The others in the dorm followed Lin Mo's gaze, their eyes all converging on Tang San.
Then they recalled that Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang and Headmaster Wang Zongchang had gone to see Lin Mo together at noon, and that Yu Xiaogang was Tang San's teacher...
Understanding immediately dawned on their faces, and their gazes turned complicated as they looked at Tang San.
Wang Sheng's eyes widened outright. Looking at Tang San, he asked uncertainly, "Tang San... don't tell me it was you..."
Under everyone's scrutiny, Tang San finally could no longer remain seated.
He took a deep breath and rose from his bed, striving to keep his expression calm, but his eyes shifted, not daring to meet Lin Mo's gaze.
"I was the one who told Teacher," Tang San admitted. His voice was fairly steady, but a careful listener could detect a trace of nervousness.
He paused. "I... I only did it out of concern for you, Lin Mo.
"Your Martial Soul underwent such a peculiar change. I was worried there might be some hidden danger."
He looked at Lin Mo, trying to make his eyes appear more sincere. "My teacher, Grandmaster Yu, is a towering authority in the field of Soul Master theory, with vast knowledge and experience.
"I thought that if he took a look for you, perhaps he could uncover the root of your Martial Soul's transformation. It would benefit your future development, too."
"I really meant no harm. I simply had good intentions and wanted to help you."
Tang San's explanation sounded reasonable enough, presenting him as someone thinking entirely of his classmate's welfare.
Yet after hearing him out, Lin Mo's expression remained as still as a deep pool. Only his gaze toward Tang San gained an undisguised measure of scrutiny and questioning.
Lin Mo's gaze was so sharp that it seemed capable of piercing straight through Tang San's false facade, silently challenging his hollow excuse: Do you believe that yourself?
Under Lin Mo's seemingly all-seeing gaze, Tang San felt his face grow warm. The guilty unease in his heart seemed to have been dragged out to bake beneath the sun, with nowhere to hide.
He instinctively averted his eyes from Lin Mo's and lowered his head slightly.
Only Tang San himself knew the true reason best.
He understood clearly that, because of the flaws in his Luo Sanpao Martial Soul, his teacher, Yu Xiaogang, had been stuck at the bottleneck of rank twenty-nine for more than half his life.
Without some special opportunity or unforeseen change in the future, Yu Xiaogang would very likely remain stuck at rank twenty-nine for life, never breaking through to the Soul Elder realm.
But that morning, when he saw Lin Mo's successfully hatched Charmander Martial Soul display its formidable combat strength, a thought had immediately surfaced in his mind.
Lin Mo's Charmander Martial Soul and his teacher's Luo Sanpao Martial Soul were both exceedingly rare external beast Martial Souls!
He believed this might be an opportunity he could not afford to miss.
An opportunity for his teacher, Yu Xiaogang, to find, through Lin Mo's Charmander Martial Soul, a way for his Luo Sanpao Martial Soul to break through to the Soul Elder realm!
It was with this thought and hope that he had decided to violate the agreement he had made with Lin Mo and everyone in Dorm Seven just that morning.
Without hesitation, he had told his teacher, Yu Xiaogang, everything he knew about Lin Mo's Martial Soul in detail.
In his heart, "a teacher for a day, a father for life" was a principle he had always upheld.
For his teacher's future, he felt that breaking a promise in such a small way was acceptable, even worthwhile.
Thus, although he showed Lin Mo an apologetic face, deep down, he did not think he had truly done anything wrong.
Ultimately, his intentions had been for Yu Xiaogang's benefit.
Watching Tang San stand there with his head lowered in silence, Lin Mo slowly nodded. At last, a clear trace of mockery entered his voice:
"So that's how it is. Then I really must... thank you for your kindness."
The deliberate emphasis on "thank you" filled the words with an entirely different meaning.
"But I'm afraid I can't bear that kind of kindness. There's no need for it in the future, either." Lin Mo's voice became flat again. "This time, I put my trust in the wrong person."
Hearing the unmistakable distance and sarcasm in Lin Mo's words, Tang San stiffened slightly.
His lips moved as though he wanted to say something more, but in the end, he could not get a single word out.
Seeing the atmosphere grow strained, Wang Sheng hurried forward to smooth things over. He thumped his chest hard with a bang and declared loudly:
"Lin Mo, don't worry! I, Wang Sheng, am not someone who goes back on his word! I promised to keep your secret, and I'll absolutely do it! You can trust me completely!"
Wang Sheng had meant to ease the atmosphere and make his position clear.
But after hearing him, Lin Mo merely turned toward him with the hint of a smile that was not quite a smile, teasing:
"Wang Sheng, why does that sound... like it's taken on a different flavor?"
The moment Lin Mo spoke, the tension in the dorm eased somewhat.
Several work-study students could not help snickering, and even Xiao Wu pursed her lips, a faint smile appearing on her face.
Everyone looked cheerful, as though that bit of unpleasantness had been turned over like a finished page.
But a careful observer would have noticed that, after laughing, quite a few of them looked at Tang San with a measure of wariness and scrutiny that had not been there before.
Xiao Wu also walked over to Tang San and patted his shoulder, her tone plainly dissatisfied:
"Tang San, I hate to say it, but what you did really wasn't very decent."
She tilted her head as she looked at him. "When we were all together this morning, we clearly agreed to help Lin Mo keep his secret.
"How could you decide on your own to tell Grandmaster without even asking Lin Mo?"
Xiao Wu's thinking was relatively simple and direct. She believed that a promise made should be kept. Tang San's act of taking matters into his own hands made her deeply uncomfortable, even repulsed her.
Tang San's actions could be said to have greatly damaged the goodwill he had painstakingly built up among everyone in Dorm Seven over the past six months.
Even Xiao Wu, who usually got along well with him, could not help feeling a rift form in her heart at that moment.
After all, these work-study students were still only half-grown children. Their thoughts were relatively simple, as was their sense of good and evil; often, things were either black or white.
On an issue of "right and wrong" that seemed so clear-cut to them, Tang San's act of "betraying" their agreement was plainly placed on the "wrong" side.
Feeling the various gazes directed at him and listening to Xiao Wu's blunt criticism, Tang San felt his face burn, while all five flavors churned together in his heart.
He opened his mouth to defend himself, only to find that every word seemed pale and powerless before the facts.
In the end, he merely lowered his head silently and sat back down on his bed, no longer looking at anyone.