Chapter 7

Ning An ’s martial arts instructor was called Song Xing. During class, Ning An was caught chattering away with He Xin and was honored to be called up to become a punching bag and was used as a setting example for the wrong combat methods. By the time lunch arrived, his hands were all blue and he felt sore all over, which was still the case even when Song Xing had carefully controlled his strength.

“Student Ning An, you need to exercise to strengthen yourself. I can knock you down even without exerting any strength.”

Instructor Song reminded him very kindly after class, making Ning An’s face wrinkled into a sour pout.

“I think I’m about to fall apart.” Ning An rarely drank half of the nutrient before putting it aside, rubbing the bruised skin of his wrist. “Am I really that weak?”

So you didn’t know about it before? The other three looked at him silently and continued eating their lunch.

“No one is strong from the beginning.” Wang Yi looked as Ning An slumped down, looking as if he did not plan to continue drinking the other half of the nutritional drink. He still comforted Ning An with a few words based on the principle of unity and love, “It’s not too late to start training from today on.”

“Hey, how class today?” Derek saw the nutrient in front of Ning An and He Xin with a look of surprise, “You drank this?”

“It’s not that bad, and it’s obviously liquid. But it can make me full after drinking. It is a great invention.” He Xin was trying to taste all the flavors of the nutriment drink.

“It’s really a good invention.” Derek had once tried it. Remembering the bitter taste on his tongue, the nutritional drink then became his last choice of stomach fill.

Ning An made a bitter face and drank the rest of the nutrients. Derek’s eyes caught the bruises around his wrists and commented, “Class didn’t seem to go very well.”

“I was caught and used as a punching bag.” Ning An drank his water to dilute the residual taste of the nutritional drink in his mouth, “I’m so worried that this will be the case in every class in the future.”

“Maybe if you can keep it down and behave, the instructor might not keep an eye on you.” Chen Siyu’s class was not far away from Ning An’s and he saw the entire thing that happened during their class.

“But it might also be a good thing.” Wang Yi scraped the last bit of food from his plate. When he was in class today, there were always a few students who kept clinging to his instructor. Wang Yi still had several acts and movements that he was still unsure whether it was up to the standard, and yet he hadn’t had the chance to ask. “You should take the opportunity to let the instructor give you a personal lesson for you.”

“Student Wang Yi doesn’t sound very happy.” Derek sat down at their table. “Is Wang Yi in class one?”

His idol not only remember his name, but he also knew which class he resided in! The little fire in Wang Yi’s heart subsided. “Yes, it’s nothing of a big deal. I’ll go train for a little longer at night.”

“Alright then, you should come to the training room tonight.” Derek ate quickly and resolved the problems in their conversation. Now he was dipping the remaining bread in the sauce left on his plate. “Right, why isn’t Fu Ke coming?” as he said this, Derek looked around for Fu Ke.

Finding Fu Ke was not hard at all as he was always at the center of attention, and Derek found him in the cafeteria within a glance. However, his path seemed to be blocked by someone.

“Xu Yusheng.” Wang Yi recognized the person who blocked Fu Ke instantly, the one who had been pestering their instructor continuously in class today.

“Oh, the one with the best grades in school?” Derek raised an eyebrow and watched the two men walk towards their table.

“What?” when Derek asked Ning An and He Xin, they both looked towards at Chen Siyu and Wang Yi. One was always well-informed and the other was in a class with Xu Yusheng. They should know something.

“Um.” The two nodded at the same time, and Wang Yi said, “The instructor mentioned it.” Chen Siyu quickly added another sentence, “Wang Yi came in second.”

“Oh–” The two others who were at the bottom grade in their class showed a shocked expression and looked at their roommate with more admiration.

“Hello.” Xu Yusheng has come over and greeted the people on the table with a smile, but his eyes never turned towards Ning An, He Xin, and Chen Siyu. Wang Yi glanced at Derek. “I’m Xu Yusheng, how about we add each other as friends on the terminal?”

Ning An saw that Derek didn’t know what he meant, and pulled He Xin. He nodded towards Derek and Fu Ke, and left afterward “We’ll go back first.”

“Then I won’t bother you.” Chen Siyu didn’t like Xu Yusheng from their first meeting. Although he smiled, Chen Siyu always felt that the smile was too fake, and Wang Yi also felt that something was wrong. He gave the rest acknowledging nods and then left with his plate.

“Derek Liszt.” Derek agreed to Xu Yusheng’s friend’s request but unexpectedly had no plans to talk more, because he smiled uncomfortably, and he signaled his empty plate to Xu Yusheng. “I’m going first, talk to you later. ”

“Do they all dislike me or something? ”Xu Yusheng shrugged helplessly and smiled at Fu Ke, “Classmate Fu, how about eating together with me? ”

“I’ll just drink nutritional supplements.” Fu Ke said and sat down across Xu Yusheng. “Maybe you think too much, they usually don’t act like this.”

Although he was not familiar with Ning An and his friends, he was close with Derek and the behavior the other showed just how was abnormally unlike him. “Maybe he’s just tired from the morning class.”

“Well, after all, they are the tail of the crane. It may be difficult for them to keep up with the progress.” Xu Yusheng smiled, the sneering implication in his voice was evident.

“Crane tail,” hearing this title, Fu Ke frowned. “What does it mean?”

“Student Fu Ke doesn’t know what it means?” Xu Yusheng’s surprise was fleeting. “Ah, student Fu is from the upper class, of course, he wouldn’t pay attention to such trivial thing. Let me tell you, our class assignments are based on the admission results. Naturally, the sixth class becomes the tail of the crane. ”

Fu Ke drank the nutrient and did not reply, it seemed that he wanted Xu Yusheng to continue to speak.

“Life is full of competition. Those who started from behind the starting line are doomed to fail, so there’s no need to know their names since they’ll be eliminated anyway.” Xu Yusheng didn’t control the strength of his hands for a moment, and the knife drawn on his plate created a harsh screeching noise. “Oh, sorry.”

“But student Fu and student Liszt are not the same. You’ve won since you stood at the starting line and yet you still keep moving forward. We are more like the same kind of people; birds of the same feather flock together don’t they?” Xu Yusheng then carefully controlled his strength, and cut the meat chops on the plate three times, five times and two times. “There is also an old saying that; he who gets in contact with vermilion will become red, he who touches ink will become black. I think student Fu should remind student Liszt.”

“Thank you for the reminder student Xu, but I think he knows what he’s doing.” Xu Yusheng had left an impression on Fu Ke that he was outspoken and sharp with his tongue. He didn’t like it nor dislike it, but considered that it was best to not have a deeper friendship.

“I think our views are a little different, but it’s good to be able to listen to student Xu’s thoughts.” Fu Ke glanced at the unread message on his terminal and spoke, “I’ll get going first, see you later.”

Xu Yusheng watched Fu Ke’s retreating back and sighed quietly. Forget it, don’t worry, there will be more opportunities to talk with him in the future.

The unread messages in his inbox were filled with push notifications from his subscription and Fu Ke’s junk message, added with Derek’s newest message asking him when he would return to their chamber. Fu Ke then replied, “I’ll be going back soon.”

Fu Ke then looked at the message bar in a daze, it seemed like he was looking forward to some new text messages. In fact, Fu Ke was a little disappointed, but he didn’t understand what he was expecting or disappointed at.

In the end, Derek’s urging text popped up again, and Fu Ke directly clicked “Delete” without replying.

Just forget it, let’s go back– otherwise, Derek will continue pushing him till he shut down his terminal.