Chapter 75 The Man in Brown Clothes Possesses a Jade Heart (1)

Eric did not tell Archini about Rennagi.

She couldn't think of any reason why she didn't want to talk about it. After pretending to be busy for a few days, she realized that she probably just didn't want to face Achini.

How did he know so much about her background?

The feeling of being watched terrified her.

The approaching end of the school year gave her ample reason to put aside the Prometheus matter.

Linlu is a person with a very strong sense of self-respect. She apologized several times but did not receive a response from the other party, which made her feel a little discouraged.

The only person she could talk to normally was Su Ni. Sharing a secret, they grew increasingly close.

Only she knew that Su Ni wasn't as cunning as others made her out to be. Lin Lu said his attitude towards Shu Ningmiao was ambiguous, and Ai Ruiji convinced herself that it was normal... If she had a sister like Shu Ningmiao, she would also want to get her attention.

She was also ostracized and disliked, and felt out of place in this luxurious academy. She only felt a sense of kinship when she was with Su Ni.

She asked Su Ni why he wanted to join Prometheus.

He didn't say "for humanity" or "want to save" anything.

“I used to hate Pandora.” He cupped his face in his hands and looked at her with a smile. “You know, before Pandora was discovered, this type of genetic disease didn’t exist in me. No one could prove that the occasional genetic defects were related to Pandora, but I just really hated Pandora.”

He hates anything that causes him pain.

“I don’t hate Pandora anymore.” Su Ni’s fair face flushed pink; he looked much better lately. “I really like my superpower. It’s so great to have superpowers… Don’t you like them too?”

Without superpowers, someone like her would never be able to stand here in her entire life.

Su Ni's eyes seemed to hold both sarcasm and pity.

His innate ability, one in a million, is what proves his specialness and sets him apart from ordinary people. Su Ni's blood-red eyes gazed at her quietly: "I joined Prometheus because I wanted to prove myself. I wanted to be seen by others."

Erice quickly lowered her head, momentarily speechless with embarrassment. Su Ni's words easily pierced through her disguise and pretense.

He looked at her, and the words that came out of his mouth slipped into her unspoken words.

She was the same way—wanting to do something, wanting others to see her, not wanting to be someone who was dispensable.

Those grand desires to save others were nothing more than castles in the air, far beyond her comprehension, to her who had never even dared to closely observe what the new land was like.

But she is willing to believe in herself for a greater reason.

She was willing to move forward because Prometheus and Achini both said they needed her.

"Don't overthink it. Anyway... we're doing a good deed, right?"

Su Ni made no attempt to hide her thoughts, nor did she feel ashamed. Eric felt a sense of relief and calmed down.

That night, she used the Golden Branch again.

She followed the burning flames to Achini, the familiar ruins. The man sat on the edge of the pool, his dark red hair cascading down into the water like a fire sprouting from the water.

"I accidentally broke that stone." Erice clutched the hem of her skirt tightly as she confessed to him. The matter of Rennagi was swirling in her mind. She thought for a moment, then swallowed the words back.

“I know.” Achini was staring at the little bird that had landed on his hand, not even glancing at her.

The little bird chirped, its feathers fluttering with its calls, and affectionately pecked at his fingertips.

He was always surrounded by many animals, and people who animals were willing to be close to must not be bad people.

Erice naturally convinced himself of this.

The flames at his feet illuminated his figure and face, making the man appear exceptionally gentle in the night, even though he was only gazing at a bird.

"It's just a rock, it's broken, so be it." He combed the bird's feathers, finally looked up from it, and suddenly laughed: "You are the most important."

She should have been embarrassed by this attention, but for some reason, her heart felt empty, her lips moved as if bewitched, and only her body spoke—

"what can I do?"

——

"What can I do, teacher?"

Under his gaze, Shu Ningmiao calmly picked up a book from his table, pretending that she had something to do.

Weston glanced at her with a complicated expression, full of suspicion: "I don't think I asked you to come over."

"Of course." Shu Ningmiao was not ashamed, but rather proud: "I came to help voluntarily."

She stretched out her finger, pointed to the area under her eye, and then pointed at him.

It means she's staring at him.

Weston would sometimes be so angry with her that he wanted to laugh.

She guessed that Weston had a way of finding other Crimson Stones, but Weston himself was very uncooperative.

As long as he continues to deny it, nothing we say will make a difference.

Shu Ningmiao had her own shameless methods. Weston needed to leave Cornunos to find Jiang Gongshi, so she simply didn't give him that time. She would come and keep an eye on him during the day until he returned to the teachers' dormitory.

The two of them just kept waiting in this tacit understanding.

Weston lowered his head, pretending the person opposite him was invisible.

Shu Ningmiao sat quietly opposite him reading a book, but before a minute had passed, he said impatiently, "You're noisy."

"Teacher," Shu Ningmiao sneered, "I haven't even said anything."

She didn't say a word, and even the way her fingertips brushed the pages of the book was so light that it was almost inaudible, but when the surroundings suddenly became quiet, Weston could still clearly hear her unsettling breathing.

The long, shallow breathing rhythm was calm and clear as a thread.

The more Weston tried to concentrate and ignore the person in front of him, the more he felt that her presence seemed to be hovering right next to him. After realizing what he was thinking, Weston would deliberately avoid looking at her.

He felt an inexplicable sense of irritation.

This frustration transformed into inexplicable anger—

Then Shu Ningmiao interrupted her: "Teacher."

Weston paused, his pen smearing a small dot on the paper. The quill pen was almost out of ink. He lifted the nib and then condescended to glance at her.

“I can help you.” Shu Ningmiao rested her chin on her hands, her words carrying a double meaning.

Weston's expression grew even colder, and the pen returned to the paper: "No need."

His gaze fell on the paper, and he said coldly, "Do what you should be doing at your age, and don't meddle in things that aren't your business."

Shu Ningmiao did many things that he considered quite foolish—actively getting involved in the affairs of Yeluqi, confronting Prometheus's people, taking the Crimson Palace Stone without knowing anything about it, and then swaggering around and casually showing it to people.

Whether out of curiosity or amusement, Weston felt he couldn't let her continue exploring.

Otherwise, given her personality, she would inevitably cause even bigger trouble sooner or later.

Shu Ningmiao sized him up. Weston's profile was hidden in the light and shadow, revealing an unusually cold and hard expression. Despite his harshness and ruthlessness, his green eyes still looked intelligent and beautiful.

It would be so much better if he couldn't speak.

She sighed deeply, "In that case, I won't bother you any longer."

The girl readily got up, as if convinced by his words, and left.

Weston, on the contrary, felt a strange sense of uncertainty.

It's as if someone has inexplicably shoved a bunch of weeds into my house, and now they're both blocking the doorway and annoying, yet I can't push them out to let people relax.

Two minutes later, there was another knock on the office door. He stopped writing, lowered his eyes, and said calmly, "Come in."

The person who came in was from the Academic Affairs Office. He opened the door and smiled ingratiatingly at him, with several workers appearing behind him.

The staff member from the academic affairs office carefully closed the door. From Weston's tightly pursed lips, it was clear he was in a bad mood, so they spoke even more cautiously: "Mr. Weston, because of a new teacher, we need to renovate the office next door. We apologize for the inconvenience."

The office next door was undoubtedly Yelüqi's previous one. Weston wasn't surprised and raised an eyebrow, saying, "It's alright, you can leave now."

The staff from the academic affairs office quickly explained, "It's like this, our new teacher wants to open up the middle room to house a small-scale combat simulation system, so we might need to estimate the approximate area of ​​your office..."

Other things are still unclear, but it is certain that the upcoming new colleague will be someone with more responsibilities than Yelü Qishi.

Between his and Yelüqi's offices was a locked, abandoned room, which was said to have been the office of the first principal.

"Go ahead." Weston was indifferent, but not wanting to be disturbed by repeated renovations, he reminded her, "Has the principal approved this?"

"Uh..." The person from the academic affairs office hesitated for a moment: "Does this need the principal's approval?"

Aloberia is not only the principal of Cornunos, but also manages all the properties of the Beria family. Most things in the school are decided by the relevant departments themselves.

Moreover...

"Our new teacher's approval is equivalent to the principal's approval, so don't worry," the person from the academic affairs office chuckled.

Weston glanced at him coldly, unwilling to waste words explaining, and gestured slightly for them to do as they pleased.

The workers filed in and began measuring the dimensions and thickness against Weston's wall. The noise annoyed Weston, so he simply left the office.

He didn't have any classes in the afternoon, so he needed some private time to study the fragments of the Crimson Palace Stone that he had obtained from Shu Ningmiao.

The entire top floor of the Zhunti Pagoda was bustling with activity, with at least dozens of skilled workers employed.

"Are they going to tear down the tower and rebuild it?" Weston glanced at it casually, then froze, his brows furrowing slightly at the sight before him.

The people from the Academic Affairs Office followed him out and, seeing his displeasure, quickly explained, "Our new teacher wasn't satisfied with the previous renovations, so we hired our own renovation team. Don't worry, it definitely wasn't funded by the school."

Weston didn't want to speak; if he did, dust would fly right at him.

Yelü Qi's simple office has now been transformed. A dazzling crystal chandelier hangs in the room, and the reflection of the crystal makes the whole room look hazy. A rose-red solid wood chair with gold-embroidered cushions and swaying tassels hangs from the desk.

Weston frowned and quickly walked down the stairs without saying a word.

The extravagant and luxurious decorations didn't impress him much; he only felt annoyed.

He was supposed to go back to the teachers' dormitory, but because he was absent-minded, he walked in the opposite direction to the training field.

Perhaps it wasn't entirely due to being distracted.

He was absent-minded, his mind preoccupied with the look in Shu Ningmiao's eyes before she left.

He knew Shu Ningmiao wouldn't give up easily, but he didn't know what tricks she was going to play next. This feeling of uncertainty made him irritable.

He knew that if Shu Ningmiao wasn't in class, she was probably at the training ground.

He only glanced at her casually; if she wasn't there, it meant she probably had some other bad idea.

Just a glimpse.

Today, there was only one class in the morning, and there was no one else in the training field. The outermost glass was also open by default.

In the deserted venue, the lone figure stood out conspicuously.

Shu Ningmiao fell down from the high platform.

Weston looked at her with his arms crossed, vaguely feeling that she seemed to have glanced back at him in mid-air, but Yeluqi had said that the glass in the training field was one-way, so it was probably just an illusion.

She was followed by many combat humanoid machines, almost the limit of the system that Weston knew.

Weston frowned, gaining a new appreciation for her recklessness and arrogance.

In mid-air, he heard a buzzing sound of impact, white sand flew up, and an electronic short sword flew out of his hand and stuck into the sand.

Weston's lowered eyebrows twitched.

The gradually dissipating white sand was adorned with dripping blood, droplets splattering all over the ground.

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Author's Note: Yelü Qi himself hasn't even figured out the training ground system yet, one dares to speak and the other dares to believe, haha.

Although this title is Weston's personal title, the plot isn't entirely Weston's—each character has their own chapter title!