Pei Ye froze. Even from Miss Ming, he had never received such expectations. "Huh?"
Beneath her hair, Zhang Junxue's dark eyes watched him expectantly.
"How am I supposed to take first?" Pei Ye laughed, finishing the last two bites of his flatbread. "Have you not looked at the Teal List? How old is that [Heavenly Matriarch] from Yunlang already? Nobody has ever beaten her. Everyone's competing for second."
"Oh... then, then will you compete for second too?"
"..." Pei Ye paused and looked at her. "I can't compete for second either. I can't beat Lu Wei, and if the few people behind him went all out, I couldn't beat them either. Doesn't the Teal List rank me seventh? That's plenty high... Junxue, why do you think so highly of me?"
He could not help laughing.
"...Because I believe you can take first." Zhang Junxue hugged her knees, her voice muffled. "You took first in the Golden Autumn Martial Contest."
"..."
"It doesn't feel right to me when you take any other place," she added quietly.
"The Feather-Scale Trial isn't that easy," Pei Ye said. "Everyone's fighting not just for themselves, but to bring fame to their teachers and lineages. They'll bring out everything they've kept at the bottom of the chest. Especially within the top ten, they'll fight with all their strength for every difference in rank. I don't think there's any need for me to fight them over that. Aren't I here for the martial competition?"
"Oh." Zhang Junxue's voice was muffled. After a pause, she asked, "Then, then don't you have anyone to bring fame to, Pei Ye?"
"..."
"..."
Zhang Junxue watched him. Pei Ye remained stunned for a long time, until a gust of wind sent the greaseproof paper slipping from his hand.
Pei Ye and