CHAPTER 107: CHAPTER 106 QIAN YUYA’S OPINION

Yanjing.

Just as the sky was beginning to lighten, Qian Yuya had already finished washing up. When she walked into the living room and saw Lin Xue and Kui Nianruo preparing breakfast, she headed upstairs to the back room, snatched the covers off the bed, and said, "Time to get up."

Li Ying hugged her stuffed animal tight, rolled over to face the wall, and started mumbling and grumbling, clearly planning to stay in bed.

Qian Yuya went over and pinched her nose. Before long, Li Ying sat up with a gasp, panting for air as she stared at Qian Yuya in terror, "S-so scary."

"What’s scary?" Qian Yuya asked gently.

"I dreamed that a handsome guy was kissing me and squeezed my nose so I couldn’t breathe." Li Ying tilted her head, touched her nose, and said, "Is my nose really that cute?"

"Hurry up and get up for breakfast. You’ve got your favorite teacher Wei’s class this morning, don’t be late."

"Really? Is it Mr. Wei’s class today? Crap, crap, forget breakfast, I barely have time for my makeup..."

The Royal Academy in Yanjing didn’t have dorms. Although it covered both military and liberal arts courses, it wasn’t a militarized academy—only the National Academy ran fully enclosed military programs. That was why lots of poor kids dreamt of joining the military division: it came with free food and board.

Students had to commute from home. There were cheap student apartments near the school, but most people in this world were still dirt poor, and even that requirement shut out a lot of struggling students. Still, if you managed to get into Royal Academy but were too broke to afford a roof and had to crash under a bridge, solving your housing problem wasn’t hard at all—Yanjing was teeming with rich folks looking for quality sons- or daughters-in-law to marry off their offspring.

Qian Yuya and her friends lived a ways from Royal Academy. Walking took more than half an hour, but the bus only took about ten minutes—yep, even though there weren’t many routes, Yanjing had already started running municipal public transportation now. There was even a city light rail, though it was way too expensive.

The bus actually didn’t cost much, but the four of them were still depending on others, and Qian Yuya was absolutely broke—Kui Nianruo had gotten a fat living allowance from her dad beforehand, Lin Xue had even sold off her family property to go to school, and Li Ying got her "living allowance" from her father "sent via connections" every month. Qian Yuya was the only one truly living as a drifter in the north.

Even though Qian Yuliu had given Qian Yuya a bit of money, it was barely enough to rent even a tiny place in Yanjing. If it wasn’t for Nai Qingni looking out for her, she might have ended up trying to find some rich kid to be her "fiancée" just to get by at school.

Qian Yuya didn’t rely on her "orphan" status to make extra demands on Nai Qingni, instead doing her best to take care of herself. She had followed Nai Qingni’s advice to focus wholly on academics instead of wasting time earning money for living expenses, but she still refused to be wasteful—taking the bus to school struck her as an obvious extravagance.

The other three were well off but didn’t argue; even Li Ying was willing to get up early and walk with Qian Yuya every morning.

When the four of them finished getting ready, they grabbed their book bags and headed out. The neighbors all greeted them warmly. After living here half a month, everyone knew that four splendid girls attending Royal Academy lived in this building, and since all four of them were good kids—even Li Ying, who sometimes swore, put on her best manners for the adults—a simple "Good morning, Auntie" earned them all kinds of love.

As for whether having four young ladies together would attract creeps, well, of course it did. They’d even been followed by thugs a few times when returning home late.

But they never got a real chance to show off their moves, because those thugs always got handled in secret by passing grandpas, uncles, housewives, or aunties.

Nai Qingni hadn’t chosen this place just because the rent was cheap.

Arriving at the main gate of the Royal Academy, they pulled out their student IDs for verification. Besides the entrance exam period, outsiders were strictly forbidden; not even bodyguards were allowed—in the past, someone had brought their bodyguard to school, started bullying a student, but that kid called for backup, then it turned into a call-everyone-you-know brawl, and the Royal Academy turned into a battlefield. The principal lost his shit and turned the school into a semi-enclosed campus.

When they reached the lecture hall, it was already packed. They couldn’t grab good seats and had to settle in the left back row.

"Agh, Yuya, why didn’t you wake me up earlier? This class only happens once a week, and now I’m stuck in the back—" Li Ying complained.

Everyone couldn’t hold back their laughter. Lin Xue said, "Ying, don’t you have really sharp eyes? You can see Mr. Wei just fine from here."

"But Mr. Wei can’t see me!" Li Ying took out a compact mirror and adjusted her makeup, "Maybe I’ll pretend to ask Mr. Wei a question after class. He’ll be captivated by my gorgeous, diligent look... Hmph, with a few words of praise, men can’t help falling at my feet, right?"

Kui Nianruo picked up on something, "Ying, have you been reading Villain Girl Training Manual lately?"

"You too, Nianruo?"

"Yeah, I like Gu Qingshan best."

"I prefer Jiang Liunian..."

Lin Xue and Qian Yuya exchanged a look and couldn’t help but smile wryly.

At that moment, a tall, well-built man with gray-black hair, dressed in a black suit, strode from the doorway up to the lectern. He took out a pointer, snapped it smartly against the chalkboard, and the sharp sound instantly silenced the room.

His face was lean, with sharp brows and bright eyes, and he seemed to always wear a faint smile. He looked hardly more than twenty, but his expression carried the maturity of someone in his thirties. He scanned the room and said loudly, "I often hear, ’the early bird gets the worm,’ and clocks that strike on time become family heirlooms. But you—here earlier than birds, more punctual than clocks—if you can’t succeed in the future, how could that make any sense?"

"Thanks for your kind words, Mr. Wei." everyone responded in unison.

There was no formal ceremony; Mr. Wei picked up the chalk and started teaching. His class was Ancient Studies—which basically meant history with classical literature. Regular middle-school history used standardized textbooks in modern language, not first-hand historical sources, whereas this class focused on primary source documents, dissecting history in much greater depth.

Of course, history class was usually as boring as it got, but here, in this huge lecture hall, there wasn’t an empty seat, and everyone was sitting up straight, listening intently. If their old middle-school history teacher saw this, he would’ve been blown away.

From the first term, Royal Academy used an elective system. Aside from Combat Technique being fully open, humanities majors only had three compulsory classes: Divination, Geography, and National Literature. Freshmen only needed to choose two more elective courses.

But the only elective for freshmen that filled up was Ancient Studies. If it wasn’t for Nai Qingni’s heads-up, Qian Yuya and her friends might’ve missed out on this top-tier class too.

Ancient Studies was popular not just because Mr. Wei was handsome and funny, but because his lessons were the perfect mix of knowledge and fun. He made historical figures buried in bamboo slips or old scrolls come alive—real people with feelings, love, and flaws.

He helped students realize that even dashing poets had low moments and cursed in their poems, that stupid monarchs had once had great ambitions, that treacherous ministers often started out loyal, that no one was born a "foolish king," "loyal subject," or "heroic poet"—these "famous figures" just got pushed to the right place at the right time by history.

Put simply, every class left students feeling their "strange knowledge reserves" had gone up again.

If you were having fun, time always flew by. Before long, the Academy bell sounded and Mr. Wei had just wrapped up his lesson. He put down the chalk and spread his hands, "Everyone has something to do at the right time. As for a teacher who finishes class right on time, don’t you all think he deserves a round of applause?"

The next moment, thunderous applause erupted in the lecture hall. The students laughed heartily, clapping as hard as they could.

Suddenly Mr. Wei snapped his pointer again and said, "You all come to class but don’t get assignments to test your learning—does that make any sense? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if someone volunteered to discuss an assignment with the teacher?"

Whoosh!—

Everyone, boys and girls alike, shot their hands into the air. Li Ying’s arm was nearly hitting the ceiling, her expression so excited it looked like she was competing for a new groom instead of an assignment—she might as well have written "pick me, pick me" on her forehead.

Qian Yuya thought Li Ying was being way too unladylike and grabbed her hand, "Ying, don’t do that..."

"Ah! You, right there!"

Following the direction Mr. Wei pointed, everyone looked over at Li Ying and Qian Yuya. Li Ying froze, then suddenly lit up with joy, "Is—is it me?!"

Mr. Wei shook his head with a small smile. Qian Yuya blinked, pointed to herself, "Me?"

"There’s a legend of a kind of bird with no feet: the moment it lands is the moment it dies. As long as we don’t stop, the road will go on forever." Mr. Wei gathered his things and strode out of the classroom, "Come along!"

Qian Yuya hurriedly said goodbye to her friends. Li Ying suddenly grabbed her, eyes tearful, and said, "Can you help me ask if Mr. Wei has a wife?"

"If I ask, he’ll think I have a thing for him." Qian Yuya thought for a moment, "I’ll try to ask indirectly, deal?"

"Yuya, you’re my best friend for life~"

When Qian Yuya rushed out of the classroom, Mr. Wei had already gone quite a way and clearly wasn’t planning to wait for her.

She quickly caught up and said, "Mr. Wei, about the assignment..."

"If we talk here, everyone within ten miles will hear us." Mr. Wei nodded toward the Lakefront Pavilion across from Falling Star Lake, "Let’s go over there."

Qian Yuya paused briefly, deep in thought, and followed Mr. Wei to the secluded Lakefront Pavilion.

The trees here grew tall and thick, willows hung down, and it was hard to spot anyone inside from outside. The woods insulated sound too, so voices barely carried out.

In other words, whatever happened here would be nearly impossible for outsiders to notice.

At the moment, only Qian Yuya and Mr. Wei were in the pavilion. She lowered her head and thought for a second, then asked directly,

"Walker?"

Suddenly being picked to "discuss assignments" and led to such a hard-to-find spot... Besides Mr. Wei being a White Night Walker, Qian Yuya couldn’t think of any other explanation.

Mr. Wei smiled, sat down on the bench, and nodded in praise, "You’re so clever, even the principal would be shocked. Your looks would make even Yan Yi jealous."

Yan Yi was one of Royal Academy’s most famous beauties. Qian Yuya shook her head calmly, "You’re too kind. Did the White Night Walker want to discuss something with me in private?"

She paused, eyes shining a little, "My brother is already gone. As for anything concerning me, it would have to be..."

"Yin Yinyin?"

Mr. Wei nodded, then pulled a sealed envelope out of his folder and handed it to Qian Yuya. She took out the documents inside, read through them rapidly, her face never changing.

Once finished, she handed them back to Mr. Wei and asked, "So, Yin Yinyin is now in Xuanzhu County, Dongyang District, and wants to work with White Night to support the local branch and bring down the Silver Blood Association?"

Mr. Wei took back the documents, snapped his fingers, and they burst into flames—the ashes scattering in the breeze over Falling Star Lake.

"What do you think?"

Mr. Wei’s voice no longer carried the funny, archaic accent he used in class. His tone hadn’t changed, but now it had a serious edge.

"Not my problem."

Qian Yuya said coolly, "I don’t have the ability to kill Yin Yinyin, and I’m not even a member of White Night. If you White Night folks want to work with him or catch that traitor, what’s it got to do with me?"

Mr. Wei looked at Qian Yuya in mild surprise and nodded,

"Fine, then let’s just treat this as a discussion between teacher and student—if you were in charge of White Night, what would you do about Yin Yinyin’s proposal?"

Qian Yuya sat down and said, "Since you like old sayings, I’ll answer in the same style:

I’ve heard that any gambler who wins once will never be able to leave the casino;

I’ve heard that once a husband or wife cheats, they’ll never really want to come home again;

Trusting someone who’s already betrayed you is just asking for a good laugh later on."

"And besides..." Qian Yuya narrowed her eyes, "According to what Yin Yinyin says, he wants to help White Night topple the evil Silver Blood Association out of pity for the downtrodden people of Dongyang. But can a backstabbing, cold-blooded assassin really be known for his sense of compassion?"

"He can."

Qian Yuya blinked, glancing at the interrupting Mr. Wei.

"I agree with your logic, but not with your last conclusion." Mr. Wei smiled, "Even an assassin who betrays his friends and kills without blinking can still shed a tear when he sees his own people suffering."

Qian Yuya shook her head, "How can you prove that?"

Mr. Wei blinked, looking suddenly enlightened, "Right, I guess I haven’t properly introduced myself yet."

He stood, fingers running through his ashen-black hair before placing his hand at his chest and bowing,

"I am the White Night Walker known as ’Reverse Walker,’ former Hidden Sword Assassin ’Wei,’ and my current name is Wei Weiwei."