Not a Good Day to Go Out

Ye Buyu stared at the words "good luck" flooding the screen and collapsed onto her bed, her white hair spreading out like a wilted dandelion.

The storm battering her head-on left her speechless.

She rolled over and buried herself in her pillow, pounding it in feeble protest.

"Good luck, my ass. You want this luck? Take it!"

The best result Ye Buyu had imagined was scraping into twelfth place, barely making it into the first batch of Joint Training students.

She had never imagined she would do this well. Never mind everyone else not believing it-she could hardly believe it herself.

"I'm screwed. Am I going to be stuck indoors?"

After spacing out for ages, she climbed off the bed, sneaked a few looks through the window, and wandered aimlessly around her room.

She surveyed the room, grabbed the broom from the corner, and began a thorough cleaning. The room was small, so she finished quickly.

Then Ye Buyu carried her broom straight to Mu Bingge's door and started sweeping there, pricking up her ears for any sounds inside.

"If you want help, just go in. Why are you skulking around?" Little Whale lounged in her mind, rolling around in boredom.

"..."

After a moment of silence, Ye Buyu answered, "I don't know how to say it."

Do I say... Mu Bingge, please save me again? Everyone out there wants to beat me to death, and I'm scared.

Or... Boss, save my sorry ass. I'm too chicken to go outside.

Either one sounded ridiculous.

"..." Little Whale was at a loss for words. "But sneaking around like this is even more ridiculous."

Ye Buyu's shoulders slumped. She put the cleaning tools back where they belonged, flung herself onto the living room sofa, and began sulking as though mushrooms might sprout on her.

"I just checked. There are still thirty days of vacation before the Joint Training Class starts. I can't stay holed up at school the whole time, can I?"

Everyone else had somewhere to go, whether they used their family's resources to keep training or sought out teachers from their old schools and arranged to gather materials and gain combat experience in the Blue-Label Zone with their classmates.

Everyone had their own connections. Only she was stuck here in limbo, with no idea what to do.

Rather than saying Ye Buyu had reached this point one step at a time, it would be more accurate to say she had been pushed along the whole way.

Now, Ye Buyu was like a cat at a crossroads, staring at the paths shrouded in fog before her, lifting a paw without knowing where to set it down.

After three seconds of bewilderment, she abruptly raised her head, launched herself off the sofa, strode to Mu Bingge's room, and knocked on the door to her unknown fate.

The door opened with a creak.

Faced with Mu Bingge's puzzled expression, Ye Buyu stammered, "Mu Bingge, when you go hunting Calamities in the Blue-Label Zone, could you take me along?"

Afraid she would refuse, Ye Buyu held up three fingers. "I promise I won't cause you any trouble. All the materials we get will be yours. Uh... except what I get through Compulsory Cost. I can't give those back to you."

Under Ye Buyu's hopeful gaze, Mu Bingge slowly shook her head. "I'm afraid I can't this time."

The door of fate slammed shut.

Ye Buyu turned to stone on the spot.

Mu Bingge explained, "I have family matters to deal with, so I probably won't be able to come back to school for a while. But you could ask Principal Lan. She'd probably be happy to arrange something for you."

Ye Buyu nodded. "Okay, I understand. Thank you."

After some thought, she still asked, "Mu Bingge, are things really busy at home?"

She had gone to deal with family matters before, and now she was doing it again. Ye Buyu wondered whether there was anything she could help with.

Mu Bingge paused, apparently not expecting Ye Buyu to ask that.

"You might not know my family, but you've probably heard the name Tidewater Workshop."

Tidewater Workshop?

The Tidewater Workshop that processed calamity remnants and materials, jointly established trading and collection hubs with Great Xia in multiple locations, and had branches all across Great Xia?

That household-name company, as famous as the Civil Engineering Division under Great Xia's Urban Construction Bureau?

Ye Buyu was shocked almost speechless. "Your... your family works at..."

"Tidewater Workshop is my family's business. My father used to run it, and now my eldest uncle does. I need to go back and help."

Mu Bingge stated the facts as though they were nothing.

Ye Buyu's mind exploded on the spot.

It was like a friend suddenly telling you one day that her family owned Tencent. Beyond disbelief, there was hardly room for any other emotion.

To Ye Buyu, it was as though her friend had suddenly donned robes of rosy clouds and announced that she was a fairy.

The leap between dimensions was so fast that her brain's reflex pathways snapped clean in two.

Mu Bingge waved a hand in front of her face. "How are you doing? Are you okay?"

Ye Buyu's brain had already short-circuited, and she began spouting nonsense. "I'm fine. If you're fine, have a Liuliumei plum."

Mu Bingge looked helpless. "It's not that earth-shattering, is it? You weren't like this when you faced the Wind-Thunder Cantor."

Ye Buyu's stalled brain began working again, gradually accepting that the powerful backer she had latched onto had become even more powerful.

"I'm just... well, it was sudden. Things like the Wind-Thunder Cantor were pretty far removed from my life before, but Tidewater Workshop feels much closer, so I lost my composure a little."

It was just like real life: tell her you were an alien, and she could laugh it off; tell her you were the richest person alive, and her heart might do anything.

The latter had far more impact than the former.

Ye Buyu sighed. Her plan to lean on a powerful backer had failed. Was finding Principal Lan her only option now?

After saying goodbye to Mu Bingge, Ye Buyu went to the principal's office again, only to find a sign hanging on the door.

Out on business. Please contact me directly in an emergency.

"..."

Ye Buyu looked up at the sky. After a long moment, she said, "Today is not a good day to go out."

She was beginning to suspect this was guidance from the god of fate, telling her to enjoy her vacation properly instead of running around stirring up trouble.

"Should I follow fate's lead and just enjoy my vacation?"

"Heh. Then on the first day of class, fate will slap you right across the face."

Little Whale's merciless voice hit her like a bucket of cold water, making Ye Buyu shiver.

"Then what am I supposed to do? I really don't have anywhere to go right now."

"As long as you don't give up mentally, there are always more solutions than problems. Stop making excuses for yourself."

Just as Ye Buyu was feeling miserable, a hurried figure passed downstairs, carrying a pile of materials and muttering something.

Wasn't that...

Ye Buyu's eyes lit up. "Qiu Zhi!"

Qiu Zhi looked up as he hurried along. The instant he saw Ye Buyu, he looked as though he had found his savior.

His bloodshot eyes blazed with astonishing light.

"Ye Buyu!"