Xie finally could not hold it in anymore. "Who charged in blindly to give away a kill? Your Dragon-Soaring Spear is fast, sure, but your positioning—"

"What's wrong with my positioning?"

"You cleared the field in forty seconds because they were weak! If you really ran into a staggered formation of two agile attack types, even your spear shaft would get tangled up!"

Yun Ying laughed and walked backward, facing him. Her long ponytail brushed against the cloud-pattern shoulder decorations. "Then come tangle it. Tomorrow in the arena, tangle up my spear shaft, and I'll buy you yogurt for a week."

The tips of Xie Xie's ears heated up. Whether from anger or because the words "a week of yogurt" had struck some nerve, he did not know. He looked away. "Who wants that?"

The academy gate scanned their identity plates. The three passed through the soul-guided entrance, and the air inside abruptly turned cool and crisp. The plane trees gave way to neatly trimmed spirit trees, while the streetlights became floating pale-gold spheres. Yun Ying subconsciously touched the side pouch at her waist, where several Federation Credits Xie Xie had slipped into her pocket were tucked away. She had returned half the meal money, and Xie Xie had sneered as he accepted it, but before they left, she had glimpsed him pull out two bills and stuff them back into her pocket. He had moved so quickly that even Tang Wulin had not noticed.

She did not expose him. Savage or not, she still recognized a debt.

"Xie Xie." She called again.

"What now?"

"That Light Dragon Dagger of yours, is it really called Light Dragon Dagger?"

"Yeah."

"What about the Shadow Dragon Dagger?"

"Yeah."

"Both are called that?"

"Obviously."

Yun Ying nodded as if taking notes.

Tang Wulin burst out laughing. Xie Xie glared at him, and Tang Wulin raised his hands in surrender.

They continued along the path toward the temporary residence building. Yun Ying suddenly asked, "Xie Xie, besides spending money on fighting, what else do you spend it on?"

Xie Xie thought for a moment. "Vehicles. Models. Treating Tang Wulin to meals."

"Models?" Yun Ying perked up. "What models?"

"Soul-guided motorcycles. Limited editions."

"How much?"

Xie Xie named a figure. Yun Ying sucked in a breath. Her yogurt cup had long been empty, and she instinctively made a motion as though sucking on the straw. Finding nothing there, she released it awkwardly. "...Is money just leaves in Federation City?"

Xie Xie lifted his chin. "That outfit of yours—"

"The outfit doesn't count as my money!" Yun Ying cut in, then muttered, "But you're right. Being able to wear it means I'm benefiting from that too. Xie Xie, I suddenly think that smile you had earlier... wasn't a stupid smile."

"Hm?" Xie Xie grew wary.

"It was the kind of smile that says, 'I've got money. I can buy models and yogurt, and watch you fight dressed like a neon light while I'm at it.'" Yun Ying gestured as she spoke. "The smile of a rich young master from the agile attack department. I get it now."

Xie Xie nearly kicked the pavement again. "You don't get shit."

Tang Wulin quietly added from the side, "She gets half of it. Your smile really did look like you were saying, 'No need to split the bill.'"

Xie Xie fell silent and quickened his pace to walk ahead, the hem of his coat swaying with each step. Yun Ying and Tang Wulin lagged half a step behind. Yun Ying lowered her head and felt the two Federation Credits in her pocket, rubbing them between her fingertips. Then she suddenly said, "Tang Wulin, he's actually not bad."

"Mm, that's just how he is." Tang Wulin smiled.

"It's just that his mouth is annoying."

"Mm."

Tang Wulin glanced at her and said gently, "Then give him a chance to make an entrance tomorrow."

Yun Ying raised a brow. "Depends on how he performs."

In front of the temporary residence building, soul-guided lights shone so brightly on the words "Candidate Passage" that they looked white. The three came to a stop.

Yun Ying rested her spear on her shoulder and turned to Xie Xie. "Xie Xie."

"Speak."

"If I beat you in tomorrow's final singles match—"

"You can't beat me."

"If I beat you," Yun Ying continued without changing her wording, "you'll buy me yogurt. Three cups a day for a whole week. The same brand as that cup just now."

Xie Xie sneered. "If you lose, I've already thought of the line you can shout while lying on the ground: 'Xie Xie, I was wrong, don't stab me.'"

Yun Ying gave a sharp laugh and tossed her ponytail. "Fine. Equal terms. Tang Wulin can be the witness."

Tang Wulin raised a hand. "I won't be a witness. I'm neutral."

"You're taking his side." Yun Ying pointed at him.

"I'm taking food's side." Tang Wulin patted his stomach. "Whoever wins tomorrow treats us to pork rib noodles."

Xie Xie and Yun Ying spoke at the same time.

"He pays."

"She pays."

Then they looked at each other and fell silent at the same time.

Yun Ying carried her spear inside, the rainbow glow along the hem of her combat suit narrowing into a thin blade beneath the cold white lights indoors. Tang Wulin was the last to look up at the dome glow of Eastsea Academy beneath the night sky, smiling as he followed her in.

At the end of the passage was a lounge, where the list for tomorrow's arena qualification matches was already floating on an electronic screen. Xie Xie saw that he and Yun Ying were assigned to the same group. He relaxed by half a breath, then tensed again—the later singles matches would be impossible to avoid.

He found a corner and sat down while Tang Wulin went to get water. Across from him, Yun Ying leaned her spear against the wall and slid onto a bench. She took the two Federation Credits from the side pouch of her belt, laid them on the table, and pushed them toward Xie Xie.

"Here's the yogurt money. That cup was your treat, but these two are for the shrimp and braised beef you paid extra for from my meal."

Xie Xie glanced at them. "I don't need them."

"You don't need them, but I'm paying you back." Yun Ying propped an elbow on the table and raised her chin. "Yun Ying doesn't owe debts. But listen, Xie Xie—" She lowered her voice, though her eyes still sparkled beneath the cold white lights, like they had right after that first sip of yogurt. "I look down on you as a person, I admire your money power, I admit your dagger names sound better than mine, and if you don't let me scrape your scalp a second time tomorrow, I'll consider today's meal settled."

Xie Xie stared at her for two seconds, then suddenly swept the two bills back into her pocket. "Keep them for yogurt. The cafeteria gets expensive after you enroll."

Yun Ying paused, then broke into a grin, showing eight teeth in a smile nearly identical to the one Xie Xie had worn at the dinner table. "Fine. Then I'll beat you tomorrow and drink it all back with interest."

Xie Xie turned his face away, his ears slightly red beneath the cold white lights, whether from exhaustion or something else. He grabbed the water Tang Wulin handed him and took a gulp, his Adam's apple bobbing as he muttered, "Dream on."

Tang Wulin sat down beside them, smiling at the two as he opened his own bottle of water. "If you two keep talking, you'll turn into a yogurt advertisement."

Yun Ying snatched the untouched bottle of water in front of Xie Xie, unscrewed it, took a big gulp, and handed it back. "Xie Xie, your water tastes pretty good too. Even the water in Federation City is sweet."

Xie Xie: "...That's mineral water."

"Oh." Yun Ying nodded seriously. "Even Federation City mineral water is sweet."

Xie Xie finally passed out.