Another picked up the conversation, sounding uneasy as well. "Exactly. With all these people coming and going through the gate, shouldn't there at least be soldiers or some kind of guards? Why is everyone going in and out dressed so strangely and looking so bizarre?"
Another student frowned and said, "That man called us promising young talents, but looking at where he's brought us, could he be trying to conscript us? We're educated men. We're here to save the country and its people, not become common soldiers!"
Another student agreed. "It doesn't seem right. This doesn't even look like a place where they press men into service. I've seen conscription back home. The officers beat and cursed people, and the men they dragged in cried and shouted. But everyone coming and going here is so secretive. It's nothing like that."
As soon as Cui Jiuyang heard this, he knew there had been some misunderstanding between these students and the middle-aged man. They had been talking at cross-purposes all along.
He had suspected as much earlier, when he noticed something off about the man's aura. But the students had let the words "protecting the constitution" go to their heads, while the middle-aged man had been in a hurry, bringing them straight here at a brisk pace.
He was just about to speak when the middle-aged man hurried out of the courtyard, his face full of excitement. "Gentlemen, sorry for the wait! Come inside and register!"
These students were young and thin-skinned, after all. With their host ushering them so warmly into the courtyard, they felt too embarrassed to refuse even though they knew something was wrong, and followed him inside.
Cui Jiuyang found it interesting. Nothing serious could happen to him here anyway, so he said nothing and followed them in.