"Go on," Lin Yuan said as he stepped forward.
After hesitating for a moment, the little beggar said earnestly, "I just stole someone's wallet. When I opened it, I found it was full of Gold Soul Coins. He's looking everywhere for me now. I'll give you half."
As she spoke, she took a heavy pouch from inside her clothes. A cursory glance showed at least a hundred Gold Soul Coins inside.
Lin Yuan feigned great temptation. "How do I get you out?"
"It's simple. You just need to distract the soldiers guarding the South City Gate. I'll slip out while they're distracted. As long as you help me escape, I'll give you half the Gold Soul Coins. Here's the deposit."
As she spoke, the little beggar took ten Gold Soul Coins out of the pouch and handed them to Lin Yuan.
Lin Yuan accepted the Gold Soul Coins, said, "All right," and then headed toward the gate Ning Rongrong had pointed out.
Interestingly, once he left through this gate, he could follow the road all the way to Shrek Academy.
Perhaps because the earlier shout had drawn everyone in another direction, the two encountered no obstacles along the way.
When they reached the gate, the little beggar gave Lin Yuan an encouraging look.
Lin Yuan nodded and walked up to the gate guards.
But instead of distracting the guards for the little beggar, he suddenly pointed at her and said, "You're looking for Ning Rongrong, right? She's right here."
The little beggar froze, then ran back the way she had come like someone possessed.
Lin Yuan did not stop her. He merely watched quietly, because he had already sensed a Soul Emperor hiding nearby.
Sure enough, before the little beggar had gone far, a middle-aged woman suddenly appeared, scooped her up around the waist, and said, "Sorry, miss. I'm acting on the sect master's orders."
As she spoke, she carried the little beggar toward Lin Yuan, remaining unmoved no matter how much the girl struggled.
"Hello. Thank you for finding our young miss for us."
The middle-aged woman formally expressed her thanks to Lin Yuan.
"Not at all, not at all. Just give me the reward. I imagine the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, one of the Upper Three Sects, wouldn't go back on its word." Lin Yuan looked every bit the grasping opportunist.
"Of course." The middle-aged woman took a gold card from inside her clothes and handed it to Lin Yuan.
Only then did Ning Rongrong finally come to her senses. Glaring at Lin Yuan through gritted teeth, she said, "You bastard! I trusted you so much, and you actually dared to sell me out! This isn't over..."
"I couldn't help it. Your sect offered too much. Besides, didn't you lie to me just now too, Miss Ning? I merely turned your own scheme against you. Still, a word of advice, Miss Ning: next time you disguise yourself as a beggar, make it more convincing. Beggars don't have such fair, delicate necks." With that, Lin Yuan walked out through the gate, laughing loudly.
All he left behind was Ning Rongrong screaming herself hoarse. "Bastard! I won't let you get away with this..."
Lin Yuan waved without turning around and soon disappeared from sight.
"All right, miss. Come back to the sect with me," the middle-aged female Soul Master said.
Ning Rongrong firmly refused. "I'm not going back."
She had no intention of going back. If she did, she would be forced to face that taciturn lump Long Aotian, who knew nothing but how to curry favor with her.
She was only twelve and did not want to marry. Even if she did marry, it would be in pursuit of her own love.
Not like this, being treated like a piece of merchandise and casually promised to someone else.
She, Ning Rongrong, was a person, a living, breathing person, not a tool for a marriage alliance.
"Sorry, miss. These are the sect master's orders." The middle-aged woman repeated what she had said before.
"If you dare take me back, I'll castrate Long Aotian. When my father and my two grandfathers demand answers, I'll put all the blame on you."
Ning Rongrong threatened her.
"Well..." The middle-aged woman immediately hesitated, because the Little Demoness before her really was capable of doing such a thing, and Long Aotian could not possibly be on guard against her.
If Ning Rongrong really did castrate Long Aotian...
She did not know whether Ning Rongrong would suffer any consequences, but she herself would certainly be offered up to appease the fury of Long Aotian and the two sect-protecting Douluo.
Seeing that she had the middle-aged woman under her thumb, Ning Rongrong curled her lips into a smile and said solemnly:
"How about this? Put me down first. I won't run. After I've had a bath, take me to Shrek Academy. Then report to my father and tell him I want to study at Shrek. If he doesn't agree, you can bring me back. How's that?"
"All right, then I'll have someone go back and report to the sect master." Left with no alternative, the middle-aged woman could only agree.
Ning Rongrong looked in the direction Lin Yuan had left. Considering that he was about her age, it was not hard to tell that he was going to Shrek too.
That had been her original plan as well: to use attending school as an excuse to escape the marriage alliance.
She had never expected that she, Ning Rongrong, clever all her life, would be beaten by this brat.
It was utterly infuriating.
If she did not settle this score, her name was not Ning Rongrong.
Naturally, Lin Yuan did not know that Ning Rongrong had set her sights on him over this. Even if he had known, he would not have cared.
After all, he had only acted as an ordinary person would.
Had he refused Ning Rongrong's Gold Soul Coins and refused to expose her clumsy disguise, that would have been more likely to arouse suspicion.
After leaving the South City Gate, Lin Yuan followed the road south, with farmland stretching along both sides.
Occasionally, he saw scattered parents with children beside them. They appeared to be heading over to register for Shrek Academy's entrance examination.
Lin Yuan could not help admiring that fellow Flender's marketing methods. Things had clearly gotten so bad last year because of the Dragon Snake Family's demands for accountability.
Yet only a year had passed, and all those negative remarks had vanished without a trace.
It was as though the deaths of Meng Baichuan and Meng Yiran, and the dozens of students killed or injured before them, had never happened.
Following leisurely among the scattered people, Lin Yuan was in no hurry to reach Shrek Academy.
He simply observed discreetly while enjoying a rare stretch of peaceful time as an ordinary person.
Even when he saw Xiao Wu, Tang San, and Zhu Zhuqing along the way, he paid them no mind and merely continued slowly behind them.
Xiao Wu and Tang San thought they had mistaken him for someone else earlier, so naturally, neither had any intention of greeting him.
As for Zhu Zhuqing, that went without saying. She had never even seen his face.
By the time Lin Yuan arrived at Shrek Academy, there were already over a hundred applicants.
Lin Yuan was in no hurry either. He quietly joined the back of the line.
Before long, eighty or ninety percent of them dispersed after seeing those ahead fail to meet Shrek's admission requirements and waste their registration fees, judging themselves unable to pass Shrek Academy's entrance examination.
It was worth mentioning that when those people tried to get their registration fees back, Dai Mubai still drove them away.
But because Lin Yuan had robbed Dai Mubai three years earlier, he had spent a long time living in "relative poverty." Even now, after advancing to Soul Elder and receiving a monthly allowance of a hundred Gold Soul Coins,
he still had not recovered, and his clothing was extremely plain.
He looked exactly like a ruined scion who had squandered his entire family fortune.
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