Chapter 67 : Chapter 67
Chapter 67
By the time Ji Qing and the others headed to the dining hall, the individual questioning for Class S had already ended.
Because the three teams they belonged to had been the closest to the island’s inner zone, their questioning had naturally been given priority as well. In the afternoon, it would probably be the turn of the students from the other classes, as well as the teachers and ship staff who had witnessed the humpback whale at the time.
On the way, Ji Qing happened to run into Song Xiaoran and Zhou Que.
Song Xiaoran’s expression was not very good either, while Zhou Que, on the contrary, looked completely at ease, as if he had not been put through any trouble at all.
The four of them naturally sat down at the same table.
Song Xiaoran quietly stared at the seafood on his tray, clearly with little appetite. He suddenly said bluntly, “I don’t like them.”
Even without specifying who “they” were, everyone else knew exactly whom he meant.
After hearing that, Ji Qing lowered his eyes absentmindedly, his thoughts drifting. He did not respond, but anyone with eyes could tell what his attitude was.
Song Xiaoran suddenly asked, “Ji Qing, did you say something you shouldn’t have?”
“…” Ji Qing instantly felt guilty. “What kind of thing are you referring to?”
“They asked me what my relationship with you was like. After that, they asked whether I knew anything about your background.” After saying that, Song Xiaoran paused for a moment, then stated with certainty, “I think they’ve set their sights on you.”
Ji Qing fell silent. “…”
His hand gripping the chopsticks nearly lost control of its strength. Why had this kind of thing even happened?
“Isn’t that perfectly normal?” Zhou Que muttered, clearly not finding it strange. “Brother Huayu’s aptitude is already the kind you only see once in a hundred years, and now they’ve run into a genius you only see once in a thousand years. Isn’t a little curiosity normal?”
Ji Qing fell silent. Ji Qing went blank. Ji Qing looked at Zhou Que as though he wanted to say something but could not. “Zhou Que, you…”
“I didn’t reveal anything about you!” Zhou Que hurriedly retorted. “Ji Qing, don’t you dare imagine me as that kind of useless person who can’t keep a secret! Besides, I didn’t know the answer to a single one of their questions!!!”
Ji Qing relaxed. “Oh. That is true.”
“Yes, he really isn’t that sort of person.” Beside them, Shao Huayu fixed Zhou Que with a dark stare. “It’s just… Zhou Que, don’t you think there’s something wrong with what you just said? Is the gap between me and Ji Qing really that large?”
“I was wrong, Brother Huayu, QAQ.” Zhou Que immediately begged for mercy.
That little interlude passed quickly.
The three people present all knew what kind of person Zhou Que was, so naturally none of them felt offended. Shao Huayu criticized him in a flat tone for a few sentences, then finished with a helpless sigh. “If we were at the First Ability Academy right now, you’d probably already be seeing the practical training grounds again.”
“By the way, do you all know what the First Ability Academy is like?” Song Xiaoran suddenly asked curiously.
His gaze drifted over the two Class S students from Central City, and he explained softly, “I enrolled because, in the city I was in at the time, only the admissions channel for the Third Ability Academy was open. And also…”
Song Xiaoran added awkwardly, trying to cover it up, “Uh… at the time, I didn’t have the energy to run to another city.”
After hearing that, Ji Qing felt inexplicably weighed down.
Anyone with the slightest social awareness could understand Song Xiaoran’s special circumstances at the beginning of the school year. All one could say was that Song Xiaoran had made the right move in choosing to enroll in the Third Ability Academy, and now really was a fitting time to talk about the choices they had each made back then.
Zhou Que answered frankly, “I came because I followed Brother Huayu. Wherever Brother Huayu goes, I go.”
There was really nothing much to say about that.
Even if Zhou Que had not admitted it, Ji Qing could still have guessed as much. The relationship between those cousins was extremely close, so of course they would be inclined to attend the same high school.
Ji Qing answered in turn, “For me, it was because of the school’s teaching philosophy. I was quite curious about how the school intended to teach students according to their individual aptitudes.”
Silently, he borrowed the reason Gu Lingxue had once given in the manga.
It was an excellent reason. It had already helped Ji Qing avoid the investigator’s lecture that morning, and repeating it again now was entirely proper as well. The manga and the manga forum really had provided him with some remarkably useful excuses.
By this point, Ji Qing had already become desensitized to the fact that he was a genius.
Although Ji Qing himself still believed that he had only done what lay within his own capabilities, as the Valedictorian, if he emphasized that point, it would instead be easy to irritate others.
The gazes of the three of them then turned toward Shao Huayu.
At this point, Ji Qing looked rather calm. Back at the beginning of the school year, he had already asked Shao Huayu why he had enrolled here, and at the time, Shao Huayu’s answer had been that his elder sister had advised him not to enroll in the First Ability Academy.
He wondered whether that answer had changed now…
Seeing their looks, Shao Huayu gave a helpless shrug and said with a bitter smile, “Because of my sister’s advice. She didn’t recommend that I enroll in the First Ability Academy, and besides… well, I personally went to sit in on classes there.”
“Sister?” Song Xiaoran asked in confusion. “Was she a student at the First Ability Academy?”
“Yes. She already graduated.”
“Mm…” Song Xiaoran immediately sank into thought. “So it really is because there’s something wrong with the First Ability Academy?”
“Not exactly,” Shao Huayu said, lowering his head somewhat conflictedly as he thought it over. “For me, it would’ve been fine, more or less. But for the people around me, it wouldn’t have been very friendly.”
He explained softly, “The First Ability Academy has a very serious class mentality. The school uses a points system. The more points a student has, the higher their status; the fewer points they have, the lower it is. Something like what happened at the beginning of our school year…”
“If we had been at the First Ability Academy, Xie Chang’an would definitely have been forced to withdraw.”
“That’s exactly how it is,” Zhou Que agreed in an ordinary tone.
He was completely indifferent to the possibility of such a thing happening, as though he had already witnessed countless similar incidents in the past. But when he thought back to his match with Xie Chang’an, a flash of regret passed quickly across Zhou Que’s face.
He muttered, “Now that I think about it, that would’ve been a real pity.”
If Xie Chang’an had been driven out on the day of enrollment, then although Zhou Que would not have suffered defeat, he also would have lost the opportunity to improve his own fighting style.
Compared with the humiliation of losing, the latter was what he found more regrettable.
“But, Brother Huayu…” Zhou Que turned his head, looking puzzled, and asked in his usual blunt manner, “Why do you say it wouldn’t have been good for me? Even if those people provoked me, wouldn’t it just end in a fight? Do you think I wouldn’t be able to win?”
Ji Qing was startled when he heard that.
Because things really would have developed in that direction, but Ji Qing felt Zhou Que was actually the one who needed the least worrying over. Zhou Que simply did not understand all the twists and turns of interpersonal dealings, and his temperament was remarkably straightforward. Even though that often caused him to blunder into trouble, he personally did not care at all about the slander of others around him.
As for the impact of his defeat at the start of school, Zhou Que had not even realized it until the individual tournament.
Overall, the conclusion was simple: although Zhou Que might have been isolated by certain groups, it absolutely would not have affected his high school life. Besides, the First Ability Academy revered strength above all else. No one would have dared to openly target Zhou Que, an S-rank Ability user.
And with Shao Huayu in the same school, he certainly would have looked after Zhou Que just as he did now. It could hardly be called unfriendly.
Ji Qing’s gaze fell once more on Shao Huayu.
He wanted Shao Huayu to give a clearer answer. At the moment, Ji Qing could only think of one reason—namely, that it would have left Zhou Que’s way of thinking frozen in that arrogant state from the beginning of the school year, the one that held that the weak ought to yield unconditionally to the strong. But that still could not really be called unfriendly.
After all, even Shao Huayu himself had not thought there was anything wrong with that at the beginning of the school year.
Song Xiaoran also turned to look at Shao Huayu.
He, too, had noticed the flaw in Shao Huayu’s words. For S-rank Ability users like them, a strictly hierarchical school environment was actually the least relevant thing of all. They were already standing at the top of the school pyramid.
Even if they enrolled in another school, it would only mean moving from the top of one pyramid to the top of another.
The discrimination, targeting, and bullying that ordinary students needed to worry about simply did not apply. Even if they truly fell into irreconcilable conflict with an S-rank classmate, the school’s teachers would personally step in to mediate.
Although in many cases, everyone would avoid letting things reach that point.
And most importantly, if the school’s hierarchy was that rigid, then it also meant that the school’s internal resources would tilt even more heavily in their favor. How could that not be considered friendly?
“All right—” Shao Huayu raised a hand to stop the three of them from continuing to scrutinize him and frowned helplessly. “For people like us, yes, it really can’t be called unfriendly.”
He paused, then admitted frankly, “But for students who aren’t S-rank, there would be a lot of inconvenient aspects. Central City itself already has a very strong class mentality. Zhou Que and I were both born in that city, and high school would be our last chance to see the outside world.”
“After high school… heh…”
Shao Huayu suddenly let out a mocking laugh. “Everyone in the Federation, when they look at us, will first notice the families behind us. You can’t really call that breaking away from our original environment.”
That was certainly true… Ji Qing sighed inwardly.
Children born into the great families could enjoy the advantages brought by those families, but at the same time, they also had to bear their obligations, along with the probing gazes of others toward their families. Before adulthood, they could still avoid some of that by using the identities of students and minors. After becoming adults, that would be utterly impossible.
Only… for students who were not S-rank?
Ji Qing could only think of Liu Mu.
He suddenly looked at Shao Huayu in surprise. Apparently, Shao Huayu was genuinely sincere in the way he treated Liu Mu. Although he really did look down on Xie Chang’an, and on those who could not read the room, he still looked after the people around him to some degree.
Liu Mu was not suited to the rigidly hierarchical First Ability Academy.
As for Zhou Que, he needed to see more of the outside world before adulthood. Shao Huayu knew very well that he could not protect Zhou Que forever, nor could he always spare the time to look after him. Once family affairs gradually began to pass into his hands after adulthood, that would become even more impossible.
High school was their last chance to make their own choice.
Shao Huayu’s sister had also told him not to go to the First Ability Academy. Those reasons were all small enough on their own, yet together they were enough to make Shao Huayu take his first step away from Central City.
“You’re… unexpectedly kind-hearted,” Ji Qing suddenly said with a light laugh.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Upon hearing that, Shao Huayu did not even hesitate before frowning and refuting him.
The meaning in Shao Huayu’s gaze toward Ji Qing instantly became one of threat. From the bottom of his heart, he rejected the idea of his image in his classmates’ eyes undergoing any fundamental reversal. The word “kind-hearted” absolutely could not appear in any description of the Young Master of the Shao Family.
Ji Qing could only spread his hands regretfully. “All right. Then I was overthinking it.”
The exchange of glances between the two of them was silent and easy to miss.
Zhou Que, who had not understood the meaning beneath the words, looked from side to side in confusion.
As for Song Xiaoran, after obtaining the answer he wanted, he quietly began to think. He had not clearly heard the exchange between the other two, nor did he harbor any doubts. After a long silence, Song Xiaoran said with feeling, “Then it seems my luck was pretty good.”
Both the school and his classmates were ones he was willing to accept, and who were willing to accept him.