What the Heck Was This?!

"Want a cola?"

A familiar voice reached Duan Anxun's ears. Slumped over her desk with her sleeves already soaked, she trembled slightly.

"Did you come to laugh at me?" she asked without lifting her head, her voice muffled.

"There's nothing to laugh at." Without waiting to see whether she wanted it, Su Xiaoxiao set a can of cola on her desk, then sat at the desk in front of hers, opened her own can, and took a sip. "Where's Du Ting?"

Duan Anxun fell silent.

After Practical Training Class, all her classmates had started looking at her differently.

Even Du Ting, who had always been close to her, had found an excuse to go hang out with the other girls. Duan Anxun could tell she was being shunned, but pretended not to notice.

The teacher's scolding, her friend's distance, her contract beast's silence when she apologized, the strange looks all around her-she buried her tear-streaked face in her sleeves and tried to pretend none of it had happened.

Yet Su Xiaoxiao's casual question had torn open that raw, bloody wound.

"You're really annoying," Duan Anxun said in a muffled voice.

"So are you." Su Xiaoxiao wasn't angered by her words. She glanced at Duan Anxun, who still refused to raise her head, then looked out the window. "Do you remember our first argument, right after we started school?"

"I remember." Duan Anxun paused. "Lin Yue's Azure Wind Eagle dirtied my new dress. I yelled at her, and you stood up for her."

"So you do remember..." A nostalgic look crept onto Su Xiaoxiao's face.

That argument had made her and Lin Yue the closest friends in their class. It was also why the conflict between her and Duan Anxun had never been resolved.

"I don't understand. Was I wrong to yell at her?" Duan Anxun asked thickly. Perhaps she felt so miserable that she simply wanted someone to vent to; resentment seeped into her voice. "You didn't even know her back then!"

"A-Yue dirtied your dress. There was nothing wrong with telling her off." Su Xiaoxiao shook her head, not looking at Duan Anxun as she slowly lifted her face, surprise in her tearful eyes.

She turned toward Lin Yue, who was making faces at her from the other side, and chuckled. "I actually spoke up for her because you told her to 'keep her animal under control.'"

"People might say harsh things when they're angry," Su Xiaoxiao said, turning back to look earnestly at Duan Anxun. "But you shouldn't call contract beasts that. They're our partners."

"Just like you shouldn't have made your Rainbow Cloud Parrot suffer more damage than it could take today, all for a score. Your partner matters more than your score."

Looking at Su Xiaoxiao's sincere expression, Duan Anxun suddenly felt her nose sting fiercely, and her vision grew blurrier and blurrier.

She burst into tears and spoke between sobs.

"I didn't want to either... but if I can't... can't get first place, my mom..."

As Duan Anxun spoke in broken fragments, Su Xiaoxiao's initial surprise gradually turned to sympathy.

This was something Duan Anxun had never told anyone else, something Su Xiaoxiao had never known.

With her own relatively open-minded parents, she had never imagined that other people's parents could be like this.

"You..."

Watching Duan Anxun completely break down, then seeing Lin Yue give her a thumbs-up from nearby as though saying, "Impressive, you actually made Duan Anxun cry," Su Xiaoxiao was momentarily lost for words. She hurriedly fumbled out some tissues and handed them to Duan Anxun.

"Don't cry. Here, wipe your tears..."

Watching Duan Anxun blow her nose while crying, Su Xiaoxiao gazed skyward, speechless.

What the heck was this?!

"Easy, easy!"

Watching the Steel-Armored Rhino shovel down its food like a pig at a trough, without a shred of table manners, Xu Ran gazed skyward, speechless.

Who would believe that this mighty Elite Rank contract beast, as imposing as a mobile armored vehicle, had pestered him first thing in the morning to hurry up and prepare its food like a pig that hadn't eaten in three days?

He had fed it the proper amount right on schedule yesterday afternoon!

But as he watched the Happiness Points notifications popping up before him, Xu Ran suddenly found this food-guzzling pig... no, this Steel-Armored Rhino much more pleasing to the eye.

Purple Cloud hid behind Xu Ran, cautiously watching the huge beast's horrifying eating habits. Thinking back to its own meal just now, Purple Cloud reckoned that although its manners hadn't been particularly elegant either, they were far better than this big fellow's.

Before long, the Steel-Armored Rhino finished eating.

Xu Ran picked up the food bowl, which was so clean it looked as though it had been scrubbed. "I'll head out now."

Watching Xu Ran leave with a dreamy look in its eyes, the Steel-Armored Rhino sprawled lazily on the ground and rolled around at its leisure.

Back on the first floor, Purple Cloud, who had followed close behind Xu Ran, eagerly caught his trouser leg between its teeth and tugged.

"Meow~" (Beast Tamer, add points!)

"Sure." Xu Ran grinned and casually added the eight Constitution Points he had just earned to Purple Cloud's growth progress.

Purple Cloud's meal earlier had also increased its progress by one point, bringing its growth progress to (183/500).

He could feed the Steel-Armored Rhino again that afternoon and earn more Constitution Points. At this rate, it wouldn't be long before Purple Cloud's growth progress was maxed out.

But that put the pressure on Xu Ran himself.

Once its growth progress was full, Xu Ran's own contract power would also have to reach the second tier. Otherwise, the Beast Taming Contract would prevent Purple Cloud from breaking through.

Xu Ran had read plenty of novels in his previous life and knew that characters ran into so-called bottlenecks while cultivating...

So now I've become the bottleneck?!

"No more slacking off!" Xu Ran took a deep breath, his expression resolute. "Business is slow anyway. Whenever there's nothing to do, I'll make the most of my time and meditate!"

"Meow~" (You can do it!)

Seeing its Beast Tamer so full of motivation, Purple Cloud felt genuinely heartened.

"Watch the shop for me. Wake me if a customer comes." After leaving those instructions, Xu Ran sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and assumed a meditation pose.

Five minutes later, Xu Ran opened his eyes, got up, and took a bottle of cola from the lounge refrigerator. "Just getting a drink."

Ten minutes later, Xu Ran opened his eyes and took a bag of chips from the lounge snack shelf. "Just having a bite."

Twenty minutes later...

Watching Xu Ran interrupt his meditation over and over, Purple Cloud's expression went from

(.òωó.)

to

(òωò)

and finally to

(=ω=)

Apparently realizing that he had gone a little too far himself, Xu Ran blushed.

For someone who had experienced the information explosion in his previous life, emptying his mind to meditate was just too hard!

"Excuse me, do you offer boarding here?"

Just as the atmosphere in the shop grew a little awkward, a voice came from outside the door.

"Yes, yes, we do!" As though granted a reprieve, Xu Ran quickly answered and stood up.

A skinny young man walked in, looked around the shop, and soon noticed the price board on the wall.

"2,666 yuan a day..." he muttered, then turned to Xu Ran. "You get what you pay for. You'll give my contract beast the best possible care, right?"

"Of course we will," Xu Ran replied without hesitation.

"All right, then. You stay here." The skinny young man scanned the payment code, paid for a month of boarding, then turned and left.

Xu Ran: "???"

What just happened?