"Hehe, hello, Senior!"
Xue Chen flipped up from the ground and bowed slightly to Mu En, who was lying in a recliner.
Mu En gave a slight nod, but his eyes were studying Xue Chen, a gleam seeming to flash through them.
Feeling a little uncomfortable under Mu En's gaze, Xue Chen couldn't help asking:
"Why are you looking at me like that, Senior?"
"Hehe."
Mu En chuckled twice. Rather than answer the question, he teased:
"Little fellow, getting knocked out of your dorm room twice less than a week into the term-even in the history of Shrek Academy, that's a first."
"Hehe, thank you for the compliment, Senior."
Xue Chen scratched his head, looking rather embarrassed.
"I wasn't complimenting you."
Mu En looked at Xue Chen with smiling eyes, his aged face full of sly amusement.
"Well? Would you like this old man to help you switch dorm rooms?"
"Th-that... won't be necessary, will it?"
Xue Chen gave a dry laugh, hesitated, then shook his head.
"Isn't a bit of roughhousing between roommates perfectly normal?"
"I heard the academy even encourages students to fight on campus!"
Xue Chen really wasn't making this up. From the so-called "those who dare not stir up trouble are mediocrities" ten thousand years ago to Zhou Yi openly praising Wang Dong in Class One for fighting at the academy today.
All of this undoubtedly showed that Shrek Academy strongly encouraged students to spar with one another.
"Oh..."
Mu En raised his eyebrows meaningfully.
"Since you put it that way, then naturally, we at Shrek Academy must consider the student's own wishes."
After a pause, Mu En suddenly gestured with his chin toward the entrance to the freshman dormitory beside them.
"Your roommate just came out. Why aren't you hurrying over to apologize?"
"Ah... oh."
Xue Chen froze for a moment, but an awkward look soon appeared on his face.
It seemed he really did bear more of the blame for this.
No matter how he put it, he had seen the one-third little princess naked, which counted as taking advantage of the one-third little princess.
"Oh, my ass. Get moving."
Mu En glared at Xue Chen, looking rather dissatisfied with his slowness.
"Ah... yes, Senior."
Xue Chen bowed to Mu En before chasing after Wang Dong's departing figure.
Withdrawing his gaze, Mu En settled back into his recliner.
The midday sunshine wasn't scorching. Instead, it carried a warmth that made one feel rather languid.
Mu En narrowed his eyes slightly and gently rocked the recliner, a reminiscent look slowly emerging on his face.
After a long while, he suddenly smiled.
"Ah, to be young!"
Being young was naturally wonderful. Even misunderstandings between young men and women were filled with the sour stink of romance.
"This was my fault."
Although Wang Dong's face was as cold as ice and she exuded an air that warned strangers away, Xue Chen still shamelessly walked up beside her and apologized with complete sincerity.
"I didn't knock when I came back to the dorm room, and that's how I ended up seeing you naked."
The moment he said that, Wang Dong nearly failed to keep her expression in place.
What decent person apologized so bluntly?
And was seeing someone naked something he could just say out loud?
If other people found out, would she, Wang Dong, ever be able to get married?
Glaring fiercely at Xue Chen, Wang Dong couldn't stop a blush from flashing across her previously frost-cold face.
"Besides, leaving the facts aside, don't you bear any responsibility for this at all?"
Xue Chen held his head high and puffed out his chest, looking as though he were perfectly in the right.
The coldness on Wang Dong's face quietly melted away, replaced by a dumbfounded expression.
If they left the facts aside, what were they supposed to discuss?
Their feelings?
"Besides, aren't we brothers sharing a dorm room?"
Xue Chen continued, as though he had absolutely no idea Wang Dong was a girl.
"Isn't this sort of thing normal between brothers? Didn't you see mine on the day we first came to the dorm room?"
At that, Xue Chen patted Wang Dong's rather slender shoulder.
"Between brothers, there's no need to keep dwelling on such a little thing."
How could anyone be this shameless?
Was her seeing him naked the same as him seeing her naked?
Wang Dong stared blankly at Xue Chen, so stunned that she didn't even react when he patted her shoulder.
"Brothers... brothers."
Murmuring the word twice, Wang Dong slowly puffed out her cheeks, and her face gradually began to turn red.
This guy actually hadn't realized she was a girl?
"Brothers, my ass!"
After a brief silence, Wang Dong finally couldn't hold herself back. Not that she had ever intended to put up with it.
Ignoring the fact that this was a walkway bustling with people, Wang Dong shoved Xue Chen to the ground, then sat on top of him, her face bright red as she clamped her hands tightly around his neck.
"Brothers, brothers-brothers, my ass!"
"Talk all you want, but let me have some air!"
Xue Chen hadn't expected his words to actually break through the one-third little princess's defenses. He hurriedly patted Wang Dong's hands around his neck.
"This is an academy walkway. Everyone's watching!"
The passing freshmen stopped one after another. Some had already recognized the pair as the ones who had caused such a commotion downstairs from the dormitory a few days ago.
Especially since Xue Chen had also put on an astonishing performance in the morning's practical combat class, this quickly drew quite a crowd of melon-eating spectators.
"What are you looking at? Never seen a fight before?"
Wang Dong turned and shouted at the onlookers. A few melon-eating spectators shrank back, but most continued watching.
"Whatever it is, let's go back to the dorm room and settle it."
Xue Chen hurriedly seized the opportunity to say:
"What kind of scene are you making, straddling me and choking me like this?"
The gazes of the people around them were far too piercing. Wang Dong snorted and shot Xue Chen a resentful glare before finally releasing his neck.
"Why do you like getting physical so much?"
Rubbing his neck, Xue Chen spoke with some helplessness.
"Shut up!"
Wang Dong sounded fierce, but she had already gotten off Xue Chen.
Wang Dong brushed the dust off herself, but the blush on her face still hadn't completely faded.
Xue Chen had sharp eyes. At a glance, he spotted the tips of Wang Dong's ears, so red they looked almost translucent.
"Wang... Wang Dong?"
Just as Xue Chen got up from the ground, a voice suddenly came from among the melon-eating spectators.
Xue Chen looked toward the voice and saw Huo Yuhao standing in the crowd, with Tang Ya and Bei Bei, whom he had met once before, behind him.
"Oh, it's you."
Wang Dong straightened her pink-and-blue hair, her expression slowly calming as well.
"Thank you for helping me with the run this morning."
Gratitude appeared on Huo Yuhao's face.
"If you hadn't helped me, I definitely wouldn't have completed Teacher Zhou Yi's assignment, and then I would have been expelled from Shrek Academy."
As he spoke, the gratitude on Huo Yuhao's face quickly turned to lingering fear.
He had personally watched Zhou Yi mercilessly expel more than a dozen students in a single day.