Bai Ling was still upset about what happened earlier.
Lin Qiufeng noticed something different about Bai Ling and asked, “Xiao Ling, what’s wrong? Are you okay?” She tilted her head, looking puzzled.
The naive Lin Qiufeng had no idea what was bothering Bai Ling.
“I’m fine.” Bai Ling smiled a little.
She didn’t want to show her unhappiness in front of others.
No matter how annoyed she was, she would never let it show, just quietly bearing it all by herself.
“Oh, that’s good.
But if anything’s wrong, just tell me, I’ll help you.
I don’t know if I can actually do anything, but I’ll try my best.” Lin Qiufeng said seriously, as if she’d made some huge decision.
“Yeah, I know!” Bai Ling agreed on the surface, but deep down she still didn’t want to talk about it.
She’d rather keep all her troubles to herself, carrying everything on her own.
Just then, Qiao Shan walked over, his voice arriving before he did.
“Xiao Ling, are you okay? You really don’t need to let someone like that get to you.”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Bai Ling replied with a smile.
“Good, that’s what I like to hear.
If anything comes up, you can talk to me!” Uh… why does everyone want to help? Am I really that pathetic? But honestly, this feeling isn’t so bad.
Thinking that, Bai Ling finally smiled for real, and it was a sweet smile.
Not long after, Teacher Zitong came into the classroom, said a few words to the students, and then led the way out toward the sports field.
The students all knew it was the opening ceremony, so they didn’t say anything and just followed along.
When they got to the sports field, there were already a few people there—probably students from other classes.
They were all sitting in their designated areas, which was obvious at a glance.
Teacher Zitong led them to an empty spot right at the front.
No need to guess, that was where Class A of the first year was supposed to be.
After bringing them over, Teacher Zitong gave a few instructions and then left, leaving the students standing there, a bit lost in the wind.
“What’s going on? Isn’t Teacher Zitong supposed to stand with us?” Lin Qiufeng looked confused, because she saw other teachers standing with their students.
Why did their own teacher just leave? “I don’t know either.” Bai Ling was confused too.
Qiao Shan came over to explain, “Because she’s going to make an appearance soon, but not down here—on the stage.”
Qiao Shan was a bit exasperated.
Lin Qiufeng was from a regular family, so whatever, but Bai Ling was from the Bai family—how could she not know about Zitong’s reputation? What he didn’t know was that Bai Ling never paid attention to that stuff.
What did someone else’s fame have to do with her? Plus, she’d spent almost all her time in the Bai family’s study these past years and never went out.
Right now, Bai Ling was just a newbie—a very strong newbie.
Everything she knew came from books, and famous people’s names usually didn’t show up in books until much later.
Most of the time, books only mentioned people who’d been dead for a long time, and even then, only if they’d done something big while alive.
So it was hard for regular people to get written about.
The wait was long, but at least they had people to chat with, so it wasn’t too boring.
“Huh? Teacher Zitong is going to be on stage? Why?” Lin Qiufeng blurted out.
Qiao Shan rolled his eyes, helpless, but still explained, “People call Teacher Zitong the ‘Black Princess.’ She used to be a court magician in our Luo Kingdom, but she got tired of palace life and came to teach here.
Her status at this school is second only to the principal.
You know, anyone who can become a court magician is no ordinary person.”
“Even though she’s only an A-rank now, she’s almost at the threshold of S-rank.” Qiao Shan continued.
“Wow, the teacher is that amazing?” Lin Qiufeng was shocked.
Even Bai Ling was a little surprised.
That playful Zitong was actually so capable? She was nothing like the strong people Bai Ling imagined.
While they were chatting away, the seats in the sports field had pretty much filled up.
Just then, a figure appeared on stage.
No one knew how he got there—it was like he’d just materialized out of thin air, or maybe he’d been there all along and no one noticed? He slowly released a bit of pressure, and the whole stadium went quiet, everyone turning their eyes to the figure on the stage.
Seeing that he’d gotten everyone’s attention, the man smiled slightly and began to speak.
“Welcome to the 331st opening ceremony of this academy.
I am Li Yue, and on behalf of Yulin Academy, I welcome you all.
In the coming years, our school will do everything we can to train you into excellent magicians.
Of course, we’ll only teach you about magic and give you a stage for real combat.
But as the saying goes, a magician who hasn’t been tempered by life can’t be called a powerful magician.
So you’ll have to hone yourselves.”
“…” After Li Yue rambled on for a while, he finally said, “Alright, I won’t waste any more time.
Next, let’s have former court magician Zitong say a few words.” As soon as he finished, he just disappeared—literally vanished on the spot, making a lot of students look on in awe.
Teacher Zitong didn’t make any flashy entrance, just calmly walked up to the stage.
“I don’t have much to say.
You’re just flowers in a greenhouse.
If you’ve never faced real danger, you’ll always be useless.
In my eyes, useless people aren’t even worth looking at.
That’s all.” Unlike Li Yue’s gentle speech, Teacher Zitong’s was full of swagger—totally queen-like.
Zitong didn’t care about the students’ outrage below and just left the stage.
The students who heard Teacher Zitong’s speech immediately started grumbling, voices of discontent popping up everywhere.
“Who does she think she is, just because she can get on stage?” “Heh, if you’ve got the guts, go up there and challenge her!” another student shot back.
Hearing that, the first student immediately chickened out.
Anyone who could stand on that stage wasn’t ordinary.
If he had any real ability, he’d be the one up there, not her.
After some more pointless speeches from the school higher-ups, the opening ceremony finally ended.
“So, what should we do now, Xiao Ling?”
“Emmm, there’s no class this afternoon.
Why don’t we go check out the task board Teacher Zitong mentioned earlier? See if there’s any tasks we can do.
Otherwise, we’ll just be bored.”
“Yeah, yeah!” Lin Qiufeng was super excited, like a kid who’d found a new toy.
“Alright, let’s go!” “Can I come too?” an unwelcome voice chimed in.
When they turned to look, it was Qiao Shan again.
Bai Ling didn’t mind, but that didn’t mean Lin Qiufeng was okay with it.
She’d been putting up with this tagalong for a while, and now that she finally had a chance to spend some “alone time” with Bai Ling, this clueless guy had to butt in.
Totally unforgivable.
Lin Qiufeng hadn’t thought much of him before, and now all her annoyance came out at once.
“Of course not.
We’re just going to look around—why do you need to come?” Lin Qiufeng said bluntly.
“Uh…” Qiao Shan was left standing there, totally lost.
He looked at Bai Ling, hoping she’d have a different attitude.
But Bai Ling just smiled and said, “I’ll listen to her.”
Honestly, Bai Ling didn’t want him tagging along either.
She wanted some peace and quiet, didn’t want to deal with too much stuff—it was just annoying.
The girl next to her was already enough to handle.
If another one joined in, she really couldn’t take it.
It wasn’t that Bai Ling hated him, she just really hated trouble.
It was like having a fly buzzing around your ear all the time—anyone would get annoyed.
Qiao Shan was instantly petrified.
Wha—how could they do this to him?
“Hmph.” Lin Qiufeng snorted softly, then grabbed Bai Ling’s hand and disappeared from Qiao Shan’s sight, leaving him shattered in pieces.
