Zhu Zhuyun?

Dream Academy.

Shi Meng reclined in a chair, holding a cup of his junior senior sister's secret-recipe silk-stocking milk tea, his eyes narrowed as he basked in the warm morning sunlight in the courtyard.

Ahh... bliss...

"Brother Shi Meng!"

Ning Rongrong poked half her head through the doorway.

"Some new students are coming to enroll today. Want to take a look?"

Shi Meng opened one eye.

Zhu Zhuqing was here too?

He had restructured her fate with the power of causality three years ago. Judging by the timing, she was due to arrive.

"Come on, let's take a look."

Hu Liena was already waiting outside the admissions office.

"Junior brother, today's arrivals are a little unusual."

"Unusual?"

Shi Meng pushed open the door, then froze.

Zhu Zhuqing and... Zhu Zhuyun?

Why had they come together?

The sisters stood side by side in the admissions office, one cold as frost, the other lovely as peach blossoms.

Shi Meng forced himself to calm down and looked at them. "Do you both want to join our Dream Academy?"

Zhu Zhuqing's arrival did not surprise him.

After all, he had rewritten her script with Causal Restructuring. She was bound to seek him out sooner or later.

But what was Zhu Zhuyun doing here?

In the original story, Zhu Zhuyun was Dai Weisi's fiancée. She had always stayed by his side, helping him fight for the throne.

That same Zhu Zhuyun, who had been desperate to kill her own younger sister, was now standing before him alongside Zhu Zhuqing.

This wasn't how the script went!

Zhu Zhuqing raised her head and gave Shi Meng a discreet glance.

Yet Hu Liena and Ning Rongrong keenly picked up on that glance.

There was so much in it.

The joy of reunion, suppressed excitement, and an indescribable tenderness?

Something was very wrong with this Zhu Zhuqing.

Oh nooo!

Shi Meng's romantic-battlefield radar went off.

He immediately gave a tactical cough and decided to seize the initiative.

"Zhu Zhuqing, second daughter of the Zhu Family of the Star Luo Empire. Martial Soul: Hell Spirit Cat. Soul Power: rank twenty-seven."

"Zhu Zhuyun, eldest daughter of the Zhu Family. Martial Soul: Hell Spirit Cat. Soul Power: rank forty-one."

Zhu Zhuyun: !

"How did you know?"

They had only just arrived. They had neither introduced themselves nor presented any identification, yet this man had guessed their identities with a single glance. Just one glance!

"What's so hard about that? My junior brother is very capable, you know." Hu Liena planted a hand on her hip.

Shi Meng nodded, glanced at the two women, and expressed his agreement with Hu Liena.

Mm, they really weren't hard to recognize.

After all, there weren't that many mountains towering this high on the Douluo Continent.

Shi Meng leaned forward, resting his clasped hands on the desk.

"I know all about the affairs between your Zhu Family and the Star Luo Imperial Family. The Zhu sisters must participate in the brutal competition involving their princely fiancés. Those who lose are either eliminated or confined. So, Zhu Zhuyun, why have you come running to my Dream Academy with your younger sister?"

Zhu Zhuyun's expression shifted slightly.

She had never expected this boy, who looked only twelve or thirteen, to expose the Zhu Family's most shameful truth the moment he opened his mouth.

Zhu Zhuqing, however, showed little reaction.

She merely raised her head and glanced at Shi Meng.

He was still the same.

He knew everything and dared to say anything.

Zhu Zhuyun took a deep breath, reining in some of the pride on her face.

"Zhu Zhuqing persuaded me to come."

Zhu Zhuyun glanced at her younger sister.

"I originally intended to hunt Zhu Zhuqing down. Dai Weisi was going to send people to kill her, so I had no choice but to act. That way, at least she would still have a sliver of hope of surviving."

"Fortunately, Zhu Zhuqing talked me out of it in time. That's why I came here with her."

"We fled here together."

Shi Meng looked at Zhu Zhuqing.

Zhu Zhuqing lowered her head, her voice soft.

"I told her that the Zhu Family's rules were wrong to begin with."

"Sisters shouldn't have to kill each other."

"I didn't want to fight her, and I didn't want her to die."

"So I asked her to leave with me."

Shi Meng raised an eyebrow.

"And your sister simply believed you?"

"I laid the evidence before her."

Zhu Zhuqing took out a booklet and handed it to Shi Meng.

"It contains the names erased from the family genealogy in the previous generation and the generation before that. After reading it, she didn't sleep all night."

Zhu Zhuyun looked at the booklet with a complicated expression.

She truly had not slept all night.

That night, she had opened the booklet to investigate. The booklet had no title, and each page contained only plain, unassuming names.

Unable to sleep no matter what, she had studied it for half the night before finally discerning two characters between the lines: **.

So the next morning, she packed her things and pretended to pursue Zhu Zhuqing, using the opportunity to run away with her instead.

"So you just spirited your sister away?"

Shi Meng looked at Zhu Zhuqing.

Zhu Zhuqing lowered her head, the tips of her ears flushing slightly.

Zhu Zhuyun rolled her eyes.

What did he mean, spirited away? He really didn't know how to talk.

As Shi Meng looked at the sisters, a wave of emotion stirred within him.

In the original story, the sisters had not been on good terms. Zhu Zhuyun had always served as Dai Weisi's blade.

In this life, Zhu Zhuqing had forcibly pulled her out of it.

This time, the younger sister had saved the elder.

"All right. On behalf of Dream Academy, I welcome both of you."

Ning Rongrong stepped forward.

"Please come with me to complete your enrollment."

Zhu Zhuqing stole a glance at Shi Meng, then headed outside with Zhu Zhuyun.

Watching the sisters leave, Shi Meng suddenly felt something rather subtle stir within him.

Sisters, huh? Perhaps...

"Junior brother, what are you looking at?"

The voice that suddenly drew close startled Shi Meng. He immediately came back to his senses and found Hu Liena looking at him with a playful expression.

Without batting an eyelid, Shi Meng said-or rather, made up an excuse-"I was checking whether they had Storage Soul Tools."

A trace of suspicion flickered through Hu Liena's eyes, but she did not dwell on it. Instead, she lowered her voice.

"Junior brother, the way this Zhu Zhuqing looks at you seems a little off. Do you two... know each other?"

Shi Meng shook his head blankly.

They didn't? Perhaps she was overthinking it?

Could this Zhu Zhuqing have fallen for her junior brother at first sight?

No, it looked like she would have to guard against this woman too.

Watch list +1.

"All right, senior sister, shouldn't we head back? Didn't you say you wanted to cultivate in a little while?"

Hu Liena paused, then remembered and turned to pull Shi Meng away.

Just then, however, a figure walked in.

Shi Meng looked up, and his pupils abruptly contracted.

The newcomer looked to be in her early twenties. Tall and slender, she wore a long white dress, her golden hair cascading over her shoulders. Her exquisite beauty seemed untouched by the mortal world, and her blue eyes were clear yet deep. An indescribable nobility and composure accompanied her every movement.

It was Qian Renxue!

Shi Meng's mind began racing.

How had she arrived so quickly? Hadn't he only altered her causality last night?

Qian Renxue, Qian Xunji's daughter, possessed the Six-Winged Angel martial soul. She had been sent to the Heaven Dou Empire as a child to impersonate Xue Qinghe.

By all rights, she could not have arrived so soon.

Could it have been She Long?

Hu Liena was also studying Qian Renxue.

She frowned slightly.

Why did this woman look somewhat familiar?

But she could not recall where she had seen her.

"Are you here to enroll too?"

"No, I'm here to apply for a teaching position."

"A teacher?!"