Even in Jin, there was no way things worked like that. Subar was about to contradict Salinen when he suddenly caught on.
Only if this Jin bloke rejected the girl would the two of them stand a chance.
He nodded. "Mm, fair point. It’s hard to say when it comes to Jin."
"Forget it, then." Cynthia was young and had her pride. "How about hitting the cafeteria together tomorrow?"
*Aren't you going to your friend's birthday party anymore?* Wu Youren was rendered speechless.
Still, he had no wish to hurt her. It had nothing to do with whether he liked her or not; the key was that having her around genuinely brought him a lot of convenience.
He glanced at his two roommates. "I've already promised to treat these two to a meal tomorrow."
He was nowhere near that close with them—he wouldn't necessarily have even nodded to them if they crossed paths outside.
At the moment, however, he could make use of them, and he trusted that with their magnanimity, they would play along.
Sure enough, Salinen nodded readily. "That’s right. He said he’d treat us to sand pupae."
Not only did sand pupae qualify as blood food, but they were also exceptionally delicious. Their price was… just as stunning.
"Then the treat is off," Wu Youren stated flatly. "Getting any meat is already generous enough. Sand pupae? You look like a sand pupa to me!"
The cafeteria's complimentary meals rarely had any meat at all. On the rare occasion a dish had tiny specks of meat, its source was deeply suspect.
Still, if he was hosting, there would definitely have to be meat dishes. If it were just the free fare, why would they need him to treat them?
He truly didn't get along with his two roommates, but they weren't enemies either, so there was no reason to make things too tense.
More importantly, certain plans of his could now slowly get underway.
Cynthia's eyes lit up at his words. "Count me in, then! Which cafeteria are we meeting at tomorrow?"
Wu Youren stroked his chin in confusion. *Didn't you say you had a friend celebrating a birthday?*
The next day at noon, Cynthia was dumbfounded when she saw the three of them.
A huge bump bulged on Subar's forehead. Salinen had gauze wrapped around his neck and couldn't stop coughing.
Wu Youren was in even worse shape: not only did he sport two black eyes, but his left arm was also slung in a bandage.
"What happened… to you guys?"
"He attacks people in his sleep!" Salinen pointed angrily at Wu Youren. "*Cough, cough*—he nearly choked me to death!"
"I went in to help and got beaten up too!" Subar chimed in with his grievance.
Yet without question, Wu Youren was the most battered of the three. He mumbled weakly, "You two promised not to tell anyone!"
"Cynthia isn't an outsider… *cough, cough*," Salinen began hacking again.
As it turned out, in the middle of the night, Wu Youren had gotten out of bed in total silence and gone straight for Salinen's throat.
Salinen had fought for his life, waking Subar, and the two had teamed up to pin him down.
Once he woke up, Wu Youren claimed he occasionally sleepwalked, insisting it was no big deal.
If he hadn't promised the previous evening to treat his roommates to a meal, this matter would have been catastrophic—there was no way they would have let it slide!
Looked at from another angle, it was precisely because he had promised the meal that he could execute this step of his plan.
However, his two Liang roommates weren't so easily appeased. They demanded a meal worth at least one silver dollar each!
That was like someone earning two thousand a month having to treat two roommates to a hundred-yuan buffet each!
Yet how could the purchasing power of a single silver dollar be limited to merely a hundred yuan?
Otherwise, wouldn't the guards watching Hostage Manor have earned only three thousand a month?
The crux was that on an official stipend of two thousand, only six hundred actually made it into his hands. That was truly absurd…
Cynthia, on the other hand, didn't seem all that surprised. "Attacking people in his sleep? On the battlefield, that's actually an exceptional trait."
*Damn.* Salinen and Subar stared at each other. *She can even spin that into a positive?*
Did being handsome really mean one could get away with anything?
Still, as martial artists, they had heard similar stories before; things like this really did happen in the army.
When utilized properly, soldiers with such potential were indeed formidable assets to an army.
So while the female martial artist was clearly making excuses for him, her point couldn't be called entirely wrong.
A moment later, Cynthia piped up again, "Then I want a one-dollar meal too!"
Three hundred-yuan buffets… no, counting himself, it was four. Wu Youren twitched his mouth. "Fine."
He couldn't very well play favorites, could he?
After that meal, his wealth shrank precipitously. His monthly pocket money was only six silver dollars now!
To make matters worse, Cynthia probably assumed he had a decent cushion of wealth—a treat of that caliber was certainly nothing to scoff at.
As a result, she pestered him even more relentlessly.
Wu Youren truly couldn't take it anymore.
Regardless of whether her feelings were genuine or feigned, with his current financial standing, he simply couldn't afford a girlfriend!
With six silver dollars a month, even if he didn't spend a copper on cultivation, could he keep up with a girlfriend's expenses?
On the other hand, treating his two roommates to a meal, even without angling to be called their 'benefactor,' had vastly improved their relationship.
He had no choice but to start giving Cynthia the cold shoulder.
His bond with his roommates still had some distance to go, but there were now matters he could reliably inquire about through them.
Sometimes, camaraderie between men was just that simple.
One day, Cynthia contacted him through his wristwatch, saying she wanted to have a serious talk with him.
*How many times have you said you wanted to 'have a serious talk'?* Wu Youren had zero interest in going, but he had no other option.
They agreed to meet in a secluded grove where few people ever wandered.
The female martial artist was already waiting ahead of time—being handsome really did have its perks.
Upon seeing him, Cynthia wore a conflicted expression. "What organization have you joined?"
Red Pine Martial Academy was not a traditional school; it had no student clubs, only organizations. Some were offshoots of major outside factions, while others were founded independently.
The Liang military, for instance, had established more than one organization here, and the martial artists from Jin had their own native-place association.
"None," Wu Youren said, shaking his head. The hostage group was already an organization in its own right, and it wasn't appropriate for him to join anything else.
Cynthia hesitated noticeably before finally plucking up her courage. "Would you be willing to join the Mirage Sea League?"
"Sorry, I'm not interested," Wu Youren answered with a shake of his head. He had no idea what kind of organization that even was.
Even if he knew it well and admired it, he probably wouldn't be able to join anyway.
"You can leave now," a voice rang out. It wasn't loud, but it carried an imposing presence. "We'll take it from here!"
As the voice sounded, three silhouettes emerged around them.
"That's… hardly fair," Cynthia muttered, but she still stepped back. "You should consider joining Mirage Sea."
"What kind of dinky little faction is that?" A burly man strolled forward at an unhurried pace. "Letting you get a word in was already giving you face."
He then looked at Wu Youren. "From now on, you're under our protection. Remember to pay your protection fee!"
"Huh?" Wu Youren was baffled. What kind of bizarre turn was this? "A protection fee… at Red Pine?"
*You act so tough—does Instructor Hong Yan know?*
"That's right. Heard you aren't short on cash," the burly man said with a slight nod. "Since you don't belong to any organization anyway, that'll be five silver dollars a month!"
"I don't have any money," Wu Youren replied flatly. "Why don't you just beat me up instead?"
As long as the man dared to make a move, Wu Youren would have plenty of room to play his cards.
"Do I look like I need to get my hands dirty?" The burly man sneered coldly. "At Red Pine Martial Academy… the lake waters run deep!"
Wu Youren froze in place, silent for a long moment.
Seeing this, Cynthia grew anxious. "You members of the Life-and-Death Knot can't just be completely unreasonable… First, explain what you're actually protecting him from!"
"Idiot!" the man snorted in disdain. "There's no need to be polite to foreign scum like him."
Cynthia's expression shifted at his words. "You look down on my Mirage Sea League?"
"Since you already know we're the Life-and-Death Knot!" the burly man said languidly. "Can't you see he's already scared out of his wits?"
The Life-and-Death Knot wasn't particularly famous at Red Pine Martial Academy, mostly because people rarely mentioned them.
Supposedly, however, their rank was extremely high when it came to completing academy tasks.
Even so, collecting protection fees was truly an anomaly, so it was no wonder Cynthia found it unbelievable.
"Alright, Cynthia, you should leave first," Wu Youren finally recovered his wits.
Once the female martial artist departed, he spoke slowly. "I really don't have any money. I'm poor."
"Didn't you receive fifty silver dollars in startup funds?" The burly man chuckled faintly. "You haven't spent much of it, either."
Wu Youren's face darkened completely. When leaving Hostage Manor, every hostage had indeed received fifty silver dollars.
It was an allocation from the Hidden Dragon Plan—the Seventeenth Prince had uncharacteristically shown some generosity.
Yet Wu Youren felt no gratitude in his heart, because the prince's monthly expenditures were measured in the tens of thousands.
For thirty hostages, that was merely fifteen hundred dollars total. Was that supposed to be a lot?
He had handed over twelve dollars every month for eight straight years; fifty silver dollars didn't even cover what he had surrendered in five months.
Still, now that they were at the academy, they inevitably needed to spend money to forge connections. If they had no funds, they could slack off and give up with a clear conscience.
The Seventeenth Prince was slacking off too, but in times like this, spending a little pocket money was necessary… just in case, right?
To the prince, it didn't even amount to five percent of his monthly spending. He wouldn't care if it was thrown to the wind.
The real issue was that this man knew about the fifty silver dollars. That meant this wasn't a shot in the dark; it was a targeted strike.
Had the hostage team decayed to such an extent?
For information like that to leak straight to Liang's intelligence network was truly appalling…
Nevertheless, now that the man had laid his cards on the table, Wu Youren couldn't play dumb anymore.
Even so, certain things had to be denied unconditionally. "There are no startup funds. His Highness's reward was meant for breaking through ranks!"
Hostage Manor had existed for eight years. No wall was entirely windproof, so Liang likely already knew about the Hidden Dragon Plan.
However, the other party knowing about it was one thing; openly admitting to it was another matter entirely.
The burly man snorted. "It seems you haven't realized who we actually are, have you?"
"I'm just a dutiful student practicing martial arts. Do I need to know?" Wu Youren countered without expression, though his heart sank.
At first, he had assumed the man had merely caught wind of his situation by chance and come to shake him down.
He knew plenty about schoolyard bullying, but academy bullying… did they really think he was a timid schoolboy who wouldn't dare report them to an instructor?
Yet from the sound of it, that wasn't the case at all.
The burly man flashed a sinister grin. "Do we need to show you our uniforms to help clear your head?"
"No need," Wu Youren flatly refused. Did they think this was some kind of uniform fetish?
Chapter 15