Zuo Lin'an had no intention of dwelling on the matter and simply began to eat his breakfast in silence.
He shoved his stuffed schoolbag into his desk drawer, pulled a few hard-boiled eggs from his pocket to place on the desk, and then retrieved a bottle of a drink from his bag.
He ate and drank, not stopping until everything was completely gone.
Gu Hedao, who was sitting on his other side, leaned over. “Classmate, the things in your bag...”
Zuo Lin'an replied, “You mean these snacks and drinks?”
“Yes. Where did you get...”
Zuo Lin'an didn't hide it.
“They're from the campus shop below the dormitory building. You can buy them there.”
He casually reached into his bag, pulled out a pack of cookies, and handed it to him.
“Here, take it. They're delicious.”
For some reason, even though Zuo Lin'an hadn't liked Gu Hedao initially, after interacting with him, he felt that this man gave off the most comfortable vibe among all the players.
Thus, Zuo Lin'an's attitude toward him was relatively better.
In any case, he wouldn't deliberately let anyone go; how he treated them depended entirely on his mood.
Gu Hedao stared at the item placed on his desk.
It was a plump, air-filled transparent package containing colorful beans. It looked quite appealing, though he had no idea what it actually was.
Zuo Lin'an said, “These candy beans taste pretty good. You should try some.”
Gu Hedao came to a realization. So they are candy beans.
Xu Youyou poked his head over. “Brother An, what about mine?”
Zuo Lin'an grabbed a handful of snacks from his bag and tossed them onto the desk behind him. “Here you go. If you finish those, just come over and grab more yourself.”
“Awesome!”
After giving out the snacks, Zuo Lin'an turned his head and noticed Xuan Jingyuan staring at him. He hesitated for a moment, and thinking that His Majesty the Emperor might want some too, he casually handed him a bag as well.
“There's enough for everyone.”
“Consider it a celebration for you moving into our dorm.”
Xuan Jingyuan hadn't been zoning out for snacks. Instead, he had suddenly realized that during his two hours in the Scarlet Dream last night, he didn't seem to have encountered the specter forms of the two boys before him.
After all, by now he knew that all native students in the school would transform into specters during the Scarlet Dream.
Had they been repelled by other players?
That would make sense.
After all, the players who entered this dungeon included not only people from the imperial court but also various gangs and organizations from the Jianghu, as well as rebels and bandits seeking to overthrow the imperial rule.
They also needed to complete the main quest.
Of course, that wasn't the most important part. The most critical issue was that some of those extreme rebels knew that he, the Emperor, was also in this dungeon. They would likely not pass up such a golden opportunity for assassination.
After all, there was no imperial palace here, nor were there endless imperial guards.
Those rebels only had to sacrifice a single life for a very high chance of killing the Emperor of the Great Xuan Dynasty.
Who could resist such a temptation?
While specters were the greatest danger in the Scarlet Dream...
...during the day on campus, the natives were actually the safest. At most, they would cause trouble or play pranks, but they would never try to kill the players.
“Thank you.”
Xuan Jingyuan squeezed the plump package and casually stuffed the bag of candy beans into his desk.
He had no intention of eating them, nor did he plan to take them with him.
Just like that, time ticked away, and it was soon 6:50 AM.
The loudspeaker hanging at the front of the classroom suddenly began blaring music.
It was time for morning exercises.
In the classroom, only student NPCs like Zuo Lin'an knew what this music meant.
However, all the NPCs chose to ignore it in unison. Some continued pretending to read, some napped on their desks, and others kept eating.
Indeed, the ones eating were Zuo Lin'an and Xu Youyou.
Seeing that Zuo Lin'an and Xu Youyou remained seated, Gu Hedao and the others looked around and noticed that the other natives weren't moving either. Thus, they also ignored the music.
Just then, the rapid click-clack of high heels approached from the direction of the staff room.
Liu Gaomei appeared at the back door with a grim expression, snapping angrily, “What are you all still doing in the classroom? Hurry up and get out there for morning exercises!”
Zuo Lin'an blinked, pretended he hadn't heard a thing, and went back to eating his snacks.
Xu Youyou, on the other hand, looked around like a thief. Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, he sat back down with a clear conscience.
However, some players had already stood up and headed outside. They saw students from the adjacent classrooms pouring out and quickly lining up in the corridor.
Xuan Jingyuan gave Zuo Lin'an and Xu Youyou a meaningful look before standing up and following the others out.
Once most of the class had left, Zuo Lin'an and Xu Youyou finally stepped out of the classroom, joining the very end of the line.
As they went downstairs, they walked down in an orderly fashion, absolutely refusing to run unless absolutely necessary.
Once all the classes gathered on the sports field, the familiar music blared from the speakers again, but almost everyone stood there blankly, with no one moving a muscle.
At the back of the line, Zuo Lin'an's attention wasn't on the exercises either.
“He doesn't seem to have them?”
From the moment they entered the classroom to when they arrived at the sports field...
...he had been subtly observing Xuan Jingyuan. Xuan Jingyuan was wearing his school uniform, but there didn't seem to be anything stuffed into his jacket or pants pockets.
The cards were quite stiff, so if they were in his pockets, there would at least be a slight rectangular outline visible.
Xu Youyou agreed. “I didn't see anything either.”
This meant that Xuan Jingyuan had entrusted the cards handed over by the Dark Dragon Guard last night to someone else for safekeeping.
Zuo Lin'an said, “Then we'll target someone else.”
Xu Youyou whispered, “Who?”
Zuo Lin'an pondered for a moment before shaking his head. “Actually, let's forget it.”
Whether it was Xuan Yi, Xuan Er, or Gu Hedao, they were all Xiantian Rank martial artists. Even if the two of them transformed into specters and concealed their presence during the Scarlet Dream, just casting their gaze over would be noticed by them.
Let alone now in broad daylight. It was better not to court death.
Xu Youyou frowned. “Then we...”
They could only wait for the Scarlet Dream tonight.
Zuo Lin'an nodded. “Exactly.”
The daytime campus environment was simply not suitable for NPCs like them to make any moves. Even talking required extreme caution.
After the exercises ended, Zuo Lin'an noticed that the principal actually made an appearance. He stood on the stage, gave a brief two-minute speech, and offered some words of encouragement.
The expressions of some players who had seen the specter principal last night shifted slightly. They had clearly recognized him.
However, they only exchanged glances and didn't dare speak out.
After the principal left, everyone returned to their classrooms the way they came.
By then, Liu Gaomei was already waiting in the classroom.
“Students, please take out your Chinese textbooks. Let's begin our lesson.”
The morning classes consisted of two periods of Chinese and two periods of English.
Chinese was fine; it was incredibly simple for these ancient people.
But English...
Zuo Lin'an looked at the English textbook, which had "Grade Three" printed on the cover. Upon opening it, he found that the first lesson was teaching the alphabet.
Sigh.
He knew it.
While the teacher lectured enthusiastically at the front, the NPC students were so bored they slept on their desks, while the players' eyes grew clear yet clueless.
Rate on N.U.
