There Was a Perk Like That?

Lu Yuan successfully completed his morning Chinese exam.

The unfortunate ones were the other candidates in his exam room, along with the proctors. Everyone spent the entire exam trembling with fear, terrified that Lu Yuan would suddenly stop breathing in the middle of writing.

Thankfully, that horrifying scene never came to pass. In the end, however, Lu Yuan had lost so much blood that he could not get up from his seat for quite some time.

None of the teachers or students in the exam room dared touch him, so agents from the Internal Affairs Bureau carried him out. Ji Yin's arrangement had proved reliable after all.

Lu Yuan had originally planned to find somewhere to rest for a while before taking the foreign language exam that afternoon: the common language.

But by then, Zuo Ling, director of the Jiangzhou City Internal Affairs Bureau, had taken charge of the operation. After finishing up with Li Tailai, she hurried over and sent her senior schoolmate Ji Yin flying with a kick.

Serious and conscientious as she was, Zuo Ling would never let Lu Yuan and Ji Yin fool around as they pleased. She forcibly sent Lu Yuan to the hospital for immediate surgery.

The operation was neither particularly difficult nor particularly easy. The main tasks were to remove the knife that had pierced his chest, stop the bleeding, and stitch up his internal and external wounds. Since Lu Yuan had taken an Essence Restoration Pill earlier, the scientific operation also contained many mystical elements.

In short, the chief surgeon Zuo Ling had found flailed around at the operating table, and Lu Yuan miraculously woke up forty minutes before the common language exam began.

Seeing the clock on the wall, Lu Yuan sat bolt upright on his deathbed. "Help me up! I have to take the college entrance exam!"

Hearing the same line repeated, the chief surgeon burst out laughing.

"Give up, young man! Your anesthetic hasn't worn off yet. Right now, you can't write anything except A, B, C, and D!"

Lu Yuan was overjoyed to hear that. There was a perk like that?

Lu Yuan didn't know the first thing about the common language, and he hadn't reviewed it at all.

But the common language exam consisted entirely of multiple-choice questions. Being able to write A, B, C, and D was more than enough!

In fact, all he needed was to be able to write a single "C."

Since the operation was over and Lu Yuan's life was no longer in danger, Zuo Ling could hardly stop him again.

This time, Lu Yuan didn't enter the exam room with the same grand fanfare as he had that morning. He shuffled in alone, slowly making his way along the wall. Halfway there, some candidates recognized him, and several came over to help him to his seat.

The exam was exceptionally easy. Before the foreign language listening section had even finished playing, Lu Yuan had filled in his entire answer sheet.

To save himself the trouble, he marked C for every answer, filling in a straight line down the page.

Of course, that didn't mean Lu Yuan didn't take the common language seriously.

The common language was the official language of the Heavenly Yu Empire, and most people throughout the empire could use it. Although Lu Yuan still wasn't sure what the Heavenly Yu Empire was like, he hoped he would have a chance to visit it someday.

A man's ambitions lay in all directions, after all. Traveling around and broadening one's horizons was a fine thing.

It was therefore necessary to master the common language. He simply hadn't had enough time for now; once he got into Cultivation University, he would catch up on it at his leisure.

When he came out of the exam room, his parents and Xiao Bing were already waiting outside. They could have come from Ning City earlier, but the Internal Affairs Bureau had held them up until now out of concern for their safety. Now that there were no cultists left in the Jiangzhou Region to slip through the net, the family was safe.

Lu Yuan steeled himself and went over to them, crying out inwardly that things were bad.

No matter how extravagantly Ji Yin had sung Lu Yuan's praises, one basic fact could not be forgotten:

This fellow had disappeared for a month before the college entrance exam, and had nearly died outside the exam room.

As far as his own parents were concerned, hero or not, this was an outrage against them!

Lu Wenkai really did want to slap Lu Yuan.

How had the family made it through this past month? They had lain awake with anxiety, and Xu Yongmei's illness had nearly returned. Lu Wenkai's hair had been falling out in handfuls. Xiaobao had secretly cried every night.

It really wasn't entirely Lu Yuan's fault. He had thought he would be home in a week. Who could have expected that once he went there, Guo Huai would seize him and lock him underground until today?

"Dad, Mom, I'm back."

Seeing how haggard his parents looked, Lu Yuan felt his nose sting and hugged them tightly.

Xiao Bing tugged at Lu Yuan's arm from the side, indicating that he had forgotten her. Lu Yuan hugged her too.

The family was reunited outside the exam room.

Since Lu Yuan still had his mathematics and comprehensive science exams the next day, the family did not return to Ning City that evening, choosing instead to stay in Jiangzhou City.

Lu Wenkai had planned to find a small hotel near the exam site, but there were so many candidates' families that the nearby inns were already full. Lu Wenkai and Xiao Bing wandered around carrying heavy suitcases, looking rather bedraggled without a car.

"Dad, take a break. I'll make a call."

Lu Yuan took his father's phone and dialed Ji Yin's cell. Guo Huai had thrown his own phone away on the first day, and he would have to find time to get a replacement. He still remembered Ji Yin's number, though.

"Who is this?"

"It's me."

"Oh, student boy! Why are you thinking of me instead of chatting with your family?"

"...We can't find a place to stay around here. Could you help arrange something for us..."

There was a pause on the other end of the line, followed by Ji Yin's deliberately exaggerated voice.

"No way, no way! Ning City's young prodigy, the lone hero who saved Guanghua, can't even find a hotel! You must be pulling my leg, right?"

"Cultivator Ji Yin! My parents are here!" Lu Yuan's anger flared at once. "Pick your moments to joke around!"

The last incident he was referring to was when Ji Yin had refused to send a car to take Lu Yuan home after he killed Zhang Baocheng, leaving Lu Yuan with no choice but to carry his younger sister home on his back.

He still hadn't settled that score.

Ji Yin evidently knew what Lu Yuan was referring to as well. He chuckled and said, "You don't have a bit of humor in you. Wait where you are. I'll arrange it right away!"

"Don't you need to ask where I am?"

"Heh, is it hard for the Internal Affairs Bureau to find your location?"

"Heh, I really wish someone had been this confident when I was locked underground."

Ji Yin fell silent, and Lu Yuan won back a point.

In less than five minutes, a minivan came racing over like wind and lightning, screeching to a halt in front of Lu Yuan's family.

The driver was one of Ji Yin's assistants, whom Lu Yuan had met before. He briskly helped Lu Wenkai load all the luggage, then explained once Lu Yuan had gotten in.

"Everyone's been sent out now."

"On one hand, we have to clean out the Jiangzhou City Psychiatric Hospital and collect evidence there. On the other, we have to interrogate the survivors right away."

"Anyway, we're busy to death and accidentally forgot about you. Sorry, sorry!"

Lu Yuan nodded, accepting that the Internal Affairs Bureau's oversight had been unintentional. Compared with arresting cultists, a minor detail like booking rooms really wasn't something a rough fellow like Ji Yin would think to do on his own.

"Will the cult take revenge on my family?" Lu Yuan was worried about them. After all, today's affair had caused quite a stir.

"Don't worry." The driver laughed. "Our Internal Affairs system will definitely have arrangements in place."

The assistant drove Lu Yuan's family to a luxurious garden hotel, an establishment designated by the Internal Affairs Bureau.

When the family saw the price board reading "Standard room: 4,000 per night; suite: 12,000 per night," they immediately decided to find somewhere else.

Lu Yuan's family were ordinary people. They simply couldn't understand how anyone dared charge twelve thousand yuan for a night's sleep in a bed! This was a place for immortals to stay; mortals were better off keeping their distance.

Everyone headed out with their bags, but the assistant called them back.

"Don't leave! Our Internal Affairs Bureau will reimburse the cost."

The moment they heard the word "reimburse," Lu Wenkai and his wife stopped in their tracks, their faces lighting up with smiles.

They had worked hard all their lives and had never expected that one day they would get to enjoy something as fancy as reimbursement, especially for such an upscale expense!

The assistant completed the formalities at the front desk and handed the room cards to Lu Wenkai.

Lu Wenkai took the cards and glanced at them. His heart skipped half a beat.

Four room cards! All for suites!

A quick calculation put the cost of one night at 48,000 yuan-his annual salary.

"We only need two rooms." Lu Wenkai felt that even if it was reimbursed, they shouldn't be so wasteful.

"It is two rooms. One for you and your wife, and one for the brother and sister," the assistant replied.

"But there are four room cards," Lu Wenkai said, puzzled.

"Oh, those." The assistant smiled. "Doesn't Lu Yuan still have exams tomorrow? I was afraid someone might disturb him, so I booked the rooms on either side too. That way, you can all get a good night's sleep."

Lu Wenkai fell silent.

The assistant seemed to have noticed something and laughed.

"Brother," he said, "our boss said that Lu Yuan is definitely cut out to become a great cultivator. Your son is so accomplished, so as his father, you'll have to get used to it.

"Because this is a cultivator's life."

The assistant meant well, but his words left Lu Wenkai a little embarrassed. Lu Yuan spoke up to spare him the awkwardness.

"All right, all right. My parents are hardworking and modest. That's a fine tradition of the Hua People. How come it sounds different when you say it?"

"Ah, right, right, right! You're right about everything!"