The Red King was on a secret call with the Professor. Nianshi and Lishi kept their distance of their own accord and started a discussion of their own.
"Say, should the two of us kowtow to Zhou You a couple of times and get him to forgive us?" Nianshi was the one to bring it up.
Ever since he had learned Chu Xiaoyao's identity, he felt the two of them really must have been drunk to dare make trouble for Zhou You.
Those two had known each other since middle school. If they were not childhood sweethearts, they were close enough. There was no need to dwell on how close they were. Natural Disaster would certainly never let Zhou You be bullied.
This superpower organization was not somewhere they absolutely had to stay. Staying alive mattered more.
Anyway, even if the Human Dao supreme treasure was found, it would never end up in their hands.
If worst came to worst, they could go back to their old trade and keep robbing tombs.
"Think it over. The two of us never did anything excessive to Zhou You. He even hit me with a brick!" Nianshi touched the back of his head and bared his teeth in a wince. That brick had been truly vicious. The spot still hurt, wrapped in bandages that needed regular dressing changes.
Lishi, who had also been ready to betray the Organization and kowtow to Zhou You to admit fault, changed his mind at those words.
"I don't think that's wise."
"Hm? Why?" Nianshi was baffled. He had clearly felt Lishi was inclined just a moment ago. Had he imagined it?
"Think about it. Zhou You is this close to Natural Disaster, and he's got some shady entanglement with that Su Tingxue. That shows the man's character is no good."
"He might be the petty, grudging sort. If kowtowing and admitting fault still doesn't close the book on this, then the two of us will have walked right into the trap. When the time comes, there won't even be anywhere to run."
Nianshi nodded. Lishi's analysis was not without reason. He himself had been frightened stiff by Natural Disaster and, in his panic, had grasped at any way out.
"I was too hasty."
...
The previous class had been math. When the break came, the moment the homeroom teacher stepped out of the classroom, the students all slumped onto their desks at once, sleepy enough to want a nap.
Chu Xiaoyao wanted to sleep too, but Zhou You dragged her into reviewing what they had covered.
"Ah—I don't want to—" Chu Xiaoyao thought Zhou You was an absolute devil. She tried to escape her deskmate's clutches, but it was no use.
"Did you understand the last big math problem?"
Chu Xiaoyao honestly shook her head, and Zhou You explained it.
Usually Zhao Zhuo, at the desk in front, would eavesdrop on the two of them and treat it like reading a novel. This time he heard the opening and decisively slumped onto his desk to recover his energy.
Nuomi floated above Chu Xiaoyao's head, watching with her head tilted.
She had spent several days auditing class in her role as an air conditioner, but these strange numbers were truly beyond her. She could not understand what the problem was saying at all.
"Isn't this a math problem? Why are there so many English letters?"
Chu Xiaoyao covered one eye with a pained look and stared at the big math problem as if it were a heavenly script. The corner of her mouth curved into a meaningful smile.
"Interesting. Even these eyes of mine can't see through you?"
She jerked her head toward the window, and her smile deepened.
"Wouldn't you say?"
"All right. I'll be careful not to let her find out..." The Red King was halfway through the sentence when he stopped dead, as if someone had struck his acupoints.
The Professor could no longer hear the Red King's voice. Puzzled, he glanced at the screen.
What was going on? The call had not been hung up.
From the other end came the Red King's dry voice.
"I... think I've been found."
"Enough of the 'can't see through it.'" Zhou You turned Chu Xiaoyao's head back around.
At the same time, he handed over his solution steps.
"Look properly. Study properly. If there's anything you don't understand, ask me."
"Oh." Chu Xiaoyao had failed to divert Zhou You's attention and had no choice but to go on studying math.
Math was so hard. Superpowers were easier.
When the bell rang at the end of the last afternoon class, the students who had been cooped up all afternoon surged wildly outward. Some made straight for the cafeteria. Others went to the school gate to buy snacks through the fence.
In the busy life of the third year of high school, that short hour between the last afternoon class and evening self-study was a rare chance to relax. For a while they could stop drilling problems, stop reciting texts or English words, and stop studying how to raise their scores.
The way the two people and one ghost relaxed was to eat together in the cafeteria.
Chu Xiaoyao ordered a bowl of noodles in fried bean sauce. Zhou You ordered a plate of tomato-and-egg over rice. Nuomi could only look on.
Zhou You hoped Nuomi would be able to eat, so the night before he had also bought her a bowl of shaved ice. Unfortunately, no matter what he tried, he could not get Nuomi to take a bite. He could only watch the shaved ice melt.
Nuomi put her mind to it and thought of a way. "I hear that when people make offerings to the dead, they burn things to send them over. Sect Master, why don't you burn the food for me?"
"...Wouldn't that just scorch it all? Could you still eat it?"
"That's true too." Nuomi stopped fretting. She had always been optimistic and cheerful. "Forget it. If I can't eat, I can't eat. Watching is fine too."
Zhou You said nothing more. He really wanted Nuomi to be able to eat something.
"What's scorched? Is your food scorched?" Chu Xiaoyao took a bite of Zhou You's rice. "It isn't scorched."
"...It's nothing. Eat yours."
Zhou You felt drained. Chu Xiaoyao could not see Nuomi, so he had to pass Nuomi's words on to her. If he failed to relay them, misunderstandings like this happened easily.
When would he be able to let Chu Xiaoyao see Nuomi?
Should he have Su Tingxue think of a way?
On the way back to the classroom, Zhou You rolled up his sleeves and pant legs and went on letting the mosquitoes bite him.
Probably because his cultivation realm was too high, a mosquito bite healed by the next day without his rubbing on floral water. So he needed to be bitten every day.
The thought of himself standing motionless downstairs to be bitten, mistaken by his classmates for striking a pose, made Zhou You's teeth ache.
Only a few days into the term, and his image had already skewed off to who knew where.
"Why don't you go over by Big Stone Lake? Fewer people there." Chu Xiaoyao suggested.
She shook her head to herself. Zhou You's state of mind still could not match her own. He still needed practice.
"Good idea."
The two people and one ghost changed course halfway and headed straight for Big Stone Lake.
At Big Stone Lake, their cultivation efficiency truly multiplied. Mosquitoes came in swarms, too many to count.
Zhou You felt the change taking hold little by little. He felt himself growing stronger, in pain and happy at once.
The mosquitoes were not having an easy time of it either. His skin refining was gradually taking effect. The places that had already been bitten were strengthened, and the mosquitoes could no longer bite through them. They had to find new places to bite.
He noticed that still no mosquitoes were biting Chu Xiaoyao. They swarmed toward him in a rush. "Damn it, she sprayed floral water again!"
"Hmph. This is not floral water." Chu Xiaoyao set her hands on her hips, pleased with herself and quite proud of her identity. "I am the sole bloodline of the ancient Jiuli tribe. The mosquitoes sense how powerful my bloodline is and don't dare bite."
"The Grand Elder is amazing!" Nuomi gazed at Chu Xiaoyao in worship, more and more certain she had attached herself to the right person. With the Grand Elder here, once they put the Carefree Sect's name out, wouldn't they be able to swagger wherever they pleased?
Zhou You rolled his eyes. He did not believe a word of this nonsense. She had already fooled him for three years of middle school. How could he go on letting her fool him now?
Looking at Nuomi was like looking at his middle-school self: utterly naive, left staring blankly again and again by Chu Xiaoyao's bluff.
"Then use your superpower and fish out Nuomi's little treasury."
"I already told you. My superpower has a limited number of uses. It can't be wasted on something this small."
Chapter 32