Hard-Working People Smile

The next day, the opening ceremony.

Luo Yan stood aimlessly in the crowd, watching the leaders above drone on.

Tch, so boring.

"Yeah, so boring," Xiao Wu chimed in.

"How about we find ourselves some fun?" Luo Yan looked at Xiao Wu, a brow lifting slightly.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Luo Yan didn't answer directly, his gaze sweeping over the leader on the stage who was in the middle of a passionate speech.

This man had been talking for nearly two incense sticks' worth of time, ranging from academy history to soul master spirit, and from soul master spirit to the future of the continent, spraying saliva all over the faces of the students in the front row.

Most of the students below were spacing out, and a few were already standing up and sleeping.

"Did you see that?"

Luo Yan lowered his voice, nodding toward the stage. "That guy slaps the table every three words he speaks. I counted; he's slapped it seventeen times so far."

Xiao Wu blinked. "So?"

"So I'm planning to play a game with him."

Luo Yan leaned in closer, his voice dropping even lower, carrying the excitement of someone about to do something bad. "Just watch in a minute, don't make a sound."

Xiao Wu's eyes lit up bit by bit. "What are you going to do?"

"Don't ask. Asking means fun."

Luo Yan straightened up, his gaze falling back onto the stage.

The leader happened to slap the table again, his voice booming like a bell. "So! Students! Hard work! Striving! That is your only way out!"

Scattered, perfunctory applause rang out from beneath the stage.

The corner of Luo Yan's mouth curved upward.

Pledge of Delusional Joy, activate.

He didn't shout it out, and his soul power fluctuation was so weak that even Xiao Wu standing right beside him hadn't sensed it.

The rules quietly established themselves in an unknown corner.

From this moment on, in this leader's next speech, the moment he says the word "hard work" again, he will immediately begin to laugh hysterically, laughing continuously until someone starts applauding.

Luo Yan leaned closer to Xiao Wu and said in a low voice, "Guess how long he can last."

Although Xiao Wu's mind was full of question marks, she had already subconsciously held her breath.

On the stage, the leader was completely oblivious.

He picked up the teacup beside him, took a sip to moisten his throat, and slapped the podium with full momentum.

"Students! I emphasize this again! If you don't work hard, you won't even be able to beat soul beasts!"

The moment the words "work hard" slipped past his lips, his mouth suddenly spun out of control.

"Work... pfft... ha... hahaha!"

A laugh squeezed out from his throat, and immediately after, like a breached dam, the leader braced both hands on the podium, his shoulders shaking as his whole body quivered with laughter.

"No... I... hahahahaha! I didn't... hahahahaha!"

The entire audience went silent.

All the students stared with wide eyes, watching the academy leader who had been speaking passionately just moments ago, now laughing so hard tears were streaming down his face.

"What's going on?" Xiao Wu tugged at Luo Yan's sleeve and asked in a low voice.

Luo Yan wore an innocent expression. "How would I know. Maybe he suddenly remembered how he didn't work hard when he was young, and the more he thought about it, the happier he got."

"You're lying to ghosts!" Xiao Wu kept her voice down, but the corners of her mouth could no longer be held back.

The leader was still laughing.

The harder he tried to hold it in, the more violently he laughed, until he finally knocked over the teacup, the tea dripping and pattering down the side of the podium.

The teachers nearby looked at each other, none of them daring to go up and help him.

"Quickly... hahaha... someone... hahahaha... hahahahaha!"

Luo Yan looked at Xiao Wu. "Do me a favor."

"What favor?"

"When I count to three in a moment, you take the lead and applaud."

Xiao Wu was stunned. "Why me?"

"Because you're the boss of the seventh dorm, someone needs to step up right now and give the leader a way out."

Xiao Wu shot him a look, feeling vaguely that something was wrong with those words, but seeing that the man on the stage was practically dying of laughter, she gritted her teeth. "Fine! One, two, three!"

Luo Yan clapped his hands simultaneously right along with her.

"Clap clap clap clap—"

Applause exploded among the crowd.

The other students were already dazed, and seeing someone clapping, they reflexively joined in.

For a time, thunderous applause filled the entire venue.

And the instant the applause rang out, the leader's laughter stopped with a "pop" sound, as if someone had hit a switch.

He stood dazedly on the stage, his face red and neck thick, covered in sweat, looking as though he had just woken up from a nightmare.

"Cough... well..."

He adjusted his crooked collar, struggling to recover his majesty. "Just now... just now I... got a little emotional. Everyone don't mind. Continue, continue."

Down below, no one was listening to what he was saying anymore.

The students were whispering among themselves, as excited as if they had just watched a grand show.

Even the few in the front row who had fallen asleep woke up and were running around asking what had happened just now.

Xiao Wu turned her head to look at Luo Yan.

Luo Yan stared straight ahead, his expression as solemn as the most serious student in the entire audience.

"How on earth did you pull that off?" Xiao Wu leaned close to his ear, her voice low and fast.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Luo Yan's expression didn't change. "The leader was probably just too emotional. We have to understand."

"You put—"

"Shh."

Luo Yan interrupted her. "In an occasion like this, we must be civilized."

Xiao Wu was so angry her teeth itched, but she simply couldn't throw a fit.

The opening ceremony hastily concluded amid a bizarre commotion.

After the crowd dispersed, Xiao Wu held back her words the entire way.

It wasn't until the surrounding students had mostly scattered that she grabbed Luo Yan by the sleeve and dragged him behind an old locust tree by the roadside.

"Speak! Was that your doing?" Xiao Wu kept her voice low, her eyes wide.

Luo Yan was pressed against her shoulders, his back against the rough tree bark, looking as serene as a meditating ancient monk.

"Big Sister Wu, I now have sufficient reason to suspect you want to wall-pin me," he said.

"Don't try to change the subject!"

Xiao Wu gritted her teeth in anger. "That business on stage just now, was that you or not? If you don't tell me, I'll—"

"Do what? Throw me with Waigong?"

Luo Yan raised an eyebrow. "This is right inside the academy, aren't you afraid I'll yell out when you throw me and bring the leader right back over here?"

Xiao Wu stalled.

Of course she didn't really want to throw him.

It was just that this fellow was simply too infuriating.

"Then tell the truth."

Xiao Wu lowered her voice another two notches. "Was it your soul skill?"

Luo Yan sighed and finally nodded.

"You could say that."

"What do you mean 'you could say that'?"

"It means I genuinely made a tiny contribution."

Luo Yan said, "But what truly made him laugh like that was himself. Think about it, if he hadn't gone on and on about 'working hard,' he wouldn't have been hit. When it all comes down to it, he was simply working too hard."

After listening, Xiao Wu's little face crinkled into a ball. "What on earth are you even saying?"

"It makes a lot of sense, though."

Luo Yan said earnestly, "This is called the law of causality. He planted the cause, I watered it a bit, and then the effect laughed its head off."

The corner of Xiao Wu's mouth twitched.

"Then... can this soul skill of yours be used on people?"

After a few seconds, she asked, her tone noticeably softer than before.

"Yeah. Anyone is fine."

Luo Yan said, "As long as the other party triggers the condition within my rules."

"Then back in the little woods, did you do the exact same thing to that group of people?"

"Pretty much. The rule that time was 'whoever laughs first loses.'"

Luo Yan smiled. "They just loved laughing too much, there was nothing I could do."

Xiao Wu slowly turned her head and stared at him.

Her expression gradually turned excited.

"I think... we can have a really good game now!"

Luo Yan's eyebrows raised slightly.