Two days later.
Inside the conference room at the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy.
Jing Hongchen and Yan Shaozhe sat on opposite sides.
Yan Shaozhe's visit had taken Jing Hongchen completely by surprise.
He had yet to notify Shrek to come ransom their people, but they had arrived uninvited.
After a moment's thought.
Jing Hongchen decided not to mention the theft committed by Huo Yuhao and the other three just yet.
Instead, he asked, "What brings you here so suddenly, Brother Yan?"
"Well, I've come to request a month's leave for two of our exchange students," Yan Shaozhe explained at once.
"Leave? Of course, that's no problem. Which two students?" Jing Hongchen asked.
"Bei Bei and Huo Yuhao."
Upon hearing the names of the two students Yan Shaozhe wanted leave for.
Jing Hongchen's expression turned stern.
His brows drew tightly together.
Bei Bei and Huo Yuhao.
Those two were the principal offenders he had arrested for theft just a short while ago.
Yet he had barely arrested them, and before word had even gotten out, Shrek had come to request leave for them.
That was far too much of a coincidence.
Unaware of what had happened, Yan Shaozhe saw Jing Hongchen fall silent.
His expression did not look particularly pleasant, either.
He hurriedly asked, "Dean Jing, is there some difficulty?"
"Ah, Brother Yan, I won't hide it from you."
"If you were requesting leave for anyone else, I would approve it on the spot, without question."
"But if you want leave for Bei Bei and Huo Yuhao, let me tell you plainly: no!"
With a troubled expression, Jing Hongchen rejected Yan Shaozhe's request.
At those words.
Yan Shaozhe's brows knitted tightly.
He mistakenly assumed that something had happened to their Shrek students.
And that this was why Jing Hongchen