Nana

Ma Rulong stood rooted to the spot, stunned.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but had no idea how to describe what he was feeling.

He just left like that?

Someone pointed right at his nose and called him useless, and he wasn't angry at all?

Ma Rulong considered himself a man who had seen his share of the world.

The academy had plenty of geniuses, and even more people with fierce tempers. If someone told them to their face that they weren't good enough, they would at least leave a threatening remark before walking away.

But Xu Tianyuan?

He said, "So what? What can you do about it?" waved a hand, and left.

That attitude was more infuriating than an insult.

Because he didn't take Ma Rulong seriously at all.

You keep insulting me, I'll keep walking. Neither of us is getting in the other's way.

Ma Rulong suddenly felt that this supposedly useless prince wasn't quite what he had imagined.

The others wore much the same expressions as Ma Rulong, exchanging bewildered glances.

"Ahem, I'll take my brother back to treat his injuries first."

Meng Hongchen cleared her throat twice, slung Xiao Hongchen's arm over her shoulder, and supported him as she headed back.

She walked very quickly, afraid someone might ask another question.

Watching Meng Hongchen leave, Ma Rulong knitted his brows.

The more he thought about it, the more something felt wrong.

A useless prince had moved into Villa 007 and even dared to beat Xiao Hongchen this badly in the middle of the night. Something about this was strange.

"No, I need to ask the dean."

Ma Rulong made up his mind to go find Jing Hongchen.

He needed to get to the bottom of this Xu Tianyuan business.

Wasn't letting someone like that join the academy-and even live in Villa 007-dragging down its standards?

"We'll come too."

Mi Jia, Xiao Xiafeng, Chen Fei, Lin Xi, and Wang Shaojie all nodded in agreement.

The group stormed toward the dean's residence.

Nana, on the other hand, wasn't particularly interested.

"You go ahead. I haven't had dinner yet. I'm hungry."

With that, she lowered her head and left the villa district.

Her steps weren't quick, but she wasn't heading toward the cafeteria.

She had claimed to be hungry, but she was actually planning to catch up with Xu Tianyuan.

Why?

Even she couldn't figure that out.

All she knew was that Xu Tianyuan had stood amid the crowd, with everyone pointing at his nose and mocking him, without so much as furrowing his brows.

When people called him useless, he shrugged.

When people questioned his right to live in the villa district, he couldn't be bothered to explain. He simply turned and left, walking lightly and humming a tune, as though their words had nothing to do with him.

Nana had seen plenty of geniuses at the academy. Every one of them had their eyes perched above their heads; say anything unpleasant to their faces, and a fight could break out on the spot.

She had never seen anyone walk away from a scene like that so calmly.

Besides, anyone who wasn't an idiot could tell who had beaten Xiao Hongchen.

The answer was already right in front of them.

The more she thought about it, the more curious she became, and her steps unconsciously quickened.

Before long, Nana spotted a bewildered figure in the distance.

The man ahead wasn't walking quickly. He looked all around, occasionally stopping to scratch his head, looking every bit like someone who had lost his way.

For some reason, Nana's footsteps became very light at that moment.

So light that even she felt she was sneaking around.

She was a little puzzled.

I'm a distinguished top student at the academy. Why am I acting like a thief just because I'm following a man?

Meanwhile, Xu Tianyuan, who was walking ahead, was deeply bewildered.

The people at the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy were far too obsessed with getting ahead.

Since leaving the villa district, he had encountered several groups.

Without exception, they all had their heads buried in various textbooks.

Some held soul tool construction diagrams as thick as bricks, reciting as they walked.

Some crouched beneath streetlights, using stones to draw formation patterns on the ground.

Others argued with their companions over some formula as they walked, their faces flushed from the debate.

When Xu Tianyuan approached them to ask where the cafeteria was, no one paid him any attention.

They only gave vague, disjointed replies, unwilling even to raise their heads and point the way.

One bespectacled student he stopped didn't even look up, merely pointing casually to the left.

"Straight ahead."

Xu Tianyuan followed that direction for two hundred meters and found a small grove.

He stopped someone else.

That person didn't look up either, merely pointing casually to the right.

"Straight ahead."

Xu Tianyuan went that way and found the staff dormitories.

As a well-mannered, upstanding young man, he couldn't very well insist.

After all, they were studying. Studying was a good thing, and interrupting someone else's studies was immoral.

He could only wander aimlessly, without a clue.

"Come to think of it, should I hire a penniless commoner student to bring me meals every day?"

"Or just have them cook for me?"

Xu Tianyuan muttered to himself, finding the plan more feasible the longer he considered it.

Whether in the Douluo Three Kingdoms or the Sun Moon Empire, the gap between rich and poor was quite large.

Not everyone attending school came from money.

Huo Yuhao and Jiang Nannan from Shrek Academy, for example, both came from commoner backgrounds.

As long as he offered enough compensation, recruiting a few people to work for him shouldn't be difficult.

He wasn't hiring assassins. He just wanted someone to cook for him.

That was called creating jobs. It counted as charity.

"Um..."

Just as Xu Tianyuan was making his plans, a voice suddenly came from behind him.

It was very soft, with a hint of hesitation.

Xu Tianyuan frowned and turned around.

He saw a slender girl with unusually pale skin standing a few steps away.

She was the girl who had pointed out his identity in the crowd earlier.

Xu Tianyuan didn't know who she was, only that she was probably a top student.

Anyone who could live in the villa district had to have excellent grades.

Except for him, of course, since he had gotten in through the back door.

"Need something?"

Xu Tianyuan asked with a frown.

At that, Nana found herself at a loss.

She was usually quiet and reserved, disliked socializing, and rarely spoke.

She had only followed him out of a little curiosity.

The moment Xu Tianyuan asked that question, her social anxiety kicked in.

She opened her mouth, then closed it.

She opened her mouth again, but still made no sound.

She hemmed and hawed, unable to squeeze out a single sentence.

She bitterly regretted it.

If I'd known I'd embarrass myself like this, I wouldn't have followed him.

Great. I've caught up with him, but now I can't speak. I'm standing here like an idiot.

"Uh..."

Xu Tianyuan was baffled.

He looked the girl up and down a couple of times but couldn't make sense of her behavior.

But since he was truly starving, he didn't dwell on it and immediately changed the subject.

"By the way, do you know where the cafeteria is?"

Nana blinked.

This was a question she could answer.

She breathed a sigh of relief, raised a hand to point toward a nearby path, and said softly.

"It's a few hundred meters that way."

Xu Tianyuan's eyes immediately lit up.

"Thanks. You're a really good person."

"How about I treat you to dinner?"

Having just extorted tens of thousands of Gold Soul Coins from Xiao Hongchen, Xu Tianyuan felt flush with cash and had an urge to indulge in some revenge spending.

Back in the imperial palace, he had possessed the title of sixth prince in name only. Though he never lacked food or clothing and received a fixed allowance each month, his life had been very restrictive.

If he wanted to buy something, he had to submit an expense report. If he wanted to go out, he had to request imperial permission. Even eating a meal meant watching other people's expressions.

Now the sea was wide enough for a fish to leap freely, and he had money he had earned himself. Naturally, he had to enjoy a proper spending spree.

And the money wasn't dirty, either. It was compensation for emotional distress, perfectly legal and aboveboard.