Chapter 29 Part 1

Meng Yiran didn’t even need to see Tong Yuwu. Just walking through this academic building was enough for her to imagine how out of place Tong Yuwu must seem.

It was class break time, and the corridor was crammed with first-year students spilling out to catch their breath and play. Apart from a few tall, skinny boys who looked like human bamboo poles, everyone else was a good head shorter than Meng Yiran. Nearby, someone called out to his friends in a piercingly high-pitched childish voice, only to get a gruff reply in a quacking duck-like tone—the awkward hallmark of a voice still changing.

From the outside, a twenty-five-year-old and a twenty-eight-year-old might not look all that different, but hardly anyone would mix up fifteen with eighteen. Tong Yuwu, at eighteen, stood out here like a sore thumb even without doing anything to draw attention to herself.

That incongruity, however, made it all the easier for Meng Yiran to track her down. Once the students had all filed back into their classrooms, Meng Yiran started her search from the first floor and worked her way up. It didn’t take long before she spotted Tong Yuwu in a classroom at the end of the second-floor corridor.

The Noble Miss, freshly turned adult, was undeniably conspicuous sitting there in the midst of the group—but it was the kind of conspicuousness that came from a graceful swan straying into a flock of chickens. No ordinary person dropped into the same spot could pull off the same effect.

Meng Yiran couldn’t tell if it was just her imagination playing tricks. This was a hands-on practical class, with the students brewing some kind of potion under the guidance of the female teacher at the front. Discipline was loose; kids wandered back and forth all the time to chat with each other about their work. Yet Meng Yiran had the distinct sense that everyone was steering clear of Tong Yuwu, who sat at the very back of the room, whether deliberately or not.

The poor Doll Lady had been left isolated in one corner, staring at the lab equipment on her desk with a faint bewilderment in her eyes.

Meng Yiran felt a pang of discomfort, but down in her heart, she secretly let out a breath of relief—

This was far better than the scenarios she’d feared, like Tong Yuwu being outright bullied by her classmates.

Besides, isolation meant no messy social obligations, and Tong Yuwu was the quiet type who preferred her own company anyway. Someone forcing their way into her space would only annoy her.

At that thought, a surge of guilt welled up in Meng Yiran’s chest.

In the modern society of her previous life, plenty of people who hated socializing filled that emotional void by keeping pets. The comfort you got from a cute little animal was no less than what you’d get from a regular friend—sometimes more.

Right now, the only one Tong Yuwu could really talk to at school was probably her own Little White Cat. And yet last night, Meng Yiran had sulked over the whole bathing fiasco and spent the entire evening ignoring her.

What a heinous crime!

Meng Yiran scolded herself inwardly and resolved to make it up to Tong Yuwu properly when she got home that evening. Even if it meant another bath, she’d leap right into the basin and play the drowned rat without complaint!

But just as Meng Yiran felt settled enough to turn and leave, something shifted in the classroom.

She halted in her tracks and ducked into a hidden corner to watch.

In the rowdy classroom, a boy with his hair slicked neatly back shattered the standoff. He strode right up to Tong Yuwu’s side.

He snatched two bottles of white powdery solids off her desk and demanded without a shred of politeness, “Hey, classmate, mind if I borrow these two potion powders?”

The students who’d been chattering away fell silent all at once. Some stared openly, others snuck glances, but every eye turned toward that back corner. The lab session, which had buzzed like a bustling wet market, went eerily quiet, broken only by a few whispers deliberately hushed.

Tong Yuwu looked up, her gaze gliding indifferently over his face.

“No,” she said.

“Heh.” The boy let out a scoffing laugh. “What’s the harm? You weren’t gonna use them anyway. Why waste school resources?”

His eyes raked over everything on her desk. “Be a big girl and hand ’em over. Do a good deed—put some waste to use.”

The other students in the room split roughly into two camps. One bunch hooted and laughed outright, itching to cheer the boy on from behind. The others looked mildly disgusted by his antics, but mostly they just wore eager, watch-the-show expressions. Not a single one spoke up for Tong Yuwu.

Tong Yuwu fixed him with a cold stare and said nothing.

The boy faltered a little, sounding guilty. “If you don’t say no, I’ll take that as a yes.”

Tong Yuwu had no patience left for talking. She reached out to reclaim her things.

The boy jerked his arm high to keep them out of reach and bellowed in exaggerated tones, “Hey, what gives? I said no big deal, but you can’t just go swinging, right?”

He went straight for the age jab. “Think you can throw your weight around just ’cause you’re older than us? Who do you think you are?”

Meng Yiran was so furious her teeth itched. She nearly rushed out from her hiding spot.

At the critical moment, the female teacher on the podium finally noticed something was wrong. She walked over from the front of the classroom, asking as she went, “What’s going on? No loud noises allowed in class.”

Seeing the teacher step in to uphold justice, Meng Yiran took a deep breath and shrank back again for the moment.

With the female teacher’s arrival, a third person squeezed into the previously ignored corner. A subtle three-way standoff began to form.

Once the female teacher had taken her position, she pressed on with her questions. “What happened here?” Her gaze focused on the boy. “You weren’t properly brewing your potion. What are you doing all the way over here?”

The boy’s eyes darted slyly. “Teacher, I messed up my procedure just now and accidentally used up all my White Rock Powder and Snow Sand. I saw this new classmate had plenty left, so I wanted to borrow just a little.

“But I didn’t expect her to have such a bad temper. She wouldn’t lend me any—that was fine—but then she tried to hit me and chase me off. I got scared and shouted out.”

The female teacher turned to Tong Yuwu. “Is that what happened?”

Tong Yuwu stood motionless, her face expressionless, and said nothing.

Assuming tacit agreement, the female teacher wrinkled her nose in distaste. “Oh, come on. It’s just a bit of your stuff?”

She looked Tong Yuwu up and down. “Aren’t you from the nobility? How can your manners be so lacking?”

The boy poked his head out from behind her. “Tch. She’s dragged the whole nobility’s reputation through the mud.”

The female teacher glanced down at Tong Yuwu’s desk. Seeing no signs that any brewing steps had even begun, she crossed her arms. “Everyone else has already run through a full trial round, but you haven’t even started preparing? I went over the brewing process several times last class. Were you…” She paused, straightening her sleeve. “Oh, right. You weren’t enrolled yet last class. You didn’t hear it.”

She fixed her gaze on Tong Yuwu. “All the more reason you should help out a classmate in need, then. With the teacher’s say-so, you can skip the rest of this class. Anyone who needs these materials, come take what you want.

“They’re wasted on you anyway.”

At those words, the boy’s already cocky expression grew even more smug and triumphant.

He tilted his chin up, glaring down at Tong Yuwu through his nostrils. In a low, menacing voice, he hissed, “I suggest you cut your losses and drop out before you humiliate yourself even more. What good is sticking around here except to make a fool of yours—”

His words cut off as two heavy thuds echoed from the classroom’s back door.

Meng Yiran stood there holding a feather quill and a blank notebook she’d swiped from a wooden rack in the corridor. She beamed a bright smile.

With everyone’s attention now on her, she pulled back her hand and tucked away her fist, hiding the knuckle of her middle finger where it had reddened from the forceful knocks. She dipped her head politely. “Sorry to interrupt.”

The female teacher spotted the identity badge pinned to Meng Yiran’s chest. Surprised but not immediately hostile, she asked, “What is it?”

“Ah, it’s like this.” Meng Yiran curved her lips into a smile, though a closer look revealed her features twitching faintly, as if she were barely holding something back. “I’m a newly appointed teaching assistant, tasked by my superiors with gathering feedback on instruction. I was passing by and noticed your class has such a wonderful atmosphere. I’d love to hear your thoughts—and the students’—on the school’s current situation.”

She stepped forward as she spoke, coming to a steady halt right in front of Tong Yuwu. She effectively blocked both the female teacher and the boy. “It’ll only take a moment. Would you mind cooperating?”

The female teacher was fairly young. She frowned in confusion. “Has the semester evaluation already kicked off this early?

“I didn’t get any notice about it.”

“No, not at all.” Meng Yiran’s fingers trembled slightly around the quill, though she couldn’t say why her words came out so smoothly and steadily. “Think of it as prep work ahead of the official evaluation. The survey results go straight to the top. If yours gets picked, it could even become a highlight of this term’s review.”

The female teacher hesitated, then nodded. “I see.”

“I overheard something interesting from outside just now.” Meng Yiran swiftly shifted the topic, dodging any further scrutiny of her credentials or motives.

She turned to the little boy standing beside the female teacher and bent down slightly. “Hello. I noticed you and this new classmate seem to be having some friction. Mind sharing how you feel about her?”

The boy shot Meng Yiran a dissatisfied glare and pouted. “Yeah. So what if I just don’t like her?”

Meng Yiran bristled at his disrespectful tone. On instinct, her eyes flicked to his left arm.

Earlier, outside the classroom, the angle had prevented her from seeing the boy’s left side. Only now did she notice the ink-green ribbon tied around his left upper arm—a clear sign that he was a member of Lishen, the nobility guild Ling Ge had mentioned.

Heaven knew she had always assumed it would be the commoner students looking to cause trouble for Tong Yuwu. It turned out to be the exact opposite.

But Meng Yiran quickly regained her composure and instantly grasped the key point—

The commoner students were all waiting to see Tong Yuwu become a laughingstock, but only fellow nobles would want to purge this disgrace from Clarity Magic Academy and force her to drop out!

Steadying her nerves, she maintained her hypocritical smile and asked, “Why is that?”

The boy sneered. “She didn’t get in through proper channels. She doesn’t deserve to be in the same classroom as this young master.”

“Oh, I see.” Meng Yiran raised her hand and began doodling meaningless circles on a blank page of her notebook with her feather quill, mumbling under her breath as she did. “…Certain students have expressed great dissatisfaction with the school’s current admissions practices, believing that the upper echelons exhibit severe personal bias in recruiting new students. They hope the leadership will engage in deep reflection and…”

She hadn’t even finished her “notes” when the boy could no longer stand it.

His face flushed red. “When did I ever say anything like that?” He jabbed a finger straight at the Noble Miss behind Meng Yiran. “I’m dissatisfied with her—this useless waste who can’t do anything—not with the school leadership!”

Meng Yiran spread her hands innocently. “That’s between the two of you and falls outside the scope of my records. What I’m doing is extracting your opinions and suggestions on school policies from your attitude toward her.” She flashed the boy a wide grin. “But rest assured, I’ll do my best to submit all this to the principal’s desk. I’m sure our fair-minded principal will give you a satisfactory response once they see it.”

She paused her pen. “May I have your name? If you’re lucky, you might even get a personal summons from the principal.”