The Price of Telling the Truth

Luo Yan looked at her overly bright eyes and suddenly took half a step back, pressing his back against the tree trunk again.

"Big Sis Xiao Wu, your expression is dangerous right now."

He lowered his voice as if plotting some major crime. "Like those villains in storybooks who abduct children into the mountains to practice evil arts."

Xiao Wu clicked her tongue. Instead of getting angry, she smiled even wider. "You're the dangerous one. With that lousy Spirit Skill of yours, if you use it properly, won't we be able to swagger all over Nuoding Academy from now on?"

"If you want to swagger around, you don't need a Spirit Skill. Just show your rabbit ears."

Luo Yan said, "No one in the entire academy could catch you."

"I don't want them to catch me!"

Xiao Wu clenched her fists. "I mean—you know, that feeling where everyone gets played by us, but they still can't find any proof!"

Luo Yan fell silent for a second.

Then, a slow smile appeared on his face.

"You're getting the hang of it," he said.

Xiao Wu proudly raised her chin. "Of course. I'm a hundred-thousand... cough, I'm Big Sis Xiao Wu!"

Luo Yan pretended not to hear the words she had suddenly swallowed and casually continued, "All right then. Who does Big Sis Xiao Wu want to have some fun with first?"

Xiao Wu's eyes darted around as she lowered her voice. "That gatekeeper from yesterday. He still looked pretty unconvinced. How about... we give him another round?"

Luo Yan shook his head. "No."

"Why?"

"Because fun is like eating sunflower seeds."

Luo Yan pulled a sunflower seed from his pocket, though no one knew where it had come from, and tossed it into his mouth. "You can't keep cracking the same one. Crack it too many times, and all that's left is the shell. No flavor."

Xiao Wu blinked, half understanding. "So we need to find new sunflower seeds?"

"Right. New seeds, new flavors, new surprises."

Luo Yan spat out the shell. "And preferably the kind that come to us on their own. The best kind of fun is fun that delivers itself to your door."

The more Xiao Wu listened, the more excited she became. She could not help tugging on his sleeve. "Then how do we know who'll come knocking?"

"We don't need to know."

Luo Yan said, "Nuoding Academy lacks everything except serious people. Serious people are the most fun."

Xiao Wu nodded vigorously. She had successfully been pulled into the scheme, though it seemed more like she had crawled in herself.

"Then it's settled!"

She held out her hand, her little finger raised. "Whenever there's fun to be had, you have to come to me first! No sneaking off to have fun by yourself! Especially not telling only Tang San!"

Luo Yan looked at the pinky she offered and smiled, extending his own.

"Pinky promise."

He said, "Whoever sneaks off to have fun will fall flat on their face next time."

"That's too light."

Xiao Wu was dissatisfied. "Whoever sneaks off to have fun will..."

She thought for a moment before inspiration struck. "They'll stand in front of the whole academy and shout three times, 'I'm a huge idiot!'"

Luo Yan sucked in a breath. "You're vicious."

"Scared?"

"I'm afraid that if you lose, you'll refuse to keep your word," Luo Yan said with a smile.

"Whoever goes back on their word is a puppy!"

Xiao Wu hooked their fingers together tightly and gave them two hard shakes. "Starting today, we're Nuoding Academy's Fun Duo!"

She released Luo Yan's sleeve, took a step back, planted her hands on her hips, and looked up at the light filtering through the gaps in the leaves.

"Nuoding Academy, Big Sis Xiao Wu and her rules are here!"

Leaning against the tree trunk, Luo Yan watched this rabbit whose head was already brimming with mischief and suddenly felt a little regretful.

Had he flipped some kind of terrible switch?

But that thought was quickly buried beneath another, more excited one:

This academy probably would not be boring anymore.

In the distance, several students crossed the training field carrying stacks of new textbooks, chatting and laughing.

Luo Yan narrowed his eyes.

"Big Sis Xiao Wu," he said softly.

"Hmm?"

"New sunflower seeds have arrived."

Xiao Wu's eyes lit up at once.

The two exchanged a glance and smiled at the same time—a perfectly ordinary smile to outsiders, yet anything but ordinary.

Luo Yan did not make a move immediately.

He leaned against the tree and watched the students carrying textbooks pass from the other side of the training field.

One lanky student carried a thick stack of books and walked the fastest, his forehead covered in sweat.

His two companions beside him were still laughing at him, saying that if he could not even carry his books on the first day of school, how could he become a Soul Master in the future?

"See the one carrying the most books?" Luo Yan lowered his voice.

Xiao Wu followed his gaze and nodded. "The lanky one?"

"Right. I bet that within twenty more steps, he'll drop a book."

Xiao Wu blinked. "How do you know?"

"His right hand is lower than his left, and the stack's center of gravity is already off. Plus, every three steps, he has to brace the bottom book with his knee. Twenty steps at most."

Xiao Wu was only half convinced, but she started counting seriously anyway.

One step, two steps, three steps.

Sure enough, the lanky student's steps became increasingly unsteady, and the top copy of the Soul Beast Illustrated Guide had already tilted out by half a corner.

The eighteenth step.

"Thud."

A book slid from the top of the stack and hit the stone path, kicking up a little dust.

"See?" Luo Yan chuckled.

Xiao Wu inhaled sharply, and the way she looked at Luo Yan changed completely. "How are your eyes even made?"

"That's why I said I make my living with my eyes."

"But what does this have to do with fun?" Xiao Wu asked.

Luo Yan raised one finger. "Don't rush. Fun depends on momentum. If the momentum isn't there, forced fun has no flavor. Keep watching."

The lanky student crouched down in a fluster to pick up the book. Not only did his companions refuse to help, they laughed loudly. "And you said you wanted to become a Battle Soul Master? You can't even hold onto a book!"

Still laughing, one of them kicked his book farther away.

Xiao Wu curled her lips. "Those two are so annoying."

"Right? So let's help him."

Xiao Wu's eyes lit up. "How?"

Luo Yan bent down, picked up a tiny pebble from the ground, and tossed it between his fingers.

"In a moment, go wait for me at the corner ahead." He leaned close to Xiao Wu's ear and whispered a few words.

The more Xiao Wu listened, the brighter her eyes became. In the end, she nodded heavily, crouched low, slipped around behind the tree, and ran toward the other end of the training field.

Luo Yan, meanwhile, strolled out of the shade and followed those students along the small path at the edge of the field.

He walked naturally, like any other new student who had just attended the opening ceremony and was heading back to the dormitory.

Then, he activated Pledge of Delusional Joy.

From this moment onward, the next person to mock that student carrying the books will suddenly blurt out their most embarrassing truth the next time they speak.

Even the breeze did not tremble.

The two companions were laughing merrily, completely unaware that an unreasonable rule had quietly settled over them.

"Stop laughing... help me pick them up." The lanky student's face flushed red.

"Help with what? Don't you have hands? With you being like this, you'll be the first one kicked out of practical class tomorrow!" the companion on the left said with a laugh.

The instant his words fell, he suddenly felt a heat in his throat.

"I..."

He had meant to say, "What about me?" But it was as though his mouth had developed a mind of its own.

"I wet the bed again last night!"

The entire area fell silent.

Even the lanky student forgot to pick up his books. He looked up at him. "Huh?"

The student covered his mouth, his eyes bulging wide.

He shook his head desperately to show that he had not meant to say that, but his mouth added another sentence beyond his control:

"Afterward, I flipped the sheets over and kept sleeping!"

The other companion was stunned at first, then burst into laughter so hard that he leaned backward and nearly landed on his backside. "Holy crap, how old are you and you still wet the—hahahaha!"

"I wet the bed when I was seven, I wet the kang when I was nine, and my mom said I belonged in the atlas!"

Luo Yan stopped nearby and pretended to tie his shoelaces, his shoulders shaking like a sieve.

"Y-you, shut the hell up!" The bed-wetting boy's face was so red it looked ready to bleed, and tears nearly welled up in his eyes.

But Pledge of Delusional Joy would not let him stop.

"I also stole meat from the cafeteria, and I never spared a single egg meant for work-study students!"

He covered his mouth in despair, but his voice still slipped through his fingers.

"I'm the one who sewed Wang Sheng's pants smaller with needle and thread!"

"Oh—!"

Several students had somehow gathered around to watch. Hearing that, they all let out a collective cry of realization.

Luo Yan finally finished tying his shoelaces.

He stood, patted his hands, and walked toward the corner as if nothing had happened.

Xiao Wu was already waiting there. The moment she saw him, she pounced on him, trying to hold back her wild laughter. "Why didn't you tell me beforehand that he'd mention Wang Sheng's pants? Hahaha, my stomach hurts from laughing!"

"I didn't expect that either."

Luo Yan spread his hands. "The rule only says it makes people tell the truth. Who knew he had so many talents?"

"Will he figure out that you did it?" Xiao Wu asked, wiping away tears from laughing.

"Impossible."

Luo Yan said, "He'll only hate himself for having such a fast mouth."

On the training field, the bed-wetting boy had already crouched down with his face buried in his knees, saying nothing.

The lanky student patted his shoulder sympathetically instead. "It's okay, brother. From now on... I won't hit you anymore."

The other companion was still laughing wildly beside them.

Watching the scene, Luo Yan suddenly sighed.

"What's wrong?" Xiao Wu asked.

"Fun is fun."

Luo Yan said, "But sometimes the truth hurts more than a joke."

Xiao Wu froze.

"Then... did we go too far?" She sounded a little hesitant.

Luo Yan turned to her and smiled.

"No. We just helped him see himself clearly. That's a great merit."

Xiao Wu glared at him. "You change your face so fast!"

"A basic quality for someone who enjoys fun." Luo Yan looked thoroughly pleased with himself.

In the distance, Nuoding Academy remained as lively as ever on the first day of school. Several students half-dragged the bed-wetting boy toward the dormitories, laughing and bickering all the way.

And within Nuoding Academy, a strange rumor had already begun to spread: whoever talked badly about someone behind their back might suffer a public social death.

Luo Yan said that rumor had nothing to do with him.

Really.

At least, on the surface.