CHAPTER 347: CHAPTER 345: LOST A BROTHER, JUST ACKNOWLEDGE ANOTHER ONE

"You guys will never guess who I ran into today!"

Kui Nianruo rushed home, bouncing with excitement, and couldn’t help but shout as soon as she set down her schoolbag. Before she could ask herself and answer, Li Ying, who was lounging on the couch reading a novel, immediately responded, "Did you run into Professor Yan? She told me she was going to give you trouble,"

"Why?" Kui Nianruo looked as if she’d been struck by lightning, completely stunned. "Why would she want to give me trouble?"

"Because she found out I copied your homework," Li Ying said, utterly shameless. "You know how she is—she always punishes both the one who copies and the one who’s copied equally, so..."

"Li Ying, you—" Kui Nianruo snapped. In a flash, her blood surged, claws forming, wolf’s back, eagle’s eyes, and she let out a piercing, earth-shattering feline shriek, leaping straight at Li Ying—

"Wait!" Li Ying jumped back hastily, throwing her hands up in surrender. "Nianruo, did you forget? You haven’t even had Current Affairs class yet this week, you didn’t turn in any homework!"

Kui Nianruo paused and thought it through. Oh, right—Current Affairs was a big lecture for all years and majors, but each group had it at different times. She and Li Ying didn’t take it together, and she hadn’t submitted her homework yet!

Kui Nianruo stopped, wondering, "Was Li Ying just kidding with me?"

"So how did Professor Yan find out you copied my homework?"

"Because you put your name on the paper, and I didn’t catch it when I copied it, so I just turned yours in with your name still on it..."

"Li Ying—" Kui Nianruo lunged again, bird-of-prey style, about to tear this pampered young lady limb from limb.

"Wait!" Li Ying threw her hands up, flashing a winning smile. "Okay, Professor Yan did figure out I copied homework, and she said she wanted to come after you too, but you know me—would I really let my own screw-up drag you down?"

Kui Nianruo hesitated, thinking, "Did Li Ying help me get out of trouble?"

"So, you spoke up for me?"

"No, Professor Yan said if I kept denying it, she’d just give me a zero on the final. But if I confessed, the worst we’d get is a major scolding together..."

"Li Ying, aaahhhh!" Kui Nianruo had totally lost it, flooding with impotent rage, going in for a tackle to chew Li Ying’s arm off, but Li Ying slipped away through a gap and ran like hell.

Driven hard, sluggish on the second try, and utterly spent on the third—Li Ying knew perfectly how to calm Nianruo’s fury. When she was in her mad blood-fury mode, there was no beating her, and if you ran, she’d charge after you like a wild boar. But if you stalled her twice and broke up her attack, her anger would just leak away to zero, and she’d cool off fast.

Watching it all unfold, Qian Yuya saw Kui Nianruo slump angrily onto the couch, sniffling and looking like she might burst into tears. Qian Yuya had to help Li Ying out by changing the subject, "So, you said you ran into someone today?"

"I—I..." Kui Nianruo rubbed at her eyes and said, "I bumped into Professor Qin at White Box while working my part-time shift."

"Oh?" Even Qian Yuya’s cool demeanor wavered a little. Everyone knew Nianruo worked part-time in the library. According to her, "’You get to read, earn meal money, and help other people out—there’s no better job under the sun.’"

From upstairs, Li Ying poked out her head. "Professor Qin? Is that the Red-haired, Snow-white guy everyone talks about?"

Qian Yuya asked, "Why was he at White Box?"

"He came looking for the grade sheets from previous Eye of Omniscience exams, and then..." Kui Nianruo briefly described the wonderful things she witnessed in the director’s office and, in her excitement, completely forgot Li Ying’s monstrous misdeed—even when Li Ying came back and sat down beside her, she didn’t notice. "...Professor Qin was seriously amazing!"

Just hearing it, Qian Yuya could tell Qin Leyin was prepping for the upcoming cheating contest, and a sudden sense of urgency flickered in her heart.

"Right now, the main cheating group had Ming Shuiyun as Qin Leyin’s loyal follower and core member; Shi Wen as the Eye of Omniscience’s strategic partner and a key supporter; Qin Yueshi, who was Qin Leyin’s family, counted as rare; only Qian Yuya herself hardly had a role to play, and she was starting to feel like just an average side character."

"It couldn’t go on like this—she had to show off her abilities and get Qin Leyin’s approval!"

"Even though Qin Leyin said she wasn’t qualified to be one of the ’Leyu,’ Qian Yuya hadn’t given up—not yet. What if? Maybe?"

"She actually suspected there was some kind of special ritual required to become ’Leyu.’ After all, when Qian Yuya went into calm mode and sorted through her memories, she realized that Qian Yuliu’s personality had changed drastically at a certain point in time."

"But at that time, Qian Yuya and Qian Yuliu didn’t interact all that often, so she hadn’t noticed. Now, looking back, she realized Qian Yuliu had almost become a totally different person."

"If ’Leyu’ wasn’t an innate thing, then the turning point for Qian Yuliu joining that mysterious group likely happened during that personality shift."

"To fully inherit her brother’s legacy, she’d be willing to do anything."

"Her next plan was to lie low for now, earn Qin Leyin’s acceptance, and then coax him to reveal how to become one of the ’Leyu’..."

"Seems like I should sign up for that ’Extinction of Silver Blood’ elective too."

Wearing an apron, Lin Xue carried dishes out of the kitchen and set them on the dinner table, smiling, "Everyone who’s taken his class says Professor Qin’s teaching style is really fun and effective. I was already kind of interested. Hearing you talk about it, I really think this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—any teacher who can talk like that, I can’t wait to see him work his magic in class,"

"Yeah, yeah, I want to sign up for that elective too." Kui Nianruo grabbed Li Ying’s arm excitedly. "Xiao Ying, you should come too, so we can take the class together,"

"Me?" Li Ying shook her head. "I have another elective at that time, so I’ll pass."

Lin Xue called her out directly, "You always pick electives that don’t take roll, and honestly, you always skip required classes and never show up for electives—why are you suddenly being so well-behaved?"

Qian Yuya chimed in too, "This class doesn’t take roll either, and it’s easy to get participation points,"

Kui Nianruo nodded fast, "Yeah, and Xiao Ying, don’t you love handsome teachers? Professor Qin is really good-looking in person. You really don’t want to take his class?"

"Hmm—" Li Ying made a face like she was constipated but still shook her head. "That just makes me want to skip more."

"Why?"

"Well, like you said, Professor Qin’s super popular, so he’s probably surrounded by admirers. I’m just not into that type. I like guys who are quiet, lazy like me, witty, and loyal."

Lin Xue couldn’t help laughing, "You sure are picky."

"Obviously! I’m not just about looks," Li Ying said proudly, chin tilted up. "No matter how great Professor Qin is, I’ll always be the woman he can never have."

"There’s another little reason—his class is in the afternoon, which is when I always nap. If I don’t get enough quality sleep, it affects my natural beauty..."

Ah, so that was it. The three of them instantly understood—no matter how hot the guy, he couldn’t beat a good nap.

"Let’s eat," Lin Xue called. "Nai isn’t coming home tonight, so we don’t need to wait for her,"

The roommates sat down together, and Kui Nianruo asked curiously, "Nai’s not been home for dinner much lately—what’s she been up to?"

"Maybe she’s dating someone?" Li Ying’s eyes lit up, then she shook her head, "Doesn’t seem like it, though. Every time she comes back, she looks exhausted, not the glow of new love..."

"You act like you even know what new love is supposed to look like," Lin Xue said, laughing. She exchanged a glance with Qian Yuya, both nodding to themselves. "Nai Qingni is White Night’s person. It isn’t hard to guess what White Night’s been busy with lately—the imperial succession struggle."

"Now that Radiant Celestial Maiden was living on campus at the Imperial Academy, in theory the rest of them could help too, but White Night hadn’t asked, which meant she had even better spies inside—like the Classical Chinese lecturer, Wei Weiwei."

"Sigh," Kui Nianruo said as she ate. "I haven’t seen Nai lately—I can’t even go get her help..."

"You need Nai’s help with something?"

"To send a letter!" Kui Nianruo said matter-of-factly. "The semester’s started, so I should let my dad know how things have been. Don’t you guys write home?"

As soon as she said that, Lin Xue fell silent. Kui Nianruo thought she’d said something wrong. "Sorry, Xuejie, I..."

"No, it’s fine." Lin Xue gave a bitter smile. She wasn’t quiet because she had no family, but for Kui Nianruo’s sake—Kui Nianruo still hadn’t learned about her father’s death.

It was understandable. Kui Zhao didn’t seem like a chatty, letter-writing guy anyway. He hadn’t sent a letter for half a year, and Kui Nianruo hadn’t even gotten suspicious. Sometimes, being a bad dad had its advantages.

At that moment, Li Ying started eating at warp speed, clanking her chopsticks down and darting up to the second floor. "I have Alchemy class with Luminous Stone tomorrow—I’m gonna go do my homework,"

As Kui Nianruo watched Li Ying’s sudden burst of diligence, something clicked. "Li Ying, are you trying to copy my homework again!?"

Hearing that, Li Ying bolted upstairs even faster, Kui Nianruo chasing right after. "No way you’re copying this one! It’s Zhu Yan’s class! He’ll totally catch you!"

Listening to the girls’ commotion on the second floor, Lin Xue asked, "Should we tell Nianruo?"

"No need," Qian Yuya said quietly. "Even Li Ying’s willing to keep this secret, so we have no reason to break this fragile peace,"

Lin Xue blinked. "She knows?"

"She figured it out. Their fathers aren’t the same, and I think Li Ying put two and two together when she didn’t get a letter for two months,"

Qian Yuya said, "Most of the time, she tries to cheer Nianruo up—or get her angry—because ’replacing’ works even better than forgetting. As long as a lively life now takes the place of all those memories, when Nianruo finally learns about her dad, she won’t be as heartbroken,"

"Of course, Li Ying only copies homework because she’s lazy."

Lin Xue suddenly understood. "So that’s why she suddenly started buying into shops and studying business over summer..."

"Sometimes, growing up really is just a moment," Qian Yuya said. "You and I know that better than anyone,"

Lin Xue fell silent and quietly finished her meal.

Suddenly, Qian Yuya said, "By the way, Yueshi and I signed up for Eye of Omniscience. Want to team up with us?"

"Not just you two," Lin Xue said. "There’s Ming Shuiyun and... Professor Qin too,"

"Yeah."

"But why? You never used to waste time on stuff like that. Plus, Ming Shuiyun’s an imperial successor candidate—getting involved, you—"

"Professor Qin is my brother’s friend—I made him my sworn brother,"

"Huh?" Lin Xue was taken aback.

Qian Yuya repeated, "I made Qin Leyin my brother,"

Lin Xue was quiet for a while, not sure what to say, so she just said, "Oh."

"So, are you going to join us?" Qian Yuya said, "Hongle’s big bro wants to help Ming Shuiyun win the Eye of Omniscience competition. I’ve decided to help too,"

"...Okay."

Qian Yuya nodded and kept eating. Lin Xue watched her, wanting to say something but holding back.

"’Replacing’ works even better than forgetting." Lin Xue remembered what Qian Yuya had said earlier, and she finally understood, feeling a kind of admiration.

"Lost a brother? Just find a new one"—did things really work like that?

"It’s actually a good way, but it just wasn’t something Lin Xue could manage."

"After all, the one she lost... was her dad."