I Treated You as a Friend

Xu Tianyuan glanced over and silently sighed.

Waste food, and heaven will strike you with lightning.

He went straight to the serving window, got another plate of meat, and carried his tray over to sit across from Nana.

Looking at the quiet young girl before him, Xu Tianyuan asked,

"Why aren't you eating?"

Granted, because Nana had the Holy Spirit Cult behind her, Xu Tianyuan didn't want too much contact with her.

But as a prince who aspired to become a mentor in life, he felt obliged to give Nana some guidance.

For instance, how could she stop eating just because she was a little nervous?

That was wrong.

This meal had cost a full two hundred Gold Soul Coins.

Two hundred Gold Soul Coins! Enough for an ordinary family to live comfortably for decades.

If Nana didn't eat, she would be wasting food, wasting money, cutting flesh off Xu Tianyuan himself.

Xu Tianyuan firmly opposed such behavior.

"I..."

Nana opened her mouth, apparently wanting to say something.

But with the words on the tip of her tongue, she simply couldn't get them out.

Honestly, it was because her social anxiety was too severe.

Although the cafeteria had emptied out considerably, there were still people around.

And a man who was practically a stranger was sitting across from her.

This is so awkward.

Nana twisted her fingers together, her cheeks gradually reddening, her heart pounding like a drum.

She actually had plenty of questions.

She wanted to know whether this man really was a good-for-nothing.

She wanted to know exactly how Xiao Hongchen had been beaten.

But she couldn't ask a single one.

Xu Tianyuan waited two seconds. Seeing no response from her, he didn't press further.

After all, as far as he was concerned, nothing mattered more than eating right now.

He resumed inhaling his food like a whirlwind.

The speed at which a plate of Soul Beast meat disappeared in Xu Tianyuan's hands could make anyone wonder whether he had chewed up the plate too.

Before long, Xu Tianyuan had polished off another tray of Soul Beast meat.

He was about ninety percent full now.

Xu Tianyuan rubbed his round belly, leaned back in his chair, and let out a long, contented breath.

He couldn't have been more comfortable.

He would go back, take a bath, then blissfully lie down in bed and sleep. Surely life didn't get any better than that.

Princes fighting over succession, Xu Tianran, the Holy Spirit Cult-they could all wait.

"Goodbye."

Xu Tianyuan stood up, cradling his belly, waved to Nana, and turned to head back to Villa 007.

Yet as he walked, he kept feeling a pair of eyes fixed on his back.

Xu Tianyuan raised an eyebrow and looked over his shoulder.

Only then did he discover Nana was still following him, carrying a bag containing the Soul Beast meat she hadn't eaten.

Xu Tianyuan silently praised her.

Oh, not bad.

She even knows to pack up the leftovers instead of wasting food.

Although this girl's social anxiety was off the charts, her character really was beyond reproach.

The single virtue of "not wasting food" was enough to earn her a score of eighty from him.

"Xu Tianyuan."

Noticing him watching her, Nana finally mustered her courage, walked over, and softly called his name.

Her voice was so quiet it almost scattered in the night breeze.

"Anything else?"

Xu Tianyuan asked with interest.

Honestly, he used to visit pleasure houses every day to listen to songs, and he had seen plenty of women.

Plump beauties, slender beauties-every sort imaginable.

But this was his first time meeting a woman like Nana, seemingly frail and gentle, terribly withdrawn, and possessed of the ultimate social anxiety.

How should he put it? Her type had reached the absolute ceiling of the socially anxious world.

His gaze made Nana even more nervous.

She drew a deep breath, as though she had made a tremendous decision.

"Um..."

She had barely uttered that one word before getting stuck again.

Xu Tianyuan didn't hurry her. He simply watched her with a smile, his expression as kindly as could be.

Nana gritted her teeth and finally managed to finish what she wanted to say.

"Were you deliberately pretending to be a wastrel before?"

Xu Tianyuan's eyelid twitched.

Here it comes.

What was bound to come has finally come.

Seeing no reaction, Nana assumed he hadn't heard clearly, so she poured out all the questions in her heart at once.

"Xiao Hongchen is our academy's greatest genius. He's only fourteen, but he's already reached rank forty-nine. By the time of the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Tournament, becoming a Soul King is practically a done deal."

"But today, you actually beat him into that state."

"It's completely unbelievable."

Nana could hardly be blamed for being so curious.

It was like a terrible student, notorious throughout the country, suddenly surpassing a top student in an exam one day.

Who wouldn't be baffled?

Worse still, after beating someone up, this "terrible student" had casually gone to the cafeteria and eaten two huge plates of meat.

That contrast was even more outrageous than a Soul Beast suddenly speaking human language.

"I beat up Xiao Hongchen?"

Xu Tianyuan widened his eyes, his face filled with bewilderment.

"How come I didn't know?"

He spread both hands, looking as though he had suffered the greatest injustice imaginable.

"You must have gotten it wrong. Meng Hongchen already said earlier that Xiao Hongchen fell on his own. I just happened to be standing nearby. How can you say I beat him into that state?"

"My fellow student, please don't pin that accusation on me. If the dean asks about it later, how am I supposed to explain?"

"I can't bear the charge of injuring his grandson."

As Xu Tianyuan spoke, he shook his head and sighed. With that aggrieved expression, he could have set up a stall outside the academy gates beneath a huge sign reading "Dou E Is Here."

At those words, Nana was instantly at a complete loss.

She even began to doubt herself.

Could Xiao Hongchen really have fallen on his own?

But that isn't right.

Xiao Hongchen was a Soul Ancestor, a rank forty-nine Soul Ancestor, whose physical resilience far exceeded that of an ordinary person.

Could one casual tumble really turn him into a slack-eyed idiot?

Besides, Meng Hongchen had clearly been lying at the time. Anyone with eyes could see that.

"But..."

Nana still wanted to ask a couple more questions.

Xu Tianyuan immediately cut her off.

"But what?"

He slapped his thigh, his expression instantly shifting from bewilderment to bitter anguish.

"Nobody believes the truth anymore these days. Ah! People's hearts aren't what they used to be."

"And here I treated you to a meal, spending a full two hundred Gold Soul Coins, only to get not a friend in return, but someone who suspects me."

Xu Tianyuan unleashed his acting prowess.

With one hand pressed to his chest and the other pounding his thigh, he sighed and lamented, beat his breast and stamped his feet, delivering a performance brimming with emotion.

Had a director been present, he would definitely have awarded him an Oscar on the spot.

"Two hundred Gold Soul Coins! I normally can't even bear to eat a meal costing more than one Gold Soul Coin. Today, I finally met you and gritted my teeth to treat you, and what did I get?"

"I treated you as a friend, but you treated me as a suspect."

"My sincerity is like the stars in the night sky, bright and blazing, yet unable to illuminate the gloom in your heart."

Nana had never witnessed anything like this.

She froze completely, her mind buzzing.

With her extreme social anxiety, she usually needed half an hour to mentally prepare just to speak to a stranger. When had she ever encountered a performance of this caliber?