Li Jin and Xiao Wu left the dormitory amid a lively crowd of work-study students and headed for the cafeteria.
Throughout this, no one gave Tang San a second glance. No one even called out to him.
That was what he got for running his mouth earlier.
Li Jin had agreed, and Xiao Wu had agreed, yet he had stepped forward to object. Who did he think he was?
Tang San secretly gritted his teeth. He had backbone and would never eat a contemptuous handout.
After laying out his bedding, he stayed in the dormitory, gnawing on a cold, hard flatbread and washing it down with cold water.
Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west.
Never bully a youth for being poor.
Tang San would remember the humiliation he had brought upon himself today.
Before long!
A middle-aged man wearing a black academic gown, with a full beard and a crew cut, found his way to Dorm Seven.
His face was stiff. Only when he saw Tang San did he finally squeeze a smile onto it.
"Little San."
With his keen hearing and sharp eyesight, Tang San had long since noticed his teacher.
He placed particular importance on respecting his teacher and honoring his teachings, and now he called out softly and respectfully:
"Teacher."
The man with the crew cut was none other than Yu Xiaogang.
Seeing the battered water flask and coarse-grain flatbread mixed with wild greens in Tang San's hands, Yu Xiaogang had a thought. He took an oil-paper parcel from inside his clothes and handed it to Tang San.
"Little San, you're still growing. How can you eat nothing but those things with no nutrition? I brought you some food from the cafeteria. Go on, eat."
Tang San had already smelled the chicken. He accepted the oil-paper parcel and opened it to find two white-flour steamed buns and a large chicken drumstick. His eyes reddened, and tears nearly spilled out.
Tang Hao had never given him meat. Every day, it was either thin porridge and pickles or pickles and thin porridge, and he had to cook it himself.
Whenever he finished cooking a pot, Tang Hao always ate all the solids first before Tang San could have a little of the watery remainder.
Perhaps it was precisely this experience that made bullying Huo Yuhao ten thousand years later come so naturally to him.
Because this was the very road he had traveled!
He had been drenched in the rain, so he had to tear Huo Yuhao's umbrella to shreds as well.
"Thank you, Teacher!"
After thanking him, Tang San began eating the drumstick.
Yu Xiaogang was extremely satisfied. One drumstick and two steamed buns had greatly increased the loyalty of his disciple with twin martial souls. What a bargain.
"Little San, keep eating."
"Let me ask you something. Among this year's work-study students, is there someone named Xiao Wu and someone named Li Jin?"
At those two names, Tang San's hand froze in midair as he ate the drumstick, and gloom appeared in his eyes.
"Teacher, is there something wrong with them?"
Excitement flashed in Yu Xiaogang's eyes, even revealing a measure of fanaticism.
"I saw their information at the academic affairs office. Xiao Wu, six years old, a work-study student from Radish Village. Her martial soul is the Soft Bone Rabbit, and she has innate full soul power."
"Li Jin, six years old, a work-study student from Red Carp Village. His martial soul is the Koi, and he has innate full soul power."
"Soft Bone Rabbits are a dime a dozen in the forest, among the most useless soul beasts there are. Their only purpose is to fill the bellies of carnivorous soul beasts and keep those carnivorous soul beasts from dying of starvation in large numbers."
"Koi are merely ornamental fish kept in the ponds of great nobles and major sects. They have no special abilities whatsoever and are textbook trash martial souls."
"Doesn't their situation sound just like yours? All of you have trash martial souls, and all of you have innate full soul power. I dare say with certainty that they both have twin martial souls, just like you."
"Teaching one is still teaching, and teaching three is still teaching. I intend to take them as disciples too, making them your junior brother and junior sister."
"With my world-shaking wisdom, even if all of you have trash martial souls, I can still train you into Titled Douluos. Three Douluos under one teacher-and you'll be able to support one another in the future."
"When making your way through the Soul Master World, fighting alone will inevitably put your life in danger. Even I had two close friends when I ventured through the Soul Master World back then."
"Perhaps you and those two can make names that reach the heavens in the Soul Master World, just as my two close friends and I did."
A brilliant light burst from Tang San's eyes.
So Li Jin and Xiao Wu had twin martial souls too.
With Teacher's world-shaking wisdom, he would surely win Li Jin and Xiao Wu over.
Then, as Teacher's eldest disciple, Li Jin and Xiao Wu would have to listen to me.
Besides, I'll need to recruit some people when I rebuild the Tang Sect in the future.
Li Jin and Xiao Wu both have twin martial souls. With talent like that, and Teacher's guidance, they'll just barely qualify to join the Tang Sect in the future.
Some of the gloom in Tang San's eyes dissipated. Given that Li Jin and Xiao Wu were about to become his junior brother and junior sister, he would not hold too much against them.
"Teacher, I know them. They went to the cafeteria to eat. I'm sure they'll be back soon."
"Teacher, I'm certain that with your world-shaking wisdom, once you expose the secret of their twin martial souls to their faces, they'll bow down on the spot, crying and begging to become your disciples."
"I'll also fulfill my duties as their eldest senior brother, leading my junior brother and junior sister in honoring you and helping resolve your worries and difficulties."
Hearing Tang San's flattery, Yu Xiaogang nodded, feeling thoroughly pleased.
I really made the right choice in taking this first disciple.
Obedient and sensible, respectful of his teacher and his teachings, and not even jealous of his junior brother and junior sister sharing his teacher.
Good!
A fine seedling!
Even if I take Li Jin and Xiao Wu as disciples, Tang San will still be the one to inherit my mantle.
Yu Xiaogang had already begun imagining the future: three disciples with twin martial souls, each as talented as Bibi Dong.
Once they all grew to the same level as Bibi Dong in the future.
Who on the Douluo Continent would not regard him more highly?
His Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul finally had subjects for verification, too, with an extremely high margin for error.
Even if he ruined one through his teaching, there would still be a second and a third.
His father and his clansmen would surely take pride in him as well, inviting him back to the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan with great pomp and ceremony.
They would ask him to teach the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's younger generation.
Thinking of this, Yu Xiaogang could not help chuckling to himself.
But in front of Tang San, he suppressed his smile, clasped his hands behind his back, and assumed the air of a lofty master beyond worldly affairs.
Yu Xiaogang and Tang San waited together in Dorm Seven for half an hour.
Amid a burst of chatter, Li Jin and Xiao Wu returned to the dormitory, surrounded by the work-study students.
Li Jin had treated them to a meal on the cafeteria's second floor. Those flavors would remain unforgettable to this group of work-study students for the rest of their lives.
By now, Li Jin had clearly become the pillar of the work-study students.
Back in the dormitory!
He saw that besides Tang San, there was also a bearded man with a crew cut inside.
Li Jin raised his eyebrows. Although he had never seen this crew-cut man before, he recognized him at first glance: Yu Xiaogang.
The man really was sticky candy. Once you transmigrated to the Douluo Continent, you could not shake him off even if you tried.