Xu Lingqu, You're Quite Famous

The gray hoodie-clad figure she'd grabbed yelped immediately. "Ow, ow, ow, that hurts! Let go! Let go!"

The two students at the head of the Cimei delegation walked over—one with medium-length dark brown hair, the other with a short bob. In his struggle, the gray hoodie's hood fell away, revealing hair as distinctive as a Siamese cat's coat: platinum blonde from root to mid-length, fading to dyed black at the tips.

The brown-haired girl curled her lips into a smile. "Jinfang Taibai, what are you skulking around here for like a thief?"

Jinfang Taibai? That S-level psychic analyst?

Su Li and Lieutenant General Jia Deli both looked over, and a few guards closed in. He clearly wasn't going anywhere, so Xu Lingqu released him.

Jinfang Taibai grumbled as he rubbed his wrist, then obediently deleted the photos he'd just taken—right under the watchful eyes of Su Li and Lieutenant General Jia Deli. "Do you know how precious my hands are? And you just yanked on me like that."

"You're the one sneaking photos, and you have the nerve to blame others?" the brown-haired girl shot back. "Du'e let you out to spy again? Why didn't you just hack into the surveillance system here this time?"

Jinfang Taibai said without a hint of shame, "I did hack in. But the camera angles here aren't full coverage!"

Yuheng's surveillance system was so poorly designed he couldn't get omnidirectional, unobstructed shots. These photos weren't really important anyway, but as an analyst, he couldn't stand not collecting every angle. So he'd risked sneaking in for photos, thinking his disguise was decent—only to get caught!

"You're that Xu Lingqu?" Jinfang Taibai dropped his wrist and looked with curiosity at the person who'd just grabbed him.

Xu Lingqu replied, "Who else would I be?"

Jinfang Taibai narrowed his eyes. "Aren't you B-level in psychic power? How did you sense me taking photos?"

S-level analysts were sharp indeed. Xu Lingqu redirected: "Because your posture looked like a thief's."

"Huh? Me? A thief?" Jinfang Taibai had never suffered such indignity in his life. His eyes nearly bulged out of his head.

The brown-haired girl from Cimei extended her hand to Xu Lingqu. "Hello, Xu Lingqu. I'm Yun Yao, the overall commander for Cimei this time."

The bob-haired girl gave a slight nod as well. "Cimei, Ye Yu."

Xu Lingqu had reviewed both of their files. Yun Yao was a second-year at Cimei, A-level, command track; she hadn't been the overall commander in last year's military academy league. Ye Yu was a Cimei freshman, S-level combat track, with formidable hand-to-hand skills.

She nodded at Ye Yu, then shook Yun Yao's hand. "Hello. Moye, Xu Lingqu."

When she tried to withdraw her hand, Yun Yao held on with added pressure. Xu Lingqu raised her eyes in a questioning look, and Yun Yao smiled.

"Xu Lingqu, you're famous—on the Sky Network."

Xu Lingqu pulled her hand back firmly. "Oh, it's nothing. Nothing special."

Jinfang Taibai, watching from the side, stuck out his hand. "I want to shake hands too."

"We already did," she said, glancing over. Su Li and Lieutenant General Jia Deli were getting along well, and the starship Moye had sent had arrived. Time to lead people to their quarters.

Jinfang Taibai looked aggrieved. "Grabbing me like a thief doesn't count as a handshake!"

Without turning back, Xu Lingqu led the Cimei students out. "You're the one who said 'thief,' not me."

Jinfang Taibai: ...

Did Moye pick this person as commander just because she was good at clapping back?!

He scurried after Xu Lingqu, answering Li Muyi's barrage of messages on his smart device, then boarded the starship and insisted on sitting right next to her, staring at her the entire way.

Xu Lingqu let him stare, perfectly composed. When the starship reached its destination, she deliberately moved closer to the side as they exited—and Jinfang Taibai, too focused on her, smacked his forehead straight into the door. He crouched on the ground, seeing stars and clutching his head.

This time, Yuheng had refurbished a smaller decommissioned military base as the venue to host the other academies. It had dedicated training grounds, more than spacious enough for eight hundred cadets.

For fairness, after the other academies arrived, Moye's students would also move in.

The Dolanston students objected. Their lead teacher proposed booking Yuheng's finest hotel, but the organizers rejected the request. They'd have to come after all, and they decided to delay until the day before the competition.

Lieutenant General Jia Deli's quarters were arranged separately—Su Li led her elsewhere—while the Cimei students were taken by another teacher to their dorms. Their school doctor had an emergency and wouldn't arrive for two days.

Jinfang Taibai, who'd snuck out without telling anyone from Du'e, covered his nose and followed Xu Lingqu into the medical office looking thoroughly subdued.

Ou Liefu looked up first, startled. He asked Xu Lingqu, "You hit him?"

Li Haisha looked up too. Xu Lingqu waved a hand. "Not my doing. He walked into the starship door himself."

Jinfang Taibai covered his nose, seething inside but unable to argue, because it really was his own fault.

"Tsk tsk tsk, walking into a starship door all by yourself," came a suddenly appearing redhead from behind the two. Jin looked at the blood seeping through Jinfang Taibai's fingers. "Oh ho, look at that. So bad. You must not have been watching your step."

Really, how were Moye's students all so infuriating, one after another!

Jinfang Taibai opened his mouth to retort at the redhead, but Ou Liefu had already pulled him over and had a medical robot pressing gauze to stop the bleeding.

"You guys moved over so soon?" Xu Lingqu asked Jin as she left the medical office and headed toward Moye's dormitory area.

"We finished our training and moved straight over. Xu Xiqin brought your things. Oh yeah, and that dog of yours—it insisted on coming with us, so Liu Zheng carried it the whole way. It completely ignored me..." Jin launched into his usual complaints about Liu Ming.

They reached the dormitory building and bumped into the three people waiting for them in the shade of a nearby tree.

"Sis!" Xu Xiqin waved cheerfully. "How are the Cimei people? Easy to get along with?"

Xu Lingqu recalled the lingering grip Yun Yao had given her. "They're okay."

The people were probably all decent—it was the probing that left her uncomfortable. Combined with that "you're famous" comment, Yun Yao had likely been testing her temperament with that handshake: strong or weak, without any real malice.

Jin added, "Oh, and there's one with ugly hair, like a burnt caramel pudding, I think his name's Jinfang Taibai. He's Du'e's hacker-analyst, and he's here too. He came in with a bloody nose and our commander sent him to the medical office."

Xu Xiqin looked puzzled. "Why was he bleeding? What happened to him?"

Jin shrugged. Though Xu Lingqu had said she didn't hit him, he figured it probably had something to do with her—otherwise Jinfang Taibai's gaze wouldn't be so resentful. It reminded Jin of the time he'd just met Xu Lingqu and she'd beaten him up.

"Walked into a door. Idiot," Xu Lingqu said succinctly.

Shen Shouli, who'd tensed up the moment Jin started talking, breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Good, good. Xu Lingqu hated idiots.