Course Selection

That night.

After Caesar had taken him around the school for the entire afternoon, Li Lin returned to the dormitory.

The moment Li Lin entered, he saw that Dorm 403, which had originally become Caesar's private lounge, had been tidied into perfect order. The room had been strictly divided into two separate living spaces, and all of Caesar's personal belongings had been put away in his own desk and locker.

Even Li Lin's bed had been made with brand-new bedding, and the creases on the pillow had been carefully smoothed out.

Two Student Union upperclassmen stood ramrod straight in the aisle, their eyes bright as soldiers awaiting an officer's inspection as they looked toward Caesar behind Li Lin.

Caesar entered the room and looked at Li Lin's bed, then at the round table between the two beds. His gaze swept over the paintings hanging on the walls and the ivory gauze curtains, taking in the coffee machine displayed on the table and the refrigerator in the corner. He nodded approvingly. "The efficiency and aesthetics are both up to standard. Well done."

As he spoke, he turned to the two subordinates, whose backs had straightened even further. "After you return, have the secretary register this. This cleanup will count toward the Student Union's outstanding attendance record. From now on, documents and packages that require my signature don't need to be specially delivered to Dorm 403. I don't want Li Lin waking up every morning feeling like he's sleeping in the Student Union's storage room."

"Yes, Chairman Caesar!" the two upperclassmen answered in unison.

Li Lin, who was organizing his clean clothes by the bed, flinched at that cry of "Yes, Chairman!" For a moment, he nearly expected someone to hand Caesar a saber so he could declare that Dorm 403 was officially independent and ready to resist the British Empire's colonial rule.

Fingel arrived late, carrying up a brand-new Sony VAIO TZ38N. It was office equipment the Student Union had purchased for the new semester, and Caesar had given it to Li Lin as a welcome gift.

In the Student Union chairman's own words, a college student without a computer was like a caveman living in a dormitory.

"Junior brother, I've installed the system and office software for you. Here's the power cord. If you have any problems, just come downstairs and find me! Your senior brother lives in 303!"

After a day of fooling around, Fingel's way of addressing Li Lin had changed from "junior" to the more affectionate "junior brother." He waved goodbye, then slung his arms around the shoulders of his two Student Union colleagues and headed for the cafeteria, despite the disgusted looks on their faces.

Looking at the new computer on his desk, Li Lin felt it was really inappropriate to keep accepting things from others. He went over to Caesar, who was seated across from him, intending to pay him according to market price.

Caesar waved him off. To him, a laptop was as insignificant as a soda bottle cap casually tossed onto the roadside. While some of the help he had given Li Lin ever since their first meeting was indeed meant to win him over, the main reason was his pride as an aristocrat.

He did not care why Norma had suddenly assigned a freshman to his dorm, especially Li Lin, the prep class prodigy who had become famous before even enrolling. Perhaps the Gattuso family had a hand in it, but none of that mattered, because Li Lin could not possibly be a bodyguard or monitor planted beside him by the Gattuso family.

The principal had always paid special attention to talented young people at the school. That flirtatious old man of one hundred and thirty was stubborn about his educational philosophy in ways ordinary people could hardly understand. He would never allow Mixed-Blood families to extend their reach into the prep class.

Li Lin talked with Caesar for quite a while, but in the end, faced with the aristocratic dignity Caesar practically regarded as part of his personality, he gave up on trying to pay him.

He could only quietly marvel while showering that the eldest young master of a Mixed-Blood family really did have a completely different understanding of money from ordinary people.

After showering, Li Lin changed into the cheap T-shirt and shorts he had bought before going abroad and stood on the balcony to catch the breeze.

By coincidence, Xia Mi called. He chatted cheerfully with his childhood sweetheart about what had happened that day.

But unexpectedly, the girl's replies became less and less frequent. At first, she had been willing to play along like a curious child, but after Li Lin finished saying, "Senior brother Caesar gave me a laptop that cost nearly thirty thousand," Xia Mi fell completely silent.

"Xia Mi? Hello? Did you drop your phone out the window?"

When Li Lin heard nothing from the other end, he thought Xia Mi had accidentally dropped her phone. But considering the reflexes of this sixteen-year-old martial arts grandmaster, it seemed unlikely she would embarrass herself like that.

Sure enough, as Li Lin repeatedly asked if Xia Mi was all right, the sweet, clear voice of a young girl sounded from the receiver again.

"I was just talking with my roommate about our hometowns. She's Chinese too, just like us!"

"Seriously? How come I didn't hear anyone else talking on the call?"

"What, are you trying to eavesdrop on the late-night conversations in a girls' dorm?" Xia Mi said, then deliberately called out behind her, "Su Qian! My friend wants to hear you say something!"

"Hm? Your boyfriend?" A gentle female voice really did come through the phone.

Xia Mi bared her teeth and chased Su Qian around for a while, then picked up her phone again and spoke to Li Lin.

"Heh heh heh~ You heard that, right? I wasn't lying."

That smug little hum sounded as adorable as a kitten deliberately acting cute.

Li Lin had no way to deal with her. He knew Xia Mi was lying, but based on past experience, if he exposed her now, she would probably drag him out in the middle of the night for a fight.

"Forget it, let's not talk about that. You didn't call at this hour just to hear me talk about my roommate, did you?"

"Yep, Little Li, hurry up and send me your course schedule!"

"Doesn't Norma tailor course schedules according to each student's circumstances? I remember only students with serious failing grades can apply to change courses in a new semester." Li Lin recalled what Fingel had mentioned during the day. That upperclassman, who had repeated several years, had experience in this area that no one else in the school could match.

"We're an exception. Just log into the course selection website and you'll see. Since we completed all four years' worth of physical education credits and grade points in the prep class ahead of time, Norma specially opened a channel for us to freely choose all our courses! And since we were specially admitted as prep students, we only need to earn twelve credits this semester!"

Xia Mi said with a smile, "So hurry up and send me your schedule. We'll settle this with our grades on the final exams."

That was exactly what Li Lin wanted.

The Binding System could only take effect when Xia Mi studied seriously and produced visible results that others could see. If he did not enroll in the same courses as Xia Mi, he would have to study those specialized courses about the Dragon Race and Mixed-Bloods himself.

"Why don't you send me your schedule instead? Otherwise, when your exam scores are worse than mine, you'll end up crying and saying, 'It's not fair, I'm not interested in this course at all.'"

The shameless cheater of Earth Online provoked the true genius girl over the phone, making her so angry that she stamped her feet and shrieked into the phone, wishing she could teleport right in front of Li Lin, grab him by the collar, and hit him with a combo.