Madame is Pretending to be an Academic Slacker Again!

Qin Xin watched the four men all tense and serious as they discussed how to protect her in the future.

She froze for a moment, then couldn’t help pressing a hand to her forehead. ”The reason I brought you out today wasn’t to hire you as bodyguards. It’s just that I had things to do, and I figured you’d been cooped up in school for so long you were going stir-crazy, so I let you out to stretch your legs. Next time I can come by myself.”

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have taken them to the casino and the department store first.

Si Moyu: ”No way. Next time you must tell me. I have to go with you.”

Ao Xinghao: ”Xin, we can help you strategize, haggle prices, and back you up.”

Bai Chi: ”We can even play good cop and bad cop!”

Jing Zhichen: ”And we can... be your drivers.”

Her driving speed was really too fast; he was about to get carsick. It’d be better if he drove next time.

The four men all voiced their demands in unison. Qin Xin was helpless. ”We’ll talk about it next time.”

When she first connected with Young Master Hai online, Qin Xin hadn’t really expected him to dig up much. Yet after meeting today, the information he gave her was actually quite fruitful. Now that his abilities were verified, maybe next time they wouldn’t even need to meet face-to-face.

Seeing that it was still early, Qin Xin drove them around the city for another big loop, and they even went to some high-end restaurants and entertainment venues that Jing Zhichen recommended to have fun.

Qin Xin had long since seen through the food scene in Imperial City—there really wasn’t anything you could call ”gourmet.” Unsurprisingly, the so-called high-end restaurant left Ao Xinghao and the other two curling their lips.

The entertainment places, though, had some fresh ideas, with lots of activities they’d never seen before.

The group played until dark before heading back to the Divine Academy.

On the way back, Qin Xin drove straight into the campus. She’d already had her license plate registered in the smart system and tagged it with a logistics-service status, so even the parking space was sorted.

Bai Chi sighed. ”I never realized having a car was this useful.”

A glorious day, all starting from a single car.

Ao Xinghao: ”...No kidding. You used to have a driver and servants to drive you around. Now you’re all on your own—you finally know how hard it is to survive, huh?”

Si Moyu knit his brows. ”So starting tomorrow, you’re going to keep diligently selling Spiritual Medicine. Got it?”

Bai Chi: ”...Mm, got it.”

Jing Zhichen glanced at the three of them, pressing down the thick doubt rising in his chest.

Before?

Their ”before” always carried a sort of mystery, hazy and impenetrable, like it didn’t belong to this world.

Sometimes he felt like he just couldn’t participate in their conversations, like he didn’t understand a word and couldn’t fit in at all.

It wasn’t that they were doing it on purpose, but even their casual remarks, within the present context, were something he simply couldn’t decipher.

Jing Zhichen pursed his lips, neither forcing himself to understand nor tactlessly prying. Instead he lowered his gaze, unlocked his phone, thought for a moment, then sent out a message: ”Little Uncle, do you know what the relationship between the Twelve Elders and the Blood Woman is?”

He sent this presumptuous question with trepidation, knowing the other party might well fly into a rage.

But he didn’t care about the consequences; he didn’t want to worry about that.

He only wanted, as much as he could, to help her find clues.

==

After Qin Xin and the men parted ways and headed back to their respective dorms, she kept mulling over the matter of the Twelve Elders.

Although Young Master Hai was investigating too, she couldn’t rely entirely on that man.

If any channels were available, she had to look into it herself as well—what was the real purpose behind the Twelve Elders sending the Red Robe Tutor out?

But for this kind of thing, the internet alone might not be enough.

In these past days, with her frequent moves, she’d already figured out how this world’s network was set up.

There was very little information.

Most information channels were controlled by people like Young Master Hai.

Unless she could find another person on equal footing with Young Master Hai, and attack the problem from both sides...