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Character ListQiao Zhiya: Half-elf, half-dwarf MC.
Chu Rong: Marshal ML.
Fan Xiangnan: ML’s second-in-command.
Chu Yan: ML’s younger brother. Is the same age as MC, currently attending intermediate college.
Yun Xiachu: MC’s classmate, a first-grader at intermediate college.
Ning Kongran: A fifth-grader at intermediate college. Ning’s family current heir.
Seeing Qiao Zhiya coming back, there was another commotion in the classroom. Qiao Zhiya finally realized that the expressions of the students were wrong. He frowned, and sat down in a corner seat. Then, he found that the students who originally sat close to him turned away and moved. The movements were also very deliberate, too.
Qiao Zhiya opened his textbook and pretended not to see it.
When he was reporting on his first day attending the school, he was accompanied by Chu Yan. The two of them also occasionally met and never concealed it. The current situation should be that his relationship with the Chu family has been discovered.
It should be that everyone thought that the school was willing to transfer him for the sake of the Chu family. He could understand his classmates’ sudden weird behavior around him. But, the teacher’s sentence of “I know about ‘your’ patents, but everyone is not a fool.” made him very uncomfortable. He was pissed with the implication.
Was the teacher suspecting that the Chu family deliberately stole other people’s achievements for him in order to transfer him to this school?
The more he thought about it, the more his face became tense. Suddenly, it was dark around him, and Yun Xiachu sat next to him, his expression not much better than his.
“The dolls you made are exquisite. I believe you didn’t come in through the back door.” It was rare for the young boy not to say anything harsh.
Qiao Zhiya glanced at him. His depressed mood improved a little, and said in a whisper, “Thank you.”
Yun Xiachu snorted vaguely, but did not speak.
During class, the teacher who taught the class vaguely glanced at the isolated corner – where the two of them were seated – several times. Qiao Zhiya’s pure eyes looked like he didn’t notice this obvious glancing, while Yun Xiachu deliberately close his textbook and glared at the teacher viciously.
Qiao Zhiya poked Yun Xiachu with a pen to reassure him. He gave the young boy a new mechanical doll, then smiled at him.
Yun Xiachu turned to stare at him, took the doll, and continued to glare at the teacher.
The whole morning class passed in such a strange atmosphere. Yun Xiachu invited Qiao Zhiya to have lunch together, but Qiao Zhiya declined.
The little boy left angrily again. Qiao Zhiya stayed in the classroom, and first contacted Chu Yan. He told Chu Yan about the teacher finding his “situation”, and then asked him about the situation there.
Chu Yan, who was busy practicing duels recently, had no idea what was going on outside. He was shocked when he heard this news, and quickly said, “I’ll check it out”. Then, he hung up the communication.
Without letting the accident disrupt his study plan, Qiao Zhiya turned off his communicator. He picked up a pen, and began to prepare for the next stage according to the learning progress on the Internet. It could be regarded as reviewing his notes.
Ning Kongran declined his friend’s invitation to dinner by accident, and went downstairs like last week. He passed the corridor outside the first-grade classroom, his gaze slowly gliding past the window of the classroom.
The third classroom… that particular window…
He stopped, with a smile on his face, and knocked on the glass.
Qiao Zhiya came back to his senses. He was stunned the moment he looked at the knocked window. He leaned  over to open the window, greeted with a smile, “What a coincidence, I saw you again.”
“Yes, what a coincidence.” Ning Kongran smiled, his eyes swept over the electronic book on his desk, and he was stunned when he saw the content. Then, he quickly came back to his senses, fixed his eyes on the blond’s face, and asked gently: “Why didn’t you go to eat?”
“I have drunk nutritional supplements. Besides, my afternoon class is also here, I don’t want to be bothered going back-and-forth.” Qiao Zhiya had a good impression of Ning Kongran, so he was friendly. He continued his reply with a question, “What about you? Are you going to eat now?”
“Yes.” Ning Kongran nodded. He swallowed the words of inviting him to eat together, took out a box of snacks from his space button and handed it over, “Here, my aunt made it by hand, and added some special materials to ease the fatigue.”
A snack that could relieve fatigue?
Qiao Zhiya was a little curious, but he didn’t want to take other people’s things for nothing. So, he rummaged through his space button and found a relatively good-looking mechanical doll and put it in Ning Kongran’s hand. Finally, he took the snack and said, “Thank you. This is a gift in return.”
The mechanical doll’s metal tentacles were a little cold and heavy. However, the blond youth’s finger rubbing his palm was very warm. Ning Kongran moved away his sight from the pointy ears, and instead looked at the brilliant green-eyes. The older man smiled, and said, “Thank you for your return gift, then I’m going to eat, see you next time.”
“Goodbye.” Qiao Zhiya waved his hand with a smile.
After a short and moderate interaction, Ning Kongran noticed that he was more relaxed than last time. The smile on his face deepened, he nodded to him again, turned and left.
The practice class in the afternoon was still about identifying materials and learning to use tools. Qiao Zhiya had already learned these things by his self-study, so he can get started very quickly. His way of handling materials with tools was tenfold faster and more proficient than his classmates, and the teacher gave him glowing praise. This action directly choked his classmates who were about to come over and laugh at him.
Seeing this, Yun Xiachu, who was purposely circling around him, strutted proudly. With hands on his hips, he gave the bad-mouthing crowds a triumphant smirk. For Qiao Zhiya, he gave the older youth a thumbs up.
The carrot heads were so angry that their hands shook, their tools were crooked, and their materials were wasted.
Yun Xiachu laughed unceremoniously, causing Qiao Zhiya to glance at him distractedly.
After school, Qiao Zhiya went directly to the school’s south gate. He originally didn’t plan to go home, because he wanted to continue studying on the Internet. However, Chu Yan  sent him a message saying that Chu Rong had come to pick them up, so he had to put his original plan away.
Some people followed them all the way out of the school. Qiao Zhiya, who was used to stalking prey in the forest, quickly discovered that the stalkers were a few classmates in the same class. He frowned, and because the speed limit of the scooter couldn’t get rid of them, he decided to ignore them and headed towards his destination.
As soon as he approached nearer, he saw Chu Yan waiting by the gate from a distance. Out of the blue, Chu Rong got out of the car as Qiao Zhiya got close. Then, he opened the car’s door.
“Get in the car.” Chu Rong, who originally was sitting in the back seat with a cold face, ordered directly. While Fan Xiangnan, who was sitting in the driver’s seat, turned his head and waved to Qiao Zhiya kindly.
The air at the school gate seemed to freeze. All the students passing by looked at Chu Rong. And his stalkers-slash-classmates even forgot to stop the scooter, and ran straight into the flower bed beside the school gate.
Qiao Zhiya was also a little stunned. But Chu Yan immediately put his arm around his shoulders, and excitedly raised his voice as he said to Chu Rong: “Erge! Dage asked us to go over to his house this weekend. He asked you to bring Qiao alongside, and there was no more excuse for you not to come!”
“I reiterate, get in the car.” Ancestor Chu became impatient. He directly grabbed Qiao Zhiya by the collar and carried him into the car. After Chu Yan also got into the car, he closed the car door directly and signaled Fan Xiangnan to drive.
The black hover car soared into the air and disappeared in place with a swish.
Everyone at the school gate woke up like a dream, and then they all became terrified and excited—
Fuck, who did they see just now!
The little carrot heads got off their scooter with the scrapped protective cover. They looked at each other for a few seconds, and walked aside with sweat on their foreheads amidst the excited discussions of many students around them, asking each other.
“Is that really the evil spirit of the Chu family, Chu Rong?”
“Looking at that aura, it must be right.”
“He, he personally carried that Recluse into the car…”
“Can that be counted as a hug?”
“I think it can…?”
“Chu San1Third Chu, because he is the third child of the Chu family. said that… his Dage asked Marshal Chu to take that Exoplanet Native home for the weekend. Do you think…?”
“…”
“…”
——The Exoplanet Native named Qiao Zhiya from the mechanical design department turned out to be hugging not Chu family’s thigh, but Marshal Chu’s thigh!
The news spread like wildfire, and before the weekend was over, the entire Intermediate College, and even families in the upper-class circles of the Federation, knew about it.
The current Chu family’s members were notoriously nasty and had a bad temper. But Marshal Chu Rong… he was on another level. Nobody could force anything he didn’t want… and to think that Chu Rong actually took an underaged Exoplanet Native home to raise him!
What does this mean? What does this mean!
Everyone wanted to howl loudly, but no one dared to say it out loud.
A strange atmosphere began to permeate the upper class. Everyone was discussing this matter cryptically, and they were tangled in guessing together—Marshal Chu took a child on the cusp of adulthood to raise him. And this raising was… ahem, a “real” one, or that kind of raising, or… for a spiritual comfort, in case he might collapse?
And all the young masters and ladies who had a little thought for Chu Rong murmured in their hearts. Did they have a strong rival in love this time, or a future step-son?
Back in the car.
“You must go home every weekend from now on.” After getting in the car, Chu Rong said with a dark face. He reached out to mess up Qiao Zhiya’s bangs, “If you want to make up lessons, I will find a teacher for you, and you have to pick up your martial training again. Now the school atmosphere is messy, and it is not suitable for you to stay in it all the time.”
Qiao Zhiya hadn’t recovered from the scene of being carried into the car just now. With a dazed look, he asked, “Why are you here?”
The White-Haired Monster should be really busy, right? At least, he wasn’t the type to attract attention and stayed inside the car. But just now… he went directly out…
“Of course it’s to stand up for you.” Chu Yan sticked to Qiao Zhiya shoulder-to-shoulder with a shit-eating grin, “As soon as I told the situation to Erge, he rushed over from the military headquarters immediately. Hey, hey, how about it? Erge, this behavior of yours is very suspicious~”
Chu Rong frowned and scolded his stinky younger brother, “Speak well and sit down.”
“Look, Erge is shy~” Chu Yan whispered something in Qiao Zhiya’s ear. He then snuck a quick glance at Chu Rong’s “Torturous Death” glare, and it immediately triggered his fight-or-flight response. He flew, climbed to the front seat and sat with Fan Xiangnan, leaving room in the back seat for them.
Qiao Zhiya blushed, looked at Chu Rong with mixed emotion, and said, “Thank you, actually, you don’t need to do this on purpose. I can solve those rumors by myself.”
Chu Rong kept his cold demeanor as he replied, “You just need to study well, and I will handle the rest.”
“But…” Qiao Zhiya didn’t want Chu Rong to be worried about this little thing.
“There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s not your fault,” Chu Rong tugged at his pointy and droopy ears. His gaze turned cold, “The rumors this time looked like it was aimed at you. However, from the moment the teacher approached you and asked to change your class, it’s clear that his true target was to tarnish Chu family’s reputation.”
Qiao Zhiya frowned, and asked: “They’re actually aiming at the Chu family? I thought the teacher specially arranged for me to transfer classes to please you… Isn’t it?”
Chu Rong, deeply looking at him, replied: “Of course not. People who want to please the Chu family through you will not call you away in public.”
The moment the teacher made a huge show over it, the rumor that Chu family abused their power to engage in privileges in the “pure land” of the school would spread far and wide. Then, it would ignite public opinion. If the public opinion was huge enough, it would attract the attention of the military. As a family deeply connected with the military department, this small matter could be magnified, eventually making everyone have this view of “Chu family is relying on their power to control the military academy and manipulate the army”. As for the eventual consequences… well, it wouldn’t be good for the Chu family.
Chu Yan also thought the same, and he turned his head to look over to Qiao Zhiya in worry. As for Qiao Zhiya, he didn’t understand the twists and turns of those rotten-hearted people.  He was simply pissed off by the teacher’s remarks over his own hard work.
…wait.
He hasn’t told Chu Rong about this matter yet.
Well, better late than never.
Ning Kongran is giving me second ML vibes, ngl.
Also: things are finally picking up!!
1Third Chu, because he is the third child of the Chu family.