Something's off about you

Xianyu irritably pushed Jing Yuan all the way toward the condiment station.

Jing Yuan grinned cheekily. "I was just worried you couldn't handle things on your own..."

Xianyu said, "...Thanks, but actually, I know your master."

Jing Yuan froze, then immediately leaned closer to ask him.

"Huh? How did you two meet? Come on, give me the details-"

It was no wonder Jing Yuan was curious.

On the battlefield, Jingliu could take her sword and single-handedly charge in and out of the enemy ranks over and over.

Her swordplay was unstoppable, and even the aura of her blade struck fear into her enemies, forcing them to steer clear of its edge.

Even among the many talented Cloud Knights, no one could keep pace with her.

Off the battlefield, with her shoulder armor removed and her daily life resumed, Jingliu was just as unsmiling.

She approached socializing the same way she approached battle: entirely on her own.

The friends who could enjoy a lively conversation with the Sword Champion could be counted on one hand.

As Jingliu's disciple, Jing Yuan naturally knew his master's temperament and had long since met every one of her friends.

Now Xianyu had suddenly appeared among them-and, as luck would have it, he was a friend Jing Yuan had met at the Academy. He couldn't help being curious.

"I went out for a drink, happened to run into Baiheng and Jingliu, and shared their table. That's how we met."

Xianyu split his attention between tasks. After mixing his own sesame dipping sauce, he tried to recall Baiheng's preferences while giving an offhand, evasive answer.

Jing Yuan had already mixed his sauce and was filling a plate with fruit. Hearing that, he immediately saw through Xianyu's dismissive attitude and said without hesitation, "Something's off."

Jing Yuan thought something was off about both Xianyu and his master.

"...What's off about it? Even a shut-in socializes occasionally."

Xianyu found the whole thing baffling.

Jing Yuan scoffed.

He considered himself the person who knew Xianyu's temperament best.

To outsiders, Xianyu was a Diviner who coasted along on a fixed salary, seemingly determined to keep at it until he grew old.

He called himself an unsociable shut-in, and Jing Yuan had hardly seen any friends he could really talk to.

If Xianyu wanted to, he could befriend plenty of people, but he refused to get close to anyone.

Jing Yuan had gone to considerable lengths to become his friend.

Only after getting to know him had Jing Yuan discovered how changeable Xianyu was. He was like an onion: you had to peel away his disguises layer by layer to glimpse anything real.

At his core lay an extreme indifference to everything.

Someone like that cared about nothing, but once you pissed him off...he had plenty of ways to strike back.

For instance, back when they were still in school, Xianyu's performance as one of those who had drawn the Reignbow Arbiter's attention had left the Xianzhou natives sighing.

Compared with the other gifted students in his cohort, Xianyu became a target for some of his peers to vent their resentment on-or, rather, to show others how tough they were.

They began tampering with his homework, playing crude tricks that anyone could see through at a glance.

Xianyu, who had become a thorn in their sides, knew nothing about it, which only emboldened them to go further.

Even Jing Yuan, who was in a different grade, had heard about it.

One day, while taking a shortcut home, he came across Xianyu confronting those students, cornered in a rarely used alley.

Jing Yuan silently seethed at their malice. If he hadn't happened to come along, who knew how badly they might have bullied Xianyu!

He burned with righteous anger, but he didn't let it cloud his judgment.

I can't tip them off.

Once they noticed an outsider was there, their behavior would only get worse.

Jing Yuan found a spot hidden from their view and gestured at Xianyu, trying to tell him to keep them occupied while he went for help.

At the center of the trouble, Xianyu spotted the white-haired boy waving his arms about and chuckled.

Then he said calmly, "So this is school bullying."

His tone was so flat that he hardly sounded like someone being bullied. He sounded more like a scholar who had discovered something novel and wanted to investigate.

This is bad, Jing Yuan thought.

Sure enough, Xianyu enraged the bullies who fancied themselves so powerful with a single sentence.

Some couldn't stand the way Xianyu watched them as though they were performing monkeys and immediately moved to hit him.

Others seemed intimidated by his air of confidence, assuming he had something up his sleeve.

Seeing that, Jing Yuan forgot about everything else and immediately shouted:

"Cloud Knight, sir! Over here! Someone's fighting-"

The intimidated bullies thought they had figured it out. They immediately grabbed those who were about to attack and spat, "Just you wait!"

With that, they all took to their heels.

Xianyu walked slowly over to Jing Yuan, looking at the white-haired boy who didn't even reach his chest and whose temples were slick with cold sweat.

"You're not very tall, little guy, but you've got plenty of guts..."

Seemingly noticing that Jing Yuan was still tense, Xianyu looked down at the name embroidered on his schoolbag. Once he knew his name, he held out a hand to indicate his height and teased him in a lighthearted tone.

"I'm Xianyu. Thank you, Jing Yuan. But you helped me this time-what if they set their sights on you?"

Jing Yuan gave a confident smile and shook his head. "I'm not scared."

Xianyu looked steadily at him, then smiled and thanked him again. After asking where Jing Yuan lived, he said in surprise, "What a coincidence. That's on my way. Let's walk together."

Jing Yuan had been curious all along about why Xianyu let them bully him.

As they walked and chatted, Jing Yuan went from politely addressing him as an older schoolmate to the more affectionate "big brother Xianyu."

Once he felt he had a handle on Xianyu's character, he couldn't hold back the question.

Xianyu answered without hesitation:

"Because I really didn't notice at first-getting scolded by teachers is normal for an ordinary student, isn't it? You do make mistakes, like forgetting to hand in homework or leaving your name off a test...After a while, I noticed something was wrong-"

Jing Yuan said, "...How could you overlook something like that? That's not what an ordinary student does!"

Xianyu asked sincerely, "Then what kind of student counts as an ordinary student?"

Jing Yuan thought for a moment, recalling the well-behaved students in his class, then said, "They pay attention in class and do whatever the teachers say without talking back..."

"Oh, you actually have to listen to the teachers? What a pain..."

Jing Yuan complained, "Someone who says rebellious things like that isn't an ordinary student at all, big brother Xianyu...I really don't get how they managed to bully you!"

"Because I honestly never imagined anyone could be that stupid..."

Xianyu sighed. Seeing that they had arrived, he stopped and rummaged through his schoolbag for a sheet of yellow paper covered in unfamiliar symbols drawn in red ink.

He handed it to Jing Yuan.

Utterly confused, Jing Yuan took the yellow paper, but Xianyu brushed aside all his questions with a few words and diverted his attention.

Xianyu said, "Thank you, Jing Yuan. As for those people, don't worry about them."

Hearing that, Jing Yuan immediately forgot to ask what the yellow paper was for. "Then what are you going to do?"

"Don't worry. It'll be dealt with soon."

Xianyu hadn't intended to explain much, but Jing Yuan looked unwilling to let it go, so he had to continue:

"Why do you think I happened to walk somewhere so secluded?"