Neither Xu Heyu nor Ao Cang knew the boy, and he looked very ordinary. They naturally assumed that he was a friend of Qiao Mei.

They asked almost in unison, "Who is he?"

After a moment of surprise, Qiao Mei recounted the connection between her and the boy in the Sacred Beast Hall.

"Overall, that's it. Fortunately, it's not too far from Imperial Star Square, so it won't take too long for me to take him there to see him fulfill his promise."

After saying that, Qiao Mei looked at the boy who seemed to be about to leave, took a few steps forward and called out to him.

"Wait a minute, if I remember correctly, you still owe me a promise about a bet."

The boy looked toward the source of the sound, and his expression froze instantly when he saw Qiao Mei's signature red eyes and waist-length curly hair. He then pretended not to have heard and turned to leave.

But Qiao Mei didn't give him a chance to pretend he wasn't deaf. She turned on her smart bracelet, found the recording, and played it on repeat.

"Seriously, if your farts were true, I'd just shout 'I'm an idiot!' three times right there in Imperial Star Square!"

"Seriously, what kind of fart did you spew...?"

Hearing that Qiao Mei was going to play this incredibly humiliating recording a second time, the boy gritted his teeth, his face flushed, and interrupted Qiao Mei: "Damn it, turn off the recording right now!!"

Qiao Mei raised an eyebrow, turned off the recording, and looked at him: "Wouldn't it have been better if you had done this earlier? Let's go, I'll wait for you to keep your promise. Oh, and you'll have to add your name later. What's your name again?"

The boy's face turned ashen as he uttered his name.

"My name is Lu Ren. What happened before was indeed my fault. Can you please be lenient and let me off the hook? I'll apologize to you, okay?"

What's the difference between letting him say he's an idiot in Imperial Star Square and taking a dump in the street?

Qiao Mei found it amusing: "So you do know the saying 'forgive and forget'? But when I was falsely accused of failing to awaken in the Holy Beast Hall and was about to be dragged to a garbage planet, why didn't you do that?"

At this point, the girl pressed on, a hint of sarcasm flashing in her red eyes, cornering Lu Ren against the wall: "And if I remember correctly, you also said you'd just drag me to a garbage planet, without even waiting for a cooldown period. Do you remember that?"

She's not some kind of saint; in her view, people should pay the price for their mistakes, and everyone is the same.

Lu Ren did indeed remember this incident. Seeing that Qiao Mei wouldn't back down at all, he immediately got angry: "So what? You're perfectly fine now, and I didn't do anything to you. Why are you so petty?"

"Don't be like that. If we're really talking about it, it's your cunning that's so sharp you can't even find it with a magnifying glass. Don't try to play the victim here. You're really shameless to talk about my Qiaoqiao like that."

The sudden female voice drew everyone's attention. Not far away, a short-haired girl wearing a black and pink spring dress, black leather boots, and a lollipop in her mouth walked over.

Her upturned, narrow phoenix eyes were filled with sarcasm, but when she saw Qiao Mei, they softened, and she waved to her.

"Qingqing, what are you doing here?"

Shu Qingqing took the lollipop out of her mouth, fiddled with her chestnut-colored short hair, and put her left hand in her pocket, saying, "I came here to buy some things for myself and my familiar beast, and I didn't expect to run into you by chance."

As she spoke, Shu Qingqing noticed the blue-eyed young man beside Qiao Mei, leaned closer to Qiao Mei, and whispered to her, "Who is this?"

Shu Qingqing is a citizen of Orchid Star and usually lives there when she has nothing to do. She doesn't have many opportunities to meet Xu Heyu, who only travels between the Federation Star and the Empire Star. Qiao Mei wasn't surprised that she didn't know him, so she gave a brief introduction: "This is my cousin, Xu Heyu. You should have heard of him."

"Is he Xu Heyu?" Shu Qingqing asked, then noticed that Lu Ren was trying to sneak away. She took two big steps forward and grabbed his collar. "What are you doing? Where do you think you're going? Go to Imperial Star Square and keep your promise. Otherwise, I won't mind posting the recording Qiao Qiao left behind on X site and editing it into my latest video."

Shu Qingqing is a very popular live streamer on X Station. If she really does this, Lu Ren will be like someone who is defecating in the street, and he will be dragged along by Shu Qingqing with Qiao Mei and her group with a constipated look on his face.

The Imperial Star Plaza was crowded with people. Xu Heyu and Qiao Mei were quite famous on the Imperial Star. As soon as they appeared, a huge crowd surrounded them, making Lu Renren feel numb.

But there was nothing he could do; it was his own foolish decision to become Qiao Yingying's protector. He quickly told everyone, "I'm an idiot," and then hurriedly left, leaving everyone around him completely bewildered.

"Is he having a mental breakdown? Why is he calling himself an idiot?"

"I don't know, but he definitely looks like he's not quite right in the head. It's really scary."

Shu Qingqing almost burst out laughing. Seeing that she had finished helping Qiao Mei, she asked her a lot of questions, such as where she planned to go later and whether she had decided which college to apply to.

"I'll need to go to the Awakener's Shop later to buy some equipment for training my familiars. As for the academy, I've already applied to the Federation Academy. Also, thank you for what happened earlier."

"Hey~ there's no need for thanks between us." Shu Qingqing put the lollipop back in her mouth, waved her hand, and then told them that she had also applied to the Federal Academy.

"We might be classmates later. By the way, have you decided which store to buy from? How about we do a group buy? There's a discount."

Qiao Mei glanced at Xu Heyu, who still looked exhausted, and after agreeing with Shu Qingqing, told Xu Heyu to go back and rest first.

"I already have someone with you here. You should focus on getting better. If I have any questions later, I'll contact you via the personal terminal."

Xu Heyu actually wanted to keep up the act, but fearing that going too far would be counterproductive, she could only watch Qiao Mei and Shu Qingqing leave.

After the two walked away, he went in the completely opposite direction, lowered his blue eyes to look at the tissue that Qiao Mei had handed him, gently rubbed it with his fingers, and his eyes were filled with emotions that Zhui Feng could not understand.

......

After Qiao Mei and Shu Qingqing spent less than two thousand interstellar coins to buy basic equipment such as control gloves for commanding their summoned beasts, it was already close to noon.

Remembering that Shu Qingqing had helped her twice, Qiao Mei treated Shu Qingqing to lunch again before they parted ways.

After all that work, it was already afternoon.

She boarded the aircraft and took Ao Cang back to the palace. After helping Ao Cang set up the gem nest and gem bowl, she began to look at the materials related to the Federal Academy's written exam, and told Ao Cang to go and rest first.

Ao Cang nestled into the gem nest he had longed for for a long time, but he did not feel the satisfaction he had imagined. Instead, he felt a stronger sense of fulfillment in his heart when he looked at the believers who were working hard for him.

Unbeknownst to him, an unknown seed had begun to take root and sprout in his heart.